Cinnamon Rolls

These are gobbled up as soon as family sees them. I'll never try another cinnamon roll recipe, because I think these are the best. Note: These are wonderful fresh, but they don't freeze well

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
 2 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg

3 tablespoons softened butter
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoons milk or juice

Directions

In saucepan, heat 1/2 cup milk, water, and 2 tablespoons butter until very warm. Place milk mixture, salt, flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Dough cycle. Press Start.

Once Dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the bread machine and punch down. On a floured surface, roll into a large rectangle. Smear with the softened butter. Combine the cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar. Sprinkle over the rectangle. Generously sprinkle the raisins and/or chopped nuts over the top.

Roll the dough up into a log starting at the long side. Cut into 12 slices. Place the rolls cut side down into a 9x13-inch greased baking pan. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Combine the confectioners' sugar, 1.5 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla extract, and 1.5 tablespoons milk into a thick frosting; set aside.

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove and allow to cool 10 minutes. Spread frosting over baked rolls and enjoy.

Thrifty Food Plan & Shopping

I have been doing a bit of research on the USDA website and trying to figure out the food budget they think is the ultimate Thrifty Food Plan for us American. For a family of three (two adults & 1 teen son) I have narrowed it to 490$ a month and that doesn’t include anything which isn’t edible so toilet paper, napkins, sandwich baggies, etc are separate. They recommend that the weekly budget of @122$ be divide in the following way. When I got this all worked out I was shocked because we buy and eat a lot more meat than that.


This is how it should be.

Group 1: 19$ a week

Flours, rice pasta, chips, cereals, breads and grains, and other baking goods like baking soda & baking power.

Group 2: 32$ weekly
Potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, fresh veggies ~ greens, yellow, & orange

Group 3: 21$ weekly

Fresh Fruit, canned & frozen fruit, juices

Group 4: $17 weekly

Milk, butter, sour cream, cheeses, yogurt, any dairy

Group 5: $20 weekly

Eggs, bacon, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, nuts, nut butters, and dry beans & lentils.

Group 6: $14 weekly

Sugars, brown sugar, coffee tea, pop, condiments & sauces, snacks, pop & everything else like oils

Well today I went to four of the eight grocery stores in my area: ALDI’s, Value King, Giant eagle, and BJ’s whole sale club. I was shocked to find out that the cheapest and best prices were at ALDI’s on the baking supplies and just about everything else including hamburger and pasta. Unless, it was something on sale and I had a coupon for the sale item. Then it was cheapest to shop at Giant Eagle. That being said, it would be most cost effective for stuff like flour & sugar to get those at the BJ’s because there you can get a named brand in a huge 25 pound or larger bag for slightly more than the smaller generic version at ALDI’s.


We blow through a lot of flour and sugar here, with my son Joe planning on culinary school after he graduates next year.

I was shocked to discover how pathetic our consumption of fresh fruit & veggies is. In fact our consumption of them including canned and froze items is embarrassingly low. We are carnivores and junkasaurouses. The bulk of our items fall in group 4, 5, 1, 6 and after today’s weekly trip which came in under budget by 12$ we were way over in those categories and need to spend another 40$ on fruit & veggies to achieve a balanced diet.

Breakfast Biscuits

Breakfast Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sift (or mix, in my case... Sifting on a saturday morning?!) the flour, sugar, bp and salt. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter or two knives until the butter is about the size of peas.

Mix in the milk until barely combined. Turn out onto a floured countertop, and knead about 10 times, until everything is smoothly combined. Roll or press the dough out to 1/2 an inch thick (or thereabouts). Cut with a floured round cutter of some sort... I use a glass. The number you get depends on the size...

Bake for 10-12 minutes on an UNGREASED cookie sheet until puffy and golden brown.

For me, the trick is to work them as LITTLE as possible.