Homemaking on the Homestead

  Monday Leftovers (leftover chicken noodle soup from last week)   Tuesday Split peas soup w/bacon, pepperoni bread , salad   Wednesday Taco pie (new recipe I’ll share this week if it turns out :), salad   Thursday Lasagna , French bread, salad   Friday Italian chicken & rice, salad   Saturday Sausage potato soup , dinner rolls , salad   Sunday Bbq ham & cornbread casserole , salad  

I made these muffins the other night to go with a yummy pot of beef noodle soup. I had cornbread on the menu but decided last minute to try something new. They were a huge hit and my family said they made a perfect addition to the soup.. Sweet Corn Muffins 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (aka.. soft white wheat) 1 ½ cups cornmeal 2 cups cane juice crystals or white sugar 2T baking powder 1t salt 4 eggs 1 cup olive oil 2 cups milk In a large bowl combine flour, cane juice crystals (or white sugar), baking powder and salt. Mix well. In a smaller bowl combine eggs, olive oil and milk. Pour into first bowl and mix well. Grease 24 muffin tins very well. Fill each muffin cup with about ¼ to 1/3 cup batter. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Enjoy!!

Update on my son Jacob..   Well I thought it was official when I posted my blog this morning but there has been yet another change of plans for him..   he did not sign up today for the Army Reserves and instead will be making different plans..   so I will watch and see how those plans develop this year!  

We have added a new member to our family!! Our sweet Alpine doe, Bonnie, delivered a little baby boy yesterday!! And he is so cute! He looks more Nubian than Alpine as his daddy, Clyde,  is Nubian. His coloring looks just like mama. Since it was pretty cold out I pulled out one of my baby goat sweaters and put it on him to help keep him warm ( http://thefamilyhomestead.com/crochetgoatsweater.htm   ). By this morning he was all warmed up and walking around with mama dad… Mom & Dad January life on our homestead is pretty routine (other than the birth of a baby goat!). For Isaac and Sierra their daily focus is school and we are making good progress through the school year. At the beginning of the school year I shared that I was using Switched on Schoolhouse for my son Isaac. He is using it for English, science and history (we still use Saxon for math). After a half year of using the program I have to say I really like it!! It has saved me a lot of time i...

Today I made a big batch of meatballs for the freezer. I used 5lbs of hamburger and followed the recipe for hamburger veggie meatloaf that I have here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/beefveggiemeatloaf.htm I basically doubled the recipe and made a big bowl full…. I like to use my cookie scoop to make the meatballs. My scoop is 1T in size.. I scooped them out and put them on a greased jelly roll pan (actually it filled 3 jelly roll pans)… Then baked them at 350 for 20 minutes .. After they were baked I put them on a pizza pan to flash freeze (It filled 2 pizza pans, cookie sheets would work too). I did not want them to freeze in one big lump. After they have frozen individually I will put them in a zip lock type bag and put them back in the freezer. Now I can take out however many I need for a meal. It’s a nice convenience to have on hand! My favorite recipe for meatballs is this one: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/bbqcrockpotmeatballs.ht...

I’ve recently been making a breakfast smoothie most mornings and it is sooo good and packed full of nutritional benefits. This smoothie is easy to make and tastes delicious. Orange & Apple Smoothie 1 orange, peeled, and separated into slices 1 apple, peeled , cored & sliced 1T coconut oil 1 T golden flax seed 1T honey 1 cup coconut milk (or almond milk or regular milk can be used as well) 2 handfuls ice Put the orange and apple into blender. Add coconut milk, coconut oil and flax seed. Blend until smooth. Add ice to make it thick and slushy. Here it is in pictures…. Assemble your ingredients… Prepare the orange and apple… Put the orange and apple in the blender… Add the coconut oil, flax seed and honey… Add coconut milk… Blend until smooth… Add ice.. Blend again and serve… Makes a little over 2 cups of smoothie... Enjoy!!  

  Monday Spaghetti, French bread, salad   Tuesday Yummy Pinto Beans , homemade dinner rolls , salad   Wednesday Beef vegetable noodle soup , cornbread , salad   Thursday Chicken n’ gravy over biscuits , salad   Friday Bbq crockpot meatballs , crockpot mac & cheese , salad   Saturday Homemade chicken noodle soup , dinner rolls , salad   Sunday Crockpot chili , tortilla chips & salsa, salad

Yesterday evening my boys had a couple of their friends come over. The weather outside was quickly turning to ice and not looking so great.. They spent some time sledding down our big hill in the dark and on more ice than snow!! But they had fun. Needless to say the boys spent the night as no one was going to be out driving in such weather if they did not have to! Before heading to bed I thought about what I was planning to feed everyone come morning time. To save myself some time and effort in the morning I got a breakfast casserole in the fridge. Sausage Egg Breakfast Casserole 3T butter 3T whole wheat flour 2 cups milk ½ t salt a few shakes of pepper 1 to 1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese 2T butter ¼ lb sausage (such as Jimmy Dean) 3 large mushrooms, sliced 1 small onion, chopped 12 beaten eggs Begin by making the cheese sauce. In a small pan melt butter over medium high heat. When the butter has melted add the flour and mix until combined. Add milk, salt...

Yesterday was Jacob’s 18th birthday. We woke up covered in a thick blanket of snow and no power. Tobin and I had to go into town to take care of a few necessary things and had to put chains on the car to get down the driveway and down to the main highway, then he pulled over and took them off. They had plowed, but it was still slow going. The city was just fine, mostly just rain. What little snow they had gotten was already melted. I kept calling home to see if the power had come back on. At one point Jacob called the PUD (Tobin had already called them once in the morning) and they said they were still working on it. It was almost 6:pm when we got home and still now power. At that point it had been 13 hours. All our other neighbors had power but we did not, so Tobin called again only to be told that they thought they were done and had moved onto the next town! We were pretty frustrated.. but at times.. what can you do?? So we hooked up the batteries/inverters and had a lit...

I had a lady leave me a comment on my weekly menu post asking if I would share my chow mien recipe. Tonight we had chow mien to go along with our orange chicken for dinner. So I took some pics to show you how to make it. I don’t really have exact measurements for it. It is one of those meals I just kind of “wing it”. First I begin by cutting up my veggies. This recipe is pretty versatile; you can use a large variety of veggies. There are no certain veggies you have to have. For this meal I used: 1 small onion, 1 carrot, 3 red mini peppers, a small wedge of red cabbage and a small wedge of green cabbage. You could also use celery or mushrooms. If you only have one or two of the needed veggies, that works too. You can just a few veggies or lots of them.. it is up to you. I chopped my cabbages up, sliced my onions and peppers and cut my carrot into small sticks… After I chopped the veggies up I measured out 10oz of whole wheat spaghetti noodles and put a pot of water ...

I think most everyone would agree on the importance of having children read. As a homeschooling mom I read and saw a lot of really bad literature for children and young people and decided early on with my children that I wanted them to be exposed to books that have stood the test of time and are consider excellent literature, the classics. Over the years as I would read classic books to my kids and they began to read them as well I saw firsthand many of the wonderful benefits that come from reading classics. Reading classics will expand and increase vocabulary. Children will be exposed to a vast amount of vocabulary words that they might not hear otherwise. And when the words are read in context it helps in understanding what the words mean. I’ve seen that reading classics gives children exposure to writers that have an excellent command of the English language. This in turn, I believe, will help make children better writers. When they read and see how our langu...

  Monday Clam chowder , dinner rolls , salad   Tuesday Orange chicken , chow mien, salad   Wednesday Tacos, chile relleno  casserole, refried beans (Mexican Fiesta for Jacobs 18 th birthday)   Thursday Leftovers   Friday BBQ Ham & Cornbread Casserole , salad   Saturday Delicious Italian casserole , salad   Sunday Baked chicken legs , mashed potatoes, salad  

I’m working on adding a few more veggies to our diet. I make a fresh green salad pretty much with every dinner meal but I also wanted to include a few more veggies. I recently tried brussel sprouts. I've served them before and I have to say not many in my family were super impressed… until I cooked them this way.. and the last batch I made were completely wiped out at dinner time. The only one who did share everyone’s enthusiasm for them was my son Isaac.. but then.. he is not all that thrilled with any vegetable :) .. so I’m not really counting his vote in all this! Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts 2lbs brussel sprouts, cut in half 4T olive oil (approx, could be a little more than this.. I did not actually measure, just drizzled) 1T minced garlic salt and pepper, to taste ½ cup water Put brussel sprouts in a 9x13 pan. Drizzle with olive and stir to coat all the brussel sprouts. Add garlic, salt and pepper and stir again. Pour water over veggies. Bake at 350 ...

We love homemade pizza! One thing I like to do is make a big batch of pizza crusts and then freeze them for use later on. If I don’t have any in the freezer on pizza night then I make up a batch of dough that will make 6 pizza crusts. My family eats 2 pizzas and the other 4 crusts go in the freezer. Here is my pizza crust recipe: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/wwpizzacrust.htm   I double the 3 crust recipe to get 6 pizza crusts. To make them for the freezer.. make the dough and let it rise once, punch it down and divide into 6 balls of dough…   Roll them out on the pizza pan (my pan size is: 14 inch) that as been sprayed with non-stick spray…   Par bake (prebake) them for 6 minutes… let them cool.. I have 3 pizza pans and bake one at a time and then slide them off the pan and reuse the pans for the next ones. When the crusts have completely cooled I wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer…. ...

  This last weekend I did my basement storage area organizing project. Every year I go through things and clean up, downsize and organize it. And as the year progresses it gets messy and more things get added to the pile and by January it is time once again to clean up and see what can be tossed or given away. So… here is what my storage area looked like before I got started…   I knew I would need a place to sort things as I went through it all. I have a room next to the storage area.. we use to call it the music room when I had more kids at home that played musical instruments.. nowadays the room is more of a hang out room for the younger kids.. I started by grabbing the bags of out grown clothing and piling them up in the room … Then I started opening each tote. I have the tote’s labeled so I know what is in them but it always amazes me each year how much stuff I can get rid of or throw away. I was able to get rid of things and ...