Granola Mix

I have only made this once. It is good, we are eating it. But I have been thinking of ways I am going to tweak it. I will put the main recipe here, from the book Make-a-Mix Cookery, and then I will post my exact recipe later when I finalize it.

Granola Mix

10 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 lb. shredded coconut
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
1 cups sesame seeds
3 cups chopped nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, or combination)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons vanilla

Dried fruit as desired

Preheat oven to 300'. In a large bowl combine oats, wheat germ, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and nuts. Blend well. In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, oil, honey, molasses, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil. Pour syrup over dry ingredients and stir until well-coated. Spread into five 13"x9" baking pans, or cookie sheets with sides. Bake 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bake 15 minutes longer for crunchier texture. Cool. Add dried fruit. Put in airtight container. Label. Store in a cool, dry place. Use with in 6 months. Makes 20 cups of Granola Mix.

Muffin Mix

Muffin Mix
This is a base that you can use for many different types of muffins! It is like having those little packets of Martha White in your cupboard, but instead they taste like Homemade from scratch, cause they are!!

8 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix Well. With a pastry blender, cut shortening into dry ingredients until evenly distributed. Putin a large air tight container. Label. Store in a  cool, dry place. Use with in 10-12 weeks. Makes about 10 cups of Muffin Mix. note: I did all the mixing in my electric mixer, it worked great.

To use this mix to make basic muffins:

2 1/3 muffin mix
1 egg
1 cup milk

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes

Corn Meal Mix

Cornmeal Mix

Not2: southern friends these are sweet yellow corn meal, just keep that in mind if you try this!  You could try white cornmeal in a mix, but I have not yet.

4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 baking powder
1 cup vegetable shortening (I recommend the Crisco brand)
4 1/2 cups corn meal

     In a large bowl, combine flour, salt , sugar and baking powder. Stir to blend well. With a pastry blender, cutin shortening until evenly distributed.  Add corn meal and mix well. Put in a large airt tight container. Label. Stor in a cool, dry place.  Use with in 10-12 weeks. Makes about 10 1/2 cups of Corn Meal Mix. note: I did all of the mixing in my electric mixer, I used the cake attatchment. It worked well.

Mixes

So, a few months ago my mom sent me a cook book, one of hers from back in the day. I looked at it, thought it was a good idea, and then did not use it.... Until now! Two weeks ago at a Relief Society class in my Ward one of the ladies showed us some mixes she had made using what turned out to be a current printing of this book! It inspired me!  It is called the Make-a-Mix Cookery. It tells you how to make basic mixes and then gives you recipe examples to use the mix for. I have made three of the 58 mixes so far, and so far I have loved them all! For easy of finding these recipes later I am going to post them each in individual posts.  I will create a Label for Mixes and then put the various recipes under Bread, and possibly Breakfast, because that is when we use them most! :) I encourage you to try them, they rock! I have not put the numbers on them yet, but the idea is that it saves you money!

Soup,Bean, and Rice

Okay this is a really quick throw together meal. It is good for lunches or dinners. and you can have it all in your storage!!

Ingriedients

1 can condensed soup of your choice.
     -I use Nacho Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, Cream of Chicken, or Cream of Mushroom
1 can beans of your choice
     -Which beans depends on wich soup so here is the grouping...
Nacho Chees = black beans
Cheddar Cheese = navy beans/ great northern beans
Cream of Chicken/Mushroom = navy beans/ great northern beans
(in general we preferre navy beans over great northern, but it is a personal thing!)
2 cups white rice cooked with 3 cups water

I cook my rice in a sauce pan on the stove. I make the soup with about half the liquid called for and usually use milk instead of water. Once the soup is well blended rinse the beans and add them to the soup.  Put hot soup and beans over the rice and WalLa! dinner! add fruit of your choice and call it a meal!

Potato Corn Chowder

This little soup I first heard about from my mom. A friend brought it to her last fall when she was very very sick with shingles.  She used pre-made soups and it is very simple, convenient, and and delicious. 


Quick version:

One can Potato soup + one can Cream style corn

     Warm potato soup according to package and add cream corn and warm to preference.



From Scratch Version:

Six potatoes
4 cups water
6 strips of bacon (i used turkey)
1/4 cup of margarine or butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
Nature Seasoning to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cans cream style corn
(I also think celery would be a nice addition, but I didn't have any on hand.)


Peel and cube potatoes. Boil until soft in 4 cups of water.  Cook the bacon and cut into small strips.  Melt butter in a separate sauce pan and add flour creating a thick paste ( the thicker you want your soup the thicker and drier you should make this paste by adding more flour) add seasonings to the paste.  Add milk to paste stirring continuously once it has smoothed and thickened add to potatoes.  Add bacon and cream corn and stir steadily on medium low heat until it reaches desired thickness.  Serve and enjoy!!

Cooking for the week and making it up as I go.

So today, I woke up in the mood to cook!  Matt is going to be working extra hours for the next few weeks and I don't to get behind and start eating out. So I cooked all day!  I made two casseroles, 2 meals worth of potato/corn chowder, 2 meals worth of white chicken chili, two loaves of bread, and baked oatmeal for dinner tonight!  I froze one casserole and half of each soup and will freeze one loaf of bread.  Having 3 meals frozen and 3 in the fridge improves my outlook vastly!! 

The fun part of this was I made up a couple recipes as I went. Yup, I invented a Bean and Rice casserole and the potato/corn chowder I improvised from scratch rather than using premade soups.  I will post both the recipes for the potato/corn chowder.  I think I may hold off on posting the bean/rice casserole til after we eat it. It smelled really good but we are not eating it til tomorrow.

Last week we discovered that having frozen flat bread pizza crusts in the freezer is a kin to having premade frozen pizzas on hand and taste a whole lot better. So tomorrow I plan to make some more pizza crusts to freeze.  Keeping cheese, pepperoni, and pizza sauce on hand is easy and in expensive. 

Here's to planning ahead and hoping my latest inventions are edible!! LOL

Easy Stir-Fry

We use to have these all the time. Our local grocer has stopped carrying them (for reasons unknown to me) which is a tragedy! They are tasty - and so quick and easy. I usually will cut up chicken or beef cubes to add to the mix. Then I serve it over steamed white rice.

I have found this is a great way to serve veggies to my kids. They don't even notice really - the sauce must mask that veggie taste or something!

Fast Breakfasts

My favorite breakfast lately is biscuits and sausage! You can't beat a warm biscuit from the oven smothered with butter and honey! From scratch? you say? Nope - just a pack of Jiffy! Why bother with scratch when these are so good and fast!

For a little variety, we sometimes mix it up with a box of Jiffy Chocolate Muffins. It's like having a cupcake for breakfast - only healthy because it says 'muffin' ! We usually don't do breakfast sausage with this option. But throw in a banana or some strawberries, and it isn't too bad!

Teriyaki Chicken

I think it might be nice to include some meal combinations that are not necessarily involved recipes, just dinner ideas.  In that vein I want to tell you about a pre-prepared food that I buy at Sam's Club that we just love and is sooo easy and quick for those nights I just don't get to cooking something from scratch.

The nutrition for this convenience food is still quite good, and they are calorie friendly if you are watching calories. Both my kids like these, so that is a huge plus!  The price is very good for the convenience too!They are about $12.00 per bag before tax and we usually get 4-5 meals per bag, so around $3.50 per meal, and that is all 4 of us! In a pinch you can heat them in the microwave (they are fully cooked so you are just warming them through) and if you have time you can cook them in the oven in about 25 minutes. I think they are a bit better in the oven but yesterday at lunch I used the microwave!  In the winter I will make pasta and/or warm veggies and apple slices with it and in the summer I often have a tossed salad and some cold fruit.