Homemaking on the Homestead

We got home today (Monday) later in the afternoon and I realized I had not posted my Menu Monday. Which is understandable, after being gone all last week I really had no idea what I was cooking this week. On our way home we stopped and did a little grocery shopping at Costco and my mind was kicked into gear thinking about what to eat. I'll be sharing more about our adventures on Wednesday Snap Shot, but for now.. here is what's cooking on the homestead this week... Monday night was simple, sandwiches with some clementines and potato chips. Can't beat that for easy and quick. Perfect after a day on the road. The rest of the week's meals.. Turkey Breast I bought a turkey breast at Costco and was planning this meal a few weeks ago. For whatever reason I did not get it made. I will this week as a pre – Thanksgiving dinner is sounding good. I'm going to make stuffing, green beans and a salad along with t...

  This is the last of my Soup Week posts.  I still had Chicken Pot Pie Soup on my list to make but ran out of time and space in the week to make it.  I plan to make it soon and when I do, I'll share the recipe.    When I stopped buying Campbell’s soups years ago the one soup I missed the most was tomato soup. It was a family favorite for lunch time. The MSG in the soup would really throw my hubby for a loop so it had to go. I was on a quest to find my own recipe that was simple to make and tasted delish. I figured it out. This is a standard soup I now serve often for lunch or a light dinner. Goes great with sandwiches or wraps.   Easy Creamy Homemade Tomato Soup 2 15oz cans diced tomatoes 2 cans (the ones from the tomatoes) whole milk 1T cane juice crystal’s (organic sugar) or regular white sugar 1 T butter 1/8 t. baking soda Salt and pepper to taste Open the cans of diced tomatoes and pour them into your blender or ...

This is one of my favorite soups to make. To me it’s like comfort food. When the temps drop outside, the house is warmed by a fire, and the family is hungry it’s time to serve up a pot of this chowder. The soup goes great with French bread or dinner rolls and a nice green salad. This hearty chowder is sure to satisfy everyone’s appetite. If you try this recipe I hope your family enjoys it as well. Sausage Potato Chowder 4lbs potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces 1t salt 1 to 2lbs ground sausage (I used Jimmy Dean brand) 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cans corn, drained or 4 cups frozen corn Whole milk, as needed Salt & pepper to taste In a large stock pot (6 to 8 quart) add chopped potatoes. Just cover with water. Add salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Drain almost all the water off and set aside. In a frying pan cook sausage with onion until the sausage is fully cooked ...

Last night’s dinner was delish!! This soup was sooo good! It was super easy to make as well. I used my homemade veggie broth that I talked about yesterday for this recipe instead of chicken broth. I served it with cornbread and a salad. One reason I like veggie stock (other than it’s super easy to make) is that it is very versatile. It can be used to replace either beef or chicken stock in a recipe. If you try this recipe I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did!   Cream Cheese Chicken Veggie Soup 4T butter 1 large onion 2 cups sliced carrots 4 stalks celery, sliced 2lbs boneless, skinless, chicken breast, cut up 1 ½ lbs red potatoes, cut up 2 quarts chicken or veggie broth 2 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened Salt & pepper, to taste In a large stockpot melt butter. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Saute until onion is soft. Add chicken and cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add broth and potatoes. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and s...

  This is an easy, hearty and delicious soup to make for a cool fall day. I’ve made it many times. I have the recipe posted on my website and will share the link. I made it yesterday and it was nice to get it into the crockpot early in the day. I spent the rest of the day finishing up all my fall cleaning projects and dinner was simply making a quick salad and serving the soup with some rice crackers. The recipe uses cream of mushroom soup. I rarely use cream of anything soup, but on the few occasions I do I use the organic brand, Pacific. The ingredients are good and it adds a lot of flavor to this soup. If you don’t want to use it, you can skip it. Or you can make your own white sauce or your own homemade version of cream soup instead. One change I made from the original recipe was to us my own veggie stock in place of the water and bullion called for in the recipe.   Here is the recipe: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/easycrockpothamburge...

I'm taking a break from my regularly scheduled posts.  Hubby and I are off on a little adventure for the week.  I'm reposting a series I did on Soup Recipes a few years ago.  Fall and soups go hand in hand!  :)   I'll be back next week with my regularly scheduled posts.  I hope you all have a great week!   Over the weekend I made a couple small batches of soup stock. I made veggie stock and beef stock . Making your own soup stock is not that difficult. I’ve shared how to do this in past posts and on my website. In my 8 quart stock pot I added a few frozen yellow and zucchini squash, a large onion, carrots, mushrooms, a few handfuls of spinach leaves and 1T salt. I let this simmer for several hours and then cool down. I strained the broth and poured it into quart size canning jars. I currently have the stock in my fridge for use this week. Whatever I don’t use I will freeze. If you make stock and desire to freeze it in canning...

This week in Friday in the Kitchen I'll be sharing an easy and yummy pasta salad that I made and a fun little impromptu brunch I made for the hubs and I. Pasta Salad First the pasta salad. I wanted to serve a pasta salad as a side dish to one of our meals last week. I just followed my own recipe and was very pleased with out it turned out. I started by boiling 8oz of pasta. I used seashell pasta but any shape works well. I then cut and sliced up a tomato and some olives. I opened a can of black beans and drained and rinsed them. and I pulled out a large handful of baby spinach leaves. For the dressing I made a batch of Italian Dressing . You can make your own or use store bought.    I combined it all and tossed in a little parmesan cheese in the end.  I let it sit in the fridge a couple hours to allow the flavors to combine well. It was very good! My recipe amou...

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 Good morning everyone! I've had a good week. I've mentioned in a few blog posts that this year I've had some vision issues. I've been to several doctors, had multiple tests which have all come back normal, so it's been a long journey. Finally last week I saw a specialist and he was able to tell me what the problem is. I felt a huge weight of relief off of me as I walked out of his office. I now know what I'm dealing with and have ...

The weather has been cooling down. We're starting fires each morning to take the chill off the house. I came across a few crockpot recipes and I decided to try a couple of them this week. Having the crockpot going in the kitchen helps to warm it up a bit. It's definitely feeling like fall here. However, tonight I'm making the shrimp ravioli w/pesto sauce that was on my menu last week. I was going to make it last night but still had leftover soup. The rest of the week is looking like this... Crockpot Healthy Chicken Tacos This recipe looked good, easy, and healthy! It's the perfect combination. I've not tried it yet, but will share the recipe with you. If we like it.. I'll update you on it. Crockpot Healthy Chicken Tacos 2t cumin 2t oregano ½t paprika 1t chili powder ½t pepper 1t salt 1 onion, sliced 1 cup frozen corn 1 can diced tomatoes 1 jalapeno, seeded and chop...

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 I've had a nice week. I made progress on my fall cleaning and finally got my refrigerator & freezer cleaned out and organized. That inspired me to give the floor a good cleaning and wipe down all the cupboards. I had a fun day spent with a neighbor/friend and taught her how to make soap. She just wanted me to let her know when I was making soap because she wanted to watch me do it. But I know if you want to learn to do something you lea...

I've been doing a little freezer reorganization and clean up. My refrigerator freezer was long overdue for a clean out and clean up. I found a bag with 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs and a ½ bag of shrimp. I decided to make chicken & shrimp scampi with that. I did that yesterday while I was also cleaning the refrigerator. Felt good to have those chores done and also have dinner for tonight all done. I'll serve the scampi with coleslaw and french bread.  The rest of the week is looking like this... Brats & Potatoes I had this on my menu a few weeks ago and it was a meal that never got made. So it's on the menu this week. I plan to have green beans on the side. Potato Soup I have a bag of seasoned cooked ground beef in the fridge. I'm going to make some potato soup and use the precooked meat for this. I'll serve biscuits or french bread and a salad with this. Shrimp Ravioli w/Pesto ...