Eat at Home, Everyday Food for Busy People

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cake with Strawberry Icing

May 8, 2012 by Tiffany

Have you ever made a recipe that you just weren’t sure about? Even while I was baking this, I didn’t know if it would be good or not. I had the idea to change up the recipe for Tuxedo Bars and I had a strawberry cake mix in the pantry. Chocolate and strawberries go together, right?

I asked about the cake on Facebook, just to see if others thought it sounded good. I also wanted to know what kind of icing to put on it. I couldn’t decide between chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. After reading all the opinions of readers on the EaH Facebook page, I decided to go with strawberry icing.

The result was marvelous! The fresh strawberry frosting really set off the cake and the mini chocolate chips gave it just enough chocolate flavor. This makes a 15×10 inch sheet cake, so it’s great for a crowd. But I think it would also freeze well, if you have more than you can eat.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Dessert Tagged with chocolate chips, dessert, strawberries, strawberry cake mix, strawberry pudding mix3 Comments

Menu, Grocery List, Recipes Year 3 Week 26 – Vegetarian Edition

May 7, 2012 by Tiffany

This week, I’ve got a vegetarian menu for you. If your family is full of meat lovers, you can still use this. Just add in the meat you want to go with the meals.

A few more notes:

I have included fish. I know some vegetarians eat it and some don’t.

You’ll have a chance to stock your freezer with the slow cooker beans, which is great for quick meals later. You can also make good use of the slow cooker for the baked potatoes, if you like.

This is also a low-cost menu. It’s always good to save money at the grocery store.

Veggie Pie, Quick Cole Slaw

Loaded Baked Potatoes with Homemade Cheese Sauce (skip bacon to make it meatless), salad

All Veggie Vegetable Soup, Cheddar Muffins

Tony’s Tilapia, baked sweet potatoes, favorite green veggie

Slow Cooker Beans, taco fixings, chips & salsa

Roasted Garlic, Browned Butter and Parmesan Pasta, favorite green veggie, salad

Zucchini Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

To print, click here: menu year 3 week 26

Filed under: Low cost menu, Menus, Summer menu, vegetarian menu Tagged with low cost, meatless, vegetarian4 Comments

Cinco de Mayo Dinner Ideas and $200 Ebates giveaway for May!

May 4, 2012 by Tiffany

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, which is a great reason to eat Mexican (or Mexican inspired) food. In case you’re looking for ideas, here’s a post I wrote last year that has links to 43 Enchilada, Taco and Burrito Recipes from around the web. Lots of good stuff there!

There’s a lot more to love about the month of May than just Cinco de Mayo! Graduations, weddings, vacations, last day of school…

Share the reason you love the month of May in the Ebates Savvy Living Community and you’ll be entered to win $200!

Filed under: Giveaway Tagged with 5 Comments

Roasted Garlic, Brown Butter and Parmesan Pasta (in 15 Minutes)

May 3, 2012 by Tiffany

You know how I love a 15 minute meal. Sometimes that’s all I have to pull dinner together. Such was the case the night I made this, but the inspiration for the dish had come a few months before.

When I went to Nashville for Blissdom, a group of us had dinner together the first night. Tricia from Once a Month Mom was our ring leader and she took us downtown to Demo’s Restaurant. I chose the spaghetti with brown butter garlic sauce. It tasted really good, but I had an inkling that I could make it better at home.

I was right! And it can be made in the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta. Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish, Pasta Tagged with 15 minute meal, angel hair, brown butter, garlic, parmesan, Pasta7 Comments

Ingredient Spotlight: Honey

May 2, 2012 by Tiffany

In my opinion, the absolute best way to eat honey is on a hot biscuit that’s been slathered with butter and so much honey that it drips down your hand as you try to eat it.

Second best way, peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Of course, I do have other recipes that make good use of honey. Here are a few of them: [Read more...]

Filed under: ingredient spotlight Tagged with honey, ingredient spotlight12 Comments

Slow Cooker Beans for the Freezer aka Refried Beans without the Refry

May 1, 2012 by Tiffany

I have heard about the beans for years. Yes, years! And I can’t believe I had never tried them. I first heard about them on the Sonlight forums, where they were made famous by Bethany of For the Love of Grub.

Bethany loves these beans and makes them often and tells the rest of us that we need to be making them. Everyone who has tried them raves about them.

Do I take the hint and give them a try? No, I wait 5 or 7 years before it finally hits me that I need to see what the fuss is about. I mean, it’s just beans, right? They can’t be that much better than canned, right?

Call me a crazy bean lover! These things are fabulous!

They aren’t spicy, and yet they’re flavorful. They make a quick dinner, can be mashed or left whole and they’re great for stocking your freezer.

Bethany gives a lot of variations on her blog, but this is how I made them: [Read more...]

Filed under: Crockpot, frozen food, vegetarian Tagged with beans, black beans, freezer cooking, Mexican, pinto beans, refried beans, vegetarian13 Comments

Menu, Grocery List, Recipes Year 3 Week 25

April 30, 2012 by Tiffany

I hope you had a great weekend. We had a busy weekend of birthday parties, camping trips, church dinners… I also did a lot of cooking on Saturday and I’ve got some great recipes to share with you in the next few weeks.

The menu this week has 2 slow cooker meals, 1 meal that can be doubled and the extra stashed in the freezer and one of my favorite cookies. There’s also a delicious pasta dish and fish recipe that might convince even people who don’t usually eat fish to give it a try.

As always, you get 6 dinners and 1 dessert. Serving suggestions are included in bold on the recipes and in curly brackets {} on the grocery list.

Here’s what is on the menu this week:

Teriyaki BBQ Chicken Legs in the Slow Cooker, Loaded Cheesy Potato Casserole, favorite green veggie

Pepper Patch Pasta with Grilled Chicken, salad

Tropical Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Rice, salad

Southwestern Steak and Cornbread Dressing in the Slow Cooker, favorite green veggie

Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza, salad

Mexican Vegetables on Cornbread

Way to a Man’s Heart Cookies

To print, click here: menu year 3 week 25

This menu is part of Menu Plan Monday at The Organizing Junkie.

Filed under: Menus, Summer menu Tagged with grocery list, menu, recipesLeave a Comment

Highlights from Ingredient Spotlight: Bananas

April 28, 2012 by Tiffany

So many delicious recipes were linked up for Ingredient Spotlight this week! I’m going to need to start buying more bananas so I can try them. Here are a few recipes that caught my eye:

If you’ve ever eaten at ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Resort in Walt Disney World, you know about the bread pudding dessert they serve. Scrumptious! Big Bear’s Wife made her own version of Pineapple Banana Bread Pudding with Banana Caramel Sauce that looks out-of-this-world wonderful!

Many Makings uses Kraft caramels in her Caramel Banana Muffins. I can’t imagine how good that would be!

These Strawberry and Cream Banana Muffins from Mo’ Betta look great.

This Chocolate Banana Cream Cake from Flour Me with Love is both gorgeous and mouth-watering.

Chocolate Banana Tortilla from Knit 1, Kids 4 sounds fabulous.

I love slow cooker oatmeal and this Overnight Banana Steel Cut Oat recipe from Sugar-Free Mom looks great.

These Sock Monkey Cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade are adorable!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged with 4 Comments

Ingredient Spotlight Schedule: May – September 2012

April 27, 2012 by Tiffany

I have had a blast sharing Ingredient Spotlight with you and these last few months have been really fun! It never fails that I learn new ways to use ingredients that I keep in the pantry and fridge. I’ve also discovered new blogs to read and made new friends. I hope you’ve found the same!

Here is the schedule for the next 5 months. This takes us all the way through September. I have skipped a few weeks because I’ll be doing some traveling for family vacations and because July 4 falls on Wednesday. Most of us will be busy with other fun stuff that day.

You can always find all the links to past Ingredient Spotlights by using the navigation bar at the top of the blog. The list is nested under Menus & Planners. [Read more...]

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged with 6 Comments

Teriyaki BBQ Chicken Legs in the Slow Cooker

April 26, 2012 by Tiffany

3 ingredients and a slow cooker. This couldn’t be simpler to throw together.

And it’s really good too! I’m not sure why I thought to mix Teriyaki and BBQ sauces, but the combination makes a flavorful sauce that was a hit with the kids.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]