{31 Days} Cooking from Scratch–Day 31

Well, dear friends, we made it!  Today, marks the end of our 31-day series to cooking from scratch. 

It’s my hope that you left this series feeling empowered to cook at least one thing from scratch that you haven’t previously. 

We covered a lot of ground in this series.  Starting out back at the beginning of October, we learned how to stock our pantry, then ventured into the realm of cooking with these items.  Here’s a recap: 

Stocking Up & Starting Out
Menu Planning 101
DIY Pantry Staples
Baking Essentials
Flours
Sweeteners
Spices
Lipids & Wines
Vinegars
Chocolates & other sweets
Canned Goods
Stocking your Fridge & Freezer

Breakfasts from Scratch
Homemade Doughnuts
Homemade Muffins
Homemade Pancakes
Ditch the cereal box – DIY granola

Homemade Bread – Yes you can!
Tips for starting out making bread
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Whole Wheat Hamburger Rolls
No-Knead Focaccia Bread

Lunches from Scratch
Whole Wheat Tortillas

Dinners from Scratch
Spaghetti & Homemade Meatballs
Homemade Pizza & Homemade Pasta
Cooking a Chicken & Making Chicken Broth

Snacks from Scratch
DIY Crackers
DIY Fruit Snacks
DIY Granola Bars
DIY Dips

Desserts from Scratch
Delicious & easy cakes, brownies & more!

Condiments from Scratch
Try your hand at salad dressings, ketchup & more!

Now, I have one question for you {okay, 2 – but the other is over on Facebook}:

 If I took this series & made it into an e-book, is this something that would interest you?  If so, is there anything you’d like me to elaborate on in the e-book that I didn’t in this series?  

I hope you had a good time with this series; I certainly did!  It was a treat to share this journey with you.  Thanks for reading along – and, be sure to stop by on Facebook to interact with the FJiMK community today!

at Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Menu Plan–October 30

How can it possibly be the end of October already?!  I guess time really does fly by.

We had a busy week last week.  One night we ended up having mushroom, red pepper, zucchini, broccoli and bacon omelets as we had to have a quick bite to eat.  That pushed our chicken dishes over by a day – but we still got to them.  Our eats included (to see any recipe, if available, click on the image below):


Our eats this week include:

Sunday
Cinnamon Roll Baked Oatmeal {new}
Chicken Pot Pie, Herby Biscuits
Apple Crumble Pie {new}

Monday
Pumpkin Spice Granola, Craisins
Halloween Pizza {see above}, steamed veggies
Homemade Milky Way Bars {new}

Tuesday
Buttermilk Pancakes, apples
Crockpot BBQ Pork, wheat rolls, steamed veggies

Wednesday
Pumpkin Spice Granola, Craisins
Simple Lasagna Soup, leftover wheat rolls

Thursday
Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
Leftovers

Friday
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Butternut Squash Spinach & Parmesan Pasta Bake {new}

Saturday
TBD
Spaghetti & Meatballs, green beans

Find more great menus at OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday!

{31 Days} Cooking from Scratch: Desserts

Raise your hands if you like dessert!  If you are anything like me, your hand went flying into the air – even though you’re sitting at your computer.  Don’t worry – you are in good company. 

From my experience, most people bake cookies from scratch: the classic chocolate chip cookie, or gingerbread cookie, perhaps.  But have you tried your hand at ice cream? Brownies? Hot fudge? Cheesecake? Fudge?  

Doesn’t making desserts from scratch take time?

Boxed brownie mixes or slice and bake cookies may be tempting – but truly, with a few simple tips, you’ll be making homemade dessert in no time.  And, your family will thank you!

Tips for making homemade desserts

(1) When you make a batch of cookies, only bake what you’ll eat fresh right away. 

Freeze the remaining cookies by placing balls of dough on a cookie sheet, placing the cookie sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes and then transferring the cookie balls to a freezer-safe storage container.  Then, whenever you want homemade cookies, just grab a few out of the bag, pop on a lightly greased cookie sheet & bake in a pre-heated oven according to the cookie recipe directions.  You may need to leave the cookies in the oven just a few minutes longer than the recipe calls for because you are baking them frozen. 

(2)   Prepare fruits – like apples – in bulk & freeze them! 

Apple slices are one thing we have in the our freezer all.the.time.  Slice up the apples, lay them out on a cookie sheet, flash freeze ‘em.  Then, they are always ready for apple crisp, naturally sweetened apple pie, or other yummy goodness – like this crockpot apple cake. 

(3) If you have an ice cream maker, store the bowl in the freezer! 

If you don’t have an ice cream maker – check garage sales, or add it to your “wish list”!  This is one of our most-used, most-loved kitchen appliances.  While there are ways to make ice cream without an ice cream maker (see our recipe for homemade FroYo), having a machine is so slick!  You can even make yummy desserts like homemade ice cream cake that way. 

(4) Making your own desserts allows you to control the fat, sugar content & whole grain component. 

You can make lots of “tweaks” to dessert recipes that make them significantly better for your than the store-bought variety.  For example:

• Substitute applesauce for oil/butter
• Reduce the butter or oil in a recipe – you can usually omit about 1/8 C without too much of a change in the recipe.
• Reduce the sugar.  I’ve cut out 50% of the sugar in some recipes!
• Use white whole wheat flour to increase the whole grains in dessert

(5) Keep your pantry stocked – essentials include cocoa powder, butter, sugars/sweeteners, flours, chocolate chips, whipping cream, half & half, buttermilk (or milk + vinegar), eggs and vanilla. 

By keeping these staples on hand, you’ll have all the basic ingredients to make just about any dessert you wish. 

Our Favorite DIY Desserts 

In case you need one more dessert idea – here’s the link to all our desserts!

What are your favorite DIY desserts?  Do you make all your desserts from scratch? 

{31 Days} Cooking from Scratch: Spaghetti & Meatballs

The classic Italian meal.

 
Spaghetti & meatballs. 

Now, you can make this dish nearly entirely from scratch. 

You already know how to make the pasta – so, the next step is making your own meatballs and spaghetti sauce. 

Spaghetti & Mini Meatballs
{Meatballs inspired by How Sweet It Is and Mom}

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 T minced onion
• 1 tsp. parsley
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. dried, minced garlic (or 2 fresh cloves)
• 1/4 C panko bread crumbs
• salt & pepper, as desired
• Pasta (whole wheat preferably)
• 3-4 C spaghetti sauce
• Parmesan cheese, or mozzarella cheese, for garnish

Directions

Prepare two cookie sheets, lined with tinfoil and set the aside – in easy access to where you’ll make the meatballs.  Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 400 as well.

In a large bowl, combine together the 1 egg, 1 T minced onion, 1 tsp. parsley, 1 tsp. basil and 1 tsp. dried minced garlic. 

Add in 1/4 C panko bread crumbs. 

Add the ground beef.  Using your hands, mix the ingredients together. 

Squish it all around … if I, a raw meat grossed-out girl can do this, you can too. 

Taking about 1-2 T of meat, roll the meat mixture into tiny meatballs.  I got about 35 – 40 mini meatballs from this mixture.

Arrange the meatballs on the tinfoil-lined cookie sheets.

Bake the meatballs for 20-25 minutes at 400.  Check that the internal temp has reached safe temperature for beef (170 degrees). 

Serve atop pasta {even homemade if you’re up for the challenge}. 

Spoon over pasta sauce & top with cheese.  You can use either quick stove-top sauce, or if you have time, plan ahead and make some crockpot sauce. 

Enjoy!

O Christmas Card, O Christmas Card, how can it be that time again?

It’s that time of year – the leaves are almost off the trees & it’s time to think about ordering Christmas cards! 

Last year, we got our Christmas cards from Shutterfly, and we loved the variety of cards to choose from.  We settled on a photo Christmas card that gave us ample room to showcase our big year of transition. 

When Shutterfly contacted us again this year to see if we wanted to browse their collection of Holiday cards for our Christmas card this year, we were delighted!

Our recent fall hike provided us with just the photo… and we are excited to check out some of the new designs to what’s going to become our Christmas card this year. 

Maybe this one…

Or, this one – which gives us a chance to share a bit about our year. 

Thanks to Shutterfly, we are able to offer an opportunity for you to win 25 holiday cards of your own!  The product code is good for 25, 5x7 Flat or Folded cards of your choosing.  Codes expire on Dec. 31, 2011, and code does not include taxes, or shipping & handling.  And, three (3) of you will win! 

To enter:

(1) Like “Finding Joy in My Kitchen” on Facebook. 
(2) Leave a comment here telling me you like FJiMK on Facebook.

Yep. That’s it!  I’ll be randomly choosing three winners on Tuesday, November 1, 2011.  Comments will be accepted through 9 PM CST on Monday, October 31, 2011. 

Fine Print: Shutterfly did provide me with free photocards, but all thoughts about their product are my own.  If you are a blogger & want to join in on the fun – visit Shutterfly’s blog here.