I love Christmas! I love Christmas carols and Christmas music. At church this past Sunday I heard this song for the first time and I have been thinking about it ever since. Such a beautiful song and a great message!
One small child in a land of a thousand.
One small dream of a savior tonight.
One small hand reaching out to the starlight.
One small savior of life. Ooh.
One king bringing his gold and riches.
One king ruling and army of might.
One king kneeling with incense and candlelight.
One king bringing us life. Ooh.
See Him lying, a cradle beneath Him.
See Him smiling in the stall.
See His mother praising the Father.
See His tiny eyelids fall.
See the shepherds kneeling before Him.
See the kings on bended knee.
See the mother praising the Father.
See the blessed infant sleep.
One small child in a land of a thousand.
One small dream of a savior tonight.
One small hand reaching out to the starlight.
One small savior of life.
If you remember from my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe post, I love raw cookie dough. It is so bad for me to eat it, but it is so delicious! Here is a recipe for Eggless Cookie Dough that is just as tasty with out the risk of salmonella poisoning.
Eggless Cookie Dough
7 Tbsp Brown Sugar
6 Tbsp White Sugar
5 Tbsp Butter, softened
2 tsp Vanilla (1tsp)
3 Tbsp Milk
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Cup Flour (use almond or coconut flour for a bit of a change to the flavor or the cookie dough)
1/3 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
1 tbs ground cinnamon
Combine the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter in a bowl and mix. Stir in vanilla and milk. Add flour and salt to the sugar mixture, and stir until combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Spread the mixture onto parchment paper and shape into a rectangle as evenly as possible. Put the square of cookie dough into the freezer and freeze for 1-2 hours. Remove from freezer and cut into small squares. Enjoy!
Happy Thanksgiving! We just finished enjoying these delicious “Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars” as part of our Thanksgiving breakfast. I highly recommend this recipe which can be found on the pillsbury website…
Ingredients
2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury™ refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Heat oven to 350°F.
Unroll 1 can dough. Place in bottom of ungreased 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Stretch to cover bottom of dish, firmly pressing perforations to seal.
In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and 1 cup of the sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Spread over dough in baking dish.
Unroll second can of dough. Carefully place on top of cream cheese layer. Pinch seams together.
Pour melted butter evenly over top. Mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over butter.
Bake about 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Refrigerate for easy cutting. Cover and refrigerate any remaining bars.
Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday!
I have been greatly blessed and I am so grateful for so many things!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Psalm 136:1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Thanksgiving
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
As you know, I love God, I love my family, and I LOVE food. So, that being said, it is only natural for me to order a box called “Love with Food“.
What is “Love With Food” you ask? It “helps you discover new organic or all-natural snacks delivered to your door every month. Our subscription membership starts as low as $7.99/month. Every month, Love With Food members will receive a curated box of unique, hard-to-find tasty snacks which varies based on seasonal themes.”
If you’d like to try it out for yourself, I have a referral code you can use to get your first box for 40% off. That’s a great deal! Here is the link with the code http://lovewithfood.com/invite?m=e&ref=2ReL
For every box sold, they donate a meal to several food banks such as the Feeding America Network and Share Our Strength – No Kid Hungry. Help end child hunger one meal at a time! Click Here to LEARN MORE
I look forward to Thanksgiving every year for one reason. It is not the turkey or the mashed potatoes. It isn’t even the pies and desserts, although those are great too. The reason I look forward to Thanksgiving is this awesome Sweet Potato Casserole! It is so delicious!!! We had a Thanksgiving feast this past Sunday with a group of our friends. I made this dish to share with everyone and it was a crowd pleaser!
Ingredients
4 cups sweet potato, cubed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash. (or use canned yams and skip this step all together.)
In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, eggs, cinnamon, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish.
In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.
Shrimp Scampi is one of those dishes that is really easy to make, yet taste so delicious that it seems as if it might be tricky. Here is a quick and easy recipe…
Prep time: less than 10 minutes
Cook time:5 minutes
Yield:Serves 4
Ingredients
1 pound large (16-20 count) raw shrimp, shelled and de-veined**
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 Tbsp butter
Salt
1 Tbsp minced garlic (or 3-4 garlic cloves)
1/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes (to taste)
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp lemon juice
**You can use frozen raw shrimp, just defrost them quickly (and safely) by putting the shrimp in a large bowl of salted ice water about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt for every quart of water.
Directions
1 Heat a sauté pan on high heat then decrease to medium high heat. Swirl the butter and olive oil in the pan until the butter is melted. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes.
2 Sauté the garlic for just until it begins to brown at the edges.
3 Add the shrimp, and then the wine. Stir coating the shrimp with the butter, oil, and wine. Keep the shrimp in an even layer in the pan. Increase the heat to high and boil the wine for two to three minutes.
4 Turn the shrimp over to be sure to cook evenly on both sides. Continue to cook on high heat for another minute.
5 Remove the pan from the heat.
6 Sprinkle the shrimp with parsley, lemon juice, and black pepper.
7 Serve over your choice or pasta (my favorite is angel hair!)
While this isn’t my usual type of makeup Weekly Product Highlight it is a product I love and I want to highlight it 🙂
My Aero Press Coffee Maker
Are you a coffee drinker? Up until about 6 months ago, I would have said “Not me, no way, I never drink coffee!” Then I slowly started to drink coffee and it has all been down hill since then, haha, just kidding. I do enjoy drinking coffee now. I am not one to go to a drive-thru, so I needed to learn how to make my own coffee. I also didn’t want to get another appliance to take up room on my already limited kitchen counter space.
My husband suggested that I try out an Aero Press. I am not going to lie, I made several really bad cups of coffee before figuring out what worked best for my taste, after some trial and error, I have been loving my new coffee maker.
While I don’t think that it really tastes like white chocolate or peppermint, this Dunkin Donuts coffee is very good!!!!
If you don’t have a coffee maker already I definitely recommend this one. It takes up minimal space and is very easy to use. I have found that using a finely ground coffee works best, as well as adding a pinch of salt takes away the natural bitterness of some coffees. I like my coffee super strong, so I weigh out 26 grams of coffee grounds, then cover them with 185 degree water. I swirl the water/coffee ground mixture for 15 seconds. I then add 185 degree water up to almost the top of the press and let it rest for 45 seconds. During this time I put the filter into the cap and wet the filter with the 185 degree water. Once the 45 seconds is up, I put the cap on, flip the press over onto the top of my mug and slowly but consistently press the coffee out. When a rush of air is heard, that means that the good part of the coffee is in the mug. Discard the grounds and enjoy your cup of coffee. (I add 185 degree water to my mug to make a full 8 oz of coffee.)
While I got mine from Amazon, they can also be bought at Crate and Barrel and Kohls as well as other places that sell home goods.
Fast and convenient, the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker makes one of the best cups of coffee you’ll ever taste. This innovative uses the ideal water temperature and gentle air pressure brewing to produce coffee and espresso that has rich flavor with lower acidity and without bitterness. It makes 1 to 4 cups of coffee or espresso (enough for 1 or 2 mugs), features a micro filtered for grit free coffee, and takes just 1 minute to make coffee (actualpress time takes only 20 seconds).
To brew a double espresso or 10-ounce cup of coffee:
Place a microfilter in the bottom cap of the AeroPress chamber and twist the cap tightly closed.
Place two scoops of ground coffee from the included AeroPress scoop into the chamber.
Stand the chamber on a sturdy mug, then proceed to pour hot water into the top of the chamber (175 degrees F is optimal).
Stir the water and coffee with the included paddle for about 10 seconds.
Insert the plunger into the chamber and gently press down about a quarter of an inch and continue to maintain that pressure for 20 to 30 seconds (gentle pressure is the key to easy AeroPressing).
This will result in a double espresso. To make an Americano, simply top off the mug with hot water, or add hot milk for a creamy latte. The AeroPress can press from 1 to 4 scoops, and each scoop from the included AeroPress scoop makes the equivalent of a single espresso or 5 ounces of American coffee. Fill the chamber with hot water to the number corresponding to the number of scoops.
You can also make a full carafe of coffee using the AeroPress in less time than it takes to brew a pot of drip coffee. Two 3-scoop or 4-scoop pressing, topped off with hot water, will fill most vacuum carafes.
The AeroPress is the result of several years of applied research by inventor/engineer Alan Adler, who conducted numerous brewing experiments, measuring the brew with laboratory instruments. The experiments demonstrated that proper temperature, total immersion and rapid filtering were key to flavor excellence. He then designed and tested dozens of brewers before settling on the AeroPress design. Adler’s best-known invention is the Aerobie flying ring which set the Guinness World record for the world’s farthest throw (1,333 feet).
● 1 tsp salt
● 1 tsp black pepper
● 2 1/2 lbs boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1″ cubes
● 1/2 cup red wine *optional*
● 1 cup beef broth
● 3 Tbsp tomato paste
● 1 yellow onion, diced
● 2 cups sliced mushrooms
● 3 carrots, chopped
● 1 tsp dried rosemary
● 1 tsp dried thyme
● 2 whole bay leaves
● 1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, minced
● 3-4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
● 1 healthy pinch of red pepper flakes
*you can add diced potatoes too*
Directions:
1. Cut beef into 1-inch pieces and season with salt and pepper. Place in slow cooker.
2. In a small bowl whisk tomato paste into the beef broth. Pour over beef along with the wine.
3. Add carrots, onion and mushrooms along with garlic and remaining seasonings.
4. Give the ingredients a good stir, cover and cook on low 4-6 hours or on high 2-3 hours. It’s done when the meat is cooked through and the veggies are tender. Remove bay leaves before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Ingredients:
❏ 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
❏ 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic
❏ 1/2 tsp. of dried rosemary
❏ 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
❏ pinch of kosher salt
❏ 1/4 tsp. of freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Spray crockpot with cooking spray.
2. Combine all ingredients and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
3. Flip chicken about halfway through.
4. Turn crockpot to low and fork shred chicken, allowing to cook for another 30 minutes.
5. Serve with cous cous, rice, or quinoa to complete the meal… and don’t forget the veggies!
Looking Joli Good 