Vanilla Muffins

VANILLA MUFFINS

Yesterday, Captain Jax's computer bit the dust. AGAIN. I think it does this every 6 months or so. Therefore, he lost all of his school work, and all of his programs. And (most importantly) photoshop. He had just reinstalled it (for the 3rd, and final time--they only allow 3 installs) about 1 week ago. Now we have to buy the program again, unless when he calls them, they have a way to let him keep installing it.

But for some reason, the computer didn't touch my folder. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining! We finally decided we have got to to better at backing up all our stuff. So we kind of went on a shopping splurge. We got him a new hard-drive for his computer, and a 1.5 TB (I know, it's HUGE!!!) external hard-drive for us to back everything up on to.

Cross our fingers that THAT doesn't go out on us too! We have bad luck with electronics.

Anyway, onto our muffins! This is a very basic muffin, a type I would rather use as a base mix, and add different flavors to make different muffins.

• milk (I use rice milk)
• flour
• sugar
• salt
• baking powder
• butter (I use dairy free margarine)
• egg

Mix together all your dry ingredients, and your milk, vanilla and eggs in a seperate bowl.

Add the wet to the dry.

And mix it well!

Melt your butter, and then add that to the mixture. I'm not sure why it needs to go in this order, or what adding the butter last does. But I did it anyway.

It's pretty liquidy at this point. That's ok.

Fill your muffin pan. Either grease it good, or use liners. I love to use my cookie scoop to fill my pan, because it's easy to get them all equal. Then you don't end up with that tiny last muffin.

When I took these out of the oven, I thought they looked just like cupcakes. They even smelled like cupcakes!

But they're muffins, I promise. Some jam is tasty with them!

You can put frosting on them if you want though. I won't judge.

VANILLA MUFFINS
Recipe from: Amy's WFD Blog

• 2 cups flour
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 TB melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 TB vanilla extract

Preheat oven to bake at 350ºF. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners, or grease them, then set aside. Blend all dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl. Blend milk, egg and vanilla in small bowl. Add milk mixture to medium mixing bowl, combining ingredients just until no
longer dry. Add melted butter and blend well. Spoon batter into muffin tins, and bake 18-20 minutes, or until tops begin to brown. Check muffins after 15 minutes.

Pesto Chicken Packets

PESTO CHICKEN PACKETS

A few of your asked for this recipe when I posted it last week on my meal plan. Never fear, I'm sharing it now! This is one of the many meals I've been making because I don't want to turn my oven on. I don't think I've turned it on for about a week now! it really makes a difference in the 100deg heat here.

It's completely simple to make:

• chicken breasts (I used two)
• diced up veggies--the zucchini were great
• pesto (not usually dairy free, unless you make it yourself and leave the Parmesan cheese out)
  

Grease your tinfoil. Either use 1 sheet heavy duty, or 2 of regular.

Place your veggies, chicken, and a few tablespoons of pesto all over everything.

Seal it up good!

Grill for about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat.

And voila! You have a wonderful pesto dish ready to go. (and I think because there are veggies in there, you have a side dish built in)

You could eat it out of the foil (I don't really recommend that with metal utensils) or dish it up on a plate and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

PESTO CHICKEN PACKETS

• a chicken breast per person
• diced veggies
• pesto

Dice up the chicken into bite size pieces. On a piece of heavy duty foil (or 2 sheets regular foil) drizzle some olive oil. Place the veggies, then chicken and a couple tablespoons of pesto over everything. Seal up the packet good, and grill for about 10 minutes per side over medium heat. These can also be frozen before cooking. Just make sure to label them good.

Meal Plan Monday

I really like being able to post my menu on here for you all to see every monday. And I love looking through others menus over at Orgjunkie.com Gives me some inspiration on those days when I just have NO idea what to buy for meals that week. It was one of those weeks for me. As I've mentioned before, I shop every two weeks on payday. This past friday was payday, and I went shopping. However, it took me a LONG time to come up with a meal plan for these next two weeks. I couldn't believe it! I was worried that perhaps I've hit a wall with my cooking, that I didn't care for my food like I used to, and nothing sounded enticing to me.

Freaked me out a little bit.

But my groove is back! and I found lots of new recipes to try on foodgawker.com Have you been there before? It's like porn for foodies, I tell you what! I love it :)

Here's what I'm working on this week (and for those who wanted my chicken pesto packets from last weeks menu, they'll be posted sometime THIS week)

Monday: Grilled veggie sandwiches
Tuesday: Bacon wrapped Fish and asparagus
Wednesday:Leftovers
Thursday: BLT's
Friday:Cucumber soup
Saturday:leftovers
Sunday: My brother and his wife are taking a turn cooking for our sunday dinners together. I'm betting something grilled, because neither of us has a/c. I'll be bringing a banana pudding trifle for dessert.

Captain is Jax is working the closing shift a lot this week, so we'll be doing easy quick meals for K-girl and myself.

So what are your plans for this week?

Creamy Sour Cream Enchiladas, and Cheesy Garlic Bread

SOUR CREAM ENCHILADAS and CHEESY GARLIC BREAD

This was one of my recipes on my meal plan this week and I actually made it!! I constantly make a meal plan and then constantly make something else.

This is so easy though, I love it. The best part is since it doesn't use cream'o'soups I can leave the cheese off the top and feed it to K-Girl. I like any meals like that!

I also made Mary's Cheesy Garlic Bread. Well. . .I kinda made it. I short-cut around her recipe.

Here's what you'll need to make both:

• sliced swiss cheese
• 1 loaf garlic french bread
• sour cream
• shredded chicken
• green chiles (salsa also works great)
  
• cheese
• tortillas
• chicken broth
  

Mix together your sour cream, chiles, and chicken broth on the stove top. Heat it up, and let it thicken a little bit.

Add whatever assorted seasonings you'd like. I usually use salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Take your Garlic Bread now, and put 1/2 slice of cheese in between each piece.

Take about 1 cup of your sauce mixture out of the bowl and add about 1-2 cups of shredded chicken in the rest of the sauce in the pan. You could also add grated cheese to the sauce.

Seal up your bread in tin foil and throw that in the oven for about 15 minutes, enough to get the cheese gooey inside.

Fill your tortillas with your sauce and some cheese then fill your pan up. And remember that extra cup of sauce we set aside? Pour that over all the tortillas, and then sprinkle some cheese over the top. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, just enough to get the cheese melted.


Two cheesy meals. I love it.

Creamy Sour Cream Enchiladas

• 1 16oz carton sour cream (dairy free)
• 1 pkg (about 10 ct) tortillas
• 1 can green chilies or about 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 cup chicken broth
• about 2 cups shredded chicken
• assorted seasonings like salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Mix together the sour cream, chilies/salsa and chicken broth on the stove. Add your seasoning as it's heating. When it's hot, scoop out 1 cup of your sauce to spoon over the top of the enchiladas. Add your chicken to your sauce in the pan, and some of your grated cheese (if not making this dairy free). Spoon mixture on the tortillas and roll up. Fill pan with tortillas, then spoon your sauce over the top. You can now bake to make it completely dairy free, or sprinkle the cheese on the top and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Mary's Cheesy Garlic Bread
Click here for her instructions

• 1 loaf garlic french bread
• sliced swiss cheese

Place some cheese in each cut. Seal the bread up with tinfoil and back for about 15 minutes at 350 or until the cheese is gooey inside.

Tin-Foil Fajitas

TIN-FOIL FAJITAS

I know, I post WAY too many fajita recipes on here, but really, fajitas are one of my all time favorite meals. And it's a go-to meal in my house. I always have the ingredients to make these in my kitchen. The meat often changes; chicken, pork, beef, none at all, but the concept is the same.

I always have peppers in it, squash and zucchini too. And I try to put onions in it, but Captain Jax just won't touch them! and then I end up with a full onion fajita, which isn't as great.

It's the sauce though that makes these fajitas. I'm serious. Try it just once with with sauce, it's has a slightly sweet flavor and is so great.

You can dice everything up like I do, or you can cut everything into strips. I don't like the strips, because I can't get good bites without everything falling out on me.

Combine everything (yes, I mean everything) in a bag and let it sit for a few hours, turning every once in a while.

Ok, you'll need your heavy duty tinfoil OR two layers of regular tinfoil. Grease it up a little bit with some oil, and then add some of the fajita mixture. Drizzle a little bit of sauce of the top, because it's so tasty.

Fold it up pouch style--fold two sides in, then the other two and fold it down. Grill it on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Feel free to turn it once or twice, so the bottom doesn't get too cooked.

Watch your hands when you open the packet, there's a lot of steam in there!!

Go ahead and build your fajita how you like it. What is wonderful about these packets if you can make one for each person and freeze any that don't get used (you can even freeze them after they're cooked, just thaw and throw back on the grill for a little while)

Tin-Foil Fajitas

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 pepper
• 1/2 bottle Old World Fajita seasoning--yes THIS sauce
• tortillas
• assorted toppings like sour cream, cheese, guacamole

Dice up the veggies and meat and place in a baggie with about 1/2 a bottle of seasoning. Let it sit for a few hours, turning every once in a while to distribute the seasoning. Use either heavy duty foil, OR two layers regular foil. About 1'x1' is a good size for the foil sheets. Grease the foil with some oil and then spoon some of the mixture inside. Fold up each side, creating a little packet. Repeat until you're out of fajita mixture. You can now either grill or freeze.

To Freeze: Place packets in a ziplock baggie and write on the baggie what they are. Defrost completely before grilling.

To Grill: Place packets on grill heated to medium. Cook for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally (they will probably drip). Make sure the meat you use is cooked fully before serving.

(Linked up at: Bountiful Baskets Roundup, )

WINNERS!!!

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway! I had such a fun time reading through all of your favorite recipes, and I've compiled a folder with your recipes so I can start trying them out!

But let's not waste time eh? I know you all want to see the winners. Very simple process here, out of just over 50 entries (thanks to all your who started following and blogged about the giveaway!) Captain Jax drew out two winners!


Winner #1: I Am Nacho Mama

Winner #2: Mommy's Kitchen

Here's their comments:

Mommy's Kitchen said: "My favorite is the cheesy ham rigatoni. I love that stuff. I am already a follower so i have that covered as well." (here's a link to the baked rigatoni, it's greatness if you haven't tried it yet!)

I Am Nacho Mama said: "My favorite is the crockpot chicken - so easy and so good.

Congratulations ladies! Email me your address at krystalsrecipes (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll get those books out to you!

Krystal's Kitchen-Aid Cookies

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT MIDNIGHT!! GO ENTER NOW!!!!

KITCHEN-AID COOKIES

These are my kitchen-aid cookies. When I finally got my kitchen-aid mixer about a year ago, it came with a small recipe book, and these chocolate chip cookies were in there. They're now my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Since there's about a different chocolate cookie recipe out there as there are people, I was glad to find one easy enough to make, and that stayed soft!!

• flour
• sugar
• brown sugar
• baking soda
• butter (I used dairy-free margarine)
• salt
• vanilla
• eggs
• chocolate chips (the kind I use are an organic dairy free kind--expensive, but K-girl can eat them!)
  

Cream together your sugars and butter.

add everything else but the flour

then you can slowly add the flour as you're mixing. Or dump it all in at once. :)

lastly, add the chocolate chips.

Scoop them onto your tray and bake for about 12 minutes. Yes, I know they won't look very done when you go to take them out, but they ARE! If you let them cook much longer, they can get hard and crunchy.


Let them sit on the tray and cool for a little while. That will help them be able to slide off easier.

And a beautiful card to go along with the recipe. My sister Jenni made this one for me, because she decided that my cookies really are the best chocolate chip cookies. :)

(and perhaps you can see the watermark more clearly in this photo than the others? recipesofacheapskate.blogspot.com running at an angle up the page? Captain Jax helped me figure out how to do that in photoshop! He says it's better to have something like that, because it's harder to clean off than just a label. But I like the label better, doesn't make the picture look a little 'dirty'. Anyway, what do you think?)

KRYSTAL'S KITCHEN-AID COOKIES

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 sticks butter (you can use dairy free margarine)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups flour
• 1 bag chocolate chips (use can use a dairy free organic brand)
  

Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake ant 375 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on tray for 2 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Meal Plan Monday

THERE IS JUST A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT TO ENTER MY GIVEWAY!!! DON'T MISS OUT!!! ENTER HERE!!!!


Happy monday friends! Eventually I"ll get around to posting more Monday mix-ups. Eventually. There are a few on my list I'd like to get to, but we have no room in our freezer right now, so until I convince Captain Jax that I NEED a chest freezer, I'll be holding off on those for a while (although I do have an alternative brownie mix recipe I need to get around to posting)

Here's what we've got planned for this week. Last friday (as in a week and a few days ago) was grocery shopping day. I only shop once every two weeks (paydays) to help cut down extra trips. Although I do need to go buy milk tomorrow. So I'm in the "use what I have" stage. Luckily, I'm a stockpiler, and I have a lot. :)

Monday: Leftover enchiladas from my birthday dinner sunday night
Tuesday: My birthday! cross my fingers Captain Jax is taking me out!
Wednesday: Grilled pesto chicken packets
Thursday: Sour Cream Enchiladas
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Crunchy Fish
Sunday: chicken stuffing casserole

That's what I have planned. Hopefully I'll get some posts up soon too. I'm in the process of placing a watermark, as well as a title mark (like mary's, and Tina's) on all my photos. Then I won't worry as much that someone is going to steal my mediocre photos and claim them as theirs :). Once I get that all done, I can focus more on my posting!!

Crockpot Ravioli

CROCKPOT RAVIOLI

REMINDER: There is STILL time to enter my cookbook giveaway!! Thanks to all of you who have already entered, and left me such wonderful recipes to try :)


In my never-ending quest to find more meals that I can cook without turn my oven on, I came across this crockpot recipe. And well, we love ravioli's in this house, so I gave it a try.

• ravioli (25oz worth--about 2 bags for me)
• jar pasta sauce
• can of tomato sauce
• water
• italian seasoning
• mozz cheese

Pour about half the pasta sauce into the crockpot. Follow that with your raviolis. Then the rest of your sauce, then mix the can of tomato sauce with the water and seasonings. Dump that over everything else.

Sprinkle with cheese and cover.


Turn the crockpot on for 4-5 hours on low.

Easy as that friends! Then you don't have to heat your house up, and you have a yummy meal that you didn't have to spend hardly any time on.

CROCKPOT RAVIOLI

• 2 bags cheese or meat ravioli (about 25oz worth)
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup mozz cheese
• italian seasoning

Pour about 1/2 the jar of pasta sauce into the bottom of your crockpot. Add the ravioli. Pour the rest of the sauce over the ravioli. Mix together the water, tomato sauce, and seasonings. Pour over everything. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Cover, and cook for 4-5 hours on low.