Menu Plan Monday - Family Favorites Edition

Hello! This is my first Menu Plan Monday. Thanks for stopping by!

We're a family 7, striving to eat nutritionally, frugally, and at home! We're also a very busy ministry family plus I am a college student and work part time. Drive thrus have a certain appeal...

Today for Family Favorites Edition, I'm going to share one of our favorite Christmas traditions - Jesus' Birthday Cake. I'll also share our favorite chocolate cake and icing recipe.

Every Christmas morning, we enjoy a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, the favorite birthday choice in our household. With my younger children's help, we make the cake on Christmas Eve. The next morning we light candles and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, blow out the candles and enjoy chocolate cake for breakfast. This tradition helps our children focus on the true meaning of Christmas. And when else can we have chocolate cake for breakfast!?!

Our favorite chocolate cake recipe is from Beverly Nye's book, "A Family Raised on Rainbows". This book is long out of print but hopefully is available from your library. It was written in the 70s, but still is a great read for any homemaker. This cake is very moist and fairly light. Yum!!

Delicious Chocolate Cake

Beat together:
1 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk (you can substitute 1 tsp. vinegar in bottom of measuring cup and use sweet milk)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Add:
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 tbsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Add:
1 c. boiling water

Bake in 9x12 inch pan or 3 round pans at 325 degrees for one hour.

The following icing recipe is from Beverly Nye's "Everyone's a Homemaker". It's a rich chocolate icing that makes the above cake down right dangerous!

Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp. butter or margarine
dash of salt
hot water to make frosting consistency

For chocolate, add 1/2 c. cocoa.
For lemon, 2 tbsp. lemon juice and 1 tsp. grated rind OR 1/2 tsp. extract
Experiment with any pureed fruit or extract.

I'm also sharing our weekly menu. I've tried to keep this week simple and cheap. We're hosting Christmas Eve lunch here, so I really want to concentrate on that meal! I've linked most recipes so you can give them a try.

Monday - Dirty Rice from Hillbilly Housewife

Tuesday - Bean & Bacon Bit Soup from Hillbilly Housewife

Christmas Eve Lunch - Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans, 7 layer salad, Overnight Rolls, Cherry Delight, Pumpkin Pie

Thursday - Jesus' Birthday cake for breakfast, lunch at my parents, left overs for supper

Friday - Skillet Beans & Cornbread

Saturday - Homemade Pizza

Sunday - Crockpot Chili & Cornbread

Merry Christmas everyone!