Homemaking on the Homestead

I wanted to share my salad mix with you because I've been loving so much about it. I've been making my salad mix for a few months now. As you may know I'm a big salad person. I (I should say 'we' as both hubby and I are big salad people :) have a salad almost every day. I think fresh veggies are so important in a diet. They're full of vitamins, minerals and fiber; all needed things in a healthy diet. But salads can be a pain to have to make every single day. It's always easier to open a can of veggies or microwave frozen veggies, or skip them altogether. On occasions I have bought those salad kits that come with add ins and dressing to simplify my day. They are super simple! One of the things I took notice of was the fact that many of them contain mostly cabbage. I can see why, cabbage stays fresh much longer than other types of greens do. In the end I began to feel I was paying a premium for cabbage (and a little convenience)....

Menu Monday is on the late side today. I usually try and get it prepared on Sunday and set it to go out first thing on Monday. But yesterday was a busy day and today I was out of the house quite early and it's only now that I've had a chance to sit and blog.   So this week went pretty well. I had one change up due to a freezer clean out and organize. I realized I had a package of sandwich rolls that had been in the freezer for a while and I wanted to get them used up. So I made an easy batch of pulled pork sandwiches... I made the coleslaw from my own salad mix and coleslaw dressing... The recipe below is my coleslaw recipe that I use and I only made the dressing part as I had my salad mix to use instead of the cabbage and carrot. Coleslaw 1 medium head cabbage, chopped very finely ¼ cup shredded carrot 1/3 cup sugar 1t salt ½ t. pepper ¼ cup milk ½ cup mayonnaise ¼ cup buttermilk 1 T white vinegar 2 T lemon juice Put chopped cabbage ...

As you may know I LOVE salads!  Not only are packed with nutritional benefit but there is so much variety that can be added to a big bowl of greens.  Today I'm posting a few recipes that we enjoy. ************************************* Chinese Chicken Salad Coconut oil 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour 3 t salt ¾ t pepper 1 egg ½ cup milk Romaine lettuce Red cabbage Green cabbage or nappa cabbage ~I use half lettuce and half cabbage, all sliced and chopped thin. For the cabbage I use equal parts of the red and the green~ have enough of this mixture available to feed your family. I really don’t measure out the greens, I just fill a large bowl.  1 carrot, grated 1 medium onion, chopped 2 tomatoes chopped ~other salad veggies based on what you like and what you have on hand Cashews (enough for sprinkling on top of the salad) Croutons    Cooking the...

I apologize to the lady who emailed me asking me for this recipe. I said I would write it out and post it several days ago! I have just been so busy I have not had the time to get it off my scratch paper and onto the computer until now! I had another change in my menu plan last night, due to a crazy day that had some unexpected things happen.. and we decided to make this last night..  so I took a couple pictures and got the recipe finally written down.    Normally I serve homemade egg rolls with this salad, but with my day yesterday there was no way I had the time for that.. so Leanne made some garlic cheese dinner rolls to go with it.. not very oriental.. LOL.. but tasted very good!!   Chinese Chicken Salad Crystal Miller ~this meal feeds 7 of us (2 adults and 3 teens, 2 children)   Coconut oil 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour 3 t salt ¾ t pepp...

After posting my monthly menu for the last few months I have gotten several emails asking me about my salads. I serve a green salad with my meals almost every night. I think fresh veggies are the best. I like to serve my family salad nearly every night because it is a great way to get a variety of fresh vegetables in their diet and it is easy! I do a lot of cooking and have learned ways to stream line some things and salad is one of those things. I make a large salad every few days. I have found that if you don’t add vegetables to the salad that perish quickly your salad will last 2 or 3 days in fridge with no problem. So I have salad “system” if you will.. I use romaine lettuce (hearts of romaine), spinach and carrots to make the basis of all my salads. I begin by chopping up romaine hearts and putting them in the salad bowl… Then I add baby spinach… Then I grate up carrots in my food processor and add them… I mix this up and then cut up any other veggies...

I use to buy all my salad dressing from the grocery store. I thought that was how everyone did it. I felt like making salad dressing myself would just be one more kitchen job to do and I wanted the convenience of store bought dressing… Then I became health conscious and started reading labels and well, most of the dressings I found, were, well, yuck as far as ingredients go. Sugar, bad oils, hydrogenated oils, MSG, fillers, thickeners, etc.. When I try and find better quality dressings (which I can find at health food stores and through Azure) I find them to be very expensive, especially considering the rate at which we consume salad in this house (we eat fresh green salad every day). Sometimes our perception that something is going to be hard or time consuming is just that, a perception. I eventually began making my own salad dressings and found that not only are they a frugal and healthy, they don’t take any time at all to put together. Last night I made a batch of Orient...

  I usually make potato salad like my mother did.. mayo, pickle juice, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, hard boiled eggs, onions, pickles and of course potatoes... never really measure anything. Last night we were grilling some steaks on the bbq and Tobin really wanted potato salad to go with the dinner. But I was completely out of pickles. So I searched online and found a recipe that I modified somewhat and it was delicious!! Tobin and Emily loved it and want me to make it again..   I thought I would share it with you..   Potato Salad 4 very large potatoes (I am guessing about 4lbs) ½ to 1 onion, chopped finely 6 hard boiled eggs salt, to taste     Dressing 2 eggs, beaten 1/3 cup cane juice crystals 1 ½ t cornstarch ½ cup vinegar ½ cup half in half 1 t prepared yellow mustard ¼ cup butter 1 cup mayonnaise ( I used my homemade mayo and it worked great) salt & pepper, to taste   Wash an...

I'm baaacckk!! :) It was a wonderful break and just what I needed. Hubby and I had a little vacation time during my break and that was refreshing as well. While I enjoyed my break and enjoyed eating out while on vacation, there is something so nice about homemade, home cooked food. I'm happy to be back to menu planning once again. We did a little grocery shopping as soon as we got back home but only enough to last for a few days. Today is a big grocery shopping day, I need to get my fridge and pantry stocked up again. Here is what I plan to make this week... Lasagna, French Bread, Salad, Green Beans This meal should be simple enough to put together when I get home from grocery shopping. I've posted my basic lasagna recipe below this weeks menu. I've been buying fresh green beans and they are so yummy. I cook them up in my Instant Pot with a little salt, pepper and butter. They make ...