Menu and thoughts for Sunday (June 24th)

Sunday was kind of an odd day. Jason and I went fishing early in the morning. The kids stayed the night at GG and Papa's, so there was no morning rush for breakfast. Also, no having to think of anything for lunch. We also had some friends over for dinner, so the menu there was a little different than normal (although not much different). So, anyway, here it is:

Breakfast - Last of the blueberry muffins (in the car)
Lunch - Ham/Turkey sandwiches (at the lake)
Dinner - Poor Woman's BBQ Chicken
Chicken Style Rice & Roni
Cornbread
Green salad
Dessert - No-Bake Cookies

I added links to the recipes I got from other sites. Recipes that are from my book (or from someone I know), I will just type below (I will type the original recipe in dark blue, and any changes I happened to make in red). So, here are my thoughts on this day.

Breakfast - These were the last of some blueberry muffins I made the other day. And I have to say, these were the best I ever made! Usually when I use half AP (All Purpose) flour and half WW (Whole Wheat) flour, they turn out dry and kinda' yucky. But this time, I used kefir instead of milk, and they were fabulous (for more on kefir, go here). Here is the recipe:

MUFFINS
2 C flour (1 C AP, 1 C WW Pastry)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C sugar
1 egg
3/4 C milk (1 C kefir)
1/2 C butter, melted and slightly cooled (since I added extra kefir, I reduced this a little)
1 C blueberries (but you can add whatever you want here)

Combine dry ingredients. Mix together egg and milk and add to dry ingredients. Stir in butter. Stir in blueberries. Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes (I did 20 minutes, and they were perfect).

I actually have some kefir in my fridge that is ready to use, so I think I might make some raspberry muffins tomorrow. I got this recipe from my sister Heather (not sure where she got it from), and it is an easy and fast recipe.

Lunch - What could be easier than ham and turkey sandwiches and a bag of tortilla chips? I would like to add that I found some bread at PriceLess (cheapest grocery store in Yreka) that has no high fructose corn syrup in it. The texture is a little different (definitely not Wonder bread), but I like knowing I'm feeding my family a little healthier.

Dinner - Dinner was great. Good food (that was relatively easy to prepare) and good friends.

The BBQ chicken was really tasty. I used some bone-in, skin-on hindquarters (legs and thighs). I will NEVER do that again. I knew there was a reason I bought my meat skinless and boneless! I will use legs and thighs again, as I think using the darker meat kept it really moist during the long cooking time. The sauce was really good, and easy to prepare. Just try to have all your ingredients ready to go beforehand.

The rice was also very good. It had a lot of flavor. I actually 1 1/2'd the recipe, to feed 4 adults and three little kids. But using the actual recipe would have been perfect for just our family. I also used all rice, instead of the noodles, just to save time. On the website, the lady talks about making up several bags of this at a time, to have on hand as "convenience food." I definitely plan on doing that with this recipe, along with some others I got from her site. As soon as I can find a good deal on a huge bag of rice!

Our guests brought the salad and the cornbread. The salad was just a basic green salad, with lettuce from their garden, and lots of veggies. The cornbread was awesome! Very moist and fluffy. It was made from scratch (no Jiffy boxes here!) by the husband. So it is probably a fairly easy recipe. I plan on getting a copy from them, and when I do, I will post it.

Dessert - I did not like these cookies. I followed the recipe exactly as it said (I even timed the 4 1/2 minutes of boiling), and they did not turn out very good. The mixture turned almost rock solid before I even got it off the stove to the wax paper. I added some milk just to make it spoonable. I didn't realize until I had already started that there was no peanut butter in this version, but coconut instead. I like coconut, but I like the peanut butter ones a lot better. Just to let you know, I just tried the cookies. They are not too bad. They seemed to harden up okay, although they are very crumbly and messy. But without the peanut butter, the chocolate is a little harsh. They might be good crumbled on vanilla ice cream. Next time, I will be making these No-Bake Cookies.

Well, I think that is all for Sunday. We won't go into the half a box of Bottle Cap candy I ate at the lake, okay? I hope you enjoyed this look into my kitchen (that sounded kinda' cheesy!).

See you later!