Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal

I admit it...I buy a big box of instant oatmeal at Costco every month. My kids love it, they can make it themselves..and I get to lay in bed a little bit longer on the mornings it's on the menu. (They even make it for the toddler!) I love my kids. The last couple times I have bought it, ALL of the maple and brown sugar are clumpy and we cannot break it apart. I took the first box back when I realized the problem and got another one. However the second box did the same thing. So this time they ate all the other flavors and I won't be buying more. I found a recipe online for instant oatmeal packets and did a little tweaking..and voila!! I made two big batches of two different flavors that will hopefully last us a couple weeks. (big family problems)

First things first..here is what you need! (You can put these into individual baggies- but that is not necessary and creates a lot of waste.)

10 Cups Quick cooking oats
1t salt
2 Cups brown sugar
1 Cup powdered milk
3t cinnamon
3t pumpkin pie spice

Take 6 cups of the oats and put it in a big bowl. Put the rest of the oats (2 cups at a time) in the blender and blend into a powder, i just pulse it. This is what will thicken your oatmeal and give it the instant texture we are used to. Then mix the two kinds of oats together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together thoroughly. Put into a good air tight container.

To make: use 1/2 cup of oatmeal mixture and add hot or boiling water until you reach your desired consistency. My husband likes his oatmeal cooked in the microwave, so you can also add some water then pop it in the microwave for a minute or two until it is cooked that way.


I also made Apple Cinnamon flavor- Keep everything the same except go up to 4t cinnamon and add 3 cups crumbled dehydrated apples and omit the pumpkin pie spice.

I'm not sure of cost comparison with store bought, but I do know homemade is way better because there are less ingredients. Also, I buy everything in bulk- so the only thing I might have to go back to the store for to make more would be pumpkin pie spice.

I put my label maker to good use too ;-)

Practically Perfect Pumpkin Snicker-doodles

I bought some pumpkin Snicker-doodles at Wal-Mart the other day because we had company and my girls couldn't eat the pie we were having because it had traces of nuts in it. The cookies were good, but a little too pumpkiny for our liking. I searched online and couldn't find a recipe I was happy with. I found one but it had no cream of tarter in it, and that is a main ingredient of snicker-doodles, so i was skeptical it would be like I wanted. I decided to alter my regular snicker-doodle recipe and see how it goes. It went very well and my family loves them. Hopefully you will like them too.

1 C butter (softened)
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C pumpkin
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
2 3/4 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 t cream of tartar
1/2 t nutmeg
1t cinnamon

Seperate small bowl:
3T sugar
2 t cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar together in a Kitchen Aid mixer. Add in eggs and vanilla and continue mixing. Then add in pumpkin. Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix together. Add those into the mixer with the wet ingredients. After mixing well put in the refrigerator for 2 hours to chill. Pre-heat oven to 400*. Get a scoop of cookie dough and roll into a ball and roll in cinnamon/sugar then place onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, take off pan and cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

My 7 year old daughter woke up on Saturday morning REALLY wanting some pumpkin bread. All the big kids had already gotten up and eaten cereal for breakfast but I decided I could still make this and they could eat it for morning snack. It turned out so delicious. Everyone loved it. I found a general recipe on my All Recipes app but tweaked it a little and I am glad I did because it was so good. This will definitely be a keeper recipe that we will have often this Fall.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour (or gluten free flour- I use Namaste all purpose gluten free)
1 cup        sugar
1T            cinnamon
1t             baking soda
1/4t          baking powder
1/4t          salt
1 pinch    ground nutmeg
1 cup       pumpkin puree
1/2 cup    butter (melted)
2              eggs
1t             vanilla
1 cup       chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a loaf pan. Stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. In a separate bowl (I use my Kitchen Aide mixer) mix together butter, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla.  Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and continue mixing. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until your knife comes out clean.

Canning peaches

I have been trying to can quite a bit of the yummy summer produce lately so that we can enjoy it all year long. I really enjoy canning things, it gives me something to do besides my normal "mommy & teacher" jobs. I decided I would take pictures the last time I canned peaches to show everyone how easy it is. There are a few items you need to have on hand first besides just peaches. You need a water bath canner or a pressure canner. I use my pressure canner and just use it as a water bath canner so I don't have so many pots laying around my house. ( I hate clutter!!) You will need jars (Costco has a great deal on pint jars right now 12 jars for $6.50 which is roughly fifty cents a jar). A jar lifter is good to have to get the jars in and out of the canner and a jar funnel and a magnetic wand. You can usually buy a canning kit at Wal-Mart that has all of these things in one box. A rubber spatula is good as well so you can get all the air bubbles out after you add boiling water to your jar of peaches.You will also need some lemon juice so you can soak your peach slices is a mixture of mostly water with a splash of lemon juice.

My big box of peaches- local Colorado peaches were $.88/lb this weekend. They are so sweet and juicy!

Things you need- (forgot to add in the magnetic wand)

Bring a big pot of water to a boil, add enough peaches where they aren't on top of one another and leave in for about 30 seconds.

Take them out of the water and let them cool in a bowl for a few minutes. They will be pretty hot to try to peel right away.(Just use your hands) Once you start peeling, it will come off very easily. Put the peaches in another bowl without the peel until you have peeled all of the peaches. Then make cuts in the peach the size of slices and gently try to pull the slices off the pit without making a mess of the peaches.

After you get the slices off, you want to put them in some lemon juice water so they wont go brown. Leave them in this mixture at least 15 minutes.

When your ready to put them in your jars, drain off the lemon juice water.

Put them in jars, have some water boiling on the stove while the peaches are in the lemon juice water so that after you put them in jars you can add the boiling water pretty quickly.

Fill the jars 1" from the top with peaches and the boiling water.

Use the rubber spatula and glide it around the whole jar to release any air bubbles that might be in the jar. Put your lids and rings in boiling water for a few minutes before the jars are ready. Use your magnetic wand to get the lids and rings out of the boiling water and use a towel to screw the rings on so you don't burn yourself.

Use your jar lifter to put the jars in your canner. Then make sure it is filled with water about 2" above the top of the jars. Put the lid on and heat on high until boiling. My canning book says to boil for 25 minutes (pints) 30 minutes (quarts) at sea level and go up 2 extra minutes per 1000 ft. above sea level. So I boil my pints for 37 minutes because we are about 6000ft. above sea level. I always set my kitchen timer to do everything exactly the amount of time it needs. Make sure when they are finished you use your jar lifter to take them out of the canner, set them on the counter and listen because over the next hour you will hear that wonderful "pop" sound that lets you know your jars are sealed and you have succeeded in your canning venture!

Here is your finished product! So yummy and no HFCS in it, just water!! I canned about 30lbs of peaches this past weekend so we should be set for this next year. Good luck if you decide to try your hand at canning peaches!

Pumpkin Pie French Toast

My kids have been begging for french toast for breakfast the last few days. I told them they have to wake up and not be staaaaarving...for me to make it because they cannot have two breakfasts. So they decided to comply and were very patient while I made it this morning. I have found lots of recipes all with this title for french toast but none I loved, so I decided to mash a couple together and do some tweaking and came up with my own. I liked it, the kids LOVED it...next time I'm gonna add a wee bit more pumpkin so we can taste more of it.

You will need:

A loaf of texas toast
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4-1/2 cup of pumpkin ( I only used the 1/4)
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1t cinnamon
1t vanilla

*Butter, powdered sugar & syrup*

Mix the eggs, milk, pumpkin, spices and vanilla together.

Warm up your skillet or griddle and spray it or put some oil on it.

Dip bread in mixture and kind of soak it and put it in the pan.. after a couple minutes turn it over and do the same on the other side, make sure the egg is cooked good on both sides. 

Butter each piece, add a sprinkling of powdered sugar and some syrup and enjoy!! My kiddos sure did!!! Look at those empty plates!!!

Chunky Baked Potato Soup

I made this for dinner last night because the outside temps were pretty low for a summer night and because I look for any excuse to pretend autumn is already here!!  I originally got this recipe from Wendy Jeubs cookbook Love in the Kitchen. She is a mom of many and cooks for about fifteen people every night. I have tweaked it a little and made it my own. This recipe is for 6 servings. You can double it if you are cooking for a crowd. It makes enough for our family of 5 and then leftovers twice for my husband to take for lunch at work. 

4 cups of peeled and diced potatoes
1T oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 stick of butter
1/2  C flour
8 cups of milk
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 strips of bacon cooked and crumbled
1 C shredded cheddar cheese


Boil your diced and peeled potatoes until they are tender. When those are almost done, in a skillet sauté  your chopped onions in the oil until clear and tender. Now in a heavy saucepan melt your stick of butter and add the flour, stirring until smooth. Cook one minute stirring constantly. Gradually add milk - this is where I decided adding the milk warm instead of cold will speed up the cooking process. So I pop 2 cup servings of the milk in the microwave for 2 minutes then add the 2 cups every 2 minutes until you have added 8 cups. Then add your drained potatoes, the onion, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened. Serve with shredded cheese and bacon bits. ( I didn't use bacon last night but usually do, I just cook a couple pieces on the stovetop and then crumble it up in a bowl)

It is sooooo yummy, but probably does the waistline no favors so we don't cook this super often. I served it with buttered toast last night and it hit the spot!!!

Spicey Chicken Spaghetti

This is a great recipe for big families, or if you have a smaller family like ours it can make 2 meals. And you can control the spiciness by what kind of Rotel you buy.

Ingredients:

1 16 oz pkg Spaghetti
1 16 oz bar of Velveeta cubed
1 medium onion chopped
1/4 C. butter
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Rotel
3-4 chicken breast already cooked and cubed

First you want to cook your spaghetti according to the package directions.

While doing that go ahead and get a big saucepan and start to melt your butter. After the butter is melted add your onions. (I didn't have an onion, so I used dried minced onions and they worked out fine.)

When the onions are getting clear and pretty soft you can add your can of Rotel and Velveeta  Cheese and cook that until it melts.

When it looks like a cheese sauce you can add your chicken. I didn't use chicken breasts only- I had bought a fryer chicken and cooked it for dinner in the crockpot last week, after dinner I picked the rest of the meat off and had been saving it in the fridge for this casserole. (after all is said and done this 1 chicken will have fed us for 3 dinner meals)

Mix the chicken in good and heat through.

While that is heating its probably about time for your spaghetti to be drained and you can put it all in the bottom of the pan.

After this you can add the chicken and cheese mixture to the top. Then you will bake it at 350* for 25 minutes. If you were making this on a bulk freezer cooking day you would not put it in the oven, you would put some wax paper and foil over the top of the pan(s) and put them in the freezer. Then when you were ready to use it for your dinner you can defrost it in the fridge the night before and bake as above. If you forget to take it out of the freezer till right at dinner time you can cook it at 350* for 1 hr.

I use mild rotel because my kids don't like things that are too spicey. They also sell regular and extra hot I believe- so you can adjust it for your tastes.

Easy Homemade Yogurt!

A couple of years ago I tried to make my own yogurt and it turned out ok. It was a lengthy process of stove-top mess and small mason jars to put it in. I did it once or twice but decided it wasn't worth all the hassle. So when I saw Money Saving Mom's post on Homemade Yogurt in the Crockpot I decided to give it a try- and boy am I glad I did!!! Talk about easy-peasy! And cheap! I did everything she did except I used 1% milk and a small 6 oz container of vanilla yogurt.

             Easy Homemade Yogurt:

• 1/2 gallon milk (Whole milk will make your yogurt thicker, I used 1 %)
• 6 oz plain /vanilla yogurt (anything with live-active cultures will work)
  

Pour the half gallon of milk into your crock pot and turn it on low. Cook it for 2 hours and 45 minutes (I set my timer to remember to turn it off!)

After 2 hours and 45 minutes, turn the crock pot off and let it sit for 3 hours- do not do anything to it.

After 3 hours- spoon a small amount of the milk into a small bowl and add the yogurt to it. Mix together thoroughly. (sorry no pictures of this step!)

Dump this mixture back into the milk in the crock pot and mix it around well.

Put the lid back on your crock pot and wrap the crock pot with a large beach towel or blanket (make sure the crock pot is unplugged and turned off!).

I used one towel to wrap all the way around kinda tight, then placed another one over the whole thing, including the lid.

Let the beach-towel-wrapped crock pot sit for 8-12 hours (or overnight). After 8-12 hours, it should be thickened.

Spoon yogurt into jars or plastic containers and refrigerate a few hours before eating.

This will keep for about one to two weeks in the refrigerator. 

Save a half cup to use as a starter for your next batch of homemade yogurt.

When we go to eat it, the kids cannot eat it plain. I put a small scoop of homemade strawberry jam in the bottom of their bowl then add some yogurt and stir it up. They LOVE it this way!!!

As for me I LOVE the drinkable yogurts which I cannot find many places anymore, so I throw a cup of this yogurt into the blender with a banana and a couple handful's of blueberries and voila a drinkable yogurt!

Yes, we use mason jars as our drinking glasses!!

This was so easy and I will for sure be making this on a weekly basis because that's about how fast we will go through this stuff.

KID APPROVED!!!

I am using big mason jars and some Ziploc re-usable plastic containers to store them in the fridge. 

Here is a cost breakdown on how much money can be saved by making your own:

I was buying the store brand yogurts for the kids to eat at $.40/each. For one snack they would each have 1 so that would be $1.20 per snack for all 3 of them. I made my first batch using a store bought yogurt (wont have to buy more for next time though), and a half gallon of milk. I get milk for $2/gallon. This one batch cost me $1.40. It makes 3 snacks and 2 yogurt drinks for me. The cost of those things retail would be $5.60, so I saved $4.20 by making my own. Next time I make it I wont have to buy the yogurt so it will be $1 a batch. Can't get any better then that!!!! Well maybe if I had my own goat and could use the milk from said goat...

...but well we can't go there...YET! 

Sausage in a Garden

In my meal planning post found here I mention one of our dinner meals the kids like is Sausage in a Garden. This is just a cute name we gave to a very simple meal, that you may be eating at your house already! It was much easier to say sausage in a garden to the kids when they asked, "What's for dinner??" instead of telling them, sausage mixed with veggies and rice. So first you need to go buy 3 simple ingredients:

The minute rice can be replaced with any kind of rice. I buy this because I can get a huge box at Sam's for $4 and because I always forget to make the regular rice ahead of time and then when I am ready to make everything else I dont have an hour to cook the rice. So Minute rice it is!!

Next I chop up the sausage into pieces and sautee it in a pan..i do not add oil to the pan- the sausage has plenty for it to cook in.

This is about the size I chop the sausage into.

After the sausage has browned a little on both sides I simply put the whole package of frozen veggies in the pan with it and stir it around. I turn the heat to med-low and let it warm through for about 10 minutes.

While doing all this you can be boiling the water for the rice and getting that all taken care of.

*side note* I buy my 16oz packages of sausage at Sam's as well- they come in a 3 pack for $7- I keep them in the freezer until the day I need to cook them and then defrost them that morning in the fridge.

After the veggies are heated through and everything is ready you can plate it up and enjoy!!! We added applesauce as another side dish to accompany this!

Meal Planning Made Easy...

I often have other mom's asking me how I meal plan since I do so a month at a time. I do this because my husband only gets paid once a month. I like having all our meals for the month planned out and most of the shopping done to ensure that during the last week before the next payday we are not eating beans and rice! My budget for our family of 5 per month on groceries (includes tp and stuff like that) is $360 a month. That is $70 per person for 28 or so days- 3 meals a day plus snacks. Its tricky- but can be done!!

First choose what meal you want to plan first- I will start with dinner because it is the trickiest.

Next you want to go through all of your families favorite recipes...pick out 8 for the month. I swear you will be eating more then 8 dinners!!

You will eat 4 one week, then 4 more the next week...the 3rd and 4th weeks you will simply repeat the first 2 weeks dinners over again. This way you just buy double when grocery shopping and you don't have to reinvent the wheel 16 times!! And if some of your dinners are casseroles or something that can be made 2 at once, you can make one and stick one in the freezer to eat in 2 weeks!

Our family has a Friday night "pizza night" every week- and a Saturday night "breakfast for dinner" night- so that is 8 more dinners. Sunday night is leftover/sandwich night- so there are 4 more...so there you have it 28 or so meals all planned out!

Here is my example for this months dinner menu:

June 18-24

Monday- Homemade Mac and Cheese, veggies & bread
Tuesday- Enchiladas, beans, rice
Wednesday- BBQ chicken in the crockpot, bread, veggies
Thursday- Sausage in a Garden w/rice
Friday- Pizza & fruit
Saturday- Cheese Omelets, sausage & toast
Sunday- leftovers

June 25-July 1

Monday- Cheesy Pasta, veggies, bread
Tuesday- Tacos, beans, rice
Wednesday- Chicken & rice in the crockpot plus veggies
Thursday- Meatloaf, veggies, bread
Friday- Pizza & fruit
Saturday- French Toast, bacon, fruit
Sunday- grilled cheese & fruit 

July 2-8 (this part wont be our true menu because we will be camping for some of it- but if we were home this is how we would do it!!)

Monday- Homemade Mac and Cheese, veggies & bread
Tuesday- Enchiladas, beans, rice
Wednesday- BBQ chicken in the crockpot
Thursday- Sausage in a Garden w/rice
Friday- Pizza & fruit
Saturday- Cheese Omelets, sausage & toast
Sunday- leftovers

July 9-15 

Monday- Cheesy Pasta, veggies, bread
Tuesday- Tacos, beans, rice
Wednesday- Chicken & rice in the crockpot plus veggies
Thursday- Meatloaf, veggies, bread
Friday- Pizza & fruit
Saturday- French Toast, bacon, fruit
Sunday - grilled cheese & fruit 

And this brings us back to the next payday-where we will do it all over again!  Very easy peasy way to do a dinner menu for the month.

Next you will write down the ingredients from your recipes so you will know what you need for those meals. Then you will want to go through your fridge and cupboards and take inventory of what you have and what you will need.

Now for lunches I do 7 different lunches and repeat each week...same for breakfast which I explained a little better here.

An example of a week of lunches:

Monday: Soy butter & jelly sandwiches, chips, fruit
Tuesday: Leftover mac and cheese (from last nights dinner) & fruit
Wednesday: Hot dogs with fruit
Thursday: Cup of Noodles with fruit
Friday: Turkey & Cheese sandwiches, chips, fruit
Saturday: Whatever you can find
Sunday: Hot dogs and pickles

Here are some of our favorite snack ideas:

Granola Bars, yogurt, fruit bars, rice krispie treats, homemade cookies,or these homemade cookies,  fruit, string cheese

I also created this menu to keep on the wall so the kids always know what we are having for each meal- it has been  SOOO helpful because I was dealing with 3 children constantly saying whats for dinner?? whats for lunch? whats for dinner in 3 days?? (yes they asked me that!) I have a laminator so I laminated the menu and just erase and re-write each week to keep it updated!

Homemade Tortillas

I made my wonderful homemade tortillas tonight for our enchilada dinner. Once you make them homemade, the store bought will be completely unacceptable! Especially to your spouse! I love this recipe because it is quick and easy- you could get a tortilla press to make them a bit quicker, but I am pretty speedy with my rolling pin so that has not been necessary. Make sure you have a cast iron skillet to make these- I have never tried it on a regular skillet- but cast iron works great! You will want it heated to medium.  Here are directions on how I make them- give it a try- you wont regret it!!!!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (sometimes I use 2 cups whole wheat, 1 cup white)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 TBSP shortening or lard
1 1/4 cup water

 Mix the flour, baking powder, salt together- then add shortening and cut in.

I use my hand to make sure all the shortening is getting mixed in really good with the dry ingredients. Make sure it feels cornmealish- I also think it resembles the feel of moon sand...all mommy's with young kiddos will know what this feels like. Then add the water slowly while working it into a dough ball. (you may not use all the water & may have to add more flour if it is too sticky.) Once you have kneaded it into a nice round non-sticky ball leave it in the bowl and cover it for 10 minutes or so to let it settle.

After that break it into small pieces and work it into a ball by using your thumb and pressing in inwards- hard to explain but just make a bunch of dough balls. Cover this again and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

Turn your burner on to warm up your skillet- no higher then medium.

Next have your counter or cutting board floured a little and take one dough ball and smoosh it down then use the rolling pin to roll it out in a circle. I flip it over and around to get it in a nice circle. 

Go ahead and put it on your hot skillet and it should make some bubbles..if they are really big I usually pop them with the corner of my spatula. Then turn it over and leave it for about 30 seconds. Take it off after this it should be done. You don't want to leave it too long or it will burn and not be nice and soft.

While its cooking on the first side I try to get a couple more rolled out and ready so I always have another one ready for the skillet.

You should get 18-20  6 in tortillas out of one batch.

I was able to make a pan full of enchiladas and have 5 tortillas left over- we will eat these as a snack tomorrow with butter and honey on them. This is a BIG treat in our house and loved by everyone!

**I have also made a batch and cooked half into tortillas and put the rest of the dough balls in a freezer ziploc in the freezer. I let them sit on the counter to defrost when I need them and this gives them a chance to settle and be ready to be rolled out. You may need a little extra flour on the cutting board because of a bit of moisture **