Starting a cake from a boxed mix is a great option if you find yourself in need of a quick and easy yet full flavor cake. Editing the recipe of your boxed cake mixes combines ease of use with a quality finished product. Personally, I prefer to use butter in my baking including when I start with a boxed cake mix to help me save time and get more done each day. I love to keep butter in the freezer for baking but there are a few other great substitutes I use for oil when I start with a boxed…
Tomato sauce is one of the most commonly used ingredients in everything from homemade chili to sloppy joes and pasta sauce and my personal favorite… Pizza. I love a good tomato-based dish and I love adding tomato sauce to everyday dishes like meatloaf for an added dose of flavor . I do not always keep jars of tomato sauce on had though because it is one of those things we go through faster than I can preserve from the garden. That means sometimes I have to get creative with a substitution for tomato sauce. What can you use as a substitution…
I decided to make chocolate chip cookies for the kids. Shortly before I began I did a little cleaning and picked up a glass my husband drank from the night before thinking that he had drunk my vanilla extract. It turned out he drank a bit of rum the night before and when it evaporated it left a spiced vanilla behind. This sparked an idea. Butter Rum Chocolate Chip Cookies. It turns out that rum really does make a great vanilla extract substitute when baking up treats. Turns out the cookies made with them are amazing. The combination was amazing.…
The prices at the grocery store are absolutely insane and finding frugal meals that will feed my large family is a lot harder than it used to be. Thankfully we do have a few recipes from my dad to help make things go a bit further. He learned this recipe from his grandmother and at the end of the day, this recipe shows her grit and survival in the great depression. If you are looking for a frugal way to feed your family this frugal recipe will help you make use of kielbasa or smoked sausage that often goes on…
Food waste is a major problem around the world, with an estimated one-third of all food produced going to waste. This not only has significant economic and environmental impacts but also contributes to food insecurity for millions of people. One way to combat food waste is through zero-waste cooking, which involves using every part of the food you buy or grow, including the scraps. By finding creative ways to use food scraps, you can reduce waste, save money, and even create delicious meals. I like to look for as many ways as possible to use up our food scraps before…
I can almost hear dad laughing at me and my tendency to worry about things way before they happen and look for every possible way to blunt the trauma. I always over-prepare for everything and then spend my time grateful that I did. He always rolled his eyes. Today as I rolled out pierogi dough with the kids I thought of all the times we did this with dad growing up while talking to him. I wish I could go back. Theseperogis remind me of him. You will notice that the recipe makes a batch much larger than any you…
