Homemade Crackers

My little helpers and I made homemade crackers this morning!  I am excited to make them again with a few changes next time.  The kids liked them alot, which means tons.  My whole point to try and make the crackers is to shave a few dollars of the grocery bill.  We like to eat them with sandwiches at lunchtime. 

I could not do anything today without my two helpers.  :)

Zane's turn.

Then of course, Rachel needed a turn!

Are you watching me, Zane?

All rolled out on the baking sheet.

Putting fork pricks in it because we're fancy.  :)

Ta-da! Garden vegetable flavored crackers!

Next time I need to roll them thinner and cook them longer to get them crispy.  Some around the edges were crisp, but the others were sort of like a tortilla as Zane said.  Then, the fatal mistake was putting them in the oven again after they were cool to try and make them crisp.  Not such a grand idea.  They got so tough you couldn't bite them.  Oh well!  Live and learn and try again!  At least we tried them before I recooked them!

Mango Salsa

We are sort of into mango salsa these days.  Sort of means I've made it a total of three times.  The first time used avocado and tomato, and then I found a recipe that uses red pepper and is then zero PointsPlus!  And Jeff prefers the second recipe so I'm in luck! 
This is how I made it.
Dice one mango
Dice about 1/4 cup red bell pepper
Dice one small jalapeno, seeds and all.  (We like it hot.)
Add cilantro.  This can be fresh or 2 cubes powdered.*
Add dash onion powder.
1 fresh lime squeezed.
Mix.  Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before using so the flavors can mingle.  We've eaten it the next day and it's still good.  It adds zip to your Mexican food!
 * Mom gave me some Knorr's cilantro cubes and they come in so handy because I don't have to worry about wasting fresh cilantro.  I use two cubes.

Very tasty Mango Salsa

Mini Quiches

I had so much fun making mini quiches for lunch today for Jeff and me.  I started off thinking that I would make spinach quiche because I hadn't made one in a long time and Jeff was working at home today so I thought it might be a treat.  I told him what I was thinking and he said he would like his without spinach and no meat.  So I saw online where they made individuals in a muffin tin!  Perfect!  I decided to make a whole bunch of different kinds for a mini quiche sampler!

Not all of them had crust.  Actually only 4 out of 10 did because I used the leftover pie crust I had saved and frozen from the pie I made Jeff this week.  It worked well!  I've never been a fan of cooking pie crust with cinnamon and sugar, so I'm happy to have found a use for it instead of throwing it away like I had been.  Eeeek!  Imagine all that pie crust I've wasted when I could have been making minis!  So, here's the sampler:

3 cheese and black pepper with crust
1 cheese,black pepper, red and green bell pepper with crust
2 cheese, mushroom, red and green bell pepper with no crust
3 cheese, spinach, Canadian bacon, red/green bell pepper with no crust
1 cheese, bell peppers, and Canadian bacon with no crust

My favorite was the three with Canadian bacon and Jeff's was the mushroom ones except he prefers it with crust!

It was a lot of fun to make, didn't take too much time...only use 3 eggs (mixed with a little milk), fill muffin cup half full, and bake at 375 for about 25 minutes until light brown and set, and they were fun to eat!  Oh, and don't forget to spray the pan so they pop right out!  We had them with English muffins.

Tasty mini quiches!

    

Mmmmmmmm....

From this:

Ready for the oven!

To this:

Deliciousness!

M&M Cookies

2 cups plus 2 T all purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
12 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled until just warm
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 t vanilla extract
1 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix butter and sugars together with electric mixer or by hand until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined.  Stir in M&Ms by hand.

Take 1 T dough, put on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Put another 1 T dough on top of it.  They will be stacked high.  

Bake 15 minutes until light golden brown and outer edges are starting to harden, but the center is still soft and puffy.

Cool cookies before removing from parchment paper.

Ready to eat!

Today I was going to make some chocolate chip cookies, but saw a recipe that had the same cookie recipe that I had already started making, but they used M&Ms!  We just happened to have some so I thought I'd give it a try.  They are so good.

Chocolate cupcakes!

Using these ingredients:

1 can pumpkin puree, 1.4 oz sugar free, fat free jello pudding, cake mix, 1 1/3 c water

 You can make healthier cupcakes!

 I love desserts, but my conscience knows that most of them aren't giving me any nutrition!  Using pumpkin instead of eggs and oil, these can be healthier chocolate yummy cupcakes!  Trust me, you won't be able to taste the pumpkin!

Simply mix the pumpkin and water, add pudding mix, then add cake mix.  Put into 24 cupcake liners and bake at 350 degrees for about 27 minutes! 

Ready to bake!

 You can find the recipe here at Skinnytaste.com! 


In other news:

hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!

New innards!!!  I love my handy husband!!!

No Taco Seasoning? No problem!

I found this recipe from Allrecipes.com when I didn't have a taco seasoning packet and wanted to share.  It's really good and most people have the ingredients in their pantry.

Taco Seasoning I
Ingredients:
1 T chili power
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 t dried oregano
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1 t sea salt
1 t black pepper

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.  Store in an airtight container.

The actual recipe on the site can be found here.

Oatmeal anyone?

This week I've been into making baked oatmeal.  I've never liked oatmeal or eaten it, except in an occasional cookie, but I've been searching for a recipe to make Jeff a to-go breakfast item that doesn't make a mess when he's driving.
The first recipe I tried is an Amish oatmeal breakfast bar.  These are delicious, but definitely won't work in the car.  But, they are so good, I'm trying them again this morning substituting the oil for apple sauce and adding dried cranberries.
Yesterday, I decided to try making granola bars.  I found a recipe that had rave reviews and bought things I've never bought before-one of which was wheat germ.  I didn't even know where to find it!  But a nice lady helped me and it's in the cold cereal aisle for anyone who would like to know.  They turned out great!  I'm not sure if they will work for the car-that remains to be seen, but they are really delicious.

Granola-it crumbled a little

Bars ready to eat!

Black Bean Brownies

You are probably really skeptical when you hear that black beans can be made into brownies.  But they can.  And you should try them before you turn up your nose anymore!  :)  They are so good.  Not to mention much healthier than regular, greasy brownies.  The black beans replace the flour. 

I found the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-bean-brownies/

The only thing I changed in the recipe is added about a 1/2 Tablespoon of baking powder.  It makes them less dense. 

Really rich chocolate black bean brownies.  Mmm, mmmm, mmmm!