Yummy Cheesy Sausage Balls ~ Low Carb and Grain Free

I’ve worked on my old sausage ball recipe and I think it’s a success!

If you love Sausage Balls, try this recipe.

You won’t even miss the baking mix!

Yummy Cheesy Sausage Balls (low carb & grain free)

3/4 lb. Odom’s Tennessee Pride breakfast sausage (or your favorite brand)
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup of almond flour
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375º F.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil
oil cooking spray. (Misto)  Place dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Using your whisk, make sure the dry ingredients are well combined.
Add the sausage, grated cheddar, coconut oil and egg.
Mix well with your fingers, or your mixer if you prefer. The mixture
should be packy and hold the shape of a ball.

Form into 1” balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.  To prevent sticking,
move the balls with a spatula halfway through cooking or use
parchment paper to line your pan.  Remove from oven and serve warm.

My batch made 32.

*For the Trim Healthy Mama plan: S category

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Disclaimer: Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links.  If you purchase through the links provided, I will receive a very small compensation at no extra cost to you.  Thanks!

National Buffet Day and my birthday present!

I just saw where January 2nd is National Buffet Day.

It’s also my birthday!

How fitting that I was going to post about my birthday gift,  this 3 crock slow cooker that my hubby got me.

I want to use this Sunday at our church’s monthly dinner.  What can I put in the crocks? I’ve seen them with 3 different flavors of wings…then one lady brought meat, gravy and green beans or rice.

What do you suggest? I need something tasty and fairly easy and something that won’t hold up the food line. I don’t want someone standing there trying to assemble something like tacos or burritos and holding up the line.  I would have a lot of people upset with me. We’re a hungry bunch when we get out of church.

I know you’ll have some great suggestions!  Looking forward to them.

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DISCLAIMER: If you purchase from the links in this post you are helping support Heart of a Country Home at no extra charge to yourself.  Thanks and Happy New Year!

Peanut Butter Cornflake Candy

Sometimes we associate certain recipes with certain people and oh, what good memories they bring.

A lady at my church, Ms. Helen,  made these tasty candy-like cookies for almost every covered dish dinner we had.  What a special lady and how I miss her!

So when another lady, Ms. Dot, blessed me with several boxes of cornflakes cereal, I decided to make some goodies for the helpers at our church’s yard sale.  They were gone in a flash!

Easy, simple, and a great bake-sale item, I hope you try this soon.

Peanut Butter Cornflake Candy

1 cup of white granulated sugar
1 cup of light corn syrup
1 cup of peanut butter
½ tsp salt, optional
5 cups of plain cornflakes

Measure out cornflakes into a large glass bowl and prepare a large sheet pan by lining with parchment paper or buttering the pan.

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, adding salt if you want to at this time.  (I usually do all this with a wooden spoon, beating the mixture like fudge.)

Pour over the cornflakes and mix well. Working quickly, drop by spoonfuls on the prepared sheet pan and set aside to cool.

NOTE:  Mixture can also be pressed into a buttered 9 x 13 inch baking pan and cut into squares.

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And if you’re in the mood for some peanut butter cookies or candy, but you’re watching your sugar intake, try these recipes:

SF PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

LINDA’S CHEWY PEANUT BUTTER CANDY

 

Kool-Aid Pie

I’ve been on a Kool-Aid Pie kick lately.

And why not?!  They’re so easy!

I know they’ve been around for a while but it’s a new attempt at an easy and delicious pie.

I’ve had several elderly friends to pass away lately and I was looking for something quick and easy to take to the dinner for the family.    It’s kinda hard to make a complicated recipe when you work full time.  This recipe is exactly that…easy, that is, and delicious, too! You can change the flavor depending on what kind of Kool-Aid you use.

I’ve made three flavors…Strawberry, Lemon-Lime, and Orange.

Delicious…very easy…and perfect for Spring!

KOOL-AID PIE

1 graham cracker pie crust
1 pkg unsweetened Kool-Aid powdered drink mix
1 (8 ounce) container Cool Whip
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
In a medium bowl, mix condensed milk and Kool-aid until well combined.  Fold in Cool Whip and spoon pie mixture into the graham cracker crust. Garnish according to flavor.  Chill for 2 hours and serve.

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And for my low carb readers…
3-INGREDIENT LOW-CARB LEMON ICEBOX PIE

from Jimmy Moore’s site.  Sounds yummy!

Crockpot Mac and Cheese by Trisha Yearwood

Talk about decadent and rich!  That’s this ooey, gooey homemade mac and cheese recipe for the crockpot! When I tested it straight out of the crockpot, I could not stop eating it.  Total comfort food!

Crockpot Mac and Cheese by Trisha Yearwood

8 oz box or bag of elbow macaroni, cooked  …  (try Dreamfields)
One 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick ) of butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
Two 10 oz bricks sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 5 cups)
Dash of paprika
Cooking spray (I just buttered the dish)

In a large slow cooker, or crock pot (here’s a great 5 quart crock pot) lightly sprayed with cooking spray (or buttered), mix the macaroni, evaporated milk, milk, butter, salt, pepper, eggs and all but 1/2 cup of the grated cheese.

Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top of the mixture and then sprinkle with paprika. Cover and cook on low heat for 3 hours and 15 minutes. (Mine was done in about 2 1/2 hours).  Turn off the slow cooker, stir the mixture and serve hot.  Makes 12 servings.

Cook’s Note: If you don’t have a slow cooker, grease a 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan with butter, add the mixture and bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes.

Low Carb Note: I’m thinking about trying this delicious mac and cheese recipe with cauliflower or baking it as a turnip gratin.  I’ll keep you updated!

recipe courtesy of Food Network

~Did I mention that my daughter has a guitar signed by Trisha Yearwood?  🙂  It was a 15th birthday gift from her grandpa.

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Disclaimer: The links contained in this post are Affiliate Links.  If you purchase through the links provided, I will receive a small compensation at no extra cost to you.  Thanks for your support!

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Inspire Me Tuesday

Vintage Recipe ~ Aunt Mary’s “Quick Crunchies” aka Rice Krispie Date Balls

I love looking through Aunt Mary’s little recipe box.  She was one of the best home cooks I ever knew and I always enjoyed eating at her house.

Many days she would call my mom at work and tell her the soup was on.   She almost always had homemade yeast rolls rising in muffin tins.  She’d sit the trays on her hot water heater behind the kitchen door.  I’d lift the tea towel that covered the rolls to inhale the yeasty smell of dough rising.

Good memories.

I found this quick little candy recipe in her recipe box.  I’ve been wanting to try a recipe with dates so I decided this one would work nicely.  This is just one candy I made during the past holidays.  Hope you enjoy!

 

Aunt Mary’s “Quick Crunchies” aka Rice Krispy Date Balls

1 stick butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 (8 oz.) chopped dates
1 c. pecans, chopped
2 c. crispy rice cereal
1 tsp. vanilla
coconut, for rolling

In saucepan, melt butter and sugar over low heat. Add dates and
cook 3 minutes or until mixture thickens and remove from heat.

Add nuts, crispy rice cereal, and vanilla. When cool enough to handle,
form small balls and roll in coconut.

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More of Aunt Mary’s Recipes

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

Can there be anything better on a cold snowy day?!

I’m a little “under the weather” and this Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate made for me by my sweet younger brother just hits the spot.

Rich, creamy and darker than my photo…well, it’s just delicious and you’ll have to try it for yourself!  🙂

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
5 ounces milk chocolate, chopped (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Warm milk and cream in a medium
saucepan over a medium-low heat.

Add chocolate, and whisk until melted and combined.

Continue to warm mixture until thick, about 5 minutes. Whisk in
peanut butter until smooth.

Pour into mugs and enjoy!

It’s Almost Thanksgiving! Holiday Hits

It’s almost Thanksgiving and I enjoyed my first of three Thanksgiving meals with my family last night.  Good times and good food.

I know I haven’t posted a lot lately due to real life taking over and no time to share all the great things going on!  I wish I could just push a button and have a post with pictures pop up.   Wouldn’t that be so neat?!

I’ll be reminding us of some old fashioned high carb treats and some delicious low carb treats so be sure and scroll on down.

I’m so thankful for all my faithful readers and visitors.  Thank you for being here!

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I wanted to share some recipes that are already posted here that are great for the holidays.  I seem to make some of the these dishes over and over again ’cause they are so good!  🙂

For those not so worried about their blood sugar…

Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

Brownie Crusted Butterfinger Cheesecake

Sopapilla Cheesecake   yum!

Coconut Macaroons

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

Applesauce Nut Cake     (no eggs!)

Easy Chess Pie

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cream Pie

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole

Heavenly Yeast Rolls

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And now for some LOWER CARB treats…

Cheesy Roasted Cauliflower with Bacon

Pumpkin Pie

Butter Pecan Creme Brulee

The best Chocolate Chip Cheesecake ever!

Blender Coconut Pie

Carbuik Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Cream Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Peppers aka Poppers!

More Low carb links:

LOW CARB

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Have a very safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Fruit Pizza

Fruit Pizza is one of my favorite desserts!

It’s a wonderful dessert during springtime or any other special time of year, say like the upcoming holidays!  🙂

On this particular Fruit Pizza I used fresh strawberries, bananas, and kiwi but you can use your favorite fruits.

 

FRUIT PIZZA

1 pkg. (16.5 oz.) refrigerated sliceable sugar cookies, sliced
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
4 cups assorted cut-up fruit (kiwi, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, drained canned mandarin oranges)
1/2 cup apricot preserves*
1Tbsp. water

HEAT oven to 375°F.

LINE 12-inch pizza pan with foil; spray with cooking spray. Arrange cookie dough slices in single layer in prepared pan; press together to form crust. Bake 14 min.; cool completely.  (I used my Pampered Chef baking stone for bars and my cookie crust got a little crisp. If you don’t have a stone you can use any 9×13 baking pan similar to this.)

Using a handmixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended.  Spread over crust.

TOP with the fresh sliced fruit.  Mix preserves and water; brush or spoon over fruit.  Cover and refrigerate  overnight.  (*I usually use Smucker’s Sugar Free Apricot Preserves.)

TIP-How to quickly soften cream cheese:  Place completely unwrapped package of cream cheese on microwaveable plate.   Microwave on HIGH for 10 to 15 sec. or until slightly softened.

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DISCLAIMER: If you purchase from the links in this post you are helping support Heart of a Country Home at no extra charge to yourself.  Thanks for your kindness.

Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

Looking for a tasty dessert for July 4th?

This one won’t heat up the kitchen and it is sooo

easy and delicious!

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Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

For real?!  I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.

My hubby loves Nutter Butters!

and Banana Pudding…well, not the bananas so much,

so I try to make him a Banana-less Pudding ever now and then.

But bananas and peanut butter go so well together

I just had to add a few to this tasty treat!

(Note: I’ve made this twice lately and tried it once with some peanut butter sandwich cookies I picked up at Wally World.  I added a little PB to amp up the flavor and  it was delicious!  So if you’re looking to save a few pennies, go for the PB sandwich cookies and if that’s not an issue, grabbed the Nutter Butters.  :))

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Layers of yummy peanut butter cookies, bananas, and a creamy cool pudding.

I used my no cook recipe for the pudding mixture, but I’m eager to try it some day with the classic cooked custard recipe that mom taught me.

And finally…

Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

1 (5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix (I used sugar free French Vanilla)
2 cups cold milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (16 ounce) package Nutter Butters cookies, broken into several pieces
3 bananas, sliced

In a large mixing bowl, beat pudding mix and milk for about 2 minutes.
Blend in condensed milk, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth.
Fold in whipped topping.

Layer cookies, bananas and pudding mixture in a glass serving bowl.
Chill overnight to allow the cookies to soften.

Personal note: I prefer my pudding more of a sauce, so I add water to
the mixture to get it closer to a sauce.

Enjoy and have a great 4th!

Brownie Crusted Butterfinger Cheesecake

(I’ve added a PRINT button.  Hope this helps.)

I’m on a cheesecake kick it seems!  🙂

Actually I made this for our Pastor’s Appreciation Dinner.  Our pastor loves peanut butter and I wanted to make a special dessert.  This rich cheesecake was very tasty and gone within just a few minutes.

Butterfinger Cheesecake with a Brownie Crust

For the crust:

Bake your favorite brownie recipe in a spring form baking pan (I have this set) lined with parchment paper.

Cheesecake filling:

16 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tub 8 oz whipped topping
3 Butterfinger candy bars (2.1 oz ea), frozen and
chopped

Blend the first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Fold in the whipped topping and crushed candy bars.  Spread the cheesecake mixture onto the brownie crust.  Sprinkle with crushed candy bars and brownie crumbs.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Topping:

1 Butterfinger candy bar (2.1 ounces), frozen and chopped

brownie crumbs, optional

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PITY PARTY 71 over at 30 Handmade Days

And now featured on BUTTERFINGER’S  Facebook page.  🙂

Sopapilla Cheesecake

I love Pinterest!  🙂

Here’s a great little dessert from Pinterest that’s fast and easy to make, plus it’s yummy!

I only tried it plain, but I’m thinking it would be great topped with some fresh fruit and whipped cream just to raise the special factory just a little.   Hope you enjoy it.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans crescent rolls
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used a little more)
16 ounces cream cheese softened
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350.  Press 1 can of crescent rolls into bottom of rectangular 9×13 pan.

Mix cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla until creamy then spread over rolls in pan.  Cover with the other can of crescent rolls.

Melt butter and stir in rest of sugar and cinnamon then pour over top.

Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown,  about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey.  Cool completely in the
pan before cutting.  Serves about 12.  (I also sprinkled with more cinnamon before cutting.)

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Broccoli Cheese Cornbread

I usually like to serve Broccoli Cheese Cornbread when we’re having Fried Tenderloin and White Beans.

This year I made it to add to our family’s Thanksgiving feast.

Cheesy, moist and satisfying, this cornbread recipe is a winner!

Broccoli Cheese Cornbread

2 packages (8.5 oz each) corn bread/muffin mix
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups (12 oz) 4% cottage cheese
3/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 large onion, chopped

In a large bowl, combine corn bread mixes.  In another bowl, beat
eggs, cottage cheese and butter.  Stir into corn bread mixes just
until moistened.  Fold in broccoli and onion.

Pour into a greased 13 x 9 baking pan.  Bake at 350° for
40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes
out clean.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve warm.
Yield: 12-15 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 piece) equals 196 calories, 13 g fat (7 g saturated fat), 89 mg cholesterol, 323 mg sodium, 14 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 6 g protein.

 

Easy Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Oh, my!  I just had to share this recipe from The Country Cook with my readers!  

*Disclaimer:  This is not a low carb recipe…but oh how I wish it was!  🙂

A few weeks ago before I started the HHCG diet, I made this easy, yummy coffee cake.  It has a secret ingredient that helps make it easy…pancake mix!  I just happened to have all the ingredients so I threw it together and I was so happy I did.

Hurry over to The Country Cook’s blog to get this easy recipe and make it this weekend.  You know you want to!  🙂

My breakfast that day…

Randomosity

First of all, I want to say “Welcome” to all my new subscribers and readers!  It touches me that you find my blog worth following.

This is a very tough and busy time of year for me and I have not been able to post like I would really like to.

A dear friend of mine passed away, too soon after my precious mother left me.

There’s been family sickness, then a short vacation away to visit family, then more family sickness, tornadoes, rain, rain, rain, flooding in our area…and the list goes on.

What a turbulent time we live in!

Hopefully brighter days are coming.

I’ll return soon with a wonderful Southern cookbook review, more great recipes, and hopefully that long promised giveaway!

So don’t go anywhere!  🙂

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In the meantime…check out one of my favorite Springtime desserts…

Fruit Pizza!