Faith, Food and Family

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I probably won't be posting much this week if at all. I'm sorry I haven't posted a whole lot in the last week. I haven't tried many new recipes in the last week so I am going to have to try something new this week. :) I hope you all enjoy your families this Thanksgiving! I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with such a wonderful family and friends! On a side note, Monkey is finally potty trained! He is 4 1/2 years old and he finally got it! No accidents and wakes up dry! I'm praising the Lord on this one because I thought he was never going to give it up! :) God bless you all! Amanda

My family loves chocolate chip pancakes. In fact, I have very rarely made any other kind. One morning, when we lived in Ohio, I had made chocolate chip pancakes. My husband was talking about them at work later that day and most of those he worked with had never had chocolate chip pancakes. Those poor things! I don't recall ever making pancakes from scratch. I've always used a mix. Today I wanted to try homemade since I was so happy with the homemade waffles . Chocolate Chip Pancakes 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar (I used brown this time) 1 1/4 cups milk, warmed slightly in the microwave 1 egg 3 tablespoons butter, melted chocolate chips In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. Then toss in some chocolate chips. Lots if you like a lot of chocolate chips and less if you want to go sparingly. I always eyeball it. Then in a small bowl, add milk, egg and butter and whisk together. Add wet in...

I wanted to make a savory egg dish to take to Thursday morning coffee with the ladies, but couldn't decide on what I wanted to make. I didn't have any sausage and was kind of in a mood for something mexican/southwestern. So I created this! It was delicious and it disappeared! The six of us ate the entire pan. Very yummy! Southwestern Egg Bake 10 eggs 1 can of tomatoes with green chilies (I used Del Monte brand), drained 8 oz of Colby and monterey jack cheese 1 onion, diced 1/4 tsp of red chili pepper 1/2 tsp cumin salt to taste 1 tsp butter Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish. In a small skillet, add butter and let it melt. Then add onions and saute until translucent. You just want them to soften a bit but still to have some texture to them. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine eggs and seasonings and whisk well. Then add, tomatoes, cheese and sauteed onions. Pour into greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Mine was done at 25 minutes ...

I decided to use Rocket Boy's Texas plate. :) The best meatloaf recipe I have tried (I haven't tried many yet because I like this one so much) is using Hunt's Seasoned Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf. It always turns out perfect for me. It's super simple and super tasty! I served it with boxed potatoes (ran out of time to do fresh) and fried cabbage (well not really fried but wasn't fully steamed either LOL). Hunt's Meatloaf Recipe 1 can (15.25oz) Hunt's Family Favorites Seasoned Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf 2 pounds of lean ground beef 2 large eggs, beaten 1 cup of quick cooking oats, bread crumbs or crushed crackers (I used half crackers, half oats) Preheat oven 400 F. Combine half of Hunt's Seasoned Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf with the ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs, onions; mix well. Place mixture in loaf pan. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Remove from oven; drain. Top meatloaf with remaining sauce. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before s...

Do you ever check out your nearby thrift stores? I hadn't much until one of my friends, Wendy told me about a couple of neat ones in a nearby town. We rode with her one day and went and then went again yesterday. Check out what I found. A neutral colored Martha Stewart (still in the package) tablecloth for $3 A new fabric show curtain (the tag says Kohls, it was out of the package) $3 I also got Princess a couple of pairs of nice fuzzy warm socks for $1 each and found her a brand new pair of jeans for $4. I always thought of thrift stores as used items and some are. Which isn't a bad thing, I have no problem buying used. A thrift shop like this is such a neat find though because they carry things from Kohl's, Kmart, etc. Most things are still with tags or in the package. And you can find some awesome deals. So do you have any thrift stores in your area? Have you explored them yet? If you haven't, I can't encourage you enough to do so! You just never know what you mi...

Yesterday I decided to make the Apple Butterscotch Bread into muffins. I didn't do anything different except to double the recipe. That yielded 24 muffins. I baked them at 350 for about 14 minutes. They were a bit dry which I think could be solved by pulling them out of the oven a bit early or maybe adding some extra moisture to the batter like some applesauce. My kids loved them! I had to actually stop them from eating more after Princess and Rocket Boy actually ate three each. I will definitely be making these often for them. It's a great after school snack! Happy eating!

I tried another recipe before this one that just didn't work out. So I decided to try again. This time I got delicious results! Everyone loved them! I highly recommend these waffles! Homemade Waffles 2 cups of all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 4 tsp baking powder 4 tbsp brown sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups of milk (warmed slightly) 4 tbsp butter, melted 1 tsp vanilla extract In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Break up any lumps of sugar and combine well. In another bowl, beat eggs well. Then add milk, butter and vanilla extract. Mix well and add to flour mixture. Whisk together. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to make my waffles. I have a square waffle maker that does 2 at a time and 1/4 cup to a little over did well for me. It will vary how much you use per waffle depending on your waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Enjoy! Placing these on a cooling rack will help them stay crisp after cooking. I usually just lay them in a plate (with soggy results) and this ti...