Homemaking on the Homestead

In today's video I'm sharing an easy and delicious potato salad recipe.  I use hash browns to make this and cook them in my Instant Pot.   If you don't have an Instant Pot you can cook them in any way you would like.   https://youtu.be/dse4IHnGmE0

Ranch dressing has always been a favorite at our house. For many years I made my own. It's easy to make and a good frugal alternative to buying store bought. I have a couple different ways I want to share on how to do this.  One is mixing up a batch as you need it and the other is making a powdered mix to have hand when you want a batch.  For starters here is my basic ranch dressing recipe.. Ranch Dressing 1 cup mayonnaise ½ c sour cream ½  cup milk, buttermilk is fine too 1 T lemon juice 1 t. onion powder ½ t. (slightly heaping) minced garlic, I buy the kind in the jar 2 t. parsley dash dill weed ½ t. salt ½ t. seasoning salt dash of pepper Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Allow to sit in fridge for a little while to thicken and allow flavors to blend. When my kids were at home I use to mix this up in bulk. I would quadruple the recipe and make it in my Bosch (or Kitchenaid) mixer. I would add the mayo and sour cre...

I wanted to share my salad mix with you because I've been loving so much about it. I've been making my salad mix for a few months now. As you may know I'm a big salad person. I (I should say 'we' as both hubby and I are big salad people :) have a salad almost every day. I think fresh veggies are so important in a diet. They're full of vitamins, minerals and fiber; all needed things in a healthy diet. But salads can be a pain to have to make every single day. It's always easier to open a can of veggies or microwave frozen veggies, or skip them altogether. On occasions I have bought those salad kits that come with add ins and dressing to simplify my day. They are super simple! One of the things I took notice of was the fact that many of them contain mostly cabbage. I can see why, cabbage stays fresh much longer than other types of greens do. In the end I began to feel I was paying a premium for cabbage (and a little convenience)....

This was an easy grocery shopping week. My single stop was at  Winco. I only needed a few weekly basics. Here is what I purchased..    I needed a few fresh veggies and picked up a bag of salad mix, red cabbage, tomatoes and celery. For fruit I bought oranges and bananas. We have an apple tree that has been giving us a lot of apples lately and we didn't need to buy any. I also picked up my hubbies chips, and a loaf of french bread, a package of croissant rolls, 2 cans of olives for the pantry, 2 bags of salt.. I love that I can buy my Himalayan pink salt in the bulk section of the store. I got 1 bag of fine grind and 1 bag of course grind. My dairy and frozen items were ice cream, yogurt, half & half, milk and a bag of Popsicles for treats when my grandchildren come to visit. The total for this weeks groceries was: $41 (rounded up) ************************* Easy Chicken Salad for a...

This week has been on the busy side for me. I had a few people here for the 4 th of July holiday and didn't have enough time to get Wednesday Snap Shot out. It will be out next week. My grocery haul this week was a big one. I have a family get-together coming up in a couple weeks and will have a lot of people here for several days. So I started this week to stock up on a few things in preparation for this. The first stop this week was Fred Meyer. I don't normally shop at Fred Meyer but my hubby needed a couple things there and I had seen that they had T-bone steaks on sale for $5.77 a pound which is a bargain around here. So I picked up 3 packages of them... The whopping grand total for the steaks was $71 Next stop was Winco... The fruits and veggies were the basics.. lettuce, spinach, cabbage; both red and green, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers. I picked up some apples and bananas. We still have oranges from th...

As you may know I LOVE salads!  Not only are packed with nutritional benefit but there is so much variety that can be added to a big bowl of greens.  Today I'm posting a few recipes that we enjoy. ************************************* Chinese Chicken Salad Coconut oil 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour 3 t salt ¾ t pepper 1 egg ½ cup milk Romaine lettuce Red cabbage Green cabbage or nappa cabbage ~I use half lettuce and half cabbage, all sliced and chopped thin. For the cabbage I use equal parts of the red and the green~ have enough of this mixture available to feed your family. I really don’t measure out the greens, I just fill a large bowl.  1 carrot, grated 1 medium onion, chopped 2 tomatoes chopped ~other salad veggies based on what you like and what you have on hand Cashews (enough for sprinkling on top of the salad) Croutons    Cooking the...