Joyful Help Meet At Home

MEAT To HER HOUSEHOLD

"She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household..." Proverbs 31:15
One of the fundamental duties of every Help Meet at home is to plan and prepare meals 365 days a year.It takes creativity, & a heart's desire to please& bless your family. It's not for the faint-hearted. Have you ever been hurt when someone at your supper table groaned, "NOT AGAIN!" That puts my pilot light right out! Well, to be honest, my cooking was in a rut. I was in a rut. Then the Lord got ahold of my heart.and convicted me about the mile high piles of recipes I've collected since 6th grade, but rarely use. (At that my children would swallow hard, and say, "Gulpies!" Gulpies is right.) Honestly, I wanted to have a pity partyt, but with my trusty scissors I began scaling those mountainous piles. Each recipe was trimmed neatly, then grouped/categorized. Next, I grabbed envelopes (any size will work-mine are 6 X 9), which I labeled: salad, soup, vegetables, casseroles, pasta, rice, meat dishes, pies, cookies, cakes, desserts and misc. I even have one for SOAP! Yes, S-O-A-P. To avoid mistaking it for SOUP I drew a bar of SOAP and BUBBLES on it. Can you imagine making that mistake! Instead of singing "It bubbling, its bubbling its bubbling in my soul", we'd be singing "it's bubbling in my belly" while the bubbles popped out of our mouth and nose. Then I put the corresponding recipes into the envelopes. So I try take pick one recipe a week to test and rate. Yummy recipes are marked w/ A smiley face, & put into my recipe file. Clipped frown recipes are thrown away. We use this rating system in all my cookbooks. Frown recipes are X'd out to avoid making them again, an changes I made/plan to make are noted on the page as well..
The recipes on this page are not totally mine. They are modified versions of ones I have clipped or copied from newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and more recently web sites. Lord willing I will be able to update this page often. Grab your aprons, measuring cups and spoons, a mixing bowl or two and lets get cookin'!

Linguine with Clam Sauce

2 T Olive Oil
1 Medium sized onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic or 1 Heaping T of minced garlic
2 cans (10 oz each) whole clams
1 T dried parsley
1/2 tea. each oregano and basil
1/4 tea. red pepper flakes
1/8 tea. each black pepper and salt
1 clove of garlic, pressed (optional)
1 lb. linguine cooked (or whatever pasta you like or have on hand)

1. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and chopped garlic and saute 5 min or until onion is slightly softened (to your liking)
2. Meanwhile, strain and reserve liquid from clams; add liquid to onion mixture in skillet reserving clams. Add all spices except presses garlic. Simmer 5 min.
3. Stir in clams and pressed garlic. Remove from heat. Add pasta; toss to mix.
VARIATIONS:
FIERY RED--1 jar spaghetti sauce (26-32 oz) add clams, oregano, pinch of hot red pepper flakes; simmer gently.
CREAMY ALFREDO--Cook cream or white sauce to thicken; stir in clams and nutmeg . Add a sprinkling of Parmensan/Romano Cheese; top with chopped parley.

Terry's Jello Delight

1 3oz box jello (regular or sugar free)
1 cup boiling water
1 C yogurt (I use plain, non-fat, but any flavor sugar free or regular works))

Put jello in bowl, stir in boiling water making sure you dissolve all the gelatin. Add yogurt stirring to get rid of any lumps or clumps. Chill to set.

Ice Cream Icing \
Frosts 1- 9x13 cake

Beat 1 egg white and 1 C 10x sugar until fluffy. Add 1 C 10x sugar,1 T vanilla, 1/2 C. crisco, 2 T flour, 2-3 T milk, and dash of salt. Beat until the consistancy of ice cream.

Yummys
A family favorite and so easy to make.
1 C butter or margarine
1 C brown sugar
Tube of saltine crackers (may substitute grahams or wholewheat crackers.)
12oz of chocolate chips or your choice; OPTIONAL

Heat oven to 350. Grease 10x15 cookie sheet. Line pan with a single layer of crackers. Melt butter in med. pan; add brown sugar. Bring to boil, stirr constantly and boil fro exactly 3 min. Immediately pour over crackers. Bake for 7 min. Remove from oven and pour chips evenly overtop, speading to make a thin coating. Refrigerate. Break into pieces.

Honey Mustard Orange Chicken

2 1/2 lbs Chicken parts*
1/3 C honey (maple syrup or molasses)
1/3 C mustard (we used brown spicy)
1 tsp fresh orange peel, grated
1/2 tsp dill weed (or parsley)

Mix all ingredients except chicken together in a bowl. Turn the chicken coating the bottom with sauce mixture. Then turn over, lift skin and coat meat. Do this will all the chicken. Drizzle any leftover sauce over the chicken. Bakc at 425 for 40 min. or until browned and juices run clear.
*Substitute Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breasts

LO-Carb/Sugar Free "Honey" Mustard Orange Chicken

2 1/2 lbs chicken parts*
1/3 C Splenda or equivalent in sweetener of your choice**
1/3 C mustard
1/3 C water
1 tsp. fresh orange peel grated
1 tsp. dill weed

Mix together all ingredients except the chicken. Coat the underside, flip over, pull back the skin and coat the meat, replace skin, set in pan. When all your chicken is coated, drizzle any leftover sauce on top. Bake at 425 fo4 40 min.or until browned and juices run clear.

*Substitute Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
**Use 1/3 C sugar free pancake syrup and omit 1/3c water

Sausage Lentil Soup
Kathy Anderson, Casper, Wyoming

1/2 pound italian sausage, bulk or links cut into bite size pieces

1 large onion, chopped or pureed

1 medium green pepper, chopped or pureed

1 large carrot, chopped

4 cup chicken broth

1 can 14-16 oz diced tomatoes with liquid

1 cup water

1 clove garlic, minced (or to taste)

1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)

3/4 cup dry lentils

In large pot, brown sausage and drain. Add next 9 ingredients; bring to a boil. Add lentils. Reduce heat and simmer 60-90 min. or until lentils test done.

Makes 2 quarts.

I quadruple this for the 8 of us. We puree the onion, pepper, and carrot together. Picky children don't see them.

We usually make dinner rolls to go with this.