DIY Muffin Mix + Printable

I'm pretty much in love with DIY alternatives to store-bought products for cooking. I've made DIY Bisquick (biscuit/pancake/waffle mix) several times already. I have other ideas pinned.

I also fairly enamored with muffins. My husband likes to point out just how many muffin pan I own whenever he's trying to get something out of that particular drawer. I think it stems from my love of mini/ individually portioned foods. I have a whole pin board for such things.

Well it just so happens that I was wondering (read: aimlessly clicking around Pinterest) what to make today while Little Miss was sleeping, a light went off in my brain. DIY muffin mix.

The brilliant Jess at Lost Button Studio was kind enough to share her recipe for DIY muffin mix. I didn't want to buy a bunch of plastic to store the portions of mix, though, so I decided reuse a (clean) empty spaghetti sauce jar. We go through a lot of spaghetti sauce at my house! Spaghetti is a favorite of all three of my kids.

Of course the jar was too small for the whole recipe, which makes 24 muffins. Jess suggests freezing leftover muffins. I know if I froze any, I'd end up eating frozen muffins standing in the kitchen at midnight. I decided a dozen muffins would be plenty for us, and ta-da... Half the recipe fits very nicely in a spaghetti sauce jar. Not only that, but I was able to also put the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla powder in. (You can find Cook's or Nielsen Massey powdered vanilla in the spice aisle at the store right next to the regular liquid vanilla.) And since I like cinnamon in my banana bread, I also included that in the jar.

Problem solved. But I can never just leave well enough alone! I had to make a label to plaster on the jar, so I can't lose the recipe either. And I am sharing it with you. I think we'll be making these for the boys' teachers Valentine's Day.

Just in case you're bad with halving recipes on the fly, here's how I did it.

In the Jar

3/4 c white whole wheat flour

3/4 c unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp powdered vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

I went ahead and fiddled with the recipe just a bit to make it easier to prepare. Instead of half vegetable oil and half applesauce, I changed it to just vegetable oil. I always sub applesauce for half of the oil in quick breads when I have anyway, but if I'm giving them away, I don't want the jar to sit unmade because my friend doesn't have applesauce on hand!

I can't wait to make the muffins!

What's for dinner? 12/23

Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes by Donalyn Ketchum

Here's our meal plan for the upcoming week.

Christmas is this week.  We'll have one dinner Christmas Eve with my family and one on Christmas Day with my husband's family.  I'll likely be helping my mom with her cooking for Christmas Eve.  For the larger family I married into, I signed up to bring my mom's famous yams (sweet potatoes).

My sisters are also both in town this week, so although I plan to cook, impromptu dinners out may be in order!

By the way, if you missed my Two-Week Meal Planner printable, check it out!

This Week:

Monday

Pork Ribs
Baked Beans (new)
Salad

Tuesday

Christmas Eve dinner
Help Grandma cook!

Wednesday

Christmas Dinner
Mom's Famous Yams

Thursday

Grilled Shrimp Scampi
Herb-buttered pasta
Spinach salad

Friday

Breakfast for dinner
Crab quiche bake
Fruit salad

Saturday

Meatloaf pumpkin (new)
Steamed asparagus

Sunday

Seasoned flatiron steak
Homemade refried beans*
Peruvian-style white rice

*Notes:  Dry Beans

We used to buy all of our beans canned.  They're so easy to use!  I tried using dry beans long ago, and I could never time the soaking enough ahead of the cooking so they'd be ready.  I tried doing the hot soak method where you bring them to a boil, cover, and remove the heat, and wait.  They were always weird looking afterward.  Then I learned about using the 90 minute no-soak method.  It changed my life!  I now make a whole bag of beans, use some and freeze the rest in can-like portions.

In case you're wondering, we still buy some canned food (but not nearly as much as before) to limit our exposure to potentially harmful BPA in can lining, especially for our kids.

Meals for the week 12/17

Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes by Donalyn Ketchum

Here's our meal plan for the upcoming week.

We have three evenings out this week.  Two will be preceded by a meal at home, one will be a meal at a grandma's house.

We're starting to shop on Mondays, so our meal plans start on Monday instead of Sunday.  I've also taken to including a soup several times a week.  This helps fill growing boys a little before the meat and carbs are served!

By the way, if you missed my Two-Week Meal Planner printable, check it out!

This Week:

Monday

Baked Ham*
Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes
Salad

Tuesday

Taco salad (with homemade taco seasoning)

Wednesday

(early prep for evening out)
Navy Bean & Ham Soup

Thursday

Roast Sticky Chicken* (cooked surrounded by chunks of onion and carrots)
Roasted Potatoes

Friday

(dinner at Grandma's)
Split Pea Soup
Sirloin Steak
Brown Rice
Roasted vegetables

Saturday

Chicken pot pie
Salad

Sunday

(early prep for evening out)
Beef Stew  
Beer Bread (SO easy!)

*Notes:  Re-Using Leftovers

Leftover ham is chopped into bite-sized pieces for Wednesday's soup

Shannon at Grass Fed Cooking wrote a great post about getting ALL the meat off a chicken and making broth from the carcass.  You'll be amazed at how much meat is still on the chicken after the legs, thighs, and breast pieces are eaten!  We usually have one breast left over, so that, the rest of the meat, and the broth will be used for Saturday's pot pie.  Speaking of Shannon's site, she has some decidedly un-vegan natural soaps, candles, and such that look lovely and I'd love to try sometime.

Meals for the Week

"Meatball Nirvana" from allrecipes.com

Each week I will be posting our meal plan.

Sometimes we just get in a rut with our cooking, and so I try to include at least one new recipe a week.  Sometimes I get adventurous and do three a week.  This week I have two, relatively safe choices.

I also try to avoid having the same meat two days in a row, but that doesn't always work out.  We aim for one seafood item a week, but depending on prices, sometimes we don't.  There is almost guaranteed to be one whole-chicken dinner and one dinner using ground beef, though.

I don't live and die by my own meal plans, but they are great for keeping organized.  I am quite alright with switching up the days or modifying my plan if anything comes up.  We buy less food now, 
things rarely go to waste, and we have great leftovers for lunch!

By the way, if you missed my Two-Week Meal Planner printable, check it out!

This Week:

 Sunday

Salmon Quiche (using leftover salmon from Saturday's dinner instead of the crab that is called for)

Salad

Sweet Potato Rolls (NEW)

Monday

Picante pork over rice

Roasted vegetables

Tuesday

Roast Sticky Chicken

Mashed potatoes & salad

Wednesday

White bean soup with chicken

Homemade crackers (NEW)

Thursday

Steak

Roasted potatoes & peas

Friday

Chicken potpie casserole

Salad

Saturday

Spaghetti with meatballs

Salad & Garlic Bread

Salsa Verde Experiment

I have been getting produce from a produce co-op.  If you don't know what that is, check out Bountiful Baskets.  The one I participate in isn't unaffiliated with BB, but works in much the same way.

Anyway, I opted for a specialty basket the last time around, and ended up with a bagful of tomatillos.  Having never used them for anything, I immediately googled "tomatillo recipe".

Salsa Verde (green salsa), of course! So I'm making some for dinner tonight.  I'll be testing Tomatillo Salsa Verde from AllRecipes.com.

Cantaloupe Sorbet Recipe

I am not really a fan of cantaloupe (give me a honeydew or watermelon any day) but I found myself with an abundance of them on the same day we were having visitors.

I found a great recipe from SimplyRecipes for melon sorbet, and after reading a little more about making sorbet, I decided to make it my own way.  You will want to have an ice cream maker, but if you don't, you can put the resulting mixture into a shallow container in the freezer and stir it every 20 minutes or so until you have the right consistency.  If you freeze it longer, you may need to let it sit on a counter for a couple of minutes before serving it.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

5 cups diced ripe cantaloupe
2/3 cups sugar (a little less if your cantaloupe is very ripe and sweet)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup of lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Bring sugar and water in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture comes to a boil.  Remove from heat.

Place remaining ingredients in blender or food processor.  Process until smooth and soupy.  Add cooled sugar-water (simple syrup).  Process again until well incorporated.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours, covered, until mixture is very cold.

Place cooled mixture in ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to complete the sorbet.  (My ice cream maker never stopped churning the sorbet, so check on it!)  When the sorbet is ready transfer it into an airtight container and freeze for a firmer sorbet.

Alternately, place the cooled mixture in a shallow container in the freezer.  Stir the mixture every 20-30 minutes until desired consistency is reached.


Review:

Having now made the sorbet, and served it to guests, I think it's a keeper.  The cantaloupe I used was VERY ripe, so next time I'll use less sugar, but otherwise it was delicious!

Lemonade and Cupcakes Party!

That's two parties.  Two parties two weeks apart.  Somehow I thought this was a good idea a month ago. 

We're two days for party #2, Naomi's first birthday.  The week before the first party (for extended family) was all prep for that party.  Last week was recovery. Let's set aside the fact that my itty bitty baby is going to be a year old, and focus on the party we had for extended family:  Lemonade & Cupcakes.

Bryan has a big family, so I had a lot of work to do.  But it was all fun and I loved how things turned out, even if they were not perfect.  I fell back on the semi-homemade methods.  I love making things from scratch, but when you're expecting a lot of people and don't have much time and energy, it's the way to go.

cell phone photos.  oh well.

Featured here is the lemonade bar.  To the left in the photo you'll note the drink dispenser.  It was part-fake part-real lemonade.  This dispenser, from Target, was a real pain in the neck.  The lemonade did not come out easily.  I think we have it fixed now, but I later resorted to putting the lemonade in a different pitcher.

The awesome part of the dispenser is that attached to the cap is a tube with holes in it.  I think you're supposed to put ice in it, but I halved some nice lemons and put them in there.

The fun part of the lemonade bar is the frozen fruit ice cubes.  There were strawberry, mango, apricot, pineapple, and orange ice cubes, as well as regular water-only ice cubes.  I also made watermelon ice cubes but forgot about them.  Oops.  They are actual cubes, too, made in silicone Tovolo Perfect Ice Cube trays.  I got mine at Ross a couple of years ago and I love them.  The silicone makes them easy to pop out, and they are fun cube-ice-cubes.

I used clear bowls for the cubes, and wrote what each bowl held on the white wrapping paper table runner with a black marker.

I made three types of cupcakes.

First off was a red velvet cupcake (right).  Pretty straight forward, Duncan Hines, with milk instead of water.  Then I made a cream cheese frosting from scratch using half butter and half cream cheese.  It was very yummy.


Then came the strawberry cream cupcakes.  They reminded me of strawberry shortcakes.  I made them with a white cake mix, also subbing milk in for the water.  For this one, I had to pull off the cupcake liners and cut the tops off. 

The fun part was making stabilized whipped cream with gelatin.  That was a new technique to me, and a useful one.  I tend to shy away from whipped cream as a topping since it melts so fast, but stabilizing it really worked wonders.  Learn how to do it, like I did, from Baked Bree.  Then I folded chopped strawberries into the whipped cream.  I wish I had used more strawberries.  Regardless, I topped them off with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar.  No frosting required.

Last, but not least, I made the Key Lime Mango Coconut cupcakes.  That's a mouthful.  A mouthful of deliciousness.  They started out as a yellow cake mix, but instead of oil I used pureed mango, and I added flaked dried coconut to the mix.  I used rehydrated unsweetened coconut from Bob's Red Mill, but I am sure sweetened would work just fine.  Because of the coconut (and maybe the mango) these didn't rise as much.  Next to the lofty domes on the Strawberry Creams and the tall, swirling frosting on the Red Velvet, they looked tiny, but they packed a punch.

That was mostly due to the tangy key lime frosting I made.  I started with homemade buttercream frosting, with some vanilla, and added key lime juice.  That made it somewhat thinner, but because it was a strong flavor, I didn't want too much frosting piled on anyway.  It was the least favorite of the crowd, but my  personal favorite as I love lime (and lemon) flavors, and the texture that the coconut added.

I was really tempted to make a lemonade or pink lemonade cupcake as well.  Or chocolate.  Or carrot cake.  I am really tempted to make all sorts of cupcakes all the time.  I don't like the same thing all the time.  I like variety.  But you can only do so much baking when you're a mother of three with very little will-power against cupcakes! :)