Banana Chocolate Chip Crasin Muffins

Banana (whatever you want to add) Muffins
Ingredients:
3 Mashed Ripe Bananas (I save mine in baggies when they are ready and mash them inside the baggie. Then I freeze them until I have enough. Just write on the outside of the baggie how many are inside, freeze them, microwave them for about a minute and they are ready to go.)
1 cube (1/2 cup)Margarine
1 1/2 cups Sugar (I reduced this from 2 cups, it seemed too greasy that way, but if these don't turn out right for you, you can change it back.)
2 Eggs
½ cup Milk (or Applesauce which I've been using lately)
1 tsp Vanilla
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 ½ cups Flour
1 cup Chocolate Chips/Nuts/Crasins or other dried fruit (optional)

Instructions:
Mix together bananas, margarine, and sugar. Add eggs. Add milk, vanilla, salt, baking soda, and flour. Sometimes I just sprinkle the chocolate chips on top after they are in the muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees in greased muffin tins 30-40 minutes. Fill pans only ½ full. You could also make bread. Mine never cooks in the middle though. You could even freeze them if you don't eat them all right away.

Chocolate Pudding Cookies

Chocolate Pudding Cookies
Mom tested-Kid approved! These were on one of my friends' blogs a while ago and I tried them tonight. They are SO good. Unlike most chocolate cookie recipes, it uses a pudding mix instead of baking cocoa. Because of this, the cookies don't seem as greasy or as flat as normal.

Ingredients:
1 cup margarine
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small package instant chocolate pudding
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
*Additions: you can add regular chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, coconut, nuts, pretty much anything you like.

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together and bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake, they are meant to be soft and slightly underdone when you take them out.

Sorry about the extreme close up. I was trying to be artsy and I wanted to see how my camera does with super close shots.

Want to Substitute Ingredients?

I always like to make things easier on my budget by making things from scratch or switching ingredients for something that will work just as good. Here is a website that has a great list of common substitutions. Love this list. It's long and very easy looking.

Tator Tot Casserole

This is mostly my mom's recipe. It has adjustments for the things we (by this, I mean Andy) don't like much.
Tator Tot Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef (or less or more, whichever you like more)
Spices (salt, pepper, dried onions, garlic, red pepper, parsley-I just add a little-less than 1/2 teaspoon-of each of these in when the hamburger is almost done.)
1 can Spaghetti Sauce or Tomato Soup
1 bag Tator Tots, divided
2 cups Mixed Vegetables (or whatever veggies you like)
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup (you could use mushroom or celery if you prefer those.)
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef in large frying pan. Add spices when it is almost cooked. Drain. Put back in pan and add spaghetti sauce. Heat. Spray casserole dish with cooking non-stick spray. Add ground beef/spaghetti sauce to casserole dish. Sprinkle a layer of tator tots on top of it. Add mixed vegetables in a layer. Put cream of chicken on top of vegetables. Add another layer of tator tots. Sprinkle top with cheddar cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until it's bubbly goodness shows around the edges. Let it set for about 10 minutes before serving so that it doesn't become soup.

Example from top to bottom:
Cheddar Cheese
Tator Tots
Cream of Chicken
Mixed Vegetables
Tator Tots
Hamburger/Spaghetti Sauce

I love this meal. I love cream of chicken. I wish I could find a really good and easy recipe to make it from scratch. Maybe I will someday, but it's so good from the can and I use it in so many things.
(I hope posting things helps you not be too bored Trish.)
This is what my one year old looked like after eating/spilling his. He is almost in his "food coma".

Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

I am thinking about dinner today and I'm going to make Stir Fry. I don't add a lot to it. We love it like this:

Ingredients:
1/2 bottle of Stir Fry sauce (we like Kikkoman's Sauce, but you can use whatever sauce you'd like.)
1 Chicken Breast, cut into whatever size pieces you want, about 1/2 cubes works well)
2 cups sliced Baby Carrots
3 cups Frozen Broccoli
1/2 cup Peppers (I got a bag of frozen Bird's Eye Sliced Peppers that has every color)

Rice
Chow Mien Noodles

Instructions:
Cut cup Chicken breast (or beef if you want to) and add to large frying pan or wok (if you have it). Add in Stir Fry sauce and let chicken cook until done. Add in carrots, broccoli, and peppers. Add a little water (about 1 cup) to sauce, if needed to help cook vegetables. You can add more vegetable too if you want to (onions, baby corn, celery, pea pods, water chestnuts, etc). Let simmer until carrots are soft. Cook rice. Serve. Eat.