1. Cake: One of the easiest recipes simply involves using traditional boxed cake mix. Take 3 tablespoons of cake mix and mix with one tablespoon of milk. Pour into greased pan and bake for about 15 minutes.  Average price for Easy Bake Cake mix is around $5.50. You can buy a full size cake mix for this price and can find cake mix on sale for a couple of dollars.
2. Children’s Cookie Mix
   • 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
   • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
   • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
   • 3/4 cup brown sugar — packed
   • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

   Combine ingredients in a bowl until mixture is thoroughly mixed. Divide mixture by 8 and store in airtight containers for up to 12 weeks. One mixture pack will make about 9 cookies. To use mix, combine 1 mix pack with 2 teaspoons water.

3. Brownies
   • 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
   • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
   • 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
   • 4 teaspoons chocolate syrup
   • 2 tablespoons flour

   Combine ingredients until batter is smooth. Pour into pan and bake for 12 minutes.

Here are few sites that have additional recipes. Have fun baking.

Budget 101
Easy Bake Over Recipes
The Fun Place
Kiddio

You could use this technique for turkey sliders, burgers, meatballs etc. We bought lean ground turkey for this recipe. As mentioned in a previous post, ground turkey can have a very high fat content. Check the label.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor by Jerry Traunfeld

Included is Buffalo Wild Wings Medium, Spicy Garlic, Hot and Caribbean Jerk Sauces.

Original recipe can be found at Meemos Kitchen.

Recipe: Classic Beef Stroganoff in a Slow Cooker

Recipe is adapted from Classic Beef Stroganoff recipe in Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes by Better Home and Gardens. The recipe can be prepped in less than 30 minutes and be ready for you when you get home. Certainly not as good as my mother-in-law’s Stroganoff, but I will let my wife carry that mantle.

Recipe: Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas

I love cooking. I also understand that all of my attempts will not turn out as planned. Maybe the recipe isn’t really all that great. Maybe my skills aren’t up to a particular preparation method. This recipe is an exception. It is based on a recipe by Ellie Kreiger and is easy to make and super delicious. We made this last night and everyone gave rave reviews. We hope you enjoy.

Cooking time (duration): 30

Number of servings (yield): 4

Made a wonderful soup last night using Trader Joe’s 17 Bean & Barley Mix. I did follow their directions to soak the beans overnight, but I want off the map a little after that.

I’m always looking for new vegetarian products that taste good. My sister and brother-in-law are vegetarians and I love having new meals to prepare if they are coming over.

The recipe on the package called for

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1 cup celery
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup bell peppers
• salt, pepper
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 clove garlic

Like I mentioned previously, I left out and changed a few ingredients. We simply rinsed the beans after soaking them overnight and covered with vegetable stock. We were using canned vegetable stock and in the end used 4 15 oz cans. We did not use, the basil, tomatoes, or italian seasoning. We used the food processor to dice our vegetables. We used the following

• 1 large white onion
• 3 large carrots
• 2 large stalks of celery
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 mild red chiles (I used Colossal Kim)

We sauteed the vegetables for a few minutes after dicing into reasonably small pieces. Mixed vegetables with beans and lentils and simmered for one hour. That’s it.

It was very hearty and the flavor was fantastic, not to mention a very affordable meal.

I’m a stay at home dad which involves shuttling kids back and forth. Traveling in and out of the house constantly. Cooking items like pumpkin that take longer than say 30 minutes doesn’t fit into my schedule very well.

A week or so ago, I noticed that there were still a large number of pumpkins on our front steps. Left over cast offs from decorating for Halloween. As usual I couldn’t bare to throw them away, so I started to formulate a plan. I didn’t have any immediate needs for pumpkin, which left me with cooking it, and freezing it so I could use it at a later date. The problem was that I really didn’t want the oven on when I wasn’t in the house. I needed another way to cook the pumpkin.

The solution: A crockpot. This method does involve prepping the pumpkin by cleaning the pumpkin first, but I could then cook it without worrying about leaving for an hour or so.

1. Cut the top of the pumpkin off and remove all seeds.
2. Cut the pumpkin into wedges. Just continue halving each piece until it is manageable.
3. Peel the wedges.
4. Cube the pieces into approximately 2 inch chunks.
5. Cook the chunks in the crockpot on low for approximately 3 hours. The smaller the pieces, the less time it will take. Just test the pumpkin by poking with a fork.
6. Remove pumpkin from crockpot and mash with a potato masher.
7. Let cool and freeze.

I love potatoes. I really do.

Potatoes, specifically hash brown potatoes are among my favorite. But, I’m not a planner, I am impulsive and I don’t usually have precooked potatoes on hand. So, my dilemma is to find a way to take a raw potato to a finish product in a limited amount of time.

I present super fast hash brown potatoes.

You just need to find a way to precook the potatoes so that they fully cook before burning. Most recipes suggest parboiling the potatoes. This method is fine, but it leaves you with hot potatoes that aren’t shredded, takes more time than the following method and leaves the potatoes wet. The simple solution is the microwave.

Directions:

1. Shred potatoes on a box grater. (Two normal size potatoes are enough for several people.)
2. Put the shredded potatoes in a colander and rinse thoroughly. You can simply rinse the potatoes in a bowl if you prefer.
3. Extract as much water as you can by pressing on the shredded potatoes. (This is where the colander helps.)
4. Cook the potatoes in the microwave on high for 1 minute.
5. Toss or stir the potatoes to make sure that they aren’t clumping.
6. Cook for an additional minute on high
7. Place the potatoes in a thin layer in a preheated pan with a couple tablespoons of oil.
8. Cook for approximately, 4 to 6 minutes on each side over medium high heat.

Enjoy.

Bring on the cocktail sauce!

We ran across this recipe while on vacation and after trying it several times can confirm that it works beautifully. If you are like us, directions and recipes on how to boil shrimp vary greatly. We found times anywhere from 1 to 12 minutes, cold water, hot water, incredibly complex ingredient lists, and so on. This recipe cooks quickly and is quite foolproof.

Ingredients

- Shrimp any amount
- Water
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (any type will work, you can use beer as well)
- 2 to 4 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning.

Directions

Add all ingredients to a large pot, covering shrimp with at least 2 inches of water. The temperature of the water doesn’t matter. Cook over high heat until shrimp start to float. Depending on how hot the water was to start, the water may or may not boil. When several shrimp float, drain and chill with ice.

Adapted from oldbay.com