Recipe Fun Friday- Some family favorites

My first recipe is my favorite go-to dish when I have left-over turkey to use up. It's a little extra work to make the sauce you mix into the casserole, but it's well worth the extra trouble. I would not recommend substituting with canned soup. I plan to make this sometime this weekend, so I have no pictures right now, but will probably add one later. This is also a great dish to take to someone who's sick. It's a meal by itself, and absolutely delicious. So here's the link for Chicken noodle casserole.

Another favorite recipe is this Banana pudding. I don't like bananas myself; I blame that entirely on my older sister. The story is quite traumatic, but since I've shared it before, I won't force you to listen again,lol. But this recipe is always a big hit when I take it to the family potluck, so I grit my teeth and make it. I'm aware that there are varying degrees of difficulty in Banana pudding recipes, ranging from just dumping out a store-bought box, to making it totally from scratch. This is a good mid-range one. It's so yummy, I almost forget it has banana's in it:)

If you would like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's Notes and link up.

Have a wonderful weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday- Parade of Christmas Cookies

I have been wanting to try some new Christmas cookie recipes this holiday season. This week provided just the excuse I needed: our church is holding it's annual Taste of Christmas cookie sale. The money raised from this goes to our Church's Bus Ministry. We have approximately 200 people (kids and adults) that come on our buses each Sunday. And this happens to be a ministry that's especially close to my heart as a Sunday School teacher. So there you have it, the perfect combination: a good cause and a desire to bake! So on with the cookie parade...

Here's my favorite little red-headed Elf cutting out Gingerbread guys and gals. An old favorite that I haven't made for a couple years. We always used to put cinnamon buttons on ours when I was growing up, it just wouldn't seem the same without them.
These Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints are even better than the candies, with just the right amount of sweetness, and the yummy cherry in the middle. They are simply delicious! I made a couple dozen to keep myself... for my families enjoyment of course.
The Professor making Muddy Snowballs. Rest assured, all hands were washed and sterilized beforehand;)
More sugar cookies made from my new snowflake cookie cutter. Simple yet pretty.
The snowballs and gingerbread completed...
I also plan to make some cookies-on-a-stick. If you're wondering how I have time to make all these, the answer is that I make up all my doughs beforehand, then pull them out and bake a couple dozen at a time (at sometimes odd times). I do find baking extremely relaxing, so when I need a break from homeschooling and running to and fro, I pull out the dough and take a time out. Unfortunately, it does make more mess to clean up:)

If you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's and link up.

Have a wonderful weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday - Snowmen and frosted trees

I'm not exactly listing a recipe today. These cookies can be made with any sugar cookie dough. I made mine homemade, but I'm sure some people would much rather just grab pre-made cookie dough from the store. Anyway, these were cute, so I thought I would share them. Plus Nikki's forcing me to do it as part of her giveaway requirements... just kidding!:)

Here's the link for these weather-ready Snowmen. Those are ear muffs for those of you who are wondering;) They're a little heavy on the candy for my liking, but just one won't kill ya.

These trees were made with dyed sugar cookie dough, with the sides dipped in white chocolate after baking. Simple, but a nice touch.
If you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's and link up.

I ALSO WANTED TO MENTION that Nikki's cousin Angela is having her first giveaway. Specifically a blog makeover by none else than her wonderful hubby Dustin (I'm just repeating what I've heard:). I would SO love to win this. I'm really hurting in this department. And DO NOT tell me to learn to do it myself. That's why there's blog makeover people...;)

Have a wonderful weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday- Peanut Butter Bears

This week has flown by so quickly. I didn't get the chance to try a new recipe, so I pulled down one of my Kid's Cookbooks this morning, and picked out something I thought they would enjoy making. So here is this weeks recipe:

Peanut Butter Bears
1 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 cup Peanut Butter
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat shortening and peanut butter on medium speed. Add sugars and baking soda, mixing well. Beat in eggs and vanilla til the mixture is smooth. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Beat in any remaining flour (in the bowl) with a wooden spoon.

Bear instructions Shape dough into following sizes: Large ball(1 inch) for body. 3/4 inch for head. 1/2 inch balls (6) for hands, feet, and ears. 1/4 inch ball for nose. Or do them any size you want:)

Bake for 10-12 minutes until light brown. Add mini chocolate chips for eyes and belly button (yes, that's what that is). If you're cheap like me, you'll use regular chips because it's what you have on hand;) Although the giant belly buttons do look rather odd, lol.

To join in Recipe fun Friday, stop by Nikki's Notes and link up.

Have a wonderful weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday- Harvest Treats

I have been baking up a storm since around 6am this morning. We're having a Harvest festival at our church tonight, and I signed up to make some treats for the cake-walk. With the kids still snuggling in bed, it was the perfect time for uninterrupted work.

I officially declared today a day off of school (the first we've taken this school year) and it seems like a treat to do anything that isn't school related during the day for a change. I may even sneak in a short nap this afternoon; but let's just keep that between you and me;)

Here are pictures of the cookies I made.

I used my own homemade sugar cookie recipe, which I'm afraid I can not share here (it's a closely guarded family secret;). However, here is a link for the candy corn cookie recipe. I used my own dough, but followed the recipe for the design. They turned out so cute and colorful. And I made extra of the chocolate layer to use for the bat cookies. I should warn you: kneading the chocolate into the dough is quite a messy job. It was worth the trouble for the final product though.

I still plan to bake and decorate a chocolate cake, and to put the finishing touches on our costumes. We're dressing the whole family with a theme this evening, which has neccessitated making some of the items needed ourselves.

So what is our theme this year? That's another highly guarded secret;)

Let's just say we'll be following the yellow brick road to the festival:)

If you would like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's (Notes) and link up.

Happy Harvest!

Recipe Fun Friday- Italian Cream Sodas

I know I'm running late, but technically it's still Friday, at least in my time zone;) So I'll keep it short and sweet.

I give you a treat we tried this week for our Friday family fun night. I found it on the Olive Garden website, and thought it'd be fun to give it a try. Here's the link for Italian Cream Sodas.

I used strawberry-flavored syrup because I wanted the pretty color, and I doubled the cream for a creamier taste. The homemade whipped cream on top is an absolute neccessity; when I tried it without, it was just so-so. But if you drink it through the whipped cream (as I told my children multiple times) it is so delicious! I used regular coffee syrups that we get through our gleaners program. As a non-coffee drinker, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. Well, now my problem is solved:)

If you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's and link up.

Have a wonderful weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday- I love Pumpkin!!

As if you didn't already know that;) I admit I become obsessed with pumpkin-themed recipes during the months of October and November. This year I'm branching out more than usual with soups and decorative items.

I've been wanting to try the following recipe for a long time. I've seen various spins on it, but I'm just posting it as I did it. I was lacking a few of the original ingredients, so I'll probably make it a little different next time. But it's simple and easy, and a little bit unique in that it makes a lovely decoration for the Fall table as well. And the kids thought it was really neat to eat a pumpkin in (near) original form.

*Baked Baby Pumpkins*

NOTE: I did not use the small sugar pumpkins for this. Neither my supermarket, nor my local fruit stand, seemed to have them, so I went with very small regular pumpkins. I'm sure this makes a bit of a difference in the sweetness, so you will want to adjust accordingly. Because it was just a regular pumpkin, without any added sweetness it does taste lightly like squash (which I also love;). But added brown sugar can make a difference. I'm going to search for the sweet pumpkins again this weekend; I suspect with the right kind this recipe would go from yummy to absolutely delicious!

1 small sugar pumpkin

1 teaspoon of butter

1 tbsp of brown sugar

cinnamon to taste

1/2 cup of applesauce

Cut out an opening in the top around the stem. Clean out seeds and pulp. Put in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and applesauce. Replace the stemmed top. Bake in a pan with a small amount of water at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

I also wanted to thank Nikki (Notes) and Angela for passing along this award to me:

Nikki and Angela are two blogging cousins (one a young mother, the other a newlywed) who I have come to consider dear blogging friends. Thanks so much for sending this my way.

Now I would like to pass it along to all those who left the supportive and caring comments on my one post of this week (check below:). You all are what makes blogging a wonderful experience for this wife, mom, and blogging friend. So feel free to post it on your blog as coming from me:)

And, as always, if you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's and link up.

Note to Nikki: Wow- I managed to pull it off, lol;)

Recipe Fun Friday- Soft Oatmeal Cookies

I love home-made cookies, and hate their store-shelf counterpart. And soft cookies are the best; that's just my opinion of course;)

My oldest son actually made these, and did a great job of them I might add. They were really yummy! We split the batch and made some with raisins and some without. Other than that, we went exactly by the recipe. Here's the link: Soft Oatmeal Cookies
To join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's Notes and link up.

Have a wonderful (and hopefully not too chilly) weekend~

Recipe Fun Friday- Make-ahead Meatballs

This week I started my pursuit of the perfect freezer meals. Since meatballs are so versatile, I thought they would be a good starting point. Most of the recipes I found used bread crumbs or crackers as a filler, so it was a little bit more work to find one that used my favorite secret ingredient: oatmeal. Gotta get those whole grains in somehow;)

Anyway, this recipe has evaporated milk in it, which I had never used in meatballs. They turned out quite moist, my hubby said they were some of the best he has ever had. I used ground turkey instead of hamburger (my family is used to that) and I doubled the recipe. I should warn you that after it was mixed, the mixture was a bit runny; I couldn't form them like I usually do. So I dropped the mix by tablespoons in a pan and baked them. They turned out quite nice that way. And after a day in the fridge, the uncooked extra mixture had thickened a bit. I used the meatballs in several meals, then I put enough for about 2 more meals in the freezer. It really was a small amount of work for something that will be an easy (and convenient) addition to future meals.

Meatball Subs with sweet corn on the cob and fruit salad (yummy, yummy:)

Meatball soup

I had to include this recipe for Cream of Mushroom and Rice Soup. I tried to wait another week to make this (I really did), but I had baby bella mushrooms that needed used up. Don't ask me why I made soup twice during such a hot week. And don't let this picture deceive you; the truth is, mushroom soup isn't very photogenic;) This was SO good. But I did need to add a pack of onion soup mix to it because it was a little bland. I also used a different mixture of wild and long grain rice. And if you're calorie conscious like I am, you can used fat-free half and half and only a third of the butter. It still had a creamy mushroom taste.

I'm afraid that Nikki's starting this weekly recipe post has unleashed the inner experimenter in me; my family is starting to feel like guinea pigs.

Very well-fed guinea pigs;)

If you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's blog and link up. And while you're there, make sure to enter her first Giveaway. I think I get extra points for mentioning that, which means Angela has an even better chance of getting that blanket, LoL:)

Recipe Fun Friday- Strawberry Lemonade

For being such a simple drink, there are a surprising number of different recipes for lemonade. I have tried quite a few variations, this being the newest one. I found this a little on the sweet side, so I might use a 1/3 of a cup less sugar next time. But it does have a good, strong lemon taste.

6 Cups of Water

1 Cup of sugar

1/8 tsp salt (this is to prevent the lemonade from being bitter)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup frozen strawberries (*optional)

In a pan, combine water, sugar, and salt. Bring ingredients to a boil and continue to boil for 2 minutes. Chill the sugar water in the refrigerator for atleast 60 minutes.

In 2 quart pitcher, mix cooled sugar water and lemon juice together. Pour over a cup full of ice and serve.

*If making strawberry lemonade, mix strawberries with cooled lemonade. I let them defrost a little bit before adding. Sit for about 15 minutes, or long enough for the liquid to turn a light pink.

This is a simple recipe, but quite delicious on a hot summer evening.

To join in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's blog and leave your link.

Recipe Challenge- Turkey Fried (Brown) Rice

I had a hard time narrowing down my choice for a recipe for today's post. The fact that I still had leftover Turkey from last week helped me to choose this recipe. I found it in Taste of Home, but since I've made a few adjustments, I'm going to list it as I made it.

Turkey Fried Rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup uncooked brown rice

2 cups cubed cooked Turkey

3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

1 egg lightly beaten

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 cup of veggies: I used zuchinni, red pepper, and mushrooms

Cook brown rice according to package directions (using chicken broth); cover and refrigerate overnight. In a bowl, combine Turkey and soy sauce; cover and refrigerate. Cook and stir egg over medium heat until completely set. Remove and set aside. In the same skillet, saute zuchinni, red pepper, and mushrooms in oil until tender (I also added garlic). Add rice and Turkey; cook and stir over medium heat for 6-8 minutes. Add reserved egg; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes more. Serve immediately.

This recipe had a few extra steps, but it was worth it. My husband loves these kind of dishes, and thought this one especially good. I doubled the recipe, just make sure you use a large skillet if you do so.

If you would like to join Nikki's Recipe Challenge, just drop by her blog and link up:)

Have a great Friday!

Recipe Challenge

Nikki of Nikki's Notes is hosting a recipe challenge: try a brand-new-to-you recipe, then leave a link to your recipe with pics.

You have to take a look at her cinnamon rolls she made this week; they look absolutely delicious! You'll gain weight just looking at them, Lol. I'm a big fan of cinnabon, and these are supposed to be a good imitation.

I love the allrecipes site; yes, it has lots of great recipes. But better than that, it has all the comments afterward; sometimes, by the time I read those, the recipe ends up being only an empty shell of it's original self.

Here is the link for Zesty slow-cooker barbecue chicken. I halved the Italian dressing (most of my family does not like it's strong vinegar taste). And I used Sweet Baby RAy's Barbecue sauce.

Pay special attention to the first comment left; I cooked skinless/boneless chicken breasts in broth like he suggested, shredded the chicken, simmered it in sauce via my slow-cooker, and served it on whole wheat hamburger buns. It was delicious! I never tire of trying different types of barbecue;)

Have a wonderful weekend~

Favorite Recipes-Salmon

I came across this recipe while looking for a special dish to make for our family St.Paddy's Day celebration. Not being a fan of corned beef myself (which fact would horrify my Irish ancestors no doubt) I was delighted to learn that Salmon was a favorite dish of that lovely country as well.

Salmon in Heavy Cream

1 lb piece of Salmon fillet
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP butter

Pat Salmon dry and place in shallow baking pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley. Squeeze lemon over all. Next pour chicken broth and heavy cream over fillet. Dot with butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

My children love Salmon as much as I do myself, so there are never any left-overs when I serve this dish. It's really worth a try!

Comfort Food

I enjoy looking at pictures of food almost as much as eating it...almost. I love to linger over those cookbooks that feature a picture for every recipe.

So since we're still feeling the fatigue that comes from fighting a virus and finally escaping it (like that drama?), I felt the need to cook up some makes-you-feel-good comfort food.

I had been wanting to try a Baked beans recipe that I found at Tammy's Recipes, but hadn't gotten to it yet. It turned out to be one of the best versions of this dish I've ever tasted, sweet with just a little bit of tang from the cider vinegar. My crew gave it a Big two thumbs up!

I had also been looking for a cornbread recipe to fit our family and had tried quite a few different ones. We finally settled on this one, with just a few tweaks to make it a perfect fit. I highly recommend it; it's light, a little bit sweet, and doesn't crumble when you eat it (a plus with kids:) My boys were convinced from past experience that they really didn't care for cornbread, but they ate multiple helpings of this...with blueberry honey drizzled on top.

As you can see, we're not a meat-at-every-meal family; but with the baked beans and broccoli, my kids get plenty of protein in this meal.

We finished up with some Apple Berry Crisp ala mode. I love to make crisps for dessert because you can use practically any fruit you have on hand, and it's fast to throw together. To this dieting (but not today) girl- this was heavenly!

Favorite Recipes

Since my head isn't clear enough to do a normal post (due to my continued clogged-up cranium) I thought I would post some favorite recipes instead. I am always looking for good deals on meat for my family of 5, which sometimes means purchasing those not-so-tender round steak cuts. But with this recipe, it's both tender and delicious!

YUMMY SLOW COOKER ROUND STEAK
3 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 onion, chopped
6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
2 pounds boneless round steak
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup water

Place the potatoes, onion, and carrots in slow cooker. Cut steak into six pieces, then place the meat on top of vegetables. In a mixing bowl, combine the soup mix, soup, and water; pour over beef.
Cover, and cook on Low for approx. 7-8 hours.

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
1/2 cup of butter
2 1/2 Tbsp of Sugar
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup of buttermilk
1/4 cup club soda
1 tsp salt
5 cups Bisquick biscuit mix

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine all the ingredients. Knead the dough by hand until smooth.

After flouring hands, pat the dough flat to 3/4 inch thickness on wax paper, and punch out biscuits with a biscuit cutter. Bake on a greased baking pan for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 18.

This recipe originated from "Top Secret Recipes" and is a copy-cat of KFC's biscuits. Fast food restaurants have very little appeal for me (I think it's all the grease) but I have to admit that I love their biscuits!

I will end by wishing everyone a speedy recovery from all the sickness going around. Just think- only 19 more days until the first day of Spring!