Palm Sunday Mini Book Craft

This year I have come up with a new mini book craft for my Sunday School class on Palm Sunday. The Story we will be reading along with this craft is The Triumphal Entry and can be found in Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12:12-19. I sometimes read all three. In the past I have cut out large construction paper palm branches and had the children put them on the floor for a cardboard Jesus on a donkey to walk on- while we all shout- "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!". This year we will be making the following mini book craft.

Fold a piece of green cardstock in half like shown. Print out a mini book called A Welcome Fit for a King at 60% from take home bible stories.

New Testament Take-Home Bible Stories: Easy-to-Make, Reproducible Mini-Books That Children Can Make and Keep


Cut out and staple the book like shown in the picture, do this before pasting on the front picture so, the front picture will cover staples. To make the front picture for this craft I used the Papyrus font (my favorite) and a clip art of a palm branch, you could also draw a palm branch. Glue a strip of paper under the mini book that says: Place the Palm Branch under Jesus and shout... "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" John 12:13

I also enlarged a picture of Jesus on a donkey from the mini book at 120% for the bottom page. Cut out and glue down. Cut out a small palm branch in a different color of green cardstock like shown. On the back of the palm leaf put a small piece of Velcro, as well as the other side of Velcro under Jesus, and to the side- as shown in picture- this way the kids can lay down the palm branch.

If you don't have the Take Home Mini Books book yet, I would suggest heading over to Dltk-bible.com http://www.dltk-bible.com/guides/easter-index.htm their Easter printouts could be used to make similar pictures- also a quick Internet search of Palm Sunday printables would probably yield some useful images as well. This same craft could be modified as an addition to an Easter lapbook as well.

I am looking forward to sharing this craft with my Sunday School class this weekend, I hope everyone has a nice Palm Sunday!

Nana's Raisin-Nut or Apple Spice Cookies

My grandma always had homemade cookies made, and in a wonderful cookie tin, waiting for us to snack on every time we visited. I loved the smell of her home- always like something yummy baking or cooking. I love it when I can re-create that smell in my own home by baking good old fashioned recipes. One of the cookies she most often made were her mother's Raisin-Nut Cookies- everyone called my great grandma - Nana.

Nana's Raisin-Nut Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Boil: 2 c. raisins in 1 cup water for 5 minutes, cool.

Cream:: 1 c. shortening, 1 3/4 c. sugar, 3 eggs, 1 t. vanilla

Mix in separate bowl: 4 c. flour, 1 t. baking powder, 1 t. baking soda, 1 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. nutmeg.

Add dry mix to wet mix, and also add raisin and water mixture and optional 1 c. chopped walnuts. Mix until blended.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto greased baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned. (no time was given- my oven bakes them in 8-12 minutes)


My grandma always liked to experiment with different ingredients, and came up with lots of different combinations. Last week I was cleaning my kitchen, and realized we had a few more apples than we would eat up before they were too soft, so I thought I would incorporate them into a cookie using the recipe above as a guide. Here is my recipe-

Apple Spice Cookies

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Ingredients:

6 medium apples thinly chopped and peeled
1 cup water

cream: 1 cup shortening, 1 3/4 c. sugar, 3 eggs, 1 t. vanilla
mix in separate bowl:3 cups flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 t.baking powder, 1 t. baking soda, 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon, 1/2 t. allspice

Add dry to wet, plus water and apples. Mix until blended.

Drop by rounded Tablespoons onto parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until set and lightly browned.

These are wonderful cakey cookies- perfect with a cup of tea- or as an after school snack. The whole family enjoyed them.

Sausage Rice Casserole

This last Friday I had the pleasure of hosting my husband's Aunt Gloria, along with my Father & Mother In-Laws, for dinner. It was the first time we ever met Aunt Gloria- she was visiting from Texas- and she brought with her lots of wonderful old family photo's from a branch of the family that we didn't know much about. Seeing all of the old pictures was wonderful- and my children enjoyed seeing pictures of cousins that they didn't even know they had. We all had a great time getting to know one another.

For dinner, I decided on an old family favorite casserole that I enjoy making. Because this recipe makes a lot, I usually save it for potlucks, and large family dinners, and since it is a nice savory dish, I have also served it at brunches, it really helps to balance out breakfast pastries, fruits, and goes well with eggs and potato side dishes as well. Here is this wonderful recipe.

Sausage Rice Casserole

2 lbs. mild sausage
1 large onion chopped
1 bunch celery chopped
2 Packets Lipton Noodle Soup w/Chicken broth
6 cups boiling water
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup rice
1/4 cup sliced Almonds (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Brown Sausage in a large deep pan, drain (but leave like a table spoon of grease in the pan) set aside sausage in a bowl, in pan used to brown sausage, lightly brown onion and celery, return sausage to pan along with the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 5 minutes, then transfer to a large baking pan, cover with foil, and bake for 2 hours at 350 F.

I do not use the Almonds because of my tree nut allergy- but when I was a child and hadn't developed my tree nut allergy yet, I used to really enjoy the almonds in this recipe. This casserole takes a little time to prep and bake- but is well worth the wait. I served this for dinner along with steamed carrots and Hawaiian Rolls. We had our favorite homemade Applesauce Spice Cake (see previous recipe posts for this recipe) for dessert. The casserole was also yummy as leftovers with eggs the next morning. Hope you give this recipe a try.

Emergency Essentials Food Storage Analyzer Review

I just got done checking out the Food Storage Analyzer over at Emergency Essentials Preparedness Pantry. What a wonderful tool to help keep track of the progress of your food storage and pantry. Not only does it allow you to track the items that you can purchase from them (lots of great freeze dried items & emergency equipment), but even items purchased from the grocery store. It allows you to input the age and gender and number of people you are storing for, and helps you analyze how long the food will last, as well as the nutritional information from the food you are storing. This program even gives you advice on what nutrients are lacking- it suggested that I need more vitamin C rich items as well as a couple others- and gave ideas as to what items would work to meet those needs.

Fun Analyzer- I think any one working on a pantry would enjoy using this free program. Check it out through this link below.

My Favorite Bible Mini Books for Lapbooks

I would like to share with you two of my very favorite Sunday School resources. Take-Home Bible Stories Old Testament & New testament. I have found so many uses for these little books in my Sunday School class. Anytime you teach a Bible story you can print one of these little story books to match. They are reproducible-I often will shrink them down to what ever size suits my craft. I love adding these stories to lapbooks- as well as putting one on the back of a craft.

I have two wonderful crafts planned for Palm Sunday & Easter Sunday that I will be sharing in the next week. I am using the mini books for this activity as well. I also used these mini books in my Moses lapbook that you can see in my older posts. I would highly recommend these to anyone who teaches Sunday school, or homeschools- they would make a wonderful addition to your Bible curriculum.

The links to find these at Amazon.com are posted above.

Au Gratin Potato Casserole

One of my favorite dinner recipes is Au Gratin Potato Casserole. This is a hearty dinner, that can be made in many variations, and is super easy to make. Here is my step by step recipe.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

10 Medium Red Potatoes (Russets will work also, but the reds are a little more tender)
1 can cream soup (mushroom, celery, or chicken)
1 soup can of milk
Any one of the following meats- 1 lbs cooked/browned hamburger or ground turkey, 2 cups diced ham or turkey ham, 2 cups cooked & diced chicken, or a 12.5 oz. can of chicken
2 cups Cheddar/Jack shredded cheese
Parmesan Cheese (basic dried grated type)
Parsley, Sea Salt, Pepper, Dehydrated Minced Onions

Drizzle Olive Oil on the bottom of a large roasting/baking pan, mix cream soup, milk, and cooked meat in a bowl, set aside, slice potatoes about 1/8 inch thin. Put a layer of Potatoes on the bottom of pan, pour half of the meat and soup mixture evenly over the layer of potatoes. Then sprinkle with parsley, a little Sea Salt, pepper, and dehydrated onions. Then sprinkle an even layer of half the cheese, and shake a thin layer of Parmesan cheese on top of the shredded cheese.

Then add another layer of potatoes, spread the other half of the soup & meat mixture over the potatoes, another sprinkle of parsley, sea salt, pepper, and dehydrated onions, then spread over the top the last cup of shredded cheese and a thin layer of Parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake for about an hour- I would check it at 45 minutes to see how it is doing.

I like to serve this with steamed broccoli. To save even more time, I have added broccoli to the layers as well, and cooked it right with the casserole. To make this as a side dish, you can leave out the meat, and you have an easy classic Au Gratin Potato side dish. No need for boxed dinner helpers with an easy and yummy recipe like this!

Crock Pot Lentil Barley Stew

Crock Pot Soups and Stews are one of my families favorite dinners. Every time I make something in the crock pot, the kids and hubby love the smell when they arrive home, and get excited for dinner. The aroma of soups and stews slow cooking through the day is one of those comforting and welcoming home and hearth smells.

Today I made a Lentil Barley Stew, here is how I made it.

1 bag lentils
1 cup dried barley
8 stalks chopped celery
2 medium chopped onions
1/2 bag frozen crinkle cut carrots
about 15-20 mini portobella mushrooms cut into quarters or sixths
1 can low fat chicken broth
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, cumin, crushed red pepper, garlic powder

I covered the washed and sorted lentils and barley with water, and the can of broth- usually I use more broth but this is all I had- which is really the whole point of soup & stews, using what you have, you could just as easily use veggie broth or beef stock. I let it cook on high for about an hour to start heating, then added a bit more water- you will want to check periodically the water level as the lentils and barley soak it up, and add more as needed to get that stew consistency, then add the onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms and spices. I do not measure spices, I always add spices at the beginning, middle and end of the cooking and taste to determine what I want to add- this is trial and error and is the best way to learn to make good soup for your family- if you are unfamiliar with a seasoning go easy- it really only takes a couple dashes of red crushed peppers to get a little heat- if you like more- add more- same for strong spices like garlic- some people love it, others don't- I only put in a couple dashes of garlic to boost the flavor, since I didn't have very much broth. Pretty much every soup I make starts with Onions, Carrots and celery, with a broth base, if you have these on hand you can always whip up a good soup, crushed tomatoes often find their way in my soups too- tonight I didn't add tomatoes, but I might next time. Cook on high for about 8 hours. I will be serving tonight's Lentil Barley stew with a super quick and easy batch of Bisquick Cheddar Garlic drop biscuits- you can find the recipe right on the box. Great way to feed the family veggies and grains!

Update: This was also yummy as a left over the next day- I added a dollop of Salsa & Sour Cream, gave it a whole new taste, and made a wonderful lunch!