Garlic Toast

Best thing I ever did was start buying French/Italian bread, slicing it, freezing it, and replacing my husband's beloved Texas Toast. I never liked the ingredient list!

 

I'm sure I'm not saving too many calories, or even shortening the ingredient list much...but it is so much cheaper! And I feel better about using my own ingredients for the same taste.

$1.50-$1.99 for a giant loaf, plus a little Smart Balance spread, and garlic salt. Yum!

I freeze the bread in slices and take out what I need. Butter both sides and broil for about 90 seconds per side (about 6 inches from the top of the broiler)..

 

Bonus: James loves it!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Bacon

 Did you know that you can BAKE bacon?  Seems silly that I've never tried this.  I ran across two different articles in the same day, about how this is how the pros and restaurants do it.  It's low fuss, allows for you to make more at once, and the bacon bakes into long, perfect flat slices.

350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes on a rimmed cookie sheet, with an oven safe cooking rack placed inside if you have one.   Mine took longer because I used thick sliced bacon.  Oh, and the pieces should not overlap.

Results: chewy, flavorful and flat bacon!  Definitely doing this more often!

I would imagine it'd crisp up the longer you bake them.

Click here for an interesting article (and manly website).

DIY Lipton Soup Mix

I try and use fresh and natural when I can. A few of our favorite recipes have called for Lipton Soup Mix. You just have to know that it's full of chemicals, preservatives, and sodium.

So this is better. A homemade mixture of spices, with questionable bouillon powder but what are you going to do? It's a low sodium kind.

And it tastes the same! We've used in a few recipes, like our standard potroast, and it's been great.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Homemade Dry Onion SoupMix.