Yumm-O

 

 

I a not one to post pictures of my food but this dinner was delish!!

 

Roasted butternut squash soup with bacon and cheese grilled sandwich on rye bread.

 

Talk about comfort food at its finest!

Chex Mix

Here is an easy way to make Chex Mix without heating up the house...

Homemade Pancake Mix & Syrup

So, I have been using a homemade mix for our pancakes for about a year now and it is very yummy.  Even though I found a great mix I have yet to master the perfect circle pancake with a golden brown color...Until today that is.

These pancakes with homemade syrup = YUMM-O!!

Just ask Codey...

I found a recipe for a homemade syrup on the Facebook of another homeschooling mom.  I didn't have the maple extract so I made my own combo-vanilla coconut.  It was sooo good, and very quick!  The next time I made it I did almond butter and it was delicioso as well!  Needless to say, we will not be buying mix or syrup again.

Cake in a Jar

For an end of the year gift for the teachers and staff at the school I wanted to do something that would be cheap yet fun and cute.  It also needed to be something that they might be able to enjoy.  I found this cute recipe and thought we would give it a try. 

We used:
24 1/2 pint jars
4 white cake mixes (and ingredients it called for)
4 colors of food coloring
3 cans frosting

We mixed each box of cake mix in its own bowl and added food coloring to it.


Once that was done we scooped colors into the jars and layered them.  The directions said to fill to 3/4 full.  We filled some to 1/2 full and that worked much better.  We also had less waste this way.

*This was very messy with Brogan and Christian doing it.  But, they did have a ton of fun.  If you prefer not to make a mess you can pour into the jar.  Just make sure to pour slowly so tha you can get the layers.


Once you have each jar layered put jars in a glass dish and fill the dish about 1/4 with water.  Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool all the way.  (I removed them from the glass dish to cool but I don't know if that is necessary).


They will rise and make a dome top when baked.  Once they are completly cooled you will want to scoop out the top par.  You only need to do this if you filled them 3/4 of the way full.  If you filled them 1/2 way then you should not need to scoop any out.

*Note:  The "tops" you scoop out are very yummy.  So they are not waste if you plan on eating them!


Now that you have some room in the jars put a scoop of icing in and top with sprinkles or candies.


Put lid on and you are done.  We added a simple tag and the boys handed them out at school the next day.


They keep in the fridge for several days or you can also mail these.  What a great treat for someone that lives out of town!



Here is what we did with our "tops" that we scooped out...

They were yummy with some melted icing poured over the top!  It reminded me of a big bowl of rainbow sherbert!

Baking 101

The Wynne Home Arts Center provides some great enrichment classes for our community.  The Fall classes offered some great classes as enrichment courses for our homeschool program so Brogan opted for two of the baking classes that were offered.  I didn't stay the entire time but went a little early to pick her up to get some pictures of the fun she was having.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pies For Sale

Joshua is selling homemade pies for Thanksgiving to raise money for a trip that he is taking to Washington D.C.  The pies cost just $10 each, a great deal for the holidays!  Delivery is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 24.  You can place your order by posting a comment and we will get back to you by email about delivery times.  Choices include: apple, cherry, peach, pumpkin, and chocolate.  Thanks so much for your order!  It is a huge help and benefit to him for the trip.

Homemade Biscuits

Jeremy was home yesterday for Labor Day holiday and he started the day off running with cleaning and baking. He and the boys started a brunch of biscuits, sausage and eggs. These weren't your average biscuits, they were homemade. Codey and Joshua made the batter and everyone pitched in cutting the biscuits in to fun shapes. (Thanks, Vone for the cookie cutters!)

Here is the finished product, before and after baking.

Way to go guys! And, thanks Daddy! They tasted G-R-E-A-T!!!

Muffin Tin Monday- "C" Day

This week Muffin Tin Monday was a day with no theme so I chose to do a "C" theme for our tins since I am finishing up the letter C with Christian this week.

Our C foods included:

Corn Dogs w/ ketchup

Corn

Carrots w/ ranch dressing

Cheese

Candy Corns for dessert

and some Cantelope on the side

Muffin Tin Monday - Circus Theme

Last week was our first week to do this and the kids remembered that today was "lunch in the muffin tins". The theme this week for Muffin Tin Monday is "Circus". At first I thought I might get creative and do cupcakes and let them kids decorate their own clown face but then I came back to realization and did something that I could actually pull off. The result: Blueberries & pretzels for the pins and balls that clowns juggle, Yogurt with lion and elephant sprinkles, Meatballs for the large balls that the elephants stand on and the seals balance on their noses, Happy face french fries for the happy clowns, Ketchup for the bright red noses on the clowns, and my favorite...Mother's Frosted Animal Cookies.

Kitchen Clean-Up Helper

Codey made brownies and Rylen got the left overs. YUMMY!!

Muffin Tin Monday- People & Faces

Well, this is our first week to participate in Muffin Tin Mondays and I have to say that it was so much fun. At first I was a little perplexed at what to do for this theme but then I figured we would just pretend we were at a restaraunt but make our own funny face pancakes. The kids thought I was making a dessert at first and then when I put everything on the table I think they thought something was wrong with me. Now, eating pancakes for dinner is not unusual at our house. But, all of these fixings with it definetly is! We had our healthy yogurt, clemintine oranges, choice of almonds or cashews, and raisins. Then we had our fun stuff like M&Ms, Reese's pieces, sour straws, gummi life savers, sprinkles and chocolate chips. Rylen was in such a cranky mood while I was cooking so I gave him his mini funny faces while I was finishing up the pancakes and eggs. I made his for him and when he saw the silly faces all the crankiness just went away. He started smiling and really enjoyed eating all of the good stuff first. He ate both pancakes and asked for another one. I guess funny face pancakes really can cheer you up! Checking out all of the goodies... And enjoying our funny face pancakes...

Delicious Dinner

Jeremy made an awesome dinner Sunday with some fresh shrimp that Codey got from a neighbor of ours. He skewered the shrimp with some veggies and we served it with a side of fettucini alfredo. It was YUMMY!!

I'm thinking he needs to do the cooking more often!!

Canning 101

Well, we have tons of tomatos so we decided to try our hand at making some salsa. Once we got our basic ingredients it really wasn't that hard and our first batch turned out to taste great and had just the right heat and flavor. We made another batch that was spicier and tasted just as good. We ended up with five jars of the regular (which we have named "The Original") and 6 jars of the second batch (which we named "Salsa 101" for the heat).

After all of the salsa we decided that the canning process wasn't quite so bad so we decided to do some jam. A sweet older lady that Jeremy does work for called and said to come and get some figs from her tree so Jeremy did. He came home with three bags of figs! We made 10 jars of jelly from those 3 bags. It is a fig base but we added extracts to make different flavors. It really worked!! We now have raspberry, strawberry, maple brown sugar and fig jelly. I didn't get a picture of the jellies but they sure were good too. Our next canning endeavor? Whole potatos and tomatos, and homemade tomato sauce for spaghetti. The best part...we are saving LOTS of $$$ by using our garden and doing it ourselves. I can't wait until our entire pantry is our jars!!

Frugal Friday

So, it was once said that I had champagne taste. If you have known me for more than 5 or 6 years you will know that that statement is definetly true. However, I have learned that I can have champagne taste, I just don't always have to have the champagne. With that said, this is my Frugal Friday freebie to you. This week Codey and I ventured into the arena to make our own homemade laundry soap. That's right...Jeremy chuckled and gave me one of those looks when I first mentioned it, and then when he saw that we had actually done it, he laughed. But we have been using the soap for a week now and our clothes smell great and have a lighter feel to them. Now, that may be my imagination but that is my story and I am sticking to it! Here is the recipe we used. It made about 10-12 lbs. of powder laundry soap and only takes 1 Tbsp. per full load of laundry. You can make a smaller batch with one bar and one cup of each of the other ingredients. Keep it in a tightly sealed container. I add a little bit of white vinegar to the rinse cycle as our fabric softener. The white vinegar is also great for helping to keep the hoses in your washing machine clean. This is definetly much cheaper than buying the laundry soap and much better for our machine and our skin. 10 bars of Ivory soap (Grate with a cheese grater or cut into small chunks and grind in a mini-chopper. We did both and preferred the cheese grater.) 10 cups Borax 10 cup Washing Soda (The only store I could find this at in Huntsville was Kroger, right by the Borax.) My next frugal freebie is this great, light meal that we made on Tuesday. It is protein and nutrient packed, so easy and takes very minimal time. The best part...it is cheap!! This whole meal cost about $11.00 to make and it feeds our family of 7 with leftovers! The leftovers are enough for a side dish at some other point in the week or for 2 lunch meals. That means we ate for just $1.22 each! Chicken Pasta Salad 1 bag of spiral noodles (cost aprox. $1.59) Cook according to package. 1 16 oz. bag frozen mixed veggies (cost .99) For the best value use veggies in your garden! Add these to the chicken once it is fully cooked. They just need to be warm. 1 bottle italian dressing (cost .89) For a zestier taste ust a Tuscan dressing. Toss 1/3-2/3 of the bottle of dressing in with all of the other ingredients once they are cooked. 1 bag boneless skinless chicken breast (cost 5.99) I marinate the chicken in 1/3 bottle of dressing for 30 minutes- all day depending on my schedule. Then all I have to do is cut up the chicken and cook it in some evoo on the stove-top before adding to the other ingredients. Toss everything together and serve! Now add on the side: 1 loaf french bread (cost .89 from the day old rack) Usually I add some bananas, apples slices or strwaberries on the side for a "dessert". YUMMY!!