Oreo Pie

I posted yesterday about how my firstborn was celebrating 14 years of life on this amazing planet.

We grilled out last night to honor the occasion and I made his absolute favorite dessert to finish the night off—Oreo Pie. It’s insanely easy (and even more so if you choose to use prepared graham cracker pie crusts) and very refreshing and yummy! A perfect summer dessert for potlucks, especially ones with kiddos!


So here’s the recipe for a double batch of Oreo Pie:
(sorry if these aren’t exact, I just dump and mix for my crusts)

Crust:
15-18 graham cracker crumbs
½ c sugar
4 tbsp melted butter
OR purchase two deep dish graham cracker pie shells


Filling:
2 pkg instant vanilla pudding (also good with chocolate)
3 ¾ c. milk
16 oz. Cool Whip
Package of Oreos, crushed (Josh prefers the double stuffed)

Mix crust ingredients together and press into 9 x 13 pan, pop into freezer.

In large mixing bowl, whisk together pudding and milk. When mixture begins to set up, blend in ¾ of the cool whip and ¾ of the Oreos (reserving some of each for the topping). Pour over crust.

Top with remaining cool whip and crushed cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.


However, do not use all of your cool whip in the filling and try to use ‘squirt cool whip’ to write your child’s name and then put back in the freezer b/c the fridge is too full….you’ll end up with a melted cool whip all over the top and no name. BUT your kids will still scarf it down like there’s no tomorrow.


Happy Memorial Day!


This post is linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge - Recipe Swap Friday.

Pets on the Brain

As you can probably see I’ve totally got pets on the brain.

I posted over at PJs about our dabbling into veterinary science.

And now the pets have even taken over my recipes for today!

If you’re wondering why you can go here and see pics of my new babies. I’m trying to get through this blog without another pic of them.

In our frugal pet quest, I found great resources through this blog entry from Gayle at The Grocery Cart Challenge and this inspired me to attempt some of these recipes.

The puppies got a bath on their first full day as members of our club. However, I think this caused some skin irritation so we gave them a Lemon Bath to help with the itching. They didn’t start scratching until after the first bath, but we were concerned about fleas as well. So we gave them a Rosemary Flea Rinse.

Lemon Bath
Thinly slice one lemon, bring one pint of water almost to a boil. Remove from heat, add lemon, cover, let steep overnight. Sponge onto puppy, starting at head (but not near eyes or ears).

Rosemary Flea Rinse
Same directions as above, only add one Tbsp of rosemary.
This has significantly reduced the amount of scratching we’re seeing so hopefully it’s working!

Now here’s a couple of recipes I’m planning on trying out next week. I’m not sure yet whether this will be the most frugal option or not but I’m sure it’ll be a treat for the little pups. I think my girls will get a kick out of making homemade doggie treats!

Puppy Meatloaf

Tons of Dog Treat Recipes

For some really tasty PEOPLE food...head on over to the Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap Friday and join in!

Recipe Swap Friday

I meant to post this a week or so ago when this was actually on my meal plan. These are a family favorite but who doesn't love deep-fried, breaded chicken strips?

Chicken Fingers

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
1 c. buttermilk
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Vegetable oil for frying

Cut chicken into small pieces or strips; place in large Ziploc bag. Combine egg, milk, and garlic powder; pour over chicken. Seal and refrigerate 2-4 hours. In another large resealable bag, combine flour, bread crumbs, salt, and baking powder (I also add a little Italian seasoning if my bread crumbs were plain). Heat oil in skillet to 375. Drain chicken, place a few pieces at a time in the flour mixture and shake to coat. Fry in small batches for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy the hot, steamy, delicious goodness! And if your nieces come for a visit one night when you've made these, they will ask you for them for the rest of your life. Trust me on this one.


For more delicious and practical home cooking recipes, check out The Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap Friday!

Taco Leftovers

We had leftover taco filling but no shells. My first thought was to do a taco calzone type thing. So I made a batch of pizza dough and started rolling it out, and then inspiration struck or maybe it was just laziness? Why would I go to the extra trouble of making individual bundles when I could just make a pizza?

I did and it was yummy. My dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas, so with the other half I made cinnamon twists from a recipe my sister-in-law suggested. I think making dessert sometimes helps leftovers not be so boring!

Here's my recipe (originally found at Money Saving Mom):

Pizza Dough
1 TBSP yeast
1 c. warm water
2 TBSP oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 c flour

Mix yeast and water, add other ingredients and knead for five minutes. Roll out half of the dough and form to pizza pan. Add taco-seasoned ground beef and shredded cheddar cheese. I cut off the excess dough and put it on top for a little extra crunchy. Yummy! The kids ate it up.

But their favorite were the cinnamon twists:

Cinnamon Twists
Cinnamon (to your taste..we like a lot!)
1/2 c. sugar
melted butter

Roll out remaining dough. The recipe said to cut the dough in strips, then brush each strip with butter, dip in cinnamon and sugar mixture, then place on greased cookie sheet, twisting from opposite ends.

Again being lazy, I rolled mine out, brushed with butter, sprinkled w/ cinnamon sugar, THEN I cut into strips and popped into a 375 oven for about 10 minutes. When they came out I once again brushed with butter and gave a second dose of cinnamony goodness. I think it cut down on the mess of brushing/dipping each strip on my counter. Maybe, maybe not.

It was a quick and easy dessert...nothing like my cinnamon roll recipe but WAY quicker! Here's a pic on the Winnie-the-Pooh plate that is approaching 13 this year...

This recipe links to the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap Friday!

The Cookie Jar Recipe

Mmm…chocolate and peanut butter cookies, hot and gooey from the oven, a nice cold glass of milk, are you drooling yet? To loosely quote Yo Gabba Gabba this definitely causes a party in my tummy!

This is my favorite basic cookie recipe. “The Cookie Jar Recipe” comes from a state-wide cookbook our church published back in ’96. As you can see from the pic, this recipe has been used and abused many times in my household. So today, Nellie Garrett of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, I salute you! Your cookies totally rock!

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed

2 eggs
1 c. (2 sticks) butter/margarine

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

Variation Ingedients:
½ c. creamy peanut butter

2 c. chocolate chips

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs, vanilla, peanut butter. Mix flour, soda and salt, add to butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Our other favorite variation is to add ½ c. cocoa powder to the flour mixture and then use 2 cups of peanut butter chips.

Happy Cookie Baking! Check out The Grocery Cart Challenge’s Recipe Swap.

Double the Chocolate Muffins!

I've been on the hunt for a while for a good muffin recipe. Something that could double as a breakfast and lunch-packable treat.



Well I've found a contender. Let me introduce you to the Double the Chocolate Muffins. I'm guessing since most of the chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder it's not too much of a nutrition nightmare! The recipe said it would make 12 muffins, but I got 24 mini muffins and 11 regular out of my batch.



Double the Chocolate Muffins

1 3/4 c. AP flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder, sifted

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

3/4 c milk

1/2 c. veg. oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 c. chocolate chips



Preheat oven to 375 and prepare muffin pan.



In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt.



In larger bowl, whisk together 1 c. of sugar, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until combined, fold in chocolate chips.



Spoon batter into pan. Sprinkle with remaining sugar.*



Bake for 10-12 minutes for minis, 18-22 for regular size.



*I have a great pic of Jilly sprinkling...okay..dousing the muffins with sugar but when I realized she was only wearing her undies I thought I better not post pics of mostly-naked children!



Instead here's one of her in a "Jilly-Bean Original" design. I hope her creativity shows up in other places because her color/pattern matching skills have not yet developed.

For more great recipes check out The Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap.

I Heart Recipezaar and DSL!

How’s that for an odd couple? But it’s true and today they both saved me from certain dinner disaster. I was diligently following my Menu Plan and working on a yummy pancake supper. Which everybody complained about: ‘why can’t I just have a sandwich,’ ‘breakfast is gross for dinner’—but yet every one of them managed to lick their plate clean!

So back to me flipping a batch of my BFF’s Best Ever Pancakes and, yes, they really are the best ever, you must, must try them! We had plain, chocolate chip, and brown-sugar-cinnamon pancakes. In the words of Rachel Ray—DELISH! Another quick tasty tidbit, my favorite variation is to add brown sugar, mashed banana, and toasted pecans…oh…my…goodness.

Back to our wonderful breakfast supper buffet, I got the butter from the fridge, the new blackberry syrup, and then on to the cabinet to get the ...NOOOOO!!! The bottle of pancake syrup had nothing but the tiniest, itty bitty threads in the bottom of the bottle. Now my Messes are total Sugar Addicts, and if I serve pancakes with no syrup I might as well put on the riot gear, cause flapjacks will be flying. That might be a tad bit harsh seeing as they’ve never really thrown their food at me, except maybe when they were babies.

Anyway, since they were already not happy about the backwards menu, I knew I had to do something and quick! I dashed over to the laptop (what? Don’t you ever dash?), straight to Recipezaar, typed in pancake syrup. Voila, in just a couple of seconds I had an easy recipe in my hot little hands. I whipped up this syrup while the kids were making their plates and grabbing drinks. Just three minutes to boil, a minute or two to cool and we were in business! It was easy, quick, and pretty darn tasty, too. Who knew syrup was so stinkin’ easy? I may never buy another bottle again!

Now let’s move on to the second recipient of my love fest…DSL. Oh DSL, DSL, how I love thee, let me count the ways (and yes that’s pretty much the only Shakespeare reference I have—Oops! I just searched that phrase and it’s from Browning..my apologies for showing my literary ignorance).

We live in the boonies and have spent the last 10 years with dial-up (grrr) internet service. Go ahead and commiserate with me, it’s horrid and I hate dial up with a white hot passion. I still remember clearly that clear, cold day in the fall, October I believe it was, when my phone company called and said they were finally offering ‘extended reach DSL’ in my area. This began a long and, yes, even painful process filled with highs and lows and many missed appointments and quite a bit of frustration. Finally the day came, a wonderful glorious Tuesday in February and the most wonderful man in the whole universe came to my house and gave the greatest techno gift I’ve ever been given.

Not only did he bring high-speed world wide web access without tying up my phone line, he also gave me the ability to access recipes and blogs (and shop!!!) from any room in my house. Wireless, wireless, oh how I love thee wireless (Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Sonnets from the Portuguese it really is gorgeous and short, go read it!).

So even though my installer was probably over 60, completely gray, and smelled of stale cigarette smoke, he is now my new stud muffin. I’m sorry Johnny Depp I have betrayed thee.

(P.S. I just found the Things I Love Thursday carnival at Diaper Diaries...and being the shameless self-promoter that I am, I tossed this post into the mix.)

Freezer Pleaser

Here’s one of my standby freezer recipes. I love to make a big honking batch of these puppies and load up the freezer. But the real appeal to me is I can make a humongo mess just one day and get three bonus mess-less (or almost) meals for later!

The original recipe (I’ve tweaked it slightly…okay barely) was found in Taste of Home probably five years or more ago. I have also made them with half ground beef and half ground turkey. Gotta cut those calories where we can, right?


Less Mess Meatballs
4 eggs 2 c. dry bread crumbs
¾ c. finely chopped onion 1 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp. pepper
4 lbs. lean ground beef

Put ground beef in large bowl. Beat eggs, add to meat, add other ingredients and mix well (it works best if you use your hands!). Shape into 1” balls, should make about 12 dozen. Place in single layers in ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes, until no longer pink. Let cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, place in freezer bags. Can freeze for up to 3 months. Meatballs are great in spaghetti, sandwiches, as an appetizer, etc.

Simple Sweet Sauce
1 c. ketchup ¼ tsp. garlic powder
¾ c. packed brown sugar ½ c. chopped onion
This makes enough to use as a pourover sauce. Just take out a bag of meatballs (no need to thaw) and throw this sauce on top, in the oven for 40-60 minutes...yum!

Bacon & Cheese Please!
When I make a batch of these I usually follow the above directions and make about ¾ into the meatballs. Then the remaining mix, I add several slices of chopped bacon and form individual serving size patties . Cut cheddar cheese into squares (maybe an inch?) and press into center of mixture. These take a little longer to bake but they’re so yummy, especially with the sauce…oh I am getting hungry!

Pizza Possibilities?
You can also use mozzarella cheese and top with warmed pizza sauce or even a slice or two of pepperoni.


For more great recipes head on over to The Grocery Cart Challenge’s Recipe Swap.