Homemaking on the Homestead

For over 35 years beans have been a staple in my home. I have found them to be a wonderful frugal resource to stretch the grocery budget and in years past feed my large family good quality, nutritious meals at the same time. Beans are a very high quality, nutritious, budget friendly food for your family. They are a good source of soluble fiber, the kind that helps lower cholesterol. Beans in general, are good sources of folate, potassium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. They are also low in fat. Beans are not a complete protein by themselves and need to be coupled with brown rice, whole wheat, cornmeal (as in cornbread or tortillas or tortillas chips, etc), cheese, or meat to get the most benefit from them. One of the main drawbacks that people complain about is that beans cause gas. If you are not use to beans in your diet, your body has more trouble digesting them. So the good news is that the more you eat beans, the easier it will be for your body to digest ...

Things are getting a little scary out there with articles on possible food shortages.  Having some healthy delicious meals you can make with beans and minimal amounts of meat is very frugal and helps stretch resources. This was how I fed my large family for many years.  I'll be sharing some of these meals over the next few blog posts.  Black Bean Chicken Chili was a big hit with my family.  This meal can easily be made meatless as well or with less meat then the recipe calls for.  This recipe makes a lot of chili. It freezes very well if it is more than you need. The recipe can also be cut in half.  I've posted step by step pictures on how to make this meal below the recipe.  ************** Black Bean Chicken Chili 3 cups dry black beans 12 cups water 1 T salt 1 large onion, chopped 1 ½ lbs boneless chicken (can be thighs or breast), cut into bite size pieces 1 T minced garlic Olive oil 1 cup frozen corn 1 can Rot...

Good Afternoon!  In today's video I'm sharing an afternoon I spent in the kitchen making feta cheese burgers and turning my leftovers into brand new meals.  I hope the video inspires you to find ways to use up leftovers :) https://youtu.be/t6ymdwIe6hY

With Christmas just around the corner it is time to start thinking  about gift giving, it you have not done so already! As a single income family we are on a budget and I am always on the look out for frugal fun Christmas gift ideas. The ideas I am sharing with you here are a few of the different things I have done over the years as well as some ideas that I may be doing this year. Perhaps it will spark some new ideas for you this Christmas season!  Gift Baskets are always popular: Breakfast Basket Pick one or two food type gifts: Pancake & waffle mix along with homemade syrup Homemade granola Homemade raisin bread Homemade cinnamon rolls Then add any of the following: Homemade pot holders Dish towels Spatula Coffee mugs Dish towels, spatulas, coffee mugs can be found at dollar stores or Wal-Mart very inexpensively. Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancake Mix Crystal Miller 2 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour, freshly ground if possible ...

Hello Friends! I'm sharing with you today a homemade window cleaner. You can see more about it my newest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYibVNGM2j4 DIY Window Cleaner 2 cups water 1T cornstarch 1/4 cup alcohol 1/4 cup white vinegar Combine all ingredients and put in a spray bottle. Spray on windows and use a lint free cloth to wipe windows clean.

Calculating the Cost After making tonight’s low cost meal I thought I would share how you calculate the cost of food items that are a little trickier to figure out.   I am referring to things like pasta, rice, beans, etc..   how do you determine what a cup of pasta or beans cost?   You will need a small scale to do this.   Having a scale in the kitchen is very handy.   I bought a small postal scale from ebay years ago and have put to good use!   The first thing you need to know is the price you paid for your item and how much it weighs.   Let’s use pasta for this example (I had to do this today to calculate how much I spent on my dinner, so it is an easy one for me to share).    I bought a 10lb box of whole wheat elbow macaroni from my food co-op Azure Standard.   I paid $21.35 for it.    The next step is to find out is what 1 cup of dry elbow macaroni weighs.   I put it on my scale and it weighed ...

Good morning friends! I hope you are having a great week so far. I've been busy around the house in the last few days. Over the weekend my son, Jacob, came up for a nice visit. We enjoyed seeing him and getting all of his life updates. Monday was a quiet day and a little on the cool side. It seemed the perfect day for making a nice big pot of chili and some corn muffins. Yesterday I spent some time getting my pantry shelves cleaned and reorganized. It was getting to be quite the mess in there. I'm really enjoying fall this year. The days have been beautiful. Dry, sunny and not to hot. The evenings cool off and leave a nice crisp feeling. We haven't had our first frost yet, but that may be coming soon. While I was out grocery shopping last week I picked up a couple little mum plants to sit in front of my door. I didn't bother replanting them, because I know they won't last long. I put them in one of the buckets t...

I've enjoyed a nice lazy morning today. Wednesday is my hubby's day off and we both decided to just take it slow this morning. But I'm up an at it now and just started my 2 nd load of laundry and got the sheets changed and the kitchen cleaned. Not a bad start to my day :). I had the best Mother's Day. It was totally unexpected by me. I'm not one who makes a big fuss on Mother's Day. I don't have expectations on my children and they know this. I've told my children what honors me the most is that you all live godly, God honoring lives. I don't need flowers or gifts or anything else like that. No matter what I always hear from them, one way or another. It may be a phone call, a text or a visit. My oldest son called me on Saturday night and wanted to come up and spend the night. I said sure, no problem. He does this often as a way to get a break from his hectic life in the city. When he came he had some of my fav...