Seven New Must-Try Recipes

Seven New Must-Try Recipes

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Brownies

You Can Have it All Brownies

1. You Can Have it All Brownies

These caught my eye on Pinterest. Kevin & Amanda call these Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars. It makes more sense to me to call them You Can Have it All Brownies. You layer chocolate chip cookie dough (Kevin & Amanda give a recipe for the dough, while I used a large roll of refrigerated dough), followed by Oreos, and brownie mix prepared as directed. If you read the comments, you’ll worry for nothing. You have to make sure you cover them with aluminum foil for 30 minutes and bake for another 25 minutes. There will be some ooey gooey unbaked stuff drizzling down your plate. Is that a problem for you? Please click the highlighted link above for the recipe.

Oven Tacos

Ā 2. Oven Tacos

What, dessert before dinner? I love this recipe from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures because it’s so handy for a large family like mine AND it gets the fiber and protein of beans into my kids with no complaints. Oh, they knew they were there, but they kept eating.

Greek Pasta Salad

3. Greek Pasta Salad

If you love Greek Salad like I do, you’ll love this unique twist on pasta salad. This would be great to take to a picnic or potluck if you can keep from eating it yourself. I’m not as wild about the big mushrooms, but I don’t think I would miss them. I found this recipe on my go-to site, All Recipes.

Breakfast Cookies

4. Breakfast Cookies

Are you aghast at eating cookies for breakfast? You mean as opposed to donuts, Pop-tarts, and sugar-coated cereal? These cookies have the protein of peanut butter, the goodness of oats, and they’ve got to be better for you than most preservative-laden bakery items. Even if they’re not, I don’t care, because they’re DELISH. šŸ™‚ I modify this AllRecipe’s concoction to include Rice Krispies (yes, you’ll need SIX CUPS) and chocolate chips.

Bean and bacon casserole

Bean and Bacon Casserole

5. Bean and Bacon Casserole

Growing up in South Dakota, the pot luck dish I looked forward to most was my aunt’s bean casserole. I think she called it 3-Bean Casserole or some other number of beans. But because I didn’t care about the number of beans as much as the fact that there was BACON in it, I’m calling it Bean and Bacon Casserole. AllRecipes calls it Calico Bean Casserole. I need to doctor it up more next time, but it was pretty close to what I remember. Think beans, bacon, hamburger, and a brown sugar barbecue flavor. Yum. This was also a popular dish at Chuckwagons when I was growing up.

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

6. Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

My kids just aren’t wild about traditional oatmeal. Too bad because I really love it. I was very excited to find Lynn’s recipes for baked oatmeal because I was sure we’d both love it and we do. It tastes like a soft granola bar. I sprinkled it with mini chocolate chips and drizzled milk over it and everyone slurped it up. What’s wonderful is this can be prepared in advance.

Pretzel Fruit Pizza

7. Pretzel Fruit Pizza

I LOVE salty and sweet and this really delivers in both ways. I used the blender to pulverize the pretzels. It made creating a yummy crust much easier. The cream cheese topping includes lime juice which is another flavor I’m crazy about. And who doesn’t love berries? I suppose if they make your lips swell, you wouldn’t like them as much, but hopefully that’s not you. Check out this AllRecipe’s link to make this great light dessert. Perfect 4th of July dessert, yes?

Have you tried any great new recipes lately?

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Manage Your Expectations to Have More Fun

Manage Your Expectations to Have More Fun

The freedom to homeschool our children is a gift. But sometimes I’ve been disappointed with this gift. How about you?

I have been certain that my homeschooled children would:

  • Have no difficulty learning
  • Be motivated to complete school each day
  • Take pride in cleaning and caring for their belongings
  • Be ahead of their same-age peers academically
  • Have a strong faith
  • Not be peer dependent, but Christian leaders
  • Would get along
  • Agree with me and my husband politically and spiritually
  • Not engage in immoral behavior
  • Be respectful and first-time obedient, especially in others’ presence
  • Always want to be homeschooled
  • Not want to date until they were ready to get married
  • Be capable of adult responsibilities by age 12
  • Not want to go to a secular college far away

To summarize, I expected my children not to behave like “other children” and to make me look good. Go ahead and laugh. You already know that my expectations are ridiculous because we can always see the problem with others’ attitudes. Our own unreasonable expectations are another story.

After more than twelve years of homeschooling and the opportunity to witness the disappointment of many dedicated, godly homeschooling parents, I now know that our children aren’t the problem–our expectations are. Invariably, when new homeschoolers ask me about their children’s lack of motivation, I discover unreasonable expectations at the source of it.

When we lay our homeschool hopes and dreams on God’s altar, we discover that we love the gift God has given us in homeschooling. Little Johnny may not be the most focused student, but he is really, really funny. Teenage Susie may not see things the way you do, but she will not be brainwashed by anyone. The kids may not be making you look good in the world’s eyes, but God thinks they’re making you look a lot more like Jesus. And that’s exactly what I wanted. How about you?

Peace I leave with you; my peace IĀ giveĀ you. I do notĀ giveĀ to youĀ asĀ theĀ worldĀ gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. – John 14:27

 

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