Muffin Man

While working on my menu plans for the last few weeks, I have been searching for more quick, healthy breakfast options.  This recipe from my friend Heather has been a hit for us!  Drew and I even made a second batch during Brooks' morning nap yesterday.


Muffin Recipe

•non-stick cooking spray

•1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar (or equivalent brown sugar/splenda

blend)

•1/2 cup natural peanut butter

•1/2 cup vegetable puree (carrot or pumpkin works great!)

•1/2 cup fruit puree (or double up on the veggie puree if using a sweet veggie like carrot)

•1 large egg

•1 cup whole wheat flour

•1 teaspoon baking powder

•1 teaspoon baking soda

•1/2 teaspoon salt

•sprinkle cinnamon (optional)

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line

with paper baking cups.

2.In a large mixing bowl, mix 1/2 of the brown sugar with the peanut butter, the purees

and egg using wooden spoon.

3.Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl or zipper-lock bag and stir

or shake to mix. Add to the bowl with the peanut butter mixture and stir just to combine

(the batter will be a little lumpy - do not overmix). Add the remaining 1/2 brown sugar

and stir once or twice.

4.Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are lightly browned

and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center, appx. 20 minutes.

Heather Richmond RD

with aid from Jessica Seinfeld ‘s Deceptively Delicious

Do you have any healthy breakfast options you can share?

This Week's Menu Plan (January 7th-14th)

Menu Plan

This week I got started on one of my goals for the year.  For the last several years, I have been planning our dinners out for the week, but my goal is to take it a step further by planning all 3 meals each day.  I am also trying to make sure that we are including leftovers in the plan.  Once I get rolling, I am hoping to do this for two weeks at a time to cut down on the number of trips to Kroger!  Fewer trips to Kroger and having a plan will hopefully help us keep the grocery bill down.


I used this menu plan format from Desiring Virtue.  There are tons of resources like this out there and I am going to try several until I find what works for us.  I like that this format has a shopping list.  After we got home, I put it on the fridge to remind me what we were doing all week!

Grilled Pineapple Chicken w/ Pineapple Salsa

We are still working on eating more "whole" foods and less processed stuff around here.  I found a resource on The Better Mom that has provided me with a ton of recipes.  Several of the recipes linked below are from The Nourishing Home.


Saturday
Breakfast: Daddy & D date for donuts
Lunch: Eat Out
Dinner: Burgers w/ Green Beans & Roasted Potatoes


Sunday
Breakfast: Sausage Roll from the freezer (Ramsey family recipe I will have to share soon)
Lunch: Grilled Cheese
Dinner: Grilled Pineapple Chicken & Pineapple salsa w/ Quinoa and salad

Monday

Breakfast: Eggs w/ bacon

Lunch: Leftover hamburgers and Veggies

Dinner:  Beef Drip sandwiches & chips (BCS National Championship party)

Tuesday

Breakfast:  English Muffins w/ Peanut Butter & apple

Lunch: Leftover Beef Drip (L&H)/ MMO (D)

Dinner: Lemon Garlic Chicken w/ Green Beans and Salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cliff Bar/Luna Bar

Lunch: Cafeteria (H) Salad (L)/ Chicken & Veggies (D)

Dinner: Veggie Turkey Chili

Thursday

Breakfast: English Muffin w/ Peanut Butter & banana

Lunch: Leftover Turkey Chili (H&L)/ MMO (D)

Dinner: Grilled Cheese sandwiches & Salad

Friday

Breakfast: Eggs w/ Toast

Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly, veggies, and fruit

Dinner: Turkey Taco Salad

Saturday

Breakfast: Pancakes, turkey bacon, & fruit

Lunch: Grilled Cheese & other leftovers

Dinner: Eat Out

Do you use a menu plan?  How do you keep your meals organized?

Homemaking 101: Housekeeping and Dinner Time

Overall I feel like we have had a pretty smooth transition from one to two kiddos.  We have had our challenges, but I am so grateful that I can look back over the last six months and see how we have overcome the challenges.

My two biggest challenges right now are probably common for most moms: finding time to get all the housework done and getting dinner on the table. 

Housework and Daily Tasks

I have heard other mothers say that they lose a little bit of their brain with every baby and I believe it.  If I don’t write down what I need to do every day and organize my time, I feel like I can’t accomplish anything which means that daily things around the house often go undone.

During one of little brother’s morning naps last week, I put big brother on the computer, grabbed my cleaning supplies, and worked hard to clean all the blinds in our house.  I am ashamed to say I am pretty sure they had not been cleaned since we moved in a year and a half ago! Yikes!  It is just one of those things, I would think about occasionally but never took the time to do.

Whether it is the things like cleaning the blinds that doesn’t need to be done every week or cleaning the floors that does need to be done every week, I am in need of something to schedule my time and help me remember what I need to do and when to do it!  One of my mentors suggested the Home Routines app on the iPhone.  I set it up over the weekend and I am looking forward to giving it a try after the Thanksgiving holiday.  The app allows you to set up daily tasks as well as weekly tasks for a different zone in your home.  I will let you know if it helps with mommy brain!

A screenshot from the App. You can customize tasks for each room.

How do you schedule your household cleaning?

Dinner

Hal’s work schedule usually gets him home later in the evening so I give D a snack around 5ish so that he can eat a later dinner.  Since having kids, this time of the day has always been difficult for me, but it has really been a challenge since little brother was born. It always seems that I need to be cooking dinner at the same time that I need to be getting B a bottle and put to bed while big brother is just needing some extra attention.    My best solution to make the evening go smoothly is to get dinner ready before 5:00.  The crock-pot and anything I can prepare early and put in the refrigerator have become my best friend!  Two recipes we have tried in the few weeks are Italian Chicken and Polynesian Chicken.  They both received thumbs up from the judges, Hal and D, so we will try them again!

What is your favorite meal that can be prepared ahead of time?

Sugar Cookie Goodness

Big Brother is turning 3 this week and we are working on a Thomas the Train/Pirate Birthday party.  Sounds like a crazy combination, but I think we are going to pull it off!  I wanted to make sugar cookies for him to take to Mother's Morning Out tomorrow so I decided to use them as favors for his party on Friday as well.  I found this simple sugar cookie recipe that turned out great! At least the 2nd and 3rd batch were great when I put the right amount of butter in. Ha!

Ready for the oven

 I always worry that I put things to close together. :)

 Red and Blue Thomas the Train Sprinkles

 Cookies and napkins in the bag and ready for MMO

 The favor bags for the party

And now for the clean up....

Healthy Habits

Source

We have drastically changed our eating habits at the Ramsey house over the last few weeks.  It is paying off, but man is it hard.  We are seeing some weight loss and just overall feeling better, so that helps keep us going. I wanted to share a few of my diet related thoughts with you and share a recipe that has been a mainstay lately.

• Food Addiction: I don’t think I ever even gave a second thought to the fact that I am addicted to food in an unhealthy way.  One of my good friends recently told me her dad always said, “We eat to live, not live to eat.” I am pretty sure that I have spent my fair share of time living to eat.  I really struggled the first week we changed our diet.  I found that I was somewhat dependent on sweets and crackers.  I was really kind of cranky because I couldn’t have those two things!  In an odd way, I found myself praying for the desire for those things to go away and for strength to turn down the temptation.  We didn’t go into this with a “fast mentality” but it is almost how it turned out.

• Cost: Eating healthy isn’t cheap.  We try to stick to a food budget around here and I have blown that out of the water lately.  I am thinking a garden of some sort will definitely be in our plans for Summer 2012.  

• Preparation: Eating healthy takes preparation.  Whether it is getting up earlier to get breakfast cooked and a lunch packed for Hal or pre-cutting veggies to make dinner preparation go more smoothly, you have to think ahead and since I have small kiddos I have to get some things done in advance of dinner.  

• Recipe: We have loved this chicken.  I don’t really have exact measurements because I just do it to taste.  I like things with a little more vinegar than Hal does, so make it how you like it!

Bruschetta 

Bruschetta Feta Chicken (Say that five times fast!)

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Feta Cheese

Tomatoes

Red Onion

Fresh Basil chopped finely

Fresh, minced Garlic

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Salt 

Pepper

Grill your chicken breasts or bake them in the oven.  While chicken is cooking, prepare bruschetta.  Chop onions, basil, garlic, and tomotoes.  Add vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.  Once chicken is cooked, place chicken on pan and then top with bruschetta.  Sprinkle with feta cheese and place back in 450 degree oven until cheese is soft.

How do you keep your family healthy?

How do you keep your grocery budget reasonable while using fresh fruits and vegetables?

Football Food

**In my attempt to be super organized while the boys and I are in Arkansas this week, I prescheduled the posts for this week.  This post should have gone up yesterday and the one about grocery shopping should have been up next Thursday.  So much for my organization! 

We have been super excited around the Ramsey house for the last few weeks!  We love the start of football season.  We look forward to it all year.  We start talking about the new season as soon as the National Championship game is over.  I love that football is something Hal and I do together.  From our first days of friendship when we went to Razorback games together to getting to take D to his first Mississippi State game last year, football is something that we have been able to enjoy with each other.  To mark the arrival of the season this year, I made The Pioneer Woman's Beef Drip sandwiches.  I love this recipe!  It is super easy and tastes great.  We usually eat it for 2 or 3 meals, which makes it even better!

I mentioned earlier this week that I am coach's daughter, but I am also proud to be a coach's sister!  My brother coaches in Cassville, MO.  It has been such a blessing to watch him over the last few years.  His team won back to back State Championships in 2008 and 2009 and were one win away from going for a 3rd title last year.  As exciting as those victories are, just as I was able to hear about the impact my dad made on kids lives, I have also been able to see the same from my brother.  He is loved and respected by the boys that play for him.  We are in town this week to see his team play.  My boys have their Cassville Wildcat gear ready to go!

Go Cats!

Go Hogs!

Go Dawgs!

I think I covered everyone ... Have a great weekend!

Homemaking 101: Cooking with Kathy

I need a new picture.  Scary to say this one is 5 years old! :)

My sweet mother is a Godly woman who is gifted in many areas but cooking is not one of them!  The running joke in our family is that when we have a get together, she brings the veggie tray.  So, while she has taught me a lot, my quest to be a better homemaker in matters of the kitchen and hospitality has been greatly influenced by my Aunt Kathy.  One of my first memories of being in her home was when my entire youth group from Arkansas was headed to Wyoming for a mission trip.  When our van broke down in Kansas and we weren’t able to stay where we had originally planned,  she and my uncle welcomed us into their Denver home well past midnight with smiles on their faces.  The next morning there was a yummy breakfast waiting on us!  I will always remember how willing she was to open her home and serve others.  This left a lasting impression with me about how to use your home as a ministry tool. 

As I have gotten older, the lessons have continued.  After I had D, she came and cooked for almost three solid days, filling my freezer with all kinds of goodies.  She has shared recipes and tips along the way and I have been known to call her in the middle of cooking dinner and ask for her help or opinion.  

Two of my favorite recipes she has shared are her Chicken Salad and Meatballs.  I usually make a double batch of the meatballs and freeze them.  Then we can just pull out what we need for that meal and reheat them in the oven.   

I thought I would share a little of my aunt with you today.  I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do!

Who has taught you the most in the kitchen?  What lessons have you learned about using your home for ministry?

Chicken Salad

5 Chicken breasts cooked and shredded

6 pineapple rings cut into pieces

3 celery stalks chopped

1 cup graves quartered

1 apple chopped

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2-3 Tbsp pineapple juice

Mayonnaise (enough to make smooth consistency/start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

Mix all ingredients and.  Chill before serving

Meatballs

3lbs. ground beef

2 cups oatmeal

1 small can evaporated milk

2 eggs- beaten

2 tsp. chili powder

1 cup chopped onion

1tsp garlic

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all meatball ingredients and make into balls.  This recipe will fill three 9X13 pans. 

Sauce: 

4 cups ketchup

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 tbsp liquid smoke

1 cup chopped onnion

1 tsp garlic powder

Heat all until sugar dissolves

Pour sauce over meatballs and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  When freezing, omit the sauce, cook, and freeze them after they cool.