Homemade Maple Granola!

Ryan and I love granola. I find it fun to go to Henery's and fill up those plastic bags with all the granola I want but it ends up being pricey. It's even harder on the wallet if you go to the store and buy it by the box + it's filled with tons of stuff that can only be described as crap. I have been learning that if I make it at home I can make something as healthy or unhealthy as I want (although I tend to lean towards the healthy side). Since we took granola out of our diet because of the price it was one of the first recipes I wanted to try. It was pretty easy!

Ingredients needed:

3 Cups of Rolled Oats
3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/6 Cup of Honey
1/6 Cup of Sugar Free Syrup
1/4 Cup of Conola Oil
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

Step 2: In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. (Oats, Brown Sugar, Salt, Cinnamon)

Step 3: In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients together. (honey, Syrup, Conola Oil, Vanilla)

Step 4: Mix all the wet and dry ingredients together. Mix well so that all the oats get covered.



Step 5: Pour onto a large cooking pan. I use a sheet cake pan. Make sure the granola is spread thinly and evenly.

Step 6: Cook for a combined 30 minutes but stirring the mix after 15 minutes. The granola should look golden brown when you pull it out.



Step 7: After cooking begin stirring to cool the granola. add anything you want to add. I like adding sliced almonds mmmm!

This recipe is so good and is really simple to make!

Chili on a hot summer night

So tonight I may have picked the wrong recipe for the wrong night. While planning our meals I didn't factor in the heat that the oven produces, it sure heats up the house. I guess you have to deal with that in order to eat on a budget.

Tonight I made Chili and Cornbread.

Ingredients:

Cornbread
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup shortening

Chili

2 lbs. of ground turkey
2 cans of kidney beans
1 15oz. can of diced tomatos
3 or 4 roma tomatos (im pretty sure any tomato will do)
2 packets of Chili seasoning (we use Lawry's ready made packets)
6oz can on tomato sauce

First I made the Cornbread. Now this recipe isn't a sweet cornbread recipe. But some people like that ... people like my husband. Next time im going to pick up some honey or apple butter for it, then we will both be satisfied.

Step 1: preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Step 2: Mix all your dry ingredients together
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 cup cornmeal
-1/4 cup sugar
-4 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon salt

Step 3: Mix all your wet ingredients together

-1 cup milk
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup shortening



Step 4: Mixed until it looked like it was mixed enough : )

Step 5: Poor mixture into a greased 9in square pan



Step 6: cook for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown


I got this recipe off of ehow. It's crazy how easy it was to make!

While the cornbread was cooking it gave me time to start working on my Chili. Ryan and I started making chili in the beginning of our relationship, so we have had 3 years to perfect this recipe. We always make double the recipe because it's a good solid meal that we can eat for a few nights in a row. So I guess you could cut the recipe in half if you wanted and only use 1 lbs. of ground turkey but I ask you one question "why?".

Step 1: Brown your 2 lbs of Ground Turkey. Make sure thats it's cooked all the way before you start to add other ingredients. I also like to drain out any liquid from the pan after it's done browning.



Step 2: Rinse off 2 cans of Kidney beans. I like to rinse them off to get ride of any excess salt



Step 3: Add all of your ingredients

-2 cans of kidney beans
-1 15oz. can of diced tomatos
-3 or 4 roma tomatos (im pretty sure any tomato will do)
-2 packets of Chili seasoning (we use Lawry's ready made packets)
-6oz can on tomato sauce
- 1 cup of water
- Green Onions (optional) about a 1/2 cup
- Chili powder (optional) to taste
- Pepper (optional) to taste



Step 4: mix well and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes



Step 5: While the chili is simmering, take that time to prepair you toppings. These are all optional but they all make for great chili.




Step 6: Make your husband the most happiest husband ever!!

The other night Ryan and I went out with friends. It was such a great night to reconnect with everyone. All was great until the bill came. A pricey $35 witch would have been a good price if we had gotten actual meals! Ryan got Soup and I got some ravioli appetizer. At least we probably made up for it with the 3 extra baskets of bread. The next day I went to the store, I spent $27 on our weekly groceries. "Wow" I thought to myself. I can't believe that we had spent more on one meal than and entire week of grocery's.

Since then I have been even more inspired to eat at home more. It's so cheep and at least I think its fun. It's crazy to me that I can take different ingredients and make pretty much anything I want and I can personalize it to the the way I want it.

Every week when I get the grocery store adds in the mail I check to see whats on sale. From there I plan a meal schedule based off of what's on sale and the plans that we have for the week. I normally plan 1 meal for every 2 days and leave the weekends blank for either leftovers or going out to eat. This weeks meals are Chicken Noodle Soup w/ Biscuits, Breakfast for dinner pancakes, Hash browns, eggs), And Chili w/ Corn Bread. I'm trying to push myself to make at least 1 new recipe each week. This week I will be trying 4.

My first new recipe I tried was Pennsylvania Chicken Noodle Soup.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Butter (I used I can't believe it's not butter light)
1 Carrot, finely chopped
1 Stock of Celery, finely chopped
1/2 Cup of Onion, finely chopped i used a brown onion)
1 Lg. Chicken Brest, skinned, about 1/2 lb. (I used boneless skinless chicken breast tenders, they were cheaper)
4 oz. Noodles, narrow, wide or dutch (I used fettuccine noodles)
1 quart Chicken Broth (i used organic chicken broth, I got it at costco)
1 Cup of corn, frozen or canned. (i used fresh corn that I had cooked)
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper

First I cut up all the veggies



I melted the butter in my pot and added the Celery, Carrot and Onion. I washed and added my Chicken. Set my burner to medium-low and covered for about 10 minites. I flipped the chicken several times.



After that I removed the chicken and cute it into cubes. I wanted a more chunky soup so I cut pretty big chunks.



Then I adden my quart of chicken broth and brough it to a boil.


I added the noodles and corn and simmered covered for about 15 minutes or until the noodle s were done.

I think the next part is the key. I took two cup of the soup and blended it in a blender and added it back to the soup. This made the soup thicker and more creamy.

After that I added 2 cups of water and put the chicken back in and cooked for a few minutes

I seasoned with pepper and mmmmmmm mmmmmmmm it was so good!!

I paired that with fresh made biscuits and a cut up strawberry's with frozen bananas over vanilla yogurt for dessert.