Birthday Cake

So I know it doesn't look great but it tastes amazing. Or so I'm told. I have given up sugar for 30 days so I didn't get a taste. But I made it from scratch and so it has to be good. It doesn't look wonderful because I had to go to kindergarten orientation. So as soon as the cake was done I took it out of the oven and ran. I didn't get to take it out of the pans after ten minutes cooling. I had to scrape it off the bottom on one of the cakes. So it looks like a mess but 4 through 7 year olds don't know the difference. Right?

From one of my favorite cookbooks-Better Homes and Gardens "New Cook Book" Although it is at least 15 years old.
White Cake
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups buttermilk or sour milk (sour your milk with white vinegar)
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites
Oven 350
In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/8 teaspoons salt. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Add egg whites and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping bowl.
Pour into 2 greased and floured round baking pans. (You can use 8 or 9 inch.) Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Loosen sides. Remove from pans. Cool thoroughly on wire racks. Serves 12.

Butter Frosting (same cookbook)
1/3 cup butter
4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
In a bowl beat butter till fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.
Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk, if needed, to make of spreading consistency (I didn't do this and I wish I had because it was too thick). Tint with food coloring, if desired. Frosts tops and side of two 8 or 9 inch cake layers.

We had already begun to devour it so this picture doesn't do it justice. It was so yummy. I did change a few things from the recipe (found here: Yummy Salmon Asparagus Salad and the dressing here: The dressing that goes with it ) But it was really good. I used brown rice instead of orvo. And I didn't have any fresh dill so I used fresh parsley. I know that dill would have been much better with salmon. But I didn't want to haul 3 kids to the store to get it. And the red onion I had was not looking so good so it was also omitted. My kids love salmon but weren't so fond of the asparagus. I love asparagus so it was divine.

Homemade Spaghetti

Hello, is this thing on?

So I really have been cooking since my last post. I just keep forgetting to post. I made at least 5 dinners I swear. ;) So first of all I also added a recipe at the bottom of this post that I made for Super Bowl Sunday dinner. I forgot to take any pics.

Here is a yummy recipe for homemade marinara sauce. I got it from my cute friend and new visiting teachee Charees Miller.

chop a yellow onion
chop up a clove of garlic
shred 1 carrot
shred 1 zucchini
saute in olive oil
add 1T italian seasoning and some fresh basil--if you have it
add a large (20oz) can crushed tomatoes in puree

simmer for one hour

Yummo! I also added some ground turkey tonight for some protein. I used a pound but in the future will only use a quarter of that. It was too meaty for me. So I added another can of tomato puree. I wanted to savor more of the marinara. Served it with a caesar salad. My kids loved it.

Waistline: Very good. All healthy ingredients. And I used whole wheat noodles.
Frugality: Very "cheap" meal. Had it all on hand.

Super Bowl Chicken White Chili--realize that she calls it "simple" but it took me a good 2 hours.

And thank you to my one reader Kristen. :) Hope you like this.

Coriander Salmon and french green beans

This is what I made for dinner tonight. I love salmon and try to eat it at least once a week. This was a good recipe. But I've had better. Here is where I got it.

Do I have any still out there reading this? I have been less than faithful in posting. :) Hang in there with me and you'll see lots more coming. Maybe even 3 nights in a row!

Chicken and Mushrooms with steamed carrots

So I forgot to take a picture until we had already "dug" in. This was a really good meal. I'm trying to cook exclusively from my pantry and freezer this week. Except for fresh produce. I found this recipe here. My husband loved it and so did I. My kids ate some. They are so picky.

• 6 Servings
• Prep: 5 min. Bake: 30 min.

Ingredients

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup sherry or chicken broth
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions

• Arrange chicken in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, saute mushrooms in butter for 5 minutes. Add the sherry or broth, green onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Pour over chicken.
• Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until a meat thermometer reads 170°. Top with cheese. Bake for 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Yield: 6 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving (1 chicken breast half) equals 198 calories, 6 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 79 mg cholesterol, 361 mg sodium, 3 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 31 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 4 lean meat.

Scrumptious Seven Layer Dip

This is for my darling awesome Cowan family that I got to see last night. I made this dip last night for my Dad's annual Christmas party. Here ya go gals!

Seven Layer Dip
1 16 oz can of re-fried beans
1 16 oz sour cream
1 taco seasoning packet
3 avocados
garlic powder
lime juice
2 cups shredded cheese (I used mild cheddar and monterey jack)
1 can sliced olives
1 roma tomato
green onions

So all I do is layer the bottom with the refried beans. Then I mix the taco seasoning packet into the tub of sour cream. Then I put that as my second layer. Then I make the guacamole by mashing the avocados then adding the lime juice and garlic powder to taste. Then that is my third layer. (You could put the guac as second and sour cream as third if you wanted to.) Then the next layer is the cheese. Then I chop up the tomato and put that on top. Then add the olives. Then the green onions. I didn't have any green onions last night so I didn't add those. So technically it was a 6 layer dip. :)

Chicken Breast stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

I know that it has been a while. But I am starting anew tonight with some yummy meals each day this week. My first goal this week is to make all three meals and all snacks with the food I have already in my house. I did go to the store and get some milk and eggs and veggies but everything else I am going to try and use whats in my house. So tonight for dinner is Chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese. Except that I am using feta cheese because that is what I have in my fridge. I served it with a spinach salad with red wine vinaigrette.

Frugality: Everything was in my house so very frugal.

Waistline: This recipe comes from my South Beach Diet cook book. And it's a Phase 1 recipe which is very waistline conscious. Per serving: 280 calories, 10g fat, 42g protein, 3g carb, 1g dietary fiber, 390 mg sodium.

Recipe:
4 t evoo
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1/2 pound) bunch spinach, tough stems removed
4 (6 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 ounces low-fat goat cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper

You'll also need wooden toothpicks

Heat oven to 400.
Heat 2 teaspoons of oil int a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in spinach and cook, stirring constantly, until spinach is wilted and liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Wipe skillet dry with paper towels.
Slice your chicken breast open like a pita bread. Open each pocket and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then fill evenly with goat cheese and spinach. Seal each with two toothpicks and season outside with salt and pepper.
Heat remaining oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once until well browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. -- Note -- I actually cooked them for about 5 minutes each side. I have a thing about making sure my chicken is thoroughly cooked. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until juices run clear. For me I cooked it for about 15-18 minutes. The recipe says 8 minutes. That's not long enough for me. The chicken was still pink in the middle.

Tonight for dinner is Tortilla Soup. I used this recipe: Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup Recipe except I didn't put the salsa in. I don't like canned salsa. And I didn't add the chilis because I didn't have any and I didn't want to go to the store. I added a packet of reduced sodium taco seasoning instead.

Waistline: Not bad. Skinless chicken. Black beans. Tomatoes. All good. I didn't add the chips or the cheese so quite healthy right? Maybe too much sodium though.

Frugality: I had every ingredient in my cupboards/freezer. Which is always so nice.

Food Storage Calculator

Emergency Essentials now has a really cool tool called Food Storage Calculator. It allows you to input your family needs, and your current food storage. It then tells you how many days your family can live off of it and all of the nutritional information. Pretty cool huh? If you click on the button below it will take you where you can try it out for yourself. If you do their beta test you will get a $10 gift card. But hurry it ends 10-28-09.

Cauliflower Soup and French Bread

So tonight for dinner I found this yummy looking recipe. I love soup and especially in the fall. It was quite easy to make, just took some time. But with lots of vegetables you can't go wrong. And half and half. Oh my. I love half and half. Real cream too. Growing up my mom used to put half and half or sometimes real cream on our cereal. Yum! When I was pregnant with my darling daughter I used to buy fat free half and half and have it on my honey nut cherrios every morning. Delightful. But I digress. I didn't serve meat with this dish because I asked my carnivorous husband what I should serve with it and he said I didn't need to add anything to it. That's easy enough for me. But I did buy some fresh french bread, which my kids love.

Waistline: Not too bad. The sour cream and the half and half aren't very good but I figure the veggies counter-act that. (I know they really don't but it makes me feel better to say it.)

Frugality: The vegetables were cheap and so were the half and half and sour cream and the bread wasn't bad. Everything else I had on hand.

Sunday Ham, Sour Cream Potatoes and Cobb Salad

So I'm back. Sunday dinner is always my favorite meal. For some reason I like to go all out. But I have to say that cooking dinner while fasting is NOT my favorite thing. So we had yummy ham and sour cream potatoes (funeral potatoes) and cobb salad (minus chicken). They were all very good.

Frugality: I had the ham in my freezer. I had all of the ingredients for the potatoes already. I had to buy avocados and tomatoes for the salad, but I had everything else. So very little out of pocket for this meal.

Waistline: The ham isn't horrible in calories if you don't eat too much. The potatoes, let's be real. They are full of fat and calories. So not so good there. But the cobb salad was healthy.

Then I had a hankering for some sweets (when don't I?) so I made these yummy brownies. I got the recipe here...


Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies
Batter Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. sugar
½ c. butter (1 stick) softened
½ c. oil
1 T. vanilla
3 eggs
1 ¼ c. flour
¾ c. cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Filling Ingredients:
1 c. creamy peanut butter
2 T. vegetable oil
1/3 c. sugar
2 T. flour
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla

Frosting:
¾ of a bag of milk chocolate chips
3 T. creamy peanut butter
1 c. powdered sugar
¼ c. water
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt

Batter: Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9x13-inch pan. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add oil and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt - blend well. While beating, gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture – mix well. Evenly spread batter into pan.

Filling: In a small bowl cream together peanut butter and oil. Add sugar and flour – blend well. Add eggs and vanilla – beat until smooth. Carefully spread filling over batter in pan. Gently cut through layers to create marble effect throughout brownies. Bake for 30 minutes – do NOT over bake.

Frosting: While baking, in a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate and peanut butter over LOW heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients – mix until smooth. If frosting is too thick, add 1-3 T. water. Spread frosting over brownies immediately after baking. Cool in pan 2-3 hours before serving. Can top brownies with chopped peanut butter cups.

It's my birthday and I'll eat out if I want to...

I know that I've been doing this blog for a long time. So I need to take a break. (Tongue in cheek.) Actually it's my birthday today and so I decided to celebrate it all weekend. (Hee hee.) My darling friends took me out to dinner last night. Tonight Chad and I are doing dinner. And tomorrow night we are going with some our are friends to Benihana. Yummy! My mouth waters just thinking about it. I love sushi!

Spaghetti

Tonight for dinner we had Spaghetti and Ceaser Salad. This is by far my kids favorite meal. My daughter begs for it every week. My kids actually ate seconds. My daughter ate thirds. And again, I had all of the ingredients needed in my freezer/pantry. So no money out of the food budget for the week. Super simple yummy dinner.

Waistline: The noodles are whole wheat noodles. And I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. My kids have actually never had white noodles because I only make wheat. And they've never had ground beef in Spaghetti because again, I only use ground turkey in all of my recipes that call for ground beef. BTW: Jennie-O ground turkey is on sale at Smith's this week for $2.79 per 1.25 lb package which is an amazing deal.

Pan Fried Pork Chops

Before I even had a chance to decide what to make for dinner tonight I read the Pioneer Woman's blog and found this little wonder. I'm quite excited because I have plenty of pork chops in my freezer. Which makes the cost on those $0. I also have some potatoes so check on that. They aren't new potatoes but they will do.

My friend Mindy's husband's father (say that four times fast) is a corn farmer down in Southern Utah. They have a corn fest every year and then Kevin and Mindy bring home tons of sweet corn on the cob. Last year we sealed a bunch in freezer bags with this nifty device and so we're still stocked full on yummy corn. How about that? Oh and since we are such good friends, it was free. That's right. A years worth of corn-free.

Frugality: No money out of pocket for dinner tonight.

Waistline: Um, ya. Didn't do so well on that one tonight. But don't they look yummy? And to think, all of the ingredients are in my house already. Although it is glaringly obvious that there is nothing green on my plate. Next time I'd do a wedge salad instead of corn.

Melinda's homemade Pizza with a Twist and the Pioneer Woman's Ceaser Salad

Using 3 burners at once!

I love that you are advised to eat this salad with your fingers. The kids loved that.

So tonight for dinner I made homemade pizza. My neighbor Melinda gave me the recipe and it is so good. I use wheat flour instead of white. Which may be the reason it won't rise like I think it should. Any ideas on that? Whenever I make any type of bread I have a hard time getting it to rise. Why? I'm not sure. I don't think I am killing the yeast. It looks like its "growing" in the water, especially once I add a little sugar. But for some reason I can't get it to rise into a big poof. Anyway.

The kids helped me add the toppings. And my husband helped with the chopping of the veggies. It was really good. I think they key to any good pizza is to bake it on a pizza stone. It makes the crust so much better. I forgot to add the olives, which I love an my husband hates. But it was still good.

The salad was so good too. I got the recipe from my newest favorite blogger The Pioneer Woman. I love her! Ceaser Salad is definitely one of my favorite salads. I even made the croutons. Hello! I made croutons. I was so proud of myself. They were really easy too. But I have decided that I want a food processor. A good one. I have one that someone gave me that isn't so great and worked for about a month. It is now in my cupboard taking up valuable space and still not working. Hmmm...my birthday is coming up. Do you think that would be a good gift?

Frugality: I already had all of the ingredients to make the dough, the pizza sauce and part of the dressing. I also had the sausage and olives. So all I had to buy was the cheese, pepperoni, the french bread and the veggies. Quite a frugal meal if I do say so myself. And yummy. All of the kids ate it up.

Waist Line: I used wheat flour instead of white. And I used light mayo for the dressing.

Success.

Here goes nothing...

So I do not cook. Well I seldom cook. And I know I should and so I have found new resolve to do so. So I am starting this blog as a way to possibly motivate me. We need to save money here in our humble home and cooking at home is going to do wonders. At least that's what my husband keep telling me. Oy! But he is right...at least about this.

I also want to cook the "frugal" way. In other words I want to save money by eating at home and save even more money by shopping smart and planning my meals around weekly sales and coupons and such.

And last but not least I want to start cooking at home more because I want to lose some weight. (What's new huh?) Eating out and eating crap is not conducive to a slender figure. Who knew? Why can't chips and sweets be good for you? They taste so good. What gives? I know, I know, a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips. Or the belly in my case. Or as my good friend LouLou would say her "placenta". LOL!

It's not that I don't know how to cook some things. I cook a mean spaghetti. (A "healthified" one at that with ground turkey instead of ground beef and wheat pasta instead of white.) But who doesn't. It's so easy. And I can make tacos. Oh ya, I make amazing tacos. And breakfast for dinner. That I can do. In fact I make the pancakes or waffles from scratch and they are delicious. That's probably because it's more like baking. And I can bake. Most of the time. I took dinner to my friend's house tonight. I took some cupcakes I thought were going to be great. I got home and took a bite and yuck! The frosting was horrible and I am so embarrassed!

But that is all in the past and I am going to cook for my sweet Famiglia! I love them so! Join me on my journey. It'll be interesting, trust me.