Homemaking on the Homestead

Where did this month go? February ends and March begins and a new month of menus to plan. Today I'm heading into town to run some errands so dinner tonight will be simple, lasagna from the freezer, french bread (also in the freezer) and a salad. I'm trying to find ways to add more vegetables to our diet. I do add fresh veggies often with salads, but I wanted more variety with other veggies. So this week's menu is a reflection of trying to do this. Baked Chicken It will be simply baked chicken with spices on it. I'll be serving vegetable enchiladas with this. I plan on cooking up a variety of vegetables and spices and use this as the filling in corn tortillas, and topping with green enchilada sauce. I'm not using a recipe so I'll post this if it turns out, later this week. I'll have chips & salsa on the side. Pot Roast I'll make a pot roast in my Instant Pot with potatoes and cut up sweet potatoes. I'll serve garlic br...

  Not sure this will be a weekly series or not.  Just testing it out :)  Today I have a few things to share with you that I've done recently. Salads I make a lot of salads. We enjoy them, and it is a great way to get many multi colored veggies into our diet. I do like to add various things to my salads to keep them interesting. While on Pinterest I found this recipe . It is called Cucumber Salad, but in the end it is more like sweet pickles in taste. I made a batch and we enjoyed them quite a bit. I used them as a topper to our daily salads. It was nice to have the onions and peppers added in. It was easy to make as well. I cut up all my veggies (I used regular cucumbers from the grocery store as pickling cucumbers are not available this time of year and it turned out fine), put them in a large bowl and sprinkled the salt over them. Then made my brine, filled a 2 quart canning jar with the veggies and poured the brine over them...   ...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week It's been a very busy but very enjoyable week. My niece and her husband came for a visit. They arrived on Saturday and left this morning. It was the first time we had met her husband and we liked him so much. They are such a cute couple and recently found out they are expecting their first baby. So soon I'll be a grand aunt (I know it's actually a great aunt but I like grand aunt better :) for the first time. On Sunday I had my son and his girlfriend here for the day to visit as well. And yesterday my daughter Hannah came with her kids to see her cousin. I snapped this pic of 2 generations of cousins (my nie...

Menu Monday!   Currently I still have family here. My niece and her hubby are visiting so I had my menu planned out ahead of time before they arrived. So far it's been smooth going with keeping every one fed. I've also had some of my children up here to see their cousin so it's been a busy house. Last night I made meatballs with grape jelly & chili sauce, potato casserole and salad for dinner. Here is what the rest of the week is looking like... Kalua Pork Made in the Instant Pot. I'll serve macaroni salad and broccoli with this meal. Chicken Pot Pie I'll make it easy by using drop biscuits on the top instead of making pie crust. I'll serve a salad with this. Lasagna I had this planned last week and never made it. So it will be a good one to serve for company. French bread and green beans will be served on the side. Tacos Beef or chicken? Not sure yet. I'll serve with all the usual sides. That should do it for the wee...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week This week has had its ups and downs for sure. The ice storm that was coming in last week when I wrote my WSS post was not fun. It was not as bad as the one that knocked our power out for 3 days. But there were casualties none the less. My son was driving to work on Thursday morning and said the roads were ok, he was being cautious. But he rounded a curve and there was 4 inches of sleet and ice on the road. He spun out, hit the guard rail and was facing on coming traffic that was also struggling on the roads. It was very scary for him. It broke one head light, but that was the extent of the damage. My daughter went to...

Hard to believe we're almost halfway through February. Seems like this year is flying by. I turn around and it's Monday again! :) Yesterday I made pork enchiladas which was an additional meal for the week. I've had extra people here, family & friends, and was in need of another meal. I took a pork roast (shoulder, about 3#'s), cut it up into 4 pieces and put it in my Instant Pot. I added several cut up green onions, a few mini peppers, 2t salt, 1t granulated garlic, 1t cumin, 2t chili powder and 2 cut up canned chipotle peppers. I added 1 ½ cups water. Put the lid on, set to sealing, and let it cook for 50 minutes. When it was done I shredded the meat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Then filled flour tortillas with the meat, rolled them up, put them in a 9x13 pan and poured green enchilada sauce over them (canned from the store) and sprinkled a small amount of cheese on the top. I baked them for about 30 minutes at 350. They were very good. I a...

I like making kefir. It has a taste similar to yogurt, with a bit less tang. It is thick but more of a liquid then yogurt is. It is much easier to make. You don't need any appliance such as a yogurt maker to make it. You can drink it as is or it makes a great addition to smoothies. You can make kefir two ways. One is from kefir grains and the other is kefir cultures. Kefir grains are left in the milk and daily strained out. The grains multiply allowing you to continue to make more kefir. They require daily maintenance. Kefir cultures are in a powdered form. You make it by heating up milk and adding the cultures when the milk is an appropriate temperature. You can reculture many times. Meaning you add milk to a portion of the kefir and it will make more kefir. I chose to use the cultures because there is less maintenance and the end goal of having cultured dairy in my diet is achieved. Below is how I made my kefir.. This is the brand of kefir I used. It comes...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week The weekend was busy with another snowstorm and plowing the driveway again. My son did make it up on Sunday as roads were better. It was a good visit. I gave him a haircut while he was here. I guess he still appreciates the frugalness of mom's haircuts :). My youngest daughter came home on Friday night from work feeling poorly. She got steadily worse over the weekend. I felt like it was a flu bug. But she could not eat or drink and was feeling pretty weak by Monday. I took her in to the doctors and they gave her some meds to calm her tummy. Today she was able to go back to work and is slowly feeling a bit stronger each d...

Another Monday and a new menu for the week. :) This week I've got several things to take care of so I'm looking for simple and quick meals. Tonight we are having spaghetti and meatballs. I have precooked frozen meatballs in my freezer that I'll use. I'll serve this with french bread and a salad. The rest of the week is looking like this.. Potato, Corn, Bacon Chowder I made this not long ago but it was so good it needs a repeat. I'll serve crackers and salad on the side. Chili A big pot of chili to enjoy for a couple days sounds good. Making this in my IP makes this a quick and easy meal. I'll make corn muffins and a veggie platter go round out the meal. Tater Tot Casserole The well known recipe, hamburger, green beans, tater tots, cream soup. Not sure if I'll bake it in the oven or use the my crockpot. I'll serve broccoli on the side. That should do it for the week! How's your menu planning coming along?  

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic).. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week I've had a great week. I had a few days of just quiet and I loved it. I crocheted my baby blanket and listened to my book. It was nice. Yesterday we drove to my brothers and celebrated his birthday with him. It was a lot of fun. He is 8 years older then I am. It is a sobering thing for us to realize that we are all that is left of our family. Our mother, father, sister are all passed away. It is just me and him. I love my brother and enjoy time with him and his sweet wife. I've come to realize that my family is my husband, my children, my grandchildren. It's just a different dynamic then it was years ago. Tod...