I have said before that I am not a big fan of batch cooking some meat because I do not like the way it tastes re-heated. I do love the idea of spending an hour or two a week to make a lot of food I can freeze to make meal time easier.

My kids love pizza so I found a recipe that uses canned biscuits. But I don’t want to pay for canned biscuits so I made the dough in my bread machine. I was also able to make 24 pizza muffins and I could have made more but since it was my first time I put a little too much dough in the muffin cups. I would say you could get about 30 pizza cups with this recipe.

Put the following ingredients in your bread machine according to the bread machine instructions. ( I put liquids in first and yeast in last.)

After the dough cycle is done, put a small ball inside the greases muffin tin. Form the dough up the sides. The dough will rise a little, just flatten them again.

The Sauce
About 1 cup of your favorite sauce. I just used a large can of tomato sauce I bought from Costco. Because I used plain sauce I also added some dried onion flakes and garlic powder to give it a little more flavor.

Make sure there is a well in the dough so you can put a spoonful of sauce in each muffin tin. Bake at 350 for about 15-18 minutes.

The nice thing is you can customized them. I am going to add some pepperoni to them next time. Use whatever your family likes!

*Update – we added the pepperoni and it was a big hit! I put the pepperoni on top of the dough then I did sauce then cheese. You could also put a little cooked ground beef or your favorite topping on the pizza.

Put them in a ziploc bag and freeze them. Mine never made it to the freezer but when we reheated them from the fridge we put 1 in the microwave 15 seconds.

With this dough I can make about 3 dozen pizza muffins. I make the muffin really small – just enough to cover the bottom because they get bigger.

Here’s some of my other recipes that I like to make in batches:
Twice Baked Potatoes
Granola bars
Croissant
Pancakes
Whole wheat rolls 
Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

 

So I love to bake. But living at 7,500 feet has made it very difficult and frustrating while baking! I mean I would try to make a boxed cake mix and it would fall apart! I have even tried to follow the alternate instructions while baking at a high altitude. It would still just fall apart.

I had this recipe to make a box cake with pudding, yogurt, milk instead of water, and an extra egg. It was good and it worked. Last month I wanted to make a boxed chocolate cake. I didn’t have yogurt, so I thought I should just add the pudding. I only had a big box so I thought I would put half the pudding powder in the cake mix. (It was about 1/2 cup of chocolate pudding powder.) I cooked it for about 7-10 minutes longer than the recipe called for and it was PERFECT! It was moist, flavorful, and it didn’t fall apart!

I have tried this 3 times and it has worked perfectly every time. Each time I have used a chocolate cake mix with chocolate pudding mix but I am sure it would work with a box of vanilla pudding also.

So there’s the secret to the perfect cake at a high altitude – 1/2 cup of pudding powder! Then just follow the rest of the regular recipe on the box. It’s that easy and it tastes so delicious!

Pudding is awesome when baking at a high altitude. This is my favorite high altitude chocolate chip cookie recipe. They bake so well and I think the pudding powder is the magical ingredient! I have actually written Jell-O to ask them to sell pudding by the jar.

Here’s a bonus recipe – Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter melted
2/3 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter in a bowl. Then stir in cocoa. Add powdered sugar then add milk until you get your desired consistency. Stir in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups frosting.

This actually makes more than you need to frost a 9X13 cake.

We love recipes with pumpkin. Last year I decided to make my own pumpkin puree by cooking my pumpkin in my oven. It was a giant flop! I cooked it forever and it never seemed to soften enough for me to puree it. Plus, I had the oven on for hours and it heated up my house too much (and used lots of gas).

So this year I decided to try to cook a pumpkin in my crock pot. It doesn’t heat up my house and and I can just put it on and forget about it. I love roasting my own pumpkin. I think it helps me save money and I have all those yummy pumpkin seeds to roast!

It was super easy.

How to make your own pumpkin puree in a Crock Pot

Use a small pie pumpkin.
Cut in into quarters.
Remove all the seeds and guts.

Place the pumpkin in the crock pot, flesh down.

Fill the crock pot up with about 1 inch of water.

Cover and cook on high for about 4 hours. My crock pot cooks hotter than most so you will know it’s cooked when the flesh separates from the skin.

Scoop out the flesh and put it into a food processor (or blender).

Puree until smooth.

I then put them in ziploc bags – 1 cup per bag. With 2 small pumpkins I got almost 5 cups of pumpkin puree. Plus I got all those seeds!

Easy enough! Next I will share how I roast my pumpkin seeds!

If you are looking for some great pumpkin recipes you must visit Eat at Home. She has a link up with many recipes from other people. As of right now there are 63 pumpkin recipes!

I just cooked 2 small pumpkins in my crock pot – I have so many new recipes to try! (I will share my crock pot pumpkin recipe later.)

I am constantly looking for new and easy recipes. There are so many places out there with great recipes but sometimes I forget where I found them! (Am I the only person that does that?)

Recently, I came across Relish.com and there were a ton of free recipes! They have a lot of “How to” recipes and pictures. I really like to see lots of pictures. They also have the recipes broken down into many categories. You can even search by seasons and holidays! I always have a problem finding ideas for lunch and side items.

All these free recipes will help you create many new meals for your family. You can never have too many chicken recipes! They have a free magazines with recipes geared toward kids and adults. I saw this really great tip about using Halloween candy in cookies!

I think you will be happy if you check out Relish.com. They will give you free recipes, great tips, and how to videos to prepare great things for your family. They make it very easy to find just the right recipe.

I have found this super simple recipes to make a dry mix of onion soup mix. I can use it in any recipe that calls for an envelope of onion soup mix. We use it a lot for onion dip. It is also a lot cheaper than buying the boxes of onion soup mix! Try it and tell me what you think!

You could make a much larger portion of this recipe and store it for a while. I think I will quadruple this recipe. I think you could use 1/3 cup of the mixture to substitute form 1 envelope of onion soup mix.

Here’s the recipe:

Dry Onion Soup Mix
Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2 tablespoons instant beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Mix together in an air tight container.

I found the original recipe at CDKitchens.

I can’t remember who gave me this recipe but it is a favorite in our family. I love that I can throw it in the crock pot in the morning if I have a busy day or I can cook it in a little bit of time for dinner.
Broccoli Soup

• 4 cups of chicken broth (I use 1 TBSP bouillon and 4 cups of water)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 10 oz bags of frozen broccoli florets (This is a little flexible depending on how much broccoli you want)
• 1/2 medium diced white onion
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2  teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2   teaspoon salt
• 3 cups of cheese – I used a Mexican blend

Crock pot instructions:

• Dice up the onion into really small pieces. They need to be small so they get soft while cooking.
• Put the onions in your crock pot, and pour the milk, broth, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and broccoli on top of it.
• Cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. Its done when the onions are soft. About 20 minutes before serving, add the cheese. The cheese will be stringy and clumpy and will probably stick to the broccoli. It’s really good

Stove Top
Do the same as above except you can simmer it on a low boil for about an hour. When the onions are no longer crunchy it’s done!

I have also not used the nutmeg and its still really good. I do love the nutmeg – it gives it a great flavor!

Want to see great recipes and deals everyday! Subscribe to my blog via email or a RSS feed. Also get updates on Facebook and Twitter!

 

On Thursdays I have to use my crock pot for dinner. My husband can usually be home while I prepare dinner but not on Thursdays. So, for this semester we have Crock Pot Thursdays! (Sorry about the ugly picture – that was all that was left over.)

I have been trying to find a good chicken recipe for the crock pot. I think my crock pot cooks at a higher temperature so many times my chicken is dry. Today I decided not to put the chicken in until about 12pm. It was definitely a lot better.

I found this Brown Sugar Chicken recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking. My chicken was defrosted but there was still an icy coating on it (it wasn’t freezer burnt ) so I think it diluted the juice it was cooking in. I needed to add some more flavor to it and I was very happy with the results.

Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken

• 3 large chicken breasts (You could also probably use thighs)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon-lime soda
• 2/3 cup vinegar (I know it’s weird but it works)
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup of pineapple juice (use what’s in the can)
• 6 pineapple rings (you could probably use any kind of pineapple)

Put the chicken in the crock pot. Mix all the ingredients, except the pineapple rings, in a bowl and pour over the chicken. I cooked it on high for an hour and on low for 3 hours. When you are about an hour from serving this add your pineapples.
Serve it over rice and enjoy.

This is going to be a new favorite recipe in our house. The chicken fell apart but it was not dry at all! I love all the juice it had.

You may also like some of my other recipes.

Want to see great recipes and deals everyday! Subscribe to my blog via email or a RSS feed. Also get updates on Facebook and Twitter!

 

 

I don’t know about you but I am not a big fan of cooking side items. I would much rather throw a casserole together than try to figure out what to make with dinner. Then I have a problem with cooking it so it is ready at the same time the main dish is ready.

I love that I can make baked potatoes in the crock pot. It’s super easy and if you cook it for a little longer the skins get a little brown and it sorta tastes like you grilled them!

Crock Pot Baked Potatoes
Take 4-6 potatoes and prick it a few times with a fork. Make sure the potatoes are completely dry and wrap them in foil. Place them in your slow cooker for 4 hours on high or about 6 hours on low. Crock pots can vary on times. I think my crock pot cooks things really fast so you may need a little more time. I like to flip them over but that’s just me

Sweet Carrots
3 large carrots, peeled and cut
2 TBSP butter
2-4 TBSP brown sugar
(I only cook 4 potatoes at a time so I can fit the carrots.)
Take a large piece of foil and add the carrots to the middle of the foil. Cut the butter up a little. The sprinke the brown sugar over the carrots.

Seal up the edges really well so the butter doesn’t leak out.

Set on top of the potatoes and cook for about 3 hours on high or 5 hours on low. (Again, your crock pot may cook different than mine so check it after a few hours if you are home. If you are going to be gone all day just set it to low. You can always turn it to high when you get home, if needed.)

The carrots made the house smell so good. I had to add a little more brown sugar so I will be adding a little more sugar next time. They were a big hit in our house!

Cleaning tip – If you have anything stuck to the bottom of your crock pot, add some water and soap to the pot. Set it to high. Let it sit while you eat and clean up from dinner. It will be a lot easier to clean!

You may also like some of my other recipes.

Want to see great deals everyday! Subscribe to my blog via email or a RSS feed. Also get updates on Facebook and Twitter!