Challenge: 26 new recipes - 1/26 baked oatmeal breakfast muffins

Below is what I made last night.  I used 3/4 cup honey instead of the Stevia and lactose free milk.  I didn't top any of them (it was late and I tossed them all in the fridge/freezer).  I didn't fill the cups enough the first time around, so the first dozen muffins are a bit small.  The next dozen I filled about 3/4 full, which seemed to work just fine.  


Verdict - tasty (even with no toppings) and super easy!

Baked Oatmeal Muffins

Challenge: 26 new recipes over 52 weeks (or less) - Introduction

This is the first of many challenges I am presenting to myself.  I am not the best cook and my kitchen is not ideal, so this will be a learning experience for me.  There are only a few requirements:

1.  It must be wheat-free.
2.  It must be quick to prepare. I have no tolerance for spending hours preparing something that will be devoured in minutes.  I'm thinking definitely less than an hour prep time.
3.  It must be easy.  That means the ingredients must be easily identifiable, easily located and require no "special" skills or equipment.
4.  It must not "break the bank."  While I haven't exactly set a limit, The goal is to find things I can then recommend to my daughter, who is on a budget.

While I am hopeful I will find (and try) 26 new recipes in a much shorter time, I am a realist.  I know I sidetrack myself, trip myself up and sometimes simply don't feel like doing something, so I am aiming for 1 new recipe every pay period.  Let's see how it goes.

*all related posts will be titled as "Challenge: 26 new recipes..." and labeled as "recipes"

Forget about it chicken - can't get much easier than this!

I'm thinking the crock pot (seldom used before) just may become my new best kitchen friend!  I've made this twice now - each a little bit differently - and each time it turned out a hit in my house.  I found it extremely easy and my son found it very tasty.


Here you go:


1 crock pot
1 whole chicken
various seasonings or veggies
-one time I filled the cavity with chopped carrots and celery and topped with a bit of minced garlic
-one time I filled the cavity with chopped onion, carrots and celery
no water or anything needed


Empty the cavity of the chicken.  Season as desired.  Cook on low over night or all day (about 10 hours).  The chicken will pretty much fall off the bones!


The possible uses for this are only as endless as your imagination.

Taco Soup

Tweaked a recipe received from a friend.  Here's the basic:

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can Rotel
1 can tomato sauce
1 can black beans
1 can chicken
1 1/2 cans water
1 package taco seasoning
1 package Ranch seasoning
1 tsp chili powder

Grab your crock pot, dump it all in, turn it in and let it cook!  I put the last batch on high for about 4 hours, but I'm sure it would do fine on low all day while at the office.

There's plenty of room for adjusting the spicy factor of this recipe, so find what your family likes best.  Oh, and watch those sodium levels!