Granola

I've told you before about my loathing serious distaste for oatmeal.  And how it's terribly annoying to me that it's supposedly so good for you but I unfortunately can't stand don't like it.  Also, how it's amazingly cheap and my whole family (except for me) willingly eats it every morning and I feed the whole crew for less than $0.50.  

Well, I'm here to tell you I found a solution.  It's not perfect.  But it makes me feel healthy and frugal and it tastes so much better.  (more emphasis needed there...)

The recipe comes straight out of the cookbook Family Feasts for $75 a Week, by Mary Ostyn.  This lady is a Mama of 10--that grocery budget is meant for a typical American family of four (two adults, two kids).  I really enjoyed picking up some of the methods in her cookbook, and some of the recipes aren't too bad, either.  Especially this one, of course!

In a large mixing bowl, combine 12 cups oatmeal (quick or old fashioned are both fine) with 1/2 cup flour, 1 T cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg.  Optionally, stir in up to 4 cups "extras," such as seeds, nuts, dried fruit, etc.  Mix it up.  (here's a tip though--we've found it's better to add any dried fruit after it bakes...)

Then in a glass measuring cup, combine 1 cup oil and 1 cup honey.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Pour the oil and honey into the oat mixture and stir to combine.

Divide mixture onto 3 greased jelly roll pans and spread out evenly.

Bake it for 15 to 25 minutes, (depending on desired brownness) rotating pans once during cooking.  Let cool on pan at least 10 minutes before moving to a large bowl, then cool completely before storing in an airtight container or bag.

**In case you're wondering, that heaping bowl of hot oatmeal (prepared the way we do at our house) costs around $0.08/serving.  This granola costs about twice that, depending on what you mix in and how big your bowl is!  By the way, the cost of the granola is a little over half as much as a cheap bowl of cereal purchased at the grocery store.  Got it?

PS.  For a special treat, I mix in a few chocolate chips on one tray after it comes out of the oven.  :)

Granola

from Family Feasts for $75 a Week

12 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 T cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 cups "extras," optional
1 cup oil
1 cup honey


Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Heat oil and honey in microwaveable bowl for 1 minute.  Pour into dry mixture and stir well to combine.  Spread granola onto 3 greased baking sheets and bake at 325 for 15 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once halfway through.  Let cool on pans 10 minutes before moving to a large bowl to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container (for up to 3 weeks).  

Introducing: Michelle, mama of 3 chicks

Hello everyone! My name is Michelle and I will be posting occasionally on Provident Plenty. So you know a little about me: I am a stay-at-home mom of three rambunctious girls ages 4, 3, and 1. My husband and I really love preparedness and self-reliance. My personal recipe book is a compilation of things I can make from our food storage and garden, with few exceptions. I am a whole food believer and money conscious so we do a lot of canning with home-grown or locally grown foods.

Without further ado, I present our most recent successful experiment.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup
(photo from allrecipes.com and recipe adapted from same website)


Ingredients

3 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups beef broth
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
Salt, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Coriander (optional), to taste


Directions

Pour 2 cans of the black beans into a food processor or blender, along with the can of tomatoes. Puree until smooth. Set aside.

Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir until the onion is softened. Stir in the bean puree, remaining can of beans, beef broth, and the pumpkin puree. Mix until well blended, then simmer for about 25 minutes, or until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.

My comments: This is a great food storage meal for us. We can pumpkin every fall. (See here for information on pressure canning pumpkin. It costs us about $.15 a pint excluding energy costs. http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/pumpkin_winter_squash.html) We always keep black beans, usually about 30 jars, in our basement pantry. We buy the black bean cans for $.54 a piece at Aldi. We can tomatos which we either grow ourselves or get from people have too many tomatos. The cost of jars is miniscule since you can reuse jars and we always buy seals for our jars at clearance prices, so probably around $.15 a seal as well. We buy boullion cubes in bulk and use those to create our beef broth. This year we're growing our own garlic.

This soup is delicious. Everyone liked it. It is creamy, the pumpkin is subtle but the cumin is a nice complement to it. You don't taste the tomatoes at all. I know this seems like a really odd combination of ingredients, but try it!

Cheeseburger Macaroni

Nothing too exciting here.  Just not quite hamburger helper.

Brown some ground beef in a skillet.

Don't drain off the fat--use it to sautee the onions and make the sauce.  I use 97% lean for this reason, but you can just drain all but a couple tablespoons of fat if you want.

Your onions are cooked when then are slightly transparent and glossy, like this:

Then (just like the box) you'll dump in macaroni, milk, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 10-20 minutes, or until pasta is tender and sauce thickened.  Stir in a couple cups of grated cheddar cheese and call it good.

Cheeseburger Macaroni


1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2  cups dry macaroni
4 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar
salt and pepper, to taste


Brown ground beef in large skillet.  Do not drain.  Sautee onions in fat.  Stir in macaroni and milk; cook until pasta is al dente and sauce thickened, about 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in cheese, salt and pepper.  

Country Fried Chicken

Here's some more country cookin' for ya'll.  But I would go so far as to call this one scrumptious--a step or two above "tasty."  

I've felt a little dumpy lately.  As in, down in the dumps.  Homesick.  Call it what you like, but for me, the country is home in my mind so this dish brings me home.  

A couple weeks ago I read a short story called "When Queens Ride By" on a blog I occasionally like to read.  In simple summary, the protagonist of the story lives sort of an everyday, hard workin' life out in the country, and feels a little sorry for herself that she can't live her dreams--which aren't even far and above what she lives day by day, but seem to be far, far out of reach.  Then at the end of the story (spoiler alert) she realizes that decision is really up to her, and chooses to make her life different.

A few days after reading the story, I was home with my sick little one from church.  Since I actually look forward to my church meetings each week and the uplift they bring, I was a little disappointed to be stuck at home.  But the hubby had responsibilities in church that day, and I surprisingly had none.  

I secretly also enjoyed spending the afternoon at home "living the dream" though.  Dressin' up nice for when my honey comes home and fixin' up a good meal to greet him with.  It was also raining that day (which it doesn't do here often, but it does in the Midwest where I grew up).  So the day just really spoke "country" to me, and I was glad to add to it!

For your setup, you'll need 1/2 to 1 lb chicken, prepared how you like.  You can pound it thin, leave it thick, cut it into tenders or nuggets.  I chose nuggets (for cooking time as well as little eaters).  

You'll also need 1 cup flour, salt and pepper to taste, a couple tablespoons of butter as well as olive oil.  Melt the butter and heat it together with the oil in a large skillet.  Mix the flour with the salt and pepper, then dredge (that means coat--you can roll it around in the bowl like I do or do the "shake&bake" method and shake it all up in a large ziploc bag.

 

Then place the chicken in the heated skillet--the layer of butter and oil should coat the bottom but not really cover much of the chicken.

Brown the chicken on each side, turning when necessary.

When browned on all sides, pour in two cups water or chicken broth (the latter has a bit more flavor).

Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Take lid off and reduce broth (if necessary) to about 1/2 cup.

Remove chicken to a serving dish and sprinkle in a couple tablespoons of flour.  You'll add milk next, but if you're using powdered like I am, go ahead and sprinkle in the amount needed for 1 cup milk.  (that's about 1/4 cup milk powder usually)

Then add in your water and whisk to combine.

It'll look a little funky, but just keep stirring and simmering...

until it's nice and smooth and thick like gravy.

Pour it over the chicken (or serve separately if you must) before serving.


Country Fried Chicken


1 lb raw chicken, cut into tenders or nuggets or pounded thin
2 T butter
2 T olive oil
1 1/4 cup flour, divided
2 cups chicken broth or water
1 cup milk (or 1/4 cup milk powder and 1 cup water)
salt and pepper, to taste


Melt butter and heat with oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Combine 1 cup flour and salt and pepper, then dredge chicken in flour.  Place chicken in skillet and brown on all sides.  Add broth or water, cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, or until cooked through.  Remove lid and reduce broth to 1/2 cup.  Remove chicken and set aside in serving dish.  Whisk 1/4 cup flour into broth, adding milk powder and water or milk.  Whisk constantly over medium-high heat until desired thickness.  Serve gravy over chicken, or over potatoes or rice.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

Do me a favor and don't look too closely at those grossly unappealing chicken meatballs.  They were supposed to be a filling for egg rolls, but I forgot the spring roll wrappers.  So I decided to make chicken meatballs.  They were about as weird as they sound.  "Don't try those at home."  Ingredients to spring rolls keep for awhile--wait until the next time you get to the store.

However, sweet and sour sauce is almost always good, if you ask me.  I should have pictured it just over some rice.

It's also easy to make, so try it.  And don't go back to store-bought.

Combine your sugar and cornstarch in the bottom of a small sauce pan.

Stir in ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and water.

This is what it starts out looking like.  Cook it over medium-low heat, stirring constantly.

Until it reaches desired thickness.  Then remove from heat.  You can store leftovers in a pint-sized mason jar in the fridge for at least a couple weeks!

Sweet and Sour Sauce
recipe adapted from allrecipes.com


3/4 cup sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/3 cup vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce (more if you like it saltier)
2 T ketchup (more for a bit of a stronger taste)


Combine dry ingredients in bottom of small saucepan.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Remainder keeps in pint-sized mason jar with lid in the fridge for a couple weeks or so.

Beans and Weanies

There's nothing glorious about this meal.  It's just country.  Simple.  Easy.  "Tasty."

(We have a joke in our house about the word "tasty."  The joke is simply that "tasty" could actually mean that it tastes terrible since as a descriptor it describes something taste-able.  However, in my down-home country cookin' mode, I'll use the term to mean "good 'nuf.")

Start out by roastin' some wieners.  Pick your poison; mine are all-beef.  I dice 'em up real good for my chilluns, but ya'll can do whatever tickles your fancy.  No water, please.

See? Roasted.

Dump you in some good BBQin' beans.  (Them's baked beans for all you less educated types.)

Heat 'er 'til she's good'n'hot.  Serve 'em with biscuits and plenty o'jam.

Beans and Weanies


2 hot dogs, diced how you like
1 small can baked beans, any flavor

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Roast hot dogs in bottom of pan until desired browning is achieved.  Pour in beans and heat through.  Serve warm.

Zucchini Bread and Bean Puree Tutorial

This recipe comes from one of my mom's first cookbooks--it's one of those recipes that goes down in all the cookbooks as "the best of" (whatever the recipe happens to be).  In this case, it's zucchini bread.  

My sister and I must have been little when Mama got these cookbooks, because she got enough copies to give one to each of her babies when we grew up.  I get a lot of my recipes out of it!  Never mess with tried and true.

Well, being a budding young baker in the twenty-first century, I couldn't just let things be and trust the well-worn pages of Mama's cookbook.  I had to check the internet.  So I went to my favorite recipe site and referenced the top-rated recipe and all its reviews.  The difference?  A couple spices.  Their recipe only used cinnamon; Mama's calls for nutmeg and cloves, too!  

One more little note--at the end of the post you'll find the recipe for perfect zucchini bread (you know, the yummy quick bread that doubles as a summer dessert and brunch special) as well as zucchini snack bread, which I did adapt to fit my motherly needs.  Less fat, less sugar, more whole grains.  Your kids will never notice the difference.

So here's a step in my adaptation:  bean puree.  The perfect substitute for fat in baked goods, if you ask me!  

Throw two cups of cooked beans in a food processor or blender, and add a small amount of water to achieve about the consistency of shortening or softened butter.  Yes, you can use canned beans!  Just drain them first.

Now for the instructions...grate 1 medium or 2 small zucchini.  You need 2 cups grated for the recipe, but a little extra doesn't hurt a thing.

Mix wet ingredients:  oil (or bean puree), eggs, vanilla, sugar.

(If your kiddos help with healthy recipes, they're often more inclined to try them!!)

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl, then mix them into the wet ingredients.

The batter will be pretty sticky and sort of dry feeling for a quick bread.  Gently fold in zucchini.

Your batter will become wetter and easier to stir, but don't over mix.

Pour into your baking dishes.  This makes 3 loaves, 24 mini loaves, or LOTS of muffins (at least 5 dozen).  Personally, I throw the whole batch into a bundt pan and call it good!  (don't mind the finger; little person helping with the photography...)

Bake until golden brown on top and knife or toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Perfect Zucchini Bread (healthy substitutes in parenthesis)


1 cup oil or butter (applesauce or bean puree)
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar (reduce to 1 cup)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg 
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour (whole wheat)
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional


Combine oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar in large mixing bowl.  Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl, then mix into wet ingredients.  Batter will be sticky.  Gently fold in zucchini.  Divide into greased baking dishes and bake at 350 until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean.