Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

This year we decided to send our daughter to school with a lunch box. So what do you put in that lunch box everyday?? In this post I’m gonna offer up some ideas AND ask for any you might have! And as an added twist, for every comment you will be entered into a contest to win an insulated lunch box. Contest ends at the end of the month. Just for fun!

My daughter is one of those that likes to same thing everyday, but I’m the kind of mom that doesn’t like the same thing all the time. So she makes it easy because I don’t have to change it up a lot, but I do like to throw in surprises. Let’s start with sandwiches:
Peanut butter and honey (or jelly if you are ol’ fashioned)
Lunch meat and cheese
Fruit and Nut butters like this one
Tuna or Chicken Salad
BLT (if you are into bacon)
Egg or Ham salad

Or change it up a bit and use pita bread or tortillas. Throw in a quesadilla or a veggie pita. We also do tortilla roll ups and the kids love them.

The simplest Tortilla Roll Up

Spread tortilla with cream cheese. Sprinkle with herbs of choice (basil, dill, or lemon pepper are favorites). And roll. Slice tortilla into rolled up bites and your kids will eat them up fast!

Now we like to add a few things when we have them. You can fix it up with lettuce, tomato, meat, onion, etc. Another fun way is to spice up the cream cheese. Place the cream cheese and some yogurt into a blender or food processor. Add cilantro, black olives, a jalapeno, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend together and spread on tortilla. Yum!

We also include a water bottle in her lunch box so we can just refill it everyday. This is much cheaper and better for her than using juice boxes or sodas.

And you have to have snacks in the lunch box. We have included homemade cookies, chips (buy a big bag of chips and then pack them in baggies each day), pickled okra, pickles, cheese sticks, fruit (use real fruit and not fruit packs, these are cheaper and healthier), carrot sticks (or other chopped raw veggies), raw nuts, and fruit roll ups (there are all natural kinds or make your own).

We just decided that feeding her lunch everyday was a much better alternative to eating cafeteria food everyday. I’m all up for fresh ideas, so start sharing!

It has been a crazy week already and it’s only Tuesday!! In an attempt to pick up a trailer load of hay I slid in the mud and jack knifed my truck and trailer. After being rescued by the mail man and an hour of digging it out, we turned for home. Two days later (Monday) we headed back towards the hay and made it safely! But then we had to unload all that hay before the storm arrived. Ugh! I’m tired! Today we did our weekly run to town for piano and groceries, and while there swung by and caught Sesame Street Live on base! That was a fun surprise for the kids. The next three days consist of driving back and forth so that my oldest can volunteer at a horse camp. But the week ends with a girls night out at a Josh Turner concert. Yea! So all that to say, I’m busy this week! So here are some recipes to try with your summer bounty:

Beet Salad

Prepared beets (do this by boiling beets until soft, then drop in cold water and peel)

Dressing:

1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1 t maple syrup
1 t onion powder
1 T prepared horseradish
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
5 T olive oil

Chop the beets and place in salad bowl. Mix with feta cheese and appropriate amt of dressing to your taste. Yum!
hint: Let this soak for an hour or overnight, it will soak up the dressing.

Squish Squash

Wash and slice yellow squash. Cook in 2 T water until soft. Then using a slotted spoon, pick up squash and place in serving bowl. Smash the squash with a fork with some butter (amt varies on how much squash you are using). Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. So easy, yet so yummy.

That’s all for today. I would LOVE to hear your recipes for beets, zuchinni, swiss chard, and romaine. Oh and what do you do with all those radishes??

So I’ve been getting all this great, fresh, organic produce from Grant Family Farms, but half my family is in Texas! So what have I done with it all?? Well some of it I shared, but the rest of it I prepared and either ate it or froze it. I wanted to share some of these wonderful recipes with you.

Since we are currently harvesting our cold weather crops, I had a lot of spinach to work with! The day I brought it home, while it was still crisp, I made a Spinach Strawberry Salad with it.

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Chop spinach leaves into bite-size pieces. Place in big bowl.
Slice Strawberries and place on greens.
Drain one can of mandarin oranges and place on greens.
Sprinkle with pecans.

Sprinkle salad with salt and pepper to taste.
Then pour a little olive oil and vinegar over the salad.
And eat up! It’s so simple, yet so yummy! You can even add some grilled chicken if you have some.

The rest of the spinach I cooked. I ended up with 10 cups cooked spinach! That’s a lot of spinach. So I made Spinach Balls and Spinach Lasagna. I froze the remainder in 2 cup portions.

Spinach Balls

In a large mixing bowl, mis together:
2 cups cooked spinach
3 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
6 eggs
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 t black pepper
2 drops pepper sauce
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t soy sauce (I use Braggs Amino Acids)

Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Then shape into 1-inch balls. I chose to freeze my balls by placing them on cooking sheets not touching. Once frozen I placed them all into a zip-loc freezer bag. Or you can proceed to bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Spinach Lasagna

In bowl mix:
1 pound Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
2 1/2 cups cooked spinach
3 eggs

Cook Lasagna noodles according to package.

Spread spaghetti sauce on bottom of casserole dish. Then layer noodles, spinach mixture, Mozzarella cheese, and sauce until all ingredients are gone. Be sure to cover the top of noodles with sauce.

I chose to freeze mine at this point, but you can follow thru and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

I also had some rhubarb to experiment with. I’ve never had rhubarb before, so this was fun.

First I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch and the kids LOVED it! It was yummy. But I do suggest eating it all up while its warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix these ingredients together in a casserole dish:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 pint sliced strawberries
1 T honey

In a bowl mix together:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 t cinnamon

Pour oat mixture over fruit. Bake for 40 minutes. Your whole house will smell like strawberries!

This week I’m gonna try Strawberry Rhubarb muffins. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Summer has arrived (whether the weather proves it or not)! But now the desire to cook food has left me. I love to eat and my kids aren’t gonna let me get by without feeding them, so now what? Go raw!

Since I’m not homeschooling I have more time to experiment and if I go raw I can avoid heating up the kitchen. And going raw doesn’t mean you have to eat salads and fruit three meals a day. There a lots of fun recipes to try. I will list a few of my favorites.

Now salad is one of my favorite foods, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. There are so many variations. And my favorite part of a salad is the dressings. There are so many choices! Here is my favorite classic salad:

I fill up a large plate with lettuce (go for the green kind, not iceberg) and your choice of fresh veggies. I like red bell pepper, avocado, olives (the raw kind, not the canned), onion, cucumber and tomato. Next comes the dressing! Now I make mine right on top of my salad. First I put all the dry ingredients: onion powder, black pepper, and a salt-free seasoning (or add sea salt if you want the salt). Then I sprinkle on a bit of minced garlic, a little maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Yummy!!

Now for an untraditional salad, I enjoy a base of sprouted quinoa. This sprouts very quickly, so soak in the morning and then rinse and serve for dinner. I will make a Greek salad out of this, piled high with tomato, olives, feta cheese (if you aren’t 100% raw), bell pepper, cucumber, marinated mushrooms, pine nuts, and onion. Top with black pepper, sea salt, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

And for one of my favorite salads . . . rice salad. Take wild rice and soak for 2-3 days. (Make sure you rinse the rice daily.) Once the rice is budding open, rinse and place in bowl. Mix with veggies of your choice and salad dressing of your choice. A vinegar based salad dressing suits this recipe as well. It is amazingly filling.

Other non-cooked meals (although not all are raw) that would be great for the summer months are sandwiches (get creative – you don’t have to stick to the same ol’ sandwich), marinated vegetables (let veggies soak in olive oil, Braggs liquid aminos and seasonings), fruit and yogurt parfaits, cold soups (like gazpacho), chips and dips (there are so many creative recipes for tasty dips away from the regular), sprouted beans, seeds, and rice add a nice touch, and ice cream is always good (try making your own and avoid all the artificial stuff).

For fun, I will post my favorite homemade ice cream recipe.
In an electric ice cream maker (I use a 4 qt) pour 2 cups agave nectar, 1 T lemon juice, 1 t vanilla, 2 cups half&half or heavy whipping cream, 2 qts milk, and if you want it fruity add 2 cups pureed fruit. Turn on the ice cream maker and eat when thick. So very yummy and great for those of us with blood sugar issues.

I hope I motivated you to turn off the stove and turn on your creativity!

I started experimenting with homemade yogurt many years ago when I ran across the Hillbilly Housewife. She had this easy recipe for making yogurt with powdered milk. We eat a lot of yogurt since we substitute it for sour cream too. So this sounded like a great idea. This neat article can be found here.

We lived in a 5th wheel at the time and the pilot light in my gas oven worked perfect for incubating my yogurt. After a year or so, I got a dairy goat. So now I had this fresh milk to experiment with! This time I used a soup thermos wrapped in a towel and that worked well too. But only for small batches as the thermos isn’t that big. Shortly after this, we moved into a small house, but I didn’t have a pilot light anymore. I tried flipping a bowl upside down over the jars with a heating pad underneath. This didn’t work very well and made stringy, runny yogurt.

Now I have moved up in the world of yogurt making! I bought a Yogotherm! I just made my first batch of yogurt in my new toy and I have to say it is the best yogurt I have made yet! Of course I also used a culture instead portions of yogurt, but the constant temperature provided by the thermos was magnificent!

The rest of this article will be about flavoring your yogurt. Since we use ours as sour cream a lot, I need some that is simply plain. I store all my yogurt in pint size canning jars. The following recipes are really just guides. I don’t offer much measurements because you should adjust it to your taste – not mine.

Pineapple Yogurt:
This may sound a little weird, but it is a wonderful snack. I even put some on my homemade granola this morning for an awesome treat. Take a can of crushed pineapple or crush your own. In the bottom of each jar scoop some pineapple into it. Pour on the yogurt and stir. I also add another scoop on top to help mix it more evenly. You can add a drop or two of stevia if you want it sweeter, but I find pineapple is sweet all on its own. This is so simple, yet so yummy.

Vanilla Yogurt:
This classic can be done in the jar or per each serving. Simply mix in natural vanilla and a few drops of stevia. For a whole pint jar it shouldn’t take more than 3 drops of good stevia extract. That is, unless you like your stuff really, really sweet. I’m not much of a sweet tooth. It doesn’t take much vanilla either. Maybe 2 T for the jar.

Fruit Yogurt:
You can make your yogurt any fruity flavor you want by blending canned fruit in a blender and mixing in your plain yogurt. Most other fruits will need some sweetener added, especially if you are using fruit in their own juices. Sweeten to taste with stevia. Here is another great way to make flavored yogurt. Of course I do not recommend using artificial sweeteners or chocolate syrup (unless its homemade without white sugar). But the recipe is a good one.

I hope you will venture out and try some homemade yogurt!

We absolutely love this recipe! And it freezes great too.

Homemade Fish Sticks

2 c cooked rice

1 t chives (optional)

1 can drained tuna in water

2 eggs

2 T arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)

1 T beef boullion

1/2 c parmesan cheese

flour

Mix all ingredients together except for the cheese and flour. Sprinkle cheese over bottom of jelly roll pan or casserole dish. Press tuna mixture into pan. Chill. ( I have skipped the chill part when I was in a hurry, but the chilling helps hold the mixture together.)

Cut into strips and roll in flour. Pan fry in hot oil until crispy brown. Drain on paper towels.

You can freeze the cooked fish sticks and heat them in an oven for a quick meal. I made a triple batch one time and froze two meals worth so my hubby could feed the kids easily while I was out of town.

Please join me as I participate in Hillbilly Housewife’s Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. What a fun way to get lots of awesome cookie recipes that have been tried and tested by real moms!

What to do with all the leftover turkey?

Turkey Pot Pie is one of my favorites because it has endless possibilities.

Chop how ever much turkey you want to use – 2 cups is a good amount for a deep dish pie plate.

Put the turkey and your selection of veggies into the pie plate. I use a combination of frozen peas, frozen corn, diced potatoes, chopped carrots, and frozen broccoli (or whatever I happen to have in the freezer).

Cover the meat and veggies with cream of chicken soup. If you are using canned, use two cans and some milk. If you make your own you don’t need to add the milk.

If you want to make it cheesy add shredded cheddar to the mix.

Cover your pie with drop biscuits and bake according to your biscuit recipe.

Cream of Chicken Soup

In saucepan melt 3T butter.
Add 2 T arrowroot powder and whisk.
Add 2 cups milk and stir constantly on med-high heat.
Add 1 T Chicken base or powdered bouillon. (If you have leftover turkey or chicken you can add it in too.)
Add a little salt and pepper. Stir until thick.

For cream of mushroom I add 1 can of mushrooms.

I would like to start now and blog about what to do with that leftover turkey (or anything else for that matter). So join in! I will be posting recipes of what we do with our leftovers, please comment and leave your own ideas.

Turkey Tettrazinni

1 pkg spaghetti noodles (~12 oz)
1 1/2 – 2 c cooked turkey meat
1/4 c chopped bell pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or make your own like I do)
1/2 c turkey broth (I use chicken base and water)
1/8 t celery seed
1/8 t salt
1/2 chopped onion
1 1/2 c shredded cheese

Cook spaghetti until almost done. Drain. Add remaining ingredients except 1/2 c cheese and toss. Pour into casserole dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 min.

Yum!

I haven’t tried this yet, but with the holiday season approaching us this sounded really yummy. Please let me know if you try it! I imagine cranberries could be substituted for wolfberries. but I am curious to try it with wolfberries. You can purcahse these on my website.

Roast Turkey with Wolfberry Stuffing

10-12lb. Turkey, Thawed
Salt
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. parsley, minced
1 tbsp. sage, minced
2 tsp. thyme, minced

Rinse turkey and remove all packets, giblets, neck, etc. Salt inside and out. Run fingers between the skin of the turkey to separate it from the breast meat. Combine the extra virgin olive oil with the herbs, and stuff between the skin and the meat of the turkey. Place in a roasting pan and set aside. Stuffing8 slices of Whole Wheat Bread3 tbsp. butter1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil½ c onion minced¾ c. celery, mincedSalt Place bread on a baking sheet and toast at 300°F for 8-10 minutes. Flip the bread and turn off oven. Leave in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour until cooled. Slice into small cubes and place in a mixing bowl. In a pan sauté on medium heat butter, oil, onions, celery, and a pinch of salt until just tender. Remove from heat.

Add to bread cubes along with the following:
2 eggs
¾ c chicken broth
1/3 c. young living dried wolfberries
½ c. black olives, halved
3 tbsp. walnuts
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp dried parsley
½ tsp sage, minced
¼ tsp onion powder

Mix well and stuff tightly into the front and inner cavities of the turkey. Roast according to directions on turkey packaging.

I received this recipe from Debra Raybern.