Craziness abounds!!!

Life never slows down around here! With both adults in the house working at least a 40 hours a week and often more, plus Scouts for the older boys, School Board meetings for mom, Church callings and activities, and everyday family activities, it never stops! As I have said before, I do certain things to save some time...I make freezer meals, I prepare most necessary items for meal preparation on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. One thing that I rely heavily upon in my house is my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have had my Kitchen Aid for about 8 years, it will go for at least another 8, but I have really wished for the means to buy a bigger one with a lifting bowl. So, imagine my excitement when my grandma said she needed a new mixer! I told her that I could give her mine if I could find a great deal on a new, bigger one. An even better blessing came when my grandma said that she would buy mine from me. So, off to look on E-Bay I went. I found just what I wanted, red and all, and I bid on it. Oh how exciting it was to be the winning bidder, and all for only $220 with tax and shipping included! I got my new mixer today and I am sooooo excited to use it! The only bad thing? It doesn't fit on my counter under my cupboards, so it needs a new home. I use my mixer so much, that it isn't really practical to have it put away where I have to lift it up to the counter all the time, so I am going to have to think about where to put it. Until then, I will just have to do lots of baking. I made these yummy Cowboy cookies the other day...I think I will make them again tomorrow. Here is the recipe I used, with the changes I made noted at the bottom. (because I often make changes to recipes, that's how I roll):
Cowboy Cookies

Makes about 26 2-inch cookies.
ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 quick-cooking (not instant) rolled oats
1 1/2 cups Corn Flakes cereal
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a separate large bowl (or bowl of stand mixer), beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 1 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until combined. Stir in oats, Corn Flakes, raisins and chocolate chips until well mixed together.

Drop by generous 1 Tbsp. balls, about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (* For more attractive cookies, flatten the balls by half and roughly shape into round circles. These cookies do not spread much and doing this gives a nice round, flat cookie as opposed to an irregular shaped, higher cookie).

Bake at 350° F. until edges and tops begin to brown, about 12-14 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet set on a cooling rack. Once mostly cooled, remove from pan to the cooling rack to finish cooling.


I crushed the corn flakes. I used a full cup of raisins. I added 1 cup coconut. I added 1/2 cup peanut butter chips. I didn't do it, but I think that adding a little bit of wheat germ or a little bit of flax seed would be yummy too.

Enjoy! I will have to post some other recipes as I create with my new mixer.

Trying Something New

I am going to try something new...my great friend, and former mission companion, Cathy, has a great blog that I follow. She manages to write on her blog pretty much everyday. I am going to try to do this...I am going to try to write more like she does...you can check her blog out over here: http://theoldsfamily.blogspot.com

I started something else new just about a month ago. I started making freezer meals for our family. I have always been good at budgeting and spending a small amount on groceries for our family size. Our average monthly grocery bill over the last few years has been $300 or less, including buying food storage food for our family. I noticed, however, that after I started working in our Garberville office, I was spending more than that. I noted that it was because I was getting home later and probably doing more "convenience" kind of foods than before. In order to get away from that, and get back on budget, I decided to try to use the crockpot more and to try freezer meals. Freeze meals have been great! I spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon cooking 6-10 meals and then I freeze them. I can take most from freezer to oven and have dinner within an hour to an hour and a half after coming in the door. It is the next best thing to having dinner in the crockpot!

I have found some great recipes on this website: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com
One of the kid's favorites is this: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicken-cordon-bleu-bake.html

I have spent less than $300 on groceries in the last month and I have added to our food storage. That, my friends, is awesome in my opinion!