Cinnamon Nutella Twists

 A Yummy Recipe

Do you remember forever ago when I posted about my homemade biscuit mix. If Not you can Find it here. I have another recipe for you that uses that mix. My Family and I have a new love and that is hazelnut spread. I especially love it with ice cream. Unfortunately I do not have an ice cream recipe for you but a breakfast one.

This week my daughter asked for cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I did not have 3 hours to make her real ones so I made a quick version with biscuit dough, and I also decided it needed hazelnut spread with it. And a side of strawberries. It was so good, I have to share it with you.

  Ingredients:

2 cups of biscuit mix
2/3 cup of milk
hazelnut spread
sugar and cinnamon mix

Put two cups of the biscuit mix in a bowl and make a well, pour in the 2/3 cup milk in slowly incorporating it into the mix, if is ends up a little sticky you can a little more mix. It should form a ball that you can kneed slightly. At this point you have biscuit dough.

Roll it out how you would for biscuits, but not as thick, less than 1/2 an inch. Slather on a layer of Hazelnut spread then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cut the dough into long strips that are about 1/2 in wide. I usually end up with 10 to 12 strips. Twist each strip and place them on a baking sheet. Cook them in a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes or until they are golden brown.

You can also glaze these if you want, but they are pretty sweet without.

More recipes you will love:

frozen pizza crust

frozen waffles

Frozen Waffles

Did you know you could freeze waffles? I guess it just took me a while to figure that one out; that I could have quick waffles like the kind you get in the freezer section, but you make at home. (Okay that was an awful run-on sentence.) We had some this morning, and I forgot to take pictures. I got too excited about the yummy goodness.  To make them I start with  1 1/2 cups of my homemade-biscuit-mix . To this I add 1 egg, 1 tbsp of sugar, and enough milk to make it into a batter.

I heat my waffle iron up and I pour the batter in the iron. If I was making waffles to eat right then I would cook them till they are golden brown. But for this post we are putting them all in the freezer. If you want to put them in the freezer for a future use only cook them till they are just cooked through. Let them cool off then put them in the freezer bag. Lay them flat in the freezer. When you are ready to use them pull them out of the freezer and pop them in your toaster. They will heat up and get their golden goodness in the toaster. Serve with your favorite syrup.

Usually when I am making waffles to go in my freezer it is because I have made to much batter for pancakes or waffles that morning. This is a chore I do only when I have leftover batter so sometimes I only end up making 1 or 2 at a time. I will just throw them in the bag that is already in the freezer. When the bag gets full the family can get a yummy breakfast without a lot of fuss, or my husband will grab one out for something fast to eat.

Homemade Biscuit Mix

I have a lot of moms in my life, Godly women who have come beside me and guided me into the person I am today. Each one has blessed me, and taught me many things that are important to who I am. This is a recipe from one of those moms, Claudia Nussbaum.

 In college I decided in needed to learn how to make biscuits. Every Wednesday the cafeteria made homemade biscuits and gravy (the joys of going to a small college). When it was time to leave I did not want to miss out on those Wednesday breakfasts.  I asked my mom if she would teach me how to make biscuits. She said that she never mastered them, so she would not be a good teacher. So I was left with finding someone else. On one of the days I was visiting with Claudia I was telling her about my woes in not being able to make biscuits.  She said I can show you and I have a great recipe. She made me some mix to take home with me, and I still use the original Bryers ice cream one gallon container she gave it to me in. (that was eight years ago,  maybe its time to find something new)

Today I use this mix a lot. I use it for biscuits, pancakes, waffles, pinwheels, casserole crusts, and more. I make a batch, and it goes in my gallon ice cream container. It replaces my need to by Bisquick, and it saves time from making it all from scratch, because I make a big batch at one time.

 

 8 Cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup baking powder
1 cup solid shortening
8 tsp. sugar (optional)

Combine everything except the solid shortening and mix well. Using a pastry blender or two table knives  to cut the shortening in until the mixture resembles course meal (I usually just use my hand). Store it in a container with an air tight lid. It can be kept in the pantry or the fridge.

I will post some of my recipes using the mix at a later date, I will label them Biscuit mix.

More Recipes You Will Love

Frozen Pizza Crust

 Mini Pound Cake Loaves

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

When I got back from Christmas break I somehow ended up with 9 bananas in my apartment and they were spoiling fast so I was coming up with creative ways to use them besides my typical banana bread. I also have a hoarders amount of oatmeal. So I put 2 and 2 together and made oatmeal cookies.They came out amazingly soft and I know Elvis would be jealous to have a few.

2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. white sugar
1c. brown sugar
1 c. mashed banana (or 2 bananas)
2 eggs
2 T. cold water
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal (I used the old fashioned)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of peanut butter chips

Sift together the first 4 ingredients. Cream the sugars, banana, eggs and water together. Add the flour mixture until it is all wet. Add the oatmeal and the chips just till mixed. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. I got about 30 big cookies out of it.

Chicken Gumbo

Last week when I was roasting a chicken I was thinking about recipes that I have not made for a while that I could use for the left overs of the roasted chicken. I thought of making gumbo, and it just so happened that I had a coupon for andouille sausage so that made it even better. We really enjoyed our pot full and it disappeared quickly. I thought you would enjoy the recipe too.

To start with you will need my recipe for stock. You can find it here. or you can use canned.

I used 4 cups stock, and the chicken that was left on the carcass.
1 bag of frozen Cajun mixed vegetables (onion, celery and green pepper)
 1 Tbsp of minced garlic
1 Tbsp of parsley flakes
2 Tsp of Salt
2 tsp of chili powder
1/2 tps of   thyme
1/2 tps of cayenne pepper (you can always add more if you like some heat)
1/4 tps of black pepper
paprika for taste
1 link of andouille sausage

It is as easy as throwing all the ingredients in a pot and letting it simmer for an hour till all the favors have melded together. Serve it over a big bowl of rice, and you've  got a great cold weather soup.

Taco or Fajita Seasoning

1 c. dried minced Onion
1/3 c. chili powder
2 T. Cumin
3 tsp. crushed red peper
1 T. Oregano
4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp corn starch
Combine all the ingredients together and store it in a cool dry place. I like to put my in clean baby jars. One recipe fits into 2 jars.  2 T. equals one taco packet.


If at all possible I like to make most things from scratch, that way I know what is actually going into my food. This is a recipe that I go to pretty often and I like to stay stocked with. My daughter is in the WIC program so we always have, rice, beans and tortillas on hand. Because of that Mexican night happens pretty frequently in our house. Like tonight when it was just Abigail and I for dinner. I had some left over chicken so I made some simple quesadillas. Then I made re-fried beans by heating a T. of oil in a pan, then I added a drained can of pinto beans, with a 1/4 cup of water and 2 tsp of the taco seasoning. I used a potato masher on it till it had the consistency of  re-fried beans. I also plated everything with sour cream and salsa for dips. (I have not found a 3 year old who does not like to dip things.) Everything was done in about 10 minutes.

Mini Pound Cake Loaves

I have a favorite pound cake recipe that is really simple and it tastes amazing, but it is on the large size. Since there are only three of us when I do make it a lot of it goes to waste, or I end up eating way to much of it. I stopped making it very often because of this fact. My husband wanted me to make it a few nights ago, and I decided there has to be a better way of making it without wasting it.

The original recipe asks for a large bunt or angel food cake pan. In the new and improved version I use half the batter and put it into four mini loaf pans...perfect.

Butter milk Pound Cake

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract or almond extract depending on the taste you are wanting
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose floor
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C). Grease 4 mini loaf pans. Blend Butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture well after each addition. Stir in lemon and vanilla extracts. Mix together the rest of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture and the milk alternately with the milk in with the egg and sugar mixture. Pour the batter into the four pans equally, each will be half full. Bake in oven for 35 minutes, or until cake begins to pull away from the pan. Do not open the oven door till at least 25 minutes has past. (If you are wanting to use a bunt pan multiply the recipe except the baking soda.)

quick easy and cheap blueberry oatmeal pancakes

This is a recipe that has origins from my dad. He would make all kinds of different flavored pancakes for us, and all he would use is muffin mix. Really this recipe has no limits and you can expand from just the blueberries.

1 blueberry muffin mix (for this recipe I used a mix that makes six muffins)
1/4 cup of quick oats
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk

Add the mix and the oatmeal into a bowl, I like using my 4 cup measuring bowl because it has a spout. stir it up. Add the egg and the milk. Using a fork stir just till everything is mixed. If it looks like you need a little more milk then add it. At This point it should look like pan cake batter. Pore batter onto griddle making medium sized pancakes. When bubbles start to appear, flip. I know this last part is different. Normally you would wait till the bubbles start popping, but if you do that you will end up with very brown pancakes. Serve while still hot.

I got about 12 medium sized pancakes out of this. I also tried the recipe on the waffle iron, but the results were not very good.

Second Best Yeast Rolls

A Yummy Recipe

I have to explain myself with the title. I could never claim to have the best yeast roll recipe, because my grandmother has the best recipe. This is a recipe that has no written words, it is just something that you have to watch her do, and follow along. I have never gotten the chance to watch her so I am left to my imagination.

I have been playing around with some recipes, I think I have come up with a pretty good one, plus you can freeze it, even better. Thank you to all the ladies who gave suggestions on how to do this.

Recipe

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter cut up
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp. dry yeast
2 eggs
5 cups flour (give or take)

Heat up the sour cream, sugar, and butter to 130 degrees. Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water. Set aside for 10 min. Combine mixtures. Stir in 2 cups of flour. Add eggs and beat into mixture. Add enough flour to make dough fit for kneading. Knead for about 6 min. adding flour when needed. Place kneaded dough in a greased bowl and let rise to double. Punch down rolls and form into balls. I tend to get 3 sets of 9 (27) rolls. At this point you can choose to freeze them or to put them in pans to have second rising.

For freezing:

Flour the rolls, then add parchment paper to a gallon zip-lock bag, you can fit 9 to a bag. Then freeze. When you are ready to cook them take them out of the freezer 3 hours before you are ready to cook them. Spray an 8 or 9 in. square baking pan,  then place the nine rolls on the pan. Leave them in a draft free place and let them rise. Cook at 375 for 20 min.

For not freezing: 

Spray the desired pan wanted, a square pan holds 9, 9 by 13 can hold 15. Place rolls on pan, and let them go through a second rising, when doubled in size cook at 375 for 15 to 20 min.

This dough also makes really yummy Cinnamon Rolls.  

More Recipes You Will Love

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Homemade Biscuit Mix

The Art of Roasting a Chicken

Since moving, and Justin starting a new job I have been trying to save money every way that I can. One of the areas that I have given a lot of notice to is our grocery bill. I have gotten to where I spend 70 dollars a week on groceries, for three people.  I guess that is reasonable. One of the things that I do to help save on groceries is to buy whole chicken instead of cut up chicken. In the five years that we have been married I like to think that I have perfected the way to roast a chicken. I have cooked it this way at least 100 times. There are 55 weeks in a year, so it might be more than that. The recipe is as follows:

One whole chicken, do not wash it (save your self some time in not disinfecting your whole kitchen after washing your chicken) Put it in a roaster.
 spray the chicken with cooking spray
salt and pepper the chicken
Add 1 tablespoon of dry basil, 1 tablespoon of parsley, 1/2 tbsp of oregano
Sprinkle on a couple of spoonfuls of minced garlic
then slice up a Roma tomato and spread out the slices of tomato on top of the chicken
cook the chicken at 350 degrees till the internal temp reaches 180.


I usually serve as is for the first meal. The second meal I will pick all the extra chicken off the bone, and make it in to a casserole. The third meal I boil the carcass into stock for a soup. The recipe for stock:

Put chicken carcass in a stock pot fill the pot with water till it covers the carcass.  I add whatever juices are left in the roasting pan, taking the fat out first. (this is usually a hard crust on top from being in the fridge). I add a whole onion and some celery, and salt. I let all of that cook for a few hours, till it is reduced to about 6 cups of stock.  

Sorry I don't have any amazing pictures, but when we ate our chicken yesterday we ate it before I remembered to take them.