Cinnamon Rolls

Every now and then for a special treat I like to make my version of homemade cinnamon rolls for my family.  Cinnamon rolls also make a great gift for a friend.  The other day I did both.

Rarely do I ever make anything in the kitchen without a little helper.  I'm so thankful for that!

I like to use Bridgford Ready-Dough but any frozen bread dough will work.  I've used Rhodes also.

One loaf of dough, thawed
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts or raisins (optional)
2 tsp. cinnamon (Or more - I always use more!)

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to a 10" x 12" rectangle.  Spread dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Mix sugar, nuts and cinnamon.  Set aside 2 tablespoons for use later.  Sprinkle mixture over dough.

  

Beginning with 12" side, roll dough tightly in jelly roll fashion.  

  

Cut dough into 12 pieces.  I like to use plain dental floss for cutting.  It makes the job really easy.  Place pieces in a lightly-greased 13" x 9" cake pan.  

Brush tops with 1 tablespoon melted butter and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture.  Let rolls rise until double in size.  (For breakfast, rolls may be assembled the evening before, then loosely covered with plastic wrap, and placed in the refrigerator to rise over night.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Turn out of pan immediately to cool on wire rack.  Brush with remaining melted butter.  To frost, mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons milk and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Drizzle onto rolls.  

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Today my little gals and I baked muffins.

By "my little gals and I", I mean this gal baked...

and this gal ate chocolate chips.

If you are in the mood for some yummy chocolate chip banana muffins here's all you need to do.

Mix up your favorite basic banana muffin recipe.
This is the one I use (from Taste of Home).

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl combine dry ingredients.  In another bowl, mash bananas.  Add egg, oil and vanilla; mix well.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups half full.  Bake at 375 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Yield: 1 dozen

To turn your basic banana muffin into something extra special stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips before baking.

Yummy!

Guest Post!

Today I have a special guest to introduce!  My friend Jen Keener is giving us some super yummy recipes and I could not be more excited to share them (and her) with you!  Meet my friend, Jen!

"I'm from Avon, Indiana.  I have a 15 year old son with Autism, Noah, and I've been married for almost 19 years to my high school sweetheart, Ryan.  I teach 3 year old children at a Christian preschool.  I attend Kingsway Christian Church (a congregation of 2300) and I mentor a group of freshmen girls on Sunday evenings.  Most importantly I love Jesus and I could not get through a day without Him, especially being Noah's mom."

Jen and I met in middle school.  My family moved to Christiansburg, Virginia from Phoenix, Arizona when I was 13 years old.  Jen was one of the first friends I met.  Our relationship over the years is a picture of the redeeming work of Christ.  It is because of the Lord Jesus that Jen and I have a friendship almost 30 years later.  I must also tell you it is because of the incredible work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we are the women we are today.  I could fill up a whole lot of space with funny, and some not so funny, stories from our teen years.  Today we have a heart connection - partly because of Jen's unbelievable ability to love and forgive, and mostly because of Jesus.  We once lived in the same small town in southwest Virginia but I haven't seen Jen in many years.  She now lives in Indiana and I live in Tennessee.  Thankfully because of this wonderful thing called the Internet we are able to be in touch and I am so happy about that!

Thank you Jen for sharing this yumminess!  Now, get this party started!


Party Chicken - Bake 1 hr.

8 chicken breasts
Swiss cheese (sandwich size) 3-4 pieces
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar 
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box crushed stuffing (dry) - I use generic cornbread
3/4 stick butter - melted

Place chicken in bottom of 9x13.  Slice cheese in half and lay on top of chicken.  In a dish, mix the vinegar and cream of chicken soup and spread over chicken.  Top with stuffing and drizzle butter all over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

You can't make Party Chicken without Party Potatoes!

Party Potatoes

Instant Potatoes
1 (8oz) cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
Parmesan cheese

Prepare 12 servings of potatoes according to package directions.  Add sour cream and cream cheese and beat until smooth.  Spread in a glass 9x13 dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or in the microwave on high for 10 minutes.  These can be prepared ahead of time.  

(Ryan's family eats two 9x13 dishes when we are together for the holidays and there are eight men!)

Chicken Chili

3-4 chicken breasts
1 can black beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can sweet corn (I use sweet white corn.)
1 pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
1 pkg Taco seasoning
1 8oz cream cheese
shredded cheese
rice (cook according to pkg. directions)

Put all ingredients in the crock-pot and cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours.  Shred chicken before serving and add back to mixture.  Serve over rice.  Top with shredded cheese.

Chicken O'Lay

4 chicken breasts, cook and shred
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans Rotel tomatoes (drained)
1/2 bag Doritos
shredded cheese

Boil chicken or cook in the crock-pot, then shred.  Bring to a slow boil the cream of chicken and Rotel tomatoes.  Crush Doritos and line the bottom of a 9x13.  

When meat is done pour over crumbled Doritos, top with Rotel mixture and then top with cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.  I serve with corn and garlic bread.  You can also add lettuce and sour cream as sides and turn it into a salad type dish.  

This is better the second day so it has time to set up, but it's good no matter what!  Ryan prefers Beef O'Lay - just use ground beef instead of chicken.  

Mock Hollandaise Sauce

This is great over steamed broccoli or asparagus.

1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt
1/4 cup mayo
1/8 tsp red pepper
2 tsp lemon juice

Mix all together and pour over veggie when ready to serve.


Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cans chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken
2 cans nacho cheese soup
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can black beans
3-4 chicken breasts ( I use 8 chicken strips)

Cook chicken in crock pot and shred.  You can cook it all in the crock-pot and then shred before you eat.  Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips.  

Quiche

You can use any veggie or meat you like.  We use packaged ham bits or zucchini.  I've also used sausage.  

2 cups zucchini peeled and thinly sliced (I use vegetable peeler.)
2 Tbsp butter
2-3 oz mushroom pieces
3 eggs
2 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed
1/4 tsp dill weed
1 pkg crescent roll dough
1 cup Monterrey jack cheese
1/2 cup Swiss cheese

Saute zucchini in butter.  Drain and add mushrooms.  Set aside.  Beat eggs and mix in crushed bouillon and dill.  Line quiche pan or pie pan with crescent roll dough.  Press into place.  Put zucchini in pie shell.  Pour egg mixture over top with cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  

Caramel Rolls

1 pkg frozen rolls (20)
1 small box butterscotch cook & serve pudding
brown sugar to cover rolls 
1/2 stick butter melted
(*optional - nuts, broken up)

Spray bundt pan.  Line pan with frozen rolls (stacking).  Sprinkle 1/2 pkg of pudding all over as well as brown sugar.  Drizzle butter over top (add nuts if you like).  

Cover with wax paper and let stand/rise 8 hours.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  When finished baking, flip over on a plate larger than pan.  This will allow mixture to run to the top.  Yummy!

I fix this at night so it's ready to bake in the morning.  We eat it with fruit. 


Blueberry Spinach Salad

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp sugar
1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach, torn
1 (4 ounce) package crumbled blue cheese
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

In a jar with tight fitting lid, combine first 5 ingredients and shake well.  In a large salad bowl, toss the spinach, blue cheese, blueberries and pecans.  Add dressing when ready to serve and toss gently.  

Mayonnaise Cake

1 cup mayo
1 cup warm water
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 tsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together and spread in a greased 8x8 baking dish.  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.  


The following is so yummy and you can use for breakfast/brunch.  It will make a bundt pan or two loaves.  
Bundt Cake

1 pkg Duncan Hines yellow cake mix (It is best to stick with Duncan Hines.)
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup strong coffee (You can used Hazelnut flavored coffee as well.)
1 whole container (2.5 oz) jimmies (chocolate sprinkles)
Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl then add jimmies in at the end.  Pour into a greased bundt pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.  

If your family likes Bologna the will love the following!
Gooey Louies

1/4 lb bologna
1/2 lb shredded cheese
1/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp mustard

Grind meat (I use my mini food chopper)
Add cheese, mayo and mustard
Put in hot dog buns and wrap in foil

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.


Thank you again, Jen, for sharing.  I was honored to have you here on my blog!  I plan on trying every single one of your recipes.  They all sound sooooo good!  I hope you will come back for a visit again, and soon!

Cake Batter Pancakes

Today a sweet little girl at our house is turning 7.  For a special birthday treat I made her Cake Batter Pancakes for breakfast this morning.

They were y-u-m-m-y!!

Pancakes

1 cup Bisquick
1 cup yellow cake mix
3 tablespoons candy sprinkles
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Glaze and Garnish

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons plus 2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
additional candy sprinkles

Heat griddle to 375 degrees.  Spray with cooking spray.  Stir pancake ingredients together and mix well.  Pour by 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.  Cook until edges are dry.  Flip.  Cook until golden brown.  In a small bowl whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth.  Stack pancakes onto plate.  Drizzle glaze on top of each serving of pancakes and garnish with additional sprinkles.

This just so happened to be the "BEST birthday breakfast ever" for our little birthday gal.

Classic French Toast

This morning to celebrate my honey's first day of vacation I made Janelle's French Toast for breakfast.

It is DE-lish and definitely a recipe I recommend you try on your family.  Do you want to know what I think makes a home cozy?  A hot breakfast!  Sure we can eat a bowl of Corn Flakes, but once in a while why not make something warm and sweet to fill those tummies.  My children gobbled this up and let's just say it was a good thing I fixed my honey's plate first!

12 slices of bread
12 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla
Butter for melting on griddle
Cinnamon for sprinkling
Syrup for topping

In a 9x13 beat eggs, milk and vanilla together.  Coat both sides of bread with egg mixture.  Melt butter on a griddle heated to medium-high heat.  Place coated bread on skillet.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Cook 4 minutes, flip, repeat.  Serve with butter and warm syrup!

Monkey Bread

I'm really behind on putting my meal plan together for this week.  I hope later this evening to get to work on that.  For tonight's dinner I had to survey the food we have on hand and figure out what to serve.  I decided on "breakfast", and with our eggs and bacon we are going to have some Monkey Bread.  I always refer to our children as my 5 little monkeys so this is the perfect food for them.  It's easy to do, tastes great, and my 5 year old can almost make it entirely by herself.  We think it's super delicious!  It also works out perfectly that I got Pillsbury Grands biscuits last week at Publix for 47 cents a can.  I bought 20 cans so this will be a great way to use some of them.

Monkey Bread

4 cans refrigerated biscuits
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tbs cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9-10 inch tube pan.  (I have an actual Monkey Bread mold that my dear brother bought for me.)  

 

• Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a medium size Ziploc bag.  Cut the biscuits into halves or quarters and place six to eight biscuit pieces in the sugar cinnamon mix.  Shake well.
• Arrange pieces in the bottom of the greased pan.  Continue layering until all the biscuit pieces are coated and in the pan.

• 
  
• In a small saucepan melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat.  Boil for 1 minute.  Pour over the layered biscuits. 



• Bake for 35 min.  Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate.  Pull apart and enjoy!

Starting The Day Out Right

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  I agree, however, breakfast is the meal at our house that gets shoved aside most often.  Although I would never allow my children to skip breakfast, my husband and I are regular breakfast skippers.  The children more often than not are having a breakfast of cereal and fruit.  Cereal with fruit is not a horrible breakfast, and the kiddos never seem to mind, but there is a better way! 

Mornings are usually hectic for our group of 7 and I have one thing on my mind, getting school started!  I drag out the cereal boxes and plop them on the table, cut up the fruit and tell the kids to hurry up.  But sometimes I "make breakfast" and the whole family is so excited.  Especially my husband!  We start our day out together, instead of everyone grabbing and going in different directions, and we talk, and we eat, and school actually runs smoother when everyone is filled up on a solid meal. 

I realize there isn't time for a sit down breakfast every morning with work schedules and school schedules and such, but once in a while it's nice to make a meal for breakfast.  A lot of my breakfast recipes can be made the night before and then the only effort required in the morning is turning on the oven.  There is no excuse not to make breakfast for my family more often!

Here are some breakfast recipes to try.  Get creative and figure out when you could serve up some breakfast goodness to your family!!  Maybe fix breakfast for dinner, or make a special breakfast on the weekend mornings, or who knows what you can come up with.  I think with just a little planning we can help our families get the day started out right!
*Remember Emilie Barnes' tip to set the table for breakfast at night before going to bed.  I love this tip and always feel like I'm ahead on my day when I do this!*


French Toast Casserole (an all time FAVORITE at our house)

Melt until syrupy:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish.  Layer slices of French bread (single layer) over syrup.
Beat well and pour over bread:
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Sprinkle with cinnamon, cover and refrigerate overnight.  Lay out 20 minutes before baking.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, uncovered.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve with berries (optional) and syrup.

Sausage Casserole

• 1 lb sausage - brown in skillet until done but not dry
• 1/2 lb sharp cheddar - grated
• 8 slices of bread
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• dash pepper

Grease 9x13 dish, line with bread slices, cheese and sausage.  Mix remaining and pour over.  Chill overnight.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. 

Cheesy O'Brien Egg Scramble

• 1 package (28 ounces) frozen O'Brien hash brown potatoes
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
• 1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 12 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, prepare hash browns according to package directions.  Sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper.  Transfer to a greased 2-1/2 qt. baking dish.  Top with soup.  Set aside 1/2 cup of bacon; sprinkle remaining bacon over soup.
In another skillet, scramble eggs in butter until nearly set.  Spoon over bacon.  Sprinkle with cheese and reserved bacon.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Yield: 10-12 servings

OMELETS IN A BAG

Yes, you read that title correctly...in a bag!!  The best part about this recipe is that you can have omelets ready for everyone all at the same time, even if you have a large group!

(A mistake I made recently - I tried boiling nine bags together in the same pot and it took way longer than it normally does. I should have divided the bags between 2 pots.  It doesn't take long to cook these if there aren't too many in the pot.)

Omelets In A Bag

(these are the ingredients you will need for each omelet)

2 large eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream
dash of salt
1 tablespoon of cheese
1 tablespoon or so of any other ingredient you like in your omelet- like bacon or onion. (optional)
1 small Ziploc bag (quart size and make sure it's a freezer bag)

When we do this for our group we have everyone take a Sharpie marker and write their name on the outside of the bag first.  That way when all of the omelets are cooked we know who gets which one.  Everyone likes to make theirs different!  I put out a large selection of ingredients to choose from and we really pack our bags full.  I usually have chopped onion, crumbled bacon, chopped tomato, cheese, green pepper, sometimes ham, mushrooms, and anything else I have in the fridge or pantry we can use.

Fold out the edges of the Ziploc bag.  Crack the eggs right into the bag.  Add the cream, cheese, salt and any other ingredients you like.  Seal the bag, squish the ingredients to mix.  "Burp" the air out.

Bring a medium-sized pan of water to a heavy boil.  (I actually use a huge pot because I am cooking several.)

Drop Ziploc bags into the boiling water.  Boil for 10 to 12 minutes.

Carefully remove bag from water.  Open the bag and roll the omelet onto a plate.  YUM!

Got Breakfast?

Tomorrow we've got a busy Saturday morning planned.  All 7 of us have to be out the door early.  Here is a  delicious recipe for mornings on the go!  You could put this in the crock-pot on Saturday night and Sunday morning breakfast would be quick and e-a-s-y!!  You will love waking up to the smell of something yummy and it is especially nice during the cold months.  Hope you like it!


Overnight Raisin-Nut Oatmeal

Wake up to a ready-to-eat breakfast!

1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1 T. butter, melted
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 c. quick-cooking oats, uncooked
1 c. apple, cored, peeled and minced
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. chopped nuts
2 c. milk

Place ingredients into a greased crock-pot; mix well.  Set on low heat overnight, about 8 to 9 hours; spoon into bowls to serve.  Serves 4.  Like most recipes, I double this.