Homemade pretzel bites

YuMMy!!

My new found love it Pinterest!  I have pinned many food dishes and hope to try them all, soon!  I actually have tried a few, and most were keepers for my crew...

The kiddos and I tried Homemade Pretzel Bites today from Modern Day Moms and we LOVED THEM!!

They were so easy to make, that the kiddos did it by themselves- with little instruction from me.  A few more times and they could do these without even thinking about it! They even took the photos of each other!!

Menu Plan Monday @ I'm An Organizing Junkie

Since I am trying to get back into school/life routine, I decided I also thought I would get back into planning my menus and sticking with them.. makes my grocery bill much more tolerable! (and since my measly little Kroger is about to become a SUPER KROGER ~ I need to get the bill under control!)

Here's what's on our menu for this week:

Monday: Roast (in the crock-pot ~ smelling yummy as I type), carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy and I think I will go start some bread...

Tuesday: poppy-seed chicken, peas & fruit

Wednesday: kiddos eat at church & Roger and I will have BBQ sammiches made from the leftover roast.

Thursday: Lasagna & more homemade bread! oh, and probably green beans

Friday: chicken soup with rice and whatever leftover veggies I can throw in & probably finish off the rest of the bread also

Saturday: Homemade chicken nuggets and flat fries

Sunday: dinner at my sisters house

ALL ABOARD!!!

Yep, that’s where we went! 

Really cute restaurant in Little Rock. We took off after our last rehearsal of Splash Kingdom and treated them to lunch at All Aboard Restaurant and Grill.  It was really cute, maybe a little high priced, but the kiddos enjoyed it (so did Gramma!)

You place your order and receive a key.  You put that key in a thing on the table and wait.  A train on the tracks high above your head comes driving by and drops your food off on the platform and it lowers down to the table. 

Homemade grape freezer jelly

A month or so ago, I tried my hand at Strawberry Freezer Jam.  I made 7 cups and there is one left in the freezer.  So, Monday while were lying around doing nothing, I decided to give grape jelly a try.  Grape is the only flavor jelly I will eat and when I opened the pectin box and found the recipe for it, I was so excited!
It was so simple, I am almost embarrassed to admit how easy it was!

Three cups of grape juice and five cups of sugar and follow the directions for the pectin -wa-la! Grape jelly!  And, even though I haven’t had a chance to eat any yet (has to sit for a few days to set up) I am convinced it is going to be YUMM-O!  I know because I licked the spoon!

Salsa! (and no, we are not dancing!)

At our trip to the Farmer’s Market this past Saturday, we picked up a handful of tomatoes and a couple of jalapeno peppers and we made some homemade salsa.  I am not big on salsa… and this had a different taste to it and I really didn’t care for this at all. 

Maybe it’s been so long since we made it, that we forgot how?  Roger said he didn’t care for it either….

Snowed in cinnamon rolls

While we were snowed in, we took the opportunity to bake some homemade goodies!  Samantha helped (well, made) homemade Cinnamon Rolls!  She did most of the work by herself and they turned out yummy!  (I guess I need to add, we use a bread machine for the mixing and such, but she did the rest!)

Spread the goodies in the center!

Sprinkle the main ingredient - cinnamon!

Roll them up!

Yummy! Can't wait until morning!

 Slice them carefully with floss...

Almost done....

Well, Roger got up and put them in the oven and iced them... and they dug into them before I got finished pictures... but they were GREAT!

Menu Plan - October 25-29

Well, this doesn't show me anything except that I need to hit up the grocery store...

Monday - Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday - Spaghetti & Peas

Wednesday- Chili for adults - kiddos eat at church

Thursday - Chili dogs

Friday - unsure - Rog at the station, Girl Scouts will be here

Homemade Bread

I have a recipe for homemade bread that I throw the ingredients into the bread machine and turn it on on manual and let it do the mixing and kneading then it goes into a loaf pan and into the oven.  I make it all the time and we love it..it's so simple also!

Homemade Bread:

1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
3 cups flour
1 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
1/ 2 teaspoon salt (sometimes I use garlic salt)
2 Tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 cup milk

I place ingredients in my bread machine in this order (because my machine tells me to start with dry) and start it up.  When it beeps telling me it is done, I place it in a sprayed loaf pan and throw it in the oven 350* for 30 minutes.  Nothing like a slice of bread fresh from the over - covered in melting butter!!

I have tried a nut/grain bread using this...at the last cycle of my bread machine mixing, I have added sunflower seeds. pumpkins seeds, almonds and oatmeal.  All were chopped pretty small.  It turned out pretty good...but it is just fine plain!

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

These are quick, simple and turn out yummy!!

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

Refrigerated Crescent Rolls
butter
cinnamon
sugar
brown sugar
pecans

Roll out your crescent rolls, I use seamless, but if you have the perforated kind, roll them out where they are mushed together.  Spread butter on the dough, cover with cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar and pecans (we crushed ours pretty fine, since the rolls are so small).  Roll up dough from long side and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Sourdough bread...not meant to be?

Ok - so I think I mentioned before that I am in the process of trying to make my own sourdough starter.  One would think that it is not hard to do, but I am steadily failing at it.  Here is how my shot at this has worked.
First time - forgot to feed it after the first day.
Second time - looks like it may be working - smells decent and looks ok - almost time to move it to the fridge - yay - it may work - unless you set it too close to the STOVE TOP when you are COOKING.  Heat kills it.  That is the only thing that kills it.  I kilt it.  Know how I know - IT STUNK!!!
Third time - made it all the way to the the fridge -wasn't 100% about the smell of it - I mean it is sourdough - but I felt this was pushing it - tried for bread anyways.  I am going to go for broke here and say it wasn't 100% where it should have been - in didn't rise. Doorstop for sale - nice, heavy, cute in the shape of a loaf of bread!
Fourth time - I am going to start a starter again on Monday - will keep you updated as it progresses....
Now~ I also started Amish Friendship Bread starter - from scratch - and it seems to be doing what it is supposed to.  I have to feed it the first time on Sunday, will let you know on Thursday how it turned out. 

Good Sunday Morning

Good morning!  I am up, waiting on breakfast to cook and time to get ready for church.  I wanted to share a simple breakfast recipe that Roger brought home from work.

Sausage Biscuit Bread

1 Can Whop Biscuits

1lb Sausage

1 cup favorite cheese, shredded

Brown sausage, tear 4 biscuits into pieces and layer in the bottom of either a bundt pan (which I don't have) or a loaf pan (works just fine!).  Layer half of your sausage and then half your cheese.  Make another layer of biscuits, sausage and cheese, cover with foil and bake in a 425* oven for about an hour.  Slice and eat!  This keeps well in the fridge, and is really good heated up.  Once it has been in the fridge, it holds the slice shape very good, makes a yummy scrambled egg sandwich.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday

Here are my plans for the week:

Monday:

Breakfast: Sausage Bread

Lunch: Clean out the fridge leftovers

Dinner: Sandwiches

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Angel Biscuits, jelly

Lunch: Sandwiches

Dinner: Chicken and Dumplings

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Muffins

Lunch: Chicken/Dumplings or Sandwich

Dinner: Tacos

Thursday:

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Leftovers or sandwich

Dinner: Homemade Pizza

Friday:

Breakfast: Krispy Kreme

Lunch: Picnic

Dinner: Out

Sourdough Starter

Well, I am embarking on a new experience!  Today, I made a sourdough starter. I used this site, mainly because I googled beginning sourdough baking and this site is the one that has come up everytime I have searched the topic.

It says it will take a few days, but I am hoping by the beginning of next week, I can make a loaf!

Anyone out there in blogland an experienced sourdough baker!  I would love to hear any tips, advice or recipes that you would like to share!

My attempt at burritos

We eat soft tacos all the time, except Ry, he doesn't care for the soft shells.  Since the kiddos were gone, I made up my taco meat like normal, then added half can of chili beans, half can enchilada sauce and a generous handful of cheese.  I let it warm up long enough to melt the cheese, then scooped it into my big burrito shells and folded them. I placed them fold side down onto my cookie bar stone, placed them into a 350* oven until they got a little brown and crispy.

Rog, of course, had to top his with more cheese and some jalepeno's, but mine were fine just like the were!

Menu plan for the week of 1/28-2/1

Monday ~ Chicken sandwiches, fries, fruit

Tuesday ~ Chili

Wednesday ~ Mealoaf, mac and cheese, mix veggies

Thursday ~ chicken alfredo, peas

Friday ~Fried chicken, mashed taters, biscuits

Avery's White Chocolate Snowballs

White chocolate snowballs

 

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

confectioners' sugar

 

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; mix well.

Combine flour and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Roll into 1-in. balls

 

Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cool cookies

slightly before rolling in confectioner's sugar.

 

Makes about 4 dozen snowballs

Menu for this week

Monday ~ Roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, cresent rolls

Tuesday ~ Cheesy enchilada rice, corn

Wednesday ~BBQ Sandwiches, chips

Thursday ~ Lasagna, green beans, French bread

Friday ~ Baked chicken, rice, broccoli

M & M Cookies

These can be made at any holiday ~ just use the current M&M's to make them festive.  The only time I really make them is Christmas time.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1.2 cup sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 1.4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1.2 cup M&M's

 

Blend shortening and sugars. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Sift remaining dry ingredients and add to sugar and egg mixture. Mix well. Stir in half of the M&M's reserving the rest for decorating.  Drop from teapsoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate tops with remaining M&M's. Bake at 375* for 10 -12 minutes.

 

Let the baking begin....

Yep, food - especially sweets - is a big reason for this time of year being my favorite!  I am going to start posting some of my favorite recipes that I usually bake or make at this time of year - yes, most of them are sweets.  I will start on them in the next few days - until then I wanted to leave a new link I have found...

Mrs. Claus' Cookbook

Happy Baking!

My Lasagna

You can check out more lasagna recipes at Crazy Hip Blog Mama.

I make this quite a bit, and it is usually without measurements, so I am going to give this a try, but you will have to guess and adjust as you see fit.

LASAGNA

1 lb gr beef

1/2 lb ground sausage

1/2 box oven ready lasagna noodles

1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

1 egg

1 tub of cottage cheese (8oz I think)

Shredded Mozerella cheese

1/2cup parm (I use kraft, but I guess you could use fresh)

Brown your gr beef and sausage together, drain, add spaghetti sauce to it, let simmer.  Mix 3 cheeses and egg.  Put a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan (I either use a 8x8 or 2 loaf pans). Start layering - noodles, meat, cheese. In the loaf pans, I can get 3 layers of noodles, meat and 2 of the cheese mixture, my top cheese layer is straight mozerella.  Cover with foil - 350* for about 25 minutes, then uncover and put back in long enough for the cheese to brown.