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Spiced Honey Baked Ham Recipe – Easy Honey Glazed Ham!

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This spiced glazed honey baked ham recipe falls off the bone and has a tangy, sweet and spicy glaze that will have your family fighting over the leftovers!

This spiced glazed honey baked ham recipe falls off the bone and has a  tangy, sweet and spicy glaze that will have your family asking for more!

Try something different from the standard pineapple or cherry glazed ham with this tangy, sweet and spicy glazed honey baked ham recipe. The spices and orange juice in this recipe mixed with the saltiness of the ham gives it the most amazing flavor that will have your family fighting over the leftovers!

This ham glaze is made with ingredients you already have on hand and without the expense of canned fruit that is usually used on other ham recipes. This glazed honey baked ham is so tender that it falls right off of the bone!

[dining]

Cheap, Quick And Easy Snacks For Kids – Snacks On The Go

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Here’s a quick list of some cheap, quick and easy snacks for kids! It’s easy to choose something quick and healthy from this list that fits your kids’ needs!

Here's a quick list of some cheap, quick and easy snacks for kids! It's easy to choose something quick and healthy from this list that fits your kids' needs!

Cheap, Quick And Easy Snacks For Kids

Donna writes:

I am faced with getting two boys to soccer and baseball practices in the evenings. I am hoping to pack drinks and a hearty snack to get them through practice. I leave work at five and practice is often at 5:30. What can I feed the kids that fits the following criteria?

  • Can be eaten in the car on the way to practice
  • Can be made in the morning and either kept in the car or at my desk
  • Will be hearty enough to get them through practice and home again for dinner

Jill: You can adapt most snack foods to take in the car. You can even bring things that need to be refrigerated. Just use a small cooler or lunch box. Even a brown paper sack keeps things nicely insulated. You can buy small ice packs to pack with the food. (You should be able to find them by the coolers and thermoses at your store.) Another good idea is to freeze water, lemonade or some other drink in a plastic bottle. When you pack it in with food, it works as an ice pack and as something cold to drink for the kids. If it is going to be an extra long day, I sometimes use both the ice pack and the frozen drink.

If you can, pack the boys their own individual snack boxes using either small shoe boxes or lunch boxes. They can then hold these on their laps to catch the crumbs and when they’re done, the boxes are a great way to “pack out the trash” so you will not have quite as big a mess in the car!

Keep things as easy as possible. For example: if you are taking oranges, have them peeled and broken into segments for them. This will make it easier for them and reduce the mess in the car.

Keep a running list of the snacks you take each day for a couple of weeks. At the end of that time you will have a list of about 20 to 30 snack items to refer to when you can’t think of what to take.

Without knowing your food preferences, it is hard to tell you specifically what to take but here are some general ideas. Some may be a little messy in the car depending on the age of the children and some may need to be kept cooled (use my ideas above for keeping these cool). To expand the variety, give them different variations of my suggestions. For example, with fruit, give them an apple one day, an orange the next and so on.

Try starting with these cheap, quick and easy snacks for kids:

  • Sandwiches (to prevent them from becoming soggy take packets of ketchup,mustard etc. to be put on right before they eat them) peanut butter, cheese, turkey, roast beef, ham, chicken
  • Crackers with cheese
  • Popcorn or Popcorn balls
  • Sandwich bags filled with cereal
  • Granola
  • Banana bread
  • Dried fruit
  • Nuts
  • Muffins
  • Fruit
  • Veggies
  • Pudding
  • Yogurt with fruit
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Burritos
  • Cheese
  • Chips

If your kids don’t mind leftovers, bring that leftover piece of chicken or small container of leftover fruit salad for them too.

-Jill

[dining]

Homemade Gourmet Ice Cream Cones

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Homemade Gourmet Ice Cream Cones - Click Here To Save On Gourmet Ice Cream!

Homemade Gourmet Ice Cream Cones

Now I feel really old! I was just treated to an ice cream cone at this place where they mix the ice cream with whatever kind of crushed cookie, candy or sprinkles you want, slap it into a cone and charge $5 for it! Why does this make me feel old? Because I can remember when ice cream cones used to cost 25 cents.

I’m not sure what I was most shocked at – the price of the ice cream or the fact in these “hard economic times” there were so many people in the store not batting an eye over buying “gourmet” ice cream. The conversations in the store made me realize that many of them do this on a regular basis.

I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, thinking this must be some great tasting gourmet ice cream cone but I was very disappointed. The ice cream didn’t taste nearly as good as the inexpensive kind I buy at my grocery store and the gourmet store used the same candy bars and cookies that I can buy at any store.

Going to places like this is not the way to save money or to get out of debt. Watch your spending and on a hot summer day, instead of climbing in a hot car to go get a cone which will cost you an arm and a leg, try making your own. Here are some tips to make it easy:

  • Make your own homemade ice cream cones. You can buy regular cones or waffle cones at most grocery stores. Keep a box of them and some ice cream on hand. Then, just crush your kids’ favorite candy or cookies in a bag or use sprinkles, chocolate chips or other toppings. Place some of the ice cream in a bowl for just a bit until it gets a little soft and stir in your treats. Then scoop it into a cone.
  • This is a great way to use those broken cookies or crumbs in the bottom of the bag, which no one ever wants to eat. You can even keep a bag in the freezer, adding to it until you have enough to use.
  • Making these homemade gourmet ice cream comes is another great way to use the candy you got on sale after Easter, Halloween or Christmas.
  • Another thing I like about ice cream cones is there are no dishes to deal with when you are done.

I hope this gets you thinking about how to cool yourself and your spending for the summer!

What are your favorite gourmet ice cream add-ins? Leave a comment below and let us know!

-Jill

[dining]

Easy Homemade Popsicles Recipe!

by 32 Comments

Easy homemade popsicles are a great summer treat! These tasty popsicle ideas and recipes are quick, easy and healthy and are sure to satisfy your kids!

Easy Homemade Popsicles Recipe

Easy Homemade Popsicle Ideas And Recipes

Remember when you used to sit on your front steps on a hot summer day eating a popsicle? It was usually red or purple and on special occasions you got a fudgesicle. Remember how you tried to lick the drips faster than the sun could melt them? Sometimes the drips would roll down your fingers, forcing you to make the mind numbing decision whether to lick your fingers or the new drips forming on your popsicle.

Every once in a while a few drips would get out of control and fall on your bare toes. Remember how your dog’s tongue felt like sandpaper when he licked the sweet gooeyness off of them?

It’s funny how we try to make drama and expensive memories for our children when it’s the simple everyday things we remember the most.

 

Try some of these ideas for easy homemade popsicles to keep the kids entertained this summer:

To find popsicle molds, look at discount and mail order stores or garage sales. If you don’t have any molds, use small paper or plastic cups. Put a wooden stick or plastic spoon in the center.

For mini homemade popsicles, pour orange, apple or grape juice or flavored drink mix into ice cube trays. Partially freeze and then place toothpicks in the center of each cube (or place plastic wrap over the top, secure and insert toothpicks through plastic wrap).

Making your own homemade popsicles can give great variety and keep your kids cool this summer!

 

For non-traditional homemade popsicles:

  • Freeze applesauce in popsicle molds.
  • Mix fruit or jam into yogurt. Freeze in small, snack sized Ziploc bags for frozen yogurt on the go. Cut a hole in the end of the bag for easy access/eating.
  • Mix gelatin and freeze. Add gummie fish or worms before freezing for added fun.
  • Freeze syrup from canned fruit.
  • Add food coloring or sprinkles to yogurt or softened ice cream for added pizzazz. Then freeze in popsicle molds.
  • When you have leftover jam or jelly, put 1/4 cup of hot water in the jar and shake well. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
  • If jelly or jam doesn’t set up well, use for popsicles or add more water, boil and make syrup.
  • Make a batch of pudding. Add coconut, nuts, marshmallows, crushed cookies or sprinkles if desired. Pour into molds. Freeze several hours until firm.
  • Stick a toothpick in the center of blackberries, strawberries, raspberries or sliced bananas. Dip in chocolate if desired. Freeze on a tray. Once frozen, store in freezer bags.
  • For easy snow cones, freeze orange juice (or any other flavored juice) in ice cube trays. Store frozen juice cubes in a plastic bag. Blend 5 cubes in the blender until they have a shaved ice consistency. The shaved ice will keep its consistency if kept frozen in a container.
  • For watermelon homemade popsicles, blend one cup each watermelon chunks (seeds removed), orange juice and water. Blend well. Then pour and freeze into molds.
  • For strawberry homemade popsicles, blend 2 cups strawberries, 1 cup vanilla ice cream or yogurt, 4 cups orange juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Blend smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.
  • For banana homemade popsicles, dissolve one 3 oz. package strawberry gelatin with one cup boiling water. In a blender, mix gelatin, 1 banana and 1 cup yogurt or ice cream. Blend well and pour into molds.

 

Pudding Pops

1 pkg. pudding (not instant*)
3 cups milk

Combine 1 large package of pudding with 3 cups of milk. Mix only enough to blend well. Quickly pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Chocolate and vanilla pudding may be layered for a fun treat. Makes 8-10 popsicles.

*Regular homemade pudding may be used instead of store-bought pudding mix.

 

Moo Fruit Freezer Pops
(submitted by Roxie in Texas)

1 bag (16 oz.) frozen fruit. (I used some strawberries I had frozen)
1 1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar or Splenda

Combine the fruit, sugar, and 1/2 cup of milk in a food processor and process for 5 seconds. Add the rest of the milk and process for 15 seconds more. Mixture should be smooth and almost frozen. Scoop 1/2 cup of frozen mixture into 5 oz cups or popsicle molds. Insert sticks and freeze until firm.

 

Banana Pops
(Submitted by Lisa)

Slice bananas into disks (we have bananas on sale this week for $.29/lb)

Roll banana discs into PLAIN yogurt (you can use vanilla yogurt, but I used plain because that’s what the recipe said, and that was back in my super healthy days)

Add any kind of topping you wish. We rolled our disks in chopped pecans. I know that’s expensive, but we love pecans so much. After freezing these we ate them AND YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THE TASTE! It was like eating a frozen candy bar. Okay, maybe not that good, but they were sweet and refreshing, and I didn’t have to put a limit on how many the kids could eat.

 

Other toppings that work well: chopped raisins, granola, any kind of nut (cashew, peanuts, almonds), peanut butter (this would be without the yogurt), and of course, melted chocolate or chocolate chips.

My son is not a fan of bananas, but he really liked this treat. You can even eat them plain. Oh, yeah, another topping we did was a cinnamon/sugar mixture. Believe it or not, it was good too! I will warn you that it’s messy because of the yogurt. And super messy if the kids help! But you don’t have the guilt of giving them something unhealthy, and it’s a cheap “popsicle.”

 

[dining]