Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

I love baking for the holidays. There are always so many new recipes to try. One of my favorite holiday treats is homemade fudge (without nuts, of course). If your family loves fudge as much as mine does, make them the kind you know they like, and then have them try one of these recipes too. You might find a new family favorite! Our family indulges in a little Peanut Butter Fudge every holiday season.

Candy Store Fudge

1/2 lb. butter, softened
18 oz. chocolate chips
8 oz. mini-marshmallows
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. chopped nuts
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 can evaporated milk

Place the following ingredients in a large bowl: butter, chocolate chips, marshmallows, vanilla, and nuts and set aside. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly the sugar and evaporated milk and stir for exactly 6 minutes. (Start timing at the rolling boil stage). Mixture scorches easily. Pour this mixture over the ingredients in the bowl and mix with electric mixer until well blended, pour into buttered 9×13-inch pan. Refrigerate for 12 hours.

Peanut Butter Fudge

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Are you stressed from all the hustle and bustle of the holidays?

Tired from all the shopping and the crowds…and you have guests arriving at your house for Christmas Eve?

Don’t panic! There is an easy, economical, yet festive solution. Instead of a full meal with all the fixings, why not have some simple holiday appetizers with some punch and wine?

Think about this…most people are busy visiting relatives and friends at several places and probably would be more inclined to really appreciate something light. I remember when I was younger and we had three places to go, and we were stuffed. Appetizers would have been perfect…but, we sat down to a full course meal at each house. With appetizers, you could still set an exquisite dinning area and make it special and meaningful.

Let’s look at some appetizer ideas…

Holiday Barbeque Meatballs

Ingredients

2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons garlic salt
3-4 cups barbeque sauce
1/2 cup grape jelly
1/2 cup brown sugar

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During the months of October and November, my family really enjoys this Pumpkin Crunch dessert recipe. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 50 minutes to bake.

This is a really nice dessert to serve at your Halloween parties or after your Thanksgiving holiday meal. I often entertain here at my home during the fall months, so I will make this recipe and serve it with some wonderful fall flavored teas and coffees.

If desired, you can substitute the canned pumpkin with some fresh puree, although when I substitute, I also add in 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to give it additional flavor.

Pumpkin Crunch Recipe

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup butter, melted
non-dairy whipped topping for garnishing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.

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If your children eat at home, did you know that their health is in your hands? Maybe you’ve never thought of it that way in terms of cooking healthy? However, it’s true! You actually have a say in how they eat while they’re at home. You have the option of cooking as healthy as possible.

A lot of moms think that if you give your kids a daily multivitamin and they (at least) eat 3 good meals every day, then they are healthy…Wrong!

You need to remember that certain foods affect the heart and health. By putting forth the effort and creativity, you can actually make better and healthier choices for the heart and over-all health. By simply knowing what kinds of foods and meals to prepare, you are making that first step to cooking smart for your family and also help protect them from heart diseases. Starting to make (even simple) better food choices can lead to a healthier lifestyle for YOU and your whole family.

What are some things you can do and what are the foods you can prepare that will take care of your family’s heart and basic health?

1. The number 1 tip to start off with is to first, start eating healthy. Did you know that 3 large meals is not as healthy as 5 small ones? Eating well-balanced 5 meals per day including plenty of protein, vegetables, fruit and fiber is key for proper nutrition and metabolism. Eating often (in small amounts) helps fuel a healthy metabolism. Where as, If you eat 3 large meals per day, you are more inclined to over indulge, and thus leads to obesity.

2. Less Fat. Start baking, broiling or grilling versus frying various meats. Just doing this one simple thing will substantially cut down on fat. Thus, by using these cooking methods instead of frying will be much better for your family’s hearts and yours of course.

3. When frying foods, use a good non-stick skillet with cooking spray and not oil. Frying in oil adds a lot of fat and just isn’t good for you.

4. Watch your salt intake. It’s best to not even use salt when cooking. You can always use salt at the table. However of course, it’s bad for you. Too much of it can result in a higher blood pressure, swells you up, can cause stomach cancer, can weaken the bones and more. Opt for Mrs. Dash, onion, garlic and lemon juice for seasonings.

5. Choose lean cuts of meat. Poultry and pork are both sources of protein. However, you certainly want to choose the leaner cuts of pork. Trim off all the access fat before cooking. When cooking pork, the leaner types are pork loin and center loin.

With poultry, always choose white meat. It has a lot less fat than the dark meat.

When cooking beef, you need to choose flank, sirloin, tenderloin, rib, and ground chuck. The healthier cuts of meat are of course so much better for your heart health.

6. Watch the dairy in your diet. Most of the dairy in our food is loaded with calcium, which of course is good for us. However, a lot of dairy products are high in fat. Opt for using no-fat skim milk or no-fat buttermil products instead of whole milk or full-cream milk. For yogurts, opt for low-fat or fat-free. I absolutely love most any kind of cheese, although some cheeses are extra high in fat. Try and use cottage cheese or parmesan for less fat.

Remember These Tips Below When Choosing and Preparing Food For Your Family

Whole grain breads
Whole grain pasta
Whole grain crackers
Low sugar cereals
Real fruit
Low sugar ice cream
Lots of water

Try and get your family involved in the meal preparations. This will instill healthy habits in your children in regards to eating smart for optimal, good health.

Encourage your family to engage in some kind of activity at least 3 times per week. This too helps keep the body healthy and strong, and also heart disease free.

Tammy is a passionate blogger and grandmother. She offers free grandparenting articles, tips, recipes, giveaways and much more, along with many more healthy lifestyle topics.

Connect with her on Twitter for more engaging and current-trend topics along with friendly conversation.

During the weekends I love to get into my kitchen and do some baking and one of the things I enjoy baking are a variety of homemade buns. Two of the following recipes utilize frozen bread dough that you can purchase from your local supermarket. The third recipe uses homemade dough that you make yourself.

Here are 3 of our favorite homemade bun recipes.

Cinnamon Walnut Buns Recipe

2 loaves of frozen bread dough
1 cup dark Karo syrup
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cold milk
1 stick of butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Remove the frozen bread dough from freezer and thaw according to package directions. In a large saucepan combine the Karo syrup, brown sugar, milk, butter and ground cinnamon over medium heat until it’s nice and hot but not boiling. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped walnuts. Pull off small pieces of the dough from the loaf and place into a baking pan. Cover pan and let dough rise for 1 hour. Pour the sauce over the dough and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

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Do you have picky eaters in your family? I know I do!! Ok…I admit it! I am one of those picky eaters! Most of the members of my family enjoy eating beef. Me…not so much. As you can imagine, my family craves it since they don’t get it very often. So, I went out on a mission to find a meal that we would all enjoy that had beef in it! I think I found one, and best of all, it’s an easy crockpot meal! I found this recipe on Pinterest, but here is a direct link to the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds beef tips or cubed beef stew meat
½ pound mushrooms, quartered
1/2 onion, cut into slivers
1 (1-ounce) package dry onion soup mix
1 (10-3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (10-1/2-ounce) can condensed beef broth
¼ cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Place the beef in slow cooker
In a separate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and pour over beef
Cover and cook on low heat until meat is tender

This recipe has a lot of my favorite ingredients in it and when it is cooked all day in a crock pot, the meat just melts in your mouth. I don’t personally care for the red wine in food, so I did not put it in and I thought it was wonderful! We put it over garlic mashed potatoes for a little garlic taste. You can also put it over noodles or rice. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did and don’t forget to check out more recipes from Mr Food here.

Amy Royce has two children and has been married since 1995. She is an affiliate marketer and a Virtual Assistant. She enjoys helping others through the programs she markets and the tasks she performs as a VA. To learn more about Amy and what she offers, visit her site by clicking here. Also visit her new Health and Fitness blog by clicking here.

Bananas are one of my favorite fruits to enjoy and I love how versatile bananas can be when cooking with them or baking with them. When it comes to their nutritional information they are high in potassium, vitamin C and they are a great source of dietary fiber.

When Bananas are on sale at our local food market I like to purchase them in bulk and make some homemade banana butter and jam. The following two recipes are really easy to prepare and taste delicious. You will need some basic canning supplies, mason jars and a water bath canner to make them. Once they are made, label your mason jars with the name of the contents, the expiration date and store them in a cool, dry and dark place. When properly processed…they should keep for up to 1 year.

Tips: You want to measure out your ingredients carefully and in the exact amounts given in the recipes. When cooking the mixture, follow the time guideline exactly as stated to ensure that your products set up properly. Every water bath canner has different processing times so please follow the times recommended in your instruction booklet.

Banana Butter Recipe

3 cups of ripe bananas
1/4 cup fresh or bottled lemon juice
1/4 cup maraschino cherries, finely chopped into small pieces
6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 (6 ounce) bottle of liquid pectin

In a large mixing bowl, mash down the bananas with a fork or a potato masher. When you have 3 firmly packed cups of fruit pour it into a large saucepan or stock pot. Stir in the lemon juice, finely chopped cherry pieces and the granulated sugar. Bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly. Boil the fruit mixture for 1 minute and then remove from heat. Stir in the liquid pectin. Ladle mixture into clean sterilized mason jars. Seal and process your jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to your canner’s instructions for canning jam.

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How many times have you gone to the kitchen to prepare lunch only to go back to working your business or doing your household chores because you didn’t know what to have? I have been in that situation before and I hate it because I usually end up with a headache or eating something that’s not good for me because I’m starving.

My son was clipping coupons for me a few weeks ago and ran across several recipes that he clipped and gave it to me. I put them in the cupboard not even giving it another thought.

Last weekend we got our Bountiful Basket delivery and inside it was some broccoli and cauliflower along with many other wonderful fruits and vegetables. We don’t eat a lot of the items we receive quickly enough and they go bad, so I’ve been learning how to freeze fruits and vegetables so we can eat them when we’re ready.

Anyway, we purchased a two pack of individual containers of Minute Rice at the store. I saw that in the cupboard today and that reminded me about one of the recipes my son had clipped for me. I grabbed the recipe and quickly realized we had everything to make it and it would take 5 minutes to prepare and cook it. Yay!!!!

I enjoyed the meal so much that I thought I’d share it with all of you today.

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When I was growing up, one of the meals that we had a lot was tator tot casserole. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it was good, but I never really liked red meat. I would eat it, but it wasn’t my favorite food! I am now married and I have two teenagers. My family is always asking for meals like that. I have made them, but I wanted something different. That is when I found the Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole on Pinterest. This recipe is courtesy of The Country Cook.

Ingredients
1 (32 oz.) bag frozen tater tots
1 (3 oz.)bag bacon pieces
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup milk
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:
Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray
Layer half of the frozen tater tots on the bottom of the slow cooker
Sprinkle with 1/3 of the bacon pieces
Now top with 1/3 of the shredded cheese
Add diced chicken on top. Season with salt & pepper
Now add 1/3 of the bacon pieces and another 1/3 of shredded cheese
Put the rest of the frozen tater tots on top
Finish with the remaining 1/3 cheddar cheese and remaining 1/3 of bacon pieces
Pour 3/4 cup milk all over the top
Cover and cook on low about 4-6 hours.
Please note: Some slow cookers run at different temperatures. If you are using an older slow cooker (older than about 6 years old), your cooking time may take longer. Newer models run a bit hotter so keep an eye on this around the 4 hour mark. You want to make sure the chicken is cooked thoroughly (to 165F degrees)

This recipe can also be made in a conventional oven, which is how I made it. To get the directions for the oven and for other delicious home cooked meals, visit her site here. It was so easy and best of all, my family loved it.

Amy Royce has two children and has been married since 1995. She is an affiliate marketer and a Virtual Assistant. She enjoys helping others through the programs she markets and the tasks she performs as a VA. To learn more about Amy and what she offers, visit her site by clicking here. Also visit her new Health and Fitness blog by clicking here.

As a busy mother, grandmother and wife, I am always looking for easy to prepare dinner recipes that I can make for my family that don’t take a lot of effort or time. Each of these three recipes will make 4-6 servings. If you have any leftovers, you can refrigerate them for up to 3 days or freeze them in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.

Stroganoff Pork Chops Recipe

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
6 lean pork chops
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 (4 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1/2 cup sour cream

In a small bowl, combine together the flour with the salt. Rinse chops under running water so that they are moist. Dip them into the flour mixture. In a large skillet that has been sprayed lightly with non-stick vegetable cooking spray, brown the meat over medium heat. In a small bowl mix together the brown gravy packet with water (as directed on package) and then pour gravy into the skillet with the meat. Stir in the chopped onion, cover and simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes. Uncover the skillet and simmer for an additional 10-12 minutes. Remove meat from skillet and transfer it to a serving platter. Stir sliced mushrooms and sour cream into the gravy mixture until it is well combined. Simmer gravy for 5 minutes and pour it over the pork chops before serving.

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