Monday, May 4, 2009

Refrigerator Muffins

While packing this week I came across an old notebook of recipes and found this one for refrigerator raisin bran muffins. I was thrilled because there are lots of great deals on cereal this week and this will be a great way to use up some of what we've purchased. If you haven't already printed some, you can snag Kellogg's $1/box coupons by clicking on the coupons.com box at the top left of this page.

I love this recipe because the muffins aren't too sweet, and it's so convenient to have the batter in the fridge so you can have hot muffins on the table in just a few minutes. It also makes it easy to fix just a small batch--a tin of 6 muffins fits nicely in my toaster oven. The batter will keep for a week in the fridge and I think it yields about 24 muffins. I not positive about how many because the recipe is a little smudged where something was dropped on it! :)

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c sugar
3 cups raisin bran cereal
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix first four ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in raisin bran. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add to wet ingredients, stirring just until mixed. Batter can be refrigerated up to 7 days.

To bake, preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin cups and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Take a look at Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for lots more great recipes!

Updated 5/5: I was supposed to finish packing up the kitchen last night, but when I realized the baking supplies and a set of mixing bowls were still here, I decided to mix up a batch of these. I only had about 1 1/2 c of all-purpose flour (I never run out, but have been letting things get low in preparation for moving!), so I subbed a cup of quick oats for the rest of the flour. I baked six muffins in the toaster oven this morning, and my family thinks I'm awesome! My 20 month old daughter ate 2, my super-picky 3 yr old son had 1 1/2 , and hubs and I polished off the rest. After baking 6, I'd say the recipe will probably yield about 18. I'm so glad I found this recipe--I think it will become a regular breakfast around here. It would also be really easy to vary by adding nuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruits, or even different cereals.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

We're moving this week (aaack!), so my menu planning is really just jotting down a few ideas of things we can throw together quickly. I dream that one day I'll be organized enough to prepare for something like a move by making all kinds of meals ahead of time, then storing them in the freezer so we can just heat and eat healthy homemade meals when life gets crazy. Until then, my plan is to buy lots of snacks and convenience foods in times like this. I figure living on peanut butter sandwiches and hot pockets for a week won't kill us, and is probably better for us than eating fast food. It's definitely better for the budget! :)

Armed with that philosophy, here's what we'll be eating this week:

Breakfasts
cold cereal
scrambled egg on bagel
bagel & cream cheese

Lunches
zucchini-black bean-bacon quesadillas, fruit
pbjs, chips, fruit
hot pockets, chips, fruit
tuna salad sandwiches, chips, fruit
pesto pasta

Dinners
waffles, bacon, fruit
turkey (from freezer), stuffing, steamed broccoli
ginger-soy noodles w/ broccoli
zucchini-black bean-bacon quesadillas, fruit
whole-wheat pasta w/ broccoli, bacon & cheese sauce

Pasta is definitely my favorite quick meal, in case you didn't pick up on that! :) I fried up a pound of bacon tonight, so it's ready to go for all those meals that will use it. That will make several meals really quick to put together. We had the quesadillas for dinner tonight, and the leftover filling is in the fridge ready to go for lunch tomorrow. We used monterrey jack cheese and really liked the combination of bacon, black beans & zuchini--definitely something we'll be making again! Maybe next time I'll add some corn, too.

I went to Aldi tonight and spent $27.86 on the following:
two pkgs frozen stuffed sandwiches (hot pockets) 3.78
frozen multigrain waffles 1.29
ginger-soy noodle dinner 1.69
zucchini 1.59
broccoli 1.65
chewy fruit snacks .99
pesto pasta dinner kit 1.29
stuffing mix .89
cocktail crackers 1.19
syrup 1.39
saltines .89
pasta salad kit .99
yogurt-covered raisins 1.49
dried fruit 1.49
mixed nuts 1.99
whole wheat pasta 1.09

Hubby will run to Kroger and pick up fruit (probably bananas, apples and grapes), eggs, bagels, and milk tomorrow. He'll probably get some Kellogg's cereal, too, since they have some varieties on sale this week for $1.99 and we have $1 coupons. (Click on the coupons.com link at the top left of this page if you haven't printed yours yet! CVS and Kmart both have some Kellogg's varieties on sale this week, too.) We eat a lot of cereal for breakfast, but we also love to snack on it. As a matter of fact, I'm crunching on some frosted mini-wheats as I type. :)

Want more meal-planning inspiration? Take a look at Menu Plan Monday on orgjunkie.com.