I want to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Christmas
How to Make Asparagus in the Oven
Making asparagus at home can seem challenging but it’s not. It’s so very easy and a few years ago I shared my super easy way of making it in the oven. I know a lot of recipes that I’ve shared are ‘buried’ on my blog, so I want to start highlighting them in short blog posts over the next year.
Today’s highlighted recipe is obviously for oven asparagus, but I hope that as I share more, you’ll let me know if you try them out or find a new family favorite you really enjoy! Now onto the recipe! 🙂
Here’s the ‘pin’able version on how to make asparagus in the oven.
Here’s the printable version:
Oven Asparagus
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of asparagus (about 30 spears)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgen olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Cut ends off of asparagus then place asparagus on a baking sheet.
- Add extra-virgen olive oil, sea salt, and pepper to the asparagus and toss until asparagus is evenly coated and in a single layer.
- Cook for 10 minutes.
- Serve promptly and enjoy!
Do you enjoy asparagus? Do you make it at home?
A Vintage Christmas Party PLUS A Recipe for Mexican Milk Rice (aka Mexican Rice Pudding)
I shared this sponsored post a few years ago, but this is such a great recipe and relevant for the holidays so I’m sharing it again in 2020. I hope you enjoy.
Arroz con leche, Mexican milk rice, Mexican rice pudding…whatever you call the recipe I’m sharing in today’s blog post, I can tell that it’s simply sweet, creamy, and delicious.
And best of all, it’s ridiculously easy to make using non-GMO Minute® White Rice. I actually got a chance to share this recipe with other moms at a Vintage Christmas themed party last week, and it was a lot of fun!
We all brought dishes to the party that involved either Minute® White Rice, Minute® Whole Grain Brown Rice, or Minute® Multi-Grain Medley, and I can honestly say that I tasted some seriously flavorful new foods that I’m looking forward to making for my own family.
My personal favorite dish at the party (other than the Mexican milk rice that I brought and is a variation of my mom’s family recipe) was the brown rice lentil soup. It was SO good!
Now as for rice itself, I know that it can be a challenge to get right, but, trust me, it’s really hard to mess up rice when you use Minute® Rice. For real. It comes out just right every single time.
Drinks Using Rice
That’s right. You can even use Minute Rice to make drinks.
Maggie, our party host, created a beautiful and festive Horchata (rice milk) Bar for our coffee, so we all had the opportunity to indulge in a hot or iced coffee drink with our meal. I had a hot coffee with horchata creamer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you, Maggie! 🙂
Then after we finished lunch, we all made a Christmas craft to take home and enjoyed some delicious holiday treats. If you want more of a peek into my time at the party, the desserts, and that day, be sure to check out my latest vlog.
Mexican Milk Rice Recipe
Finally, I’m sharing the recipe for the Mexican milk rice I brought to the party. And I want to note that if you need to make more or less of the milk rice depending on your family size, it’s easy because the ingredients and the measurements are so straightforward and simple to adjust.
Here’s the printable recipe:
Mexican Milk Rice
Ingredients
- 3 cups long grain Minute® White Rice
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 cinnamon sticks
- 1-1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Add ingredients to a large pot and stir. (I use a 6 quart stockpot.)
- Turn the heat on to medium-high, and bring ingredients to a boil. This will take about 10 to 12 minutes.
- Once boiling, stir the ingredients, then reduce the heat to bring the rice down to a low simmer. Cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes.
- Once the rice has cooked for 15 minutes, turn off the heat, and let it sit covered for 15 more minutes.
- Remove the cover, take out the cinnamon sticks, lightly sprinkle with ground cinnamon, serve, and enjoy! Also, it should be noted that this milk rice can be served hot, warm, or cold. It's delicious any way you like it!
Do you cook with Minute® Rice? What are some of your favorite rice dishes?
Recipe: Easy Christmas Cookies
This is a sponsored post that I shared years ago. The recipe is still fabulous so I’m sharing it again this year.
Easy Christmas cookies — I’m all about them.
In fact, today, I’m sharing a super simple recipe for Christmas cookies and some ideas for decorating them, either on your own or with your kids. I think you’ll be able to tell from the pictures I share below just which ones I decorated and which ones my kids had fun with. 🙂
This Christmas…
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on where my family was at in life this time last year. I could write a whole blog post about that, but the short version is that this time last year, my 5-year-old son, David, had just received his life-saving bone marrow transplant, and we were living between his hospital room and the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital.
We spent Christmas in the hospital. In fact, when I woke up that morning, along with all the wonderful presents David’s nurses had snuck in for him as he slept, I noticed that my son was getting yet another blood transfusion. Thankfully, it would be his last.
But this year? Oh, this year is SO different! It’s different in the most wonderful and marvelous way, because we’re HOME! David has continued to get better, and his immune system is stronger and able to fight for him in ways it couldn’t before. However, knowing this doesn’t make me want to rush out and do a bunch of things we may have “missed” last year.
No, instead, we’re remembering to celebrate Christmas in simple ways, because believe it or not, while we expected Christmas to be simple last year… friends, family, and people we didn’t even know blessed our socks off with so many gifts! And let me tell you, those gifts helped to encourage David to take yet another dose of one of his many medications or go through yet another painful this or that. 🙁
To everyone who blessed us and prayed for us last Christmas, thank you! I wish I could thank each one of you personally.
Searching for Holiday Inspiration
One of the ways we’re celebrating a simple Christmas is by making holiday treats at home. Because when we do this, we also get the benefit of creating sweet memories together in the kitchen.
I own a couple of cookbooks that I can’t live without like using on a regular basis, but I also enjoy using my Asus Intel Tablet to look for recipe inspiration on Pinterest. In a previous post, I talked about how easy it is to use my tablet to stay organized, but it’s also handy and small enough to keep in the kitchen, either to search for new recipes or to follow a recipe you might be trying for the first time.
I said it in my last post, but I’ll say it again… I love the screen quality of the Asus Intel tablet. It’s amazing. It makes looking for new ideas on Pinterest even more enjoyable. 🙂
Easy Christmas Cookies
As for the treats, besides recently making chocolate pretzel bites for the first time, over the weekend, we also whipped up my favorite Christmas cookies ever.
Trust me. They’re delicious without any additions. But when you “frost” these cookies with melted white chocolate and sprinkle on a little red and green colored sugar, well, that’s when they become my favorite. 🙂
There’s no right or wrong way to decorate a Christmas cookie… at least not in my house. The possibilities are endless, especially when children are involved. 😉
However, here are just a few ideas for toppings when it comes to Christmas cookies:
And here’s the printable version of my favorite Christmas cookie recipe:
Easy Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened (use softened coconut oil for dairy-free cookies)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (white whole wheat flour works great as well)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- sprinkles, colored sugar, frosting, melted chocolate chips, red and green M&M's (optional for decorating)
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl and using a mixer on low speed, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Then beat in the vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Slowly beat the floured mixture into creamed mixture until the ingredients are all incorporated.
- Using a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon (so that the cookies are the same size) and an additional spoon (to help scoop the dough out of the measuring spoon), measure out the cookies and drop them onto an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Roll each cookie into a ball, and then using the back of a spoon or your palm, gently press down on each cookie to slightly flatten it.
- Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely.
- Optional: Decorate cookies using frosting, melted chocolate, sprinkles, M&M's, and colored sugar. This recipe makes approximately 38 cookies.
This Christmas season is one I’m holding near to my heart. It’s a reminder of God’s grace and how far David has come over the past year. I think keeping this entire month simple has been a meaningful reminder of how absolutely blessed we are. 🙂
Do you make Christmas cookies with your kids? What are some of your favorite holiday treats?
