More Healthy Alternatives

I like to eat healthy, but I sooo enjoy having some sugar. Sometimes I'm looking for a "more healthy" option rather than a healthy option :) So these tricks probably aren't for the person on a diet, but rather the person looking to cut back a little. Did you know you can substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in almost any bread type recipe? I had a friend in college who was an excellent baker and she taught me this trick. I've used it in store-bought cakes and muffin recipes.

I hate having to buy special ingredients for recipes {especially perishable ones}. It seems I only use a small amount and then the rest of the container goes bad because I don't know what to do with it. One such ingredient for me is buttermilk {which I rarely use in baking or cooking} so when a recipe calls for it I make my own from scratch. Not only do I save money and avoid waste, it also contains less fat - especially if you use skim or 1% milk. Put 1 Tbs. lemon juice in a glass measuring cup and add milk until you have one cup. Let this mixture sit for at least 5 minutes before using in a recipe. Can't tell the difference!

If these tricks sounds familiar, it might be because I posted this information in my "Mommy can I have another" best ever bran muffin recipe, but sometimes it's helpful to have the info right in front of you. Or maybe you didn't even see these substitution tricks because you tuned out when you saw the words bran muffin. It's okay. Not everyone likes muffin tops. Or bran. But now you have a couple more tricks up your sleeve.

"Mommy can I have another" Muffins

Tate told me this morning that he can eat five of these in one sitting, but I cut him off at four and handed him a yogurt. My kids absolutely LOVE these muffins. The recipe makes about three dozen, and they're usually gone within 24 hours. The nice thing, is that if your family knows how to pace themselves {unlike mine} the batter can be refrigerated for up to two weeks so you can pop them in the oven and have fresh, warm muffins anytime you like. This is especially handy on busy work or school mornings. I haven't tried freezing the batter yet, perhaps I'll give it a shot next time. Without further ado, here are the best bran muffins ever {at least, they're the only ones I've ever enjoyed}.

Bran Muffins
2 C All-Bran
1 C Bran Buds
1 C boiling water

Combine above ingredients and let sit until not hot anymore.
Then add the following ingredients:

2 beaten eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil*
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 1/2 C Flour
2 1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 C Buttermilk**

Mix ingredients well, pour into greased muffin tins, and bake at 400 F for 18-20 minutes. Leftover batter can be stored in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

*You can substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in most bread type recipes {including store bought cake mixes}. I've don it in this recipe and can't taste the difference.
**No buttermilk? No problem! In a glass measuring bowl, put 2 Tbs. lemon juice and fill with milk until you have 2 cups. Let sit for five minutes before using it in recipe.

Asian Salad

Camille absolutely loves this salad! She requested it this year for her birthday dinner and asked me to put it in her "cookbook." We also had sesame chicken wings and white rice.

Asian Salad
2 packages Ramen noodles, crushed (discard seasoning packet)
1 tsp. sesame seeds
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 head cabbage, shredded or finely chopped (or a bag of coleslaw blend if you don't want to do any chopping)
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
3/4 C vegetable oil
1/4 C distilled white vinegar
1/2 C white sugar
2 Tbs. soy sauce

1. In a small sauce pan bring vegetable oil, sugar, and vinegar to boil for 1 minute. Cool. Add soy sauce.
2. In a medium skillet over low heat, melt butter and brown ramen noodles and sesame seeds. Once browned, remove from heat and cool.
3. In a large bowl combine shredded cabbage and chopped green onions. Add the noodle and soy sauce mixtures.  Toss to coat, and serve immediately so noodles stay crunchy.

Cheesy Potato Casserole

I made this recipe the other night for the first time, though we were pretty sure we'd love it because it is one of Todd's favorite family recipes (also known as funeral potatoes). It was super hot when it came out of the oven, so Todd began dishing it out on the kids' plates so it could cool. Tate was very alarmed by such action and exclaimed, "What are you doing?! What if I don't like that?" To which we replied he could pass it on over! Tate's eyes got big as he tasted it and continued to shovel it in. He then had seconds.

Cheesy Potatoes

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

1 (32 oz..) package frozen hashbrowns

8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups cornflakes

1. Mix soup, sour cream, melted butter, hashbrowns, onion, and cheese and spread in a 9 x 13 pan.

2. Crush cornflakes and sprinkle over top.

3. Bake at 350 for 45 min. or until hot.

The Lunch Bunch

The start of school marks the beginning of early mornings, homework, and sack lunches.  It's enough to keep any mother awake with excitement {or not}. Oh, and remember those first day of school nightmares? I had the mom version where I didn't take my kids to school until 1:30...and to last year's teacher.

I think the biggest real life nightmare is going to be packing lunches. My sack lunches are pretty standard and seem to illicit groans and pleas for expensive school lunches. Today was the first day of school and I'm already stuck in a rut. I need some fresh ideas to satisfy the kiddos and myself. No, I'm not planning on going back to school, but I hate making lunch twice. If I make the lunches tempting enough, maybe even the hubby will get in on the "let's save money and pack our own lunches" program.

My goal is to make packing lunches fast, easy, healthy, affordable, and fun. Oh, and without the kids complaining. Impossible? We shall see. On that note, I'd better start with fun {and healthy}. Here are some ideas I've collected for this school year:

• Have the kids sit down with me and make a list of their favorite fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat choices. I'll pick from this list when I'm making my meal plan for lunches.
• Try new combinations. Mix two fruits together, switch up the bread choices {waffles, pancakes, bagels, English muffins, pitas, croissants, tortillas}, chicken and tuna salads, veggie sandwiches, etc.
• Add dips for fruits and vegetables. Here are some adaptable ideas for packaging anything that needs a dip.
• Cut it out! Kids {and grownups} like variety. Just cutting or slicing something differently can make it more appealing. Mellon balls instead of wedges, apples sliced so you can see the "star" in the center, cheese cut into shapes, fruit pieces to eat with a toothpick {Sidenote, I just tried this yesterday at home - the kids had apple pieces with a toothpick for a fork, and Camille said, "Ooooh. Fancy apples!}
• Improve presentation. The kids got {cute} new lunch boxes and I'm going to try to package things differently.  Camille saw a cute little cottage cheese and fruit combo at the store, and I'm pretty sure it was the package she wanted more than the contents. So this falls under the new combo category also...at her request. Keep it interesting! Sometimes I'll put a sticky note on a tupperware container. Or have a "find the sticker in your lunch" day. But not EVERY day. That would be way too much work. Just when things are getting a little boring.

Here are some fun resources I plan to reference regularly in my quest to make lunch time more interesting. Some of the above info came from these websites also.
free lunchbox printables
www.weelicious.com/ This is a great resource! More than just lunch recipes - her videos are fresh and fun with some great tips on keeping mealtimes interesting.
http://www.ilunchbox.com/ Devoted to all things lunch.
http://www.laptoplunches.com/ 365 lunch ideas. You can also sign up to receive weekly lunch menus
http://www.school-lunch-ideas.com/ Looks like a fun site I could get lost in!
More lunch ideas
Sandwich and snack ideas

How do you keep sack lunches fun for your kids? Any tricks on getting your hubby to take a lunch to work?

Feelin' Saucy

Have you ever opened up your cupboard to realize you only have tomato paste when you really need tomato sauce? Well I have. And more than once. In fact, it just happened the last time I made Sloppy Joes.

Enter my good friend Google. Solves many a quandary, especially in the kitchen. Here's how I made sauce from paste. I had a small 6 oz. can of tomato paste and added 1 ½ cups water to it. Yep, that's it! Some people suggest adding a little brown sugar to sweeten it, but I didn't find that necessary in my recipe. I was so happy with the results, I will never buy tomato sauce again!

Apparently the mom in me focused on the cute kitchen help instead of the ingredients. However, if you look closely you can see our homemade tomato sauce in the background on the stove.

Psst. If you only have tomato sauce and need tomato paste, I hear you can cook it in a pan until it is reduced by half. I've never tried it though, so let me know if you do and it works {or doesn't}! And while you're thinking about sharing, do you have any substitution tricks up your sleeve?

Sloppy Joes

The other day we were eating something when Camille turned to me and asked if I could give her the recipe when she grows up. For the life of me, I can't remember what we were eating {and neither can she!} Seriously, it's been about two days. So the idea was born to post all of her and Tate's favorite recipes on my blog along with a family story or memory. Hopefully along the way you'll find something you like, too.

Our sloppy Joe {baby Joseph} loves Sloppy Joes! We took this meal with us the other night when we met Todd for a picnic at the Tacoma Nature Center. They have a super fun play area with slides that look like logs, bridges over water and even some telescopes. There are also some wonderful trails for hiking, which we enjoyed after dinner. If you go before 5 pm, the indoor nature center is open with some fun exhibits for the kids. You can also pick up a list of all the animals living in the area and see how many you can find on your walk. Great fun, and all free! {for more free summertime activities check out this post}

SLOPPY JOES
1 lb. ground beef

¼ C brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. steak seasoning blend {we use McCormick Montreal seasoning}

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

2 C tomato sauce

• Break up meat in pan and add brown sugar and steak seasoning.
• When meat has browned, add onion, red bell peppers, red wine vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 min.
• Add tomato sauce; stir to combine. Reduce heat and cook 5 minutes.

I like to double this recipe and freeze half for a quick meal on a busy day.
I also prefer to make my own tomato sauce from tomato paste so I only have to stock one tomato product.
This recipe was adapted from Rachael Ray...for the original recipe, click here.

By the time we set out on our little hike the sun was getting low in the sky. Tate forged ahead with the walking stick he found.

Couldn't catch a picture of any fish jumping in the air - they're quick little buggers {truly teensy - truth be told, we couldn't even tell if they were fish}. But here you can see the water rings where they were jumping. They were all over the place!

 Feeding time for the ducks {it should be noted this was a natural meal time at the nature center - we didn't feed any animals}

The bridge behind Camille is where we saw the no-see-em' fish and the dining duck.

 

Camille found some flowers that she photographed.

  

I occasionally enjoy lagging behind my family {just for a moment} 

and quietly take in the sight of my greatest blessings.

The Great Bread Adventure

Several of my friends have asked for my bread recipe, so I posted it here. For me, getting started was the hardest part because I wanted to find the easiest, fastest way to make homemade bread. And I was really intimidated because I didn't know much anything about bread. There are a lot of great options I considered, all of which have links below...just in case I change my mind in the future about what works for me.

I learned how to see if my yeast was any good.
I had a lot of expired yeast. Apparently getting married, moving, and having a baby doesn't leave much time for baking. But here's the cool thing...the recipe above actually proofs your yeast at the begining of the recipe so you can skip this link and not waste any of your yeast! {My yeast that expired in 2009 was still good at the end of 2010, by the way. I kept it in the fridge, but it will keep even longer if kept in the freezer.}

I learned more than I ever wanted to know about yeast.
For instance, it's a fungus! Learning what hamburger really was turned three of my siblings-in-law into vegetarians. I wonder if they would stop eating bread, too. That was really the only disturbing fact, and now I've shared it with you - sorry! So go ahead, click on the link above if you're interested in yeast. Personally, I eat hamburger and bread. I know, I'm gross.

I learned I can use my bread machine for dough and then bake the bread in the oven.  I really prefer bread baked in the oven much more than in the bread machine! It all comes down to the crust; too thick, crispy and tough in the bread machine.

I learned I can use my KitchenAid mixer for dough!
Please don't laugh. I know I am soooo underutilizing my KitchenAid; it would probably make people crazy to know that until now I had only used it for mixing.  You have no idea how ecstatic I am about this - honestly, the mess of kneading dough played a big part in keeping me from making bread. Hence, the idea to use the bread machine for the dough. Since my KitchenAid discovery I have actually sold my space consuming bread machine.

I learned about freezing bread dough.
I thought about making a bunch of dough at one time and freezing it. This is great for saving on the mess, but it really doesn't save much time when you consider it has to unfreeze and rise which takes about eight hours. I actually recently tried this just to see how the bread turns out. I was NOT impresesd, as it greatly affected the quality of my bread. It almost seemed to separate - lots of air pockets when I normally don't have any. Odd.

Found a visual (yes, there are pictures!) guide to shaping bread dough for rolls and other goodies. Apparently once you have a dough recipe you like, you can shape it however you want to get different baked breads. Now that I have the dough, there's no stopping me! Except for maybe three things. You know, the short little cuties running around my house shoving freshly baked bread in their mouths.

So there you have it. Ready to bake some bread? Have you used the internet to learn a new skill that you were previously clueless about? Or find instructions for a project? Do share!

Fresh Bread

Back in December I started baking my own bread, and now we enjoy fresh delicious bread for just pennies compared to store bought bread. Several of my friends have asked for my bread recipe so I decided to post it instead of writing it a million times.
I found an amazing recipe that only takes 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. Don't stop reading because of the time commitment! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the time to do this, but if I start the bread going before breakfast it's usually done by the time we are all showered and ready to go somewhere. If I have early morning activities scheduled I do it in the evening right after dinner. So far this year I've made about 60 loaves of bread!

This recipe is so stinkin easy and actually faster than using a bread machine. What could possibly be better than easy and fast? Well, let me tell you: DELICIOUS! I read a comment that helped me modify the recipe for use with my Kitchen Aid Mixer. Of course one could easily modify it back to traditional kneading if they want to, but I have great results with much less mess! Here is my version, which also includes less sugar so it's perfect for daily bread use. If you want the original version, click here.

White Bread
2 C warm water {recipe says 110º F, but I don't use a thermometer to check - I just run my tap water until it's borderline hot}
¼ C white sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons active dry yeast
¼ C vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6 C flour

1. In a large Kitchen Aid bowl dissolve the sugar in warm water, then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam {this is when I sift my 6 cups of flour, and it's usually proofed by the time I'm done measuring and sifting}.

2. Mix salt & oil into yeast. Using dough hook, mix in one cup of flour at a time. Let dough hook knead for 5 minutes. Take out and put a little oil in bowl; turn dough to coat. Cover with plastic saran wrap and a towel. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk; about 1 hour.

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a couple minutes til it's not oily anymore and cut in half. Use a rolling pin to squish out all the air bubbles and roll it into a rectangle shape about as wide as your bread pan, maybe a touch wider. Roll up, tuck in the edges to shape into loaves, and place in two well greased bread pans seam-side down. Cover with same saran wrap from above, cover with a towel, and let rise 30 minutes or until dough reaches top of pans or 1 inch above. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool 10 minutes before slicing {otherwise bread will cave...believe me, I've tried to eat it immediately and it didn't work. Even after knowing it would cave if I sliced it right away I've done it, but boy was it delicious!}

If you're interested in doing a little learning yourself, check out this post with the links I found to be the most helpful in my quest for bread knowledge. You'll find info on shaping, freezing, and more!

Update: After making this bread recipe once or twice weekly for a year and a half, I realized somewhere over time I omitted a couple steps. I haven't noticed a difference in the quality of my bread, so I updated my recipe accordingly. Raise your hand if you like fewer steps and less time to make homemade bread!

Tango with a Mango

Do you like cheese with your mango? Cause that title is cheese-y! But I am lovin mango right now, which is good because I have three of them sitting on my counter. I had a weekend with the girls in Seattle and we had such a great time! We spent the majority of our at "Time Out," a women's conference full of inspirational insight into all apects of my life from mothering to religion. It was the best time out ever! Isn't it funny how as adults we long for the things we despised as kids? PLEASE, will someone give me a time out, send me to my room, make me take a nap, or better yet...put me to bed early?!

Anyway, we were just blocks away from Pike Place Market so we decided to head over and do the tourist thing.

There is always so much to see, smell, and taste at the market - it's like sensory overload. I wish I had a sensory filter, though. Fish is fun to watch fly through the air, but the smell? Ick. There were the usual jams, honeys, and spreads to try but this time I found a couple new things. I tried some veggie chips - pretty good, but not worth nine buckaroos for a small bag. I also sampled some delicious mango. I wanted to take one home for the kiddos to try, but I used the last of my cash to buy a flower bouquet. In order to use my handy dandy debit card I had to buy at least $5 of produce, which scored me three mangos. 

Once home I had a hard time figuring out how I was supposed to cut this thing. There is a seed in the center which is long and flat! So I went to my favorite source, the Internet to figure out the best way to cut this thing open. It's my lucky day...there is a National Mango Board! I never would have imagined. Now I have the ultimate mango source for all things mango. So check it out and grab a mango!

Side note: My photo skills were feeling weak during this trip. Plus I was pushing a stroller through mobs of people and trying to hold tight to my beautiful bouquet while making sure my wallet didn't topple out of my overstuffed diaper bag. So it's time to give credit to those whose pictures I snagged online. Pictures from here and here.