Some recipes we've tried in the past week..

Here's some of the things I've been up to recipe wise. Most of them turned out great!

                                              Pepperoni rolls from the breadmaker

The recipe called for 6 pieces of pepperoni for 16 roll each. Well of course I was just trying to finish out the bag from a pizza we made earlier, so I just put 3 or 4 in each. I think we ended up with 10 rolls and 4 regular rolls with no pepperoni inside. My husband made up a great sauce to spread over it before baking. He put some parmesan cheese, garlic, italin seasoning and olive oil mixed it up and put it on. Yum! The dough itself was a nice recipe. We actually used just the dough for a pizza tonight for dinner. Once you get all the pepperoni in the center of the dough, pinch together. The seam side goes down! This is something I read after Jacob had put all that olive oil on the so called top- now bottom. Oh, well! Then let rise for 30 min. and in to the oven for 15 min or so. They really rose, as you can tell!! They were a great addition to soup night and also just a nice little snack for anytime!
 

Click here to find the wonderful recipe: http://www.breadmachinediva.com/2012/01/pepperoni-rolls/

                                                Oatmeal Cinnamon Waffles

http://www.fitsugar.com/Recipe-Cinnamon-Oatmeal-Waffles-7567442

 Ok, so the recipe name sounded good.. Nice and healthy breakfast, right?! Well I thought they were a little dry! It was a very thick batter. It didn't taste very cinnamon-y either. That's one of the things that made me want to try this recipe actually. I made the whole batch and froze a bunch for later. Strawberries and syrup definitely made it better, but still I don't think I would make this one again.

called for plain greek yogurt- hmm.. does regular, strawberry work?!
 

Very thick batter!

Ready for breakfast!

Cornbread Casserole

http://penniesonaplatter.com/2010/11/24/corn-casserole/ or  Paula Deen via The Food Network

Forgot to take any pictures! But I have to say, this was delicious. It looked pretty much the same as the picture here! Yay! I made it last night for some friends that came over for dinner. Our friend commented that it was similar to a cornbread casserole that they use to have at the restaurant Don Pablo's.  I would make this again. My friend actually asked for the recipe too, so I think that's a good sign:) 

Pumpkin cream cheese bread
This was pretty good. I made 2 loaves. The only tricky part was pouring it in evenly, then the cream cheese filling in the middle and then more bread topping. I thought it was going to turn out worse with how little batter I ended up having for the top layer, but as you can see it was enough! I used fresh pumpkin that I had froze in the fall. If you were to look at my recipe boards, you will see that I have a bit of a pumpkin addiction- especially in the fall. It was a nice tasting, low fat bread.

http://www.sundaybaker.net/2011/09/pumpkin-cream-bread-low-calorie.html

 Homemade Laundry Detergent
So, you don't eat this one. But I'm hoping if it saves us some money then we can maybe go out to eat more!;) or at least I won't feel bad when I go over in my grocery budget! This recipe called for bar soap ( I used Dove) grated, 1 c borax, 1 c washing soda. Mix it all up and only use a Tablespoon a load (with warm or hot water)! I read that this detergent costs about 5 cents a load! I have seen many different recipes, all similar... Here's the one I used and some of the info in the blog post is helpful too. http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/10/homemade-laundry-powder-3-ingredients-10-minutes.html

 

Isabella mixing it all up!

 I've done one load of laundry so far with it. I'll have to let you know with the next few loads how clean it is. Last, but not least was refilling our foaming soap pump. A inch of baby wash and water- that's it! So, again- I'll have to let you know how well it works in a week or so. But all in all pretty happy with all the things I've been able to try lately. It's fun to find good recipes and even better to find ways to save on things that you have to buy anyway. I'm planning on trying a few more recipes later on in the week- diy brownie mix and a stain lifter that apparently gets things out of anything. I have some spots in every room on the carpet that I would love to try that out on!

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2011/03/homemade-foaming-baby-wash.html