Frugal Menu Mamas

This past weekend we were in TN with my family, celebrating my grandmother’s 80th birthday!  It was a lot of fun.  Since there was a big group, my mom made a baked french toast recipe that was so yummy!!  (I helped.)  Come to find out, it is from Erin at $5 dinners and I directed Mom to her site.  Love it when I give my mom new recipes…she is a superb cook and I’ve learned so much from her, fun to share new things with her.  Anyway, this is a perfect fall recipe and it was delicious.  Try it when apples are on sale!

Enjoy!

Apple Cranberry French Toast Bake

Well, I have a confession to make…I have yet to try this granola recipe.  It sounds so easy and I still haven’t gotten to it.  And here is another crock pot granola recipe that I still haven’t tried.  I’m not sure why I haven’t.   I love using my crock pot…its so easy!  So, you’re probably wondering why this Tasty Tuesday I am telling you about all the recipes I haven’t tried.  Well, because I bought granola one time and it was so delicious!  I was scared to try these other recipes because they did not have the berries in them that we enjoyed from the Kashi granola I just mentioned.

Well, exciting news…the September edition of Family Fun magazine had a recipe in it for Berry Blast Granola.  So, we had to try it!  The kids and I made it last weekend and boy was it delicious.  The kids love it mixed with vanilla yogurt.  Hubby liked it, too.  I prefer just to munch on it plain.  It is a pretty frugal recipe, too.  The most expensive thing was the dried berries.  I bought this brand pictured below that already had a variety because it also had a $1 off coupon stuck to the bag. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Berry Blast Granola

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup light brown sugar

6 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

1/2 tsp.  salt

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup wheat germ (I could not find this…any tips?)

1 cup dried berries

-Heat oven to 300 F.  Line two cookie sheets with foil.

-In a large bowl, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, and salt.  Add the oats and what germ, then stir the mixture until it’s evenly blended.

-Spread the granola onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes, sirring once halfway through to keep it from burning and encourage even baking.

-Remove the pans from the oven and stir the granola again.  Return the pans to the oven to bake 10 minutes more.  Keep an eye on the granola during this time and stir it often so it doens’t burn.

-Remove granola from the oven and stire it one last time.  Allow it to cool completely on the pans, about 15 minutes.  When it has cooled, stir in the berries, then transfer to an airtight container.  Can be stored up to 4 weeks.

Don’t forget about my giveaway.

I don’t know about where you live, but blueberries are on sale and in season here…YUM!  I even saw a sign today for blueberry picking and will have to check that out.  I actually don’t like to eat blueberries plain, but my family does.  I love them in pancakes and muffins though.  So, I made two batches of muffins this week and they were delicious.  And beautiful, I might add.  Just look at this photo!

I especially love when the blueberries break a little bit and juice oozes, doesn’t that make your mouth water?  Ok, enough of making you drool, go make some for yourself!  :)  Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

makes 12 muffins

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup fresh or 3/4 cup frozen blueberries (thawed & drained)

-Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

-Beat egg in medium bowl stir in milk and oil. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).

-Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown about 20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.

Printable Version

I did finish baking day last night.  I made the zucchini bread (printable version here) and the whole wheat french bread rolls in the afternoon.  They are all yummy.  So, all in all I made 4 things:  applesauce muffins, super power muffins, zucchini bread, and whole wheat french bread rolls.  Plus, I made stromboli for dinner and 2 extra to pop in the freezer.  I hope to increase the number of baking day items to about 6 things next time and then I could do this only about once a month.

I forgot to take a photo of the rolls, but here is the zucchini bread:

Zucchini Bread
(makes 2 loaves)

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups grated zucchini packed lightly
(approx. 1 med-large zucchini)

-Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease pans with crisco and flour.
-Beat eggs 5 minutes until foamy.  Add sugar, oil, vanilla.
-Sift flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda in separate bowl.  Add to egg mixture.  Mix just until moistened.
-Grate zucchini, pack lightly, add to mixture.
**Optional-fold in 1/2 cup raisins or 1/2 cup nuts.
-Pour into loaf pans and bake for 1 hour.

This recipe freezes well and if you have extra zucchini you can grate it and freeze it.  Just thaw zucchini and pour out water before using.

OK-So, I have completed the first half of baking day.  I discovered that I don’t have enough bananas to make the Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins, so I will save those until another day.  So, all the muffins are done…

Here are the Applesauce Muffins from the Deceptively Delicious Cookbook.  I think they look yummy and we will try them for breakfast tomorrow!  I love the secret ingredient plus applesauce and oats which make it so healthy!  Here is the printable recipe.

And here are the “Super Power Muffins” which have already been taste tested and messy face approved.  I used 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup applesauce, and a few extra chocolate chips.  These are pretty healthy too with peanut butter, banana, applesauce, and whole wheat flour.

By the way, my tips for muffins are:  use the large Pampered Chef scoop to get equal amounts of batter in each muffin cup and use the Pampered Chef citrus peeler to pop muffins out when done. 

So, Money Saving Mom inspired me yesterday and today will be my baking day.  It will be great to get some baked goods in the freezer for frugal breakfasts (which we will discuss later).  Here is my list of items I plan to try today:

Zucchini Bread (a favorite here)

Applesauce Muffins (from Deceptively Delicious)

Whole Wheat French Bread Rolls

Peanut Butter And Banana Muffins (from Deceptively Delicious)

Super Power Muffins

I’ll post recipes and photos throughout the day…