Muffins, Waffles & More Baby Steps

It was baking day here at our humble abode! Or at least it was an afternoon of baking. By the time I got home from running the kids to TKD, our shopping trip to Aldi & a trip to pick up a uniform it was about 2p.m. by the time I got started.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I'm taking baby steps in OAMC (Once A Month Cooking). Today's goal was getting breakfast items in my freezer.

First on the list were several batches of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Next was a quadruple batch of Coffee Cake Muffins.

Oh that cinnamon smelled yummy!

Bugsy was a sweet helper running to get me items & then sprinkling the cinnamon & sugar mix on every muffin.

After a taste of a Coffee Cake Muffin he gave it 2 thumbs up!

These poor little guys didn't fare so well. The bottom rack was too close to the bottom of the stove & their poor little bums burned. =( We salvaged them cutting off the burnt parts. It hasn't deterred the kids from eating them for one second! =)

Fresh from the oven!

Last but not least came the waffles. I made a quadruple batch of these too.

103 muffins all bagged up & ready for my freezer!

Dave offered to cook up the waffles for me. I was so tired I gratefully accepted.

A small stack.

These were only a few of what Dave cooked up. The kids had some for dinner & the remainder went into our freezer.

Next I hope to start prep work on our dinners! Today I did most of the shopping for them. Baby steps. Baby steps.

New House

Some more pics of our new home! I warn you the kitchen & laundry room are not up to par yet. There is still lots of unpacking & organizing to do. But baby steps, right?

The Living Room

From the Other Side

Still a few boxes to unpack but we're making progress!

The Kitchen

See our new stove? Love it!

The Other End

When we moved in there were boxes right down the middle of the kitchen piled almost to the ceiling. What a relief to be able to walk in the kitchen without that wall of boxes to squeeze around!

My Laundry Room

I am beyond thrilled to have this room! And the cabinets are a wonderful bonus! Dave is planning to put up some high shelves on the right side over the pantry. And I'm LOVING our new washer & dryer! They are amazing!

Success!

Tonight I tried something new and started to prepare dinner for tomorrow. I chose to make Black Bean Sloppy Joes (A new recipe - I'm curious to see how it goes over with the family). I thought I'd set out the ingredients & brown the hamburger. After doing that I thought, "Why not put it all together and let it cook overnight?" After all it can cook on low in the crockpot for 8-10 hours. It would save me time tomorrow too. So I did. In addition to this I mixed up the dry ingredients for pancakes and put some beans to soak for baked beans. I feel great about this! I hate to cook and this is a big deal for me to have accomplished this. Yahoo! It was much easier too as I could work without interruption. It was 10:30 and everyone else was in bed. I'm thinking I'll try to do this more often when I have the energy in the evening.

Anyone else have some things they do to make cooking easier?

*****

*********************

*********************************

*********************

P.S. We had a successful dinner at home tonight. Dave made stir fry & rice. Yay!

Yummy For My Tummy

On Wednesday I got busy in the kitchen. I decided to surprise Dave with a supper of Chicken & Dumplings. I found a recipe in my 'Fix It & Forget It' cookbook & started cooking. (This cookbook is one of the best I've ever bought!) After I finished the dish I simply had to make something for dessert. First I whipped together some Applesauce Spice Cookies, (very easy!), and then some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie dough. Sweet Pea helped me out by baking the O.C.C. cookies for me so I could sit down & have some lunch. Boy, the kitchen smelled GOOD!

Let the chopping begin!


I boiled the chicken to cook it & then cooled and cut it up.

Chicken & Dumplings cooking away!

Applesauce Spice Cookies! Yummy!

Cookie dough is ready for the oven!

The Chicken & Dumplings were a big hit. We will definitely be adding that to our menu! The cookies were also popular but that wasn't a surprise. Lol! They are quickly disappearing........