{Crockpot} French Dip Sandwiches

We LOVE this recipe! I love that its so simple! You dump it all in the crockpot and push a button, or dump it all in a freezer-bag and you've got a delicious freezer meal at your disposal. This is our GO-TO recipe for French Dip Sandwiches. Thank you Our Best Bites! LOVE this one!

{crockpot} French Dip Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 2.5-3 lb beef roast
salt & pepper
2 T. olive oil
2 1 oz. pkg dry onion soup mix
2 cans beef broth
2 c. water
10-12 large rolls, sliced
Sliced Swiss or Provolone cheese

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-hight heat. While the oil is heating, season roast with salt & pepper. Place the roast in the hot oil and sear roast on all sides. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. Place the cooled roast in a gallon-sized ziploc bag or large freezer-safe container. Sprinkle with the dry onion soup mix and beef broth. Freeze.
3. When ready to cook, place the roast in a slow cooker and add 2 c. water. Cook on high for 7-9 hours or on low 9-11 hours 4+ hours. Shred. Place shredded meat on top of sliced rolls and top with sliced cheese. Placed under broiler to melt the cheese. Serve with small cups of au jus from the slow cooker.

Skillet Corn Bread

Back in January, our Relief Society activity for the month was a night of kneadless bread demonstrations, and simple soups. We were shown how to make this bread recipe, along with this Taco Soup, along with a couple others. It was a fun, casual night and everyone was excited to take home some simple, meal ideas!

I'm excited to make this corn bread recipe. It was delicious and now I have another use for my cast-iron skillet!

Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads

{simple} SKILLET CORN BREAD

Ingredients:

2 c. freshly milled popcorn (or corn meal & dough enhancer)

2 c. freshly milled high gluten flour (or bread flour or white flour & dough enhancer)

½ c. sugar

1/3 c. powdered milk

½ c. canola oil

1 t. salt

2 T. baking powder

2 c. water

2 eggs

2 T. bacon grease or other grease substitute (or shortening)

Directions:

1.       Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl for 2 minutes. Preheat oven to 400*. Place large cast iron skillet in oven with 2 T. bacon drippings. When skillet is very hot, remove from oven and pour in batter. Place back in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

sugar cookie fun

The weather forecast was calling for a GOOD BIT of snow, and so I was preparing to be hunkered down for a bit. (We were sadly mistaken and the storm changed directions and we didn't get anything.)

Nonetheless, I'd made sugar cookie dough and frosting to occupy some of our time indoors. It was a delicious endeavor. I LOVE this sugar cookie recipe.I'm kind of picky about sugar cookies, but this one has great flavor, but is also soft, and not crumbly.

Nice colorful airplane!

Nice airplane!

Cute, colorful bunny!

The kids thought it was a great craft activity, as well as a tasty venture. Everyone wins!

{our best bites} Sugar Cookies

 I'm a little picky about my sugar cookies. They are a lot of work, so I want them to be "worth it". This recipe does just that. They're so yummy, and soft and I love them! I got this recipe in this cookbook.

Here's the recipe, as they have it in their book-

{our best bites} Sugar Cookies

If you're still searching for the perfect sugar cookie recipe, look no further! When rolled out thick and baked until justr golden around the edges, these cookies are soft and melt-in-your-mouth delicious, but they're also fabulous rolled thin and baked until golden brown and crispy. For best results, use a stand mixer for this recipe.

TIP: When baking, it's important to lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups and then level with a knife. It's particularly important in this recipe, directly scooping out the flour with a measuring cup will result in dry, crumbly dough.

Ingredients:
 1 c. real butter, no substitutes!
1 c. sugar
1 egg, extra large
1 1/2 t. almond extract (you could use vanilla instead- which I always use)
3 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking poweder
1/2 t. salt

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light & fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg and the extract and mix to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
3. To make the chilling and cutting process easier, roll the dough 1/4" thick between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Lay the sheet of dough flat on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes or place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
4. Cut cookies in desired shapes. Bake in preheated 350* oven for 8-12 minutes on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. For soft cookies, bake 8-10 minutes or until just set. For lightly crisp cookies, bake 10-13 minutes, or unti the edges are golden brown. If you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you wil want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft,
5. When the desired doneness is reached, allow to cool on the pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer to the cooling racks and let the cookies cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Yield: 3 dozen 2-3" cookies

Easter Countdowns & Activities

This lady (Chocolate On My Cranium) has a cool blog. She covers everything from homeschooling, crafts, sewing tutorials, to technology, and personal and spiritual thoughts. It's a very uplifting blog and I'm always a little bit refreshed when I click away.

 I found these cool ideas on her blog, all about how to make Easter more special and meaningful, and how to center your focus on Christ. I love her ideas ideas and can't wait to implement some of them. I just had to post and share them with you too!

Free Easter Printables

The Living Christ: A 30 Day Easter Countdown

Easter All Week

Easter Story in Eggs

Easter handprint lillies

Palm Sunday Donkey Craft

The Empty Tomb Craft

Calvary's Hill or The Empty Tomb

favorites in the kitchen

I like cooking, and BAKING and here are some of the things in my kitchen that make me happy. They make me smile.
1. My cow mixing bowl. I had 2 others to nest with this one, but they broke, so now I'm down to one. I REALY love this bowl. It's just so fun and cute, and a good bowl!

2. My new Sil-pat silicone baking sheets I got for Christmas. They make baking SO nice and easy!

3. My RED toaster. When I bought I thought it was kind of flashy but I LOVE it. It's such a fun, happy piece in my kitchen.

4. This cool strawberry huller/melon baller my sister got me from Pampered Chef. It's so cool and I use it ALL the time with strawberries. LOVE IT!

5. Dishwasher! SO wonderful! I love making a big mess in the kitchen and then putting it all into the dishwasher. So nice!

Thank you modern-day conveniences and advances! You make me happy!

{slow cooker} lion house sweet & sour chicken

Thank you Pinterest! I found this tasty morsel HERE.

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Sauce ingredients: 

2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

3 T. cornstarch

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup vinegar

1 cup chicken Broth

7 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoon soy sauce

Directions:

1. Spray your slow cooker liner with nonstick cooking spray. Layer raw chicken breasts on the bottom.  
2. Mix all sauce ingredients in bowl with wire wisk. Pour directly over chicken breasts.
3. Cook on low for 4+ hours. 
4. Serve this with rice or a baked potato, roll & a vegetable.

So Easy, and so good! This dish is great for company. Leftovers are wonderful.

The sauce will thicken & the color will darken greatly while cooked. It will be similar to thick barbeque sauce. 

This is also great warmed up the next night, and served on Soft Flour Taco shells, or on a bed of rice.

If you want the original version of this recipe in which the chicken is fried first, then baked with the sauce in the oven (instead of the crockpot), click here.