Delicious by Debbie

Mom’s No Bake Cookies

Just the smell of the chocolate and peanut butter being cooked together brought us running. And the fact that we didn’t have to wait for them to bake was a real plus

It’s been years since I’ve made these, but I found my mothers recipe and just had to make some. I wanted a little less sugar so I used 1/2 regular sugar and 1/2 sweetener. You can’t tell that it’s not all sugar. They are sweet and simply delicious 👍

Old Fashioned No Bake Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups sugar (1 used 1/2 sugar & 1/2 sweetener)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1/4 tsp vanilla flavoring

1/2 creamy or crunchy Peanut Butter

3 cups old fashioned Oats (Quick Oats work fine too)

1. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan

2. Add sugar/sweetener and stir well

3. Add cocoa, milk & vanilla. Stir well and continue stirring until it comes to a full boil for 1 minute.

4. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter

5. Stir in oats

6. Spoon or scoop onto wax paper or parchment paper lined pan.

7. Place in refrigerator to chill & set.

8. Makes 24-27 cookies

Quick Breakfast Casserole

I’m not a morning person, even though I get up early. I’d sleep later if I could, but once I wake up I go ahead and get up. So, I like to have something’quick’ if I’m going to eat breakfast.

I’ve been making this casserole for years, and it is definitely fast and simple. You can use bacon, ham, sausage, or any breakfast meat you desire. They all are good👍

The video of me making this is at the bottom of this page.

Quick Breakfast Casserole

1 tube of crescent rolls

1-1/2 cups cooked and cut bacon (bacon bits are good to use, or try cooked crumbled sausage)

1-1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese

6 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk or half & half

1-1/2 Tbsp Ranch dressing mix

1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9×13 baking pan

2. Spread crescent rolls on bottom of baking dish, seal perforated areas together

3. Sprinkle bacon pieces (or sausage) over crescent roll dough

4. Spread cheddar cheese evenly over the bacon

5. Whisk together the eggs, milk, black pepper & ranch dressing mix

6. Pour over the entire casserole

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until center is set & no egg still runny in the middle (mine was done in 25 minutes

8. Allow it to cool for several minutes and enjoy❤️

9. This can be refrigerated for several days and reheated I the microwave.

Blueberry Lemon Scones

I’m not a person who likes biscuits and I don’t care for sweet things. But at our church camp, the cook fixed some blueberry scones. They were delicious! Not very sweet and not a biscuit.

So, I decided to try my hand at some scones and decided to make mine blueberry lemon. They were a hit at our house. So good that I’ve made them twice!

Blueberries are in season now, so it was easy to find some that were ripe and sweet. Frozen blueberries can be used also, but don’t thaw them or they will bleed into the dough, and you will have purple/blue scones. Give these a try and see if you like them as much as we do❤️

Blueberry Lemon Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar (or sweetener equivalent)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into small squares and chilled till cold

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup cream (or half & half, or whole milk)

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking pan or cover with parchment paper. I used my baking stone.

2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder & salt

3. Cut in the chilled butter cubes using a pastry blender or your hands (can also be done with the paddle blade of your mixer or a food processor) Mixture should have the texture of coarse meal.

4. Fold in the blueberries and lemon zest, being careful not to squish the berries.

5. Whisk together the cream, egg & vanilla flavoring

6. Pour over the dry ingredients and carefully mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until dough comes together.

7. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and gently knead a few times

8. Press dough approximately an 8 inch circle, and 3/4-1 inch thick.

9. Cut into 8 pie shaped wedges

10. Place onto prepared baking pan about 2 inches apart

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

12. Remove from baking pan to a wire rack

13. When cool, mix icing ingredients and drizzle over scones.

14. Enjoy!!

Chicken Crescent Bundles

I looked around in my refrigerator and freezer trying to decide what to have for dinner! I had a tube of crescent rolls and a bit of cooked and shredded chicken. And this is what I came up with!

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. We absolutely loved it and my hubby wants me to make it again. Good thing I wrote my recipe down as soon as I popped them in the oven, or I might not have remembered later🥺

Chicken Crescent Bundles

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup (10.5 oz)

4 oz Cream Cheese

1 Tbsp. Ranch seasoning

2 Tbsp. Chopped onion

1-1/2 cups shredded chicken

1 tube Crescent Rolls

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray or grease an 8-9 inch pan.

2. Place the contents of the can of chicken soup in a sauce pan, over medium heat.

3. Add cream cheese to soup & stir until well combined.

4. Add onion & ranch seasoning and mix together.

5. Add shredded chicken and stir well. Remove from heat

6. Remove crescent rolls from tube and place side by side on counter, flatten them a bit.

7. Put a spoonful of the chicken mixture on the wide end of each roll.

8. Turn in wide ends, over the chicken, and wrap long end around entire bundle.

9. Place in prepared pan

10. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Old-Fashioned Fried Potatoes

This was a pretty regular meal in our home when I was growing up. Mom had a really big iron skillet and she would fill it full. Oh how we loved fried potatoes!

As a wife and mother I have made fried potatoes several times, but not quite as often as Mom did. Today we are more conscious of fats & carbs, but every once and awhile we get hungry for fried potatoes 👍

Old-Fashioned Fried Potatoes

4 Tbsp bacon drippings or olive oil

3 (or desired amount) potatoes, sliced thinly

1 small onion sliced

Salt & pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. Garlic powder

3 Tbsp bacon bits(optional)

1. Heat olive oil or bacon drippings in heavy skillet

2. Slice potatoes (I left skins on) fairly thin and place in heated oil.

3. Stir frequently to prevent burning

4. Before completely done, add sliced onion, separating into rings, and stir well

5. Add bacon bits if desired (optional) and garlic powder, salt and pepper

6. When potatoes are browned and onion is done, remove from heat and place in serving bowl.

Freezing Fresh Beets

I love red beets! I asked my husband to plant some this year and they did really well. So I decided to freeze them. In the past I have canned them, and they were good, but it seemed that they lost a lot of their color in the processing. And besides, freezing them is much faster!

A few years ago I canned some pickled beets, but I’m the only one in our house who will eat them. I love making pickled eggs with my pickled beet juice! But, there again, I’m the only here that would eat them.

So, watch my video on Facebook or YouTube Delicious by Debbie and see how easy it is!

Freezing Beets

Desired amount of beets

Large pan of boiling water

Zipper Seal Quart bags

1. Wash beets to remove as much dirt as possible

2. Add washed beets to boiling water

3. Boil for approximately 15 minutes (with a knife, test to see if skins will slip off)

4. Drain and cool beets until you can handle them

5. Slip skins off and cut off both ends

6. Slice beets to desired thickness

7. Pack into bags and flatten and zipper seal each bag, removing as much air as possible

8. Mark the date on each bag

9. Place in freezer!

Soft Banana Cookies

I still remember the delicious smell that drifted through the house when Mom made cookies! But the very favorite ones for me were her soft banana cookies with a touch of icing on the top❤️

It’s been many years since I’ve had them, but I got so hungry for them that I went on a hunt for the recipe! I had two very ripe bananas on hand, so the time was perfect.

Instead of a plain white vanilla icing, I made some cream cheese icing….it was perfect! And, I added some miniature chocolate chips which absolutely put them over the top. I shared some with a friend, who I later found out doesn’t like a typical‘banana bread’, but loved these cookies!!

Soft Banana Cookies

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp. Vanilla flavoring

2 large ripe bananas, mashed (approximately 1 cup)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a baking sheet, or parchment lined

2. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

3. Add mashed bananas, egg and vanilla and mix until smooth

4. Add the flour, salt and soda and mix until well combined.

5. Add chocolate chips (optional) and mix in.

6. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, drop onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges.

8. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp softened butter

3 ounces softened cream cheese

1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

1. Mix all ingredients together, with an electric mixer, until smooth

2. When cookies are cool, spread frosting on top

3. Allow cookies to set until frosting can be touched

4. Cookies can be frozen…..if you have any left😎

Mom Blowers Biscuits

I don’t remember my mother making biscuits when we were growing up. She made homemade bread, rolls & sweet rolls very frequently. They were the best!

Fast forward, and now I’m marred and my husband asks for biscuits. So I called my MIL, who by the way was a fabulous cook, and asked for her recipe. Her response: ‘Oh, I don’t have a recipe written down, it’s in my head.’ She assured me that next time she made them she would do her best to measure the ingredients and come up with a recipe.

Not long after my request to my MIL, I got a letter from her. (Snail mail was all we had back then🥺). She had written down the recipe: 2 cups flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, shortening the size of a large egg, enough milk to make it thicker than cake batter but not too runny to roll out!! That was the recipe!

Over the years I have tweaked her recipe, and my husband says he likes them better than his moms (we’re allowed to say that now that she is gone). So, give these a try and see what you think!

Mom Blowers Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp. Baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp shortening

3/4-1 cup buttermilk (regular milk will work)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking pan

2. Measure all dry ingredients into bowl

3. Add shortening and mix with a pastry blender until we’ll combined.

4. Gradually add buttermilk (or regular milk) stirring after each addition, until dough is moist enough to roll into a ball

5. Spoon dough onto floured surface and knead a few times

6. Flatten to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with round cutter or rim of a glass, dipped in flour

7. Place in greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until slightly browned on top & bottom

8. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Ham & Cheese Braid

When it’s warm outside, actually it’s been HOT, no one wants a big meal. So, I experimented and hit on a good recipe that I’ll repeat!

It actually was fun to make, and only took a few ingredients. I had everything I needed on hand. I could have made my own dough, but the tube of pizza dough worked perfect and was quick.

My husband was happy there were leftovers and used the air fryer to warm some up for himself the next day.

Ham & Cheese Braid

1 tube of pizza crust dough

Honey mustard, or mustard of you choice

Deli ham slices, approximately 8 slices

6-7 slices Swiss cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Spray a sheet pan or long cookie sheet

3. Roll dough into a rectangle on counter top

4. Add honey mustard down the middle

5. Fold ham slices in 1/2 & place dow the center of the dough

6. Lay Swiss cheese slices on top of ham

7. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of Swiss cheese slices

8. Cut dough into an even number of strips on each side of meat & cheese

9. Turn ends up onto meat & cheese

10. Put strips of dough over the meat & cheese, alternating from either side

11. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

12. Remove from oven & brush with butter

13. Sprinkle with garlic powder, optional

Pressure Canning Chicken

For a video guide please go to Facebook or YouTube Delicious by Debbie

It’s so convenient to go to the shelf in the basement and get a jar of home canned chicken. Yes, you can buy canned chicken, but I love doing my own.

Some will say, that’s a lot of work! Yes, it is, but if you get a good price on chicken, it’s great to preserve it by canning it. I have a freezer but always worry about losing food if the electric ever goes off for any extended period of time.

I’m NOT a canning expert, and someone is sure to find fault with how I do mine, but this works for me. I’m 68 and started canning with my mother when I was quite young, and this is how we do it!

Pressure Canned Chicken

Desired amount of raw chicken you desire to can

1/2 tsp salt per pint

1/2 tsp Herbs de Provence (optional), or seasonings you prefer

Jar lids & rings

Pressure canner

1. Place jars in dishwasher and run through cycle

2. Cut chicken into chunks the size you desire

3. Place raw chicken into jars pressing it down slightly (leave 1 inch headspace

4. Add salt & herbs, or other seasonings

5. Wipe off rim of each jar

6. Apply lid and then ring to each jar

8. Add 2 quarts water to pressure canner along with the jars of chicken

9. Place on large burner and pressure can pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure, according to your pressure canner instructions.

10. Allow canner to cool, off of burner, until all pressure is released.

11. Remove to an area where they can cool slowly as they seal

12. When completely cooled (usually the next day) wipe jars off thoroughly and store in a cool dry place

13. Enjoy many different ways…chicken soup or casserole, chicken salad, chicken & noodles….any way you want to😎