Last night we had my mother and father in law over to celebrate Christmas..I made BBQ chicken, and it was good! I actually liked it, I usually complain that the chicken is too dry...and I usually ruin some part of it anyway. Though no one else complains the way I do when I cook! Thankfully they have manners.

This time I loved the chicken, not to dry, not to overpowering BBQ either. The only trouble, out of 8 pieces of chicken, the one I served my mother in law was still pink in the middle! ACK. The rest were done, this s why I hate cooking bone in chicken unless it is a roast...the pieces are never uniform in size so you either dry out the little ones or don't cook the big ones, or just plain ruin them all!

Fortunalty it was just the one piece.

I think it was Mom-from-Missouri who alerted me to the right time to sign up for Pizza huts 'book it' program. Thanks!

So tonight is the last night we can use our tickets earned in October..just in time to earn them for November. We really aught to be more on the ball with our freebies!

Anyway I am all for free food, I just find myself looking at these library rewards and pizza thinking, why can't free food be healthier? Even if we could afford to eat out more often, we wouldn't do it, not that I like to cook, believe me, I hate cooking! I am not particularly good at it either, I like to bake not cook.

But we would still eat at home, because we use whole wheat flour, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and lots of veggies...hard things to find when eating out.

The only places that have whole wheat are hoity toity and come with plenty of tofu and sprouts..nothing wrong with tofu or sprouts, just that I am boring, I want plain boring sandwiches..with whole wheat bread...

Don't get the idea we are health nuts, you all know I love chocolate! and I still put Mayo on my turkey sandwich (and not a tiny amount either) not to mention a fondness for ice cream, red meat and peanut butter and well real butter!

I just hope to balance all that yummy stuff with vegetables (drowned in butter) and whole wheat bread (slathered with mayo) for my burger, not to mention brown rice or whole wheat pasta for my spaghetti or oriental food, ooh and whole wheat tortillas for my tacos!

Oh well...I guess I will just have to get rich enough for a personal chef rather than eating out....Might have a cheaper option as UE grows, he LOVES cooking!

I happened to look at the back of a box of pasta the other day...I recalled it served 8, and wanted to know just how terrible we were for needing a whole box for just 5 of us.

I discovered it only served 7...when did my pasta box shrink?

Or did the serving size grow?

Then I thought a box was supposed to be a pound...this box has 13.5oz...maybe thats where my other serving went. The box measures what I remember a box of pasta being, it just has less weight.

I am curious if it is because the pasta is whole wheat...I need to check the next time I am in the store to see if a box of white pasta still has a pound or not.

Now in general I always thought of buying 'the good stuff' for company...but here I have a couple house guests coming for a weekend, and I have a list including things like canned vegetables! Canned, the cheap stuff we suffer thru when money is low (OK fine, money has never been that low here...) is what I am buying my guests!

Not because I am mean, but because thats what they like....so we buy for them, and learn a lesson in "one mans poison..."

The short version..take the tightwad gazette recipe, mostly double, adjust for health, and flavor as desired...

To be more precise.....err well bear with me, I am not a precise baker...though one thing I have learned, measure baking powder right (level off and all)

All muffins are done when a finger pressed lightly in them bounces back quickly.

Cakes require a dry toothpick..they never bounce well, to moist.

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The muffin recipe was designed using the molasses cookie one roughly tripled in flavor (since the muffins have around triple the flour) the cookie recipe I will have to work on for you.

Molasses Muffins:

Pre-heat oven to 425
In a large bowl combine:

2 cups white flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
3/4-1 cup brown sugar
couple pinches of salt
5 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large measuring cup mix:

2 cups of milk
1/2 cup oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup molasses
2 or 3 eggs

Place liners or grease pans....check if oven is hot (mine has a light)

Pour wet into dry, stir lightly

spoon into muffin cups (I use a small scoop for the mini muffins and one large scoop for big muffins.

bake 15 minutes..give or take (take em out right after you notice how wonderful the house smells!

Makes about 3dz mini and 1 1/2 dz large (that happens to be about how many I own...)

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I have two recipes for pumpkin, one is sweet and 'the good kind' the other is healthy...The sweet kind is mostly out of the joy of cooking, but kinda doubled.

The Good Pumpkin Bread

Preheat oven to 350

Cream:

2 2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup soft butter
2 eggs

Mix in: 1 can pumpkin (15oz)

add in:
2 cups white flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Add in:
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Bake in 3 mini loaf pans and one regular (20 min mini, 60 min regular) or for muffins around 15 minutes

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This comes from the back of a Hershey's cocoa box..with a few health changes.

Chocolate muffins

Preheat oven to 350 (empty as needed!)

In a large bowl combine:

1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup hersheys cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
salt

Put the kettle on

In a large liquid measuring cup mix:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Prepare muffin cups

combine wet and dry ingredients

Add one cup boiling water (it will be very thin!)

Pour into muffin cups bake around 15 minutes.
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Hope you like em.

The season of endless baking is upon us...

Today was (well is, still in the oven) molasses muffins and cupcakes (nieces birthday..late)

And I need to make more for Tuesday (cubscouts..so far offers of snack help have been just that..offers.)

For Wednesday..Music class..I seem to be the only one with a family that cannot make 2 hours without food...

Then I get to make more for Friday ....camping trip, I want to pack some snacks I know the kid and husband will eat, plus some to share.

Then again for next Sunday (can't make it thru church and Sunday school without eating.)

But I like baking...I am tired, and sometimes have trouble, not every muffin I make tastes good, thoush some are great. I am looking forward to pumpkin muffins, and fudge (gifts) and mollasses cookies (mmm the house smells good right now!)

K gotta take em out.

This was the shocked question when my husband explained how we use 'real' maple syrup, not flavored corn syrup. Of course he mentioned the price (being the math memory of the family he knows, I don't)

A family member was amazed, It was difficult for them to grasp why 'us po folk' would buy expensive syrup. The truth is we buy lots of expensive items...fruit and veggies are often more expensive than many kinds of junk food. Pop is cheaper than juice (and lets not get into 100% juice vs fruit punch) But it isn't about the dollar, it is about the value. We feel 'real' syrup is worth more than flavored sugar. This may be a debatable issue, science is not 100% on our side, but it is enough for us to do it.

Don't get me wrong we don't always think price equals quality, I have found great cheap clothes and lousy expensive ones. I have read the ingredients on an expensive food and preferred the cheap one. It is again about the value...we want to get the most value for our money when we choose to spend it.

update: I got an article in the email today regarding HighFructose Corn syrup..spark peaople

Thought it was worth sharing

I hate cooking, I really do, I like to bake, but I hate to cook. So every night there is the same old struggle to force myself to come up with something edible, and usually it adds to my desire to eat out...anywhere out so long as I don't have to cook!

Well I discovered that the more we have real food in the house, meaning meat to this carnivorous family. The more I am willing to cook. Not that I really like cooking or anything, just that I would rather cook 'real food' than just pasta or potatos. No offense to any vegetarians intended, just an observation about me.

So when we go to the store and see meat on sale for over 2$ a pound...I think we will be buying it a bit more often, so that I feel less desperate to run to the restaurant at every turn. That little splurge is keeping me from trying out more big splurges...like find dining.

For us. See if I ignore the amount exactly of money we have, I tend to spend less, assuming we don't have enough.

Which means surplus tends to pile up and I have to go schlep it around to pay off the car. I kinda like that problem! I would prefer not to ever have to deal with it at all, but if I have to have a problem this is it.

Course it isn't enough to pay off fully, just a nice double payment every other month or so.

Most of the surplus is due to overtime, and more would be going to the car, except we keep buying groceries. We buy more fruit and veggies than anyone I know, I have got to learn to grow some. ON a plus note the sunflowers are still alive. There is hope, so long as I choose hardy plants that like to live.

Now to find food that is that hardy (I know you can eat the seeds, but I don't.)

The kids picked favorite fruits and veggies last night, GMC picked tomatoes, JC picked nearly every fruit we eat!

Bananas and Apples are out (though I wonder on the apple tree...not anytime soon, but for the future?) Blueberries...I didn't think they grew around here...Strawberries do...I wonder if they are very thorny? I was kinda hoping for something the kids could pick.

Peppers are favorite veggie for my husband and GMC...I wonder if they are easy to grow. JC and I like peas, and green beans.

If you have a teen, or are female, or know a female teen you have heard the phrase "I have nothing to wear' Common admit you said it at least once gals. I wear holey jeans (among other things) and even I have said it.

The thing is it isn't about not having clothes, most Americans have more clothes than will fit in the McMansions we favor. Instead it is about the right clothes for for XYZ ceremony/date/conference/meeting/whatever. So we at least internally think 'I have nothing to wear'. If we like shopping we go find something, if not, we prolly just suffer reminding ourselves it might not be 'perfect' but at least it didn't entail hours of shopping to find.

I think food is often the same way, many people look in an over stuffed pantry and say 'there is nothing to eat'. Not because the cupboards are bare, but because nothing is quite right for dinner/lunch/breakfast/snack/whatever.

Part of this might be due to lack of cooking skills (just because flour eggs, butter and milk make pancakes doesn't mean everyone can do that.)

But I think a larger part is that people don't like branching out. Suppose you can make pancakes...if you don't have maple syrup you might pass, or you might realize strawberries makes a great topping, or peanut butter, or try em with just butter, or a brush of powdered sugar. If you think of it, pancakes are just sweet bread, eat them however you like.

Whatever the food, you can prolly eat it, you just have to branch out.

Another common failure to serve up a meal, is the wrong time of day. Eggs for dinner is food, and even nutritionally sound, but most turn their nose up at it. What about the bad mix....apples with steak? Hey it is a fruit and a protein, add those pancakes and you have a complete meal!

Just like clothes can be found in that 'closet full of nothing to wear' a meal can often be found in a 'cupboard full of nothing to eat'.

We are heading to see my brother on Wednesday and I have to bake, pack, wrap, sort, stack and find...stuff. Lots of it.

Planning bagels with butter for breakfast in the car.

By lunch we should be there, and eat with them...but I am debating on packing whole wheat bread...I had a reminder of how many different varieties of bread are out there and what may be called whole wheat may not be anything close in taste or nutrition to what we are used to...but I also don't want to insult. Same with cheese, I don't do american and neither do the kids...and cheddar needs to be extra sharp, see I eat more now than when I was a kid, and yet I am still picky! (now make sure that water is with lemon, no ice...)

Also planning snack for the ride home possibly trail mix.

Taking muffins, and a snack thing GMC wants to make (he is getting to be quite the 'chef', no bake of course.

Also packing a couple surprises for the family and lots of birthday presents. They have a thing for Summer birthdays!

Now what am I forgetting?

I made chocolate cupcakes for my husband to take to cubscouts. I offered to make icing, he insisted it be fudgy....

I tried a new recipe that involved melted butter and cocoa powder, plus of course sugar, milk and vanilla. By not using a mixer I hoped to keep the air content down, and figured melted butter plus cocoa powder makes fudge..it worked...

The end result was a very fudgy, very dark chocolate icing...and a very tired arm on my part!

So now the problem...my cupcakes are not fudgy enough for the wonderful topping!

So how do I make a cup cake fudgy-er....

Why does my bread taste 'yeasty' or kinda like a sourdough?

Did it rise to long? (I actually only let it rest so I could make rolls in time for lunch)

Did I put too much yeast in in the first place?

Did it not rise enough?

Too much kneading? (in kitchen aid, till it was not to terribly sticky so I could shape it)

Not enough kneading?

Or is it fate that I be terrible bread maker?

We are out of bread..we are out of a lot of things (husband still not supposed to drive), but bread being the big end of world item (at the moment)

So today I wake up dreading figuring out lunch and snack with no bread (it is a fall back, when done with what I cook you can have bread if you are still hungry, and one or the other of my two older kids is always still hungry)

Then for lunch I contemplated the lack of leftovers.....what on earth was I going to cook? I came up with eggs, GMC read about poached eggs and wanted to know what they tasted like, so I hunted up directions and made some, now eggs for my husband belong with bread...so I thought he would have to suffer...until I remembered, bread is made from flour, which I have!

Well real bread would take to long for lunchtime (that was fast approaching) but biscuits, which I make rather well and quite frequently were simple quick and easy (5,4,3,2,1 recipe).

Tonight for bedtime snack there will be plenty of leftover biscuits to drown in strawberry juice (after thawing the berries there is always lots of juice, son loves strawberry, daughter loves blueberry, youngest loves either)

Why oh why does it take such an effort for me to come up with something out of the norm? Considering how much flour is int he house, and how often I tend to bake you would assume making bread to be the first thought when I run out, but nope, bread is store bought (I am good at biscuits, not bread)so I think buy buy buy when we run out...

All I want is unsweetened dried cranberries to eat...hopefully for less than 10$ a pound..why is it so much cheaper to sweeten them?

corn bread muffins, I am not any good at them, I need a better recipe.

I did make blueberry, pumpkin, and apple oatmeal, all fo which were good, but the apple didn't rise very well, not totally sure why.

And as I was making all this stuff I was thinking about our food bill, bit high for the forum avg that I can see, but low for all the people local IRL here.

And one reason I think it is high..I am constantly cooking for others, we don't eat all those muffins and cookies, they go to work, to choir practice and to church.

I think I could be a bit more careful in other areas as well, but several times a week instead of feeding 5, I feed 50ish for breakfast or dinner..so if you look at it mathmatically instead of 7 days *3 meals a day *5 people=105 meals (plus snacks) I should be buying for, instead I buy for 155 meals which is 2 extra people(7 days *3 meals a day=21)...give or take.

so 500 a month for 7 people sound more frugal than 500 for 5? eh either way it could be lower, all in o=how I look at it

Two new meals, plus a doctered up potato soup, I am on a roll! Of course we have company comming next week, that is when the other end of the cooking coin will turn up...poor company!

Tonights was named 'pinky macaroni' by the kids..it was half chili, half taco, half macNcheese....yeah I know thats three halves Pretend it is a 'venn diagram' with overlapping circles or something!

I went looking for a recipe to use up the sour cream, I normaly don't cook with it, but it was in the beefless wonder the other night and I used some in potato soup, I had a big scoop of it left, and needed to use it before it went bad.

Of course you know the actual dinner bears no resemblance to the tex mex mac that inspired it!

Pinky pasta

2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of refried beans
1 can of blackeyed peas (only beans we had)
1/2 packet of taco seasoning (leftover after making dip)
some chili powder
some onion powder
some cumin
some terragon (kids asked for it....)
rest of sour cream (bout 1/3rd cup)

Cook, simmer serve over elbow mac with shredded cheese. (as with many sauces, easy on sauce for kids, I made it almost soupy for adults)

I am particularly fond of the fact that there were enough leftovers for my husband and for the kids and I for lunch, now that UE eats with us, many meals that formerly made it for lunches were comming up short, so I have to adjust, I think I am finally getting the hang of it!

I found this recipe for a beef stroganoff like dish only without the mushrooms using Italian dressing and sour cream. I gave it a try with my usual modifications, and my husband loved it, the kids could do without. I proceeded to try and modify it so that my husband and children would like it and instead managed to create several concoctions no one wanted to suffer thru.

Then Christmas happened, company happened, and I lost the origional. After several more failed attempts I finally came up with a meal we all like. though it only bears a passing resemblance to the original, I thought I would credit Kraft with a link at least(they sent me a free magazine full of ads..I mean recipes). But since my network is acting up we will be lucky if this gets online much less a link to them.told you it bore no resemblance!

Beefless beef pasta…

Boil water for pasta…make it when ready, and while not watching the pot boil:
Make a rou, or slurry, or whatever you call it when you melt a couple tablespoons of butter (low-ish heat) and add an equal amount of flour…
Add spices (onion, pepper, some other stuff, parsley, Jamaican/Caribbean jerk, or whatever. If you know how to make Italian dressing those spices aught to do the trick)
Add water and bullion (I used 2 cups of water and 2 bullion, but if you have real beef use less bullion I think. I nuked one cup of the water with the bullion in it to get it kinda started dissolving before I put it in the pan with the other stuff)
Add sour cream, couple heaping tablespoons full. Stir a lot..a whole lot.
Add tablespoon or two of oil...Why? Because it tastes better that way! Thankfully weight watchers is not looking over my shoulder (especially since my bedtime snack right now is chocolate!)

Nuke veggie of choice.
Combine and enjoy. Or don’t combine; I did a little for the kids and extra sauce for the adults. (Add milk if you are low on sauce, or sour cream if you really like the taste.)

Christmas..no not billions of dollars in toys, or other gifts..steak dinner, turkey with all the trimmings, fudge, lots of fudge, for all on the gift list. baking, and more baking....

This baking stuff aint free! but it is so worth it, this month nothing is getting paid extra, no debt accruing, but also no special jumps down..I wish I was debt free, but regardless I would still spend about the same on Christmas, debt or no debt I want my splurge of a dinner...and yeah we JUST went to the store, and went again tonight...twice in one week! what are we thinking! we are thinking steak needs to be bought (and the next couple days arn't such good days for us).

You know we might even have to go again while the brother and company is in town...he is worth it, his kids are worth it, I am not going to try and cook dinner for my normal budget for him, I am going to try and make it edible though (and the lousy food here has nothing to do with cost, I am just a bad cook in general..though I can cook the steak, bake a potato, and nuke some veggies just fine! heh and oddly enough I cook a terrific turkey dinner!)

Anyway....family, friends..christmas..these are worth wasting some cash on..just not going into debt for.

Sorry I can't help myself

more mollasses cookies for tonight, plus some rolls.

The rolls are a bit 'sourdoughy' but still good, least the kids are demanding more of them....

Later today I need to make some fudge for my husband to take to work.

Yesterday we made fudge for my son to take to music class and he actually got to do a lot of the work. I like this recipie, rave reviews and easy enough for a kid to make.

Yesterday we recieved two gift cards with cash..our steak dinner is once again bought by our wonderful Uncle ..best present all year!

Course it is also the first

So I am not a good cook, I am a good baker, in general..I have my moments but in general food is 'soso' and baked stuff is 'awesome'.

Last night was another 'so-so', a little more on the not so good side of so-so, than on the not so bad side.

Today leftovers for lunch was met with less than normal enthusiasm......I decided to fill my kids in on a secret..I am not a good cook, they should just eat it, and hope tonight is better!

Really I would love to have perfect meals each and every night with ust the right spices, but it isn't my talent, and letting the convenience foods do it for me, isn't actually much better flavorwise. Until I can afford a chef to cook dinner each night, we are just going to have to deal with what I cook.

so ust eat it, and be greatful you have food...oh and pass the pepper!

So I woke up cold and decided the best cure was to bae, that and I have a list a mile long of things I aught to be baking.

I got butter out to soften for pumpkin bread (sweet not to good for you, but oh so good) Then I decided I wanted the oven on now, os I made oil oatmeal muffins (healthy, but good) since hte butter still wasn't soft enough I made buiscuts....and then whole wheat bread....then I finally was ready for th epumpkin bread I started with..and I only got out half the butter I needed! URGH

A simple case of lack of planning.....or lack of looking, I used my memory to know how much to get out..when will I learn I have no memory!

I had to tunr the oven off while the bread finished rising, and now in a few minutes the butter will finanly ALL be soft to make the pumpkin..but the oven is in use, baking the bread! sigh.

Ok so how with 'only' three kids do I have 9 teachers!

4 for my youngest, two are 'nursery helpers' during church, and two are Sunday school teachers.

2 for each of the older two kids, team teaching is the norm.

and 1 for my Husband and I..we are never allowed to go to seperate classes, I had enough work to do as it was!

Though I like to bake so it isn't as bad as all that, trouble is I was thinking I had more time..but today was the last Sunday school before Christmas..Next week is the Childrens pagent (GMC will be in it!) and the week after is the sppecial combined service.

Now I just need to go make the rest of the cookies to go share tonight for the caroling....My cooking was specifically requested!

While I do feel pressured to cook now, I also feel..special, they like it!...one guy refused to eat breakfast because he knew I would have muffins..good thing I stayed up last night to make em!

And the kids in the nursery see my 'yogurt' containers and immediatly head for the table to chow down! Fortunatly I generally go with low sugar part whole wheat fruit muffins. Otherwise with the number eaten some would be wired on a sugar high.

(for the real chefs, real recipe. … or as real as I ever get is at the very bottom...really waaaaay down, honest)

Cornmeal crusted chicken

Step one: Read recipe from fancy swanky magazine for people with too much time on their hands.

Step two: decide there is no way I have time for 3 separate containers, one with egg, one with just flour and one with flour and cornmeal. Though pouring the flour cornmeal and egg sounds a bit messy, not workable, so one for flour/cornmeal, one for err...you know I am out of eggs again , so milk it is.

Step 3: Look for spices... contemplate using the ones listed in the recipe for about 4.6 seconds ... Then grab lemon herb, onion powder, and pepper instead.... reminisce about the pre kid days when I breaded lemon herb chicken and deep fried it....

step 4: Preheat oven to 425… Score one point for remembering to check for foreign objects in oven.

Step 5: Open pack of chicken one handed because UE is firmly ensconced in his place of honor on the other arm. Briefly consider the physics of cutting the chicken into strips (one handed) like I used to (and like this recipe says to do) Decide a trip to the emergency room would really delay dinner, and bread them as is.

Step 6: Remember that a meal consists of more than just chicken, decide pasta is relatively quick and take a break from chicken to put a pot of water on to boil.

Step 7: Bread chicken, while keeping a squirmy one year old from trying to help, but is unable to stay on the floor by himself. Place chicken in pan lined with foil, pat self on back for getting the foil in the pan one handed.

Step 8: Notice the water is boiling and try to figure out what sort of pasta. Finally decide on whole-wheat egg noodles will make up for the lack of egg on the chicken.

Step 9: Put the chicken in for 10 minutes like the recipe says, make mental note that there is no way it will be done in time since you didn’t cut the chicken, remember the cardinal rule of making chicken … it is never done!

Step 10: grab a vegetable and put it in a bowl in the microwave.

Step 11: decide all that spiced milk and flour shouldn’t be wasted and make a ‘roux’ err rue, err butter and flour gravy starter, melt butter in cast iron pot, add some flour, looks purty…then realize there is way too much flour for that kind of sauce ….. Add chicken bullion and a cup of warm water. Discover that a slotted spoon works well to remove lumps (and thank the one year old for stealing the usual spoon leaving only the slotted one available)

Step 12: Add milk to sauce like stuff, keep stiring like mad.

Step 13: check chicken since the timer dinged like forever ago sometime in the middle of the delumping process. Notice the chicken is well covered in dry flakes…drizzle some olive oil on top, run out of olive oil, make mental note to put it on the grocery list (yeah like that will happen!)

Step 14: wonder why the vegetables are not done yet …. Discover they were never started, put on for 3 minutes, stir noodles and wonder if they are done, Mutter under breath about how annoying whole wheat noodles are, they never look ‘done’ like regular, wonder if I will eventually develop a trained whole wheat ‘eye’ since I do recall the days before I knew noodles were done by looking …

Step 15: rescue sauce like stuff, taste test … Mmmmm lemon herb chicken, brings back memories.

Step 16: Put vegetables back in for 2 minutes, get strainer out to drain noodles, lock children out of the kitchen, leave strict orders to entertain one year old. Drain noodles, check chicken ... Turn chicken over and shake up olive oil to find more for the other side. Go rescue one year old and wait for Daddy to come home.

Step 17: Kiss Daddy ‘Hello’. Start getting into it then … yep that’s the timer for the chicken, just like old times.

K so that is the weird nightly thing going on here, last night it turned out very good, though I think I might try egg one day to see if it is crispy, I will prolly keep the rest pretty much he same, maybe more water in the sauce.


…………………………………………………………………

Baked Lemon herb Chicken

1-cup flour
1/3-cup corn meal (yellow)
2 tsp ish lemon herb
Sprinkle pepper
Sprinkle or two of onion powder

Mix them in a flattish pan to ‘dredge’ the chicken

Cup o milk (or a bit less)

Flour dish then milk, then flour again, pat seasoning in crevices and stuff.

Drizzle pan with olive oil, Put in chicken, drizzle tops with more olive oil
Bake 425 for umm. Till it is done! OK about 20 minutes, maybe 30.

For the ‘sauce’ I think cup of water, to one bullion, a pat of butter, mix another cup of water with flour in Tupperware shaker then add in, pour milk on tip stirring all the while.

I have single serve applesauce, single serve fruit, single serve juice, single serve bottled water, single serve oatmeal, and single serve drink mix. If I shopped like this normally I wouldn't be able to fit a weeks worth of food in my pantry!

Fortunatly I only have to pack it up...but how to fit it all in the car?

I actually used coupons today! We bought all the stuff for the trip and stull managed to stay under budget, due to flashes coupons.

One for diapers, one for wipes, one for oatmeal (which also happened to be on sale) one for detergent and one for err..ok several other things...oh chicken! I never buy canned chicken, but it sounds like the perfect thing to take to a hotel for lunch!

Speaking of lunch and breakfast and the hotel, I have access to a microwave! and a coffee pot, and a mini fridge! that totally makes my life easier! I still went with lots of convenience, this is what convenience is invented for IMO!

All week I have been unable to bake for one reason or another, till finally today! yesterday my husband found silicone papers for muffin tins..well not paper, cause they are silicone. I thought they were adorable and so hopped they worked because I hate cleaning muffin tins and I hate having to buy papers, not to mention the whole environmental thing of throwing away a paper for every muffin!

Well I am not entirely certain that making th esilicone liners was all that good for the environment but after a day of testing, they held up really well, Only one muffin stuck, and that was very edible..always eat the ugly ones . I did have to wash the liners, but it was so easy to get in the 'nooks' because it was flexible! I loved it, I did not spray them wiht oil or a fake version therof, even when the recipe called for it....

I still have a few other recipes to test it on, but so far I love them! I told my husband to go look for bread pan liners!

I made:

1. Pumpkin bread and muffins...very good, very sweet, not healthy bread for a picnic Sunday, muffins in freezer for another day.

2. Fruit muffins, with fruit juice and 'crasins', pretty good. for sunday school. (mine and a kid)

3. Oatmeal raisin muffins, recipe from Flash, I think. Like an oatmeal cookie, only better 'cause I never make oatmeal cookies right! for sunday school (a kid)

4. hoagies..the bread part, for steak hogies..soon as I cook the meat, if I can get to it before the kids eat all the bread!

I still have to make something for the other kids sunday school, and my kids have requested choclate cookies..not chocolate chip cookies, but chocolate cookies.

So I have to go find a recipe..maybe like a chocolate sugar cookie?

That is what GMC asked me to make today...'encourage adventure' part of my brain went to war with the 'you will be baking a replacement saturday night' part...

In the end the 'encourage adventure' won, and we made the muffins, with broccolii inside...

And the verdict is in..edible, actually pretty good!

For me it is between less than a month and two months, that is a lot of flour! and alot more than I used to use, I now bake more, and share more.....

I am looking at the dwindleing supply of flour and remembering filling it up literally 2 weeks ago. This is a bit rediculous, how did pioneers survive? did they get flour in 50 lb sacks? we hear how they did not eat meat like we do, and we know vegetables were hard to come by in the winter, so what were they eating? or maybe I just eat alot..well I do..eat alot that is.

Sunday we ran out of chocolate..normally that is ared flag to go imediatly to the store..do not pass go, do not collect 200$.

This week I managed NOT to go, we waited,

Monday..DH ate the last of the chocolate he had at work, and I mixed peanut butter with coco powder, butter and powdered sugar (actually really good).

Tuesday, I have no idea what DH did, but I baked muffins..and ate peanut butter with cocopowder (I am thinking of mixing it in bulk, rolling in balls and taking it to church..is very good)

Wednesday, I mixed chocolate syrup with milk, twice..but seemed to survive. (at this point I wasn't to concerned with DH, I was having enough troubles of my own) I also used the last of the flour to make pizza, and had to use some whole wheat (which my son loved, JC passed on)

Finally DH brought chocolate home wednesday night and today I had some..it was FAR better than last week...a little waiting does the palet good .