Have you ever...

Have you ever had a spontaneous idea strike in the kitchen?

I wanted to whip up something quick, easy, and sweet.

I had a few bags of strawberry and blueberry muffin mixes that needed to be used, but didn't want to dig for my muffin tins.

I pulled out my mini-loaf pan and made loaves instead of muffins.

Superman loved them!

He said he actually prefers them over the muffins.

So, that has me thinking, what else do I have in the kitchen that can be used a little differently than it's original purpose?

What have you successfully used in an alternative way?

Linking back to Rhonda@Down-to-Earth.

Day 300~

Probably one of the last of our nights to have salads for dinner for awhile.

It's beginning to cool down, and I'm already having trouble finding our favorite salad toppings- like yummy, summer tomatoes.

Day 275~ Pumpkin Cupcakes

Thanks to this college pal for inspiring me to make these cute cupcakes!
Sent several dozen to a fundraiser to help out an amazing friend.
A friend that loved on my boys for me when I had to leave them to go teach every day.
Love, love, love her!

Get Well Soon Ms. Pam!

Day 272~ Green Smoothie

We're still sticking with making green smoothies every morning.

And, I'm loving it!

Today's consisted of ground flax seed, baby spinach, peach, banana, kiwi, and carrot.

They are delish!

One of the joys doesn't like the texture of them, but with a straw, he'll suck them down happily.

Day 257~

Dehydrating parsley!

Yum!

Had lots in our produce basket this week, and don't want to waste it!

Day 255~ Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Poor Superman is s.i.c.k.

He requested some soup, so I whipped up something that is both good for him and super easy to make!

Have you ever tried to make homemade chicken noodle soup?

It's a breeze!

I had some homemade turkey stock that I made after cooking the turkey from the farm.

I pulled a bag of that stock/broth out of the freezer and started it thawing.

While it was thawing, I sauteed a medium-sized onion in some butter in my stock pot.

I also tossed in a few boneless, skinless chicken tenders to cook up with the onions.

Once the chicken and onions finished, I added in my turkey stock.

It wasn't all thawed out yet, but that didn't matter.

As it liquefied in the stock pot, I chopped up lots of carrots that I had in the fridge.

Superman loves carrots, so I chopped lots and lots and lots!

I didn't have any celery, so my soup only included: onions, carrots, turkey stock, chicken, and spices.

As for spices, throw in what you have and what you love!

I added: 3 tbsp of Himalayan sea salt, cracked pepper, Mrs. Dash, and a little tad of French onion soup mix that I had left over.

I could have just added salt and pepper.

It would have been fine!

But remember, I'm a spice-aholic!

Let the soup simmer for an hour or so, to soften the carrots.

My pot looked like it needed a little more liquid to handle the noodles, so I added about a quart of water.

15 minutes before serving it to Superman, I brought the soup to a boil and poured in a bag of egg noodles.

That's it!

Easy peasy!

Broth, veggies, meat, spices, and noodles!

Just in time for cooler weather!

I love making soup in the fall.

Day 229~ Fruit Pizza Recipe Tutorial

This is the food of my dreams, I kid you not!

When I was young, fruit pizza was my Mom's speciality.

And though I complain about her never, ever making it for me these days (you're reading this Mom, right?) I've never attempted to make it myself... until today.

I started with homemade cookie dough.

You could use store-bought cookie dough.

But why would you want to when homemade is this easy?Cream together 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of softened butter.Next, mix in 1 egg.Every recipe I found recommended sifting together your flour, salt, and baking powder.

I'm entirely too lazy to do that!

I just combined 3 cups of plain flour with 3/4 teaspoon of salt.Then I mixed it all together with the 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder.

(Please make sure you're stocking your kitchen with aluminum-free baking soda!)Then, gradually mix the flour/salt/baking powder mixture into the butter/egg/sugar.

Blend on low until the mixture is pulling away from the sides of the mixer bowl.

Press the cookie dough mixture into a greased 9X13 pan, and bake in a 375* oven for 10 minutes.While allowing the cooked sugar cookie pizza crust to cool completely, mix up your "pizza sauce".
Simply cream together 2 room-temperature cream cheese blocks with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.Once the cookie crust has cooled completely, add the cream cheese sauce.
Though my Mom always made her fruit pizza on a cookie sheet in a circular shape, I decided to bake mine in a 9X13 Pyrex dish.
Because of the rectangular dish, I iced my pizza so that all the edges are covered.
Mom's circular fruit pizzas were not iced all the way to the edges.
This made her fruit pizza look much more like an actual pizza than mine!

Next, top your pizza with the colorful, seasonal fruits of your choosing.
I used:
strawberries
peaches
bananas
kiwi
blueberries
blackberries Finally, drizzle fruit glaze on top of the layered fruits. I made my glaze by blending together the little bits left over from the bananas, peaches, kiwi, and strawberries, with some of my canned peach jam, a few teaspoons of water, and a splash of agave nectar.
(I didn't use the dark colored fruits, because I didn't want the glaze to discolor the toppings.)
I simply used what I had on hand.
The point of the glaze is to add a sweet liquid that will absorb into the cookie dough as it is refrigerated.
The soggier the dough gets, the better the fruit pizza tastes.
Some people don't even add a glaze, but because I grew up eating it that way, I add one.
Mom's glaze was a mixture of pineapple juice and orange marmalade. She added just enough pineapple juice to thin-down the marmalade.

**After tasting the fruit pizza made using this guide, there are a few things I'll do differently next time.
-There is enough dough to make 2 thinner pizzas. I like that this one was a thick crust, but I can make the batch of cookie dough go further, and make 2 pizzas. So, next time I'll keep my same recipe, but make 2 pizzas from it.
- I'll probably bump the oven down 10*, just to see if that makes the cookie softer, so the glaze will absorb more quickly.
*UPDATE- I used fresh peaches and bananas. To keep them from turning brown, dip them in lemon juice. I even poured the little bit of left over lemon juice in the blender to make the glaze.
*UPDATE- You want to leave the fruit pizza in the refrigerator overnight before eating. Otherwise, it's more like a stiff fruit tart.

Day 225~ Homemade Turkey Salad Recipe

Several days ago I roasted a turkey.

Since it was a really good quality turkey, I decided to not waste a bit of it.

I boiled down the bones and made chicken stock, and I also decided to make some turkey salad.

It was super easy!

Simply chop and mix the following: light and dark turkey meat, two red onions, four boiled eggs, salt, and pepper.

This was the first time I used my food processor to chop it all.

That made it go much more quickly, but it was definitely a little different texture than what we normally make.

Day 216~

I've been dying to roast the turkey we ordered from our farmer in Tennessee.

I finally had a chance to get to it this week.

As usual, I used the Williams-Sonoma brine, as well as The Pioneer Woman's roasting tutorial.

(other posts on brining here)

Day 195~

Making homemade pimento cheese is so easy!

Seriously!

You combine one block of grated cheese (either mild or sharp- we like it sharp), a few spoonfuls of mayo (umm, please do yourself a favor- use Dukes), a small jar of diced pimentos (drained), and salt and pepper.

I made a big batch.

We'll take some to the beach, and leave some home with Superman.

Day 184~ Rainbow Cupcakes

Busy baking today...

Day 151~

pizza!!! pizza!!!

Day 118~

As someone who had no clue how to cook when I got married, I think it's important to start your children out early in the kitchen

Cooking is an important life skill!

I usually try to only work with one child at the time.

I love the time spent with them, and they don't seem to mind it either.

(Thank heavens!)

Cameron has declared himself our 'Official Grater'.

We never know what shape it will be.

He gets a little carried away with the grater options.

I'm loving cheese slices with my salads these days!

Thank you, Cam!

I love your help!

Day 90~ Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Cookies

Completely and totally inspired by this post, I had to try my hand at her recipe!

It was super easy, and made 4 dozen cookies!

Yum!

You can check out her recipe here.

My slightly adapted version is below.

1/2 lb of softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup succanat

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups freshly milled flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1.2 tsp. good sea salt

3 cups oats

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Cream butter and sugars.

Mix in eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips.

Drop spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 mins.

Day 82~ Mexican Chicken Lasagna

This is one of our favorite go-to meals!

I received the recipe a couple of years back at a Pampered Chef party, but adapt it a little.

I'm not a fan of microwaves, don't even have one in the house, and this recipe was originally completely prepared in the microwave (YUCK, people, YUCK!)

Here's a link to a pdf from Pampered Chef with the recipe.

UPDATE: The Pampered Chef recipe link is no longer working.

Here's a scan of my copy of the recipe card.

Day 79~

Kneading dough- made from sprouted wheat berries.

Day 78~

Fresh alfalfa sprouts ready to eat.

Sprouted at home!

Yum!

Day 75~

(First attempt at sprouting organic hard white wheat berries.)

Day 57~ I May Need an Intervention... I'm a Spice-aholic!

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I was diligently trying to pack one of my kitchen cabinets up this afternoon, when I was accosted by Superman.

See this picture.

I was accosted I tell you!

ACCOSTED!

He caught me clicking pictures of my massive collection of spices, and began making fun of me.

I pouted!

I hemmed!

And I might have even hawed a little.

(If you're not from the South, bless your heart, here's the definition of 'hem and haw'.) Normally, I would have denied my addiction and possible hoarding of spices when Superman began laughing at my box full of goodness.

I would have said he didn't know what he was talking about.

I would have told them that he isn't in the kitchen enough to know WHY I NEED a box full of spices.But, after filling up the first box, I still had this whole shelf full of even more to pack!

All I can say is, thank heavens he wasn't anywhere near my baking cabinet!

Whewwww!

Day 45~ Nana Mae's Pound Cake

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Superman wanted a pound cake for Valentine's. He specifically requested that I make it with Nana's icing. Her pound cake recipe is the only one I've ever used, but sadly, one of the things I never learned from Nana was how to do her icing. It turned out pretty well, but I definitely need to work on my icing making skills!

I also need to buy some more Baker's Joy! As you can see, my cake stuck! Guess Nana was right- Baker's Joy truly is the best!

Here is her recipe:
3 cups plain flour (She always used Red Band flour, but they don't make it any more.)

2 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups Crisco

6 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

1 teaspoon lemon flavoring

Preheat oven to 325. Cream sugar and Crisco together. Add 1 egg at a time and blend (on lowest setting). Add flavoring. Then add part of milk and part of flour. Blend well. Then add rest of milk and water and rest of flour last. Cook in a tube pan that has been sprayed with Baker's Joy. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes and then 350 for about 15-20 minutes longer.