Mac and Cheese

When I am running low on time and I want something quick and easy to make I can always fall back on my homemade Mac and Cheese. I have always loved macaroni and cheese and making it with fresh cheese makes it taste even better. This recipe probably isn't the yummiest homemade macaroni and cheese you will taste because it doesn't use cream but it is pretty good and I usually always have the ingredients on hand. I normally don't have cream on hand. Also, this is just a recipe that I kind of made up. I got the white sauce portion of the recipe from my mom and the rest is, well, just cheese :)

Homemade Mac and Cheese

White Sauce:

1 cup milk

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons flour

(if it isn't thickening up after you cook it for awhile just add more flour)

Put the milk in a saucepan and completely stir in the flour. Then add the butter and start to heat.

Next add about 1 cup (not really sure on the measurement, I usually just add to taste) cubed cheddar cheese. Stir until it is all melted and the sauce becomes thick. Add salt to taste.

I also like to add some ground red pepper for a little more flavor.

I pour the sauce over whole wheat noodles. This only takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare. It is usually ready for me when the noodles are done cooking.

Superhero Capes

Hello! It's been a little while since I posted... One of the reasons I've been away was my son's Superhero Birthday Party. I ended up making capes and masks for all of the party goers, so I decided to share how to make the capes here on the blog.

First off I started with two rectangles of fabric measuring 22 in x 27 in. I then used this tutorial from Serving Pink Lemonade - a blog I follow, to make the capes.

Since I was doing the capes for a birthday party I didn't want to do the normal Batman/Superman thing (plus I had already made those capes for my son for Christmas) so I decided to go with a simple oval with the first letter of the child's name.

I just drew the oval in Microsoft Word. For the initials I downloaded the font Adventure from urbanfonts.com (I love downloading free fonts) and enlarged them to 400 in Word.

I then ironed some of my fabulous Heat-n-bond to the back of some felt and traced the letters on BACKWARDS.

Cut them out....

And ironed them on.

And there you have it! A fun cape for your own little Superhero.

MMMmmm makeovers

I was supposed to post on Monday, but since Ramen Queen obliged with her post, I'm taking her day today. 

Last week I pulled out some leftover beef stew that I had stuck in the freezer after St. Patrick's Day, and I decided to turn it into little pasties or turnovers.  You can call them what you like, but they were essentially handheld meat pies. 

 

Pasties/Turnovers/Meat Pies

Ingredients:

Leftover stew

Pastry/Pie dough--this can be store bought dough or homemade.  See my post from Feb. 28 for a great recipe to work with.

 Gravy--you can use homemade or store bought gravy mixes.

To start off, give your stew a quick analysis.  Is it thick or thin?  If your stew is real juicy you can do a couple of things--

1.You can drain it off and heat up and thicken it to make a gravy to be served with your pasties; 

2.You can add a few spoonfuls of flour to your stew to thicken it up so it doesn't run all over your dough; 

3. You can work with your stew as is.  

I chose to add a bit of flour to my stew to thicken it up a bit.  

I rolled out my pastry dough on a floured surface, so it was pretty thin-about 1/8 inch thick, but I could move it around without it breaking or tearing.  I used a clean large yogurt container to cut out my circles--anything about 4 or 5 inches in diameter would work as well.  

I spooned two tablespoons of stew onto the circle, moistened the edge with water to create a seal, and folded over the dough.  

I then used a fork to crimp the edge and complete the seal.  

I poked it a couple of times to vent my turnover a little and then put it onto my cookie sheet.  

I baked them for about 20-25 minutes or so, at 400 degrees until the edges got nice and golden brown.  Instead of making homemade gravy, which I could have done with the gravy from the stew, I opted to use a couple of packets of gravy mix that I had in my pantry.  Some of my family members like to dip these in ketchup instead of gravy.  

Serve with a green salad and you're set for a delicious meal.  Happy baking!

-Baker

Terrific Tuesday Two-week Menu

So I am a day early posting this as it's not Tuesday yet, but I want to get my dinner menu up for the next two weeks. It's a new month with a new food budget! Last month the food budget was a little different because we spent a week at my sister's house and made dinner for her every night (except for two nights).  The money put towards food on our trip came out of the "vacation" money. This month, the food budget is higher than last--if you don't include the food bought on the trip.  I'm pleased to announce that April is Ramen Free month, ha ha, for me anyway. But, it's still a very conservative menu, so here goes.

April 3-9

Sunday: Homemade scones with toppings (cheese, pepperoni, honey)
Monday: Stirfry with shredded chicken, green peppers, white onions, homemade mint brownies for FHE dessert
Tuesday: Mashed potatoes, corn
Wednesday: Rice with black beans
Thursday: Stuffed Peppers with rice, diced tomatoes and sausage
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Macaroni & cheese (box), broccoli


April 10-16

Sunday: Eggs, toast, applesauce (omelet, scrambled, hard boiled...however the kids want them!)
Monday: Potato soup, homemade rolls
Tuesday: Spaghetti, green salad
Wednesday: BBQ shredded pork on homemade rolls (use leftover rolls from Monday), peas
Thursday: Tuna pinwheels, broccoli
Friday: Fettuccine with homemade white sauce, corn
Saturday: Macaroni & cheese (box), peas

When I have put up menus, I have just been putting up dinners.  This is what we will eat this week for the other meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal at least once a week, cold cereal and pancakes/waffles/German pancakes on Saturday
Lunch: PB&J or leftovers, fruit--apples or oranges
Snack: Chex mix, fish crackers, and/or applesauce

Have fun with your menu too!

~Ramen Queen

April Fools!

This Friday is April Fool's Day. I don't know about you, but it is so much fun coming up with something to try and fool my family. My favorite by far was the meatloaf cake I made, frosted with mashed potatoes and topped with cherry tomatoes.

Another year I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast complete with frosting--but they were really tuna pinwheels with sour cream. I've also made a pot pie, but instead of a meat filling, inside it had macaroni and cheese.

There is also the mashed potato sundae, topped with nuts, a cherry tomato and gravy for caramel sauce. Another fun thing is to mix up when you serve things, like having dinner for breakfast, breakfast for lunch and lunch for dinner.

The Friend has some great ideas. You can find them here: http://lds.org/friend/1997/04/kitchen-krafts-april-fools-day-celebration?lang=eng&query=april+fools

I would love to read your comments on fun things you have done to "fool" your families!

Happy Fooling!
~Homemaker

March Madness, A Novel

March Madness is almost over, but the madness at our house will continue on with cutting back on groceries. The New Year pay check came with a slight inflation raise and a cut on Social Security/Medicaid taxes, giving us another little chunk of money each month. The hopes of spending more on groceries was the plan, but so were other financial goals--one being the kids' college funds. The goals won.

We opened up our eldest son's college fund just two weeks ago.  Cutting back in groceries has freed up money to help us reach this goal.  We have four more kids to open funds for, but at least the oldest has somewhat of a start.  In 2009 our budgeted money for groceries was about $350 per month and at times I would spend upwards of $400.  (To this day I am still working on staying in budget!) But now that we're spending less money on groceries (which I DO want to increase someday), about $200 to $225, that frees up about $100 to $150 extra a month to put towards goals....like a college fund!

I recently finished this book by Zac Bissonnette.  This is my first book I've read about kids and college.  My oldest boy is only 7, but after hearing about this book on the Dave Ramsey show I wanted to read it.  I am glad I did.  I could probably fit all I liked about this book into one, short chapter.  But, I would recommend reading the whole thing. 

                                      Image from Amazon.com
My husband and I were really blessed and our parents were able to help some financially with our schooling.  They didn't pay everything--we definitely had to work--but we were both blessed by their help. We'd like to do the same for our children.  Possibly a we'll-pay-tuition-and-books-and-you-pay-housing-and-food type of deal. The old adage Time is Money applies to me right now.  I have time on my side and should put it to use and have interest as a partner--not enemy.There were a couple of things I learned in this book that I had never thought of (not too hard for me though!). My favorite was this:

Anyone...who says the current levels of student loan debt won't have a material impact on people's ability to build wealth is full of it...

...How would student loan debt have impacted your financial life? The average graduate will spend about $200 per month on student loan debt for twenty years before she's finally free. Were you rolling in dough to the extent that you could have done that when you were in your twenties and thirties?  Given that more than half of Americans don't have enough in savings for retirement, the answer is most likely no. Let's add some numbers to the mix to make this more (or less) fun.  Student 1 graduates with the national average in student loan debt.  He spends the next twenty years dutifully sending in $200 per month.  He does no saving.  Student 2 graduates with no student loan debt and spends the next twenty years dutifully saving $200 per month and investing it at 11 percent per year.  He does no other saving.

After twenty years Student 1 will have achieved a net worth of zero. Congratulations! After twenty years, Student 2 will have $173,126.61.  At this point, let's say that both graduates are forty-one years old, and have another twenty-four years until they reach retirement.  Student 2 lets his savings ride and contributes nothing more. By the time he reaches retirement, he will have $2,397,069.89.  All because he didn't have to make a couple hundred bucks a month in student loan payments. That's the average. If your child's monthly payments are $400 a month, double all those numbers.  And, of course, life can intervene with the ability to make payments.  If your child misses a payment or two for whatever reason, fees and charges can turn it into a real mess. 

A woman recently e-mailed me to say that she and her husband have a combined $60,000 in student loan debt and refer to it as the little ski lodge in Wisconsin that they'll never actually have.  

 Wow.  I had never though of student loans like that--as being able to reduce my ability to build wealth.  If Lee and I had come out of school with no loans, how awesome would it have been to have invested $38,000 right out of school?! We were extremely blessed though, and paid off our loans in one year.  And truthfully, I don't know how we would have done school otherwise.  

Now we are working hard to have future funds available to our kids when they go to college. This way once kids start college we won't have to use any (or hopefully hardly any) of our income at that future time. And when college rolls around my husband and I can buy a BMW instead of paying college tuition. 

So next time I am eating ramen, I just need to remind myself of the future good we're accomplishing.










                                 Image from ednewscolorado.org


~Ramen Queen

Egg Rolls

Last Thursday I couldn't resist making Ramen Queen's yummy Chinese Chicken Salad.  This salad makes so much that there are always leftovers at our house.  A great way to use up the salad is to use it as a filling in egg rolls!  I know ramen noodles are not typically in egg rolls, but if you think about the other ingredients--cabbage, carrots, green onions, chicken or pork, seasoning--I already had all of those ingredients in the salad.  In the past I have stir fried the salad before using it in my egg rolls, but this time I opted to use it as is.  It worked great. 

You can pick up egg roll wrappers in the produce section of your grocery store.  It's by the tofu/organic stuff.  You can get a package of 20 for less than $2.50.  Or you can make the wrappers yourself.  It's not hard, but it does take a lot more time.  I'll cover that another day. 

Step 1: Open the package of egg roll wrappers, turn them on point, so that they resemble (somewhat) a diamond shape.  Turn your oven on to 400 degrees to bake them, or heat your oil to fry them. 

Step 2: Have a little bowl or cup of water handy next to you on the counter.  This is to dip your fingers in to brush water on to the edge of your wrappers to create a seal on the egg roll.

Step 3:  Put 2 tablespoons of filling (the chinese chicken salad) into the center of the wrapper.

Step 4:  Fold up the bottom point of the diamond (the one closest to you) up over the filling.

Step 5:  Fold in the two middle points to the center of the egg roll.

Step 6:  Moisten the edge of the top point (the one away from you) with water (you don't need very much water) and roll the egg roll up. 

Step 7:  Place on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, seam side down. 

Repeat steps 3 through 7 until the wrappers or the salad is all used up.  You can refrigerate any leftovers to use another time. 

Brush the tops of the egg rolls with olive oil or spray them quick with your cooking spray (skip this step if you opt to fry them).  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.   Or you can fry them in hot oil for 2-3 minutes on each side.  

The back of the package should have these instructions, plus pictures so you know what you are doing!

Round out your meal with plain rice or fried rice.  

I like to serve them with Teriyaki sauce.  It's really quick and easy to make your own sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce--a variation of Betty Crocker's recipe

1/4 cup water--the original recipe calls for oil, but I think it's great without it.
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Whisk everything together.  Serve with egg rolls, tempura meats or veggies, or over rice.  Yum!

Homemaker's Menu for a Week in March

Here is my menu for a week in March

Pigs In a Blanket--wrap hot dogs in strips of bread, and then bake until the dough is golden brown. We also make these at Halloween and make them into mummy hot dogs with ketchup eyes.
Carrot Sticks

Here is a picture of when we made the "Pigs in a Blanket" into "Mummy Pigs"

French Onion Soup--I made homemade onion soup, and topped the soup with homemade french bread and Swiss cheese, then put it in the oven to brown under the broiler, for about a minute. It was super yummy!

Chili Relleno Casserole

Fish Cakes--I took 4 cans of tuna fish (this is to feed my family of 6), 3 eggs, a couple of handfuls of oats, lemon juice (about 1 1/2 tsp.), 1/2 tsp. dill weed and 2 tsp. onion powder. Mix together, form into patties, and cook like you would a hamburger. I can't remember how many patties it made, but my husband and teenager were full, and we had one left over. I also make a tartar sauce from mayo, mustard and homemade relish to serve with the buns. This is like a fish sandwich, but since it has no breading and isn't deep fried it is much healthier--if you don't use too much tartar sauce!
Corn
Homemade Hamburger Buns

White Chicken Chili
Frozen Veggies
Homemade Rolls

Beef Stroganoff
Green Beans

Spanish Rice Fritatta

Slumgullion--layer sliced potatoes, cooked hamburger and onions and diced tomatoes in your crockpot and cook on low for several hours. Very yummy!

Great Cakes

I don't know about you, but when it comes to frosting a cake, I usually do a horrible job.  The frosting sticks to the the cake, but then pulls away a bit and the frosting gets all full of crumbs.  Freezing the cake first helps some, but I still end up with crumbs all over.  Real cake decorators do another layer of frosting on top of the first I think, but I'm still kind of sloppy when it comes to using icing bags and tips.  A few years ago, I looked into using fondant to decorate my daughter's birthday cake. 
 
Buying fondant at the store can be expensive.  I looked into making it at home and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to make an inexpensive variation of fondant, called Marshmallow Fondant.  Click on the link for an easy tutorial on how to make it step by step.

It requires only 4 ingredients to make.

Marshmallow Fondant
1 bag Mini Marshmallows
1 bag Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup shortening
water

Add a couple tablespoons of water to your marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until the marshmallows are just melted.  The next part gets messy, but is fun and clean up isn't too bad.  Grease a good-sized area of your counter with the shortening.  You won't use it all at once.  Make sure your hands are covered with shortening because the next part it sticky.  Dump your powdered sugar on top of the greased countertop and dump the marshmallows on top of that.  Then start folding and kneading the sugar and marshmallows together.  As your hands and/or counter get sticky, just rub on some more shortening.  If the mixture seems a little dry, add a tablespoon of water.  Gradually the mixture will come together and the final product will be a nice smooth ball of fondant, similar to play dough.  You can color it using gel food coloring.  The liquid stuff doesn't work very well because it makes the fondant too sticky.  You will want to use rubber gloves on your hands when coloring the fondant.  Have tooth picks handy to dip into the coloring and rub onto the fondant.  Then knead it in.  If you knead it a little, you will create a marble effect.  The more you knead it, the better the color will be distributed.

To make fun cakes, figure out the shape you want, and then decide what kind of pan will give you the closest shape to what you want to make.  


Mr. Pumpkinhead was an obvious shape to make.


Raggedy Ann was too.


The Sun Monkey required multiple circles.  A couple of cupcakes in ramekins and a mini cake pan did the trick.


Mario was done using circles as well.


The butterfly was made from a circle cake too.  The body was cut out of the center of the circle and the wings were made by cutting the rest of the circle into fourths and flipping them around.

A lot of shapes can be made from a 9x13 pan too.  Once you know your desired shape, you can draw out how you want to get the different parts of the cake.  These cakes were made from 9x13 cakes.










Sometimes you need a shape that takes a little more creativity.  I've used ceramic bowls and tortilla bowl pans, to get cakes that look more three dimensional.


 

Cupcakes and mini cupcakes are also great when you need small round shapes for eyes, ears, noses or even small faces.



Loaf pans also work great for cars and trains.



 Ramen Queen made this super cute train for her son.
  One thing that she and I both love is that you can create a super cool birthday with fun memories for cheap.  The most expensive thing you will buy will be the colors for your cake, and even that is cost effective because it lasts for several birthdays/years.  I'm still using the same box of colors I got 4 years ago. 

After you finish baking your cake in a pan that is greased and floured really well, let it cool completely.  Make a batch of buttercream frosting.  I know I just knocked frosting at the top, but it is necessary to frost the cake first before you decorate it with the fondant.

Buttercream Frosting
2/3 cup butter (or margarine)
4 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla/almond/maple/whatever extract

Beat butter and sugar together, add vanilla and just enough milk so it becomes a spreadable consistency.  If you add too much milk, then add a little more sugar, until it becomes easy to spread.

Cut the cake into the shape that you want and frost it with the frosting.

To work with the fondant, dust your clean work surface and rolling pin with Corn Starch.  This is used like flour is used with cookie dough or bread dough.  Roll to the thickness that you want and lift it gently to place over your cake.  Smooth it out on the cake.  The frosting underneath creates a cushiony layer that helps with getting everything all nice and smooth.  Trim away any excess with a knife.  Use the corn starch as needed to prevent stickiness.

To store your fondant, grease it with shortening and wrap in plastic wrap and seal it in a plastic bag.  It will keep for 3 months in the fridge.

To use, let sit at room temperature for a few hours, or just start kneading it with your hands.  It will be quite stiff at first, but the warmth of your hands will make it pliable again as you work it.  Keep the fondant you aren't using covered in plastic, or it will dry out.  A few drops of water can be kneaded into the fondant to make it pliable again.

For me, it helps to have a picture of what I want to make handy so I can refer to it as I'm decorating.     

Happy Decorating! ~Baker 

Ramen for Dinner

Last week I was at The Finisher's home.  With promises of spoiling her, I pulled out all stops and served Ramen one night for dinner.


Don't worry, I did jazz it up a bit. My friend Brooke made this salad a couple of years ago for a get-together at her home, and she gave me the recipe.  It's delicious!  A great spring/summer salad too.  I will be posting my menu for the last week of March in a few days.  Stay tuned!

 
Here is the recipe.

Chinese Chicken Salad
Leah Arnold & Ashley Muller

Salad
1 large head of cabbage (I just used a bag of shredded coleslaw)
4 chicken breasts (I used about 2 1/2)
1 large bunch green onions
4 packages Oriental ramen noodles
1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Fry until well done.  Cool.  Slice cabbage into thin strips or use [a food processor] to make like coleslaw. Slice entire bunch of green onions and mix with cabbage. Crunch ramen noodles and place on cookie sheet along with almonds.  Roast in oven, stirring occasionally, at 350* for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Add to cabbage mixture.  Add chicken to mixture.

Dressing
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
3 TBLS soy sauce
2 TBLS white vinegar
1 tsp pepper
2 packages Oriental seasoning (from ramen noodles)

Combine all dressing ingredients and mix well.  Pour over cabbage mixture and coat all the chicken. Serve chilled. (I served it right away--not chilled--and it was great!!!)

You'll need a BIG bowl to hold this salad--the biggest one you have, or bigger!.  If serving no more than two people, I would half the recipe. Ramen does have some uses, right?

~Ramen Queen