I like to do up breakfast around here but with my inability to get out of bed shiny-happy-June Cleave-style our dairy-free/gluten-free family members it can get a little overwhelming. This Gluten-Free Caramel French Toast Casserole can be adapted to encompass everyone in one dish.

Whilst parusing Pinterest, I discovered this casserole at Six Sisters’ Stuff and decided it was one I MUST have.   I’ve made a few adjustments to make it gluten free and dairy free for our family.  This is so quick and super easy and you make it ahead, letting  it set in the fridge overnight making a no fuss breakfast in the morning.  My biggest challenge is getting out of bed to preheat the oven and pop it in before everyone is ready to carve ME up for breakfast…

For the Caramel You Will Need:

• 1c. Dark Brown Sugar (I’ve made this with light and dark sugar….dark is definately best when you are making a caramel sauce)
• 1/3c Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 Tbsp. Light Corn Syrup or Honey
• 6 Tbsp. Butter or Margerine
• Chopped Nuts (I used Pecans)

Melt everything together except nuts in a heavy saucepan stirring constantly.  Do not let this boil (the sugar starts to crystalize and you are going to get actual caramel instead of caramel sauce).  When it is all melted together, toss in the nuts (if you’re feeling nutty) …then pour it in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 glass baking dish.

For the Bread You Will Need:

• 1 Loaf of French Bread (I used 1 Loaf of SuperDad’s Favorite Gluten Free Sandwich Bread and it worked fantastically)
• 3 Eggs
• 1/2 c. Milk, Soy, Rice or Lite Coconut Milk
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. Salt

Beat the eggs, milk, vanilla and salt together in a shallow dish.  Cut your bread into 8 -10 slices around 1/2 – 3/4″ thick each.  Soak…and I mean DRENCH your bread in the egg mixture, use it ALL up. If you have some mixture left in the dish when you are finished …use a basting brush to dab it onto the tops of the bread.  (French Toast Casseroles are known for being soggy and, frankly, a little gross…so I can understand your hesitancy when it comes to this step…but I promise you that this will not be soggy…it is perfection.)  Lay your soaked with eggy goodness bread on top of the caramel sauce, cover it with foil and stick it in the fridge until you are ready for it the next morning.

Preheat your oven to 400°F and pop that casserole in, uncovered.  Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until the tops of the bread start to turn brown.  Pull it out of the oven and let it sit for 3-5 minutes.  THIS IS CRUCIAL. Flip the 9×13″ pan over onto a like-sized platter and serve your ooey-gooey mound of goodness. (If you don’t wait those few minutes when you pull the casserole out of the oven?  When you flip you are going to have a bigger mess…those couple of minutes give the caramel a chance to thicken ever so slightly.)

Our family is lucky enough to have no egg allergies and since SuperDad’s gluten intolerance is just that: an intolerance and not an allergy, we can mix the gluten free bread with regular bread in the same dish…. but I tried it with the gluten free sandwich bread and it was equally delish.  This caramel french toast casserole is polished off in our house each time I make it …and those are some of the quietest breakfasts we’ve had (disclaimer: that isn’t saying much).

Enjoy!

When I stepped into Aldi on Wednesday morning I intended to purchase only fish and frozen fruit…but when I saw strawberries for $0.99/lb I knew I’d be stocking up and making some strawberry freezer jam.

I’m a huge fan of homemade goods.  Before we moved last year we had a very productive garden and I spent a lot of time canning.  As much as I love that home grown goodness all year round…. I do NOT enjoy the anxiety anticipation surrounding a kitchen full of jars, hot liquid and a steaming vat of boiling water thatI will be toiling over for hours.

Not my idea of “fun”, exactly.

Freezer jam is a great alternative for stocking away some homemade goodies without sweating away the day and because it is more successful when made in small batches, you don’t have to break the bank stocking up on fruit…you can make a little OR you can go overboard and make a lot. For strawberry freezer jam you can get about 2 half pints of jam out of one pound of strawberries.

Let’s get started!

Wash, dry and hull (cut out the stem/core) one pound of strawberries.  I like to quarter them as well because you will ultimately end up with smaller pieces in your jam.

Next you are going to smash the strawberries.  I do this in a deep dish pie plate because you want the berries to be in a single layer so that they all smash up evenly.  You can use a fork but I find that a potato masher works the best.  Smash them up until they are nice and juicy but you still have some nice pieces left to give your jam bulk.

Measure 2-3 tablespoons of Ball’s Instant RealFruit Pectin into a small bowl and mix it with 2/3c. white sugar.  Two tablespoons will give you jam with a very thin texture: spreadable but liquid enough that it would be super tasty on say….ice cream…or brownies.  I’m guessing.  I certainly would never dump pour any on top of a giant bowl of ice cream and dive in while everyone else in the house is sleeping… 2 ½ tablespoons should be just about right for a firmer jam that won’t slide off of an ooey gooey peanut butter sandwich after the first bite.

Mix your mashed berries in with the sugar and pectin until it is all combined and juicy.  Let the mixture sit in the bowl for about 3 min before pouring it into your jars.

• A word about jars:  I’ve used plastic freezer jars and plain old Ball glass canning jars.  Both work well in the freezer and as long as they have smooth, straight sides you shouldn’t have any problem.  The jars can be at room temperature, but you still want to make sure they have been properly washed and dried before you add your jam.

Ladle your jam into the jars leaving at least ½” of head space at the top of the jar.  This leaves room for the liquid to expand when it freezes.  Let the jars sit out for 30 minutes then put the lids on and move them to the fridge or freezer.  In the fridge your jam should last for 2-3 weeks (who are we kidding?  In my house it will NEVER last 2-3 weeks), in the freezer 6 months.

See?  Quick and easy!  And because it makes up so quickly, I make my strawberry freezer jam in small batches. Smaller batches seem to firm up  better, when you start making larger batches the jam tends to stay very liquid.  Ball recommends that you not make more than 6 half pint jars in a recipe but I find making one pound of strawberries at a time just works better.

You can use this recipe with lots of other fruits, you may want to adjust the amount of sugar depending on the sweetness or tartness of your fruit.  If you are using peaches, you will want to add about 1 tsp of lemon juice to the mix.

Now you can take advantage of those fresh fruit sales that will be rolling in over the next few weeks and months….and enjoy the fruits of your labor all year long!

After my first trip to the store when SuperDad committed to a gluten free diet I quickly realized that among other things, I would need to learn how to bake gluten free bread.  Gluten free sandwich bread, to be more precise.  While some of the brands available now are pretty good….they are very expensive.

After several failed attempts (did you know that failed bread attempts can be revived as bread crumbs?) I found this recipe and it is the one we have stuck with.  Not only is it simple (it uses only brown rice flour instead of a combination of small portions of sixty different types of unique flours and meals), but it is quick and most importantly, SuperDad likes it! I’m still messing with the rising time (I think I’m leaving it too long and the top of my loaf keeps falling), but the recipe is so simple that I don’t feel like I’m investing a ton of time.

Ingredients for Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

Dry Ingredients

• I make this recipe in our KitchenAid stand mixer and it mixes up in about 10 minutes, but it does take a couple of hours to get a finished product. The dough needs to rise for an hour followed by one hour of bake time.

• Make sure that the warm water used to proof your yeast is between 112º – 115° F when you add the yeast.  Use a thermometer to obtain an accurate temperature.  The reason for this is that if your water is too cool, the yeast will not grow and if your water is too hot, the yeast will burn or “die”.  Either way the end result is that your bread will not rise.  Not sure if your thermometer is accurate?  Read this article on how to calibrate your thermometer.

• If you are new to gluten free baking you should know that the dough has a very different consistency than “traditional” bread dough.  This dough will be more of a paste, or like a very thick cake batter.  There will be no kneading and you will use a spatula to scrape the dough into the bread pan.  I tell you this so that you don’t continue to add flour in hopes that the dough will “ball up”.  It won’t.

• If your recipe calls for you to loosely cover your dough with plastic wrap while it rises, and to leave that plastic on until the end of the rising period and the oven is at full baking temperature…..like this one does….and you use your oven to proof your dough …. like I do…. you will want to be sure to remove the loaf of bread from the oven during the pre-heating phase.  I’ve heard that if you leave it in the oven as it warms up, the plastic will melt, giving your bread a shiny, shellacked surface.

Of course,  I would never let that happen in my kitchen.

• The instructions call for you to take an internal temperature of your loaf at the end of its bake time to ensure that it is done.  This is an important step, eyeballing it could lead to a very moist dough ball masquerading as a loaf of bread.

• This bread will go south very quickly.  Storing it in the refrigerator will leave your bread cake-y.  This gluten free sandwich bread does freeze well however.  You will need to slice it and then freeze the individual slices.  Tip: Flash freeze the individual slices by laying them on a cooling rack and setting it in your deep freeze for roughly an hour and then place the pieces into a freezer bag or other storage container.

Gluten free sandwich bread makes an excellent addition to SuperDad’s gluten free diet.  He uses it for sandwiches and toast and we have successfully substituted it in various recipes that call for traditional or french breads.

Eliminating gluten from your diet doesn’t have to be as difficult as it often sounds, half of the battle is just finding the right recipes.

I had these meringues on my list last year and never got around to them so I made it a point to give them a run this time around.  This is such a simple recipe and it whips up very quickly…add to that the fact that it is a little different than the standard holiday treat and has that unique meringue texture…. I was sure it would be a winner. I was right!

The original recipe for these treats comes from the 2010 Holiday magazine.  I made this recipe two times before I got it to turn out the way I wanted it to.  While I love the recipe collections that Taste of Home puts out during the holidays, they often don’t come with good instructions (or I’ve just become way too spoiled by my food blogger friends who lay out wonderful details on how to make their creations!).  A little trial and error and I’m excited about the results.

Triple Chocolate Kiss Meringues

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 oz. semisweet chocolate, grated
• 24 milk chocolate kisses

Directions:

• In a small bowl ( I used my KitchenAid) beat egg whites, cream of tartar and extract on medium speed until soft peaks form. (Tip: soft peaks are distinguished by seeing the peaks gently fold over when you lift the beater out of the bowl)
• Gradually add sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating on high speed  until stiff, glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved. (Tip: stiff peaks are distinguished by peaks that do not move when the beater is removed from the bowl or when the bowl is gently shaken.)  Do not overbeat.
• Fold in grated chocolate.
• Using a Wilton 1M star tip  in the base of a disposable pastry bag, fill the bag half way with meringue mixture.
• Pipe 24 1 – 1½in circles onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Make sure that there is a nice pillow of meringue to create the bottom of your kisses.
• Place a chocolate kiss on each circle.
• Starting at the bottom of each kiss, pipe a continuous circle until the chocolate kisses are completely covered; about 2 ½ turns.

• Dust with baking cocoa.
• Bake at 325° for 15-18 minutes of until the edges are lightly browned.  Immediately remove to wire rack.

Tip:  Don’t overcook these, it will make the meringues difficult to lift off of the baking sheet.  I used a metal bar server and a butter knife to lift the meringues and get them onto the cooling racks.  If your base was not full enough, you may find the chocolate kiss has become the bottom of the treat and the top lifts off.  This is okay…they still taste magnificent

These meringues have an amazing chocolate flavor, they are slightly crunchy and the chocolate in the middle stays soft and gooey long after the meringue has cooled.

The original recipe calls for a “medium star tip” and has a batch count of 48.  I tried this and frankly, they looked like little piles of poo…the tip was too thin!  The 1M makes a nice full shape but it greatly decreases your batch size.  Have no fear, they are still small enough to fit in a 6 year old’s mouth in one giant bite

Rumor has it you can freeze meringues and pull them out when you are ready to serve them…. if I can ever keep these in my house long enough to get them frozen, I’ll let you know.

As my kids get older I’m finding more and more joy in celebrating with them.  With each New Year we find ways to have fun and relish our time together…to celebrate the smallest moments…and the big ones.

This year I’m looking forward to New Year’s Eve so that we can talk about our goals…what we loved about this year and what we look forward to in 2012.

I’m a champagne kinda girl myself…but I suppose we need something a little more “kid friendly” on hand.  Enter Team Kansas City and our awesome take on the British tradition of New Year’s Eve Poppers…. “Snap.Crackle.Poppers Rice Krispies® New Year’s Eve Treats”!

Snap. Crackle. Poppers Rice Krispies® Treats

• 3 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter + extra butter for “greasing”
• 4oz.  marshmallows (1/2 bag) – make sure bag is left open overnight (this will make the poppers crunchier when they are finished).
• 2 c. Traditional Rice Krispies®
• Candy of choice to fill
• Decorating Supplies (frosting, glitter, stickers – pretty much anything you want to use to make it unique.)

Melt 3Tbsp. Butter in a heavy saucepan over med-high heat.

Add marshmallows, stirring constantly until melted and mixture is smooth.

Add RiceKrispies® to hot mixture in saucepan (this keeps them warm, and thus easier to manipulate, longer)

Mix thoroughly.

Butter plastic cutting board.

Place half of marshmallow mixture on cutting board and make into a small loaf. (Around 5″ by 3″.) Try to compact the mixture as much as possible.

Once you have a compact loaf, take a small pastry roller  (or other small rolling pin) and roll out the mixture to a 1/4 inch thickness – trying to keep the shape of a rectangle. (You will need to work quickly.  The cooler the mixture gets, the more difficult it is to shape.)

Take small fondant roller and “roll” mixture into a cylinder with a 1 1/2″ circumference.

Remove fondant roller and pinch one end to desired look. If going for a tapered end, start about 1 inch in, pinch and crimp the end.

Tilt and fill with candy of choice.

Pinch other end.

Set aside and let harden for 24 hours.

Repeat with other half of RiceKrispies® mixture.

Decorate once hard with fondant, icing, stickers, glitter, etc. It’s all about being fun!

Note: You can make these ahead of time and freeze. Another idea is to put a small fortune, saying, or inspirational quote inside the crackers.

Place these Snap. Crackle. Poppers on each child’s plate on New Years and let them “crack” them open and see their New Year’s Surprises.

Now the part I KNOW you are waiting for….. the $100 Visa Card Giveaway!!

Here’s How To Enter The Giveaway

(Remember, each comment is considered a entry – so leave a separate comment each time.)

• Leave me a comment and tell me if you make New Year’s Resolutions.

• Additional entry: Become a SuperJenn subscriber.  (I promise, I won’t spam you….when I DO post its generally at least a LITTLE interesting.) And then leave a comment and let me know.

• Additional entry: Post the following on your Facebook page, “Want a to win a $100 Visa Gift Card? Check out this great giveaway from SuperJenn http://bit.ly/vHl3Xc” And then leave a comment and let me know.

Contest will be open until 11:59 pm CST December 11, 2011. Winner will be notified by email and has 48-hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Good Luck!

Abbreviated Rules:  No Purchase Necessary.  Begins no earlier than 12:00AM (ET) on 11/14/11 and ends no later than 11:59:59PM (CST) 12/11/11.  For complete Official Rules, go to http://web.mediacdt.com/docs/RKBloggerHolidayRules.pdf   Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United STates and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry.  Subject to complete Official Rules.  Void where prohibited.  Sponsor: The Motherhood.

Guess what?  All three of my teammates, Kelly from Kansas City Mamas, Kristen from Dine and Dish and Julie from My Kansas City Mommy are each giving away their own $100 Visa Gift Card, too.  Visit them for an even better chance of getting some “Happy Holidays to ME” cash!

Finally…Want to see the amazing competition we are up against?  You can see all of the entries on TheMotherhood.com Making Memories Circle. The pictures above were taken by the lovely and talented Kristen Doyle from Dine and Dish. (Someday I might MAYBE be able to take pictures as beautiful as she does…until then…. I’ll drool over hers.) But, these pictures are her property. Don’t steal them.

Full disclosure: This is the final competition in a series of four that I am being compensated for.  The Motherhood and Rice Krispies compensate me for my time and I stand to win a prize if they decide Team Kansas City is cool.  All of the words and ideas in this post are mine (or collaboratively mine/Team Kansas City’s) …the point is… I don’t post anything here that I don’t think up all on my own….the kind of companies that supply you with content don’t visit here…. they seem to know better by now.

I’ll be the first to admit that I go waaaay overboard when it comes to baking during the Holidays. I’m willing to bet that every other recipe that I see is one that I want to try to make….and I really, truly believe I can make them all.

One way that I can simplify this baking extravaganza you mere mortals call “December” is by making double batches of goodies and freezing as we go through the month. I usually start around Thanksgiving and mix up batches of my favorite cookies. I roll/cut/shape them out on a wax paper lined cookie sheet as if I was going to bake them, then set them in the freezer for about a couple of hours. When they are set I can pop them off the cookie sheet and put them in a labeled bag and stick them back in the freezer. Now they are ready to go when I’m actually ready to bake them. I have prepared….and I don’t miss out on that yummy baking smell filling up the house later.

I also like to have quick breads and muffins in the freezer. I often double up on these recipes so I have one for now, and one for later. These make for great snacks and breakfasts when company starts to arrive. Made in mini-loaves they also make great gifts for teachers or neighbors.

My favorite bread is Cranberry-Orange. I could make this all throughout the year but it is much better with a little anticipation, so I break out this recipe only during the winter months.

Cranberry-Orange Bread

Ingredients

• 3c. Flour
• 1c. Sugar
• 1Tbsp. Baking Powder
• ½tsp. salt
• ¼tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 Beaten Egg
• 1 ²⁄3c. Milk
• ¼c. Oil
• ¾c. Chopped Nuts
• 2tsp. Finely Shredded Orange Peel
• 1c. Coarsely Chopped Cranberries

Directions

• Stir together dry ingredients with orange peel.
• In a separate bowl mix together wet ingredients (except cranberries)
• Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
• Add the cranberries and nuts.

Bake at 350° according to the following time schedule:

• 1 – 9 x 5 x 3″ Bread Pan 1 – 1¼ Hrs.
• 2 – 7 ½ x 3½ x 2″ Pans 40 – 45 Mins.
• 6 – 4½ x 2½ x 1½” Pans 30 – 35 Mins.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire cooling rack and cool thoroughly. Wrap tightly overnight.

P&G Beauty is also helping to simplify your holiday season. Instead of buying friends and family another gift card, surprise them with P&G Beauty gift sets! These gift sets feature items from Olay, Pantene, Secret, Venus and CoverGirl…all fun gifts to keep them feeling pampered and ready for those holiday parties well into the New Year. These gift sets are available almost any place you normally buy P&G products and start as low as $9.99 so they are not only a great way to pamper someone, they aren’t going to break your budget, either!

You can find out more about these and other great P&G Beauty products and gift by visiting their Facebook Page. You can also read what the Wall Street Journal had to say about the holiday gift sets HERE.

Now the really good part? You can win a P&G Gift Basket with over $90 of excellent P&G products! Keep them to pamper yourself or share them as gifts and stocking stuffers.

How To Win:

To enter you just need to leave a comment here with your favorite tip for keeping the holidays simple!

Want an extra entry? Tweet this phrase: “Enter to #win a P&G Gift Basket with $90 of pampering fun from @SuperJennBlogs #giveaway http://bit.ly/vF6nwO”

Then leave me an additional comment with a link to your tweet.

Official Business:

This giveaway is open until 11:59pm CST Sunday December 4, 2011. Open to residents of the United States age 18 or older. I will draw a winner using random.org and notify the winner via email. Winner will have 24 hrs to respond before a new winner is drawn. SuperJenn, The Motherhood and P&G Beauty are not responsible for lost or undelivered emails.

I received a P&G gift basket and compensation for writing this post. The recipe is mine (okay..my mom’s) and the thoughts expressed in the post are mine.

Throughout the month of October SuperDad and I have been conducting a little experiment:  eliminating gluten from his diet to see if it helped with some major pain and discomfort that he has been  increasingly suffering over the past year.

The result?  He lost more than 15lbs and, without going into way too many personal details, he feels 100x  better.

So now that he sees the proof in the gluten free pudding, the challenge is for me to provide him a healthy gluten free diet, rather than him simply excluding foods that he normally eats.

I’m not much of a “buy it pre-packaged” kinda gal…so I’ve been reading up on how to incorporate this style of eating into our life without buying lots of “substitutes”.  Among the myriad of new recipes I’ve found to incorporate into our meal planning, I’ve also been thinking about the many, many things I cook and bake that he loves that have flour in them…and wondering how I can tweak them.

I’m so lucky to be part of a great group of Kansas City area bloggers that gets together to enjoy each other’s company and benefit from each of our individual areas of expertise.  One such blogger is Johnna Perry from 52 Sweets  (Side note: You absolutely MUST go read her “About Me” page because I think it is one of the coolest becoming-a-blog stories…as well as an amazing ongoing project).  Johnna is a vegetarian baker who also eats, and bakes, gluten free.  So who do YOU think I went to for advice??

Tonight I put together Johnna’s “Go To” flour substitute:  a combination of White Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Potato Starch and Tapioca Starch.  This is similar to several other suggestions I’ve read around the web but, well, I know Johnna so I’m going to trust her recipe above all else.  The idea is that this combination will substitute out cup for cup with all purpose flour in most recipes (the general rule of thumb being that it works best in recipes consisting of 2c or less of flour).

Visit 52 Sweets to get the actual layout for this gluten free flour substitute and give it a shot.  Let me know what works for you!

It is a very busy week here…but I’m hoping to give this a roll with some amazing pumpkin pancakes I made for the kids and some jalapeno cheddar corn bread that he has been craving when we eat chili later this week… I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

This week has a lot in store: Volunteering at both Kindergarten and Preschool, a half day blogger event in Kansas City, Parent-Teacher conferences, Photography Class, SuperGirl’s gymnastics, a retirement party for one of the partners at SuperDad’s firm and all while preparing for a working weekend getaway with 3 of my blogging buddies.

I figured if there was ever a time to get back on the wagon with menu planning … this would be the week to do it. Today I planned out my menus (breakfast, lunch and dinner), grocery shopped and prepared the majority of the week’s meals along with a few extras for a friend in need of some freezer love.

It has also occurred to me that I need to get on the stick and post a bunch of these recipes….there are a lot of good ol’ standbys here this week … ridiculous that I don’t have them posted somewhere …

Weekly Menu

Sunday

• Breakfast:  Cereal
• Lunch: Chicken Nuggets, carrots, grapes
• Dinner: Homemade pizza (pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives)

Monday

• Breakfast:  Pumpkin Pancakes/ Cinnamon Syrup
• Lunch:  Left over Pizza, applesauce, raw green beans (my kids are weird)
• Dinner: Out!  Bowling/Burgers

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Sausage/Egg Casserole, Raspberry muffins
• Lunch: Taquitos (Refried beans, taco meat, goat cheese, corn tortillas), grapes, corn
• Dinner: Vegetarian Chili, Cornbread Muffins

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Oatmeal
• Lunch: Quesadillas (Turkey, ham, cheese), apple slices,
• Dinner: Chicken and Rice Casserole (New recipe Dairy/GF)

Thursday

• Breakast: Sausage/Egg casserole, toast
• Lunch: Mini Muffin Corndogs, leftover veggies, pineapple chunks
• Dinner: Pasta Yum, Broccoli

Friday

• Breakfast: Baked peanut butter oatmeal
• Lunch: Dirty Beans and Rice, Carrots/Ranch, pear slices
• Dinner: Shepherd’s Pie, green beans, homemade biscuits (reg and GF)

Saturday

• Breakfast: Cereal/leftover baked oatmeal
• Lunch: Grilled Turkey/Cheese, celery/peanut butter, grapes
• Dinner: Leftovers or grilled venison (Dad’s in charge)

This fall we were given the challenge to create a…*gulp* Crafty Rice Krispies® Treat recipe.

I don’t do crafty.

I like to THINK I do crafty….but when push comes to shove… I.Don’t.Do.Crafty.  Time to rely heavily on the expertise of my teammates.

So we toiled.  We contemplated.  We racked our brains.

And when we couldn’t even come up with a day to meet that fit all of our schedules…. we knew we were in trouble.

Have no fear… it all worked out in the end.  We created a fun  Cinnamonster Rice Krispies® Snack Mix that will tempt every treat lover that walks past.

Cinnamonster Rice Krispies® Treat Snack Mix

 

• 3 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter
• 4oz.  cinnamon flavored marshmallows (1/2 bag)
• 2 1/2c. Traditional Rice Krispies®
• Cinnamon Sugar (Mix to your personal cinnamon/sugar preference)

Melt 3Tbsp. Butter in a heavy saucepan over med-high heat.
Add marshmallows, stirring constantly until melted and mixture is smooth.
Add RiceKrispies® to hot mixture in saucepan (this keeps them warm, and thus easier to manipulate, longer)
Mix thoroughly.

Spray cooking spray on a cookie sheet and pull out small chunks of RiceKrispies mixture one at a time to work with.  Pull apart enough to make small balls of krispies treats, slightly smaller than “bite sized”.
You will need to work quickly.  The cooler the mixture gets, the more difficult it is to shape.

Roll each ball in the cinnamon and sugar mixture to coat.  Set aside on waxed paper.
If not using immediately, cover tightly to store.

Tip **If you want a more crunchy texture to your cinnamon balls, set your marshmallows out the night before so that they dry out.  They will melt as normal but when the final mixture cools it will be more crunchy and less chewy.**

Mix Cinnamon balls with 1 1/2c. popped popcorn, 1/2c. salted cashews and 1/2c. chocolate candy pieces.

Just in case cinnamon isn’t your thing (or because we couldn’t stop ourselves) here is a chocolate variation: Swap out cinnamon marshmallows for chocolate ones and Cocoa Krispies® for the traditional ones.  In the mix, use candy corn in place of chocolate candy pieces.

Oh wait.  Crafty.  That’s the fun part!  After seeing these serving dish monsters in a magazine we just knew they were right for our project.
While the craft in our project isn’t edible… it is the craft that keeps on giving!  We can reuse these containers over and over again … all year October long!

Felt Monster Containers

Wrap a piece of felt around a used container and secure with hot glue. Your felt should be 2-3 inches taller than the container while leaving roughly 1 inch of felt hanging over the bottom.

Fold the ends of the felt under the bottom of the canister and glue them down for a smooth finish to the bottom edge of the container.

Cut flaps, wedges or spikes into the felt that rises above the container.  This will be the monster hair.
Glue felt shapes and stripes on your container to satisfy your inner monster designer.  Use “Googly Eyes” and “Pom Poms” for random effects.

The especially fantastic part of this is that there is really no “right” or “wrong” way to make these…. you can do whatever you want.  Perfect for those of us who are “less than crafty”.

Our kids loved rolling the cinnamon balls in sugar and helping to glue the accouterments onto the monsters (they got carried away with the “Googly Eyes”).  We had a fun afternoon creating (and then devouring) this snack with our kids…. you will too!

Now serve your Cinnamonster Rice Krispies® Treats Snack Mix in a homemade monster container for a spooky Halloween treat!

No! Wait!!  Don’t go yet…. I forgot to mention ….

The $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway! (You didn’t think I’d really forget, did you?)

On top of inspiring some fantastic Rice Krispies® Treats, the sponsors at Rice Krispies® and the great women at The Motherhood are offering a $100 Visa Giftcard to one of you, my lovely readers!
What do you have to do to win this?  Leave me a comment here and tell me what is your favorite Halloween treat.

That’s it!

Okay, okay… if you want one more chance to win you can Follow Me on Twitter and tweet this:

Cinnamonster #RiceKrispies Treats Snack Mix and a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card from @SuperJennBlogs Enter Here http://bit.ly/nLX7pm

Leave me a comment with the link to your tweet and you’ve got your second entry!

This contest will be open until Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 11:59 CST.  I will draw a winner on Wednesday, October 26 and post it by 11:00 CST and contact the winner by email (Make sure I can get your email from your entry!).  The winner will have 24hrs to get in touch with me or I will draw a new winner.  You must be 18 and a US citizen to enter and win. 

Guess what?  All three of my teammates, Kelly from Kansas City Mamas, Kristen from Dine and Dish and Julie from My Kansas City Mommy are each giving away their own $100 Visa Gift Card, too.  Visit them for an even better chance of padding your wallet.

Want to see the amazing competition we are up against?  You can see all of the entries on TheMotherhood.com Making Memories Circle!

Now for the disclaimers:

• The pictures here were taken by the lovely and talented Kristen Doyle from Dine and Dish.  These are her property…don’t steal them…no matter how cool you think they, or our magnificent recipe are.

• The Motherhood and Rice Krispies pay me and my teammates to compete in the Making Memories Challenge.  By competing we stand to win a prize.  OF COURSE these are my thoughts…its my recipe!

 

The Summertime Rice Krispies® Treats Challenge is upon us!! If you remember, I joined up with The Motherhood to participate in the Rice Krispies Making Memories Challenge earlier this year. Four teams across the country made up of four bloggers each competing four times this year to create a new and fantastic Rice Krispies™ Treats recipe the whole family will enjoy.

Team Kansas City consists of me, Kristen from DineandDish, Kelly from KansasCityMamas and Julie from MyKansasCityMommy. We are creative, we love to get in the kitchen and have fun … but the BEST memories that we are making in this challenge is the time we are spending together! We have such a great time together; laughing, talking, goofing around. This has been one of the best blogging decision I have made in a long time!

When the summer challenge came out it was for Summer Family Fun… what better way to get out and have some fun than a picnic in the park? We created our signature Tangy Watermelon Rice Krispies™ Treats for this challenge and ooooooh my! These are YUM! It tastes just like Laffy Taffy… but in an ooey, gooey Rice Krispies™ Treat.

Doesn’t that look YUM?! Well, it IS yummy…. but we were afraid if we took our kids on a picnic with JUST watermelon… they might get a little grumpy… so we threw some burgers in the basket, too.

With food this good we had no hope of keeping the ants away…they swarmed all over our picnic blanket!

Now that you’ve seen all of the fun WE had … here is some fun for YOU: The Motherhood and Rice Krispies™ have teamed up and are offering a $100 Giftcard for me to give away to one of my lucky readers!

• Leave a comment here and tell me what your favorite summer treat is. Ice cream? Watermelon? Iced tea? Me, personally…. I loooove lemonade. The real kind. Mmmm…

Additional Entry:

• Tweet the following: Check out this #RiceKrispies Picnic and enter to win $100 GC from @SuperJennBlogs http://bit.ly/pcD7wZ. Leave me a comment with you Twitter Handle telling me you tweeted it.

That’s it! The contest will be open until midnight CST on July 25, 2011 and is open to legal US Residents 18 years or older. I will draw a winner using Random.org. If I am unable to reach the winner within 24 hrs, I will draw a new winner. Want more official-ness? View it HERE.

Want more chances to win?? Each of my Team Kansas City friends are hosting a giveaway as well! Be sure to visit them:

• DineandDish
• KansasCityMamas
• MyKansasCityMommy

Here is the recipe for our Tangy Watermelon Rice Krispies™ Treats:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bag marshmallows
• 1 bag strawberry flavored marshmallows
• ½ cup butter, plus extra for greasing
• 8 cups of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies™
• 1 packet watermelon-cherry drink mix
• 1 packet lime drink mix
• Raisins or chocolate chips for garnish

For the Green Layer

1. Grease one 9” round cake pan and set aside.
2. Place four cups of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies™ in a large bowl.
3. Melt ¼ cup of butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Add regular marshmallows and stir till melted and well blended. Cook two minutes longer. Stir in lime drink mix and stir till well blended.
4. Pour marshmallow mixture over Rice Krispies™ and stir till well coated.
5. Using a butter spatula, press mixture around the outer rim of cake pan to desired to width (about one to two inches.)

For the Watermelon Layer

1. 1. Place four cups of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies™ in a large bowl.
2. Melt ¼ cup of butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Add strawberry marshmallows and stir till melted and well blended. And then cook two minutes longer. Stir in watermelon-cherry drink mix and stir till well blended.
3. Pour marshmallow mixture over Rice Krispies™ and stir till well coated.
4. Using a butter spatula, press mixture into the remaining area of cake pan.
5. Once cool, add raisins or chocolate chips for garnish.

**Aren’t the photos shown here BEAUTIFUL? A big THANK YOU to Kristen from DineandDish for her most impressive photography skills.

I receive a stipend from The Motherhood and Rice Krispies™, and possibly a prize, for participating in this challenge. It’s a lot of fun and I’m way too opinionated to blame anyone but myself for the thoughts expressed in my blog posts.

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week.  There are several reasons for this:

• Meal planning can get a bit tedious.  We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again.  We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
• Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.
  

And Finally,

To show  you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

Oh woe is ME! It has been so long since I posted something new for dinner! In the past month and a half I have been moving the SuperFamily into our new home…what a chore!! I am set up now… at least in my kitchen…so I’m back to experimenting with new eats for us!

This week I made some Italian Breadsticks to go with our pasta dinner. I’ve been wanting to try this for quite some time but never quite had the guts. There is a great recipe in The Five Dollar Dinner Mom Cookbook and since I have had great success with Erin’s recipes I thought I would give it a go.

The Ingredients

• white flour
• wheat flour
• yeast
• flaxseed (I didn’t use any because mine was … well…too old)
• salt
• olive oil
• sugar
• Dried Italian Seasoning
• Grated Parmesan

The Directions

• The first step is to use the seasonings, yeast, sugar and some flour to make a “spongy dough”.I find this to be a little more trying than it should be sometimes.  I seem to not get the water temperature correct and then you either burn off the yeast or it has failure to thrive or something like that.

Yeast, Flour and Seasonings when they are first mixed together.

"Spongy Dough" after Resting for 10 Min

If you’ve never worked with yeast bread before, it can be a little stressful wondering what this stage is supposed to look like so I thought I’d put these pics up.  Not pretty…but you get the idea of what “spongy dough” should look like.

• When the dough is “Spongy” you add the rest of the flour and stir it together with a wooden spoon.
• When the dough is thick enough, knead it by hand for 6-8 min. I used my Kitchen Aid instead of kneading by hand.  6-8 minutes of kneading stiff dough and my hands would have been out of commission for the entire next day!

Using a Dough Hook with the Kitchen Aid to knead

• The next several steps require you to work quickly…something I have never quite gotten the hang of.  Dividing the dough into 4 medium balls, then each one of those balls down into muffin sized balls.
• Each ball gets rolled out into skinny, long pieces.

Shaping the dough

• Twist two pieces together and place them on a greased baking sheet.
• When all dough has been formed, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
• Let rise for 30 minutes.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes.

Erin also gives directions for using her recipe in a bread machine.

Ready for the Oven

The Results:

I was slightly disappointed in these breadsticks, I believe it was mostly user error. I may have kneaded the dough too long using the bread hook.  Generally  you can knead bread in the Kitchen Aid for 5-6 minutes and that is just about perfect; my dough was very stiff and hard to work with.  I can’t decide if it was the whole wheat or if I over worked the dough.

In addition to over working the dough, I stopped to take pictures and in general goofed around took too long so half of the breadsticks were rising while I was still making the rest of them.

They tasted good and the texture was, for the most part, nice and even.

Italian Breadsticks

What I Would Change:

Even though it’s not the healthiest thing… I think I would go all white flour…or cut back on the ratio of white to wheat flours.  I would also like to try this kneading the dough by hand to see if there is a difference; being able to feel the dough as you are working with it can make all the difference in how it turns out.

Be sure to head on over to CouponGeek and see what my friend Jaycie whipped up this week… I’m TOTALLY going to try it some day; Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta and Strawberry Caprese Pasta Salad…um, YUM!

Want to see some of my other culinary adventures?  Check out other recipes in my What’s New For Dinner adventure!

Over the course of this year, Kristen from Dine and Dish, Kelly from Kansas City Mamas and Julie from My Kansas City Mommy and I will compete four different times against three other groups across the country.  Kellogg’s™ Rice Krispies™ will provide us with different themes for our competitions and the first theme is: Easter!

So hold onto your hats because this is amazing!  Kristen shared with us a recipe she uses for homemade Kettle Korn … you know…yummy sweet and salty goodness?!  THEN she shared an idea about using that concept to create….. *drumroll*

Photo Courtesy of Kristen Doyle at Dine and Dish

Kettle Krispies Treats!  The sweet and salty of Kettle Korn with the light Rice Krispies™ and gooey marshmallows? To.Die.For.  So we gave it a whirl and whipped up a couple of batches (for testing, of course).

Seeing as how we all have young kids, it was important to us that this recipe needed to be not only tasty, but easy and FUN!  Something the kids would want to help out with.  We decided that egg shaped Kettle Krispies would do the trick so we went Paula Dean on some plastic eggs (we buttered ‘em up, y’all!) and use that to mold our Easter Eggs.  When we were finished we sprinkled some with sugar, some with candy sprinkles and well…since these babies can stand on their own we left some of them plain.

Photo Courtesy of Dine and Dish

We used these for table decorations and even whipped up a little name tag to create a place setting….. a great idea for the “Kids’ Table” or a fun Easter Party Play Date!

Photo Courtesy of Dine and Dish

So here it is for you…our recipe for Kettle Krispies Treats! (Don’t forget to keep reading!! If this recipe isn’t reason enough to make your day … I have about one hundred more to share in a minute!)

Kettle Krispies Easter Egg Treats

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter
6 cups of Rice Krispies
3 teaspoons Kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar For Treats
1/4 cup and 2 teaspoons butter
5 cups mini marshmallows
Extra butter for greasing egg moldsDirections

• Melt butter in an iron skillet or dutch oven over medium heat.
• Increase temp to medium high and add Rice Krispies, Kosher salt, and sugar.
• Stir continuously over medium high heat until Rice Krispies are caramelized and slightly brown. Around 7 minutes. (see below – notice someone’s nicely manicured hands.)
• Remove from stove and continue stirring for another three minutes until cool. Set aside.
• While Kettle Krispies are cooling, butter the inside of 12 large plastic eggs. Set aside.
• In a large saucepan, melt butter and marshmallows over medium-low heat.
• After mix is well blended, continue to stir and cook for two minutes longer.
• Add Kettle Krispies and stir till well coated. Remove from heat.
• Fill buttered egg molds with mixture and let them set for 10 minutes.  Remove from molds and decorate if desired.

Kristen taught us that the secret to making these goodies is to make sure that your Rice Krispies get nice and caramelized in the skillet before you mix them into treats.

Photo Courtesy of Dine and Dish

That is IT!  Simple, right? Great!  Now, onto something even sweeter!

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats has given me a $100 Visa Gift Card to give to one of YOU!  That’s right!  I’ve got $100 for one of my lucky readers and that makes me SuperExcited!  In return (#thisisnotabribe) I’m hoping that you will help me out as well (Remember I said this was a competition?)…I’m going to need some votes from you

Here is a time line for the next week:

RIGHT NOW – Enter the $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway – see below. (Also enter at My Kansas City Mommy, Kansas City Mamas and Dine & Dish….we EACH have $100 to give away!)

NEXT WEEK -  Rice Krispies™ will post all four entries on their Facebook Fan Page. Your vote will make a HUGE difference in the final tally. Have no fear … I will remind you every single day a couple of times to make sure you get over and vote!

April 10th – I’ll announce the winner of the $100 VISA Gift Card.

April 15th – Our #kcmommies team is participating as a host on a fun chat at The Motherhood.  I’ll make sure to post the times and details so you can stop in and say hello!

April 21st – Rice Krispies® will announce the winner of the challenge on The Motherhood Making Memories Circle.

The Motherhood and Kellogg’s™ Rice Krispies™ Treats Making Memories Giveaway:

Each appropriate comment you leave will be considered one entry into this giveaway so make sure to leave separate comments for each entry you want considered:

1.  Leave a comment telling me what your favorite Easter family tradition is.  Is it hunting for baskets on Easter morning? A favorite dinner or treat you baked with your mom?  Share!!

2.  Head over to the SuperJenn Facebook Page and “Like” me …(but you have to really, REALLY LIKE ME! …. I had to, c’mon…).  If you already do…well, THANKS! and leave me a comment letting me know you are there.

3.  While you are on Facebook … “Like” the Rice Krispies™ page so you will be ready to go when it’s votin’ time.  Leave a comment letting me know you’ve done the deed.

4.  Subscribe to my RSS Feed or let me know you already do.

5.  Tweet this on Twitter: “Kettle Krispie Eggs Rock! See the #RiceKrispies recipe and enter the $100 Giveaway from @SuperJennBlogs http://www.superjenn.com/makingmemories Go #KCMommies!”

Standard Disclaimer or “Stuff You Should Realize by Now”:

I am working with The Motherhood and Kellogg’s™ Rice Krispies™ as a brand ambassador in the Making Memories Challenge.  I am being compensated for my time and materials but will NOT be reimbursed for my Weight Watchers monthly dues when this challenge is over even though eating recipe after recipe of Rice Krispies Treats will put me “back on the wagon”.  This is a competition and if my team should win, we stand to win a prize.

This giveaway will end at midnight CST on April 10, 2011.  One winner will be drawn via Random.org and winner will be given 48 hours to claim their prize before another winner is drawn.  In order to be eligible to claim your prize I must be able to contact you via email.

Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Begins no earlier than 12:00:00 AM (ET) on 03/28/11 and ends no later than 11:59:59 PM (ET) on 04/12/11. For complete Official Rules, go to http://web.mediacdt.com/docs/EasterGiveawayRules.pdf. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Subject to complete Official Rules. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: The Motherhood; www.TheMotherhood.com. ®, TM, ©2011 Kellogg NA Co.

Well, if you are interested in having some yummy chili today check out her recipe… and if you are going to the store…pick up some ingredients for me?

Here are two other recipes that I LOVE  … just to give you options

Vegetarian Chili : With or without the soy crumbles this is my tried and true chili recipe.  I LOVE it and it is very healthy.

Slow Cooker Southwestern Chicken Chili This is a very good chicken chili that will make your house smell fantastic all day while it cooks!

*Disclaimer* If I was a really good blogger I’d have some great pics of a big bowl of chili to warm this post… but I don’t…and I’d rather post than not because I think I’m “going to” get a pic… someday.

Planning out menus for my family is one of the simplest ways I’ve found to save money at the grocery store.  Looking at what I have available and planning my menus based on that, I can shop the sales and stock up on products that are a great deal.  This also cuts down on my stress level throughout the week.  I don’t have to wonder what I’m going to do about dinner when late afternoon roles around and MAYBE …just MAYBE I’ll be organized enough to even get dinner put together in the morning if I know what I have planned.

Posting my menus here has held me accountable to getting it done every most weeks.  It also helps to prove that planning and stock piling DOES work…and you can feed your family healthy, diverse food while using coupons.  I also hope that maybe by looking at we’ve got planned…. you will be inspired to try something new with your family…and by sharing…maybe I’ll find something new for mine!!

The SuperFamily is on the move!! We signed a contract on our house this week AND we signed a contract to buy the new house that we’ve been pining over!  So exciting….and stressful all at the same time.  We will be moving in roughly three weeks so I’m on a mission to use up a lot of items that have been hiding in my cabinets for a while.

Sunday: Pasta, Bean and Herb Soup

• This is a recipe I got out of a Better Homes and Gardens Vegetarian Cook Book I’ve had forever… it is a tried and true recipe and EASY… since the SuperKids looooove mushrooms and tomatoes …I’ve convinced them they love this soup, too so they eat it up!  Mushrooms, a small amount of mini pasta shells, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, onions and garlic.  If they start to make noise about carbs I’ll throw together some cornbread.

Monday: Salisbury Steak, AuGratin Potatoes, Broccoli

• This is a recipe from my friend Sarah at RealLifeBlog.  One of her “Use what’s in your pantry” type of recipes…which is what I’m doing!  Super Easy and I can start it in the afternoon, set it in the fridge and finish it up at dinner time.  The Au Gratin potatoes are from Cooking Light Magazine.  We LOVE them, SuperDad says he thinks they are good as the “NON” Cooking Light version.  For a side dish, I exclude the ham and cut the recipe in half.  This is where my Pampered Chef Mandolin comes in very, very handy.

Tuesday: Grilled cheese and/or turkey sandwiches, tomato soup, carrot coins

• Tuesday nights are a little hectic here so we need a quick and easy meal.  We keep all of these things on hand; in the fridge and the pantry.  I will need to pick up more lunch meat when I shop this week. By cutting the carrot sticks into circles and calling them “coins” …my kids eat them with enthusiasm….as opposed to those gross and nasty carrot “sticks”.

Wednesday: Macaroni and Cheese with Hotdogs

• That’s right.  I don’t want to hear any opposition to the hot dog factor!!   Last summer I bought up eight zillion packages of Nitrate Free Hot Dogs from Oscar Mayer when they went on sale and I could get them for about $0.25/package.  I need to be using them up.  I make homemade mac and cheese …which will use up yet ANOTHER open package of noodles I found in the depths of my pantry.  I have loads and loads of frozen shredded cheese…with a simple white sauce this makes a perfect mac and cheese dish.  There will be plenty here to have some leftovers for lunch one day.  Hoping for some leftover broccoli from Tuesday night….it is the Super Kids’ favorite veggie so if there isn’t any left… I’m going to have to round up another.
  

Thursday: Spaghetti and meatballs, Green Peas, Italian Breadsticks

• I found a plethora of half used boxes of spaghetti noodles in my cupboard so I’m going to use them up.  Spaghetti sauce I have in the pantry and I make meatballs with venison, Stove Top and a little water.  I bought Target out of purchased  a lot of Stove Top when it was on sale at Target this fall so that is also on hand already.  Last week Green Giant frozen vegetables were on sale at Target; we can’t seem to get enough of these so I loaded up the freezer. (I thought they’d be fun to move)  There is a recipe for Italian Breadsticks in my $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook that I’ve been meaning to try so I’ll give it a go tonight.

Friday: Chicken and Biscuits

• I thought I’d get this favorite family comfort food in again one more time while I can.  This is my solution to chicken pot pie.  Anyway you twist it, pie crust is high in fat and calories.  By baking the filling and serving it with biscuits we can have a lot more control over our caloric intake.  I’ve been buying up Gold N’ Plump chicken at Target whenever I find it with a store coupon to match my manufacturer’s coupons so I have some in the freezer.  I have potato soup and mixed veggies on hand to make the chicken … and biscuits, well, I’m never without ingredients for those and I can make them in my sleep.

Saturday: Brinner and Family Game Night!

• This was on the menu a couple of weeks ago but never came to fruition due to some rather negative behavior on the part of the SuperKids…so we’ll give it another go this week.  Recently Dillon’s had Farmland sausage links on sale $10/10 and they double the $0.55/1 coupons that were in the paper…FREE SAUSAGE.  I have two open bags of pancake mix so I’ll need to use at least one of those up.  I’ve got pancake syrup on hand (I make my own) and plenty of eggs.  My friends at In the Kitchen with Audrey did a post recently about cooking scrambled eggs in a muffin cup, in the microwave; an easy way for the kids to get involved… I think we’ll do this.  I’ll pick up some fresh fruit to make a fruit salad for this night as well.

Shopping List

My list this week will primarily consist of produce and perishables like milk and …. milk….oh, and some milk. This should leave me lots of room in the budget to stock up on a couple of sales or buy some items that we don’t always keep on hand.

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli (?)
• Oranges
• Apples
• Bananas
• Strawberries (?)
• Deli Meat
• Milk (1%, Whole and Rice)
• Juice

What is on your menu for this week?  Have a blog? Write it down!! Then come here and link it up!

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week.  There are several reasons for this:

• Meal planning can get a bit tedious.  We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again.  We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
• Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.

And Finally,

• To show  you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

I missed a week.  Then I thought I would post twice this week, as I have two new recipes we’ve tried.  I was all proud of myself…when I realized it was FRIDAY and it was time for THIS week’s post.  #superflawed

This week’s new recipe wasn’t actually a new dinner …. it was a new breakfast! I really like to have nice sit down breakfasts on the weekends when we are all together.  It is a good start to our day and a chance to sort of map out our day.  We have a favorite Baked Blueberry Oatmeal recipe that I make frequently, so when a recipe for Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal came across my Twitter Stream touted as “A Giant Oatmeal Cookie You can Cover in Milk”…. I jumped.  You can check out the original recipe I got from Cheryl at Tidy Mom; but here is how it went down at our house:

The Ingredients:

• quick cooking oats
• brown sugar
• white sugar
• milk
• melted butter
• egg
• baking powder
• salt
• vanilla
• Peanut Butter
• Raisins *This was a SuperFamily addition*

The Directions:

The Results:

This is not the same consistency as the baked oatmeal that we are used to and I think this threw everyone off…including me.  As I’ve never had ANY other baked oatmeal…I don’t know which is right; assuming, of course I couldn’t have done anything wrong…but after we got over ourselves adjusted to the difference….we loved it!  The consistency here was very soft, almost cakey.  When we poured the milk over it, it got even softer.  The blueberry oatmeal is much firmer.

*Hint* When pouring milk over a warm, baked item like this for breakfast….consider warming the milk first.  Just sayin’.

Clearly, SuperBaby enjoyed this breakfast...he snuck back for more.

What I Would Change:

• I would add cinnamon.  More like oatmeal raisin cookies.  Maybe.  Or maybe I did.  I can’t remember, and that is so sad.

I'm always happy when this is the aftermath of a new recipe.

Be sure to stop on over at CouponGeek and see how Jaycie’s experiment turned out this week!

Want to see more of my culinary challenges adventures? Check out other recipes From My Kitchen or ask yourself “What’s New For Dinner?” this week! Be sure to check back on Sunday when I post my weekly menu (and link one up yourself!) to see what I’ve decided to try out on the family next week!

Sunday – Off to a SuperBowl Party in Kansas City so no cookin’ for this mama!

Monday – Grilled Turkey, Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, carrot coins, apples and chips

• These are all things I have on hand and SuperDad will be away at the KU-Mizzou game.  Kids and I will play down dinner …. so we can play up the rest of our evening

Tuesday – Chicken Enchiladas, Green Salad, Spanish Rice

• This recipe makes a “double” batch for our family so each time I make it, I freeze half of the filling for another day.  Tuesday’s in our house are pressed for time in the evening so this is a great family meal that won’t require a lot of prep or clean up.  I’ve got the filling in the freezer and I picked up tortillas on sale a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve got leftover salad fixings in the fridge and a Zataran’s Spanish Rice mix in the pantry.

Wednesday – Some kind of Crockpot Lasagna … recipe yet to be determined.

• I’m hoping to involve spinach.  Maybe some chicken.  Staying away from the traditional red meat.

Thursday – Meatloaf, Potatoes (either mashed or au gratin), Corn

• This was on last week’s menu…but it got shoved aside for something else…and I can’t even remember what at this point…

• As always, I’ll pull some venison out of the freezer for the meatloaf.  I went crazy on a Stove Top sale at Target a couple of months back so I’ll just pull one of those puppies out of the cabinet.  I’ve got potatoes that need to be used, I haven’t decided yet if I will whip them up or make au gratin potatoes.  I found a great recipe from Cooking Light that we really like and I’m a big fan of the cut in calories and fat over the original recipe (I make it without meat…just potatoes).  I’ve got cheese on hand if I decide to do this…and the au gratin potatoes are a definite “make ahead” dish because they take so long to cook.  I can make them in the morning and reheat for dinner.  Corn is among the many frozen veggies in my freezer right now.

Friday – Fall Soup, Biscuits

• This is a vegetable beef soup my mom used to make all the time.  I have to dig out the recipe or find one that is similar…. sounds good to me right now with the cold weather coming in.  I’ll use venison and maybe splurge on some fresh veggies in lieu of frozen since our grocery list will be small this week.  And of course, I’ll whip up some biscuits…the ingredients that I ALWAYS have on hand.

Saturday – Pizza Night!

• It has been AT LEAST two weeks since we’ve had pizza on the menu and my family is starting to have withdrawl.  Time for another pizza night!  I love making this crust from scratch and then letting the kids pile on the toppings.  We normally do pepperoni because the SuperKids are SuperFreaks about it (I use turkey pepperoni…what do they know)…but frankly I’m getting a little sick of the red stuff.  I’m thinking about cooking up some chicken…maybe some canadian bacon (they don’t know its just ham!!)…pineapple… anything to toss this thing up a bit!

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week. There are several reasons for this:

• Meal planning can get a bit tedious. We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again. We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
• Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.
  

And Finally,

• To show you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

We eat a lot of Mexican food; Enchiladas, Taco Salad, Black Beans and Rice, Quesadillas. It occurred to me when I saw this recipe at Hoosier Homemade that I’ve never made actual tacos for my kids. I can only imagine what a mess that would be! This recipe for Mini Taco Cups seemed like the perfect solution. Designed as an appetizer, it is the perfect size for little hands and mouths.

The Ingredients:

• Ground Beef (we use venison)
• Taco Seasoning
• Tostitos “Scoops” tortilla chips
• Refriend Beans (I used fat free to make myself feel better)
• Shredded Cheese
• Any assortment of toppings you want!

The Directions:

• Brown the meat and add taco seasoning per package directions.
• Set the Tostitos “Scoops” in mini muffin tins.

• Put a little bit of refried beans in the bottom of each scoop.
• Layer with a small amount of prepared taco meat.

• Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

• You could continue here and add toppings to each little tiny taco cup… or you could set out your toppings a la Taco Bar.

This seemed easier to me; I thought the kids would enjoy putting their own toppings on and it would keep them involved and in control of how they want to eat their taco cups!

The Results:

Voila! Mini Taco Cups!

I was absolutely right, each one of the kid wanted theirs done up a different way…and they all liked “decorating” their own food for dinner.

SuperDad and I both liked these, too. Baking them in the oven to melt everything together also softened up the chips so they didn’t completely break apart when you bit into them.

What I Would Change:

Nothing! We liked these just the way they were.

Be sure to stop on over at CouponGeek and see how Jaycie’s experiment with crock pot beef stew went. Want to see more of my culinary challenges adventures? Check out other recipes From My Kitchen or ask yourself “What’s New For Dinner?” this week! Be sure to check back on Sunday when I post my weekly menu (and link one up yourself!) to see what I’ve decided to try out on the family next week!

I have no snazzy finished product pictures for you because the SuperFatFamily finished off ALMOST the entire pan today throughout the day.  I did bake these with the big kids however and they thoroughly enjoyed the process…and obviously, the outcome.

I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com.  I add the link because it was my starting point….but I’ve altered it so much I will include my recipe below.  I looked through the comments and took them into consideration (which is one of my favorite things about recipe sites like this…you can get a LOT of input on a recipe!).

This recipe makes 18 bars in a 9 x 13 pan.  I think they are a good sized bar and filling.  These will make good snacks or breakfast on the go (add yogurt and some juice, of course!).  If you cut 18 bars, these are 5 Weight Watchers PlusPoints.

Chewy Cinnamon Raisin Granola Bars

In a large bowl mix:

• 3c. rolled oats (I used quick cooking this time)
• 1 1/2c. Rice Crispy cereal
• 1c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

In another bowl cream together:

• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2c. butter, softened
• 1/3c. brown sugar

Add to the creamed mixture:

• 1/2c. honey
• 1/2c. unsweetened applesauce

Stir together and pour into the dry mixture.  Mix them all together until combined.

• Stir in 1 c. raisins

Press into a greased 9 x 13 pan. (Press them HARD into this pan.  I used a piece of waxed paper so I didn’t get it all stuck to my hands.  I also used my small fondant roller to press them down.

Bake 18-22 minutes, or until golden brown, in a preheated 325 degree oven.  I pulled mine out roughly half way through and attempted to press them down again with the waxed paper but they were too hot.

Set on cooling rack and let sit for 10 minutes.  Cut into 18 bars and allow to cool completely before you take them out of the pan. (If you don’t let them cool completely, they crumble….I heard…).

 

**EDITED 10/30/11 I’ve found upping the cinnamon to 1 1/2tsp and adding 1/4tsp cloves makes a much better flavor in the bars.  Since I first made these I also purchased the pastry roller from Pampered Chef and this is EXCELLENT for packing these bars down tight, keeping them from coming out crumbly!**

My thoughts are that next time I might even press them down again before I cut them.  Our stay together pretty well…but one last press might have been the trick.

I think they will need more than 1 tsp. of cinnamon next time. That, or maybe 1/2 tsp of cloves or so.

Mix whatever you want into them but remember that what you put in them affects their nutritional value! (No, SuperDad, I will NOT add chocolate chips, 2 kinds of nuts and some peanut butter for good measure…)

I’m interested in your thoughts on this recipe; how to tweak it or how it turns out for you.  Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know!

The weather predictions say “The WORST snowstorm in YEARS”….”ICE”….”DOWNED POWER LINE” (ours are underground)….”INCHES UPON INCHES OF SNOW” …. all of these forecasts have no doubt doomed us to a few measly inches and maybe a pretty little drizzling of ice.

None the less… I’m ready. Just in case. We made it to the grocery store tonight; kids were asleep in the car so SuperDad circled the parking lot while I did a mad dash shop to make sure I wouldn’t have to worry about it later this week.

Sunday: Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli

• An “oldie but goodie” recipe in our house.  I first discovered this on Amy’s blog a couple of year’s ago and we all love it.  I use penne instead of ziti because that is what I have around.  I bought up 3 or 4 jars of roasted red peppers almost a year ago on sale for around $1/each…a GREAT find for this rather expensive culinary “treat”.  Chicken breasts I got at Target with my Gold N Plump mailer coupons and a rather expensive head of broccoli because “Due to Weather Conditions around the country….” BAH.  We all love it and it was gobbled up in a flash.  Just enough left for SuperDad to take to work tomorrow.

Monday:  Vegetarian Chili, Great Grandma’s Cornbread

• This recipe was a staple when I tried out the South Beach Diet yeeeears ago; before the beginning of SuperBoy.  I recently made it for the family, instead of just myself and the kids snarffed it up.  They actually asked for it again!  I figure the middle of this “alleged” snow storm will be the perfect time to make it again.  I couldn’t bring myself to spend $4+ on veggie crumbles…even with a coupon… when I have a freezer full of ground venison; but I’m trying to cut out some of the meat we eat SO… I may make it without any ground anything…. we shall see.  I have beans, tomato sauce and spices all on hand.  I had to pick up a couple of peppers which I will be sharing with a breakfast recipe.

Tuesday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Salad (and if they are lucky…some biscuits)

• I make my meatloaf loosely based on a recipe I got from my friend Julie.  I use a box of StoveTop and 1cup of water mixed with a pound and a half of venison.  That.Is.It.  Bake it in the oven for about an hour and we are DONE.  I bought eight thousand boxes of StoveTop during a sale at Target a few months back (okay…not eight thousand…but a lot.  So much that when we were getting our house ready to put on the market I actually had to pack up my StoveTop.  And my cereal.) We have potatoes on hand so I will make the mashed potatoes from scratch and I bought a bag of “Manager’s Special” romaine lettuce this week for half price!

Wednesday: Tacos and Mini-Taco Cups

• The “mini” part of this menu is my “What’s New For Dinner” for the week.  I found the recipe over at Hoosier Homemade. *WARNING: Do NOT visit this website unless you can safely lose yourself for hours on end.  This is a ridiculously wonderful site!!*  I have the venison and taco seasoning.  I have leftover sour cream from last week and I always have salsa on hand.  I picked up refried beans and tortilla “scoops” at the store as well as some Roma tomatoes which I can split between the salad on Tuesday and these tacos.  I also have soft and hard shells on hand in case SuperDad doesn’t fancy the idea of eating a million little taco cups to satiate himself   Look for my post on Thursday to see how this new recipe idea turned out!

Thursday: Leftovers

• Either we will have been snowed in for a couple of days and I will be recovering, cleaning house and doing laundry from our slovenly retreat…. or we will have no more room in the fridge again from all of the cooking we’ve been doing.  If all else fails…we have sandwich meat and bread.

Friday: Tilapia, Butter Noodles and Green Beans

• I buy the best frozen fish Kansas can provide from Aldi (I might be exaggerating a bit).  But seriously; I used to purchase fish from Schwann’s…when I broke up with my Schwann’s man cut Schwann’s out of our budget a couple of years ago I discovered that the frozen seafood at Aldi was right on par and MUCH less expensive.  I can buy a package of 5-6 individually frozen Tilapia or Wild Caught Salmon for $3.99 at Aldi.  My kids have grown up eating fish and they all love it.  Baked in a pan sprinkled with dill is our favorite way to fix tilapia.  I picked up two packages of Knorr Noodles for $0.50/each (I know, I know… this is a heavily processed week) and we have a bag of frozen green beans on hand.

Saturday: Brinner!!!

• Brinner has been a long time coming.  Usually we rotate this into our menus as often as pizza (which gets an every other week billing) ….but it has been a loooong time since we had a good brinner.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, fresh fruit salad and yogurt is our standard fare.  If SuperDad is feeling adventurous he will whip us up some hashbrown potatoes as well.

In addition I’ve got the fixin’s for some homemade macaroni and cheese when we have friends over for lunch on Thursday (if we aren’t suffering a new ice age); ingredients to make us a warm apple crisp one night; and I’m looking to bake a few goodies to keep on hand for the kids (granola bars, etc).

Do you have a weekly menu posted?  Sharing is a great idea for us all to find simple, new ways to keep our family dinner table a more interesting place to be!

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week.  There are several reasons for this:

1. Meal planning can get a bit tedious.  We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again.  We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
2. Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.                          And finally,
   
3. To show  you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

Pot Roast is a common occurrence around here.  I have a standby recipe I got from Weight Watchers about 3 – 4 years ago.  It works really well with venison and SuperDad is “don’t change a thing” happy with the results.

I changed a thing.  Or two.

A couple of weeks ago Candy Tai from Mommypalooza and KCMetroMoms posted a yummy recipe for French Dip Sammies in her Facebook Notes.  I can’t link to it…but I’m giving her some serious street credit   It is very similar to my recipe…but knocks out my two least favorite parts of the preparation…and uses…. THE CROCKPOT!  YEAH!

The Ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs. beef brisket (I used venison roast … and made 7lbs so I’d have some to freeze)
• Italian Seasoning
• 1 Onion
• 1 Can Beef Broth
• 1 Packet Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix (I used regular Onion Soup Mix because it was in my cabinet)
• Hoagie Rolls
• Provolone Cheese (We used Mozzarella because, again, I had it on hand)

The Directions:

• Spray your crock pot with cooking spray.
• Wash and pat dry your brisket or roast.
• Rub Italian Seasoning over all sides of the roast.
• Put it in the crock pot fatty side down (especially important if you are using brisket)

Raw meat generally makes for a gross picture...but thought I'd share this one anyway. Lucky You!

**Tip: If you don’t have a crock pot, get one.  If you can only get one and you aren’t sure what to get… I personally think a 6quart pot is the way to go.  I have THIS ONE and love it.  I’ve been able to adapt any recipes for smaller pots with a quick google search.  I haven’t burned anything in it (yet) and I’ve been using it for 5 years now!

• Cut up the onion into wedges and lay it on the roast.
• Mix the onion soup mix and the beef broth together with a whisk and pour over the roast.
• Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 3-4. (Low is best for this kind of meat…makes it nice and tender…and smells YUMMA in your house all day!)
• Serve it on sliced hoagie rolls with cheese and a dipping bowl of juice.

The Results:

This says it all!  SuperBaby was so inspired by the roast that he put all of his recent learning together in a string of events that involved:

• Going to his room to get the step stool his sister uses to reach her clothes.
• Carrying the step stool out to the kitchen (I didn’t know he could manage this)
• Climbing up on it, standing on his tip toes and trying desperately to pull the roast off the counter.

SuperBoy ate the sandwich as it was intended…dip and all and was very…. enthusiastic.  SuperGirl is not a fan of bread so she just ate the roast and the cheese….and then some roast….and then some roast.  I really liked the flavor although I’m not sure it is as intense as the roast I usually make.  The meat was tender and almost fell apart… perfect.

SuperDad asked a lot of questions “What did you do differently…how did you cook it…” I think he wasn’t as enthusiastic as the kids….but as I’ve seen him leftovers two times already he must not of thought it was too shabby!

What I Would Change:

Not much, really.  I think I will look back at my other recipe and try to meld the two together a little more closely.  One thing that is in the other is balsamic vinegar… I think that should be included.

Want to see more of my culinary adventures? Check out other What’s New For Dinner? recipes HERE.

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week.  There are several reasons for this:

1. Meal planning can get a bit tedious.  We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again.  We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
2. Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.                          And finally,
   
3. To show  you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

I’ve read several recipes for potato leek soup over the years but I’ve always shied away from making it myself.  I have a great vegetable soup that uses leeks…but that is about it.  So this week: Chunky Leek and Potato Soup; courtesy of Parents.com (again).

The Ingredients:

• Butter
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Leeks
• Salt
• Pepper
• Water
• Cilantro or Parsley for Garnish

Yup…that’s it.  VERY healthy…and I didn’t even plan it that way!!

The Directions:

Chop up your veggies.  I started with the leeks,

Then the shallots;

And finally the potatoes;

Put them all in a stock pot with some melted butter and cook for about 7 -8 minutes until they start to soften.

Add water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer for about 20 minutes until all the veggies are tender.  Take about half out and put it through the blender, return it to the stock pot and voila!  Chunky Leek and Potato Soup.

*Tip*
When you are cutting up strong ingredients like onions, leeks, garlic, etc. and potatoes are on your roster; save the potatoes for last, they help to remove the smell of the others from your hands.

The Results:

Everyone ate the soup except for SuperBaby … but he is being food-tempermental this week anyway.  I’m not sure everyone was enthusiastic about it…but they all ate it without complaining so it is hard to tell.  I liked it a lot.  I was nervous about this one but really pleased with the results.  I had leftovers a few days later and with some extra salt and pepper it was MUCH better than the first day.

What I Would Change:

I didn’t add nearly enough salt and pepper.  I’m notorious for not adding enough…mainly because I’m afraid of adding too much.  Because the base of this soup is water I think it is really important to flavor it well with the salt and pepper.

That’s it!  Be sure to check out Jaycie’s adventure with Tilapia over at CouponGeek.  If you are interested in seeing more of my adventurous culinary side you can see other What’s New For Dinner posts HERE.

Welcome to this week’s edition of “What’s New for Dinner?” Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have made a commitment to each other and to you, our readers, to try ONE new thing in our meal planning each week.  There are several reasons for this:

1. Meal planning can get a bit tedious.  We find ourselves making the same dinners over and over again.  We are forcing ourselves to get creative and step outside of the lines.
2. Hopefully this will inspire you, the reader, to try something new that you haven’t done before.                          And finally,
   
3. To show  you that adding new recipes or tricks to your culinary routine does not have to be expensive or time consuming…you can have your dinner and eat it too!

Week number 2 was a success!  In more ways than one: not only did we ALL like the chili I made…but I made it following a loose recipe and throwing in my own ingredients as I went along.  This is a huge step for my very Type A “Must Follow Directions” personality.

Here we go

The Ingredients:

• 14oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 14oz. can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• “Some” frozen corn … I just dumped in about half a bag
• 14oz can Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes
• 140z can chili ready diced tomatoes
• 1/3 jar of salsa
• 7oz can chopped chilies
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• Half red bell pepper, chopped
• “Some” chicken broth
• 3 chicken breasts
• “Some” Southwestern BBQ Sauce
• 1/2c. -ish wild rice

The Directions:

I layered these in the crock pot starting at the top of the list and working my way down.

I laid the chicken breasts on top of everything else and basted some of the BBQ sauce on top of each one for extra flavoring.

I added a little bit of chicken broth to make sure that the chicken wouldn’t dry out while it was cooking.

The original recipe I looked at said to use frozen chicken breasts and to cook on high for 4 hours.  I thought I was so prepared when I took the chicken out to thaw the night before…. oh well.  I decided to cut the cooking time down a little and proceed.  Turns out that I needed the full 4 hours anyway…and probably could have used a little more.  I’m going to say “Cook on High for 5 hours”.

I added the wild rice with about 45 minutes to go.  In retrospect I will either omit or add it at the beginning.

When it is done, shred up the chicken and mix in with the other ingredients.

Serve it up with a little sour cream and some Mexican style cheese and your are good to go!

The Results:

Everyone at the homestead seemed to like it.  I was afraid it would be a little to spicy… maybe have no flavor but lots of spicy but everyone seemed to like it.  The rice was a little crunchy … it didn’t get to cook long enough.  This made enough for the entire family AND we have enough for another meal.  Interesting idea is to drain off the remaining liquid (although there isn’t much) and serve it in tortillas next time…maybe with some enchilada sauce.

What I Would Change:

I would add some green peppers for color…or zucchini…depending on what you have.  I didn’t have either so I skipped it this time.

Omit the rice unless you have a lot of excess liquid and you want the rice to bulk it up and absorb the liquid.

I would have cooked it a little bit longer…. the meat didn’t fall apart like I would have liked it to… I’m lazy It hurts my hands to shred up chicken.

Be sure to check out Jaycie’s culinary adventure this week in her What’s New for Dinner? post at Coupon Geek.

Interested in some of my other voyages into the unknown?  Other “What’s New for Dinner?” posts can be found HERE.

**Standard Disclaimer** I have horrible lighting in my kitchen that looks yellow when I take pictures.  I have only my iPhone or CoolPix camera to take pictures on.  I’m saving my  money and my SwagBucks to get a SuperCamer (Nikon D3100) and learn how to take real and pretty pictures of food and other stuff…. like my kids.  Stay tuned.

Another busy week for the SuperFamily this week…. We are starting off the year with a bang (and a couple of thuds, oomphs and groans)!

This week I am traveling to San Francisco on Tuesday and will be speaking at the American Heart Association / Nintendo of America Summit “The Power of Play: Innovations in Getting Active” on Wednesday.  I won’t be home to my family until Thursday night.  What will they ever do without me??  I’m sure they will survive

Here is our menu for the week:

Sunday: Ravioli Lasagna , broccoli and rolls

My splurge for the week.  I buy frozen cheese raviolis and they are nearly $5/bag … I’ve never seen them on sale!!  Spinach and cheese are in my freezer buried somewhere deep below the venison and I have a can of spaghetti sauce in my pantry.  This throws together very quickly, the kids can help put it together and it is ooey and gooey … perfect for the winter weather ahead. I confess…this week we are going to be using frozen dinner rolls…

Monday: Slow Cooker Southwest Chicken Chili

This is my “What’s New For Dinner” meal… not only have I never made (or eaten) chicken chili… but I’m sort of loosely following the recipe.  I’m a total by the book gal when it comes to recipes so this is tricky for me.  I’ve got some chicken breasts in the freezer and I will pick up a can of kidney beans…. The rest is going to be based on what I have in the pantry.  Wish us luck!

Tuesday: Shepherd’s Pie, Corn, leftover dinner rolls

I can’t believe I’m giving up this meal when I’m not home…it is one of my favorites!  A Weight Watcher’s recipe I found a couple of years ago we have made it again and again.  I made it up and stuck it in the fridge so all SuperDad has to do is toss it in the oven.  Using venison in our freezer and veggies already in the fridge I whipped it up and they can enjoy.  I will pick up some frozen veggies at the store this week to cover some of our vegetable needs outside of cooking.

Wednesday:  Leftovers

I’m certain there will be a variety of leftovers available for the family to survive on this ONE night that I am gone!

Thursday: Venison Steak and Home Grown HotDogs

SuperDad is going to grill up some steaks (if he can find the grill under the snow) and dogs for dinner.  The venison he procured for us and the dogs were a gift from my cousin and her husband…beef they raised on their farm.  We can use the leftover dogs (if there are any) can be used for lunch with some croissant rolls for pigs…. (or cows??) in a blanket.

Friday: Eating Out!  … I think….

In preparation for putting our house on the market we hare having new carpets installed in our bedrooms.  This is happening Friday.  We are taking the kids to see Sesame Street Live! Elmo’s Healthy Hero’s at the Sprint Center Friday night and then they are going to spend the weekend at their Grandparents’ house so SuperDad and I can deep clean before the house starts showing.  I think going out to eat is in order

Saturday: Stuffed Tilapia

This is a favorite treat of mine sold at Target. SuperDad and I really like it, and while it is a bit pricey I can sometimes find it on sale … a “Use It or Lose It” sale …then I stick it in the freezer.  Since the kids are gone and we will be working hard this is perfect…easy to throw in the oven and toss a salad…very few dishes and a nice meal to reward our hard work!

This year, my friend Jaycie at CouponGeek and I have vowed to trying one new recipe each week … all.year.long.  For me, this also means posting my weekly menus; more of an attempt at getting myself organized than anything else… but also to share some recipe ideas with you.  Sometimes we just need a little help getting inspired and out of our “same ol’, same ol’ ” routines….and we need a little kick to remember that being innovative in the kitchen doesn’t mean blowing the budget OR slaving away in the kitchen for hours at a time.

I get a lot of email newsletters…one I’ve discovered is worth the time it takes me to poke around is Parents.com.  We are SuperBusy in the SuperHousehold these days … packing and sorting and de-cluttering… so I’m trying to keep dinners as simple as possible.  Slow cooker is top of my list for new recipes right now!!  This week Parents.com sent out a letter with a yummy looking recipe for Slow Cooker Tuscan Chicken and Artichokes you can see the full recipe there.

The ingredients:

• Boneless, skinless chicken thighs I found a super duper sale at Target on Gold N Plump chicken last week… I ended up paying $0.47 for the entire 2# I needed for this recipe
• Frozen artichokes 2/$4 at Dillons
• Onion
• Garlic
• Chicken broth
• Seasonings (pepper, salt, Greek seasons)
• Grape Tomatoes This was my big splurge for this recipe
• Zucchini
• Whole Wheat Couscous I bought the exact amount I needed in bulk and saved some money that way

**TIP**When I buy chicken I always take it out of the package, trim it and freeze it single layer in a Ziplock.  This saves so much time when it comes time to preparing a meal.  When it isn’t in the strofoam packaging it defrosts much more quickly and I don’t have to get my hands all “chicken-y” but once in a while.

The Directions:

There is no “pre-cooking” involved in this recipe… just throw your ingredients in the pot and call it good; my absolute favorite way to go on busy days.

The first step is just to get the chicken, garlic, onion, artichokes and seasonings in the pot and cover with the broth.

I was going to post a picture here…but there is just NOTHING pretty about raw chicken…no matter what angle you shoot from…so use your imaginations.

Cook for 3 hours on high then add more artichoke hearts, tomatoes and zucchini.  I have to tell you, it was really nice to have the bright colors of the veggies cross my cutting board in the middle of January… I didn’t realize how much I don’t use produce like this in the winter.

Now see? Aren’t they pretty?  Bright colors in my normally brown and white winter cooking wonderland.

Cook for another 15 minutes and voila!  You are done! (Well, almost)

You take everything out with a slotted spoon then dump in the couscous and let it set for about 5 minutes.

NOW it’s done.

The Results:

My kids are pretty adventurous when it comes to food.  We can normally convince them to at least try things.  They like fish, okra…all kinds of non-essential kid foods….but I wasn’t sure they would go for this.  They did!  SuperBoy approached the table saying “EEEWWW! GROSS! What IS this?”  But when he realized it was chicken…and tomatoes … he was willing to give the rest a try…and he liked it.  They all liked it.  SuperBaby, who we’ve been struggling with to eat veggies, shoveled in the artichokes and the zucchini…as well as his favorite food: meat.

SuperDad and I both liked this as well…we were waiting on company who arrived a little late…so dinner went on the table fast (which is why I have no finished pics!) and the meat cooked a little too long; the only result being it was super SUPER tender and falling apart…still yummy.

Things I would change:

I would actually add MORE veggies..the green and red ones…to enhance the overall color of the meal.  Make sure to serve a nice green salad or something similar to brighten up the plate.

More Greek Seasoning.  A LOT more….like maybe three times as much.  Or maybe I just need fresh seasoning… maybe there is a happy medium there…regardless; we needed a little more flavor.

Now.  Be sure to head on over and check out Jaycie’s adventure with Breaded Beef and Roasted Vegetables.

My first set of menus for the New Year!!  I feel like they should be momentus…  astonishing… heck, even exciting would do.  Unfortunately, life prevails and here at SuperFamily Headquarters we are in crunch time for some exciting new changes….which means boring ol’ dinners this week….EXCEPT for Tuesday night which will be my “What’s New For Dinner” night!!  Yeah! 

Without further ado…. the first set of menus for 2011!

Sunday: Pizza Night! 

 My favorite pizza crust recipe takes just a few minutes to make with the KitchenAid and is delicious every time.  Throw on some turkey pepperoni, deerburger, mushrooms, black olives, cheese and seasonings and you have three Super Happy Super Kids.  This meal is a 5 star on the “Kids Like it So Much They Are Quiet” meter….a winner in my book!

Monday: Hamburgers and French Fries, Carrot Coins and Fruit (to be determined by the whims of preschoolers)

I will be out of town, leaving the kids and SuperDad to fend for themselves tonight….this seems like an easy dinner solution.

We have an entire freezer full of venison this year (I kid you not, 4 deer have filled my entire freezer to the brim…and we are in search of an additional upright to serve our other frozen needs) I’m so happy to have it on hand…completely and totally provided by SuperDad.  I had a great deal on OreIda fries a while back so there are some in the freezer (under the mounds of meat) and carrot coins are my newest trick for getting the kids to eat their veggies.  Apparently, they taste better round than in sticks.

Tuesday: What’s New For Dinner? I’m glad you asked!….Tuscan Chicken with Artichokes

Sounds fancy, doesn’t it?  It is a slow cooker recipe I pulled from a Parents.com weekly email last week.  This uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs which are usually a little pricey…but I got a great deal this past weekend at Target.  Frozen artichokes, fresh zucchini, grape tomatoes and some whole wheat couscous…one dish dinner in the slow cooker!  We’ll see how the fam digs it….post to come.

Wednesday: Roast, Potatoes and Carrots (probably in “coins”)

The best recipe I’ve found for roast, venison or otherwise, was a Weight Watchers recipe that uses basalmic vinegar and onion soup mix….yumma.  I’m interested to see how much of a roast my family puts away this year with the inclusion of SuperBaby in the eating foray; that kid would pick red meat over mac and cheese, chicken, pb&j … he can see it coming a mile away and all other food becomes obsolete.  Should I be worried?  Generally we have enough for sandwiches later in the week…but I’m not making those plans just yet.

When the roast and veggies are done I’ll add a salad and my Homemade Biscuits.

Thursday: Leftovers (Mama’s Day of Rest)

We have some activities Thursday night and I don’t want the kitchen messed up too much so leftovers it is.  There should be enough to put something together

Friday: Salmon, Green Beans, Wild Rice and Dinner Rolls

Here in the middle of Kansas, seafood isn’t exactly “fresh”…so I go with frozen…which seems like the best choice to me.  I always buy our frozen fish at Aldi…it is hands down the best product and the best price, I can get a bag of 5-6 fillets, individually wrapped for $3.88.  No lie.  I think it is comprable to the fish I used to buy from Schwan’s. 

Saturday: Spicy Black Beans and Rice, Chicken Breasts and Salad. 

A standby recipe for me this one is super low in points if you are a Weight Watchers fan….and very full of flavor and filling, too!  If they are lucky….I’ll throw in an additional night of biscuits this week here too

A Small Disclaimer about My Menus:

 I only post my dinner menus here.  I tried posting everything a couple of times but frankly, some people are just rude….I’m not a fan of being graded on my meal plans or berated for my food choices…SO…in the spirit it is intended…my dinner menus serve to 1)Keep me organized and on top of my game during the week,  2)Inspire and re-envigorate your family dinners and 3)Give a little insight into how a frugal budget and using coupons still allows you to provide healthy and homemade meals for your family!  Enjoy!!

In the past I’ve done a really great job of posting my menus here on SuperJenn.  Not only was this fun for readers (I’m not making this up…some of you actually said that!) but it kept me and my family on track in both our daily lives and in sticking to our budget.  Well, I fell off the wagon last year in many aspects of my home life (yes, sadly, even SuperHeros fall)…following the budget “loosely”…not planning menus the way I really like to do…so I’m back at it!!

Because planning menus every week can be tedious….and redundant… my friend, CouponGeek, and I have decided to start a little project we are calling “What’s New For Dinner?”.  Every week each one of us will be throwing a new recipe into our menus to make life …mmm….. a little more interesting!  At the end of each month we will be giving away a cookbook to one of you… a different cookbook from each of us, each month.  They will be as random as the new additions to our culinary lives

I will be posting my dinner menus on Sunday night so be sure to check them out….then check back to see all of the gory details of my “new” recipe experiment went.  You will also want to hop on over and check out CouponGeek because not only is she on my list of “Favorite Bloggers in the Whole Entire World” …she is my partner in crime and will have a different “new” recipe each week as well!

All of that work and snacks were the hardest part for me. I think it is easy to grab a carb-loaded snack for the kids ….graham crackers, Goldfish, granola bars…the list goes on and on. Not only is it bad for them to be consuming so many carbohydrates….those same carbohydrates are really doing a number on their teeth. So I’m trying to round it out a little bit. Here is the list of snacks I’ve come up with this week:

Crockpot Applesauce : The kids loved this last year when I made it and I haven’t made a batch yet this year so it seems like the perfect time. We can use this for snacks on Tuesday and the leftovers will go well with lunches or warmed up for dessert the rest of the week.

Yogurt: This is a big hit in our family and the kids have no problem eating yogurt every day. With breakfasts that are planned out, I can make sure that yogurt is saved for a snack at least one day during the week.

Banana Bread: I didn’t say I was cutting out the carbs all together! I’ve got bananas just crying out for me to bake in the fridge. If I make this for snacks one day, it can accompany eggs for breakfast the next morning.

Raisins and Peanuts: Sometimes I think we overlook the simplest ideas when it comes to snack time. This will provide a little sugar and some protein to carry them through the morning until lunch is ready. Dillons has bags of snack nuts on sale $10/10 this week.

Apple O’s: Not that the kids need a more imaginative way to eat apples, they already love them…but this was a favorite of mine growing up. Cut out the core, slice and make “O” sandwiches with peanut butter.

Granola Squares: I got some Nature Valley Granola Squares on sale a while back. I stuck them away in the cupboard and forgot; so I’ll pull them out this week. Maybe next week I will experiment with making my own granola bars.

Ants on a Log: Celery, cream cheese and raisins. Anything that sounds weird or “gross” my kids love. One day I served them apples and caramel dip and said it was “poop” …they thought it was hysterical.

What are some of your favorite kid snacks? I’d love some new quick and easy ideas!

When I was growing up it was a big deal when my mom made biscuits with dinner. Those biscuits were soooo good.  She always put honey out on the table with them so we could have on as dessert, too.

It was also a race.  We weren’t allowed more than 1 with our dinner, lest we not eat the rest of our meal.  We would chat and talk about our day… then notice that my dad was quietly eating as many biscuits as he could before we finished…the joke was on us and how much we talked….but my mom always had extras tucked away.

Now I make these biscuits for my family on a weekly basis.  Whether it is with breakfast as biscuits and gravy or to accompany our dinner… they need to make an appearance.

Anytime I’ve made these I’ve gotten rave reviews.  They are quick, easy, and a crowd pleaser.

Enjoy!

Biscuits

2c. all purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 c. vegetable shortening

1c. milk

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Use a pastry blender or a fork to cut in the shortening until it resembles meal.  Add 1c. milk and mix together.  It will be lumpy and you may see bits of shortening but that is okay.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a 9 x 13″ baking sheet. You should be able to get a dozen biscuits from this recipe. I’ve found that stoneware works best for this if you  have it.

Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 8-10 minutes…until nicely browned on top.

Enjoy your biscuits!!

Recently I learned to bake a chicken in the oven. Stop laughing. I know it’s simple. I realize the majority of you already knew how to do this…but I’m a beginner. A baby carnivore.

So I learned that it is not only simple but way more cost and time effective. Thighs and drumsticks are much cheaper pieces (cuts?) of chicken than, say, boneless skinless breasts. But I have only two recipes that I know how to make with them. Turns out, if you bake a chicken up it is really simple to de-bone. I can make double and freeze the second batch for recipes down the road.

So, just in case some of you converts out there are less than knowledgeable like me… here is a quick run down:

Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with olive oil (I used 11 x 14).

Rinse and pat dry 3-4 lbs. chicken thighs and drumsticks.

Rub oil into both sides of chicken and place skin side up in baking dish.

Salt and pepper both sides of chicken.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 10-30 min more.

Chicken should be nice and browned and juices should run clear.

That’s it! Super easy but it makes a great meal (and makes your house smell delish!)

It’s been a while since I posed my menus.  What better time to get back on the bandwagon then today?! Part of my theory behind participating in NaBloPoMo is to get back into good habits with my blog…which can in turn create better habits in my life.  Holding myself accountable to a menu that is posted is much easier to do than one I jotted down on a piece of scratch paper I can’t find!

Interested in holding yourself more accountable?  Join me and my friend RealLifeSarah on Twitter as we #Whats4Dinner each night.  Planning and reminding each other to stick to that plan!  Share your menus with us!

Sunday

Dinner:

• Salisbury Steak
• Broccoli
• Baked Potato
• Homemade Clover Rolls

Monday

Dinner

• Tomato Soup
• Grilled Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches
• Apple Slices
• Carrot/Celery Sticks

Tuesday

Dinner

• Chicken Enchiladas
• Lettuce Salad, tomatoes, carrots, celery

Wednesday Left Overs

Thursday

Dinner

• Venison Stew
• Homemade biscuits (we have to have these at least ONCE each week because my family loves them so much)

Friday

Dinner

• Cheeseburgers (Using our own venison again, I have some guac we could add from B1G1 sale at Dillons)
• French Fries (I do have tots in the freezer but I may make home fries)
• Left over veggies

Saturday

Dinner

• Spicy Chicken and Tomato Penne (Another family favorite and a very healthy pasta dish.  Quick and simple, it rounds out the week nicely)
• Homemade French Bread (I get my bread recipes mainly from $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook)
• Salad (I’m so lucky that even my 2.5yo love to eat “wettuce”)

I’m really trying to pare down our spending right now…use up what we have in our freezer and our pantry.  This is important to do every once in a while so that you can cycle out the food that has been there a while and replace it with new.  It’s really important when you stockpile not to let your food expire in the name of a good stash!!

I have everything I need for these dinners AND lunches/breakfasts this week on hand except for deli turkey for Monday Night Dinner.  Our shopping trip will consist of:

• Rice Milk
• 2% Milk
• Whole Milk
• Soy Cheese
• Deli Turkey
• Bread
• Bananas
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Thyme
• Frozen Blueberries
• Other fresh produce that I see on special or looks really great