Monday, September 21, 2009

Plan ahead meals!

So you may have heard of OAMC. Once A Month Cooking. Some people will devote a Saturday each month and cook/prep all the family's meals for the month and freeze them. They'll have soups, sides, main dishes, casseroles. It's amazing. Anyways, i had these potatoes that were crying to not go to waste so I made up a HUGE batch of mashed potatoes and made some Shepherd's Pie. But the fun part is putting it in a cupcake tray and freezing them, making single servings of practically anything. So I even made individual servings of mashed potatoes and froze them!

Give it a try!
Here's a shot of the Shepherd's Pie!


Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tri- Level Brownies

As requested by Michelle!

Tri-Level Brownies

Bottom Layer:
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 t baking soda
3 sticks melted butter
3/4 t. salt
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3 c. rolled oats (uncooked)

Mix together to form a "meal" and press into a greased jelly roll pan Bake at 350 degrees for ONLY 10 min.

Middle Layer:
3 1oz square unsweetened chocolate melted
1 1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 1/4 c sugar
3 egg
2 c flour
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c chopped walnuts (if you like that sort of thing!)

Combine chocolate, butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. (Add nuts now if using them). Spread over bottom layer and return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Top Layer:
If you have a favorite chocolate frosting then go with it. If not this one turns out great!

4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c butter, softened
1/3 c milk
2 t vanilla

Combine all together and top when the 2nd layer has completely cooled. You will have left over frosting, this you can freeze for other baked goods!


***A few notes!***

This recipe is TRIPLED! So it makes for a great thing to take for larger groups! You can reduce it easily (if you can remember fractions from 5th grade), and bake in a 9x13 pan.

Always keep an eye on your baking when trying a new recipe so that you don't over/undercook and these delicious brownies turn out to be a failure!

ALSO to make any recipe a real HIT use real vanilla extract...not the imitation stuff. I REALLY like Watkins Brand extract, and I can find it at Wal-mart usually cheaper than the other stuff!

ENjoy and good luck!