At Home My Way

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...