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Simple Muffins

February 1, 2010 in in the kitchen, recipes with 2 Comments

I love these simple muffins!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

Directions:

1. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

2. In small mixing bowl, combine egg, milk and oil.

3. Gently push the dry ingredients against edges of bowl to make a well in the center. Add wet ingredients and stir until just moistened.

4. Fill muffin tins or silicone baking cups 2/3 full.

5. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

*Makes 12 muffins

These are great hot out of the oven but also wonderful cold, a great breakfast or snack!

 

 

My Freezer Cooking Day Plan

January 29, 2010 in in the kitchen with 3 Comments

I’m planning my freezer cooking for early next week. After eating from the pantry this past month, my freezer has more room and my pantry is looking bare! However, it’s amazing how much food we still have (God is good!) I can make everything on my list without going to the grocery store (which is a good thing since we’re snowed in!) I’ll begin stocking my freezer up again and in February will be back to my regular grocery budget ($160 will seem like a lot of money compared to $60!!)

Here is my plan:

Black Beans

Pinto Beans

Refried Beans

Pizza Pockets

Italian Meatballs

Country Ham and Cheese Biscuits

Raspberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

Granola

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Making all of these foods will give me easy breakfast solutions and a few quick dinner options!

I’ll probably spend some of my February grocery budget on foods to prepare specifically to freeze in preparation for our baby’s arrival which is getting close, so I’m sure February and March will be full of freezer cooking days!!

Chicken, Rotel & Rice Casserole

January 26, 2010 in in the kitchen, recipes with 1 Comment

 

chicken,rotel & rice

This recipe is from my mom, it was one of our favorites growing up! It’s really easy and inexpensive and comfort food. It is just perfect for a cold winter night!

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cooked & cut up

2 cans cream of chicken

2 (soup) cans milk

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups rice (either instant or cooked)

1 can Rotel

cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Put diced chicken in bottom of 9 x 13 casserole dish, pour Rotel over chicken.

2. Mix cream of chicken, milk, chicken broth and rice; pour over Rotel.

3. Cook for 50 minutes at 350°. Add cheese and cook 10 more minutes!


Yummy!!

(I halved the recipe to fit in my 8 x 8 casserole dish!)

Ways to Make Chicken, Rotel & Rice Casserole Healthier & More Frugal:

  • Make your own Cream of Chicken!
  • When you boil your chicken, use that broth to make homemade chicken stock!
  • Use brown rice instead of white.
  • Don’t purchase instant rice, it’s much more expensive!

Casserole Mishap

January 22, 2010 in in the kitchen, real life with 15 Comments

Last night I had one of my biggest kitchen disasters…you know the kind of disaster that makes you want to cry!

Our neighbors had a baby girl on Monday and I wanted to fix them a nice, hot dinner! I even broke out all of the disposable casserole dishes and containers so there would be no clean up on their part! I started cooking around 2:15 because dinner was promised between 5:15-5:30! All was going well for the first 2 hours, the chicken casserole looked beautiful, the brownies baked up perfect and my hash brown casserole looked delicious!

Around 4:30 I put the chicken casserole in the oven because it needed to  bake for 45 minutes. I also pulled the hash brown casserole out of the oven to check its status (those little potatoes seem to take forever to soften.)

Here is where I tell you that since I cooked everything in disposable pans, I was cooking the hash brown casserole in a pie pan, and the pie pan was heaping full of yummy hash brown goodness!

All was well, the hash brown casserole was looking good, so I stuck a piece of foil on the top to keep it from drying out, put on my oven mit and proceeded to put it back in the oven…but that was not to be!

The pie pan gave way and about 1/4 of the casserole plopped down onto the oven door and since the oven door wasn’t completely flat but tilted every so slightly (another bad habit of mine), it proceed to run from the door down, a little into the oven and a lot in the crack between the oven door and oven!

At this point my first thought was to turn off the oven, sit down on the floor, call my husband while crying and ask “what do I do?!?!” However, I realized although it was bad that I just had to make the most of it because this dinner was not for me!

I proceeded to scoop as many hash browns from the mess on the door, in the crack and on the floor. Then I took a wet rag and tried my very best to get as much of the casserole remnants wiped up! After about 10 minutes of the oven door wide open (while still on, I just didn’t have the time to turn it off) I got the huge mess to a reasonable point of cleanliness and was able to proceed with cooking!

The oven (after the initial clean up):

The door, some of the smear towards the top of the door (the right of the picture) is from the clean up process, the actual casserole landed on the bottom corner of the glass and down from there! I think it looks mighty clean considering…

Here is another shot…there was hash brown casserole all in that crack and into the oven too! It was horrible! (And see the nasty inside of the oven too…um…)
So, this was by far my worst kitchen disaster (I think partially due to the fact that I was on a time schedule cooking for another family!) However, I’m sure there are many more left to come! And, I’m just thankful that I did not burn myself while frantically attempting to clean a hot oven!

Now, it’s time to get that oven fully cleaned…

This post linked to: Friday Fails

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