MomAdvice shows you how to make your own Homemade Gingerbread Latte.
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Recipes
So, I have to tell you something: these waffles were totally concocted as a fluke. You see, I was in the middle of a crazy and chaotic freezer cooking in an hour session with Silas and Kaitlynn “helping”.
While I was trying to make Pumpkin Ginger Waffles, Silas dumped flour all over the waffle maker.
And then I turned my back to get something out of the fridge and came back to see that Silas had poured yeast into all the dry ingredients. I couldn’t get the yeast all out, so I had to start the batter over again.
At this point, needless to say, I was a little flustered. When I went to pull out the pureed pumpkin from the freezer, I accidentally pulled out pureed carrots instead.
I didn’t even realize it until I saw carrot pieces in the batter. By that time, there was really nothing I could do to fix my mistake, so I just decided to go ahead and finish making the waffles and see how they turned out with carrots.
The result? A winning recipe that our whole family loves! In fact, I’ve already made it again and we all decided we may like it better with carrots than with the pumpkin it was supposed to have.
Carrot Cake Waffles with Vanilla Whipped Cream
1 1/4 cup flour (I used all whole-wheat.)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk (I just used regular milk and added some lemon juice to it.)
1/2 cup pureed carrots
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, and cinnamon. Beat together eggs, butter milk, pureed carrots, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Mix wet and dry ingredients together until well blended. Cook on waffle iron.
Serve hot with vanilla whipped cream (beat 1/2 cup whipping cream, 1-2 teaspoons vanilla, and powdered sugar or honey to taste until peaks form.) and/or maple syrup.
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Note from Crystal: I made this for my family last week and they all loved it. I used turbinado (raw sugar) instead of white sugar and it came out looking a little brown and funny, but it tasted great!
Guest Post by Holly from Sweeter Hours
In our house we always usher in summer with lemonade. It’s usually the drink we serve at parties in a big glass container with a tap or at playdates in sippy cups.
Even with coupons and sales, I don’t love the high price tag of all natural brands or the additives in the cheaper drinks. In addition, most lemonade drink mixes contain yellow food dye and high fructose corn syrup — both things our family tries to avoid.
So instead of buying lemonade, we make it ourselves. It’s not only easy, it is much less expensive and healthier, too! Here’s our recipe:
Rich Simple Syrup for Lemonade
- 2 cups sugar (you can use any type of white sugar)
- 1 cups water
Bring one cup of water to a slight boil and whisk in sugar until dissolved. Store in a mason jar once cooled in the refrigerator for up to a month. Use to whip up a batch of lemonade in no time.
You can jazz up simple syrup by adding fresh chopped ginger or fresh chopped mint leaves during the whisking. Strain ginger or mint out before bottling in the fridge. Simple syrup can also be used to sweeten ice tea for a yummy treat!
Note: I always double or triple this so that I don’t have to make it as often.
Easy Homemade Lemonade
- 1 cup lemon juice (you can purchase this at Aldi or the grocery store)
- 1/2 to 1 cup Simple Syrup (depending upon your desired sweetness)
- 4 cups of water
In a pitcher combine lemon juice and simple syrup, stir in water. Serve immediately over ice or refrigerate until ready to use.
For Holly Johnson, the sweet hours of life occur when she is practicing the art of mothering and making beautiful things. Sweeter Hours, her blog, chronicles a little bit of making stuff, a pinch of the green life, a whole can of amazing cookery, and of course, beautiful things for life.
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I skipped the planned Freezer Cooking In An Hour session yesterday because, as I mentioned on my Facebook Page, I’ve been battling my first-ever sinus infection for over a week and have been feeling progressively more miserable. My natural remedies weren’t working, so I finally gave in and went to the doctor yesterday. I’m hoping the meds will kick in quickly as I’m quite ready to feel more energetic and healthy again! In the mean time, here’s a recipe many of you have asked if I’d post.
This recipe is so flexible and forgiving; we adapt it based upon what we have on hand and what we get on sale. It’s been a favorite of ours for many years!
Build-Your-Own Haystacks
- Fritos (or any other off-brand corn chips, crushed tortilla chips also work as a stand-in)
- Lettuce, shredded or finely chopped
- Tomatoes, chopped (I also sometimes substitute canned tomatoes if I’ve gotten a great deal on them.)
- Taco Meat (brown ground beef with chopped onions and taco seasoning) mixed with cooked pinto beans
- Shredded cheese (we typically use cheddar)
- Salsa
- Canned black olives (sliced or chopped), optional
- Sour cream, optional
- Guacamole (or chopped avocado), optional
Set out haystack toppings (we usually keep the taco meat in a crock pot or saucepan on the stove so it stays warm) and let everyone layer their own toppings on their individual plates in the order they prefer. Enjoy!
Growing up, we served this more times than I can count when we had a big group of guests over. It’s great paired with a fruit salad and Green Rice Casserole.
By the way, if you’re the kind of person who prefers exact measurements, I found this recipe on AllRecipes that is similar to the one we make.
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I made this recipe last week using the Homemade Baking Mix and it was a total winner. Everyone in our family liked these and we had guests over and they raved about them, too.
Best of all? These are so simple to make. I timed myself and can have these in the oven in less than 15 minutes. Now that’s my kind of recipe — delicious, quick and even made with all whole-wheat flour!
Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
- 4 1/2 cups Homemade Baking Mix
- 1 1/3 cup milk
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or raw sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cinnamon
Glaze (I made a little extra since we like lots of glaze around here!)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk
Combine Baking Mix and milk. Turn onto a well-floured surface and knead at least ten times (the dough will be sticky). Roll dough out into a rectangle.
Melt butter and brush over rolled out dough. Mix together cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over melted butter. Roll up and cut into 12 rolls.
Place in a greased baking pan and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Mix glaze ingredients together and drizzle over Cinnamon Roll Biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven. Serve warm.
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So many of you requested more specific directions on how I froze the Baked Oatmeal recipe that I made for my Freezer-Cooking-In-An-Hour session last week that I figured it might be good to share the adapted recipe. But I wanted to make sure it turned out okay after being frozen, thawed and then baked.
We tested it this week and, as I suspected, it worked beautifully to freeze. It was so, so easy to pull out, thaw overnight and bake. And my husband and children raved about it all during breakfast. I almost felt guilty that it was so simple to pull off. 
It was definitely a hit — and something I’ll be including more often in our regular breakfast line up now that I’ve found a way to make it ahead and freeze it!
Freezer-Friendly Baked Oatmeal
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup raw sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk
- 3 cups oats (regular or quick oats)
Beat eggs, sugar and butter together. Mix in baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.
Stir in milk and oats. Pour into a greased 9×13 foil pan or baking dish and cover well. (Can use a Ziploc freezer bag, if freezing). Freeze.
To serve: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, until set in the middle. Serve warm with milk. (We like to sprinkle sugar on top before pouring the milk on.)
If you want to serve it without freezing it first, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and then bake it at 350 degrees for 35-45minutes in the morning.
Serves 6-8.
Adapted from Food.com
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I’m sure you’ve probably figured out by now that we’re chocoholics around here. It seems almost every other recipe I post has chocolate as one of the main ingredients in it.
So it only was natural for me to modify our family’s favorite banana bread recipe to add chocolate. Because everything’s better with chocolate.
The result was scrumptious! This recipe is great for a quick and easy breakfast, snack or to stick in a brown bag lunch.
Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 Tablespoons milk
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks (I used chunks, since that’s what I had on hand.)
Stir together dry ingredients. Beat together remaining ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend until just combined. Sprinkle chocolate chips in and stir.
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
To Freeze:
Fully cool, slice (if you like) and wrap the cut loaf in plastic wrap and then in foil (or stick in a ziptop bag) and freeze for up to six weeks.
To serve: Pull out desired amount of bread and thaw at room temperature.
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Guest post by Sabrina at Kitchen Cheat Sheet
I used to work at a coffee shop, and I not only witnessed people coming in several times a day for an almost $5 coffee, I often purchased that expensive blended coffee drink as well!
A few months ago I made the decision to leave my job and stay home with my two kids. Needless to say, I needed to cut my budget to make this possible. One of the first money saving ideas that most people will tell you is to cut out your daily fancy coffee drink. Although I don’t need a fancy coffee drink daily — or even weekly — I am a hard-working mom of an infant and a toddler and it’s nice to have a little bit of luxury in my day!
How Much I Save By Making My Own Frappuccinos
Using a Magic Bullet, I am able to save over $300 a year (assuming I replace two Grande Frappuccinos a week) and still enjoy my fancy blended coffee drinks. Here’s a cost breakdown:
The Yearly Cost of Purchasing Two Grande Starbucks Frappuccinos a Week (at $4.15 each): $431.16
The Yearly Cost of Making Two Homemade Frappuccinos Each Week ($52 for Magic Bullet + $0.50 each per drink): $104
Total Savings the first year: $327.16 (including the purchase of a Magic Bullet)!
Homemade Frappuccino Recipe
- Ice
- 1/2 package of Jell-O Instant Pudding, any flavor
- 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (For a little more of a Starbucks flavor, add one package of Via instant coffee instead of liquid coffee.)
- Milk (any kind — almond, soy, whole, non-fat)
Fill Magic Bullet tall cup with ice and add half a package (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) of your chosen pudding. Add coffee and top with milk (it should reach brim of cup).
Place the Magic Bullet cross blade lid on cup, put onto Magic Bullet base and blend to desired consistency (until you don’t hear the ice crushing anymore).
Top with whipped cream if desired, and enjoy! If it looks too thick, there should be room for a little bit more milk. Stir and pack down what you have now, and add milk to the brim of cup. Blend for five seconds more.
1. Fill Magic Bullet tall cup with ice. (You can purchase a Magic Bullet for $49 at Wal-Mart.)
2. Add half a package (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) of your chosen pudding.
3. Add coffee.
4. Top with milk (should reach brim of cup).
5. Place Magic Bullet cross blade lid on cup, put onto magic bullet base, and blend to desired consistency, until you don’t hear the ice crushing anymore.
6. Top with whipped cream if desired, and enjoy!
*If it looks too thick, there should be room for a little bit more milk. Stir and pack down what you have now, and add milk to the brim of cup. Blend for 5 seconds more.
Using the above directions, I usually get a very smooth, thick but drinkable-through-a-straw texture. With all the money you’ve saved, you can afford to splurge on a reusable Starbucks cold cup, if it feels a little more luxurious to drink out of an actual Starbucks cup!
Sabrina Hartman is a new stay at home mom to a 2 1/2 year old and a 9-month-old. She loves to find new ways to save money to compensate for leaving the workplace, and is finding her inner homemaker in the process. She tracks her homemaking life and tips at The Unlikely Homemaker and offers a kitchen tip/guide site at Kitchen Cheat Sheet.
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Looking for a delicious but super simple chicken recipe? This World’s Easiest Marinated Chicken Recipe is it.
I’m pretty sure you can’t beat it in simplicity. Best of all? Since salad dressing is often on sale for less than $1 per bottle, you probably have some of it in your stockpile most of the time.
(For those of you who have read here for awhile, this is the freezer-friendly version of my Crockpot Italian Chicken. I was going to try and explain how to freeze that and decided it might just be easier to do a separate recipe post for it!)
World’s Easiest Make-Ahead Marinated Chicken Recipe
- One bottle of your favorite Italian salad dressing
- 6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Put the chicken in a freezer bag. Pour the Italian dressing over the chicken. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal it up. Freeze.
To thaw and bake:
Quick Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer and run the freezer bag under hot water to thaw slightly. Pour all the contents of the bag into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.
Longer Marinating Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer, stick the bag in a bowl and let it thaw in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Pour all the contents of the bag into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.
Crock Pot Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer and run the freezer bag under hot water to thaw slightly. Pour all the contents of the bag into the crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours, until thoroughly cooked through.
This is delicious served over rice with steamed vegetables on the side. Serves 4-6.
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This is a recipe my older sister created many years ago and it’s been a family staple ever since. It’s not a low-fat recipe (I think I gained a pound just making these yesterday!), but it’s delicious.
It’s a hearty cookie and it blends two of my favorite foods together — chocolate and peanut butter. And the whole-wheat flour and oats might help balance out the sugar and fat… or at least I like to tell myself that!
This cookie dough freezes well and is perfect to have on hand for last-minute guests or a mid-afternoon snack.
Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
- 1 cup shortening or butter (softened)
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar*
- 3/4 cup sugar*
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups oats (rolled or quick oats)
- 1 12-oz. package chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together first six ingredients. Add flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into 1-1 1/2-inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes or until done. Makes approximately 40 cookies.
Freezer-Friendly Instructions:
Roll dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Freeze for 1-2 hours.
Put frozen cookie dough balls into a plastic freezer bag and seal tightly. When ready to bake, pull out the desired amount of balls and place on a greased cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes to thaw. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until done.
*I use 1 1/2 cups raw sugar.
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