Healthy Family Cookin'

Spelt Recipes

2012-02-15T07:29:00.000-08:00

Well looky here! We have new life! My basil and onion seeds (respectively) have sprouted!

I moved them from beside the heater vent to a sunny window and they love it!

It's funny how little things like seeds sprouting can brighten your day! Sometimes the winter seems awfully dreary, but plants are one of those things that bring life and light to those dark days.

We had a lovely valentine's day yesterday. I hope you all did also. We ate at home - fancied up our meal a bit for the occasion. We had sweet pork on hamburger buns, roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes, fresh pineapple and a delicious pineapple drink that my husband came up with using the pineapple core. It was delicious. I have a little perfecting to do to the sweet pork recipe - I tried it in the electric pressure cooker for the first time and it turned out really good! Just a bit runnier than it is in the crock pot. So I'll thicken it up for next time and post the improved recipe when I do!

But for today, I want to share with you some wonderful recipes that I found using spelt. These give you an idea of how many things you can use spelt in - it really is a fabulous grain!

Carrot Raisin Spelt Berry Salad with Cumin and Cilantro

Source: ohsheglows.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Spelt Crepes

Source: mynewroots.blogspot.com via Britt on Pinterest

Spelt Salad

Source: ohsheglows.com via Caz on Pinterest

Chickpea, Tomato, and Spelt Soup

Source: wholeliving.com via Amanda Leigh on Pinterest

Banana Spelt Muffins

Source: fannetasticfood.com via The on Pinterest

Spelt Salad with White Beans and Artichokes

Source: cookinglight.com via Jenifer on Pinterest

Spelt Banana Bread

Source: thehealthyfoodie.net via Heather on Pinterest

As you can see - there are so many things you can include spelt in! It makes the food taste wonderful and adds nutrition! Hurrah for spelt!

Spelt Heath-bar Cookies

2012-02-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

There are some moments that make being a Mom worth it!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Valentine's day. Today I'm excited to share with you a wonderful recipe that I love. These cookies really show off the flavor of spelt flour. I can't even describe the taste to you - they are just so satisfying. I made a batch the other day for a family camp out we had. The boys don't usually get to eat in the living room so it was fun to set up our blankets, eat spelt cookies and pretend like we were camping. I admit that I didn't last the entire night - not even until 10 p.m.! But we had fun!

Spelt Heath-bar Cookies
1 C. butter, softened
3 to 3-1/2 C. Spelt Flour* (Freshly ground is best)
1 C. packed brown sugar
1/2 C. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 8-oz. pkg. Heath-bar toffee pieces (or you could substitute a pkg. of chocolate chips if you wanted)
1/2 C. chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts), optional

In a mixing bowl, beat softened butter with an electric beater on medium high speed for 20 seconds. Add about half the flour, the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Beat mixture until thoroughly combined. Beat in the remaining flour (start with 3 cups*). Stir in heath-bar pieces and if desired, nuts.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2" apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 F oven for about 9 minutes (if you like them chewy like me!) Cool on the pan for a few minutes. Then remove to wire rack.

*Note: The best way to tell how much flour you need is to follow a trick I learned from chef brad. Add flour until you think it is enough and then cook one cookie on the pan. If it spreads out too flat after it is cooked, that means you need to add flour. If it's hard like a hockey puck, that means you added too much. If it spreads out just enough, then you have just enough! It's a great way to test your cookies without ruining a whole batch!

Linked to: Tasty Tuesday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, Savory Sunday, Your Recipe My Kitchen, Mouthwatering Mondays, Made With Love Linkup, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Mangia Mondays, Two Maids a Milking, Making Your Home Sing Mondays, Motivated Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Monday Meet New Foods: Spelt!

2012-02-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

Introducing: Spelt!

What is Spelt?

I mentioned spelt in my first episode of Monday Meet New Foods: Wonder Flour, but this week we're going to find even more uses for this excellent grain. Spelt is actually a species of wheat, but is often easier to digest by people with some wheat allergies. Spelt is an ancient grain that has existed for thousands of years. In fact, there are a few references to it in the bible, Ezekiel 4:9 and Isaiah 28:25 both mention fitches, which is the grain spelt. Spelt has a wonderful nutty flavor that is delicious! Spelt has a strong hull that makes it excellent for long-term storage.

How do I use it?

Spelt berries can be sprouted, ground into flour, or cooked. You can also find spelt rolled into flakes (similar to oats). To cook spelt, just add water and cook on the stove top, electric pressure cooker or stove top pressure cooker according to the chart below.

	Cooking Ratio (Grain:Water)	Stove Top	Electric Pressure Cooker	Stove Top Pressure Cooker
Spelt	1:3	90-120 mins	10 mins	45 mins

Cooked spelt berries are delicious as a breakfast cereal, in salads, soups and desserts. You can also use cooked spelt in place of cooked rice in many recipes. Spelt flour is wonderful in cookies, muffins, pancakes, crackers, pastas, or breads. Spelt is high in gluten so you can use it in yeasted breads.

Where can I buy it?

Spelt berries can be bought in bulk from grain companies, at health food stores or at some grocery stores like WinCo foods. They also sell it on Amazon: Bob's Red Mill Organic Spelt Berries, 24-Ounce (Pack of 4) or in Bulk: Spelt Berries, 45 lbs. in Sturdy Bucket

How healthy is it?

Spelt is an excellent source of manganese and a good source for protein, copper and zinc. Spelt contains more protein and minerals than wheat. Spelt is high in fiber, which has been shown to help lower cholesterol levels when consumed. Lower cholesterol is important to control or prevent heart disease and diabetes. Consuming spelt and other whole grains several times a day has been shown to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. If you're interested, here is an in-depth nutrient analysis of spelt.

Got a Recipe?

This week I'll be sharing some of my favorite recipes using spelt. If you have a favorite spelt recipe, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Information from this post came from: chefbrad.com, whfoods.com and wikepedia.org

Food For Thought

2012-02-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

Favorite Children's Book: A House is a House for Me

2012-02-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

The children's book I've chosen to talk about in this post is "A House is a House for Me" by Mary Ann Hoberman.

We checked this book out at our local library and it was so much fun to read. I want to share the first couple of lines so you get an idea of the charm of this book.

"A hill is a house for an ant, an ant.

A hive is a house for a bee.

A house is a house for a mole or a mouse

And a house is a house for me!"

As you can tell the story is told is a wonderful rhyming pattern throughout the entire book. It's almost musical as you read it to your child. The book explores the houses of many types of animals, vehicles, people, food, and other things. It always brings back the phrase "And a house is a house for me!" Soon my little four-year-old was repeating it with me, even though we had never read the book before. This made for such a fun, interactive reading experience.

The illustrations are fanciful and the colors are bright and cheerful. I love how the children are exploring different houses in the pictures - from a tree house, to a cardboard box playhouse, from a beach umbrella, to a sheet over a table. At the end of the book, the author ties the concept all together with these words:

"Each creature that's known has a house of its own

and the earth is a house for us all"

What a great message to end on - we all live on this earth together and everything has it's place. I think there's a lot of security that comes to a child knowing that he has a place where he is loved and safe and secure. This book helps send that message as you read it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Best to you all!

Frugal Friday: Keeping a well-stocked pantry

2012-02-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

This week I've been talking a lot about winter squash - specifically hubbard, but today I'm going to talk about another kind of hubbard...

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

to fetch her poor dog a bone.

But when she got there the cupboard was bare

and so the poor dog had none.

I'm sure most of us have had the experience of going to the cupboard to get an ingredient that we think we have. It's 20 minutes before dinner and the kids are hungry and whiny. When we open the cupboard, we realize, just like Old Mother Hubbard that we are completely out of that ingredient. Panic strikes and then we have to decide:

Do I run to the store to get what I need? Towing all the children along with me?
Do I make something else, even though I'm halfway into this recipe and the kids are starving?
Do I call the neighbors and see if they have what I need?
Do I call my husband and ask him to pick up some fast food takeout on his way home?

Any choice we make will cost more in time and/or money than we were planning on. Not to mention added stress and frustration.

So what is the answer to help prevent this scenario from happening? There are two answers really that help solve the problem - meal planning and keeping a well-stocked pantry. But today I'd like to talk specifically about keeping a well-stocked pantry.

What do I mean by keeping a well-stocked pantry?

Let me be clear here that by keeping a well-stocked pantry, I'm not talking about stockpiling things that you don't need. If you read my last frugal Friday post about how how to save money without coupons, you probably realize that I'm a huge advocate for NOT spending money on things that aren't necessary. So what I mean by a well-stocked pantry is this: keeping extra staples that you use often and regularly in your pantry at all times. You have to use common sense here. Don't go out an buy a 5 lb. bag of turmeric when you only have one recipe that uses it and no one in your family likes it anyway. On the other hand, if you use 10 lbs. of flour a week, make sure you have more than 10 lbs. of flour in your pantry at any given time - much more if you can.

Why should I worry about keeping a well-stocked pantry?

I've already listed some of the main reasons why keeping a well-stocked pantry is important, but in case you're not convinced, here's a bit more detailed list:

Can Save You Time - Stocking up your pantry can save you time as long as don't go extreme about it. It can help you so that you don't need to shop as much. It can help so that you don't need make as many emergency trips to the store.
Can Save You Money - Stocking up your pantry can save you money because if you have a supply of something you can more easily go without having to pay full price for things. Now while I'm not an advocate for couponing, I am an advocate for saving money and one of the ways I do that is buy a lot of the items that I use when they are at their best price. You can find lists of these types of things all over the internet. But if you pay attention, you can figure them out yourself. You'll notice what times of year certain things cost less and you'll stock up your pantry on those items during those times. Again, being careful not to stock up your pantry with things that will expire sooner than you'll use them or things that you don't use. Stocking up your pantry won't save you money if it ends up going to waste!
Can Lower Stress & Give You Peace of Mind - When you have food in your pantry to feed your family, you have peace of mind. You don't have to worry about whether you have enough flour in your canister to make bread sticks for dinner because you know you have another bag in the pantry in case you run out. That's stress relieving and relieving stress is so important in creating a healthy family.

How do I keep my pantry stocked?

Well I don't know the best way for you, but here's how I do it. I make a list of the items that I use on a regular basis and decide how much of that item I want to keep on hand at any given time. For example, if I use a lot of cans of corn in my cooking I might decide I want to keep 10 cans of corn in my pantry at any given time. Since corn doesn't go on sale every month, I might buy 24 cans just to make sure I still have 10 before the next sale comes around (usually about every 3-6 months). Then you can mark it on a long-term grocery list when you use a can of corn so when they go on sale you know how many you should buy. If that's too much work to do it every time (it is for me!), then you can just regularly take inventory before the sale comes around so you know how many you need to buy. If you do it that way, make sure you keep a large enough quantity to ensure that you don't run out before the sale comes. If you find that you still had 23 cans when the next sale came around either donate some to your local food drive so you make sure it doesn't go to waste or eat more corn instead of other vegetables in the next few months. Just make sure to adjust your quantity for next time to reflect what your family uses and don't buy more than that, even if it's on a really good sale. It just takes practice to get it all right, but you can do it. And it's worth it.

Now I realize you might be asking yourself, so what should I put on my list? What kinds of things should I keep in my pantry all the time? I'm sure yours will be different than mine, but in a future Frugal Friday post I'll share mine with you, to give you a head start. Meanwhile, start by buying a couple of extra things that you use when you see them go on sale, and you'll be in a better shape than you were before! Remember, don't pull a Mother Hubbard on your family, keep your pantry stocked!

Here's a sneak preview tour of my pantry space...notice all the drawers are shut! that's because it's not organized at the moment...but it will be - - and hopefully soon!

Here are my cute little spice cabinets where I keep all the spices that I use on a regular basis

Here's our main pantry in the kitchen with storage shelves above where I also keep food. "Hi Mom!" says J.

Linked to: Frugal Friday, Finer Things Friday, Hearts 4 Home

Spinach Pesto Alfredo

2012-02-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

I'm a creamy pesto kind of gal. There used to be an Italian restaurant near where we live that we loved to go to on special occasions - anniversaries, birthdays, etc. My husband always ordered pesto. It was creamy and had the most wonderful flavor. I always ordered Parmesan chicken and sometimes we'd share so we got to try both. The place closed down a couple of years ago and I've really missed it! I've been trying to replicate the flavor of that creamy pesto for a long time. I think this recipes comes real close - and we were so excited! I know it's going on our list of family favorites. As you can see in the picture, we served it over spaghetti squash, with a little lemon chicken on the side. But you could serve it over any pasta and it would be wonderful!

This recipe is an adaptation of the spinach pesto recipe from The finer things club. I started with her pesto ingredient and blended them in a blender.

Here's what the pesto looked like when it was all done

Then I combined the pesto with a cream sauce I made in the saucepan.

Here's the recipe! Enjoy!

Spinach Pesto Alfredo Sauce

1 cup of firmly packed fresh spinach leaves
1 tsp of dried basil
1/2 cup parmesan or romano cheese
1/4 cup of walnuts, almonds, or pine nuts
1 large clove of garlic, quartered
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
¼ C. butter
½ pkg. cream cheese
1 C. milk (or cream or half and half)

Combine the spinach, basil, parmesan cheese, nuts, garlic, salt and olive oil in a blender. Cover and blend with several on-off-terns until a paste consistency forms, stopping several times to scrape the sides. Then in a saucepan over med-low heat melt the butter. Add cream cheese and melt. Add milk and turn up the heat a bit and heat to boiling until the cream sauce is nice and thick. Then add the pesto sauce from the blender, stir and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately over pasta or spaghetti squash. Serve with chicken or fresh bread, if desired.

Linked to: Full Plate Thursdays, It's a Keeper Thursday, What's cooking Thursday, Tasty Tuesdays, Cast Party Wednesday, Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Baking, Sweet Temptations, Tastetastic Thursday, See You in the Gumbo

What to do with Winter Squash

2012-02-08T05:37:00.000-08:00

This week's new food is Hubbard squash, a type of winter squash. We love growing many types of winter squash in the garden, but usually around this time of year I get a little worried because I have a basement full of winter squash and not enough recipes to use them in.

Here's some ideas that I found to get my wheels turning! Maybe they'll inspire you as well! The nice thing about these recipes is that you could probably change up the squash types in them - except maybe the spaghetti squash ones - because they have such a distinct texture.

Hubbard Squash Bread

Source: simplyrecipes.com via Heather on Pinterest

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Source: skinnytaste.com via Two on Pinterest

Squash Vases - these are pretty!

Source: bhg.com via Carla on Pinterest

Butternut Squash Pie

Source: seriouseats.com via Heather on Pinterest

Hubbard Squash Pancakes (Not pictured here- but the link works - aren't these Hubbards pretty?)

Source: melissas.com via Heather on Pinterest

Acorn Squash Alfredo (Vegetarian)

Source: kblog.lunchboxbunch.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Source: maggianotakesaustin.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Butternut Squash Fries

Source: hungry-girl.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Squash Bowling - I'm kind of kidding with this one...But I guess if you have enough...

Source: marthastewart.com via Terri on Pinterest

Roasted Winter Vegetable Soup - with Squash Puree

Source: inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Squash Art - What a great way to impress the neighbors!

Source: basia-spiritspace.blogspot.com via Barbara on Pinterest

Butternut Squash Bread (No Sugar)

Source: inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Squash Party Servers - Why not?

Source: thewhisperingcreekhouse.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Butternut Squash Brownies - They look sooo moist and delicious!

Source: goodcheapeats.com via Heather on Pinterest

Well, there you have it! Lots of great things to do with winter squash - enjoy!

Linked to: The Mommy Club, Real Food Wednesday, Friday Favorite Finds

Chicken Noodle Soup {Electric Pressure Cooker Recipe}

2012-02-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

This recipe is comfort food at it's best! Perfect for a cold, winter day. If you're not feeling well, it is the cure - it really is! I've posted the crock pot version here in case you don't have a pressure cooker, but a pressure cooker makes it SOO much easier to make! You can have it made and on the table in 30 to 40 minutes.

We made this a few days ago for a soup & bread party that we had at our house. We like to invite our neighbors over to get together every other month or so. A dear lady that lives around the corner came and she was so excited - she loves this soup! We made it for her once before and she said it was the best chicken soup she's ever tasted.

And do you know what the secret ingredient is? Squash! Can you believe it? Do you notice that the color is a little more orange that your average chicken noodle soup? It's lovely isn't it? Not only does it look prettier, but the squash gives the soup an extra burst of "comfort" taste. You can use any squash that blends into a smooth puree. Hubbard would be perfect, since that's the squash I'm featuring this week!

Gourmet Chicken Soup

6 C. water

3 tsp. instant chicken bouillon

1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. onion salt

Parsley (as much as desired)

1 tsp. pepper

2-3 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces (I used frozen breasts this time and it worked well or you could substitute leftover precooked turkey)

1-2 C. chopped onions

2 C. diced carrots

2 C. diced celery

2 C. cooked, pureed Hubbard Squash (or other winter squash - pumpkin, butternut, banana, etc) Cook & puree' winter squash the same way you would cook pumpkin or use canned pumpkin.

Salt & Pepper to taste

Egg Noodles or cooked rice (we like the wide or narrow egg noodles of the Country Pasta brand or you can make your own)

Combine all the ingredients in an electric pressure cooker (I haven't tried a stove top pressure cooker but I bet it would work as well). Pressure on high for 21 minutes. Use the quick release steam method. Add 2-3 cans cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (or a mixture) and with the lid off, heat until warm on the "saute" or "brown" pressure cooker setting. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile cook the egg noodles separately in boiling water on the stove. Drain and add to soup when done. Taste the soup and add salt or pepper if it needs it.

I haven't tried cooking the noodles with the soup in the pressure cooker - I'm pretty picky about my noodle "done-ness". I like to control how done they are really carefully and that's easier to do on the stove. You can add cooked rice instead of the egg noodles or eat it without. It's also Gluten-free as long as you don't put in the egg noodles.

You can see that the pressure cooker gets really full after you add in the noodles - so just be aware of that if you do try cooking the noodles in with the soup. You may have to adjust the recipe. I added the noodles afterwards and then just kept it in the pressure cooker on the warm setting until we were ready to eat. Delicious served with fresh, homemade bread!

Linked to Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Recipe linky, Weekly Recipe Collection, Made Famous

Monday Meet New Foods: Hubbard Squash

2012-02-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had a family camp out in the living room on Saturday. The boys loved it. I made it until about 10 p.m. and then snuck off in my bed when everyone fell asleep - ha ha! No one would have been the wiser either, except I slept in - - so they all caught me!

J (my four-year-old) gave us some laughs yesterday when he stuck both legs in his long johns when he was getting ready for bed. He started hopping around the room and kept tripping and falling and laughing. I think it was straight giggles for about 10 minutes. The long johns are all stretched out now, but childhood is fleeting, so it was worth it!

And now, for today's new food....

Meet: Hubbard Squash!

When we first moved into our home and planted our garden, we were thrilled to be able grow so many things. In the fall someone gave us some Hubbard squash from their garden that they couldn't use. We loved it! The next year and every year since then we've grown Hubbard squash in our garden. The first year we planted Hubbards, we grew a Hubbard Squash that we lovingly termed - The MOTHER of HUBBARDS! I don't remember how many pounds it was, but it was HUGE! Here's a picture of it.

Here's another Hubbard that we grew that same year:

This week I want to introduce you to these wonderful squash. They are so tasty and you can use them in many of the same recipes that you can use pumpkin in.

What is a Hubbard Squash?

Hubbard Squash is a winter squash type also known as green pumpkin or buttercup. It ranges in color from dark green (like those shown in the picture above) to grey or even bluish in color (we grew some of these lighter ones this year). There are also some varieties that are orange or red. Hubbard Squash has a very thick skin, making it ideal for winter storage.

How do I use it?

Hubbard Squash can be used in recipes that call for other winter squash. You can cook it in the microwave, roast it in the oven, or steam it in the pressure cooker or on the stove. Like other winter squash, the inner flesh is what is consumed. Once cooked, you can puree it and use it as a soup base or in pumpkin pie filling, or use it in other baked goods. It also makes an excellent baby food as it has a sweet flavor and nice smooth texture. You can also clean the seeds and roast them for a healthy snack.

Where can I buy them?

Hubbard Squash can be found in many major supermarkets during the winter months of the year. They will often be sold in pieces because the squash is so large.

How can I grow them?

Hubbard Squash are easy to grow as long as they have lots of sunlight and warm weather. They are similar to growing a pumpkin. You can find Hubbard Squash seeds at a local seed company or online. Once harvested, Hubbard squash can store up to six months in a cold, dark place.

How healthy are they?

Winter squash, such as Hubbards are high in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, which are important for cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment. They also have been shown to be helpful in regulating blood sugar. They are high in vitamins and especially excellent sources of Vitamin A and C.

Got a Recipe?

This week I'll be sharing some of my favorite recipes using Hubbard Squash. If you have a favorite recipe, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Here's a little Hubbard Squash that was still growing

Sources: whfoods.org

Food For Thought

2012-02-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Favorite Children's Books: The Missing Tarts

2012-02-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

We love books! And we love the library. We've gone almost every week without fail since Curious George was a tiny tot. It has been a big part of our life and our kid's lives. I'm going to step up on my soap box for a minute - it is SOOO important to read to your kids! Turn off the cell phones, turn off the TV, shut off the computers and read together. I love children's books! They are so fun to read and it is time well spent. I'd like to occasionally review a children's book on this blog to give you some new ideas of books you can check out at the library or buy for your kids.

Before I get into my book review for the day I just want to let you know that I got my onion and basil seed starts planted! I'm so excited. I put them in containers and stuck them next to the heater (yes, at ground level -- very bold of me, right? but I don't have a toddler anymore so hopefully I'll be okay). Now grow, seeds grow!

For my first children's book review I've chosen a book that we checked out at the library this week: "The Missing Tarts" by B. G. Hennessy. I was excited when I found this book because we've been talking a lot about the queen of hearts this week as you might know if you've been following my blog. I love nursery rhymes - they are so wonderful to recite with kids and this book combines several nursery rhymes.

In the story, the queen of hearts made some tarts and the knave of hearts stole them clean away just like the nursery rhyme. But now the queen's tarts are missing and they look every where for them: With Jack and Jill, Old King Cole, Jack Sprat, Little Jack Horner, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, the Man in the Moon, Old Mother Hubbard and even the little old woman who lives in the shoe. They finally find them and it's not what you expect. The knave of hearts didn't steal the tarts for himself - he gave them all away!

This book is perfect to read for children of all ages, but especially little, little children with short attention spans. There are only a few words on each page and the pictures are delightful with lots of bright colors.

One thing I feel strongly about is that books we read to our kids should teach good values - kindness, patience, love, honesty, work, etc. That's what I love about this book - the knave wasn't actually stealing, he was sharing with others and what a wonderful way to teach our kids to share. I hope you enjoy reading this book with your kids as much as we did! Have a wonderful, restful weekend!

Frugal Friday: Saving Money Without Coupons

2012-02-03T06:53:00.000-08:00

I realize that this confession might make you lose confidence in me. It might be the beginning of my entire ruin! But I'm going to share it anyway:

I don't coupon!

*gasp*

yes, it's true, believe it or not.

Don't get me wrong, I love saving money! And if a coupon lands in my lap at just the right time for something that I was already going to buy, sure I'll use it! But I don't pursue coupons. Have I ever? Yes I did for a short time. And here's what I found:

Couponing takes time - a lot of it! There's the clipping, the organizing, the shuffling, the surfing, the price matching, the shopping, ~~the drooling~~, etc...It's very time consuming!
Couponing takes more skills than I have - First of all there's the organizing in a binder or folder or however you choose to organize the little guys. But also you have to keep track of expiration dates and shuffle through them in the store (hoping a gust of wind ~~or another crazy coupon-er~~ doesn't come up and whoosh them all away). And there's a huge possibility that you will find yourself in hysterics when the baby destroys $1 by drooling all over one. Believe me, I speak from experience!
Coupons encourage spending and buying products that I wouldn't normally buy - This is another one of those things where I look at the situation very logically. Do coupon's really save you money? Well, that depends. People always share their stories of saving hundreds of dollars on a store grocery trip and then share pictures of what they purchased and give their total savings. I always look at those things very skeptically. Are there people who save money with coupons? I have no doubt that there are! But I believe that the general coupon-er is actually saving a lot less than they think they are. The real story should be a comparison of 1) What you would have normally bought at the grocery store to meet your needs and 2) what you actually bought (plus the ten other trips to the store you had to make because you didn't buy what you need the first time). 30 boxes of cereal isn't going to feed my family for a week (at least not the way I want to feed them) even if I got the entire bunch of them for only $30. Yes I saved $100, but I didn't buy what I needed. And I ended up spending more money in the long run because I had to go back to the store and buy the rest of my groceries. Sure there's a lot of savings going on with couponing, but I found myself buying more expensive products that I wouldn't normally buy just because I had a coupon for them and could save a few cents.
Coupons encourage me to buy food that is not healthy - Coupons for foods that do not fall under the category of "processed" are few and far between. Do they exist? Sure, but they are hard to come by and often not very significant savings. Thus, if you use coupons you are being encouraged to eat foods that are processed (obviously - that's the whole reason manufacturers give out coupons in the first place - to get you to eat foods that they produce). So what about the toothpaste, shampoo, etc type products? To me, it's not worth it to coupon only for those things.

So I stopped couponing and I found that if I used the time differently, I can still save in drastic ways, without the drawbacks of coupons. Here's a few ideas to help you save time AND money:

Shop Less - this is an obvious one. The less time you are in the store, the less things you buy that you don't need and the more you save. I do my grocery shopping every other week - sometimes I've even gone longer. It really does work to save you money AND time!
Waste not, want not - this old adage is so very true! There's so much waste and it's such a shame. I cringe to think about it. Teach your kids to not take more than they can eat, teach them to eat the crusts from their bread, to squeeze out the last bit of toothpaste from the bottle, etc. etc. It is so important! Simple things really do add up. Turn off lights that aren't in use, turn off water in between rinsing dishes, take shorter showers, turn down the heat or turn off the air conditioning, eat leftovers. There are so many ways to save money that fall under this category.
Re-use and re-purpose - not only is this good for the environment but it's great for saving money. Wear your clothes more than once if they don't stink. Use a towel more than once. Cut off jeans and make them into shorts. Save older children's clothes for the younger ones. Patch your jeans, mend clothes that rip, save old clothes to use as rags.
Only buy what you need - even if it's on sale!
Make your own food - now you may wonder about this one. How is it really saving me time AND money. But I can tell you for a fact that it does. I can make a pizza from start to finish in 40 minutes at significantly less cost than purchasing one from a pizza place (I'll have to do a frugal friday post on it some time). By the time you order the pizza, pack everyone into the car and go pick it up (or wait for them to have it delivered), you've spent at least 40 minutes! Making your own convenience foods from scratch will not only help you eat healthier, but it will save you time from having to worry about all those stupid coupons. Make some and freeze it - that's a great way to have easy, fast food that you need in emergencies.
Do it yourself - Mow your own lawn, change your own oil, give your kid's haircuts, paint your house, etc. There are so many ways to save money by learning to do things yourself.
Walk or ride your bike - My husband has been riding his bike to work on the good weather days - about 7.5 miles each way. He can ride it both ways in the same amount of time it would take to commute plus do his daily exercise - and this way he gets them both done in one shot and saves money on gas! I love to walk places with the kids - sometimes we'll walk to the library, the park, the grocery store (if I only need an item or two). It's so enjoyable to spend time together and encourages kids to enjoy the process of doing things instead of just the results.
Other ideas: Drink water instead of soda or juice, eat smaller portions, buy items you use regularly in bulk, make toys instead of buy them, buy produce in season, have meatless meals, buy store or generic brand items...The list goes on and on.

There's so many ways you can easily save money and time. When you practice these habits in your families, you are teaching your children the important values of thrift, frugality, taking care of the earth and our bodies, living within our means, and controlling our desires. Those things are so important to teach as you build a healthy family. Need more ideas? Here's some great articles I found on this topic that I enjoyed:

Ways you can save money without changing your spending
(make sure you read the comments on this post)

How to save money on groceries without coupons.

$4/week on groceries? No thanks.

You can save money without coupons

Saving money on groceries without coupons

You Don’t Need Extreme Couponing to Save Money on Food Costs

I love this free chapter from the book: The Money Saving Mom's budget

What about you? How do you save money?

Linked to Frugal Friday

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts

2012-02-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

The Queen of Hearts

She made some tarts,

All on a winter's day;

The Knave of Hearts

He stole those tarts,

And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts

Called for the tarts,

And gave the knave a chore;

The Knave of Hearts

Brought back the tarts,

And vowed he'd steal no more.

Well in honor of valentine's day this month, I made some yummy homemade pop tarts. They are healthier than the store-bought kind, but still not super healthy. Don't you think they are cute?

The kids and I had fun making them together. They are really easy! Here's what you do...

Make your favorite pie crust recipe - here's my favorite pie crust recipe (I usually double it) or use the refrigerator kind if you are lazy. Roll it out and cut out heart shapes (or any shape you want!).

Next place some of your favorite jam on one heart - I made some with blackberry, peach and pear and all were delicious! The pear was Brandon's favorite. It was too hard for me to pick one - I liked them all!

Next. put another heart dough on top of the first.

And crimp around the sides with a fork like this. Poke the fork in the center for an air release.

Or this, if you want to be creative like my son Curious George!

Continue until you have a whole pan of them. Place the tarts on parchment paper on a cookie tray.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with red sugar or leave off if you want to frost them after baking.

Then bake them in a preheated 375 F oven for 15-20 minutes or until slightly brown. Let them cool on a cookie rack and then frost some with glaze if desired.

Homemade Pop Tarts
Pie crust for 2 pies, refrigerated or homemade (see my recipe below).
Jam - Any kind you like!
1 egg
Red Sugar or Glaze (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Flour your breadboard or counter and rolling pin. Form 1 pie crust dough into a ball and place on floured cutting board or counter. Tuck the ends under to make a smooth ball. Roll out into a circle. Cut out tart shapes with cookie cutters (any shape you like). Place 1-2 tsp. jam in the center and top with another cut-out pastry shape. Crimp edges with a fork. Repeat until all the pie crust is used.

Place tarts on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Brush with egg wash (whisk 1 egg with 1 Tbsp. water). Sprinkle some with red sugar or don't if you want to glaze them later.

Bake the pop-tarts for about 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until slightly brown. Let them cool on a cookie rack and then frost some with glaze (see recipe below) if desired. Perfect to eat fresh or freeze them and pop into a toaster for a yummy breakfast. Makes 1 dozen tarts.

Pie Crust
Ingredients:
2 C. all-purpose white flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C. ice water
1 C. shortening

Mix together flour and salt and place 1/2 cup of this mix in a cup and set aside.

Add 1/4 C. shortening (or butter-flavored shortening) to the remaining flour and cut into small balls with 2 knives or a pastry cutter. Do not handle this with your hands until the very last because the heat from your hands will make the dough tough.

Add the ice water to the mix you set aside and mix it to make a paste. Add this past to the flour and crisco and cut in well.

GlazePowdered sugar (start with 1/2 - 1 cup)
splash of vanilla
milk, as needed

Place powdered sugar in a bowl. Add vanilla and add milk until glaze is spreadable but still thick. Add food coloring if desired.

Linked to It's a Keeper Thursday, What's cooking Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Tasty Tuesdays, Cast Party Wednesday, Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Baking, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, Sweet Temptations, Tastetastic Thursday, Just Something I whipped Up, See You in the Gumbo

Oat Recipes

2012-02-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here's some of my favorite recipes that I've posted using oats.

Honey Oat Wheat Bread
Mouthwatering Whole-grain Oat Bread
No Sugar Oatmeal Breakfast Cereal
No-Sugar Granola
Holiday Granola
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
My Favorite Granola & Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Today I have another recipe for oatmeal to share that I need to give my husband credit for. He made this for me one morning as a special treat and I knew I needed to share it! It was delicious!

Brandon's Pecan Coconut Oatmeal Breakfast Cereal

Here's what you do:

Put 1/4 C quick oats in a bowl. Add milk until barely not covering oats. Cook in microwave for 1.5 - 2 minutes. When it comes out, the oats should be soft and thick.

Then add:

1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 - 2 Tbsp. Xgave
1-2 Tbsp. chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. coconut
1-2 Tbsp. white chocolate chips, optional

Eat up and enjoy! I listed the white chocolate chips as optional simply because this is a healthy food blog...but but they really are good in it! I highly recommend them! Yes, you feel like you're eating a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie for breakfast...every once and a while it's okay...yum!!

Here's some of my favorite oat recipes from pinterest!

Meatless Chicken Fried Steak (with Oatmeal)

Source: theprudenthomemaker.com via Heather on Pinterest

No Bake Energy Bites

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars without Corn Syrup

Source: heavenlyhomemakers.com via Heather on Pinterest

Chocolate, Oatmeal Banana Shake

Source: Uploaded by user via Sarah on Pinterest

Raspberry/Blackberry Oat Breakfast Bars

Source: everybodylikessandwiches.com via April May on Pinterest

Ginger Berry and Oat Smoothie

Source: realsimple.com via Jeanette on Pinterest

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Source: lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com via Lori on Pinterest

Chewy Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Source: erinsfoodfiles.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Linked to Friday Favorite Finds

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

2012-01-31T08:25:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite food memories is coming home from school to freshly baked oatmeal cookies. Whenever I taste or smell an oatmeal cookie it sends me back to those days, sitting in a warm kitchen eating cookies and milk after a long day of school.

Here's a modified version of the recipe that my Mom made. I've healthified it by using oat flour in place of white flour. You can easily make oat flour by grinding rolled or quick oats in your blender or grind oat groats in a grain mill. Obviously these are still not something you want to eat a lot of - they have a lot of butter and sugar, but at least they are healthier than they were before! And tastier in my opinion...food for the soul! Enjoy!

Oatmeal Cookies
1 1/4 c. ( 2 1/2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 c. oatmeal
Chocolate chips, Reeses pieces (what I used in mine), heath bar pieces, etc optional

Heat oven to 375 deg. F. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add combined flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Mix well. Stir in oats. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on to ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten balls gently with wet fingers. Bake 7 to 9 min for a chewy cookies (My favorite!), 10 to 11 for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 min on cookie sheet. Remove to wire rack. About 4 1/2 dozen.

Oh by the way, I have to admit that my first batch ended up like this because I didn't add enough flour (I've adjusted the recipe to compensate). :) Also make sure you follow the part about leaving it on the cookie pan for a minute or two after you remove it from the oven - otherwise they will squish and not look pretty. But in case you forget, yes, the cookie mess still tasted delicious!

*Update: I've noticed some confusion on pinterest about why this is termed "healthy". Yes, this recipe still has butter and sugar in it, so no, you should not be eating it every meal! But it's "healthier" than other oatmeal cookie recipes because it uses whole-grain oat flour in place of white flour. Using whole-grain flour adds nutrition and fiber, which make these healthier than their counterpart recipes. Another reader pointed out that these are also gluten-free which makes them a great recipe for those with gluten intolerance.

Linked to Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Must Try Mondays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Cast Party Wednesday

Monday: Meet New Foods: Oats!

2012-01-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

Meet: Oats!

What are Oats?

Oats in their whole grain form are called oat groats. They are much more commonly known to us in their processed forms, which include steel cut oats, rolled oats or quick oats (you can see the differences in the pictures above). In their pure form, they are gluten free.

How do I use them?
Oat groats can be sprouted, ground into flour, or cooked. The processed varieties of oats can be ground into flour or cooked, but not sprouted. To cook oats just add water and cook on the stove top, electric pressure cooker or stove top pressure cooker according to the chart below.

	Cooking Ratio (Grain:Water)	Stove Top	Electric Pressure Cooker	Stove Top Pressure Cooker
Oat Groats	1:3	90 minutes	12 minutes	15 minutes
Steel Cut Oats	1:2	20 minutes	6 minutes	7 minutes
Quick Oats	1:3	8 minutes	2 minutes	2 minutes
Rolled Oats	1:3	20 minutes	6 minutes	7 minutes

Rolled, steel cut, or quick oats are delicious as a breakfast cereal, in granola, cookies, muffins, pancakes or breads. They can also be ground in a blender into flour and used in recipes that do not require gluten. If you are using oats in a bread recipe, you should add in extra gluten flour to compensate for the oat flour.

Oat groats can be cooked and added to salads, breads or soups. They can be ground into flour using a grain mill and used for bread, cookies, muffins, pancakes or waffles.

Where can I buy them?

Rolled (old fashioned) or quick oats can be found in most grocery stores in the cereal section. Oat groats can be bought in bulk from grain companies, at health food stores or at some grocery stores like WinCo foods. They are one of the least expensive grains to buy and easy to find.

How healthy are they?

Oats are high in fiber, which has been shown to help lower cholesterol levels when consumed. Lower cholesterol is important to control or prevent heart disease and diabetes. Oats are also high in special antioxidants which help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and DNA repair. According to some studies, oats have been shown to boost your immune system response. If you're interested, here is an in-depth nutrient analysis of oats.

Got a Recipe?

This week I'll be sharing some of my favorite recipes using oats. If you have a favorite oat recipe, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Information from this post came from: chefbrad.com, whfoods.com and wikepedia.org

Food For Thought

2012-01-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

Frugal Friday: More than 100 Frugal Winter Family Activities

2012-01-27T20:47:00.000-08:00

I'm always on the lookout for free or cheap activities to do with the kids - at all seasons of the year. Today I'll be listing activities specifically for winter since that's the season where I live. I hope this list inspires you with ideas so you can go and have some fun with your family!

Here's a picture we took last year of a really neat ice formation that we saw.

Homemade Bouncy Balls - These look so fun to make using regular household supplies
Cardboard Tree house - Our boys loved making this a few weeks ago. We actually made two and they have been well-played with. We go buy "guys" out of the vending machines at the grocery store for 25cents and use them to populate the tree house. They are little action figure aliens, bok choy boys, bugs and baby dinosaurs (my favorite). They are the cheapest and most played with toys in our house.
Marble Run out of a Cereal Box - Can't wait to try this one out - how fun!
Winter night walks - our family loves to go on walks at night in the winter. Just bundle everyone up, pick a destination (a park or hill are our favorites) and walk. Enjoy the quiet, crisp night air. When you get home, make some hot chocolate and bundle up in blankets to warm everyone up.
Sledding - If you live where there is snow, sledding is a fun, cheap activity to do as a family. I have to admit, I think we enjoy it as much or more as the kids.
Cloud Dough - this looks kind of like "moon sand" but made at home out of flour and baby oil!
Homemade Hover Craft - Who doesn't love a good science project? This one looks like a real winner!
Marshmallow Animals - Made out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Don't they looks so cute?
Snow Playdough - our kids love playing with play dough - here's an easy recipe where you can mix in glitter to make it look like snow. Here's another site that did the same thing.
Go to the library - This is just about our favorite thing to do any day, rain or shine. Our boys love it. Also the library will often offer free classes or story times for kids.
Dance - turn on some music and dance! We love to dance to my husband or I playing a crazy song on the piano. It makes for a lot of fun.
Read a chapter book together - we've read the first three books from the wizard of oz series and our boys love it! It's fun to read together at night before they go to bed.
Make some slime together - wow, this looks like something our boys would really enjoy. Or here's a glow-in-the-dark variety.
Have a pizza party - we have one every Friday night and watch a fun movie. Here's a cute snowman pizza that would be perfect for winter!
Marble Race Track out of Pool Noodles - now this looks cool!
Make Snow Flakes - cheap, homemade fun! I love these 3-D ones - we made them last year and they were really easy and looked awesome.
The Penny Game - If you live in an area that has tall buildings, you might try out this game that we love to play in the winter. Find a building that has a large stairwell (we use one with 13 stair flights but 8-10 would be fine too). The stair flights have to be open in the center for this to work. Climb up the stairs (or take an elevator if you're lazy, but we usually do this game to get the winter wiggles out). Each family member selects a penny with a different year (that's how you'll distinguish between them). Then each of you drop your penny down the center of the stair well and then go down the stairs to find out who's went down the farthest. You can have prizes for whose went the farthest on one drop, who had the least number of drops to the bottom, etc. It's really fun.
Make a Snowman - or have a contest to see who can make the biggest or cutest or funniest snowman.
Make Valentines - this is a fun activity to do. There are tons of good ideas on the web. Here's a few favorites: Potato Stamp Valentines, 101 Valentine Ideas, Another Cute idea
Snow Paint - add food coloring to water and put in a spray bottle, then go out and paint your yard!
Find a free e-book to listen to
Make Cardboard swords & Armor - always fighting on the good guy's team of course
Play Hide and go seek indoors
Play I Spy - here's a cute paper one
Make a treasure map and go on a Treasure Hunt
Make Snow Ice Cream
Have some fun mattress jumping - This kind is legal cause Mom said so! :)
Build an Indoor Fort or Playhouse - with blankets, sheets, chairs. Use your imagination!
Paper Airplane Contests - or try these whirlybirds or strawplanes
Make Can Robots
Build Balloon Powered Racers
Play Charades - act out an animal, person or thing and everyone tries to guess what it is
Build a snow fort, or igloo or have a snowball fight - the best kind of memories!
Borax Snowflakes - these look easy and fun to make.
Marble Run out of Paper Towel tubes
Color
Cardboard Castle - Love it! Similar to the tree house. Or how about Merlin's castle
Make your own movie with a camera - write the story line and all and act it out
Make Snowman Pancakes - Super cute!
Make an indoor mini golf course
Make Some Rockets and blast off to space!
Go Ice Skating indoors - use paper plates to slide your feet around the room or wax paper like this
Make Puffy Paint out of Shaving Cream and Glue
Go on a hike - There are lots of places you can still hike in the winter! Just bundle up and go.
Have a snow ball fight with socks - or make snow balls out of nylons, stuffed with batting and tied off.
Make a Toy Car Race Track or Town out of Fabric, a shower curtain, or even out of paper!
Make Paper Dolls or Paper Boys - here's some cute ones
Build Something with Boxes
Make Snowflake Tortillas - Fold and Cut a tortilla into a snowflake. Melt butter and put on it then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and broil until crispy - a fun, yummy treat!
Have an Ivory Soap Explosion - put some soap in the microwave and watch it explode? Wow.
Try to maneuver through a maze of "lazer beams"
Have a talent show - everyone share their talents
Make Pirate Hats & Play Pirates
Shovel someone's walk, make someone cookies or doorbell ditch something anonymously - do some service!
Mini Marshmallow Poppers
Have a checkers or chess competition
Not Enough Snow? Build a Tree Man!
Get a couple refrigerator boxes and build a rocket, a house, a castle - the possibilities are limitless!
Old Fashioned Yarn dolls - I remember making these as a girl!
Color Mixing - Color ice cubes with food coloring then melt them together to learn how colors mix
Marshmallow Play Dough
Play Dress-ups - my favorite activity growing up!
Plan a party
Play Make-up for girls
Make a car track - out of an old rain gutter, or just a cardboard box
Make a Train - or make a life-sized one using big boxes and let the kids sit in them
Record yourself with a web cam - see who can make the funniest face or sing a song the silliest
Water bottle ring toss
Have a Picnic in the living room
Make Cereal box guitars and rock to some good music
Put on a magic show - learn some magic tricks
Make some mini bow 'n arrows
Make Some Puppets and put on a puppet show - here's one I found of beauty and the beast, here's another of Florimel the magnificent
Play Spy Games and make secret messages in invisible ink
Make an indoor hopscotch course
Have a wrestling match
Pillow Fights! The best!
Have a campout in the front room - tent, pretend campfire, make smores (in the oven, toaster oven or microwave if you have a browner), etc
Write a story - one person starts, each person adds to it.
Make Marshmallow Shooters
Make Some Popsicle stick magnets
Make your own bowling alley - using socks stuffed into toilet paper rolls and a soft ball
Make some bean bags and have a bean bag toss
Do the bunny hop or the chicken dance
Play Simon Says with actions - dancing, jumping, skipping etc.
Act out a nursery rhyme and see if the family can say it from memory
Make Woven Heart Baskets for Valentine's day
Have some hopping turtle races
Turn out the lights and make some hand shadows in the dark
Make Snow Angels
Read a story and have the kids illustrate it themselves (without looking at the pictures)
Photograph some snowflakes
Make some gifts or cards for someone who needs a little brightening
Make some icicles
Trace your body outlines on butcher paper and color
Visit your neighbors - just because!
Create some ice spikes in your freezer!
Put together a puzzle
Make some snowman robots
Read some funny jokes and laugh!

Update: These have been added to the list since it was originally created

101. I love this idea of a Snow Picnic! - What a fun way to enjoy winter.

102. Don't have snow? Make your own! Defrost the freezer, make it with ice cubes and a blender or make fake snow with diapers and play away!.

Here's some websites I found with even more great ideas:
http://pre-schoolplay.blogspot.com
http://ideasforpreschoolers.com
http://familyfunfriday.blogspot.com/
http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com
http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/
http://www.allfortheboys.com
http://www.classic-play.com
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/
http://www.thesciencemommy.com/

Do you have any ideas? We'd love to hear from you. Then go out and have some fun!

Linked to Frugal Fridays

Sesame Cashew Vegetable Stir-Fry

2012-01-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

When we were first married, I made stir-fry with rice A LOT - like every other meal, probably. First of all because it was cheap. Second, because I knew how to make it. And third because it was quick and easy and we didn't have a lot of time.

It got to where we became sick and tired of it and my husband, especially, (as un-picky as he is) could barely even touch it anymore. It was a long time after I realized that before I tried making it again. When I did, I spent many months searching and trying recipe after recipe, and even several store-bought sauces to find a sauce that we liked. Finally last year, I went over to my sister's house to help her make some freezer meals for when she had her baby and this was the sauce that we made for sesame chicken. She let me try a bite and I knew I had found what we were looking for!

Our family LOVES this recipe and since we're talking about sprouts this week, let me just mention that it would be a GREAT one to put bean sprouts in.

As I mentioned, the original recipe is actually a sesame chicken recipe, but since we try to have 3 or 4 meatless meals per week, I've modified it to be meatless. Feel free to add egg & flour battered chicken back in, if you like! It's really yummy that way too!

Sesame Cashew Vegetable Stir-Fry

Vegetables (use as many or few as you like - this recipe is really versatile!)

1-2 Tbsp oil

Broccoli spears,

Carrots, chopped

Zucchini or yellow squash, cut

Onions, diced

Bean Sprouts

Other vegetable ideas - asparagus, cauliflower, celery, etc

Raw cashews, roasted - Here are some instructions for roasting nuts

Heat oil in large skillet on med-high. Add vegetables (except bean sprouts and cashews) and stir fry until tender. Add bean sprouts & roasted cashews at the very end.

Sesame Sauce
2 C. water
½ C. brown sugar
½ c. white sugar (or instead of the brown & white sugar try 1/2 to 3/4 Cup Xgave)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

Combine sauce ingredients in medium saucepan, cook over medium heat, stirring until thick.

Then combine vegetables with sauce and serve over brown rice*. Or sometimes we leave the sauce and vegetable separate so the kids can decide if they want the sauce or not on their rice. I hope you enjoy!

*Combine 3 cups long grain brown rice with 5 cups water in electric pressure cooker and cook on high for 23 minutes - it comes out perfect every time!

Linked to It's a Keeper Thursday, What's cooking Thursday, Cooking Thursday, Full Plate Thursday

Sprout Recipes

2012-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

I spent some time this morning looking for healthy recipes with sprouts and I was amazed at the variety of things you can use sprouts in! Wow, there's a lot of talented people out there sharing great recipes! I can't wait to try some of these.

Toasted Whole Wheat Bagel with Sprouts

Source: sproutingsprouts.com via Heather on Pinterest

Heart Healthy Sprout Salad

Source: sproutingsprouts.com via Heather on Pinterest

California open-faced sandwich w/ alfalfa sprouts, avocado, cucumber, basil & tomato

Source: ezrapoundcake.com via Heather on Pinterest

Chocolate Almond Torte (Using Sprouted Almonds)

Source: sproutpeople.com via Heather on Pinterest

Sprouted Spelt Bread

Source: breadmakingblog.breadexperience.com via Heather on Pinterest

Beansprout Pizza

Source: isga-sprouts.org via Heather on Pinterest

Homemade Hamburger Buns

2012-01-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

My 4-yr-old just walked up to me super excited with a plain fettuccine noodle in his hand and said, "Mom you've gotta try this!"

I bent over and tasted it and thought, "Oh, it tastes like a boring, plain (and cold) fettuccine noodle"

....but of course I gave him the response he was looking for...

"mmmmh!" I said enthusiastically.

He gives me a big smile and says, "See, it tastes like smoked noodles!"

Oh...my mistake!

Well I guess not all of our tastes are the same. He is definitely what my husband calls a "connoisseur of fine foods", even if only in his mind. :)

Since we're talking about sprouts this week, I wanted to share a recipe that you can use your fresh sprouts on to make them healthier and even more delicious - homemade hamburger buns (or veggie burgers if you prefer).

In our culture it seems like one of the favorite fast food sandwiches of all time, that's universal from McD's to BK is the hamburger. It's like pure american food! But honestly I can't even stomach the thought of eating a burger from McD's or BK or any fast food joint anymore. They are in simple terms, just plain disgusting, every way you look at it. So I've solved that problem for you by sharing here a recipe for homemade hamburger buns that you can make very simply in less than an hour! They freeze well so you can make a big batch and pull them out when you need one of those quick, easy (fast food) dinners. They are much healthier and tastier than their store-bought counterparts so I hope you enjoy!

I found this recipe for hamburger buns here and thought they looked pretty easy to make. To say I was extremely pleased with the results would be an understatement. These were delicious! I changed some things from the original recipe to make them Bosch mixer friendly and to look a little prettier. Once you make these you are not going to want to go back to store bought buns ever again! Here's my new and improved recipe:

Hamburger Buns
1/3 cup powdered milk *
2 cups VERY warm water (microwaved 2 minutes)
1/4 c oil
2 T honey
2 eggs
2 t salt
1/4 C. gluten flour
5-6 cups of whole wheat flour
2 T active dry yeast
egg wash
sesame seeds

In a Bosch mixer combine (in this order) powdered milk, warm water, oil, honey eggs, salt, gluten flour, 2 cups of the whole-wheat flour with the yeast on top. Turn on the mixer and add enough flour until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. The dough should just clean the sides of the bowl, but still be a little tacky to the touch - you may not need all the flour. Mix for 6 minutes to develop gluten.

Form into buns. I made balls and flattened them. Brush with egg wash (mix 1 egg and 2 Tbsp. water) and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Preheat oven to 350. Let dough rise about 20 minutes then place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes.

This recipe made 12 good size buns. They held together beautifully and were nice and soft.

*Note: If you don't have powdered milk you can heat up 2 C. milk (any kind) in the microwave in place of the powdered milk and 2 C. water

Linked to Must Try Mondays, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Blog Hop, Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Tasty Tuesdays

Monday: Meet New Foods: Sprouts!

2012-01-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Before I introduce this week's new food, I just want to share two things. The first thing is about the food for thought post from yesterday. I love this poem that I shared and it is meaningful to me for a few reasons. I grew up in a good home with parents that tried hard to teach me what is right. I still remember one family night (our family held family night every week on Monday night) when my Dad shared this poem with us. He gave us each our own printed copy and encouraged us to memorize it and I think most of us kids did. To this day I still have that copy. And my siblings and I still can recite this poem from memory. I'm grateful to my Dad for teaching me about the importance of making sure our words are kind before we let them leave our lips. It's so important in all of our relationships, but in family relationships especially!

The second thing I want to share is about a great break through I had this morning. Or at least I think so. I made a green smoothie for breakfast and shared it with my boys. And they FOUGHT ABOUT WHO GOT THE MOST!! AND THEY KNOW THERE IS SPINACH IN IT!! Yeah!!! :) I know we shouldn't rejoice over our kids fighting, but I was so excited!!

And now moving on to the new food of the week:

Meet: Sprouts!

What are Sprouts?

Vegetable seeds, grains, nuts or beans can all be sprouted. They are easy to grow at home or you can buy them in the store. They are tasty and delicious and good for you. The nice thing about it is that they can be grown any time of the year (including in the middle of winter when nothing is growing where I live...except seed sprouts!!) Use only seeds that are specifically sold for sprouting, to ensure they don't have pesticides on them. It is important when sprouting grains that the grains haven't been processed, use any whole grains like wheat, barley, spelt, oat groats, etc. Beans like mung beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, etc can all be sprouted as long as it is in it's whole form (not split peas, for example).

How do I grow them?
Sprouts are easy to grow and economical too. In the picture below I have sprouted a blend of vegetable seeds called "alpha plus mix". It has alfalfa, cabbage, clover and radish seeds. Here are the simple steps:

Day 1: Soak the seeds. I usually do this overnight - just put in a couple of tablespoons of sprout seeds and let soak in water.
Day 2: Rinse the seeds and put them in a dark place and wait for them to germinate. I recommend rinsing the seeds several times a day so they don't develop a bacteria growth.
Days 3-6: Continue rinsing the seeds several times a day and leave sitting in a dark place.
Day 5-7: Once the sprouts have developed their leaves, you can either continue rinsing them and let them grow even more or let them sit in the sun for a few hours until they green up.
Then store in the refrigerator and rinse every day.
Enjoy your delicious sprouts!

How healthy are they?
Sprouting seeds, grains or beans ups the nutrition by many times. Sprouts are rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes. Since they are a living food, their vitamin content will increase whereas fruits and vegetables that you purchase from the store will actually lose nutrition over time. Some sources I've read say that sprouts have a greater concentration of nutrition properties than at any other point in the plant's life, including at maturity. Sprouts are easy to digest and good for the immune system.

How do I use them?

Use seed sprouts in place of lettuce on sandwiches or burgers, use in salad wraps or as a topping on a salad. Use grain sprouts in bread products for added nutrition. Use bean sprouts in Asian dishes - stir fry, egg rolls, etc.

Where can I buy the materials?

You can buy sprout seeds and materials at a health food stores near you or there are several products available at amazon as well.

Linked to Meatless Mondays

Food For Thought

2012-01-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

Garden Plan and Seeds Ordered

2012-01-21T07:32:00.000-08:00

I'm looking forward to springtime and time to plant...our garden! Here's our family garden plan for 2012!

And below are the Seeds I ordered from Stokes. Most of these varieties I have tried before and they are really good. I still have some seeds left over from last year that I'll be using this year...not many though because we had a mouse living in the basement and I found out that he created his nest right in my garden seeds! He ate a lot of them and destroyed many of the others so I have to start fresh with a lot of things... Yeah, I'm mad. To simplify this year, I'll be buying the tomato and pepper starts from our local greenhouse. I've grown them from seed in the past, but they take a lot of babysitting and counter space that I'd rather save for cooking! Remember, this garden plan is definitely in pencil so I can adjust varieties when it's time to plant.
Sunshine (Squash/buttercup)
Chippawa (corn)
Primo (Muskmelon/cantaloupe)

Green Salad Bowl M.I. (Lettuce/looseleaf)
Sweet Basil
Oregon Giant (Snow pea)
Jester II (corn)
Jack Of All Trades (Pumpkin/medium)
Comet (Radish)
Pinnacle (Squash Hybrid)
White Lady Hyb (Summer turnip)
Walla Walla (Onion/Spanish)

Happy Gardening! Looking forward to spring!

Frugal Friday: The Cost Analysis of Homemade Yogurt

2012-01-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

Another wild morning - my four-year-old got another bloody nose out of nowhere (I think...) and it dripped all over big brother's new shoes which caused a major meltdown...but I think it's under control now. He's off to school and the other one is cleaned up so we're off to another day. I think my least favorite task as a mother is cleaning up blood...and watching my kids bleed...and anything that has to do with blood... What's your least favorite task as a Mom? Diaper changing? Being thrown up on? Mountains of laundry?

On a happier note, I think my one of my most favorite tasks as a Mom is cooking! And I'm going to move on to that with my frugal Friday tip of the day - Homemade Yogurt!

In my YogurtRecipe I use these ingredients:

3 C. Milk

2 Tbsp. yogurt

Milk is on average about $2.50/gal

1 gal = 16 Cups

3 C. Milk costs about $0.47(more or less depending on if it’s on a good sale or not)

I usually use Yoplait greek yogurt which cost me $1.08 whenI bought it the other day.

1 small carton is 6 oz. which is about ¾ C.

¾ C. = 12 Tbsp.

So the cost of 1 batch of yogurt is about $0.18

I can make 3 cups of yogurt for about $0.65 or less.

What is my cost savings for making my own yogurt, then?Again for each ¾ Cup of pre-packaged yogurt I have to pay $1.08. It would onlycost me $0.16 to make the same amount at home. So that’s a savings of $0.92 foreach carton of yogurt! That’s an 85% savings.

If you normally buy your yogurt in larger containers, I’mgoing to estimate that greek yogurt costs about $3.50 for 32 oz. (that’sprobably a bit low…) That’s still $0.88 for each cup. The yogurt I make is $0.22per cup so I’m saving $0.66 for each cup or 75%!To me that is a significant savings because we eat a lot of yogurt and we wantto eat a lot of yogurt because it is really healthy. The nice thing about it is,it really is SO easy to do – it literally takes minutes to make a batch. Iusually make a couple batches at a time because we eat so much - it's just as easy to make 2 batches at once as it is to make 1 batch.

So there you go! If you’re looking to save money and be healthy at thesame time, make your own yogurt! It really is worth it.

Linked to Frugal Friday

Healthy Granola Bars

2012-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

I stopped buying most prepackaged foods a few years ago - I was concerned about the high sugar content, the preservatives, the other harmful ingredients and the general lack of nutrition (whole grains, etc). But it's always nice to have little snacks for school lunches and afternoon snacks to feed the kids so I've been on the lookout for healthy snack recipes to substitute for the prepackaged snacks. Here's one of my favorites (and our kids favorites) that I've found. Healthy in this instance is relative because it's not 100% healthy, but it's way better for you than it's prepackaged counterpart! The granola recipe comes from a friend of mine who shared it on her facebook one day. It's now my favorite because it's a perfect balance between "mostly healthy" and tasty.

My Favorite Granola
Mix together:
5 C oats
1/4 C nuts (I prefer either walnuts or almonds)
1/3 C unsweetened coconut
2 T flaxmeal
2T brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt.

Set aside. In saucepan melt together (on low heat):

2 Tablespoons butter,
1 square of almond bark,
3 Tablespoons agave nectar (or honey).

As soon as it is all melted together, quickly stir it into the dry mixture. Pour it all onto a cookie sheet (you may have to pack it down) and bake @ 350 for 10 minutes. Eat plain or with yogurt or use in granola recipe below.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars
The recipe is here at hillbillyhousewife.com. For the granola I used the recipe above. In this batch I also used 1/4 C. mint chips and 1/4 C. Reeses pieces)

Linked to What's Cooking Thursdays, Weekly Recipe Collection, Full Plate Thursday, It's a Keeper Thursday and Cooking Thursday

Red Quinoa Recipes

2012-01-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I got up at 4:30 a.m. because I couldn't sleep and read until 6:30. Then I ran 3 miles with my good friend and running partner Jenna. Next I ate breakfast (grapefruit and yummy quinoa cereal) and got my first grader off to "character day" at school. Last minute he wanted me to walk him so I threw on a hat (to cover my sweaty hair) and a long coat that would cover my bleach-stained running pants and sweaty clothes. In our haste, my 4-year-old ran into a wall and got a bruise over his eye...so yeah! We're off to a rolling start with this day!

Here's my cute "character" reading his book - they had to choose a character from a book to dress up as. True to his form, he chose a T-rex from a non-fiction dinosaur book.

I hope you're enjoying this week's new food: red quinoa! Here's some more tasty recipes I've made using this wonderful grain:

Red Quinoa Vegetable Lasagna
Rigatoni Pressure Cooker Meal

And I found a few more yummy ones on Pinterest! Drool away with me!

Quinoa Granola

Source: hungryhungryhippie.com via Heather on Pinterest

Red Quinoa With Roasted Winter Vegetables and Pesto

Source: nytimes.com via Heather on Pinterest

Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa

Source: 101cookbooks.com via Heather on Pinterest

Red Quinoa Apple & Cranberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Source: poorgirleatswell.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Linked to Friday Favorite Finds

Red Quinoa Pressure Cooker Breakfast Cereal

2012-01-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

My four-year-old boy loves this cereal! He asked me just yesterday if I would make "the kind of oatmeal that I like best." Little does he know there's not a spec of oats in it!

Here's the recipe from Chef Brad that we love so much! I like to use red quinoa - it makes it just about the best cereal in the world. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can make it on the stove or in your rice cooker - just cook it like you would brown rice. Enjoy!

Linked to: Tasty Tuesday and Whole Foods Wednesday

Monday: Meet New Foods: Red Quinoa

2012-01-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Meet: Red Quinoa

What is Red Quinoa?
Red Quinoa is a small grain that originates from South America and is still used there today. The ancient Incan Indians regarded this grain so highly (they called it the mother grain) that the first seeds of each season were sown by the Incan Emporer using a gold shovel! Red Quinoa is Gluten Free and considered easy to digest.

How do I use it?
Red Quinoa can be sprouted, ground into flour or cooked. I'll talk about sprouting grains and seeds in a future installment of Monday: Meet New Foods! To cook red quinoa just add water and cook on the stove top, electric pressure cooker or stove top pressure cooker according to the chart below. After cooking, the grain displays a little white thread that curls around it.

Cooking Ratio (Grain:Water)	Stove Top	Electric Pressure Cooker	Stove Top Pressure Cooker
1:2	12 minutes	6 minutes	7 minutes

Red quinoa expands by four times it's raw size when cooked. Use cooked red quinoa in salads, soups, breads, desserts, or as a meat substitute or extender in main entrees. Red quinoa makes an excellent breakfast cereal.

Where Can I buy it?
The cheapest store that I've seen lately that sells red quinoa is WinCo. I think it was about $5/lb, which is a pretty good buy - I've seen it up at $8/lb! You can also find it in health food stores. I like to buy my quinoa in bulk through a local grain company. I think I paid about $3/lb that way. So shop around. You can usually find a good price.

How healthy is it?
Red quinoa is amazing in that, unlike many grains, it contains all the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. This property makes it an excellent grain for vegetarian and vegan diets. It is high in fiber, which is has been shown to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and some types of cancer. It also high in magnesium, folate and phosphorus, which make it a good choice for people with headaches and diabetes. It is high in lysine, which is important for tissue growth and repair. For more information, here is an excellent article about the health benefits of quinoa and here is a chart that lists the nutrition content of quinoa.

Got a Recipe?
Comment with your recipes using red quinoa! Or check out some of mine this week! I hope you enjoy this wonderful grain!

Information for this post came from: wikepedia.org, chefbrad.com, whfoods.com

Frugal Friday: My Experience With Debt

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

I decided to diverge from food a little bit today and talk about a few things that I've learned about debt. I believe that one of the most important things that a mother (or father) needs to create a happy, healthy family is the ability to understand and control finances. I believe it's crucial to maintaining a healthy home environment! Here's a few very simple principles that I've learned from my experience that I want to share with you:

Spend less than you make - and it really doesn't matter how much you make! I know you've probably heard that before, but it really is true! Yes, you have to make enough to sustain life, but most of us don't even understand what that means anymore. Most people these days think that having cable and internet and two new cars and all the latest home appliances is life sustaining! Okay I may be exaggerating a little, but you get what I'm trying to say. Today I'm going to share with you a secret that I've learned...ready? Okay I'll whisper it: *when you spend less than you make, you feel wealthy!* It really is true! The real feeling of wealth is not determined by how much stuff you have around you. A feeling of wealth is determined by peace of mind (security) that can reside inside each of us. And it is within your grasp, if you learn to apply the secret. When you surround yourself with "stuff", you appear to others as being wealthy, but that doesn't change what you feel inside. What really happens is it creates a spending cycle which spirals downward into a dependency on others (debt). Your life is no longer your own - you work for other people. And sadly, so many times this cycle leads to a breaking apart of families and homes.

Follow your common sense - I know that sounds really basic, but it's another very true principle that you need to know! There are people that are paid to give you advice in regards to finances, but just make sure that you never disregard your common sense because of a person's degree or position. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of great financial advisers out there - there are! What I'm trying to say is if their advice doesn't follow common sense, take your time to study it out before making a big decision. Usually you'll find that your common sense was correct and you'll have saved yourself from making the wrong decision. Here's a few things to be wary of:

Anytime someone tells you that you need to spend more money in order to get out of debt or increase your financial security your common sense should tell you that doesn't make sense! Because it doesn't! For example, I've heard of financial advisers tell people that in order to build up their credit faster, they should use a credit card and only pay the minimum balance (letting the interest grow). They claim that this allows their credit to grow faster so they can have a better credit rating and be approved for more purchases. Whether this claim is true or not really doesn't matter! Your common sense should be screaming at you right now that that is the wrong thing to do. It really doesn't make financial sense to bondage yourself in debt in order to have a greater opportunity to get into more debt. Obviously you need a good credit rating in order to reach some important financial goals (like buying a home, etc), but I know for a fact that you can build up credit just fine by using a credit card occasionally and paying off the entire balance (not just the minimum). It's a wiser financial choice in the long run.

Ask yourself, how does the financial adviser benefit from his recommendation to me? If it is a loan agent, is his fee based on a percentage of the loan value? Many financial advisers are commissioned based and while sometimes they suggest options that equally benefit you and them, don't assume that their recommendation is the best one. Always do the math yourself. Always look into all the options.

Be more concerned about total costs than monthly payments - the truth can easily be hidden in "monthly payment" options that seem low and affordable but in the long run you are paying more.

Be careful what you go into debt for - I know that probably sounds like something your grandmother would say, but it's very true! Here's a few things to think about before going into debt:

What will be the value to me (or others) of this purchase in 5, 10, or 30 years? If the value goes down over time, usually it is not wise to go into debt for it.
Is it affordable? Affordable doesn't mean how much the loan officer thinks you can afford! Affordable means how much you decide you can afford. You know your income, you know your other expenses. You know your financial goals. Leave room for savings. Leave room for disasters. Leave room for unexpected expenses.
Does your loan allow me to pay off the debt faster? Some do, some don't - check to make sure yours does!
How fast can I pay this off? This is a big one - are you ready for another secret to financial happiness? Here it goes: *Leave room in your budget to pay off your debts quickly. When you get on the other side of debt and let interest work for you instead of against you, that's when you experience financial success.

Before going into debt, get yourself an amortization schedule online. Here's a few different amortization schedules. Or you can do a search for one. I like the monthly ones, because you can see your progress. Set goals and decide if this is the right option for you right now. Then if it is, track your progress on the amortization schedule throughout the process of the loan. Keep setting goals and reaching them. Put as much income as you can each month toward paying off your debts. Think of it as saving you money (because it does - it saves you all the interest that you would have paid).

Well I'm going to wrap this up because that's about all I have time for today! Remember, healthy families are financially healthy as well as physically healthy!

Got some more ideas to share? I'd love to hear your experience and advice as well!

linked to Frugal Fridays

More Healthy Pressure Cooker Recipe Ideas

2012-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

My most popular posts on this blog, to date are:

1. Pressure Cooker Hard Boiled Eggs - I love 'em too!
2. Favorite Pressure Cooker Recipes - Are we sensing a theme here?
3. Pressure Cooker Baked Potatoes - Fast, Easy Peasy Potatoes!

I know pressure cooking is getting to be more widely known and I'm using it more and more in my cooking and I gather that this means many of my readers are as well. I know I'm always on the lookout for a good pressure cooker recipe. They are usually much faster, tastier and healthier! I usually use my Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker, but I have a Kuhn Rikon Stovetop Pressure Cooker and a Mirro 12qt. Pressure Cooker/Canner that I use occasionally as well.

So you need more recipes like me?

I found a great blog that has 101 pressure cooker meals to try! Yeah! That should keep me going for a while.

My Uncle Chef Brad has a new updated pressure cooker cookbook that will be available soon. And guess what? I made the food on the front cover! My sister and I got together and I made the food and she took the picture. :)

If you can't get the book on amazon yet you can also pre-order it on Chef Brad's website. It's a great book with a lot of wonderful recipes as well as cooking times for the pressure cooker for different foods. The recipe from the cover picture is Sausage and Pasta under Pressure.

In case you need more ideas, here's some more pressure cooker recipes (including Electric Pressure Cooker Recipes) that I found on pinterest that I want to try as well.

Pressure Cooker Risotto

Source: homecookinginmontana.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Ham and Potato Soup

Source: lunchfitforakid.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Source: surlykitchen.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Mashed Potatoes

Source: homecookinginmontana.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Vegetable Soup

Source: lunchfitforakid.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Carnitas Tacos

Source: peggyunderpressure.com via Heather on Pinterest

Another Pressure Cooker Risotto

Source: hippressurecooking.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Parmigiana Italia

Source: peggyunderpressure.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup

Source: 16andme.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Green Beans

Source: chewsome.wordpress.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Italian Chicken Noodle Soup

Source: peggyunderpressure.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker Refried Beans

Source: surlykitchen.com via Heather on Pinterest

Pressure Cooker White Chicken Chili

Source: peggyunderpressure.com via Heather on Pinterest

And last but not least...in fact this might be my favorite of the bunch!

Pressure Cooker Dulce de Leche - What an easy looking recipe!

Source: lunchfitforakid.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Hopefully that will keep you going for a while! If you want more be sure to . Especially check out my Pressure Cooker Recipes Board ! Thanks and happy pressure cookin'!

linked to Friday Favorite Finds

Favorite Citrus Recipes

2012-01-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

I've always thought that the best kind of parties are the most memorable ones, but I have my doubts after last night's family birthday party. We had kind of a traumatic interruption from my 4-year-old with a bloody nose that wouldn't stop bleeding for what seemed like forever. You know how that goes - it always seems to last a lot longer than it actually does! Well I woke up this morning with a disastrous kitchen, a bathtub of clothes to wash and memories of the whole thing...but we had a good time, and it was definitely memorable! And I think after a invigorating morning of cleaning and scrubbing I'm feeling ready to tackle the world again.

That being said, since this week's new food is a citrus fruit, I will share with you a couple of my favorite recipes using citrus fruits...Oranges, limes, lemons...pummelos...mmmh! Love 'em this time of year!

Delicious Orange Rolls
Creamsicle Green Smoothie

Here's a few recipes I found on pinterest that I really want to try...Don't they look yummy?

Citrus Butter Cookies

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Heather on Pinterest

Tuscan Lemon Chicken

Source: joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Citrus Cheesecake

Source: recipeshoebox.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Copycat Orange Julius

Source: lynnskitchenadventures.com via Heather on Pinterest

Lemon Bar Cookie Cups

Source: thewednesdaybaker.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Orange Cranberry Muffins

Source: theprudenthomemaker.com via Heather on Pinterest

linked to Recipe Swap

Vanilla

2012-01-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't told you yet about the funny thing that happened this Christmas. I'll preface my story by letting you know that I'm kind of a vanilla snob. I didn't use to be. The plain old imitation vanilla extract used to be just fine for me. But once you taste the difference with the real stuff...it's hard to go back. That being said, I had a disaster in about November when I ran out of all my real vanilla extract. I like to get it in the big bottles at sam's club, but since I don't have a sam's membership I usually rely on those who do to pick some up for me. Well they were out of it for a while and to make a long story short I was vanilla-less for about a month. Every time I went into the grocery store I had "vanilla" on my list. I'd pass by the baking aisle several times, cringing at the price of a tiny bottle of the real stuff. And then cringing at the idea of purchasing yucky imitation...anyway, so you get the picture. This went on for a little while and I just kind of made do with vanilla powder (I did have some of that left).

So finally I broke down and bought the cheap-o stuff! Yes I did, can you believe it? Looking back I realize that I must of been quite a complainer about this...Fast forward a few weeks...Christmas comes and guess what I got? Vanilla! And not just from one person.

I got 2 different kinds of mexican vanilla (which I love!) from my husband.
My husband and I each got a BIG bottle of pure vanilla extract from my mother-in-law!
And we got a different bottle of mexican vanilla from a neighbor lady, who happened to remember that we liked it from some random conversation that we had once.

Isn't that funny? So I now have 6 different kinds of vanilla in my house (including yucky imitation). That should last me until next Christmas at least! :) Except maybe the yucky imitation...I'm sure I'll still have some of that....I would just throw it out, but I hesitate to now since I had such a vanilla famine!

Get Ready Baking, Here I COME!

Here's a few recipes that I LOVE to put vanilla in:

Green smoothies - I usually use the powder or pure vanilla for this one
Waffles (it makes them smell sooooo good) - I usually use pure or mexican vanilla
Cookies - Mexican vanilla...mmmh!

Monday: Meet New Foods: Pummelo!

2012-01-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Meet: the Pummelo!

What's a Pummelo?
Ever heard of a Pummelo? Or a Pomelo? Or a Pommelo? What about a Jeruk Bali? Or Chinese Grapefruit? A Jabong? Or a Lusho Fruit? Or (my personal favorite) a pompelmous (which in some foreign language that I can't pronounce means a pompous lemon - Get it? Haha!)?

If it sounds like I was just reciting from wikipedia...well I was. But those are all the same names for what I call a pummelo (or a pompelmous when I need a giggle). Well the other day my boys and I bought one to try just for fun. And boy was it delicious! It tastes like a sweet grapefruit without the tartness.

How healthy is it?
Click here to see the pummelo nutrition facts. It's full of vitamins and minerals that our body needs this time of year - especially vitamin C - wow 619%!

I don't have any recipes for these....I just discovered them myself. But I'm guessing I'll enjoy them best raw! Delicious!

*Update: I found a cool recipe for these that I want to try: Candied pomelo peel from Ruth's Real Food! Mmmh!

Frugal Friday: Cost Analysis of Homemade Tortillas

2012-01-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

I love tortillas and my kids lovetortillas. Thus we eat a lot of tortillas and they do get expensive! Here’s acost analysis of myhomemade tortilla recipe soyou can see how much cheaper it is to make them yourself (not to mentionhealthier)! In the recipe below, I’ve included the cost of eachingredient. The low estimate (in blue) isbased on what I usually pay (when ingredients to go on sale and buying in bulk).The high estimate (in red) is based onactual prices taken from WinCo foods on December 13, 2011.

Whole-WheatTortillas
2 scant tsp. salt – {$0.01}
1/3 C. oil – {Rangesfrom $0.10 to $0.14}
3 C. Whole-wheat flour – {Ranges from $0.42 to $0.67}

2 C.Water – FREE!!

Place above ingredients into Boschmixer and mix with dough hook. Meanwhile heat up 2 C. water in microwaveuntil very hot. Start adding water gradually into Bosch until starts to pullaway from the sides (I didn't use the full 2 Cups). Let mix 6 minutes. Turn offmixer and let dough rest 5 min. Break off small round balls about 2 inches indiameter. Then roll the dough out into the shape of a tortilla. Place thetortilla into a flat skillet pan on medium high heat. Rotate when air pockets startto form or until slightly brown around air pockets. You will know if youovercooked the tortilla because it will be stiff like a cracker. Make sure yourtortillas are very bendable. It is better to undercook than overcook! Makesabout 10 tortillas.

Total cost of 10 homemade tortillas ranges from $0.53 to $0.82

Total cost of one homemade tortilla ranges from $0.05 to $0.08

I won’t include electricity because it will be negligible.

For those of you who are wondering where I got these numbersand want to see the full analysis, read on! But I’m warning you, there’s mathinvolved and conversions! Which I love, but you may not…so…I apologize inadvance.

Cost of Home-made Tortillas Full Analysis

For 10 tortillas.

High Price taken from WinCo on December 13, 2011

Salt

Hopefully you already expect this to be really cheap…Butin case you don’t…

A {1 lb. +10 oz.} container of store brand salt costs $0.44.

There are about 491 servings of salt in each package at ¼tsp. each.

491/4 tsp. = 122.75 tsp.

122.75 tsp. = 2 * 61.375 tsp. (We use 2 tsp. salt in this recipe)

$0.44/61.375 =$0.01

I won’t analyze cheaper although I have seen salt go a lotcheaper than $0.44, but most of us don’t count our pennies that particularly...

Oil

A {1 Qt +1 pt} container of Store Brand Canola Oil = $2.50

{1 Qt + 1 pt} = 6 Cups

6 Cups = 18/3 Cups (We use 1/3 Cup in this recipe)

$2.50/18 = $0.14

I’ve seen Gallon containers of Canola oil go on sale for aslow as $5.

1 Gal. = 16 Cups

16 Cups = 48/3 Cups

$5/48= $0.10

Wheat

WinCo has bulk food bins and their wheat costs $0.51/lb. forhard red. I didn’t see hard white, but it’s usually comparable priced…

1 Cup = about .44 lbs. of wheat (I measured this)

3 Cups = about 1.32 lbs. of wheat

1.32 lbs x $0.51/lb = $0.67

It’s a lot cheaper to buy wheat in bulk. I can usually get a50 lb. bag of wheat for about $16 or less when it goes on sale.

50 lbs = 37.88/2.19 lbs (We use about 1.32 lbs. in thisrecipe)

$16/37.88 = $0.42

So to summarize again…

The total cost of 10 homemade tortillas ranges from $0.53 to $0.82.The total cost of one homemade tortilla ranges from $0.05 to $0.08.For raw ingredients. I’m not including electricity because it will benegligible.

So is it cost effective? Pulling out my handy-dandy ads forthe week, I see that Don Julio’s 12-count uncooked tortillas are on sale at mylocal grocery store for 2 for $3. That works out to about $0.13 per tortilla.I’ve seen pre-cooked tortillas for as cheap as 10 for $1.00 on sale, but that’sstill $0.10 per tortilla. So I can save between $0.05 and $0.08 per tortilla by making them at home. Thatmay not seem like a lot, but our family eats between 10 and 12 tortillas aweek. That’s a weekly savings of between $0.50 and $0.96. With 52 weeks in a year, that’s a yearlysavings of between $26 and $49.92. I’m actually saving even more if youconsider regular price instead of sale price.

So in conclusion, making your owntortillas at home saves you money and are much healthier as well!

And in case you are worried about the time...here's atortilla press that will make it even easier! It's on my wish list!

Amazon.com Widgets

Wonder Flour Blondies

2012-01-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

Here's one of my favorite Wonder Flour recipes from chef brad:
I love this recipe! And he's right about them becoming addictive! With this recipe, I've made "blondies" using white chocolate chips, "greenies" using mint chocolate chips, and "light brownies" with white & milk chocolate chips! All are delicious and highly addictive! Enjoy!

If you like this recipe, check out some more Chef Brad Wonder Flour Recipes. And if you don't have a grain mill, you can purchase wonder flour directly from chef brad's website here or you can buy it at one of the stores he lists on that link. Whether you make it yourself or buy it already ground, use it! It's an amazing flour!

Wonder Flour Recipes

2012-01-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

In honor of Wonder Flour Week, here's a list of some of my favorite wonder flour recipes for you to try...Enjoy!

Poppy Seed Muffins
Crepes
Applesauce Bread
Wonder Rolls
No Sugar Apple or Peach Puffy Oven Pancakes
Family Sized Puffy Oven Pancakes
German Pancakes
Yellow Squash Muffins
Crescent Rolls
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sweet Potato Muffins
Donut Muffins
Brownies

Here's a few more recipes from the web:

Chef Brad's Wonder Flour Buttermilk Cookies
Wonder Flour Cookies {16 and Me}
More Chef Brad Recipes

"Wonder"ful Waffles

2012-01-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

I love waffles - they are one of my favorite breakfast foods! I've introduced you to wonder flour yesterday, and now I'd like to share with you an amazing recipe that uses wonder flour and really shows off how "wonder"ful it is! These are so light and crispy...I've perfected them from other recipes that I've used and now these are my most easy, fast, and delicious waffles that I make all the time! I made them the other day using my wonderful Mexican vanilla that I received as a Christmas gift - and talk about a heavenly smell! Wow. I got a new waffle iron for Christmas too and I can't wait to try them with it! mmmmh!

"Wonder"ful Waffles
1 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 C. Wonder Flour
3 tsp. Rumford's baking powder (Rumford's will make it poof up pretty)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 1/4 C. buttermilk*
1/2 C. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla (the secret to good smelling waffles!)

*Buttermilk alternative: I love real buttermilk, but if you don't have any on hand you can substitute by mixing in about 2 Tbsp. vinegar into 2 C. + 2 Tbsp. milk and let it stand for 5 minutes.

Coat the waffle iron grids with cooking spray and preheat the iron according to the manufacturer's instructions. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.

In another medium bowl beat eggs first. Then add canola oil, buttermilk and vanilla and mix slightly. Pour these wet ingredients over the flour mixture and mix until barely combined and then DO NOT TOUCH mixture! REALLY! Don't do it! Just let it sit until it poofs up real good. Then STILL DON'T STIR IT! Just scoop the batter onto your waffle iron and let it cook according to your waffle iron's instructions. Eat up and enjoy!! Wonderful!

Monday: Meet New Foods: Wonder Flour!

2012-01-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

As part of a new goal for 2012 that I have to try new foods and help my kids try new foods, I'm going to publish a series called "Monday: Meet New Foods!" We'll introduce you and your family to new healthy foods that you can start using in your cooking. I will also list recipes for those types of foods so you can try them. Feel free to comment with your own recipes, if you have them!

So today's NEW FOOD is: Wonder Flour!

What's Wonder Flour?
Wonder Flour was discovered by my Uncle Chef Brad. He is an amazing chef who cooks delicious foods using different types of grains. Wonder Flour is made up of equal parts of the following three grains, ground into flour:

Barley

Brown Rice

Spelt

How do I make it?
Just combine equal parts of the three grains in a large bowl, mix them together then grind the combination through your grain mill. It works great!

How do I use it?
I love using this flour in desserts and light breakfast foods. It makes the foods become healthier, but not only that I think they taste better too!

How healthy is it?
I used a nutrition calculator to compare 1 Cup of Wonder Flour with 1 Cup of White Flour. You can see that wonder flour has fewer calories per serving, more potassium, fewer carbohydrates, a LOT more dietary fiber (really good for you!). Of course white flour is enriched so it has some good things in there for you, but you really are missing all the fiber!

Need a Recipe?
Check out some of my recipes to come this week! I hope you enjoy this "wonder"ful new food!

"Wonder"ful Poppy Seed Muffin Mix

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have been busy getting gifts ready for Christmas! Here's one gift idea that would work for a neighbor, friend, co-worker or even family member. It works really good for someone who is single (or a couple) that wants to eat healthy food, but doesn't have much time or money - like a college student.

Heather's "Wonder"ful Poppy Seed Muffin Mix

To make the gift you will need to combine:

6 Cups whole grain wonder flour (or you can try flour ground from other grains)
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
2 Cups Sugar
1 Tbsp. Salt
2 Tbsp. Poppy Seeds
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Powder **see note
1 Cup Powdered Milk

**note
If you've never heard vanilla powder, do a search. If you can't find it, just omit it and add 1/2 tsp. vanilla it to the ingredients for them to combine later.

Combine ingredients into a storage container for them and attach a label with these instructions:

Heather's "Wonder"ful Poppy Seed Muffins
1 egg

½ Cup Water

¼ Cup oil

½ tsp. almond extract

1-1/2 Cup Muffin Mix

Mix egg, water, oil and almond extract. Add Muffin Mix and stir just until combined. Spray 6 muffin tins with oil and bake muffins at 350 F for 25-30 minutes.

Or if you don't want to use these as gifts, here's the full recipe:

Wonder Flour Poppy Seed Muffins
3 Cups Wonder Flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup oil
1-1/2 tsp. almond extract
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1-1/2 Cups milk
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined. Pour into muffin tins. Bake 350 F for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool and enjoy! Makes 18 muffins

Frugal Friday: Is Making Homemade Bread Saving Me Money?

2011-12-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have always wondered (like I have) whetherit really is cost effective to make your own bread, I’ve done an analysis onit. To start with, let’s look at raw ingredients… In the recipe below, I’veincluded the cost of each ingredient. The low estimate(in blue) is based on what I usually pay (when ingredients to go on saleand buying in bulk). The high estimate (in red)is based on actually prices taken from WinCo foods today (on December 13, 2011).

Whole Wheat Bread (Makes three 1.5-lb loaves)
3 C. hot water, microwave on high 2-3 min or until quite warm – FREE!!
1/3 C. oil – {Ranges from $0.10 to $0.14}
1/3 C. sugar – {Ranges from $0.07 to $0.09}
1 Tbsp. salt (put in first before adding yeast) - {$0.01}
3 C.+ freshly ground whole wheat flour (hard white wheat) – I measured last time and I use about 5 Cupsof Hard White Wheat in this recipe…{Ranges from $0.70 to$1.12}
2 Tbsp yeast on top of flour {Ranges from $0.04 to $0.05}
½ C. gluten flour {Ranges from $0.28 to $0.32}

½ C. ground flax seed (optional) {$0.13}

Combine above ingredients in Bosch mixer with dough hook andmix. Add more whole wheat flour until the dough pulls away from the sides ofthe bowl. Then mix for an additional six minutes. Divide dough into 3 loaves(the dough will still be VERY sticky - so sticky that you won't be ableto form your loaves without putting oil on your hands). Let rise until doubleor fills the bread pans. Bake 400 deg. for 5 min., 350 deg. for 25 min or untildone.

Total cost of three 1.5-lb loaves of bread ranges from $1.33 to $1.86

Total cost of one 1.5-lb loaf of bread ranges from $0.44 to $0.62

(Electricity has not been included yet…if you want to seethe total cost, see below…)

Cost of Home-made BreadFull Analysis

For three 1.5 lb loaves of Bread

High Price taken from WinCo on December 13, 2011

Oil

A {1 Qt +1 pt} container of Store Brand Canola Oil = $2.50

{1 Qt + 1 pt} = 6 Cups

6 Cups = 18/3 Cups (Weuse 1/3 Cup in this recipe)

$2.50/18 = $0.14

I’ve seen Gallon containers of Canola oil go on sale for aslow as $5.

1 Gal. = 16 Cups

16 Cups = 48/3 Cups

$5/48 = $0.10

Sugar

A 2 lb. bag of Store Brand brown sugar = $1.24 (I like to use brown sugar because it givesthe bread a little more flavor)

There are about 227 tsp. servings in 2 lbs. of brown sugar

3 tsp. = 1 Tbsp.

227 tsp. = 75.67 Tbsp.

16 Tbsp. = 1 Cup

75.67 Tbsp. = 4.73 Cups in 2 lbs. of brown sugar

4.73 = 14.19/3 Cups (Weuse 1/3 Cup in this recipe)

$1.24/14.19 = $0.09

I’ve seen 2 lb. packages of brown sugar go on sale for aslow as $0.99.

$0.99/14.19 = $0.07

Salt

Hopefully you alreadyexpect this to be really cheap…But in case you don’t…

A {1 lb. +10 oz.} container of store brand salt costs $0.44.

There are about 491 servings of salt in each package at ¼tsp. each.

491/4 tsp. = 122.75 tsp.

3 tsp. = 1 Tbsp.

122.75 tsp = 40.92 Tbsp. (We use 1 Tbsp. in this recipe)

$0.44/40.92 =$0.01

I won’t analyze cheaper although I have seen salt go a lotcheaper than $0.44, but most of us don’t count our pennies that particularly...

Wheat

WinCo has bulk food bins and their wheat costs $0.51/lb. forhard red. I didn’t see hard white, but it’s usually comparable priced…

1 Cup = about .44 lbs. of wheat (I measured this the other night)

5 Cups = about 2.19 lbs. of wheat

2.19 lbs x $0.51/lb = $1.12

It’s a lot cheaper to buy wheat in bulk. I can usually get a50 lb. bag of wheat for about $16 or less when it goes on sale.

50 lbs = 22.83/2.19 lbs (Weuse about 2.19 lbs. in this recipe)

$16/22.83 = $0.70

Yeast

Instant yeast was $3.18/lb in their bulk bins.

1 C = about .25 lbs of yeast (I measured this the other night)

16 Tbsp = 1 Cup

1 Tbsp = .015 lbs. (Weuse 1 Tbsp. in this recipe)

.015 lbs x $3.18/lb = $0.05

I’ve seen a 1 lb. package of instant yeast on sale go as lowas $2.50

.015 lbs x $2.50/lb = $0.04

Gluten Flour

Gluten Flour cost $2.56/lb in their bulk bins.

½ Cup = .125 lbs (Imeasured this the other night – we use ½ cup in this recipe)

.125 lbs. x $2.56/lb. = $0.32

Online you can get a 25 lb. bag for $56.60 here.

That is equivalent to $2.26/lb.

.125 lbs. x $2.26/lb. = $0.28

Ground Flax Seed

I like to add this inmy bread – it gives the bread a great texture and adds more nutrition!

Golden Flax seed costs $1/lb at WinCo (I buy the seed thereand then just grind it in my blender)

½ Cup = .125 lbs (Imeasured this the other night – we use ½ cup in this recipe)

.125 lbs. x $1/lb. = $0.13

I won’t compare prices for flax seed because it’s notsomething you really want to buy in bulk due to the high oil content – it’sbetter just to buy it as needed!

So to summarize again…

The total cost of three 1.5-lb loaves of bread ranges from $1.33 to $1.86. The totalcost of one 1.5-lb loaf of bread ranges from $0.44to $0.62. For rawingredients.

Electricity

So…what about electricity you wonder…how much would it reallyadd to the cost?…okay…we’ll add it and see.

According to my last electric bill I’m being charged about$0.10 per kWh (kilowatt hour) for electricity that I’ve used. I checked and myoven uses 7.9 KW so it costs $0.79 per hour to run. When I make bread I use itfor about 45 minutes (15 minutes preheating time) so that’s about $0.59 addedcost to all three loaves making the total cost range adjusted now to $1.92 to $2.45. Dividingthis by 3, the new total cost of one 1.5-lb loaf of bread ranges from $0.64 to $0.82.

So is it cost effective? Well I guess if you want to knowthat you’d have to compare the price of what you would purchase a loaf of thesame size for at a grocery store.

Pulling out my handy-dandy ads for the week, I see thatGrandma Sycamore’s bread is on sale at my local grocery store for 2 for $4.It’s a 24 oz. loaf (which if you do the math is equivalent to my loaf size of1.5 lbs.). So I can save between $1.18 and $1.36 per loaf by making my bread at home rather thanbuying Grandma Sycamore’s bread. Our family eats about 3 loaves a week. That’sa weekly savings of between $3.54 and $4.08. With 52 weeks in a year, that’s a yearlysavings of between $184.08 and $212.16. I’m actually saving even more if you considerregular price instead of sale price.

Of course to find the real cost effectiveness for you, you’dhave to take the cost of the loaf of bread you normally purchase. For me, Idon’t buy cheap bread cause I can’t stand to eat it…that leads me to give ananalysis on nutrition, but I’ll have to save that one for later...

So in conclusion, Yes! When you make homemade bread you are saving money! Even if you don’t shop sales and just buy ingredients at regular cost,you’ll still save money! So go for it! It’s worth it in more ways than one!

Meal Planning

2011-12-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

For the past 3 or 4 months, I've been trying to plan our nightly dinner meals two weeks in advance. I've been using the food nanny plan meal planner where you come up with a theme for every night of the week. I can definitely say that our food has tasted better and I've had less hassle and struggle with the kids trying new foods. I still make 1-2 new dishes a week, but they are more likely to try them now because they know what to expect and know that the next night something will be served that they know they like. If you haven't tried out meal planning, try it! It definitely works and is well worth the prep time for the dinner-time success. I decided that I will post some of my meal plans for those of you who struggle like I do to come up with what to have for dinner every night. Today I am planning my next 2 weeks of meals. I will shop once for most of the food and then go once or twice more during the 2 weeks to pick up fresh produce.

Here's the themes that I'm using:

Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
12 Italian	13 Fish	14 Leftovers	15 Kids Pick	16 Mexican Fiesta	17 Daddy's Pick	18 Italian
19 Comfort Food	20 Breakfast	21 Leftovers	22 Kids Pick	23 Pizza	24 Christmas Eve	25 Christmas

And here's what's on the menu:

Mon, Dec 12
Bean lasagna (I'm working out a new pressure cooker version that I will post in the future) with Fresh Bread and Sunshine Squash

Tues, Dec 13
Tilapia Scampi with brown rice and broiled vegetables.

Wed, Dec 14
Leftovers!

Thurs, Dec 15
Plain Noodles with Sauce (Can you tell this is a kid's pick???)

Fri, Dec 16
Normally Pizza night but this time we're doing a mexican fiesta.
Chicken taquitos, chips & Salsa, Green Salad, Cilantro-lime rice with oven-baked churros and hot cocoa for dessert

Sat, Dec 17
To be determined...my husband likes to see what's in the fridge and create on the spot...

Sun, Dec 18
Spaghetti Squash dinner with Breadsticks

Mon, Dec 19
Spicey Roasted Butternut Squash and Cream of Broccoli Soup

Tues, Dec 20
Cottage-fried potatoes & swedish pancakes

Wed, Dec 21
Leftovers!

Thurs, Dec 22
Red & White Mostaccioli (Food Nanny Recipe)

Fri, Dec 23
Pepperoni and Veggie Pizza

Sat, Dec 24
Our new Christmas eve tradition: a Bethlehem Supper based on ideas from here and here. See our post here from last year...
Chicken Shwarmas on pita bread, cheese cubes, fresh veggies, challlah bread, olives, hard boiled eggs

Sun, Dec 25
Turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, pistachio pudding, stuffing, rolls, sweet potatoes & pies....mmmmh!

Hopefully I'll be able to post some of the recipes soon! Meanwhile hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season! Merry Christmas!!

Fresh Homemade Bread

2011-12-08T06:13:00.001-08:00

My husband is the young men leader in our church ward. He works with boys in our neighborhood ages 12-18. He loves working with these boys and they love working with him! The young men's program they have activities every week which include scouting, service, and personal development activities. The other night he brought the boys over after they raked the leaves of some widows in the neighborhood. They were cold from being outside working and they crowded into our kitchen for hot cocoa and fresh, homemade bread. The boys come from different backgrounds - split families, strong families, working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, financially sound and financially struggling. It was amazing to me to see how in a matter of a few minutes 2 1/2 loaves of fresh, homemade bread vanished! Completely disappeared! The bread was gobbled up, with words of gratitude and enjoyment expressed between each bite. One boy even came up and gave me a big hug, which I found out later he was intending to give me since the 30-mile hike they took this summer. At the top of the mountain, after hiking 15 miles, Brandon pulled out a loaf of homemade bread and split it with the boys on the hike. He told me later that there was nothing to compare with the gratitude and enjoyment these boys felt eating that 3 or 4-day-old bread on top of the mountain top. One boy mentioned that he was going to give me a hug when he came back and I received it the other night, 5 months later.

There's something about fresh homemade bread that does wonders for the soul. It draws people into your home. It draws your family together. It bridges barriers between people. It unifies and strengthens. When fresh bread is shared it can communicate love, empathy, gratitude or belonging. This experience the other night re-emphasized to me why I love to make homemade bread. Yes it takes time. Yes it takes effort. But things that are worthwhile always do. Yes the 30 minutes of prep time, 30 minutes of rising time and 30 minutes of baking is worth it, for the benefits far out-way the costs.

If you need a good, easy recipe for homemade bread, here are some of my favorites that I make all the time:

Honey-Oat Wheat Bread

Whole-grain Oat Bread

Whole-Wheat Bread (Pictured above - this is my quickest, cheapest and most-often made bread)

In these recipes, you do use a stand mixer which makes the bread lighter and much quicker to make. But if you don't have a mixer, you can still make bread! Just follow the same recipes and knead it by hand for 10 minutes. Then let it rise twice - once in the bowl and once in the bread pans. You also really should get a grain mill so that you grind the grains fresh. The flours are so much more healthy and tastier that way. But if not, you can find hard white wheat flour in the grocery stores as well. This is recommended as the second option. The third option is to use the regular (hard red) wheat flour. This has a denser consistency so you may want to consider adding an additional 1/4 C. gluten flour to lighten the bread up even more. Any option you choose will be wonderful. It takes a little practice, but it's well worth it!

Creamy Chicken Taquitos with Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice

2011-12-05T08:28:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited about this dinner. Don't you love those dinners that just turn out exactly the way you wanted and get even better of a response from your family than you hoped? Well get ready because this exactly that kind of a recipe!! Caprene over at Eat your Veggies, peas posted this recipe for creamy chicken taquitos with sweet and savory coconut rice and I've been wanting to try it for a while. It intrigued me that the taquitoes were baked instead of deep fat fried and the rice sounded delicious. Well I'm so glad I finally did because it is one for the books.

Merry Christmas to my Dad - another gluten free, low fat, low sodium flavorful meal that he will love! I hope you enjoy it too!! :)

A few things to note about the recipe, if you use more chicken it makes it less spicy for the kids. I cooked my chicken in the electric pressure cooker for 25 minutes (just throw in the frozen breasts with about 1-1/2 cups of water) and they turned out perfect - soft and yummy.

I used parchment paper instead of greasing the pan. Also I used green enchilada sauce in place of green salsa - it turned out delicious!

I didn't use green onions on my rice because my kids have an aversion to multi-colored food. :)

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Tacos

2011-10-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

This recipe is so great! I love tacos, but really don't like making them very often because they use so much meat. When I discovered this recipe, I was so excited because now I don't have to use meat and my family doesn't know the difference! Look at this picture. Deceiving, isn't it? Not only do I save money by using beans, it's a lot healthier than meat, but flavor and texture is not sacrificed! :)

Black Bean Taco Filling

2 C. black beans, raw (see note below if you want to use canned)

2 eggs

2 cups plain bread crumbs

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 cup carrots, finelyshredded (or ½ cup carrots, ½ cup zucchini)

1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic

4 tablespoons olive or canolaoil for frying

Taco Seasoning, to taste -use your favorite from the store or see my recipe below

Accompaniments: Salsa,guacamole, shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, etc

Cook black beans in pressure cooker with 6 C.water, 50 min. Also you can use canned beans if you don't want to use dry. I'd estimate about 3 cans of canned beans but maybe 4 - experiment until you get a good mixture. Blend drained beansin food processor until smooth. Add a little water, if needed. Combine beans with veggies, crumbs and spices. To cook filling, heat oil in anon-stick skillet. Place bean mixture in skillet and cook on medium to medium-low heat. Crumble and turn untildone. Season with taco seasoning to taste. Serve with salsa, guacamole,lettuce, tomatoes and cheese on soft or hard tacos. Tasty!!

This also freezes well and makes a lot so freeze in family serving size bags and enjoy multiple times!

This is so good with my fresh homemade salsa recipe. In not too long we won't have any tomatoes or peppers left, so I'm enjoying it while I can!!

Taco Seasoning Mix

¼ C. dried minced onion

¼ C. chili powder

2 Tbsp. salt

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. dried minced garlic

1 Tbsp. ground cumin

1 Tbsp. crushed red peppers

2 tsp. beef bouillon granules

1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Yield: 6-7 batches. Store up to 1 year. To Preparetacos: Brown 1 lb hamburger; drain. Add 2 Tbsp. seasoning mix and 1/3 to ½ cupwater. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 2 min. Yield: 4 servings/batch

Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bagels

2011-10-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

What a great recipe I ran across for homemade bagels, the other day on this blog. I made them and yum, they are really really good. I did make a few adjustments as always. I used less flour than the recipe called for in mine so just be aware of that. I used quite a lot less (the first time I made them they were too dry). But without as much flour, they were really moist and yummy - not crumbly at all like other bagels I've made. I'll definitely be experimenting with the other kinds. So far I've only tried the cinnamon and the plain. Both were very tasty! Thanks Elizabeth for a great recipe!!

OURFAVORITE BAGELS (16andme.blogspot.com)

Ingredients
1½ cups warm water (I used hot water - warmed up in the microwave)

2 ¼ cupswhole wheat flour (white wheat, freshly ground is wonderful)

2 ¼ cupswhite flour (I only used 1/2 cup or so the second time - just until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bosch mixer)

1 tsp. salt

2½ Tbsp. honey (I used 3 Tbsp sugar)

2 tsp.dough enhancer (optional)

2 Tbsp.vital gluten

1 Tbsp.yeast

Directions

Combinewater and the whole wheat flour with your yeast in Bosch bowl with doughhook. Let stand for 15 minutes. Then add your otheringredients. Knead 8 to 10 minutes if whole wheat if not you can kneadfor 7 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Remove dough and divideinto 12 pieces of rolled dough (I used only 10 because I wanted a little larger bagels). You can roll each piece between your hands tolook like a ball. Cover the pieces of dough and let stand for 12 minutes.Then shape bagels by taking the ball in your hands, then push through themiddle with your thumbs and pull out to form about a 1½ inch hole in thecenter, place each bagel on greased baking sheet to rise for 20 minutes (I used parchment paper and it worked really good). Whilebagels are rising preheat your oven to broil. Then prepare a pan to which6 cups of water has been added. Bring this water to a boil. When thebagels have risen put your bagels in your oven about 8 inches from thetop. Broil bagels about 2 minutes on each side, but do not let them getbrown. After they have broiled put your oven on 375 degrees. Place thebagels in your boiling water, about 3-6 at a time, and then turn your stove topdown to simmer. Cook them 1 minute on each side. Set them in a colanderto drain. After they have drained put them on a floured cookie sheet.(Semolina flour is preferred, but any kind of flour will work, or you can usecorn meal.) Bake them for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy yourdelicious bagels.

Variations:

See her recipe for variations - the cinnamon swirl is my favorite!

Dehydrating Tomatoes: Tomato Powder

2011-10-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Are you wondering what I'm going to do with all those green tomatoes? Well I'm really excited to share with you my newest method of preserving my tomatoes after the harvest...

First I put all the tomatoes in the basement to ripen on flat pieces of screen or wood that are suspended on buckets.

When the tomatoes ripen I wash them...

I cut off their stems and stick them in a blender (skins and all) to puree into blended tomato puree.

Heres what the tomato puree looks like.

In our basement I keep the dehydrator that is running almost all the time right now. I spread the puree out on the fruit roll sheets (of if you don't have those you can make your own using freezer paper. Dehydrate the tomato puree on 135 F for about 24 hours or so. Don't worry so much about the time - just dehydrate it until it's crispy and breaks when you bend it.

When it's finished break off the pieces and stick back in your perfectly dry blender (make sure it's all the way dry or you'll have to re-dry the powder. Blend and then wallaah...tomato powder!

Here's a close up view.

Store tomato powder in a mason jar with an oxygen absorber to seal the lid. Keeps for a long time if it's stored in a dark, dry place.

To rehydrate just add boiling hot water until the consistency you want. Add less water if you want a paste, more for a sauce. Experiment with how much you like. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and Italian seasoning for a delicious pizza sauce. Or mix a little into your homemade spaghetti sauces to thicken a little. The possibilities are endless with this stuff. I'm still experimenting, but I'm really excited about this simple, quick method that preserves tomatoes. It's especially nice for this time of year when you're burnt out from canning! Some of the benefits of drying instead of canning are:

Less Space - this is a big one! You can store a lot of tomatoes in one canning jar. I estimate about 80 - 100 tomatoes per quart!
Less Time - dehydrating with this method is a lot faster than canning and you can do a little each day so it's perfect for busy times of year.
Nutrition - from what I've learned dehydrating preserves better the nutrition than canning, but I need to read up more about what the benefits are.

2011-10-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Harvest is in! Here are the tomatoes, peppers and summer squash! (And check out that pile of jalapenos!)

And here are the winter squash and melons!

We feel very blessed! The night before the frost, on a hunch, Brandon went out and covered all the tomatoes. We were very grateful the next day because it snowed and we may have lost most of them to the freeze. We picked them later that night. The green tomatoes will ripen down in our basement and the winter squash will decorate our house for 3-4 weeks until they cure and then we will stick them down in the basement to eat this winter!

Happy Harvest! Canning is almost done! I lost track of how much I've canned, but it's a lot more than I've ever done before! Glad it's about over. Now I can put my life back together and work on posting some of these recipes that I've been creating! :)

Ta ta for now,
Heather

2011-10-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

I think the harvest will be coming in tonight - it's getting kind of cold here...pictures to come soon.

And speaking of harvest. I have loved making our favorite muffins this summer and will miss them so much. My kids eat these up like there's never going to be another meal anytime soon. I doubled-plus-a-half (I don't know if that's the correct term - I made that one up...it means 2-1/2 x) this recipe using 5 small to medium sized yellow squash this morning. Boy were they good. My 6-year-old ate 5 of them and brought 2 to school for lunch. And I thought I was going to be able to freeze some...Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Yellow Squash Muffins
1 pound yellow summer squash, cut up
½ C. butter, melted
1 egg
1-½ C. wonder flour (or use regular white flour if you're not being healthy)
½ C. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

In a saucepan, bring squash to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the squash and puree in blender. Add the butter and egg to blender and mix for a few seconds.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the squash mixture. Fill greased muffin cups ¾ full and bake at 375° for 20 minutes.
Yield: 1 dozen

Got Pears? Canning Tips

2011-09-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Don't those look good? Yep, in spite of the spaghetti sauce disaster we're still canning like crazy around here. Here are some tips for canning pears in case you've got a few extra on your hands like we do...

A few things to consider are:

Always can ripe, mature fruit. If they taste bad fresh, they won't taste any better canned - in fact probably a lot worse.
An average of 17-1/2 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 50 pounds and yields 16 to 25 quarts—an average of 2-1/2 pounds per quart.

Here's how I can pears. You can find the source here:

Pears - halved

Procedure: Wash and peal pears. Cut lengthwise in halves and remove core. To prevent discoloration, keep pears in an ascorbic acid solution (I use a dissolved 500 mg vitamin C tablet per gallon of water). Prepare fruit syrup. For a quart load I use 3-4 Cups of sugar to 8 cups of water. Or pack pears in water, apple juice, or white grape juice. They are not very good in water because the sugar in the pears leaks out into the water so you are left with not very sweet pears.

Hot pack Method (Raw packs make poor quality pears): In a large saucepan place drained fruit in syrup, water, or juice and bring to boil. Boil for about 5 minutes. Fill jars with hot fruit and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Place halves in layers, cut side down. Adjust lids and process according to times below (based on your current elevation).

Processing Times:
Hot Pints
20 min (0-1,000 ft) 25 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
30 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 35 min (Above 6,000 ft)
Hot Quarts
25 min (0-1,000 ft) 30 min (1,001-3,000 ft)
35 min (3,001-6,000 ft) 40 min (Above 6,000 ft)

When Canning Just Isn't Worth it: The Spaghetti Sauce Disaster

2011-09-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned in the previous post, our garden is producing like crazy. Of course it happens all at once so it can be a very stressful time of year. This year we've had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Within 5 days we picked 60 lbs of them! Well normally I would just can them as crushed tomatoes because it's fast, easy and versatile. I can do whatever I want with them later. Well this year I decided to be bold and brave and make the tomatoes into tomato sauce before I canned it. I spent several hours processing the tomatoes into the sauce. The first batch I processed the slow way and ended up with about twice the work. All in all I spent about 3 hours making the sauce and then I let it simmer for about 7 or 8 hours. It smelled good and I was excited. Because my recipe had peppers and onions in it, I had to pressure can it. It was too late that day so I decided just to do it in the morning.

The next day I pressure canned my tomato sauce into 9 pint sized jars and then let them cool off. Only 4 or so of them sealed. Frustrated, I put the unsealed jars back in the refrigerator and waited until I had more time to reprocess them. Well the next day I processed them again and this time only 3 out of 5 sealed. More frustration. The next day I made another batch of tomato sauce - this time the quick way only took me about an hour and half and 7 or 8 hours to simmer. I was looking at the recipe and realized that all of my other jars I had pressured at 10 lbs. pressure and I was supposed to pressure them at 15. Aaah! Oh well, I figured I could just re-pressure can them all the next day with my new sauce, this time using quart jars and they'd all fit in the canner at once.

So the next day I started to do just that. But for some reason my pressure canner wouldn't seal right. I was losing steam out the lid and it just wasn't building up the pressure. I figured I'd better open the lid to add more water and when I did, I noticed that one of the lids had popped off the jar (that's never happened before!) so I put it back on and without thinking I went and grabbed some more water to replace what had steamed off - but I made a mistake and grabbed cold water! Ugh! Two of my jars cracked and spilled spaghetti sauce all over the canner. At this point I was really frustrated. I took out all the uncracked jars. Dumped the rest of the stuff in the garbage and put everything away for another day.

The next day I pulled out my canner again and tested it without jars to see if I could get it up to pressure. No luck so I decided to take it in to a fix-it place. They tested the seal on it and said it worked fine, you just had to jiggle it really good to get it to seal. Great...I took it home and gave it a try. Sure enough I finally got it up to pressure when it was empty. Then I when through the whole canning process again and placed my remaining 6 remaining quart jars in the canner and eventually got it up to pressure (after much coaxing). I processed them at the correct pressure this time, took them out and yep, that's right only 4 quarts sealed. I put the remaining sauce in the fridge and gave up. I figured we'd eat them for dinner some night.

Then this afternoon I heard a cry in the kitchen after my six-year-old son had opened the fridge to get out his afternoon snack. When I saw the floor I just laughed hysterically - that's all I could do at this point. In fact, I was actually a little relieved to be quite honest. So....rest in peace, dear spaghetti sauce. I got less than a 50% yield off my 60 lbs. of tomatoes and I don't think I'll be canning spaghetti sauce again any time soon...I figure with time, energy and broken jars, those 4 quarts are probably worth about $100 a piece.

Can you guess what we've been doing this week?

2011-09-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

The garden is producing like crazy! What a great blessing, but it also makes for a busy time of year. So far I've canned 28 quarts of applesauce, 14 pints of salsa and 28 quarts of crushed tomatoes and tons more to come. I'm hoping this year to post my salsa and pears canning tips to add to the list. Happy Harvest to you all!!

Canning Tips & Recipes:
Canning Introduction
Canning: Applesauce
Canning: Dry Beans
Canning: Peaches
Canning: Tomatoes

Red Quinoa Vegetable Lasagna

2011-09-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you - I have been looking for a recipe like this for a long, long time! I finally created it myself! :) We love vegetable lasagnas but we don't usually write down the recipes and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. Well this one was amazing, even if I do say so myself! :) The nice thing about it is that it's very versatile and you can use whatever veggies you have in season (it is perfect for this time of year with all the fresh veggies around). I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! :)
Red Quinoa Vegetable Lasagna
2 C. spaghetti sauce
4 small tomatoes cut into eighths
1 C. chopped vegetables (squash, corn, turnips, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, etc)
4 sprigs fresh thyme, or ½ tsp. dried
1 C. uncooked red quinoa, cooked
1 16-oz. carton cottage cheese
1-2 tsp. Italian seasoning, or to taste (penzy’s tuscan sunset is wonderful)
2 C. Shredded Jack or Mozzarella cheese
¼ C. Shredded Parmesan cheese
¼ -1/2 C. water, optional
14 lasagna noodles, cooked till they barely bend but are still very hard (do not overcook!)

In a medium saucepan, add spaghetti sauce, chopped tomatoes, vegetables, and thyme. Simmer on medium-high heat until vegetables are tender. In a bowl, mix cooked quinoa with Italian seasoning and cottage cheese. When sauce is done, combine the sauce with the quinoa mixture. If sauce is too thick, add ¼ C. to ½ C. water until you reach a runny consistency (not necessary if tomatoes are really juicy).

In a 9 x 13” pan, add a little sauce on the bottom. Layer four lasagna noodles, sauce, and jack or mozzarella cheese. Do two more similar layers using three lasagna noodles. Use the remaining four lasagna noodles for the top layer, adding the sauce and cheese. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan cheese on the very top. Cover with tin foil. Put in oven and turn on to 350 F (no need to preheat). Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove foil and broil until the cheese on top is bubbly and brown. Serve warm with corn on the cob and fresh bread.

Dear August,

2011-08-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, you've flown by as fast as July! And you were even better...more family reunions, a new nephew born, harvesting from the garden, more family in town, BBQs, school starting, celebrating our 10th anniversary, more family in town, lots of transitions and changes for the better and a million things more.

And I don't mean to brag, but guess what I had for breakfast this morning? Amazing! And do you know what made it all the better? We grew every piece of fruit in this from our own garden! :) And it tasted so good. Well I guess September will have to be the month that I start blogging again! Goodbye August. Can't wait to see you again next year!

Toodles,
Heather

Dear July,

2011-07-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Where have you gone? You've slipped away after many family vacations, reunions, a huge garden to weed and care for, kids to entertain and family in town. I've still cooked a lot, but no time to post my recipes or share the fun I've had during your month. I did eat my first tomato out of the garden today and it was fantastic! Thanks to you July!

See you next year and I hope to enjoy August as much as I have you!

Ta ta for now,
Heather

Asian Rice Salad with Broiled Tilapia

2011-06-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Well I've been cooking a lot lately, but haven't had much time to blog about the finds I've made. Here's an asian rice salad that I found on this site that is great!

Sorry my picture is a bit blurry...We served the rice salad on a bed of lettuce fresh from our garden (don't mix the lettuce in - just put on plate and scoop salad on top and broiled tilapia. Yum. For the tilapia I just spread melted butter on it, sprinkled it with seasoning salt and ground up almonds and broiled it for 6 minutes. A perfect summer meal that doesn't heat up your kitchen!! :)

Easy No-Knead Refrigerator Crescent Rolls

2011-06-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

I love this recipe from hillbillyhousewife.com. Do you have recipes that use refrigerator crescent rolls (like pillsbury) and cringe every time you use them at the unhealthiness, expensiveness, etc? Well here's a great substitute for those. I've made them twice and have been amazed at the simplicity of them. They were especially perfect for Father's day yesterday when I needed a roll recipe that I didn't have to spend a lot of time with because we were at church. Wonderful recipe (with half whole-wheat flour!)

Here's what my dough looked like when I put it in the refrigerator. I love that I don't knead it and it turns out so wonderful! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have!

Making Yogurt Part II

2011-06-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

I had one of my readers comment to me recently that they were trying to make homemade yogurt using my instructions and it was not turning out how they wanted it to. So I decided to give you some more tips to help you be successful in this.

Tip #1: Make sure you get the right kind of yogurt starter. I've tried many different brands and one of my favorites is Dannon. It consistently makes good yogurt that's not too runny or too clumpy.
But I think my all-time favorite starter is greek yogurt. They run about double the price of regular yogurt, but I think it's worth it. Especially since you just need to buy a small cup's worth and then you can make multiple quarts out of it. I like the yoplait brand of yogurt, especially their greek yogurt. I've recently discovered this one and it's smooth and creamy and really good consistency.
I talked to a friend who makes Greek yogurt a few days ago and she told me that traditionally greek yogurt is made with whole milk and a little cream. YUM, huh? But I've been making mine with 1% milk and it turns out just fine and is much healthier.

Be careful when using store brand yogurts for your starters. They might taste fine at first but after several batches, the quality often goes down. Not all do though, so experiment if you want. Don't use walmart brand plain yogurt!. That one does not do well, I can tell you for sure.

Tip #2: Make Yogurt fresh every week. If you don't make it for a while, start out with a fresh starter because the bacteria in the yogurt dies after a while. As long as you make it every week you can use some of your last batch as a starter without losing too much quality.

Tip #3: I'm still perfecting the time to culture our yogurt, but lately I've been going only about 6 hours and I've found it's just about perfect for us. When it comes out it should kind of stick together in the shape of the quart jar. If you want it thicker (and I usually do), you can pour out a little of the whey right after you culture it. Just gently tilt it and the excess whey should pour right out without spilling any of your yogurt. It still might be thinner than store-bought yogurt, but that's okay. As long as you got a good starter it should taste really really yummy. If you do want it really thick you can use a cheese-cloth to drip out more of the whey - until it becomes the consistency you want it. If you drip out all the whey, it turns into yogurt cheese which is good to use as a substitute for cream cheese.

Tip #4: If you accidentally culture your yogurt too long, it turns sour. Some people like it that way, but I don't. If you don't like the taste, start out with a fresh starter (don't use the bad one). A bad starter will make bad yogurt.

Tip #5: Use good milk, to make good yogurt. Again, the milk does matter. Don't use Walmart store brand. Use the tastiest kind of milk you can find.

Tip #6: When heating your milk, heat it on a medium to medium-low temperature. Don't be impatient. It might take a while to boil, but that's okay. It doesn't have to completely boil either. If you just want to heat it until it's good and hot, that should be fine as long as you're not using raw milk. If you're using raw milk that is unpasteurized, you'll probably want to boil the milk to kill the bacteria in the milk before using it to make yogurt. Strain it after boiling before putting it in your jar or you might end up with a yucky milky gooey thing that sits on the top when you boil the milk.

Finally here's another recipe you can use with your yogurt that is really good. My youngest son loves this for breakfast!

Fresh Strawberry yogurt
1 Cup plain yogurt
3 large fresh strawberries, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla powder, or to taste
xgave, honey or sugar, to taste
granola (optional)

Put yogurt and vanilla powder in a bowl, mix. Add sweetener to taste. Add chopped strawberries and sprinkle with granola, if desired. Enjoy!

I love strawberries this time of year! They are perfect and you can find them so cheap! Here's my favorite vanilla powder that my Mother-in-law introduced me to a while ago. This is so good! It makes your food smell heavenly!

The BEST Mexican Black Bean Taco Salad

2011-06-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! I have eaten this dish 3 times this week and it is soooo good! I think it just get's better and better. I made it one night for dinner and have had leftovers for lunch twice. I've made the black beans before, but with this combination, wow - this is an out-of-this world dinner - one of my most favorites of all time. The nice thing about it is it is vegetarian, easily vegan, gluten-free, and....tasty! Sorry I don't have a picture - I'll try to post one on here soon.

I'm posting this as a surprise for my Dad for Father's day. My Dad's diet is gluten-free, low-fat, low sodium, and a ton of other restrictions that I probably missed. As you can probably guess, he eats pretty bland food. For my Dad, I'm having him try the recipe below with a few changes: leaving out the salt, using fat-free or low fat mayo in the dressing and using the healthier tortilla chips with little or no salt or leaving out the chips all together.

Mexican Black Bean Taco Salad
Black Beans (see recipe below)
Corn (canned or frozen), warmed
Lettuce, chopped
Tomatoes, diced
Avacados, chopped (optional)
Tortilla Chips
Cheese (optional)
Other salad veggies as desired (Cabbage, green onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc)
fresh limes, sliced into wedges (You've GOT TO USE FRESH LIMES!! A MUST!!)
Cilantro-lime buttermilk dressing (see recipe below, leave off for vegan or make a variation using vegan substitutes)

Prepare the ingredients and place in individual serving bowls on the table. Each person can prepare their own salad as desired. I like to layer chips, black beans, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, avacadoes, cheese and other veggies on my plate. Then I squeeze the lime juice all over and pour on the dressing. I like to either eat as a salad or dip chips into it for a dip.

Black Beans
Here's the pressure cooker instructions for the black beans from greenereating.com.

And here's the yummy cilantro-lime buttermilk dressing.

Cilantro-lime Buttermilk Dressing
¾ C. Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. Ground black pepper
¾ tsp. fresh oregano, minced or ¼ tsp. dried
½ tsp. salt
½ C. buttermilk
2-3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced (or more, as desired)
1 tsp. fresh garlic, minced
½ tsp. onion, minced

Mix all the ingredients in a blender. Use immediately or store in a tightly covered container and refrigerate up to 1 week. Shake well before using.

Honey Oat Wheat Bread - OH SO YUMMY!

2011-06-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

Have I ever told you how much I love bread? Oh my, it's my weakness. Especially when it comes out of the oven all fresh and delicious smelling and IRRESISTIBLE! I've made homemade bread just about every week (or more) for several years now. My tried and true whole-wheat bread recipe is here and I mostly make this one because it's fast, dependable, healthy and very tasty. Well, I've been branching out a little bit trying to get some variety to our diet. Here's a variation on my tried and true recipe that I made today - the thing I loved about it most was how easy it was - as easy as putting in one more ingredient in it and how yummy it turned out. Just a slightly lighter taste than my every-day bread recipe. So good....in fact, it has all the necessary qualities to become another tried and true bread recipe. Enjoy!!

Honey Oat Wheat Bread
3 c. hot water, microwave on high 2-3 min or until quite warm
1/3 c. oil
1/3 c. honey
1 Tbsp. salt (put in first before adding yeast)
½ C. quick or old-fashioned oats
3 c. freshly ground whole wheat flour (ground from hard white wheat)
2 Tbsp yeast on top of flour
½ C. gluten flour *

Combine above ingredients. Put oil in the measuring cup first and then the honey doesn’t stick to it. Turn on bread mixer and blend. Add more whole wheat flour until the dough pulls away from the side. After right consistency and has pulled away, mix for six minutes. Divide into 3 loaves and place in oiled bread pans. Turn the bread over in the oil and top with a light sprinkling of oats. Let rise about 30 minutes or until bread has filled the bread pans. Bake 400 deg. for 5 min., 350 for 25 min or until done.

*NOTE on the Gluten flour: I use Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour that I buy at WinCo foods in their bulk bins - or you can get a 25 lb. bag of it there if you order it. I think you can also get it at Walmart in smaller quantities - like 22 oz. pkgs. You only use 1/2 C. for 3 loaves so it lasts a long time. It allows you to make the bread with whole-grain flour and still have it light and fluffy and stick together. This really is not an optional ingredient - you can try to leave it out, but you will end up with denser bread, that is crumbly, doesn't have as long of a shelf life and really is not as enjoyable to eat. Another option (if you're looking for one) is to use a good quality, high gluten white flour instead of some of the whole-wheat flour (experiment with how much - maybe 2 C. or more to get it to a good stick-together consistency). I'd rather spend a little more for the gluten flour because you can use less of it (which means more whole-grain flour which is better for you) and still have a great textured, tasty bread.