Tasty Tuesdays

My Favorite Easter Breakfast – Resurrection Rolls

April 8, 2011 by Courtney 47 Comments

This is what we have for breakfast every Easter morning.

These are so fun because when the rolls are done baking – they are empty inside – JUST like Jesus’ tomb!

You need just 5 ingredients: crescent rolls, marshmallows, sugar, cinnamon and butter

Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll. This represents the tomb.

Each child takes one marshmallow which represents the body of Christ.

Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial.

Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.

Make sure all seams are pinched together well. (Otherwise the marshmallow will “ooze” out of the seams) Bake according to package directions.

Cool.

Break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there!!

Celebrate God’s love!

Walk with the King!

I am participating in Tempt Your Tummy Tuesday, A Southern Fairy Tale, Amys Finer Things and Balancing Beauty and Bedlam recipe exchanges. I am also linked up to Raising Homemakers Weds. link up and Works For Me Wednesday! For more blogger recipes go to these links.

Filed Under: Comfy In The Kitchen, Recipes, Tasty Tuesdays, Teaching Our Children Along the Way

Our New Years Eve Traditions (A Recipe and a Meaningful Moment)

December 29, 2010 by Courtney 32 Comments

(pictured above – cabbage roll, sauerkraut, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, homemade crescent roll)

In my 35 years of life, I have never celebrated New Year’s Eve without sauerkraut and cabbage rolls! Since I was born, my extended Hungarian family has gathered on New Years Eve and eaten what we call “Pigs In the Blanket“. About 8 years ago, I inherited the holiday as mine. So it’s been my task to make cabbage rolls for the entire extended family.

Last year my sisters came to help me make them and I went to snap a photo of them hard at work – and accidentally it was set to take a video. So I am posting this video without their permission (please forgive me lol! – I love you guys!) As you can see, they really didn’t want to be video taped and my voice is way too loud (warning turn your volume down!)- it’s not the best video – but you get the gist. This video was taken in my old home, in my old kitchen.

I am so blessed to have wonderful sisters – We do have fun together!!!

Pigs In The Blanket recipe:

1 pound hamburg

1/2 onion cut fine

1 cup rice

salt and pepper

dash of sugar

1 tablespoon of water

1 head of cabbage

1 Jar of sauerkraut 32oz.

Mix all of the above ingredients except the cabbage and sauerkraut in a bowl.

Put a pan of water on to boil. Cut and core the cabbage. Place the cabbage in the boiling water, core face down, and let the leaves come off one at a time.

Take a large pot and put a layer of sauerkraut along the bottom. Then roll a small amount of filling in a leaf. Make a layer of cabbage rolls and then layer it with sauerkraut and then a second layer of cabbage rolls. And top it with sauerkraut.

Fill the pan with water – sprinkle the top with pepper and let it come to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer until the rice is done and the meat is cooked through (around 3 hours). Enjoy!

When I make my pigs I triple this recipe and get around 26 cabbage rolls.

Another tradition is to make a Time Capsule. I take a Quaker Oats canister and turn it into a capsule!

From the youngest to the oldest, every single person in attendance at our party puts something into the Time Capsule to remind them of the past year. Some of the things that have gone into the Time Capsule over the years are ultra-sound baby photos, business cards to new jobs, vacation photos, school papers, Binky’s, match box cars, sports memorabilia, and much more! And I must admit, I have NEVER made it through the passing of the capsule without crying!!! It always touches me deeply to see how much God does in just one year in all of our lives!

Here’s my mom putting into the capsule her wedding invitation – as they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary that year.

My sister put a page of her calendar into the capsule so one day she can remember a “day in the life of…”. All her boy’s sports schedules and activities are there to remember.My father put a picture of a car he sold that year that paid for a huge extended family vacation to Colorado. What a great dad I have to sacrifice his car so we all could make memories that will last forever!

Then we watch the ball drop and kiss into the New Year. We each kiss every single person there – so that takes a while to make the rounds! Then we pour sparkling grape juice – someone makes a toast and we drink to it! Oh it is truly a blessed night to go into the new year with my favorite people on earth!

So that’s what we do here in our home! What are your New Years Eve traditions?

Walk with the King!

I am participating in What’s Cooking Wednesday, Tempt Your Tummy Tuesday, Dining With Debbie , Balancing Beauty and Bedlam , and Tuesdays at the Table recipe exchanges. I am also linked up to Raising Homemakers Weds. link up and Works For Me Wednesday! For more blogger recipes go to these links.

Filed Under: Recipes, Tasty Tuesdays

Tasty Tuesday: How I Menu Plan

August 24, 2010 by Courtney 22 Comments

Last Thursday I shared my Daily Schedule and My Weekly Cleaning Schedule. Today I want to share with your my Menu Planning Schedule.

As we get life in order for the fall, creating an organized meal plan is a piece of the puzzle for me. The average woman will plan, shop, cook, and clean up over 1,000 meals in just one year!!! So for me, finding a system that works, is efficient, and stays within our budget is important.

I use an Excel spread sheet that I just literally plug in the meals and voila – it’s quick and easy! Often times I leave the breakfast, lunch, snacks and desserts the same and just change the dinners. I hang this chart on the fridge and I find that it resolves all meal time dilemmas. And I must admit “candy” eating is not on the chart – but we do eat it. The chart is too big to plug into this blog so click on this link to see an example of my “Meal Plan”.

In Excel I have created a couple of pages titled Meal Plan, Grocery List, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert and Snacks. As I make my meal plan, I just click to my breakfast ideas or lunch ideas and plug them in for the week. I also look at ads for the best deals and what coupons I have.

But I also want to share with you a Meal Plan that one of my readers (Denice at Living Spring Drops – who also happens to be a Good Morning Girl) uses. She commented on my Daily Schedule post with this meal plan and I LOVE it and am going to give it a whirl this fall as a guide.

Here is what she wrote:

I am a scheduler but with 5 children ages 17 to 6 it doesn’t always go the way I schedule it. I get in Menu ruts. So, to help me stay creative but stay structured I came up with this:

Mexican Monday

Tomato-ey Tuesday

Wild-Card Wednesday

Thrifty & Thankful Thursday

Fancy Friday

Soupy Saturday

Sandwich Sunday

Mexican is anything from tacos to cumin-lime chicken, burrito, black bean soup, etc.

Tomato-ey is anything tomato based, from the obvious like pizza and spagetti, to bruchetta or tomato soup.

Wild-Card is my freedom day. I can do leftovers or another Fancy if I like.

Thankful is something ALL my kids truly enjoy AND isn’t very expensive…like mac & cheese with hotdogs.

Fancy is our night for grilled salmon, marinated london broil, and en extra special dessert.

Soup and Sandwich speak for themselves….but sloppy joes, BBQ, and pbj grilled have all been had.

Sooooooo, this helps my menu and market jobs go by faster!!! Then I’m not sitting around staring at my menu sheet with writer’s block!!!