Peanut Butter Play Dough

If you are looking for more fun recipes to make at home, this is another one that my children LOVED! Always fun to eat after you play!

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 1/4 cup peanut butter

6 TBS honey

Nonfat dry milk powder

Mix honey and peanut butter. Add dry milk powder to make a consistency that you can work with. Store in airtight container when not using.

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Other recipes you might like: pancake and waffle mix, white chocolate mix.

And how to organize those recipes! 

Homemade Play Dough

When my {now 21 year old son} was in preschool, his teacher asked for families to make play dough to send into the classroom!  So here I am, 16 years later sharing this great recipe during the COVID-19 outbreak.  I hope that this will help keep your little ones (and you!) occupied, if even for just a little time. Oh mamas, it IS hard to be home with the little ones all day!

Best part of this play dough - although I wouldn't recommend, it is edible because all of the ingredients are edible. So if little ones tend to want to put everything in their mouths, they can enjoy!

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 pack unsweetened Kool Aid (for color, optional)

Add dry ingredients to sauce pan. Stir. Add water and oil.Stir over medium-low heat until mixtures becomes quite thick & resembles the consistency of play dough (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and place dough on cookie sheet or wax paper to cool completely.Once cool, knead until smooth.Store in a covered container.

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Other recipes you may enjoy: White chocolate mix, pancake and waffle mix, taco dip, chicken corn soup. And how to organize all those recipes!

A Post Script!

A Post Script to a previous post.

One day, I was at the local place that periodically hosts yard sales. As one who loves thrift shopping and never knowing what this location will have for sale, I stopped in.  To my surprise I found a cookbook from my (current) child's elementary school. The cookbook was from 28 years ago!

Intrigued, I picked up the cook book and purchased it. (Or maybe I should say, I'm a sucker for stuff?)  Once home I looked through the book. Imagine my surprise when I found the recipe for {my} peanut butter balls.  I then looked closer and imagine even more surprise when I realized WHO had placed the recipe!

At our Moms In Prayer group, we have some precious grandmas who join us. One precious grandma was integral in starting the group. In fact, I should be thanking her weekly because many years ago she approached the same church we still meet in to pray and asked to use the facilities. (Thankfully I don't have to have my house ready each week! Whew!)

I looked at the recipe and it was this precious grandma, who has been praying for all these years, who placed the recipe in the elementary school cookbook 28 years ago.

I can't wait to see how God continues to use these peanut butter balls!

Simple Recipe ~ Taco Dip

My daughter loves to bake! She recently had a great time making baking lots of wonderful dishes. However, I realized we needed a "healthier" option. So here's a good one from a friend! My daughter loved making this one.

Taco Dip

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup salsa
veggies (tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. take your pick. Do any or all)
shredded cheese

Mix cream cheese and salsa.  Spread in the bottom of a pan (can be 8X8 or a glass pie dish, etc.) {Double if using a 9X13 dish}
Top with veggies and then cheese. Chill.
Serve with nacho chips.  Will not keep too long in refrigerator. Best eaten in a few days.

Great Pumpkin Dessert

The recipe is so good and so easy. The nice thing about this recipe (and many I have!) is that you can have most of the ingredients on hand. That way if you decide last minute to make it you can! Or if you need something last minute you have it!

1 can (15 oz.) solid pack pumpkin

1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 package yellow cake mix (any brand)

3/4 cup butter melted (I sometimes cut this back to 1/2 cup)

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  

Put in a greased 9X13 pan.  Sprinkle with cake mix. Drizzle butter over.  

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes (or more) until knife comes out clean.

Of course I do not have a picture of the finished result! I prefer to refrigerate it after it cools!

Enjoy!

Summer Salsa

This is the BEST salsa ever! Thanks to my sister-in-law for the recipe! 

2 (15 oz.) cans black beans (rinsed and drained)

2-3 diced tomatoes

1 onion, diced

2 peppers, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 cups corn (using some that you froze off the cobb is best!)

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. or so cilantro

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Store in refrigerator. 

Note: Feel free to add more or less vegetables based on what you have! I usually do not follow the recipe for the veggies for this recipe! I do make this year round!

Funeral Lemonade

Funeral Lemonade

Well, this needs some explaining!

This lemonade is so good and has a ridiculous amount of sugar. That's probably why it's so good. But why is it called funeral lemonade? Because my church serves it at funerals!!!

The lady from church who gave me the recipe said to "just dump ingredients in".  I prefer to measure!

Mix to make one gallon  Country Time Lemonade 

1 cup sugar (more or less to taste, I stick with 1 cup. I know it’s a LOT!)

1 orange sliced

1/2 lemon sliced

Mix lemonade mix and sugar together in a gallon pitcher.  Add some water and stir. Add some more water (to make a gallon) and stir well.  Add in lemon slices and orange slices.

This lemonade is best if it sits for a little to blend flavors.

Variations:

Add more lemons or oranges.

Add orange juice instead of the oranges.

Serve in a pretty jar and you have some great lemonade!

I'll leave it up to you if you want to call it funeral lemonade!

7 Day Pickles!

This year, for the first time in a LONG time, I decided to make 7 day pickles.

For all your mommas out there, please know that for MANY years this just was not do-able! And quite frankly, after all the time and energy it really is cheaper to buy them in the store! BUT, my daughter loves growing pickles and I had this recipe from about 25 years ago, so I decided to make them!

I'm proud to say that canning methods came back to me after all those years! But, before I get too proud, please know that first batch I made of these should have been called 8-day pickles and the second batch should have been called 6-day pickles! (OPPS!)

7 lbs. pickles washed
8 cups sugar
4 cups cider vinegar
2 TBS pickling spice
2 tsp. salt (I don't usually add salt in any recipe)

Wash pickles. Put in a clean crock or bucket (something that can withstand boiling water). Boil water and pour over pickles. Do this on Day 1. Then empty water and boil new water for Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4. On Day 5 slice pickles. Make a syrup of 4 cups vinegar, 8 cups sugar, 2 TBS pickling spice, and 2 tsp. salt.  Bring to a boil. Pour over pickle slices. For Day 6 drain the sugar mixture and boil the sugar mixture. Pour over pickle slices.

Day 7: Boil entire contents - pickles and sugar mixture together.

In the meantime - make your mason jars hot. I put mine in a 300 degree (or 250 degree) oven.  Boil your lids (not rings) for your mason jars and put you canner filled with hot water on the stove (enough to cover the jars) to boil.

When everything is ready, take a hot jar, fill with pickles and syrup (check the rim of the jar first for cracks - run your finger over it. If it's smooth you are good to go.).  Take a spatula and put it down the side to get air bubbles out.  Wipe rim clean. Place a hot lid on the jar. Fill up 6 jars (that's how many you can probably put in your canner).

Put bands on the jars.  Process in boiling water in canner for 10 minutes. Once you take the jars out you may hear a popping noise. Make sure all lids stay down (If you push the middle they should not spring up).  Remove bands.  Store to enjoy another day!

Boiling syrup and cucumbers

Processing in the canner

Sealed and ready to enjoy later!

Strawberry Pie!

It's strawberry season here. I made strawberry pie the other night and the kids asked for more. So I made three more last night! Children were claiming a pie or two for their own!

This recipe comes from the best kind of cook book! A church cook book! One that has all the pages splattered (or at least the pages with the good recipes!) and had to be rebound (big thanks to my cousin for helping with it!).

Here you go!

Strawberry Pie

1 (3 oz.) package strawberry Jell-o (about 2/3 cups)
1 cup water
2 TBS cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 pie crust, baked, or a graham cracker crust

Mix Jell-o, cornstarch and sugar in pan.  Stir in water. Place on stove and cook until thick and clear (may take more than ten minutes) stirring frequently.  Pour into baked pie shell or graham cracker shell.  Chill 2-3 hours. (Optional: can top with whipped cream when ready to serve)

Notes: If you use a graham cracker crust it will taste better, but the crust will get soggy quicker!

I almost didn't add this photo due the shadow ~ but decided to keep it real! 😉

Simple = Pancake and Waffle Mix

This is one of those tried and true family recipes. It came from my mom. Perfect to mix the dry ingredients ahead of time and store in a mason jar. Add wet ingredients and cook.

Pancake and Waffle Mix
1 3/4 cup flour
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 oil

Mix all ingredients together. Can be used for waffles or pancakes.  Will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Meal Planning = UGH!

So in the last post I alluded to meal planning. UGH! What a chore!  I found myself daily coming to the "witching hour" (that hour just before your husband comes home. The kids are a mess. The house is a mess and you simply can't hold it all together!) with no meal plan.

First I simply want to say (and always remember this!) cereal is a MEAL! Yes, cereal is a meal. It's fortified and whatever else. Yes, mommas, it counts. If all you can do some days is have your children pick their favorite cereal, get a bowl, a spoon and some milk - it's ok!  Cereal is a meal!

Through the years I have learned the key to meal planning. Yes, I poured over cook books. I would try to plan out a menu. I would look at what is on sale for the week.  I'd list ideas. I looked at Once a Month Cooking. Mind you I just looked, I never did.  But nothing ever worked. EVER. The best laid intentions and nothing. 4 p.m.! Witching hour. No clue what was for dinner.

I can't recall how or when I came up with this idea but for me, it WORKED! Finally.  It was probably Kathi Lipp who has this book that helped me get to where I needed to be!!!

So what did I do?

I started thinking about dinner/supper FIRST thing in the morning. BAM!!! No more last minute defrosting. No more scrounging. I starting thinking about it before 7 a.m. And you know what? It worked! It almost always on my to do list. When I don't think about it, guess what? I come back to 4 p.m. witching hour scrambling.

This way I can use the crock pot if needed. Oh the crock pot is my friend. Especially as the children have grown older and their are sports activities, activities to pick them up from, meetings, etc.  It's always nice to know dinner is ready when you need it.

Not sure what to serve? Come back soon for another post on meal planning!

Fry-day!

I have struggled with meal planning for YEARS!!! And I mean years!!! 4 p.m. would roll around and I'd think 'Gee, what is for dinner?" I'd scramble to the freezer. Um, nope, no time to defrost. Then the frig. Nope nothing in there. Then the pantry. Nope. Um. What. To. Do?!?!

Well I have finally (maybe mostly?) conquered meal planning. I'll share more in another post, but one way was to have a FRY DAY!!!

I rarely buy hamburger at the store. I grew up on a farm and when we butchered, well, that's when we got meat! Having married into a farming family we still butcher. However, in the last few years, we have started eating venison. Now, this is very corn fed venison, which means it tastes like beef!

So how this looks for you vs. how it looks for me, might be a little different!

When we get our ground venison, I simply put it in the freezer. It comes in one pound packages.

When I'm ready to have my fry day, I simply thaw 6 to 12 pounds of hamburger. Sometimes it's 15 lbs.

I put one pack in a pan at a time.  Fry it up. Then I usually start another pound in a second pan.

Now remember, if you have children they can probably do this for you! I've had children (who were old enough and it was safe) stand at the stove and fry the meat. The only downside = you will have ground hamburger all over the stove, the counter and the floor.

However, as Karen Ehman says:

I"m sure if it's true for the washing machine, it's true for stove! 

I like to just dirty two pans. In my world, washing dishes is WORK, so less dirty dishes = less work!  

Once a pound is fried, I put it in a dish I purchased at IKEA to cool.  Then onto the next pound.

Once I fry about 6 pounds of plain hamburger, I move onto taco meat. Our family loves tacos and I can easily throw the cooked taco meat into the crock pot! So...I have to use two pounds for this for our family. Two pounds of meat gets cooked and then I add the taco seasoning and the water. Follow package directions for taco seasoning. Then into the bowl to cool! I find that by using four of these bowls, the meat usually has enough time to cool, so I don't have to dirty anymore!

Once done, I put the meat into a freezer bag, mark it (because nothing is to go into my freezer unless it has a name AND a date!) and freeze. Just remember NOT to put the bag of hamburger directly onto a wire shelf to freeze!  Been there. Done that! Put a paper plate under instead!

When it's time to make a meal, your hamburger is already cooked! And if it's a taco night you can either just reheat the meat OR throw it in the crock pot on warm or low all day.

PA Dutch Chicken Corn Soup

I live in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. We love to eat! We love to cook!

I remember having my grandmother show me how to make chicken corn soup while she was still alive. I took precious notes of all she told me. How to buy a whole chicken. How to cook the whole chicken. How to spend hours in the kitchen making chicken corn soup. It was a special time.

But then I was single. And had some time to spend hours to cook a whole chicken.

Fast forward and five kids later.....no time to spend all day in the kitchen.

I love my crockpot!! I mean love it! I use it often!!!

So....one day I decided to make chicken corn soup in the crock pot. What do you know? It worked!!!

Here's a "souper"easy recipe!!

The night before:
Throw your chicken in the crockpot on low.  Sorry, but here in PA Dutch country we often don't measure!  So use your best guess. I would say about 1 lb. of boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Add a about 1-1 1/2 cups water.  Cook on low all night.

The next morning: Cut up chicken into small bite size pieces (or even smaller).  Keep broth.  Discard or skim off any fat. Return chicken to crock pot. Add in about 6-8 cups corn. (Like I said, we don't measure! I usually just do what looks about right!).  Add in 1-2 cups chicken broth. (I use chicken bullion mixed with water).  Add in about 1 TBS parsley flakes.  Stir. Cook on low all day.

Note: I do not usually add salt, but allow the person eating to add their own. However, you may want to add salt.

Important: Do not cook on high or you may burn your corn! Do not cook all night. It will be too long for the corn to cook and the one time I did this my corn burned.

Best served with grilled cheese sandwiches OR hamburgers! Or just plain!

I love to make a big batch and freeze the leftovers!!!

Easy recap of recipe:

Chicken Corn Soup
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
6-8 cups corn
water
1-2 cups chicken broth (or chicken bullion mixed with water)
1 TBS parsley flakes
salt to taste

Cook chicken and 1- 1/2 cups water in crock pot on low all night. Remove chicken from crock pot. Cut into smaller pieces. Leave broth in crock pot. Skim off fat. Return chicken to crock pot. Add in corn, parsley flakes and broth. Cook on low for about 6 hours. Freezes well.

Peanut Butter Balls...Making an impact for Jesus

The story of the Peanut Butter Balls

Written on February 13, 2017

Original Recipe (1 Batch)

¾ cup creamy peanut butter

½ cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

¾ cup powdered dry milk

Mix above ingredients together

Add in 1 ½ cups Rice Krispies and 1 cup (approximately) mini chocolate chips

Roll into balls and refrigerate.

This recipe was given to me by  the mother of one of son's cross-country teammates.  She would often make these for cross-country races. I enjoyed them so much and knew my son liked them so I started to make them.

Some days my son would ask for them.  I would often make them for him to take to school. This started during his junior year and he would take them to Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

I had to double then triple and so on the recipe.

Double Batch:

1 ½ cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup honey

2 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cup powdered dry milk

3 cups Rice Krispies

2 cup mini chocolate chips

Triple Batch:

2 ¼ cup creamy peanut butter

1 ½ cup honey

3 tsp. vanilla

2 ¼ cups powdered dry milk

4 ½ cups Rice Krispies

2 cups mini chocolate chips (I usually eyeball this)

Times Four:

3 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups honey

4 tsp. vanilla

3 cups powdered dry milk

6 cups Rice Krispies

2 cups mini chocolate chips (I usually eyeball this)

Times Five:

3 ¾ cups creamy peanut butter

2 ½ cups honey

5 tsp. vanilla

3 ¾ cups powdered dry milk

7 ½ cups Rice Krispies

2 ½  cups mini chocolate chips (I usually eyeball this)

Times Seven:

5 ¼ cups creamy peanut butter

3 ½ cups honey

7 tsp. vanilla

5 ¼ cups powdered dry milk

10 ½ cups Rice Krispies

3-4 cups mini chocolate chips (I usually eyeball this)

My son continued to take these in to FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) which met on every other Friday morning the first part of his senior year. (The second part of the year they met each week).  My son's second period statistics class would sometimes get the leftovers.  They soon became wise to listen to the morning announcements and figure out when FCA would meet. They would often ask my son to bring them in.  I would usually make them for him!  When he missed a Friday due to getting his wisdom teeth out the class asked if he would still bring them in. No such luck. On the car ride on the way home from his surgery my son was out of it but joked about taking peanut butter balls into school!

We later found out from his teacher  that the entire math department (or most of them) loved peanut butter balls and would often come to his room on Fridays just for Peanut Butter Balls!

God uses food to bring people to Him. God uses many things.  I don't know all of the impact and probably never will.

We have now moved the peanut butter balls onto my son's college cross country team. Oh, but they still go into statistics class. You see my second son has the same teacher!

I also found out that you CAN freeze these!  That's a plus in my simple world!!!

Organizing Recipes You Print

Ever have ten billion recipes sitting all round? Or better yet in a pile? No clue what to do? I mean really you want to try them but you can't find them. They are lost in the paper clutter. What about those favorite family recipes you've shared through the years? Or the ones that have been handed down? How can you organize them? And I am the type who {still} likes to print my recipes.

Well, it took me a while, but I figured out a simple way. Because that's what this is all about. Practical. Simple.

Meet {one of} my new best friend. Page protectors! No need to punch holes in pages! Simply add these in a 3 ring binder and BAM! You have it! Yes, I use them all the time!

I first got them off of BJ's website, but then they stopped carrying them. (Silly BJ's!) so now I buy on Amazon!   Here is the link to page protectors: Page Protectors

Next use some fun page dividers. Make up your categories. I currently have:
appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, desserts and other.

Then slide your recipes in. Added bonus, when you are baking or cooking, no need to worry about pages getting smeared, or greased up!

As you can see, I have tabs on the right marking the categories.  

Here is a favorite recipe for ham and cheese sandwiches. Link is here: ham and cheese sandwiches

This even works great for saving special notes of how much for something to make. These are notes from my white chocolate mix. (Recipe coming at some point. I promise!)

Finally, in my "other tab" I keep notes on how to freeze things. (I am so over canning. No time for that  - at least not right now!)

I have found this is a great way to organize all my printed recipes. Sometime I even make notes on them, such as "Didn't like" (so if I am searching for zucchini recipes again and think that one looks good, I know not to use it!)  or "So and so did like, but I didn't"

Best of all, I've moved the recipes out of a pile and they are easy to find! 

Stay tuned for more practical tips and more recipes!!!