Busy Kitchen Morning

Wow!  It was a productive morning!.  Yesterday was a crazy day (unanticipated trip to Spokane to take Owen to the ENT), and since everyone was tired, I decided to let the kids sleep in.  No school today!

With a quiet house, I took to the kitchen to see what I could whip up to help us get ahead in the kitchen.  I bought a can of pumpkin on sale while I was in town, and wanted to put it to use. I haven't made much with pumpkin before and wanted to give some recipes a test run before I stock up my pantry.

I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins as a treat for breakfast.  The kids have been wanting muffins.  My aunt Margie gave us some cool shaped Flexipans and I wanted to use them.  Thanks Margie!  The kids loved their star shaped muffins!

 From the muffin batter, I also made a dozen in a regular muffin pan.  These went into the freezer for our breakfast next Friday when we head out on a shopping expedition.

Bagels are Jayme's choice for snack on her day (Fridays).  Since we didn't have any left in the freezer, I made another double batch.  I leave out the wheat gluten, and use half white whole wheat and half all purpose flour to make these.

I got 25 bagels this time.  I froze two bags of 8, and kept 9 out.  Jayme loves them spread with butter.  I prefer homemade yogurt cheese.  Yum! Now I don't have to make these again for a few weeks.

Since we'll be butchering again at the end of the month, it's time to start using up the rest of my soup bones from the freezer.  I started two packs boiling in water to make some beef bone broth for the freezer.  That will come in handy for cooking rice, making soup or creating a cream soup base. I use my bones twice, so I'll get some broth in the freezer today.

Since the oven was already hot, and I had pumpkin left from our muffins, I thought chocolate chip pumpkin cookies were a necessity.  With the one batch, I got a ton of cookies!  I baked 4 dozen (two to take to my parent's tonight for Pizza Night!).  I put 1 dozen unbaked in the freezer to bring to my mom's after she has foot surgery next Friday.  And I put 1.5 dozen in the freezer unbaked to take to a church potluck later in the month. 

With just an hour and a half of active work, I was able to get ahead in the kitchen.  What are your favorite ways to do that?