I'm going out of town without my family

I'm going out of town on Monday to visit my sister in Baltimore for a few days, and then to Atlanta to show artwork to several progressive companies. I'm leaving my 5 children home with my perfectly capable husband who will rent a Redbox for the children every night. They'll get to their workout sessions on time and will likely practice their instruments each day. On Saturday, before coming to get me at the airport, they'll tidy up the house. They'll have had a really fun week. I'll have had a good week, too.

So, in preparation for being gone for 6 days, I've stocked the freezer with good homemade food (chicken enchiladas, lasagna, and sloppy joes) along with hot dogs, corn dogs, and frozen pizza.

I've got assorted cold cereal and roughly 6 dozen frozen muffins. My Aunt Sybil is queen of muffins, I have memories of the kitchen in her old house where the kids would eat breakfast at the sparkly topped table and she'd pull a chair up to the cutting board to eat. She's got elaborate recipes and time savers. I made 4 batches of her time savers.

I baked the muffins in cupcake liners. After they cooled, I put them in 1 gallon bread bags, labeled them, and stacked them in the freezer. Aunt Sybil puts hers in tupperware containers and shoe boxes. For this selection of recipes and amount of muffins, without any hustle or deadline, it took about an hour and 20 minutes to complete.

Cinnamon Crumb Muffins

1 box Krusteaz cinnamon crumb muffin mix.

Follow the directions on the box. Yield: 12 muffins.

I made a second batch for breakfast and stretched it to 15 muffins; I liked this a little better because the crumb tops didn't break off like in the first (freezer) batch.


Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 16 oz. can pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together. Scoop into muffin tins. Bake 350* 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Yield: 24 muffins.

This recipe works with any cake mix and any additions like nuts, raisins, white chocolate chips, etc.


Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

1 box carrot cake mix
1 16 oz. can pumpkin
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together. Scoop into muffin tins. Bake 350* 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Yield: 24 muffins.

This recipe was an experiment. I tried a new cake mix and I didn't add anything extra. My nearly 19 month old and I shared one and it tasted like carrot cake.


Blueberry Muffins

1 box Krusteaz blueberry muffin mix. Follow the directions on the box. Yield: 15 muffins.

Oh Boy!

Summer is completely upon us. The girls took a trip with Jeremy to Los Angeles to see Great Grandma (and to log some quality beach time) and the following week we spent some time with my family in the mountains at the family cabin. And now we're back to real life. Yesterday morning before Jeremy left for a quick trip he turned on the central air. Nothing. I told him, with a smile, that we'd be fine.

So, knowing that it might be a warm day, we had waffles for breakfast. This is the 3rd week in a row that Anna, my 10 year old, has made waffles. The recipe is easy to follow and with some direction, the waffle iron is a snap, too. This is my mom's recipe:

Oh Boy! Waffles

2 1/4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar

2 1/4 c. milk
2 eggs
1/4 c. oil

In one bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a different bowl whisk together wet ingredients. Pour wet into dry. Mix well. Pour onto hot waffle iron.

These waffles are a staple at our house and I generally serve them with butter and syrup. When they're on sale, I serve them with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Another fun option is butter and jam (try it with peach jam or raspberry jam). My jabbering 18 month old prefers creamy peanut butter on his "fuls".

When I'm feeling health conscious, I use 2 cups of white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour. My kids don't comment on it (maybe they don't notice?) and I'm adding fiber to our bodies. Bonus.

To the dry ingredients my mom adds about 1 tsp cinnamon, along with a touch of allspice, nutmeg, and ginger ("you know, the pumpkin pie spices"). She also adds to the wet ingredients a drop of vanilla, and a drop of lemon extract.

Tasty, nutritious, and delicious... and easy enough for a 10 year old.