Bisquick Coffee Cake Muffins

Hello,

Recently, I decided to make one of the most memorable breakfasts from my childhood. Every so often my mother would make Streusel Coffee Cake using Bisquick. This is the recipe she would use:  http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/streusel-coffee-cake/6961f214-b8aa-480b-8cd5-d57ea4350757#?st=6&term=coffee%20cake&src=SH&ps=9&pi=9#?st=6&term=coffee%20cake&src=SH&ps=9&pi=9

I based my recipe off this one. Basically, I did everything it called for except that I put it in a muffin tin instead.

The coffee cake muffins turned out delicious. And, let's face it, everything tastes better in muffin form.

For the streusel topping:

• 1/3 cup bisquick
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 firm tablespoons butter or margarine

For the muffin part:

• 2 cups bisquick
• 2/3 cup milk or water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg

Heat the oven to 375. Line the muffin tin with paper cups. I made 9 muffins. Let me just tell you that they were giant muffins. If that's okay with you then go for it. Next time I would make the whole pan of 12 muffins. In a small bowl mix all of the streusel ingredients together. The hardest part for me is always getting the streusel topping to turn out how I like it. The butter needs to remain somewhat solid so that you have small bits of "streusel". Not all of your butter will be blended with your cinnamon sugar mixture. In a separate bowl mix all of your muffin ingredients together. Pour the muffin mixture into the tin. Next, sprinkle the streusel topping onto your muffins. Bake 18-22 mins. I ended up baking mine about 26 mins since my muffins were rather large. The other downside of making them so large is that your streusel topping will spill onto your tin and you won't have as much for your muffin! Terrible thing to have happen. Here's how mine looked in the pan:

I hope you enjoy this recipe and happy baking!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Hello!

So recently I made the baked sweet and sour chicken that I found on Pinterest. Here is the link to the recipe I used:  http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html I have to say that it turned out pretty good. Here's a pic of my final product:

I paired brown rice with it. I wanted fried rice but by the time I got done cooking the chicken I was too lazy to make the fried rice. This recipe is definitely time consuming so be prepared for that.

I made a few modifications to the recipe found at the link above that I will inform you of along the way. Here are the ingredients that you will need:

I did not include the chicken in this picture.

Chicken coating:

• 3-4 chicken breasts 
• I used 3 large chicken breasts that was 1.5 pounds total (it seemed like this was too much when at the end I had no extra sauce and it definitely looks like a lot more than the recipe on the other blog used)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup of cornstarch
• I used every bit of the cornstarch. Probably because I had more chicken than the original blogger used and because I had never worked with cornstarch before. A lot of it will stick to the chicken which I was not aware of.
• 2 eggs beaten
• Again I used every bit of the egg. I also had problems with a lot of the egg wanting to stick to the cornstarch. Next time I will do the pieces of chicken 1 by 1 think. Although it will take a lot longer. I don't know we'll see.
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• I used vegetable oil. Worked fine.

Sweet and sour sauce:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• So I know in my picture I have the white zero calorie sucralose sweetener but I actually ended up using brown sugar instead. My mom always made a brown sugar/soy sauce mixture that we used on our chicken fried rice so I thought that brown sugar would be appropriate here. It's also probably why my chicken came out a little darker than the chicken from the other blogger's recipe.
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• I used Hunt's because that's what I had from couponing. I prefer Heinz for sure.
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

*Next time I will definitely be increasing the amount of sweet and sour sauce I make. When my chicken was done there was no extra sauce left. I'm a sauce girl. I love sauce. I would probably double the amount I make next time.

Take your chicken breasts and rinse them. Cut the chicken into cubes then salt and pepper to taste. Heat your oil in a skillet on medium to medium high. Next you will need to dip the chicken into the cornstarch and then into the beaten eggs. This process took me a little while because I had difficulty being a first time cornstarch user. Globs of it would stick to my fingers. Once coated and dipped you will cook the chicken in the oil just until the chicken is browned. It won't need to be cooked all the way through since you will be baking it. After the chicken is browned, place it in a greased baking dish. I used a 9x13 so the chicken would all be in one layer and that's what the recipe suggested. Pour the sweet and sour sauce over the chicken and stir carefully. Then place the chicken in the oven and cook in 15 minute intervals for 1 hour stirring the chicken at each interval. Here's what mine looked like when I pulled it from the oven:

Mine had some burned parts on them. I like burn taste so it was fine with me. 45 minutes would probably have been enough time for it to cook though. I had plenty of food. These made excellent leftovers as well.

For an at home Chinese dish I feel like this is definitely a good one. Of course nothing compares to eating Chinese food out but this is definitely a viable alternative. Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions! Thank you!

Crockpot Cube Steak

Hello,

Wednesday night I attempted one of the recipes I found on Pinterest that I have been wanting to try for a while. Cube steak and gravy.

I have had cube steak before in the crockpot and thought it was amazing. I've also had it fried in a pan with gravy which is also awesome. I personally find it way easier to make it in the crockpot so that's what I went for. Here is the recipe I used for my crock pot cube steak:  http://thepost-itplace.com/2012/01/crockpot-cube-steak-and-gravy/ Very few ingredients and so easy.

You need:

• cube steak - I had two smaller packs of cube steak instead of the website's use of one family pack but I imagine it was about the same amount of meat that the website used.
• two cans cream of something soup - the website suggests 2 cans of cream of mushroom. I used one can cream of mushroom and one can cream of chicken.
• one envelope of onion soup mix
• 3/4 cup water

All you do is mix the soup, onion mix and water in your crockpot then place the cube steak in the crockpot and stir. My cube steak was frozen when I put it in the crockpot. I put the crockpot in the fridge overnight and then turned it on in the morning. I really don't think it would matter if you starting cooking with frozen meat though I do it all the time. I don't have time in the mornings to prepare the crockpot before work so this method works great for me. I put the crockpot on low for 8 hours and it came out perfect. It might even need less time that that. I'll have to experiment and get back to you on that.

The only thing I might change would be to use 1.5 cans of cream of something soup because there was a lot of gravy. Which is a crazy statement I know. There is no such thing as too much gravy. And I wouldn't like having a half can of soup lying around so I would probably just try to put more meat in the crockpot next time. You could also make this into a lower calorie and fat meal by using the 98% fat free cream of something soups. I also just whipped up some instant mashed potatoes from a bag to eat with the cube steak and gravy. It was awesome.

I hope you try this recipe because it is so simple and cube steak is also one of the lower priced meats that you'll find at the grocery stores.

Thanks for your time and happy crockpotting!
Amy

Couponing Basics

Hello,

In this post I wanted to briefly describe my general couponing routine and some tips and suggestions for your own couponing. So every Monday or Tuesday I go to the local newspaper office and purchase 2 Sunday newspapers from them directly. This way I have two sets of coupon inserts to pull from. On Sunday the papers are $1.50 and when I purchase them the day after directly they are only $1. I haven't looked into having the paper delivered but I bet there could be some savings in doing that too. And that way you'll know you'll get all of your coupon inserts. When I go to the newspaper office I have to make sure all of my inserts are included since these are copies that were delivered to vendors and then returned to them. I used to go to Kroger or Publix on Sundays to purchase my newspapers but they are often left unattended and people tend to rifle through them stealing the inserts. So always make sure your newspaper has all of the inserts that it should before you purchase it. I just google "coupon inserts [date]" and then see which inserts should be included that week. My favorite site for previewing is  http://hip2save.com/2012/10/06/107-sunday-newspaper-coupon-insert-preview/



So...now that you have your inserts I write that Sunday's date on the top of each of the inserts. This way you will be able to easily locate the coupon you are looking for. If you look below you will see the date written on my SmartSource. This is approximately 2.5 months worth of inserts. At the beginning of each new month I go through my coupon inserts and throw away inserts with all expired coupons or clip the very few remaining ones that I keep in a small container along with my printed coupons and other random coupons that I receive from people. These coupons are sorted by date and month. Couponing doesn't get really fun until you have collecting a couple of months worth of coupon inserts so make sure to get them each week!

Now, I use couponmom.com  for my couponing which I highly suggest to anyone. You have to create a username and password but they don't send too much spam. At the most 1 email per day usually reminding you to print out coupons. This site does all the work for you. Once logged in, I go to the Grocery Deals by State tab, then See Stores by State, then click your state. Once on that screen I use the feature that says Extreme Grocery Deals All Stores: 50%+ off most often. The only downside is that often Athens receives different coupons than Atlanta does so not all of the coupons in their database match up with mine. Minor issue though. I usually on coupon for items that are more than 50% off and most often this covers the items that I need. Once here I sort by store and then click the items that I'm interested in and it'll put all the items on one list for you and let you know if there is a printable coupon for that item as well. Now you have the somewhat tedious task of locating the coupons for the items you would like to purchase. It's really only tedious if you do not have your coupons organized. Now you can print your list and have your coupons ready to go!



Now usually there are not coupons for produce or meat. It's best to watch your fliers each week to look for meat and produce sales. I prefer to go to Sam's Club or a locally owned grocery store about once every month or two to buy meat and then just freeze it and bring out what I need every day. I don't like to have the pressure of raw meat sitting in the fridge needing to be used. Buying a deep freezer is definitely in my near future though. The fridge freezer is constantly overcrowded.

Okay so that's enough for now. More next time for some insider tips on couponing!