Ceasar Salad Wraps

Are you getting of the same old kind of salad? I get tired of it! My new sister-in-law's Dad has a great recipe that I've been using now! If you need an impressive salad for a potluck or even just a fun way to eat salad at home...try this one out! It's SUPER simple!

 

I added halved orange, cherry tomatoes from the garden. Even though they are tiny they sure have incredible flavor!

Caesar Salad Wraps

Romaine heart Lettuce (The kind that is still whole and not chopped up in a bag)

Caesar Dressing of your choice

Parmesan or Italian blend cheese

sunflower seeds, pine nuts, soy nuts

lime

1.Chop the end off the lettuce that you don't eat. Wash the lettuce. Dry it with paper towels. Lay it out flat in a single layer on a platter or large plate. (Be creative and make a circular design or...??? whatever you come up with!) 

2.Drizzle Caesar Salad dressing over the leaves, mostly in the centers of the leaves.

3.Sprinkle nuts and seeds over it. I use about 20 seeds/nuts in all on one leaf. (Pine nuts are $16/lb so you'll want to use them sparingly anyway, right?)

4.Sprinkle cheese over the top of that.

5.Slice a lime, lengthwise, making wedges and squeeze the juice over the entire salad. (It's nice to add several wedges around the platter in case someone wants to add extra zip to their salad.) 

6.The best part is HOW to eat it! (ha ha) Grab a whole leaf, fold it in half lengthwise and eat it like a taco! Kids really love these because it makes salad fun!

NOTE: Try it with strips of seasoned, cooked chicken for an entire meal!





Strawberry Spinach Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing

 Try something new this summer. I know spinach strawberry salad isn't new to some of you but I'm surprised by how many people have not yet tried it- including me until just recently! This is a great recipe for summer and the abundance of spinach in your garden!


  

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing- Our new favorite!

                               

I was invited over to a friend's house for lunch recently- which I never get to do! She made Strawberry Spinach Salad with Chicken as the main dish, homemade bread and homemade sweet tea! I appreciate homemade food so much! It's probably because I realize the effort that it takes to create it! Her meal was splendid- so good that I had 2 bowls of salad! LOL (...Not very lady like I'm sure!) So, when I came home, I decided to try it out on my family. I wasn't sure what they'd think of spinach salad alone, but with strawberries I thought the kids might give it a try. I used the Honey Mustard Dressing that our family loves, and now this has become a new family favorite! I hope your family loves it too!

Check out Carrie's Blog too: http://www.thebackyardfamwife.blogspot.com/ She's got crafty things, garden, family, cooking...etc. We have a lot in common! :)

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Honey -Mustard Dressing

Ingredients:

Spinach- use as much as your family will eat. We use about 1/2 bag per per meal if it's not the main dish.

1/2 pint sliced strawberries

1/4 cup combined sesame seeds and or sunflower seeds, toasted (see directions below)

Honey Mustard Dressing (see directions below)

Prepare spinach by pulling off the long stem pieces, if desired. Evenly place the sliced strawberries on the spinach, then mix. Sprinkle with seeds and serve with Honey- Mustard Dressing.

Directions for toasted seeds:

In a small frying pan, toast seeds till they smell "nutty" and are slightly browned.

Honey Mustard Dressing- mmm... goodness.

Kristin's Honey-Mustard Dressing

The original recipe is from www.food.com . My husband prefers it sweeter with less mustard flavor so I add more honey than they do. The recipe claims that is comes straight from the Red Robin's Training Book and this is just scaled down. Either way, we love it-- whether it's the real thing or not!

1 1/3 cups mayonnaise

4 1/2 T white sugar

3 1/2 T honey

2 T mustard

2 T Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard

2 T white vinegar

2 T vegetable oil

1 1/2 T poppy seeds

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk. Store in a covered container or quart jar with a lid and refrigerate.

Use for salad dressing, dip for chicken strips or one of our favorite things: use it instead of mayo on a sandwich! Enjoy!

It's so healthy and light that it goes well with pasta too!







Chicken Penne Alfredo with Bacon and Broccoli

Here's our latest favorite! My husband claims this is in my top 10 best recipes and I made it up! Sweet! If you pair this with a fresh Spinach Strawberry Salad, it's a perfect meal of comfort and healthy!

1. Start by boiling water for the pasta. For this recipe, use 1 box of Barilla Penne pasta. Cook till tender (al dente- as directed by the package). Drain and set aside in a large pot or bowl, keeping warm with a lid on.

Meanwhile;

2. Cook 4 pieces of bacon in a large frying pan, reserving bacon grease. (Cover with splatter screen to make it less messy!) Cool on paper towels or paper napkins. Cut the bacon into bite-sized pieces and add to the pasta pot.

3. Cut 3-4 chicken breasts in bite sized pieces and fry in the bacon grease with seasoning of your choice. I use Pampered Chef's Sun-Dried Tomato Seasoning Mix and Johnny's Seasoning. Add salt if necessary. Cook until lightly browned. Add chicken to the pasta pot, leaving a little grease in the frying pan.

4.  In the pan from the chicken, saute' 4-6 cloves of freshly pressed garlic. This only takes about 30 seconds. Watch it carefully so that it doesn't burn. Use this pan to make the sauce next.

5. To make the sauce: Melt 1/4 cup butter in the frying pan or in a saucepan on medium heat. Take pan off heat and stir in 1/2 cup flour. Slowly pour in 1 pint of cream (heavy cream is richer, 1/2 & 1/2 is good, milk might work but I'd call it low-fat). Return to stove. Stir until it's well combined and then thickened. Once it's a thick sauce, add 1 cup sour cream or 4 oz. cream cheese (for a richer sauce), then pour in the amount of milk you like for how thick you want the sauce. I think I use about 1 1/2-2 cups of 2% milk. Remember that it's better to use less to start with. You can always add more later to thin the sauce. Add salt (to taste, about 1 teaspoon) and a spinkle of pepper. Cook a few minutes longer until it's the consistency you want. Add to the pasta pot.

6. Either between cooking the above things or after, steam 1-2 heads of broccoli. Add to the pasta pot, of course!

7. Stir the pasta pot and serve with a delicious salad! Out kids love this recipe so hopefully yours will too! I used 6 cloves and it wasn't too spicy. Next time I may use more!

*Note: You could also bake this once it's cooked and mixed or keep it warm in an oven-safe pan on low heat.

**Also, I normally add about 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan to my alfredo sauce and that would be wonderful with it. I just didn't have any and it was still loved by all without it! :)

Chocolate Cream Pie

Chocolate Cream Pie
From Taste of Home - These guys have GREAT recipes! 

DEE-licious, I say!! Store-bought puddings do not compare to homemade ones! My husband loves chocolate pudding on toast for breakfast. So, there's a new use for it if you needed an idea! :) (That's what his mom made for them growing up.) The next time I make it, I need to snap a picture for my blog! Oops! Sorry guys! It's also great with whipped topping!


1 cup sugar
2 ounces squares of unsweetened chocolate
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups milk
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1 tsp vanilla


In saucepan, combine sugar, flour and salt. gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat or microwave on high until mixture boils and thickens. Cook 2 minutes longer on stove top, or stir and cook 30 seconds longer in microwave. Stir small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks; return to hot mixture. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly on stove, or microwave 1 minute on high. Remove from heat or microwave. Add butter and vanilla; cool to room temperature. To prevent rubbery crust from forming, put clear plastic saran wrap or waxed paper directly on top, touching surface of the hot pudding , clear to the sides of bowl. Pour into baked pastry shell. Top with Meringue.

Meringue: Beat 3 eggs whites with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and 1/2 tsp vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add 6 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff peaks form and all sugar is dissolved. Spread atop pie, sealing to pastry. Bake at 350' about 12-15 minutes, or until meringue is golden. Cool.

O How He Loves Us!

Today as I was working in my garden- getting part of it tilled up, with a little sadness, I noticed so many of the unfinished projects we have around our home, or simply things that are begging to be repaired; things that I get so tired of writing on to-do lists for later times.  I started doing that thing that I do so well, thinking, "I wish that could be done..." , "I wish we could have..."  :) Then I stopped and thought about why those things aren't done. Why do I have ugly old boards holding up my raised beds in the garden? Because it's what I had to work with and I'm so glad we have been able to have a garden! Why don't we have new gutters yet after that crazy storm a couple of years ago? Because eating and keeping our house was of more priority. 



I spotted this teeny little heart-shaped lettuce (from our garden) when I was washing it last summer. So cool!



All of a sudden it hit me.

How did we survive? 

With "average" debt, many medical bills, usual bills, mortgage, basically one income... How?

How many times was money just not there? Lots but somehow we were able to pay for the things we needed. Also how many times did we go without food? None. Did we lose things that meant a lot to us? No. God really stretched our dollars and provided in miraculous ways I guess. I can't tell you that money fell from the sky, but somehow, we made it through!
God, of course provided for us!

In fact, I can't believe the things we have had through that hard time! We didn't have to sell everything we owned! I had a bountiful garden that gave us good food and we just managed to do without extra. Even the things we were able to do, with how little we had, amazes me. Money is just one small example in our lives of how well God has taken care of us- even in our stupidity with how we've handled money. (blech!) He's been there when I've been really sick with physical things too. God saw us through that just the same, with love.  

I have friends (and their families) who are going through incredible losses or awful health situations right now and I'm hoping and praying that one day, they too will see, or get to the other side soon and wonder how in the world they made it through! It's hard to go through hard stuff and it's nice to get a breather!  I hope that they will also recognize God's loving, caring hand in their lives too!

I'm sure you can remember times in your life when things were so hard and you wondered how you would make it. Then you get through it and wonder how you did indeed make it!
God. It's that simple. He is SO GOOD to us, and it seems like you recognize that even more when you least deserve it!! We are very blessed! And the lessons God has taught us through hard times is invaluable. We just don't get it when life is...easy. I encourage you to allow God to work in you through the hard times too. Life is SO hard but with God it is SO good.  

Homemaking, A Lost Art Found

I love the peacefulness of these colors on her bed as I open her door, walk in and see it! It's so soothing!

While you're reading, I thought I'd let you peak at something I worked on a couple weeks back for my daughter. I made her a "gentle" rag quilt with muslin and a variation of old colors for her bed.

I wanted to tell you about something else that I've been doing. For the past couple of months I've been leading a Women's Bible Study plus Homemaking Class at our home. It came about because of "talking" on Facebook with my friends about the things I like to do. There are so many things like; sewing, cooking, canning, putting up foods, how to make certain crafts..etc. It was on my heart to do this for about 6 months before we started getting together and I love how it's sort of blossomed into a special time I really look forward to! 

Maybe this sounds like something you'd like to start in your own community of friends? Well, I thought I write about the details so that maybe you'd feel inspired to create your own group.

We start at about 11:30. The wee ones are brought along and are watched by a couple of young ladies here so that the mom's don't have to find babysitters. First we read through the verse for the day and discuss it and other Bible verses that speak about the same general subject.  We're studying the Proverbs 31 Woman and going through it, really just one verse each week.

 Then after about an hour we break for a sack lunch that each person brings. The children are then with us , eating and the ladies chat for a few minutes while eating. I try to have some sort of snack to go along with it. Granola, deviled eggs, pumpkin muffins..etc. It's also nice when some forget their lunch in case I don't have enough lunch to share! (leftovers usually!!)


Her name is Talia Nicole and this label on the back has the meanings of her name as well as a "comforting" verse (because it's a blanket, I wanted it to be about comfort.) :)


Then after our lunch break the women get back together and learn a certain skill that we've already discussed or planned. During our first Class I taught how to make cheese crackers and graham crackers. (One of my favorite things to do is bake something that you *think* can only come from the store!) The next classes were "How to make healthy homemade baby food", "Couponing", "How to sew in an elastic waistband to clothing", "How to make homemade Castille Soap" and the most recent class was "How to give boy's a good home haircut". I can't explain to you how excited I am for other women to come into our group also and share what they know about these things too! I love the fact that it doesn't all have to come from me! We can be blessed by each other's talents! So cool!

Are you bummed you can't be there? Doesn't it sound like fun? Truly, if you want more info, just let me know and I can help you get started in creating your own group! I'd love to help!!

!

Homemade Granola



MMMmmm golden baked homemade granola. Simply delicious!



Here is something delicious and HEALTHY that the kids and I made today. This is the best kind of recipe to do with kids! Just melt, mix, pour, mix and bake! (Well, there's a little more to it than that but it's very simple!) The original granola recipe is from my friend Marett, I've adjusted some of it to what I had here. It's one of those recipes that I've had for years but forgot about. Forget no longer... this stuff is awesome! Just don't forget the vanilla, it adds such a cozy flavor! ha ha

Homemade Granola

Combine and melt in a saucepan:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup butter
3 T molasses
1 cup raw sugar
1 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt (a MUST! It goes well with the sweet!!)

Take off of heat and add vanilla.

(NOTE: I did not have enough honey so I used part pure maple syrup. Also, I used sweetened coconut so I left out the sugar. It's plenty sweet without it if you make it that way!)

Mix together in a large pot or bowl:
6 cups oats

4 cups coconut

1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup slivered almonds
...or whichever nuts...

(Another NOTE of course: I used oats, coconut, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), whole almonds, a few cups of puffed brown rice cereal and sunflower seeds.) I plan to try different nuts/seeds.

Pour melted mixture onto oat mixture. (By adding less dry ingredients, it will be a stickier, thicker granola- otherwise it's pretty fine crumbles). Make sure the mixture is all "wet".

Bake at 350' for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or until browned. Be careful not to burn it!

Add raisins or dried cranberries while it's still warm.
This recipe makes MANY cups! I should have measured but I'm guessing that it makes like 20 cups?? A LOT anyway! Store in airtight containers or use a vacuum pack sealer.

It's great for trips, easy breakfast or snacks!



The granola on the left is with Craisins, the one on the right is without. (Our oldest doesn't prefer the fruit in it..silly kid!)

 Serve warm, cooled or in milk! Mmmm The kids couldn't get enough of it!