Money Saver: Slice and Vacuum Seal Your Own Meats, Poultry, Pepperoni and More

Last night I took a package of chicken breast tenders out of the deep freeze, sliced open the vacuum sealed package, cooked the chicken breasts, used half of them for last night's meal and then proceeded to vacuum seal the leftover pre-cooked chicken and popped them into the refrigerator.

My meal slicer is not a big, expensive, professional version (although you can certainly buy one!).  It's a good quality slicer for home use, and does slices from paper thin to a half inch thick.  Not only do I like using this for deli meats, but now I can buy the better tasting whole pepperoni and slice it myself for our homemade pizza!  Freshly sliced deli pepperoni beats the pants off the little overpriced, sliced, greasy, packaged pepperoni.

When it comes to my food sealer, I've been using it on everything from meats and poultry to celery, dehydrated vegetables and fruits and even fresh fruits!  I LOVE my sealer and I don't feel guilty about using it now that I bought replacement bags from Amazon.  Before that I was cutting them down to size and prioritizing what I sealed until I was finally down to just 1 bag left and I invested in purchasing 100 of them.  (I found great deals on Amazon - much better priced than the ones I looked at in my local stores as they were the Food Saver brand and were sky high priced). 

When I sliced and bagged deli ham last time I took a couple photos on my phone's camera.

Simply put the meat into the slicer, held in place by the safety guard for slicing

Adjust the dial for the thickness or thinness you want your slices to be

A plate of sliced ham for a fraction of the cost of buying it pre-sliced

Placed into individual or 1 pound sized packages, I vacuum seal the sizes I want

Take advantage of all the sale and clearance deals!

Buying in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club, as well as deals at your local grocer.

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins - Healthy and Almost like a Cream Filled Pumpkin Cupcake!

These muffins are almost like a pumpkin cupcake... only ultra-healthy and NO ONE WILL KNOW IT!
No sugar.
No flour.
Flax seed.
Real pumpkin.

Tastes like a sweet pumpkin cupcake full of fat, sugar, flour and chemicals... but so healthy you don't have to feel guilty at all.  And yes, you can serve these to kids and guests and no will guess they are eating something that is actually good for them with real pumpkin and nutrient packed flax.

Although it looks like regular frosted 'cupcake' in the photo above, look what's hiding inside?  A magic filling surprise that kids will love.

Pumpkin Muffins

2 c almond flour
1/4 c flax meal
3/4 c unflavored or vanilla whey protein powder
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 t pumpkin pie spice I usually just use a mix of about 1 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 ginger and 1/8 nutmeg
3/4 c blend of favorite sweeteners; use a white granular and a brown sugar version for best taste but you don't have to*
3/4 c pure pumpkin puree  (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 stick real butter, melted
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1/4 c half and half or cream

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients;  almond flour, flax, protein powder, baking powder, soda, salt, spice and sweeteners.    In another bowl mix the pumpkin, butter, eggs and vanilla.   Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon while adding the cream or half and half.  Add a little bit more cream if you have to but remember your batter should be thicker than a cake mix yet still able to be scooped or poured into muffin tins.    Pour batter into greased or lined cupcake tins filled  3/4 full.  Bake at 325 for approximately 25 minutes.   This will make roughly 14-15 muffins and depending on the brands of ingredients used, will be 4-7 carbs per muffin. 

Basic Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter, softened
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 c - 2 cups sugar free sweetener of your choice
Just start blending and adjust amounts of sweeteners and cream cheese to your personal taste preference and how sweet you like it.  I start with just 1 cup sweetener and adjust as I don't like my frostings overly sweet.  If it's too  thick, just drizzle the tiniest bit of half and half - a little goes a long way!

11 Autumn Recipes Featuring Pumpkin!

This morning was the very first morning when there was the slightest, tiniest bit of chill in the morning air.  I loved it!  Totally got me in the mood to crack open a kitchen window and bake... but what to bake!?  In the Fall I always start to crave pumpkin based goodies, so while searching my site for ideas, I decided to make a post of it.

If you need pumpkin pie spice and you don't have it in the pantry, you might already have the spices to make it yourself;

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t allspice
1/4 t ginger


Eleven Autumn Recipes Featuring Pumpkin

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes

Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Dessert (Made with a Dry Cake Mix!) 

Pumpkin Pie made with Apple Butter

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Penuche Frosting 

Low Carb, Sugar Free Pumpkin Bars

3 Layer Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Muffins with Flaxseed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "Little Monster" First Birthday Cake and Party

Today's post is a little more personal than I usually take this site.  It's a birthday party my oldest daughter planned for her son's first birthday; a Little Monster theme.  She did a fabulous job and everyone had the greatest time - and the cakes were so cute and delicious!

• The cakes were baked in various sized pans.  The large monster is simply a couple 8" rounds stacked with icing between.
• The small monster cake for the birthday boy was one round with two littles.  You could also freeze and stack 2 more rounds and after they are frozen, cut out the shape of the tiny little monster from, rounding the top off.
• After baking, cool completely.  Stack and freeze the cakes for easy decorating later - or if you are short on time, refrigerate to cool.
• Using the icing tip #233, using frosting to make the furry hair of the monster.  Start at the bottom, around the cake and work your way up, finishing at the top.
• Refrigerate while you make the eyeballs.
• To form the eye balls we used rice krispy bars, formed into walnut sized balls.
• Cover the eyeballs in rolled out white fondant.
• Use the blue and green fondant to create and shape eye lids and the iris part of the eyes.
• Push them onto a sturdy, thick cake pop or lolly pop stick - the thicker ones, not a tiny, skinny stick.  You would also use chop sticks.
• We refrigerated everything at this point and about an hour before the party, used black gel icing to make the pupils.  You could also use black fondant and form a little round pupil.  Attach the fondant to each other with a bit of water, beaten egg white or a bit of icing.
• The mini monster cake was made similar, using a regular tip to finish the bottom edge, and store bought little tiny candy balls pressed on wet icing to hold.

Homemade Bread - Straight from a Farm Wife

Farm Wife Bread

¼ cup butter or margarine
1 cup scalded milk
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 package yeast (dissolve in ½ cup lukewarm water)
1 egg (optional, for lighter bread)
3½ to 4 cups flour

Put margarine, salt and sugar in bowl; add scalded milk. Stir to melt margarine and dissolve sugar. When cool, beat egg and add to mixture. Add yeast mixture. Mix and add flour. Knead.  Cover and let rise until double, punch down and let rise again. Shape into balls for buns or loaves for bread. Let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.