Donut Muffins

My mom used to make these muffins when I was growing up and they have always been a favorite of mine. They have a very mild flavor and make a great breakfast or snack food (in my opinion).

The recipe calls for sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on the outside of the muffin but I have never done this.

This is the recipe I used. It made 9 good sized muffins. Enjoy with milk :)

Spinach Brownies

Holy deliciousness Batman! I realize these don't sound at all delicious. In fact, they sound a little disgusting.

I had a picture of these but I can't find one so you'll have to rely on the recipe picture. If you are looking for a delicious way to use up some spinach, this is the recipe for you! It tastes sort of like an onion/spinach quiche. My guess is that you could vary this pretty significantly to accommodate whatever veggies you have laying around.

Check it out!

Variations on a granola bar

You may remember a past post about homemade granola bars. What you may not know is that I am absolutely obsessed with these. So is my boyfriend. He requests them often and challenges my ability to make different 'flavors.' Here are some variations on my original granola bar recipe...

For all of them, follow the baking instructions in the original recipe.

Minty White Chocolate Granola Bars

1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 - 1.5 cup honey (have to guess based on consistency)
1 teaspoon mint extract
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup rice krispie cereal (or in my case, Krispy Rice!)
Flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, flax meal, etc to equal 1/2 cup.
1 teaspoon baking soda
White chocolate chips

*Note: these turn out softer than the originals but once they are chopped up and in the freezer they are fine.

"Butterfinger" Granola Bars

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup softened peanut butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup rice krispie cereal (or in my case, Krispy Rice!)
Flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, flax meal, etc to equal 1/2 cup.
1 teaspoon baking soda
Chocolate and butterscotch chips

These are REALLY good.

I am sure there will be more variations in the future. This recipe seems to handle changes really well.

Homemade Granola Bars

I absolutely LOVE my homemade granola bars. I tried out a lot of recipes before finally finding this one. This one is a KEEPER!

This is the recipe I start with. It is pretty good just like that - but I like to change it up a little.

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup softened peanut butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup rice krispie cereal (or in my case, Krispy Rice!)
Flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, flax meal, etc to equal 1/2 cup.
1 teaspoon baking soda
Mixins. I like chocolate chips but I've also tried nuts and raisins. You can basically put whatever you want in there!


So, step 1: Mix all the wet ingredients together. It makes an amazing smelling paste!

Step 2: Mix all the dry ingredients together:

Step 3: Mix everything together. This should give you a nice arm workout because this mixture is STICKY!!!


Step 4: Press into baking sheet and bake at 325* for about 20-25 minutes or until the edges are nice and brown.



Step 5: Slice into granola bar sized pieces and wrap in aluminum foil. I freeze mine and they come out just fine. I take one out of the freezer at night and by the morning it is ready to be packed in my lunch!

Monkey Muffins

So I had a tube of biscuits that technically expired 2 days ago (forgot about them - whoops!). And since I just made a whole pan of rolls, I didn't want to make the biscuits alone. Soooo - I had to find something to do with them.
Enter MoneySavingMom's post on using refrigerated biscuit dough. Luckily I did not have 12 cans to use up but one was enough. I decided to make Monkey Muffins! I did not have sweetened condensed milk so I just left that part off (probably better for the waistline anyway).



Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed. Don't get me wrong, I WILL be eating them all. But I probably won't be making them again. The sweetened condensed milk probably will make them amazing but it will also add A TON of sugar. So - my vote is - great way to use up some biscuits. Probably won't be doing it too often.

Holy Deliciousness Batman!

As part of my freezer cooking week, I made use of my newly acquired bread machine (didn't blog about this, but also got that at the Restore - for $5!) to make some rolls using a recipe from MoneySavingMom.

Um - these are amazing. Today I ate 4.



I need tips from my faithful readers - when you make rolls do you freeze the dough or freeze the rolls after they are baked?

Baking Failure

So, in general I consider myself to be pretty good in the baking arena. Cookies, cakes, quick breads - generally not a problem!

Today however was a different story. I wanted to make some cookies for some friends down the street who just had a baby. I am trying to eat through things in my cabinets this month and I like trying new recipes so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. In theory it sounds simple - cake mix, butter, eggs, and chocolate chips. I followed the advice of some of the reviewers and added some vanilla extract.

I put them on the tray and they looked perfectly normal - it was a good think batter and held up well as I spooned it onto the tray. I baked at 350* for 8 minutes and ended up with this:



COOKIE BRITTLE! Seriously, I can't even describe it. All the cookies melded together into this flat crunchy cracker-like cookie with chocolate chips sticking out like little mountains. Obviously I did something wrong but I can't figure out what! The recipe reviewers rave about the cookies. I took a bite out of one and it tasted like a cookie - just flat...and crunchy. Needless to say, this is not acceptable to give as a gift.

So in a last ditch effort to salvage the sitaution, I put the remaining dough into a baking dish and made it as though it were a cake.
It looks more appetizing but I have no idea how it will taste. I will have to sample it before sharing. I may just have to chalk this one up to experience!

Making English Muffins!

I will never purchase English Muffins again! These are amazing! I was browsing the internet looking for a new muffin recipe to try when I stumbled upon this recipe. It was very easy to make and really they turned out better than I anticipated.


Here are some fun pictures of the process. I mixed all the ingredients into a fairly wet dough and let it rise covered for about an hour. Here is the pre-rising dough ball. I forgot to take a picture of the post-rising dough ball. It was MUCH bigger.


After punching down the dough, I rolled it out using a drinking glass (note to self - buy a rolling pin!) and used the same glass to cut out circular muffins. Then I let the dough rise for another 30 minutes.
The weirdest part of the recipe is that you bake them on the stove top. The recipe says to use a gridle, but I used a large frying pan instead. I just sprayed it with PAM and that was enough to keep it from burning.



And here are my beautiful finished English Mufins!!! :)