Homemade Vanilla Almond Milk

We’re not dairy free at my house, but we’ve got family members who are dairy, gluten and soy free. Trying my hand at Almond milk, well it just made sense.

Making your own almond milk takes some time, but most of that time is soaking time.

The “milking process” was not that lengthy, once I figured out that less was more.

Fancy a glass?

• 4-5 cups of water
• 3 cups of raw, whole almonds
• Place then into a container, put the container into the fridge and allow to soak for at least 6 hours. I soaked them overnight.
• 1 cup of chopped dates
• The seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla)

Once your almonds have had time to soak, add the vanilla and the dates to the mixture.

Blend mixture in batches, on a high-speed in your blender.

Place a thick layer of cheese cloth over the opening of the container you’re using for your milk.

Pour a small amount of the almond mixture into the cheese cloth. Allow enough time for the liquid to drain through.

Do not over fill.

Pouring as much of the almond mixture as you can into the cheese cloth seems like a brilliant idea (at least it did to me) until you have to squeeze the liquid out and you splatter the wall with almond gunk.

Not pretty.

So….

Small, easily squeeze-able batches are the way to go!

Squeeze the cheese cloth to remove as much liquid from the almonds as possible.

Place the leftover almond meal into a bowl and save for baking or pancakes.

Repeat the draining process until all the almond milk has been processed.

Rinse the cheese cloth, and pour the almond milk back through to strain it one last time.

I ended up with just over a quart of almond milk.

Store your almond milk in the fridge for up to one week.

The Almond Milk will separate while it’s being stored so, give it a shake before pouring.

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Chicken Migas

grab a tortilla and sit a spell.

Generally I agree with The Pioneer Woman on most food related issues.

To me though, Migas is not Migas without Chorizo.

Chorizo is really greasy and fatty though. A local market, I adore Sprouts Farmer’s Market, sells ground chicken chorizo. I decided to give the chicken a try and boy, howdy I’m glad I did. Chicken Chorizo is excellent.

I adapted a Pioneer Woman recipe, I added 1 pound of chicken Chorizo I browned it, drained off the minimal fat and proceeded with Ree’s recipe.

A few things I altered.

• I omitted the Jalapeño, due to a tween with a low spicy tolerance.
• I used 2% milk instead of Half-and-half
• I used cheddar cheese

Here is the original recipe ingredient list.

• 4 whole Corn Tortillas
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Seeds And Membranes Removed, Finely Diced
• 4 whole Plum Tomatoes, Roughly Chopped
• 1 whole Green Pepper, Roughly Chopped
• 1 whole Red Bell Pepper, Roughly Chopped
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped
• 12 whole Large Eggs
• 1/4 liter Cotija Cheese, Grated (may Use Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Etc.)
• 1/3 cup Cilantro, Chopped
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Half-and-half

To view entire recipe click here.

Serve with refried beans and corn or flour tortillas.

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Slow Cooking Monday, Back to Basics

Back to Basics

This week, I want to focus on basic slow cooker uses like cooking frozen meat.

Many times I use my slow cooker to make full meals, other times I use my slow cooker to cook frozen chicken.

The slow cooker makes cooking frozen meat so easy.

I sometimes shop in bulk, I do love a great sale, when I shop in bulk I separate the meat into family sized portions and freeze it. I sometimes have a few extra pieces. I save those extra pieces in smaller portion packets.

Those smaller portions are great for making chicken salad, chicken tortilla soup,green chilie chicken and black bean soup, chicken taco salad…and on….. and on.

Here is the easy way to cook 2 or 3 (or more) pieces of frozen chicken in your slow cooker.

Are you ready? It’s really complicated.

;

• Place chicken into the slow cooker.
• Season the chicken.
• Place the lid on your slow cooker.
• Cook the chicken on low for 5+ hours.
• Enjoy fully cooked, juicy chicken.

;

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Please join Allie and me for our slow cooker post link up! Join us, link up your favorite slow cooker recipe…tell us about what you’ve tried recently.

Breakfast Casserole

Care for a slice?

This French toast like breakfast casserole is a favorite in my home. I make a large batch so it can be munched on for a few days.

I used whole wheat bread, but you could use French bread or any other type of bread.

• 9 pieces of whole wheat bread
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 cup of dried cranberries (or other dried berry of your choice)
• 8 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 & 1/2 cups of milk
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla

1. Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray. Arrange the bread in layers, sprinkle cranberries over each layer.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon
3. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread.  Make sure that all the bread is covered in the egg mixture.  *I use my hands to mash the bread slices up.*

It looks like this....pre baking

4. Cover the baking dish with foil and refrigerate overnight.

5. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Bake covered for 40 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more.

6.  Let the casserole stand for 5 minutes before serving.

ready to serve

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Cra-mazing dipped pretzels

Cra-mazing: (adj.) something both crazy and amazing.

also known as Freak-tacular

I bought these super duper long pretzels. As soon as I saw them, I knew that I

1. had to buy them
2. intended to dip them in melting chocolate

A few days later, while picking up some yarn from Michael’s, I found candy cane flavored melting chocolates.

Score.

I warmed the chocolate. I dipped the pretzels in dark chocolate. Allowed them to dry.

Then I drizzled them with the candy cane chocolate. And then a few of them, I just dipped into the candy cane chocolate.

Hello lovely.

Salty, buttery, sweet and chocolate-y. What else would you call it but cra-mazing?

What cra-mazing things have you come across lately?

No peanut brittle recipe today, I’m short one ingredient. Raw peanuts.
Maybe Monday!

Savvy Shopping

I’m off shopping this morning. Grocery shopping.

I know there are some peeps who have not finished their holiday shopping.

I got a great e-mail offer from Target yesterday. I am going to attempt to share it with you via this LINK

It is a printable coupon for a free $10 gift card with any $50 purchase.

I’m not positive it will work for everyone, but I figured it was worth a try!

Have a super Thursday! Save well.

Savvy Shopping, Grocery Style

I have not written as much about savvy shopping as I intended to. 

I’ve got a grocery budget.  I’m sure you probably do too.  Every two weeks, bi-monthly I have a specified amount of money to spend on grocery/home items.

I like to make tasty meals for my family, I try to buy organic products, I try to buy quality products.  These things are harder to do with a tight budget.

Teenagers, well…they are ALWAYS hungry.

In order to buy the things my family wants/needs and stay within my budget I shop smart.

Shopping smart means using coupons when I can.

Here in Texas one of my “go to” grocery stores stopped doubling coupons (Kroger).

Ouch.

So, my shopping options narrowed a bit.

Yesterday I went to Tom Thumb (part of the Safe Way grocery chain) and bought groceries.

I shopped savvy, took advantage of the sales, used my coupons and the store coupons saved a lot!

Here is a copy of the picture I posted on my personal (read as Non-blog) Facebook page.

Grocery Store: Pwned

I bought 60 items. I spent $111.25 and I saved $116.76 which is 51%.  That breaks down to about $1.85 per item.

Here is what I bought.

Items I intend to donate are marked in Blue

• 2 turkeys (one 10 pound smoked and one 13 pound uncooked)
• 3- 1 pound packages of ground beef
• frozen fish
• 2 packages of salad mix
• 2 packages of fresh green beans
• cole slaw mix (just the veggies)
• cherry tomatoes
• 2- loaves of bread
• 4- twelve packs of soda
• 2- twenty-four packs of water
• 3 packages of Betty Crocker cookie mix
• 2 packages of Betty Crocker cake mix
• 2 packages of Muffin Mix
• 5 packages of frozen veggies
• Splenda
• chocolate syrup
• 3 packages of jello pudding
• Knorr concentrated chicken stock
• Mayonnaise
• 2 Carnation evaporated milk
• 5 cans of broth (chicken and beef)
• Pam Baking spray
• sugar
• 2 frozen side items
• ice cream
• Frozen Apple pie
• 2 pie crusts
• frozen cranberries
• butter
• 2 packages of Hawaiian rolls
• 2 packages of lunch meat (turkey and ham)

Not too shabby huh?

Some of the items I bought are for my monthly “Shopping with your community in mind” food donation.  It’s a long name, but I’ve not thought of a shorter name I like for what I do.

The idea of people in my community starving makes me a

Sad Panda

so I try to set aside a bit of my grocery budget each month to shop for those in need.

This month I have been buying more luxury items for my donations.  Things like cookie mixes and pudding.  I also bought a bunch of ketchup and salsa on sale two weeks ago, so my donation will be luxury item flush this month.

If you do not participate in food donating, I’d love to inspire you to begin.  Any little bit helps.  Food pantries (in my area) are always in need of peanut butter, rice, dried beans, and canned meats.

Do you shop with coupons?

Do you donate food to local food pantries?

Easy Chicken Tacos

I had both kiddos home sick yesterday.   So, yesterday was a hectic day.  Did I mention that my husband works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays?  No?  Well, he does so we had a full house yesterday.

Dinner sort of snuck up on me.   Not that I’m saying it tip-toed up behind me and spooked me or anything.  It just got late quicker than I expected.

So, I needed a quick, easy dinner.

Does that ever happen to you?

Because I use freezer cooking, I have cooked chicken and beef in my freezer.

My attempt at a homemade 3D picture....

This recipe is quick and easy.  You could make it with chicken or beef.

 

Chicken Tacos

 

• 1 to 1 & 1/2 pounds of diced cooked chicken
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 package of frozen corn (Southwestern style)
• 1/3 cup of salsa

Heat a large skillet on medium heat.

• Add 1 TBSP of oil
• add chicken
• add beans
• add corn
• cover with salsa
• stir
• place the lid into the pan
• simmer for about 10 minutes

Serve with

• lettuce
• cheese
• sour cream

 

We use up the left over party plates.

What are your quick, go to meals?

 

Happy Halloween!

The great things about Halloween are the fun, the friends and the candy.

And….

the Halloween parties are such fun!

Come, have a cupcake....they're calorie free...Promise.

Muahahahaha!

The good things about parties are too numerous to mention.
The bad thing about parties is the clean-up.
Yeah. Love parties, hate clean-up.

Great parties need a day of rest after them. Well, at least for me they do.

 

Sunday,  I. was.  exhausted.

Pardon me, have you seen my brain? It seems to be missing.

Also, you (meaning me)  feel pretty stupid (meaning frazzled and forgetful) when you realize that your party is almost over and you forgot to ask anyone (meaning your husband)  to take pictures.  Yeah, um….

D’oh!

Yeah, I forgot to take pictures of the party or the guests. I’ve got a few, but not many.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

 

Do you usually dress up for Halloween?  If you do, what type of costume are you wearing this year?

Quick S’more dessert

I’m recycling a post. This easy and super tasty dessert did not get much attention when I first posted it.

I’ve got a wicked sweet tooth. I just made S’more pudding.

It’s chocolate, marshmallow wonderland.

I used marshmallow fluff as one of the marshmallow layers, the 2nd layer was mini marshmallows. I’m planning to top it with whipped cream.

Here’s the recipe. Adapted from a Sandra Lee recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• 1 (5.9-ounce) box chocolate instant pudding *Oreo pudding works great too*
• 10 graham crackers
• 1 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 cup of marshmallow fluff

Directions

• Have 4 dishes/bowls/wine glasses/parfait cups ready.
• Place the milk in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill to make the pudding.
• In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until well combined and slightly thick. Let set for 5 minutes.
• Put the graham crackers into a resealable plastic bag and using a rolling pin, roll over the crackers to break them up into coarse crumbs.
• Spoon about a 1/4 cup or so of the pudding into the bottom of each container.
• Sprinkle on a layer of the crumbled graham crackers and then a layer of marshmallows.
• Repeat with another layer of each ingredient ending with the pudding.
• Top with whip cream.
• Serve.

Monday, Allie and I will be hosting a slow cooker link up. Link up any new or previously posted slow cooker post or recipe you have. Give a new recipe a try this weekend. Make a dessert or a meal. Just use the slow cooker. I can’t wait to see what you cook up!

One final reminder…..

***My MyBlogSpark giveaway is still ongoing. It ends on Sunday at 9:00 pm central. Enter for a chance to win a $25 Walmart gift card and Star Wars themed General Mills Cereal.***