Blue

Bodacious Blueberry Muffins
1 and 3/4 C flour
1/3 C sugar
2 t baking powder
1/4 salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 C milk
1/4 C cooking oil
1 C blueberries

Mix together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix together beaten egg, milk, and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just moistened. Fold in blueberries. Place in prepared muffing pan. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

*These muffins bring a twinkle to my children's eyes, so I double this recipe to make 18 regular sized muffins and freeze any leftovers, that is if there are any! :)

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup packed
1/8 cup all purpose flour
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. Butter

Combine topping together w/a fork until it resembles a coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle on top, just before baking. This mix can easily be made in advance.



*Special thanks to Amy @ Momadviceblog for this recipe.

Giving Thanks for

Sourdough stuffing

Stuffing is an important part of the holiday menu in our home. Here is a wonderful combination of ingredients that play a great supporting role to the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner. The sourdough bread gives the stuffing a tangier flavor than regular bread, but you can use the latter in a pinch.

8 cups (1/2-inch) cubed sourdough bread (about 12 oz)
1 pound turkey Italian sausage
Cooking spray
5 cups chopped onion (about 2 pounds)
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
8 oz package pre-sliced mushrooms
2 cups (1/2 inch) cubed peeled Bartlett pears (about 2 medium)
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fat-free, less sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven 425 F

Arrange bread in single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 425 F for 9 minutes or until golden. Place in a large bowl.

Remove casings from sausage. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage, and cook for 8 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add sausage to bread cubes, tossing to combine. Set aside.

Return pan to medium-high heat. Add onion, celery and carrot; saute 10 minutes or until onion begins to brown. Stir in mushrooms; cook 4 minutes. Stir in pear, basil, tarragon and salt; cook 4 minutes until pear begins to soften, stirring occasionally. Add pear mixture to bread mixture, tossing gently to combine. Stir in broth and pepper.

Place bread mixture in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; cover with foil. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake stuffing an additional 15 minutes or until stuffing top of stuffing is crisp.

Makes 12 servings.

NOTE: This stuffing could be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Store the stuffing, covered with foil, in your refrigerator. Bake as directed.

To view more Thanksgiving recipes, craft ideas, decorating ideas, cleaning/organizing or anything else that has to do with this special holiday; then head over to Kelli's Blog "There is No Place Like Home where she is hosting a week long "Giving Thanks" Celebration!

(*Recipe from The Associated Press and Photo from Becky Luigart Stayner AP)

Disaster

I recently came by a recipe called "Easy Pizza Dough". The recipe was simple and to the point. That is where I went wrong. You know that saying, "It's too good to be true". Well it was.

Throughout my married life, I have taught myself to cook. I wouldn't say that I'm a beginner by any means nor a chef. I am definitely not put off by trying new recipes, but for some reason just trying yeast in baking has just been one of those things I'm a bit timid to try.

As of late, we've been having pizza nights. Whatever crusts we use have been the store bought types on sale. So when I came by this recipe for easy pizza dough, I then found courage to open the small, shiny package of yeast and take a go at it.

Everything was going smoothly until I started to roll the dough onto floured wax paper. A nice circle was forming, but then when I went to pick it up the dough stuck to the paper. I was having to peeeeel it off. Leaving quite a bit of dough remaining on the paper. Then I tried more flour to help with the stickiness. This time rolling it out on the pizza pan. That didn't work because the dough would sink into the holes of the pan and wouldn't move; and again sticking to that pan.

Tried more flour. By this time the dough was too tough, and probably had too much flour.

Defeated!

Although, I was bummed, my husband showed what a sweet guy he was and told me how it was really okay and that he was proud of me for even attempting this new thing. Doing pizza dough from scratch. He quickly saved the day by running to Nick & Willy's to purchase some cheese pizzas. We then put on our own toppings and had some tasty pizza for the night.

So now I am determined to find a good, FOOL PROOF pizza dough recipe. I know there are some accomplished cooks out there.

Maybe someone would be willing to share their own recipe with a comment on this blog or through an email?

Halibut anyone?

Thanks to my father-in-law's fishing trip to Alaska, we have a nice little stash of Halibut tucked away in our freezer. So far, I have made one yummy dish with these, but I am now looking for some other ideas.

Anyone have a tried and true recipe or some ideas for using Halibut?

Best so far...

Grilled Garlic Herb Turkey Burgers

Description:

A flavorful grilled turkey burger seasoned with garlic and other herbs.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 small onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Add sliced cheese, lettuce, sliced onions, ketchup, mustard, pickles and hamburger buns, for serving.

Instructions:

1. Combine ground turkey with seasonings in a bowl and mix well with hands. Shape into 4 patties, each about 1/2-inch thick. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours or overnight.

2. Grill, covered, on medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes per side or until done. Serve with cheese, buns, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, sliced onions, etc.

10 minutes + marinade time

Cooking Time: 12-16 minutes

**These are the best Turkey Burgers we have had so far.
Very flavorful, along with all the sandwich fixings.


If you haven't already, be sure to check out "Tammy's Recipes". I have found this site enjoyable to look at and very helpful.

Beautiful

Dear friends,

If you love things about the home as much as I do, then be sure to visit Everyday Graces with her posting "Measure for Measure". It's beautiful posting.

Freezer Pleaser #5

Simple Salisbury Steak

1 can of mushroom soup
1 pound of ground beef
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (or 2 small cans of sliced mushrooms)

In a bowl, mix together 1/4 cup of the soup, beef crumbs, egg and onion. Shape firmly into 6 patties. (If you are using raw meat, you can freeze it now and brown the mushrooms and freeze them too, or you can freeze everything after cooking)

In a skillet over medium heat, cook patties, a few at a time, until browned on both sides, spoon off fat, set aside.

Stir in remaining soup and mushrooms, return the patties to the skillet, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until done, turning patties occasionally.

Allow to cool and place patties and sauce into freezer bag. Lay flat to freeze.

To COOK: Allow to thaw. Reheat and eat!

*Can put this dish over rice or noodles and make with a little extra gravy mixture.

(Campbell's soup recipe)

A first

We had an abundance of tomatoes gifted to us by a neighbor. So I decided to try my hand at making Spaghetti Sauce from fresh tomatoes.

There were 8 tomatoes to work with. Most of them were small and getting very ripe.

Making this sauce was very easy. Just blanched the tomatoes. Peeled the skins off and pureed in the blender. Added seasonings, a can of tomato paste, and additional veggies. Then simmered for 1 to 2 hours. Added some ground sausage (optional) . And served.

This made 20 oz of red sauce that we used for pizza and then kept the remainder for spaghetti another night. It was yummy and flavorful!

Aroma

There's just something about the smell of bulk cooking spices. So says the cashier at WinCo. I sure wouldn't know as I don't have much of a smeller for a nose. : )

Here is what I picked up to help restock and refill the spice jars:

~Parsley Flakes
~Nutmeg
~Cinnamon
~Pumpkin Spice
~Garlic Powder
~Minced onion
~Parsley Flakes
~Yellow Mustard
~Basil
~Italian Seasoning
~Grated Parmesan Romano Cheese
~Dried Cranberries

All these spices were purchased for just under $5.00 total. Lovin' the bulk section!

In the Crisper

I love fruits and vegetables freshly picked from the garden. So when when my husband brought home a bag of garden extras from a coworker - I was excited! There were yellow squash, fresh green beans, green bell pepper, zucchini, and cucumber.

After having these in the veggie drawer for a little while, the first 3 veggies were threatening to go bad if they weren't used right away. We hated to have that happen, so I did a recipe search on the internet and found this recipe for a "Farmer's Garden Stir Fry". This recipe was just right for using up all the veggies, plus some more in the veggie tray: carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, and white sweet corn. My husband also likes peanut sauce on his Asian Stir Fry's. So all in all it was a perfect match. :)

Farmer's Garden Stir Fry

In the far east, peanuts are commonly used to add intense flavor to vegetables and noodles. These will look like big helpings, but your family will probably be able to eat the whole dish in one sitting. You can use any leftovers in fried rice, adding fresh ginger and garlic to the vegetables.

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups long-grain white rice

Sauce

• 1 bunch green onions
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (any kind)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Vegetables

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups fresh green beans, cut on the diagonal, or frozen beans
• 1 small yellow squash sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 small zucchini, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, adding salt. Add rice, stir once, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about 18 minutes, or until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

To make sauce: Trim and discard roots and any wilted green tops from green onions. Chop them and combine in a small bowl with soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, sugar and red peppers. Stir to blend liquid with peanut butter. Set aside.

To make vegetables: Heat oil in a large skillet, Dutch oven or wok. When it is quite hot, add green beans and stir-fry for 3 minutes for fresh, 2 minutes for frozen. Add yellow squash, zucchini and green peppers and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Add sauce and cook, stirring, until vegetables are coated and heated through, or until they reach the texture you like.

Serves 3 or 4 over rice.

---

Sesame Seed Sauce for Vegetables

Serve this on the side or on top of cooked vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, winter squash, sweet potatoes or zucchini. I especially like it with green vegetables: broccoli, green beans and sautéed fresh spinach.

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (any kind)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

Toast sesame seeds in a dry heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir them frequently, removing the pan from the heat for several seconds if they seem to be cooking unevenly. When they are golden and smell toasty, remove from the heat.

Combine sugar, vinegar and soy sauce in a jar or dish. Stir to dissolve sugar and stir in sesame seeds.

Makes about 1/3 cup.

---

Recipes from: Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook

Pinto Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package (9 ounces) tortilla chips
2 cans (15 ounces each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1 envelope taco seasoning
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded lettuce, sour cream and salsa, optional

Directions:

~Crush tortilla chips and sprinkle into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
~In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce and taco seasoning.
~Pour over chips. Sprinkle with cheese.
~Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 18-25 minutes or until heated through.
~Serve with lettuce, sour cream, and salsa.

Bleached

You won't be able to find bleached baking flour in this house anymore. It's gone in the garbage. We will now only have wheat flour and non-bleached white flour. Doing this wouldn't have previously occurred to me until I heard a story from a friend, who heard it from her friend. It may be folklore by now, but it sure made an impact on me. The story goes like this:

"There was a lady who had some children that were playing outside. They had decided to have a food fight with flour. The playing proceeded to the driveway. Then, all of sudden, the family had to leave for some reason. There wasn't time to pick up the mess at the moment. So when they returned to clean-up the flour, they discovered that it had bleached the driveway!"

Hmmm. Something about that isn't right. It made me realize that when the flour packaging says, "Bleached Flour", it really means that there is bleach in it.

I'm not one to usually react suddenly like this, but it just really helped to take a look at what was in our foods. Buying non-bleached flour and more wheat flour, doesn't cost much more than the other and it is an easy change to make.

Zucchini Time

What do you do with an abundance of Zucchini this time of the year?

When my husband came home from his recent bike tour, he presented a bag of Zucchini to me, a gift from my sweet mother-in-law's garden. This is such a wonderful vegetable! There are so many uses for it in cooking and baking.

So if you have lots of Zucchini to use up, check out this website over at Menus for Moms where you can read this helpful article: "Zucchini Overload? 11 Ideas and Recipes To Get You Through Zucchini Time."

As for the Zucchini I received, here are the plans I have to use up this vegetable:

Strategically placed it into two weeks of meal planning:
~A side dish of sauteed zucchini w/butter, grated Parmesan cheese, and Italian Seasonings.
~Adding to a Quiche.
~Veggie Casserole
~Zucchini Tomato Casserole
~Grate into 1/2 cup increments and place in freezer bags to be stored. Then defrost for future meals to be used in: spaghetti, meatloaf, muffins, and zucchini bread.

Please feel free to share any ways you use up Zucchini... :)

Frugal Fridays! - Cook Once & Eat Twice

Baked Potatoes are a wonderful thing to cook once and eat twice. Regular potatoes and yams and sweet potatoes work with this and are so good and tasty. They are wonderful as left overs, and warm up so nicely.

At Wal-Mart, there is a bag of large baking potatoes for under $4.00. There are 9 to 10 large baking potatoes in it. This is very inexpensive compared to other stores for baking large baking potatoes.

This would be great for either a large gathering at your home to provide a potato bar of baked potatoes and many different types of toppings like broccoli, cheese, chives, bacon, sour cream, chili, tomatoes, salsa, black beans mixed with salsa, left over taco meat, chicken, left-over veggies...the ideas are endless for what you could offer as some toppings.

When baking this many potatoes, you can pierce them with a fork on both sides and then wrap them with foil. You can also brush them with olive oil and roll them in sea salt before wrapping in foil, if you would like to. Then put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 2 to 3 hours depending on your oven.

I would suggest that even if you are not serving these potatoes to guests that you go ahead and make the entire bag of them, and then eat them once more as baked potatoes or make home made scalloped potatoes with garlic, heavy cream or half & half, shredded cheddar, Parmesan and provolone.

You could also cube these cooked potatoes and make a sort of hash brown potato with onion alongside of a meatloaf, or chicken or to serve with eggs.

You could also make a very quick and easy potato soup with the left over baked potatoes. You would just slice them up and put them in a pot with some half & half, butter chopped onions, frozen peas, garlic, seasoned salt and pepper...heat through and serve! :)

Click on this recipe for Homemade Oven French Fries, and other frugal meal ideas.


Find lots of great frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood, hosted by Crystal.

Berry Pickin

Last Saturday we went to a farm called the The Berry Patch. Where you can pick your own berries, take a hay ride, and view the farm animals. My husband and I spent about 2 hours picking raspberries with the help of our little ones (at least they felt like they were helping). The kids had a fun time talking about the birds and the bees, the mud, the corn in field, and the farm animals.

We picked more than a flat of raspberries. Which turned out to be 5 pounds or 12 cups.


When we got home the berries were washed thoroughly and frozen in 1 cup increments, with Fruit Fresh sprinkled on them and placed into the freezer. The plans for these raspberries are to make smoothies, a cobbler, and when the peaches come in - some Peach/Raspberry Jam.

Here is a picture of the smoothies we made and my little girl really enjoying hers!

Smoothies:

The amount needed for each family will differ. We make one blender full to feed our family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers.

We eat wheat toast with our smoothies and for our little ones we give them about 1 cup of smoothie and for adults a full glass...so that's about 2 to 2 1/2 cups full or 16 to 20 oz. for each big person. Do what works best for your family though.

~We purchase plain yogurt in a tub. One tub (32 oz) that costs about $3.00 lasts us two weeks and makes 4 blender fulls. (we don't measure we just try to use 1/4 of the tub for each blender full that we make)
~We use 1-2 bananas per blender full
~We use 1 to 1 1/2 cups of fruit per blender full
~We use milk to fill blender and to make it the proper consistency (we don't measure)

You can use fresh or frozen berries, peaches, cherries, or pineapple to make smoothies.

You can also add fruit juice instead if you prefer that over milk.

We don't add ice....but you could.

Freezer Pleaser #4

"Left Over Stew"

Basically, we keep any leftovers from meals that we won't be using for the next day in a quality freezer bag.

Add:
*Any vegetables: corn, peas, broccoli, green beans, onions, zucchini, tomatoes going ripe, etc.
*Any meat: hamburger, taco meat, bacon, sausage, chicken, etc.
*Any 1/2 used cans of food: stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, cream of corn, green chilis, olives, beans, whatever!
*You can also keep chicken & ingredients that would go well with each other, in a different bag, and have another one for more of the red meat.
*Just keep adding ingredients and when there is enough to fill two - quart size freezer bags, then place it all in the crock pot.
*Depending on what has been collected, add more veggies or meat. But typically there is plenty of each.
*Then add any type of canned or cooked bean. Last time we added 1 can of Northern Beans.
*Lastly, add a can of stewed tomatoes and some Italian seasoning.
*Cook in the crock pot and serve with WARM CORNBREAD and HONEY.

Turns out great every time!

This meal cost less than $1.00 to make for a family of 4.

Freezer Pleaser #3

A great way to stock the freezer - Buy Hamburger in Bulk - On Sale.

Recently, we purchased 10 pounds of hamburger on sale. When we got home from shopping, I took some time to especially prepare this hamburger for future meals. I cooked about 2 lbs of taco meat, 3 lbs of regular ground and then left 3 or so pounds of non-cooked meat for whatever other meals may come up. The meat was then flattened in quart-size Ziploc bags for maximizing storage and also helps with quick defrosting.

We also do this, now more often, with Turkey meat that we find on sale combined with coupons of course!

We were able to purchase this Extra-Lean Hamburger on sale from one my favorite Albertson's stores. Every day the Butcher Block grinds up fresh hamburger and then in the evening or the next morning they reduce it for quick sale. This particular Albies had theirs on sale for.99 /lb. Typically, other stores reduce it from $1.29 - $1.69.

So regularly this 10 lbs of extra-lean hamburger would go for $3.49 lb.,costing $35.00.
Then with buying it at reduced rate this same 10 lbs. at .99 cents lb.,costing $10.00
A savings of $25.00

This works great for us:
Saving money, not having to go to the store so often & pay the higher prices, and then already having hamburger, prepped and ready to go for future meals.

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer!

Freezer Pleaser #2

Lisa's Special Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of my favorite meals to make!
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie is 10 times better than those from the store freezers. This recipe uses a little rice to help make the pie more substantial.

Prep: 40 min; Bake 35 min
Makes 6 servings, about 1 cup each

*1 package (10 oz) mixed veggies or what's on hand
*1/3 cup butter
*1/3 chopped onion
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/4 teaspoon pepper
*2 cups chicken broth or broth from 2 Bouillon cubes
*2/3 cup milk
*2 1/2 to 3 cups of cut-up cooked chicken or turkey
*1/4 cup rice
*(optional) 1 small can of mushrooms
*Pastry for 9-inch Two-Crust Pie (Homemade or from the box!)

1. Rinse frozen veggies in cold water to separate; drain
2. Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook; stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken, rice, (mushrooms), veggies, and remove from heat.
3. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
4. Prepare Pastry.
A. I use the Pillsbury Crusts in a box that now simply unroll. I take them out of the fridge before this whole process is started to allow them to warm to room temp and make easier to roll out with a rolling pin. I just do a few rolls to make the crust bigger so that I can have more dough to work with when fluting the edges.
B. Use a homemade pastry of your own.
5. Ease into un-greased round pie pan or square pan. Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined pan.
6. Roll remaining pastry into pan. Cut 2-3 slits into pie or make your own cut out designs.
7. Turn edges of pastry under and flute.
8. Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Let set 10 minutes to cool and serve.


*For Lighter Chicken Pot Pie
410 Calories
Use margarine, decrease to 3 tablespoons and use skim milk.
Pour chicken mixture in a greased pan (not pastry lined).
Substitute Pastry for one 9-inch pastry only on top.

************************************

Here are the two pies I made:

One for the freezer and one for dinner.
Having an extra meal ready to go is such
a help on those busy days, or when someone
has a special need for a dinner to be provided.

One of my favorite "Kitchen Helps" is this Pie Shield.
Simply put it on the pie crust up until the last 10 minutes of
cooking to prevent excess browning of the edges.
Works great!

Mmmmm... Ready to eat! Anyone have a fork?

Freezer Pleaser #1

Beef 'n' Rice Enchiladas










This dish is a snap to make and goes a long way!

You Will Need:
1 package (6.8 ounces) Spanish rice and vermicelli mix
1 pound ground beef
2 cans (10 ounces each) enchilada sauce, divided
10 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

What to Do:
1. Total Prep Time: 45 minutes or less

2. Prepare rice mix according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in Spanish rice and 1 1/4 cups enchilada sauce. Spoon about 2/3 cup beef mixture down the center of each tortilla. Top each with 1/3 cup cheese; roll up.

3. Place in an ungreased 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Top with the remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.

4. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Yield: 10 enchiladas

Other notes:
*For the kids, I roll up their burritos up seperately, without the enchilada sauce, and set aside. The sauce is a little too spicy for their palates.

*Depending on how much meat/rice mix and burrito shells are left, I can often make up another 8x8 pan or larger of enchiladas to freeze with cooking instructions attached. Then I can later just pull it out of the freezer to defrost in the fridge for 12-24 hours ahead of time. Then cook for 8-10 minutes and dinner is served.

From: Quick Cooking Magazine

Good Stuff!

Hello everyone!

Found this article over at Mary Ann's House: Frugal Fridays - "Eating Well on a Very Small Budget".

I could not have said this any better, myself. She is doing so many of the things that we do in our home. Though, it has taken me a few years to figure it all out. It is so great how she is trying to be a good steward with what the Lord has given her. I really love how she is also keeping everything balanced by eating healthy in a limited budget. Also, being resourceful without going overboard. There is some great stuff in there - be sure to check it out.

For more Frugal Friday posts, please visit Biblical Womanhood