7. November 2008 by Lisa.

If you’re a giver of homemade gifts (yum), here is a list of gift ideas from Whole Foods that you can make.  I’ve never heard of flavored sugars before. (Thanks, Like Merchant Ships)

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22. October 2008 by Lisa.

Well, this is the longest break I’ve taken from my blog. I needed it though. I’ve been homeschooling, teaching piano, teaching a speech & debate club, getting involved in an international student ministry, driving kids and living life. I will resume posting, but only as time allows. I have a very full plate.

I have been tired of half my grocery bill going to laundry detergent and toilet paper. I’ve been looking for acceptable alternatives for items that needlessly suck money out of my wallet. I have a lot of recipes to share with you, but will only do so after I try them, tweak them and accept them. I refuse to use recipes that are not up to my standards. I currently have 4 recipes on my Houshold Recipes page. If you’re interested, please take a look.

I’ll let you know when I come up with a toilet paper alternative.  No, the Sears catalog, leaves and expired coupons aren’t acceptable. 

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7. September 2008 by Lisa.

I’m not a big fan of mushy food casseroles, but this looks and sounds so yummy.  How can I resist anything with noodles and cheese?  Throw in some chocolate and it would be the perfect and complete (dessert included) meal-in-one dish!

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2. July 2008 by Lisa.

Today at Rocks in My Dryer, we’re all giving our recipes with no more than 5 ingredients. Y’all know I love to eat but hate to cook, so I have a bunch of recipes to share. These are all dessert recipes, so get ready to print!

NO BAKE TOFFEE

No kidding - this is so good and quick you can make it when no one is home and eat half of it before they get back. Ok you can eat the whole thing but you’ll have to clean up your evidence too.

1. Coat an 8 or 9″ square glass pan with cooking oil.
2. Spread 1/2C chopped pecans on the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
3. Melt 1/2C butter in a 1 qt. saucepan, add 3/4C brown sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Set timer for 6 minutes. Boil mixture for 6-7 minutes until it starts to smoke, stirring constantly. Following this is the crucial step.
4. Drizzle mixture over pecans.
5. Sprinkle 1/2C chocolate chips on top. Cover pan with a cookie sheet for about 6 minutes. Uncover and smoothe out melted chips with the back of a spoon.
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Chop into pieces and gorge.

SUPER MOIST BUNDT CAKE - NO ICING NEEDED

I like to serve this instead of coffee cake.

Prepare any yellow cake mix as directed. Add one can of German chocolate pecan or coconut icing. Mix. Pour into bundt cake, cook as directed on cake mix box, but add 10 minutes to baking time. Cool completely before dumping out of pan. YUMMY!

ICE CREAM PIE

1. Smash a pkg. of Oreo cookies and place in the bottom of a 13×9 glass pan.

2. Drizzle 2 jars of Mrs. Richardson’s fudge over the cookie crumbs. This is the best fudge in a jar ever.

3. Microwave (just until soft) 1/2 gallon ice cream of your choice (I like Blue Bell’s Moolenium) and spread it over the fudge. Freeze until ice cream is hard again, then dig in! My kids request this one.

You can add nuts, m&m’s and other toppings if you prefer. We like it plain.

CREPES - to be filled with your choice of fruits and syrups.

Mix 2 eggs, 1/4C sugar, 1/4t salt, 1C milk, and 1C flour in a bowl.

Heat a small, crepe size, non-stick pan to med.-low. Pour in enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan. Flip with fingers (fork will tear crepe). Be careful not to brown the crepe. You don’t want it crispy or it will break when trying to roll it.

COOKIE BARS

1. Preheat oven to 350 (325 for glass dish). In 13×9″ baking pan, melt 1 stick of butter in the oven. Sprinkle 1 1/2C graham cracker crumbs evenly over butter; pour 1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top with 2C chocolate chips and 1 C peanut butter chips; press firmly.

2. Bake 25 min. or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars.

Need a tall glass of milk now? Thanks for visiting. Hope you look around my site while you’re here.

Posted in WFMW, RECIPES | 9 Comments »

27. June 2008 by Lisa.

Am I the last person in the world to learn about this? We don’t eat a lot of bacon at our house - maybe 4x/year, but when I cook it, I hate the splattering mess it leaves all over half my kitchen. Love the smell, hate the mess.

I’ve got a new strategy now that a friend clued me in about how to cook it. Here is what I now do. Place the strips on a broiler pan and line the bottom part of the pan with foil (easy clean up). Preheat to 400 and bake for:

10-15 minutes for thin cut
15-17 minutes for crispy
*add 4-6 minutes to above time if you have thick slices

Slices won’t look firm and crispy until after they cool.

Drain on paper towels. To keep bacon warm, drop the oven to 150-200 and put cooked bacon on an oven safe plate and pop it in.

Frugal tip: Reserve your bacon grease for other cooking. Just pour it into a mug and keep in the refrig.

Freeze cooled bacon in baggies. To reheat put 2 slices in the microwave for 30 seconds.

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13. June 2008 by Lisa.

When making a fruit salad, you should never combine acid fruits with sweet fruits (for digestive purposes).  This now explains why when I eat strawberries and bananas, although yummy, I get a tummy ache. You can, however, combine sub-acid fruits with either acid fruits or sweet fruits. Here are the lists

ACID FRUITS
Strawberries
Grapefruit
Oranges
Lemons (lemons combine well with all plant foods)
Pineapple
Raspberries
Cranberries
Tangerines
Limes

SWEET FRUIT
Bananas
Papaya
Dates
Figs
Raisins
Prunes
Other dried fruits

SUB-ACID FRUITS (can combine with either of the 2 above lists)
Apples
Apricots
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears Mangos
Plums
Grapes

Eat MELONS alone because they do not digest well with other foods. Any of the melons can be combined with each other (honey dew, cantalope, watermelon, etc.) .

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10. June 2008 by Lisa.

Rocks in My Dryer is hosting Works for Me Wednesday. Here is my list of what I serve my daughter’s teen friends at parties and gatherings. If you keep coming up with the same things, maybe something from this list will spark new snack fun, or easy fixing. Your teen could prepare any of this himself or herself.

• M&m’s
• Spray cheese & crackers
• Cucumber & cream cheese sandwiches (cut in fourths)
• Tostidos with the Rotel Cheese Dip (1 can Rotel, 1 lb. Velveeta, 1 lb. cooked & crumbled sausage-all heated in the crockpot)
• Ham/roast beef roll-ups (with wheat/rye bread, mustard/mayo, tomato, lettuce)
• Franks in BBQ sauce (we love K.C. Masterpiece Original)
• Brownies & ice cream
• Chocolate chip cookies/honey peanut butter cookies
• Rolo pretzels (On a foil lined cookie sheet place pretzels, top each one with a rolo, bake at 250 for 4 min. press pecan half in before it cools. Refrigerate and peel off foil.)
• Popcorn/pretzels
• Crunch n Munch
• Chex mix
• Bagel Bites/pizza rolls/frozen little quiches
• Rice Krispie treats
• Fruit salad
• Deviled eggs
• Cut up apples with caramel dip
• Veggie tray
• Fruit pizza (Pillsbury sugar cookie dough rolled out on cookie sheet. Bake to brown. Make icing with 1 8oz. pkg. softened cream cheese & 1C confectioner sugar. Top with slices of fruit - strawberry and kiwi are our favorites)

Please add to this list. It’s great to have new serving ideas.

Posted in HOME & FAMILY, RECIPES | 3 Comments »

3. June 2008 by Lisa.

In the heat of the summer (in Texas that can mean May-Oct), who wants to cook anything? I hate turning on the stove/oven to heat up the house so the air conditioner will kick on to cool it back down. Granted morning and evening are best times to heat then cool, I still don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of cooking to begin with and I don’t like to wake up to making breakfast if it’s going to take more than 5 minutes of concentration So, what’s for breakfast on this hot day? Here are some ideas. You may like them, you may not. If you’re in a rut (don’t we all get into those cooking ruts on occasion or is it just me?) maybe this will help pull you out.

I sound grumpy this morning, don’t I?

Smoothies
Fruit salad (’tis the season for berries and melons)
Hard boiled eggs (not a lot of heat and I can walk away and sit)
Bagels, cinnamon raisin bread, English muffins, peanut butter toast
Yogurt parfaits with granola & fruit
Oatmeal with pure maple syrup (1 minute cooking time)
Cheese & crackers
Cold cereal (Doesn’t everyone still have leftover freebies?)
Granola bars
Apples & peanut butter
String cheese
Cottage cheese (my kiddos won’t gag this down, but maybe yours love it)
Bake ahead and freeze ideas: waffles, banana bread, muffins, pancakes

Do share if you have any other ideas.

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27. May 2008 by Lisa.

Use Ore-Ida tater tots and D’Artagnan wild boar bacon . The wild boar bacon actually turned out to be the perfect bacon for this, because the strips are smaller and don’t overwhelm the tots.

Cut each piece of wild boar bacon in half and wrap a piece around each tot. place them on a cookie sheet and bake them at 430 degrees for about 18 minutes.

The result is absolutely delicious and completely sinful. They wouldn’t be bad with a pickle slice on top.  These would make a fantastic snack for an afternoon of watching sports or entertaining friends.

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23. May 2008 by Lisa.

It was in 1995 that Starbucks stores started selling this frozen drink, one of the company’s most successful new products. The Frappuccino is blended with strong coffee, sugar; a dairy base, and ice. Each one is made to order and each one is guaranteed to give you a throbbing brain freeze if you sip too hard. The drinks come in several different varieties, the most popular of which I’ve cloned here for your frontal lobe-pounding; caffeine-buzzing pleasure.

Make double-strength coffee by measuring 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per cup (serving) in your coffee maker: The drink will be even more authentic if you use Starbucks beans and grind them yourself just before brewing.

Makes 2 “Grande” Drinks

COFFEE

• 3/4 cup double-strength coffee, cold
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 2 cups ice

1. Make double-strength coffee by brewing with twice the coffee required by your coffee maker: That should be 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per each cup of coffee. Chill before using.
2. To make drink, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until ice is crushed and drink is smooth. Pour into two 16-ounce glasses, and serve with a straw.

CARAMEL

For this version, add 3 tablespoons of caramel topping to the original recipe and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream and drizzle additional caramel over the whipped cream.

MOCHA

For this version, add 3 tablespoons Hershey’s chocolate syrup to the original recipe and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream, if desired.

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