At Home My Way

Baked Oatmeal as Muffins   Sometimes, when you think your kids are never listening and will never listen, they surprise you!   I had one of those moments this week.  I've always been the kind of mom who worked really hard to offer the best choices for meals, packed lunches, breakfasts.  I started out slow like most young cooks.  I haven't always made Homemade Sandwich Bread - I stocked up at the local bread outlet store just like everybody else.  I haven't always made Homemade Hot Poc kets - I bought the ones in the frozen foods section of my local grocery store.  But I have always encouraged my kids to eat at home over eating out; to eat the least sugared breakfasts they can reasonably enjoy; to drink less soda, stuff like that.  Now have they always embraced my choices for them?  Big FAT NO! My older child used to rail on me when she was in middle school because so & so's mom let them eat McDonalds and Ke...

I tried a recipe that I found on Pinterest that really caught my attention.  It is called One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta .  I had to try it.  I'll share the link HERE because this blogger has an actual recipe on that blog post.  I am SO GLAD I saw this pin.  It's fantastic!  Impressive to say the least!  And the pictures just reel you in.  Mmmmm!    I'm just going to tell you how I did it since I love the method to making this dish.  I never thought of cooking the pasta AND the vegetables together in one pot!  Talk about a "duh" moment!   I LOVE recipes that I can make my own.  I especially love when I can use whatever I have on hand in my garden or in my pantry to come up with something delicious to eat.  This is one of those kind of recipes.  You can use whatever vegetables you have and whatever kind of pasta you have, and have something really, really delicious! Basically you cook the chopped ...

Rebecca wanted to try a recipe for making loaded (frozen) french fries on the grill the other night.  These turned out WONDERFUL so I had to put them on my blog.  We served them with shish kabobs, which we also made on the grill.  We often bake our french fries.  We hardly ever fry anything anymore so if we have crinkle cut fries, I usually bake them on a cookie sheet.  Our temps here in mid Missouri have been approaching 90 so I really wanted to keep all of the cooking outside if possible. Cooking frozen french fries on the barbecue grill sounded a little far fetched.  I couldn't imagine it (but it was on Pinterest so it had to work LOL)!  My fear was that they wouldn't get done at all ...but when your kid gets excited about cooking something and wants to do it all HERSELF, who am I to argue?  Not me!  Not only did these loaded fries get done, they were divine smothered in cheese, bacon, and green onions.  We topped that already ...

I used to pretty much think you only ate granola sprinkled on things.  I like to eat it sprinkled on yogurt, on Homemade Yogurt Parfaits , and applesauce, or for snacking by the handful - but but then I read on a blog somewhere about eating it with milk, in a bowl, like boxed cereal.  Duh... I'm not sure why that never occurred to me but I am so glad I tried it.  It's super delicious! You know how cereal commercials always go on and on about their products not getting soggy in milk?  Well, homemade granola NEVER gets soggy.  And there's no weird ingredients to keep it from getting soggy.  Just good old fashioned homemade goodness like toasted oats and nuts that don't get soggy anyway.  I actually stopped buying cold cereal years ago  and subbed into our breakfast options things like Chocolate Chip/Blueberry Muffins , Frozen "Toaster" French Toast , homemade smoothies, toast, and things like that.  I actually was a big cold cereal fan....

Seems like everyone I know is having babies!  And there is no better sewing project than a baby gift. I made these burp cloths (we call them "burp rags" LOL) for my niece.  She had her baby in January.  I have gotten lots of complements on these and since they were so well received, I wanted to post a picture.   I have also made another set of burp cloths/rags for another niece who was pregnant (and has since had HER baby).  I see the parents and grandparents giving these burp rags lots of use so I know they are handy and durable! The first pinterest pins I saw for burp cloths were made with cloth diapers and I was going to make those because they were also adorable.... but I saw how much $$$ cloth diapers cost.  Adding the cost of the fabric.  Eek!  I was THRILLED to see this pin for making them out of flannel or cotton and a new bath towel.  I loved the idea.   The towel I bought was less than $4 at Walmart.  Woo hoo! ...

I tried a new recipe for Homemade Chicken Rice-a-Roni the other night.  It was a COMPLETE SUCCESS!  This stuff was straight on just as good as the boxed kind.  Ditch the box!  I'll never buy a box of Rice-a-Roni again!  What's better is that you can mix up most of the ingredients and make a homemade Rice-a-Roni mix that you can keep in your pantry.  I'm loving that!  Saves money and better for you! Rice-a-Roni is something that I love.  My mom never made anything out of a box except pudding and jello so I didn't discover my love for all things Rice-a-Roni until I got married and we started going to BBQs at our friends' houses.  One of our friends always brought a big fluffy dish of Rice-a-Roni and I could never get enough. I found this recipe on a favorite blog - Chickens in the Road .  Suzanne makes all kinds of wonderful things at home that most people buy in the store.  I found this recipe on her Farm Bell recipes. ...

This Sunday's Game Plan cooking involved trying a new recipe and making lots of old ones.  I find that repeat posting these on my blog is a good thing.  Sometimes its nice just to see what I'm cooking and it's always good to have a reminder of successful recipes. As always, my mission for Sunday cooking involves making ahead some freezer lunches for the coming week, getting a game plan for breakfasts, and browsing the contents of the freezer so that I have a menu in mind for supper ideas.   This weekend was especially successful at avoiding restaurants and saving money.  I find that weekends I am the most tempted at eating out but I made most everything we ate all weekend.   Friday night I helped my sister-in-law and her family get ready for a garage sale.  They ordered Casey's pizza (which is my favorite take-out pizza these days) so I did have that for supper but it was their treat for all the work we hammered out that night so it didn't cost me any...