#SecretRecipeClub: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

So.
It's time for another edition of Group A's reveal for the Secret Recipe Club!  Actually, it's a rather sad occasion as this will be the final reveal day for Group A.  Sarah E has decided to send us out on a high note, and the club will be folding.  I've had almost 3 wonderful years searching other blogs for a recipe to make and share.  It's been exciting to see what people think worth sharing from my own little corner of the internet.  I'll need to find a new challenge.
So, this time when I went looking for my last recipe with the club, I decided I had to stick with what I do best - breakfast carbs.
My monthly email sent me off to peruse Sights, Bits and Bites.  Marla is relatively new to the kitchen, and says she works in the smallest kitchen known to mankind.  I also did that until recently.  She loves cats, but currently has a boyfriend and a pet hamster.  I don't think I recommend having the hamster and cats simultaneously, but cats are a lovely way to pass the time.
While looking through Marla's recipes, I came across a few things to consider:  Freezer Breakfast Burritos looked easy and yummy, as did Lasagna Soup, which needs to make an appearance on my Sunday night supper table (and in my lunch) soon.  But carbs as always screamed my name.  Like my last reveal, this recipe is somewhat of a portion controlled one.  But no matter.  Once can always eat 2.
I present to you now Sights, Bits and Bites' Cinnamon Roll Muffins:

#Secret Recipe Club: Peanut Butter Banana Bagels

So.
It's time for another episode of the regular Secret Recipe Club!  Once a month, a group of bloggers get together, are given another blog to peruse in secret, choose a recipe and make something from their assigned blog.  I so enjoy doing this every month, and look forward to seeing whose blog I will be looking through for something delicious.
This month, I was thrilled to be paired with Erin of the The Spiffy Cookie.  I've enjoyed working with Erin in the past on multiblogger events, and enjoy drooling over her pictures of food on Instagram.  Erin, like myself, isn't a fan of mushrooms; but she does love all things peanut butter and chocolate (also like myself) and bakes...a lot.  How could I not make something peanut buttery after looking through her blog?
I seem to be on a breakfast kick at the moment, so I considered her Pumpkin Pecan Waffles and even something somewhat healthy with her Carrot Cake Oatmeal, but then I found this.
I have been intrigued by recipes containing PB2, but have never tried it.  I also decided to challenge myself and make something that I hadn't made successfully before:  bagels.  With bananas in the freezer, I was ready to go!
I present to you now The Spiffy Cookie's Peanut Butter Banana Bagels:

#SRC Bonus: Lunch Lady Brownies

So.
Today is my first day back at work after being off for the summer.
I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this, seeing as it's my 7th school in the past 10 years.  While there are no students until next week after Labour Day, I need to finish unpacking and get my head around what is to come.  For me, this is not a great thing.
What is good, however, is that there are 5 Mondays in August, and we're celebrating with a special edition of The Secret Recipe Club that's all about back to school.  What's even more fun about this reveal day is that it's cross-group, so I'm not paired with someone in my regular group A for this week.  Next week, I'll be back with my Group A on Monday's reveal.
There are so many options when you consider back to school.  Around here, it means soups that I can take for lunch, or something I can pull out of my freezer for a quick meal, or something that I can make for a hearty breakfast.  I had so much fun looking through Ashley's blog, Cheese Curd in Paradise for something that might fit one of these catagories, and I wasn't disappointed.
Ashley had a ton of things that I pinned while browsing, including these Strawberry Cream Muffins to use up the strawberries that came in my produce box this week; I also thought about this Chicken Bacon Ranch Tot Casserole because come on...all in one dish?  Sign me up!
I finally opted for a dessert that can easily be frozen, and is even nut free, so totally work-takeable (as opposed to my regular SRC choice for next week).  The name even screams school - even though I work in an elementary school and there's no cafeteria.
I present to you now a Cheese Curd in Paradise's Lunch Lady Brownies:

Freezer Friendly: Walnut Zucchini Muffins

So.
Despite the fact that as I write this we haven't been on vacation yet (Friday's coming!), I've started planning for my Back to School cooking extravaganza.
Three years ago, I discovered the genius of freezer meals.  After buying a Taste of Home freezer magazine, I tried cooking and freezing meals that would make my life easier upon my return to work.  It totally does make my life easier.  We eat at home during a stressful time with the startup of school and being away weekends for football.  I've started my lists and my inventory of the deep freeze so that we have some more healthy choices than the nearest restaurant.
To that end, I'm stocking not only dinners but breakfasts as well.  I need something that can be quick, or on the go; but not just peanut butter toast when I can't think of anything else.  My Christmas present from last year has been a help:  a Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich maker that we pull out maybe once a week.  I also try and stock bagels, and often have cooked breakfast sausage links so I can make quick scrambled egg wraps.  I also enjoy muffins from time to time.
My mother makes lots of different muffins that are delicious, and if you look at my index I make lots of different flavours too,  Muffins freeze well, are portable, and can use up things that are lurking in your produce drawer.
Speaking of produce, if you and I are friends on Facebook, I've been posting pictures of my Good Food Boxes this summer from The Stand in Burford.  J and I have eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables for an incredible price because of these boxes!  We've had things like this:

 Every week, there is a head of romaine lettuce, and a field tomato.  The rest is seasonal, so we've had carrots, new dug potatoes, garlic, corn, green onions, peppers of all colours, field and hot house cucumbers, green and yellow beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic scapes, red onions, and zucchini.  We've been picking up the box and then meal planning to use as much as possible from the box.

 Fruit-wise, we've had tons of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, and yellow plums.  J eats the blueberries.  The rest are left up to me.
I've been freezing what we can't eat (mainly strawberries and beans), and knowing that in winter we will have lots of things to choose from out of the excess of our bounty from the summer.

But there are many things that we get that can't be frozen.  And vegetables like zucchini need to be made into another form to be frozen.
When I saw this recipe in my Taste of Home freezer magazine, it was like it was meant to be.
I present to you now Harriet Stichter from Milford, Illinois' Walnut Zucchini Muffins:

SRC: Lemongrass Ginger Pancakes

So.
It's time again for the Secret Recipe Club!  What's that, you ask?  Well, it's a group of food bloggers who are all assigned another blog from the group (in secret, hence the name) and then we all reveal on the same day at the same time.  Fun, right?  I enjoy getting my assignment every month and finding something to make from a blog that I don't know a whole lot about.
This month is no exception.  I was assigned the blog Crazed Mom, written by Nicole.  Nicole is a mom of 5 teenagers, and I am exhausted just thinking about that.  She's a writer, and she makes some delicious looking and sounding food.
I have to admit, when I started looking at her blog, I didn't get past her Breakfast offerings.  As the owner of a new waffle iron, I'm all about waffle recipes right now.  I eyed these Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, because I have ricotta needing to be used in my fridge and blueberries right now; but Nicole made these for an SRC reveal.  I also really want to make these Pumpkin Spice Latte Doughnuts, but I would need a doughnut baking pan...and I'm still playing with my waffle iron.  Then I found something that totally caught my attention.
As some of my friends on Facebook know, I was literally giving away some of my Gourmet Garden stir in paste herb tubes from past blogging events.  I love their products (just ask, and I'll tell you!), but there are some that I've never known what to do with...like Lemongrass.  It's intimidating looking at the store, and I've never used it.  But I have 3 tubes of it in my freezer.  I saw the picture in the index with the Gourmet Garden tubes, and saw that this would use up (albeit a small amount) of my Lemongrass stash, and I was in!  Plus, the leftovers are freezable, as we start the grind towards school.  I'm starting my freezer cooking to make the fall easier.  J and I both enjoyed these for breakfast, and they'll be great out of the toaster with maple syrup this fall too,
I present to you now Crazed Mom's Lemongrass Ginger Pancakes:

Secret Recipe Club: Pumpkin Oat Muffins

So.
It's time for April's edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  For those of you who don't know, the Secret Recipe Club is a group of foodie bloggers who are assigned each other in secret.  We then stalk visit each other's blogs, choose a recipe, make it and all reveal who had who and who made what on the same day at the same time.  It's a lot of fun, and I always enjoy learning about a new blogger each month.
This month, I was assigned Anna's blog from over at bcmom's kitchen.  There were so many amazing things to choose from.  I always seemed to be one ingredient short, and I didn't want to go to the store.  I considered her Raspberry Swirl Bread (which I am going to make because it looks amazing!), and I wished I had an occasion worthy of her Caramel Rolls.  I also had some feta in the fridge, and still really want to make Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken, but I'll have to buy a bottle of sundried tomatoes.
I finally found a recipe for which I was sure I had everything.  I was so very, very wrong.  But that was okay.  I figured it out.
I present to you now bcmom's Pumpkin Oat Muffins:

Brunch Classic: Buttermilk Waffles

So.
In the summer, I was stocking the freezer for the upcoming school year.  I was looking for breakfast ideas - things I could quickly reheat and eat in the morning before scampering off to school for the day.  I was reading my freezer magazine and came across a few waffle recipes that sounded good and different, seeing as I don't own a waffle maker and therefore never make waffles.
I did what any blogger would do who is cheap and suddenly has a hankering for waffles:  I posted a message on Facebook, asking my friends if they had a waffle iron I could borrow.  My friend Carrie (who I torment on FB with recipes that are "so easy even Carrie could make them!") got me by posting that she had one; which she totally didn't, and thus dashed my hopes briefly until one of my other friends who actually owns a waffle maker offered to lend me hers.
It was in this manner that I ended up making waffles at the end of the summer to freeze and eat during the fall.  I pinned a bunch of recipes and made a few.  This was the first, and as a starting point, these were fantastic.  They're light, buttery and delicious the day you make them and again later reheated in your toaster.  I totally recommend borrowing a waffle iron.
I present to you now from Sally's Baking Addiction Buttermilk Waffles:

#10DaysofTailgate: Chicken Bacon Ranch Taquitos

So.

On Saturdays when we're home for football, J and I often have grazing-type meals with a hot dip, carrot and celery sticks, chips and salsa, and something sweet.  It's even better if the hot something can come out of the freezer to be reheated so there's no real work on Saturday morning before the 12 hour extravaganza that is college football Saturday begins.
These taquitos are perfect for tailgating:  the recipe makes a ton (I got 15 whole small tortillas), uses staples in our house, and are hand-held for snacking.  They'd even transport well wrapped hot in foil.  If you cut the tortillas in half before filling and rolling, they'd be a great appetizer that would serve even more.
When I made these the first time, we enjoyed them with a bowl of tomato soup, but you could also serve them with a salad or carrot and celery sticks as a quick dinner.
Quick, hand-held, delicious.  Who's ready for a football marathon?  From Six Sisters Stuff, I present to you now Chicken Bacon Ranch Taquitos:

Freezer Friendly: Breakfast Sandwiches

So.
I haven't been very good about eating breakfast.  In the summer, I spend each morning with a cup of coffee, orange juice and toast or muffins.  But during the school year, I get up as late as I feel I can (I'm still at school an hour before classes start) and blow through the kitchen to make my lunch, a coffee to take with me and a glass of juice while I read my email and texts so I know what I'm walking into in my day.
Work means I don't always get around to lunch.  When students eat, I'm running the halls supervising, and I often don't stop until I realize I'm nauseous/light headed/parched; usually around 2.  I know I need to eat, and I'm trying to come up with ways to eat quickly and easily in the morning, even if it means taking breakfast with me to eat at my desk.  I have been pinning recipes for breakfasts for a while now.  Mostly, they are things that can be frozen and reheated.
J and I have a tradition on Sundays of going to McDonald's for breakfast before church.  We order egg mcmuffin combos to eat at the restaurant and large cafe mochas that we take with us to the theatre where our church meets.  Every week, I order a bacon and egg mcmuffin.  When I saw a variety of recipes for frozen mcmuffin copycats, I decided to give them a shot.
I present to you now my take on freezable Breakfast Sandwiches:

Freezer Friendly: Cheddar-Beef Pastry Pockets

So.
I have been loving the Taste of Home magazine I bought.  I'm starting to think that I should batch cook once a month and then eat the fruits of my labour over the following month.  Or, batch cook over a week, doing what I've done this month making half and eating half.  I'm going to need to look through the magazine for what else I need to try.
I have a habit of making a roast and usually end up freezing the heel, figuring that I'll come up with something to do with it eventually.  I finally emptied all the ziploc bags out of the top of my freezer to figure out what exactly I'd been saving for "eventually".  Leftover grilled pork tenderloin becomes pork fried rice.  Leftover ham goes into frittatas.  But leftover roast beef?  I've never been sure what to do with it.
Enter this recipe.  Leftover roast makes so much more sense than buying a refrigerated roast au jus, discarding/finding another use for the jus, and chopping up the roast.  I also switched out the cheese for one I buy more often, and changed the vegetables for ones I eat.  Let's say that the inspiration came from Taste of Home.
Either way, we enjoyed these.  I present to you now Cheddar-Beef Pastry Pockets:

Freezer Friendly: Salisbury Steak Meatballs

So.
You know what I'm finding with the things that I've been making for my freezer?  They all smell amazing.  This recipe is no exception.  I made this one morning this week, when I had a meeting in the afternoon, and I figured that if this was freezer-friendly, I could make this, refrigerate, and reheat for dinner.  By the time I finished making this, I was sorry that it wasn't for lunch.  It smelled amazing.
As I've said before, J loves meatloaf.  He's already requested that I make it "sometime this fall".  I'm not huge on it, but will make it from time to time, eat it the first night, and then leave it for J to eat for lunch for a couple of days.  He wanted to know today if maybe next time I could make a meatloaf recipe for the meatballs.  Frankly, this is essentially a meatloaf recipe sans Onion Soup Mix.  That would be okay too.
And the reason I'm not fond of meatloaf after night one?  It never reheats well, and I always get the cold spot.  Ew.  Reheated meatballs in gravy?  Much less likely to happen.  Huzzah.
I always enjoy reading the Pioneer Woman, but I've never really made her recipes before.  This was easy and delicious.  My meatballs didn't look quite so great as hers - but that wouldn't affect the taste.  Or, you know, I think mine were as good as how the picture probably tasted.  If the food was screaming hot.
I present to you now the Pioneer Woman's Salisbury Steak Meatballs:

Freezer Friendly: Baked Spaghetti

So.
It's been nice to have some unseasonable weather the past couple of weeks.  It's not good pool weather, but we've been out in the hot tub in the evening, and I seem to be making a variety of heavier foods that I can freeze.  Heavier food and hot weather don't really mix.
On the nights in between my freezer forays, I've been grilling and making things that are a little lighter.  But this week, the push is on before I return to work full time.  Bring on the unseasonably cold!  Then warm up on Friday for the BBQ Saturday!  One day, I will be able to control the weather, even if it's not today.
J and I both like spaghetti, and I've talked about making a batch of sauce for the freezer.  It's one of my go-to desperation meals around here...I always have pasta and a bottle or 2 of sauce in the house.  We also buy garlic bread at Costco so it's hiding in the freezer when we want some too.  When I got the Taste of Home freezer magazine, this recipe caught my eye because it looked like it made a ton and was so easy looking.  I also figured I could make it in 8" pans instead of a 9x13".  One to eat now, one to save in the freezer for a busy night.
I present to you now from Betty Rabe of Mahtomedi, MN via Taste of Home Baked Spaghetti:

Magazine Challenge: Mini Cherry-Pecan Loaves

So.
I like to bake.  That shouldn't be much of a surprise.  I think the thing about baking is that it's therapeutic.  There's a precision and exactness about baking that requires a concentration that isn't always a part of life.  I'm not sure what exactly I'm in therapy for at the moment, but I still love to spend time in the kitchen baking.
I marked this recipe at the end of last year as something I wanted to make.  I'm not sure why exactly I waited this long to make it, other than there were so many other things to make.  It's an easy enough recipe, with things that I often find around here to bake with.  Kind of like a coffee cake batter made into mini loaves.  My mini loaf pan is small enough that a loaf will give 2 nice sized slices for J and I for dessert.  With a cup of tea, it's a perfect afternoon snack.
I present to you now from the December 2005 issue of Everyday Food Mini Cherry-Pecan Loaves:

Freezer Friendly: Chicken Spinach Dip Bread Bowls

So.
I'm still working on stocking the freezer.  We went to Costco last week in preparation for a couple of pool parties that we're hosting over the month, and so I have some big bags of hamburger and bot dog buns in the freezer, along with boxes of burgers.  They're taking up space I would like to be filling with food for the fall.  Things are looking fairly full at the moment.  But that hasn't deterred me from making something new to freeze.
I went back to Walmart and bought the Taste of Home Ultimate Meals from the Freezer.  They have a section on how/what to freeze, and lots of recipes that are not all baked pasta dishes to try.  I've marked a few things for the next little bit that look yummy, and are all freezer friendly.  I've also taken their suggestion to heart and started an inventory of my freezer.  Perhaps then I won't end up with 3 pork tenderloins on the bottom as I have right now.
J and I both enjoy appetizers.  When we're here for a Saturday during football season, we often will have a few weeks where I put out veggies and dip, crackers and cheese, some sort of snack mix and we graze as we watch TV.  The focal point usually is a hot baked dip and tortilla chips.  While I have never made a baked spinach and artichoke dip, we have enjoyed it elsewhere.
I looked at this recipe, and it looked delicious.  With the vegetables that are included, it's almost a complete meal in one dish.  We agreed that if serving for company, we would probably add a green salad, but this will stand up on its own.  As a bonus, it makes 2 bowls that will make 8-10 servings.  1 for now, 1 for the freezer.  Because it smells amazing.  There's no way you'd want to freeze both of these at once and just enjoy the aromas in the present.
I present to you now from Taste of Home, Merry Graham's Chicken Spinach Dip Bread Bowls:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Tex Mex Beef Enchiladas

So.
I organized our freezer today.  Somehow, I have managed to accumulate 3 whole pork tenderloins.  I mean, there are a lot of things I can do with pork tenderloin, but I don't always think when I see them on sale.  I actually didn't have as many surprises in the bottom as I was afraid of.  But I do see some tortellini and ravioli dishes in our future.
Now that things down there are organized, it's time to start filling it with things that will be ready for fall when I don't feel like cooking.  J and I were talking today about when the last time was that we went out for dinner.  We think it was the night we came home from Seattle.  That's a good thing.  I keep reminding myself about how I will be grateful when football season is here and there's money for a hotel room...or tailgate supplies from Zingerman's.
Here is the first thing that I've made to fill the freezer.  I made a double batch (numbers reflected in the recipe below) so we could eat and see how they were, and freeze half.  I don't know why I decided to try a new enchilada sauce when the last from Budget Bytes was so successful, but I did.  It's okay (J really liked it), but I like Beth's better.  To each their own.
What I do know is that I'll be happy to pull this out and have dinner that we both like in a reasonably short amount of time.
I present to you now from the June 2006 issue of Everyday Food, Tex-Mex Beef Enchiladas: