It Use to be Easier

I've been thinking about meal preparations. Several weeks ago I decided to organize my recipes. I had a notebook and a couple of folders full of recipes that I have torn from magazines, gotten from the internet, gotten from friends and family, and who knows where else! I also have several cookbooks that have either been given to me as a gift or I purchased over the years. Really not a lot of them but still several. Some of the cookbooks I hold onto just because they have one or maybe two (or three) recipes that I use. The rest of the recipes just stay between the pages.

When my husband and I first married we pretty much ate the same foods week after week with a new recipe thrown in every now and then. There was very little meal planning as it was simple and pretty much kept in my head. I know that sounds boring but we were happy! We did change things up a bit from time to time. Sometimes we found something we really liked at a church potluck and tracked down the person who had made it and requested the recipe. Sometimes we added a new recipe gotten during a family get together. Mostly our meals were simple with meat and vegetables or pasta. Not a lot of ingredients. Special dishes were delegated to special occasions. Sometimes I long for those days again. No need for meal planners, or so much time trying to decide what to prepare when, or a long list of ingredients to shop for. Truthfully, I find meal planning more difficult now because of all the choices!

I am thankful for the variety of dishes that I have learned and am learning to prepare. However, I am going to try to eliminate some of the angst I feel with meal planning by incorporating some of that simplicity again. I do have my recipes pretty much organized now and that should help also. I have given away several small cookbooks and lots of collected magazine recipes to some newly married and engaged couples. Just knowing I have trimmed my collection makes me feel better and maybe they will be a blessing to someone else.

Now if only I can curb my desire to look at all those wonderful recipes on pinterest. Sometimes I find so many great recipes that it causes me to be paralyzed instead of active. Does that make since? I guess there is so much I want to try that I end up trying nothing. Like I said too many choices makes it more difficult for me. I recently visited a blog where a young woman tries two new recipes a week. I think I might give this idea a try and incorporate one new recipe a week (or maybe a month) into my meal plans. I will see how this works.

Having said ALL that, I am going to share one of my favorite recipes. We use to have these in school every Thursday along with tomato soup and a peanut butter and banana sandwich. My husband's aunt gave me a cookbook with this recipe many years ago. It is one of those cookbooks that I keep just for the one recipe! If your recipe repertoire is not to full I honestly believe you will enjoy adding this one. I have to say, although it has some healthy ingredients it also has a lot of sugar, including corn syrup. So I cannot  promote these as "healthy", but maybe they could be thrown in every now and then. I make them once or twice a year (usually in the fall) and could devour the whole batch if I let myself. I do restrain myself from this! It helps to prepare them when others are coming over. That way the number I can consume decreases drastically. Enough said  ~ Enjoy!

Hay Stacks

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup white Karo syrup

Bring to a slight boil, remove from heat. Bring to a slight boil again, remove from heat.

Add

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 12 ounce jar smooth peanut butter

Mix well and pour over 5 heaping cups of Corn Flakes (or Special K). Stir Corn Flakes and mixture gently together. Work Fast. Drop by teaspoons onto waxed paper.  

Simple Cheese Ball Recipe

My husband's aunt has a way of finding some of the simplest and best tasting recipes. We had a get together for a family birthday on Monday night and she brought a cheese ball and crackers. I hate to ask her for her recipes all the time but everyone liked it so well, even our youngest son, so I went ahead and asked. I was pleasantly surprised when she told me what was in it and how to make it. I have included the recipe below in case you are interested. (I didn't get a picture of the cheese ball before it started being devoured ~ the picture is of a little miniature one that I made from what was left. Of course it was much bigger to start with.)

Simple Cheese Ball Recipe

1 8oz. package of cream cheese

1 package of dry ranch dressing mix

1 large can of chicken breast

small package of chopped pecans

Shred the chicken and mix in the ranch dressing. Then add the cream cheese to the mixture. Form the ball and wrap in saran wrap and chill. After chilled, roll in chopped pecans.

Simple ~ enjoy!

P.S. ~  Her Won-Ton Sausage recipe is also very good!

A New Recipe

Well, new to me anyway. My husband's aunt brought these to our house last night and I thought they were so good. We do not eat sausage very much and definitely can't make these very often, but maybe every once in while. I thought I would share the recipe.

WON-TON SAUSAGE

+Ingredients

• 1 package (12 ounces) wonton wrappers
• 1 pound bulk pork sausage
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Colby cheese
• 1/2 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
• 2 bunches green onions, sliced
• 1/2 cup ranch salad dressing

Directions

• Lightly press wonton wrappers onto the bottom and up the sides of greased miniature muffin cups. Bake at 350° for 5 minutes or until edges are browned.
• In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cheese, peppers, onions and salad dressing. Spoon a rounded tablespoonful into each wonton cup. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until heated through. Yield: about 4 dozen.

 Enjoy!.

You May Want to Give it a Try

Lemonade Cake! I found this recipe recently and decided to make it for my family.  It is very tasty. I believe everyone in my family liked it. It taste a lot like lemon pie and my husband was a little curious as to why they called it a cake. Whatever you want to call it, it is good. Just thought you might want to give it a try.

Soft Pretzel Success

I was a bit skeptical about this pretzel recipe when I first saw it because of all the whole wheat in it. The last time I tried a recipe from the internet with so much whole wheat (it was for bread) it turned out terrible. I have to admit that much of the problem probably had more to do with the cook than the recipe. You've heard of rubber biscuits? Well, let me just say that a chunk of my bread could bounce! The results from this pretzel recipe though, were quite pleasing. Since this was my first time to make soft pretzels (yes, my first time) it took me a bit to get the size right. At first I used a bit too much dough per pretzel and they looked more like a big round honey bun. I made adjustments until they finally came out right. They were well received by my family and will definitely be a recipe that I will keep. I do have to say that they are a bit different in taste than the ones that I purchase sometimes, but the purchased ones are probably the ones with empty calories and no nutrition! So thanks to Heavenly Homemakers for the recipe.

By the way, my mom seemed to think that you could probably make bread with this same recipe. I'm thinking that it would probably make some good wheat rolls also ~ hopefully without the bounce!  

Poppy Seed Chicken

Per Carrie's request I am sharing this recipe. This is one of my family's favorite dishes. I actually adapted another recipe for this. I'm not sure if I lost the original recipe (seems to be a reoccurring thing) or if I ever had one to start with. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

4 to 6 chicken breast
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers
1 stick butter, melted
salt and pepper (to taste ~ personal preference)
poppy seed

Cook chicken (remove from bone if not boneless) and cut into small pieces. Spread chicken over the bottom of a large casserole dish. Combine soup and sour cream, add salt and pepper if desired. Spread soup mixture over chicken. Crush the crackers and put into a small bowl. Add melted butter to crackers, mixing to make topping. Cover soup mixture with topping. Sprinkle poppy seed on top.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.

Fruit Salad

This is a simple recipe passed along to me from my husband's aunt.

1 can sliced peaches
1 can apricots
1 can mandarin oranges
1 can strawberry pie filling
3/4 cup sugar
1 small can of pineapple tidbits

Add the last 3 ingredients to the first 3 ingredients. Chill in refrigerator until time to serve. 
Add 2 bananas (lemon juice for preservative if desired ~ drain) before serving.

The one pictured below was made with cherry filling instead of strawberry filling, either would be fine.  Also, I have changed this up before and used a can of mixed fruit.  Enjoy.

Apple Dumplings

This is a simple, simple, recipe I found on the internet. This is a keeper for my family.  You can find the recipe here. You could try this recipe as is or if you are in a crunch for time here is a quicker way:

Take a can of crescent rolls and roll out into the bottom of a 9x13 buttered dish.  Peel, core and cut two Granny Smith apples into fairly equal sized wedges.  Place the wedges evenly over the crescent rolls in bottom of dish.   Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples.  Spread the second can of crescent rolls over the top of the apples.  Melt 2 sticks of butter in microwave, add 1 1/2 cups of sugar and stir gently.  Stir 1 teaspoon of vanilla into butter and sugar mixture. Pour mixture over the crescent rolls.  Last but not least pour a small can of Mountain Dew around the edge and a little over the top of the dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  (This recipe can easily be halved as pictured below.)

Simple & Satisfying Breakfast

This recipe was shared with me by an individual from a Sunday School class that I attended several years ago.  It has been enjoyed many times since by everyone in our home.

Simple Sausage Dish

1 lb. sausage (mild, hot, or whatever you like)

8oz. cream cheese

2  10.1oz. package of Crescent rolls (I like to use the Big & Flaky Pillsbury ones)

Brown sausage.  While sausage is browning spray the bottom of a 9x13 pan and roll out one can of the crescent rolls in the pan.  When sausage is browned add the cream cheese to the sausage and allow to melt, stir as needed to mix sausage and cream cheese together.  Spread mixture evenly over the crescent rolls in the bottom of the pan. Take the second roll of crescent rolls and place over the top of the mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe Review

After trying several recipes from the internet, reviewed as delicious, I have reached the conclusion that as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so taste is in the tongue of the taster!  So herein must all reviews be understood.  The recipe reviews given here will be "biased" according to this taster and this taster's family.  I hope to share on occasion what I would term a recipe worth keeping.