My sweet Mother-in-law sent home with me a bag full of fresh veggies straight from her garden. This included a nice Zucchini. Normally, we don’t eat much zucchini, so I decided that I will make a bread with it to give the kids for a snack. I started searching for a good zucchini bread recipe, but all of the recipes call for a ton of sugar! So, I started searching for a “healthy” recipe for the bread and I came across this blog. Not only did she have a recipe with less sugar, but she also had some great tips for modifying your favorite recipes to make them healthier. If you get a minute, you should check it out!

This morning I was in a creative cooking type mood, so I decided to whip up a batch of oatmeal and experiment. With a little inspiration from Sashwhy’s link love about Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets, I pulled out what ingredients I wanted to use: Instant Oats, Liquid Coffee Creamer in French Vanilla, and fresh Strawberries. It came out good, but I accidentally made way too much. So now I have about 2 1/2 cups of leftover oatmeal that I really don’t want to waste. Instead of tossing it out, I decided to use the wonderful internet to see if I could find a way to use this stuff up. I was really happy to find a few good uses, so I thought I’d share them with you all! I haven’t tried them yet, but here they are:

• Add it to pancake batter, bread dough, and muffin mix
• Add it to a smoothie mix

Leftover Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1 egg
1/2 c. leftover cooked cereal

(Oatmeal, Zoom, Malt-O-Meal, Cream of Rice, or Wheat Hearts).Combine and divide among muffin cups. Bake in 350 degree oven 20 minutes.

Thanks to Cooks.com for this one!

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies

2 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. cooked oatmeal

Sift dry ingredients together. Add shortening and eggs and beat until creamy (about 2 minutes). Stir in oatmeal. Drop from teaspoon onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Yield: 4 dozen.

*Thanks to Cooks.com for this recipe

Fried Oatmeal

Spread leftover oatmeal into a square or rectangular container and freeze until firm enough to cut.

Cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly coat with flour, or crushed graham cracker crumbs. Heat about 2 tsp. oil in pan (or spray with non-stick oil) on med-low heat. Place slices in the heated pan, and lightly brown on each side, allowing it to warm all the way through.

Top with maple syrup, powdered sugar, brown sugar, nuts, or whatever you like!

Leftover Oatmeal Bread

(I found this recipe on kitchenmage- thank you! I decided to copy and paste (and edit a little) this one due to some questionable content on this blog; just a forewarning.)

This makes about a single loaf of bread, but it is easy to scale to make larger quantities. All quantities are approximate and should be adjusted to suit your taste.

• 1- 1 1/2 c. Cooked Oatmeal
• 1 c. water
• 1/8 c. brown sugar
• 2 c. (+/-) bread flour
• 1 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. salt

In mixing bowl, stir oatmeal, water and yeast together enough to break up oatmeal. Let mixture sit on counter for 15 minutes. Add brown sugar and 1 cup of flour and mix to combine into wet dough, about 1 minute. Add additional flour, mixing well after each addition until the dough comes together into a rough dough. This may take 2 cups, or it may take 3+ - it depends on all sorts of things.

When the dough holds together, turn it out onto a well-floured counter. Knead, adding more flour as needed, for 2-3 minutes. Cover and let rest (autolyse) for 20 minutes.

After the autolyse, add the salt and knead for another 3-5 minutes, adding more flour as needed. Determining when the dough is sufficiently kneaded is mostly a matter of experience. It will no longer be sucking up flour from the counter, the surface will smooth and be less sticky (although still a little tacky), and it will feel more bread-like. You will know it when you feel it.

Place the dough in clean bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough out on floured counter and punch it down gently. Shape the dough into a loaf and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Bake for 30 minutes and check for doneness (hollow sound when tapped on bottom, 195-200° internal temperature. Let cool for an hour before slicing.

Toasted, spread with butter, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, this bread makes some of the world’s best cinnamon sugar toast.

If you have boxed cereal in your home, here’s a neat little tip for you:

Once the bag of cereal is empty, cut it open and use the bag as waxed paper for your freezing needs. Just don’t bake with it, I tried this as an experiment and it melted.

Many of you have expressed interest in hearing my thoughts on the quality of the Angel Food boxes. After using a lot of the products that I purchased, I’m ready to give you my opinion.

I’ve heard from other’s that the meat isn’t so great, but I actually think it has been really good so far. I haven’t used it all up yet, but I’ve eaten the steaks and the chicken and they have both been wonderful. We took the steaks over to my dad’s house, grilled them, and split them between all 5 of us. They were really good! My dad loved them, and asked me where I got them and if they were very expensive. I said, “Would I have bought them if they were expensive? You know me!” I told him all about Angel Food Ministries, and he wanted a box too!

The frozen food has been good, except for the Lean Cuisine Frozen Mushroom Pizza’s. Hubby didn’t like them, but the kids did, so I guess it depends on your taste buds. The burritos, and veggies have been great.

Everything has been good, as long as you are used to generic brand foods. The cereal, generic Frosted Flakes, wasn’t exactly like the original, but it was still yummy.

All in all, we’ve been very pleased with our food, and I can’t wait to get next month’s box. I’m planning on making a monthly menu based on the Angel Food box, and Aldi’s groceries. I will post that towards the end of the month, before the boxes are distributed.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about Angel Food. Happy to help!

My newest, most favoritest snack lately is Bread & Butter Pickles. I just LOVE them!! As I finished off the jar tonight, savoring every last morsel, I noticed that there was quite a bit of pickle juice (or “brine”) still left over. In my frugalness, I began wondering what I could do with that deliciously flavorful liquid. After a little searching, here is what I have found:

• Mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce to intensify the tangy flavor. Add 2 tablespoons per 1 cup of sauce and combine well. Spread over grilled chicken during the last few minutes of cooking on the grill.

• For a delicious potato salad, add 3 tablespoons juice to ¾ cup mayonnaise and mix with 3 pounds of cooked potatoes. For a classic macaroni salad, add 3 tablespoons to ½ cup mayonnaise and mix with 2 cups of cooked macaroni.

• Use as a marinade to soak your favorite veggies in while refrigerating.

• Combine ¼ cup pickle juice with one jar of barbecue sauce and one large bag of little sausages in a crock pot. Heat thoroughly and serve in crock pot to keep warm.

• Marinate chicken or shrimp. You can also add: 1 cup juice to ½ cup olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic, and ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro in a zip-top bag. Add one pound of either chicken or shrimp, roll it in the liquid and marinate for 1 hour before grilling.

• Put sliced cucumbers, onions, carrots and/or pieces of cauliflower in leftover pickle juice and in a couple of days they will be pickled.

• Slip sliced onions into a jar of sweet-hot bread and butter pickle juice. The “pickled” onions liven up turkey, chicken or ham sandwiches, as well as hamburgers.

Plus, there are many recipes out there which use pickle juice in them. A simple Google search will bring up tons of great ideas. So, the next time you are tempted to dump that juice down the drain, think about all of the ways that you could put it to good use instead!

To find these ideas and more check out  eHow.com and ilovepickles.org

Okay, maybe everybody knows this trick already. But, for those of you who might not know, if you add a pinch of salt to a gallon of milk it will make it last longer. Something about the salt preserves the milk from spoiling as quickly. Just a handy little tip (Of coarse, around here milk doesn’t last long enough to spoil!)

For more kitchen tips visit Tammy’s Recipes.

Need to do some quick hulling? Well, it’s not quite strawberry season, but when it gets here, you’ll want this tip - trust me!

Here you go:

• Get out your can opener
• Shove the pointy end into the strawberry
• Flick your wrist
• Off pops the strawberry top

And there you have it! That’ll speed you through hulling strawberries like nobody’s business. For more kitchen tips, check out Tammy’s Recipes !

For more Works-for-me-Wednesday ideas, go here!

I am really good about putting leftovers into nice little containers and storing them in the fridge with every intention of making good use of it later. But, I’m SO bad about letting my leftovers get pushed to the back of the fridge to be forgotten for weeks! Since I started making my own baby food, and trying to live on $50/wk for groceries, I decided I had to do something that would help me be better about not wasting so much food.

What helps me to keep track of what is still good, and what can be thrown out?

LABELING!!

I have some small, blank labels that I like to use. I just write on the label the date of when the food was made, and stick it on the lid of the food container. That way when I’m digging in the fridge for a quick meal, I can see what leftovers are still edible, and what should be tossed, without having to try to remember when I made it!

I write on the label really small, so I can divide one into 5 or 6 little labels. This makes them last a really long time, and I don’t have a huge label to try to peel off the lid.

Breastfeeding women need an extra 500 calories than they normally take in. And it makes sense! When you breastfeed your child, your body is doing a tremendous job producing “liquid gold” to sustain your child. If you do not consume adequate calories to maintain this work, your body will start tapping into “reserves” and you will find yourself:

• Fatigued - making it hard to take care of your home and baby
• Having a hard time producing enough milk
• Losing too much weight too quickly

In order to maintain your energy and milk supply you need to drink adequate amounts of water and eat nutritious foods (just like you did while you were pregnant).

A good way to get the extra calories is snacking . I remember when I first started breastfeeding being particularly thirsty and needing to snack throughout the day. I made sure to keep a bottle of water and a snack (be it cheese cubes, dried fruit or a granola bar) by my “nursing station” to keep my energy going.

When snacking, choose foods full of nutrients and packed with protein in order to provide you with the energy and nutrition that you need throughout the day. Don’t indulge yourself with junk food – this will only increase your fatigue and irritability.

Here are some power-packed snacks for lactating women:

• Yogurt
• Cup of Berries
• Baked Sweet Potato (simply bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees F in casserole dish)
• Healthy Granola bars (full of nuts and grains)
• Handful of Nuts
• Bowl of Whole Grain Cereal
• Multi-Grain Crackers with Cheese
• Guacamole and Corn Chips
• Fruit Smoothie
• Avocado Slices with Whole Grain Crackers
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Whole Wheat Pita with Hummus
• Bagel with Cream Cheese
• Veggies and Dip
• Apples slices with Peanut Butter
• Salads – colorful and full of variety
• Fresh fruit
• Orange juice
• Dried Fruit

If you’re like me, you’ll forget to snack, or because you haven’t prepared a snack ahead of time for quick grabbing, you’ll grab for something easier…like junk food. So here are a few helpful tips to make healthful snacking possible:

• Make a list of snack ideas and stick it on your fridge so that if you need a snack, you won’t be lost for an idea!
• Stock up on healthy snack foods.
• Prepare your snacks ahead of time (like chopping fruits or veggies, etc.) and put them in convenient containers.

Happy snacking!

This past weekend I stocked up on some Arrowhead Mills organic pastry flour that was on sale. I decided to go ahead and try to use it up now since the flour will soon go out of date.

My husband loves, I mean, LOVES pies, and since the package of pastry flour had a good pie crust recipe on the back, I went ahead and made a bunch of pie crust dough to put in the freezer for future use

Here is the recipe that I used:

Pastry Pie Crust
1 Cup Pastry Flour
6 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (optional)
3 Tbsp. Cold Water

Blend all ingredients. Press evenly into 9” pie pan. Prick bottom of crust a few times with a fork. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12-15 minutes until done.

If you don’t have pastry flour, you could use this recipe.

I put the raw dough into the freezer for now and will bake it later when my husband gets a pie craving. Now, if you’ve ever wondered how to freeze pie crusts (pie crusts freeze wonderfully!), here are some good tips:

Already Baked Pie Crust:

• Will break less if you wrap the crust and freeze it in the pie plate
• Wrap the crust in aluminum foil and a freezer bag
• The pie crust can stay in the freezer for up to 6 months

Unbaked Pie Crust (dough):

• You can either freeze the dough by itself or freeze it in a pan for extra convenience
• If you freeze the dough by itself, do the following:
• Roll out the dough to desired size
• Stack on a piece of cardboard that is cut to the same size of the crust
• Stack multiple crusts in between the pieces of cardboard by separating each crust with two pieces of wax paper
• Wrap entire stack with aluminum foil and a freezer bag
• The dough can stay in the freezer for up to 6 months
• When you are ready to bake it, pull a pie crust from the stack, allow it to thaw, line the pie plate and you are ready to go!

Here are a few other things that I baked (and put in the freezer for later) using the rest of the pastry flour (check out these recipes):

Lunch Box Brownies

Whole Grain Morning Glory Muffins

Whole Wheat Waffles and Pancakes