Homemaking on the Homestead

This week in "Friday in the Kitchen" I'm sharing my recipe for Instant Pot Chicken & Dumplings. This was delicious! We all enjoyed it so much. And it was super easy to make. I started by putting carrots, celery, onions and boneless, skinless chicken thighs (chicken breasts would work too). My chicken was still mostly frozen. I added water, and seasonings. I don't use store bought chicken broth because my hubby has reactions to MSG. I did not have any homemade broth, so just used water and extra salt and it was perfect.    I cooked the chicken & veggies for 15 minutes on “manual”. When it was done I let the pressure release on its own for about 10 minutes and then did a quick release. When I opened the lid I shredded the chicken added some milk and butter.  I then made the dumplings using Bisquick. It was quick and simple. Dumplings are basically drop biscuits, so you can also make them from sc...

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's been a quiet week. I've been working on going through stuff and getting rid of stuff. Where does it all come from? We've lived here for 21 years now and I find there are places I just have not dealt with, like a big filing cabinet that still has homeschooling records that I no longer need and bank statements that are years old. Time to purge a lot. My daughter Sierra had an extra day off and came and spent the afternoon with ...

Cooler mornings and evenings are just saying “comfort food” to me. This weeks menu reflects that. Tonight I'm making chicken & dumplings (speaks comfort food to me :). I'll be making it in my Instant Pot. And I'll make it even simpler by using Bisquick for the dumplings. I plan to serve broccoli and cornbread muffins on the side. The rest of the week is looking like this... Brats & Macaroni Salad I have a package of brats in the freezer and figured I'd cook them in my IP and make a macaroni salad and a green salad on the side. Salmon & Rice I plan on loosely using THIS recipe. I'll make my own Italian dressing and use white Jasmine rice instead. I'll serve this with acorn squash and green beans. Green Chile Chicken Casserole I found THIS recipe and it look good and fit my need for another comfort food meal. I'll serve chips and salsa and a salad on ...

This week in Friday in the Kitchen I'll be sharing a couple recipes I've this week that we really enjoyed. French Dip Sandwiches I tried THIS recipe and it was so good. I did make a couple changes due to the fact that my hubby has MSG sensitivities and I can't use store bought beef or chicken stock. Any time I do, he has a reaction. So I only use homemade. Unfortunately I did not have any homemade beef stock. I replaced the beef stock with water and added 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. The other change I made was to put all ingredients in the Instant Pot. I did not saute the onions first. I put them in, added the water, salt, and seasonings and then added my cut up beef roast. This made the meal extremely quick to put together.   My broth was not as dark colored as the original recipe shows, but the taste was fantastic. Corn & Sweet Potato Salad ...

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 The best part of the week so far is .. RAIN! I'm not a fan of rainy weather, but right now I'm loving the rain as it has been putting out all the fires in our area. People are returning to their homes and the threat is gone. Unfortunately the new threat is with burned out mountains and lots of rain, there have been mudslides and potential for more of them. What a difficult summer it has been around here. My son Jacob came to visit over...

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a good start. Today I'll be doing a little grocery shopping so yesterday I cooked up a pot of Asian Chicken Noodle Soup . I have soup for tonight and enough to pack for a couple meals for my hubby's work lunch. I'll freeze his portions for use later in the week. The rest of the week is looking like this: French Dip Sandwiches Last week I had a couple things pop up that changed the menu plans so I have this on my menu again. You can find the recipe I'm going to try HERE . BBQ Pork Chops I'll probably make these in my IP (Instant Pot), but I also want to make a loaded potato casserole and cooking the potatoes in the IP is much easier. If I plan well, I can do both but if I'm going to have a busy day I'll probably start the pork chops in crockpot earlier in the day. I'll serve a big salad made ...

Meal Preps for the Work Week No matter if it's for your work week, your husband's or lunches for the children doing a little prep work each week can save time. And of course, packing your own lunches is not only much healthier but also very frugal. For more then 30 years I've packed lunch for my hubby to take to work. He works 4 – 10 hour shifts each week. Between the long days and commuting time he is gone for almost 12 hours. So he eats a lot of food at work. He spreads his meals times out between his breaks and lunch. Over time I became more efficient in the process of preparing his food. Typically he takes to work with him: 2 wraps & chips, a main dish, salad, fruit and a bottle of homemade lemonade. When his work weeks begins I assemble all his food. It takes me a little over and hour to put it altogether. Having it all ready to go saves me a lot of time and means no matter what I'm doing or what's going o...