Soup is the typical New Year’s Day fare around here. Here’s one of our favorites:
Creamy Chicken Salsa Soup
2 large cans Cream of Chicken soup
2 large cans of water or milk
4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 jar salsa
1½ c. corn
Garnish with: sour cream, shredded cheese, tortilla chips
Put all ingredients in crock pot on low for 4-6 hrs.
{Sorry, there isn’t a picture! I’ll add one later!}
I love to bake no matter the season. I love to see my children’s (and my husband’s) eyes light up over what new treat mama has created. It’s easy to want to bake when you have such an appreciative family!
But during this time of year, there are always extra special treats! We bake and make candy and share with neighbors and friends. It’s the only time of year I make fudge and candy cane cookies and there are always plenty of bowls and beaters to lick!
We usually share our treats with the mail lady and the garbage men. Yesterday, the mail lady brought us a note thanking us for the goodies and telling the children how she ate them with hot chocolate that evening. You should have seen the delight on their faces!
Some of our yearly yummies are:
Buckeyes (shown above and affectionately called “Buckin’ Bulls” around here ala my 7 yr old)
Candy Cane Cookies
Snowballs
Chocolate Revel Bars
Fantasy Fudge
Thumbprint Cookies
I also like to experiment and try new recipes, but I prefer to stick with treats that are simple and quick. I have no desire to spends hours in the kitchen crafting the perfect cookie, so anything that can please my crowd with the least amount of effort gets my vote!
I’m also anxious to try some of the yummy treats I saw at An Oregon Cottage, the cinnamon popcorn at Amy’s Finer Things, and the edible gifts at Many Little Blessings!
One good thing about having a large family is that with so many mouths clamoring for a tasty treat, no one person ends up with too much!
What are your favorite Christmas treats? My children would love to try something new!
Note from Amy: I met Tiffany King at the Savvy Blogging Summit this year when she handed my her business card during a session and I exclaimed, “I need you!” It was the name of her website that caught my attention: Eat At Home. Worn out homeschooling moms everywhere can benefit from Tiffany’s message and her mission to show moms that preparing quick and easy meals doesn’t have to be drudgery and one more thing on their to-do list. I think you’ll love her new ebook, Feast in 15, where she shows you how easy it is to create spectacular weeknight meals that fit into a busy homeschool mom schedule! Get your copy today!
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All of us who homeschool have the same demands as other moms. The difference is that we’re with our kids nearly all the time and we’re responsible for teaching them during a large portion of that time. Daily schedules can swing wildly between being at home, to being out of the house all day.
So how do we get meals on the table with so much going on? Here are a few tips:
Dinner is often the big meal of the day. (If your big meal is lunch, then adjust this tip accordingly.) If you can get dinner taken care of, the rest seems easy.
Plan with your available cooking time in mind.
By looking ahead at your schedule, you can plan your menu with your days in mind. Make the menu fit your family, not the other way around.
Make use of your freezer.
Keep ingredients for a few “emergency” meals.
Stock your pantry with the ingredients for a couple of easy meals that you can pull together at the last minute. Knowing you have those recipes to fall back on will keep you from running through the drive through or feeding everyone cereal for dinner (we’ve all been there!).
I may be in the minority on this, but we keep breakfast super simple. Not only that, but each person takes care of their own as soon as they’re old enough. We also tend to eat the same thing, day in and day out. We’re okay with that because lunch and dinner are varied enough to make up for the standard breakfast.
Here are a few ideas for simple breakfasts.
Again, I keep this as simple as possible. Most days do not lend themselves to actually cooking lunch. And even though we don’t eat the same thing everyday, I do not make any menu plan for lunch. We use lunch to eat up leftovers. Some days there’s enough for all of us. Some days there “dibs” are called on the good food from the night before. Other days, no one wants the leftovers!
When the leftover plan doesn’t cover us all, I fill in with these quick items:
What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to cooking for your family?
Tiffany is the founder of Eat at Home, Everyday Food for Busy People. She has also written an eBook, Feast in 15, Speed Cooking Weeknight Dinners that is available as a PDF or on Kindle. She has been married to her husband Jim for 23 years. They have 4 kids, all homeschooled. Their oldest daughter is now in college.
It’s Summer and it’s hot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a few gingerbread men over for tea. And when I say gingerbread, I actually mean
gingerBREAD!
This is a really easy, fun way to take your tea and entertain the children all without heating up the kitchen!
All you do is take any cookie cutter you have on hand (we just happened to have gingerbread men) and cut out the center of bread slices,
add toppings of your choice
Pour a little “tea” from your finest china teapot
and enjoy a breezy summer morning snack!
{oh, and with the right amount of cinnamon & sugar, they’ll eat the crusts too!}
Lunch for the homeschooling family is often whatever can be thrown together quickly. I’ve written before about some of our favorite quick lunches, but lately pizza has also made the menu.
Chicken Verde Pizza - a new favorite!
Our pizza dough recipe is adapted from Homestead Blessings: The Art of Bread Making and made with lightning speed!
Quick Pizza Dough
2½ c. flour
1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp oil
1 c warm water
1 Tbsp honey
Preheat oven to 375°.
Throw it all in the mixer with a dough hook and “knead” for 4-5 mins.
Let rest for 5 minutes while you prepare the toppings.
Roll out into two medium pizzas (rectangle shaped will get you more slices), add toppings and bake 12-15 mins.
You have pizza in half an hour!
Some of our favorite toppings (not all on the same pizza, mind you):
Good stuff!
We have several friends who are Messianic, so there have been a few occasions when we have celebrated Sabbath with them on Friday night. There is something quite relaxing about bringing the day to a close and setting the next day apart by shutting everything down the evening before. We have thoroughly enjoyed these times of fellowship.
In fact, the new church we are attending is a small, family-integrated one that meets on Sunday nights. Many of the families, us included, worship Sunday morning at home, but then we come together in the evening for corporate worship as a body of believers. It has made our Sundays much more relaxed and worshipful.
I never thought I would be one who would say going to church at night was okay. Even now, I feel a little awkward not loading up the big van Sunday morning and heading out…almost as if my witness as a Christian is tainted since my lost neighbors don’t see us head to church every week.
But, as I look to the early church of Acts, I do not see a command to meet in the morning. And I do not see a day of rest and worship that looks like this:
The You Tube video above is very familiar to many Christian families today. Mine included. But, where is the rest? Where is the worship in such a frenzied day? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic as it has been something I have mulled over for many years.
Now, for the recipe…
When we do get together with our Messianic friends, I am quite often the designated Challah bread maker (the “c” is silent).
The last time I taught ancient world history, I found a challah bread recipe online and made it with the kids (we’ll be doing that again this year). I’ve tweaked the recipe to fit my need to make it quickly and it is absolutely delicious!
2 c. warm water or milk
2 pkgs dry active yeast
6-7 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. oil
1 egg
In a large bowl or mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water or milk. Add sugar and salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix well. Add oil and egg and mix well. Add remaining flour and mix well. {dough will be a bit sticky}
Place in a large greased bowl {not plastic} and put a warm, wet cloth over it {I use a tea towel, run through warm water and wrung out}. Place in oven. {you might need to warm the oven a bit before putting it in there…but don’t leave the oven on while it rises!}
Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the bowl – approx. 30-60 mins.
Divide dough into 3 equal pieces.
Divide two of those pieces into thirds and roll all 6 pieces into 16″ long ropes. Use 3 pieces each to make a braid, pinching at each end to seal.
Divide remaining dough into 6 pieces and roll each into 17″ long ropes. Again, use 3 pieces each to make 2 braids and place each braid on top of the thicker braid, tucking the ends of the top rope under the bottom rope.
Cover and let rise {I just keep them on my stove top, but you could put them back in the oven} for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°. Bake bread for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops and sides with butter. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight bag or container…that is, if there is anything left to store!
My friend Sarah was homeschooled and actually had a business as a teenager selling challah bread on Fridays. So, if you have any budding entrepreneurs in your house, you might consider something like this!
It really is a fun and easy bread to make, and the results are rather tasty too!