The Frugal Kitchen: Step By Step Granola Recipe

 My favorite breakfast consists of a bowl of yogurt, either honey or jam, and finished with a topping of homemade granola.  I make granola once a month.  Here is my process:

Use a half sheet pan.  It allows the granola to toast evenly and quickens the browning.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pour a quarter cup of oil into the pan, trying to distribute it evenly.  Use the oil of your choice.

Add around 32 ounces of rolled oats to the pan and mix thoroughly with the oil.

Add a half cup of honey to the oats and stir thoroughly.  You could also use maple syrup, but I would increase the amount to 3/4 cups.

Here is where you can get creative by adding any combination of nuts and seeds to the mixture.  This is a good way to use any small amount of nuts that you have leftover.

Mix thoroughly and spread evenly in your sheet pan.  Bake at 5 minute intervals, stirring between each 5 minutes until the granola has toasted thoroughly.  It should be a golden brown color.

Now add the dried fruit, cut into bite sized pieces, that you prefer.  I don’t toast the granola any further after adding the fruit, because the fruit can get hard.

Mix thoroughly and allow to cool completely before storing in a container or ziplock bag.  

I hope you enjoy this granola recipe.  My family loves it and I like being able to control the amount of sweetness and oil.  Commercially made granola is high in fat and sugar.

God bless,

Pam

Breakfast Cereal Alternative: Homemade Granola

This is a favorite of ours; mixed with yogurt it is delicious.  It's even good eaten out of hand instead of trail mix.  I have bagged this and given it as gifts.  It was also popular when sold at a school fundraiser.  Change the recipe around to fit your family's preferences.


Pam's Granola

5 cups rolled oatmeal
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup each of any nuts and seeds your family likes
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup dried fruit

Place oatmeal, oil, nuts, seeds, salt and cinnamon in a greased 9"x13" pan, stir to combine.  Toast in a 350 degree F oven for 1/2 hour, stirring frequently.  Add honey, stir well and continue to toast for 20 minutes, stirring frequently (be careful, the honey makes it easy to burn).  Remove from oven, add dried fruit, and mix frequently while the granola cools (if you don't mix it you will end up with a large granola brick).  After it is completely cooled, bag it and enjoy.

God bless,
Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Apple Crisp

Every year I order a 1/2 bushel of apples and enough pecans for holiday cooking from my local 4-H.  We picked up our apples at the end of October and have been enjoying them ever since.

My original plan was to make some apple butter, but in looking at the pantry I realized that I still had plenty of jars left over from last year.  So I have been adjusting some old favorite recipes to make them fast, frugal and easy.  Here's a quick and easy apple crisp.

INGREDIENTS

granola (I used Cascadian Farms brand)
5 large apples (firm cooking apples)
1/4-1/2 cup of white or brown sugar
2 heaping Tbsp. corn starch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
butter

Peel and core apples.  Cut into 1/4 inch slices.

Grease an 8 inch pan with butter then layer apple slices in the bottom.

Mix the sugar, corn starch,salt and cinnamon together, then sprinkle over the top of the apples.  Dot with butter.

Layer granola over the top.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake until the apples are soft and the granola is nicely browned.

Serve in a bowl with a dollop of whipping cream or a scoop of ice cream.

Enjoy!

God bless,
Pam

Those Christmas Disasters

Life doesn't stop happening just because it is the holiday season.  Nope, life just keeps moving along dealing us the occasional blow to keep us paying attention.  The best laid plans must be pushed aside to fix an insistent problem.

Today I was feeling pretty sassy.  I had managed to get into see my doctor early and I drove home knowing that I had plenty of time to finish some holiday projects.

When I got home I went into my kitchen to make some granola and noticed a puddle on the floor.  I opened my cabinet under the sink to discover a wet mess.  One of my shut off valves had developed a steady drip; it must have been dripping since Saturday when I fixed a leaky faucet.

So, I began emptying the cabinet and emptying the cabinet and emptying the cabinet.  Some things were thrown away because they were sopping wet.  But I was amazed at the amount of cleaners, polishes, detergents and sponges that I had accumulated in this one cabinet.

I had a decision to make now that my cabinets are drying out and I am waiting to clean my kitchen up:  Should I feel awful and defeated or should I enjoy what remained of my morning.  People will be fine if they go one year without my granola and why should I allow my joy to be diminished by the plumbing.

Bad things happen during the holidays.  Bad things happen for no reason to good people.  It is not what has gone wrong that should form us, but how we react to it.

God bless,
Pam

Where Are The Holiday Food Deals?

I've notice that for the last few weeks that there is a serious lack of food items on sale that correspond with coupons.  Usually there are several BOGOs with coupons that allow me to renew my food stores.  I don't know if the stores have made this decision just for the holidays or if it is a permanent change (I certainly hope not).

When I went shopping for a half gallon of organic milk I was shocked at the price (over $4.00)!  It seems as though even the basics are becoming difficult to buy.  I stopped buying convenience foods years ago, but now I'm seeing myself compromising on buying the basics I need to make meals.

Walgreens has been the best place for me to find baking goods this holiday season.  I have stocked up on flour, sugar, baking powder and chocolate chips using a combination of their store coupons and manufacturer coupons.  But they have stopped offering these deals as we get closer to the holidays.

I am trying to come up with ways to get around buying the expensive basics.  Perhaps using reconstituted dry milk for baking would be less expensive than buying liquid milk?  I need to start looking at web sites that sell food for storage to see if their products end up being less expensive for every day use.

I have also compromised on the food gifts that I make for the holidays.  Oatmeal was on sale last week, so I will make my world famous granola instead of a large number of cookies or candy.  Packaged in a pretty bag with a nice tag it makes a great gift.  I had the recipe on the blog last Christmas and it was a hit.

If you have any food shopping strategies for this holiday season please share them with us.

God bless,
Pam

Frugal Christmas Gifts

Three Christmas gift ideas in one post!

I love to buy gifts from Etsy.   It's nice to support a small business and everything I've purchased has been unique, handmade and creative.  I recently purchased the garnet and silver ring from Stamey Creek Creations which is located in North Carolina by the John C. Campbell Folk School.  The young woman that owns the store has attended classes at the school all of her life and has recently started working in sterling silver.

On my nails in the photo (yes, I'm a Mennonite that wears nail polish) is Zoya nail polish, which is free of the five bad chemicals often found in nail polish.  Zoya has been having the Twelve Days of Christmas with a new sale every day.

Yankee Candles has some very nice Christmas scents.  I usually order from the Yankee Candle online store, which has personalized candles and their large candles are two for $36 right now.  They also have some cute Christmas themed decorations.  I like to keep a couple of the small jar candles on hand for last minute gifts.

I also picked up some food bags at the dollar store for my homemade granola.  It makes a nice hostess gift and is a quick Christmas morning breakfast when served over yogurt.

Have fun!

God bless,
Pam