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Showing posts from 2010

Pumpkin Banana Bread

I went to a cooking group today and the theme was pumpkin. I decided to tweak my banana bread recipe to include pumpkin. It turned out really yummy, however in the future I will add some pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon to enhance it. I will update the recipe here when I have successfully added the spices next time. Until then, enjoy! Pumpkin Banana Bread *makes 2 loaves 3 - 4 bananas, well mashed 1 can pumpkin puree 2 egg 2 sticks margarine or butter, melted 1 cup whole wheat flour 2 cups white flour 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 - 2 cups nuts (optional) Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until moist. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife in middle comes out clean. You can sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture on top before baking to give it a nice, sweet, crunchy top. For banana bread - just double the banans and omit the pumpkin. It's delicious!! :) Enjoy!

Some GREAT new recipes!!!

Oh my! You MUST try these yummy rolls! I made them tonight and we had cheeseburger sliders on them. They were so good and very hearty and filling. These will definitely be my new go to rolls. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did! Oatmeal Dinner Rolls I have a new whole wheat bread recipe that I've been using thanks to Everydayfoodstorage . The only thing is this recipe makes me wish more and more for a bosch mixer, but I still get by. I've actually been kneeding this bread by hand since my kitchen aid won't keep up. However, it makes really good wheat bread. Give it a try and let me know what you think! EZ Whole Wheat Bread Also from Everydayfoodstorage I got this GREAT recipe for pizza crust. Not only is it super yummy, but it's also easy and convenient. You make several of them ahead of time and freeze them, so all you have to do is pull one out when you want pizza. I absolutely love it! I made 6 crusts today for my friends and I to eat tomorrow night for

Two new recipes for your crockpot

I know it's been too long between posts. I've been cooking, just not posting. I'm sure ALL my MANY readers have been sooo sad. LOL! I have two new recipes for the crockpot. One is my everyday vegetable soup. I make this all the time and it isn't really a recipe, so I never thought to post it. I recently had to write it out for something, so I thought I'd post it for everyone to enjoy. It is super yummy and you really can throw whatever you have in and it comes out tasting yummy. The tomato is important, but I have even just added some tomato paste and it still tastes good. The second recipe is for red beans and rice. This is something I've been wanting to try for awhile and recently a friend gave me a recipe for it. I used different seasonings and I must say it turned out super yummy. I will play with it a little each time with the seasonings, but I dont' think I'll stray too far from the recipe I'm posting tonight. Everyday Vegetable Soup 1/2 to 1 l

Improved the Wheat Bread Recipe!

I am really soo excited! I LOVE wheat bread. As I've posted before, I store and grind my own wheat at home, so using it is really important to me. I posted a recipe for Fast and Easy Whole Wheat Bread before and it is super easy and it is super yummy. However, there were a couple things I didn't like about it and I think I figured out a couple easy ways to improve the recipe. Here is the recipe after I changed a couple things: 2 1/2 cups hot tap water 2 tsp. dry active yeast 5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup white flour 1 tbsp. salt (I use kosher) 1/3 cup oil (I use olive oil) 1/3 cup honey or sugar (I use sugar) 1 1/4 tbsp. lemon juice Mix together water and yeast and add 1 tsp. of the sugar or honey. Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes to proof the yeast. Add the 1 cup white flour and 3 cups whole wheat flour, stir and let sit for 10-15 minutes just until it starts to rise. Add salt, oil, the rest of the honey or sugar and lemon juice and mix for one minute. Add the

Meal Plans - time to get more organized!

Whew! It's been too long between blog posts! I need to do better. I'm sure I'll be posting more as I have many new ideas of things I want to try. Plus, for the first time I am planning on planting a fall garden. I plan on starting just as soon as this 100 degree weather subsides. :D The kids all go to school on Monday. That combined with needing to save more money to pay for orthodontics for one of my children has me back to meal planning. Yay!! My friend tipped me of to a GREAT sale on pork chops this weekend, so I went and loaded up on those, london broil and beef roasts. I've been sticking to a strict $80 per week grocery budget (we are a family of 5 and that includes ALL household items) so yummy meat isn't always on the menu. The pork chops were .99 per pound, london broil and beef roast were 1.99 per pound. My cut off for meat is usually 2.00 per pound so this worked out great! I also have on hand a few pounds of ground beef, 3 whole chickens and I al

Garden Update

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Everything is growing! I'm having some trouble. Something happened to my peas. It's the second year for my peas not to do well and so I may not try them again. We'll see. It was a different problem this year. Not sure if they didn't get enough nutrients or if the late freeze ruined them or what. Some of them just plain old died. So sad. I've also got a leaf eating problem. To the best of what I can figure out, I've got some grasshoppers doing the leaf eating. So far I don't noticed any major damage, but I'm still watching. My strawberries also seem to have a problem. The part that touches the soil isn't turning red, in fact it's turning brown and it's deformed in that part. The rest of the strawberry does fine and they taste oh soo good, but not sure what is causing that. I'm also only getting berries on 2 plants which were my 2 original plants from last year. The two new plants are just busy growing this year. :) Here is

Baby Rag Quilt Finished Product

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I finished this awhile ago, but am just now getting it posted to show off! :D It was a fun project and easy enough for me to do without stressing. I will definitely be doing this project again. :) I hope my friend is enjoying this and her new baby! :D Here is my post with the link for the tutorial from the blog Creations by Kara .

2010 Garden...Spring is here!!!

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It's garden time again! I've been working pretty hard to get my garden going again and I finally have most everything planted. I might do one more big box since we have a lot of compost leftover, but it would just be to try out some things we haven't before. We'll see. Here is my big box from last year. I had left the strawberries from last year. They started out as 2 plants and have grown to several. They now take up an entire row and will probably grow more and more each year. They are already blooming and we should have fruit on them very soon! Yay! On the top there I planted some onions. This year I used onion sets and they did much better than last years seeds. I also tried a few shallots. The shallots are growing much slower. I planted my onions in various ways. In two boxes I did them closer together so I could have some "green onions" and then further apart in one box so I could have some regular onions. I'm excited to see how they di

Bulk Seasoning Mixes - Recipes

Here is another great way to save money and never run out of what you need. The commercial packets are expensive and can really add up. Save money and make your own at home! Ranch Dressing Mix 1 ½ cups dry buttermilk 1 ½ Tbsp parsley flakes 1 ½ tsp each, dill weed, onion powder, dried onion flakes and salt 1 ½ Tbsp ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder) ½ tsp garlic powder 1 ½ tsp ground black pepper Whisk together until well blended. Place in an air-tight, labeled container. Note: One tablespoon is equal to one packet of commercial Ranch Dressing Mix To Make Ranch Dressing: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the Ranch Dressing Mix to 1 cup mayonnaise and enough water for desired consistency (about 6 tablespoons). This is an excellent dressing to use in salads (egg, tuna, potato, cabbage, tossed greens, a topping for steamed vegetables, etc). Dry Onion Soup Mix Similar to Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix Combine the following: 7 oz beef bouillon powder ½ teaspoon pepper 1 cup dried minced onion ½ cup onion po

French Bread

I've been meaning for awhile now to post this fabulous, easy french bread recipe. I have given it to several people and I love making it! I have a request for it again tonight, so I decided to just get it posted. Here ya go! French Bread - recipe from Debra Oldroyd 2 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp yeast 2 Tbsp oil (I use olive) 1 1/4 tsp salt (optional to taste) 2 1/2 Cups water (hot from tap) 6 Cups flour In a large bowl, put sugar and yeast then pour water over them. Let yeast proof for several minutes (until foamy...) Add 3 cups flour and mix until smooth. Add salt and oil, mix until smooth. Add 2 1/2 Cups flour, stir (dough should pull away from sides of bowl). Leave spoon in the dough. Cover and let dough rise for 10 minutes. Stir down (repeat this step 5 times, stir well each time). Pour dough out onto floured counter, knead lightly. Divide into desired loaf sizes - roll each into a rectangle, loosely roll dough into french loaves, place on greased (or sprinkled with cornmeal) cookie shee

Exciting Project Plans!

I don't know what happened, but I've totally been bit by the CRAFT BUG!!!! :D Here are some of the things I AM working on, some I WANT to work on and maybe a few I ASPIRE to work on. hee hee!! First things first, I'm getting ready to start working on a rag quilt. I found this super easy tutorial HERE and I just bought all my flannel fabric ON SALE at Joann's today so I'm super excited to get going on it. Mine will be for a boy, but I'm not saying whose boy it's for because I can't remember if she reads this blog or not, LOL! I'll keep you posted on how it's going... Last year we had a sink that overflowed in our powder room that is located in our extra living area. We have mostly used this room as a playroom for the kids, but they are getting older so we're slowly changing the playroom over to the game/media room. Since the carpet got ruined in the flooding, it was an opportunity to redo the bathroom and the game/media room. The bathroom is

My Calendar Book Discount Code

Here is a special deal for any of my MANY readers that like my calendar book. I buy my calendar book every year without fail from: http://www.busybodybook.com/ I would be lost without it, really! Right now she is offering a 25% discount on ALL busy body book organizers and I am allowed to share the code! :D Just use code: BBBVDAY Leave me a comment if you end up getting THE book and tell me how you like it!

February Menu Plan

Here it is! I have a few new things I want to try and I took off a couple things that we got tired of after this month. I might still change a few things around if I find something I really want to make, but I'll keep you posted! :D Week 1 Whole Chicken with potatoes in crockpot - glazed carrots Chicken Noodle Soup - THIS is the one I'll be making, but THIS is the one I aspire to making and am posting it as a challenge to myself... spaghetti with homemade whole wheat breadsticks london broil with rice and asparagus baked chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli and cheese beef roast in crockpot with rice and roasted green beans grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with carrots/celery and dip Week 2 grilled bbq chicken with rice and roasted green beans beef roast in crockpot with rice and broccoli and cheese baked potato bar sloppy joes on homemade rolls with raw veggies and dip nachos - ground beef/cheese/pintos whole chicken in crockpot with potatoes and glazed carrots

Valentine Ideas

Ok, here is the deal.... I've been searching blogs today and these are the things that caught my attention the MOST... Valentines Day is closing in on us, so the first few are ideas for that. The last idea is a fun project I just might do for my kitchen table. :) Feb menu coming soon - I have it planned, just need to type it up! :D Sweetie Pies Simply Sweet Cannolis Chocolate Cups Homemade Valentines Ideas Table Covering

New Things to Try!

I'm gearing up for my Feb. meal planning so stay tune for that. Jan has been amazing and I am sooo glad I planned for the whole month. I did need to make adjustments and there were a few nights I messed up and didn't get my meat out the night before and such, but to know I had all the ingredients I needed and knew what I could make, made everything possible. So, I plan to do it again! :D A new month though requires at least a few new recipes, as I don't want to get stuck in a rut of the same o same o - I've also learned what types of things I need more of and I want to find ways to make it cheaper and/or better. With that said, here are some things I want to try soon and I'll let you know the outcome when I do. Lazy Granola Pizza Dough Granola Ba rs Basic Blueberry Muffins Homemade Pretzels I also want to try this recipe I found to use with my Pampered Chef deep dish baker. Did you know you can cook a whole yummy chicken in your microwave in 30 minutes with it? Anyw

Broccoli with cheese sauce

One of my new years "resolutions" is to serve more vegetables for dinner. Most of you that know me, know that I don't really eat too many vegetables...unfortunately the family has been paying the price for the lack of my tastebuds. Sooo...I'm cooking more veggies. :) The problem is that since I'm not a vegetable eater, I'm not much of a vegetable cooker. Tonight I wanted to cook broccoli with cheese. I've always liked cream broccoli or broccoli cheese soup, so this didn't seem like too much of a stretch for me to eat. However, I didn't find too many recipes that used the ingredients I like to have on hand. I refuse, REFUSE to use velveeta, oh yuck! Sorry to you velveeta lovers, but ewwww!!!! I asked a couple people and they had only made the kind that comes frozen that you heat in the microwave which wasn't what I was looking for. Finally, I found this recipe and it was sooo yummy and used ingredients I always have on hand. Perfect! It was a hu

January Menu

Yep, I planned for the ENTIRE month and I even wrote out shopping lists for each week. For your viewing pleasure, hee hee: This Week goulash with raw veggies and dip carnitas with diced tomato and avacado beef roast with broccoli and cheese and mashed potatoes london broil with country green beans and rice crockpot chicken with carrots and potatoes veggie soup with cornbread grilled chicken breasts with asparagus and mashed potatoes Week 2 spaghetti with breadsticks baked chicken breasts with roasted green beans/broccoli and mashed potatoes carnitas with diced tomato and avacado veggie soup eat out baked potato bar beef roast with sandy's carrots and mashed potatoes Week 3 chicken and dumplings tacos with diced tomatoes and raw veggies and dip crockpot chicken with carrots and potatoes veggie soup london broil with roasted green beans/broccoli and rice taco soup Week 4 pizza spaghetti wtih breadsticks beef roast with broccoli and cheese and mashed potatoes tacos with diced tomatoes