Mudballs

Ever had No-Bake cookies? These are a healthier version I found on Heavenly Homemakers blog. They are really pretty good considering I'd never used wheat germ or sesame seeds:) I've heard that you can sub out the sesame seeds for sunflower or flax seed for the wheat germ. Maggie loved them and calls them her "meatballs". They keep great in the freezer too!

Ingredients

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup sesame seeds

Combine PB and honey is medium saucepan over medium heat until the two are smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together well. Once chocolate chips have melted and mixture is cool enough to handle, hand roll into small balls. Wax paper is handy but not necessary. I got about 2 dozen balls out of these equivalents and it wasn't nearly enough! I'd double for sure next time.

Crunchy Munchies

These are a kicked up Rice Krispy Treat and they are awesome. Just got done making a batch!

12 oz. butterscotch morsels
1 cup crunchy PB
8 cups crispy rice cereal
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar
4 T butter
2 T water

Note: I did all of this in mixing bowls in the microwave, just be sure to use half power so as not to scald your delicious butterscotch and chocolate.

Melt the butterscotch morsels together with the PB in a sauce pan. Stir in rice cereal. Press 1/2 of this mixture in a greased 13x9 pan. Chill in the freezer about 20 minutes or fridge for about 45.

While this is chilling, combine chocolate chips, sugar, butter, and water in sauce pan on low heat and stir together until melted. Spread this mixture over chilled rice cereal mixture then press down the remaining rice cereal mixture on top of this. Chill the whole thing again until it's set and you can cut it without making a huge mess!

Sausage Bacon Bites

Yum! My Mom fixed these for us the other night and we devoured them for dinner! They would go great with a breakfast too. They are soooo easy too!

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package little smokie sausages
1 pound bacon
1 cup brown sugar, or to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cut bacon into thirds and wrap each strip around a little sausage. Secure each one with a toothpick and place in a large baking dish or casserole dish. Bake until bacon is crisp and the brown sugar melted.

Like I said, YUM YUM!

Cereal Snack

This recipe was in our local paper yesterday under, "Healthy snacks for kids". I really like peanut butter, so I think it's pretty good.

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup canola oil
3 cups Kix cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 and 1/2 cups pretzels

1. Melt peanut butter with oil over low heat in large roasting pan.
2. Add cereals and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Stir in pretzels.
4. Spread on cookie sheets to cool. Store in airtight container.

Beef Jerky

1 lb. flank or round steak

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. liquid smoke (optional)

Pat steak dry with paper towel. Slice thinly across grain. In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Place meat in bowl, making sure each slice is coated with marinade. Place in refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Drain meat on paper towels, blotting well. Place meat on oven rack and cook at 140 degrees for 3-4 hours, or until dried to your desired consistency. Store in refrigerator.

My mother and father-in-law raise cattle, so their Christmas present to us every year is stocking our freezer with a year's supply of beef! So that will explain why I might be posting a lot of beef recipes on here! Every year I usually don't know what to do with the round steak that we get, it's not exactly the greatest cut of meat. We really like beef jerky, so I was thrilled when I found this recipe a couple of months ago. Beef jerky is expensive to buy, so even if you buy the round or flank steak to make it, it still comes out quite a bit cheaper this way.

A few things I've learned - today was the third time I have made it, and it turned out to be the best yet.

*Marinating for the full 48 hours makes it A LOT better.

*My oven's lowest temperature is 170 (the recipe says 140), it still turns out good.

*You have to slice the meat while it is still mostly frozen.

*The recipe says to place the meat directly on the oven rack. I place it on a wire cooling rack, then place that on the wire rack in the oven. I also put a cookie sheet on the rack below to catch drips. I just cleaned my oven two weeks ago, and don't care to do that again soon!