Kaake Family Blog

My mother made these from as long as I could remember while growing  up.  I was shocked that it was almost impossible to find this recipe online.  So, not only am I posting these here to share with you, but to also make sure I always have a copy of this wonderful recipe.   I hope you had a lovely and peaceful Christmas! Purdue Spiced Nuts Ingredients: 3-4 cups walnuts, pecans or both 1 egg white slightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoon cinnamon Directions: 1. Put egg white and nuts in a bowl and stir well till all nuts are covered with egg white. 2. Add sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Stir till the nuts are well coated with this mixture. 3. Remove excess sugar mixture through sieve and spread nuts on baking sheet.   4. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or till nuts are dry.    Store in airtight container.

Some "Christmas Facts": Christmas started out as a pagan holiday. Jesus was not born in a cold December.  Some believe it was in the spring while others believe it was closer to fall. The wise men did not visit the baby right after he was born.  The shepherds were first to visit Him. My love language is gift giving (and receiving).  I used to think I was a selfish person because of that but now know it's the way I feel and show love and there's nothing wrong with that.  This year we decided that we would give our children their gifts the 24th of December.  On the 25th (the day we set aside to celebrate Christ's birth), we would have a full birthday party for Jesus.  Today we'll be having cake, games, reading the true birth of our Lord, etc...  The kids can't wait and neither can I.  May the love of our Lord fill your heart today and always!  To find out more facts about the the birth of Christ, visit this site ....

I got this idea from a blog online.  You can find her post in it's entirety here .  While coming closer and closer to Christ's birth, we are working hard at trying to make sure we are focused on the reason we are celebrating Christmas; Jesus birth.  Tonight I plan to have a Jewish style dinner with my family. For our dinner: pita bread hummus dates almonds lentil soup grape juice Dessert: Honey cake Music: http://www.youtube.com/user/felsefetor#p/u/2/CwV7dxR_UlM   (we're using this solely for the music) Costume: dressing up in robes and sandals Misc: basin for hand washing use oil lamp sitting down and eating our food on the coffee table

I've copied this from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I LOVE her blog post and thought you'd enjoy it too.  You can find her post in it's entirety here. Letter of the Week Blend Ladders Download the Letter of the Week K4 Blend Ladders As part of my  K4 add on’s  I am having my daughter do some beginning reading. I posted these awhile back with different animals, but here they are with my  Letter of the Week  themes. For each consonant we practice reading the blends with each vowel. We also add another consonant on the end to make small CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words using magnetic alphabet letters. Hope you have fun with beginning reading skills!

I wanted to do one of these for Jon when he was little but never got to it.  Now, several years later I've finally started AND completed one of these little books.  I'd love to add more pages in the future, but for now I call this good.   Knowing Joshie, he'll love this!  I can't wait to see him get it on Christmas Day!                                                        A Big Letter "J" for Joshua! A black fuzzy buckle to play with; fringed felt to run his sweet baby fingers through and a red wagon; every little boys dream. Cut out shapes with velcro for matching and a Kangaroo mama and with a baby roo that peeks in and out of her pouch.                       A dolphin leaping out of the waves (that make noise) and a cow with a jingling bell. Last bu...

Yes you read right! I was trying to figure out what to serve our guests tomorrow and decided on a whole boneless ham with a pancake buffet. The sky is the limit. Some people like to offer mix-ins as well but I was trying to keep cost down and keep things simple. Here's what we are having. Toppings: homemade applesauce homemade buttered pecans powdered sugar cinnamon fresh whipped cream homemade blueberry sauce bananas Toasted Pecans Ingredients: 2 cups raw pecans 3-4 tablespoons melted butter up to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt Directions: l. Place nuts on a cookie sheet and drizzle with melted butter; then sprinkle with salt. 2. Roast in a 325 degree oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. 3. Drain over paper towels and let cool. Store in airtight container. Oh and last but not least, let us not forget this scrumptious pancake recipe .

Tuna macaroni salad is one of my favorite main dish salads. I used to look and look for the perfect recipe until not too long ago. I was at a local health food store and asked them what they used for their dressing. Their reply, "mayonnaise". How simple! Here's our now favorite and simple recipe. Tuna Macaroni Salad Ingredients: cooked, drained and cooled noodles frozen peas, cooked and cooled mayoonaise hard boiled egg, chopped sweet onion, minced canned tuna drained shredded cheddar cheese, optional canned and drained tuna pepper Directions: 1. Mix all ingredients together. Add enough mayo to make everything moist. Simple and divine! It's best the second day. You may need to add just a bit more mayo the next day. If you need to garnish, this would look lovely in a cupped whole lettuce leaf (as the bowl) with the salad in the center and sprinkled lightly with paprika.

Our brave men leading the parade. Jon giving a card to a veteran. Today was such a wonderful day! I thought instead of sitting at home and watching a 3 minute long video on Veteran's Day, we'd go ahead and go to a local Veteran's Day Parade. While getting ready to go, I had the kids make Veteran's Day cards for the veterans we'd see while we were there; not realizing it'd be at least as much of a blessing to us. It was so neat seeing the kids hand out the cards and the surprise and then extreme gratefulness that followed. It not only brought tears to my eyes but the eyes of the receivers. Too often, we don't realize just how much these wonderful men and women have done for us. While one veteran was up giving a speech, he told us of the time he had just returned home from Vietnam. He was so proud to be a soldier and be serving his country. THe battle was long, hard and many people had died. Instead of returning home for a hero's welcome, this man ...

Here are some of my favorite holiday recipes that are not only very yummy, but healthier too. I will be adding more very soon. Cut-Out Sugar Cookies - without the sugar by The Nourishing Apron I would actually call them honey cut out cookies if it were me.  I added in lemon flavoring.  I think a cream cheese, honey and lemon icing would be very yummy!  I also rolled mine a bit thicker and had to bake for 18 minutes. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup cold butter 1 teaspoon almond extract 1/4 cup honey. Directions: 1. Pulse butter and flour in food processor till mixture resembles course crumbs. 2. Drizzle honey and extract through the top hole of the processor while pulsing till mixture begins to hold together. 3. Gather dough into a ball and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.  Roll into 1/8 inch thick and cut into desired shapes.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 300 degrees for 8-10 minutes. 4. Remove to a wire wrack t...

I'm a scheduling person; always have been. I've always wanted our evenings to be run on some sort of schedule but was never full pleased with how it worked out. Below is an idea of how I used to have it set up. Every night: Dinner at 5 Family devotions following Monday: Library Night Tuesday: Family Game Night Wednesday: Family Wii time Thursday: Family Reading Night Friday: Family Movie Night It worked ok but wasn't flexible enough for me. I've really been wanting our kids to also have one on one time with mom and dad separately and was trying to figure out how to do that. Here's what I've come up with. Monday: Family together night. Do something together as a family. Tuesday: Daddy spends time with boys and mama spends time with daughter. Wednesday: Family together night. Do something together as a family. Thursday: Mama and daddy spend some alone time together and kids do something safe and alone together. Friday: D...

There's a nasty cold going around with a cough that likes to linger. I didn't have any natural chest rub on hand so I thought I'd make some. Thank the Lord, I had everything but the eucalyptus essential oil on hand. I saw several recipes online that looked neat. I also wanted to make sure that whatever I made would be helpful for the kids and baby as well. I ended up meshing a couple recipes together (story of my life) and here's what I came up with. The original recipe called for 30 drops eucalyptus eo but none of the other essential oils. Below is the recipe I used. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon beeswax 5 tablespoons coconut oil 20 drops eucalyptus essential oil 6 drops lavender essential oil 3 drops tea tree oil Directions: 1. Using a double boiler (or I used a glass bowl in a boiling pot of water), melt the coconut oil and beeswax. Stir well. 2. After melted well till there are no more little pieces of beeswax, let the mixture sit a bit till it star...

Picture by Taste of Home. My cake looks very similar other than mine is a bit fluffier :) I LOVE chocolate oat cakes. The main reason (even before I was a health nut) is because they were not sickly sweet. I had a recipe here at home that I wanted to convert using all natural sweeteners. It still takes unbleached flour instead of whole wheat but other than that, it's a lot more healthy than most cakes. Keep in mind, this is not meant to be really sweet. It does however satisfy my sweet tooth. This was my first time converting a cake recipe over to partial honey as an ingredient. I'm very excited with the texture and flavor. Yeah! A huge thanks to my sil, Beka for always encouraging me to keep trying :) Ingredients: 1 cup old fashioned oats 1 1/2 cups boiling water 2/3 cup rapadura, sucunat or demera (I used rapadure aka whole cane sugar) 1/2 cup softened butter 2 large eggs 3/4 cup honey 1 3/4 cups unbleached flour 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 heaping ta...

I got a very cute little book from the library yesterday. Today, Jon and I snuggled on our oversized chair after we had done school for a relaxed book reading. The book starts out with a little girl who is going to see her Grandpa. She wanted to take him a gift, so off she goes with "a beautiful bunch of bananas". Along the way she meets all kinds of obstacles. The first sweeps the bananas right out of her arms and into the water. She has 4 other mishaps on the short trip to her Grandpa's house that cause her to lose her gift for her Grandpa. During this whole time, she never complains, sits down and cries or gives up. She continues on her journey regardless of the obstacles knowing that she is soon going to reach her destination; her Grandfather's house. While reading through this book it reminded me of the Christian life. Obstacles will always come; and generally when we least expect them. They will sometimes throw us for a whirl, while stretching our fa...

Donate a coat to a shelter, or purchase another "hip" outfit. Buy a second sports car, or donate to a favorite charity for those truly in need. Drink your morning Starbucks, or make coffee at home and give the rest of that saved money to sponsor a child in need. Spend your time engrossed in the newest tv show, or spend some of those hours working in a soup kitchen, at CPC or other place. Dine out nightly or take dinner to a shut in, widow or family who cannot afford a nice meal. I could go on but I'll leave you with the words of our Lord. Luke 3:10,11 And the crowds were questioning him saying, "Then what shall we do?" And he would answer and say to them, "the man who has two tunics, is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise". " Crisis Pregnancy Center - in the U.S, Crisis Pregnancy Centers are set up all over. Look in your yellow pages or do a google search to find one near you. These centers are a...

Does that make sense? The thought I'm trying to convey here is making up food ahead of time for those times when you need something quick to grab. When I got my car, I was running a lot more than usual and eating out a lot more. So not worth my budget or my health. Here are a couple things I have made in the past few days to get ahead of the game. Both are SO yummy! (picture borrowed) Baked Oatmeal - I got this recipe from my friend Jennifer. You bake it, eat a single portion and refrigerate the rest. I like it leftover cold or warm. It's especially good warm with vanilla yogurt on the top. Oh and this oatmeal is not your usual baked oatmeal. It's more like a very moist cake. Very flavorful unlike most of them. This can be eaten by itself and enjoyed immensely. Ingredients: 6 cups oats 4 t baking powder 1-2 t cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups buttermilk, rice milk, soy milk, etc.. 4 eggs 3/4 cup oil 1 cup honey 1 t. vanilla 3 cups fresh fruit or fr...

A friend made mention not long ago that onion soup is great for colds. I knew eating onions and garlic was good for them but never put two and two together. I LOVE French Onion soup but had never found that one recipe....TILL NOW. Here is my yummy adapted French Onion Soup recipe. The recipes I saw online mostly had sugar or wine in them. Since I don't want to use sugar and I don't have wine in the house, here's what I came up with. I think it turned out very nice. Ingredients: 4 cups thinly sliced vidalia onions 1/4 cup butter 4 cups beef broth pepper to taste french bread swiss cheese Directions: 1. Melt butter in pan and add onions. Cook slowly over a medium/low heat for 20-30 minutes till almost carmalized. 2. Add in pepper and beef broth and bring to a boil. 3. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 20 minutes. 4. If desired, slice french bread and put on baking pan. Top with shredded cheese and broil till cheese is a bit bubbly. Add on the top ...

Borrowed picture :) I wanted something yummy, dessert like and sugar free. I have a book called Harvest Cooking by Keith Snow. His recipes all look amazing! He has a rice pudding recipe that looks good but I wasn't in the mood to put dried cherries in mine. I also wanted to add some cinnamon. Here is my altered recipe. I hope you like it as much as I do. I'm thinking it will serve at least 6 people. Rice Pudding 1 1/2 cups short grain rice - dry not cooked. 2 cups milk 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 3/4 cup organic raisins - Meijer has HUGE and very tasty organic raisins. MUCH better than the regular. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. If not using pure, use 2 teaspoons. 1/2 cup maple syrup Directions: 1. Cook rice according to directions. 2. Add in milk, cinnamon, raisins and vanilla. Cook on a medium low heat (or lower) till milk is absorbed and you have a creamy rice pudding. 3. When done add in maple syrup and stir. You can heat a bit more if it gets too coo...

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. Sore throat, tired, runny nose - yeah a cold. I wanted something yummy, soothing and healthy at the same time. I found this wonderful recipe on My Years Without Sugar . In it she had a lovely recipe that I will post below. In the future, I would add a bit more honey and a bit less cacao. I also used 1/3 cup coconut milk (thai canned coconut milk) and 2/3 cup boiling water. Another thing to mention is coconut milk, raw honey and cacao are all so healthy for you and touted as superfoods. Drink up to health and tasty goodness! Coconut Milk Hot Chocolate 1/3 cup coconut milk 2/3 cup boiling water 2 heaping spoons of pure cocoa 1 small spoonfull honey (or more for sweeter) dash of vanilla To my french press I added the coconut milk then stirred in cocoa and vanilla. After pouring in the boiling water, I stirred in the honey and then pumped my French press to mix and make it frothy.

What is going unplugged? Well, each person's definition varies. Some people say it means unplugging everything! Not even using electricity at all for things like the stove, etc... for the period of time they are unplugging. Others, like myself pick and choose. Why unplug? For our family, a time of unplugging will be to reconnect with one another. Don't get me wrong, I love my gadgets, the online arena, etc.. as well as get great info from it that is actually helpful to me and my family. However, it's easy to go overboard. You know it's bad when your husband is in one room on his laptop or ipad and you're in the den chatting away - online. So, what is our plan? Well, Matthew and I are still in the planning phases. This is something I have longed to do for a very long time. Ideally we'll be unplugged for set times during the day and then for one whole day, we'll be totally unplugged (to our standards). No tv, no computer, ipad, ipod, radio, ...

What a gem! I went to pick up some books today that I planned on purchasing from a fellow homeschooler. She said she had a book she thought we might be able to use and she'd throw it in for free. THe book is called Natural Wonders by Jan Thurman-Veith. I've been homeschooling for over 7 years now, so it takes something for me to get excited. I've pretty much seen it, done that, etc... Well, I have not seen this book till today and it's amazing! Very easy to use, great concepts, lots of fun for the kiddos, etc... The first page got me hooked. Now of course the whole book isn't about mushy feelings. However, being a mushy mom, I loved this! Here's what it says. Animal Affections Each child chooses an animal to be and then shows the affection the animal might give. Bear Hug - wrap arms around someone and give the biggest, strongest, tightest hug bearable. Butterfly Kisses - Flutter eyelashes on someone's neck Caterpillar Squeeze - Wrap someone tig...

She is not afraid of the snow for her household, For all her household are clothed with scarlet. Proverbs 31:21 I read a lovely blog the today about preparing for winter. What a lovely idea! It's kind of what we've been doing freezing fruits and veggies, but this took it to a whole new level. Here is the link to that article. For me and my family, things are a bit different here so this is what I"m hoping to do/have on hand. 1. plenty of blankets 2. flashlights with batteries 3. clean small room heaters and have them in a handy place. 4. clean humidifiers and put them in a handy place. 5. take winter clothing out of storage for the kids and myself and see what we need to get/get rid of. 6. get out the cover for in front of the fire place. 7. clean the basement for those long winter nights so the kids can play/exercise (yes us parents too). 8. have herbs, raw honey and spices on hand for the herbal remedies we make. 9. have kool-aid packets on hand for m...

A picture my daughter took of me at the nature preserve. Isn't she a great photographer! I have been asked by several people over the years what led me down this different path. Well, here goes. This is nothing at all against the way I was raised - this is simply my story. As a child I developed hay fever around age 5. You can see in all my school pictures that my eyes are squinted and weepy for the first day of school. My first day of school was always taking mini kleenex packages with me and having semi-swollen and weeping eyes. As I got a bit older I started getting throat, tonsil and ear infections. It got to the point where I would have at least 2-3 cases of each every year. By the time I turned 17 I was calling in my doctor's office telling him what ailment I had and could he please get me an antibiotic. At age 21 as a single mom I had become anti-biotic resistant to everything but the $100 antibiotic. That was something I just could not afford. It was...

I have so many friends and family members pregnant. With that in mind it got me thinking about my favorite baby products, items Nosefrida This crazy little snot sucker is amazing and has kept my boys from getting more sick because of mucus build up. Once it's stuck in the nose area it breeds more bacteria leaving little ones sick longer. I was referred to this by my friend Jamie Veprek. I'll admit, at first I was grossed out by the idea but knew i needed something that cleared out the little noses better than anything I've used before. These are amazing! When congestion was bad I'd put my baby in his bassinet in the bathroom with me. I'd take a nice hot shower to steam it up well, thus helping loosen the stuff in his nose. After I got out I'd suck like crazy and clear out his nose followed by a saline solution if it was really bad. It worked wonders! I also did this with my son Jon. As soon as we got the nasty green stuff out, he was feeling bette...