Baking Day

So I've stolen the idea of a Baking Day from Money Saving Mom, a blog I follow. She shares a lot of excellent recipes, some which are from Tammy's Recipes. I've mainly bookmarked the recipes from MSM and haven't searched Tammy's site on my own, but everything looks delicous, simple and affordable.
Anyways, the idea of a Baking Day is baking lots of goods you'll use throughout the week for meals. Muffins, waffles, bread, pita bread, etc. She freezes some to use at the end of the week or in future weeks. I like the idea. I don't really have a "baking day;" I tend to do it on an as need basis. Right now I bake bread when we're out, make waffles for breakfast one morning and double the batch to freeze the leftovers, make muffins while Lilers is napping, etc. We don't have a lot of leftover freezer space to freeze weekly things. It's currently full of veggies, fruit, homemade chicken stock, and freezer jam, plus meat. Maybe someday we'll get a small extra freezer, but until then, I do mini-bake days all the time. I make muffins and waffles to stretch out our cold cereal or when we don't have any on hand since there haven't been any decent sales. Soooo, in the spirit of baking day:

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
(Not in the least bit healthy, but Michael loves them)

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking pwdr
1 1/3 c. mashed ripe bananas
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 c. chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil, and egg. Sit into dry ingredients until just moistened. (Over-stir and they won't rise) Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. Makes about 1 dozen.

Possible variations: I add 1/2c. whole wheat flour and 1 c. all-purpose to make it a lil healthier, and no one's the wiser. I don't add a 1 c. chocolate chips; more like 1/3- 1/2 c., if I even add them at all. Could possibly substitute applesauce for vegetable oil-- haven't tried it, but next time I have some applesauce on hand, I plan on trying it out.

Recipe is from Hilary Grant in the Frisco 1 ward cookbook.

Deceptively Delicious

My friend introduced me to Deceptively Delicious, a cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife). She developed a lot of recipes that are kid friendly and include purees of healthy food in them. I thought it sounded interesting so we checked it out from the library and tried a few of the recipes. We really liked the ice cream sandwiches, which are basically lemon frozen yogurt in graham crackers, we HATED the hamburgers which had carrot puree in them, and we loved the two recipes below. I thought it was a good cookbook overall. One day I hope to buy it.

Applesauce Muffins

Topping

2/3 c old fashioned oats

1/4 c firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, melted

Batter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup nonfat milk

1/2 cup butternut squash or carrot puree

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups

To make the topping, stir together the oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in the margarine

To make the batter, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl or ziploc bag and stir or shake to mix. In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, vegetable puree, sugar, oil, and egg with a wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moistened. Do not overmix-the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle with the streusel topping. Bake until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the muffins, 18-20 min. Turn muffins out onto a rack and serve warm or cool.

Macaroni and Cheese 2

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat elbow macaroni

1 cup nonfat milk

1/2 cup canned navy beans or chickpeas or white beans rinsed, drained, and pureed

Nonstick cooking spray

1 12/ cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add macaroni, cook according to package directions until al dente. Drain in a colander

While macaroni is cooking, combine milk and beans in a food processor and process until pureed

Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray and set it over medium heat. Add bean mixture to the pan and cook, stirring until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add cheese and cook until melted and creamy, 1-2 minutes longer. Stir in salt, garlic powder, paprika, and pepper. Stir in macaroni and serve warm.

Homemade Bread

I've been wanting to learn how to make homemade bread. After many tries, some help from books, I finally can do it! YAY! So much healthier and no high-fructose corn syrup in our whole wheat bread! Did you know it's in bread??? I had no idea.

The best way to do it is in this book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. If you google that, New York Times did do an article on it that gives you the basic recipe; however, I recommend checking out the book from your friendly, neighborhood library. Basic recipe for a French Boule is excellent, but once you get that down, the possibilities are endless, including some great whole wheat sandwich bread. Plus it has pastrie recipes based off the same concept, so really, endless possibilties. Best part-- no kneading in any of these recipes or the next! They also just came out with a new book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Haven't checked it out but looks promising.

This is also a great recipe for One Hour Wheat Bread. Best if you have access to a standing-mixer of some sort. I have a hand mixer with the bread attachments, but it was super annoying. Could've just been mine for some reason, but it kept sticking and getting inside where the attachments click in. I ended up just kneading it, which worked out fine.

Haven't tried this recipe for Homemade Granola Bars yet, but plan on it. They look yum!! I'll post when I do.

Breakfast Granola

Update: Price out this recipe with all the ingredients. Based upon what you put in, it's $2.25-$2.75 for 2 qts or 64 ounces. A box of cereal is usually 9-12 oz. Even if I pay $1 for a box of cereal, this is still a fourth to a sixth of the cost and much healthier.

My mom would make this all the time growing up and we'd eat it with milk like cereal. It's healthy and pretty inexpensive to make. I'll write the official recipe, then how I make it:

6 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. coconut*
1/4 c. sunflower seeds*
1 c. chopped nuts
1/4 c. wheat germ

Mix all ingredients. Sir in and coat with the following mixture:

1/2 c. oil
1/3 c. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. raisins or other dried fruit (don't add these quite yet)

Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Pull out, stir around, then add dried fruit. Cook for another 5-10 minutes. Yield: about 2 qts.

In my recipe, I only put the non-* items. I'm sure it's good with the rest and even healthier, but it makes it more expensive and my mom never made it that way. You can add as much/little dried fruit and nuts as you want. I've also added cinnamon, chocolate chips, etc different times I make it to spice it up. Variation is fun!

Enjoy!

The most amazing cinnamon rolls you'll ever try!!

These cinnamon rolls are seriously amazing. Everyone always loves them and asks me for the recipe. So.... i guess I'll be nice and share my secrets.... :)

1/4 c. warm water

1/4 c. butter, melted

1/2 (3.4oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 c. warm milk

i egg, room temp

1 tbsp white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 c. bread flour

1 (.25oz) package active dry yeast

1/4 c. butter, softened

1 c. brown sugar

4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 c. chopped pecans

1/2 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 c. butter, softened

1 c. confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp milk

1. In bread machine: combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tbsp sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast. Set machine to dough cycle, press start.

** if you don't have a bread machine... like me.... :( ... just mix ingredients like you would for any bread.. let yeast sit in warm milk for 10-15 minutes until foamy, then add other ingredients and mix.

2. When dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened (i do it with melted) butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.

3. Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one-inch slices and place in buttered 9x13 pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

** at least in utah, these cinnamon rolls are usually done after about 10-12 minutes from my experience. Then again it could be crappy college ovens as well. Just make sure to watch them carefully.