Cranberry Orange Bread

Makes 1 loaf


2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice(or orange pineapple juice is even better!)
2 TBS vegetable oil(I use organic extra virgin olive oil)
1 egg, well beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup cranberries(I chop 1/2 cup super fine, coarsely chop another 1/2 cup and leave 1/2 cup whole)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan.
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Stir in OJ, oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.Stir in cranberries. Spread into loaf pan. Bake 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pan, and cool completely.

Pecan Tassies

Not sure where this recipe came from originally, but I got it from my mom, who got it from her mom! They are awesome! This recipe makes about 3 dozen.

Crust:
1/2 cup butter(softened)
3 oz cream cheese(softened)
1 cup flour

Filling:
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until blended. Add flour, and mix well. This should not be sticky. If it's sticky, add 1 TBS flour at a time until not sticky. Roll into small smooth balls and press into mini muffin tins in the shape of cups. Make sure it's not too thin on the bottom.

Break eggs slightly, do not beat. Add vanilla and sugar, mix with fork. Do not beat. Add 3 TBS pecans.

Sprinkle small amount of pecans into crust, then fill with 1 tsp of filling, followed by more pecans.

Bake at 350 until crusts are golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Frosting

Ok so this is the chocolate cake and frosting I always make. I've been using this recipe for like 6 years and haven't found anything I like any better! I have made this substituting the all purpose flour for whole wheat, and applesauce for the oil, and it worked out fine. I also often replace the vegetable oil with organic extra virgin olive oil and that turns out fine as well.

Cake:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in the boiling water. Pour into greased and floured 9" round pans(2), or a 9"x13". 
Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa powder  
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add vanilla and beat. Frost cake.

Brownies

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour(can substitute whole wheat flour)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350. Grease 9"x13" pan.
Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Spread evenly into pan.
Bake 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center is no longer wet.

recipes!

Ok so all of the sudden I got like a ton of recipe requests from some friends on FB, so that's why there's a huge invasion of recipes all at once, in case anyone is wondering! :)

laundry, laundry, and more laundry

So I absolutely hate laundry, and boy am I in the wrong business for that! Around here I have to do about 4 loads of laundry every day to keep caught up, plus a load of diapers. I always forget to switch the laundry out, which means I usually only get 1 or 2 loads a day done plus diapers, so I'm almost always behind. Probably once a week we'll have a slow day around here(which for us just means that we aren't going anywhere and only have to do the regular house hold stuff plus homeschool) and then I'll get caught up. Today is one of those days.

So as I was folding clothes(the clothes MUST be folded and put away STRAIGHT out of the dryer under penalty of death!) I was pondering why I hate laundry so much. I think its because it's one of those jobs that's never actually done. Even if all of the laundry is actually washed, dried, folded and put away, which only happens in our house when we are going on vacation, you can rest assured that any minute someone is going to come in with dirty clothes from their room, the bathroom, or they will change their clothes. I like to finish a job and stand back and see my handy work, laundry definitely doesn't fit that description, so it just sucks.

Sometimes I get the feeling that I am literally washing the same outfit over and over and over again. This is the worst feeling in the world. Sometimes it's because one of the kids has developed a favorite outfit, and just HAS TO wear said outfit everytime it gets washed(usually a girl child). However, I have discovered another reason, the most heinous act EVER. Some of my children apparently(to my dismay) would rather put their clothes back into the dirty laundry bin instead of folding and putting them away(GASP). This truly has to be one of the cruelest tricks they could ever play on me. First, it makes more work for me, but second and even worse, it makes me question my sanity. Did I wash this yesterday? Did they wear this yesterday? Is this deja vu? Am I actually losing my mind? It's just plain mean! HAHA!

Chicken and Biscuit Casserole

The first time I made this, my youngest daughter was about 18 months old. I gave her a bowl of this, got up to get drinks for everyone, and by the time I got back, she had eaten all of hers, and had stolen my bowl and eaten most of mine. I guess she liked it! :)


1/4 cup butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped baby carrots

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 cups chicken broth

1 (10 ounce) can peas, drained(or 1 cup frozen peas)

4 cups diced, cooked chicken meat

2 cups buttermilk baking mix

2 teaspoons dried basil

2/3 cup milk

(you can substitute any biscuit recipe you want for these 3 ingredients, just add the basil to your favorite biscuit recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Cook and stir the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots in butter until tender. Mix in the flour, sugar, salt, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and pepper. Stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil 1 minute, reduce heat, and stir in peas. Simmer 5 minutes, then mix in chicken. Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine the baking mix and 2 teaspoons dried basil. Stir in milk to form a dough. Divide the dough into 6 to 8 balls. On floured wax paper, use the palm of your hand to flatten each ball of dough into a circular shape; place on top of chicken mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cover with foil, and bake for 10 more minutes. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over biscuits.

grilled soy lemon chops

Ahhh the answer to the age old question... What's for dinner? Well this is it, for tonight anyway!

enough pork chops to feed your family(we prefer the boneless ones but it doesn't matter)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Mix the garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, pepper, and oil together to make a marinade. Marinate pork chops for 20 minutes. Grill on low or med/low for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
We had this tonight with brown rice and stir fry veggies!

Christmas Spirit!

I absolutely LOVE Christmas time! I love all of our family traditions, all the time we get to spend together, and most of all, all the time I get to spend teaching my children about the love of Christ, and what he has done for us! Not that I don't do that year round, but I love that we really get to concentrate on it, because of all the Christmas excitement!

We don't do santa at our house, not because we're opposed to him or anything, just because I grew up knowing there was no santa, and so did T, so we kind of figured, what's the point? We as parents have had so much fun taking the traditions from our own families that we loved, adding them together, and then adding new ones over the years.

Our Christmas fun starts with the tree of course! We really like to go get our tree and decorate it as soon as possible after Thanksgiving. The kids each get a new ornament each year(a tradition from his side), so they get to put all their ornaments on the tree along with all our family ones.

We do an advent calendar with verses and candy starting Dec 1(a tradition from my side). A few years ago I found a wooden cabinet style advent calendar with little drawers to put candy in, and this has saved us a ton of money since we have 5 kids, and each calendar with verses and chocolates runs you $4. each! Plus, we get to pick which verses we read each day. We keep little slips of paper in there with the verses all typed out so the kids can take turns reading them. 

Last year, in an effort to save money, we decided that the kids should do secret santa. I thought that this was a genius idea since we were paying for each kid to get 4 other kids a present. Add that up! Owch! So they each pick a name of a sibling out of a hat(or a bowl) and they are supposed to try to do nice little things for that person until Christmas. They get to go to the store and pick a present to put under the tree for that sibling as well. Then on Christmas morning when they open the present, they get to guess who their secret santa is. Last year only 1 kid guessed correctly who their secret santa was! It's so much fun to watch them find ways to be sweet to each other. They secretly make each other's beds, make cards and letters for each other, leave candy on the other's pillow. It's just so sweet!

On Christmas eve we try to find a candle light service to go to and the kids get to open one present. It's always the same present, a clean, washed, new pair of pajamas to wear that night. The funny part? They are always surprised! You would think last year with the oldest 3 being 9, 7, and 5 that they would have remembered from the year before, or the year before that! This tradition is one we thought up because we were tired of the kids looking terrible in all of our Christmas photos. You know how it is, someone inevitably picks the rattiest, or smallest jammies they can find, and there they are in all your Christmas pics, looking like a welfare baby. You know what I'm talking about! 

Christmas Eve we also read the whole Christmas story out of the Bible during advent calendar time, we try to remind the kids what Christmas is all about, not presents, or toys, candy or stockings. It's about Jesus, and that He is the Son of God, and He came down as a baby, to die on the cross for our sins, and was raised up again on the 3rd day. It is so important for me, that the kids get it, that we are celebrating the birth of their Savior! Christmas is so over commercialized that Jesus gets lost and left out on His own birthday!

Christmas morning the kids can wake up and get into their stockings, and eat whatever they want, and play with all the stuff in it. They get to do all this while I'm making breakfast, because we could not make it through Christmas present opening without breakfast. The little ones would have a melt down in the middle of the floor!(again a tradition we thought up to save the day!) I usually try to make something special like biscuits and gravy, or cinnamon rolls, or Swedish pancakes.

After everyone has full bellies, we read the Christmas story out of the Bible, and talk about what Christmas really means, and why we give each other gifts. We try to focus on how we give gifts to each other on Jesus' birthday b/c we can't give him gifts down here, except our hearts. We like to take turns handing out gifts(a tradition from my side), so one of us starts by picking a present and giving it to who it is for, then that person, after opening their gift, picks a present for someone else and gives it to them. We continue, with a little help from mom and dad(sometimes we'll steer a child towards a particular present) until all the presents are gone. The rest of the day is spent hanging out, eating, and playing. Sometimes, being up in Alaska, we get to go sledding, or play out in the snow!

I just love Christmas and I hope that you have, or have made your own traditions too! It's really one of my favorite part of parenting!  

baked spagetti

So this recipe originally came from a friend, but I changed it a bit(it called for velveeta, tasty but soooo bad for you!) when we started trying to eat healthier!

1 lb spagetti noodles(I use the organic whole wheat ones from Costco)
1 lb ground beef
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato sauce(or 1 jar of spagetti sauce but leave out the garlic powder and italian seasoning)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 TBS italian seasoning
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded motzerella cheese

Boil the noodles according to the package instuctions, drain. Meawhile brown the ground beef in a large pan, then add tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic powder, and italian seasoning and simmer for 10 minutes. Over low heat warm sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese until cheese is melted. Mix sauce, and sour cream mixture and noodles together. Place in a 13x9" pan. Sprinkle motzerella cheese on top, and bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  

changes changes changes!

Wow! So I've totally been falling down on the job of keeping up with the blog! There's been so much change around here, that it's hard to even catch up! Where to start?
First, we pulled the kids from school to homeschool again! To explain this one I guess we have to go way back to the beginning of the kid's school years. Our oldest's Kindergarden year we were all set to enroll him into public school after 2 years of private pre-school. A week before school started I panicked, I couldn't imagine sending a kid that had been reading for a year already into a school where he wouldn't even be expected to know his alphabet. So, we homeschooled out of desperation since we couldn't afford private school. Then the next year, the same. Finally when he was in 2nd grade and his little sister was in Kindergarten we were able to afford to send them to private school thanks to extra deployment pay! The whole year I spent questioning whether or not their teachers were doing a good enough job. We made it through, I think to the benefit of my Kindergarten, who really needed that year of not learning from mom. The next 2 years we homeschooled again, the first year with a 3rd, 1st, and preschooler. The next year with a 4th, 2nd, and Kindergartner. This year we got a big portion of the private school we wanted our kids to go to payed by scholarship, and sold a TON of stuff to get the rest. Then, about 2 months into it, I realized there had been a shift somewhere, and instead of homeschooling being our last resort, it had actually become our preference. So, instead of denying it any longer, we gave in and faced the fact that we are indeed, a homeschooling family!
Another big change is a much welcomed and anticipated announcement that we are pregnant! We're due in July and just totally overjoyed with the news of this new addition to our family!
We also, just a few days ago, added another member to our family by brining home a puppy! He's a 7 week old malamute and already HUGE! He's alot of fun, and of course, alot of work. What can I say, we might be crazy, but at least we're having a blast!