Orange Julius, anyone?

6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup milk (or powdered milk)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 cups ice (about 10 ice cubes or so)

1. Combine all ingredients in blender adding ice one at a time.

I just made this for the kids. It's been years since I'd had one - we used to make them growing up. Thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Perfect for Fall - Butternut Squash Bisque

Ryan found this recipe a year or two ago on Allrecipes. We had it again on Sunday. It takes some time, but you have to try it - you won't be sorry!

Look at that pretty color.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
4 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and ground black pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.
2. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
3. In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

a S.I.M.P.L.E crock pot recipe

Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken

2-4 chicken breasts (boneless)
3/4 c. chicken broth
1 c. salsa
1 can corn drained
1 can black beans drained
1 pkg Taco seasoning
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. grated cheese

1. Place chicken breasts in crock pot. Add taco seasoning, broth, salsa, corn and black beans.
2. Cook on low for 5 hours ( I use frozen chicken and cook on high for 5 hours)
3. After 5 hours, I pull the chicken out and shred it, then add the sour cream and cheese.
4. Serve over rice.

This is a huge hit at our house. We are chicken and rice people! The chicken is so tender, it's delicious. Thanks to my friend, Lorianne for the recipe - even Clay likes it!

What's for Dinner?

Thanks to my friend Lorianne, one of our enrichment groups is a email recipe exchange - "what's for dinner?" So great! If any of you out there are like me, I dread dinner time. Maybe it's because I'm dead tired as 4pm rolls around, or that I don't plan ahead or have a menu, or maybe because I have the pickiest son ever! It drives me nuts to make him dinner just to have him snuff his nose at it, whine, and claim he doesn't like it. Dinner time is such a struggle for me. I won't go as far as to say I hate it, but if I could get some more ideas and perhaps plan a menu for the week or even the month, I think it could be a lot better. So here's my question to you:

What's for dinner? What are you eating tonight, or this week?

Tried & True

My mom would make granola when I was growing up and I thought it was such a hard process - until I tried it the other day! Piece of cake. And, it turned out really well. Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups wheat germ
• 1 1/2 cups oat bran
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.

I didn't have oat bran, wheatgerm, sunflower seeds or walnuts on hand and I didn't want to go buy them. I also added a pinch of nutmeg. It makes a bunch, but it also goes really quickly as it is so good.

Pretzel Turtles - AWESOME!!

My RS president told me about these in a meeting and then brought some by when she made them - delish! We ate ours so quickly I had to make some more! So simple. These would make a great Christmas treat for your friends and neighbors or at any gathering.

Ingredients: pretzels, Rolos and pecan halves.

Directions: Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Lay out each pretzel with a rolo on top. Put in a 325 degree oven for 3 - 3.5 minutes, just enough for the chocolate to sweat. Pull them out and gently press a pecan half onto each pretzel. Voila!

Both recipes tried and true - you should try them too. 5 Stars!