Welcome, News, and Links

Welcome to Recipe Shoebox!  My name is Lara and I started the Recipe Shoebox in 2008 after getting sick of trying to keep track of my recipes in a mess of binders, bookmarks, and a shoebox.  When I first got started I envisioned this blog being a family forum for me and my sisters to share recipes amongst each other.  It didn't take long to realize though, that I was a bit more excited about blogging than my sisters, so you'll find that the majority of the over 600 recipes here are mine. 

In 2011 I started to get a little overwhelmed with trying to keep up the blog and my five kids, so I took on a blogging partner, Jen, to help me.  She is a passionate cook who loves to create fun food for her three boys.  I've enjoyed her creative contributions to the blog  and  loved the fresh influx of recipes to the blog at a time when I was feeling a bit distracted from it.  Little did I know back when I invited her to join me in our cooking adventures that it wouldn't be long before I would appreciate her efforts more than ever. 

You see, in January my sixteen-year-old son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and as a result this blog immediately took a back burner in my life.  My son is responding well to treatment so far, but has spent almost the entirety of the last two months in the hospital undergoing intensive chemo to treat the aggressive nature of his type of leukemia.  He is scheduled to undergo a bone marrow transplant about 6 weeks.  

With very little in the way of cooking happening in our house, Jen, my sisters, an aunt, a cousin, and my sisters-in-law have sacrificed their time and kept this blog flowing with new recipes.  It may sound like a little thing, but with how much time and effort I've put into the Recipe Shoebox over the years, it's meant a lot to me knowing that the recipe sharing is continuing onward in my absence. 

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here at the Recipe Shoebox.  Check out the menu bar on top for easy navigation.  The search bar on the right is helpful if you're looking for a specific recipe or a recipe that calls for a specific ingredient.   You can subscribe by following it via "Google Friend Connect",  by email with a form on the right, or you can add the blog address to your feed readers.  You can also check out the new social media (Facebook and Pinterest) buttons I've added to make it easier than ever to share your favorite recipes with friends!  

NEWS

Radio Show:  I'm going to be interviewed on a radio show on Monday morning!  Listen to it live at 10:00am EST  here:  http://www.wbcl.org/default.aspx.  If you already missed it, I will post an archived link when I receive it. 

Five Star Rating System:    The company that provided the five star rating system at the bottom of each blog post has discontinued offering that service and thus far I have been unable to find a replacement.  :(  I am sad that all the ratings have disappeared, but I will continue looking to find a replacement service.  If any of you bloggers know of any, please let me know. 

Indexes:  While I've done my best to keep the indexes up-to-date, current events in my life being what they are, I am a few months behind on them.    Use the search bar on the right to search for recipes by  name or specific ingredients. 

Pinterest:  I've added new "Pin It" buttons on the bottom of each post to make it easier than ever to pin your favorite recipes to Pinterest!  My user name is wawadehut....if you want to check out the recipes I've got bookmarked to try when life is normal again. 

Facebook:  Check out the new Facebook "Like" buttons on the bottom of each post and on the right to go along with Recipe Shoebox's revamped page on Facebook!     Check us out! 

LINKS

My Very Favorite Recipe: 

                                                           Chicken Pasta Salad

this healthy recipe is in the top-5 favorites for each one of my kids

Reader Favorites: 

                                                       Crockpot Chicken Parmesan

easy, cheesy and oh so good!

                                                 Garlic Chicken Pasta with Spinach

flavorful and healthy

                                                            Thai Chicken Pasta

this one is quick and easy and always a hit at our house

    Honey Lime Enchiladas
when I asked my Facebook friends which of my recipes was their favorite, this one got the most votes!

   Blueberry Spinach Smoothie
I'm always looking for a tasty way to sneak some superfoods into our diet and this one is my kids' favorite way to eat their spinach

                                                  Easy Chocolate Pretzel Bites

with only 3 ingredients, this is literally one of the easiest treats you can make and they taste as great as they look.  I just let my kids do the unwrapping and setting it up and it's done in no time!

Family Favorites:

                                                           Chicken Tortilla Soup

using leftover chicken and dried onions, this flavorful soup can be done in less than 10 minutes.  It's been on our menu for well over a decade and is still a staple in our menu.

                                                          French Peasant Bread

Back in the day when I was cooking regularly, we made this super easy homemade bread a couple times a week.  It's so easy I even trained my 11-year-old to make it. 

                                                        Makeover Chicken Crescents

This is one of my family's favorite meals ever!  I'll make it for dinner one night, then  freeze the leftovers and then I add them frozen to the kids' lunches.  They are thawed out perfectly by lunchtime and they love getting something other than PB&J's!

                                             Flourless Chocolate Cake

No one in our family needs to eat a gluten-free diet, but this totally flourless cake recipe (no strange flour concoctions to buy at a health food store) is still our favorite chocolate cake recipe ever.  They have a really normal cake texture (not dense like some gluten-free baked goods) and no one will ever guess in a million years that a can of garbanzo beans is the flour replacer.

Most Requested Recipes: 

                                                                  Perfect Pie Crust

This is my #1 requested recipe by a long-shot!

                                                               No-Fail Apple Pie

This recipe has won or placed in several bake-offs and there are certain people who know me as "apple pie lady".

                                               Mom's Streusel-Topped Breakfast Cake
Classic and easy, this recipe has been in our family for a couple of generations and is as well-loved now as it was then.   I've brought it to many brunches and breakfasts over the years and almost invariably I get asked for the recipe.  I usually make it with at least part whole -wheat flour and it still gets gobbled up!

                                                           Secret Buttermilk Syrup
This syrup was a culinary life-changing discovery for us and we simply don't buy regular maple syrup anymore, because this quick to make syrup is so darn good!  My 11-year-old usually whips it up whenever we have pancakes or waffles!  Try it and you won't go back! 

Blogposts about my son:

How We Found Out About Spencer's Leukemia
How We Told Spencer
Trusting in the Lord


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