Homemade Homemade Pancakes

Yes, I know I wrote homemade twice. These pancakes were made using homemade Bisquick and homemade cinnamon applesauce. See? Homemade Homemade.

I am ridiculously sick and tired of leftovers. I stopped by Chick-fil-A after volunteering at the church this morning thinking I had a coupon for a free chicken sandwich. Sadly, it wasn't in my purse so I just had to smell the yummy food while I waited to say hi to Tim. I headed straight home and tried to decide what to eat. I was super hungry and I wanted something fast so I pulled up Bisquick's website. I found this recipe for Applesauce Pancakes and knew it was perfect. I made a regular size batch so I could stick the extras in the freezer for the next time I'm sick and tired of leftovers.

I pulled out some of my homemade cinnamon applesauce that Anna Hinton had helped me can. It's super cinnamon-y and a little chunky - yum! So I just did two cups of fake Bisquick, 1 cup of applesauce, 1/2 cup of milk, and two eggs.

Dropped some onto the pan and waited. And then burned them (okay, not *burned* exactly).

They were also a little too thick for my tastes so I added another splash of milk. Next batch I turned down the heat a little.

Well, turned down the heat a lot. I'm still getting used to cooking with a gas stovetop.

Now *this* is what I like a pancake to look like!

I ate three yummy pancakes with some syrup and then let the others cool. I can't say that consistency in color is my forte.

I stuck the extras in a Ziploc and labeled them. Then I put them in the freezer (on my toaster oven rack to keep them flat which I can later take out). Can't wait to enjoy those later!

I love having finished meals in the freezer. Tonight we are having leftover Sausage Rotel Quiche from Day 1 of our Four Weeks of Frugality with some fruit on the side. Yum!

Catching up...

The last few days have been great! Saturday, Tim's parents drove down to see our place for the first time. And they were sweet enough to treat us to dinner! As my Aunt Carol would say, "Travel light and mooch." Sunday was leftovers for lunch and then Small Group dinner that night. We were asked to bring a dessert and so I decided to make cupcakes with a box of cake mix that I had bought on sale with a coupon. I googled how to make a box cake taste better and here was the overarching ideas: replace the water called for with milk, replace the oil called for with melted butter and add an extra egg. They actually turned out pretty yummy with a simple buttercream frosting (but now I'm out of powdered sugar - hope we don't need any before February!).

Today I spent most of the day figuring out my new serger. It was Tim's big Christmas present to me (of course he got it ridiculously on sale cuz he's clever like that). Then I made some pillow covers to try to sell on Etsy. But I need pillow forms to put inside them for pictures so I guess I'll have to wait until February for that too. Oh well.

But the most exciting part of the past few days was Tim's dinner tonight! He'd been planning on making dinner for a week or so and it was great to just relax and sew while he did all the work!

Blackened salmon over garden rice with green beans and homemade bread. SO delicious! The blackened salmon was the perfect amount of spiciness. 

I had made the bread earlier today. It was pretty good - the crust was just a little too chewy for my taste. But still super good with a little homemade apple butter. (Yes, it's crooked - gotta work on that...)

Oh, and for "dessert" Tim wanted brussels sprouts. Ew. They are just cooked mini cabbages. Ew. But Tim really likes them.

Wednesday night's meal is going to be "Southern Comforts" - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fried okra and squash casserole. Can't wait!!!

Best Meal So Far...

Last night's meal was "meh" at the best. It was baked potatoes topped with chili and cheese (and crushed Doritos!) and fruit on the side. Sadly my baked potato was still half raw (even after being in the oven for over an hour - and it was a tiny potato!) so my meal was just bleh. I hate unexciting meals.

Tonight's meal was (quote from Tim) "the best we've had all month". Hooray! We had leftover noodles from spaghetti and so I tossed in some mixed veggies, and some chicken that I had sautéed in Teriyaki sauce. So delicious! 

As I side, I attempted egg drop soup. It's always so yummy in restaurants. After researching it online, I realized it was really just chicken broth and an egg. And I had both! Bring chicken broth to boil in a pan and drizzle in egg (well beaten) with a fork. The boiling quickly cooks the egg. When I drizzled in the egg, it all kinda just rose to the center in a big mass and I was kinda worried. But I just whisked the soup with the fork and the little egg pieces all fell apart perfectly. The soup was SO good and Tim said we should have it as a side dish with every Asian meal. Hooray for trying new things that turn out delicious!

On the DIY side of things, I started painting the baseboard in the sewing room. When our landlady added the trim (she did all the "fabulous details" herself) she must have used a cheap wood glue because I think that is what turned brown and made the trim look so bad. See the glue on the left?

So I started painting with a very small brush to not have to touch up the wall any. It was slow going but I think it looks much better.

Oh! A good tip: you can clean old, dried out paintbrushes with vinegar. Yeah. I had a brush that I had left some paint on (Dad would have chided me for not cleaning my brush properly) that made the bristles unbendable. Well, I didn't have any paint thinner (and couldn't go buy any of course!) so I Googled "clean a paint brush with..." and the first thing that popped up was white vinegar. I've got that! 

Heat the vinegar in a pan until boiling and then pour in an old jar (I used a big pickle jar) and soak for 30 minutes or so. 

Then clean with soap and water. Not bad. My brush is now usable again. Thanks Internet. 

One week down, three to go! We can do this!

Taking Inventory of my Couponing Stockpile

I had absolutely no idea how much food we had on hand. I mean, I figured we could make it 4 weeks without buying any more. But I had no clue. We could probably last 6 months on the food we have. How did we get it all?

When we got married, we decided that I could stay at home and work selling things on Etsy (it's like eBay but only for homemade things). I wanted to bring in some money but I also wanted to make sure not as much was going out. Enter *Couponing*. I'd heard of people saving a ton of money with coupons but could never figure it out. I mean, why would I buy the "name brand" item (and save $0.25 with a coupon) instead of buying the Walmart brand and save $2? I also REFUSED to have an entire room devoted to toilet paper or something like you see on Extreme Couponing. Like this woman:

No thanks. But I decided to give it a try and found CouponMom.com. She had a very quick 5 minute video that explained her site and how to use coupons. Buy 1 Sunday paper then look at her website where it compared store deals and then matched them with the coupons. Simple and I could totally do it. It took me a while to get the hang of it but soon I could go to Kroger armed with my little coupon notebook and save 50%, 60% or even 70% on stuff that we ate and used. I learned what's a good price for Cream of Mushroom soup (they retail for about $1.25 at Kroger but I never buy them unless they are under $0.50), that you can still get Bounty paper towels for under $1 each, and that buying on sale and sticking in the freezer saves you tons! So I slowly built up my stockpile. I can't pass on things that are free. Boxed mashed potatoes went on sale for $1 plus it was buy 5 get $5 towards your next purchase. That's free! Add an additional $1 coupon off 2 boxes that I had, and I was making money! And that explains why there are 15 boxes of mashed/Au Gratin potatoes in my cabinet.

But the problem with such great deals couponing is that I just kept buying stuff! They were all crazy deals so it's not a bad things, per se, but we aren't a family of 7 (yet...). It will take the 2 of us quite a while to go through 15 boxes of potatoes. Enter January. My challenge to make 4 weeks worth of healthy and delicious food using only the ingredients on hand. Today (Day 7) I took inventory and organized my freezer (we have a top half freezer and a left side freezer - why does this house have two fridges?!), pantry and cabinets. I was shocked by all the food. We could feed a third world country for a year. On a side note, I did use my couponing knowledge and our stockpile to make a basket of Thanksgiving food for the drive we were doing at church. They even got a few extra boxes of mashed potatoes.

Today's Inventory:

Big Freezer:

2 servings Chili

Jalapeño  Poppers

Mozzarella sticks

Chicken/Broccoli Casserol

6 Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat

Shrimp Cocktail

Sausage Rotel Quiche

2 packages Bologna

16 Hot Dogs

Brown Rice and Veggies (Steamfresh)

Mixed Veggies(Steamfresh)

Golden Sweet Corn

Brussels Sprouts (Steamfresh)

Mexican Corn

Mixed Veggies

6 bags Okra

2 pounds Squash

Tiramisu Cake

3 hotdog buns

Lima Beans in Butter Sauce

2 servings Potato Wedges

Green beans

1 pound Chicken Breast

2 Pork Chops

4 Beef Tips

4 Hamburger Patties

8 pounds Ground Deer

2 Tai Pei Asian dinners

2 Cool Whip

2 loaves Bread

Smaller Freezer:

5 servings of Beef/Veggie Soup

Deer Poppers

Muffins

Brunswick Stew

1 pound cooked Sausage

3 servings Chicken Casserole

French Toast Casserole

2 Chicken thighs

2 Mac ‘n Cheese

Cinnamon Apples

Green Beans

10 Sticks of Butter

Shredded Potato

Cabinet:

7 boxes of cereal

11 boxes of Mashed Potatoes

9 boxes of Potato Casseroles

3 Helpers (Hamburger, Tuna, Chik)

2 boxes Mac and Cheese

French Fried Onions

Brownie Mix

Cookie Mix

2 boxes Cake Mix

Pantry:

Rice

Oatmeal

Grits

Homemade Bisquick

Noodles (Ziti, Elbow, Angel Hair)

2 boxes Corn Muffins

2 Evaporated Milk

2 Taco Seasonings

2 Meatloaf Seasonings

5 boxes Stove Top Stuffing

Black Beans and Rice

Carol's Pickles

Applesauce, Apple Jelly, Apple Butter

2 Sparkling Ciders

Cans:

8 Chicken Broth

3 Beef Broth

3 cans Chili

3 cans Pineapple

9 cans Soup (variety)

Mandarin Oranges

Pears

Diced Tomatoes

Green Beans

Corn

Olives

2 cans Sweet Peas

Garlic Cooking Sauce

Red Beans and Rice

2 cans Black Beans

4 cans Cream of Chicken

6 cans Cream of Mushroom

Tomato Paste

Wow. That's a lot of food. Some were donations to the poor newlyweds (10 pounds of deer from Ethan, pickles from my Aunt Carol, some Omaha Steak products from Tim's parents), some I made (all the applesauces, jellies, etc), but most are just slow accumulations over the last 6 months. I love having all this food on hand but if we don't eat it, it's not saving us much money. So it's time to use up some of this stuff before it goes bad!

So here's the question: Do you know how much food YOU have on hand?