Month: November 2015
5 Great Brunch Recipes In Time For The Holidays
The holidays are approaching very quickly and with holidays comes company! Having family and friends stay all Thanksgiving weekend or for an extended Christmas? It’s hard enough to have to plan the actual holiday meal, but what about feeding your guests for the remainder of their visit? These recipes don’t have to be brunch-exclusive, they can also be used for breakfast or even dinner! These are just five of the MANY out there. Don’t forget the sides like fresh fruit, bacon and sausage and make sure you stock up on butter and syrup! Just click on the picture of each item to get to the original recipe.
Sausage Hashbrown Casserole
This is a classic breakfast/brunch recipe and can be found in numerous places on the internet as well as in many cookbooks. I chose this recipe because the steps are clear, there are a lot of pictures and it got a lot of good reviews. This recipe can be put together ahead of time and then just popped in the oven when ready to bake.
Overnight French Toast Casserole
This is another recipe you can prep ahead of time and cook when ready. So easy to wake up pull out of the frig and pop in the oven. The nice thing about French Toast is that you can put out toppings to everyone’s liking. We love cinnamon and sugar on ours, but maple syrup, fresh fruit and powdered sugar are all yummy too!
Good Old Fashioned Pancakes
We used to be Bisquick pancake eaters, but one weekend morning we ran out. Upon looking for a recipe to make pancakes, we came across this one and will never go back to a packaged pancake mix. This recipe is SO good. They are so good on their own, but we’ve also done a chocolate chip version and a blueberry version- YUM!
Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal
I am not a huge fan of oatmeal, but this recipe is really good! There are many variations to the flavor of this dish by adding different fruit. Just a note, mine took a bit longer to cook then the recipe states. Could have been my oven.
Crock Pot Cinnamon Roll Casserole
How easy is this? Your guests will love waking up to the smell of cinnamon buns and if you have any children or children guests, they are bound to love this!
Oven Roasted Breakfast Potatoes
We can’t forget the potatoes! Breakfast potatoes are my favorite breakfast food! This is a simple recipe and definitely can be put together the night before and baked in the morning.
What would brunch be without a little kick? Below are a few variations (click on the picture for the recipe) that are sure to please you and your guests!
Christmas Crafts To Do With Kids
I can not believe that It’s soon that time of the year again- but my favorite! Christmas!! Every year my kids and I do Christmas crafts and my kids also make a handmade gift for their grandparents and godparents. This post is a cumulation of the grandparent/godparent gifts, fun Christmas activities to do together and other Christmas crafts we’ve done in the past along with a few new ideas I have found and would like to try.
Glitter Glue Pine Cone Ornaments
We made these to give as favors to guests who attended our Christmas Open House Party. They were very easy to make and look really nice on the tree. If you can’t find any pinecones in your yard, you can purchase them at a craft store. We put small dabs of colored glitter glue around the cone and hot glued a bow made out of Christmas ribbon and a piece of twine as the hanger.
Candy Cane Reindeer
This was another favor we made to give out to guests after one of our Christmas Open House Parties. We glued on google eyes and small red pom poms for the nose. Then we used brown pipe cleaners to ties on the top as the antlers. I then grouped them and wrapped with a Christmas ribbon and each one had a tag with the family’s name on it.
Photo Frames
This was a grandparent/godparent gift. I picked up a bunch of wooden frames from the craft store and the kids painted and decorated each one and then we put their school photo inside and they made really nice gifts.
Button Christmas Trees
I saw this idea on Pinterest and liked it, but modified it a little bit (our project is the picture on the right). We actually did this project during one of our homeschool days. As you can see, I cut out a different shaped tree, gave them glue and buttons. Both kids and I came up with completely different designs and it was fun to ask people to guess who made which tree.
Gingerbread Houses
Of course you can always do the classic gingerbread house. I love getting the houses that are pre-iced because it saves a lot of time and in my case, a lot of mess! In the past years I have seen many variations pop up as well including Mickey Mouse house, princess castle, trains, etc. You can find the kits anywhere, I have seen them in Christmas Tree Shop, Joann Fabrics, Michaels, Costco and at most grocery stores.
I discovered a few years back that having one house was not going to cut it in my house. My son likes to follow the picture on the box, while my daughter tends to want to do her own thing. So I started buying the village. It comes with four houses. They each get two and can decorate however they like. You do however have to put these together yourself, which in my experience was a little messy and frustrating. The triangles tend to slide off. Since we don’t eat them, maybe this year I will hot glue it and then cover in frosting.
Pineapple Top Bird Feeder
I was cutting a pineapple and the top was so perfect and looked like a Christmas tree to me. I started thinking about what I could do with it instead of throwing it out. I decided to make a bird feeder out of it. I spread Crisco shortening on the leaves to provide a base for the bird food to stick and then sprinkled in plenty of bird food. I topped it off with a piece of pineapple that I cut into a star (every Christmas tree needs a star)! I placed it out on the back deck and the birds loved it.
Cork Christmas Tree
I found this on Pinterest and thought it was a really cute craft to make (picture linked to source). I save all my corks and this is a great way to reuse them. I haven’t made this yet, but might use the idea for one of our grandparent/godparent gifts in the future.
Twig Stars
This is another idea I found on Pinterest, but have not made yet (picture linked to source). I think these are very cute to use as Christmas decorations and look easy enough to make that the kids can definitely help!
Sock Snowmen
Last, but not least, cute idea, but major fail for us! First picture is what is should look like, second picture is mine. See my post about this project here: http://wp.me/p67FXB-1q
I hope you find a useful and fun idea here! If so, let me know how it works out for you! Happy Christmas crafting!
The Well Organized Mom 