Baking Day: Using Up Odds and Ends

Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom are hosting their monthly baking day today and tomorrow. I wasn't really planning to join in, but I realized this morning that I have a lot of odds and ends in the refrigerator and pantry that really need to get used. I went ahead and declared it baking day, and we'll see how much I'm able to get done. I'm not expecting I'll be able to do too much with a mischievous two year old running around and a newborn to nurse every few hours. My little boy loves to "dump it". When I went to throw in a load of laundry, I came back to find him "measuring" too. So as you can see, it's going to be slow going around here!

I'll keep updating this page with what I'm able to accomplish, though, and share my recipes too.

My baking is mainly centering around using up 2 boxes of Fiber One cereal that have been in the pantry for...well...longer than I want to admit. I got it for free somewhere, but I'm never going to actually eat that stuff as cereal! It looks like little brown worms! Anyway, I'm getting on a rabbit trail. I also had some leftover pumpkin pie filling that really needed to get used before it was no good. I did a little searching and combined 2 or 3 recipes together to come up with these pumpkin bars.

I used the recipe off the Libby's pumpkin can to make my pumpkin pie. The recipe makes two deep dish pies, but if you only make one you'll have about 2 cups of pie filling leftover. Combine it with 1 1/2 cups of crushed Fiber One. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Then stir in 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Spread in pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes.
This came out more like cake rather than bars, so I'm thinking of putting some frosting on it and eating it like a cake!

Next up, Banana Cranberry Spice Muffins!

I used this recipe for these and they turned out delicious! I was happy to use up some more odds and ends in these: more Fiber One, coffee creamer (we don't drink coffee, but I got the creamer free with coupons, so I use it in place of milk), and Craisins (they were Buy 2 Get 3 free, so I had 5 bags in the pantry!) My little boy got ahold of the bag and ate...um...I don't even want to think about how many he ate!

For supper tonight, I'll be making this Chicken Parmesan made with...you guessed it...Fiber One Cereal!

I'm not looking forward to my son's diapers after he eats all this Fiber One food on top of all the Craisins he ate!

Update 4:32 pm...
I'm finished with the Chicken Parmesan and I was thrilled to be able to finish off a whole box of Fiber One cereal and I now have 3 meals in the freezer plus dinner for tonight! Hopefully it won't taste nasty! I had some chicken in the refrigerator awaiting its turn to go in the freezer, and I was excited to kill two birds (no pun intended) with one stone. The chicken has made it to the freezer, and it's already been made into a meal. Yay!

I'm stopping for today so that I can get the tornado cleaned up in the kitchen before my husband comes home. Since today went so well, I'm considering digging through my refrigerator and pantry again tomorrow and seeing what other odds and ends I can get out of the house.