Night Muffins: Chocolate Cranberry

The kids need breakfast. Correction: The kids need breakfast they can help themselves to if I'm a bit groggy and lazy and don't want to march back and forth to the kitchen twelve times at 6AM.

Chocolate Cranberry Muffins (makes 24 mini plus two regular sized)

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBS good baking cocoa
1 egg
3 TBS melted butter
1/2 cup almond milk (just because I wanted something different, you can use regular milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Bake at 350 degrees. Start checking after 12 minutes.

Tofu Corn Dogs

I'll start this by declaring that while these were loved by the children, there is definitely room for improvement. To start, the batter was too thin. I should have made the batter a little thicker. Also, I fried these and I should have either used a less shallow pan, or I should have baked them. As you can see, they tended to widen a bit when they cooked.

We used "smart dogs" veggie protein links. They do look, smell, and taste a lot like hot dogs. The texture leaves something to be desired. As the only carnivore in my spousal relationship, what I really miss is that snap of biting into a real hot dog. These are a bit..."soft". That being said, the kids ate a ton of them and my better half would have enjoyed them more if I had baked them instead.

Next time I will try making the batter thicker to hand form it around the dog and baking it to help keep it's shape.

Star Calzones

My oldest son started Kindergarten today. I wanted to make him something fun for his first lunch in his new lunch bag and over the weekend while outlet shopping I found this cute little star shaped pie mold and decided to try to make him some pocket calzones.

What I learned is that they call it a pie mold for a reason. Much better suited for sandwiches or pie crusts. Bread dough is best formed into calzones by hand. I made four of these little pockets then gave up and made a big calzone for slicing.

I did manage to have a couple of stars that came out nice and those went into his lunch along with an encouraging note for his first day.

Dough: Basic bread dough

Filling: Turkey pepperoni, mozzerella cheese, red sauce, minced green beans

Mini Quiches Start: 10:32 PM End 11:31 PM

The last thing I thought I wanted to do tonight was cook. But at 8:45, I found myself getting home ridiculously late from the Magic Show/Surprise-all-the-kids-get-free-ice-cream-sundaes bash at the library and I still had two loads of laundry to finish. That's when I figured to throw caution to the wind and make quiche. It's breakfast. It's lunch. It's options.

I'm not a very good pie crust maker but months ago after getting a handheld pastry tool I stubled upon a recipe that mixes all of the ingredients into one bowl and presses it into the pan. No rolling involved and no dusty flour counters. My hands get really greasy using this method but the crust is buttery and rich and exactly the way it should be in the end.

My crust is:

1.5 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 stick of butter

2.5 tablespoons milk

Mix everything into one bowl until it's completely blended. I have a pastry tool that helps me but honestly, you can do just as well and even better by kneading the whole thing with your bare hands. With this mix, you don't have to cut the butter into pea sized pieces and you don't have to roll it at all which eliminates the dreadful "roll as soon as it starts to stick together" method of traditional crusts.

When fully mixed press into pie pan to evenly cover bottom and sides. I prefer to use a coated muffin tin and it's the same method for each muffin cup.

My quiche filling base is:

4 eggs

1 cup milk

Beat together well and pour into molds. Before this step, you'll want to add whatever ingredients to the empty pie shells. Tonight I just added shredded cheese. Often I make it with cheese and spinach. It's important to add the non-egg ingredients first and then fill with the egg.

Baking time varies. I usually bake at 375 until edges are golden and egg is set. I finish off with 5 minutes at 450 just to get the top done a little more. If you are doing these in muffin tins, they'll come out rounded like cupcakes but as they cool they'll set nice and flat.

Granola Start: 10:20 PM End: 10:48 PM

Techincally, I won't put the lid on this granola until a bit closer to midnight to give it a chance to cool and crust a bit. But the prep and bake time for this incredibly easy, incredibly cheap granola is fast enough that it's something I can just make on a whim if I want it for the next day.

About a year ago I started reading all three volumes of The Tightwad Gazette. My main motivation was to look for little things to help me save money and also cook a variety of inexpensive and wholesome foods for my family while using all real ingredients. I borrowed the books from the library and read them all in a few days. Aside from the tips I found useful in other areas, I did walk away with about 15 recipes added to cards in my recipe box.

Muffins and granola are most often made as well as a great lentil bulger base which makes an amazing "crumbled meat" substitute in just about anything. For dinner we had burgers from this base and they were delicious enough to be consumed in multiple quantities by two out of three of my children (o.k. my oldest only ate one). I rarely make this late at night, so we might not see them on this blog.

This granola is made from seven real food ingredients: Whole oats, cinnamon, salt, raisins, honey, oil, and brown sugar. I add a handful of slivered almonds if we are eating it at home but since the kids go to a no nut school, I don't add them prior so they always have the option of packing some. And the total cost for what you see is less than two dollars. Yum!