
NEW SERIES: HOMESICK
A series on how to make a family, home and marriage healthy again
STARTS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2022
LOCATIONS & TIMES
Family Recipes
Enjoy fun recipes you can make with your family. Click a recipe below to reveal
instructions!
Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 2 Large Yellow Onions Sliced
- 2 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 2 15 Ounce Cans Pumpkin Puree
- 2 Cups Chicken Stock
- 2 Cups Water
- 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
Directions
- Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add the sliced onions to the pan and cook stirring occasionally until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
- Add the garlic, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to the onions and stir constantly for one minute.
- Add ¼ Cup of the chicken stock and use a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the remaining chicken broth, water, and pumpkin puree and stir to combine.
- Turn heat to low and simmer the soup for 20 minutes.
- Turn the stove off and use a handheld immersion blender to puree the soup. Alternately, use a regular blender and puree the soup in 2-3 batches.
- Stir the heavy cream into the soup, serve immediately with warm bread if desired.
White Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 4 Anaheim peppers or poblano peppers
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium sweet onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon marjoram or oregano
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 (15.8 ounce) cans great northern beans drained and rinsed
- 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn drained
- 2 cups cooked cubed or shredded chicken breasts or chicken thighs
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
- Monterey Jack Cheese or Pepper Jack Cheese (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Place the Anaheim or poblano peppers on the baking sheet with space between them. Roast for 8-10 minutes. Using tongs carefully flip them and roast for another 8-10 minutes. Place them on a cutting board and invert a large bowl over the top to steam them. Steam for 30 minutes. Cut the stems off, peel the peppers, and the discard the skins. Dice the peppers and set them aside for a few minutes.
- Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft. Reduce the heat to low and add the minced garlic, ground cumin, chili powder, marjoram, and cayenne pepper. Cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.
- Add the chicken broth, beans, corn, cooked chicken and diced peppers. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove 2-3 cups of the chili and using an immersion blender or stand blender puree the chili. Add the pureed chili back to the pot and heat for 2-3 more minutes.
- Turn the heat off and stir in the sour cream and chopped cilantro. Reserve some of the cilantro for a garnish for each bowl. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Ladle the chili into bowls and top with shredded Monterey Jack Cheese and chopped cilantro.
Crockpot Ranch Chicken
Ingredients
- 24 ounces tiny red potatoes, or Yukon Gold
- 16 ounces baby carrots
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, or thighs
- 21.5 ounces cream of chicken soup, 2-10.5 ounce cans
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 4 ounces chopped chiles
- 1 ounce Ranch seasoning mix
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Grease a 13×9-inch pan
- Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of the Ranch dressing mix.
- Add the washed baby potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker.
- Top with the seasoned chicken.
- Blend the cream of chicken soup, chicken stock, chiles, and remaining Ranch dressing mix until smooth.
- Pour over the chicken and vegetables.
- Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
- Shred the chicken or break it into chunks with a fork before serving
- Put chicken in a layer in the 13×9-inch pan.
- Mix the sauce and pour over the chicken.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until chicken registers 160F on an insta-read thermometer.
- Cook the vegetables separately while the chicken is in the oven.
- Let stand for 5 minutes to allow the temperature to come up to 165F.
Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars
Ingredients
SHORTBREAD CRUST
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
APPLE PIE BARS FILLING
- 2 apples (I used granny smith)
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
OAT STREUSEL TOPPING
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Directions
- First preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 7×11 pan or 8×8 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Next, make the shortbread crust by adding the flour, brown sugar, and butter to a food processor. Pulse until the mixture becomes a crumbly dough. If you don’t have a processor, use a large mixing bowl and electric mixer and mix together until the crust comes together.
- Add the dough into the prepared pan and gently press evenly (ensuring there are no holes) to reach all edges to form your crust. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- While the crust is baking, prepare your apple pie bar filling and streusel topping.
- Core, peel, and slice your apples into small slices. Place the sliced apples in a bowl and coat in the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well coated.
- For the streusel topping, combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a mixing bowl.
- Next, add in cubed butter and incorporate using a pastry blender, two forks, or your hands (my preferred method) until the mixture is like coarse crumbs.
- Once crust has baked for 15 minutes, top with the apple mixture until all the crust is covered. Sprinkle evenly with the oat streusel topping and place in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is a light golden brown.
- While the apple pie bars are baking, prepare your homemade salted caramel sauce.
- In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, and water. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and stir for 5 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Next, increase heat to medium-high and continue to cook without stirring for 6-7 minutes. The sugar will caramelize and become a deep golden color (almost copper looking).
- Remove the pan from the heat and add in the heavy whipping cream and butter. The mixture may bubble up in this step, so be careful.
- Allow the caramel to cool for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove apple pie bars from oven and let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Once caramel has cooled for 10-15 minutes, drizzle the top of the apple bars with a homemade salted caramel sauce or jar of sauce nd let it set up completely before slicing and serving.
- If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
Family Movies
Movies are a great way to enjoy spending time with family. Here’s a list of movies to try and enjoy!
- Overcomer
- The Lion King
- WoodLawn
- God’s Not Dead
- I can only Imagine
- Heaven Is For Real
- Miracles From Heaven
- Blue Miracle
- When the Game Stands Tall
- The Emperor’s New Groove
- The Sound of Music
- The Princess and the Frog
- Cars
- Hercules
- Mulan
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians
- Finding Nemo
- The little Mermaid
- Toy Story
- Fireproof
The Chosen Series
Family Game Night
These are some great games to enjoy with the fam… pick one and have some fun! Try them all!
- heads up
- 5 sec rule
- spoons
- life
- candyland
- uno
- clue
- connect 4
- taboo: kids edition
- family feud
- operations
- jenga
- trivial pursuit family edition game
- apples to apples
- phase 10 card game
- twister game
- uno classic card game
- pictionary board game
- guess who?
- the game of life junior
- speak out game
Other Games
Some tried-and-true games played by many, including some that are staples in WOLC staff homes! Click a game below for detailed instructions.
Indoor Bowling
Find a good spot in the house to set up an indoor-friendly bowling lane, then grab a ball and 10 empty plastic bottles. Arrange the bottles in a triangle as you would in traditional bowling, with four in the back row, then three, two, and one in each of the next three rows. Once the bottle pins are set, your family’s ready to bowl.
Movie Themed Forts
Make game night and movie night one and the same by constructing a fort to fit the whole family. Chairs provide solid support for blanket ceilings, and stuffed animals love to be extra patrons in DIY movie theaters. It’s also fun to base your fort on the movie you’re watching by including things such as cowboy hats for some western flair or Halloween decorations for a frightening touch.
Spoons
Age-old card games such as Spoons are a great choice for everyone in the family. Set up the game by placing in the middle of your game area one less spoon than the number of players, with the spoon handles pointing outward. Using a standard 52-card deck, deal four cards to each player. During play, the dealer draws a card from the deck and either discards it or exchanges it with a card in his hand, passing the discard, facedown, to the player on their left. The next players do the same except for the last player, who discards into a waste pile. When a player has four cards of a kind (for example, four aces or four queens), they take a spoon. The rest of the players then race to grab the rest of the spoons, leaving one player without — the game’s loser.
Noodle Pick Up
What You Need – 10 uncooked Spaghetti Pieces and 12 uncooked penne pasta noodles.
How to Play – Place uncooked penne pasta noodles on the edge of a table. Players try to pick up the penne noodles using a spaghetti piece they have in their mouth. See who can pick up the most in one minute.
I suggest a spaghetti piece for each person as these are in your mouth. The penne noddles can be used over again. To make it harder just increase the number of noodles they need to pick up.
Pictionary
Here’s another game you can easily make on your own. Split the family into teams to see who can figure out what their teammate is trying to draw. Don’t have a white board or a chalkboard? A chalk marker on a french door (where each team gets one side) totally works too.
Guess The Movie
Play “Guess the Movie” game by writing down a bunch of popular movie quotes on notecards, one quote per card. For a fun twist, keep all your quotes within a certain theme, such as Disney movies or comedies.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunt is a classic game that has entertained families for ages and still one of the strongest contenders for family game night ideas.
All you need to do is hide things around the house for this fun indoor game and you are all set for wholesome family fun.
Build A Tower
This is an exciting game that challenges your construction and balancing skills. One of the best indoor games for a rainy day afternoon or a chilly night, “Build A Tower” is always a fun game to play with family and friends.
All you need is a timer and paper cups (or oranges or apples or playing cards). Every family member gets ten cups that they need to stack to make the tallest tower in 30 seconds. Remember, no tumbling allowed!
Secret Dancer
This is a great icebreaker for family reunions. Music always shed inhibitions and gets everyone in the mood. Little kids love playing this fun family game and it is a great way to burn off that surplus energy from eating sweets.
How To Play:
One person is chosen as the detective and must leave the room. The players in the room decide who is going to be the secret dancer. The secret dancer chooses a dance move that everyone else copies.
When the detective comes back in the room, everyone starts dancing to the music. The detective has to figure out who the secret dancer is and gets three guesses.
The catch is the secret dancer can change the move anytime and everyone must follow.
Post It Notes Game
Post It Notes is one of the family games that has been ever so popular and always a big hit with kids as well as adults. It is a guessing game that will have everyone guessing their own identities!
How To Play:
As the name suggests, Post-It Notes are what you need and a pen for this game. Each player writes down a famous person or an animal or a comic/movie character on their post and places it in a bowl. When everyone’s post-it is in the bowl, pass it around to the players and have each player pick a post-it and stick it on their forehead without reading what’s on it.
Now, everyone has an identity that they know nothing about, they must figure out who they are by asking questions like “Am I a superhero?” Or “Do I growl?“. The game continues till everyone gets their identity.
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Phone:
(769) 216-3650