Month: May 2016

Baklava Cookies

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My first bite of these cookies, warm out of the heaven, was a heavenly experience!  You just gotta eat ’em warm.  They’re still good once they’ve cooled, but warm? Holy Macaroni!–as my 7-year old would say. 🙂

To learn more about how you can get Thrive ingredients in YOUR kitchen, visit my website.

(This pic was submitted by me to the Thrive Life recipe site and is labelled with my Thrive Life website url.)

Ingredients:
6 tbsp. butter
 3/4 c. THRIVE Powdered Sugar
 5 tbsp. THRIVE Honey Crystals
1 tbsp. water
1 c. almonds or walnuts, finely chopped
 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
 1 c. butter, softened
 2 tbsp. water
 1 egg
 3 1/3 c. THRIVE Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix


Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, melt the 6 T. of butter over low heat. Stir in the powdered sugar, honey crystals, and 1 T. of water.
2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add nuts and cinnamon. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
4. In a mixer, cream the 1 cup of butter for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy. Add in 2 T. water and egg and mix well, scraping down sides part way through.
5. Add in the sugar cookie mix. Mix well, until dough begins to clean the sides of the bowl.
6. Using a 1.25″-diameter cookie scoop, place cookie dough on cookie sheet leaving 2″ spacing around each cookie.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Remove cookie sheet from oven and top each cookie with 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of the nut mixture.
9. Return cookies to oven and bake for 3 minutes.
10. Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes, then remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

To use this recipe without Thrive cookie mix, substitute your own cookie recipe, mix, or dough for the last four ingredients.  To use without Thrive honey crystals, use 4-5 tablespoons of honey.

Guava Punch

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guava punch 2One of the great things about moving around a lot is that you get to collect awesome recipes from new friends across the country.  Our 6 1/2 year stint in El Paso, Texas brought me some amazing recipes, collected from many bridal/baby showers, church functions and meals with friends.  This punch recipe was from a baby shower (I think) at my friend Connie’s house.  I could not stop drinking it and finally asked her for the recipe.  There is not an easier recipe on the planet, let me tell you.  And I have served this punch at many functions–like both of my daughters’ wedding receptions!  

Guava Punch
Versatile, tasty punch recipe.
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Ingredients
  1. 1 carton (half gallon) Welch's Guava Juice (Guava Pineapple also works), chilled
  2. 2 liter bottle of Sierra Mist (really, that little taste of grapefruit makes a difference), chilled
  3. ice
Instructions
  1. Pour the guava juice into a punch bowl.
  2. Add Sierra Mist to taste, but it is usually the whole bottle.
  3. Add crushed ice (if you have a Sonic Restaurant nearby, go get a bag of that ice!)
Notes
  1. One cool thing I did for the wedding receptions was to get extra Guava juice and pour into molds and freeze them. They make great "ice rings" and keep the punch cold. Do this in place of the crushed ice. I put the frozen punch in individual gallon or quart size zip top bags and store in freezer until needed.
Adapted from Connie Chesshire, El Paso, Texas
Adapted from Connie Chesshire, El Paso, Texas
Mormon Mavens https://www.mormonmavens.com/

Lemon-Guava Pound Cake

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lemon guava pound cakeMy mother-in-law made some yummy cakes, but this one is my favorite because it is so different from other pound cakes.  Her original recipe (a special shout-out to my sister-in-law Gayle for providing the recipe since Verna Mae kept recipes in her head!) is Lemon-Apricot Pound Cake, but one time I had some guava nectar at the house that I needed to use and I thought I would try it with this recipe.  Oh goodness.  So moist and delicious.  I. Can’t. Even.

Lemon-Guava Pound Cake
A moist, delicious easy cake to share.
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Ingredients
  1. 1/2 cup sugar
  2. 1 Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Cake Mix
  3. 3/4 cup coconut oil (or Crisco oil)
  4. 1 cup guava nectar (or apricot)
  5. 4 eggs
Glaze
  1. 2 cups powdered sugar
  2. juice from 2 lemons
Instructions
  1. Mix cake, sugar, oil and nectar together. Add eggs one at a time.
  2. Bake in a greased tube or bundt pan at 325 degrees F. for approximately 1 hour.
  3. Mix glaze ingredients and pour over warm cake.
Notes
  1. I had no lemons when I made this today, so I substituted a few drops of lemon essential oil, about a tablespoon of leftover guava nectar and enough milk to get the glaze consistency that I needed. Goodness, that was some tasty stuff!
Adapted from a recipe from Verna Smith Jenkins
Adapted from a recipe from Verna Smith Jenkins
Mormon Mavens https://www.mormonmavens.com/

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

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sweet and sour meatballs

Sometimes I like to share recipes that help me use my Thrive foods from my Home Store.  It is always a good idea to “store what you eat and eat what you store.”  I threw together this meal in record time thanks to the cooked ground beef and some other Thrive ingredients that I had on hand.  This recipe was a huge hit.  I had one serving left, only because I had taken some out to get a picture for the blog.  I didn’t use that one and used my filled plate instead.  

Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Quick and delicious version of a classic recipe.
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Ingredients
  1. 2 cups THRIVE Cooked Beef, Ground
  2. 1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
  3. 1/4 cup THRIVE Instant Milk, re-hydrated (3/4 T. powder + 1/4 cup water)
  4. 2 T. THRIVE Chopped Onions (FD--freeze-dried)
  5. 1 t. THRIVE Iodized Salt
  6. 1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
  7. 1 THRIVE Whole Egg, re-hydrated (1 T. powder + 2 T. water)
  8. 1/2 cup THRIVE Brown Sugar, packed (I just used brown sugar from the store)
  9. 1 T. cornstarch
  10. 1 20-oz. can pineapple tidbits with juice
  11. 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  12. 1 T. soy sauce
  13. 1/8 cup THRIVE Mixed Bell Peppers
  14. 5 cups THRIVE White Rice, prepared (I used rice from the store)
Instructions
  1. Re-hydrate freeze-dried meat by bringing 4 cups water to a boil. Add beef and boil for 5 minutes. Drain excess water.
  2. Mix meat, dry bread crumbs, milk, onions, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and egg together; shape into twenty 1 1/2 inch sized balls.*
  3. Place in skillet and cook over medium heat, turning occasionally until brown (about 20 minutes) OR (and this is what I did, so I could be working on something else like setting the table) Bake in an ungreased 9 X 13 pan at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, until light brown.
  4. Mix brown sugar and cornstarch in a skillet. stir in pineapple with juice, vinegar, and soy sauce.
  5. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium, then add meatballs and peppers.
  6. Cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.
Notes
  1. I made my meatballs ahead of time, put them in the fridge, and then baked them when I got home from work. They are quick to come together anyway, because the ground beef comes precooked, but any little thing I can do ahead of time is good when you work until 5:00 and your guests are coming at 6:00, you know?
Adapted from Thrive Cookbook
Adapted from Thrive Cookbook
Mormon Mavens https://www.mormonmavens.com/

Oriental Chicken Salad with Crunchy Noodles

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Oriental Chicken Salad with Crunchy Noodles

Ramen!  I don’t think they had this when I was a poor college student, but it sure has become popular over the years.  My first experience with it was in a delicious salad a friend shared at a church dinner.  I was mesmerized and asked for the recipe.  Which I could not find this week, so I googled and found this recipe.  It’s a little different than my friend’s but it’s a variation on the same theme.  I made some changes to this recipe and it proved to be delish!

Oriental Chicken Salad with Crunchy Noodles
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Ingredients
  1. 2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken breasts (I used Thrive chicken)
  2. 1 head of cabbage, shredded or chopped (I opted for Broccoli slaw, 2 12-oz. pkgs.)
  3. 1 bunch green onion, finely chopped (Thrive chopped green onion)
  4. 2 2.5-oz. pkgs. slivered almonds
  5. 3 T. sunflower seeds, shelled of course
  6. 1 can Mandarin oranges, drained well
  7. 2 pkgs. Ramen noodles
  8. 3 T. vegetable oil
Dressing
  1. 3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
  2. 4 1/2 T. seasoned rice vinegar
  3. 4 1/2 T. sugar
  4. 2 t. salt
  5. 1 t. pepper
Instructions
  1. Prepare dressing and set aside.
  2. Smash Ramen noodles, removing seasoning packets (save to flavor something else sometime) and brown over medium heat in 3 T. oil--I used olive oil here because I had used all of my canola oil in the dressing.
  3. Once noodles are slightly browned, add the almonds. Brown until noodles are a dark golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
  4. Combine cabbage, green onions, chicken, oranges, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.
  5. Add ramen/almond mixture and stir well.
  6. Add dressing and stir to coat.
Notes
  1. Don't overcook the Ramen noodles and almonds, and stir continuously until the are golden. They will continue to cook when you remove them from the heat.
Adapted from Tulip at Food.com
Adapted from Tulip at Food.com
Mormon Mavens https://www.mormonmavens.com/