Menu Plan Monday 5/31/10 Caaampin'!

It's the first Monday of summer vacation for us! It was absolutely amazing to wake up without the alarm clock screaming at me.

It's going to be yet another crazy week here at the Headbangin' Household. Wednesday I have a dentist appointment and then Thursday we leave for our annual camping trip. I've got a ginormous list of last minute packing and cleaning, blog posts to schedule and baking to finish. I really planned on finishing up yesterday, but discovered (the hard way) that I need to make a run to the store. Since we do our grocery shopping in the next town over, and aren't headed that way until tonight, baking will be postponed until tomorrow.

The menu I'm sharing today is half normal and half camping. Everything is simple, as usual.

Monday we're having Peanut Butter Baked oatmeal for breakfast. For lunch, we'll have pizza cups from baking day and then ham and potato chowder with corn bread for dinner. I finally managed to bake the giant ham from the freezer on Saturday. It was a good thing, too, because we finally had our first 90 degree day in my part of the world yesterday. Hello Summer!

Tuesday's breakfast is scrambled eggs and toast. Then, for lunch we'll have corn dog muffins from the freezer. Dinner will be either homemade macaroni and cheese or fettuccine Alfredo. I need to check and see what cheeses I have in the fridge.

Wednesday for breakfast we'll have either cereal or peanut butter toast. Since my appointment is first thing in the morning, we need super quick and easy. Lunch is going to be more pizza cups and then dinner will be leftovers. I'll be too busy to want to cook and I don't want to leave a bunch of leftovers in the fridge for a week, because, well, ewww!

Thursday morning we will have breakfast sandwiches. For lunch on the first day of camping I always make everyone a "lunch bag of goodness". They usually have a PB&J, fruit, cookies, water and a juice box, crackers, trail mix and a couple Jolly Ranchers. I load them down pretty heavy because, with all the campsite set up during the first few hours, no one has time to stop and make lunch. I also make sure there's plenty of variety so the kids don't tear everything apart looking for the snack bin. Dinner that night will be pre made Dog Food Salad. Don't freak out on me, I didn't name it! It's just taco salad, but the girl I got the recipe from back in high school, called it Dog Food Salad and who am I to change it?

Friday morning is going to be breakfast burritos with eggs, ham and cheese. Lunch is going to be hot dogs and chips. Dinner that night is Chili Baked Potatoes.

Saturday breakfast will be pancakes and Spam. We use the "just add water" kind of pancake mix for camping. Actually, this is the only time during the year that we use pancake mix at all. Lunch is going to be macaroni and cheese with any leftover hot dogs that need to be finished. If you use Pasta Roni, you don't have to drain the pasta. It's the simple things that make your day while camping! Dinner that night is going to be nachos. Just heat your cans of beans and cheese (yes, we use canned nacho cheese sauce for camping) over the fire and dump over your chips. Add salsa, sliced olives and sour cream if you have it. I don't know why, but these nachos are the most amazing concoction after a hard day of raft races down the river!

Sunday's breakfast will be cream of wheat. If we still have any bread that needs using, we'll have toast too. Lunch will be Chili Baked potatoes again and then dinner will be Backpacker's Thanksgiving Dinner otherwise known as Hobo dinner around here. I usually add a can of corn to the stuffing mixture. This dinner has become a camping tradition. The recipe can be made in any amount, nothing needs refrigeration and it is so filling. Everyone loves it.

For desserts, of course there is s'mores, s'mores and s'more s'mores. Although one night near the beginning of the trip we'll also have Banana Boats.

There you have it folks! Have a great week! And don't forget to chek out Menu Plan Monday for more menu ideas. Until next time, rock on my friends!

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

Yesterday I promised I would post this recipe. It's become a staple here at the Headbangin' Household and the possibilities are endless. Sometimes I add chocolate chips, raisins or mashed bananas. Chunky Peanut butter is really good in this too. It's also freezer friendly which is always great for those mornings when you're running late or just don't feel like cooking. Believe it or not, that happens around here more than I'd like to admit! Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal 3 c. quick cooking oats 1/2 c. packed brown sugar 1 c. milk 2 Tbsp. melted butter 2 eggs 2 tsp. baking powder 3/4 tsp. salt 2 tsp. vanilla 1/2 c. peanut butter extra milk for serving Mix all and spread in a 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. If you like it a little crunchy on top, cook for a few minutes longer. Serve warm with a little milk poured over the top. That's it! Simple as can be! I'll be back in a bit with the rest of the baking for the week. Until next time, rock on my friends!

Baking Day 5/29/10

Happy Saturday! Even though I'm only half way through my baking this week, I've decided to finish up tomorrow. Why am I baking like a mad woman this weekend? Simply because I won't be home during the next two Saturdays. I want to have the freezer well stocked to make up for the lack of baking in the near future.

I'll still be posting on Saturdays, I'll just be doing things a little differently over the next couple weeks.

Here's where I'm at so far:

A pan of chocolate chip bar cookies. These are actually for dessert tonight and for snacks this week. I'll make another batch tomorrow for the freezer. Note to self: don't walk away from the oven when the phone rings. The poor things turned out a little more crisp than they should have. Sorry guys, just keepin' it real.

I've got a double batch of pizza crust in the big bowl. When the giant ham (not pictured) comes out of the oven, I'll be making ham and cheese cups for lunches. Now that I think about it, they would make great breakfasts too with a side of scrambled eggs. Bonus!

Yes, that is yet another batch of Latte Bars that have made their way into the baking list. I did, for the record, freeze half of last week's. I'll be freezing half of these as well.

I got a pan of Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal done. This stuff is so good. It's nothing like the traditional bowl of mush, which is why I think the kids love it so much. Sometimes I add a handful of chocolate chips or Raisins, but didn't this time. I'm having trouble with the recipe link I usually use for this, so I'll post the recipe tomorrow for you guys.

In the oval and muffin tin is a new recipe to me. I found the recipe in one of my (many) old cookbooks. They're called Moist and Minty Brownies and were totally simple! Here's the recipe

1 1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter or margarine

2 Tbsp. water

1 (10oz) pkg. Nestle Toll House mint flavored semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. In small bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, combine sugar, butter and water. Microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes; stir. Microwave for another 1 1/2 minutes; stir until smooth. Add 1 cup chocolate chips and vanilla, stirring until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with mixer after each addition. Stir in flour mixture and remaining chocolate chips. Spread in a greased 9" square pan. Make 25-35 minutes until center is set. Cool completely. Cut into squares.

You can see I stole one of the little muffins of goodness to sample. I couldn't share the recipe unless I knew it was a keeper. I can't wait to experiment with different flavors of chocolate chips in this recipe. Something tells me these won't last long.

There you have it for today folks. Stay tuned tomorrow for the second half of my baking spree! Have a great rest of your day!

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Free Korn MP3 Today Only 5/27/10

It's been rough this week for rockers and maggots with the loss of Slipknot's Paul Gray. The hearts of the entire Headbangin' Household go out to all of his friends and family. Rock on forever! That said, to ease the sting just a little, I came across an awesome freebie this morning! Nothing helps a mourning metal head like....more metal. There's a thing or three I could add to the list, but I'll save that for another time. Go over here and scroll down to the fifth mini paragraph. That's where you'll find the link to download Korn's new song Are You Ready To Live off of their new album Remember Who You Are. Hurry, though, because this MP3 is available to download free today only. Enjoy! Until next time, rock on my friends!

Menu Plan Monday 5/24/10

Happy Monday rockers! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had an awesome time at the aquarium in San Francisco and an amazing lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. If only I'd have brought a thermos. I'd have bottled up that clam chowdery goodness for lunch today. Maybe next time!

This week is going to be absolutely insane with end of the school year activities and camping prep work. Let the fun begin!

Dinners this week are going to be Clean the Fridge Stir Fry. This is a lot like my Clean the Fridge Soup. Slice up whatever veggies are in the fridge and fry up in a little olive oil. You can make the sauce two ways. You can mix a gravy packet or two up with the water and about a tablespoon of soy sauce and pour over the cooked veggies in the pan; simmer till thickened. Or you can mix a can of broth with 2 tablespoons cornstarch and a tablespoon of soy sauce; pour over cooked veggies and simmer until thickened. Add sliced up leftover meat if you want. Serve over any cooked pasta or rice. You can also use two bags of frozen stir fry veggies if you have them. I'll make a double batch so we can have this for lunches too.

Tuesday we are going out for dinner to celebrate our daughter's eighth grade graduation. I swear last week I was walking her to her first day of kindergarten!

Wednesday I'm going to be at the school most of the day volunteering so I'm going to try this recipe for slow cooker baked potatoes. That way when I get home I'll just heat up a couple cans of chili for chili baked potatoes. Again, I'll be making a few extra potatoes for lunches.

Thursday we'll have breakfast for dinner. We'll have Breakfast Sausage Casserole and I'll throw together a Bread Pudding. I can mix all this together in the morning before we leave for our giant before camping errands and shopping trip. Then, I just have to toss them both in the oven that evening. I'll probably make apple salad to go with this too.

Friday we'll barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs to celebrate the end of the school year. I'll make some homemade JoJo Potatoes on the side.

Saturday will be a giant baking day. It's going to be my last full Saturday to bake for at least a couple weeks, so I've got a huge list to accomplish. To make it easy on myself, I'll make a double batch of pizza dough so we can have pizza and salad for dinner.

I'm hoping that by Sunday I won't be too burned out to cook. Note to self: find a casserole to throw together on baking day for Sunday. Otherwise we'll throw together some sandwiches.

As far as breakfasts go, I've called for an anything week. There's some baked oatmeal in the freezer and some muffins from past baking days that I want gone because I need the room. We also have a bunch of strawberries and yogurt for smoothies.

Have a great week rockers and go here to check out more menu plans!

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Baking Day Done Early 5/21/10

Hey rockers, happy Friday! I finished up the baking for this week a day early since we won't be home much this weekend. I have to admit that even though there is a lot of work that goes into baking every week, I do look forward to it. I enjoy baking anyway, but getting this much done once a week really helps to keep the rest of the week's menu in order. If the menu is in order we eat better, save money and have more fun! Here's this week's goodies:

A batch of Whole Wheat Cinnamon Cookies. I picked these as the cookie of the week because they're simple, freeze well, and hold up awesome on road trips. Exactly what we'll need this weekend! I'm also going to freeze a bag of these for our next road trip in a couple weeks.

I threw a batch of Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats together. I make Krispy treats all the time, but haven't had the peanut butter kind in years. Again, I picked these for the travel factor. I also have half a dozen bags of random holiday marshmallows that I need to finish using.

A batch of Latte Bars. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know. Half of these WILL make it into the freezer too. I swear they will!

A couple rolls of croissants. Alright, so these bad boys aren't from scratch, but they'll rock in the bag of munchie goodness while on the road this weekend!

Finally, I made a huge batch of macaroni salad. This isn't for the road so much as it is for quick meals this weekend while we are actually at home. I have a feeling that if we do it right, no one will feel like cooking by the time we get home. With this in the fridge we can just throw some sandwiches together and call it dinner.

That's all for today folks! What have you guys and gals been baking?

Until next time, rock on my friends!

$1 Flip Flop Day at Old Navy This Saturday!

Good morning rockers! Old Navy's annual Dollar Flip Flop Day is going to be going on this Saturday May, 22 2010. I wait for this sale every year so I can stock up for the whole family. There will be a limit of five pair per person, so bring a friend! The sale starts at 7am so get there early for the best selection, and be ready for a crowd. If you're a veteran mosher you'll do just fine. For more details, check it out over here.

Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the heads up!

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Menu Plan Monday 5/17/10

Happy Monday rockers! Since my weekend was a little more busy than I had originally planned, I never got the last ham baked. I'll be bumping that up later in the week. I may pay for that since the weather is getting warmer, but I'm hoping it'll work out fine. I also remembered that we have a day trip planned for Saturday in San Francisco, so I'll have to get the baking done this week on Friday or Sunday. I love the busyness that comes with the warmer weather. There's always an adventure to be had. With that in mind, I'm going to allow for flexibility in the menu for this week (maybe from here on out). So, I'm not going to assign a specific meal for a specific day, just list the choices available. That way, depending on what is going on throughout the week in addition to whatever may pop up unexpectedly, we won't have to rely on the drive through. I'll just fix whatever fits with the day.

Here we go:

Dinners are going to be Clean The Fridge Soup. I talked about it here. We're supposed to get rain a day or two this week, so I'll try to make it on one of those days, then, we can have the leftovers the following night.

We'll also have Broccoli Chicken Rice Casserole again at some point due to popular demand.

I hope to bake the ham Thursday or Friday. We'll have it with mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed veggies.

During the weekend we'll have hot dogs and macaroni salad and then Ham and Pea Thing. I've searched and searched for a recipe similar to mine, but can't find one. I got the recipe from one of my mom's old cookbooks ages ago, although I don't remember which one. I can't remember what it's real name was, either. I usually double the recipe.

Ham and Pea Thing

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 small red onion, chopped

1/2 c. frozen peas

6 Tbsp. chicken stock

5 oz. thickly cut cooked ham, cut into strips

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound macaroni, or whatever pasta you have in the house

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

Cook macaroni, drain, set aside. Saute onions, ham and peas in butter or margarine. Add stock. Simmer till onions and peas are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked pasta to ham and pea mixture, stir well. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Breakfasts will be cereal, bread pudding and Banana Banana Bread from Baking Day and we still have some muffins and Baked Oatmeal in the freezer.

For lunches, we'll have ham and cheese tortilla wraps, sandwiches, Pizza Cups from Baking Day and corn dog muffins from the freezer.

Have a great week everyone! Don't forget to check out Menu Plan Monday for hundreds of great menu ideas!

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Baking Day 5/16/10

Happy Sunday rockers! I know I'm a little late getting this up, but it's been a bit hectic this weekend so I needed bump the baking up to today. Some of the things were do overs from last week which made it easy. I also shortened the initial "To bake" list for today because about half way through, it was getting way too warm in the house. Yes my friends, summer is coming. Note to self: plan better next week!!

I baked up a batch of peperoni olive pizza cups using this crust recipe. Super easy! I mix up the dough at the beginning of the baking day, while the oven pre heats. Then, it has a chance to rise while I get everything else done. Press chunks of the dough into your muffin cups and fill with whatever is in the fridge. Even though I used the pepperoni and olives today, I've also made them with barbecue sauce, cheese and chicken. Ham and cheese with bell peppers is another good combo. I cooked up a double batch of rice. I mixed a cup of brown rice in with the white rice today. The kids aren't diggin' the texture of the brown rice by itself, so I thought I'd try the mix. I'll use this for this casserole later in the week. I know we just had it last week, but everyone liked it so much, they requested it again. I got two loaves of banana bread done. I was out of oil, so I tried this recipe instead. I made another batch of bread pudding. I experimented with this last weekend and my youngest has decided it's his new favorite breakfast food. Eggs, bread, milk and dried fruit sounds like breakfast around here and I know it's got to be more nutritious than Captain Crunch. Finally, I made up yet another batch of Latte Bars. I can't believe these things haven't run their course. What is this? Four weeks straight I've made them? Not pictured are the two whole chickens that got baked up last night. We ate half of one for dinner last night, and then I'll be using the rest throughout the week. I'll post the menu tomorrow. Hubby got home early today and we got most of the garden work done yesterday, so for the rest of this afternoon we're going to be doing some prep work for our upcoming camping trip. We have a big hole in our tent that needs to be repaired. Good times! I'd rather be on a road trip to go see Korn. Oh wait! I get to do that too in about 26 days! Yay for the Headbangin' Housewife! Have a great rest of your weekend everyone! Until next time, rock on my friends!

Walmart's Free Samples

Have you checked out Walmart's free samples recently? They've always got a great assortment of new products to try and usually get the samples out to you pretty quick. Aside from trying new products, I also use these freebies in our first aid kits, gift baskets, stocking stuffers and for travel bags. They also come in handy during the holidays for all those shoe box projects. Do you collect freebies too? What do you use your samples for? Thanks to Free Sample Freak for reminding me to always check out Walmart's sample section. Until next time, rock on my friends!

Menu Plan Monday 5/10/10

Happy Monday rockers! I hope you had an awesome weekend and a rockin' Momma's Day! My baking day on Saturday went great and should make the menu run nice and smooth this week. Plus, one of the kids will be gone to science camp for the week so while I'll be missing him like crazy, I'll have one less to feed. Here's the plan: Breakfasts will be strawberry muffins, baked oatmeal, cereal and toast with homemade strawberry jam. Lunches will be PB&J, egg salad sandwiches, leftovers and corn dog muffins Monday Dinner: Biscuits and Gravy, scrambled eggs and apple salad Tuesday Dinner: Slow cooker Tamale Pie Wednesday Dinner: Broccoli, Rice, Cheese and Chicken Casserole. I used leftover chicken from the freezer and the rice from baking day. We actually tried this recipe Sunday, it turned out so good and it made enough for two nights. I love when that happens! Thursday Dinner: Leftover night Friday Dinner: Chili baked potatoes Saturday Dinner: Chicken tacos Sunday Dinner: Baked ham, mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. This is the last ham from the freezer. I want to get it baked before summer arrives and it's too hot to bake anything. Finally, desserts will be bread pudding, Latte bars and ice cream.

Have a great week everyone! For more menu ideas, go visit Menu Plan Monday.

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the rockin' moms out there! I hope you all have the chance to relax and enjoy the day.

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Baking Day 5/8/10...I'm Baaack :)

Hey there everyone, happy Saturday! It's been a great morning and I feel like I'm ready to get back into my bloggy chair and drive this thang! I'm so sorry that it's taken this long, but I'm back and more motivated than ever. So, without further ado, here's this mornings creations.

My first ever batch of bread pudding. I hope it tastes as good as it smells.

A batch of corn dog muffins for the kids lunches

A batch of chocolate chip bar cookies

A batch of those Latte Bars. I think this whole house is addicted, seriously. You have got to try them!

I boiled some eggs for egg salad sandwiches for Monday and Tuesday

I cooked up a batch of rice so it'll be ready for dinners this week.

A batch of strawberry muffins for breakfasts this week

Not pictured are also a dozen smoothie Popsicles that are in the freezer. I also made a second batch of smoothies for the kids this morning, but those are long gone already.

The only thing I have to finish is a batch of strawberry jam. I'll probably get that done tonight so that it will have a chance to cool over night so we can have it on our toast in the morning.

For now, I have some planting to finish up in the garden before this day gets away from me. The weather is absolutely gorgeous today, so I'm looking forward to getting some sun on these shoulders. I'll post some pictures of the garden this week to show you how well its all coming along.

Have a great rest of your weekend rockers and as always,

Until next time, rock on my friends!