You thought I was kidding, right?

I’ve added a new bread basket food to our holiday table this year after rave reviews from my husband & guests at Thanksgiving…Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins.  They are sweet when you first bite into them, & then the heat of the jalapeno comes as you chew.  For Christmas, I will be making the traditional rolls and will put these muffins in the basket with them!

This recipe calls for Jiffy corn bread mix.  It is deceptively cheap…sometimes, with food mixes, cheap equals so-so flavor.  The Jiffy corn bread mix has been a staple in my Mom’s pantry since I was a child, & the first time I made it for my husband he was shocked that corn bread could taste so good.  Jiffy  has a sweetness to it that I have yet to find in any other pre-mixed cornbread.  It is usually about 40 cents a box, and you can’t beat that price!

You can either bake this recipe in a 13×9 baking dish and cut into squares, or bake mini-muffins which makes about 36 muffins.   For our holiday table, the muffins were easy to pop in the bread basket for the table.

Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins

2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of corn
1/3 cup finely chopped jalapeno peppers (canned or fresh)
1/2 cup onion (optional)

Prepare Jiffy mix according to package directions. Add cheese, cream corn, jalapeno, & onions (optional). Mix well.

Pour into greased & floured 13×9 baking dish, or spoon into greased mini-muffin tin.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on top and center is firm. About 30 minutes.

**We omit onion from everything at our house, and these turned out fabulous without them!  I also used canned jalapenos for this recipe.**

Aren’t some men hard to shop for?  I bet you’ve got at least one in your life…Dad, Hubby, Grandpa.  I’m a big fan of homemade/handmade Christmas gifts and I have made sugar body scrubs for the women in our family before.

So when I found this recipe for a Sugar & Lime Hand Scrub, I knew it would be perfect to make for my dad, who is constantly working in the garage & in the yard!

Let’s start with the recipe & then we’ll discuss what to do with it next.

Sugar & Lime Hand Scrub

1 cup white sugar
1 cup super-fine sugar
Safflower oil
Essential Oil (lime, or any other scent your man would like)

Mix your two sugars, then start adding your oil. Start with a little, mix your sugars, & take a little to the sink and scrub your hands. Continue adding oil until your mixure is the consistency you like. Add drops of your essential oil and mix some more. Again, take a little and test it yourself. See if your scent is as strong/subtle as you wish. Essential oils go a long way, so start out with just a little!

These jars also have a flat lid, so you can decorate the lid to fit your man’s taste.  I like to get some scrapbooking paper and cut a circle the same size as my jar lid.  Then, I apply a thin coat of Modge Podge with a foam brush on the lid, place my paper circle on the lid top, then smooth all the air bubbles out.  Brush on about 4 more coats of Modge Podge to seal the paper & you’ve got a customized gift jar!

The jar can be kept next to the sink in the kitchen since you’ve got such a pretty jar!

I made some sugar scrub for my Mommy friends and you can see my decorated jars here.  I also made some coordinating tags to tie onto the jars.

Now you’ve got something unique & handmade to share with your loved one this Christmas. This should be good fr about a year in a sealed jar, assuming it will last that long!

Scrapbook Paper, small foam brush, & Modge Podge: Hobby Lobby

Essential Oil: Hobby Lobby, soap making aisle. I have also found a large selection at Sprouts.

Super-fine sugar: Baking aisle, with sugars OR in the tea aisle (super-fine sugar is used for mixing into drinks)

Safflower Oil: If you want organic, I suggest Sprouts locally. Otherwise, any store should carry regular Safflower Oil, located in the cooking aisle with other oils.

Check out this fun project! Reese & I made these chocolate lollipops as a test-run for some Christmas gifts for our CoOp friends. You could use chocolate molds if you had them, but we had fun making our free-form circles.

What you’ll need:

*Milk Chocolate melting chips
*Lollipop sticks
*Plastic bags for wrapping
*Squeeze bottle or Ziplock baggie
*Sprinkles

*Line a few cookie sheets with tin foil.

*Follow instructions for melting chocolate pieces. We put ours in a ziplock baggie, closing the bag almost completely, leaving about 1 inch open at the top. Making sure the baggie is standing upright, we microwaved the chocolate at 30 second intervals on 50% power until completely melted.

*Either pour chocolate into squeeze bottle (probably easier for little hands to control) or cut 1/4 inch off corner of your Ziplock baggie.

*Lay a lollipop stick on top of the tin foil and make a circle with your melted chocolate. We found it easiest to make a circle outline first & then let little hands fill in the circle with chocolate. As you’re filling in the circle, twist the lollipop stick around to keep it held in place once the chocolate hardens.

*Before your chocolate cools, sprinkle your decorations on top of the lollipops.

*Refrigerate until hardened. Using candy wrap, secure each chocolate pop into a wrapper & close with ribbons.

When Carnation evaporated milk contacted me* to revise some of my favorite recipes using their milk vs. regular milk, I have to say I was a tad bit panicked.

Not because I have anything against evaporated milk, but because I am not exactly what you would consider…a cook.

Cooking is not one of my strengths.

I have accepted this.

My family has accepted this.

So when I was flipping through cookbooks trying to find a recipe with which I could try the Carnation milk, it occurred to me that I should just try it in what I might make on an average night.

Don’t be afraid.

First, I tried Macaroni and Cheese substituting the Carnation evaporated milk for the milk:

Why would you substitute evaporated milk for regular milk (besides the obvious problem of all the available milk in the house is out  of date)?

Because evaporated milk is…well…condensed, it has about double the nutrition of regular milk.  So even though the amount of milk used in mac and cheese is only a few tablespoons, I figure every bit helps.

Everything about the macaroni and cheese seemed totally normal and the boys ate it up with only a few questions as to why I was photographing their food.

The next common food I tried is my Easy Potato Soup Recipe:

I love this easy recipe and make it often.  I didn’t notice any difference in the taste when the evaporated milk was substituted.

The third family meal that I make a lot is scrambled eggs:

I know that doesn’t sound much like dinner, but my fourth frequent family meal is homemade waffles - so give me a break.

Anyway, I use eggs, cheddar cheese and milk along with salt and pepper.  This time I substituted the evaporated milk and it turned out really yummy.

I learned two things from this little experiment:

1. Evaporated milk can be substituted in almost any recipe.
2. My boys will eat almost anything I cook if I put it in those fancy bowls.

*Carnation sent me two cans of evaporated milk and a gift card for the cost of groceries.

I don’t cook much, but when I do it is worth the effort.  This recipe for homemade applesauce is super easy, yummy and requires very little effort.  There is a bonus to making applesauce from scratch – the amazing smell that will waft through every room in the house.

I buy apples by the bag on sale.  Almost any apple will do except red delicious.  They are good for eating and not so good for cooking.  Some of my favorites are Granny Smith, Fuji and Gala.

I dump them into a sink full of water to wash and peel off the stickers.

I then cut them up into medium size pieces into a large pot.  I leave the stems, cores and peels on–see, I told you this was easy…

Next, I chop the apples in to large chunks and then place them in a pot.  I then cover the apples with water, cover and place on the stove covered.

Cook/simmer the apples until they are soft.  If I get distracted and they cook too long I  just be sure that there is enough liquid to prevent burning.

Then transfer the cooked apples in batches into a food mill – apples and water.  There are super fancy food mills that do all the work for you or you can use one like I do that is cheap and simple.

Round and round goes the food mill handle.

Reverse the handle to catch all the left-over goop.

Round and round.

This is the part that is easy for kids to help.  If your kids are young, you might want to let the apple mixture cool BEFORE you run it through the mill so it is safer for them to participate.

Once the apples are sauced I add sugar and cinnamon.  Since each type of apples have a different sweetness, it is best just to taste it until you get it right.

I have also substituted frozen apple juice concentrate for sugar when making baby food and eliminated the cinnamon – it was really tasty and had no added sugar.

Last week I watched the Oprah episode with three chefs from TV showing American families how to cut down on food costs. Each chef boasted that his/her recipes were easy and could be done at home.  Each chef declared that following the recipes would save money.   Each chef posted the recipes on Oprah.com.

I was a bit skeptical.

OK, I was a LOT skeptical.

There is good reason for my skepticism – I am not a very good cook.

I decided that we were going to try and see if it worked.

I looked online and chose Chef Cat Cora’s recipe list. It has 21 meals which include breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days. She states that it will feed a family of 4 and that the whole week would cost less than $150. Her list of recipes also included a shopping list which I printed so I would be ready for the grocery store trip.

I enlisted the help of Bianca. Making one meal a day would be a shock to my system, let alone 21 in one week so I figured I could use the help. And since we decided this could not go undocumented…here is our story.

Chef Cat Cora’s 21 meal menu
Chef Cat Cora’s shopping list for 21 meal menu

We started by taking our printed shopping list to Wal-Mart. It was easy to use because it was organized by areas within the store. When a choice was needed we chose the store brand or the cheapest product that would work.

There were three things that Wal-Mart either didn’t carry or was out of stock: Butter leaf Lettuce, Orzo, and fresh mint.

We found the missing items at a different store substituting for the Butter leaf Lettuce which wasn’t at either grocery shop.

Being very eager cooks we chose a recipe that sounded good and prepared our first meal from the list for dinner:

Spicy Chicken and Mango Stir Fry

This was one of the recipes that Chef Cora demonstrated on the Oprah episode in a real family’s kitchen.  She suggested using it for a lunch but once we looked at all the recipes we realized we had another problem…

*insert haunting music here*

A problem that we will discuss tomorrow.

*insert foreshadowing music here*

Is it called foreshadowing if I just come out and announce that we will be discussing it tomorrow?

Anyway, that is what we chose and we started to chop an onion.

and  another onion.

How many onions?

The picture tells the story of a heaping pile o’ onions with a side of post-chopping weeping.

We thought that two onions seemed like a lot for this recipe, but since we don’t have our own TV show or even regularly cook we decided to follow the recipe EXACTLY.

Then there is the issue of the chicken.

Cluck.  Cluck.

The recipe calls for “3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken , sliced into 1/2-inch thick strips”.

What?

We just bought three WHOLE chickens.

Cluck.  Cluck.

Let the skinning and de-boning begin.

We will be the first to admit that it wasn’t pretty…

*insert foreshadowing music here*

Finally we have chicken!

Whoo hoo!

Finally we have dinner!

Whoo hoo!

This is the entire dinner.

This is the final product that will be split into four portions.

For our purposes we are going to chart the results for 2 adults and 3 small children.  Especially since the small children are super picky and will probably not eat much of anything because they are my small children.

The verdict?

4/5 LOVED the recipe.

1/5 refused to try it.

Triumph at dinner…

The post cooking  reality check report:

I will make this recipe again.  Next time I will start with skinless, boneless chicken.  It would also be a huge help to have all the vegetables pre-chopped.  Because we are not super handy with a knife the chopping took a very long time.  I am pleased to announce that both Bianca and myself still are the proud owners of 10 fingers each.

I think it is a bit labor intensive for a lunch, but appropriate for dinner.  I would add a side of rice. With a side of rice I think that this could be stretched to feed four small adults. We didn’t have any left-overs and we only fed two adults and two willing children.

Tune in tomorrow when we tackle THREE WHOLE MEALS in one day and dance to the foreshadowing music.

Read about Day 2

To see how this whole idea of following advice to see if it really works – check out our new Burbmom topic – Advice Reality Check.

Today is another day on our quest for cheap meals with the help of Oprah and Chef Cat Cora! Holly squeals with excitement hoping to over come her kitchen fatigue.

Today is day four of the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on the Oprah show.

Let’s make breakfast!

Lemon-Pecan Pancakes

These pancakes took only a few minutes from batter to plate.  They were easy.  THEY WERE GOOD.

We are talking fine dining good.

They tasted absolutely yummy with real maple syrup and mixed berries.

The Verdict?

4/5 LOVED THIS RECIPE.

1/5 won’t eat anything with nuts in it and really missed out.

The post cooking reality report:

I will definitely make this recipe again.  Maybe tomorrow?

The portion size was good.  We had two or three pancakes left over which are no longer in the fridge due to snackage.

I am still dreaming about the lemon-pecan pancakes, but it is time for lunch…

Fuji Apple, Walnut and Herb Salad with Roasted Chicken

Alrighty, as you seen in the picture this is the amount of the entire recipe.

Nothing else.

We ended up putting it on lettuce and I ate it with a full grilled cheese sandwich because unless the salad is HEAVY on the meat and nuts it won’t fill me up.

Speaking of nuts…the shopping list that we took to the store said we needed “one small bag of nuts – walnuts, pecans or mixed”.  We used the majority of the bag for the pancakes this morning (totally worth it) so there wasn’t enough.  And we bought pecans – so the recipe title really doesn’t apply to what we made!

I was also glad that we had enough of the Cinnamon Roasted Chicken we made the other night to shred for this salad.  If I had to roast a small amount of chicken specifically for this recipe I would have gotten very grumpy.

The Verdict?

2/5 liked this recipe.

3/5 are really tiring of trying new things…

The post cooking reality report:

I will make this salad again for a side dish or to take to a ladies’ luncheon.  The taste is good, but it is very light food.  My children took one look and begged for grilled cheese.  Me too...

It took a reasonable amount of time to prepare for a lunch if pre-roasted chicken is available.

The portion size is small.  This amount might work if you put it on lettuce and use it as a side dish.

So, let’s find out what is for dinner!

Creamy Pasta with Chicken, Kalamata Olives and Broccoli

Creamy?

I swear we followed the recipe and no creamy appeared…

This might have been magnified by the fact that we just felt like there was too much pasta in relation to chicken, olives and broccoli.  After the meal we had this big bowl of pasta left over with all the chicken, olives and broccoli picked out of it:

The Verdict?

3/5 really liked this recipe.

2/5 really liked portions of this recipe which they picked out of the whole.

The post cooking reality report:

I will make this again with some modifications.  I will double the chicken, broccoli and olives.  We really liked the fresh taste of this meal.  It is not heavy, but filling.  It can be easily separated for picky eaters.  It took a reasonable amount of time to prepare for a dinner.

The portions are good.  I think there would even be some decent left-overs when I double the chicken, broccoli and olives.

Overall, today was a good success.

One of the benefits of forcing my family onto the 21 meal menu is it forces my children to try new things because it forces me to serve new things whether I think they will like it or not.

Get caught up with our under $150 for 21 meal madness -

Day one

Day two

Day three

And soon there will be tomorrow…

We made it through day one and flew through day two of our quest to attempt the 21 meal plan of Chef Cat Cora as seen on Oprah…so what does today hold?

For breakfast we made:

Garlic Mashed Potato Pancakes

Let me start by saying this tasted good, BUT I just don’t get it.

We started by making mashed potatoes from scratch…from scratch at 6:30 am.  And after adding a full stick of butter to the mashed potatoes we then FRIED them.  Is this why we couldn’t have yolks yesterday – we were saving up for this?

The recipe called for 2 cups of milk, but we found that it was extremely soupy after only one cup so we omitted the second cup.  Most of the “pancakes” turned out more like scrambled eggs.  We took the above picture of the best formed one.

The Verdict?

2/5 thought the pancakes tasted OK.

The post cooking reality check:

I will not be making this recipe again unless I have a ton of left-over mashed potatoes that I need to magically transform into something slightly different.  This recipe took WAY TOO much time if you are starting from scratch for a family breakfast.  My three boys wake early and hungry. They were not impressed with waiting for this or the way it tasted.

The portion size of this recipe was adequate if it was served WITH something.  I ate what would have been considered two portions of this and needed something else as well.  I usually eat some sort of protein for breakfast and this just felt like I was eating a 1/2 of meal.   I think this would make a better side dish for a lunch or dinner.

Let’s see if we have better luck with lunch!

For lunch we made:

Chickpea and Roasted Pepper Soup with Blanched Greens

The blanched greens recipe had been paired with the Cinnamon Chicken and Orzo we ate last night, but we were a little overwhelmed with the amount of cooking required to make all three items.  We thought it would be good with the soup for lunch.

I made one modification to the soup.  Instead of just pureeing just the peppers, I pureed the whole soup.

The Verdict?

4/5 liked the soup plus my husband who is not participating in this 21 meal trial ate a full portion as well declaring it yummy.

The post cooking reality report:

I will make both these recipes again.  The greens were very good and similar to a spinach and mushroom recipe I make for special occasions (minus the mushrooms).  The soup was filling and tasted good. I will caution that the younger children were not wild about this, but they don’t regularly eat soup.  Next time I might pull out some of the beans for them before pureeing.

The portion size was good.

SNACK TIME!

We ate the left over Leftover Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops
- yum!

Let’s make Dinner:

Open Faced “Tostada” Salads

The only thing we modified with this recipe was we doubled the lettuce.

The Verdict?

5/5 loved ‘em!

The post cooking reality report:

I will make this again.  It was quick (if you already had the rice cooked like I did) and easy and tasted good.  Everyone ate it.

The portion size was good if the tortillas are large.

We made it through the day! The lunch and dinner recipes were easy enough that we didn’t feel like we were in the kitchen all day.  Using left over rice and the left over banana pops for a snack made it go smoothly (after the breakfast thing…).

See you tomorrow…

Day 1

Day 2

Whew.  We felt pretty good making it through day one of the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on Oprah.

And then we realized that day two would mean three homemade meals.

Three homemade meals.

I think I can…I think I can…I think I can.

Let’s make breakfast!

We decided to try:

Egg Whites, Turkey Bacon and Low Fat Cheddar Tortilla Wraps

This was also one of the recipes that Chef Cora demonstrated on the Oprah show in the home of an ordinary family.  Bianca tackled this breakfast and when I saw it I was surprised because I could have sworn that on the TV show it looked yellow – like the whole egg was used.  I checked the website and they mention use of only egg whites…

And I just have to ask WHY?

First of all, separating the 6 yolks from the 6 whites seemed cruel…they seemed so happy together.

Then disposing of the 6 yolks since none of the recipes in the 21 meal menu uses them seems very wasteful.

And third, by only using the egg whites the total recipe size seemed small.

And fourth, I LIKE the taste of the yolks.

And fifth, the yolks contain a bunch of nutrients that the whites do not.

And finally, none of my family members have high cholesterol or have special dietary needs and let’s be frank…eating a few egg yolks is MUCH better for them then what they might have been eating on any other given morning for breakfast.

Sorry, I got a little caught up in my pro-yolk agenda.

The Verdict?

3/5 liked the breakfast tortillas.

1/5 refused to try the breakfast tortillas.

1/5 threw a giant tantrum and cried all over the breakfast tortillas.

The post cooking reality check report:

I will make a modified version of this recipe in the future.  It took a reasonable amount of time to prepare.  I will use the WHOLE egg and add something to make them less bland.  I ended up dipping my portion in salsa which was good.  I think chopped jalapenos or a fresh pico de gallo mixed in with the eggs would be really yummy.  The amount of cheese used was so minimal I didn’t taste it, but I hate to suggest adding more cheese after making such a big deal about the eggs…but more would taste better.

The portion size was VERY SMALL.  I think that if only the whites are used then at least 3 more eggs need to be added for four full servings.  Maybe I just eat a lot, but I had 2/4 portions (as described by the recipe) and needed a snack by 10 am.  I suspect if the whole egg is used then the portion size will be about right.

Whew! Breakfast is over and we have a few hours before lunch.

What should we do?

Let’s go back to the grocery store!

For lunch we made:

Veggie Stuffed Twice Baked Potato Boats

Right after breakfast we popped the potatoes in the oven and set the oven for an hour.  Since our potatoes were small we decided to make 5.  When I checked on the oven an hour and 1/2 later the potatoes were still a little firm to the touch so I reset the oven for another 30 minutes.

Bianca assembled the recipe:

And the children ATE this recipe.

Hallelujah!

The Verdict?

5/5 LOVED the Veggie Stuffed Twice Baked Potato Boats

The post cooking reality check:

I will definitely, without question make this recipe again.  It is full of vegetables and everyone ate them!  It is a pretty easy recipe that doesn’t take much time if you use the timer on your oven for baking the potatoes.

The portion size was good.  We ended up with quite a bit of the stuffing left over because our potatoes were so small.  The stuffing is yummy so I don’t think it will be in the fridge long…

SNACKS!  SNACKS!  WE NEED SNACKS!

The 21 meal menu did not include snacks and we are attempting to limit what we eat (within reason) to what is on the menu.  Well, the boys are not THRILLED with this plan so we took a closer look at some of the recipes to see if we could use them for snacks instead of meals.  We decided that the small portion size of the Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops (each portion is 1/2 a banana) would be difficult to pass off as a FULL breakfast so we are using it as a snack instead.

Let’s make them now!

Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops

Actually, we made them earlier since they need to freeze for at least a few hours.

The Verdict?

5/5 are WILD about Frozen Yogurt Banana Pops

The post cooking reality report:

The family freezer will always have these available for snacks.  The only complaint we had was that they were messy to make.  The yogurt seemed to stick to the bananas, but the granola didn’t stick to the yogurt.  BUT who cares…they taste great.

The portion size of these are great for a snack.  This would be WAY too small for a breakfast for me.  Maybe as a side to a whole bowl of oatmeal?  I am beginning to get a complex about how hungry I am in the morning.

All right people, we are nearing the end of the day.  Let’s make dinner!

Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken

Every one on Oprah was licking their fingers over this recipe.  I just had to taste it for myself.

Crap…the chicken factor.

Cluck.  Cluck.

Chicken, Schmicken.

After 4 recipes we are KITCHEN WARRIORS!

The chickens don’t have a chance…

The recipe was pretty easy to follow, but the liquid reduced too quickly and Bianca added more water.  There was a side of Orzo suggested with this recipe.

The Verdict?

5/5 liked the chicken.

2/5 liked the Orzo which is really surprising since the Orzo was very neutral in flavor.

The post cooking reality report:

I will probably make this again.  It is a bit labor intensive, but would be easier the second time around.  Since the Orzo was not a hit at my house next time I will substitute mashed potatoes.

The portion size was good – even generous. We have tons of Orzo left over and several pieces of chicken that can be used in other recipes later this week.

Overall this was a good food day.  We are spending a majority of our day in the kitchen, but for the most part making food that the kids will eat.

Tomorrow is another day…

Read about Day 1

The next day: Day 3