Easy Homemade: Homemade Pantry Staples for the Busy Modern Family eBook for only $0.99!

Today through August 21st you can get a copy of Easy. Homemade. for just $0.99! If you are interested in cooking from scratch then this eBook is for you. 

Easy Homemade features recipes for more than 60 homemade kitchen staples as well as kitchen tips, information about choosing various ingredients and more from Mandi, founder and editor of Life Your Way.

Check out Mandi's video introduction of Easy. Homemade. 

Our family was sent a copy of this eBook to review and I think it's a great collection of pantry staples for beginners, kitchen experts, and everyone in between.

View and download free sample pages.

In this eBook, Mandi shares quick and easy recipes you can make with basic ingredients. You'll find recipes for beverages, seasonings, condiments, pantry staples, dairy, snacks, and baking mixes. Mandi also includes several bonus pages with tips on the most useful kitchen tools, a helpful pantry list, and links to many free printables for recipes and menu planning.

This eBook also includes a set of printable recipe cards, the Nook & Kindle files to load to those devices and access to all of the recipes from the book on PlantoEat.com

Check out more about Easy. Homemade. or purchase your own copy for only $0.99! 

You can also purchase Easy. Homemade. on Amazon for only $0.99 through 8/21.

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Homemade Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers {Finished Friday} come link up your projects, too!

link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post

Whew! This week has flown by at an incredible pace. We've been busy little bees out in the garden getting our spring crops cleared out to make way for even more plants. I'm actually a little scared to see how much canning we'll have to do this year.

We've also been trying to prepare for baby chicks and chickens that are scheduled to be picked up today!

I also have been listening to a radio series on the importance of memorizing scripture and have felt very convicted to begin purposefully memorizing more scripture, both for myself and with the kiddos. I'm loving this idea I pinned from Simply Charlotte Mason.

On top of all that, we've been discussing homeschooling philosophies and goals for next year, which right now, seems completely overwhelming. We're leaning towards an eclectic mix of Charlotte Mason, unit studies and unschooling. To my former public school teacher mind seems really scary, any thoughts?

But, somehow, in the middle of all of the mental fatigue I was able to find a few minutes to bake some crackers with the kids. These are not just any crackers, but homemade cheese crackers. They were really yummy, or "nummy" as my two-year-old says.

We followed this recipe but substituted white whole wheat flour.

Next time I would definitely try to roll these out thinner, since our crackers more closely resembled little pillows. But, little, flaky, cheesy pillows really aren't that bad, trust me.

Today's Questions: What activities are you involved in right now? How are you able to make time to slow down and enjoy your family?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)


<center><a href="http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/search/label/Finished%20Friday"target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq160/aHeart4home/checkmarkgray2.jpg"/></a></center>

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Birthday Cakes {Finished Friday} come link up your projects, too!

This past Tuesday we celebrated two birthdays. Emahry and her cousin turned 5 earlier this month and we were finally able to get most of the family together for a party.

It was my job to make the cakes and I think they turned out pretty nicely (for a novice cake decorator).

I should have taken photos at home, in better light, but I was running around trying to get all the last minute stuff together, so this is the best I have :)

Emahry's cake was completely homemade. It was two layers, one strawberry and the other flavored with key lime juice, loosely based on this recipe. It was covered with homemade white chocolate butter cream frosting. Let me just say this frosting is delicious! (I used healthier, homemade powdered sucanat.) The little butterfly is from Hobby Lobby.

The birthday boy wanted a Captain America cake, so I decided to stick with pure white (store bought) frosting. I also opted for a squeezable bag of pre-colored shimmery red and blue frosting, since I know how impossible it is to make red frosting with regular food coloring. Let's just say that my fingers were stained all afternoon.

I think the birthday boy and birthday girl liked them!

Today's Questions: Do you make and decorate cakes for your child(ren)? What's the most difficult cake you've ever made? (links are welcome, too)

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

<center><a href="http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/search/label/Finished%20Friday"target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq160/aHeart4home/checkmarkgray2.jpg"/></a></center> Where it says "Your name", type the name of your project.

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Heavenly Homemakers: 25% Off of Everything (Preschool Curriculum, Gluten-Free eBooks & More!)

Laura, over at Heavenly Homemakers, is having a sale this weekend - 25% off everything in her entire store. Simply use the coupon code PINKFRIDAY at checkout. (The coupon code is valid through midnight, November 28, 2011.)

Laura has a variety of eBooks including the Learn Your Letters Learn to Serve Preschool Curriculum, Teaching Kids to Cook Curriculum, Gluten-Free recipe eBooks, and delicious and healthy recipe eBooks. 

Let us know if you snag any of these great deals.

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25% Off Everything in Heavenly Homemakers' Shop!

Laura, over at Heavenly Homemakers, is having a sale this weekend and she’s offering 25% off everything in her entire store when you use coupon code PINKFRIDAY at checkout. This offer is good through midnight, November 29, 2010.

She has a variety of ebooks with delicious and healthful recipes, Kid’s Character Charts and much more.

Be sure to check out Laura's Guide to Holiday Hospitality e-book and her Guide to Holiday Hospitality for Kids! e-book.


     

Laura also has created a wonderful preschool curriculum called Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve which we’ve been using and find very helpful!

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Fall Baking: JoyofBaking.com

I stumbled upon the Joy of Baking website this afternoon while searching for a recipe for Pumpkin Cookies.

I will definitely be trying this recipe...

oh, and maybe this one for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies...

and this one for Gingerbread Biscotti...

and definitely this one for Cranberry Upside Down Muffins.

I love the flavors of fall and this website offers so many delicious sounding recipes that along with our Gingerbread Scones I may be stuck in the kitchen for quite some time.

Oh, and someday I hope to be able to take such beautiful pictures of food. Yum!

What are your favorite fall tastes and treats? We'd love for you to link to your versions of yummy goodness. Then again, I'm not sure if my body can handle all the goodies.

Photo Credits: JoyofBaking.com

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Homemade Biquick Style Baking Mix

Recently my mom told me that she heard on the radio that Bisquick Baking Mix has one of the highest price mark-ups of any convenience mix. So, when a recipe I planned to make for Thanksgiving called for Bisquick mix I decided to try to find a homemade alternative.

After searching for "Homemade Bisquick Mix" I was disappointed that all of the recipes seemed to call for shortening. We try to stay away from hydrogenated oils and haven't bought shortening in years. However, with a little more searching I came across this non-shortening recipe from Kate at Cooking During Stolen Moments.

Homemade Bisquick Mix

5 cups flour
2 T baking powder
2 t salt
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c dry milk powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 c butter

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients. Cut butter or margarine into the mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives (or your fingers) until crumbly. Store in a well-sealed container in the freezer.

So far, I've used this recipe to make the "Bisquick Mix" needed for a crustless pumpkin pie and to make pancakes. Both have turned out wonderfully.

*To make pancakes, combine 1 1/2 c. mix with 1 egg and 1/2 – 1 c. water. (Start with a 1/2 c. water and add more as needed until desired consistency.)

On my second attempt making this mix I substituted 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour for 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and sucanat for the sugar. The final product (pancakes) was just as good as with the original recipe. I'm going to experiment more next time by trying to replace some or all of the butter with coconut butter (coconut oil in its solid state) to make this recipe even healthier.

* * Edited to Add * *
I've now made all the substitutions and this mix still works great for pancakes. I have not tried it in any other baking so far, but I think it will work fine. I'm now using 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sucanat, and 1/2 cup coconut butter (coconut oil in solid form).

You’ll find all kinds of new recipes this weekend at Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Parade!!
Homemade Bisquick Mix Works for Me!
For more frugal ideas visit Life as Mom.

Do you have any favorite Homemade Mixes that shorten your time in the kitchen? We'd love to hear about them.

Baked Ziti

On Saturday, Tim and I prepared 3 large trays of Baked Ziti to feed homeless men who are being housed in our church building this week. They were expecting between 20 and 30 men plus the volunteers. We decided to quadruple a 9 x 13 recipe to feed approximately 40 people. We browsed some recipes online and came up with this one which is a compilation of a few different recipes. This recipe makes one 9 x 13 casserole full of baked ziti.

Baked Ziti
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces Italian cheese blend, shredded (Mozzarella,
Provolone, Parmesan, Romano, & Asiago) or shredded Mozzarella
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook about
7 minutes; drain.

In a large skillet, brown onion, garlic, and ground meat over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, 1/2 sauce mixture, Provolone cheese, sour cream, remaining ziti, remaining sauce mixture, shredded cheese, and grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake, covered with foil, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

If you make a larger batch and bake in a larger pan, plan to bake for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on if the sauce is hot before baking.

This baked ziti is an easy make ahead of time meal. Add an extra 15 minutes to the baking time if your sauce is room temperature.

This recipe also freezes well. Simply thaw in the refrigerator overnight and allow to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before baking.

This post contributed to Tasty Tuesday Blog Party, Kitchen Tips Tuesday, Tackle-It Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday & Blissfully Domestic.

This recipe Works for Me!

Focaccia Bread Recipe

Since Tim was home last night and niether one of us had school work to finish, we decided to try a new recipe. We found a recipe for foccacia bread on Allrecipes.com, but we altered it quite a bit. In case your not sure what focaccia bread is, here's a snipet from Wikipedia.

Focaccia (pronounced foe-CAH-cha) is a flat oven-baked Italian bread[1], which may be topped with herbs or other ingredients. Focaccia is related to pizza, but not considered to be the same. Focaccia is quite popular in Italy and is usually seasoned with olive oil and herbs, topped with onion, cheese and meat, or flavored with a number of vegetables.

Here's our version of Focaccia Bread.

Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 Tbsp salt
1 tsp white sugar
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Topping:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup 6 cheese Italian shredded cheese (or shredded mozzarella)


DIRECTIONS
Dissolve the yeast in the water.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper. Mix in the vegetable oil and water.

continue mixing until doughpulls together. Then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Use your finger tips to make indentations all over the top of the dough. Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle with Kosher salt and Parmesan cheese.

Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top and bake for another 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Serve warm or slice in half to make sandwiches.


Some Other Great Recipes:
Feta & Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Sweet Potato Fries
Freezer Crock Pot Lasagna
Jambalaya
Hamburger-Vegetable Soup
Cream Cheese Chicken Soup
Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies
Chunky Crock Pot Applesauce
Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes


This post contributed to Tasty Tuesday Blog Party, Kitchen Tips Tuesday, Tackle-It Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, & Works For Me Wednesday.


Photo credit: Allrecipes.com

Coffee Meringue Cookies

These are about the simpliest cookies I've ever made, but they are so delicious.

3 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbsp Internationl Coffee Mix

1 cup ground nuts (optional)

Beat eggs whites with sugar until glossy and stiff.

Sift coffee mix over egg whites. Sprinkle in ground nuts and fold in with a rubber spatula. Place teaspoon sized mounds on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake in a 250 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours. Turn oven off and allow cookies to sit in oven until cool.

These are so light and airy and are delicious served with whipped cream and coffee.

Some Other Great Recipes:
Feta & Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Sweet Potato Fries
Freezer Crock Pot Lasagna
Jambalaya
Hamburger-Vegetable Soup
Cream Cheese Chicken Soup
Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies
Chunky Crock Pot Applesauce
Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes

This post contributed to Tasty Tuesday Blog Party, Kitchen Tips Tuesday, Tackle-It Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, & Works For Me Wednesday.

Healthy Sweet Potato Fries

I've been meaning to get to these for awhile now, so this past week when Tim was working late, Emahry and I made and enjoyed these wonderful fries.

Sweet Potato Fries (Serves 1)

1 small sweet potato, cut in strips
1 tsp olive oil
salt, pepper, & paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, toss sweet potato strips with oil & seasonings.
Place strips on baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes, shaking or turning half way through.

This recipe works for me!

Related Posts:
Freezer Crock-Pot Lasagna
Jambalya for $3.82
Easy Hamburger-Vegetable Soup for $4.41
Cream Cheese Chicken Soup
Chunky Crock Pot Applesauce
Oatmeal Pancakes
Crock Pot Tacos
Summer Squash Soup
Whole Wheat Pitas

This post also contributed to Tackle-It Tuesday, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, & Tasty Tuesday.

Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

( Photo from www.pillsbury.com)

We tried these cookies this week & they are absolutely delicious! No wonder they won the Pillsbury Bake Off $1,000,000 grand prize. They are a little time consuming (about the same time to make as thumbprints or cut out sugar cookies) but they were definitely worth the effort. They are crunchy on the outside and wonderfully creamy on the inside.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup Dry Roasted Peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury Create ‘n Bake refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.

2. In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.

3. Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.

4. Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.

5. Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

Do you like trying easy & inexpensive recipes? Join me here at A Heart For Home for Five or Fewer Friday starting in January.

Whole Wheat Pitas

A few nights ago, the three of us made whole wheat pitas together. We've made this recipe a few times and we absolutely love it. We had a lot of fun mixing, kneading, & rolling out the dough. Emahry even helped with her new rolling pin from Aunt Kate. The pitas were delicious, and we all ate some before calling it a night and heading to bed. Here's the recipe if you're interested. It looks a little long, but it's really very easy. The recipe is from Tammy's Recipes. Check out her blog for lots of other great recipes.

Whole Wheat Pita Pockets

Description: Soft whole wheat round breads with a pocket inside!
Yield: 8 whole pita pockets (or 16 halves)
Preparation Time: 30-45 minutes (faster using bread machine!)
Rising Time: 1 ½ hours
Cooking Time: 4-5 minutes per batch

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)1 tablespoon oil1 teaspoon salt2 teaspoons sugar2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour1/3 cup gluten (May use whole wheat bread flour in place of the whole
wheat flour and gluten.)
Allyson’s notes: I just substituted regular whole wheat flour for the gluten
& they turned out great!
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Add the gluten and 1 cup of the flour, along with the yeast, and stir to mix. Add remaining flour and knead to make a soft dough. (Add additional flour if necessary during kneading.)

Alternately, if you have a bread machine, you can put the ingredients in the pan in the order listed and use the dough cycle. Skip to step 3 if using your bread machine! :)

2. Put your dough into a bowl, lightly oil the top, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise, until almost double (about an hour). I like to turn my oven on for a minute or two, then turn it off, and let the dough rise in there, since our house is cool.

3. Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 6- or 7-inch circle.

4. As you roll the rounds, set them aside on a lightly floured cutting board, cookie sheet, or non-terry tea towel and cover loosely with a towel. Let rise for about 25-35 minutes, until slightly puffy. (The rounds will still be thin though.)

5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place rounds side-by-side, onto a wire cooling rack. Place rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 4-5 minutes, until puffy and just slightly browned. (If bread is too browned, it will be dry and not pliable.)

6. Remove rack from oven and immediately wrap/layer pita breads in a damp towel (not terry), to soften. Allyson’s notes: Lay a damp towel on the counter, place pitas directly from oven onto the towel & cover with another damp towel. Continue baking the remaining pitas, layering them between damp towels as soon as they're baked. Allow breads to completely cool.

7. Cut pita breads in half, or split the top edge, and fill as desired.

8. Store pitas in a plastic zipper bag in the fridge for a few days, or place in the freezer for longer storage. To re-warm pitas, wrap them in a damp towel and then wrap in foil. Place in a warm (200-250 degree) oven for about 20 minutes.