Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting
Need a couple more yummy treat recipes?
Try my recipe for Chocolate Caramel Truffles or Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles. Both of these make great gifts!
And, you can use the Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffle recipe to make fudge! Simply mix it up and spread the mixture into an 8×8 inch pan. Chill the mixture, then cut it into squares. It is SO easy!
What are your favorite treats to make (and eat) this time of year?
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There’s nothing fancy about this casserole – but it is very tasty. It’s perfect for our Christmas Brunch!
I especially love putting this together if I have Homemade Frozen Hashbrowns and Premade Turkey Sausage crumbles. Then all I have to do is throw everything into a dish and bake it. If you prefer, you could substitute browned hamburger meat for the turkey sausage. Just shake in some chili powder and/or garlic powder to spice it up a little. It’s a great, versatile recipe!
Hashbrown Sausage Casserole
6 cups frozen hashbrowns (partially thawed)
1 pound browned turkey sausage
6 eggs
1/2 cup cream (or milk)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Stir hashbrowns and cooked sausage together in a 9×13 inch baking dish. In a bowl, whip eggs and cream together. Pour mixture over the hashbrowns and sausage. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, salt, and pepper. Bake in a 350° oven for 45-50 minutes or until eggs are no longer runny and cheese is melted and beginning to brown.
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Welcome to our Third Annual Christmas Brunch. I decided that I had to begin with this Orange Cranberry Scone recipe. Wow, they are yummy!
My favorite ingredient is the orange juice because of the amazing flavor it gives this treat. But my actual favorite ingredient is the dried cranberries, because no matter how you use those, they are delicious. It is a fact that my real favorite ingredient in these scones is the butter, because I think we all know how much I love butter. Plus butter is what makes these scones so yummy and “pastry like”.
This takes me back to the orange juice (which is my favorite scone ingredient, in case you were not aware) – because this is the ingredient you use to make the delicious glaze that you drizzle over the top once the scones are baked.
By the way – did you know that scones are very, very easy to make? They are especially simple if you have a food processor and let that machine “cut in your butter” for you. I’m all for working hard, but remember how I’m not a butter cutter inner?
Orange Cranberry Scones
2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
3 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup milk
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt, and dried cranberries. Cut in butter until mixture resembles crumbs. (I use my food processor for this, and to mix the remaining ingredients.) Add egg, honey, orange juice concentrate, and milk. Stir until a nice ball of dough forms.
Form dough into a ball on a floured surface. Roll dough into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. Place on a cookie sheet or baking stone. Cut circle into 8 equal pieces.
Bake in a 400° oven for 12-18 minutes or until scones are golden brown. While the scones are baking, mix up the glaze.
Orange Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar (I use organic unbleached or homemade)
4 Tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Drizzle glaze over the scones right after you remove them from the oven.
Which do you suppose will be your favorite ingredient in these Orange Cranberry Scones? :)
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Our baby turns eight on Thursday.
I’d be in denial about that if I would allow myself to be. But what good would that do? Therefore, I have found myself practicing saying to people, “He’s almost eight” – just so I could wrap my brain around it and recognize it as truth.
Today, his “old age” dawned on me quite clearly. Yep, Malachi is growing up.
He and I love to play the card game “Blink” together. Since he began playing this game, at about age five, I’ve had to adapt it a little bit.
It’s a game of speed – whoever works through their pile of cards first, wins. If I wouldn’t have adapted it, I would have won hands down every single time and the game would have ceased to be fun for either of us. Why? Is it because I’m such an amazing “Blink” player? No, because my adult brain could process faster and my hands could move faster than his.
Therefore, I would always give myself several extra cards (on the sly) so that the game would be more fair. With my stack of cards slightly taller, we could then play an even match – sometimes he would win, sometimes I would win. I didn’t have to slow down or try to “let him win” every once in a while. My taller stack solved the problem and made the games fun for both of us.
Until today.
It was after he won three games in a row that I suddenly realized that my taller stack of cards was now giving me a disadvantage. He would buzz through his pile, slap down his last card with a big grin and yell, “Done!” And there I would sit, with about seven cards remaining in my pile – pretty much the exact amount of extra cards I have been giving to myself for years.
You would think I would have figured this out before he beat me three times in a row…
So from now on, I will be dividing the cards evenly, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, I will still be able to win a few games when we play together.
If not, maybe I should consider make his card pile just a little taller.
I’m kidding. I may be competitive, but I’m not a cheater.
I may, however, try to throw out a distraction every once in a while when I see his pile getting low. “Look! Larry Boy and Bob the Tomato are watching you from the window!”
Okay fine, I won’t do that either.
All this to say, I highly recommend the game of Blink as a great socking stuffer for your “big kids” this Christmas. I’d say kids can generally play this beginning at age five – but even my teenager enjoys it, as do I. Even when I don’t win. ;)
If you want, I can send Malachi over to teach you how to play. But watch out. The kid is fast.
P.S. Hmm. I just noticed that there is Blink – Bible Edition. That’s kinda fun.
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It’s that time of year again! For the third year in a row, we would like to invite you to our “Virtual Christmas Brunch”.
We hope you can join us now and every day through the December 24th. There will be food (recipes), gifts (giveaways), and a fun surprise (you’ll just have to wait and find out)! :)
We are so thankful to have you all as a part of our lives. You are all a wonderful piece of the puzzle which continues to make this blog a happy place to hang out. This brunch we are hosting is our way of saying thank you. You are all very dear to us.
As we close out another year, we want to celebrate with you the coming of Christ and the rich blessings of life that we have because of Him. So make plans to join us if you can! The more, the merrier, so invite your friends to join us too. There are plenty of food and gifts around our tree for everyone!
Here’s gift number one: Each time you see the above “Christmas Brunch Invitation” – leave a comment on that post for a chance to win one of three $25 gift certificates to our Heavenly Homemakers Shop, which will be good on anything downloadable that you like. That includes this post…Ready, set, go!
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I find it a challenge to write this post.
How can I put into words how overcome I am with gratitude for the simple fact that everything about my life at this point is carrying on with a great deal of normalcy? Normal is good. Normal is safe. Normal is busy, and dirty, and silly, and perfect. Normal is what I usually take for granted.
I’ve never been more grateful that my kids are losing teeth and making up jokes that may or may not be funny. How precious it is that we are still eating three (to seven) meals a day, tripping over dirty socks in the hallway, wasting time looking for our lost pencils, and trying to remember whose turn it is to clean out the dishwasher.
Nothing about watching my kids rinse their dishes or convert a decimal to a fraction is generally very breath taking. I certainly don’t typically feel a surge of joy when I see a dirty sock lingering on the floor.
Yet, because all of life got turned upside down for so many families in Connecticut just a few days ago – all I can think of is how much I deeply appreciate my “normal”. And how life for those grieving and hurting families will never be “normal” again – until the time when, by God’s grace and through His amazing power to offer healing and hope, they will settle into a “new normal”.
So I will gladly take the moments of chaos when all of the boys are trying to talk to me at once and I really can’t hear a word any of them are saying. I’ll take hearing, “Mom, I’m hungry” thirty-eight times every afternoon. I’ll take the never ending leaves that get tracked into our house by our kids and their friends. I’ll take my couch that regularly gets shoved across the living room and lands in the middle of the floor so that a game of Nerf soccer can take place. And the “Oops, sorry Mom” I’ll hear when that Nerf soccer ball gets kicked too hard and knocks yet another ornament off the Christmas tree. I’ll take the unnoticed yogurt drippings all over the front of a sweatshirt that later becomes crusty.
And yes, I’ll even take the dirty socks in the hallway. (Although I will also take the opportunity to remind the owner of the sock to quickly take responsibility for said sock…)
As simple as it may sound, all I can think of is that I’m thankful that my kids are doing their school work, or building Lego’s, or rinsing their dishes, or coming in to tell me about their latest music project.
So thank you God for my “normal”. All is right in my world, simply because my husband and kids are still here to hug.
For all of you who are hurting and grieving, I pray that you will lean on our God who is stronger and bigger than any pain we can experience on this earth. He hurts with us, cares for us, and holds us. He is faithful.
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
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Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Today, I had a teeny tiny dilemma.
Our oldest son Asa (age 15) knew that some of his friends were coming to town this weekend and that we would see them at church. What he didn’t know was what his friends’ plans would be after church. We decided that we wanted to ask them to join us for lunch. But we knew that there was the possibility that they would have other plans already.
What was I to do? I needed to have plenty of food prepared in case I had 6-10 or so extra kids. But I sure didn’t want loads of leftovers if they decided not to come.
Problem solved: I made eight pounds of Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts, knowing that we would either eat it all up at lunch, or I could freeze whatever was left for easy Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches another time.
Elias (our 10 year old) found those little snowman potholders at a thrift store and picked them up for us.
They are perfect for hauling the crock pot across the kitchen.
As it turns out, Asa’s friends made other plans. So, our normal crew ate all we wanted for lunch, and now I have a nice bowl full of BBQ Chicken in my freezer for a quick, healthy meal another time. Asa has been able to fellowship with his friends from church camp all day…at someone else’s house. I’m so thankful that he has such great friends. :)
So there you have it – my helpful BBQ Chicken advice. It’s easy to make a big batch when you’re serving extras – and it’s easy to freeze if you make too much. And it takes a delightful five minutes to throw together. I love it!
Here’s what our menu looks like this week:
Sunday, December 16
Oatmeal, fruit
Crock pot barbecue chicken – shredded and made into sandwiches, peas
High School Huddle – Italian pasta bake, tossed salad, green beans, bread and butter, chocolate chip cookies
Monday, December 17
Pancake sausage muffins, applesauce
Whole wheat calzones, raw veggies
Barbecue brisket, baked potatoes, green beans
Tuesday, December 18
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, bananas
Pizza boats, fruit-kefir smoothies
Teriyaki chicken and veggies
Wednesday, December 19
Easy breakfast casserole, clementines
Snowflake quesadillas, fruit salad
Taco potatoes
Thursday, December 20 (Malachi’s Birthday – his food choices)
Donuts ;)
Homemade corndogs, fruit
Pasta alfredo, tossed salad, steamed broccoli and carrots
Friday, December 21
Giant breakfast cookies, apples
Tuna salad, crackers, baby carrots, peaches
Pizza, tossed salad
Saturday, December 22
Scrambled eggs, clementines
Leftovers
Hoagie sandwiches, chips, apples, carrots
Have anything yummy on your menu this week you’d like to tell us about?
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!I was so excited when reader, Elaine, shared this idea. So I wanted to pass it on to you right away!
Many of you have wondered – how can my husband or I warm up food while at work when the only thing available is a microwave? If you’re trying to avoid using a microwave, this can be tricky.
But Elaine shared this wonderful idea: Get a tiny crock pot. This 20-Ounce Lunch Crock Food Warmer is perfect. I also found the 16-Ounce Little Dipper on sale, which looked great.
I love this idea, and think this would make a great gift!
Thanks Elaine. It’s so lovely to have such smart readers. I love learning from you all! :)
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It might sound kind of silly for me to say this, but I’ve typically thought that making a meal of Barbecue Chicken Breasts is a bit of a “splurge” for us. Why? Because hardly ever do I just cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts as our “main dish” without spreading them out within a casserole to make them “stretch”.
Even so, this meal costs just a tiny bit more than one dollar per plate. Sweet! I’m so glad to know the price breakdown on this, because we love it. Plus, this meal is super fast and easy to prepare. I’m talking five minutes tops. I can quickly throw chicken breasts and homemade barbecue sauce into the crockpot on a Sunday morning before church, or right after lunch on a weekday – and a few hours later, our main dish is ready! Add a veggie or two, and maybe some bread, and your meal is complete.
We used (free) green beans from our garden for this meal, but to be fair to those who don’t have garden beans in their freezer, I included the price of purchased, frozen beans as I calculated the cost of this meal. Altogether with the chicken, sauce, beans, and muffins, this meal ends up being $1.09/plate. (I calculated my cost based on the food sources and prices I have available to me. Most of the ingredients I use are organic. Your cost may be slightly more or less depending on where you find your ingredients.)
In case you’re wondering – I use Smart Chicken Brand boneless skinless chicken breasts in recipes like this. That is the best I can find around here – and I wait for them to go on sale. (My friend recently got me a case at a great price from her local store. Smart Chicken breast for just $2.71/pound…so exciting!)
Do you often use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for a main dish…or do you typically try to “stretch” them into more meals?
Looking for more meals on our Real Food Dollar Menu? Here are the recipes I’ve shared so far:
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Did you know that I really, really love butter?
Let’s see – which do I love more? Butter…or jars? That’s a toss up. Hey, did you know you can make butter IN a jar? That tidbit of information is irrelevant to this post, but still worth mentioning…just because it involves two of my favorite things.
It is a fact that Matt’s eyes got really big as I was buttering my biscuit last week – even though he obviously knows how much I love butter. I mean – it was enough to stop our conversation at the time.
“What?” I said, “You’ve never seen me butter my biscuit before?”
“Yes,” he said, “I’ve seen you. But there is almost more butter than biscuit this time.” (At which point I grinned – and got just a tiny bit more butter because there was a spot on my biscuit not yet covered…)
Alrighty. So I like a little biscuit with my butter. And I like it to be all melty down the sides. Then I like to sop the buttery drippings off of my plate as I eat my biscuit. It’s just best that way if you ask me.
Which is why I was excited to make over this recipe. I mean, they are called Butterhorns! I didn’t have to make many changes in this recipe – just a few minor tweaks. And wow is it delicious!
With Christmas coming, many of you are looking for a yummy, whole grain roll to make with your holiday meal. This would be perfect if you ask me. :)
Whole Wheat Butterhorns
2 Tablespoons dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
9 cups whole wheat flour, divided (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
2 cups warm milk
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sucanat or 3/4 cup honey
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. (Water should be warm, but not so warm that you can’t comfortably put your finger in it to test the temp.) Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sucanat, eggs, and salt. Beat with an electric mixer until contents are smooth.
Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. I found it easiest to do this by hand. Although if you have a Kitchen Aid type mixer, I’m sure that would work well too! Turn mixture onto floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes.
Place dough in a bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).
Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts. Roll each part into a 12-inch circle and brush with melted butter.
Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.
Roll up each wedge from wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets.
Allow rolls to rise again for about 30 minutes or until they have doubled in size. Bake at 375° for 10-20 minutes (every oven is different!) or until they are lightly browned. Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.
This recipe makes about 30 rolls. These freeze very well! I found that having a batch of these in the freezer is wonderful when I need something additional to help stretch a meal! I simply take out the amount we need, warm them in our toaster oven, and serve them with…you guessed it…butter.
Who loves butter as much as I do? Do tell.
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