The third member of our family has succumbed to a bit of the stomach flu bug. One of the joys of a big family is watching illness pass from one person to the next.

Oh, wait, that’s not it. One of the joys of a big family is getting lots of presents. Sharing germs is one of the un-pleasantries. After a long day, I get those two confused.

I tried a new recipe this evening - Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas from Allrecipes.com. It was good and the children ate helping after helping. Tim is still recovering from yesterday’s bug so he stuck to a mild dinner of plain waffles. I would definitely make these again as they were well gobbled appreciated by the family.

Chicken Enchiladas

1/2 tbs oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 (7 oz) can chopped green chilies
1 pkg taco seasoning
1/2 c. sour cream
2 c. cottage cheese
1 tsp salt
1 pinch pepper
12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

Directions:
1. Saute onion in oil. Add green chilies, taco seasoning and shredded chicken.
2. Mix sour cream with cottage cheese and season with salt and pepper. Stir well. (I mixed it in the food processor because I didn’t want any cottage cheese lumps to distract my pickier eaters.)
3. Preheat oven 350.
4. Assemble Enchiladas: Heat tortillas until soft (I covered them with a wet paper towel and warmed them in the microwave). In each tortilla spoon some of the meat mixture, cheese mixture and top with shredded cheese. Roll tortillas and place in greased baking dish. Top with enchilada sauce and remaining cheese.
5. Bake 350 for 30 minutes.

I used green enchilada sauce even though the original recipe called for red. I didn’t have Monterey Jack cheese and used a Colby/Jack/Cheddar mixture. Tasty and easy recipe. I tried to take a picture but the children ate it so fast, by the time I came by with my camera it wasn’t pretty enough to photograph. Ha! Greedy punks. Stop by Rocks in My Dryer for other Works for Me Wednesday blog postings.

Kathy

Tim was away for most of Saturday. He took the older two children with him and left me home to a gray, cold kind of day. Perfect for and doing some baking! I decided it was time to fill the freezer with muffins. It is a constant chore to keep healthy snacks around for a family of seven. I have an amazing Master Muffin Mix that I love to use.

Master Muffin Recipe

INGREDIENTS

* 5 cups flour (use up to two cups whole wheat, crushed cereal, or packed rolled oats if desired)
* 2 to 2 1/2 cups sugar (experiment with the amount - can also vary types of sugar used)
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 Tbs.(3 tsp) baking powder
* 2 cups buttermilk (you can use part yogurt for the milk)
* 1 c. oil or melted butter (or substitute 1/2 cup apple sauce for half the oil)
* 3 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to blend. Place wet ingredients (oil, eggs, milk) in container and blend well.

Make a well in dry ingredients in bowl, add wet mix from blender and pour into well. Stir gently to mix, add fruit and fold and stir in. Do not beat, batter should be a bit lumpy. Over stirring muffins makes them tough.

This will make 24 to 30 muffins depending on size of pans. Grease muffin pans or use muffin liners fill almost to the top and sprinkle with and of the following: sugar, cinn. sugar, chopped nuts and sugar, coconut, rolled oats and sugar etc.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. Cool on racks. Freeze these in Ziplocs for quick breakfasts or easy snacks.

The wonderful thing about this Master Mix recipe is it comes with an amazing list of add in possibilities. Here are the muffin variations:

Apple cinnamon: Use 3 - 4 apples (just peel and cut in chunks and throw in blender with wet ingredients, don’t over process, or chop by hand), 2 tsp cinn. and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Apple raisin - same as above but add 1 cup raisins (plump first by covering with liquid and nuking for a couple minutes. I like to used part rolled oats with the apple muffins and sprinkle the tops with a little oatmeal and sugar.

Carrot raisin - same as above but use 5 or 6 carrots chopped in blender with wet ingredients instead of apple. Add 1 cup chopped nuts if desired.

Carrot raisin pineapple - Same as above but add one large can crushed pineapple and reduce milk to 1 1/2 cups.

Strawberry - cut up 3 cups strawberries and mix in
Strawberry/White Chocolate, same as above, but add 1 cup white choc pieces
Strawberry pecan - same but add 1 cup chopped pecans

Tollhouse - add 2 cup choc chips (1 12 oz bag - I like to use the mini chips) 1 cup chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans, use brown sugar and add 2 tsp vanilla.

Banana - Reduce milk to 1 cup - add 5 or 6 bananas to blender - add 2 tsp vanilla and 1 cup nuts

Banana/Strawberry 1- Same as above but fold into batter, 2 cups cut up strawberries.
Banana/Strawberry 2 - Add 1 cup strawberries to the blender with 4 or 5 bananas. Stir 2 cups of cut up strawberries into batter.
Banana/Strawberry 3 - Follow either banana or banana strawberry 1, but add 1 pkg strawberry jello to wet ingredients.
Banana Choc chip - same as above but add 2 cups mini chips and 1 cup nuts if desired.

Blueberry /Orange - Peel the orange skin off one orange in very thin pieces using a potato peeler and put in the blender with the other wet ingredients. Remove the white peel remaining on the orange and cut orange into 4 or 5 chunks. Pick out the seeds and put the chunks in the blender. add the remaining wet ingredients reducing milk to 1 3/4 cups, if you are using regular milk do not add lemon juice. Blend well. Proceed as directed stirring in 2 1/2 to 3 cups blueberries.

Cranberry Orange - Same as above (no blueberries) except add 1 1/2 dried cranberries (plumped in microwave by covering with liquid and nuking for a couple minutes). Can also add 1 cup chopped nuts

Orange Pineapple - Same as above (no blueberries) but add 1 large can of crushed pineapple and reduce milk to 1 1/2 cups.

Hawaiian - Same as above but add 1 cup coconut - sprinkle tops with a little coconut.

Peanut Butter and Jelly - This is for the kids, into blender container put milk, 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky, you can add extra chopped peanuts if you like) and only 1/3 cup oil. Use 4 eggs and mix as usual. Fill muffin tins 1/2 full and put 1 tsp jam or jelly in center of each cup. Fill with batter almost to top and bake as usual. Chopped peanuts sprinkled on top is a nice touch.

Saturday I made a batch of carrot raisin and a batch of mixed berries. I had three bananas that we ripe and ready to be used so I made a small pan of banana muffins (slightly different recipe). All in all I ended up with around 6 dozen muffins.

After the muffin mania I decided to try my hand at some homemade granola bars. I need to do a cost analysis on boxed cereal versus ‘from scratch’ pancakes and Costco granola bars versus homemade breakfast bars.

Anyone know how these things compare, cost wise?

I tried two different granola recipes, one taken from Allrecipes.com, the other from my friend, De’Etta’s blog. Unfortunately I don’t eat sugar so I wasn’t able to taste test the bars. The mix looked (and smelled) fantastic! It took extreme will power to keep my fingers out of the bowl. I’ll report back as soon as the kids try them out.

Sarilyn’s Granola Bars (from Not2Many.com)

INGREDIENTS

* 1/3 C brown sugar (or Rapadura)
* 2/3 C peanut butter
* 3/4 C honey
* 2 T hot water (opt)
* 2 tsp vanilla

~Mix all these together.

* 2 1/2 C oats
* 1 C whole wheat flour
* 1/4 C wheat germ
* 1/2 C sunflower seeds
* 1 T sesame seeds
* 1 C chocolate chips
* 1/2 C nuts, dried fruit, seeds whatever you like

~Mix all these together in a large bowl, then combine bowls and stir well.

Press into greased 9 x 13 pan bake at 350* for 15 - 20 min. Cut into bars while semi-warm and let cool completely before removing from pan. Approx 24 bars.

Playgroup Granola Bars (Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups rolled oats
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup wheat germ
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup raisins (optional)
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

I tripled this recipes, added flax seeds, craisins, and chocolate chips. Looked yummy!

Now the freezer has bags of muffins piling on the shelves and the pantry is laden with a nice stack of granola bars. Not bad for a lazy Saturday.

Kathy
Day 180

I’ve been spending the day baking and thought I would share some recent recipes we’ve enjoyed.

Potato Flake Chicken

Simple & Delicious Magazine

Convenient potato flakes and Parmesan cheese flavor chicken breasts with a crispy golden coating.

Ingredients:

* 2/3 cup mashed potato flakes
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 teaspoon garlic salt
* 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (8 ounces each)
* 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:
In a shallow bowl, combine the potato flakes, Parmesan cheese and garlic salt. Dip chicken in butter, then coat with potato flake mixture.

Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil 4 in. from the heat for 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned. Yield: 4 servings.

Obviously this is not a large enough recipe for our family. I doubled everything. Okay, I didn’t really measure but just “eye-balled” the potato flakes and cheese. The extra butter and coating were drizzled on top of the chicken. I had chicken tenders on hand so that is what I used. I adjusted the time a little to allow for the smaller pieces of chicken. I was glad to find a recipe that didn’t require flour in the coating. Easy and tasty.

Kathy

It is not summer. I know this. It’s spring, and spring is often cold and disappointing in Washington. I remember the first year we moved here. Everything was green and blooming furiously, but it was COLD and GRAY. Day after day. It was well into June, and I finally turned to Tim and asked him when summer was going to arrive.

These children are ready and willing to hunt down the sunshine.

Nearly every day the children and I would bundle (yes, bundle) up and set off in search of some sunshine. There were streaks of golden light off in the distance and I was determined to find them. It was our own treasure hunt, however, instead of searching for the pot at the end of the rainbow, we were looking for a sunny day.

Today was mild and overcast in the morning. By mid-afternoon summer had peaked around the corner and blown its warm kiss. Cheeks and shoulders gained a rosy cast. Sunscreen resurfaced from its long winter sleep and popsicles were cheerfully passed around, dripping over little fingers. Windows were pried open and flip flops dragged out from under winter boots.

Really, it’s a comfortable fit. Three rascals in a tub.

It’s not summer. Not yet. This weekend, however, like a beautiful flower unfolding in the light, we humble Washingtonians were treated to a rare sliver of summer in the midst of a dreary spring. It was truly glorious.

Nothing like some chocolate to celebrate the end of a lovely day.

Decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake (from Cake Mix Magic)

1 pkg devil’s food cake mix
1 pkg (4 oz) chocolate instant pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Cake - combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream and water. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter evenly in greased, floured bundt pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes @ 350. Cool in pan on wire rack then remove cake.

Frost with prepared frosting.

Note: We used vanilla pudding mix (out of chocolate) and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Topping was gently heated canned frosting. Served with old fashioned vanilla ice cream. Rave reviews!

Tomorrow summer promises to come again. What a tease! I intend to savor its warmth and drink up any bit of sunshine that trickles by.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 137

This year Joshua took a class at our homeschool co-op entitled For Boys Only. They have studied finances, banking, insurance, renting policies, and COOKING.

This evening our family was the grateful recipients of Joshua’s final project.

Dinner for Seven hosted by Joshua

Chicken Bake Appetizers
Fresh Veggie Crudities
Yogurt Fruit Salad
Homemade Rolls (Mesa Manna recipe)
Juice Spritzer Punch
Baked Potatoes w/sour cream, shredded cheese, and turkey bacon
Steamed Broccoli
Salad w/toppings
Grilled Steaks
Layered pudding dessert as the finale

Joshua worked for hours preparing the meal. He planned the menu, organized the recipes, and did the shopping. He even used existing groceries rather than spend too much at the store. It was truly a culinary gift to the whole family. He set the table in fine style and helped (through his exhaustion) with the clean up.

I’ll have to share his chicken bake and layered pudding recipes because they were quite the hit with the family.

Thank you, Joshua, for the amazing meal.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 107