Recipe

Here's the best recipe I've found so far for instant oatmeal. If I'm going to eat oatmeal plain I eat thicker rolled oats. But sometimes I get instant oatmeal if that's all there is. This recipe is also great for kids to make with just a little help with the oven. You can make it the night before for breakfast the next day. I usually have most of the ingredients on hand and it's tasty and comforting.

Baked Oatmeal
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup sugar or brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup milk

Beat together all ingredients with mixing spoon; pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 275 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Serve with milk.

Food ideas

I'm always looking for new, good, inexpensive food ideas. I found this today at Spunky Eclectic and it looks like it fits the bill. You could make it as fancy or plain as you wanted. Good for you, good for the environment and good for your pocketbook. If I have time, I'll try it this weekend and let you know.

My favorite cookbook

Last night I made some oatmeal bread from my favorite cookbook. Which cookbook is that? The More with Less Cookbook. It is a Mennonite cookbook and I love it because so far everything I've made out of it has turned out good and the recipes are comforting. The dishes aren't fancy, just good plain cooking that so many cookbooks can't even fathom. They spend all their time making up the fanciest dishes with expensive ingredients that may or may not actually be good. This cookbook is awesome and has a lot of tips about using leftovers and low cost ingredients. I got the cookbook on ebay several years ago but it looks like you can get it here.
I also recommend Living More with Less. Both are just great to read as well as the tips given in therm.

As promised.

I've decided for tonight that I will make just one recipe of extra food to freeze. Then more for the weekend. I'll be doing breakfast burritos with this recipe from the Pioneer Woman cooks. For potatoes I usually buy ready made frozen O'Brian potatoes instead of frying my own. Freezing fried potatoes is going to be one of my later projects and I could use those. I'm going to double the recipe because I already know my family likes these and they will probably disappear fast and not just for breakfast.

List of ingredients to buy
2 packages frozen O'Brian potatoes
3 packages of at least 10 flour tortillas, the in between size, not fajita size, not burrito size unless you want giant breakfast burritos
2 lbs breakfast sausage, whatever kind you like
1 lb Monterey Jack Cheese
2 dozen eggs
Seasoned salt, I already have this so I don't have to buy it
Salsa, homemade would be good but that will be next summer
Foil, I'm out
Green Chili, buy in bulk in late summer and it's much cheaper

I let you know tomorrow how much the ingredients cost and how many burritos I got out of this.