At Home My Way

This weekend I set out to mix up some peanut butter cookies.  I am terrible at running out of things and forgetting to add it to my grocery list.  This time, I had no brown sugar.  What to do?  (sigh!) Lightbulb- a-ha!  I remembered that I had seen a post at One Good Thing by Jillee about making brown sugar.  I read the post with interest, but didn't expect the brown sugar that you get from combining molasses and white granulated sugar to seriously taste and "be" like store bought brown sugar.  I LOVE molasses on Homemade Biscuits , so I had some molasses in my pantry.  I grabbed a bowl, some sugar, the molasses, a whisk, and...WOW!  It was so easy and perfect and yummy!  I loved the texture of this brown sugar.  It was perfectly moist, unlike when I have store bought brown sugar that has hardened and no amount of microwaving it really changes that. I probably will never buy another box of brown sugar.  This i...

I love those yogurt parfaits you get at McDonalds or Panera.  YUM!  All of that sweet creamy yogurt, tart fruit, and crunchy granola just makes me smile.  I also love that when I eat fruit and yogurt for breakfast, I feel good!  I don't feel all full and gross, like..."why did I eat ALL of those little donuts?"  HA!  After a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and oats, you know you have a great start to your day!  I made a batch of Homemade Perfect Granola this weekend.  The recipe comes from Amy's Finer Things blog .  It's just SO EASY!  The smell of honey, cinnamon, and oats wafting in your kitchen will inspire you to always keep some on hand.  We eat it with milk (like cereal), on applesauce, with yogurt, and just by the handful!  I usually add some dried fruit, like cranberries, apricots, raisins.  This time I had cranberries so the parfait has quite a red & pink flair to it, perfect for this ti...

  My two girls and me!  (Wishing it was that green outside right now!)   How was your weekend?  Over too quick is what my weekend was...  I think I need a few more days in my weekend, but here we are .. rise and shine... its Monday morning! I did make it to the YMCA this morning!  Got a little run in.  Since my surgery, I haven't gotten back with my running schedule but this morning was a step in the right direction.  The people at the YMCA always inspire me.  I saw all types of people there this morning... young ladies who are in high school, up early for a morning run, elderly people who have health issues and who truly inspire me and make me realize that I have ABSOLUTELY no excuse not to be there, and also friends and acquaintenaces that I only see at the Y.  We support each other!  A friend this morning there told me "ugh... this didn't feel good this morning."  I told her, "yes, but we made it!  And no...

I just started making homemade mixes in my kitchen not too long ago.  I hadn't really seen the need to mix stuff up when I had the recipe and the stuff in my kitchen UNTIL one day I was making some Perfect Pancakes and ran out of eggs.  Hmm... here I was with all the dry ingredients and no eggs.  I decided to plop my ingredients in a jar to use later.  Then, fast forward to a day that I wanted to make some pancakes and "BAM" (as quoted by two of my favorite hollywood personalities, Sheldon from Big Bang Thoeory and Emeril Lagasse from the Food Network...), I had pancakes!  I had forgotten how easy having a mix was for getting stuff on the table fast.  I don't usually make a big deal out of making a mix.  I just have a few canning jars out and as I'm making pancakes I add the dry ingredients to the jars for extra batches.  It's that simple. The recipe for the Cinnamon Oatmeal Waffles is an actual mix that you mix up a big batch of and th...

I posted a great story to go with this recipe in my original post for Juicy Burgers .  It tells where this recipe came from and how long I've been making it. My husband and kids DON'T like Manwich.  (However, I do.. and I actually found a great replica for Manwich which I posted here .) Juicy Burgers are different than Manwich.  Of course there are similarities.  Both are made with ground beef, sauce, and buns.  But, Juicy Burger are sweeter.  They are made with a little brown sugar.  I love both of these meals!  It's a great way to stretch a little bit of ground beef and leftovers are WONDERFUL! I made mine last night with some mac & cheese.  My husband prefers something like Oven Baked Cheesy Fries .  I love it all! I am reposting this recipe .. because I took a picture... and because it bears repeating!  This is a delcious meal! Here's how I make Homemade Juicy Burgers AT HOME MY WAY: Juicy Burgers 1 1/2 p...

Last Friday I made a bowl of dough for use in making Homemade Pizza .  We had pizza again Monday for supper because we LOVE it so much!  I still have some dough left.  I plan to make some homemade hot pockets with it and this morning, as I was getting ready for work, packing my lunch, I browned a couple of homemade English Muffins for breakfast.  They are so quick and easy to make and Oh SO GOOD! I have previously posted the recipe and instruction for the 5 Minute a Day - No Knead Bread recipe with my homemade pizza post , but I'll post it here - in less of a wordy fashion so that you can truly see how easy it is to bring together.  I use it for everything!  I got my recipe and instructions from an article at Mother Earth News here . I cannot say enough about how that recipe totally revolutionized my kitchen and cooking options.  The chefs who created the recipe (and authors of great cookbooks) have wonderful recipes in cookbook...

  Last night I made Homemade Pizza for supper.  It was so wonderful!  I also tried out a new recipe that I found at the  Sweet Southern Blue blog for Banana Pudding Rice Krispie Treats .   WHAT????  I know that sounds like a surprising combination.  I couldn't discover a wonderful snack idea like that without giving it a try.  You see, I love everything banana, the "real" banana recipes like Banana Nut Bread Baked Oatmeal , or plain muffins with mashed banana, Perfect Pancakes with bananas or even Tin Can Banana Bread , but also any "fake tasting" banana treats like Laffy Taffy or Banana Moon Pies.  Yes... I do LOVE those huge-a-mongo triple decker Banana Moon Pies!  These treats tasted very similar to Banana Moon Pies.  They were easy to make and a fun snack to offer when you are looking for something different.  I think it also might be fun to try other pudding mixes combined with rice ...

  I made a delicious Pot Roast last Sunday with little dumplings  ( pictured between the green beans and the bread ).  It's another of my husband's favorite meals.  I don't usually buy rump roast because it's so expensive but this was a nice one, not too high of a price, and my husband ate sandwiches from the leftover roast all week, so how can that be a bad thing, right?  (I also used the remaining leftovers for my free soup today-Thursday.) I typically make roast in the oven or in the crockpot.  I have read some information that you can use your crockpot all day and use less energy than using your oven for a couple of hours.  That sold me there so I used my crockpot. Our family loves "Little Dumplings" made with the roast gravy.  It's so easy that it's silly really.  I have, on occasion, either when I was being super frugal or didn't want to make a run to the store, used homemade dumplings (from m...

  I decided to scratch the Hawaiian C hicken that I had on my Menu Plan this week  in favor of Parmesan Chicken which my husband and daughter are particularly fond of.  I also served some salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing ( homemade croutons ) and used some leftover buns for garlic toast. This recipe has a history and I cannot post about it without mentioning the memories attached to this recipe. My husband and I married young.  He was 20, I was 18.  We had only lived at home with our parents so needless to say, cooking wasn't something he nor I had much knowledge of.  Another teeny problem was that we only had a microwave (a wedding gift) and we did not have a stove for many months after our wedding.  In the cookbook that came with the microwave I found a recipe for Parmesan Chicken.  My very picky hubby somehow agreed to try Parmesan Chicken.  He had never even eaten spaghetti.  We're talking some serious food issues LOL!...

  Homemade Croutons   The other day I splurged at Panera.  I bought a delicious loaf of Asiago Bread.  Oh man!  It was wonderful and made delicious sandwiches with turkey, honey mustard, and lettuce/tomato.  (I need to further my quest for being able to make this AT HOME MY WAY!)  I had a few slices left that were a little TOO crusty and stale, but I just couldn't let that wonderful sharp cheesy bread go to waste.  I decided to cut it into cubes and toast it into croutons.  This way my bread would never need to be tossed out.  It would forever be in the holding pattern for bread that is known as Homemade Croutons. Ha! Homemade Croutons are super easy!  This bread already had plenty of flavor so I didn't butter it, drizzle it with oil or season it in any way.  I just cubed the bread, spread on a baking pan and baked until crunchy. These croutons will go great with a fresh green salad and some Homemade Ranch Dr...

I have been seeing homemade ranch dressing recipes all over the place.  I love the idea!  I just never seem to get it done.  This weekend I decided to tackle it!  Especially after seeing the reviews at this blog post (at the Crafty Blog Stalker)  which I saw pinned on Pinterest. I had all of the spices I need except parsley and garlic salt.  I grabbed the cheapest generic spices I could find, which by the way was not at the biggest box store we all know of!  I stopped by this big box store because it's closest to my house but WATCH OUT.  This store wanted 20 cents more for their generic spices than for the name brand.  The generic spices were way down on the very bottom rack and I almost had to lay down on the floor to see back in the rack (grr!).  I picked up the name brand spices and headed to the dairy section and they were out of buttermilk - none!  Not a carton to be found.  One more item...

I'm trying to get organized around my house.  No better thing to focus on than the menu plan, which saves $$, saves time, and is better over all for my family! I spent today (Sunday) making a few things to make our menu a little more lively.  I made  homemade chocolate pudding for snacks or dessert, homemade bread for supper and sandwiches, homemade croutons for salads/soup, and some  homemade ranch dressing for dipping and salads (new recipe I'm trying).  So far I have a great start to the week and that should make getting out of bed in the morning a whole lot easier! Here's my Menu plan for the week starting Sunday, January 13 - AT HOME MY WAY: Menu Plan (starting Sunday, January 13, 2013)     Breakfast items:   Homemade quick oats oatmeal with fruit/brown sugar Zucchini bread (recipe coming this week ) Small batch raisin bran muffins (recipe coming) Lunches :   Tomato soup with HM croutons (crouton reci...

One of the most dependable food blogs for recipes that I can think of is Lynn's Kitchen Adventures .  I can always depend on her recipes to turn out perfect!  Last night I tried Lynn's recipe for Homemade Cheeseburger Helper .  I had my doubts, ha!  I had seen similar recipes before but I just could not imagine that a recipe with TOMATO SAUCE in it could really taste like the Cheeseburger Helper my family LOVES from the box (eek!).  I thought maybe Lasagna Helper or one of the other flavors but surely not Cheeseburger Helper.  I decided last night to give it a shot.  It could not have been more PERFECT!  Lynn!  You really nailed it.  And, I cannot thank you enough for this delicious, easy, super cheap and EXACT replica of Cheeseburger Macaroni. I say its an EXACT replica!  But it's even better.  Ya know how? It's CHEAPER!  I figure I spent less than $1.00 on the ingredients I used to make this (not counting the...