Ah, bread. The thing I love most in the world, even on a par with my husband and children. Bread is amazing.

However, bread comes in plastic bags and a lot of it has palm oil in it. Both of which are a no-no now I’m trying to be an eco goddess.

Giving up bread is not an option. I tried it before when I was convinced going gluten free would cure an eczema flare-up. Instead of curing it, I ended up as itchy as ever, bright red and sobbing because all I wanted was tea and toast. Not going there again, thank you.

If I was going to take a greener approach to eating bread I’d have to bake my own. I have visions of the kind of mother and wife I want to be and, word of warning, they are not very feminist. I like the idea of lovingly kneading bread while Evan and Joni play nicely at my feet and don’t try to kill each other. The bread bakes slowly in the oven so a delicious smell welcomes my husband as he comes in from work.

Unfortunately, I work three days a week and am extremely unorganised so the above was never going to happen. So to get round this, I’ve got a bread making machine. I feel like a fraud using it as it makes it so easy to make bread it’s kind of embarrassing. I never claim that what comes out of the machine is homemade bread as all I do is throw 5 different ingredients into the machine and press ‘go’.

It’s quick, convenient and makes a decent sized loaf, but it is certainly not made with love, it’s usually made with panic as I try to chuck everything into the machine before the kids get into a fight.

It is plastic free though and tastes delicious. We get through about two loaves a week at the moment, so we’re buying one loaf and making one and therefore reducing plastic bag consumption in half, which is a pretty good step in the right direction.