chocolate goodness

I found this recipe over a year ago on Blissfully Domestic but never got around to making it. My little sister made it this past weekend and commented on how good and easy it was, so I tried it last night.

AMAZING!!!! You probably have everything in your pantry already and it whips up really fast! My one tip is to let it cool some before serving. I ate some almost immediately over some vanilla ice cream and the fudgy saucy part was really thin, after a while it got fudgier which was nice. It also does pretty well to reheat in the microwave which works nicely.

Chocolate Cobbler

• 1 C self Rising Flour
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 T Cocoa
• 1/2 C Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 2 T Vegetable Oil
• 3/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1/4 C Cocoa
• 1 3/4 C hot tap water
• 1 C chopped pecans (optional)

1. Mix together flour, sugar, and cocoa.
2. Add milk, vanilla, oil, and nuts. Mix well.
3. Pour into greased 8×8 inch pan.
4. Mix 3/4 C brown sugar and 1/4 C cocoa together. Sprinkle over batter.
5. Very slowly pour the hot tap water over the dry mixture and batter.
6. Bake in 350 oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

homemade pita bread

Yesterday I made hummus which of course meant I needed pita bread to go with it.

That was this morning's project. I used this recipe.

I don't think I'll use it again.... next time I want to find one with whole wheat flour. I also want to do better letting my oven preheat all the way (I'm really bad about that but this recipe needs it). And I think I'd like a recipe that calls for a little honey or sugar. So all that being said...if you are a pita maker and have a good recipe please let me know!

Making pita bread was super easy and very quick to do as far as breads go. So this is something I'll try again.

My pitas didn't really puff much at all and certainly nothing close to the beautiful puffiness of the picture of the recipe I was following.... oh well!

It was an interesting experiment.

favorite blogs: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures

So it's been six months since I last posted on here... OOPS! I just kind of unintentionally took a blogging hiatus. However, in the last few weeks I have had several things that I've thought... "hmm, that would be fun to post about." So I'm back.

To kick off my return, here's my new favorite blog!

Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.

1. NORMAL family friendly recipes
2. pictures of EVERY dish
3. lots of cooking from scratch (=frugal!)
4. easy to navigate and browse categories

Love it.

favorite blogs: Health Begins with Mom

This is a new to me blog that I LOVE, Health Begins with Mom! Sadly (but happily for her family!) she is taking a sabbatical from blogging for a bit to get school started back up with her kiddos. The archives are still fantastic though and I am already looking forward to her return.

Amy Ellen discusses all aspects of family health. Currently I'm working on making our eating habits more healthful and have found great ideas and resources on her site. I must say that some of the ideas are impossible for our family to implement because of cost, but the general idea of being a mom and wife and keeping my home in a way that promotes health in our family I am totally on board with!

I also emailed her with a question and received a truly thoughtful and personal response. So nice!

I highly recommend Health Begins with Mom!

peanut butter granola

We love granola around here! Jon likes to eat it like cereal and I prefer it over yogurt. This stuff however, I can just eat straight from the jar... like candy! Unfortunately I have issues with taking pictures of food that I make... we always eat things before I think to take a picture! This time is no exception. But here's the recipe:
Peanut Butter Granola
Mix:
3 cups oats
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup coconut
2 Tbls. sesame seeds
Cook in sauce pan until smooth:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 Tbls. light corn syrup (I use honey)
1/4 tsp. salt
Stir both mixes together. Spread onto a lightly greased pan (I use jelly roll). Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, stirring after 10 minutes. (Watch closely, mine was getting very dark at the end of 20 minutes).

monday menu- eating from the freezer edition

We are trying to clean out the freezer and pantry... it's going to take while. Here's how we're starting:

Monday- soft tacos (with kit that was the penny item at Publix a while back) with taco meat (freezer), spanish rice (freezer)

Tuesday- $2 Moe's Burritos... Sorry... I think this a local thing :o(

Wednesday- Quesadillas with rice and beans(freezer) using up the leftovers from Monday (and yes I did check with my husband to make sure he was okay with Mexican three nights running... he was... he eats anything... I'm blessed)

Thursday- Homemade pizza (sauce in freezer) with peppers (freezer), onions, and fresh basil

Friday- Clean out the Fridge

Saturday- Broccoli Stir Fry (freezer) with rice and homemade bread (freezer)

Sunday- Jon has something with work... I'll probably have cereal :o)

Check out Organizing Junkie for more meal plans.

wedding gift idea

Tomorrow I am going to a shower for my future sister-in-law and had spent a while trying to think of a meaningful gift. Since we are in a bit of a budget pinch right now it needed to also be inexpensive.

I thought about the things I use in my home on a daily basis and (after asking the bride-to-be a few subtle questions to see if this would suit) I decided to create a recipe binder for her like the one I use every day.

I used to use a recipe box and that was... a disaster. My binder however is a joy to use! I hope it is for her as well!

Here's what you'll need:
- LARGE 3-ring binder (I think this one is 2.5-3 inches?)
- at least a 50 pack of page protectors
- sticky tab inserts for your categories
- a piece of cardstock for each category
- coordinating scrapbook paper for outside of notebook

I used the scrapbook paper and odds and ends of scrapbooking supplies that I had to create the cover, spine and back of the book.

I typed up the various categories and put those in the tab inserts. Going in order I stuck the tab inserts at varied intervals along the TOP of a piece of cardstock. Then I put the cardstock in a page protector (it doesn't work to use regular tab dividers because they won't stick out past the page protectors!). Lastly I printed out my own copies of recipes and added those to the binder.

Here are a few other tips for the binders:

- you can use page protectors with photo slots to hold recipe cards that you don't want to throw away. In my binder I have several of these because they are in the handwriting of someone special or were given to me at a special occasion.

- tear out recipes from magazines and slide them in a page protector

- make sure you give the bride some extra card stock and tab dividers if they want to adjust the categories

- keep it clean and organized

- make it pretty, you (or the recipient) will be more likely to use something that looks nice!

Read more frugal tips at Life as MOM.

monday menu- back in the saddle

Well... after skipping several weeks I'm finally back to more consistent and thorough meal planning. No excuses... I just wasn't on my game!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday- Steak quesadillas (using leftover london broil) and apples with peanut butter

Tuesday- BBQ chicken pizza and carrot sticks with ranch dressing

Wednesday- Eggs, sausage and grits

Thursday- Omlettes and muffins

Friday- Sunday- out of town for the 4th!

Is that lame to have two breakfast nights in a row?!? This was completely intentional as we don't want to have any leftovers hanging around over the long weekend and breakfast for dinner is one of the easiest ways to ensure that! It helps that we both really enjoy breakfast dinners :o) And hopefully is a great reminder that it doesn't always have to be fancy!

black beans and rice

Yum! We love this recipe. It's great all by itself with cornbread or as a side to a Mexican feast with friends!

1 onion, chopped

1 T. oil

1/2 tsp. oregano

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can black beans

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 cup rice

In large saucepan saute onions in oil until soft. Drain tomatoes and beans reserving liquid! Add water to this liquid to equal 2 cups. Add this liquid and all other ingredients to pan. Bring to a boil and then let mixture simmer about 20 minutes or until rice is done. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

We love topping our rice and beans with sour cream and/or grated cheese.

over 250 pieces of fruit

What do you do with over 250 pieces of fruit?

Especially when you have two days to get rid of it before you leave town!

My husband works on a college campus. At the end of each semester parents can pay (big bucks) to send an "exam care pack" to their student. An outside company takes these orders, sends the boxes to the university and a student organization my husband works with is responsible for distributing them. Here's the rub... many students never come to pick up their box.

First of all this makes me sad for the parents who send the boxes.

Secondly this makes me sad because of the extravagant waste!

Thankfully much of the prepackaged candy, cookies, chips, etc. can be saved and given out to student workers and kids at camps this summer.

But the fruit... the fruit!!! It makes me cringe.

I willingly took on the task of doing something about it all. There were over 250 green and red apples and oranges. Some were already going bad. I had to act fast.... what to do?

1. Give it- this is obvious but harder than you might think. Because we live on a college campus and all the students are gone, we have no neighbors... I've been passing as much as I can off to the housekeeping staff. I've also called several friends who are swinging by on their way home from work to pick some up. And we made a few special deliveries earlier today.

2. Eat it- this is obvious too. We're having some folks over for lunch between graduation ceremonies tomorrow... guess what we'll be serving?

3. Juice it- I'm planning to take a lot of the oranges home to my parents' house this weekend and will borrow their juicer.

4. Puree it- Applesauce anyone? Baby Girl LOVES applesauce... this might be enough to make her never want to see the stuff again! I'll be making this at my parents' since they have an apple corer/peeler/slicer thing and I am not about to tackle this by hand!

5. Freeze it- I never knew you could freeze apples! I'm going to slice and freeze most of the green apples to use in pies, for baked apples, apple cake, etc. down the road. I'm looking forward to giving some of these goodies away as well when I'll be in town to bake.

While I hate that the students didn't get these boxes I'm very thankful this fruit isn't going to be left to rot and then chunked in a dumpster!

We may not all have 250 pieces of fruit dumped in our laps, but we can all do our part to not let food go to waste!

For other frugal tips check out Frugal Fridays over at Life as Mom!

monday menu

We're on a mission to really use the food in our freezer and pantry instead of just continually stocking and still just eating what we want.... yes, we're cheats like that. So... here's the plan:

Monday- BBQ sandwiches (BBQ and buns from freezer), au gratin potatoes (mix from the Sav Mor sale)

Tuesday- Stir fry with london broil meat (from freezer) over rice

Wednesday- Black beans and rice and homemade bread (I think I have more cans of black beans than I will ever be able to cook in my pantry!)

Thursday- Refrigerator Magic

Friday- Our to dinner to celebrate my little sister's college graduation!

Saturday and Sunday- Out of town

Check out Organizing Junkie for more meal plans that are way more helpful than this and actually include recipes... maybe I'll get to that one of these days!

freezing chicken stock

I recently learned about the merits of chicken stock. And have made batches twice in the last few months. I love the idea of not wasting the chicken carcass and boiling out all the nutrients possible!

Here's what I do:

- boil the chicken then take it out of the pot and take the meat off the bone

- put the bones back in the pot

- add a whole onion, quartered, skin and all

- add carrots and celery (I save the ends of these in the freezer until I make stock that way I am not wasting a perfectly good carrot)

- add some whole peppercorns

- add a little salt (I know, I know... not super healthy but I love it)

- add some bay leaves

Then just let it all boil... and boil and boil.

Drain well using a wire mesh strainer.

Pour the stock into pitchers and put in the fridge overnight.

Next day, skim the fat off the top.

Then... here's the best part... I pour approximately 1 cup of stock into plastic cups on a cookie sheet. Then I put the cookie sheet in the freezer. Once frozen I pop out the stock and store the chunks in freezer bags.

It's so helpful to not have to use a freezer bag for every cup of stock I want to freeze and it's very easy to just take out however many "cups" I need for a recipe.

Check out Life as Mom for more Frugal Friday tips!!

monday menu

We're back safe and sound from a nice weekend away (albeit with allergies driving us CRAZY).

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday- hamburger helper, green peas, homemade bread (I cannot believe I am posting on the internet that I'm making hamburger helper for dinner... it was practically free with coupons awhile back)

Tuesday- tuna patties and butter/garlic green beans

Wednesday- spaghetti and marinara with shrimp, green beans and homemade italian bread with dipping sauce

Thursday- black beans and rice with corn muffins (this may change if my mom's in town as I'm not sure if she will like black beans and rice... just let me know mom!)

Friday- homemade pizza

Saturday- Refrigerator Magic or Split Pea Soup and muffins (I have been dying to try this soup so I may make it anyway and then just have lots of leftovers at the beginning of the next week)

Sunday- potluck lunch at church- I'll be taking cupcakes and possibly black beans and rice if we don't eat that on Thursday... I just found out about the potluck today so no plans are totally set yet

amazing tuna patties

• My aunt gave me this recipe and it has become a staple in our meal planning. Jon absolutely loves it... and so do I! Most of the ingredients are things you probably already have on hand.

• 1 pkg. (6 oz.) chicken flavored stuffing mix
• 2 can tuna, drained and flaked
• 1 cup shredded cheddar (I usually cut this back a tad)
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/3 cup mayo
• 2 Tbls. sweet relish
• 3/4 cup water

Mix all. Cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes. Using about 1/3 cup of mixture make into patties. Fry on a skillet over medium heat (spray pan with cooking spray! as they easily stick). Cook about 3 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.

A few thoughts:

- You can also use chicken for this recipe (my mom made this and used one chicken breast to make the recipe)

- This mix up great in a stand mixer and that is much less messy. Otherwise it is helpful to mix with your hands.

- Since the mix has to sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes this means you can easily mix all this up early in the day when it is convenient and let it set in the fridge until time to cook them up at dinner. Very handy.

- All of these ingredients can be found at Aldi (that makes it an A+ recipe in my book!)

WFMW- "homemade" salsa

In my mind it is impossible to beat homemade salsa... but if the tomatoes aren't super ripe it's no good, so for us it's usually not an option except in the summer. It's also somewhat of an ordeal to dice all the ingredients. This recipe is a great compromise between fresh homemade salsa and store-bought.

Our friends the Snipes brought this to our Mexican-style Easter lunch on Sunday and it was a huge hit. They were gracious enough to leave us a bowl of the leftovers... but I forgot to snap a picture until after it was all gone! It's just that good.

1 can Rotel

1 can italian style diced tomatoes

finely diced onion (to taste)

minced garlic (to taste)

salt (recommend going light on the salt and tasting before adding too much)

That's it. Seriously... that's all there is to it!

Since I'm a self-proclaimed Aldi-aholic and I don't believe they carry the italian style diced tomatoes I will probably try to make this with regular diced tomatoes and add some basil, oregano, italian seasoning, etc. It's at least worth a try.

Check out We are THAT Family for more Works for me Wednesday tips.

monday menu

This is somewhat of a short week for us as we'll be heading out of town on Thursday.

Monday- leftover chicken enchiladas from Easter lunch (yes we had Mexican food for Easter)

Tuesday- $2 burritos from Moe's ***

Wednesday- pancakes and bacon

Thursday through Sunday we'll be out of town- we're taking White Chicken Chili, Herb Sticks and Cinnamon Rolls to contribute for the weekend.

*** Yes folks... Moe's has $2 burritos one Tuesday each month! Even the "Homewrecker"... the most massive burrito ever... is only two bucks. It comes with chips and salsa. Check with your local store to see if they offer a deal like this!!! It makes a quick weeknight dinner or a cheap date night!***

Easter lunch

Since we saw my family last weekend and will see Jon's next we are opting for Easter at home this year which I must say I'm looking forward to.

For a while I debated cooking a huge, traditional Easter lunch... ham and all. Then I looked at the food budget and quickly changed gears. Here are our plans for a simple Easter lunch.

We're having three other couples over after church to celebrate with us. We're eating.... drumroll please... enchiladas. Yes folks, we're having a Mexican themed Easter lunch. I'll be cooking two kinds, chicken and bean. One couple is bringing a salad, another an appetizer and another dessert. I'll probably cook up some rice and beans as an extra side.

I borrowed a table cloth and napkins in a pretty springy blue last weekend and for a centerpiece will use my hurricane filled with hand-sewn eggs my Mom has made for me over the years.

It's simple, it's frugal, I'm using a lot of what I have on hand and am not being shy to ask guests to bring a dish to share.

More importantly by not messing with the fuss of a huge meal we can spend the day focusing on what really matters, celebrating the risen Christ!

Check back later to see the free Easter basket I am creating for my daughter and head over to Life as Mom for more Frugal Friday tips!

WFMW- best rolls EVER

Sure they have an "official" name... but for our purposes they are... the best rolls EVER (don't forget to capitalize).

This recipe comes from a long time family friend (and I'm wondering why I just found out about it this weekend!!).

My favorite part is that the dough is refrigerated and you can pinch off just what you need to use each night. What a great way to have hot bread with dinner that I didn't have to actually make that day. Okay... maybe my favorite part is how yummy they are too.

Have I talked these up too much. Just try them for yourself. (Sorry there are no pictures of the finished product... they were eaten... by someone).

2 (1/4 oz) envelopes active dry yeast (or 2 Tbls.)

1 c. warm water

1 c. shortening (I didn't say they were good for you... they just taste good!)

1 c. sugar (see note above)

1 tsp. salt

1 c. boiling water

2 eggs

6 c. AP flour

Combine yeast and warm water in 2 c. liquid measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes.

Place shortening, sugar and salt in mixing bowl. Add boiling water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs and yeast mixture, beating at low speed until blended; gradually beat in flour. Cover and chill 8 hours.

Shape into 1 inch balls; place 3 balls in each greased muffin cup. (I used a little flour on the counter and my hands while doing this).

Cover and let rise in warm place, free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (I let mine rise several hours)

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until lightly browned (don't let them get too brown and crispy! They should be very soft.)

Eat. Preferrably with butter... lots of butter.

Check out We are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips!!

Or look at my previous Wednesday Works ideas.

hitting the trail

I've invented the best trail mix ever! Before I go tooting my own horn too much... I must admit it was completely an accident.

We recently did Sav Mor where I stocked up on tons of dark chocolate chips and craisins. Then Jon has ended up with lots of odd packages of snack foods through his work. I felt like some trail mix so I used what we had:

Craisins

Dark chocolate chips

Pretzels

Peanuts

Sunflower seeds

Addictive! I'm eating some right now actually.

This new recipe is especially timely as we're hitting the trail for vacation tomorrow. Don't expect too many posts this week!

monday menu

Here is this week's plan:

Monday- Refrigerator Magic (Jon has class this night so I usually aim for leftovers here)

Tuesday- Turkey burgers and baked beans (beans are in the freezer)

Wednesday- jambalaya with sausage and corn muffins (the jambalaya is from the Sav Mor sale last weekend!!!!)

Thursday- Refrigerator Magic (another class night!)

Friday- Fellowship Dinner- we're taking homemade italian bread with olive oil for dipping and a dessert... maybe a pound cake with blueberry sauce if I'm up to it

Saturday- homemade pizza and carrot sticks

Sunday- oatmeal pancakes and bacon

Head over to Organizing Junkie for more menus!