May 2010 OAMC: Spicing Things Up!

C helped me with OAMC this weekend! It was wonderful to not be alone in the kitchen all day. Happy Saturday to me! We only had 16 meals to make and I grossly miscalculated how much chicken we already had, and so we're left with an extra Costco bag for next month. True to form, I definitely modified almost every recipe from the cookbooks I told you about in my plan. So stay tuned for my version of these delicious freezer meals!

We made:

• 2 Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches* [Homemade BBQ sauce that made our mouths water every time we opened the crock pot to stir it. YUM!]


• 2 Chicken-Asparagus Pot Pies [More on this later.]


• 2 Poppyseed Chicken [YES. C's favorite dish gone freezer style. I was giddy when I figured out this could be frozen!]


• 2 Italian Chicken Rolls*


• 2 Cheese Mushroom Burgers* [Really excited to try different combinations of fillings for these! Jalapenos are next on our list!]


• 3 Lemon Chicken Marinades*


• 2 Souvlaki Marinated Skewers


• 1 Buffalo Chicken Pizza*


• Homemade Refried Beans*


• Homemade Baked Beans


• Lemon-Dill Rice Mixes*


• and 20 Whole Wheat Brown Bag Burros

We finished in just a couple hours so we decided to go ahead and make up the salsas we'd planned for Sunday. Holy Cow they're INCREDIBLE. We like things spicy! These salsas are about a 5 on a 1-8 scale. [The book's scale, not mine. Who makes a scale up to 8? Really.]

• Tomatillo Salsa Verde


• Salsa Mexicana

Still to make:

• Blackberry Jam [Got a good recipe that uses Sure Jell? Please send it my way!]


• Strawberry Jam [These were on sale $4.44 for 5 lbs. Jam time it is!]

The [*] indicates that the recipe will be up soon! I realize that almost the whole list is marked, but the [*] is more for my own notes than anything else. I have to remember what I promise! If you see one you'd LOVE the recipe to that isn't starred, just let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the list. The starred ones are just my favorites for now. If you need more ideas for OAMC recipes, be sure to check out my recipes page!

Also, be sure to come visit later this week for a series on realistic money management and a Dave Ramsey giveaway!

Whole Wheat Blender Banana Pancakes

C earns the husband of the year award every Sunday morning when we get to pay tribute to the one and only Jack Johnson. Not only does C take the time to sleep in with me, but he gets out of bed first and makes pancakes for us.

Yesterday, he tried a new recipe. It makes me so HAPPY that he's on the eating healthier band wagon with me. He opened up a can of wheat from our year supply [more on that later] and whipped up these banana pancakes in no time. The man even made homemade syrup. Can I get a hoo-rah? That's who I married ladies. Be jealous. :)

We got the original recipe from Lorna Nevitt, C's aunt. They are SO good!

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

• 1 cup milk or 1 cup water and 1/3 cup dry milk


• 1 cup wheat or 1/2 cup wheat and 3/4 cup rolled oats or 1/2 cup wheat and 3/4 cup six-grain cereal [<--this is next on our to-try list. YUM.]


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 cup oil


• 1/4 cup honey


• Banana, Peaches, or Apples


• 1 tablespoon baking powder

1. Blend milk and wheat together for 5 minutes.


2. While it's blending, preheat the griddle.


3. Add eggs, oil & honey and blend well.


4. Add sliced banana, peaches, or apples. [I'm thinking bananas and walnuts would be delicious too!]


5. When all is blended, add baking powder and pulse 4 times.


6. Griddle 'em up!


7. Serve with strawberry jam, or butter and syrup.

If you try these, let me know! I'd love to hear how you like 'em!

Tales From An Ill-Equipped Kitchen: Jam

One of the left-over recipes from my April OAMC day was strawberry jam. I love this recipe! C took a break from studying to help with it. It took about 30 minutes start to finish and resulted in a lot of giggling. My sister, Jessica, is in culinary school. I'm 99.9% sure this post is going to make her cringe.

Sliced Strawberries.

It was C's job to mash the berries. The recipe said to use a potato masher for best results. I'm thinking they meant the old fashioned metal mashers. I doubt they even make those anymore. Our plastic one made a good effort, but was pretty pathetic and just slopped berries over the sides of the bowl. We actually found that the pizza cutter did some serious damage. The beater was it's right-hand man and the potato masher ran the anchor leg. We did end up with a really nice puree with fruit chunks. Yum.

We combined the pectin & everything and it was time to put the jam into jars. Do we have a funnel? no. In the past, we've rolled up a piece of paper, but we figured this needed something a little more sturdy. A while back, we found sobe lifewater for free. So now we have 30 of them. We cut open one of the empty bottles, rinsed it out & voila! funnel! [We'll wait while Jessica finishes crying. Sorry, Jess. At least you know now what I need in my stocking!]

However, right tools or not, the jam is delicious! We let it set on the counter over night & I made myself a sandwich with it for lunch today. Considering the cost benefit & how easy it was [no, really. Despite everything, it was super easy!] we probably won't be buying jam again, just looking for clearance berries.

I'm sorry for the poor quality photos. I'm still trying to figure out the settings on our new-to-us camera.

Here's the recipe for those interested:

Freezer Strawberry Jam

2 pints strawberries, hulled (2 cups crushed)
4 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin (Sure Jell)
3/4 cup water

In a large bowl, crush one cup of strawberries at a time, use a potato masher for best results. If using a food processor, pulse to a very fine chop. Do not puree. Jam should have bits of fruit.

Measure exactly 2 cups of the prepared fruit. Place into a separate bowl. Measure exactly 4 cups of sugar into another bowl. Stir sugar into prepared fruit.
Mix well.

Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a small saucepan stir together one box of pectin and 3/4 cup water. Pectin may start out lumpy. Bring the mixture to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir the pectin mixture into the fruit mixture.

Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes. A few sugar crystals may remain.

Pour into prepared jars or containers, leaving a 1/2-inch space at the top for expansion during freezing. Cover with lids.

Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

— Source: Sure Jell recipe