Cream of Potato Soup

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrot, diced
2 rib celery, diced

1 c frozen peas

1-2c chopped broccoli
1 cup of cooked ham or shredded chicken, diced
1 clove of garlic, sliced
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 tsp dried dill weed
1/4 cup flour
4 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups of milk
salt and pepper to taste
chopped fresh chives for garnish (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

         Melt butter in a stockpot over medium heat until golden brown. Stir in carrot, celery, onion, ham, and garlic; 

cook and stir for 5-6 minutes, until the vegetables soften and the onions are translucent.

Stir in flour; cook for about 3 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, 1 cup at a time. Add water and stir to combine. Use a 

fork to smash flour lumps, if there are any. Turn the heat to high and bring to a simmer. Simmer on medium-low 

for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to your preference.  Stir in diced potatoes; cook for 15 minutes, until 

potatoes are tender. Then add the milk. Stir to combine and heat through. Let simmer 5-10 more minutes until 

soup is desired thickness. 

Garnish with fresh chives if you like the green.

2/18/17 (optional) I added mushrooms b/c i had them. But it turned the soup to a greyish brown color and wasn't
as appetizing as a yellowish chicken broth color.  Tasted great but the color wasn't appetizing.

Chocolate and Cheese Fondue

Six Sisters Stuff

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 (4.25 oz) large Hershey’s Chocolate with Almonds candy bars
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Place butter, chocolate, marshmallows, and milk in a 1-2 quart slow cooker that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and cook on low heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes until melted and smooth. Gradually stir in whipping cream. Cover and keep warm for serving up to 2 hours. Makes 6-8 servings.
Serve with bite-size brownie pieces, bananas, apples, marshmallows, graham crackers, strawberries, cinnamon bears, cookies, mandarin oranges, or anything else you like. I like to use wooden skewers or large toothpicks to pick up the bite-sized food and dip it into the chocolate.

Cheese Fondue
Taste of Home

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 cups milk
2 cups (8 ounces) cubed colby jack cheese
Bread cubes, ham cubes, bite-size sausage and or broccoli florets
In a small saucepan, melt butter; stir in flour, salt if desired, mustard, pepper and Worcestershire sauce until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat. Add the cheese; cook and stir until cheese is melted.
Transfer to a fondue pot or 1-1/2-qt. slow cooker; keep warm. Serve with bread, ham, sausage and/or broccoli. Yield: 2-1/2 cups.

Served with fresh sliced red and yellow peppers, roasted cauliflower,roasted  broccoli, roasted carrots, roasted  asparagus

Also Served with
BBQ Drumsticks

White Cake mix additions

1.  White Cake mix to peppermint cake
Betty Crocker

1

box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box

1/2

teaspoon red food color

1/2

teaspoon peppermint extract

White Icing

1

cup powdered sugar

1

tablespoon milk or water

1/2

teaspoon vanilla, if desired

Decoration

Crushed candy canes or crushed hard peppermint candies, if desired

• 1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Generously grease rectangular pan. Make cake batter as directed on box. Pour about 2 cups batter into pan. In small bowl, pour about 3/4 cup batter; stir in food color and peppermint extract. Carefully pour pink batter over white batter in pan and then swirl the two colors together with a knife.
• 2 Bake and cool cake as directed on box.
• 3 In small bowl, mix white icing ingredients. If necessary, stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until smooth and spreadable. Spread over cake. Sprinkle crushed candy on top. Store loosely covered.

2.  White Cake mix to Chocolate cake mix

1 cake mix 

3 eggs

1and1/4 c milk

1/4c oil

1/2 c sour cream or mayo (i've tried both and very successful()

1 pudding package (keep it in powder form)

1/4-1/2c cocoa powder 

Chocolate chips

Oven 350. Mix eggs, water, oil, pudding and cocoa till smooth.  Then add cake mix.  Spray the baking pan add the cake mix. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top, they will sink down as it cooks.  Last 5 min add two handfuls of chips to top, they will stay on the top.  Cook 24min, let cool.

4/01/24

MAde a white cake mix and turned it into a most delicious chocolate cake 

Two options for frosting:

1. Melt chocolate chips in microwave with a little oil/butter and pour that on top of a cooled cake.  It will harden and be delicious

2. Chocolate sauce

• 4 tablespoons (60g) virgin coconut oil
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (52g) carob/cocoa powder. (For a sauce, decrease to 1/4 cup)
• 2-4T honey

Melt the coconut oil and honey  in the microwave. My honey was old and granulized, but the micro smoothed it out. Add the cocoa. Stir stir stir! Stir until it gets thick like Artisana Cacao Bliss.

3.Banana-Cinnamon Cake

 Betty Crocker

1

box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ yellow cake mix

1/2

cup water 

1

cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)

1/2

cup butter or margarine, softened

2

teaspoons ground cinnamon

3

eggs

1/2

cup chopped walnuts

Cinnamon Glaze

1/2

cup Betty Crocker™ Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting

2

to 3 teaspoons milk 

1/4

teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease and lightly flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan, or spray with cooking spray.
• 2 In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, bananas, butter, cinnamon and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in walnuts. Pour into pan.
• 3 Bake 47 to 57 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack or heatproof serving plate; remove pan. Cool completely, about 2 hours. In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over cake. Store loosely covered.

Pancakes

1 c whole wheat flour
1c spelt
1c brown rice flour
1/2-1t baking soda and 1/2t baking powder
dash salt
4 eggs
1/4c of flax
1 c milk
1 c milk plus 1-2t apple cider vinegar

FIRST Mix wet ingredients together- eggs, flax and 1 c milk and let sit.  In separate bowl let 1 c milk and apple cider vinegar sit for 5 min.
Mix dry ingredients- wheat, spelt, rice flours together, then add soda, powder, and salt

Mix wet and dry ingredients together and cook on stove top.

I like to add yogurt to top of cooked pancakes with either fruit sauce
Blueberry sauce or
Grape OJ Sauce or
Cinnamon Apple Sauce
or syrup.

Best Fluffy Pancakes serving 36

(we made these for Katie's friend group)

Larger Group 36 pancakes-

6 cups all purpose | plain flour,

3/4 cup granulated sugar 

4 T baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1.5 teaspoon salt

5 and 1/4 cups milk (add lemon juice and let sit for 5-10min)

3/4 c butter (melted)

2 T pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

• Combine together the flour, sugar (or sweetener), baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large-sized bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the milk, slightly cooled melted butter, vanilla and egg.
• Use a wire whisk to whisk the wet ingredients together first before slowly folding them into the dry ingredients. Mix together until smooth (there may be a couple of lumps but that's okay).

  (The batter will be thick and creamy in consistency. If you find the batter too thick -- doesn't pour off the ladle or out of the measuring cup smoothly -- fold a couple tablespoons of extra milk into the batter at a time until reaching desired consistency).
• Set the batter aside and allow to rest while heating up your pan or griddle. 
• Heat a nonstick pan or griddle over low-medium heat and wipe over with a little butter to lightly grease pan. Pour ¼ cup of batter onto the pan and spread out gently into a round shape with the back of your ladle or measuring cup.
• When the underside is golden and bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip with a spatula and cook until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.
• Serve with honey, maple syrup, fruit, ice cream or frozen yoghurt, or enjoy plain!

Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing

From Christi Zulim

avocado
1 c loosley packed cilantro, stems removed (I put I bunch of cilantro)
1/2c plain yogurt and or mayo
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime (about 1T) or vinegar
pinch of salt and pepper
1/4c olive oil
jalapeno or cayene


Put everything in the blender and puree. Can put in fridge for a week, could freeze thereafter.

Serve with -
freshly cooked tortilla
sliced lettuce
salsa
shredded chicken (Christi boiled her chicken b/c it shreds nicely)
shredded cheese
avocado chunks
black beans from the can no extra seasonings
sour cream/plain yogurt
A few leaves of cilantro
Crushed tortilla chips

Also serve with Costa Vida Chicken and Costa Vida Salad and Chicken Taquitos

Parenting

Oct 2016 Lynn Robbins- The Righteous Judge

I like this variation of a quote attributed to Goethe: “The way you see [a child] is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is [who] they [will]   become.”10 To remember a child’s true identity is a gift of foresight that divinely inspires the vision of a righteous judge.

Oct 2015 Its Never Too Early, Never Too Late, Elder Bradley D. Foster
If our children merely hear but do not understand the gospel, then the door is left open for Satan to remove these truths from their hearts.
He was president of a single adult stake at BYU–Idaho, he intreviewd Pablo which changed his life. “Pablo, who was it that helped you come to this point in your life standing so uprightly before the Lord?” His Dad
Elder foster talking to his adult kids, “Your mother and I want you to know that we were your age once. We had trials and hard times. When these things happen, we want you to come and talk to us. We’ll help you get through them. Now, we don’t want to be in your business all the time, but we want you to know that we are always in your corner. Establishing this process is to help my family not only hear but understand.

Oct 2007 Good, Better, Best

Teriyaki Grilled Chicken and Veggie Rice Bowls

Cooking Classy

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tbsp packed light-brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbsp)
• 1 Tbsp minced ginger
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
Chicken, veggies and rice
• 3 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, divided, plus more for brushing grill
• 1 1/2 lbs bonless skinless chicken breasts
• Ground black pepper
• 1 medium zucchini, diced into half moons and quartered (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups matchstick carrots
• 2 1/2 cups small diced broccoli florets
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups white or brown rice, cooked according to directions on package (I prefer short grain brown rice)
• Sesame seeds, optional

Directions

• For the teriyaki sauce:
• In a small saucepan whisk together low-sodium soy sauce, 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp of the water, the brown sugar, honey, garlic, ginger and rice vinegar. Bring mixture to a light boil over medium-high heat. Whisk together cornstarch with remaining 2 Tbsp water, then add to sauce mixture in saucepan. Reduce heat slightly and allow to boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, set aside.
• For the chicken:
• Brush both sides of chicken with 1 1/2 Tbsp of the olive oil and season pepper (you won't need salt since the teriyaki sauce is plenty salty). Preheat a grill over medium-high heat (to about 425 - 450 degrees). Brush grill grates lightly with oil then grill chicken until center registers 160 - 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 4 minutes per side. Remove and let rest 5 minutes then dice into cubes.
• For the veggies:
• Heat remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, broccoli and carrots and saute 4 - 5 minutes until crisp tender.
• To assemble bowls:
• Layer rice into 4 bowls then top each with 1/4 of the chicken and 1/4 of the veggies. Drizzle desired amount of teriyaki sauce over tops (you'll have extra left over - use it for chicken or salmon the next day), sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve warm.
• Recipe source: Cooking Classy (teriyaki sauce adapted from my salmon recipe)

Most affordable School Valentines

1. 144 ct  $15 Bouncy balls printable tags

2. 100 ct  $9  Glow Sticks or Eighteen25
3.  stickers "Im stuck on you" or "Friends stick together"
4.  Pencils or pens "Your the write friend" or Proclamation
5.  Popcorn SouthernPeach