Homemaking on the Homestead

  Monday Fish sticks, mac & cheese , salad Tuesday Spaghetti, french bread, salad Wednesday Crockpot chicken chili , chips & salsa, veggie platter Thursday Leftovers Friday Tuna noodle casserole (no cream soup) , veggie platter Saturday Marinated chicken , brown rice pilaf, broccoli Sunday Meatloaf , mashed potatoes, salad        

This episode of “Meal Planning Simplicity” is about how I dealt with the meat I purchased on my recent shopping trip. My daughter Leanne and I spent 1 hour in the kitchen and got 5 meals in the freezer. Here is what I purchased: 6#’s hamburger 6#’s boneless, skinless chicken thighs 4 ½ #’s pork riblets This is what we made: From the hamburger: 3#’s were made into meatloaf 3#’s were cooked and frozen for a meal From the chicken: 3#’s + 1# were put in ziplock bags with a delish marinade sauce (recipe link coming). The 1# bag was made for my daughter Emily. She is in the midst of tax season and working 14+ hour days so I’ve been making her a few meals for her freezer to make her life a little easier. 2#’s were made into a chicken chili freezer meal From the pork riblets: All of them were put in a Korean marinade Here is how my shopping day went… I started the morning by putting a pork roast in the crockpot. I went shopping and came home and unloade...

    I just spent a 3 day mini vacation at the Oregon Coast. My hubby took me to celebrate my 50th birthday. We had a wonderful time. I came home and my oldest son was here visiting and jokingly said to me, “What mom? No FaceBook status updates while you were gone?” We both laughed, nope, none. But then he knows me well enough to know I most likely would not post anything. I have my reasons. It was an opportunity for me to reflect a bit on social media.    I have a fairly private FaceBook account. I have a small “friends” list. It mostly consists of my children and family and a few close friends. Over the years I’ve seen a trend that really saddens me. I have to ask myself, “have we forgotten how to live life?”. Over the years I’ve watched people post about family vacations. I see posts that share… we are leaving the house, we are at the airport, we are boarding the plane, we’ve landed, we’ve checked into our hotel, and then continues to gi...

  This month’s project has been cleaning out and organizing the bathroom. My somewhat small project has morphed into a bigger project!! Ha, ha!! My sister in law has been here and we discussed the project and decided to remove all the doors and drawers from the cabinets and paint them. I’m really excited about this as I know it will give the bathroom a fresh look. However it has slowed us down. The doors/drawers have needed to be sanded and primed and painted. Due to a small space to work we can only do a few at a time (my bathroom has several). So I may not finish this by the end of the month. Nonetheless there will still be a new project come April. Seeing as I have helpers (both my sister in law and my daughter Sierra is helping with the bathroom) I know I can move onto something new (just not something so big.. LOL). I will keep you posted on the progress of the bathroom and let you know when it is finished. For now, this is where we are at with these 2 ...

Monday Hamburgers w/trimmings, chips & salad Tuesday Lasagna , french bread, salad Wednesday Bibimbap, kimchi (Korean meal made by Leanne) Thursday Pork roast, potatoes & carrots, salad Friday Burrito pie, chips & salsa, veggie platter Saturday Leftovers Sunday Clam chowder, dinner rolls, salad

  I was asked to share this recipe after I made it. This was excellent! A creamy chowder full of chicken & bacon flavor. With lots of veggies as well this chowder was a big hit. I ended up serving it with some cornbread and a salad. Chicken Bacon Chowder 2lbs boneless, skinless chicken (thighs or breasts) 1lb bacon 1 large onion, chopped 1 stick/cube butter 2 cups celery slices 5 to 6 medium mushrooms, sliced 1 pepper (red or green), cut into pieces 1 bag (2lbs) frozen “southeren style” hash browns 1 quart chicken broth 12oz cream cheese, softened 4 cups whole milk Salt & pepper, to taste Cook chicken meat, cool & cut up. In a frying pan cook bacon and crumble, set aside. In an 8 quart stock pot melt butter over medium high heat. Add onion, celery, mushrooms and peppers. Saute until veggies are soft. Add bag of frozen potatoes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are cooked. Add cream c...

So, here it is Tuesday… and my to-do list is long. I’m still in the midst of my bathroom cleaning and reorganization project. My sister in law is here.. and has kind of taken over.. with my blessings! She is painting and removing doors and drawers to paint and update. Honestly, I’m thankful. I would never have embarked on such a project because my time just would not accommodate it. But, she is an ever willing helper to jump in and tackle stuff I cannot.. so I hope this project will be done by the end of the month, I’ll keep you posted!! Yesterday was my weekly grocery shopping day and today I have stuff to take care of. I bought 6#’s of hamburger.. 3 pounds will be made into meatballs for an upcoming meal and 3 #’s will be cooked and bagged for an upcoming meal. Yesterday Leanne made about 1 ½ dozen black bean patties for lunch time meals this week. I’ll post on that soon. Today Leanne will also make a batch of creamy broccoli soup for lunch time meals. Having good qua...

  Monday Tacos w/trimmings, chips & salsa Tuesday Chicken bacon chowder (did not get this made last week), dinner rolls, veggie platter Wednesday Tuna patties , brown rice pilaf, greek salad Thursday Sausage veggie bake, cornbread, salad Friday Leftovers Saturday Sour cream chicken enchiladas , tortilla chips & salsa, carrot sticks Sunday Bbq meatballs, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, broccoli

I’ve not blogged all week and that was not my intentions. It has just been a week that has had a mind of its’ own. I know you’ve all had weeks like that. It was not in a bad way at all, just busy with life and family. My sister in law, Debbie, surprised us with a visit. Her plans had changed and she was able to come and stay with us for a bit. I’ve shared about my SIL in the past. We are very close and are more like sisters than “sisters in law”. She is a true blessing in my life. So her change of plans was a wonderful surprise! We've had a fun week of visiting, catching up on life and planning a new project together. She likes to be a blessing where ever she goes and is ready to help out around the house. I’m enlisting her in my current bathroom organization project! My son Isaac also had a birthday this week. Hard to believe my baby is 16 already. Where does the time go? He had friends over and my oldest son was able to join in the celebration time.    ...

    Monday SW stew , brown rice, salad   Tuesday Tacos w/all the trimmings, chips & salsa   Wednesday Pizza & sushi (Isaac’s birthday dinner)   Thursday Leftovers Friday Marinated chicken, kimchi fried rice, steamed mixed veggies   Saturday Chicken bacon chowder, crackers, veggie platter Sunday Meatloaf , mashed potatoes, salad    

How is everyone surviving winter? Is it still in full swing in your area or slowly turning to spring? We had a couple very nice days that were just teasers I guess. Right after those nice days we had a snow and ice storm hit us. There was not a lot of snow but the ice caused problems. Not many for us personally but due to falling tree limbs several of my area friends lost power and the cold froze pipes. My hubby had to get to and from work in it, but did so without too much issue. We lost a few tree limbs but nothing damaging, thank the Lord. Here are a few pics that my daughter Sierra took:           Teaching my kids to drive (as I’ve shared before) is one of my least enjoyed jobs of parenting. I’m not sure why but it is. None the less, I’ve managed to teach 7 so far. Maybe because of the area we live in can tend to make my nerves a wreck. Apparently we live near one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in Washington ...

  This week’s Meal Planning Simplicity is about lunch time planning. With my children being older and having various schedules they can all eat lunch at different times. They also make their own lunches. To avoid having messes in the kitchen from several people in there during the day I try and do things ahead of time to make the process a little simpler for them and less mess as well. I’m also am conscious on keeping lunch meals inexpensive. With two teenage/adult boys in the house who can eat and eat I really need to make the choices that are healthy as well as easy on my budget. Leftovers of course are typically always the first choice for me when it comes to lunch. However often times I don’t have any leftovers or my leftovers are “planned overs” that I intend to use for another meal. Here is what I do. I change things up from week to week with different types of food. But here are the basics of what I do. Nothing earth shattering here, pretty basic. ...

  Time to move on to another “out of sight, out of mind” project in my home for the month of March…. The Homemaking Challenge for March is: The Bathroom This is very needed in my home. We have one bathroom. These old homes were only built with one bathroom. We’ve had up to 10 people living in this home and we still made one bathroom work. We’ve considered converting one of the upstairs bedrooms into a bathroom, but we needed the bedroom space more than we needed another bathroom! Ha, ha! :) However it may be a future project.  There are six of us living in this home currently. The bathroom gets a lot of use. And over time things get tossed here and there in the cupboards and drawers. I know there is a better way to organize things, but first I need to sort through bottles, containers, and stuff to find out what we are actually using and then come up with a better plan to organize it all. Here is an example of a couple of the drawers…   ...