Amish White Chocolate Candy

My mother-in-law has been interested in Amish people, factual and fictional books about Amish people, and Amish cooking for many, many years.  She even has a beautiful quilt on her bed that she bought in an Amish store.  Knowing this, a friend of my mother-in-law’s sent her this Amish recipe.  I think it sounds delicious and thought I would share it.  Someone might want to make it for a New Year’s Eve party coming up in a couple of days.  (Our son-in-law really likes peanut butter!  C, do you think he would like this?)  

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 pounds white chocolate
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 cups peanuts
  • 2 cups marshmallows
  • 3 cups rice krispies

Using a double boiler or the microwave, melt white chocolate.  Stir in peanut butter until well mixed.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Pour into a 9×13 pan.   Wait until it has cooled completely and then cut into squares.

Remembering

Hope everyone had a really nice Christmas!  We had a wonderful time being with family several different times.   It’s such a special time remembering how much we’ve been blessed and then in turn, blessing other people.   Now, we don’t give gifts like a laptop or an industrial computer, but we try to give something special for each particular person.  (However, several years ago, we did give my mother-in-law a computer.  That was definitely an exception!)  

Spicy Hot Pretzels

For those who like spicy hot snacks:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 2 pkgs of dry Ranch Dressing Mix (not dip)
  • 1/2 cup Canola Oil
  • 1 pound bag of pretzels

Mix together first four ingredients.  Pour over pretzels and stir well.  Bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir every 30 minutes.

Christmas Recipes

Appetizers:

Beverages:

Desserts, Muffins, & Breads:

Entrees:

Pie Crusts:

Salads:

Stuffing:

Veggies:

Holiday Dinners: Keep the “Yummy” – Reduce Fat, Sugar, & Cholesterol

Holiday dinners are so typically loaded with fat, sugar, and lots of cholesterol.  I tried to reduce those for our Thanksgiving meal, and this is what I came up with.  I’m sure I’ll be changing and tweeking this even more as time goes on.  I would love to hear your ideas and what you do.  For now, here’s our menu and here’s what I did:

  • Turkey – avoid turkey fat
  • Stuffing – reduce the amount of butter by half  (we didn’t miss it)
  • Gravy – Make gravy from the turkey broth, but refrigerate it first and then skim the fat off the top before making gravy.  Or use Heinz Home Style Roasted Turkey Gravy which has low fat and very low cholesterol.
  • Holiday Sweet Potatoes – leave out the eggs to reduce cholesterol, use less butter and sugar.  Use part Kal Powdered Stevia in place of 1/2 cup of sugar – we can’t tell the difference, they’e still yummy!
  • Green Bean Casserole – use Healthy Request Mushroom Soup.  Use less of the French Fried Onion, maybe use only 1/2 to 3/4 of a small can instead of the whole can (a small can has nearly 500 calories & over 40 grams of fat).  Skip adding the onion rings in the beans and only use them on top of the casserole which is the most important part anyway. My husband likes to add extra virgin olive oil to counter some of the negative effects of all the saturated fat in the French Fried Onions, so  I would say to add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.
  • Mashed Potatoes –  Use low-fat milk, a little butter, salt and pepper in the potatoes themselves.  Then put small pats of butter on top of the hot potatoes before serving.  I use half the butter from the regular recipe, but with butter being melted on top, it isn’t noticeable.  I think the main thing is to use flavorful potatoes.  Some are more flavorful than others.
  • Rolls use multi-grain rolls with fiber and no cholesterol.  (Rhodes makes frozen multi-grain roll dough that has to rise first before baking.)
  • Dessert – well, this is a very hard category.  Considering all the fat in a holiday meal, it’s good to choose a dessert that isn’t loaded with fat or cholesterol.  Substituting half of the sugar with a good brand of Stevia works well for us.  (Some Stevia brands leave a strong aftertaste.  Kal Stevia doesn’t.)

Symptoms

Whatever it is, I think it’s always best to read up on all the symptoms and treatments, whether it’s adhd symptoms, diabetes symptoms, etc.   Then a person can have some background knowledge when they go to the doctor.

I’ve had a hard time trying to get well recently, with the flu week before last, then bronchitis setting in and also pink eye (where in the world did that come from – I think maybe from a quick trip to the grocery store) last week.  Now I have this lingering cough.  I read up on all the symptoms for each of the above, and I’m doing everything I can to get over this ASAP.  I’ve finished my prescription antibiotics, and I’m taking vitamins and supplements, drinking lots of fluids, using a steam vaporizer at night (helps so much), taking hot showers, and using a lot of cough drops with menthol.   I’m so thankful I’m a lot better now!

What to Buy

There are still quite a few people trying to decide what to buy someone for a Christmas present.  Maybe a tv stand for their new TV, a certain item that the person receiving the gift would like to have, or maybe just a small gift to say, “Merry Christmas.”   Whatever the present, it always has been and always will be the thought behind the gift that counts!

Four Foods On Friday 99

Hi all!   Here’s this week’s questions.

1. How do drink your hot chocolate? Marshmallows? From boxed or scratch?

Mostly boxed Swiss Miss but I do make it from scratch part of the time.  No marshmallows, but I do top it with canned whipped cream sometimes.
2. Do you prefer cider hot or cold?

Hot cider!
3. Do you like egg nog?

Yes, but just a little bit is enough for me.
4. How do you make punch?

I don’t.  (except for wedding or baby showers)

Healthier Sugar Cookies (With a Hint of Orange Flavor)

Healthy Eats has a recipe for sugar cookies that is a healthier version.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Sprinkles

Mix together first 3 dry ingredients.  Use a mixer to mix oil, orange juice, eggs, and vanilla on low speed.  Slowly add dry mixture and mix until dough forms and pulls away from the edge of the bowl.  Cover and chill dough in fridge for 1-2 hours.

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut out with cookie cutters.  Top with sprinkles.  Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until edges are brown.  Let cool for 10 minutes.

 

Encouragement

There are a lot of people hurting right now for many different reasons.  Some are out of work and are having a really hard time.  They look and look for a job, but there are few jobs to be found.  Some people are trying to get their lives straightened out by going to drug rehab or some type of rehab. Others might have a serious illness or a family member with a serious illness, or they have lost someone close to them.  Whatever the reason, let’s keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to those hurting around us and give them encouragement and help when we can.

Chart for Converting Sugar to Stevia

If you are using KAL Pure Stevia Extract powder like we do, then I think these conversions are not accurate for use with that brand.  In drinks such as tea or Kool-Aid then 1 “KAL spoonful” equals 1 tablespoon.  I have used this chart for baking and it did fine, but I’m thinking that maybe I could use less stevia and see how it turns out.

SUGAR AMOUNT………………STEVIA POWDER

1 cup………………………………..1 teaspoon

1/2 cup……………………………..1/2 teaspoon

1 tablespoon……………………1/4 teaspoon (this seems like too much – I use 1/8 tsp.)

1 teaspoon………………………….1/16 teaspoon

My husband and I are huge advocates of stevia.  But not just any brand of stevia because some brands leave a strong aftertaste.  Kal Stevia is the brand we’ve found to be the best so far, and we buy it online through Vitacost or at a local health food store if we have a really good coupon.  Vitacost has the best price that we’ve found, but if you find a better price then please let me know.  (One note about Vitacost.  They charge $5 shipping no matter how much or how little you order.  What we do is wait and order when we need four or five items.)   A jar of KAL Pure Stevia Extract powder (3.5 ounces) is expensive, but it lasts a long time.  I figured it out one time, and stevia is cheaper per use than buying several boxes of Sweet’ N Low which was my sweetener of choice for many years.

Why do we like stevia so much?  Here are a few reasons:

  • My doctor and another medical person recommended stevia and told me not to use any artificial sweeteners including Splenda, which is chemically altered sugar.  One said that sugar, even with its negative attributes, is better for me to use than any artificial sweeteners.  This would not be true for people with certain health issues, though.
  • I have substituted Kal Stevia for half of the sugar in recipes, and we can’t tell the difference.  I have used it completely with no added sugar in a cobbler recipe, and we liked it.
  • Stevia is natural and comes from a plant that is a member of the Sunflower family.