Cornbread

I found this recipe on allrecipes a while back and we really like it...SO MUCH better than those box mixes we used to buy!! ;)

You will need:
1/2 c. butter
2/3 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 t. baking soda
1 c. cornmeal
1 c. flour
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking dish.

Melt butter in medium sized bowl. Stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk and baking soda and stir into mixture. Stir in the cornmeal, flour and salt. Pour into baking dish.

Bake 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Tip: I don't typically have buttermilk on hand so I usually make my own! You can do this by putting 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar) in a measuring cup and then filling it to the 1 cup line with regular milk. Let it stand for about 5 minutes and you're all set!

ENJOY!!

French Toast Casserole

Pretty tasty--the kids LOVED it!! I don't typically do big breakfasts on school days but yesterday was supposed to be a mom/grandma breakfast for two of my kids. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to go. So I decided I'd still make it special but do something at home. Plans changed and I was able to go, but we decided we'd still stay home. So I made a French Toast Casserole and had picked up some mini donuts for them. They thought it was pretty great! This is a recipe that you make the night before you need it, so there is no prep time in the morning!!

For the French Toast Casserole, you will need:
1 stick of butter, melted
1 c. brown sugar
1 loaf of Texas Toast
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
cinnamon & sugar mixture
powdered sugar

Combine melted butter and brown sugar. Pour into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Place one layer of bread over butter/sugar mixture. I was able to fit 6 slices of bread.

In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Pour half of this mixture over the layer of bread. Then sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar mixture (use as much or as little as you want).

Put another layer of bread on top of that and pour remaining egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with another layer of cinnamon & sugar.

Cover with foil and put in the refrigerator over night. In the morning, pull from the fridge and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

When it was done baking, I lightly sprinkled it with powdered sugar.

ENJOY!!

Your Kids Will LOVE You...

When you make these...



I saw this pop up on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago. I've made these before (without the butter), several years ago, and decided to make them for my kids earlier this week as a special treat on their day off from school.

Let's just say...they LOVED them!! They even had fun helping make them!

You will need:
Vegetable oil (enough to fill your pan to about 1/2" deep)
4 T. Butter, melted
Sugar & Cinnamon Mixture
Grands Biscuits (do not use the flaky layered type)

Heat up the oil on medium heat. While this is heating up, cut the centers out of the biscuits. (I used a small star cookie cutter we have.) When the oil is hot, place the donuts in the oil. When the one side is golden brown, flip with tongs and cook until other side is golden brown. When they are finished cooking, place on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

When the donuts have cooled enough, dip one side in the melted butter, let the extra drip off and then dip in the cinnamon & sugar mixture. Repeat for the other side.

I thought these were best served warm, but my kids thought they were really good the next day too.

ENJOY!!

Party Bread

This recipe is one I've had for a while. One of the girls I worked with several years ago brought it to a meeting and it was SO YUMMY! I have continued to make it over the years. Since having kids, I've started to leave the green onions off of half so that they can/will eat it. I've also used this a lot for parties where I've had to take an appetizer or a side...most people really enjoy it!

You will need:
1 loaf of Italian or French Bread (Italian bread is easier to work with)
8-16 oz. of Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded (I only use 8 oz.)
1 stick butter or margarine, melted
2-3 t. poppy seeds
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced

Set oven to 350 degrees.

First cut your bread lengthwise and then crosswise--I usually make two long cuts down the length of the bread and then make several cuts across the width of the bread about 1 - 1 1/2" apart. Place the loaf of bread on a piece of foil that will be big enough to wrap up the bread.

Then shove the cheese into all of the slits in the bread.

Combine the melted butter, poppy seeds and green onions and pour evenly over the bread. Sometimes I'll sprinkle dried basil over the top of the bread.

Wrap the bread up in the foil, place on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Then undo the foil so that the top of the bread is exposed and bake for 10 minutes more, or until cheese is all melted.

ENJOY!!! :)

Cinnamon Rolls

I used to have a bread maker when Tim & I first got married. I used it quite a bit. It quit working shortly after we moved here 6 years ago so I'm wondering if it was damaged in the move?? So I've been several years without one. I decided that I would buy one with some money that I received for Christmas. It has been great!! The kids love having the fresh bread and have fun helping make it being it is SO EASY!!

We made these last night for this morning's breakfast. The kids LOVED these!! I found this recipe over at Money Saving Mom.

Dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups flour (Add a bit more if dough seems too wet after first few minutes of kneading in the bread machine.)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling: (MSM doubles this...I did not and my family thought it was plenty)
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Icing:
1 teaspoon milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle. After the dough cycle is finished, roll the dough into a large rectangle and spread it with 2 Tablespoons melted butter and 2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.

Roll up and cut into 10-15 rolls and place in two greased round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. Spread the icing on as soon as they come out of the oven.

You can also cover the unbaked rolls with plastic wrap, stick them in the refrigerator overnight, and then bake in the morning. (This is what I did. I had to bake them a little longer than the 20 minutes, closer to 30 minutes.)

ENJOY!!

Freezer Cooking Day

With the cheap price of chicken and pork loin this week at Meijer, I decided to do a little bit of freezer cooking the other day. I haven't done this in a long time so it was fun getting a lot of stuff done for future use. A lot of these recipes are new to our family so I'll have to let you know what I think later. ;) I will also post the recipes that do not have links later in another post.



In about 4 hours I was able to make:

New! Cranberry Chicken
New! Cabbage Rolls (2 meals)
Banana Bread (2 loaves)http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Chicken Southwest Roll-ups (3 meals)
Beef Southwest Roll-ups (3 meals) Note: I changed the chicken to cooked ground beef.
New! Bada Bing Pork Chops
New! Honey Mustard Chicken
New! Breakfast Burritos (enough for 13 breakfasts)
New! Pulled Pork for Sandwiches (2 meals)

I saved enough plain chicken and plain pork for one meal each. I will choose what to do with these later.

I also had leftover cabbage that I chopped up and put in a bag to freeze. I will use this to throw into some soup some time. I also had some celery in my fridge that was meant for something and I didn't end up using it. So I chopped that up as well and put into two ziploc bags, 2 cups each. I will also use this in soup.



Do you put meals in the freezer for future use? If so...what are your favorite recipes?

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am starting to get quite a bit of zucchini from my little garden. I love being able to make fun things with zucchini...without my kids noticing! ;) One of our favorites are Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins.

You will need:
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. milk
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. vanilla
1 c. shredded zucchini
1/4 c. miniature chocolate chips

Combine egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir in flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until just moistened. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or till done.

*If you like walnuts, you could also add about 1/4 c. in when you add the zucchini & chocolate chips; I choose not to.

Strawberry Bread

We've been loading up on the strawberries around here the past few weeks with being able to find them for $1.00. I had some strawberries that I had already cut up...with being gone a lot over the weekend, they just didn't get eaten. I needed to find something to do with them before I ended up having to throw them away. I decided to make some Strawberry Bread for the kids. I had a small piece and it was pretty tasty!! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made it pretty much as written (a big surprise to those of you that know me).

You will need:
2 c. chopped strawberries (you may want to use more if you want more of a strawberry taste)
3 1/8 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 1/4 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 c. chopped pecans (I did not use these)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray.

Place chopped strawberries in a medium bowl...sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt & baking soda in a large bowl. Mix together well. Blend eggs & oil into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to the flour mixture and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened.

Divide batter into pans.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes and then remove bread from pans to cool the rest of the way.


ENJOY!!

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

This is a repost from the Centsible Shopping site. I posted it in May 2009. I thought I'd leave the story as to how these came to be.

My kids REALLY look forward to Saturday breakfast...they were already asking me last night what was for breakfast. Yikes!--knowing that I might need to break "tradition". A lot of times I'll make them cinnamon rolls (the refrigerated tubes) and they obviously LOVE this. Last night they were asking if I was making cinnamon rolls...I had to tell them no. They were on sale this past week, but I didn't buy them because the grocery budget was tight already and this was something I chose to leave off the grocery list. Then they started begging for donuts...another "no" due to needing to stay within budget. Zak, our oldest, says that budgets stink (Tim was in full agreement). I told him I would figure something special out...but I forgot to look through recipes last night. Ooops!! I realized this as soon as I woke up this morning. Hmmmm...what could I come up with...and quickly!?

I knew I had some crescent rolls (again, refrigerated tubes) in the fridge, and thought about spreading some butter on them, sprinkling with some cinnamon & sugar, roll them up and then bake. I thought I could mix up some powdered sugar with water or milk for a drizzle. I looked online to see if I could find similar ideas from others and saw where some people also added brown sugar to their mix. Here is what I came up with:

You will need:
2 tubes of crescent rolls (8 in each)--I used reduced fat...not that it made any difference with all I was about to add!
6 T. margarine, softened--I put mine in the microwave for a few seconds to soften but not totally melt
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1/4 t. vanilla

Open the crescent roll tubes and unroll the dough so that you have two big rectangles. Press together all of the perforations. In a bowl, mix together margarine, brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon. Spread over rectangles. Roll up the rectangles, starting on the short end (you could probably start at the long end and get mini cinnamon rolls). Cut into rolls--I cut them about 1" thick. Place in round cake pans (you may want to lightly spray b/c mine stuck a little bit). I baked at 375 degrees for about 12-13 minutes. While they are baking, mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. When rolls are done, let them cool for about 5-10 minutes. Then drizzle with powdered sugar mixture and serve. ENJOY!!! My kids did!! :)

Pizza Crust #2

I've seen this recipe a few places (I printed it from Sharpen Your Scissors)...it is supposed to be a mock recipe for the Pizza Hut crust. Well, I think it is far from tasting like Pizza Hut but it does taste decent and is one of my family's favorite pizza crust recipes that I've used.

You will need:
1 1/3 c. warm water
2 t. sugar
1 1/4 t. salt
2 T. olive oil (plus extra for prebaking)
3 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
1 1/2 t. yeast
2 T. cornmeal (optional)

The original recipe was intended for a bread machine. I've done my own thing with it and it seems to work:

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl (except cornmeal...save that for later!), add the wet ingredients and then knead it by hand for about 10 minutes BUT it is SO much easier if you have a Kitchen Aid Mixer with a dough hook to do the kneading for you!!

Once it is all kneaded together, place in a bowl, cover it with a towel and let it rise for about one hour. It should about double in size.

Divide the dough into two balls and make it into two medium sized pizza crusts by stretching the dough. Brush the crust with a little bit of olive oil and then sprinkle with cornmeal.

Prebake the crusts in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then add your choice of toppings and bake for 10-15 minutes longer.

ENJOY!! :)

*I have been trying to use more whole wheat flour in various baking. I tried this recipe with it and used about 2/3 whole wheat and the remaining amount regular flour. The texture of the crust was a totally different consistency than when I had used all white flour and it did not rise as much. It still tasted very good...just a thinner and crispier crust. My family enjoyed it and still say it is the best crust that I've experimented with...so I'll keep messing with it and see what happens!

Pizza Crust #1

This is a pizza crust recipe that I've made for a long time. This is one of our favorites. I am posting another one of our favorites in a separate post.

You will need:
1 packet (.25 oz) of active dry yeast
1/2 t. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. warm water (110 degrees F)
1 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
3 1/3 c. flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and brown sugar in warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast mixture. Mix in 2 1/2 c. of flour. Turn dough onto clean, well floured surface and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. (Hint: For easier clean up, I do all of this on a sheet of waxed paper.) Put dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let rise till the dough doubles in size. This should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and form into a tight ball. Let the dough relax for 1 minute and then roll out to fit your pizza pan(s). I usually split it in two and make 2 crusts to fit two 12" pans/stones.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place your favorite toppings on your pizza and bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Banana Bread

So what do you do with your rotting...I mean, very ripe bananas??

My kids' favorite...Banana Bread!



When I worked at the bank several years ago, my co-workers and I used to order from LTD all of the time). One of my purchases was a Mrs. Field's Cookie Book, 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields. What a great purchase that was!! :) I love it and it has gotten MUCH use! Her banana bread recipe is our favorite from the book.

You will need:
2 1/2 c. flour (I used 1/2 regular flour and 1/2 whole wheat)
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. butter, softened (I use margarine)
1 1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 c. ripe bananas, mashed (I do not mash...I just throw them in whole and they get mashed w/ my mixer...it is about 7 medium sized bananas)
1 t. vanilla
1 c. walnuts (optional) OR a fun addition is miniature chocolate chips!!

*I've also been playing around with flaxseed...I added 2 tablespoons to this recipe.


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray.

I sprinkle the bottoms of the pans with cinnamon & sugar...this is my own addition...and sometimes the top after the batter is poured in.

Combine flour, soda and salt. Mix together with whisk; set aside.
I always skip this step in baking anything...who wants to dirty another bowl...not me!!

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add eggs, bananas (mashed or not) and vanilla; beat at medium speed until thick.

Add in flour mixture (or just add in flour, soda and salt if you did not combine earlier) and nuts; blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 60-70 minutes. Toothpick should come out clean.

Cool and remove from pan.

ENJOY!! :)

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I love these! I think they are supposed to be similar to what they serve at Red Lobster. I haven't been there in a long time so I don't remember. Someone gave us this recipe when Tim & I got married and I've been making them ever since!

You will need:
2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c. margarine, melted
1/4 t. garlic powder
dried basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine Bisquick, milk and cheese and mix together well. Drop dough onto cookie sheets making 12 biscuits. Bake 15 minutes, till golden brown. Combine margarine and garlic powder and brush over biscuits. Lightly sprinkle biscuits with basil. Serve warm.

ENJOY!!

Zucchini...What do you do with it?

I will be able to pick some zucchini from my garden soon...super excited about that!! :) We like to eat the zucchini raw and I have a couple of recipes that I like to use it in; but I've been on the hunt for some new recipes that include zucchini.

Last year I posted these:
Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Zucchini Brownies

Here are some zucchini recipe links that I have found...check them out here, here, here, here and here (search zucchini).

Do you have a favorite recipe that includes zucchini?