Monthly Archives: October 2014

This was an easy casserole to put together, especially since I had just made my bone broth chicken soup.  I had much leftover shredded chicken chunks.  

I covered the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan with chicken

I then used 2 of my frozen pureed diced tomatoes and put over top.  Sprinkled it with 2 tsp basil and sprinkled garlic on top.

You can use regular stove top stuffing mix, I had this stuff in a bag and we really enjoyed it.  You mix your stuffing with 1 cup of water to soften it a bit.  

Sprinkle your casserole with mozzarella cheese, I used 2 cups.

Sprinkle it with the bread crumb cubes.  Place it in the oven 350 for 30 minutes.  I covered mine with tin foil for about 20 minutes to cook everything nicely and then uncovered for the second half.  That left me with a crunchy topping.

Which is much better. You want this to taste like the appetizers that you normally would have.

we served ours with corn.  Very delicious, plain, and simple.

Here is the recipe for mini families:

• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 pkg stuffing mix
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 lbs skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tsp dried basil leaves
• 1 c mozzarella shredded cheese

This past week was insanely busy for me.  It seemed that everyday we had something we had to do and somewhere that we had to run.  I just kept thinking….”I look forward to staying home NEXT week.”  Hard trying to be a keeper of the home, when my life has me running outside of my home in different directions.  Thank goodness it is only for a time and we got through it.

This week was a big week for us.  We were given extra produce the week before and did our corn BUT we still had all those cabbages.  

I was determined this week to finish up ALL of the cabbage and did so. Of course we made 2 big pots of cabbage vegetable soup to eat during the week for lunches as well.  FREE soup is good!!

We also had many homemade jars of yogurt in the refrigerator and opted to serve it with at least 1 meal each day.  

My daughter likes to make smoothies to serve to the children.  We add a jar of yogurt, a half of container of our strawberry sauce, and some hemp seeds and chia seeds.  Thanks to my friend who recommended adding them.

We had some old hotdog buns in the freezer, I made them into homemade croutons.  Sprinkled them with some butter, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.  Toasted in the oven at 400.  When cooled, cut into pieces.

I was low on laundry soap and had to make a batch of this.  It lasts us for about 2 months worth of laundry.  Super easy to make and very inexpensive.

I was cleaning our refrigerator out and was counting how many eggs we have and realized that we have 22 dozen chicken eggs!!!!!They have been laying very well lately, I figured we would stock up, because last winter they decided not to lay for awhile.  Plus it was a FREE breakfast food.  Each morning, I woke up and made scrambled eggs for the children with yogurt.

I cracked a dozen eggs and added some powdered milk and water and whisked them up.

I also decided to cook up some whole chicken that I had in our freezer.  I bought them from Aldi’s for about $5 a chicken.

I put them in my roaster with some chunks of carrot, celery, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme, and basil.  Then I let it slowly cook.  Overnight is best on a lower heat.

This is what you come up with.  Chicken that is so tender it just falls off the bone.  I scoop out the vegetables, throw to my chickens and then separate the meat from the carcass.  The dog and cat get a nice treat and we are left with some tender chicken for dinners.  We made chicken brushetta with some and used the rest on top of our salads.

I save the broth for a base for our soups.  Bone broth  far exceeds chicken bouillon, nutritionally for your soup base.  I put into either glass quart jars or ice cream buckets that I have saved.

This was all done earlier in the week.  I then went to our Mennonite/Amish bulk food store and got a bushel of tomatoes.

I pureed these and froze for later use.  Very simple and easy to do.  
Then we got apples.  Lots of apples.  This year we went with a different kind.  I usually like getting Jonagolds, but was getting impatient waiting for them, especially when the store had so many others for cheap.  I opted to get Fuji this year.  My Jonagolds were getting soft by Christmas time last year. Fuji’s are supposed to last very well in the basement.  We will try and see.

I decided not to start on my applesauce this week, instead we decided to dry some apples.

We washed the apples and cored them.  I then sliced them into thin slices.  I put them into a bowl with water and lemon juice to prevent browning.
Placed them on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and put into the oven.

I put the temperature at 250 during the day, when I could watch them and just put more batches in as they dried.  It took about 4-6 hours to dry.

Since I do not have a food dehydrator and do not have ever last bit of liquid out of them, I opt to put them into plastic bags and then freeze them.  That way, they won’t spoil if there is any liquid left in them.  When I want to eat them, I take out a bag and enjoy.  

Since we have many apples, snack time consists of APPLES everyday.  Today, I took and sliced the apple and added homemade peanut butter in between the layers.

I served it with some homemade granola and the children loved it!

This is what my kitchen counter looked liked most everyday…sauerkraut and dried apples.  Those two smells combined in the mornings…..different.

Oh and I promised my messy house pictures……..

When you are busy food preserving, you just let other things go.  My children had lots of fun just playing outdoors and in the house.

This is the dining room after snack time and it sat like that until dinner time.

Oh, and the bedrooms were total disaster.  But that is okay, I had no expectations except for what I had to get done.  We could clean later.

This is the kitchen during cabbage time.  Lots of mess. This week, I put my expectations way low.  I made sure to wipe the bathrooms each morning and I kept up on the laundry to ensure clean clothing for everyone.  Every thing else took a back seat.  I have dust covering my tv stand for about 2 weeks.  My refrigerator was in dire need of wiping out, 2 weeks later.  My plastic cupboard was shoved full of plastic containers from my canning and use.  Windows and mirrors were filthy but it is okay.  My children ate, healthy meals and snacks.  They of course included apples, corn, and cabbage to some extent:)  Plus they got to play unstructured.  I was thankful for a beautiful weather week.

Everyone survived and I am here to say that a week later( I write these a week behind)  the refrigerator has been cleaned, I sorted through the plastic cupboard, I dusted my tv, and I cleaned the windows.  My schooling is caught up and I feel much more at peace then I did last week.

I had one more important thing this week….my daughter had her final ceremony for her year long purity event.  She was involved in this bible study concerning modesty and sexual purity.  It included things like saving your first kiss for marriage, the importance of waiting for the “one” God has for you, and she was able to fellowship with girls her age that have the same ideals.

The event was a beautiful extravagant dinner.  All the girls were dressed up in prom type dresses.  I don’t know if you know how impossible it is to buy a modest prom dress now a days?!?!?  We went to our favorite Goodwill, we scoured the racks and grabbed every dress that we liked.  She tried them all on, about 30 of them and came up with 2 she liked.

She chose this dress, it cost us $10 and we got a great pair of shoes for $5 to go with it.  What a deal!!!

The girls received crowns, bracelets, and purity rings for choosing this path.  Here she was with Dad.  It was a great night out for just the 3 of us.  Special times, a good way to end our busy week.

I look forward to a low key stay at home week next time.  What about you…any frugal accomplishments this week?

When life hands you cabbages, what do you do??  You make sauerkraut, cabbage soup, cabbage rolls, and you freeze the rest.

This week we were blessed with cases of cabbage.  I know most people would probably wrinkle up their noses at the thought of cabbage.  But I took it as, the Lord saw fit to provide cabbage for our family, then we will see fit to prepare it in every way possible.

I really enjoy making vegetable cabbage soup.  I have been making this soup forever, especially while doing my weight loss a few years ago.  It is a great filler soup and you can eat a lot of it and it doesn’t add pounds.

Now, since my husband is on board with eating healthier, he really enjoys this soup.  I decided to make a pot each week and serve it for lunch for me and pack him a small container in his lunch.  This is a great way to use up that cabbage.

I actually did something a little bit differently to “spice up” my vegetable cabbage soup.  I cooked some meatballs that I had made and put in the freezer and then added it to my soup.  

I browned them in the oven until cooked.  I was able to serve this soup for a meal with some Parmesan cheese grated over top.  Most of the children ate it this way.

As for the rest of the cabbage…………I set myself to work.

I chopped some heads into chunks like this.

Placed it into a pot of boiling water to blanch it.  I put it for literally less than 90 seconds.  

I then put it in cold tap water for 90 seconds to cool it.  I drained it and put it into ziploc freezer bags.

I did the same thing to freeze some leaves to make cabbage rolls.   I placed the entire cabbage head in the pot of water.  I then peeled off the leaves in their entirety and put them in cold tap water.  I stacked them on top of each other and put them in a freezer ziploc bag.  

We usually make gwumpkies with this but might branch out and make some cabbage rolls with tomato sauce.

Ok, so I STILL had numerous heads of cabbage left, even after freezing 30 bags of it.  I decided to make sauerkraut.  How hard could that be?

I have read about fermented foods and healing our guts from the inside, I thought this was a perfect way to begin.  Sauerkraut in a jar is suppossed to be very simple.  I could do this.

I shredded my cabbage heads in my food processor to get them finely chopped.  I then put them in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with about 1 tsp sea salt.  I then worked the salt into the cabbage and let it set.  The salt actually makes the cabbage start to make its own juices.  It took about 15 minutes.

I then packed them into my quart jars.  You can pack a lot of cabbage into a jar.  I pushed it down with a spoon.  The liquid level was about halfway up the jar.

I then put cups to push down the sauerkraut.  Some people use weights or fancy crocks, but I had  cups that fit the hole perfectly.

After the first day, I checked my brine.  Some of the jars made more liquid and it filled to the top.  Others did not.  So I made a mixture of about 4 cups of water and 1 tsp sea salt.  I then poured it into the jars until it covered the cabbage.

I then let it sit.  Be sure to set it in a pan to catch all of the fermenting juices.  This is all normal stuff. You might question everything about your sauerkraut. It looks like if you just keep it covered in the brine, cover to keep out bacteria and bugs, and let it do the fermenting naturally, then you are all good.  It might even grow a white mold on top, that is fine, you can scoop it off later.  Mine have sat for 3 days, I tasted a few jars, down in the center and they taste like sauerkraut.  Others have funky smells, that I will let sit and see how they taste in a week.

All the problems seem to get worse as fermenting process goes along, I figured the longer the better.  You get better flavor plus if something is wrong then you know something is wrong due to how you kraut turned out.

I plan on freezing these into quart bags when they are finished.

My husband and I went for his annual check up this week and it brought some good reminders that we were getting OLD.  Except for the usual, you need to exercise more and eat healthier, most everything was fine.  But it still let me know that I am getting old and my body is NOT going to last forever.

I have been diligently working these past few years at changing the way that WE eat as a family.  After our doctors appointment I finally got the okay from my husband to serve our whole foods diet that I have been wanting to do exclusively.  As anyone knows, it is super hard to try and stay on track when you have no real support for eating healthy.  I can do really well for a week straight and then the weekend comes and my husband wants to take us to the local pizza buffet.  Or better yet, wants to take us out to Chinese.  Then those few pounds that I worked so hard at losing, take a back seat for pizza!!!Now, that we are BOTH on the same page it makes life sooooo much easier.

I myself have been at a standstill since last year when I put out my modest mom weight loss challenge.   I started out, with good intentions of course, this summer of walking and eating healthy, but life happened and I had excuse after excuse after excuse.  I would work hard one week and then the next week fail.  I just gave up.  Well now that my husband has to make a few adjustments to his diet my healthy eating just took a front seat.

We also are committed to walking at a minimum of 3 times per week.  This will make all the difference in the world.  You can change your diet, but if you eat pretty well the only way to lose that fat is to MOVE.

Why are we doing all of this??  Definitely not to fit into the latest bikini swimwear—we wear a modest dress bathing suit.  We are doing this so that we can be healthy ,live a long happy life, free of pill addiction and medical problems.  I say this with the hopes that the Lord will bless me with abundant health if I hold up my end of the bargain as best I can.

This series is dedicated to all of the “natural alternatives” that my family will be embarking on this year instead of using the traditional methods for healing our bodies.

Up next……look for how I made my first tonic for the flu.