Homemaking on the Homestead

What's on your menu this week? I have my basic meals figured out and a few recipes floating around in my thoughts that I'd like to try. I'll see how the week goes. I'm working to make our meals more plant based, and less meat and refined foods (as I shared on Friday's blog post ) . My meals reflect this. Adding more beans, grains, and lots of veggies and fruit. Today is a leftovers day. I have small amounts of food left from a couple meals that I'll reheat and add in sandwiches for anyone who may still be hungry. For the rest of the week, this is my basic plan... Tacos I'll be making these with mostly all beans and a small amount of hamburger. I'll serve these with all the typically trimmings. Pork Stir Fry A little bit of pork and a whole lot of yummy veggies. I'll serve this over brown rice. Hawaiian Chicken This is an Instant Pot meal that I shared this recipe in a previous blog post. It's really good and easy to...

Friday in the Kitchen is about sharing some of the food I've been cooking in my kitchen recently. Plant Based Eating I started out with the desire to add more vegetables and more fruits to my diet. That has now grown to eating a mostly plant based diet. If you are wondering what this is and what it looks like I thought I'd share a little about that in this post. Plant based eating is pretty simple: whole grains, beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit.. Pretty much like a healthy vegetarian diet. But I have no desire to be a vegetarian, it is just not a choice for us. So I still serve meat but with the bigger emphasis on the plant foods. Here is what a sample day of eating looks like.... Breakfast : steel cut oats with blueberries and a small amount of milk on the cereal, an orange Lunch : Black bean sweet potato chili, salad Dinner : Pork chop cut up in pieces, put on a bed of greens, topped with cooked black beans, cooked spaghetti squash (it w...

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..  BUT Please download the picture to your computer first..  do not just directly copy and paste..  otherwise you are using my bandwidth..  thank you! :) .. 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 has been a great week. We finally had a little break in the rain. What a relief. We had 2 dry days in a row. The first for the year! :) Living in the Pacific Northwest can be a challenge for some of us. You can go months and barely see the sun. I know it can get to even the hardiest Northwesters.. ha, ha.. People you meet out and about are grumpy and don't smile much. But when the sun comes out and it warms up just a little suddenly everyone you run into is...

After a beautiful weekend we are back to more rain. I'm wondering if it will ever end. But nonetheless the week marches on. Dinner tonight will be chicken enchiladas. I have some veggies and rice I'll add with the chicken and use green enchilada sauce over them. I'll serve this with chips & salsa and a slad. The rest of the week is looking like this.. Pork Chops I'll most likely cook them in the Instant Pot. I plan to serve them with a pot of veggie/bean soup and french bread. Petite Pan Fried Sirloin Steak I found the petite sirloin steaks on sale when I was grocery shopping last week. I plan to slice them thinly and fry them up and then add a little Yoshida's sauce to them at the end. I'll serve this with asparagus and buttered pasta. Sausage & Rice Jimmy Dean Sausage, cooked with veggies and mixed with cooked rice. It's a family favorite. I'll serve baked beans, roasted brussel sprouts and spinach salad on the s...

Friday in the Kitchen is about sharing some of the food I've been cooking in my kitchen recently. Homemade Food Years ago while I was raising my 8 kids I cooked and made everything from scratch. It was how we kept the food costs in budget. It was great. I taught my kids how to cook, how make anything they wanted. I taught them they did not have to depend on a box or can or bottle of anything. They could always make it themselves. As the kids left home and the budget issues eased, I found I was exhausted from all the cooking and food making. I began to rely more on store bought options. I've slowly been making my way back to cooking and making many of the foods we eat. Why? Well, first it is better on the grocery budget. But it also tastes much better. And it is healthier for us. So this week I ran out of ranch dressing. We love ranch dressing and I was not planning on going to the store for a few days so I made a batch from my tried and true recipe. ...

I read about this from a few different websites and wanted to try it. Just something new and fun. When I was in Sacramento my daughter and I went to her favorite Good Will and I found a silk scarf. I purchased it to try dyeing some eggs. You need something silk to do this. Men's ties work great, but were so expensive. I started looking at women's silk scarves and found one that was about $3. Better price then what I was seeing with the ties... I cut the scarf into 5 pieces. They need to be big enough to wrap around the egg tightly. Then I had some cotton fabric and I cut 5 pieces of this.. I wrapped each egg in the silk...   Then in the cotton fabric.. I put them in a pot, covered them with water and added 2T of white vinegar.. I boiled them for 10 minutes. When they were done I used a slotted spoon to take them out of the boiling water... When they had cooled enough I removed the fabric. And this is what I had.. Very pre...

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..  BUT Please download the picture to your computer first..  do not just directly copy and paste..  otherwise you are using my bandwidth..  thank you! :) .. 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 Seems like it was a busy week. I had a lot of little things I was working on, nothing real big. My daughter's apartment was not ready so we did not move her in on Saturday. This week, it should be ready. But we did spend more time getting her stuff together. Stepping out on your own is a big life change. Lots of little details to cover when preparing for a move. I focused on kitchen things. I purchased some empty spice containers and filled those with various s...

Happy Monday Everyone! :) Hope your week is off to a good start. Today I'll be at home catching up around the house after a busy weekend. Tonight's dinner will be super simple, leftovers. I remember years ago whenever I'd ask my kids what I should make for dinner, my youngest sons answer was always.. Leftovers!! Ha, ha. I have leftover baked chicken and a few more things to add with it. I like to call these dinners, buffet dinners. The rest of my week is look like this.... Cuban Pork This recipe is a crockpot recipe. I've made it a couple times and love the flavors. However I've converted it into an Instant Pot recipe. I'll serve rice, cuban black beans, and asparagus with the pork. Soup & Sandwiches Split pea soup, cuban pork sandwiches (made w/leftover Cuban Pork), salad Greek Salad & Oregano Marinated Chicken Sounds really fancy but it looks like an easy recipe. You can fine the recipe HERE . I'll serve this either r...

Friday in the Kitchen Friday in the Kitchen is about sharing some of the food I've been cooking in my kitchen recently. Black Beans I love beans. I know some people just don't like them and some do. I've cooked a lot of beans over the years. It was how I kept my grocery budget for 10 people on one income way down. They are an amazing food source. They are a great source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. I've often, that maybe, just maybe, people have not had them cooked right, or had good bean recipes. Or maybe they just have a bad reputation that is hard for some to get over. But, regardless I love them! :) I've been cooking a lot of black beans lately. And working on ways to use them. Here are a couple ways I've used them recently.. Black Bean and Sweet Potato Patties These were sooo good!! I served them as a side dish to our meal. They were tasty and filling. My family enjoyed them very much.     2 cups cooked black beans ...

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 busy but good week. My middle son came up for a visit on Saturday. I love his visits. We talked all afternoon. I love spending time with my kids! :) On Friday my daughter Hannah and grandkids came over and we went to a nearby town to walk. The town has a few great walking trails all around it. It was nice to have a dry day to get out and best yet, to get out with some of my favorite walking buddies. We live in Bigfoot country.. so it is played up. The town has a lot of these Bigfoot carvings all around the trails. My grandchildren love to find them.. and have their picture taken with them.. On Monday I sp...