Yummy Carrot Bread

I baked a super yummy snack cake this past week. I had been wanting to bake it for quite a while, but I just couldn’t seem to find the time between my school work, family stuff, house stuff, church stuff…ya know how it is. Anyway, I finally got around to it on Saturday.

I found the original recipe here. Of course, I tweaked it a bit. Here’s my version.

Yummy Carrot Bread

3 eggs

2c sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup apple butter

1/1/2 cups finely shredded carrots

8oz can pineapple tidbits

2 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt



Beat eggs and sugar about 2 min until fluffy. Add in oil and apple butter. Beat another min or so. Stir in carrots, pineapple and vanilla and stir until well combined. In a sperate bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Slow add to the wet ingredients while stirring. Mix until completely combined. Divide the batter between 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 45-60 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.



This was a really nice snack bread. Not too sweet, moist and just yummy. This would make a great dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of a simple powdered sugar glaze. I think I will add more pineapple next time. I didn’t have the tidbits, so I whizzed up some chunks, but I think I whizzed them up a bit too much. I would have liked to have had bigger pieces of pineapple in my bread. I think you would get that with the tidbits. I also used the last bit of the homemade apple butter I canned. The original recipe calls for apple sauce and some other spices. Because the apple butter has spiced in it, I omitted them from the recipe.

I will be making this again. We ate 1/2 a loaf right away and put the remaining 1 1/2 loaves in the freezer for later.

Freezer Berry French Toast Casserole

I was on vacation the past couple of weeks and totally forgot to schedule posts. Bad me. But I’m back now and ready to post.
About a month ago out huge upright garage freezer got left open and everything thawed. I was able to salavage a few things and I made quite a few freezer meals. But, that left the freezer pretty empty, so I went on the search for some more freezer recipes. I found this recipe in my search. I decided to give it a go and adadpted it for the freezer. Here’s my version.

Freezer Berry French Toast Casserole

1 loaf french bread, cut in cubes
6 eggs
1 3/4 c milk
1 tbsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tbsp vanilla
12 oz frozen berries of your choice
Spray a 9×13 freezer safe pan with cooking spray. (I use the metal buffet server pans from Sam’s. Super cheap and they stand up great in the freezer. Sam’s also sells lids for them, but foil works too. ) Put the cubed bread in your prepared pan. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat well and pour over the bread. Sprinkle berries over the top.
Cover well, label and place in the freezer.

To cook: Take casserole out of the freezer the day before you want to cook it. It needs a full day in the fridge to thaw completely. WHenready to bake, turn the oven to 350 degrees. Place thawed covered casserole dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. If you want the top to be crunchy, remove the cover and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and crunchy.

My family loved this. I didn’t take it out in time to thaw completely so we didn’t have it for breakfast. I started it for breakfast, but we had somewhere to be and ran out of time to finish baking it. So, I put it in the fridge partially baked and then finished it up later in the day. We ended up eating it with ice cream for dessert. It was SUPER yummy. The leftovers we ate for breakfast the next day, and they got good reviews as well. I doubled this recipe and made one with blueberries and one with mixed berries. I still have the blueberry one in the freezer, but I am sure it will be just as well recieved as the mixed berry one was.

Hot Chicken

I love 'dump' chicken recipes. You know, the ones where you dump some chicken and other stuff in a freezer baggie, pop it in the freezer, and take it out to thaw on the day you wanna cook it. The chicken marinates during the thawing process. Super easy. Here's one of my favorites. When I make this, I cook plain chicken, just seasoned with salt, pepper, & garlic powder for the kiddos.

Hot Chicken

4-6 pieces of chicken, your choice. I use boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of hot sauce. I use Frank’s Red Hot, but you can use your favorite type.
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled

Put the chicken in a freezer bag. Mix hot sauce and butter in a bowl. I mix it in a glass pyrex measuring cup that I use to melt the butter. This makes for less dishes to wash, and I’m all about washing less dishes. Pour hot sauce/butter mixture over the chicken. Remove as much air from the freezer bag as you can. Label the bag and freeze.
To cook: Take the baggie out of the freezer the morning you want to cook it and put it in the fridge to thaw. Pour the thawed contents into a baking dish and bake @ 350 until the chicken is done. It takes 20-30 min for boneless skinless breasts. You can also grill your chicken, basting with the sauce as you grill the chicken. I serve this chicken with hot buttered rice.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

I love easy recipes that pack great flavor. I also love a good sale. So, when I ran across boneless skinless chicken breasts for .84/lb a few weeks ago, I bought a ton of them. When I got them home I needed to figure out what to do with them all. My favorite thing to do with chicken breasts is to package them up in gallon freezer bags with different marinades. You've just gotta toss them in the freezer and take them out to thaw the morning you want to cook them. Here is one of my family's favorites.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

4-6 Boneless skinless chicken breasts- or whatever pieces of chicken your family prefers.

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 c oil

2-4 cloves minced garlic, depending on how much your people like garlic.

3 tbsp dried parsley

1/4tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Put chicken in a gallon size freezer bag. If you are going to label your bag, do it before you put the chicken in. I use a sharpie to label my bags and I always do it before I put anything in them. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Pour over chicken. Seal, and put in the freezer. On the day you plan to cook the chicken, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw completely. You can either pour the entire contents of the bag into a baking dish and bake @350 until the chicken is done. It will depend on what type of chicken you used. It usually takes 20-30 min for boneless skinless breast. OR you can drain the liquid off and grill the chicken until it's done.