Baking day summary

Whew, what a crazy two days! If you weren't able to participate in Baking Day, maybe you can join in another time. You can keep up with the info. by follow Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom.

Here's what my kitchen looked like at one point today:
That's me rolling out cinnamon roll dough, with my Spalding Handbook open (on the high chair tray) for vocabulary/spelling words that I'm dictating to Jacob who's writing them in his workbook. How's that for multitasking?

On Tuesday, I only planned a small amount of cooking due to prior commitments. Even, so I got all but one item on my list complete and that was simply because I ran out of steam this afternoon.

Here's what I completed (and I'm way too lazy at this point to go pull it all out to photograph it):
3 bags of browned and seasoned taco meat
8 beef and bean burritos (these work well for quick fix lunches)
2.5 pans of chicken enchiladas (we've already eaten the small pan)
2 meals of Ziti
2 meals of spaghetti
2 meals of chicken tortilla soup
2 loaves of pumpkin bread
2 loaves of zucchini bread (one loaf has already been eaten!)
2 pans cinnamon rolls
4 pints of salsa (with my homegrown tomatoes and neighbors homegrown habaneros)
2 premade pumpkin pancake mixes (just the dry ingredients)
1 batch pumpkin scones (to take to MOPS tomorrow morning)

That comes out to 13 meals and lots of breakfasts and goodies. On the days I'll be using one of these premade meals all I'll have to do is prepare a side and throw the main course in the oven to heat through!

Be sure to head on over to Money Saving Mom's link-up to see some of the other participants and what they were able to accomplish.

Baking day, day 1 update

At the start of today, my list looked daunting. But, I have to say that even as busy as my day was without the baking/cooking added in, I managed to pull off more than I thought I could.
Meals/baking:
3lb. ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning for freezer
3lb. regular ground beef for meals on this list
Pancake mix x2
Beef/bean burritos
Pumpkin bread
Zucchini bread
Chicken enchiladas x2 - 1 to eat on Tuesday and 1 to freeze
Cinnamon rolls
Ziti
Honey pumpkin muffins x2
Salsa (using the last of my homegrown tomatoes)
Chicken tortilla soup x2
Pumpkin scones (for MOPS on Thursday morning)
Spaghetti

I think day 2 definitely looks doable now. I know that I'm starting with cinnamon rolls because while they're rising I can work on other things. Beyond that, I'll just play it by ear based on the kiddos and what items I can work on. By the end of tomorrow I hope to have everything on the list complete.

Here's what today's work looks like (minus one pan of enchiladas that we devoured for dinner).

Banana bread

Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet is hosting a great carnival today - Nourishing Sweets and Treats!! The idea is to post a recipe you enjoy that uses wholesome/natural sweeteners.

I have a wonderful banana bread recipe that uses wonderful ingredients, in fact I altered the recipe a little more today and it turned out wonderfully!

Banana Bread:
Preheat oven to 350°
1/4 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 c. sugar *
3-5 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 c. flour **
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Stir dry ingredients together. Mash bananas and add to dry mixture, mix well. Beat eggs with fork until frothy, then add to mixture. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour into a buttered loaf pan. I suggest a 9" pan because an 8" pan just might over flow and who wants to clean that mess....

Bake for approximately 1 hour. (Check at 50 minutes and add time accordingly). Cool for 10-15 minutes before turning onto a rack. I was in a hurry today and didn't let it cool in the pan long enough and the bottom stuck, that's why there aren't any photos..... Total cooling time before slicing should be appx. 1 hour.

* I use Rapadura (evaporated cane juice). I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful grocery store (King Soopers, in the Kroger family) that actually carries a less expensive brand than Whole Foods.
** Today I used 1/2 c. of oat flour and 1 1/2 c. of hard white wheat.

Stocking the freezer

I have been a busy little beaver today! Since I will be having a c-section next Friday - yes folks, I'll have THREE children in 10 short days! And to tell you the truth, I haven't freaked out yet! Probably because I have no time to freak out and that's probably a good thing. I'm not even really nervous. My head does swirl occasionally when I think about schedules and Michael only gets 10 days off work and Jacob goes to preschool 2 days a week and I only have 1 week of practice before I have to get him there on time (along with feeding and dressing everyone!!).... But, all-in-all I'd say I'm doing well.

I sat down a few days ago and made a list of meals that I wanted to go ahead and prepare and get in my freezer for those first few weeks (we'll also be getting a few meals from my MOPS group) and today I made the first batch of meals.

Here's what I made today:


This is chicken enchiladas!! I bought these disposable pans because I didn't want to tie up all of mine in the freezer and they have lids that are handy to write with a permanent marker what's in them! On this one I wrote what it is and the thawed bake time/temp. I think I went back and added the frozen time also.

This is not the healthiest meal - I used store bought flour tortillas and sauce - but the chicken is left over from a whole chicken I made recently.

I also made a smaller pan of these for our neighbor's friend because her son is in the NICU - he was born at 28 weeks nearly 2 weeks ago and I'm betting figuring out what to eat (AND take care of their toddler) just isn't a fun thing right now.




This lovely meal is zucchini parmesean. And it's a tad healthier than the enchiladas. I used fresh zucchini and battered (using spelt crumbs) and sauteed it in coconut oil. Cooked some whole wheat pasta and sadly used a jarred sauce. I layered it in the same way I would layer it on my plate if I were eating it immediately (pasta, zucchini, sauce and cheese).




This is just a quick pizza-ish thing. It's store bought hoagie rolls, sliced in half, topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni's on some. I froze them on these cookie sheets then transferred them into 2 of the same size disposable pans. I put 2 layers in each pan and separated the layers with foil.



I made all 3 of these while the boys were napping today and even got the dishes done and the counters cleaned up before they woke up! However, all of that meant I was standing for a solid 2 hours and at 37 weeks pregnant that's not great for the back. So, the kids are outside playing and I'm sitting down typing this post (yes, I can see them!!).

I also already had navy bean soup, 3 servings of meatloaf and chicken and quinoa stew in the freezer from making extra when I made those meals the last time. And there are 2 frozen pizzas.

Here's what I still have planned for the freezer:

* Brown a batch of taco meat
* Zucchini/carrot muffins (the boys and I LOVE these, Michael doesn't really care for them - he's strange!)
* Shepherd's pie

Also, I'm asking for suggestions on other meals (preferrably ones that incorporate more veggies) that work well as freezer meals to pull out and heat in the oven.

Hop on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more people who need help solving life's conundrums!

Yummy granola recipe

I actually made something I saw on tv.... I was watching Tyler's Ultimate (Tyler Florence) on Food Network while the kids napped yesterday and he was making parfaits with homemade granola. The granola looked yummy that I scavenged my kitchen and it turned out I had everything needed to make this granola (with a few minor changes)!

I changed up the recipe just a little from the original.

Here are the changes I made:

* I substituted sunflower seeds for flax seeds because I didn't have any flax
* I used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 maple sugar instead of all brown sugar
* I also did not add any dried fruit to it because I had to leave the house as soon as I took it out of the oven and by the time I came home 4.5 hours later, it was obviously already cool and I couldn't be bothered!
* Because I live at high altitude and things tend to take FOREVER to bake, I baked for 20 min. on the recommended 300F and then raised the temp. to 325F for the remaining 20 minutes and it turned out perfectly!!

You should give it a try. It was super easy and turned out to be very yummy. I even had some in my yogurt this morning!!!

Baking

Who writes a blog about baking? Me. Why? Oh, you'll see...

I'm not one of those moms that loves to bake just for fun. However, I do occasionally like to bake some cupcakes or brownies or cookies - you know, things for dessert. I don't usually bake from scratch, I simply break open a box, crack some eggs, measure some oil, etc. This is my kind of "homemade baking." Now, I have never had any problems in the baking arena, I just don't particularly enjoy it - too time consuming with all the measuring and waiting and stuff. This is how I felt until about a year ago.....

Fast forward a little. I now live in Colorado Springs. Do you know what the elevation in Colorado Springs is? 6,500 feet. Do you know what that means to the average, non-pastry schooled baker? ARGH. That's what it means. Anyone ever tried to bake at that altitude after living your whole life no more than 10 feet above sea level? Trash can. That's what happened to my first attempt at making some cupcakes about a year ago - not too long after we moved here. Aren't there high altitude instructions on the packages, you say! Yep. Do they always work? Nope. They tell you to decrease this and that or add flour and sometimes alter the temperature and the baking time. If you read the high altitude instructions carefully, they say "High altitude: 3,500 - 6,500 feet." I barely qualify in the "high altitude" category. Tell me, is there a "super high altitude" category. Because there are people that live above 6,500 feet. What do they do when baking or do they just not bake?

I tried to bake a nectarine cobbler - because we had a nectarine tree at our rent out and I canned the nectarines before we moved so that I could use them later. I got my grandma's peach cobble recipe (because hers is always soooo yummy) and attempted to alter it a bit to make it high-altitude-friendly. It turned out ok. Instead of taking 45 minutes at 350 to cook, it took over an hour....... I just don't get it and it was tough on the bottom but perfect on the top. Does the amount of oxygen in the air really make that much difference?

For now, I'll just stick to the one brownie mix and sugar cookie mix that I've found that actually work!