Chocolate Chip cookie mix

I have been making my own mixes!  Brownie mix, cookie mix, muffin mix, baking mix, pancake and waffle mix.  I cut the recipes in half because I want to try them first to see if I like them before having to use them for months.  

Two days ago I made and cooked some fake Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip cookie mixes.  There are also recipes for other Betty Crocker cookie mixes in this post on a website called Fake-it-frugal.  They also have recipes for Betty Crocker brownies and fake Clorox clean up.  

Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix:

1 Cup Flour
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Mix together and store in a quart size ziplock bag.  Write instructions on the bag to add:  1 Stick Softened Butter, 1 Large Egg, 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract.  Mix & Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes.

These were very tasty.  They did turn out a little thin though.  I'm not sure if it is because I didn't measure my flour and sugar properly, or because I used some butter and some margarine from two different things and added too much, or because I had the cookie sheet on the stove while the oven was warming and the cookies started melting before they started cooking.  Either way they were still scrumptious but not thick!  

What I do is bake what we want for that day with a few extra and then I freeze the rest of the dough.  I put cookie size balls of the dough onto some freezer paper on an extra cookie sheet and put it in the freezer.  When they freeze I put them in a baggie and just right the correct temperature and time for baking.  Then I can just take out how many I want for the next time I want some cookies.

I made an extra of the cookie mix and some brownie mixes, muffin mix, and some pancake and waffle mix.  I put them all in baggies and wrote on the bag what they are and how much I need to use and what I need to add for when I use the mix.  I put the pancake/waffle mix in an old formula container wrapped in paper.

I put my mixes standing in a tupperware container with my other muffin mixes in my pantry.  When I use my other mixes I will post on how they turned out as well.  I like making cookies and such from scratch and this makes it easier to do so without making as big of a mess because now all I have to do is add the wet ingredients!

Making some bug food

I made my own baby food yesterday... well not for me but for our little Alle bug!  She has been eating baby food for about 6 to 8 weeks now but I wanted to her to eat the store bought at first because the consistency tends to be smoother than when I make it.  But now that she is almost seven months old she can handle some texture in her foods if I don't make it as smooth.

Some of the baby foods that she has been eating are things such as bananas, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.  So I went to Packer Produce to get some veggies for us (it is a great farmers market!) and they have a a 1/2 off table in the back.  On the table was a butternut squash with a tinny brown spot on the end.  I paid about $1.50 for it and brought it home to cook it up for Alle bug.

First I peeled it with a vegetable peeler and sliced it long ways and then in about one inch cubes.  There are several different ways you can cook a butternut squash but I choose to put the pieces on the stove to steam.

I let them cook for about 10 minutes until they were soft with a fork.  Then I put them in my food processor. I had to add a little bit of the liquid from my steamer pot to get them to puree properly but you don't want them to be too runny if you are going to freeze them.  I used my ice cube trays and spooned my squash into them.

I was able to fill two ice cube trays!  I put them into our deep freezer and when they were solid I popped them out and but them into a freezer bag with a description and the date.

I have already used three servings and still have a full bag in the freezer.  To thaw you can either put it in the refrigerator for few hours, leave some in a container on the counter for about an hour, or add a small amount of water and microwave if you need to use it immediately (you will have to be careful of hot spots and let it cool before serving).  Once thawed you can adjust the consistency by adding water or adding some baby oatmeal or rice cereal to thicken.

A jar of stage 2 baby food is about $.89 depending on what brand you buy.  I made the entire baggie of squash in about 20 minutes and $1.50.  I think the savings are definitely worth it and I will continue to make this and other kinds of baby food as well.

I hope this encourages someone else to do this too.  Even if you only have time once or twice a month to make and freeze one batch, you will still be saving money and feel good about doing it yourself to feed your baby some healthy foods!

And by the way... She loved it!

Friday Favorite: The Smoothie Life

Last week Clint found out that he got the full-time job he has been pursuing at McLean Engineering.  We will be making more money now but we didn't want that money to just go to whatever.  We decided to dedicate some extra money to our health.  We started our YMCA membership back and all this week we have been making smoothies.  Smoothies have been a trend in Moultrie for a few weeks now.  Beans and Strings have fresh fruit smoothies and a green smoothie that has spinach in it.  Also Carrie Viohl (my sister-in-law) has been making some crazy health smoothies and posting her creations on Facebook.  So we decided to try eating healthy smoothies either with our meal or as a snack in an attempt to eat less during lunch and supper.

Here are the smoothies we have made so far...


1st smoothie
Normal fruit smoothie with papaya.
Ingredients: 1/2 of a papaya, about 15 strawberries, 1 banana, Ice, milk
Tasted like a normal strawberry/banana smoothie.
2 1/2 servings

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2nd smoothie
Orange smoothie with papaya
Ingredients: 4 carrots, 1/2 of a papaya, strawberry yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted like carrots.  I added a little orange juice afterwards and it tasted more like oranges. We will put orange juice instead of milk next time.
2 1/2 servings

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3rd smoothie
Green smoothie carrots.
Ingredients: 2 carrots, 1 large handful of spinach, 1 kiwi, 1 banana, orange juice, ice
Too much of a carrot taste.  I added more juice so it would taste more like oranges.
2 1/2 servings

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4th smoothie
Orange smoothie with strawberries (Olivia's invention)
Ingredients:  1 carrot, 1 banana, about 10 strawberries, strawberry yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted a hint of strawberry
1 1/2 to 2 servings

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5th smoothie
Super green smoothie with blueberries
1 Banana, 1 handful of spinach, 1 green apple, 1 kiwi, 1 handful of blueberries, apple juice, ice
Tasted like green apple.  This one is a keeper.
2 1/2 servings

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6th smoothie
Peach smoothie
Ingredients: 3 peaches, 1 frozen banana, 1 handful of blueberries, vanilla yogurt, milk, ice
Tasted like peaches with specs of blueberries in it.
1 1/2 to 2 servings

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7th smoothie
Orange smoothie with mango
Ingredients: 2 carrots, 1 Mango, about 8 strawberries, vanilla yogurt, milk, ice
This one is my favorite so far!  It had a beautiful color.  I could really taste the mango and I didn't taste the carrots at all. Clint put a little extra yogurt than normal, that probably made it sweeter and pulled out the mango flavor.
2 1/2 servings

Another good thing about these smoothies is that Olivia loves them too!  She doesn't eat many vegetables by themselves so this is a good way to get her some of those good nutrients as well.