Breadsticks and Dipping Sauce Recipe

Every year my older sister, Jamie, makes this delicious meal for her family after trick-or-treating.  The kids go trick-or-treating to the local business in the afternoon and then come back home to this festive meal.  Jamie will also serve it with Halloween-themed drink to round out the fun. 

Breakfast Pockets Recipe

Do not worry, you are not in the Twilight Zone! I know this post looks very similar to Callie's BBQ Chicken Sandwich Pockets Recipe and the reason for that is, well, it basically is a morning version of just that. As I was rushing out the door for work this morning and eating my breakfast, a name brand morning pocket meal similar to the one we have posted above, I thought to myself: "Hey, I think I can make this myself!" After looking over the blog post, and with inspiration from Callie's Sandwich Pockets, I realized that yeah, I could do this. So here there are, delicious, warm, and super easy to make Breakfast Pockets! Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Shaped Stuffed French Toast Recipe

Yes, it's hard to tell, but they are in a shape of a pumpkin for the perfect start to a Halloween Day! One thing that is not secret in our family (as I am sure you know!) is that we LOVE breakfast! We love all kinds of breakfast, but one of my hubby's favorite is French Toast. Now this french toast is no ordinary french toast.....it is STUFFED!!! Yep, you read that right, Stuffed French Toast! So if I were to make them again, I would do them in a shape of a ghost and use chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth....yea, much better than the pumpkins!! Enough of my ramblings....here is the recipe so that you can prepare for that yummy Halloween Breakfast!

Food Storage Friday #11: The How's, What's, and Why's of Grinding your Own Grain

When we began our Food Storage Friday posts a few months ago, one of the posts that I knew we had to cover, that I dreaded more than anything, was the discussion on grinding your own wheat. The reason I knew we had to cover it was because it is usually the first question that comes up when anyone is beginning their personal food storage needs. The reason I dreaded it was because I knew so little about the topic and there are so many different experts, ideas, and opinions out there on the best ways to grind and use your own wheat and flour. Where would I begin?

It was thinking over and over about this topic that led me to this question: If I am nervous, worried, and even a little confused about this topic, than maybe there are others that feel the same way? With this thought in mind, I decided to gear today's post around those of us that are just beginning or hoping to begin the process of purchasing, storing, and grinding our own wheat. Together, maybe we can help each other gain more understanding by working together and getting a better understanding of what it means to grind our own wheat. With that said, let's get started!

Honeyville Hot Cocoa Taste Test Part I

Is there anything better than waking up on a cold fall or winter morning and pouring a nice big mug of hot cocoa? Some of my greatest childhood memories are coming in on a cool Saturday afternoon after raking all the leaves in the yard, or returning home on a cold December day after losing an impressive snowball battle and seeing a steaming cup of my favorite cocoa mix sitting on the kitchen counter.

Really, why shouldn't these be our favorite memories? The combination of hot water, cocoa, sugar, and for some of us, a few marshmallows, is the perfect recipe to warm any soul during the holiday season. Here at Honeyville, we take hot cocoa to a whole new level. With nine flavors to choose from, we've got just about every flavor that you could dream up. So today, in hopes of getting us excited for the end of fall/beginning of winter season, we decided to hold a little taste test here at the office with four of our nine flavors. Towards the end of November, we'll post our part II to this taste test, when we'll feature the remaining five cocoa mixes. So pull out your favorite mug (we all have one), warm up 8 ounces of water, and prepare your palette for a delicious and comforting experience as we taste test our first four Honeyville Premium Gourmet Cocoa mixes - Raspberry, French Vanilla, Marshmallow Motherlode, and Milk Chocolate.

Homemade Bagel Recipe

Growing up my mom would let one child choose a treat to make each Sunday.  I looked forward to my turn.  Thinking that maybe if I tried out this tradition with my husband maybe, just maybe he'd start to love sweets as much as I do.  If I let him choose what to make he'd be more happy about it right?  I thought my plan was fool-proof.  However, you know what he picked? Bagels!  Well played sir, well played indeed.  I guess his "treats" will always be bread.  Not that I mind that either.  The recipe has been adapted from here.

Cinnamon Pineapple Crumb Cake Recipe

Nothing gets you more in the Autumn spirit than...pineapples? Right? OK, maybe pineapples aren't the first thing you think of when the leaves change and the weather cools. But let me tell you, after reading this post, pineapple just might become the new pumpkin in your fall flavors rotation (random thought, what would a pineapple jack-o-lantern look like? Hmmm...).

I have to admit, most of the inspiration for this post came after reading Callie's Pumpkin Cinnamon Crumb Cake post and Tenille's Sweet Potato Biscuit post. After reading their blog posts and seeing those delicious recipes come to life, I felt a surge of inspiration come over me as I walked down the aisles of our Rancho Cucamonga Honeyville Store. How can I take two favorite Honeyville products and combine them into one delicious treat? After some thinking and re-thinking (don't even ask me about my freeze dried strawberries and rotini with meat sauce idea) I came up with the perfect combination. Honeyville's delicious and popular freeze dried pineapples and our Cinnamon Crumb Cake Mix. Here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Biscuits Recipe

'Tis the season of Sweet Potatoes! There are thousands of sweet potato recipes! I have had a hard time narrowing down which ones to try in the next month. This week I started off with a quick one. If you will be making up some soup and need a really quick and easy roll "side" then here is one just for you! AND you added a veggie without your kids ever knowing!!

Ingredients:
1 package Honeyville All Purpose Biscuit Mix (in store locations only)
1 cup Honeyville Freeze Dried Sweet Potatoes
1/2 of water
Optional: honey, butter, or desired topping

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Make up the biscuit mix according to package instructions. Grind (using a blender, food processor, coffee grinder, etc) the sweet potatoes. Once fine, add water and sweet potatoes to biscuit mix and bake according to package instructions. 
Enjoy with desired topping; butter, honey, etc

Hope you like them as much as I did!!!

Food Storage Friday #10: Honeyville Combo Packs; Are they worth it?

(NOTE: Honeyville Combo Packs are sold online only, not in our retail locations)

 

When we made the decision to begin these Food Storage Friday posts each week, we had one goal in mind. From our very beginning with our "Food Storage 101" week back in July, to our "Preparing for Disasters" posts that we've made recently, the questions we kept asking was "Is there a simple and cost effective way to better prepare ourselves and our families for the unknown?" With this question in mind, we decided to take a closer look at the combo packs we have here at Honeyville and answer some of the basic questions that come up. The point that I hope to show is how these simple products can be a quick-start to anybodies personal food storage.

Chef Tess' Sweet Potato Buttermilk Sticky-Buns-of-Glory Mix

During the month or two previous to the Christmas season, I spend a lot of time making Gifts of Impeccable Taste Mixes and Chef Tess 52 Method Jar Meals to give to friends and family. Don't you wish you lived closer to me? 

Today I'm sharing a new mix recipe for sticky buns! I'm so excited!  I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse, having amazing buns ingredients on-hand for whenever the urge to have sticky sweet potato buttermilk caramel pecan rolls overcomes your better judgement...but I'm thinking it is a blessing. You know, like chocolate is a blessing? Oh...and cheesecake is a blessing. Oh...count your blessings! One sticky bun, two sticky bun, three...mrfllrh brrunnns (stop  counting with your mouth full). If you want to make the sticky buns without using a mix you can see my evil-genius post Pumpkin Spiced Peach Sticky-Buns-o-Glory. It works magnificently well. 

Pudding Dirt Cups Recipe

In preschool I looked forward to this snack for a year.  You see my older sister Cami (she was a grade ahead of me) told me all about it and so for that year, until it was my turn, I dreamed about it.  Crazy that I can remember being excited about eating "Dirt and a Worm".  I wish she would have told me about "Ants on a Log" (celery sticks, peanut butter, and raisins) too so I would have looked forward to that as well instead of refusing to eat bugs.  But I digress.  This time of year I think it is fun to have all sorts of silly food items because of Halloween. 

Broccoli Cheese Soup vs. Potato Cheese Soup Review

With October officially at its half-way point and the warm summer nights disappearing into cool fall evenings, I thought it only appropriate to cook up some of our favorite soups hear at Honeyville and hold a taste-test, if you will, between the two to see which is the best Autumn dinner for you and your family. So, with that being said, let the battle of the soups begin!

Before the official battle begins, Let’s point out one huge benefit that both soups have. The two soups are sealed in a #10 can, giving them a shelf life of 3-5 years. This makes each of the soups the perfect all-in-one meals for any families food storage pantry. Now, back to the comparison.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Crumb Cake Recipe

 When Zak posted about Fall Foods two weeks ago it got me thinking, "Hey I love Fall food flavors too! I should make some!"  Cinnamon and Pumpkin to me are my go to flavors for the season.  Yum and Yum.  And I was thinking that since pumpkin is a vegetable I should probably have two big pieces, you know, to get my number of veggie servings in for the day, right?!?!

Food Storage Friday #9 - Tornado Preparation

As you’ve noticed the past few weeks on Food Storage Friday, we’ve decided to take a look at natural disasters and how we can be better prepared for them. We’ve tried to focus on specific natural disasters that those of us may face, depending on the area in which we all live. For today’s post, we decided to take a look at one of the most unpredictable, and maybe even most difficult disaster to really prepare for, a tornado. What makes this disaster so difficult to prepare for is the fact that they are so unpredictable. You never know when one will hit, and when it does, you never know if you and your family will be directly affected by the disaster. As with our last post, we’ll be reviewing some of the great information found on the FEMA website, Ready.gov.

 

Honeyville Spooky Halloween Special

This promotion is over. Congrats to our winner, Addison Sinclair.

 

The leaves have changed, the air is crisp, and pumpkins, candy corn, and spooky decorations can be found in every neighborhood. Halloween is almost here, and Honeyville wants to celebrate it with you by giving you 10% off!

Here's how. Stop by any of our stores Saturday, Oct. 27, and if you, your kids, or anyone in your shopping group is wearing their Halloween costume (no mask or weapons), you'll automatically get 10% off your entire order (excludes items already on sale). We'll also have trick or treating for the kids and a Photo-op area where you can snap a shot of you and your little ghouls in their spookily-fun Halloween costumes!

Also, if you snap a picture of you or your family dressed in their costume in our store, you could win four free cans of Honeyville products! Just take a quick photo in our photo-op area, send it to blog@honeyvillegrain.com, and you'll be automatically entered into our drawing for a can of Broccoli Cheese Soup, Potato Cheese Soup, Freeze Dried Green Beans, and Freeze Dried Strawberries.Then, visit our Facebook page Tuesday, Oct. 30 where we will announce the winner and also post some of our favorite shots that you took. Check it out to see if your photo get's posted!

So stop by our stores for our Honeyville Spooky Halloween Special, pick up some treats, get 10% off, and snap a photo and you could win 4 cans of Honeyville products!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Thank you to Diane, a customer in California that wanted us to test her yummy cookie recipe using Honeyville products! Here is the recipe and the results of my experimenting below:

Diane's Recipe:
1 cup Butter** See below** 
1 cup Honeyville Sugar
1/2 cup Honeyville Brown Sugar
2 Eggs**See below**
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 cup Honeyville Flour
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together first 3 ingredients and then stir in the rest.  Bake on an ungreased pan for 10 mins.

Using Powder ingredients:
Honeyville Powdered Butter: 1 cup powder and 2 Tbsp. water.
or
Honeyville Powdered Margarine: 1 cup powder, 1/2 water, and 2 tsp. oil.
Honeyville Powdered Whole Eggs: 1/4 cup powder and 1/2 cup water.
*Rest of ingredients the same and the mixing instructions the same.

When using powder ingredients in baking, it's so simple! You just add the powder and water to the bowl....no need to reconstitute, that will happen when you mix all your ingredients together! Super easy!

I made two batches, one using the powdered butter and the other using powdered margarine. They both turned out and they were both good. The butter cookie looked better, was more puffy, and was more moist. My hubby prefers butter and liked that cookie better and I prefer margarine, so I liked that cookie better. 
What do you prefer? Butter or Margarine?

Enjoy some cookies and milk for dessert tonight!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe

It's a pleasure to be a guest here at The Cookin' Cousins blog. I'm a huge fan of Honeyville blanched almond flour because, as my Test Kitchen Showdown proved, it consistently produces lighter, fluffier baked goods.

One of my favorite ways to use almond flour is to create delicious desserts that are chock-full of healthy whole food ingredients, like this perfectly pumpkin-y cake.

 

This incredibly moist and delightful treat really captures the fabulous flavors of fall, and it always gets rave reviews from kids and adults alike. We hope you and your family enjoy it too!

 

Wishing you a Happy Fall!

 

Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

Baked Chimichangas Recipe

I always forget how much I love this recipe! My good friend shared it with me about a year ago and when I make it, I LOVE it! Then it's one of those recipes I forget about for a couple of months (who knows why! It should be a "weekly" recipe!!) and once I remember it, I get ALL excited and can't wait to make it again! So I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do!

Honeyville 10% Off Sale Starts Monday!

That's right Honeyville fans, you've asked for it and now it's here! After two months working on shipping line improvements to help us deliver your favorite Honeyville products more quickly and accurately, we're here to offer you a great deal to kick-start your fall celebration! Starting Monday, Oct. 8 and running through Friday, Oct. 12, you can get 10% off your entire online order! That's 10% off of everything on our online store, from Blanched Almond Flour to Freeze Dried Strawberries.

Just visit our online store at store.honeyvillegrain.com, shop around for your favorite products, then enter the coupon code 1492 during checkout and you'll recieve 10% off your online purchase. Remember that this code will only be valid between Monday, Oct. 8 through Friday, Oct. 12, so hurry before time runs out!

Chef Tess with One Recipe Base 2 Meals in a Jar Variations

Good news! The Honeyville Gourmet Food Storage Handbook (by Yours Truly) went to print last week! That means that soon you'll have the last year of hard work and epic food storage recipes from my adventures teaching in the Honeyville stores, all in one book! I'm excited to see it! Keep your eyes peeled for more details! It has a really great meals in a jar section, but I'm not stopping. Right now, I'm working on the Gourmet Meals in a Jar Handbook! That has been the next level of focusing on just these meals.

 

As the meals in a jar cookbook has been progressing, I've had many requests. Feel free to ask me for more! One is for several sections on specific dietary needs like vegetarian meals, low-carb meals, gluten-free meals and  low-fat meals. Most of my meals are already adaptable, but I'll do some work for you. I have, in my past, shared a post on on 6 Meals from One Casserole...The Great Divan Divide for freezer meals. A meal base is magic!  This is a vegetarian based meal in a jar that takes that same spin! Keep in mind, that because you control all the ingredients in your meals...you control your life! You can add or take away ingredients your family doesn't like or use. You can take out allergens. The only rule is to use the same basic amount of the freeze-dried vegetables and noodles so that you get the right hydration. Isn't that cool?!  Changing up the spices and sauces will transform the meals completely!  I happen to know some really yummy spice blends just came to the Honeyville retail stores. I hear the chef who formulated them is some kind of evil-genius...and really crazy. Decide for yourself.

Hawaiian Sandwich Recipe

 

This is one of our "go-to" meals in our house. We love this sandwich! And it's fast, easy, and really tasty! My kids have even started to like it.  Here is the recipe and you will for sure have to give it a try!! Let me know what you think!

Ingredients for 2 Sandwiches:
Slices of Bread
2/3 cup Honeyville Freeze Dried Chicken
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. Honeyville Freeze Dried Pineapple
2 Tbsp. Honeyville Freeze Dried Celery
1 Tbsp. Honeyville Dehydrated Green Onions
1/4 cup Honeyville Freeze Dried Cheese
Optional: Sliced Tomatoes
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Re-hydrate chicken, pineapple, celery, green onions and cheese according to package instructions. 
Mix together all ingredients except the cheese and tomatoes and spread onto bread. Top with a slice of tomato if desired and cover with cheese. 
Broil until cheese is melted, about 4-5 minutes.

Enjoy! Especially how fast the prep and clean up goes!

Comforting Fall Foods from Honeyville

Do you love fall as much as I do? The smell of fresh apples, crisp air, and autumn harvests. The beautiful colors, changing leaves, and cool temperatures. Warm sweaters, trick-or-treaters, Friday night High School Football games. The sights, smells, and sounds of fall are all around, and with this officially being the second day in October I thought it would be a great time to talk about the other sense we love during fall – the tastes!

 

After months of hot weather, fall is our first taste of those warm meals we’ve been wanting since the end of July! Today we’re going to focus on some of the wonderful products we have here at Honeyville that can help all of us get in the Fall mood. They may even become some of your traditional favorites each time fall rolls back around.

Sloppy Joes Recipe

Sloppy Joes have always been one of my go-to meals on a busy night...or a slow night if I am being honest.  In the past I've used one of those canned sauces, but after discovering this recipe I'm saying bye-bye to the can.  It is a pretty straight forward recipe and it comes together in one pan so hip hooray for not as many dirty dishes!  This recipe was adapted from thepioneerwoman.com.