Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

Mmm. Chocolate cake! I have never been a big fan of chocolate cake. Then I found this recipe! Not too chocolaty. Moist. Chewy. And oooh so good!

Ingredients

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
• 3/4 cup melted margarine or butter, melted
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa (the powdered kind)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Get out your trusty mixing bowl and spatula.

Mix oatmeal and boiling water together the large mixing bowl. While that is sitting, grease one 9X13 inch pan or two 8 inch round pans. Add in the margarine and stir, making sure it is completely melted. At this point, it will look like runny oatmeal.

Add in the sugar and mix well. Then add in the eggs and beat till smooth and glossy. Add vanilla, salt, cocoa, and baking soda. Mix well. Add in the flour and mix well again.

Pour into your greased pan(s) and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

See that little crumb on the plate to the left of the cake. Yeah, I ate that right after taking this picture! :o)

Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting, if you can wait that long. I have never used icing on it but I am sure it would be yummy with some. But it really doesn't need it!

This cake freezes really well!! I usually freeze all but a couple pieces to eat later. All you have to do is get out a piece, warm in the microwave for a minute or so and top with vanilla ice cream! A quick and easy dessert any day of the week.

Frugal Tip Friday: Dish washer Soap

I have always gotten liquid dishwasher detergent because it works so well. Then I heard a great tip that can save you a good bit of money in the long run while still getting your dishes clean.

Most powdered dish washing soaps are cheaper than their liquid cousins. The biggest problem with them is that they tend to leave soap scum and a white film on all your dishes. Well, there is a solution to this!

First, get out an old (but clean) ice cream bucket. I use these for everything by the way! Measure out 4 cups of the powdered dishwasher detergent and pour into the bucket. Next, measure out 4 cups of baking soda and pour into the bucket. Get out an old spoon (I use a metal one that has been bent a few too many times from dipping out hard ice cream). Stir the two powders together, not too quickly or you will send a fine dust into the air that will make you sneeze! :o) Put the lid on the bucket and store under your sink like normal. (Make sure you label the bucket!)

Next time you do a load of dishes, use the spoon to dip out what you need into the two soap cups in the door of the dishwasher like normal. Then, and this is the secret to not having the soap scum, pour about 1/2 cup of white vinegar into the bottom to the dishwasher. At this point, I just eye ball the vinegar.

The vinegar will react with the baking soda (just like in your 3 grade science fair volcano project) and will rinse your dishes clean.

The baking soda will make the washing detergent last twice as long, for half the cost, and still get your dishes clean!

You can buy large boxes of baking soda in the laundry detergent aisle. You can also buy 1 gallon jugs of vinegar in your favorite super store (you know which one I am talking about). It is in with the regular vinegar, just look down. :o) Oh and it's super cheap! Like less that $2.00!

Thankful Thursday: Week #3

~Yarn

~Baby sneezes

~Cameras

~Wooden Spoons

~Chinese take-out

~"The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding"

~Vitamins

Quick Tip Tuesday: A clean shower every time

This is an easy tip that can save you a good bit of time. Keep a sponge and your shower cleaner in the bathroom. When it comes time to take a shower, pull out the cleaning supplies and take them in with you. While your shampoo or conditioner is "setting" give the shower a good scrub! Do this about once a week and you will always have a nice, clean shower!

The start of my garden

Summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, beef steak tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and two kinds of flowers.

I am so looking forward to starting our garden this year! I have never been more ready for spring! I know a big part of it has to do with our having a little one to share it all with this year. I am so looking forward to watching her discover all that the plants and garden have to offer. Including the fact that many of her first foods will be coming from our own plants.

I started with a list of what I wanted to grow this year. The list consists of: bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes (large, plum and cherry), summer squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I decided how many of each I want to plant. I made a list of then they need to be put to seed indoors (everything but the potatoes have to be started as seed). Then I figured out when I need to transplant them. Here are some great sites to help you figure this out...

Frost and Freeze Data for the USA

Victory Seeds Planting Guide

Growing Guide: for Vegetables

Indiana Vegetable Planting Calendar

Here is a look at my planting guide for this year.

Bell peppers- planning on 5-6 plants- start seeds indoors early to mid March- transplant out doors mid May to mid June

Potatoes- not sure how many we are going to plant yet- plant directly out doors late March to early May

Tomatoes (all varieties)- 2 large, 1 plum, 1 cherry- start seeds indoors mid to late March- transplant outdoors mid May to mid June ( no sooner than Mother's day)

Summer squash, cucumbers, and zucchini- 2 squash, 1 cucumber, 1 zucchini- start indoors early to mid April- transplant outdoors early to late May

These dates are for central Indiana. If you live in a different climate, these won't work for you.

I will be sure to update you on how the garden is coming. And please feel free to update me on yours. What are you planting this year? Are you new to gardening or are you a seasoned pro? Any tips on container gardening?

Granola: Not just for hippies anymore!

Ingredients

This isn't so much a recipe as a guide to making granola. Granola is super expensive to buy in the store! And even though it is supposed to be "healthy" it is often packed with fillers and who knows what else. It is actually quite easy to whip up a batch!

Ingredient Options

• 2 cups Oats (the quick kind, not the old fashioned)
• 2 cups Rice cereal (like the kind to make rice crispy's)
• 1/2 cup peanuts (or any other kind of nuts)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, butter scotch, white, any will do) You can also use M&M's
• 1/2 cup dried fruit
• 1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup raisins
• Anything else you can come up with

All but the top two are optional. It's your choice! Mix all of your choice of ingredients together (holding back the chocolate chips, raisins and dried fruit till after cooking). Once mixed well, pour it out onto a cookie sheet. You may need two, just make sure it is no thicker than 1/2 inch.

Granola before toasting.

Place the granola in an oven heated to 250 degrees. Toast it for 15 minutes, stir, toast again for 15 minutes, stir, toast, stir... Well, you get the point. Do this pattern till you have toasted the mix for 45 minutes to an hour. 45 minutes usually does it for me. Allow to completely cool before mixing in the dried fruit, chocolate, and/or raisins. Store in a sealed container. I keep mine in an old oats container.

The finished product!

Serve on yogurt, as cereal with milk, or just as is. It will keep on the counter for 2 to 4 weeks, but ours never seems to stay around that long. :o)

Frugal Tip Friday: Zip Top Baggies

Drying baggies. (Note the pumpkin draining in the back ground.)

How many zip top baggies would you say you go through in the average week? 2, 3, 10? I would guess that we (there are 2 adults and one baby in our household), go though probably 5 to 10 per week. Mostly in sending Zach's lunch to work with him and in storing leftovers in the fridge or freezer.

One fairly simple way you can cut down on your trash and on your budget is to reuse your zip top baggies. I know this tip isn't going to be for everyone. Some will say "Ewww!" Others will exclaim "Way too time consuming for something so cheap!" I am not saying you will save your family a ton of money.

But lets just say the average family of 4 uses 10 zip top baggies a week. At 52 weeks in the year that is 520 baggies. You can buy them for about $3.00 a box (50 count). That's about 10 1/2 boxes a year. So, 10.5 boxes times $3.00 per box equals $31.50 per year.

I know, not a whole lot. But in today's economy, every penny counts.

So anyway, what I choose to do is to wash most of my used zip top baggies and reuse them. It is actually pretty easy. I just add them to my hand washed things. Dip some dish water up into the baggie, put your wash rag in it, slosh it around till it is clean, dump, rinse and shake open and turn it up side down to dry. As you can see in the pictures, I have quite a few drying. A lot of times I will let them pile up and wash quite a few at once.


I do have a few "Rules." I don't wash and reuse baggies that have contained raw meat. If the baggie is really messy, I don't mess with it. If it is going to take me more than a few seconds to wash, it isn't really worth it to me.

I especially like to reuse the baggies that have labels for certain things. Like when I make mini pizzas for snacks and meals (I usually make a few dozen at a time). I label the baggies with either cheese, pepperoni, or pepper, depending on the type of pizza in it. Then I can reuse the baggies for the same thing.

Anyway, it saves money and on the landfills. Maybe not too much of a time saver, if it was it would be in the Quick Tip Tuesdays, not Frugal Tip Friday. :o)