Cooking from scratch

I have been in the kitchen all weekend!  Mostly this is by choice, but it also has to do with the fact that convenience foods ( i.e. frozen prepared meals, canned soups, good cake mixes) are a little harder to come by.  You can find canned beans (as in black beans) and various options of prepared items, but in my experience they are not always very good tasting, or they are loaded with MSG and nasty conservatives (which is also true in the US) but mainly they are just more expensive.  Although it is changing and becoming more expensive, there is still the option of hiring domestic help that cook for you from scratch.  Or you just eat out.

But I am not normal, neither in the US nor here in Brazil.  I like cooking and baking, and I like my family to eat healthy, home cooked meals.  But sometimes it gets a little crazy.  Like this weekend.

Friday night:  the husband went to bed early, so I made Overnight Coffee cake.  Very yummy, but too much sugar for my liking.  The kids ate it with homemade yogurt that I had made 2 nights earlier.

Saturday:  the plan was leftovers, but Bea's vegetarian friend came over, so ended up making fried eggs, farofa, and limeade in addition to reheating beans and rice.  We just had sandwiches for dinner. At night I made Yeast Waffles (I add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon) for the next morning.  Oh, and I should mention at the hubby made vanilla ice cream to go with a "failed" batch of Chocolate chip cookies that he had made.  The idea is to use the "bad" dough to make a pizookie.  Yum.

Sunday:  there was leftover whipping cream from the ice cream recipe, so I made a strawberry sauce  and whipped cream for the waffles.  I made baked chicken (without the sauce), pasta, and a white sauce for lunch, and served salad with homemade dressing.  (Well, I cheated on the homemade dressing.  It's Hidden Valley Ranch packets mixed with mayo and milk.  But I had to mix it!)  I currently have split pea soup cooking.  

Few!  Now I need a weekend from my weekend.  Thankfully Irene, out helper, comes 3 times a week to help with meals and clean up!

Here's a list of other things I make from scratch on a regular basis:
salsa
pancakes
enchilada sauce
chicken noodle soup
pasta sauce (the husband does this one)
oat bread (the husband does this one too)
snacks for school (muffins, cornbread, etcetera)
taco seasoning (for ground beef)
maple syrup (imitation)
juice (squeezing oranges, watermelon, pineapple)

Anything else you fellow expat readers make?  It can be Brazilian or other....let me know!