All I have to say about this recipe is:  Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.

I completely understand if you read the name of this recipe and your initial reaction was to make a face of disgust.  I’m with ya.  I don’t like sauerkraut.  I don’t like the way it smells.  I don’t like the way it tastes.  I don’t even like the way it looks.

But I promise you, this dip tastes so good that you really might just pass out from the delicious flavor.  It doesn’t taste like sauerkraut at all – but instead is a wonderful mix of flavor that is completely addicting.  The first time I tried it, I stuffed myself so full, I could barely walk out of the kitchen.  It was not cute.

I got the recipe from my friend Jen, who, for the record, does not like to cook.  That may tell you something about how easy this dip is to put together.  We prepped all the ingredients together one evening, then I threw everything into my crock pot the next morning for us to chow on that night.  And did I mention that I stuffed myself?  Seriously, whether you like sauerkraut or not, you must try this dip.

Hamburger Sauerkraut Dip

1 pound ground beef
4 tomatoes, chopped
2-3 green peppers, chopped
27 ounce can of sauerkraut, drained
12 ounces sour cream

Brown ground beef until thoroughly cooked.  Stir browned meat, chopped tomatoes and peppers, sauerkraut, and sour cream into a crock pot.  Cook on low for 5-8 hours.  Stir occasionally.  Sneak bites often.  Try not to eat the entire pot.  Good luck.

I’m very happy to point out the fact that I have posted all kinds of different cheese dip recipes on this site, so you must surely be very impressed that I have climbed out of my cheese dip lovin’ box to post a dip that is significantly different and exciting.  See, here they are:  Healthier Cheese Dip; Super Simple Chip Dip; Cream Cheese Salsa Dip; Hamburger Cream Cheese Dip.  And here I am posting a dip recipe that does not include cheese – but sauerkraut.  How about that?

So, are you a sauerkraut fan, or do you tend to avoid it? Any chance that if you aren’t a fan, I could convince you to try this dip anyway?  I promise you won’t regret it.  :)

I love a good alfredo sauce.  Want to know why this recipe is so good and rich?  It’s full of butter and cream.  Indeed, this recipe is neither fat free nor dairy free.  I am very much not afraid of real and healthy fat…you can read more about that here.  For those of you who need to eat a dairy free diet, I’ll try to come up with something a little less “cow” next time.  ;)

Easy Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup butter
One pint of cream (2 cups)
1 garlic clove
2 Tablespoons cream cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Bring the butter, cream, garlic and cream cheese to a boil.  Turn down the heat, simmer and stir for about two minutes.  Add the grated cheese and stir until melted.  Simmer the sauce for 15-20 minutes until it becomes “thick and saucy”, stirring occasionally.

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And now, a few alfredo pictures:

Into the pot go the butter, cream, cream cheese and garlic…

The parmesan cheese is shredded and ready to add once we’ve boiled the other ingredients for a couple of minutes.

Here’s our sauce, simmered and ready to serve…

OH. YUM.

Are you wondering about the pasta I served with our Easy Alfredo Sauce?  It looks like WHITE pasta, doesn’t it?  Ah, but it isn’t!!  I’m very excited to tell you that this was Gluten Free Corn Pasta  from OliveNation.  My OliveNation friends told me that their GF pasta tasted awesome and wow they were right!!!  It’s great stuff!  AND, if you recall, just like with vanilla beans, OliveNation offers Heavenly Homemakers readers a 10% discount (use the code hhm2011).

Now, you can of course add chicken to this dish if you like.  Just saute a little chicken in some olive oil and toss it into the sauce.  For that matter, that steamed broccoli I served on the side tasted great stirrred right into the sauce and noodles on our plate!

Are you a red sauce or a white sauce kind of pasta lover?  Or does it depend on the day?

Take a peek at all of our High Five Recipes -
High Quality Recipes…Five Ingredients or Less!

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This Caramel Frosting recipe is very exciting because you can make it with your very own homemade powdered sugar!!!  If you don’t have sucanat or you don’t feel like making powdered sugar, DO NOT substitute regular pre-made powdered sugar.  This recipe won’t taste very caramelly if you use the white stuff.  (I made up that word.  It is pronounced:  care-uh-mellleeeeee.  I like it.)  If you do need to make a substitution, use regular ol’ brown sugar.

You do need to know that this recipe takes several minutes to make.  It isn’t hard to make, you just have to beat it (and beat it and beat it…) for several minutes to turn it into frosting.  I had my kids take turns holding the beaters while I made the donuts to go with the frosting.  They were making frosting…they did not mind holding the beaters.

Oh look, only four ingredients!!!

Caramel Frosting

2 cups homemade sucanat powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Place sucanat powdered sugar, butter and cream in a pan on the stove.  Cook until butter is melted.  Bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring allthewhile (I made up that word too.  It is pronounced ahll-thuh-wyle.  It means - keep stirring for the whole minute and whatever you do, don’t stop).  Remove this from the heat and pour it into a mixing bowl.  Beat mixture with electric beaters for 15 minutes or until it thickens and becomes spreading consistency.  Add vanilla and beat for a little bit longer, because you just love beating your frosting and you know it.

Here is the mixture as it is beginning to boil…

Now, we have poured it into our favorite stainless steel bowl and we are beginning to beat it…

Hello there.  We are still beating our mixture. 
It has been only a few minutes but already it is getting thicker…

Wow, will you look at that?  It’s been about eight minutes and not only is the frosting getting thicker, it is turning a nice shade of…what shade of brown would you call that?  Caramelly?

Eleven minutes and counting.  Thicker and thicker it becomes allthewhile we have been beating it.  We have switched beater holders a few times.  Life is getting more and more exciting as we see that this really might become frosting after all…

Almost done.  I think we’ve been beating for longer than fifteen minutes.  What is that about?

Okay, we are going to pronounce that the Caramel Frosting is now finished.  It’s not as thick as we may have expected, but we can certainly spread it on our donuts.  (Or on a cake if that’s what we were making this for.)

Sure enough, we were able to spread this Caramel Frosting on our donuts.

The moral of the story is this:  Just when you think you can’t possibly keep beating your frosting, stick those beaters back in the bowl and KEEP BEATING.  Hey, if you’re alone in your kitchen, it’ll be good prayer time.  Who says you can’t pray over your bowl and beaters? 

The other moral of the story is this:  Good things come to those who beat.  For a long time.  When you eat this frosting on a cake or on donuts or on cookies…you will recognize that the beating was all worth it.

It’s been months since I posted a High Five Recipe, so just in case you’re new around here…let me introduce you to this special recipe feature we have going on.  Are you ready? 

It is a fact that there are lots and lots of healthy recipes you can make which only take five or less (healthy) ingredients!  I’m talking about REAL INGREDIENTS too…not just “add a packet of this and stir in a can of that”. 

Real ingredients, real easy recipes.  I LOVE High Five Recipes!  You can scroll through all of these posts to see the other High Five Recipes I’ve posted so far!

This Roasted Italian Potatoes recipe comes courtesy of my friend Anne.  Remember last year when I put some of my homemade Italian Dressing Mix in her stocking?  What, you don’t remember?  Yes, my friend Anne and I exchange Christmas stockings.  Grown-ups needs stockings too ya know.  And because she and I love to live on the wild side, we put items in each others stockings that are incredibly outlandish like paper clips, pot scrubbers…and yes…Italian Dressing Mix.

Yes indeed, Anne and I create one great big rowdy party when we come together.

Anyhoo…after Anne tried the Italian Dressing Mix I had given her, she fell in love with it and keeps coming up with yummy things to make with it.  She is out to prove that Italian Dressing goes way beyond tossed salad.  See?  Told ya she was a crazy one.

Roasted Italian Potatoes

3 pounds red potatoes, scrubbed (or dirty, whichever way you like ‘em)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons Italian dressing mix

Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces.  Toss ingredients together in a bowl until the potatoes are covered with olive oil and dressing mix.  Pour potatoes into a baking dish.  Bake uncovered in a 350° oven for 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  If you like, you can broil them for a few minutes at the end of their baking time to brown them up a bit.

Now, I am creatively thinking about what I should put in her stocking this year.  Maybe some other great ingredient so she can come up with another high five recipe?  Perhaps something to do with, I don’t know…chocolate???

Making pie crusts has never come easy to me.  In fact, if you recall…I put out an all call many months ago and used YOUR recipes to put together the free ebook, For the Love of Pie!

Since that time, I have discovered a delicious and healthy way to make whole wheat pie crust!  I am SO excited!

The secret ingredient is Tropical Tradition’s Palm Shortening.  We all know to stay away from regular shortening (like crisco) right?  I’ve tried making pie crusts with butter, and that works too (especially in these Mini Apple Pies).  But, since I tried using Palm Shortening from Tropical Traditions, I feel like my days of frustration with pie crust may be over.  When I tried making a whole wheat crust with Organic Palm Shortening, it formed perfectly.  It rolled out like a dream.  I could be heard shouting out Whooops and Woohoos from my kitchen for miles around.  I’m telling you, this from the lady who never could make a pie crust. 

Here’s how you make the crust…

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup Palm Shortening (or butter)
4-5 Tablespoons cold water

I found this recipe to work best in my food processor.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can cut the shortening into the flour with a pastry blender.  If you’re interested in soaking the flour in this recipe to break down the phytates, substitute cultured buttermilk for cold water, cover and let dough sit overnight or at least 12 hours.

Place flour, salt and shortening in food processor.  Blend until shortening is cut throughout the flour and the mixture resembles crumbs.

Admire the crumbs…

Begin adding water and processing (or stirring).  If your dough looks like this, it doesn’t have enough water in it yet…

Add little bits of water until your dough will form a nice round ball.

Roll out your dough  on a well floured surface.   Fold it in half.

Then fold it in half again.

Place your dough in your pie dish with the folded corner in the center.

 Unfold the dough, shape it into the dish and make the edges pretty.

Here’s a little video tutorial I made that will maybe (hopefully) give you an idea about how I shape my pie crust.  There are all kinds of different ways to make it pretty…this is just the way my grandma taught me.

Poke your dough a few times with a fork to keep it from poofing up in the oven.

Bake at 450° for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Mmmm…pretty dutch apple pie!  (I just used this Mini Apple Pie filling and crumb topping recipe with the crust for this pie…in case you feel like you must try it right NOW!)  I must say, a glass of milk helps this pie go down real nice.

Today, Gratituesday meets High Five Recipes.  I can’t help it.  I have discovered a new recipe that I truly am so grateful for!  (The fact that it only has five healthy ingredients and is SUPER easy to make is just an added bonus!

Over the weekend when I was nursing a sinus infection, I found myself without an appetite.  But, I knew I needed to keep some good foods going in so that my body would have something to work with to fight the infection.  

Something made me think of a recipe I had tried years ago (like before Asa was even born)…and suddenly it sounded SO GOOD.  I got out my old recipe book, made several tweaks to the concoction and guzzled it down!!!  If I hadn’t been sick and out of energy, I would have done a dance around my kitchen!  Maybe I had been hungrier than I thought…or maybe this was just exactly what I needed.  Either way, I made another batch the next day!

Creamy Orange Cooler

Juice of 3 medium oranges
2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons real maple syrup (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a handful of ice cubes (optional)

Squeeze juice from the oranges and pour into a blender with remaining ingredients.  Blend until smooth (or until ice is crushed if added).

This drink is so easy to whip up.  The buttermilk mixed with the sweet citrus creates an amazingly tangy taste that is SO refreshing!   

I also love that this is a new way to get down some cultured buttermilk!  (Learn how easy it is to make your own buttermilk here!)  I have a hard time drinking the raw, cultured buttermilk by itself, but in this mixture…I could just drink it straight from the blender!

And yes, I know dairy products aren’t great when you have a sinus infection…but I didn’t care.  ;)  I needed something that would go down easily and satisfy my insides.  It did exactly that.

And THAT is why I had to share this with you on Gratituesday.  I love how God has given us so many delicious foods, and I love that He is our healer!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday?  Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here.  If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following link into your post!  Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

This recipe could NOT get any easier, especially if I already have a big batch of homemade tortillas in my fridge ready to go.

These enchiladas can also be made with corn tortillas if you have a gluten intolerance or if you just like corn tortillas better.

Layered Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas

1 pound ground beef
sea salt to taste
2 cups salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided (I use raw white cheddar)
8 whole wheat flour tortillas (or corn tortillas)

Brown meat.  Stir in salsa and 1/2 cup of cheese. 

Lay 4 tortillas in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.  Spread half of meat mixture over tortillas.  Layer again with the 4 remaining tortillas.  Spread remaining meat mixture over tortillas.  Top with 1 1/2 cups cheese.  Bake uncovered at 350° for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 6-8 servings.

This dish freezes easily too, making it a great make ahead meal!

Freezing Instructions:  Cover dish well and freeze.  Thaw and bake as directed above.  Or, if the enchiladas are frozen, bake in a 250° oven for one hour, then at 350° for another 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. 

I have several more High Five Recipes up my sleeve (not literally of course, but wouldn’t that be fun to see?).  Oh, and actually if you haven’t already, you should go read the story of my sleeves because, well it’s always fun to read about sleeves.

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Last week as I was quickly stirring up these Butterscotch Bars to bake and take to a homeschool event, I started counting up the ingredients.  Five!  Five ingredients!  Yay!  Another High Five Recipe!

I am so excited that these bars taste so good using sucanat and whole wheat.  I had made them years ago using brown sugar and white flour and love that you can’t even tell a difference using the healthier ingredients!

Better yet, these bars can be stirred up and thrown into the oven in just a few minutes.  It doesn’t get much better than that! 

Easy Butterscotch Bars

1 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups sucanat
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Stir melted butter and sucanat together.  Add eggs and vanilla, mixing well.  Stir in flour and mix until well combined.  Pour batter into a 9×13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.

These bars are gooey, rich and better made not very often because I like them waaaayyyy too much. 

Way too much.
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Be sure to join us for The little Green Project next week!  Read about it here!
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday, being hosted today by Rocks in my Dryer.

Had I not tasted these potatoes myself (when my friend’s mom made them) and realized that I had just bitten into a bite of comfort food heaven, I would not have believed that these three little ingredients all by themselves could actually create such a wonderful side dish.

All of the other scalloped potatoes I’ve ever made have required quite a bit of work:  prepare potatoes…make a white sauce…layer the potatoes with the sauce…cook covered for a specific amount of time…then uncovered for another specific amount of time.

But this potato recipe?  Scrub and slice potatoes.  Sprinkle with salt.  Pour cream over potatoes.  Bake.  Stir every once in a while.  Eat.  Try to be nice and share.  No really Laura…please pass the potatoes.

Cream Scalloped Potatoes

4-5 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cups cream
sea salt to taste

Scrub potatoes and cut into very thin slices.  Spread into a casserole dish.  Sprinkle with salt.  Pour cream over potatoes.

Bake uncovered at 300° for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, pulling dish out and stirring occasionally.  Serve when potatoes are tender and cream has thickened.

The starch from the potatoes naturally thickens the cream into it’s own white sauce!  SO simple!

Now, you’re welcome to throw in some onion or even sliced carrots into this dish if you want more flavor.  I personally love it with just a generous amount of salt.

This potato dish is inexpensive, healthy and takes very little time to prepare.  And it tastes like comfort food heaven.  What more could we ask for?
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This post is linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap.

I learned that not only are truffles easy to make…they are quite an inexpensive Valentine’s Day treat.  Do you KNOW how much truffles cost at the store?  Yeah, a lot more than homemade ones.   Not only are the homemade truffles less expensive, these treats don’t have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils in them!

This first recipe is SO easy to make!  Try this one first if you want to prove to yourself that you can make truffles.

Peanut Butter Truffles

2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T. butter
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used homemade peanut butter)
1/4 cup organic, unbleached powdered sugar (optional)

In a saucepan stir together chocolate chips, cream and butter over medium heat. 

About the time the chocolate chips are almost melted,
add peanut butter and stir until smooth.

Spread mixture into a pie pan and chill for about two hours.

Lick the pan while you wait for truffles to chill because…
well…do I actually need to give you a reason?

Roll mixture into 1 inch balls. 
Dip in unbleached powdered sugar. 
Place on parchment paper and chill until set.

This next truffle recipe takes a little more time to make, but it is SO WORTH IT. 

Chocolate Caramel Truffles

1 cup sugar (I used sucanat)
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet)
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. sea salt

In a saucepan, cook and melt sugar, stirring with a fork. 
It will clump up at first while it melts, but it will melt if you keep stirring and heating.
(Trust me, use a fork.  A spoon doesn’t work.)

Remove melted sugar from heat and stir in cream.  
Pouring in the cream will immediately create a crazy big blob thing of caramel,
so take it back to the stove and heat and stir until it melts. 
It will seem to take forever but don’t worry,
it really will melt eventually (about 15 minutes).

See, it finally melted.  Now you have caramel.

Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips, vanilla and salt. 
Pour mixture into a pie pan and chill for about two hours.

Roll mixture into 1 inch balls and chill on parchment paper until set. 
You can dip your truffles in a bit of cocoa powder if you want them to look pretty.  They look pretty without the cocoa though, because hello?  Chocolate and caramel all rolled into a ball?  How could that not be pretty?

Place your truffles into little Valentine muffin papers and you’re all set!

I will present these truffles to Matt on Valentine’s Day, at which time we will have a conversation about whether caramel is pronounced Kare-uh-mel or Car-ml.  He will say that he is pretty sure that it is Kare-uh-mel because there’s an “a” in the middle, and I will just sit there eating his truffles.

How do you say caramel, by the way? 

(It may seem like Matt and I argue over word pronunciation often, but really we don’t.  Just KYOOPON vs. KOOPON and the occasional Kare-a-mel vs. Car-ml.  And if those two marital issues are among our biggest, I’d say we’ll have a pretty great Valentine’s day.)
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This post is linked to Frugal Friday and Finer Things Friday.