This Week's Bountiful Basket and A Handy Tip

Here is this week's yumminess! We were very excited that the 9 grain bread was offered this week! It is totally delicious, and very good for you! I just read the ingredients list on the bag. They are: Wheat flour, Organic Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Water , Honey, Rye Flakes, Barley , Oats, Vital Wheat Gluten, Cracked Wheat, Corn, Rye, Millet, Flaxseed, Sea Salt, and Yeast. Absolutely no preservatives (yeah!!). Each slice is: 50 calories, .5 g fat, 75 mg sodium, 10 g total carbs, 2 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 5 g protein. This week we got:

• a big head of leaf lettuce
  
• 3 pounds Granny Smith apples
• 3 pounds bananas
• 3 navel oranges
• 1 coconut
• 5 avocados
  
• 1 (6 oz) container blackberries
• 1 pound strawberries
• 8 tomatoes
• 2 yellow summer squash
• 2 cucumbers
• 8 peaches
• 5 loaves of 9 grain bread

Total cost:
$15.00 for basket
$10.00 for bread
$1.50 handling fee
$26.50 total

Now for my handy tip that is totally unrelated to Bountiful Basket's, but just popped into my head, because I am having Dear Hubby's whole clan over for a BBQ tonight. When you are making punch or lemonade for a crowd freeze part of the punch/ lemonade in ice cube trays, or empty Cool Whip containers. Place the ice in the punch bowl or beverage dispenser, and pour the rest of the beverage over it. It will keep the punch cold without diluting it. If you are serving it in gallon pitchers; fill the pitcher 1/3 full of punch/lemonade and freeze. Then add the rest of the beverage in the pitcher before serving. Both ways will keep your punch cold for hours. If you are serving lemonade in a pretty bowl float a few slices of lemon on top. It will look like a gourmet concoction (and no one will guess it's just Country Time drink mix) .

Fabulous Baking Tip

I came across this handy tip in a cook book I was reading this weekend (call me weird, but I like to read cook books at bedtime. They help put me to sleep!). It suggested that you place a shallow dish filled with warm water (a glass pie plate works great) on the rack underneath your muffin pan or loaf pans of quick bread when you place them in the oven to bake. Since I had my inevitable black bananas to use up; I thought I would give it a try. Wow! What a difference it made. My muffins came out taller with a nice rounded crown (just like the pictures in food magazines), and they were light and fluffy (not always the case when I make muffins or quick bread). I baked the first batch for the normal time called for in the recipe,and they were a little too brown. The second batch I baked for 3 minutes less, and they were perfect!

Sour Cream Substitute

I took advantage of the fabulous cottage cheese sale at Smith's about six weeks ago (it was $.88 a 16 oz. container) and bought 8 containers. Usually my family devours it and I can't keep it in the house. So, no worries. Well, when I cleaned the fridge out last week I found four cartons that had been kicked to the back of the fridge. Crud! It is at it's expiration date. Usually, I treat expiration dates as a suggestion, but we are pushing our luck now. To use it up I have gotten creative, and started using it in place of sour cream in recipes. I substituted a cup of it in The Sour Cream Blueberry Muffin recipe I got off the Idea Room. Delicious muffins, by the way! I pureed another cup and mixed it in with the sour cream for Chicken Enchiladas for dinner Tuesday. Today, I threw a carton in the food processor with two tablespoons of milk and a package of ranch dip mix. My family liked it better than when I use sour cream (and it's healthier, too). Tomorrow, I am using the last of it in baked pasta (basically my lasagna recipe, but I cook macaroni and use it in place of lasagna noodles).

Save That Foil

It's another quick tip today, too. When your recipe calls for covering the dish with foil before baking don't waste aluminum foil. Cover your 13x9 inch pan with a large cookie sheet, instead.
I came across this idea by accident. The other day I ran out of foil right as I was throwing dinner in the oven. Naturally, I was in a hurry, and none of the neighbors were home to borrow from. In desperation, I threw a cookie sheet on top of the casserole and hoped for the best. It worked great!
Desperation is always the mother of invention in my book!

Waste Not Want Not

Now is the time that my kid's love to eat all the fruit that I have canned throughout the fall. I hate to pour the leftover juice down the drain since I had to pay for the sugar to do the canning. I have discovered that I can use it in my cooking and baking. You can replace it for the liquid called for in quick bread, muffin, cookie, or cake recipes. If the recipe calls for milk use powdered milk (1/3 cup of dry milk + 1 cup of liquid equals 1 cup liquid milk) and the amount of juice needed to equal what is called for in the recipe. You can also decrease the amount of sugar by a tablespoon or two. I have also used leftover juice from pineapple in place of water or milk when I am making a pudding based salad. It is also great to add to juice or kool aid(pour it through a mesh strainer into the pitcher if your family isn't big on floaties) to make it stretch a little bit further. When in a pinch I have even used leftover juice from peaches, blueberries, or apples as pancake syrup. Pour into a saucepan and add a little almond extract and cinnamon or nutmeg. Bring to a boil; stir in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup juice or water. Return to a boil stirring constantly until it has thickened. Make sure you let the "syrup" cool a little before you serve it.