Bread Machine Sour Cream-Vanilla Bread

*** UPDATE *** This bread makes AWESOME French toast!!!

If you remember I got some sour cream for free last week with the HEB meal deal. After flipping through a bunch of recipes, I decided to try this recipe from Betty Crocker. I tried to get the link up, but there is a problem with their site this morning.

This is a good bread, but it is nothing like the description on their website. It is basically just a slightly sweet white bread, not "pound cake - like" as described by Betty Crocker. It had a nice airy texture, which contradicted a bunch of the reviews.

James was pretty happy to actually have a white bread in our house. I'm not sure when I last made a white bread but I will definitely be making this again. I am going to toast it up for breakfast this morning and make French toast with the leftovers tomorrow morning.

Bread Machine Sour Cream-Vanilla Bread - from Betty Crocker

1/2 c water

1/3 c sour cream

1 T vanilla

1 egg

1 T butter, softened

3 c Bread flour

3 T sugar

1 1/4 t salt

2 t bread machine yeast or quick active dry yeast (I used regular yeast and it worked well.)

1. Measure all ingredients and place in bread machine in order recommended by the manufacturer.

2. Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Light crust color. Do not use delay cycle. Remove baked bread from pan, and cool on wire rack.

Thoughts on the first month of the challenge

I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on the first month of our $1200 challenge. Here's what I've decided - I miss eating out. The sad thing is that I don't actually miss the food, which inevitably makes me sick, but just the experience. I don't miss how much it costs either, but I still miss the feeling of going out. Maybe I need to do try some new things when cooking dinner. Different plates, more formal plates, candles, setting the table, etc. We'll see how things go.

I also miss shopping for deals. Now I just stay out of stores unless I know there is a big sale on something that we need. I love the thrill of finding a good deal and have been missing that feeling. On the other hand, I don't miss fighting people, maneuvering a cart through rude people, or actually handing over the money.

Good things that have happened this first month: 1) I have been baking a lot more (English muffins, cakes, brownies, breads, etc.), 2) James and I have had 29 home-cooked meals this month with only a few repeats, and 3) I have not had the stomach problems I had started to have at the end of last year.

I guess in my reflections I decided it is a balance of feelings. For the most part, the first month has been a positive experience with just a few changes that I've had to adapt to.

** We did cave last night and go and get some Blizzards from DQ. I had been fighting off the craving for about a week, and James just decided we were going last night. $6.04 of goodness into our bellies. **

Whole Wheat English Muffins

No picture, but I'll describe. I got this recipe from Finding Joy in My Kitchen. She got the recipe from somewhere else. Here's the link for the Whole Wheat English Muffins recipe.

These muffins had a very good flavor, but they did not rise at all for me. They are VERY thin. I cut the recipe in half which might have altered the recipe, but I don't see why that would affect anything. I may not have let the dough rise long enough the first time. Who knows? I do know that I will gladly be eating these right up even though they are flat. Good flavor, good texture, and they toast up very well. I will also be trying to make a whole batch of these again in order to have some in the freezer.

I hope you like them.

Milk pick up

I had to get some milk today. Price of the gallon of milk (at a grocery store) was $2.98. OOP was zero because I used a gift card.

Easy black bean tostados

I am actually embarrassed to post this recipe. I often read recipes in cookbooks and think "did they really think people don't do this in their own homes already." Well, this is probably one of those recipes. . .but it tasted so good.

Black bean tostados

4 corn tortillas
oil
1 can of black beans, almost completely drained (leave about 1-2 T)
2 T chopped onions
1 t cumin
1/2 t garlic
cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Pour enough oil (veg or canola) into a small pan just to cover the bottom. Heat the oil over medium heat. Put one tortilla in the oil and cook each side until crisp. I didn't time this but I would guess about 30 seconds per side, you'll just have to keep an eye on it. Layer a cookie rack onto a baking sheet, remove the tortilla (now a tostado), and put the tostado on the rack. Put these in the oven to cook off a little of the oil and keep warm and crispy. Continue this until all your tortillas are formed into tostados.

2. Cook onion in about a tablespoon of oil over medium heat until translucent. Pour in beans and about 1-2 T of juice. Add cumin and garlic salt and warm. Mash the beans with a potato masher or use a food processor to puree (I didn't want to get mine dirty). I added in a tiny bit of the cooking oil to the mashed beans to smooth out the texture a little bit.

3. Remove tostados from oven, top with beans and cheese and enjoy.

I told you it was embarrassing to post!

So easy granola bars

I am constantly on the search for a good homemade granola bar recipe. I love a good granola bar, but I don't like the prices or the ingredients for store bought bars. My friend Christy, from www.mommysavers.com had been raving about the bars she made, so I emailed her for the recipe. She referred me to a link on www.allrecipes.com entitled "Easy Granola Bars." Talk about easy!

I only made a half batch and added two teaspoons of maple syrup. I also toasted the coconut and almonds before adding them to the mixture. James and I both thought these had a great flavor and texture . With my half batch I was able to get 8 decent size bars. I hope you enjoy the bars!

For those of you coconut haters (put me in this group), you cannot taste the coconut!

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