Pop Tarts from Scratch?!

So, I was flipping through my food magazine the other day.  I don't actually get a subscription, but my friend was cleaning out her magazines, and gave me a bunch of her old ones, and I found a recipe for pop tarts and fruit roll ups (but, the fruit roll ups I'm gonna save for another day:).

I was intrigued, homemade POP TARTS???  Seriously!?!  I HAD to try them!  As I read through the recipe, I realized that it took shortening, and I usually do not keep shortening on hand.  SO, I went to google:)!  I figured, surely there had to be a pop tart recipe that did not require shortening!  And, I found this gem :)

I altered the recipe (on accident) a bit, but, it still tasted delish (according to my six children and husband), and is less fattening (which is ALWAYS a good thing:).

Here is the altered recipe I used! I actually doubled this recipe and it made about 40 (I made mine smaller than the original recipe, which only makes 9)

INGREDIENTS:

For the pastry crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

For filling I did 3/4 of them with jelly filling and 1/4 with Nutella filling for special treats!

For the jelly filling:

¾ cup strawberry jelly (or whatever flavor you'd like)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

For the Nutella filling I just spread a nice thick layer of the Nutella right onto the pastry dough

1 egg, lightly beaten (to brush on pastry)

DIRECTIONS:

1. If using the strawberry filling, prepare by whisking together the cornstarch and water, and then combine with the jam in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool.

2. To make the crust, I used my food processor.  Just put flour, sugar, salt, and butter (cold, and cut into small pieces), into your food processor, and pulse until it becomes blended, like a cornmeal texture.  Mix together egg and milk and pour into food processor while it is running.  Once the dough begins to ride the blade blade, it is well blended, and ready to be taken out.

3. Divide the dough in half. (At this point you can wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.) If you refrigerate the dough, let it come to room temperature for about 15 minutes before rolling out. On a lightly floured cutting board, roll out one piece of dough to about 1/12-inch thick, in a rectangle. Using a pizza cutter trim the dough into a rectangle.  Cut the sheet of dough into about 20 2x3 inch rectangles. Using a spatula, transfer the rectangles to a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Brush the lightly beaten egg on each of the rectangles. Spoon a tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, leaving a ½-inch of space around the edges.

4. Roll out and cut the second piece of dough in the exact same manner as you did the first. One at a time, place a second rectangle of dough on top of the 20 assembled ones. Using your fingers, press around the seams of the dough to make sure they are sealed. Press the tines of a fork around the edges of the rectangles. Prick the tops of the rectangles in multiple spots to allow steam to escape.

5. Refrigerate the pan with the pastries (you don't need to cover them) for about 30 minutes. OR, at this point, you could freeze the pastries.  Instead of refrigerating the pan, pop the pan into the freezer.  Once frozen, you can put them into ziploc bags.  Then, when you want to be the SUPER STAR mom:) you can easily whip up pop tarts for you kids!  

6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool slightly before serving. Store cooked pastries in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.  Frozen pastries will keep for about 3 months.

homemade play dough

My kids were going to their cousins birthday party last weekend that I could not attend, so I needed to come up with a gift to send with them to the party. My first instinct was to run to Target and buy a gift but I had no idea what to get a three year old boy. Plus I really wanted to get creative and involve my kids as well. Lets face it Target doesn't scream creative, and being the frugal momma that I am, I was sure that there must be something that my kids and I could create from home that would be special and save us a few bucks. So I started thinking and thinking and thinking and was like "I cant give this kid a homemade basket of marinara and cheese, he is not going to appreciate that". Being a former pre-school teacher I was sure that I should be able to come up with something fun. After thinking about it for a while it finally hit me: homemade play dough!

Of course each of my kids wanted to make some and having six kids we ended up with six different colors. We put each color in its own cute little mason jar and headed to the dollar store to get some kitchen essentials for creative play dough fun! We found a cookie sheet, a pizza pan, a pizza cutter, a potato masher and a cutting board all for $5. Score!

My insecurity got the best of me at the beginning and I was wondering if this would even be a good gift or if it would just look, ya know, frugal. After finishing the gift for my nephew all my kids (ages 2-12) begged me for their own set of play dough. You know it's a good gift when your kids want one too!

Such a fun experience to share with my kids and a great gift too.

Here is the original recipe we used (I actually doubled this recipe):

1 Cup of Water
1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup of Salt
2 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 Cup of Flour
Food Coloring (We actually used liquid water color paint instead of food coloring)
Pot

Directions: In a pot I added all ingredients (except the food coloring) and stirred over medium low heat. Keep stirring until it forms a dough ball, this took several minutes. Remove from heat and place the dough on a cutting board and let it cool for a couple minutes. While still warm I divided the dough into six sections and placed each section into separate bowls. I squeezed a few drops of each color into each of the bowls and let each of the kids knead the color into the dough until the desired color was achieved by my kids standards. Although the red never really passed the test - it remained pink.

Living out of our Pantry: mint chocolate granola bars

For the past month we have been living out of our pantry.  We like to do this every once in awhile when our cupboards get so full we can't find anything.  So, we started the month with buying all the basics (flour, sugar, cheese, butter, etc.), but resolved that we would not purchase any "extras" like crackers, cookies or chips.  We don't buy a ton of that anyway, but we somehow managed to have very FULL cupboards.  We had purchased 3 big boxes of cheerios at Costco when they had a coupon awhile back, so we had backup breakfast or snack for when we would need it, as we still had 2 boxes left.
 For us, this is obviously easiest to do in the summer time.  Our garden has a bounty of zucchini, squash, and  tomatoes, and we have very generous neighbors who let us pick fruit from their fruit trees.
Since living out of our pantry, I have had to be a little more creative with our snacks and meals.  I make granola bars regularly.  My youngest would eat granola bars for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let him.  Usually I like to add a few chocolate chips (preferably the mini ones).  But, we used up all of our chocolate chips (and white chocolate chips) that I had on hand last week.  Then I found a bag of andes mint chips (Um, can we say, YUMMY!).  I have experimented with a lot of different granola bar recipes, and I have a recipe that I have recipe that I love, but, I wasn't sure if the mint chocolate chips would be good, as the recipe calls for peanut butter.  Sounded a little strange to me.  But, then in my cupboard next to the peanut butter was nutella.  Now, that sounded delicious!!  So, I decided to try swapping out the peanut butter for the nutella.  This recipe originally came from thebusynothings.blogspot.com.
Here is my adapted version:)

Mint Chocolate Chip Granola Bars:
Preheat oven to 350
~2 1/3 cups oats
~1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like)
~1/3 cup ground flax seed
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~3/4 cup andes mint chips
~1/2 cup coconut
Mix these ingredients together in a large bowl, set aside.  In a small bowl, mix together:
~2 Tablespoons nutella
~1/2 cup applesauce
~3 Tablespoons melted butter
~1 tsp vanilla
~1/4 cup honey, heaping
Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Line a 9X9 pan with parchment paper and press mixture FIRMLY into pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Once cooled, put them in the fridge to let them set.  Wrap individually and freeze.
Hope you enjoy them!

Living out of our Pantry: Homemade Bagels

We enjoy living out of our pantry, and trying to see how long we can go in between grocery store trips.  One of my staples around here have become homemade bagels.  I think what I love about them is their many uses.  I'm sure you could create just about any bagel, but my favorite is to just do plain bagels.  We eat them for breakfast with either jelly or butter with cinnamon and sugar.  We eat them for lunch (or  dinner when the hubs is gone) as pizza bagels.  We even just heat them up and have them plain, because really, who doesn't love a soft warm bagel!  Last week, I made four DOZEN bagels!  Being a family of 8, that lasts us about a week!  Yes, we go through a LOT of bagels!

I first found the recipe on allrecipes.com, but they have since deleted the recipe. Thankfully I think I was able to pretty much recreate them.

Homemade Bagels:

~1 1/3 cups milk

~1/3 cup butter

~1 egg yolk

~4 cups bread flour (sometimes I feel like being healthy so I do 2 cups whole wheat and 2 cups white)

~1 teaspoon salt

~2 Tablespoons sugar

~2 teaspoons yeast

~Melt butter in a glass bowl.  Heat milk in a glass bowl.  (sometimes I do this together, but it takes the butter longer to melt, and I'm always afraid I'm going to scorch my milk).
~Mix milk, sugar, and yeast.  Stir to combine.  Add butter, egg yolk, and salt.  I put mine in my kitchen aid mixer at this point.
~Then I slowly, 1 cup at a time add the flour, beating in between each cup.  You know your bagel dough has enough flour when the dough is pulling away from the sides of your mixer, forming a nice ball on the blade.  

Oil a large bowl.  Place dough in bowl, flipping to cover dough in oil.
~Allow to rise for at least 1 hour (this will completely depend on how hot your house is, some days my dough rises in no time, and other days it takes several hours, so just keep checking it).  You will know it is done when your dough has doubled in bulk.

~Once doubled, take dough out and knead on a floured surface.
~Divide dough into 12 sections.  Take each section, roll it into a ball, and then poke a hole in the ball, stretching until it looks like a bagel.
~Let each "bagel" rest on floured surface for 10 minutes.
~Begin heating a pot of salted water.   Preheat oven to 400.
~Grease 2-3 pans VERY well, or use a stone (these are optimal as the bagels tend to really stick to the cookie sheets).
~Once water is boiling, place bagels in water, one at a time.  When the bagels rise to the top, they are ready to be removed.  Use a slotted spoon to remove bagels, and place immediately on your stone.  

~Bake for 18-20 minutes.

~Once cooled, I stack mine in gallon sized ziploc bags.  They freeze great!

Hope you enjoy them!

homemade laundry soap

About five years ago, I was looking for ways to cut our grocery bill.  One of the ways I found was to start making our own laundry soap.  I bought the ingredients, and have not purchased laundry soap since!  Seriously easy, and seriously CHEAP!  Plus, it's good soap!  If you are not already making laundry soap, I highly recommend it.  I found the recipe on tipnut.com.

Homemade Laundry Soap:
~2 cups of the fels-naptha bar soap.  In my area, they only sell this at CVS pharmacy.  It usually runs about $1.19 per bar.
~1 Cup washing soda.  In my area, they sell this at Orchard Supply or at Nob Hill foods.  It is usually about $3 a box, but will last for several times of making soap.
~1 Cup Borax.  This is pretty common, and can be found anywhere.
~1 covered container, about 3 quarts.

~I cut my bar soap into about 8 pieces, and then I put it in my food processor.  It grinds it down to a nice fine powder in under a minute:)  If you don't have a food processor, you can grate it by hand, and the finest grate.
~Measure out two cups into a container that you want to keep your laundry soap in.  Add washing soda and borax.  Mix to combine.  That's it!
Happy laundering!

*I have a friend that adds essential oil to her soap so that it smells nice, but I have never done this.