At Home w/ GCH — Page 28

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer

October 25, 2013 by Dana Kim

Cheers!

Since the website is called Girlfriend’s Coffee Hour, I think we should have a post actually about coffee! One of the hardest things I’ve ever done for my health was changing how I took my morning coffee. I was a teaspoon of white sugar plus half and half kind of girl. I was also a big fan of Coffeemate creamer – you know, Irish Cream, French Vanilla, Hazelnut – the good stuff. Unfortunately, white sugar first thing in the morning creates a huge insulin spike, setting you up for inflammation, sugar cravings, energy crashes – the list goes on. And I dare you to pick up a bottle of flavored coffee creamer at the store and tell me what half of those ingredients are. Chemical city! So I decided to surf the web and find something to jazz up my coffee (because a splash of almond milk just isn’t making magic in my cup.) After some experimentation, I present to you: Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer!

This recipe is dairy-free, gluten-free, and processed sugar-free. I used maple syrup for a little sweetness, but you can use honey or stevia if you prefer. This recipe calls for an egg. Try to find organic, best-quality eggs – hopefully you can find a farmer’s market that carries local eggs, because that really lowers any salmonella risk. If it freaks you out, you can skip the egg, but it really does add body and substance to the creamer. I keep this in a mason jar in my fridge. I go through it in about a week and that seems to work well. It may get solid, and that’s fine – just scoop out a ball of creamer with a tablespoon and it will melt immediately in your coffee. If you want to make a fall treat for the kids, heat up some milk in a pan on the stove, stir in a quarter cup of the Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer, and garnish with whipped cream and a little extra cinnamon!

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer

(makes about 16 ounces)

Ingredients:

1 can (13.5 ounces) full-fat coconut milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or try half vanilla and half almond extract!)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional, but I like it!)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to the blender and mix for 30 seconds. That’s it! Pour into a jar with a lid and store in the fridge for up to one week.

Enjoy!

Dana

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: At Home w/ GCH, Coconut, coffee, Coffee Recipes, Dairy-Free, Dana Kim, Frugal Girlmet Recipes, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, gluten-free, Pumpkin Recipes

Pumpkin Painting Contest and Linky Party

October 24, 2013 by Wendy Woerner

Last week we had fun featuring Fun Fall Recipes for the Homeschool Family, as well as looking through those that some of you added to the linky party. Thanks for joining in! I can’t wait to try some of those recipes. We have a lot of fall days left!

Recently, I took my two littlest girls out to a local pumpkin patch with a friend. They had a blast experiencing bounce houses, slides, and a corn bin to play in for the first time. I even went down one of the slides with my friend’s little girl since she had an infant and couldn’t do it herself. I was a bit nervous, but we both made it through unscathed!

One of the fun activities they enjoyed while there was pumpkin painting. Included in the price of admission was a pumpkin and there were supplies available for painting, an apron to keep our clothes clean, and a little table to place them on to dry while we played throughout the rest of the park. Here are their two pumpkins:

Not bad for 3 and 4 year olds, eh?

I did collect a few other pumpkins and brought them home for my older kids and I to paint. My husband decided to get in on the action, too, and I’m sharing his work of art with you today.

Didn’t he do a wonderful job?

Last week we asked you to work on your pumpkins and then come link up with us this week. Did you get your pumpkins painted? If not, or if you are just now joining us, you still have plenty of time to paint them and then enter the contest.

Pumpkin Painting Contest Rules

collect pumpkins
paint them with a fun, fall theme (family-friendly, please)
come back here to enter the contest
have fun!

This linky party will be open until November 13, 2013, and we will announce the winner on November 15, 2013, with our next linky party! If you win, we will feature your pumpkin here on November 15th!

Enter the Pumpkin Painting Contest now!

*Note: If you would like to enter but do not have your own blog, you are not left out! Please head over to At Home w/GCH on Facebook and leave your photos on the thread there. Cannot wait to see what you have for us!

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH, Homeschooling Tagged With: At Home w/GCH, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, pumpkin painting, pumpkin painting contest, pumpkin painting linky party, Wendy Woerner

Sprucing Up the Place! :)

October 23, 2013 by Amy Boyd

This weekend, I moved into a new rental home. It is really cute and was well taken care of, for the most part. It is an older house so some of the closets and cabinets needed some sprucing up. So, I decided to re-cover the shelves in one of the closets and to re-cover the cabinet underneath the bathroom sink.

Items needed:

Contact Paper – any design you choose
Scissors or Box Cutter

Directions:

• Clean the area you want to re-cover the best you can. I had to bleach underneath the bathroom sink before I could begin this process. I let it dry overnight as well because it was really dirty!

Pre-measure the amount of contact paper you will need. Then, cut the paper.

• For the shelves, I wrapped the contact paper around the edges so it would stay in place. For the bathroom cabinet, I had to use two pieces of contact paper and overlap them in order to cover completely.

• Take off the back of the contact paper and gently stick the paper in place. Rub all the air bubbles out with your hand or a sponge.

• Put the shelves back in place and you are done.

The before and after pictures tell it all. I like the creative designs and colors. Little things like this make me happy and I must admit it is a big improvement.

Have Fun,

Amy 🙂

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: Amy Boyd, At Home w/ GCH, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, Home Organization, Home remodeling, shelf lining, shelf paper

Harvest Soup

October 21, 2013 by coleen hayden

This past weekend some of my large family (I have 7 brothers and sisters, along with their spouses, children, and grandchildren and my own daughter, son-in-law, and their 4 children!) came to celebrate my 58th birthday; happy me! One dish that we shared was a Harvest Soup, full of veggies and grated apples…very yummy. This is a slightly sweet soup, very satisfying and filling. Also, I chose to make it vegan since I was sharing it with my beautiful sister, Brigit. (The dollop of sour cream in the above pic was in my own bowl of yummy soup!) This would make a great addition to your own menu when you have vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters 😉 sharing a meal together.

Here on our Monday installment of At Home w/ GCH, we have been featuring recipes which included Fall in-season fruits and veggies. This week, our recipe features a few: apples, cauliflower, and (surprise!) butternut squash. This week’s recipe fits into our healthy but-oh-so-yummy! category since it is really yummy (did i mention that before?), extremely low in fat, and full of delicious, nutritious vegetables. Enjoy! <3

Harvest Soup

Ingredients:
2 butternut squash
1 large head of cauliflower
3 teaspoons olive oil
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 sweet onion
1 additional teaspoon olive oil
2-3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 quarts of vegetable stock
2-3 apples, grated
1 can coconut milk (shake well!)

Optional add-ins:
Cooked, crumbled bacon
Sour cream
Shredded sharp Cheddar
Chopped avocado
Sprinkle of cinnamon (try it!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.
Peel the butternut squash; scoop out the seeds and strings; and cut up into 2″ pieces. Set aside in a large bowl.
Cut up the cauliflower into smallish-size florets; add to bowl. Pour in olive oil and season veggies with salt and pepper. Stir well, pour onto a baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, dice onion fairly small and saute along with 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium high heat for 5 minutes or so; reduce heat to low and add in chopped garlic stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Pour in the vegetable stock; add salt and pepper to taste and simmer gently.
When the veggies in the oven are done roasting, remove from oven and immediately pour into your stockpot. Stir well to combine. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes or so,adjusting heat if necessary.
When done, scoop out about 1/3 of the veggies and use an immersion blender to puree what is left in the stockpot. (This could also be mashed, or, very carefully, pureed in a standard blender in batches.) Taste (be careful…it’s hot!) for additional seasoning, and add back in the reserved veggies.
Add the grated apple and pour in the coconut milk; stir well. Done!
Optional add-ins can be put atop individual bowls of soup.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

God loves you! ♥ (Don’t ever forget that!)

♥ coleen

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: apples, At Home w/ GCH, butternut, cauliflower, coconut milk, coleen hayden, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, harvest soup, healthy but oh so yummy, immersion blender, vegan, vegan soup, vegetable soup, vegetable stock

Baked Fish with Cilantro Sauce

October 18, 2013 by Dana Kim

Monday I went to Costco and found some really beautiful fish. It was so yummy-looking, I couldn’t pass it up, even though I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Google to the rescue! I went to a site called Epicurious.com that I’ve had luck with before, and found a recipe for halibut, but it said you could use any firm-fleshed white fish. Bingo! I changed a few things, and now I’m calling it Baked Fish with Cilantro Sauce!

Use whatever firm-fleshed white fish you have. I used rockfish, which is like red snapper. You can also use halibut, cod, and probably even tilapia. And if you’re not really a fan of fish, I bet you could even get super crazy and make this with thin-sliced chicken breast (though you’ll probably want to cook it a little longer.) The cilantro sauce is phenomenal! The original recipe called for shitake mushrooms. I didn’t have any, so I used regular button mushrooms. But I really liked the mushroom flavor in the recipe and wished it was stronger. I would suggest a wild mushroom mix, or maybe portobello mushrooms if you can find them. Regular button mushrooms will work fine, but if you like mushrooms, maybe use more than the recipe calls for. And if you can find shitakes, by all means use them!

Full disclosure: My girls didn’t really like this. I think this is maybe more of a grown-up dinner. So make this for you and your adult diners, and maybe throw some fish sticks in the oven for the kids. That meant I had leftovers. I ate them yesterday for breakfast … and finished the rest off at lunch! (Can you tell I really liked it?)

Baked Fish with Cilantro Sauce

(Serves 4)

1 bunch fresh cilantro, ends trimmed off (but use the stems too, not just the leaves!)
1 clove garlic
1-inch piece ginger, peeled
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small squirt Sriracha chili sauce, or other hot pepper sauce of choice
juice of one large lemon
1 1/2 pounds filets of rockfish, halibut, cod, or other firm white fish
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 bunch mizuna or arugula
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450*F. Combine first 7 ingredients (through the lemon juice) in a food processor and blend until mostly smooth. If you’d like it a little smoother, you can add more olive oil. Taste and add salt if desired. Set the sauce aside.
Wash and trim the green beans, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place in a covered bowl and add a tablespoon of water. Microwave for 2 minutes. You just want to help them along so they can bake in the oven and not still be crunchy when the fish is done.
In a large bowl, combine the mizuna or arugula, sliced mushrooms, sliced garlic,and green beans. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place in the bottom of a very large casserole dish (like one you would use for lasagna.) Place the fish filets on top, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish filets. Divide fish and vegetables among 4 plates, and serve with the cilantro sauce.

Explore, experiment, enjoy! — Dana

To view even more of Dana’s unique recipe, you can visit her at Frugal Girlmet!

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: At Home w/ GCH, Dana Kim, Fish Recipes, Frugal Girlmet Recipes, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, One Dish Recipes

Fun Fall Recipes for the Homeschool Family and Linky Party

October 17, 2013 by Wendy Woerner

Fall has arrived in my neck of the woods. I can see hints of orange in the treetops as I sit here writing this post. Along with the fall season comes cooler weather and, for me, an urge to prepare all sorts of delicious fall dishes that we may not serve so much throughout the rest of the year.

This week I have collected several recipes for you for some fall fun in the kitchen! I’ve linked them below for you. I hope you’ll try some of them, and please do come back here to let me know how it went!

Fun Fall Recipes

Granny’s Perfect Pumpkin Pie: Plus a Yummy Gluten Free Option, found at Not Consumed.

Caramel Pumpkin Doughnut Hole Muffins, Perfectly Pumpkin Pancakes, Perfectly Pumpkin Waffles, and Rustic Apple-Stuffed Coffee Cake from A Nest in the Rocks.

Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal from A Moment With Mom.

Cinnamon Orange Stovetop Potpourri from Covenant Ranch Trucking.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp found at The Chaos and the Clutter.

Dairy Free Pumpkin Bread and Mixed Berry & Cocoa Nib Oatmeal Cookies from Southern Test Kitchen.

Fall Inspired Caramel Apples found at Happy and Blessed Home.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins from Preschoolers and Peace.

Fun Fall Linky Party

I hope you will link up with us this week with your own fall recipes. You’ll find the linkup listed below.

Also, next week when we host the next linky party, we have chosen a theme for you. Pumpkin Painting, and we’ll be having a contest! Be sure to work on your pumpkins between now and then, and come link up next week to enter the contest. Children and parents alike may enter to win.

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH, Homeschooling Tagged With: A Moment with Mom, A Nest in the Rocks, At Home w/ GCH, Covenant Ranch Trucking, Fun Fall Linky Party, fun fall recipes, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, Happy and Blessed Home, Homeschool, homeschool in the kitchen, Not Consumed, Preschoolers and Peace, Southern Test Kitchen, The Chaos and the Clutter, Wendy Woerner

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

October 16, 2013 by Amy Boyd

Yesterday, I was off work and took my little boys to the doctor. Turns out they both have ear infections. So, I decided to make homemade chicken noodle soup. It is so healthy and delicious. Below is my recipe.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

3 Large Chicken Breasts

1 Medium White Onion – diced

4 Carrots – diced

3 Celery Stalks – diced

2 boxes of Chicken Broth

Salt and Pepper

Egg Noodles – ¾ bag

Directions:

In a large pan, boil the chicken breasts for about 45 minutes (until the inside is white). Add salt and pepper during cooking.

Remove the cooked chicken breasts and place them on a plate. When they cool slightly, cut up the chicken into small bite-size pieces.

In the water that you cooked the chicken, add the diced onions, carrots, celery, and cooked chicken into the water. Add one box of the chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook on medium heat for about an hour.

Once the carrots and celery are tender, add ¾ of the bag of Egg Noodles. Add the other box of chicken broth. Turn up the heat for the noodles to boil, for about 20 – 30 minutes. I always test the noodles for tenderness to see if they are done before serving.

You can add a cup or two of water if you like more broth to your soup.

Serve the soup in a bowl or coffee mug, shown below. I like using the coffee mug so you can sip the broth. Make sure that you let the soup cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

This is something easy to make and we always have plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week. This is nice, especially when everyone is a little under the weather.

Another tip: You can boil more than 3 chicken breasts and use the others for dinner another night during the week. I like making Chicken Casserole or Chicken Salad with boiled chicken. What are some of your favorite chicken recipes?

Happy Cooking J

Amy

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: Amy Boyd, At Home w/ GCH, chicken breast, chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup recipes, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, homemade soup, Soup Recipes

Stuffed Acorn Squash

October 14, 2013 by coleen hayden

Here on our Monday installment of At Home w/ GCH, we are continuing to focus on Fall in-season fruits and veggies. This week, our recipe features Acorn Squash. Ok, ok, I am sure you have noticed that I have a ‘thing’ for winter squash. I love ‘em all…but my fav’s are Butternut, Spaghetti, Acorn, Delicata, and Sweet Dumpling. Check out this link for lots more info on winter squashes and details on the incredible nutritional value they have.

This week’s recipe fits into our healthy but-oh-so-yummy! category since it is full of lucious veggies, uses low-fat ground chicken, and almost no added fat. Also, this could easily become a vegetarian meal by leaving out the meat. Also, you will have some leftover stuffing so you could enjoy it in a different “container” i.e., portabello caps, or zucchini; thus getting two meals for your effort! Enjoy!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash, rinsed
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
1 cup water
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa (I used red quinoa)
1 medium-sized sweet onion, chopped
4-6 large Baby Bella mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 large handfuls baby arugula (or spinach) 2-3 ounces, roughly chopped
3-4 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2# ground chicken
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon each, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 slices (1 ounce each) of smoked gouda (or muenster, or swiss)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.
CAREFULLY cut each squash in half lengthwise; scoop out seeds and strings. Season the inside of each squash well with a bit of butter, and lots of freshly ground salt and pepper. Place each half, cavity side up on a baking sheet and roast ‘til tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
Reduce oven temperature to 350.
Cook quinoa according to package directions, using water and broth. When done, pour into a large bowl; set aside. (NOTE: the squash and the quinoa can be prepared ahead of time.)
Meanwhile, in a large saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil; then add the onion and mushroom pieces. Stirring often, saute ‘til just turning slighty brown and caramelized.
Add the chopped garlic and stir constantly for one minute.
Reduce heat and toss in the chopped arugula. Stir frequently and cook just ‘til the greens are getting wilty; approximately 5 minutes or so.
Add this mixture to the cooked quinoa along with the pine nuts and dried cranberries, and stir ‘til all is well-combined.
Using the same pan, add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and the ground chicken and seasonings. Cook over medium high heat, ‘til the chicken is completely cooked through. Break up the meat as it cooks.
When the chicken is done cooking, add it to the mixture in the large bowl and combine.
Fill each squash half equally with veggie-quinoa-chicken mixture and bake, uncovered, ‘til filling is slightly browned on top about 15 minutes.
Lay one slice of cheese on each squash half and bake just ‘til cheese begins to melt.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

God loves you! ♥ (Don’t ever forget that!)

♥ coleen

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: acorn squash recipes, arugula, At Home w/ GCH, baby bellas, coleen hayden, dried cranberries, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, ground chicken recipes, healthy but oh so yummy, onion, pine nuts, quinoa recipes, stuffed acorn squash, Vegetarian, winter squash recipes

Creamed Kale

October 11, 2013 by Dana Kim

My favorite side dish in restaurants is creamed spinach. There’s just something about it that I crave. And lucky for me, it’s not hard to make at home. But spinach is a little fussy – it goes mushy in the fridge really quickly, so I don’t have it on hand unless I’m cooking it that day. But kale on the other hand … that hearty veggie will hang out in your fridge for a few days without appreciable loss of texture or taste. So I had 2 bunches of curly kale hogging space in my fridge and decided to see if I could cream it. In short, yes I did! Creamed Kale for dinner!

Use whatever hearty green you have – kale, chard, or spinach. If you are using spinach, just wash and blanch it quickly. Kale and chard need more time in the pot to soften up, so plan accordingly. I made this with one part whole milk and one part half-and-half, but I think next time I can just use whole milk. If you like a richer flavor, use all half-and-half. As for the onion, I used just a regular brown onion. I think a sweet variety would be even better, so if you see Vidalias or Walla Wallas, pick one up! Also, I left it out, but you can certainly add a little (or a lot, your choice) grated parmesan cheese to garnish. Ready to check it out? Let’s go!

Creamed Kale

(serves 2 as a side dish)

Ingredients:

2 bunches kale, any kind, or chard, or spinach (see note above if using spinach)
1 onion
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon corn starch
salt and pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Directions:

Set a large pot of water to boil. Prepare the kale: tear out the tough center stem, and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Wash well.
Slice the onion as fine as possible – you want thin strings. In a large pan, cook the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter, stirring to make sure they don’t burn.
Boil the kale for about 3 or 4 minutes. You don’t want it too soft – a little chew is nice. Remove to an ice bath. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much water as possible from the kale.
When the onions are soft and browning, add the kale to the pan. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, half-and-half, and cornstarch. Pour over kale and onions and stir to incorporate. Turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for 3 minutes until thick and creamy. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in last tablespoon of butter, then serve hot.

Explore, experiment, enjoy! — Dana

To view even more of Dana’s unique recipe, you can visit her at Frugal Girlmet!

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: At Home w/ GCH, Dana Kim, Frugal Girlmet Recipes, Girlfriends Coffee Hour, kale recipes, Side Dish Recipes, Vegetable Recipes

Fall Crafts, Printables, Art, and Writing Projects for the Homeschool Family

October 10, 2013 by Wendy Woerner

Last week we featured several delicious fall recipes for you to try in your homeschool. I hope you all had fun with that. I know our family did! Pumpkin is one of our favorite fall flavors, so we really had fun in the kitchen over the last week.

We are planning to get into some crafts soon. I’d love to make a thankful turkey like those I’ve seen on Pinterest, or create some special kind of wreath or other decoration for our home. I need to do a bit of research to find out just exactly what I want for that.

A good start will be found in the links I’ve posted for you below! I have collected ideas from some of my blogging friends for crafts, printables, writing ideas, and art projects. Have fun with them as you plan your homeschool days this fall!