2010 Ultimate Blog Party!

Welcome party-goers!! This is my first time participating in the Ultimate Blog Party and I'm excited to join in! You can find a more thorough introduction over in the left column under "Navigation," so I will just give you a brief overview here.

I'm a 26 year old mom of 2 (a two year old boy and a newborn girl), married to a fantastic man. We are resident managers for a non-profit organization that provides transitional housing for homeless families. We live on-site and provide support for the families on nights and weekends when the paid staff is gone. The rest of the time, I'm a stay-at-home-mom and my husband is the branch manager of a library.

Here at Eat From Your Pantry, I like to share what I've learned about living within our means and providing for my family with what I have on hand in the kitchen. These are things I frequently share with our residents here and this blog is a great sounding board. I hope to continue to grow it as a resource.

I've just started a weekly feature called Make It Yourself Monday. You can also find tips and resources (again, left sidebar) as well as recipes here on the blog. For your convenience, here's a list of recipes I've blogged about:

Main Dishes

Chicken & Lentil Loaf

Chicken & Udon Stir-fry

Chicken Crescent Calzones

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Frittata

Fruity Brown Rice Salad

Frugal Focaccia Bread Pizza

Healthified Stuffed Chicken Parmesan

Honey Baked Lentils

Lentil Crescents

Shrimp Ramen Stir-fry

Split Pea & Sausage Dahl

Tomato Pie

White Bean Rigatoni

Sides/Appetizers/Breakfasts

Baked Oatmeal

Banana Almond Muffins w/Almond Struesel

Cranberry Coconut Granola

Good & Hearty Granola

Orange-Honey Muffins

Powerball Cookies

Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Southwestern Salad

Vegetarian Chickpea Burgers

Yogurt

Desserts

Black Bean Brownies

Ice Cream

Peanut Butter & Honey Truffles

Pumpkin Pie

Zucchini Coconut Brownies

Hope you decide to stick around, and be sure to check out all of the other great blogs participating in the party this year! There are even (tons of) prizes at this party! You can see the list here. If I had my choice I'd love to win:

the $50 paypal transfer, $150 shopping spree to A Rocking Horse To Love, the $100 gift certificate to Summit Camping Gear, $50 to RUVAcards, or the $25 Starbucks gift card. :)

Get Ready to Party!!

I'm so glad I found this before it was too late! I need a jump start to get me blogging again, adding a little one to our family has been distracting. :) Read about the party and join us! Check back tomorrow for my party post. :)

Make it Yourself Monday: Yogurt

You'll never go back to store-bought after this!!

I'm doing a bit of content-recycling since I've blogged about yogurt before, but hope you enjoy in any case! Taking care of a two year old and a three week old has kept me a bit too busy to blog much! :)

I first made crock pot yogurt a year or so ago after seeing this post on crockpot365. I know it is old news to most of you, but if you haven't gotten around to trying yet, you should now!! Here are the basic instructions with some of my notes:

Crockpot Yogurt

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon whole milk (preferably raw or VAT pasturized, but anything works)

1/2 cup live/active cultured plain or vanilla yogurt (a little store bought cup works fine)

fruit and honey (optional)

Directions:

Heat milk in crockpot on low for about 3 hours. You want the milk to get up above 180 degrees. Tip: you'll know it's hot enough when a skin forms.

Turn crockpot off and let sit for another 3 hours. You want the temp to get down to 110 degrees or so.

After the 3 hours, scoop out 2 cups of the milk and mix it with the yogurt.

Pour the milk/yogurt back into the crockpot and combine.

Put the lid back on and turn the crockpot off.

Wrap a heavy bath towel around the whole crockpot to insulate the let sit for 8 hours or over night.

In the morning, put the yogurt in the fridge for a few hours to help set.

Add fruit and honey if you'd like or serve with granola!

What did you make yourself this week?

He is Risen!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3