Ham and Cheese Muffin Tin Meal

May 7, 2013 by 3 Comments

I love anything served in a muffin cup these days and I thought of this wonderful idea of ham and cheese muffin cups. I have been been looking across Pinterest and my cook books to see if I can find anything. The muffin cups are pre-portioned, individual serving size for everyone. We have a lot of precooked ham, since our freezer when out about a month ago and I have been searching for some yummy recipes to make with ham to add to our rotation. I found a ham and cheese pie recipe and scaled it down to individual muffin cups. Yes this was a huge hit at my house.

Ham and Cheese muffin cups

Ingredients for Ham and Cheese Muffin Cups:

2 cups Homemade Biscuit Mix (you can use store bought package of 5)
1 1/2 cups finally chopped cooked ham
8 oz cheese (shredded or finely cut)
1 1/2 tblsp Onion (I sautéed mine for a bit)
2 eggs
1 Pinch of nutmeg

How to make Ham and Cheese Muffins:

Biscuits in muffin tins

1. Make the homemade biscuits according to directions. Cut out biscuits and cut them in half. Roll into a ball and stretch them or roll them out until they will fit inside a muffin cup. Spray muffin tin to avoid sticking. Using the homemade version I was able to make 12 biscuit cups. With the store bought you may only be able to make 10.

2. Finely chop the onion and start to sauté it now. This will be ready when you combine it all together. Cut up the ham and cheese. Since I had an 8 oz. block of cheese, I didn’t feel like grating it. I just cut it up into small pieces and threw all together.

3. Add the ham, cheese, eggs and onion all in a bowl and mix thoroughly. I just sprinkled a little nutmeg on top for an added layer of flavor. (My secret ingredient) If you have fresh grate just a little on top.

Ham and cheese breakfast cups

4. Now fill the biscuit lined muffin tins with the ham cheese mixture. If you have two empty muffin tins left, you can still put the mixture in there and they should pop out when done.

5. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. To see if they are done make sure they are bubbly and brown around the edges. If not leave them in a couple more minutes. We served these with some pork and beans and corn for a quick and easy meal.

I was amazed at how little ham this recipe actually uses and great for a five dollar meal. This would be a wonderful recipe for leftover ham or even a great breakfast dish. We usually have a few leftover, so I will freeze the extras. Now I have a little something on those nights I don’t want to cook. That is what makes cooking in muffin tins so great. My daughter, who doesn’t like ham, even liked this recipe. If you put anything in bread for her, she will eat it. Little Face didn’t get to try it, since he passed out at 6:00 that night. We brought him to the table and he put his head on the table and slept.

Take a look at my Simply Homemade Food page for more ideas on how to make food on your own. This will help stretch your pennies a little farther and help you eat healthy. Take a look at my easy and simple recipes for more ideas on what to cook for dinner tonight.  PLEASE like Pounds4Pennies on Facebook. Yes I am begging! Follow me on Pinterest for more inspiration daily.

Filed Under: 5 Dollar Meals, Recipes

How to Make Peanut Butter: Simply Delicious

April 24, 2013 by 9 Comments

I am finding such great joy with so many things I can make myself at home like peanut butter. Just buying pure simple ingredients and processing them myself. I experimented with peanuts this week and we made peanut butter with honey. If you have ever eaten fresh peanut butter, you may never buy the store bought stuff again. We all thought the homemade peanut butter tasted amazing. You have just got to try this. Half the jar was gone within a week. Learn how to make peanut butter with the super simple directions below.

How to Make Peanut Butter

How to Make Peanut Butter Ingredients:

1lb Peanuts
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup honey

Directions on How to Make Peanut Butter:

Homemade Peanut Butter

1. Take one pound of roasted peanuts and put them in a food processor. (This is extremely difficult )

2. Pour the honey in with the peanuts. Use my method of pour the honey around the container twice. I rarely ever measure anything. Add more if you like a sweeter peanut butter.

3. Turn the processor on high for around 10 minutes. After a few minutes turn off the processor and scrape the sides and then turn it on again.

4. The peanuts will reach a magic moment where they will become a smooth round ball of fresh peanut butter heaven in the food processor. That is the magic moment they go from boring peanuts into peanut butter. Yes! Turn off the processor and scrape the sides. Be sure to get the little bits off the bottom. Keep on processing for a while until is it smooth and creamy. If you want an easily spreadable peanut butter add a little peanut oil. Then you will have smooth and creamy peanut butter.

I store my homemade peanut butter in the fridge. You may not need to do this, but remember there are no preservatives in this peanut butter. You won’t have to worry too much about it, since you will want to eat the entire jar at one sitting anyway. Seriously it is THAT good. You know you want to Pin this and give it a try. I am amazed how awesome fresh items taste. Just think of all the yummy recipes you can make now that you know how to make peanut butter yourself.

Want to know how to make more items yourself with out preservatives or chemicals? Check out my simply homemade page for more recipes and homemade items. Go ahead and Pin this you know you want to give it a try. Follow Pounds4Pennies on Facebook to get the latest in whole living or Follow Pounds4Pennies on Pinterest to be inspired.

Filed Under: Recipes

Ended – Awesome Guacamole Recipes and Salsa Recipes + Giveaway

April 10, 2013 by 67 Comments

The Thursday morning before Blissdom, I was able to spend some time with a very talented chef from the Hungry YouTube Chanel, Alex Thomopoulus and a bunch of my bloggy friends. Wholly Guacamole sponsored the event, where we were able to prepare fabulous dishes with a star chef. Many of the recipe featured used Wholly Guacamole and Wholly Salsa products. We had a great time making all kinds of dishes.

Alex provided us with a lot of great recipes to share. She even has a great Gluten FREE flour mix. This closely resembles the same quality as wheat flour. You can make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge to use whenever a recipe calls for flour. This gluten free mix is even great for making cupcakes! I can’t wait to share this with you today.

I was in a group where we made Sweet Potato Gnocchi with a buttered sage sauce. These little Gnocchi were like eating little pillows in your mouth. They just seemed to melt as I started to eat them. If you learn better by viewing , check out the video on Sweet Potato Gnocchi for Alex to show you how on the Hungry Channel. She had a lot of recipes to share that happen to be gluten free. Subscribe to the Hungry Channel on YouTube for more great recipe ideas.

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Gnocchi
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2/3 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups Alex’s AP Gluten Free Blend (recipe below)
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Sage Brown Butter Sauce:
1 stick unsalted butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
15 sage leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Alex’s AP Gluten Free Blend:
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups sorghum flour
1 1/3 cups tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
1 1/2 cups sweet rice flour
2/3 cups cornstarch
4 teaspoons xanthan gum

Gluten Free Pasta Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I think this Southwest Frittata will go well with my family. We love egg dishes and this was really simple to make and tasted fabulous.

Frittata with guacamole and salsa

 

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced into rounds (I would shred, so my kids would eat it)
1 cup corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed
1 dozen eggs
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup Wholly Salsa® Medium dip, plus extra to serve
1/2 cup manchego cheese, shredded
Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
3 scallions, chopped, to serve
Wholly Guacamole® Home-style dip, to serve
Sour cream, to serve

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.
2.Preheat a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and swirl to coat the surface of the pan.
3.Add onions, season with salt and pepper and cook until soft and golden brown. Add the zucchini and tortilla chips and cook another 2 minutes until both have softened. Remove from heat.
4.In a large bowl whisk together eggs, water, Wholly Salsa® Medium dip, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture into the skillet and stir to evenly distribute the vegetables and tortilla chips. Sprinkle the Manchego cheese over the egg mixture and place in oven to bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the eggs set, the frittata puffs and turns golden brown. Remove from the oven, slice and serve with scallions, Wholly Guacamole® Home-style dip, Wholly Salsa® Medium dip and sour cream on the side.
Finally there was a Bloody Mary cocktail made with Wholly Salsa. I was surprised how easy this was to make this many fabulous looking cocktail this fast. This would be a wonderful idea for a party. These could be already made and ready to go when the guests arrive.

Wholly™ Roasted Tomato Bloody Mary with Shrimp

Wholly Blood Mary with Salsa

I love Wholly Guacamole and Wholly Salsa brands, since they are fresh ingredients with no artificial preservatives. Wholly Guacamole has come out with this little 100 calorie packs. There are 6 to box and they are perfect to bring to the park, as a snack or even pack in school lunches. I had the chance to try the new Ranch flavor and it was awesome! Find more great recipes at the Wholly Guacamole website.

Wholly Guacamole Prize Package

How to Enter Giveaway

Wholly Guacamole sent me this awesome package to show my fans can win a prize package similar to this one. This is a huge assortment of different guacamole’s and salsa’s to enjoy. It even says you can freeze them. It is simple to enter. Just leave a comment of your favorite food to eat with Guacamole and a way to contact you. Preferably email address.

Legal Stuff: Only one entry per person, be sure I have a way to contact you. Must be 18 years old to enter and live in the US. Contest is over on 4/20/13 at 11:59 pm. Winners will be contacted 48 hours after contest is over. Winner will be selected through random drawing on randomizer. If winner does not claim prize after 48 hours a new winner will be selected. Winner will be announced through direct email, on Facebook and twitter.

I was given a package of as seen above from Wholly Guacamole to sample for this post. No other compensation was given. All stories and opinions expressed in this article are my own.

WINNER:

Here is the picture of the Randomizer for the winner:

Wholly Randomizer Winner

Filed Under: Giveaways, Recipes

Easy Easter Cupcake Ideas

April 3, 2013 by 2 Comments

I haven’t been feeling really well lately, so I am a little behind on making Easter stuff ahead of time like these awesome Easter Cupcake ideas. I got some much needed rest over the long Easter weekend. My husband was off work on Friday, so I was able to get a lot of little things caught up. Daddy entertains little face really well, while I am busy doing other things. There is just something about boys; they will always be silly boys. 

Easter Cupcake Ideas

Easter cupcake ideas

The inspiration for these cupcake ideas came from a memory I had when I was little. My aunt made a bunny cake for Easter one year. It was huge and covered with coconut to make fluffy white fur on the bunny. I really wanted to make that cake, but the Saturday before Easter was completely booked. I knew I would not have time to make an entire cake. I tried a recipe from Pinterest and it was a FAIL! So I quickly settled on these cute and easy Easter Cupcake ideas.

Ingredients for easy Easter Cupcake Ideas:

1 box cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
1 container frosting
1 cup coconut
food coloring
Jellybeans, chocolate candy Easter eggs, Easter candy

Directions for easy Easter Cupcake Ideas:

1. I love to use butter cake mix to make all my cakes instead of white or yellow cake mix. It has a delicious rich flavor. After all it is cake, it is OK to indulge. Everything in moderation. Make cake mix according to directions.

2. I use an ice cream scoop and evenly distribute cake mix among muffin pans. For easier cleanup line muffin pans with cupcake liners.

TIP: Reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees less than what the box recommends and increase the time by 5 min. This will make higher, fluffier cupcakes to enjoy. Just like the ones you see in the magazines. Test to make sure they are done by inserting a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, then they are ready. Otherwise leave for an additional 5 mins or so.

3. While the cupcakes are baking start to color your frosting. Since I am frugal I have three colors of food dye. Red, blue and yellow. I can make any color I want. I dyed the frosting green. If you want green use 2 time more yellow than blue. It just takes a few drops.

4. I put the same amount of food coloring in the coconut and mixed it up. It helps to mix the yellow and the blue first then mix it into the coconut. My family thought it was really Easter grass in the bowl. Success!

5. Once the cupcakes are done and cooled, let the frosting begin! Frost each cupcake with the green frosting for a sweet foundation. Then sprinkle the coconut on top. Don’t be afraid the more the better. Top the cute little grassy mounds with three jellybeans or three pieces of Easter candy. Little Miss enjoyed making a special cupcake for each member of the family with using everyone’s favorite color jellybeans. 

6. A few more easy Easter Cupcake Ideas are to make a flower on the top using jellybeans or pastel M&M. Why not add a peep on top for a chick or bunny in the nest? Doesn’t that sound so cute?

Did you make anything for Easter? Follow my frugal living blog on Pinterest to get the latest awesome pins from me. LikePounds4Pennies on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest posts.

Filed Under: Recipes

Recipe for Leftover Ham: Monte Cristo Casserole

March 19, 2013 by 7 Comments

Do you need a recipe for leftover ham from Easter? This Monte Cristo casserole would be a big hit. At least it was at our house. This will give you something new to put into your rotation around the holidays to use those ham leftovers.

Recipe for Leftover Ham: Monte Cristo Casserole

Recipe for leftover ham

Ingredients for Monte Cristo Ham Casserole

1 lb of leftover ham cut up or 4 large spiral ham slices $0.99 lb (sale)
8 Biscuits or Biscuit mix $0.50
1 cup of Cheese $0.99
Jam $0.25
4 eggs $0.40
2 cups milk $.50

How to Make Monte Cristo Ham Casserole

Monte Cristo Ham casserole

1. Make a batch of 8 Biscuits or bake a can of 8 biscuits. You can make these ahead of time and freeze them to have them ready for this casserole Monday night.

2. Cut the biscuits in half and layer them on the bottom of a casserole dish.

3. Next add a layer of ham, then cheese, then a little bit of jam or jelly on top. Then stack the other half of the biscuits on the top. You can add another layer of ham or cheese if you would like.

4. Mix the eggs and the milk and pore it all over the top of the whole casserole.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Optional can top with some mozzarella cheese for more ooey gooey goodness.

Serve with left over veggies from your large meal for a balanced meal. Here is a quick an easy recipe for leftover ham casserole for under $5.00 you can enjoy for a different taste after the holidays. This is a great meal under $5 to enjoy any time of year. We always have left over ham after Easter or other holidays and I freeze it to have for later and use this recipe for leftover ham. We all love this recipe at my house any time of year and a great use for anyleftover holiday ham.

Follow my frugal living blog on Pinterest to get the latest awesome pins from me. Like Pounds4Pennies on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest posts.

Filed Under: Recipes

Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars

March 6, 2013 by 4 Comments

These Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars are the best thing and considered mostly healthy. I can’t say these are completely healthy, but they are really close to healthy and really good. These awesome healthy granola bars were inspired by eating a Clif bar. I want to make my own healthy  granola brownies for far less. That’s why they call me frugal! This was a hit with most of my family. One didn’t like crunchy brownies. I like crunchy anything!

Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars

Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars

Ingredients for Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars:

1 box family size brownie mix

1 cup Oatmeal

1 Cup Nuts

1 Cup Seeds (pumpkin, sunflower)

Yummy homemade yogurt

Directions for Healthy Granola Caramel Brownie Bars:

1. Open a family size box of brownies. You can make these from scratch if you want, but I wanted these to be easy.

2. Make according to the box directions except, use plain yogurt instead of oil. This adds protein and extra calcium just more nutrition. If you have a dairy allergy try using non dairy yogurt or apple sauce. I have not done this but these are great substitutes for oil.

3. Next add three cups of whatever. I added 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup pumpkin seeds and 1 cup sunflower seeds. If you don’t have a nut allergy in your home, I think pecans, walnuts, peanuts would make a great addition to these brownies.

4. Bake brownies according to box directions. I used a 13×9 in pan, since this was a family size box.

5. When these come out of the oven drizzle them with caramel sauce. I made my own caramel sauce using my slow cooker.

6. Cut the brownies lengthwise and then cut into bars. I think this made around 16 bars. This was a great snack that stuck around for a while, since it made so much. I was able to pack them for lunches and we enjoyed them for dessert after dinner.

I felt better about making these for my family, since these were more nutritional than just regular brownies. With the yogurt there is added calcium and the oatmeal adds fiber. The nuts & seeds are a great way to add a little extra protein to the snack too. These Healthy Granola Caramel Chocolate brownie bars were a huge hit at our house. Next time I might add a hint of cinnamon for a Mexican chocolate flavor or sprinkle the top with a little coconut.  Doesn’t that just sound yummy? 

Follow my frugal living blog on Pinterest or follow Pounds4Pennies on Twitter.

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: ,

Simply Amazing Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe

February 26, 2013 by 4 Comments

You may already know how much I am in love with my slow cooker. To be honest I rarely used it until about a year ago. Now I am obsessed with finding new recipes and making all kinds of dishes and treats using this amazing kitchen appliance. I use my slow cooker almost everyday. Sunday nights are dedicated to making yogurt for the family.

I made up this slow cooker chicken recipe and it is the most amazing slow cooker chicken I have ever eaten. I just opened up my spice cabinet and sprinkled what I thought would taste good together and I was right. When I can get chicken on sale, I will buy 10 – 20 pounds and freeze it. Check out my rock bottom price list for chicken. Lately I have even been able to find organic chicken on sale too! This recipe requires a lot of spices, but this is so worth it.

Amazing Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe

Amazing Slow Cooker chicken recipe

Ingredients for Amazing Slow Cooker Chicken

1 Cup water
3-4 Pieces of frozen bone in chicken
1 tablespoon chopped onions or 1/2 onion
1/4 teaspoon of the ingredients listed below:
Tumeric
Garlic Powder (can use fresh 1 clove)
Cumin
Paprika
Oregano
Rosemary
Thyme

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions for Slow Cooker Chicken

1. Place frozen chicken in slow cooker. It doesn’t matter if it is frozen or not, just throw it in there. I usually place mine in there frozen because I forget to take it out. Turn the slow cooker on low.

2. Pour 1 cup water over the chicken.

3. This is the slightly secret part. Sprinkle the spices over the chicken to cover the surface of the chicken. It’s ok to get some in the water too, but you want to try to get most of the spices on the chicken for the flavors to soak in as it cooks.

4. Allow this chicken to cook for about 9 hours or longer. This is great for working moms, since the chicken can cook for longer in the pot.

5. After about 9 hours take the chicken out and let it rest a few minutes before serving.

6. Don’t throw out that leftover yummy juice. Add 4 cups water and cut a few carrots, 1/2 onion, 1-2 cloves garlic and a celery stick and throw it back in there on high for a couple of hours. Then you have amazing chicken stock for any recipe! Doesn’t that sound delicious?

With this recipe the slow cooker will be used all day and you can get two or three meals from this recipe. Take a look at my chicken salad recipe and my slow cooker chicken stock recipe for more ideas from the left over chicken. Follow my frugal living blog on Pinterest for more inspriation or follow Pounds4Pennies on Twitter.

Filed Under: Recipes

Cake Batter Pancake and Bacon Recipes

February 14, 2013 by 7 Comments

I made heart shaped bacon last year for Valentines Day, so I needed to top it this year with something even better: Cake Batter Pancakes and Bacon recipes. I made these Cake Batter Pancakes with Bacon as a surprise for the kids for Valentines morning. I did a couple of different bacon recipes to try Petit Jean Meats official bacon of the Dallas Cowboys. You just can’t go wrong with bacon and I am a fan of the Cowboys.

Bacon Recipes

Amazing Bacon Recipes

How to bake bacon recipes:

Official Dallas Cowboys Bacon

1. Start with a good quality bacon, like the official bacon of the Dallas Cowboys from Petit Jean Meats.

Heart Shaped Bacon recipes

2. For heart shaped bacon cut bacon in half and put on on top of the other. Then fold the two tops down to form a heart.

3. Then place the bacon in the oven at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes for perfect bacon. This is really awesome. The longer you leave it in the crispier it will be. I refrigerate my bacon or freeze it for use whenever. Simply pop it in the microwave for about 30 sec and BOOM hot bacon!

4. If you are going to use this for the pancakes take out a few minutes earlier. They will cook more when cooking the pancakes.

Ingredients for Cake Batter Pancakes and Bacon Recipes

1 cup cake batter
1 cup biscuit mix
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup milk
2 eggs

How to make Cake Batter Pancakes with Bacon Recipes:

This recipe is so simple you will probably have it memorized. The trickiest part is remembering there are two eggs instead of one. I used Red Velvet cake mix for nice red pancakes for the chocolate lovers in the house and then I made another batch with Strawberry cake mix for pink pancakes for the one who is allergic to chocolate. Don’t worry he doesn’t know what he is missing, YET!

Heart Shaped cake batter Pancakes and Bacon

1. Heat griddle to 375 degrees for the best pancakes. Grease the griddle with butter or oil.

2. Place a piece of bacon on the griddle to let it warm up a bit if it has been in the fridge like mine. Mmmmm the smell of bacon. I seriously wish I had smell-o-blog.

3. Now if you have this cool Pancake Batter Dispenser you can make hearts around the heart shaped bacon. If you don’t have one get one! Your kids will think you are so cool. I usually forget to use it until after the pancakes are already made.

4. Let the pancakes rest on the griddle until the edges get a little dry, then flip them over to cook on the other side.

5. Drizzle with a little homemade Chocolate Syrup recipe from the other day and the kids think you are amazing! 

Nothing says love like bacon on Valentine’s Day. These bacon recipes were a big hit this morning at our house.
I want to thank Petit John Meats for providing me with the official bacon of the Dallas Cowboys for this sponsored post. Stay in touch with PJMeats on Facebook. All opinions expressed in this article are my own. All bacon was consumed in the making of this article. 

 

 

Filed Under: product review, Recipes

Homemade Chocolate Syrup Recipe

February 8, 2013 by 3 Comments

It is Valentine’s day and two things that go together more than Valentines day and Chocolate. How about a great chocolate syrup reicpe? You can make your own chocolate syrup the frugal way. We don’t eat a lot of chocolate here, since Little Face is allergic. I know that sounds horrible to be allergic to chocolate, but I was allergic to chocolate too when I was little. Thank goodness I grew out of that one! I feel he will grow out of it in time too. Using this chocolate syrup recipe is great for a little drizzle for those of us who love chocolate in this house.

Chocolate Syrup Recipe

 Chocolate Syrup Recipe

I have found several recipes that require you make a ton of chocolate syrup. We don’t need that much, so feel free to double or triple if your family is a bunch of chocoholics. I made just enough for us to use before I feel like it will go bad. 

Ingredients for Homemade Chocolate Syrup Recipe:

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

1/2 unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cornstarch (to thicken the syrup, not needed)
1 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

How to make Chocolate Syrup:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients: cocoa, sugar and salt.

2. In a pot, slowly whisk in cold water and corn starch to make sure it is completely dissolved.

3. Cook over a med heat, whisking to combine until nice and glistening. This helps dissolve the sugar in the water to make the syrup. Now is a good time to test just a little.

4. Once the chocolate concoction has cooled, add the vanilla. Mix to combine.

5. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use on whatever you like.

This chocolate syrup recipe doesn’t contain any high fructose corn syrup or anything artificial. I never bought the over stuff, since it had high fructose corn syrup as the top ingredient. I am not sure this is considered healthy, but it is better than the store bought stuff. My motto is: everything is OK in moderation. The kids just love we have chocolate syrup again.

This would be great to use on pancakes, in a little milk for chocolate milk, smoothies or make coffee for an awesome mocha.
What would you use this chocolate syrup on? (remember this IS a family friendly blog)

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With:
«Older Posts