Monday, September 10, 2012

Today's lunchbox and JIFFY Baking Mix Cinnamon Rolls

Good morning, mommies!

Today's lunchbox:

Sorry for the blur.  But we have turkey pepperoni, cucumbers, walnuts, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and a bag of Triscuit on the side.
She forgot to eat her snack from Friday, which I put into the bottom zippered compartment of her lunchbag.  I opened her bag and found the snack, completely untouched.  She said she forgot it was there, which means she ate part of her lunch as her snack that day, which made me really sad.

Of course, I reminded her fifty times that her snack for today was in the bottom of her lunch bag.   The thought of her pillaging through her lunch for a snack makes me wish I'd chosen a different kind of bag.

She'll live, I suppose.  GAWD, we baby these kids.  lol

Speaking of babying the kids:  Saturday, I made the kids some "homemade" cinnamon rolls.  The quotes are there, because I used a mix.  Not the doughy stuff you find in a tube in the refrigerated section of the market (although THOSE are pretty good, too).  I used JIFFY baking mix.  You may have come across a box of this a time or two.


This is a lot like Bisquik, but much cheaper.  Really, there is no difference, in my opinion, to warrant the extra couple bucks.  There are about seven recipes on the box for things like waffles pancakes, biscuits, and the cinnamon rolls.  I was first going to do pancakes, because anything else that requires me to knead dough is an instant turnoff.  But I decided to go a little beyond my comfort zone, on that day.  After all, I had this neat new dough scraper thingee:


This is my floured surface AFTER I rolled the dough.  My camera was being a little bitch, so I didn't get the entire process.  But the procedure is like this:  you stir up the mix, plop it on a floured surface and knead it.  Mine was too sticky, so I added like a quarter cup more mix to the dough, while it was already out on the surface.  This made it perfect, and got some more flour on my board.  I think I was too skimpy with the flour on the surface.  The trick is to use lots.

Then, I kneaded the dough.  Not as hard as I thought it would be.  I just basically palmed it back and forth 20 times.  Palm it out, then pull it back and do it again.  It came together nicely.   Then I rolled it out into a rectangle, spread some softened butter on the top, and sprinkled it (which sounds so delicate.  really, I loaded that stuff on) with sugar and cinnamon.  I have a little yellow bottle of it already mixed.  I also chopped some walnuts, and scattered them about.   Then I used my little scraper, and rolled up the dough, scraping as I went.  Then I cut the roll into little 2-inch slices and slapped them into a round tin and baked them according to the directions, which I forget but are on the box.


Now, if you're me, you need the white sugary icing on top.  I mixed about a cup of confectioner's sugar with a tablespoon of milk.  Whisk and let sit.  You might have to adjust your milk, depending on the consistency you're looking for.  Gooey, was my criteria.

And for Heaven's sake, don't do what I did.  Wait until the rolls are cool to add your icing, or it will melt and disappear and your kids will whine, "Where's my icing?"



My husband proclaimed that they were the best he ever had.  Now, in all fairness, they were better than the tube kind, but not as good as they could be, if they were made from scratch.   They weren't nearly as sweet, and the dough was more crumbly, which was good.   But I could detect a mix-iness about it that I couldn't define. 

Either way, the fam was happy.  Give it a try!

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