Recipe: Amish Cook's Banana Muffins

These muffins are perfect for breakfast or snacks on the go.  They're moist, sweet, and dense with a golden crust.  We had these everyday for breakfast this week, and had enough to send one for the school bus driver each day.  I liked how long they lasted in the cookie jar, as my Banana Oat Mini Muffins need to be eaten within a few short days.

This delightful recipe comes from one of my new cookbooks "The Amish Cook's Baking Book" which is filled with back-to-basics baking, and gorgeous photography.  Each recipe is simple, and the book includes a section for Children's Baking.  Our daughter is old enough now to try a few recipes on her own and this book would provide a good start.

HOMEMADE BANANA MUFFINS
from The Amish Cook's Baking Book

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup skim milk
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and lightly flour 12 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

I made a double batch.  Just rotate trays halfway through baking.

In a large bowl, stir together the baking powder, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg until evenly blended.  Add all the remaining ingredients, mixing only until the dry particles are moistened.  Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3 full and bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

Printable Recipe

Happily submitted to
Family Friendly Fridays over at Mommie Cooks!
Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom
Cookbook Sundays over at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen

Enjoy!

Frugal Friday: 10 Flowering Trees for $10 from Arbor Day Foundation

We love trees.  I grew up in an area of beautiful forests of spruce, pine and birch trees and my husband grew up in Maryland where the hillsides are stuffed with huge gorgeous hardwoods.  When we moved the Kansas we missed trees as it's prairie land here.  Beautiful, but we still missed trees. 

Picture from when we visited the Arbor Day Farm last year.

Our first mission was to plant some trees around our home.  We received a flyer in the mail from the Arbor Day Foundation for "10 Flowering Trees for $10" and placed our order.  That was 3 years ago and they are now planted in our yard.  Our trees arrived domant and looked like a package of sticks, but we followed the instructions closely and now they are in our yard growing.

Picture we took when we picked-up our free tree to take home after visiting Arbor Day Farm.

This year we received another mail package from the Arbor Day Foundation to renew our membership and receive 10 flowering bushes.  So, I completed the form and am excitedly waiting for them to arrive.

If you don't have any need for trees in your yard, why not donate some trees to a National Forest, give some as a gift,  plant a tree in memory of someone or in memory of a pet, give them as wedding favours, or how about a fundraiser, give for customer or employee appreciation and more.  All trees come with a full set of instructions for planting and care.  So even if your a new gardener like me, even you can plant and care for one.

One of our pictures from the Arbor Day Farm.

When we visitied the Arbor Day Farm, someone asked the Tour Guide "so are you a bunch of tree hugger's or what?".  The lady replied, "We may be Tree Huggers,but first We're Tree Planters".  The Arbor Day Foundation's mission is to

"encourage people to plant, nurture, and care about trees"

Picture from our vacation to the Arbor Day Farm.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Mudballs

Does a sweet treat count as "bad for you" when it's full of good stuff like dark chocolate, honey, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, oatmeal and peanut butter?  After tasting these you won't even care ;o)  They are rich, smooth, chocolatey, nutty, soft and crunchy.  Simply perfect.  They remind me of a truffle with nuts.

Last night we had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and carrots for supper.  These were our dessert and they were perfect.  A couple of these with a glass of milk.. heaven.

I saw the recipe for these yummy Mudballs over at New Nostalgia and they looked so quick and easy.  I made these in a flash and adjusted the recipe to what I had on hand and doubled it.

DARK CHOCOLATE MUDBALLS

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup oatmeal (can use either quick cooking or regular)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds

Heat the honey and peanut butter on low until melted.  Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients.  Let cool enough to handle then drop by Tablespoonful onto greased or lined baking sheet.  Place in fridge for 30 min or so.  Store in a cool place (so they don't melt).

Find a printable copy of this recipe here.
 
 
Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom where you can find many more money saving ideas submitted by other bloggers.
 
Enjoy!  Sarah
 
from "The Busy ABC"
Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
1950 Whitman Publishing

Recipe: Homemade Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups

I found my dyhydrator on Craig's List last summer for $20.00.  I'd never dried fruit or anything before but I wanted to make my kids homemade fruit roll-ups.  I bombed a recipe for fruit roll-ups from the oven and thought I'd give this a try. 

HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY FRUIT ROLL-UPS
1 cup applesauce
4 cups strawberrys, hulled
1/2 cup apple juice

Pour applesauce into your blender, mix in strawberrys, add a little juice so your blender works easily (you don't want these watery so not too much).  Pour onto Saran Wrap lined tray or a fruit roll-up tray that you can buy for your dehydrator.  If you are using the fruit roll-up tray, line it with a coating of vegetable oil first.

Dehydrate for about 24 hours until the fruit roll-up has cured or dried, then roll-up and cut into small roll-ups.  I laid mine out flat and cut it like a pizza.

The recipe was very easy and it took a full 24hours before they were ready. I made 1 sheet to try it out first (which is about 1 blender jug full) and it was gone within 15 minutes.

For a printable copy of this recipe go here.

Enjoy!  Sarah

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom.  Go have a look at what other frugal tips were shared this week :)  In the spirit of her theme on baking to build a frugal pantry, I found this beautiful illustration below to share with you.  Can you believe I purchased this book for a 25 cents from the library?

From the book "Mary Mapes Dodge, Golly Girl"
by Miriam E. Mason
Illustrated by Sandra James
1949 Bobbs-Merril Company, Inc.

Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

These are delicious.  If you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches then these will be one of your favourite treats.  I'm crazy for all things peanut butter and was looking for something good for an after school snack and to pack in lunchs.  I came across this bar recipe on the Food Network site from Ina Garten (who doesn't love the Barefoot Contessa?). 

My kids, friends, and husband went crazy for these and I can see I'll be making them alot in the future.  These were quick to make and the dough reminded me of peanut butter playdough.  I used my hands to squish the dough into the tray and skipped the parchment paper step.

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY BARS

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam (I used strawberry jam)
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper (I didn't do this), then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula (I used my hands). Spread the jam evenly over the dough (I used my hands to spread it around). Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Find a printable copy of this recipe here.

Enjoy!  Sarah

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom.


From the book "Jonathan and the Octopus"
Written and Illustrated by Celest K. Foster

1967 T. S. Denison & Company, Inc.

Today my goal is to organize my son's room :)

Frugal Friday: Vintage Children's Books

I absolutely love finding vintage children's books.  It's even better when you hit the "mother load" and they're all marked down in a thrift shop.  I got a bag full this week for less than $5.00.

This one is my favourite (copyright 1949) and you'll see lots of scans from it in the future here. 

It's my understanding that copyright laws do not apply to those items which are now "public domain", which is usually any books prior to 1964.  Find more information here over at Purple Kitty.

Look at these other gems I found all printed prior to 1964. 

I also found these wonderful books printed after 1964 but still treasures.

Check out more Frugal Friday ideas over at Life As Mom.

Enjoy!  Sarah

Frugal Friday: Free Printable Paper Dolls

I saw a link on Happy Hearts at Home for Free Printable Paper Dolls so I printed one for my daughter.  When I gave it to her she exclaimed, "What's a paper doll?".  What?  She doesn't know what a paper doll is?  I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but it's true.  With Barbie's, Polly Pockets and all the cheap dolls nowadays, girls don't really need to turn to paper dolls... or do they?  Of course every girl needs to know about paper dolls.

So, for Valentine cards for her class we selected a paper doll and made cards with them.  We did this instead of attaching a candy to the Valentine.  The doll we selected for the girls found here and boys found here.  Another place we checked was About.com: Family Crafts where there's links to all kinds of free paper doll printables.

After printing the dolls on card stock, my daughter cut out heart shapes from felt and sewed them on using a button.  For the boys, we selected a football paper doll and she cut-out and sewed a felt monster on the front with two buttons.  Aren't they darling?

Babalisme has some amazing printables on her blog that she's created.  Make sure to check out her Printables to Print section under labels and pepare to be amazed.

Christmas Dolls on Bablisme here

Bablisme links to Paper Doll Printables & Magnetic Doll Instructions here.

A friend of mine was looking for a Wonder Woman paper doll for her daughter.  I haven't found anything for her yet, but found more free printable paper doll links here.

Enjoy!  Sarah

See more Frugal Friday ideas over at Life As Mom.

Frugal Friday: Ham & Cheddar in a Loaf

My husband likes to call this meal "Hot Pockets". It is similar but tastier as the crust is crunchy and the sauce inside is much better. Some day, I'll try diving the dough and making smaller versions and freezing them in individual servings.


Instead of a frozen pizza crust, I made mine in the bread machine using this recipe from my cookbook "The Bread Machine Baker" by Elizabeth M. Harbison, page 118.

PIZZA DOUGH

3 Tablespoons Bread Machine Yeast

3 cups bread flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup water

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Select "dough" or "manual" mode on your bread machine.

Add ingredients in the order listed and push "start".

This makes two 9" pizzas. Freeze them, or top and bake at 475 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is lightly browned.

I brought this to a MOMS Club event where we host a recpie exchange. It was a big hit even though the center dough didn't cook quiet enough, but many of the moms said that's what they liked about it. I guess mom's are big kids too ;) I only baked it at 350 degrees so that's probably why the center didn't cook as well as it should have. I also could've divided the dough in half and made 2 of these instead of one huge loaf.

The recipe comes from the Kraft Canada website here or you can print a .pdf copy here. It's so easy to make that it's listed as a recipe your kids aged 10-12 can make.

Sharing this recipe over at Frugal Friday today at Life As Mom. Read everyone's shared tips along with how FishMama saved over $15,000 on a bigger mini van!

Frugal Friday: My New KitchenAid Stand Mixer

Here she is! My beautiful new KitchenAid Stand Mixer!

I have dreamed about owning one of these for years! I've always enjoyed baking and have experienced a sore arm many times from using my hand-held mixer. I'd dread Bake Sales because of the amount of time it would take to prepare anything. And now... oh the possibilities!

This summer while visiting a friend, I spotted hers in the back of her kitchen hidden from view. Gasp! I said to her "Um, can I reorganize your kitchen a bit?". How bold of me, but she thought it was great! So, the first thing I moved was her mixer to the front-and-center of the kitchen. Ahh, now that's much better ;o) She's been doing lots of baking ever since, and I got a lovely loaf of banana bread her 8 year old daughter made using it.

Why didn't I have one before now? Because they cost a fortune! I just couldn't imagine or justify spending that much on a kitchen gadget.

For Christmas my darling hubby knew I wanted one. With so many options to choose from he was a bit overwhelmed so gave me a check for one instead. He knew I could swing a deal on just about anything ;o) So, I went to Macy's, selected one, and simply couldn't walk out of the store paying the full price of $300!

Then, I turned to my trusty deal-getter Craig's List! There's always someone selling their stand mixer on Craig's List. I saw lots advertised as NIB (new in box) but I didn't trust that they weren't stolen from somewhere. Prices for mixers on Craig's List ranged from $140 to $300. I wanted an odd colour though - cobalt blue - to go with my kitchen. So, I waited. Our local Walmart had 4 Quart White mixers for $199, Sam's Club $270 for White or Black, Amazon.com $290 for the Cobalt Blue. But, I waited and was patient. Taking my time until I saw what I wanted on Craig's List.

Then, there it was for $200 the exact colour and model I wanted. But it was over an hour's drive away. So I sent an email asking if they'd meet me halfway. Whoo-hoo! They said yes and now I have it! For only $200 with the beater, whip, hook, and grinder attachments!

It's been on my counter for over 2 weeks now as I was scared to death to use it! What if it doesn't work! What if I break it? So, last night I finally broke down and made a banana cake using this lovely recipe from Pamela Donnis and it worked great!

This mixer is going to have me baking my face off! I can see it now, cookies by the dozens, cakes for birthdays, sweets for the teachers, I'll be bringing baked goods to everything!

Now that I have my heart fluttering just talking about it.. I must finish my post and go bake something ;o) Happily submitted to Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.

Oh, and go check out your local Craig's List. Always meet the buyer in a public place and enjoy the sweet deals!

Frugal Friday: Holiday Movie & TV Show Listings

Watching holiday movies is a tradition in our home. Once our family flys in for Christmas we watch a movie almost every evening after supper. Last year we watched everything from John Adams, A Christmas Story to ET! This year I'm hoping to find more Christmas themed movies.

I was searching around the internet today (using Swagbucks but I'll post about that later) searching for Holiday TV Movie Schedules. Specifically, I was looking for when the Amercian Girl movies will be on Hallmark Channel. I came across this amazing site "Its A Wonderful Movie" with all listings Holiday shows and movies. It includes reviews, links, descriptions of shows and loads more. What a great site to refer to when you plan on cuddling up with your family to watch holiday shows.

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays where everyone's submitting their ideas for Planning Christmas on a Budget over at Life As Mom.

Frugal Friday: Dial-A-Story

Photo credit Kansas City Public Library Dial-A-Story.

If you haven't heard about this service from your local library yet, you'll be glad that you found it! To access DIAL-A-STORY you simply dial the phone number given by your local library and a recording (a real person not a robot) begins to tell a children's story. This is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

I find DIAL-A-STORY especially helpful when we have to take a 20 minute drive into town, or stuck in traffic, if I'm trying to distract our son while I try to complete a task, when our daughter was home sick and bored, or when we're stuck inside on cold and wet days.

You can read more about it here from Parent's Press. Here's the link for those of us in Kansas from the Kansas City Public Library DIAL-A-STORY 816.701.3456. Here's another line 208.726.0033 by The Community Library where you can press a code listed here to select the story you want.

If you have unlimited long distance, especially between USA and Canada, just think of all the different story lines you could call! Here's one 416.395.5400 from the Toronto Public Library in Ontario, Canada where you can chose from 12 different language options!

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom (such a great site!).

Frugal Friday: Buying Used Books

I love buying books, especially books for our children. Books, however, can be expensive to buy. What I do is shop Amazon.com sales, garage sales, thrift stores and Friends of the Library used book sales.

Garage sales can fetch you books for as little as $0.10 each and the Library book sales $0.25 to $1.00 each. A small library near our home is currently selling used books for $1.00/bag. They're older reads but still good. I bought a couple bags and shipped them to our adopted soldier in Iraq and am reading a few myself.

Our local thrift store has books half price every Tuesday. Last time I shopped there, I bought 10 brand new Dr. Seuss books that had never been opened for $0.50 each.

My last purchase at the library's used book store, I spent $16.00 and got the huge collection of books below. If our darling son wasn't so fussy in the store at the time, I'm sure I would have bought twice that much.

What we do with our books when we're done with them is donate them. Here's the general criteria we follow:

OUR LOCAL LIBRARY RECEIVES

~ All perfect condition hard cover kid's books.

~ All our son's outgrown, once loved board books.

I check the online catalogue first to see if they have them and if they don't, or only have one copy then I donate the book.

OUR DAUGHTER'S CLASSROOM LIBRARY

~ All paperback kids books get donated to our daughter's classroom library after she's read them. This is a good incentive for her to read and I get her to sign the inside of each book before it's donated.

OUR DAUGHTER'S SCHOOL LIBRARY

~ All other hard cover kid's books that may have just a few marks in them get donated to my daughter's school library.

This works for us on many levels. We get to purchase, read and enjoy the books then pay it forward when we're done with them. Our library and school greatly appreciate these donations.

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom.

Frugal Friday: No More Juice Boxes

This spring I decided to stop buying juice boxes. They're expensive, full of sugar, and create alot of garbage! The problem is, I got used to having them at my house available all the time. How was I going to break my kids (and me) of this habit!

It all started when I saw a case of covered plastic thermal drinking cups for $1.00 at a garage sale. Ah ha! These will be easy to fill, stick a straw in, and the kids can run around the yard with them.

Hmm, how about when we need to run errands? I fill our plastic water bottles with ice, then water or juice and it stays cold for a long time. I bought a bunch of them for $0.50 each at our local thrift shop.

I also picked-up some thermal plastic drinking cups with a straw from the thrift shop. My hubby loves these filled with ice water when doing the yard work and my kids love them filled with homemade smoothies.

I don't know how much money I've saved this summer, but it must've been alot :) Sorry Sam's Club :(

For more great frugal ideas visit Frugal Fridays at Life As A Mom.