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Homemade bread sticks
 I've been experimenting making homemade bread sticks recently. Yesterday, I made a recipe that is almost a keeper. I used my homemade pizza crust recipe and rolled it out into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Then, I sliced it in 1-inch strips lengthwise and one long cut in half widthwise and brush it with 2 Tbsp. melted butter. I baked these for 10 minutes at 450 degrees and brushed with another 2 Tbsp. butter as soon as these came out of the oven. They were delicious, soft, and went wonderfully with homemade pizza. Best of all, I just made a double-batch of the dough and used one for pizza crust and one for bread sticks. My only critique was that they tasted a little salty. Next time, I might try upping the sugar in the recipe to make it a little sweeter. Now, if only I could figure out a way to replicate Olive Garden's bread sticks, I'd be a really happy camper. Anyone out there have a winner bread stick recipe they'd like to share? Labels: Recipes
Recipe: Layered nacho dip
 Here's a very simple and yummy layered nacho dip recipe that our family has been making for as long as I can remember. It always gets rave reviews. Layered Nacho Dip16 oz. can refried beans (or use homemade) 1/2 (1.25 oz) package taco seasoning mix (or make your own) 8 oz. sour cream (or use plain yogurt) 4 oz can chopped green chilies (if you don't like spicy things, you might cut back on this or omit) 2 large tomatoes, diced 6 oz carton avocado dip (or use fresh ripe pureed avocado)* 4 1/2 oz. chopped diced black olives* 1 small onion, chopped* 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese Combine beans and taco seasoning mix. Spread bean mixture in a glass 9x13" dish. Layer remaining ingredients in order listed. Serve with Nacho chips. Serves 8-10. *Depending upon who I am making this for, I will often omit the onion, olives, and avocado. This is a very versatile recipe and one you can't mess up!
Labels: Recipes
Frugal Friday: A simple, healthful, and frugal breakfast recipe
 With blueberries in season right now and ripe for the picking, it's pretty easy to find them on great sales. Better yet, you might be able to pick your own at a local farm and get them incredibly reasonable. Here's a good recipe we just made for the first time this week which is simple, healthful, delicious, and uses basic pantry ingredients: Blueberry Rise 'n' Shine BiscuitsMix together in a mixing bowl:2 cups whole wheat flour (can use white flour or half and half, if your family prefers) 1/2 tsp. salt 3 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. baking soda Cut in with a pastry blender until crumbly:4 Tbsp. butter (may use shortening, if you prefer) Add in:1 cup milk or buttermilk Stir lightly until combined. Then fold in:1 cup fresh (or partially-thawed frozen) blueberries Pat out carefully in a heavily-floured surface to 3/4 inches thick. With a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place them on a buttered baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden. While biscuits are baking, stir together the following ingredients to make a glaze:1 cup confectioner's sugar 2-4 Tbsp. milk 1/4 tsp. vanilla Drizzle glaze over biscuits as soon as you pull them out from the oven. Serve piping hot with butter--yum!  Recipe adapted from Martha's Family Cookery Book available from Marmee's Kitchen.
What are some of your favorite simple, healthful, and frugal breakfast ideas? I'd love to hear.
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Have a frugal tip to share? Post about it on your blog and then come back here and leave your link below so we can all be motivated and inspired. Remember to keep it family-friendly and to post directly to your blog post, not to your blog homepage. If you don't have a blog, you are welcome to leave your tips in the comments section. Thanks so much for participating! As always, in keeping with the spirit of encouraging true frugality, business solicitations or posts solely advertising your business or product are not allowed.
Labels: Frugal Friday, Recipes
This week in books: Week 1
Many months ago, I tried to follow Catherine's example and start doing a "This Week in Books" series. With complications in my pregnancy and then having a newborn, I fell woefully behind on all reading so I abandoned my great intentions. With none of the above excuses now, I am embarking again on this series of highlighting and posting short reviews of what books I read each week. I might also throw in some family-friendly movie reviews every now and then or children's books we've read, or any other types of media our family finds wholesome that week. This week I read through two books - both which I'm excited to tell you about:
 Deceptively Delicious - This cookbook doesn't really count for much actual reading but I wanted to mention it anyway since I enjoyed it so much. Though I'm not fond of the name ( deceiving anyone - even for the sake of getting them to consume vegetables - is not God-honoring) and there's some psycho-babble parenting stuff you'll need to wade through, this book is packed with great recipes and inspiration. The premise of the book is to hide various vegetable purees in everyday foods that your children like and readily - muffins, pancakes, brownies, etc. - and thus boost their nutritional value. Most of the recipes looked not only appetizing, but also quite good for you. I'd probably adjust them somewhat since I'm more a believer in the full-fat, whole-foods approach (ala Nourishing Traditions), but the recipes would be very easy to adjust. Most of all, this book provided inspiration to an already-experimental cook. I wouldn't have ever thought to put pureed beets in pancake batter and make pink pancakes but you bet I'll be trying that now. Or, pureed spinach in brownies? I'm also game. And since I have a knack for finding produce markdowns, my brain is spinning at how I can buy them all up at rock-bottom prices, fill up my freezer with purees, and get way more nutrition into myself and my family than I ever thought about before!  The Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living - I think I've been living under a rock or something, but I've never seen or heard of this excellent book until I stumbled across it at our local library. I snatched it up and was ever so glad I did! Brimming with wisdom, advice, ideas, and much food for thought, this homeschool mother of seven covers a whole lot of ground in this simple little volume. I was inspired, challenged, convicted, and motivated. I appreciated Jackie's home organization ideas, her heart for ministering to others on a limited budget, her humility and realness, her sage advice to keep it simple and focus on the most important things in life, and her simplistic ideas for baby-stepping your way to better nutrition. Like usual, I didn't agree 100% with everything she said and some of the financial information was outdated, but the overall message of this book is timeless. I especially enjoyed all of the resources and books the author recommended; I added a bunch of them to my ever-growing to-read list. For any mother who feels like she wants to improve as a family nutritionist and home economist, who would like to be stretched in her thinking as far as necessities go, or who could just use some home management ideas, this book is definitely worth your time. What have you been reading recently? Any must-read recommendations for me?Labels: Health and Nutrition, Homemaking, Mothering, Recipes, Reviews
Baby-stepping our way to better nutrition
One of my goals for the new year is to make even greater strides in encouraging health and nutrition in our home. It's a continual learning process and each year we try to move more in the direction of making permanent changes which will result in better health in our home and family. I'm reading The Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living and really appreciate her focus on educating yourself regarding health and nutrition, keeping it simple, and taking it slowly. It can be overwhelming if we try to make radical changes all at once. In reading her book, I was encouraged to realize just how many changes our family has made in a good direction when it comes to health and nutrition. In the last two years as we've slowly taken baby steps in this direction some of the changes we've made include: drinking only filtered water, eliminating all chemical cleaning products from our home (excluding laundry products which I have yet to find a good substitute for. I tried making my own and that didn't go so well. Any suggestions?), eating only natural, hormone-free meats and eliminating pork, buying hormone-free milk from a local dairy and range-free eggs from a local farm. I've also slowly been incorporating more and more whole grains and fruits and vegetables into our diet, started juicing on occasion, and learned how to make kefir. My husband has been very excited about these changes - he never knew he'd enjoy eating healthier so much - and I never guessed he would like it either! It has been a fun journey to try new things, experiment, and figure out what works best for our family and what permanent changes we want to make.  I haven't completely decided on definite changes or experiments for this next year - I have a lot of books on my to-read list which I'm hoping will give me some food for thought in this regard (and I welcome any book suggestions from you all) - but one thing which I'm really excited about implementing is grinding my own flour. My dad bought me a grain mill for Christmas and I've already been having lots of fun using it. We made this banana bread today using some of our freshly-milled flour (recipe found here): Honey Whole-Wheat Banana Bread- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/4 t cinnamon
- 1/4 t nutmeg
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/3 cup oil
- 3/4 cup mashed bananas
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup honey
Stir together dry ingredients. Mash banana and add oil, water and honey. Add to dry ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or in greased muffin tins for 20-25.  For more great kitchen-related posts, see Tammy's Kitchen-Tip Tuesday.Labels: Health and Nutrition, In the Kitchen, Recipes
What's cooking in your kitchen?
 We picked up some inexpensive sour cream and raspberries at Kroger this week, so it was the perfect inspiration to make Raspberry Cream Muffins! Raspberry Cream MuffinsStreusel Topping: 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed 1/4 cup flour 2 tablespoons butter, melted Muffins: 2 large eggs, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon almond extract 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sour cream, room temperature 1 cup fresh or frozen (dry pack) raspberries, divided
Streusel Topping: Combine brown sugar, flour and butter with a fork until crumbly; set aside. Muffins: Beat eggs in large bowl with electric mixer; gradually add sugar. With mixer running pour in vegetable oil and almond extract, blending until smooth.In separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, alternating with the sour cream; blend until smooth. Set aside. Spoon one generous tablespoon batter into bottom of muffin tins. Divide half of raspberries equally among muffin cups. Divide remaining batter among muffin cups. Top with remaining equally-divided raspberries. Sprinkle each muffin with streusel topping. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes in tins on cooling rack. Remove from tins to rack to cool completely.  I also whipped up some delicious Three-Bean Chili for dinner last night. I didn't have a recipe, but just used some stuff I had in the cupboards and let me tell you, both my husband and I decided that this was a winner meatless recipe - especially for how easy and inexpensive it is.  Saute a chopped up onion in a little oil, add in one can of Italian tomatoes, one can black beans, one can red beans, one can pinto beans, and one can corn (do not drain any of the cans). Simmer and add salt to taste. I think it also would be wonderful served over rice with some cheese and sour cream. Or with some chicken or ground beef added. What have you been cooking at your house?Labels: Recipes
Because I'm sure you need to eat more chocolate this time of year...
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I've been experimenting making homemade bread sticks recently. Yesterday, I made a recipe that is almost a keeper.
