Potato Soup, Layered Salad, and Rainbow Jello (12 Layer Ribbon Jello)

This year for St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make a tasty Slow Cooker Potato Soup from Paula Deen, a Layered Salad, and also Rainbow Layered Jello Ribbons along with some dinner rolls. They are all tried and true recipes that we love.  The slow cooker soup couldn't be easier and you get maximum taste for minimal effort. The layered salad is a family favorite. It is also fairly easy, and majorly delicious. The Rainbow Layered Jello Salad is something my sister Judy has been making for years. Everyone loves it. Its cute and so tasty. This one does take all day long though! Every half hour you are doing another step. 12 times. So its about a 6 hour process. For me it took a little longer since I wasn't always "Johnny on the spot" every half hour. If you want to skip the layered jello and just do a green one, I don't blame you :). But it is worth all the effort if you are going to be home most of the day. It is so cute and very yummy! Without further ado, here are the recipes:

Slow Cooker Potato Soup:

Ingredients:

1 bag (30 oz) frozen hash-brown potatoes
2 cans (14 oz ea) chicken broth
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup
1/2 C chopped onion
1/3 tsp ground black pepper
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
Garnish: minced green onion, Cheddar, shredded, and bacon

Directions:

In a crock pot, combine potatoes, broth, soup, onion, and pepper. Cover, and cook on low for 5 hours.

Stir in cream cheese, cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until combined.

Garnish with green onion, shredded cheddar cheese and bacon if desired.

Layered Salad:

Ingredients:

1 head of rinsed and torn lettuce

5 hard boiled eggs, sliced

8 slices of bacon, crumbled

1 pkg. of frozen peas, defrosted

1/2 purple onion, chopped

8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup of mayonnaise

3 Tb. of Sugar

Directions:

Mix mayo and sugar. Layer the salad in this order: lettuce, egg, bacon, peas, and onion. Gently spread mayo mixture over the top, then sprinkle with cheese. Cover and chill. Mix all together when ready to eat!

Rainbow Layered Jello Ribbons:

Ingredients:

6 small jello boxes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

2 pints of sour cream

Directions:

Dissolve one pkg. of jello in 1 cup of boiling water. Divide in half. Add 1/3 cup sour cream to one half and mix well (use a whisk). Pour into chilled 9 x 13 pan and let set in the fridge for 1/2 and hour. Add 3 Tb. of water to remaining half and pour over set sour cream layer. Then let that set for 1/2 hour in the fridge. Repeat with each different color of jello. Top with whipped cream if desired.

I also made some delicious Parmesan Rolls and we had green grapes. Our feast was delicious!

Top 10 Posts of 2015

In case you missed any of the most read and popular posts on The Savvy Stoker Sisters blog, here are the top ten:

10. Easiest Cheese Enchiladas Ever was a delicious and simple to make recipe that your kids will love!

9, Want.Need.Wear.Read. was a great post about how to make shopping easier for your family members whether it's for Christmas or their birthdays.

8. 5 Little Pumpkins Activity was a fun activity to do with your preschooler or young children around Halloween time. Pin it for next Halloween!

7. How to Prepare Your Child for a New Sibling is a great post if you are expecting another little one to be added to your family soon. 

6. Happy Shipping! is a very savvy post on how you can save money when sending packages to your missionaries or anyone!

5. Egg Rolls is a delicious tutorial and recipe of how to prepare the most tasty egg rolls. They are a must have at our Stoker New Year's Eve parties!

4. Best EVER Sugar Cookies is a post on how to have the softest, most divine sugar cookies with the yummiest cream cheese frosting ever. These are a MUST try! With Valentine's Day around the corner, you should definitely pin this recipe!

3. Zuppa Toscana Soup (in a crock pot) with Mom's Parmesan Rolls is one of the tastiest soups you will ever have! And the rolls are so simple to make, but are mouthwatering.

2. Re-doing Your Kitchen Cupboards is a post with some great tips and techniques on how to update your kitchen cupboards as economically as possible while still getting awesome results.

And last but not least, the number one post on the Savvy Stoker Sisters blog last year was:

1. How to Have Your House Smelling Like Pottery Barn in 15 Minutes. This ingenious and savvy post gives you some easy tips on how to have your home smelling amazing without using waxy candles or plug ins.

Thank you so much for reading and supporting our blog! 

Love,
The Savvy Stoker Sisters

Meaningful Family Tradtions

When Mike and I started our family we really wanted to have family traditions that were meaningful and also fun. We have only been parents for 12 years, and we do a lot of tweaking, but here are some of the things I've observed about family traditions.

Incorporate your childhood
Our kids love it when we do something as a family that we did when Mike or I were kids. They love visiting the hollow where Mike played as a little boy and they love it when we do holiday traditions that our families did.
We decided to do  Pajamas on Christmas Eve. That was something that my family did when I was little and our kids seem to love it. I know families also give their kids Christmas pajamas on Thanksgiving so they can enjoy them all season.
Mike's family has always done the Nativity on Christmas Eve. I love our kids getting dressed up with their cousins to recreate the night Christ was born. We have used towels and robes and blankets to dress everyone up before. My wonderful sisters-in-law made amazing costumes a few years ago and that has been really fun too.

Go with what's important to you
There are so many things that you could do with your family. It is very overwhelming to get on pintrest and try to figure out what would be the most fun or the most meaningful. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING! Not only that, but you don't have time to do everything either. I feel like it's important to teach our kids to simplify and to enjoy the things they're doing instead of feeling like a crazy person trying to be "the best mom ever."
Every year we have the kids decorate their tree (we have 2). One is a cute, themed tree that sits in the front window, but the other sits in our living area that we spend most of our time in. That tree is covered in ornaments that they made themselves and little things that represent Christ. The tree that has all those ornaments on it is a tree that Mike and I got on our first Christmas together. It is fiber optic and totally out of style, but it's a sentimental gesture to keep it. The kids think it's pretty cool too.
We did the Elf on the Shelf for the last few years, but this year we're not (My kids are older now anyways). There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it, I just felt like we needed something a little different. Since we are Christian we went with the 25daysofchrist.com ornaments.

They come unfinished so you can make them your own and also come with a booklet that has scripture references to both the New Testament and The Book of Mormon. We are going to double up next week to start it because our older 2 have been in Arizona this week. I am excited to focus more on why we celebrate Christmas this year.

 

 

Find somewhere to give

I am absolutely, 100% into giving more than receiving. It might not seem that way to the people in my family, but that's because most of what I give goes to those that absolutely need it. I have the kids brainstorm with us to find out how we can help others and sometimes it's how they can help the members of our own family. Usually it's service oriented (because that's my love language) and rarely has anything to do with "wants", but rather has to do with "needs." Find somewhere to give to others. We are so blessed and we have too much. It's better to give to those who truly need it rather than having a hundred presents under the tree.

 

Be purposeful about your family traditions. Even if you're the only person in your immediate family, find things that you can do that make the holiday season a joy to you and to those around you. We are here to help others and to live in joy.

 

Lots of love,

Nicole

Turkey Noodle Soup: A great way to use those Thanksgiving Turkey Leftovers

My Savvy Stoker Sister Judy made two kinds of Turkey Noodle Soup for the whole Stoker clan last night. They were both yummy. To suit everyone's taste she made a creamy kind and also a broth kind They are similar to Grandma's Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup and our Healthy Chicken Noodle Soup.

Her creamy Turkey Noodle soup was the same as Grandma's Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, except you add the turkey instead of chicken.

The broth soup was different:

For Judy's Broth Turkey Noodle Soup she boiled the bones of the turkey with some onion, carrots, celery, 1 tsp. of thyme, salt and pepper, and 1 Tb. of parsley for 4 hours.

Then she removed the bones and strained the broth through a cheese cloth.

Add equal amounts of beef and chicken to the broth and more salt and pepper if needed. Then add cooked carrots, onion, celery, noodles, and turkey. Enjoy!

What a wonderful way to end Black Friday Shopping and a delicious meal to eat on a cold winter's night. She also paired the soups with some tasty "Monkey Bread" which she will have to do a post on someday, because they are so good!

Thanks, Judy!

Dinner in a pumpkin

Years ago our friends had us over for dinner in the fall and made us this fun dinner and it has become a happy tradition

Dinner in a pumpkin

  
Cut lid from medium pumpkin, scrape out the inside of the pumpkin and discard what you scrape out. 

 Chop onion. I love the pampered chef chopper. Contact my friend Tina to purchase:) 801-380-9498. Her website is
https://www.pamperedchef.com/pws/tinafairbourn

This is another pampered chef tool I love called the mix and chop.  It breaks up the hamburger into fine pieces and helps brown it so nicely. 

 brown hamburger with onion, salt and pepper

Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, cream of chicken soup and cooked rice together. 

Mix together with hamburger and onion and scoop 
mixture into pumpkin.

Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on foil lined cookie sheet and bake in 350 oven for 1-1/2 hours or until pumpkin is tender because we eat that part too with butter and salt.

I usually have my kids draw a face on both sides of it before baking it and they love that. 

The pumpkin darkens up nice and sometimes it oozes juice so be sure to line your pan. 

add a little butter and salt or brown sugar to your pumpkin and it is delicious!

Dinner In A Pumpkin

  

1 Medium size pumpkin, about 4 pounds 

1-1/2 lb lean ground beef

 1 chopped onion 

 1 tsp salt 

 1/4 tsp pepper 

 1/4 cup soy sauce

 2 TB brown sugar 

 1 can cream of chicken soup

 2 cup cooked rice 

*the original recipe calls for a can of mushrooms but we don't love them so we leave them out:)

       

 Cut lid from pumpkin, scrape out the inside of the pumpkin good and discard what you scrape out. 

In a large skillet brown hamburger and onion. 

Mix salt, pepper, soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, cream of chicken soup and cooked rice together. 

Mix together with hamburger and onion. Mix well and place mixture into pumpkin. 

Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on foil lined cookie sheet and bake in 350 oven for 1-1/2 hours. 

When you spoon your portion, be sure and scrape and get some of the yummy cooked pumpkin too.

5 Little Pumpkins Activity

For my daughter's preschool class I had the opportunity today to do a read aloud with the kids. I was so excited to do this since read aloud time was my favorite time of day with my 3rd grade students and I love reading to Lily. I should be a librarian or something. Just so I can do story time :)

I debated what book to read. Since they are only 3 I decided simple was best. I wanted to read Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini to them so badly since I can do that one really well with awesome expression. Lily loves it, but I decided maybe next year I can sign up and do that story then when the kids are 4 and 5 and have longer attention spans. This year I decided to do Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino.

Lily and I prepared for the story time together.  We had a lot of fun together doing it. This is something you can easily do with your children at home too!

You will need the book  Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino., a permanent black marker, and 5 small pumpkins (I got mine at Walmart for like $2 for a bag of 5 pumpkins). The bag of pumpkin marshmallows was going the treat to share with her class. Lily was so excited to eat them!

First we read the book a couple times together singing the song together while we read it. We would hold up our fingers for which number of pumpkin we were talking about. Then we got the pumpkins out and put their ordinal numbers on them: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th.

Next we went through the pictures one at a time and drew a face on the pumpkin matching the picture. It shows all the pumpkins at the front but they aren't in order so you have to figure out which face is which. It might be easier to draw the faces first and then put the ordinal number on the back after. But Lily was really good at matching the face with the number. We talked about emotions (Is he worried? Scared? Excited? Happy?) and shapes (Oh this one has triangle eyes, this one has circle eyes, this one has diamond eyes, etc.) to help match the correct pumpkin with the ordinal number. I am no artist but Lily could still tell which faces matched.

Our 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting On A Gate :)

Here I am right before going in to read and sing with a bunch of 3 year olds!

Today with the preschool class I first talked to the students about how they were going to get to go to the pumpkin patch for their field trip next week and choose their very own pumpkin. I lined up all the little pumpkins on this table next to me and with Lily by my side we read the book and sang the song with some actions we made up with the kids. Then I had students come up to help hold the pumpkins and we sang it a few more times making sure all the students got at least 1 turn. Then Lily passed out her treats of the pumpkin marshmallows. We also brought the pumpkin shaped Reese's and the teachers were happy to have one of those too! It turned out really fun!

Here is a link to a video of the book with the music/song here!

My little helper :)

For more fun Halloween and Fall books to read to your kids baby to 3rd grade read this post here.

Thanks for reading!

Browned-Butter Applesauce Cake with Rum-Butter Glaze (Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!)

Today, September 26th, is Johnny Appleseed's birthday! To celebrate his birthday I thought I'd make this delicious cake for our breakfast. It is my favorite Fall dessert to make.  I got the recipe from my cooking class I took with my friends Erika and Amber a few years ago. The teachers' name is Maryam Chaney and she adapted this recipe from Fall Baking by Betty Crocker.  I adapted it a little as well for my needs. Here is how I do it:

Here are the ingredients you need for the cake:

Cake:
1/3 Cup of Butter (No substitutions)
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Applesauce
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
A pinch of Ground Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Ingredients for the Glaze:

Rum Butter Glaze:
2 Tablespoons butter (no substitutions)
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/8 teaspoon Imitation Rum Extract
3-4 teaspoons of Whole Milk or Cream
Extra Cinnamon For Dusting over the top

Directions:

Cake:

1.  Get out a light colored saucepan and place on stove. Turn heat up to medium and put sauce pan on stove. Melt 1/3 cup of real butter. I like to cut the butter up into tablespoon slivers and spread it around the pan so it will melt evenly. You can't substitute with margarine or anything else. I like to use salted because yum.  (Have applesauce and sugar measured out and ready to pour in).

2.  Cook and stir constantly for about 3 minutes until butter begins to brown (you will smell a nutty scent and there will be brown bits on the bottoms of the butter mixture).

3.  Immediately remove from heat and quickly stir in sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Set aside.

4.  Combine remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt) in a large bowl. Whisk dry ingredients together so everything is spread around..

5. Dump into applesauce mixture and stir until combined. Pour the batter into a greased 8 x 8" baking dish. I like to use Baker's Joy to spray my pan. It is truly a baker's best friend!

This is is a batter you can lick off your spatula once your cake is in the oven. No eggs and super yummy.

6.  Bake at 350* for 25+ minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Glaze: (Prepare this as soon as the cake comes out so that the cake will still be hot when you pour the glaze on)

7. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat using a light colored saucepan again and with powdered sugar, rum, and milk ready to immediately pour in when butter is browned.

8. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes (it will take less time since there is less butter) until butter begins to brown. You will smell the delicious nutty aroma again and see some golden brown flecks.

9.  Immediately remove from heat  and stir in powdered sugar, rum, and milk until spreadable and smooth.

10.   Pour warm rum-butter glaze over hot cake. Dust cinnamon over the top. I like to put the cinnamon in my hands and rub my hands together over the cake to dust the cinnamon evenly. Let cake cool for 10 minutes to let the frosting set up and then serve warm. Its so hard to wait, but its worth it!

Here I am eating my cake while I write this blog post. Sooooo delicious!

*You can double this recipe and cook in a 9 x 13" pan.

We eat it when its cold too. You can't go wrong. Its so so so SO tasty :)


This can be a tricky recipe to make. You have to be so careful with the butter. You need to watch it like a hawk! If you let it cook a few seconds too long it will burn and be ruined and you'll have to start over with your butter. If you don't let it get brown at all then it won't taste as yummy. So turn your overhead stove light on and have CONSTANT VIGILANCE :).

Here is a picture I got online. Since I have to be so quick with putting the applesauce and sugar in I didn't want to snap my own picture and risk burning my butter!

I keep my applesauce and sugar right by the stove all measured out and ready to instantly pour into the butter once it has reached the perfect brownness so the sugar and applesauce can help it to immediately cool down and stop cooking.

Use a light colored pan so you can see the butter well. After about 30 seconds of your butter cooking it will start to bubble. Stir constantly and quickly so all the butter cooks evenly. As soon as you see some brown bits take the butter off the heat and pour in your other ingredients! It can burn so quickly so you have to be fast.

Here is a link on buzzfeed I found that helps explain the butter browning process pretty well.

Same thing with the glaze, I keep the powdered sugar, milk, and imitation rum all measured out right by my stove so I can immediately dump it into my browned butter once its removed from the heat.

The smell of browned butter is so delicious, like toasted hazelnuts. Your whole house is going to smell amazing!

Enjoy your cake, we sure did. Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Here is a youtube video you can show your kids about Johnny Appleseed while they eat their tasty cake!


Browned-Butter Applesauce Cake with Rum-Butter Glaze

Cake:
1/3 Cup of Butter (No substitutions)
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Applesauce
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
A pinch of Ground Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Rum Butter Glaze:
2 Tablespoons butter (no substitutions)
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/8 teaspoon Imitation Rum Extract
3-4 teaspoons of Whole Milk or Cream

Directions:

Cake:

1.  Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

2.  Cook and stir constantly for about 3 minutes until butter begins to brown.

3.  Immediately remove from heat and quickly stir in sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Set aside.

4.  Combine remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt) in a large bowl and stir in applesauce mixture. Pour the batter into a greased 8 x 8" baking dish.

5.  Bake at 350* for 25+ minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

6.  Make the glaze.


Glaze:

7. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

8. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes until butter begins to brown.

9.  Immediately remove from heat  and stir in powdered sugar, rum, and milk until spreadable and smooth.

10.   Pour warm rum-butter glaze over hot cake. Dust cinnamon over the top. Let cake cool for 10 minutes and then serve warm.

*You can double this recipe and cook in a 9 x 13" pan.