Tag Archives: recipes

large family food ideas snacks energy bites

Posted on 10/18/2013 | 20 comments

Here is another large family food ideas for snacks…energy bites

This is something that our family enjoys very much. Very simple, healthy ingredients. I can’t even feel guilty feeding it to my children because I know it is good for them. This also works great for those of us who are trying to lose some weight, because it takes away those “sweet” cravings that we have. When I was losing my 70 lbs, there were times when I just craved junk food. These energy bites were the key to helping me not gorge on something unhealthy.

This recipes makes about 175 golf ball sized bites. We store these in our freezer and just grab one when we need a pick me up.

If you want the “smaller family” version scroll down to the end.

Energy bites

15 c oatmeal
6 c unsweetened coconut
5 c flax seeds
4 c mini chocolate chips
5 c (40 oz) peanut butter
5 c honey

Place the oatmeal in a large bowl

Next add the coconut Then the flax seeds–you can use either type golden or the darker one…I have used bothAnd the mini chocolate chips, you can add regular ones, the smaller ones make the balls more uniform.

In a separate bowl mix the peanut butter and the honey

Pour the peanut butter/honey mixture over the rest of the mixed ingredients. Stir until well combined.

Here are the ingredients that I used. I used a whole 40 oz jar of peanut butter. Our honey I get from a local source and they sell it in 1/2 gallon milk jugs. I used 1/2 of the container. For next time, it is easier to just pour directly into the bowl, instead of having to measure sticky honey. I purchase my items at a Mennonite bulk food store. This is from the flax seed. It was 1.5 lbs The unsweetened coconut was 1.3 lbs The mini chocolate chips was 1.75 lbs For the honey I used half of the container The oatmeal we buy in a 50 lb container and the peanut butter was purchased at Aldis.

Ok back to our energy bites……after you have thoroughly combined your ingredients, it is time to roll them into balls.

This works best if you just slightly dampen your hands. Then grab some of the mixture and form it into golf ball size balls.

I put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them individually. After completely solid, I place them in tupperware containers and store them in the freezer.

Energy bites for the “smaller family”

1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup flax seed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix as in above and store in freezer

20 Comments

Posted in In my kitchen, snacks, Uncategorized

Tagged healthy eating, kitchen, large family, recipes, snacks

large family food ideas desserts chocolate chip pumpkin muffins

Posted on 10/15/2013 | 19 comments

large family food ideas for desserts chocolate chip pumpkin muffins….

When we do a baking day around our home, we do it big. We usually have 2-3 things going and we bake a lot of that item and then freeze part of it. Chocolate chip pumpkin muffins are one of our families favorite snacks.

Scroll to the bottom for normal serving sized versions:)

9 -8 oz cans of pumpkin
18 eggs
4 1/2 c coconut oil
5 c brown sugar
5 c white sugar—-if i had raw sugar on hand I would just use 10 c total of raw sugar
12-14 c white whole wheat flour
12 tsp baking powder
9 tsp baking soda
6 tsp salt
6 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg
3 c mini chocolate chip
Makes about 84 muffins depending upon how full you fill your cups

To make your muffins…….

In a very large mixing bowl……add your pumpkin

Crack all 18 eggs into the bowl…..hope you have some egg laying hens add your coconut oil as well
add your sugars to the bowl

With a beater, mix on low until thoroughly combined. Takes about 5 minutes to ensure proper mixing of this big bowl. We then add all of our dry ingredients, we start with all of the little ones, like baking powder, salt, etc We then add our flour, start with 12 cups first and add more as needed. You want to mix this very well with a mixer. You can mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, but I don’t usually have the extra time it takes to do that and would rather do it all in one big bowl.

After you have done a good job mixing it quite thoroughly, time to add your mini chocolate chips. If I don’t have the mini ones on hand, I use regular chocolate chips, they all taste the same—delicious.

Keep on mixing……..to make sure you have got all of those little chips combined. Nothing worse than getting the muffin that got “jipped” some chocolate chips!

We use paper liners in our muffin tin for four reasons:

I don’t like to have to clean out muffin tins—it is a job that I detest
makes it easier to stack them on a platter to serve –because we can no longer have a single layer, it is usually a stacked pyramid!
they pop out of the pan very easily
it is easier to feed to my little ones, actually it is neater, with all of those gooey chocolate chips, we need a part of the muffin that is “clean”

Bake at 350 for 30-40 until muffins are done–insert a toothpick
I used to have all of my “baked goods” sprawled out over my dining room table and I just sat back and looked in amazement, before I put them into the freezer. But nowadays I have to package them up and put them away before they disappear. Too many little ones that think this is one of those restaurants with an all you can eat buffet!

yummy delicious……

Now what if you don’t have a large family but you still want to make these fantastic muffins?? Well you could get out your calculator and start dividing and deducting…..and…..oh never mind, here is the recipe that started it all. At one time in our marriage I used to make this amount and it was enough for all of us. Those days are long gone……..

chocolate chip muffins for “small families”

3 eggs, well beaten
3/4 c oil
2 1/4 c sugar
2 1/4 c canned pumpkin
BEAT THE ABOVE TOGETHER
2 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
SIFT TOGETHER THE DRY INGREDIENTS AND THEN BLEND IN
add 1 pkg chocolate chips to mixture

Bake 350 for 30-40 minutes until done

19 Comments

Posted in desserts, In my kitchen, snacks

Tagged kitchen, large family, recipes, snacks

large family food ideas…desserts…pumpkin pie

Posted on 10/14/2013 | 5 comments

Large family food ideas desserts pumpkin pie….

I have found that with having a large family most everything that we do is different than the average family. That includes dessert making. I used to love making pies for our family but by the time I had made enough for our large family I would have 3 pies stacked one on top of the other in the refrigerator and usually that would result in someone accidentally knocking over the pies and making a mess in an already overcrowded refrigerator.

There had to be another way ……

I came up with making our pies in a jelly roll pan. It was easier to make one large crust instead of individual round ones, and cutting and serving was way more convenient.

I use the same ingredients that I would for my traditional pies but with an extra ingredient added to the crust to give it a little more structure.

Large family Pumpkin pie squares

crust

1 c flour
1 c oatmeal
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter

pie

1 1/2 c sugar
4 large eggs
2- 15 oz cans pumpkin
2- 12 oz cans evaporated milk
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 t nutmeg

Place all of your crust ingredients into your food processor

Turn your food processor on “dough” setting and pulse for a few minutes until crust is combined

When crust is combined, pat your crust in a baking pan. I use a glass 9×13 pan. Bake for 15 minutes in a 350 oven.

Place all of your pie ingredients into a large mixing bowl

Mix all of your pie ingredients on low for 2 minutes until thoroughly combined

After thoroughly combined, pour mixture over crust.

Bake in 350 oven for 45 min or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean

When cool, place pie in refrigerator and when chilled, cut and serve your pumpkin pie.

5 Comments

Posted in desserts, In my kitchen

Tagged desserts, kitchen, large family, recipes

large family food ideas….desserts…. apple pie

Posted on 10/12/2013 | 2 comments

Large family food ideas desserts apple pie….

There had to be another way ……

I came up with making our pies in a jelly roll pan. It was easier to make one large crust instead of individual round ones, and cutting and serving was way more convenient.

I use the same ingredients that I would for my traditional pies but with an extra ingredient added to the crust to give it a little more structure.

Large family apple pie squares

5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 cup cold butter
2 eggs, separated
8 Tbsp milk
2 cup crushed cornflakes
9 cups chopped, peeled apples. I used my quart sized bags of frozen peeled and chopped apples–2 quart sized bags
2 cups sugar
sugar, cinnamon for topping

Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 T milk

or you can just use your egg white leftover gently whipped and brushed on and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon for the topping, we just prefer the glaze.

How I go about making my crust, I split the amount of dough ingredients I need in half and do them separately in the food processor.

Place 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 cup cold butter into your food processor.

Pulse for a few times to create large crumbs out of your dough.

In a measuring cup, combine egg yolk and enough milk to measure 1/3 cup.

Pour over your flour mixture.

Turn on your food processor on the “dough” setting and let the machine do the work. You can also do this by hand, mixing and kneading the dough, that is what I used to do before I realized how easy it was in the food processor.

When your dough is completely mixed and formed into a dough-like ball, you can roll it out into your pan. I use a 16×12 inch jelly roll style. If you have smaller or larger just make the crust either thinner or thicker.

After you have rolled out your dough. Place your cornflakes into your food processor.

Crush them into fine pieces.

Sprinkle them over your crust

In a mixing bowl, place your apples. I have diced and froze ours in quart sized bags. I use 2 bags for this recipe. Add your sugar. I normally would have used raw sugar, but the store I purchase it from was out, so I was “forced” to use white sugar.

Add your cinnamon and nutmeg

Mix gently, coating your apples evenly

Sprinkle your apples evenly over the crust

Now you are going to make your top layer crust. Repeat the steps you just did to make your bottom crust.

Place 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 cup cold butter into your food processor.

Pulse for a few times to create large crumbs out of your dough.

In a measuring cup, combine egg yolk and enough milk to measure 1/3 cup.

Pour over your flour mixture.

What I did to make this job easy, was to lightly flour the bottom of a cookie sheet–the same size as my jelly roll pan and I rolled out the top crust onto that. I then put the crust over top of the apples in a flip style method. Just turn your pan over and gently tap and scrape a few sides until it falls off. It may not be perfect in some spots, but I cover that area with enough glaze that you won’t see it:)

Place it in a 350 oven for 45-50 minutes until golden brown.

If you prefer to have your crust like “traditional apple pie” you can beat your egg whites that were leftover and then carefully brush this over your crust. Sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Or you can do what we do…..

Mix up your glaze.