Aug. 28, 2008 - How much I have saved making my own bread

I was chatting with a good friend, hey Jenn, and thought I would share the recipe I use for our homemade bread. 

 It's not as radical as you would think to make your own.  I always have the ingredients on hand and I can make it as I need it.  I have been making my own bread for 5 weeks with about 3-4 loaves a week.  We enjoy the fresh flavor and taste of homemade bread and love the smell of it baking! 

 In the past I bought 3 loaves of bread per week at $2.25 each.  So I saved $2.25 x 15 loaves for the 5 weeks= $33.75.  In order to make the 3-4 loaves of bread a week I bought slightly more unbleached all-purpose flour which cost me about $10. I already had a year's worth of yeast in my freezer, from Sam's club in bulk, and I already have sugar and oil, etc on hand.

What I do is make up a batch of bread in the bread machine and make up 3 dry batches in clean and dry yogurt containers, the quart sized ones.  I put all the dry ingredients except the yeast and set them up in my pantry as a ready to use bread mix.  That saves me so much time.  I know I wouldn't make bread if I had to get all the supplies out each and everytime. 

I use the bread machine to mix, knead and rise the dough one time, about 1.5 hours total.  Then I pull it out and put it in a Pampered chef loaf pan and cover loosely with a napkin.  I then set the oven temp to 350*. When the oven beeps that it haas reached the right temp I uncover the loaf pan and set it in the oven to bake.  I bake it for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.  I pull the loaf out of the pan immediately and let it cool on the counter on the napkin.  I usually slice it with our electric knife after it has cooled completely, if the kids can wait.

I love to use the bread for PB&J, garlic toast, french toast, croutons, and snacks for the kids.

Here is the recipe:

Country White Bread

8 1/2 ounces water 80-90*

3 cups flour

2TBS dry milk

2 TBS sugar

1.5 tsp salt

2 TBS olive oil or butter

2 tsp active dry yeast

Add the ingredients in this order, making a little well in the center for the yeast, and adding the oil or butter around the perimeter of the pan.

I know some of you will read this and think I have gone off the deep end with homemaking but there will be some of you who will say I really need to grind my own wheat to make it super nutritious.  I say to all of you,making bread works for me in this stage of my life and even though I appreciate the nutritional value of freshly ground wheat, I am not there yet.  :) I am just grateful that I can be a step above store bought preservative laden bread.

Here are a few links on frugal bread making.

This one and this one includes video how tos.

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Aug. 15, 2008 - Crispy Crouton Recipe

I have been trying to stay busy while a new modem is on its way and my washing machine cleans all of the vomit and diarrhea out of the crib sheets. It has surely been a busy first week of school! ( The girls are recovering from a bout of a stomach bug :( )

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Aug. 8, 2008 - Price Per Pound

I just got home from grocery shopping trip at Ingles.  I thought I would share my deals.  They also always have a double coupon policy, with a few rules, and the occasional triple coupon week.

I picked up 11 pounds of chicken breast tenders, boneless, skinless, at $1.98 per pound.  I found this a great price for chicken. I am used to paying $2.25- $2.50 per pound lately.

They also had country style pork ribs on sale for $1.48 per pound. I picked up a package that was 8.5 pounds.   These are great in the crock pot with BBQ sauce on top and a baked potato on the side. YUM!

My last deal was 3 Pork Roasts, Boston Butt Boneless, for $1.98/ lb.  Once again if I find meat on sale for less than $2 I am so pleased.  Here is a great recipe for this cut of meat.  We also like this cooked in the crock pot with garlic, salt, and a  little liquid like chicken stock.  Then at the end of the day, shred it and add BBQ sauce and buns. 

Does anyone have a vacuum food sealer?  What all do you use it for?  Can someone tell my mother that I want the one from Sam's Club for Christmas?

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Aug. 6, 2008 - Check out this blog . . .

I want to thank Rachel, a MOMYS friend, for telling me about this awesome blog. It is Filling My Freezer  Here is a link to one of her entries that is so inspiring and motivational as I lead my life as a mother and a believer in Jesus.

Here is a teaser from that entry:

 I believe cheerful frugality and contentment go hand in hand. If we are content with what we have then it will be easy for us to cheerfully be frugal. We won’t care that we can’t buy a Starbucks because we are content with the coffee pot God has provided for us at home. Make sense?

She also has lots of freezer meal ideas and tips.  I can't wait to check out the Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe and the Chicken Parisienne Recipe.

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Aug. 5, 2008 - Freezer Meals X 14

Yesterday, with help from two awesome helpers, I made 14 freezer meals.  I am trying to fill my freezer up and make my Fall a bit easier.  It makes my days run so much smoother if I don't have to stress about what to cook at 4pm everyday.  I will stick to my monthly menu and include half freezer meals and half easy meals, like grilled cheese and a fruit salad. 

Here is my list of meals made. 

• Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (5 meals)
• Poppyseed Chicken (2)
• Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole (4)
• Italian Meatballs (3)

I froze all the casseroles, except the poppyseed ones and the meatballs, in a baking dishes lined with foil.  After they were frozen solid I lifted the casserole in the foil out of the dish.  If you struggle to lift the dish out of the pan, just run hot water on the bottom and the sides of the dish. 

Then I wrapped them in foil again, day dreamed about this really cool vacuum food sealer at Sam's Club, labeled the foil package with a name and a date and off to my freezer they went.  When I want to cook one of these foil wrapped casseroles I will unwrap the frozen meal and place in the dish I used originally.  This keeps my dishes clean and ready to use any time and not tied up in the freezer for several weeks or months. 

This casserole was first wrapped in saran wrap then foil.

Here are three of the meatballs in tomato sauce.  I made sure to form the foil around the frozen casserole so I could easily tell which dish it belonged to. 

Here is my freezer in desparate need of a defrost but it gives you an idea of our bounty.  Anyone want ot have a baby so I can make you dinnner?!  See the ice cream tub on one of the lower shelves, it's not ice cream any more.  I bought a big bag of hot dogs at Sam's Club and stacked the uncooked ones in here so I can pull them out as needed and not have a frozen block of hotdogs.  They fit perfect standing up on end. 

These 14 meals are not alone though.  I have 10 pounds of cooked ground beef in meal sized freezer bags, 2 freezer bags of the poppyseed chicken casserole, bags of uncooked chicken breasts in marinades, blocks of butter from Sam's Club, uncooked meatloaf dishes, a ham I picked up inexpensively at Easter, and several meal sized bags off stew meat for beef stew. I also have some cooked beans for chili that I made at home and bags full of the heals of our store boght bread to make bread crumbs as needed.   I need to add some pork roasts and beef roasts when I find them on sale.  I hope to buy more ground beef on sale, less than $2.25/lb, and cook it in meal sized freezer bags as well.  I love to add ground beef to our chili, taco soup, spaghetti, pizza, mac and cheese, and calzones.  Bacon freezes well too, either cooked or raw. 

As a side note did you know that bacon can be cooked in the oven.  I lay the strips in a large oven safe pan and bake at 425* until done maybe 15 minutes?, I don't remember how long.  Just check it every 5 mintues or so and you'll be able to see it is done.  No splatters all over the kitchen and no dangerous grease filled skillet on the stove top. 

Here are some of the recipes:

Meatballs in tomato sauce

2# ground beef uncooked

1/2 cup raw rice

1 egg

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbs dried minced onion

1 small can tomato soup

1 large can tomato soup

1/4 cup milk

1. Set aside 2/3 of the small can of tomato soup, the large can and the milk.  Mix everything else well.  Form into meatballs and line a large pan or two medium sized pans. 

2.  Mix the 2/3 of the small can of soup, the large can and the milk in a separate bowl.  Pour this over the meatballs.

3. Freeze.  When ready to bake, thaw completely and bake at 350* covered for 1 hour.  If you forget to thaw it, bake covered at 350* for alot longer. :)  Maybe 1 1/2 hours, just check it for doneness. 

4.This size recipe makes a very large dish or 2 regular sized meals for my family of 7.   We love this over pasta.

Chicken and Wild Rice

5 cups cooked wild rice

2 small cans cream of mushroom soup

8 oz sour cream

2 TBS lemon juice

3 cups cooked chicken

1. Spread 2.5 cups of the cooked rice on the bottom of your large pan. 

2. Mix the soup, sour cream and the lemon juice ina separate bowl. Pour half this mixture on top of the rice.

3. Add the chicken and then layer more soup mixture on top. The final layer is rice.

4. Freeze.  Thaw completely and then add a layer of bread crumbs or stuffing on top with melted butter for added interest. Bake at 350* for 45 uncovered.  This makes 2 family sized portions or one large meal.

Poppyseed Chicken

(Amanda V. this recipe may sound very familiar! Thanks for contributing to the church cookbook. :))

4 chicken breast, cooked and cubed

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a casserole dish or a freezer bag. When you are ready to bake, thaw, pour into a baking dish if needed and add crushed ritz crackers,melted butter, and 1 TBS poppy seeds to the top.  Bake at 350* for 30 minutes uncovered. Serve over cooked rice or pasta.

This makes a decent family sized portion.

For the italian meatballs I added a few eggs, bread crumbs, italian seasoning and salt to several pounds of raw ground beef. I formed into meatballs and froze them uncooked.  It helps to freeze on a cookie sheet and then transfer the hard frozen balls to a freezer bag. 

Update to this entry:

I added up the total for all these meals and it amounted to about $85.  Each meal, which will feed 7 people with at least one extra meal, totals up to $5.  I will have to add pasta to the meatballs recipe and rice to the poppyseed chicken recipe but those are staples I keep on hand and purchase at very low prices.  I calculated that it will cost under $1 per person per meal, not including the leftovers that John can take to work the next day.  :)

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Aug. 2, 2008 - How I made dinner last night :)

Ok, so I made enchiladas for my family and a big pot of brown rice.   I thought I would share how I made it, hopefully it won't be as hard for your family though. 

Wednesday night, I had Sam preheat the oven to 350* and begin to unwrap the meatloaf he and I mega froze earlier this week.  As he unwrapped the last layer of saran wrap the biggest storm of the week rolled in and knocked our power out for 2 hours. 

So, back in the fridge went to meatloaf and we made roasted potatoes and carrots in foil packs on the grill.  Yum, with lots of garlic, olive oil and salt.

Thursday night another milder storm blew through and the power only went out for 2 minutes and the meatloaf was saved from another night in the fridge. 

Friday night, I knew I wanted something Mexican style for dinner so I decided on enchiladas, kid style.  Only problem was that I was completely out of ground beef!  I usually stock up in 10 #-20 #s so I was shocked that I had run low and didn't even know it.  I spied the leftover meatloaf,ok this is where I have to ask you to keep this quiet from John and the kids , and decided to doctor it up for dinner.  I chopped up the pieces of meatloaf into small ground beefy chunks and added a good shake of taco seasoning to hide the italian flavor of the meatloaf.  I also found a small container of refried beans in the freezer that I thawed and heated through with the meat.

Ok, so I then spooned a generous helping of the meat/bean mixture into a tortilla,sprinkled some cheese on top, added a dash of pureed salsa (because the kids won't eat chunks) and rolled it all up and place it into a big pan.  Don't forget to spread a small amount of salsa in the bottom of the pan so the enchiladas don't stick.

Follow through with this pattern until the pan is full and then cover with more salsa and cheese. I baked it covered until the cheese was melted on top, about 30 minutes.  Serve with brown rice.

I found this link on how to prepare brown rice the healthiest way and I tried it too.  I couldn't taste a huge difference but it didn't hurt anything to try it out.  It involves soaking the rice before you cook it. 

That's my budget conscious way of preparing dinner and working around the mishaps in life.  How do you save the day when cooking or stretching your budget?

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Jul. 26, 2008 - Organic,Cloth Diapering Mom Loses Her Mind!

Ok, so I don't use all organic foods and I don't buy any organic clothes, but I do subscribe to a whole foods, no perservative lifestyle.  Most of the time.  ;)

Generally, I stay away from foods that lack nutritional value or even a negative value for my kids.  ( I refuse to give up Kit Kats for myself though :))  I find that kids need the vitamins and minerals that God put into fruits and veggies.  I don't want to buy a "fruit" product that has been stripped of all its original flavor only to be replaced with new artificial colors and flavors.  I don't want to buy "food" that has been steam rolled, bleached, chemically reorganized to stay shelf stable for months or years and then deep fried or maybe rolled in granulated sugar ad nauseum.  I prefer my foods to look  and taste authentic.  

 Back to my title about losing my mind, I let Sam buy a giant bag of Cheese Puffs.  The kids thought I had lost my mind.  Even though it was Sam's money, I still have the final say on what he purchases.  On a side note a lady at the check out saw that he was carrying the bags of chips and his own money and looked on him with pity.  She said "Why do you have to  buy your own chips?".  Her tone spoke volumes so I set forth in correcting her and informed her that he wanted to buy the chips. Sam happens to be one of my most selfless children.  He loves to share and help someone.   

Anyway, the kids have thoroughly enjoyed their cheese puffs and I am restraining myself from checking out the ingrediants list.  I might end up googling some of the chemical additives they put in them and then I would throw the whole bag away.  So, for today, I am the "good Mommy" and I will get their little bodies back on organic homemade yogurt and fresh bluberries next week. :)

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Jul. 18, 2008 - Dinner Tonight!

Here is the menu for tonight.

Grilled cheese on thick slices of homemade bread with shredded cheddar and colby cheese.

For an appetizer we are having a veggie pizza.  I'm sure several of my kids will turn their noses up at the vibrant raw colors on the pizza, but as for me my mouth is watering!

Here is how you make it:

Unroll a package of refridgerated crescent rolls and lay flat on a jelly roll pan or what ever you have on hand.  I used a spring form round pan.  Press the seams together and then bake at 375* for 11-13 minutes. 

Let it cool. While it is cooling, mix one package cream cheese with 1/2 cup mayo and 2 TBS ranch dressing mix (the dry stuff). Mix it really well. 

Then cut up broccoli, cauliflower, tomato, cucumber, and carrot into little pieces. 

After the crust is cool, spread the mayo mix on the crust thickly, add the veggies and sprinkle cheese on top.

Chill for a few hours and serve. 

These are absolutely amazing!  I devoured these at our Sunday School social instead of trying the strawberry shortcake. :) (thanks Janice for the recipe)

As you can see in the pictures, Lily kept sneaking bites of broccoli and cucumber and I never told her to stop. :)

For dessert I plan on cutting into a cold watermelon and sending the kids outside! :)

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Jul. 13, 2008 - Our You-Pick Farm Bounty

All kids should go to a you-pick farm.  We have a favorite blueberry farm that is about 20 minutes from our home.  It has a few hundred blueberry bushes, lots of blackberry bushes (vines, brambles?) and other odds and ends. 

Between the sweaty toddler, a whiny preschooler, an eager 5 year old,a thorough almost 8 year old, and the content 9 year old we picked a gallon of mostly black blackberries and 2/3 of a gallon of teeny tiny blueberries.  It takes forever to pick blueberries.  I have a new appreciation for the blueberries I buy at Sam's Club.  :)

I had a delightful time eating still warm, juicy, and sweet blueberries.  Rachel and Lily ate a few tart ones because they aren't as swift when it comes to telling the difference between blue and reddish purple! :)

Austin loved the blackberry picking but enjoyed the farm cat more than blueberry picking.  Sam loved the challenge of seeing how full he could get his bucket. 

Overall is was a sweaty, fun experience!

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Jul. 4, 2008 - Homemade Yogurt . . . it really isn't that hard.

My first batch of yogurt in the Yogourmet came out beautifully!  It only took 5 hours to incubate, during which I just stood by and watched.  It would usually take 6-7 hours the other way.  And really you don't babysit the yogurt, the machine works on it all afternoon. I just take it out and put it in the fridge after 5 hours.  Simple, really. 

I have actually been making yogurt for over a year now and the incubating part gave me the most trouble.  I found it difficult to maintain a constant 105-120* temp for so many hours.  I would put it in my oven and keep taking the temp and then turning the heat on for just a few minutes.  I lost several batches to too much heat.  Otherwise known as baked yogurt, very smelly!

So now I just scald the milk mixture, I add 1/3 cup dry milk and several tablespoons of sugar, to 180* and then set it aside to cool down to 115* or so.  Then I add the yogurt starter, about 1/3 cup of plain yogurt, and stir it all together. 

The machine does the difficult part for me.  I love the simplicity of this machine.  I wish I had made the change sooner. 

Yesterday, we dove into the first batch and made a banana, strawberry smoothie.  I added about 2 cups of yogurt, the frozen fruit and a dab of honey.  It was delicious!  I added quite a bit of yogurt so it would have a drink consistency not a frozen spoonable consistency.  The kids loved it! 

They loved it so much that when Austin spilled his, Sam dove down tongue first to lick it up before Austin got the rag! 

You know something is good if the kids think it is tongue licking good!

I may need to purchase one these extra canisters though!

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Jun. 19, 2008 - Oreo and Fudge Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

Today we made Lily's "cake" for her party on Saturday.  I decided to make her the same cake as last year.  It is from www.Kraftfoods.com and can be found here.  They even have a how to video to help you make this. 

This year I doubled the recipe and had the girls help me. 

Here is the recipe and directions:

Gather all your supplies: 2 boxes of 12 ice cream sandwiches each, 2 boxes instant chocolate pudding, 1 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, oreos, milk, 16 ounces of cool whip. Then lament the fact that you forgot the oreos and move on.  I decided to change the name of the recipe to Fudge Ice Cream Sandwich Cake.

Mix the ice cream fudge topping with 2 cup of the cool whip in a large bowl.

Add the dry power of the instant pudding mixes and don't breathe deeply, or you'll inhale the powder!  I found the mixture to be too thick so I kept adding milk so it would be a good spreading consistency.

Meanwhile, have the kids unwrap all 24 sandwiches and make sure to point out that the cake will be 6 sandwiches long by 4 sandwiches high.  The big kids who walked through as we did this got a quick reminder of 6 x 4 . :)

Don't forget to have the kids lick the wrappers to maximize the cost value ratio. ;)

Stack all 24 sandwiches as tall as the kids can do it and watch them squeal when the top two look like the letter T.  This is when you comment that it also looks like the cross that Jesus died on.  :)

Ok, now lay out the first layer of 6 and have the 5 year old in your house count them.  Spread the first layer of the "mortar" and tell the 3 year old again to stop licking the sandwiches! I hope that freezing might kill any germs that were spread in the making of this cake. :)

Ok, add all the rest of the layers.  Pride yourself that no one ate very much of the "bricks".  You can use broken pieces just fine. 

Make sure and have spatulas available to "clean" out the mixing bowl!

The recipe, that I tore out the magazine, said don't worry about the cool whip being perfect.  Repeat that to yourself over and over again as you ice the cake with softened cool whip. 

Place in the freezer and set up for several hours. 

Clean up all the mess while the kids run off giggling and count your blessings! 

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May. 7, 2008 - Pizza from scratch

I bought a new bread machine last night!  Our old one served us well and brought me great joy.  :) But alas, it died a few months ago.  So, first thing this morning I made a dough for homemade pizza for lunch for us.  I added bacon and ground sausage, home canned sauce from last summer and lots of mozzarella cheese. Here is the recipe I used:

Self -Rising Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp yeast

3/4 cup water around 100*

1/4 cup oil

(It made one large crust and a medium sized calzone for me)

I put the wet ingrediants in the bread machine first, then all dry except the yeast, finally make a indentation int the dry ingrediants and put the yeast there.  Set the machine for dough and wait an hour and a half.  I used a rolling pin to get a smooth, even crust.

I put it in the oven on a baking stone sprinkled with plain corn meal.  I baked it at 400* for 15-20 minutes. 

It tasted a lot better than the garbage I fed the kids in the name of a special treat at the golden arches.  They were hungry again within 30 minutes, seriously, and they were parched from so much sodium/salt in the fries.  Even my lips felt cracked and dry all afternoon.

I am going to try and have more "convenience" fun foods at home instead. 

Anyone have any ideas? 

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Apr. 29, 2008 - Snacks for the week

Nutrigrain bars

Goldfish

Dried Fruit

Yogurt-homemade vanilla

Apples dipped in peanut butter and raisins

Quesadillas

Green smoothies

Homemade chocolate chip muffins

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