Day of Baking, Part 2

With the muffins in the freezer and the oatmeal baked and separated in to freezer bags, it was time to move on to the rice. 

I cooked 3.5 cups of brown rice and it is almost cooled and ready to split in to bags (hint:  cool it in a bowl with a lid - or even just clear wrap on top - to prevent the top layer of rice from drying out)

While the rice was cooking, I got to work on the sugar cookies.  Although I could have made them from scratch, the truth is that I was just making them from a cookie mix (2 bags).  I do enjoy cooking from scratch, but I got a great deal on cookie mix at $.16 per bag (actually less, since it was part of a moneymaking Catalina deal) and I can't put the "from scratch" ingredients in a bowl for less than $.16 per batch.

Why are the orange and purple?  Because one of the whole purposes of Baking Day is using up some things in the cupboards.  When I found the 8 cans of sweetened condensed milk, I also found Halloween decorating sugars.  I always roll the sugar cookies in sugar when I bake them (the way I figure it - if my kids are going to have cookies, they are going to have GOOD cookies!) and they don't really care about the color!

While the cookies were baking, I tested the beans and they were ready 2 hours early (common for my larger crockpot).  I drained them and they are also almost cool enough to separate in to bags.

But looking at all those beans put me in the mood for chili.  While it wasn't on the agenda for today, I decided to whip up small batch of chili with my beans and Boca Burger crumbles!  Now I've already got dinner for tonight!

Now it's time to clean up the kitchen, empty and reload the dishwasher and get to work on the brownies and pancakes.  My 5-year old has been asking all day when I am going to start them!