These are some of my favorite muffins ever! With butter on top, the brown sugar in the muffins gives it almost a carmel taste. –Mellyn
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Author Archives: Mellyn
Oatmeal-Wheat Bread
Delicious and sweet, you can’t beat the flavor of oatmeal wheat bread! –Mellyn
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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
From Julie L.
We grew up eating these delicious oatmeal cookies! Now I prefer to skip the shortening and use beans instead –it makes me feel like I’m eating health food! I usually double the batch and freeze the extras for cookies on demand. It makes the texture less crunchy and more chewy. So good! –Mellyn
Sweet Honey Granola
I’m a HUGE fan of cold cereal, but over the last couple of years I’ve been working on reducing the junk in our diet. I’ve been playing around with granola for awhile now –trying to find a recipe that fills the void I feel when we have no cold cereal in the house. This one is my current favorite…subject to change next week when I make a new batch! –Mellyn
Oatmeal!
Versatile, delicious and good for you — oatmeal is one of nature’s finest foods! Touted by some as the perfect breakfast food, oatmeal is loaded with soluble fiber and contains slow-release carbs that will give you energy for hours after breakfast. This week I’ll share 3 of my current favorite oatmeal breakfast recipes, in addition to a couple of other family favorites! –Mellyn
Maple Doughnuts
The bakery in my hometown makes the most delicious maple bars! So of course I had to figure out how to make them myself. After several tries, I opted for doughnuts over bars simply because it was hard to get the insides of the bars cooked without burning the outsides. We also opted for a little healthier, half-wheat version of the dough that is light enough my kids weren’t sure it had wheat in it! The maple glaze was the tricky part. Several pounds of powdered sugar later I was finally satisfied. Now I can have a bit of heaven no matter where we live! –Mellyn
Creamy Rice Pudding
From Grace F.
A budding cook at the age of 10, Grace makes the best rice pudding I’ve ever tasted! She generously agreed to share her recipe. Thanks, Grace! We love this. –Mellyn
Syrup
From Julie L.
Growing up, my mom made all of our syrup. As a result, I’ve never developed a taste for store-bought syrup with a corn syrup base. In fact, I think it’s kind of yucky. To me, this tastes a lot more like real maple syrup. And since the recipe uses basic ingredients, it’s easy to use in our food storage plan, too. –Mellyn
A little can make a big difference…
…When you’re dealing with flavorings and extracts, that is!
Can you imagine maple syrup without the maple?
Rootbeer without the rootbeer flavor?
Orange ice cream without the orange?
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
The odor of muffins, hot from the oven, is one of nicest morning smells in existence! Our family loves these, and we hope yours will, too! –Mellyn
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“Cheesecake Factory” Bread
This bread is similar to the yummy loaves they bring out at the Cheesecake Factory or Outback Steakhouse. We love it warm and smothered in butter! –Mellyn
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Homemade Hot Fudge
Smooth, creamy and rich, this hot fudge is a life saver! I made up this recipe one Sunday afternoon when we were craving hot fudge for our ice cream, but didn’t have the right ingredients on hand for any of the recipes I found. It’s smooth, creamy and rich — guaranteed to satisfy your chocolate craving! –Mellyn 
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Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
We ate some homemade Oreos at a family gathering that were so good! I wanted to make my own, but since most recipes call for a chocolate cake mix, I set out to make one from scratch. This is the result of all of our efforts! We think they’re well worth the effort! –Mellyn 
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Cocoa!
We’ve all heard about the studies that say chocolate improves your mood, so I wasn’t surprised to find that listed as a benefit of consuming cocoa. What I was surprised to learn is that cocoa is a nutrient-dense food...
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Candy Balls
My friend, Julie, incorporates a lot of raw foods into her diet. When I asked her what she eats for fun, she shared the idea of these little energy bites. I was, quite honestly, astounded at how fast they are to make and how good the results are. It’s like candy! I like to keep a stash in my fridge for a late afternoon pick-me-up or an after-dinner treat. –Mellyn
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup flax seed (I like it best when it’s blended up)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut (optional)
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans or almonds
- Mix together.
- Drop by teaspoonfuls on a small cookie sheet.
- Put in the refrigerator until balls are firm enough to be moved to a bag.
Chocolate Food Storage Cake
I stopped buying chocolate cake mixes after discovering this recipe more than 10 years ago. It’s one of my all-time favorites! Because it doesn’t use any dairy, it’s still an option if we’re out of eggs or milk (and don’t want to break into our supply!). I have no idea whom to credit with its creation, but I’ve seen versions of it in many different places. This delicious frosting is an adaptation of a traditional cocoa frosting — I just subbed table cream for the butter. It isn’t as fluffy, but it had a rich, smooth flavor we all loved! –Mellyn 
Tortilla Casserole
This recipe came from a friend when we were newlyweds and pinching our pennies. I felt like I could make it out of almost nothing, and although it isn’t very pretty, it tastes delicious! –Mellyn 
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Prairie Fire Bean Dip
From Debbie C.
My friend Debbie makes the most amazing bean dip! I adapted her recipe for more shelf-stable ingredients and posted both recipes here. Hope you enjoy! –Mellyn
Still lovin’ those beans!
So it’s been about a year since I posted some of the first AMAZING ways to use beans to replace fat in baking. If you missed those posts, and are interested, there’s more information under “Tips and Tidbits” and you can find all of the recipes by clicking on “Beans” on the ingredient menu on the left hand side of the page. This week I’m going to share the rest of my favorite bean recipes. Hopefully some of them will help as you’re making your food storage plan. I’m still just amazed by the mighty bean! Read on if you’d like to learn more…
Beans and Rice
I tried off and on for years to make something we considered edible in the beans and rice category, and failed miserably every time. But when our family lived in Florida, a friend from the Dominican Republic came over and taught me to make her black beans and rice, along with a delicious chicken. Slowly, her recipe morphed into one that is totally shelf stable and our family loves it! –Mellyn
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