Today is Johnny’s birthday and we always try to start birthdays out with a special breakfast and gifts.  I hadn’t really decided what I was going to make for breakfast and my friend Katie happened to send me her Baked Oatmeal recipe.  It was SO yummy, and especially easy since you can make it up the night before, that I just had to share it with you!

BAKED OATMEAL

¼ C. vegetable oil (canola / olive blend or grapeseed)*

½ C. honey*

2 eggs

1 C. milk

½ tsp. salt

1 T. baking powder

3 C. Old Fashioned oats

½ C. raisins (opt.)

2 T. brown sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Beat together oil and sugar; mix in eggs and milk.  Add salt, baking powder and oats to batter.  Stir in raisins if using.  Pour into lightly greased 9×13” casserole dish.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Cover and place in refrigerator overnight.  (OK to bake immediately if needed.)

Next morning, bake at 350 degrees for about 35 min.  Serve hot.  Great with butter melted in warm milk or cream.  Garnish with fresh berries (opt.)

*original recipe called for ½ C. oil and ¾ C. sugar

This is the way Katie makes it, with less oil, and the honey.  That is the way I did it too, but I didn’t have any raisins, so I used Craisins, instead.  It was very yummy, and everyone at our table enjoyed it.  

Thanks Katie!!

This weekend one of our Advent calendar activities was “Make Christmas cookies and watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas”. Gabriel was pretty excited about this one!

This is something we enjoy doing every year. I’ve got the recipe and cookie cutters all ready. But this year I decided to use a different recipe. I had recently gotten a cookie recipe from Johnny’s Memaw that her grandmother made when she was a little girl. I thought it would be pretty special to use that recipe, and they turned out great. At this point in my life, decorating cookies is not an easy thing to do, so we use sprinkles. Maybe next year Gabriel will be ready to try some icing.

Here we are making our cookies…

After we were done with the cookies the boys watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Nathaniel lasted about 2 minutes and then went to go play.

Need a Christmas cookie recipe? Here’s the one I normally use that I won second prize with in a high school 4-H contest:

Traditional Sugar Cookies

3/4 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt

Mix thoroughly butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes or until very light brown.

Beet recipe?  Okay, it’s not exactly on everyone’s most-wanted-recipe list, but I stumbled upon an amazing way to eat this purple produce.  First, why beets?  Well, we recently joined a fresh organic produce co-op and we get a large crate full of various organic fruits and veggies every other week.  It’s a surprise what’s inside each time we get it and we often find ourselves with veggies we would not normally buy.  I’ve been looking at it as a sort of challenge.  It helps us try new things and new recipes!  I’ve not been a big beet fan in the past, but I did a little research and found that they are incredibly healthy.

Just look at all the health benefits of beets!

• lowers blood pressure
• effective in lowering LDL and total serum cholesterol, and triglyceride levels
• raises antioxidant enzyme levels in the liver and may promote detoxification in the intestines, blood, and liver
• may increase CD8 cells, which detect and remove abnormal cells in your colon
• help prevent stomach and colon cancer
• very high in folate = great for preventing birth defects during pregnancy
• high in magnesium = preventing osteoporosis
• lowers the level of free radical in your body, which are responsible for cell damage

There is something else about beets that can make them appealing…they’re sweet!  I remembered that I frequently see them as an ingredient in some of the freshly made juices at a grocery store we like.  So, I decided to throw some beets into our morning smoothie.  Here is what I did…

“We Got the Beet” Smoothie
1 1/2 cups apple juice
1/2 cup milk
1 pkg. frozen strawberries
1 banana
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1 beet, cut into large chunks

Throw it all in the blender and give it a whirl!  Makes about 4 cups.

OK, so if you don’t believe that this could actually be drinkable, here is the proof!

Ok, so go for it!  Try this out and let me know what you think.  Or, I’d love to hear about your very own beet creation!!

I love Peanut Butter Cookies!  So when I saw the very easy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe in the October issue of Parents, I knew it was one I wanted to try.  One afternoon after nap time, I decided we should make a welcome home treat for Daddy, so Gabriel and I made ‘em.  They were SO good, and a great surprise for Daddy too!  Of course I used all organic ingredients.  You won’t believe how easy this recipe is, and maybe you can even use it for your family night tonight!  Friday Night = Family Night!!

1 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling
1 egg

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Stir together the peanut butter, sugar, and egg in a large mixing bowl
2.  Roll dough into 1″ balls.  Put some sugar on a plate and roll balls in it to coat.  Place 2″ apart on ungreased   cookie sheet.
3.  Press each ball down with a fork to make a crisscross design.  Bake for 10 min. or until cookies just start to brown on the edges.  Remove from the oven and let cool on wire racks.

The only other tip I have for you is to use parchment paper.  I never bake cookies without it.  I hate washing cookies sheets!  Hope you enjoy these!

I don’t know very many people who actually know how to prepare a fresh pumpkin, and this is only my second time.  I thought you might like instructions, along with pictures.  Just in time for the holidays!  It does take some time, but it’s not terrible, and it’s really fun if you do it with kids.  Here we go!

First, using a sharp knife, cut a circle around the stem and remove it.  Then stick your hand in and pull out all the slimy pulp!  (Gabriel LOVED this part!)

When you’ve gotten all the seeds, and slimy pulp out of the pumpkin, you can wash the seeds off in a colander and then spread them out on a pan for roasting!  We put a little sea salt on ours, and then put them in the oven at 325 degrees for 7 minutes, stirred them around and put them in for 10 more minutes.  They were yummy!

Next, cut the pumpkin into chunks, put it in a baking pan skin side up with about 1 inch of water, and cover it.  Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (Another recipe I found said to cut the pumpkin in half and bake at 450 for 45 min.)

After the pumpkin is done baking, take it out of the pan to cool.  After it is cooled, peel the skin off and cut the pumpkin into chunks.  You can either mash up the pumpkin, or puree it in your food processor.  I mashed it up.

We made VERY YUMMY Harvest Pumpkin Bronwnies with cream cheese frosting.  I substitute organice ingredients whenever I can, so our Pumpkin Bronwnies were actually organic.  Here’s the finaly product:

If you’re not familiar with Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld, it is a book full of yummy recipes with hidden veggies.  For example, pureed carrots are in many of the muffin recipes, and the meatloaf recipe.  Every recipe has hidden vegetables or fruit in it!  It’s great for picky eaters, or for just adding more vegetables to your diet.

Jessica even takes you through all of the steps to puree your fruits and veggies.  From what types of kitchen tools you’ll need, how to prepare the fruits and veggies for steaming or baking, and how to store them in your freezer.  Many helpful tips are found throughout the book.

Some of our favorites have been:

• Applesauce Muffins
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
• Oatmeal (this is an awesome oatmeal recipe!)
• Italian Meatloaf
• Burgers (2 recipes to choose from)
• Tacos
• Sloppy Joes

We haven’t tried any of the dessert recipes, but there are some great ones to choose from. Even ideas for birthday cakes.  A good friend of mine makes the Chocolate Fondue, (with hidden carrot and avocado), for her kiddos to dip their fruit in and they love it!

There have only been a couple of recipes in here that we did not like.  The Quesadillas and the Tortilla Cigars.  They both have butternut squash hidden in them, and squash is sometime hard to disguise in my opinion.  Anyway, we couldn’t see what tasted weird,  but we did not like it.

If you have this cookbook, let me know what your family has raved about!  Or, if you’re in the market for an additional cookbook of this type, my good friend Becky and her girls love  The Sneaky Chef.

I’m thinking I need to go make a batch of Jessica’s Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Now that sounds good!

It’s Friday!! And that can only mean one thing around here….Family Night!  Johnny and I decided several years ago that we wanted to have a special night together every Friday.  I think it may have started back when we lived in a Chinese village and needed to be creative.  Anyway, I started making pizza every Friday night back then, and we still continue the tradition today.

The kids love it too!  Every Friday when we go into Gabriel’s room to tell him “good morning”  we tell him it’s Friday, Pizza Night!  And he is always excited, for many reasons…that means the next day is Saturday and Daddy won’t have to work, he loves to eat Mama’s yummy homemade pizza, and last, but not least, he and I make chocolate chip cookies!!  We don’t do sweets much around here, so those Friday night chocolate chip cookies are a BIG hit!

In the past year I have read in at least two other places about people who have a weekly Pizza Night.  One of the articles was in a Good Housekeeping.  The writer had lots of great ideas to share to make it even more fun.  She liked to have a wide variety of different toppings and let people make their own individual pizzas.  Maybe when the kids are a little older, I’ll try that idea.

Another special feature of Friday Family Nights are that after the kids are in bed my hubby and I watch a movie together.  As the kids get older and stay up a little later, I’m sure we’ll watch movies all together.

As a bonus, I’d like to share my favorite pizza crust recipe with you.  I did not create this recipe, but we do really like it.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

• 2.5 c whole wheat flour
• 1 T yeast
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• Mix together, then add:
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 c warm water

Preheat oven to 500. Knead dough until soft ball forms, then let rest for 5 minutes.  Roll dough out and place on pizza pan.  Prick holes all over the dough with a fork.  Bake 3-8 minutes until puffy.  Add your toppings and bake until cheese starts to brown.

I have always made this crust as a 12 in. round pizza, until lately.  Since Nathaniel has gotten old enough to eat pizza too, I need more pieces!  So I bought a large rectangular pizza stone and I roll this same crust out into a larger square.  It’s enough dough, and the crust is a little thinner.

Try it out and see what you think.  I’d love to hear comments from you on pizza recipes and ideas for family nights!  I’ve been searching for that perfect, and easy, pizza sauce recipe.  Maybe you have it!