Coconut-Pecan Granola

I have been making granola for several years, but I have finally found a combination that I really like. And it's SUPER healthy. I love it mixed in with yogurt or with milk. The fun thing about granola is that you can mix and match the ingredients to whatever you would like. You can add more sweeteners to make it sweeter. You can mix up the type of fruit you put it. Try different kinds of nuts. As long as your dry/sweet ratio stays pretty much the same, you're good!

8 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup maple syrup (pure, not pancake syrup)
3/4 cup honey (I used raw, unfiltered honey for this and it was wonderful)
1 cup coconut oil
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 T. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325*F. Line 2 large baking sheets (with sides) with parchment paper, or use nonstick spray.
Mix together the oats, wheat germ, pecans, sunflower seeds, and coconut in a large bowl.
Put salt, maple syrup, honey, coconut oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix well, making sure everything is coated.
Spread evenly in the 2 sheets and put in the oven. Bake 20 - 30 minutes. Stir halfway through and rotate the sheets if they're on different racks. (I baked this last batch for 20 minutes and it's still a little soft, not quite crunchy. Next time I'll bake a little longer.)
Let the granola completely cool and store in airtight containers. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday!!!

So, here's my menu plan for the next 2 weeks. I am sticking with not assigning each meal to a day - it seems to work better for us that way. Then I don't feel like I'm not following the "plan" when I switch days. (I know, I'm weird.)


Fried Rice with frozen eggrolls

Buffalo Chicken Dip (Crockpot)

Chicken and Dumplings (Crockpot) - RECIPE BELOW!

French toast (homemade sweet bread) with bacon and eggs

White Cheese Pizza

Black bean burritos

Taco salad (using black beans from burritos)

Chicken Caesar Salad (with homemade french bread and croutons)

Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Crockpot)

Nasty Nachos with lentils

Autumn Sausage Casserole (Crockpot)


I also bought 3 frozen/convenience meals for the next two weeks. Sometimes there are days where I just don't feel like cooking and we figured that eating a frozen meal is cheaper than going to eat out. We're trying really hard to cut down our eating out budget. Really hard! I also am trying to plan more meals in the crockpot...that way I can start dinner in the morning to avoid the "what's for dinner" rush in the evening.





Chicken & Dumplings

4 chicken breasts (boneless skinless)
2 cans cream of chicken/mushroom soup
2 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, chopped
1 large can refrigerated biscuits

Put chicken, soup, butter and onion in crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.
Now, you can do the dumplings a couple different ways. A half hour before serving, you can tear up the biscuit dough into pieces and put them on top of the chicken in the crockpot. Set on high and let them cook for 1/2 hour. This will cook the biscuits thoroughly, but they will still have that "wet" dumpling texture. OR, you can bake the biscuits separately in the oven and then serve the chicken and sauce on top of a couple of split biscuits. This is our favorite way. :)



Don't forget I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menus!!!

Menu Plan Monday!!!

Monday - Chicken Pot Pie (but, with this instead of chicken....shhhhhhh)

Tuesday - Butternut Squash Soup with garlic bread

Wednesday - French Toast with eggs and fruit

Thursday - Lentil Haystacks with green beans

Friday - Homemade Pizza (Canadian bacon & pineapple) and breadsticks

Saturday - Pasta Salad of some sort

Sunday - Eat out? Please?


Don't forget to check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for many many many more menus!

Homemade Pita Bread

I am never buying pita bread from the store again! It is so easy to make it at home - and much more delicious, too!

Pita Bread
(adapted from The Fresh Loaf)

3 cups bread flour (I'm sure all-purpose flour would work fine, too)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 packet yeast
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the oil and 1 1/4 cup water and mix ingredients in mixer (with dough hook). All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water. Allow mixer to knead dough for about 10 minutes. (Or you can knead by hand for same amount of time on lightly floured surface.)

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn't necessary.

Eat them!!!

**As you can see from the pictures, not all of my pitas puffed up like they were "supposed to." But, they still turned out awesome. They were just more like flat-bread than the pita bread that we're used to buying at the store.

Menu Plan Monday!!!

Hey! It seems like the only thing I post anymore is MPM! I'll have to work on that this week. :) I am officially done watching the 2 little girls I had for about a month. They're mom decided to stay at home again and it was just a really big challenge for me. So, we're back to just Jack & me during the day! Hopefully that will free up more time for me to do other things during the day - like blog. You know - the important things.

Monday - White Cheese Pizza (see recipe below)

Tuesday - Potato Soup (still have to find a recipe...but, we got some potatoes at the farmer's market this weekend and I want to use them up!)

Wednesday - Falafels with Hummus and Tzaziki Dip (everything homemade!)

Thursday - Spaghetti with garlic french bread

Friday - Grilled sandwiches with soup

Saturday - Taco Salad

Sunday - I don't know!



White Cheese Pizza

1 cup of skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, plus additional for garnish
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
Pillsbury Refrigerated pizza dough (I am using homemade, though)
1 cup or more of sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup or more of mozzarella cheese
1 cup of diced tomato


Preheat oven to 450*. In a bowl, combine ricotta, Parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Place crust on cookie sheet and top evenly with cheese mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake until golden (about 10-12) minutes. Sprinkle with tomatoes and chopped basil.


As always, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for hundreds of more menus!!!

Awesome Breakfast

I made these muffins yesterday and they are AMAZING. I especially love the fact that there isn't any added sugar to the recipe - other than the powdered sugar icing. But, you could easily leave that off. :)

Baked Apple & Cinnamon French Toast Cups
(adapted from Stephanie's Kitchen (not me))

8 slices whole wheat bread, cut into cubes

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the apples:

2 large apples of your choice, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a medium skillet, saute apples with butter and cinnamon for about 5 minutes, or until soft. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon until well combined. Add bread cubes and mix together until all the bread is saturated. Add the apples and mix until well distributed.

3. Using a regular size muffin tin, scoop bread evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until set and lightly golden brown. Allow muffins to cool a bit before drizzling with icing.

4. Mix 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons milk until smooth. Drizzle on top of french toast cups. Enjoy!!

Apple Pie Muffins

These are a favorite around here. They are sooooo easy to make and they're delicious!

Apple Pie Muffins

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
5 Tbsp butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 cups diced apples
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a muffin pan (I usually make mini muffins) with cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate smaller bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla and the 1 cups of sugar. Combine wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in diced apples. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes for mini muffins, or 22-25 minutes for standard muffins. While muffins are baking, melt 3 Tbsp. butter and in a separate bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon; set aside. When muffins are done, remove from the pan, and dip the tops in the melted butter and then in the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Fruit Pizza

I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was sooooooooo good. Lonnie wasn't crazy about it and Jack wouldn't even try it, so I got the whole thing to myself (good and bad).

First, I made the crust. Super easy. It was just a pre-made refrigerated roll of sugar cookie dough. Sliced into pieces and then smushed out to a circle. I don't have a pizza pan (I know!), so I used the biggest cookie sheet I had. It worked out fine.

Then I made the cream cheese frosting-type-stuff. Oh yum. A word to the wise...wait until the crust cools completely before trying to spread the frosting. I got a little anxious and it turned out like this.

So, while I was waiting for the crust to cool, I sliced up my fruit. Yum.

Finally the crust was cool enough to spread the frosting without having it melt and go all over the place.

Then came the really fun part - figuring out how I wanted to put the fruit on. It turned out so pretty. :)

The last step is a glaze that goes over the whole thing. I think I didn't let mine boil long enough, because it was pretty runny and ended up all over the cookie sheet. I also didn't have any OJ on hand, so I used the canned "juice" from the mandarin oranges. It didn't matter though - it still tasted wonderful!!!

Fruit Pizza II

(adapted from allrecipes.com)




1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 pint blueberries

3 kiwis

1 small can mandarin oranges

1/2 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water



DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slice cookie dough and arrange on greased pizza pan, overlapping edges. Press dough flat into pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool.


In a large bowl, soften cream cheese, then fold in the whipped topping. Spread over cooled crust. You can chill for a while at this point, or continue by arranging the fruit.


Begin with strawberries, sliced in half. Arrange in a circle around the outside edge. Continue with fruit of your choice, working towards the middle. If bananas are used, dip them in lemon juice so they don't darken. Then make a sauce to spoon over fruit.


In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, corn starch, orange juice, lemon juice and water. Cook and stir over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat, and add grated orange rind. Allow to cool, but not set up. Spoon over fruit.



Chill for two hours, then cut into wedges and serve.

All My Byself

My mom will appreciate the title. It's how I used to say "all by myself" as a toddler.

I made spaghetti sauce yesterday...all my byself. I made my own recipe. I browsed a few online and mashed them all together to make my own. And....it was delicious!!! I was so proud of myself. If you're interested, here's the recipe!


Stephanie's Spaghetti Sauce

1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 beef bouillon cube
3/4 c. water
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
fresh basil (optional)

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil (onions first for a few minutes, then garlic) until onions are translucent. Add tomato paste and mix with the veggies for a minute. Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir. Add bouillon cubes, water, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Let sauce simmer for a couple of hours. Mix in fresh basil. Enjoy!

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

Yummy! I found a recipe for homemade vanilla wafers on a forum that I frequent and just had to make them. They are delicious. And much cheaper than the boxed variety too! To make them more "crunchy" like the store-bought ones, you can leave them in the oven a little longer until they are completely golden. I took ours out just when the bottoms were golden, so they're a little softer on the inside. :)

Vanilla Wafers

1/2 Butter (softened)
1 c sugar
1 egg
1-1/3 c flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 T vanilla

Cream butter & sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture and mix well. Drop by small spoonfuls 2 in apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350* for 12-15, or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool. Makes about 3-1/2 dozen.