Homemaking on the Homestead

We had a lovely Christmas with our family. It was fun and memorable in so many ways. Here was a group shot of everyone on Christmas Eve … I’m a few days behind on posting my menu due to the holiday celebration. I posted my Christmas Eve dinner in my last post and we ate the leftovers on Christmas Day and had enough food and goodies for more family that came on Wednesday. So today brings a new menu to cover the next few days… Thursday Tacos w/all the trimmings, chips & salsa Friday Turkey veggie soup, crackers, salad Saturday White bean chicken chili , garlic cheese biscuits , salad Sunday Leftovers  

… or should I say the day before the day before Christmas.. ha, ha.. wow this week is flying by and has been busy (the reason for my lack of blogging).. We also had a little unexpected snow storm.. wreaked some havoc for a bit but did make things look so pretty… As for Christmas preps… I have made food ahead of time and it is in the freezer, lots of gifts have been wrapped but still I have more to wrap. With as many family members as I have it still equals a lot to assemble and wrap! My daughter Sierra has been so much help this year! She loves to wrap gifts and so she has helped me to get much done. I’ve been cooking and baking too. Here is my Christmas Eve menu: Ham Lasagna BBQ meatballs Coleslaw Brussel sprout salad Spinach salad Potato Casserole Dinner rolls Cookies for dessert So far I’ve made Cranberry Bliss Bars (using this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/cranberry-bliss-bars-starbucks-copycat-203229 ) I also have my lasagna and mea...

  I know I’ve been absent in blogging this last week. Life has been busy for me with holiday preps. But we must eat! So here is my menu for the week. Monday Chicken & gravy (I’ll be using my canned chicken for this) over brown rice, cooked carrots, green salad Tuesday Beef stew (my home canned ), dinner rolls , salad Wednesday Korean pork (I’ll be sharing this recipe soon), egg rolls , brown rice , salad Thursday Leftovers Friday Spaghetti (using my home canned sauce), french bread, salad Saturday Chicken & bacon crockpot chowder (another recipe I'll share if it turns out good), dinner rolls , salad Sunday Leftovers  

Monday Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, salad Tuesday Chicken enchiladas (using my canned chicken), tortilla chips & salsa, salad Wednesday Bbq beef sandwiches and tomato soup (using canned beef and canned tomatoes) & coleslaw Thursday Leftovers Friday Lasagna , french bread, salad Saturday Beef & veggie soup (using my canned beef ), dinner rolls, salad Sunday Leftovers  

Earlier in the year I canned up some beef stew. It was so good and we ate it all up in no time. Last week I decided to get some more stew canned up. I use my canned foods so often that I’m inspired to continue canning convenience foods. It has been fantastic to have quick and easy option for feeding my family lunch and dinner. You can find my step by step instructions for canning beef stew HERE . This time the only changes I made to the above recipe was to add peas instead of the celery. I forgot to buy the celery when I was shopping and had some frozen peas in the freezer. I used about 3 cups of frozen peas between all the jars. I just let them sit on the counter to defrost a bit. I started the day by making a batch of veggie broth. I had frozen veggies in the freezer for just this purpose. I used about 3 gallons of veggies and 3 gallons of water (plus salt) and let this simmer for about 6 hours. You can find my instructions on making veggie broth/stock HERE . I ...

I had a box (Pacific brand, 1 quart) of chicken broth that I had bought over the holidays in case I needed it. I was out of chicken stock in my freezer. As it turns out I did not need it. So awhile back I used it make some yummy soup for us. I started by making a batch of meatballs with 1 pound of hamburger. The recipe can be found HERE . The recipe is for meatloaf but I use it for meatballs as well… I mixed it, shaped the meatballs and baked them in the oven at 350 until they were done (20 minutes or so)…. While the meatballs were baking I chopped up some veggies. I used what I had on hand. But you could substitute any type of veggies you would like. I had about 6 to 8 cups or so of veggies. I used sweet potatoes, onions, celery, carrots and garlic (I also added spinach to the soup at the end). You could use regular potatoes, broccoli, corn, peppers, peas, mushrooms etc.. lots of options on this soup. Then I heated up some olive oil in a 6 quart stock po...

  Just when I thought it was all going to settle down life was a bit hectic last week. SO.. now I’ll try my hand at our menu for 4 this week and see how it goes.. :) Monday Spaghetti, salad buffet, french bread – I have some leftover spaghetti from last week in the freezer and I plan to use it up. But it is not enough to make a full meal from. So I am adding a salad to the meal similar to a chef’s salad or a buffet type salad.. here’s how: Sierra is going to sauté up some onions and garlic in olive oil and then drain a pint jar of my home canned chicken, chop it up a bit and add this to the onions and garlic .. when it is all browned up then it will be used to top our salads.. I will also have other salad toppers like grated cheese, sliced olives, chopped nuts, chopped hard boiled eggs, 3 bean salad, etc.. and homemade ranch dressing .. Tuesday Crustless ham and veggie pot pie with biscuit topper (similar to this recipe HERE only I’m using leftover ham from l...

The December issue of Homestead Happenings is out!   If you did not receive yours or would like to sign up you can do that here:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomesteadHappenings/     And the December Menu Planning Calendar can be found here:   http://thefamilyhomestead.com/MenuDec2012.pdf