Done… finally! I'm so glad I started the Baking Day list yesterday afternoon because I only ended up having two hours this afternoon to finish up and those were with a fussy baby in the front carrier.
I'm definitely still figuring out how to do this caring for three little ones and trying to get anything else done thing. There are days when those two things seem mutually exclusive, but I'm slowly learning how to be more creative, more flexible, and to sometimes just chuck the whole to-do list and sit on the floor and play with my babies. 🙂 After all, they won't be little for long!
At any rate, today was a bit exhausting and I'm quite confident I managed to bite off a bit more than I could really chew in attempting a longer list of baking projects at this season of my life, but we survived and we actually enjoyed it. And believe it or not, the house is almost all cleaned (thanks to my husband's help tonight) and I'm heading to bed early!
But not before posting the final fruits of the Baking Day labors!
Here's what we ended up making:
2 dozen Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 loaf Banana Bread
1 1/2 dozen Blueberry Streusel Muffins
1 loaf Homemade Bread
A double batch of Waffles
A double batch of Homemade Pita Pockets
By the way, the Blueberry Streusel Muffins are incredibly yummy, which is to be expected seeing as they came from Tammy's Recipes.
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Did you have a chance to do any baking this week? If so, post about it
on your blog and leave your link below to your direct blog post. I'd
love it especially if you could share pictures and recipes so I can get
more ideas for my next Baking Day projects! And I'm guessing many
others would be inspired as well.
Aims says
Yumm……….the kitchen smells just wonderful. I went downstairs to tend to the laundry and came back up to the delicious aroma. I mixed up the Banana Bread and put it in the oven. I had the PERFECT amount of time to finish the Bread (inc. rising times) to slip it in the oven when the Banana bread was done. No wasted oven time here. Yummmm! Thanks for all of the ideas. Say, you should put baking day as one of the categories on that side bar. I want to follow you along past adventures too!
Abby says
I used your banana bread recipe last night and it is absolutely delicious!!!!
Tonya says
I made the bread today. YUM! No bread machine, but I slapped the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid and baked it in the oven. (The dough, not the Kitchen Aid 🙂 I only did one loaf to make sure it was going to turn out. Minus the little setback where it fell when I knocked the risen loaf on the counter trying to “carefully” move it, it was easy and turned out great! Thanks!
Stacia says
Never mind Crystal I see the link for pita pockets further down, I just missed it. Thanks so much!
Stacia says
Crystal,
If you get a chance sometime please post your pita bread recipe. Thanks!
Denise C. says
Hi Crystal,
I was wondering, when you have your baking days, do you have more than one loaf pan (for breads), or more than one muffin pan? I have one of each and would love to have a an extra one of each, but at the same time don’t want to spend the money on them!
Emelie says
I’m in the same situation you are right now. I’ve a 5 yr old, 4 yr old and 9 mo old. It is tough. But it’s worth it. Those trusting, loving little faces are so wonderful. Your site is so fun though ad I enjoy it in my small breaks of time. Keep up the good work. And you’re even getting me motivated to try a baking day myself. Might have to be in the night time though as to not heat up my house too much (I live in Las Vegas – so it’s already too hot all day!)
Kristen says
I’m so excited to hear that grilling them works. The ones I made yesterday were SO good – but with a RF of 104 degrees outside today, I couldn’t justify heating the oven to 500 again today! Sweet. We are going to grill EVERYTHING! 🙂
Carol S. says
Yay! I too was able to make the pita pockets, and they turned out great! It’s hot here as well, so I fired up our outdoor gas grill which has a thermometer indicator on the front so I could tell when it was up to 500. Kept the cover closed and they cooked right up in less than 4 minutes.
Becky says
Have you considered making the pita pockets on the grill? I made naan on our gas grill the other day and was very pleased with the result- especially since it meant I didn’t have to get my kitchen hot.
Eden says
I just made the pita pockets & they turned out GREAT! Thanks so much for sharing. Hubby will be so happy when he comes home. 🙂 This is what we are planning to use them for as well as just tuna:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Buffalo-Chicken-Wraps/Detail.aspx
This is one of our favourite dinners EVER & we will really be loving it using our free salad dressing & free BBQ sauce & chicken breasts from Stop & Shop this week for less than $1 (for a HUGE family size package of 8 chicken breasts.) 😀
Tammy L says
Thank you for the mention; as usual you are too kind. 🙂 I’m glad you liked the muffins! 🙂 Your baking day posts are inspiring to ME this week especially!! 🙂 The full bags of food give a nice feeling of accomplishment. 🙂
Kim says
Yum. I can’t wait to try some of these.
Jennifer says
I know you probably have pancake recipes you like, but if you want to try a new one, I love this recipe from King Arthur Flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/light-n-tender-wheat-oat-pancake-mix-recipe
They are almost entirely whole-grain (but still have a good texture somehow), and I know you like to make healthy things for your family.
Tammy says
You have been busy.
We make Pumkin Chip cookies.I will have to try making the muffins.
Aiming4Simple says
Anyone with a bread machine can avoid heating up the whole kitchen by baking with it in the summer months. My machine even has a program for sweet breads. Stay cool!
Rochelle says
I was thinking about when I made waffles again that I would separate them into the triangles and then freeze them. Maybe would make more room in the bag with less air. We’re having trouble keeping those fresh in the freezer. My two little ones usually share a big waffle anyway.
Alison Armstrong says
I thought that sounded like a lot of things to do w/ little ones. On a good day it is fine but on an average day- only like 2/day is manageable in my house. Glad you got it all done and the house cleaned!
Ellen Drake says
You go, girl! What a successful day!
Jen @ScarlettDancer says
I was a bit inspired by your baking day. While at the store I noticed the discount bananas. The recipe I use for wheat bread is sugar and fat free and calls for 1/2 cp mashed banana (I think so the yeast have something to eat). I bought a bunch on “ripe” bananas and went home and mashed them. I put 1/2 cup servings in freezer bags and froze them. Now when I make bread I can just nuke a banana until it is mushy again.
I also used 1 cup to make banana muffins. Nowing my husband could eat all 12 at once, after we each had 1, I sat out 2 for breakfast and out the rest in the freezer so they would be good in a few days.
Julie says
Crystal, do you personally use the brown sugar or the white sugar?
Sherry says
Yeah! Great job! 😀 I ended up doing all my baking in the morning and did stove top and dough for the freezer in the afternoon to eliminate the heat. 😀
Alisha Hughes says
Good job Crystal!! Looks like it was a great day!
Stephanie says
What a fabulous idea! I feel inspired to do some baking now!
Ellen says
Everything looks great. I think I may try out the pita bread recipes. Question – I like to bake from scratch rather than purchase items, but sometimes baking costs more $ than buying the same thing. Any ideas about saving in the baking department?
Krista says
I can vouch for the delicious Blueberry Streusel muffins! We made them yesterday as well since we had recently picked a gallon of blueberries! They are REALLY good!
Weight Loss says
Wow they look so yummy! Good tip to try something very different!
ADollarSaved says
Mmmm…just looking that picture is making my mouth water…
Gina says
Crystal, I had three babies in a 35 month time frame and I’ll be honest with you – #3 was the hardest (I’ve now got 4, so she didn’t scare me off from having more, LOL). It’s a *big* adjustment – to me, it was even bigger than going from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 2. It was The Big One!! 🙂 God will give you the grace you need to cope with this time – and you’re right, they are only little once. In the grand scheme of time – and even of their time under your care – this is just a drop in the bucket. I know just how to pray for you. 🙂 Chuck the to-do list when you need to – love those babies like I know you do!
Kristen says
I ended up pulling out my breadmaker and made a batch of pita pockets. My family LOVED them. There’s only one half left (from a single batch). My husband grilled chicken and we stuffed them with a little salad, a piece of chicken, a little cheese and caesar. Yum! Thanks for sharing!
BTW – “deceptively delicious” has a really yummy, healthy banana bread recipe.
Kacy says
I have just happened upon your site recently and you are such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing your life and your tips with all of us. Your site has truly enriched my life. Thank you!
Carrie says
I was just wondering how you package some of these foods that you freeze. Any tips on keeping them from tasting “frozen not fresh” would be so helpful.
Jennifer says
This all makes me want to run out to my kitchen at 10:29 p.m. and start baking SOMETHING!
christine says
We take one saturday a month and bake all our bread for the month, slice and freeze it.
One of the tricks I use for my waffles is I store them 2/baggie. Right now I only have 1 eating breakfast so it makes it easier to just pull a baggie out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave.
We made a pineapple upside down cake today. Hubby is the only one enjoying it. LOL. Girls don’t like pineapple and I don’t like cake.