Laundry...The never ending story

I LOATHE LAUNDRY. It has got to be my least favorite chore in the world. I'd almost be willing to give up my dishwasher (which I adore) to never have to do laundry again. Part of my issue is we don't have a washer/dryer in our apartment. It cost way to much to use our laundry facilities at our complex, and honestly their machines don't work half the time so we lose money. Luckily I get to spend days at my parents house or my sister who lives  2 seconds away doing laundry but then nothing else gets done because I'm not home. 

I procrastinate like no one else when it comes to laundry. We will have nothing clean in the house before I get to it. Which makes the problem worse. Today I get to tackle this mess because I was out yesterday doing dr visits for D and never got around to it. I spent the whole morning scrubbing the kitchen, baking, anything to not touch this pile. 

the ugly truth

I made Donut Muffins for breakfast. D will not eat donuts (what the heck kid?!) but he loves these. He will eat a million of them, and I don't even put sugar on his usually. 

Fresh out of the oven

Normally I just butter the tops and roll them in plain sugar, but today I decided to give D a little treat (and go figure, he wants plain instead)

Sprinkles and Green Sugar

These freeze really well, which make a great quick breakfast for my husband on his way to work. I find they reheat better in the oven, but he's fine with popping them in the microwave before he leaves. They also store in an airtight container for a few days in the pantry. 

Donut Muffins

*I double this recipe so I can freeze some.*

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

melted butter for brushing top

sugar for rolling top (or sprinkles, chocolate whatever you'd like! they are also really good without anything)

Heat oven to 350*. Grease your muffin pan. 

In a large bowl, mix your egg and sugar until pale yellow color. 

In a smaller bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into your egg mixture and combine well. Add in oil, milk and vanilla. 

I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour my batter into muffin pan. 

Bake for about 15-20 minutes (depending on how dark you want your tops) until fully cooked. 

Melt butter, brush over tops and roll in sugar. 

Cool before eating. 

Have a great day!

Kay

Saturday Date Night

When money is on the tighter end, we try to have date nights at home. We take turns (or work together) cooking a nice meal and either watch a movie or play a game together. Tonight we collaborated on dinner. Scott made Baked Mahi, and I made Zea's Grits. ( I couldn't find yellow grits, so I used 3 cups of instant white grits, and it wasn't exact, but it was pretty good and I don't like grits!)

He baked the mahi on a roasting pan with lemon slices, lime juice, italian dressing and water in the bottom pan. The fish was seasoned with butter, green onion, lemon zest, paprika, black pepper, cavendars and red pepper flakes. He covered it with foil and baked for 20 minutes.

I tried tweaking my sugar cookie recipe, to add Wowbutter (soybutter) but they did not turn out good AT ALL. I'm not sure what happened, but they were crumbly and tasted like flour. Thankfully we had some chocolate cake batter left, so we made cupcakes again!

PlayDough

                                           "Play-doh"
                                 Play-doh can be molded, 
                                   play-doh can be folded, 
                                 play-doh can be thumped,
                                  play-doh can be lumped,
                              play-doh can be squished into
                            many different shapes whatever
                                                  you 
                         can wish whatever you can make!

                                     Author : Lily Jay

We are still getting over our colds, so we are staying around the house on this lovely Saturday. I've been offering the playdough all week, but D hasn't been interested until this morning. We make our own koolaid dough, so it smells really good.  This particular batch is orange. This is a cooked method, I tried a few others and they didn't seem to hold up well. Our last batch lasted about 4 months in the fridge. 

                                              PlayDough

                                             1 cup flour
                                             1/2 cup salt
                                2 teaspoons cream of tartar
                                1 tablespoon vegetable oil
                                             1 cup water
                                      1 packet of koolaid

Mix all the ingredients in a large sauce pan. Heat on low to medium on stove. Stir until very well blended. The mixture will become a solid (but soft) playdough consistency when ready to be removd from heat. Remove and allow to cool. Once cool enough to handle, knead the dough for a smooth consistency. Store in an air tight container in the fridge.

                            
                                     Happy Playing! 
                                             Kay

There is always something to be grateful for.

I saw this floating around on Facebook, and it hit home for me. I think, at least for me I get so caught up in all the chores of life that I don't take the time to be GRATEFUL for the things they mean. I love having the chance to be a stay at home mom, and see my little guy growing up. Getting to be with him means a lot to me, but it also comes with all the stresses of being the main person who takes care of everything. 

Have a great day! 

Kay

Trying new things

Tonight we tried a new recipe, Sloppy Joe Cornbread Casserole it's a rift on Tamale Pie which is a family favorite.

INGREDIENTS:

1 box corn muffin mix

1 cup (separated) shredded cheese ( I used a fiesta blend)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1  can cream-style corn

15 ounce can sloppy joe sauce (I used a Hickory flavored), divided

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 diced onion

1/4 cup diced green onions

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 400*. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium sized bowl, add the cornbread mix, 1/2 cup of cheese, milk, egg and canned corn.

Stir until well combined. Pour into prepared baking dish.

While the cornbread is baking, cook onions in butter until just softened. Add you ground beef and cook until no longer pink. I don't drain my fat, as there wasn't much but you can if you'd like. Add half your can of sloppy joe sauce and warm. 

Remove the cornbread from the oven and use a fork to poke holes in the cornbread. Pour the remaining sloppy joe sauce over the cornbread. 

*As you can tell from from my picture, I didn't use a 9x13 pan. It took about 25 minutes to cook until set.*

Spoon the meat over the baked cornbread and top with the remaining cheese. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Top with green onions (if desired) before serving.

*This is definitely not a  super fancy pretty meal. 

Happy Eating! 

Kay

Biscuits and Sick babies

I thought we were getting over our cold, but I woke up feeling awful and D woke up with an awful cough, and just looking pretty pitiful this morning.

 When I asked about breakfast he said he wanted biscuits, and when a sick baby ask for something, you give it to them! So I made some wonderfully fluffy biscuits, which he's eaten 2 of so far. Obviously his appetite is not lacking this morning.

This recipe calls for buttermilk, which I never buy. It's so easy to make your own! For each cup of milk, you add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. You can let it sit out for about 5 minutes, or I pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and voila, buttermilk. 

Drop Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoons salt

Mix all your dry ingredients

1 cup buttermilk (see note above about making your own)

8 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix buttermilk and butter together before mixing with dry ingredients

Heat oven to 450*. Using a greased 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop biscuits onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

Serve warm with lots of butter!

Happy Eating! 

Kay

Let's try this again...

I had a blog started with a few post  on another site, but it's been down for a few days so I decided to just start one elsewhere. So here ya go. If I can ever get the other site to load I will move those posts over here if I haven't already redone them.

D and I have been getting over a cold this week, so have been keeping at home. It seems like we are both finally feeling better so maybe we can have a little fun this weekend. He's been talking about picnics, so maybe we can make it over to the park down the street for one. He's made me watch Beauty and the Beast 3 times today, I'm ready to go outside for a bit!

Tonight's dinner is Sweet Tea Fried Chicken , our chicken won't be quite as crispy as I forgot we were out of cornstarch, but it should still be tasty. I normally don't make the syrup but I think tonight I'm going to give it a try. We are also having Jalapeno (well I am!) and Bacon Mac & Cheese, Corn Nuggets and maybe Onion Straws. We have leftover Chocolate Cupcakes or leftover Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert. The cake recipe comes from a recipe my dad uses, its amazingly moist and not to sweet. It doesn't need icing, and its a quick bake.

Dad's Chocolate Cake 

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 
  
• Heat oven to 350°. Grease and lightly flour pans. Mix all ingredients until moistened. Pour batter into pans. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

In the words of my 2 year old, 

It's a great day!

Kay