Cooking up a storm!

Today when I put Julia down for her morning nap, I decided that I would make good use of that time and get some meals ready for the week and a few more things in the freezer for when the school chaos begins.  First up was mini meatloaves.  You can use any recipe that you normally use to make meatloaf, but I used this {one}.  Then I cooked them in a muffin pan so that they can be frozen in individual servings and I can just pull out what we need for one meal and re heat them for dinner.  All the hard work is done!  The other meal I made for the week was {Shepard Pie}.  So that is two meals ready for this week and three meals for the freezer. (Meatloaves are enough for three meals.)  That will help me to stay on track of cooking dinner each night even when I've been in school all day or when I have a lot of homework to keep up with.

The other thing I made for Julia and I as a treat today was {35-second Chocolate Cake}.  A friend of mine pinned it yesterday, so when I was craving chocolate today I decided to try it out.  The best part, these are ingredients everyone usually has on hand!  It reminded me of the new microwave desserts by Betty Crocker, only MUCH cheaper.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 tablespoons Splenda Granular or Whey Low powdered (I used regular sugar since I don't use these.)

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon  instant coffee crystals – optional, but brings out the chocolaty YUM!

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon oil

Drop of vanilla extract

Directions:

Spray a coffee cup or ramekin with vegetable cooking spray.  In the cup combine the flour, Splenda, cocoa powder, baking powder, coffee crystals and salt until no lumps remain.  Stir in the milk, olive oil, and vanilla until smooth.

Bake in the microwave on high for 35 seconds.  You may need to add 5 more seconds (maybe 5 more after that, depending on your microwave)… but don’t be tempted to overcook or it will be rubbery!  It should be moist on the bottom and will continue cooking as it sets.

Serve with chocolate sauce…a sprinkle of powdered sugar…whipped cream or eat plain as a brownie.

Here is what our looked like out of the microwave.

Here is Julia taking her first bite.

And I think this face says, "YUMMMY!!!"