Commod Whip Cream!

I grew up on fresh, raw cows milk.  My Grandpa had a cow named Beemer that we milked a couple times a week and I have fond memories of going with my Dad to milk the cow then enjoying the thick creamy milk at home.  When I was 6 years old, Beemer jumped the fence in the pasture and got hit by a car.  That was the end of the fresh cows milk era for our family.  The rest of my growing up we drank powdered dry milk and canned milk because it is what we could afford!
This recipe for whip cream is one that we made frequently in my household growing up.  It is simple, cheap and quite tasty!

Commod Whip Cream:
1 can Evaporated Milk
Sweetener of choice (ie. Sugar, honey, Splenda, etc)
Dash of vanilla

-Place a can of evaporated milk in the freezer for 1.5 to 2 hours to chill.  You want the milk to be on the brink of freezing, but not frozen.













-Pour chilled milk in a large bowl and beat with electric mixer on high.  When mixture is foamy, slowly add in sweetener of choice and vanilla and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

-Taste whip cream and add more sweetener if needed.  Serve immediately.  Whip cream deflates quickly so enjoy it right after beating!

Time For a Refill

Hello again!  I have been negligent in positing lately as I have been traveling for work and busy with projects.  Last Wednesday marked one month since I started this project and our commods items were running low.  We have been eating mostly dinners from commods which is why we had extra products left over.  Had we been eating all three meals and day we would have run out weeks ago!  Here is a reminder of what it looked like in the beginning:

Here's what we have left:

 It's crazy to me that the 5 lb brick of cheese is meant for 1 person.  Between the three of us we only used half of it!  We got our refill of commods last Wednesday and there are more great recipes to come.  Stay tuned!

Sweetheart Salad

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and I wanted to make something special.  I looked at our commods shelf and tried to think of something fancy to make.  It's almost been a month since we got commods and there is very little to choose from, but I had everything I needed to throw together a quick and easy side salad.

This salad is great because you can add ANYTHING you may have lying around (except the kitchen sink, of course) and it is still delicious!  I made it by combining the following ingredients:

Cooked and cooled pasta (I  used spaghetti noodles, you can use any shape you have!)
Kidney beans
Olives
Avocado
Broccoli
Pepperoni Slices
Fat free Italian dressing

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss together.  I like to start by adding a small amount of Italian dressing then tasting it to see if it needs more.  You can add more or less items than I did, anything goes!

Chill the salad for a few hours before serving.  You will need to add more Italian dressing  just before serving as the noodles will soak up some of the dressing as it chills.

Be creative and enjoy!

Sloppy Joes

Sloppy joes hold a special place in my heart.  We grew up on deer meat and I always looked forward to sloppy joe night where the usually tasteless deer burger would be transformed into a flavorful sandwich!  In my teenage years I discovered that most people make their sloppy joes with ground beef and the first time I tasted this variety I was hooked.  I haven't had a deer meat sloppy joe since!

Tonights recipe is time tested in my house.  The boys love these sloppy joes and have no idea that I have added spinach and beans to the sauce to sneak in some extra vegetables and fiber!

Sloppy Joes

Serves 6-8

1 lb ground beef

1 small can tomato sauce

1 packet sloppy joe mix

1 can kidney beans drained and rinsed

1/2 an onion, diced
Garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin

 -Brown beef with diced onions. Drain fat.

-Place entire can of tomato sauce, 1/2 can of kidney beans, 1/4 cup of water and about 1 cup spinach in blender and puree until smooth.  Add more water if mixture is too thick.

- Add pureed sauce to cooked meat.  You'll notice the sauce is an un-appetizing green color at this point, but don't worry, the green will fade as you add more ingredients.

 -Add packet of sloppy joe mix.

-Add about 1 TB of paprika.  This is to put some red coloring back in the mix and add a little flavor.  If you don't have any paprika, you can add a squirt of ketchup to redden it up a bit.




-Taste the sauce and add garlic, onion or cumin powder as desired.

-Serve on a hamburger bun and enjoy!

Low Carb Potato Salad

It's Super Bowl Sunday and nothing says tailgate party like potato salad.  Who doesn't love this delicious all American side dish?  The bad news is, for those with blood sugar control issues, this salad does not give much love back.  Potatoes are high in starch and can lead to blood sugar spikes so today I created an alternative salad that is low carb and just as delicious using cauliflower instead of potatoes!

That's right, Cauliflower!  I made this using this low fat potato salad recipe from a previous post, but replaced the potatoes with cauliflower.  You'll want to remove the cauliflower from the stems so it's just the florets then steam them for 3-5 minutes until just tender.  Allow them to cool then mix the salad together as if you were using potatoes.

To me it tasted just like the real thing without any guilt or blood sugar woes afterward!  Looks like a winner!

Frosted Banana Bars

As a disclaimer: there is absolutely nothing healthy about today's recipe.  Yes these bars have bananas in them, but added to that is flour, sugar, and oil which is then smothered in cream cheese frosting.   But they are oh so delicious!  I am a firm believer in enjoying a treat every now and then and with the super bowl coming up my husband requested these bars for his party. 

My sister introduced me to this recipe years ago and it has been a fan favorite ever since.  These bars are fast and easy to make and they produce a giant pan of bars.  Another plus is that they freeze perfectly so you can make several pans ahead of time to have handy at a moment's notice.

Frosted Banana Bars

1/2 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 ripe bananas)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

-Mash bananas in bowl then add oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix until smooth.  Add dry ingredients and stir.  Pour batter into greased 15x10x1 jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet) and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
-To make frosting combine butter and powdered sugar in bowl and mix with beaters until fluffy.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar and blend until smooth.  Cool banana bars before frosting and keep frosted bars in the fridge.

I'm Back With a Time Saving Tip!

It's been a week since the knife incident and my thumb is healing nicely!  We have continued to eat from our commods this past week, but my husband threw most of the meals together so I don't have any new recipes.  Now that the thumb is back in action you can expect a full return! 

And now for a time saving tip:

I made lasagna the other night.  I don't do anything fancy with my recipe, just the usual ground beef, cheese, cottage cheese, noodles, pasta sauce and seasonings.  I like to throw in whatever vegetables I have on hand which happened to be spinach this time.

Lasagna can be rather time consuming to make, but it feeds a lot of people, my family loves it, and we usually have leftovers for lunch the next day.  Tonight I doubled the recipe and made two pans: one to eat tonight and the other to freeze.

Wrap the lasagna to be frozen with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap against the sauce to squeeze out any air.

Cover the plastic layer with foil and label it, date it with the current date then post a use by date.  The lasagna noodles I used said they would last 2 months in the freezer, but they were the no-cook noodles and have a far shorter freezer life than regular noodles.  In general anything that is frozen should be used within 6 months, but check the package of the items you're putting in the dish to see if it notes any differences in freeze time.

When you remove the lasagna from the freezer to bake it, don't forget to remove the plastic wrap layer before putting it in the oven!  I'll sometimes write myself a note on the foil so I don't forget!

So there you have it, two for one dinner.  I made this from commod ingredients except for the cottage cheese and noodles which cost me $4 for the both of them.  That means I got two dinners for $2 a piece!  Steal of a deal!