Meal planning~ Part 2

This post is for all of you who have said the words…”this sounds hard” “I don’t
know if I could do this” or “this sounds SO time-consuming” about meal
planning…

Let me share a “secret” with you, It is Tuesday evening and I have not
cooked anything since Sunday (IF) you want to call throwing some things
in a crock-pot before church…cooking.

I placed TWO roasts in my 6 qt crock-pot, with carrots and potatoes and added some seasonings.

1.We ate Roast, carrots, potatoes, rolls, gravy and a salad after church
Sunday. Took me literally less than 15 minutes after we got home to eat,
In fact A friend called me and they had just gotten their drinks @ a
local restaurant and it is a 45 min. drive home for us!

2. We used the shredded roast to make nachos with beans, cheese, hot
sauce, sour cream , guacamole etc.

3. We had Roast sandwiches on Monday with melted cheese and grilled
onions.

4.Today, we had a love meal (leftovers) it was anyones choice of the
above 3 meals, The little “sunnies”  had a roast quesadilla. I had a roast
“bowl” with mashed potatoes, roast gravy and corn

5. Now I have cleaned up the remainder of the roast with added
ingredients and am simmering it to make Smothered Burritos for the last week of the month.Do you remember that recipe? If not, look in the archives, its there 🙂

Do you see how it works? I am not over-working myself…just thinking
ahead…I still just had 1 crock-pot to wash…just made it work a
little harder for me 🙂 5 meals, in fact 🙂

Tonight, I am making steak fingers, I thawed twice as much round steak
as I need and will go ahead and cut and marinate the fajitas for
tomorrows meal (and am already planning on a fajita salad for the next
love (leftovers) meal)

Just a DIFFERENT way to think…no hard stuff 🙂

I hope I am encouraging you to plan your meals. As always, your comments and questions are always welcome.

With Blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Mexican Roast

This might be the easiest recipe I ever post on here. It is a 3 ingredient roast that has been a “go-to” recipe for me for SO many occasions! It is delicious, feeds a crowd, freezes great for later, is VERY inexpensive (especially if you use a pork butt roast on sale)and is versatile.

Mexican Roast:

The 3 ingredients are: Roast~ a regular size 4-6 lbs.  Beef or pork,  1 lb of uncooked, dry pinto beans (that have been washed) , 2 cans of diced tomatoes with green chilis.

The onion is there, but totally optional. (I used about half of one) If you like it spicy, you could slice a jalapeno in half and add it in the pot. I also used homemade diced tomatoes with green chilis from my garden this summer…just pulled them out of my freezer. You could easily use the canned version. Really,

I won’t judge, I even took I really terrible picture of the one I had lurking in the back of my pantry, just for you 😉

Place all ingredients together and cover (well) with water (i use in between 4-6 cups water) in a crock-pot OR a roasting pan. Let go low and slow about 8 hours in a crock-pot and 5-6 hours in a 275 degree oven~with pan covered in aluminum foil.

To serve: Place a big hunk of meat and beans in a bowl , cover with cheese and eat like stew OR serve with a slotted spoon onto a tortilla and roll up burrito style. Hmmm…hmmm good! Especially on a cold day.

Hope this has inspired you to make Mexican Roast soon..

With Love and Blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Menu planning made easy…Part 1

There are many books published on Once a month cooking, bulk cooking, batch cooking etc.. but most of these books (and I own most of these books) are more about the cooking aspect and not the planning aspect. In my experience, and speaking on the subject several times, after we “get” the process of planning we can do just about anything concerning meal time, that we would like to. This is how I plan the monthly meals at my house, use it as an outline for yours or copy completely, it’s up to you 🙂

Meal Planning:

Step 1. Find a MONTHLY calendar that has room for writing with each day. You could use a book of monthly calendars so when you plan January’s meals for 2012 you could also use them for January 2013 without making them again. I, personally, do not do this as I really have learned to enjoy making the menu and have been able to slowly change my family’s eating habits since I started, so I look back at these menus and say “WOW we ate a lot of junk, we eat so much better now”

Step 2. Now, we are going to be planning a month of menus DON’T PANIC! I am going to help you do this, and its going to be OK. If you are skeptical…get over it, it works! 🙂 Even if you go to the grocery store twice a week, twice a month, or once a month (like I do) A plan is always a good place to start. Get a PENCIL (with a good eraser), and the month you are planning (This month is February by the way 😉 You will need to plan every meal, dessert, snack, side dishes etc at first, then it will become easier, and you can do as I do and write down Tacos and I know I need pinto beans and rice to go with this without writing it down.

Step 3. Lets start with Breakfasts. ( I am going to try to refrain from talking to you too much about the unhealthy, pocketbook robbers that local drive-thru places and convenience stores are to our “breakfasts” that completely start our day off on JUNK that inhibit our brain and body functions right off the bat 🙂 SO, my goal was to have breakfast available at my house without including boxed cereal that in my opinion isn’t any better than going to the local drive-thru and getting some kind of chemicals mixed together to appear to look like eggs 🙂 SO, here is this months breakfast plan: (It changes from month to month season to season, new ideas/recipes etc.)

Monday: smoothies/granola.  Tuesday: Biscuits. Wednesday: Pancakes/waffles. Thursday: Eggs. Friday: burritos Saturday: OYO (On Your Own)/cereal  Sunday: muffins/donuts/cinnamon rolls

Now, I recommend, that you plan out each breakfast. You will not have to do this forever but it will help you get a “feel’ for how your family eats and what you will need to purchase every grocery trip. It took me about 3-4 months to get it all figured out where I did not need to write out each item. Have a little fun with it, we have made ALL kinds of smoothies and experimented with ALL kinds of granola (chocolate, cinnamon/vanilla, nuts, fruits etc. Most of these menu items are broad enough to do countless things with them. Biscuits are sometimes biscuits and gravy, other times biscuit sandwiches with eggs and sausage or cheese and ham. Pancakes and waffles are mixed up with fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, different flavored syrups and butters etc.. We do a pancake/waffle batter that is made the night before in the blender and just poured in the skillet or waffle iron in the morning in no time. Saturdays are Malt-o-meal and oatmeal usually.

Step 4. Get out a grocery list. Mine is on my computer, I made it one time and saved it. I go to it, hit print and it prints out a nice piece of lined paper with the large title at the top: Grocery List. I print these off in various colors  1) so I can keep up with them  2) So everyone in the family can see the list on the refrigerator and add to it as they notice we are out of an item. Go over each breakfast item and write down what you are going to need. Example: if you eat a dozen eggs for every breakfast then on Thursdays for the month, you will need four dozen eggs, plus eggs for cooking so add a couple of extra dozen on there. Heres what mine looks like, Eggs: x6 If you need sausage for sausage and biscuits, yet plan on eating sausage in your burritos then you will need to figure up how much sausage that is…will you buy patties for the biscuits and rolls for the burritos?? Are you going to put yogurt in your smoothies? what fruit, fresh or frozen? 

Dont be overwhelmed, we are taking it ONE step at a time…

Step 5 Lunch menu: This is where SO many people tell me “oh I just do “whatever” for lunch” “we do leftovers for lunch”  “I go out and eat lunch” My reply is That’s fine…plan it!  If you eat sandwiches everyday for lunch write it down, If you pack “leftovers” for lunch plan for it. If you eat out everyday for lunch, add it up and see if this meal plan can save you a couple of hundred dollars!? My husband used to come home for lunch everyday, so our large meal would be then and we would eat lighter for dinner and my plan was different now that I pack his lunch. I had to “revamp” the plan a bit. Our lunch menu looks like this: Monday: Sandwiches (ham, tuna salad, egg)  Tuesday: Love (which stands for leftovers) Wednesday: Light mexican (taco salad, quesidillas, smothered burritos) Thursday: stew-winter pasta-summer Friday: Varies  Saturday: hamburgers or sloppy joes Sunday: we have what I call “big meat” days what ever I cook I cook a lot of it, so, I can use it in later meals (brisket-bbq sand) Ham- (ham sand. or quesidillas) Roast-(burritos)

Step 6. Now, you are going to go over all lunch menu items and add these things to your grocery list. Do you eat chips, or cottage cheese with your sandwiches? Do you like pickles or olives with them? Do you need mustard or mayonnaise? What about bread? Tortillas? Don’t leave out anything…do you HAVE to have hot sauce when you have chips? This is a GREAT time to analyze your eating habits 😉

You are doing great! Keep the vision, it will be worth it in the end!

Step 7. Dinner menu: Before you plan your dinner menu take a look at your calendar, Do you have baseball practice every Thursday evening? Do you have a church meeting on Tuesday nights? Then plan accordingly, These are our “crock-pot” nights and let me just tell you the crock-pot possibilities are ENDLESS really, just Google: Crock-pot meals.

Here is our dinner plan: Monday: chicken Tuesday: Steak  Wednesday: Italian  Thursday: Fish  Friday: pizza  Saturday Love  Sunday: nachos 

Step 8  Again, add to your grocery list, go over every side dish. Do you serve bread with your dinner? what about salads? salad dressing? Now here is where I go over each menu item and calculate how much meat I’m going to need. It takes about 2lbs meat to serve our family a meal with ground beef so I count the meals serving ground beef (not including the “love” items) I usually come up with about 30lbs ground beef etc.. so ground beef on my grocery list looks like this: ground beef x 3 because I buy it in 10lb rolls. I am making chuck roast 2 times this month so my grocery list will say Roast x 2. I am going to need 5 meals using chicken breast I know A package of chicken at my local store will serve us 2 meals so my chicken will look like this Chicken breast x 3.

Step 9. Make a menu for desserts and snacks. Our dessert menu looks like this: there are four weeks in this month and I make 1 dessert/week. There is a holiday this month so I have alotted one extra (cookies) because we will probably be taking these out of the house but we love to make them. HOMESCHOOL MOMS: this also includes any science experiment, or school project items like food coloring, and celery or jello or mentos and Diet Coke 🙂 🙂 items here.  Desserts: Week 1 Lemon pie (We are having company so I will make 4 we will eat whatever is left during the week) Week 2 Blueberry surprise and sugar cookies Week 3 Peanut butter cookies Week 4 Pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Our snacks right now consist of fresh fruit, and chopped veggies, sometimes nuts or peanut butter. I have not kept such a menu for them because my kids are older and are hardly ever home in the afternoons but they remember to take an apple, orange, or banana with them 🙂

Step 10 Add these items to your grocery list. Now take this time to take inventory of your kitchen. Do you drink coffee every morning? Do you need coffee filters? spices, flour, sugar? milk? Ice cream? now travel a little further and look at paper towels? toilet paper? aluminum foil? saran wrap? trash bags? storage bags? soap? toothpaste? cleaning supplies? make you a master list until so you dont forget anything. I will add, when I first started menu planning my menu was so marked over and scratched out that I would make a rough draft and then a “clean” one, to take to the store…this is up to you 🙂 Now, check and recheck to note that you have added every item that you need for the month.

Also, here is where I will see Did I have an extra roast in the freezer already? Then I will mark one-off of my list. Oh look! I had another package of bacon in the freezer, I don’t need bacon at all…mark that off of my list etc…

Now, Let’s Go Shopping!! 🙂

This post is meant to encourage you to make a meal plan, this one single thing made SUCH a difference in my own life that I have a passion to share it with other people. Your comments and questions are very welcome here.

Blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Compost…made easy!

I am SO ready for Spring! Spring makes me think about flowers…  planting…. and the garden 🙂 So, even though we are expecting snow tomorrow, I am going to post about Compost. (Hey, if you get started today, the snow will be GREAT for your new compost pile. )

There are probably as many ways to make compost as there are people, but I didn’t know how or where to start a compost pile and for years researched and came away overwhelmed and frustrated, so I didn’t try. Finally, I just dove in and tried …and it worked!! Science was not my favorite subject in school so, I promise, there is not a scientific approach to what I do.

First, I obtained some (6 to be exact) pallets from a company that just had them piled behind the building (free is always a good way to start 😉 I showed my then 13 year-old a picture on the internet of what I wanted them to look like and told him for a grade, he would put them together like I wanted them (I LOVE homeschooling). There were two “bins” one for older more manure compost and one for the newer not yet composted stuff.

There are two “bins” there, even though the pic really just shows one, I think you can see there is another one, just like it, to the left. This is right before I turned the pile, what you are seeing on top is onion peels from the 20lbs. of onions I processed yesterday and just had one of the kids dump the scraps into the pile.

Step #1 I placed a layer of hay (I don’t know what kind exactly, it was leftover from someones  stock show pigs) on the bottom of each bin.

Step#2 I placed a layer of cow manure on top of the hay (this came from a friends field before they spread it on by tractor for fertilizer) I think I got about 3-4  5 gallon buckets full for each bin. This is NOT straight manure but has been scooped by tractor from pens cattle are in, so it is mixed with dirt.

Step #3 Now, I began to place kitchen scraps on top of the pile. This includes: carrot, onion, celery, potato peels, when we are putting garden produce “by” like shucking corn, or shelling peas or beans all scraps go in. We place all tea and coffee grinds in. All lettuces, squashes, cabbages, cantaloupe, pineapple, apple, banana peels, strawberry, tomato and watermelon scraps go in. When we mow we place grass clippings in. When we empty our vacuum cleaner bag we add it in. We do NOT place citrus, cheese, or meat or weeds in our pile.

We water and turn it over with a shovel everyday in the summer (because I add to it everyday) In the winter, I turn it over once a week. We water it, by breaking up the ice in Skeeters water trough and setting those pieces on top of the compost pile its a slow release of moisture and it seems to do well.

Friends, meet Skeeter. Skeeter meet my friends 🙂

Also, in the winter I add a 5 gallon bucket of ashes collected from a friend who has a fireplace. In the fall,we add leaves from our trees and a layer of pine needles. In the spring I will add some of Skeeters manure to the pile ( maybe I will have my son pick it up…for a grade) 🙂 Just Kidding!

This is it!! I don’t add worms because every time I turn the pile over I am finding big, long, juicy ones have already found their way to my pile. It does NOT stink but smells fresh. In fact, I have never smelled a stench from my compost pile, minus, the first time I laid the cow manure down.

I simply add scraps from our kitchen to this handy dandy compost holder I purchased at World Market that has a charcoal filter inside. I have left it for several days never smelling anything. It was on sale and I printed a coupon off of their site that made this thing VERY inexpensive. The only bad review it had, was, some people say it rusted, I have used this for over 2 years and …no rust.

When its full I take it to the compost pile and give it a turn.

I have noticed huge, huge improvements in my plants since using my own compost. In the garden and with flowers. I hope to continue to make my own compost for years to come and hope I have inspired you to make your own compost too!

With love and blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Two Recipes(to make up for lost time ;) Bean Surprise and Tamale pie

I really have no excuse this time, but I have missed you all anyway 🙂 Since I have been so hit-or-miss lately I will share not one, but two recipes with you. These are very flexible and can be used in several different ways,  both fall in the “meatless” category, although we are not trying to go vegan, we have cut down on our meat consumption for a substantial savings on our grocery budget. Also, we, as a family (and corporately with our church) participate in a fast without meat for the first twenty-one days of each year…so we are learning 🙂 All that set aside, the first time I tried this “bean salad” was at Jason’s Deli, I wasnt trying not to eat meat, I was just starving, I looked and thought “well, that’s pretty, but I’m not a big “bean eater”, I put a little on my plate and OMG! I was sold ever since and I HAD to find out more about this “salad”  After talking with the manager and an extensive google search, I think it might even be better than theirs, In fact, I know it is 🙂 Now, we eat it all year-long and Mr. Sunnyside (you remember the complete carnivore) begs for someone to take it away so he won’t eat the entire bowl!

Bean Surprise:

1 15oz. can of each black beans, kidney beans, and cannelloni beans (rinsed and drained)

1 green 1 red bell pepper chopped

10 oz  frozen corn kernels

1 red onion chopped

1/2 cup of each red wine vinegar and olive oil

2 tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp. white sugar

1 tbsp. salt

1 clove fresh garlic

1/2 tbsp. each cumin, chili powder, and black pepper

dash hot pepper sauce

In a large bowl, combine beans, peppers, corn,and onion. In a small bowl whisk the remaining ingredients together pouring over bean mixture. Chill at least 8 hours and serve cold. Keeps very well in the fridge.

In case this wasnt good enough on its own, I add 2 cans sliced olives and 2-3 chopped avocados and 2-3 chopped jalapenos in this and use it as a dip with corn chips, a topping for fish, they go great on top of taco poppers, on salads etc…you get the idea the possibilities are endless 🙂

Sorry but this is the only pic I have, the battery wasn’t charged on my camera and I literally had to steal this away…..

 

 

This stuff is delicious and addicting!! As well as normally very festive looking…this was the end of the line. TIP: If you stir it gently with a spatula, the different components in this recipe will stay in tact and be bright and beautiful. In this pic, however, it had been mauled by lots and lots of corn chips 🙂

Meatless Tamale pie:

2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups milk, 2 cups whole kernel corn, 1/2 cups chopped bell pepper, 1 onion chopped, 1 4 oz. can sliced olives, 1 small can green chilis, 1/4 teaspoon each: pepper, paprika, chili powder,garlic salt, 1 cup cornmeal, 1/2 cup butter melted.

Beat eggs in a small bowl then add to rest of the ingredients. stir well. Pour into a 9×13 greased pan and bake @ 350 degrees for 1 hour.

I add I can of black beans to this recipe. We eat this as is, the next morning wrapped in a tortilla with a scrambled eggs added, we eat this stuffed in poblano or bell peppers.  Again, Oh the possibilities….  🙂

I hope you are encouraged by these posts, (even far and few between) I would love to hear your comments on any of my posts. With love and blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Best Burritos

Are you like me, and this season hit you like a ton of bricks!! I knew it was coming and I arrogantly said “no biggie, I’ve got plenty of time” ..Famous last words….:)

So, I decided to share with you, our all-time favorite burritos! They are O-SO-GOOD and they are a snap to make and freeze ahead…no thawing required!

Here are the ingredients: 2 tbsp. oil (not shown, because the meat I was using had enough in it)

1 onion chopped (yep already had chopped onion in the freezer! wasn’t that handy?)

2 garlic cloves minced (oops, behind the cumin 😉

2 tbsp. chili powder

2 teas. cumin

15oz. can of tomato sauce (i use leftover pizza sauce, sp. sauce, enchilada sauce, pureed tomatoes…whatever I have)

3 lbs. ground beef (i use whatever I have in the meat dept. this, happens to be a leftover brisket from Sunday’s dinner)

31 oz can refried beans (again, I use pintos, black beans or whatever I have and I have never used “refried” in this recipe 😉

flour torillas…cant really tell you how many, it depends on how big you like them, how you roll them etc.. start with 15?

Saute onion in oil. add beef and garlic and cook until meat is no longer pink. (Drain, if using hamburger meat) Add rest of the ingredients and cook until well blended, about 7-8 min. Cool mixture.

At this point it smells like the best chili you have ever made in your house! Just let it the mixture cool and wrap in tortillas burrito style…I was about halfway finished at this point, and also made taquitos, while I was at it  😉

Place seam side down on a cookie sheet, freeze for 1 hour then place in a freezer bags and pull out as many as you need at a time. I serve these as Smothered burritos most of the time with chili and cheese over the top. Sometimes I place them in the microwave and serve them on the go…

I knew better than to try to get a pic of the cheese melted and bubbly as they came out of the oven….How many times have I had to apologize to you all for the dish being gone before I get the pic snapped? I’m quite positive you can imagine what they looked like… 🙂  So much healthier and tastier than a frozen burrito! This is a perfect meal for a cold winter night.

I hope I have inspired you to make dinner plus make a couple of “extras” for your freezer without adding much to your time or clean-up! Now I must go…A Charlie Brown Christmas is starting! 🙂

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love and blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Oven Baked Brown Rice

 I love having nutritious brown rice to eat but never had it before this recipe because it takes SO long to cook! Now, I have it on hand and it is cooked to perfection every time! 🙂

 You need 3 cups brown rice, 5 cups water, 4 teaspoons butter (yes, that’s what that is in the little red dish 🙂 , 1 teaspoon salt.

Preheat oven to 375. Make a double layer of foil to go over the 9×13 pan. Spread rice into the 9×13 pan.  Bring water to boil in a saucepan, add butter and salt. Pour boiling water over the rice in the 9×13 pan, cover baking dish with foil. Bake 1 hour. Remove from oven, uncover, fluff rice with fork, then cover the dish with a clean kitchen towel for 5 min. Uncover and let rice sit for another 5 minutes. Thats it! Your rice is now ready to eat.

I keep this in my fridge for Cajun beans and rice, chicken -n-rice casserole, mexican rice, Broccoli-rice casserole, swiss steak, chinese stir-fries and fried rice, breakfast with milk and brown sugar…..It just takes reheating and your done!

Hope you have been encouraged to make your own brown rice,

With love and blessings,

Mrs. Sunnyside

Apple Pie Filling~Easy and homemade

This is a recipe for apple pie filling, for the freezer. I searched for a  recipe like this, one fall when we went apple picking. The kids and I had so much fun, we picked a little more than I realized, until we went to load them! 🙂 I found this one and, never again, have I bought the canned stuff. I use this apple pie filling for any recipe that calls for it including, muffins, apple crisp, turnovers, apple pizza….you will not waste your time, having this in your freezer!

Here are the ingredients:

Apples, (any combination, I used, galas, honeycrisp, and granny smiths all together) Sprite or 1/2 cup of lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, salt, flour (we use G.F.) and butter (room temperature, and that is the REAL butter, ya’ll)

For 2 pies: (this can easily be doubled, tripled, or more!)

Mix 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 tablespoons flour, into a bowl. Cut in the butter until it is mixed throughly. I used my microplane and grated fresh nutmeg and cinnamon…if you have not ever tried it, you are missing out!

In another large mixing bowl, pour the can of Sprite (or 1/2 cup lemon juice) into a bowl. Peel and slice 8 cups apples, (that was about 15 apples for me) as you slice them place them in the bowl with the sprite and leave them until all apples are sliced, turning them every once in awhile too make sure each slice has gotten drenched in the sprite. Lift apples out of the sprite and add them to the sugar-butter mixture, being sure to drain as much liquid as possible off the apples, mix together. I used my hands 🙂 I had to transfer both to a larger bowl.  

 

At this point, you add 4 cups of apple pie filling to a feezer bag. label it and freeze 🙂

For an apple pie: Thaw apple pie filling, place in an uncooked pie crust, seal with a top crust or a crumb crust. Bake @ 425 degrees for 10 min. then reduce to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 30-40 minutes.

I like using this recipe because it is easy, economical, and takes up so much less space than an actual pie in the freezer!

Hope I have inspired you to make your own apple pie filling,

with love and blessings,

Mrs. Sunnyside

Mrs. Sunnyside’s Creamy Fall Oatmeal

I wouldn’t normally post such a recipe, but this morning, I recieved a text AND a phone call to tell me how good breakfast was. I thought, you know, somebody “out there” might be like me, and not feed their family oatmeal very often at ALL unless it is in the little packages (perfect for the microwave) with all kinds of “added” ingredients and getting a little pricey, I might add.

I do, bake it, on occasion, but we usually slice it (like cake) put butter on the top and slather it with maple syrup. No, this, my friends is good old-fashioned oatmeal, like it was meant to be 🙂

Here are the ingredients:

First you will need a saucepan WITH a lid. Start the night before, You know, after dinner, baths and everyone is tucked in (it is ok, really, its only gonna take about 2 min.! ) Place 2 cups of warm water with 4 tablespoons of yogurt mixed in, add 2 cups of regular rolled oats, mix altogether, place lid on and forget it until the morning 🙂 No, you don’t have to refrigerate this, I just leave it on the burner I plan on turning on, to cook the oatmeal. Why? you ask, well, because this breaks the oatmeal down, making it easier to digest and helps you absorb more of the wonderful nutrients that are found in this dish, it is, after all, breakfast 🙂

In the morning, Dice the apple. Add to the saucepan, 2 cups of milk, 1 teaspoon of salt,1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, the brown sugar (3 tablespoons/give or take) and the apple. (optional: pecans or walnuts and or raisins) Stir well until it starts to boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes. (this is where I add 2 tablespoons of butter..the real stuff, ya’ll)

Thats it! It’s what earned me a “Wow Mom! and a Thanks, Honey (from a non-breakfast eater, mind you)

This recipe can be doubled or halved.

I am roasting a pumpkin now, as I type and I think I will try putting some roasted pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice in my next batch….

I hope I have inspired you to make your own oatmeal, that is both nutritious and tasty!

With love and blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside

Bread dough Oh let me count the ways……

When I first began to learn about whole wheat bread making, I wouldn’t try it until I had purchased 50lbs. of  whole wheat, bought a grain mill and a Bosch mixer. I say this to tell you that  even if you do not have these machines,(or 50lbs of whole wheat) this method is still very much worth your time and effort. I will also add here that it is equally as much worth your time, effort, and saving to purchase these machines. It took me 6 months of  saving to get the Wonder-mill and the Bosch, but I have never looked back! I had made bread for years, but there was something disturbing about it taking 6 hours to make cinnamon rolls and in 15 min. they would ALL be gone. This method that I will show you is quicker, tastier, more economical and lasts me the MONTH! 🙂

I use the bread recipe from Marilyn Moll. I will post the link to her recipe that she gives for using a bread machine or by hand method at the end of this post.

Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

This recipe has been our family’s daily bread for nearly 25 years and won many blue ribbons at state fairs and earned lots of money when sold at Farmer’s Markets in the summer time. Give it a try!Large Mixer Method: (yields 5-6 loaves) 2/3 C honey 2/3 C oil 6 C warm water 3 TB Saf Instant Yeast 1 1/2 – 2 TB Real Salt 16-20 C fresh whole wheat flour 3 TB Dough Enhancer 1/3-1/2 Cup Vital Gluten Combine the warm water, yeast, and 2 Cups of fresh whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl. Allow to sponge for 15 minutes. Add the honey, oil, dough enhancer, salt and 4-5 C (12-16 C if using the Mix N Blend or (Bosch) additional flour until the dough begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl. Do not allow the dough to get too stiff (too dry). Dough should be smooth and elastic. It is a common mistake for the beginning bakers to add too much flour. Form the dough into 2 loaves if using the hand method or 5-6 loaves if using the Mix N Blend or Bosch Universal, method. Place the dough into greased loaf pans. Allow to rise in a slightly warmed oven or other warm place until doubled in size (about 30-60 minutes). Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Bread is cooked through when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, and when the top and sides are a golden brown color. FYI~ I do not use Dough Enhancer or Vital Gluten in my bread and it still turns out super every time. I also still use a combination of fresh milled wheat and white flour. Ok now we have made the bread dough in our Bosch:  It did absolutely ALL the work 🙂 This usually makes 6 loaves (sandwich bread size) for me but I play around with it and decide what my needs are. This time I needed a breakfast/dessert loaf that would last us three meals so I adapted for that. Now is where you decide what you are going to do with this “mound” of dough 🙂 I cut mine into manageable parts (I know some who weigh equal amounts) Then we decide what to do with it . Today I made: Bacon cheeseburger stuffed bread, 2 loaves, muffaletta buns, and a large blueberry cream cheese braid.  This could be prettier I know, but I am dividing it by 3, so I didn’t think it would matter much 🙂 This is before rising/baking so you can see it was HUGE. My family LOVES this bread! Once again, as I was watching the other bread, doing laundry and answering the phone…they got into the bacon cheeseburger braid and the blueberry cream cheese braid! So, I only have part to show you, but in 3 hours total, I had: We will eat the loaves for sandwiches and toast in the mornings. We will use the large “buns” for mufaletta sandwiches. (ever had one of those? YUMO!) They will go in the freezer until we are ready to use them as this bread freezes great. What else could you do with this dough? Well, as stuffed bread or braids you could make a pizza, taco, bbq, chicken and broccoli, ham and swiss braids and apple, cherry cream cheese, peach, or mixed berry braids for your sweet tooth. You could make  jalepeno-ranch, or cinnamon swirled loaves. Rolls: plain, cheese, poppy seed, pumpkin cream cheese or cinnamon rolls. Hamburger/hot dog buns. Pizza crusts, calzones, bread sticks, breadbowls (for soup) pigs in a blanket (or our fav. kelbosa in a blanket) That is just what i can think of off the top of my head. This bread is SO fun and effortless! I am not even going to take up a bunch of room and give you all the healthy aspects of making your own bread but it would be worth your research on it if you don’t know 🙂 Way back when I began making bread it cost 38 cents a loaf for me to make, I haven’t added the cost recently but I know it is VERY economical, convenient, and healthy 🙂 http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=83 I hope I have inspired you to make your own bread, I am by no means, an expert, but I would love to answer any questions you have about bread making. With love and blessings, Mrs. Sunnyside