"Gourmet" Muffins from a $0.50 Mix

I am a bit embarrassed to confess this, but there are moments when I 

feel like I just don't have time to even cream butter and sugar together....

The pace of this season in my life feels a little frantic, so making an array

of home-baked good feels like an unreachable goal, but my kids love

sweets and treats.

The other night, I looked in my fridge and saw half of a bag of cranberries

left over and I remembered that I had one of those $0.50 blueberry muffin mixes.

Now, on their own, the muffin mixes can be gross, but with a few "extra" ingredients, I realized that I can make "gourmet" muffins!

Take 1 package of your dry muffin mix....

Add-ins:

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk (this was an original ingredient from the package)

1 egg

1/3-1/2 cup flour

1/2 bag of cranberries

sugar for sprinking

I just mixed in all the extras but the cranberries.  Add enough flour to

make a thick, almost paste-like consistency.

Add in the cranberries and spoon into muffin papers.

I then like to sprinkle about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar over the top of the muffins.

Bake at 425 degrees about 15-18 minutes, just until the tops are brown.

You'll end up with "homemade" muffins in no time.......and no creaming involved!!

Do you have any creative "shortcuts"??

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On the Grill Potato Packs

I have been a little AWOL....but I have been loving my break from blogging!

As I have mentioned before, my boys have been swimming....and 

swimming...and swimming!

It has, by far, been the most exciting summer of swimming!

They each made it as far as they could in their individual events, placing 9th and 11th!

While I have not felt like blogging, I have been doing a lot of summer cooking

on the grill.  It has just been TOO hot to turn on the oven!

Here's a quick and easy side dish that you can make on the grill....

This is one of the easiest side dishes to throw together and can be

made a variety of ways!

The first thing that I do is slice the potatoes and cook them for about 5 minutes 

in the microwave.  This decreases the cooking time on the grill and insures

sure that the potatoes are cooked through.

Here is what I put in my first packet:

I've also been know to throw in some mushrooms!

After assembling the packet, you can add pats of butter of the top

or I drizzled some olive oil over this version.

My kids don't like all the veggies, so I made a simpler version for them, leaving

out the "extra" veggies!

After you add and season your ingredients, just seal your packet and put it on the grill.  Cook it for about 10 minutes until it's steaming and smelling delicious!

You could make these on the grill or over a camp fire....it's one of my favorite summer sides!

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Beef Wonton Cups

I am trying to get myself organized and make some freezer meals for my days

in the fall that I know are going to be busy.

For inspiration, I have been using the A Turtle's Life for Me blog post on freezer cooking

and football freezer cooking......SO helpful!

I saw this recipe on the football freezer cooking post and 

tweeked it a little for my family.

My hubby, especially, likes to eat healthy, so I filled these with tons of fresh veggies!

I used about 1 pound of beef and about 1 cup of each veggie.....you 

know me, I just don't measure!

Missing from the picture are the won-ton wrappers.....I searched high and low in my grocery

store for these and the 16 year old teenie-bopper cashier was no help in locating them!

I finally found my won-ton wrappers in the produce aisle above what were 

called the "stir-fry" veggies.....go figure!

You will want to precook the wrapper....note, when Natalie says to keep the wrappers "open" she means that when you put them in the cupcake pan, any indentation will harden making it impossible to actually fill it!

Yep....I learned that the hard way!

I used a mini-cupcake pan sprayed with cooking oil and cooked the 

empty shells for 6-8 minutes at 350 degrees.

While the wrappers cooked, I fried my lean beef, drained the grease and then 

added red onions, red peppers, mushrooms, and fresh basil.

Once everything was cooked, I added about 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese.

I used a tablespoon to fill my wrappers with the beef/veggie mixture. Then, I put them back in the oven for about 7-10 minutes until they browned.

{My oven temp is off and I've been too lazy to adjust it.  If you have a hot oven, keep an eye on them to make sure that they don't get too brown!}

I froze a bunch of them and we've already tried reheating them and they are delicious!!

For the less adventurous eater's in my household, I made some taco cups, too.

I just took plain beef, seasoned it with taco seasoning and mixed in the cheddar cheese.

It makes eating "tacos" fun!

Hope that you all are staying cool in these hot temps!

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Kitchen Cleaner for a lot less....

Things have been quiet around the blog this week because they have been 

BUSY at home!

My hubby is in Northern Ireland on a mission trip and has been gone for over a week.

It's usually about this point that I start feeling a....little....bit....C-RAZY!!!

Before he leaves I always have these big plans to read.....get projects done....relax...

WHO AM I KIDDING???

He leaves and I accumulate all of his chores and mine!!  

How do I manage to forget that every year???

Before I share my "enlightened" idea about kitchen cleaner, I need to brag a bit on my boys because they are what inspired my need to go cheap on cleaner.

My boys are swimmers.  
You see, my hubby is 6'5" tall....

For a person to get that tall, you must grow a LOT and that is what hubby did, except

that he would grow in spurts. He'd start the baseball season with

20'" arms and end the season with 22" arms....that makes for a lot of strikeouts!

So when our kids were young we talked about what types of sports we could put them in......where we saw them being successful.  Baseball was out!

We landed on swimming.  
It's a sport made for long...lanky....grow-4-inches-in-a-year people with big feet.

Now, just to keep it real, this mama has ABSOLUTELY no ability for swimming.

I could tread water if necessary.....maybe even do a lap if being chased by

sharks, but putting my head underwater.....doesn't happen!

Every year my kids jokingly ask at the start of pool season..."Hey, Mom, gonna get your head wet this year?"

"No, children, you see, my chemically treated hair may just explode if it touches chlorine!"  
{That and I HATE water up my nose!}

So when my boys look like this....

and this...

and bring home some first place ribbons, I gotta get a little excited because I

had absolutely nothing to do with it!

But....isn't this supposed to be a post about KITCHEN CLEANER??

Oh yeah.....so the reason I need to cut costs with kitchen cleaner is because my

boys are swimming and eating EVERY OUNCE OF FOOD IN SIGHT!!!

Seriously, I am going broke on bananas alone.  So the other day I thought,

why don't I just buy a concentrated bottle of cleaner that I usually use to mop

floors and dilute it to make my spray cleaner??

Before I diluted it, I checked the back of the bottle, and wouldn't you know, but

they actually had instructions for how to do this!!!


Take your concentrated cleaner...

Measure out 4 ounces....the bottle calls for 1 ounce/15 ounces water, 
but I wanted to make mine stronger.

I then used my empty bottle of cleaner and filled it with 28 ounces of warmer water.
{Because 4 oz cleaner + 28 ounces water = a 32 ounce bottle!}

So what do you save by doing this??


Let's do the math:


Lysol concentrated cleaner:  $2.79/40 ounces
{If you use 4 ounces per bottle, it can make 10 32-ounce bottles of cleaner}


Total cost: $0.28/bottle!!!


AND you're reusing a plastic bottle!




You're Welcome!

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Memorial Day Dessert Ideas

Are you like me?  I wait until the last minute to plan parties and picnics....I

wish I were more organized in this department, but this is just the reality of my life!

Here are some last minute Memorial Day dessert ideas....for you and me!

{Patriotic Parfaits}

{Chocolate Covered Strawberries}

{Mini Fruit Pizzas}

{Red, White, and Blueberry Trifle}

{Sprinkled Ice Cream Sandwiches}

{Star Spangled Trifle}

{Easy Black Forest Cake}

Check back tomorrow for some Memorial Day party decor ideas!

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Cranberry-Apple Spinach Salad

We celebrated Mother's Day a week late with my Mom and I wanted to make a

special salad to go with her meal.  My friend, Cheryl, makes the best food and this

salad is one of her recipes.

It is SO good!

You will need the following ingredients....

I love these types of recipes....no measuring involved for the salad part!!

To make the sugared walnuts:

Beat 1 egg white until stiff

Add 1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Fold in:

3 cups nuts 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and melt 1/4 cup butter in the pan.

Add your nuts and stir.

Bake for 30 minutes and stir every 10 minutes.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

To make the homemade dressing:

In a blender or food processor, mix:

1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup vinegar

2/3 cup sugar

With the blender still running, slowly add 1 cup of oil.

Blend until thickened.

You can add the dressing directly to the salad or serve it on the side.  Either

way the result is amazing!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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Rosemary Ranch Chicken for the Grill

Last summer, when chicken went on sale, I stocked up and did my own mini-version of freezer meals.  I marinated the chicken tenders, threw them into reusable bags and froze them.

My hands-down favorite was this ranch chicken recipe by my friend Cheryl.

Rosemary Ranch Chicken

1 1/2 .b chicken tenders

Marinade:

1/2 c. olive oil

1/2 c. ranch dressing

3 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. minced fresh rosemary

2 t. salt

1 t. lemon juice

1 t. white vinegar

1/4 t. black pepper

1 T. sugar

*Marinate chicken over night (or freeze until ready to use, thaw) and gill.

 It is just yummy goodness!!!

As a side dish, you can try another one of Cheryl's recipes....sesame green beans!

Happy Mother's Day!

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Homemade Mushroom Soup {make in 15 minutes!}

This is one of my favorite soups to make....I'm pretty sure that I can whip
this together in about 15 minutes.....when I am not being interrupted and asked a million questions!!


I start by slicing and chopping about 4 ounces of fresh mushrooms.  I like
having both "shapes" in my soup.

I add the chopped mushrooms to about 3 Tablespoons of butter or margarine to cook.

After the mushrooms have cooked, I add 3 Tablespoons of flour.

It will look all glumpy like this...

Slowly add 2 cups of warm to hot water....I find that the hot water dissolves the flour better.

At this point I add 3-4 chicken bouillon cubes....it just depends how much
flavor you want to add.  You can add more or less.

I got interrupted at this point and forgot to take pictures of the
2 cups of milk that I added in!


At this point, your soup will be quite runny....it's time for my secret
ingredient that I add to all my creamy soups to thicken them...

.....instant mashed potatoes!!  I just shake in the flakes until
I reach the consistency that I like!




I just sprinkled some dried parsley flakes for color and in about 15 minutes...

.......yummy soup!!


This is such a quick and easy lunch or supper!

Here are some fun ways that I "spruce" up this soup and give it some variety!


Yummy mix-in's:

steamed chopped broccoli and cheddar cheese

--add in after you have warmed the milk and allow the cheese to melt in

1 potato diced

--after adding the 2 cups of water, add the diced potatoes and cook until tender

before adding the milk

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and chopped onion

--to add more flavor, chop onions and add-in and cook with the mushrooms

when adding in flour, also add the Parmesan cheese

Enjoy!

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