Our Real Food Journey to Self Sufficiency

Another Organization Post and a Remodeled Closet!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Before

After

So we managed to remodel the closet this week, finally! Chris was off Monday and we (mostly him) put it all up. It looks sooo super awesome, and now our clothes are all in the same place, previously the hang up clothes were in the closet, and all the pants, socks, underwear, were on shelves over in the bathroom area. It's so much more light and accesible now, I just wish I'd painted the walls before I hung the shelves... But if I'd waited on painting it would have never gotten done.

After culling clothes I ended up with probably 60 extra coat hangers, I just got done switching out all the colored ones for white, I don't really care, but I had enough white so I figured why not! Anyone need 40 or so colored coat hangers?

After

I'd slacked off on the organizing/cleaning the last week or two, I needed some more inspiration so I picked up a couple more organization books at the library. One was a big book full of amazing pictures of amazing houses with amazing (and expensive) cabinets/shelves/cool gadgets/etc. I did get some idea's from it and it was fun to look through and dream. The other one turned me off at first, when I picked it up after flipping through the picture one, it didn't have any pictures :(
But after flipping through a few pages I was hooked, it's full of inspiration and great ideas, and you can go to the authors blog at http://simplemom.net, she also has Simple Homeschool, Simple Kids, Simple Mom and a few more, tons of great info for us mommies that need help. She's also got some downloadable/printable charts for home management, cleaning, etc. I've been using them the last couple days and it does help. Though my problem is starting something, doing it for a couple days, then quitting. We'll see if I can stick with it, probably not, but if it gets me a few weeks of a clean house I'll be thankful for that!

One of my projects for today was to put up a shelf above my fabric cutting table. I had an extra board from my laundry room shelf project, I didn't have any other plans for it so I figure I might as well use it. When I went out to the shop to get it I came across a piece of plywood that was salvaged from another project so I grabbed it as well. I have a ridiculous amount of fabric for my baby diaper sewing business, way way way too much fabric. Most of it is shoved into Rubbermaid tubs and then stuck under the table, which makes it hard to get to, and find, at times. So the shelves help but cutting down on the amount that's under the table. It's a work still in progress but it already looks much better. At least I actually have room to cut fabric now.

The other project I'd really like to get done today is to clean out my refrigerator, I'm pretty much completely out of bowls and storage containers and I figure they are probably full of nasty old things in the back of the frig. I keep procrastinating and not getting it done, but it's on my "must do today" list so it had better get done today!

Oh, and the stack of meat I took a pic of last post is all gone now... We ate the last bit yesterday, it lasted a week, so I guess not too bad, I wish I'd have weighed it, that would be interesting. And now for a recipe, can't post without telling you what deliciousness we've been eating lately :) It was late last night and I hadn't gotten supper done and all I had was some ham from our piggies. I've not really done much with ham other than just feed it to my family, but I thought it'd be fun to do something different, so I heated up some coconut oil, chopped the ham up into chunks, sauteed the ham in the oil, mixed up a bit of honey, vinegar, and mustard, and added that to the ham. Then I dumped a can of pineapple chunks into the mix, took toothpicks and made tiny kebobs with the pineapple and the ham. That went over so well it was crazy, it got eaten like candy, probably because it tasted like candy. Next time I think I'm going to skip the honey, the pineapple makes it sweet enough. I didn't get to eat any because I'm not doing sweeteners, though a good thing because there wasn't enough for me anyway. I also made a spaghetti squash dish that wasn't very good... How depressing...

Pork Carnitas, Yum!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:55:00 +0000

I'm getting tired of eating only 3-4 eggs for breakfast, it doesn't last long enough and I'm hungry again in a few hours. And of course I know that I should be eating vegetables with every meal, so I sauteed up some onions and spinach, and made an omelet! It was super yummy, and massive, and did a good job of keeping me full for longer, the chunk of ghee I cooked the veggies and then the omelet in probably helped, yay for fat!
I finally managed to find a pork roast in the deep freeze, we have a million chops but it seems only a few roasts, though there are probably more hiding down in the bottom. I came across a recipe that sounded good on one of my favorite recipe sites Well Fed's Pork Carnitas. So now my house smells like burning pork as it carmelizes, but it looks great, I just got done with lunch and am stuffed so I'll have to wait til dinner to try it out. I made The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat again for lunch, that stuff is addicting, I just can't believe how good it is. In the interest of saving time I didn't drag out the rotisserie but just cooked the chicken in some ghee in my iron skillet, still delicious! Between the kids and I we ate a whole package of chicken breasts, I really got to get around to raising my own meat chickens, that was a goal for this year and just never happened. No excuses next year, I will do it, I have to!!!

Picture stolen from http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com

Well, the Carnitas were amazing, full of flavor and tender and good. I couldn't think of anything to eat them with, so we just ate them, I made a cauliflower dish for veggies that wasn't very good :( For some reason my cauliflower hasn't been turning out lately, I need to keep searching for a good dairy free recipe, since my old super delicious one involved Parmesan. I also made another pumpkin pie for a "vegetable", I figure, one whole pie pumpkin, most of a can of coconut milk, 5 eggs, and 12 dates makes for a pretty darn healthy "dessert". Though it actually got eaten well before dinner, the kids got ahold of it and almost polished it off before I could grab some back for my poor husband, I did eat my fair share as well. I think I'm going to buy a few more pumpkins, actually I should probably buy a bunch more, they store pretty well I think, actually, if I was smart I'd cook up a bunch and freeze it.... Hmm, am I smart? I might just do that to prove I am :)

On another note, the Whole 30 is going very well, I'm still not over wanting sweets... But I think I'm sabotaging myself by eating too much fruit, dates, etc... Gotta stop that! But I use the pregnancy excuse, I need more calories, need more carbs, etc. I just need to cook and eat more real food instead of snacking. But my face is clear for the first time since I got pregnant, no more acne! That's awesome, since I always have pretty bad acne when pregnant, and even somewhat when not. And I have lots of energy, well, most of the time, I was kinda draggy today but I think that was all in my head, I didn't want to clean house and I wanted to read my book. But I did end up cleaning house along with reading, so it wasn't too bad of a day :) Yesterday I got out a bunch of meat from the freezer, I'm tired of pulling out frozen meat when it's time to cook and then having to wait for dethaw, preparation is not one of my strong points. So I took a picture as I'm curious to see how long it lasts, three packages of pork cutlets are on the botttom, a package of ham, sausage, and the roast are on top. I forgot to add into the pic the two packages of chicken breast. Today we used up one chicken and the roast... Wow, it goes so fast, my carnivorousness kids eat too much, what am I going to do when they are bigger? I'll be out in the woods killing things just to eat... Well, I'm probably exaggerating just a little bit :) I should take a veggie picture as well, that'd be fun, and make a prettier picture, maybe after I go shopping, right now I'm totally out of fresh veggies, thankfully tomorrow is a town day.

The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat and Heavenly Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:01:00 +0000

The sad last remaining eggs...

So today I made "The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat. Ever." Since everything I've ever made off of this blog has been delicious, I imagine this might just be the best chicken ever, I sure hope so! I also made another batch of Mayo, from the same blog, as the previous batch was turned into Ranch dip and mostly consumed. Then I made Heavenly Eggs (Deviled Eggs to the unenlightened) with it, oh how super yummy! They are even better than normal Heavenly Eggs made with conventional mayo. I made 8 eggs worth, because I'm running low on eggs, but all but 3 eggs worth were eating in a matter of minutes, mostly by Ender and me,

I love my rotisserie so much, it's fast and turns out delicious meat!

then I had to hide the rest to save for supper. Actually, I wanted enough to take to homeschool meeting tomorrow to have for lunch, but I don't think that's going to happen... The chicken truly was the best chicken ever, the Morocan dip was exquisite, I licked my plate, then went back for 2nds, then licked my plate again. It was only when I was on my 2nd plate I realized that I completely forgot to make the veggie dish I had planned, which was just going to be some sort of broccoli and cauliflower something... Shame on me, at least I ate soup with tons of veggies for lunch, but still I should have had something, oh well, I don't think its the end of the world, I hope :)

Not so pretty, but it's sure yummy!

On another note, I went to the Crossfit gym on Friday and I'm still sore! Well, I'm not really to sore anymore, just a teeny bit, but I hurt like heck for two days, pretty sad since the workout was stuff I did all the time at my gym, just a bit more intense and numerous. And it was me and 4 guys there so of course I probably did more than I should have, since I'm ridiculously competitive, pretty stupid for my first day and being 26 weeks pregnant. Oh well, it was awesome, I had a blast and soreness just means I actually accomplished something. I did lift more on Clean and Jerk than I have before, lifting #95 over your head really feels awesome, especially when you do it about 20 times, maybe why I'm sore... But I only squatted #115 as that seems much harder than before pregnancy, it makes me laugh to think that conventional Dr's say pregnant women shouldn't lift over #45. Oh well, enough bragging :)

Making Ghee, and Mayonnaise, and a Quick Lunch!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Ghee is so much better than butter, and it's super simple to make. I love to cook with butter, anything fried in butter is better, but the problem with butter is that it burns too easily, the milk solids in it is what burns. When you make ghee, you cook out all the milk solids and the water, leaving just the oil with tons of flavor. Another plus is that with the milk solids removed, ghee is fine for people allergic to dairy. I recommend doing at least a pound or two of butter, the ghee stores great at room temperature and if your like me you'll use it fast. Melt your butter in a saucepan, and let it boil for 20-30 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, depending on how much water is in it sometimes the foam will boil up pretty high, use a larger than you need saucepan just in case. The batch I made today didn't boil up much at all, it was my own butter so I guess I did a good job squeezing out the water when I made it. After 20 minutes or so the foam will be mostly gone, watch closely at this point, you don't want to burn it. Once the foam is gone and the oil is a beautiful golden color, it will also smell amazing at this point, you can remove it from the heat and let it cool a bit while you prepare a jar and straining cloth, I use a piece of birds-eye fabric, you could use linen or any other fine woven cloth. Strain the ghee into your jar, make sure your jar is heatproof, an exploding jar and hot oil all over the place would be awful The bottom of the pan is going to be covered in a brown sticky substance that is your milk solids, if you are okay with dairy they are delicious with a bit of honey mixed in, or there are several Indian recipes that use it. Then find a recipe that calls for frying something in butter and try it out, it's amazing to watch it heat up smoothly without smoking or burning, it's perfect for me who tends to put something on the stove then walk off and return to find it burnt and smoking like crazy. The smoke point of butter is 250-300F, ghee's is 485F, one of the highest out there for cooking oils.

Then I decided to make some mayo, store bought mayonnaise is made with soybean oil, there's a whole list of problems with soy products and soybean oil is very high in Omega 6's, which is a major cause of inflammation which then leads to chronic disease. I'd tried to make mayo before with extra virgin olive oil... I had to throw it out, it was way to strong, then I found a recipe that everyone said was heavenly, using "light" olive oil. So when I was in town a couple days ago I grabbed a bottle at the grocery store. The secret to getting the oil, egg, and lemon juice to emulsify and turn into thick smooth mayo instead of separating is to add the oil ridiculously slow. I used my little food processor which for some reason has a scooped lid with two little holes in it. It was perfect for letting the oil slow drip while blending. In about 4 minutes, I had fresh mayonnaise, and it tasted great as well! I'm planning on making Ranch dip with it, as the main ingredient in Ranch is soybean oil as well, plus a bunch of other nasty things. Did you know Ranch has MSG in it? If you are not aware of the issues with MSG please read this .

Now after all of that, it's lunch time and I've no lunch prepared, pretty typical for me. So I give the starving kids and myself a handful of almonds to pacify our stomachs for a bit and go to work. I just got done reading "It Starts With Food", the book by the Whole 30 guys, and it has a few quick recipes, so I figured I'd try one. One recipe is chicken with sun dried tomatoes, I bought a jar of them forever ago for a recipe then forgot what recipe it was. So I quick thaw some chicken breasts in hot water, then chop it up, salt and pepper it, and fry in hot ghee until done. Then scoop it onto a plate, throw in some garlic for a minute, then add balsamic vinegar and chicken broth and deglaze the pan. Then finally, dump in a couple spoonfuls of the sun dried tomatoes and put the chicken back in and let it all mix together. I was also supposed to add fresh chopped basil but I was in too much of a hurry to run up to the garden and pick some so I just skipped it, shame on me... Meanwhile I chopped some broccoli and steamed it up real fast with some ghee and herbs de provence. It turned out great, like everything I've made lately, I've been really lucky, or I'm just good at picking recipes, haven't had a bad recipe yet thankfully!

Best Pork Chops Ever and Breakfast Apple Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Had another good day here, Ari is doing so much better at school. I don't know if it's because we're sitting at the new desk instead of on the couch, more formal maybe, but she's really starting to get the hang of sounding out words and getting better at sight words. We had a pretty relaxing day other than that, got to stay home, clean house, cook bunches of yummy food... I made what we call "Apple Pie" for breakfast, I don't really know what else to call it and that sounds good to the kids. I fried up 3 apples in ghee until they were tender, then sprinkled cinnamon liberally over them.

While they were cooking I cracked 8 eggs into the blender, added 1/2 cup or so coconut milk, about 1 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg, blended it all up and dumped it over the hot apples then put it in the preheated oven at 375 for 20 minutes. This was so good, I usually overeat it like crazy, but since it's super healthy it's not a problem, I have issues not getting enough calories, especially doing the Whole 30, so indulging is a good thing. I've lost 4 pounds in 4 days, while eating all I wanted, I don't want to loose any more since I'm pregnant,
but I'd gained enough extra fat the first few months I think it's okay to loose a bit. Thankfully I've had no other side effects of eating clean, probably because I ate rather clean before starting Whole 30, just had to cut sweeteners and dairy. It seems most people go through horrible headaches, exhaustion, and other withdrawal symptoms, I had to deal with that for about two weeks when I first went Paleo two years ago, no fun at all but after you get through it you feel awesome so it's completely worth it! Anyways, I ate leftover Sausage and Cabbage for lunch, I think it was even better than the first time, though in keeping with my new belief that everything is better with coconut milk I mixed in a couple tablespoons while heating it up. And a few bites of Pumpkin Pie which I made from 3 butternut squash, 1 cup coconut milk, 5 eggs, spices, and 12 ground up soaked dates for sweetener. It was excellent!

Finally, for supper I grabbed some pork cutlets out of the fridge, mainly because it was 4 something by the time I got around to it and the package was thinnish and I figured they'd thaw out quickly. Putting them in a sink full of hot water does the trick so well and quickly, I don't know why this is a no-no according to the USDA, I've been doing it for years and haven't died yet. Haven't given anyone food poisoning either. And then a quick search for a recipe didn't find me anything great looking, it was either the same ol same ol recipes, or took hours to cook. So I kinda improvised on one recipe I found, again, wanting to do something with coconut milk, I salted and peppered the cutlets, browned them in skillet, then added pineapple juice and let them cook for a few minutes, then removed them and dumped in half a can of coconut milk and let that cook down a bit, then put the meat back in and added a can of mushrooms. It would have been nice if I'd had fresh mushrooms or more than one can, but that's all I had. This ended up being the best pork chop dish I've made so far, they were ridiculously flavorful and tender. I quick steamed up some broccoli to go with it, and the sauce went with the broccoli very well, made boring ol broccoli into something delish!

Breakfast Apple Pie
3 large apples
2 tbs ghee or butter or coconut oil
8-10 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Fry sliced apples in oil. Meanwhile put the other ingredients into blender and blend until frothy. Dump egg mixture over hot apples and place into oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Butternut Squash Pie
2-3 Butternut squashes, cooked
1 cup coconut milk
5 eggs, or just the yolks if you have something to do with the whites
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
12 or so dates, soaked in hot water for a few minutes
Preheat oven to 350. Throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth, taste it and add more dates if you think it needs it, or stevia, or honey. Dump into pie dish and put in oven and bake for 45 minutes or until done, depending on how deep your pie dish is, mine was too deep and it took about an hour.

Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Coconut Milk
4 boneless pork chops
salt, to taste
ground black pepper, to taste
3/4 cup pineapple juice
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons ghee, butter, or coconut oil
8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms, or canned
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper, and arrange in a single layer in pan. Pan-fry for 2 minutes on each side to brown. Pour in pineapple juice, and continue cooking for 6 minutes. Remove chops from pan.
Pour coconut milk into the skillet, and then add mushrooms. Increase heat to high; cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Return chops to pan to warm. Chow down!

A Fun Day and Yummiest Lunch Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:26:00 +0000

While having absolutely nothing to do with this post, my kid is adorable,
even when he's trying to shoot me :) And no, I haven't been sending my
kids to fight club, he climbed up on a box and fell off and smacked his eye.

We had a fun day today, the kids decided that we needed to have a picnic, but I hadn't had time to make any "picnic" foods, so we went through the frig and grabbed some leftovers and a few bananas. But first we had to sell milk and go to the gym and do some shopping. So I worked out, the kids watched TV in the kids area, they have a great play area, but my silly TV deprived kids just think that stupid screen is the best thing in the world... Oh well, they'll grow out of it, they had better :) Then we did some running, by the health food store to pick up some Sea Snax, since I use sea salt I've been thinking I needed to eat some sort of sea vegetable to get iodine, and I noticed these were Whole 30 legal, so I grabbed a couple packs of the Toasty Onion. And they are actually super yummy! My kids even liked them, surprise, surprise.
While they were kinda pricy at 2.29 for .65oz, they're super nutritious and I figure since we don't spend any money on snacks and junk food, this is okay. Then we ran by the grocery store to pick up some "light" olive oil. I'd like to make some healthy mayonnaise and tried once before with extra virgin olive oil and I had to throw it out... I hear this recipe is super delicious and it'd be nice to have on hand to make my own Ranch, something that's hard to live without in my house. And then finally, to the park!!! My kids beg to go to the park constantly, but we rarely do, I'm always ready to go home after being in town and don't want to be away any longer than necessary. But since they brought a picnic I really didn't have a choice. Our picnic consisted of leftover Faux Pumpkin Pie made out of butternut squash, leftover fried apples, 3 boiled eggs, bananas, and our new Sea Snax. All it all it was a pretty good picnic, the kids got to play in the river, well, the puddles in the river bed, and had a blast exploring among all the weeds that have grown up 6 feet tall in the river bed. There hasn't been a river there all year because of the drought, pretty sad. Ender had fallen asleep on the way there and slept through it all, poor boy. I had the kindle book Public Schools, Public Menace on my Iphone as it was free a while ago, so I sat in the grass and read it while they played. I only got a bit into it but he has some good points, not that he has to convince me about the horror that is public school, but it definitely has some convincing arguments. I'd recommend reading it, though not for 18.00 as it is now. So then we headed home, of course by now I was starving as it was 2:00 and I'm always hungry after working out, I didn't end up with much of the "picnic" as the kids consumed most of it.

So I looked for a quick and healthy lunch, there was a bunch of green beans in the refrigerator that had been there a while and needed to be eaten, plus a chicken breast with the same story. I have never liked green beans as I have never found a great recipe for them. Mom can make good green beans, but I fail every time. So I googled "whole 30 green beans" in hopes of finding an awesome recipe. And I did!!! I think I'm in love with this blog as well as Everyday Paleo, they both just have such amazing delicious recipes. These were so good, incredibly good, like I ate three times what I was planning to eat. I knew I needed protein as well, but didn't have much time as I forgot to get around to cooking the chicken until the green beans were done, so I took the chicken breast, ripped the bones out, slapped it between two of those sweet thin plastic cutting boards, and beat it to death with my meat tenderizer hammer. Then I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and threw it in an iron skillet with a couple tablespoons coconut oil, as thin as it was it only took about 5-6 minutes to cook, and was perfect to go along with the beans. I think I'm going to make everything with a coconut milk sauce from now on, the last two days I've cooked with coconut milk and it's just absolutely to die for. I almost licked the plate, now I have another quick and easy and delicious recipe to fall back on when I'm pulling my hair out trying to find something to cook... Well, I guess it will only work if I have chicken dethawed and green beans available. Hmm, maybe I need to run back up to the farm and buy a bunch more green beans and freeze them. Previously I was like green beans, meh, who needs them, now I'm like green beans, I need my green beans, gimme some green beans, can't run out of green beans. Okay, maybe not quite that bad, but it'd sure be nice to have some on hand.

Building projects and a couple recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:21:00 +0000

Well, I've been busy lately and not been posting... I'm still stuck in the organizing and decluttering mood, which is great, I'm getting so much done, and my sweet husband hasn't complained a bit about all the new things I want him to build and the money I've been spending. He got the school desk and shelves finished and it's amazing!

Look at that bench, I just think it's the coolest ever, if I had been the designer it wouldn't have been near so attractive. We didn't have a decent paint brush to stain it with so that'll have to happen some other time. We had some extra 1x8's from some shelves I took down, we figured that'd make a good bench without having to spend more money on lumber.

And today he put up my new laundry room shelves, previously there was an incredibly nasty old cabinet with only one shelf, now I have two and they are shiny and bright. I just wish I'd had the time and energy and paint to get the room painted, oh well, task for another day, or never (more likely). I went to Lowes a few days ago and bought wire shelves to redo our closet, I can't wait! It's going to be like living in a new house, I'm going from basically no storage space to more storage space than I know what to do with. And, considering all the throwing away I've done, I actually don't have that much to store anymore! Yay!!!

I've also decided to clean up my life in addition to my house, I started a Whole 30 three days ago, not long I know, but considering that I've thought about doing one for years and never had the guts to try, even three days is pretty awesome. My diet has been pretty good for the last couple months, but no where near perfect, and in the last few weeks it had disintegrated further and the scale was showing it. I really, really, really do not want to gain #60 again this pregnancy, I refuse to! But the good thing is that means I get to find lots of delicious new recipes, which I love to do, and then I get to share them with you. Today I made Sausage and Cabbage with Fried Apples for lunch. Okay, that sounds weird, the fried apples are separate from the sausage and cabbage, I don't think they wouldn't be quite so good mixed. They were good though, and the fried apples were a nice treat. Then I made Zucchini Spaghetti in Creamy Tomato Sauce for supper, and it was awesome!!! I highly recommend trying out the recipe sooner than later, Chris said it needed to go on my "regular" cooking menu. Not that I have a cooking menu plan, something I need to remedy. I of course forgot to take pictures, dang it! I need to strap that camera around my neck whenever I start cooking, I don't know why I can't remember it... Oh well, there are of course gorgeous pictures on the blog I linked to, oh, and I highly recommend buying her cookbook, or at least bookmarking the page Everyday Paleo, she has amazing recipes that are always easy and delicious. My sister bought her first recipe book and I kinda wish I would buy her other one, but it'll never happen, the internet is so much easier and cookbooks take up precious cupboard space.

Oh, speaking of cupboards, I almost forgot, I did a little project today as well. Previously the bowls just sat on top of the plates, kind of a pain. This is so much better! I've read about 10 different organization books in the past month and each one gives me new ideas, most of which are costly and unfeasible, but every once in a while I get a good one that I can use immediately.

Decluttering, an embarrassing post.

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:39:00 +0000

Sheets

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm in a decluttering phase of life, a good stage to be in I think. A couple days ago when this got started, I ordered three books from the library on organization, I got them today and lay down on the couch at quiet time to read one. So I started reading, got inspired, got my butt up and went to work! I started with the linen closets, which if you know me at all you know they are an overfull mess of unfolded stuffed in there sheets that fall out when you open the door.

Towel closet

I forgot to take a before pic but here are the after pics, there were two garbage bags full. At least 30 pillow cases, probably 20+ sheets, a few blankets, and other oddments.

Linen Closet extras

I haven't had a queen size bed in 5 years, I just now got rid of the queen size sheets. And who needs 40 pillow cases? To be fair, these were all given me a year or so ago, I just never passed them on to the thrift store like I should have the day after they were given to me. I ended up keeping like 10, don't know why, I guess it is nice to have extras, the kids do like to play sack races with them sometimes.

Clothes shelves before, I told you it was embarrassing...

Then I moved on to the master closet and the rest of our clothes, I got rid of the chest of drawers years ago and put up a shelf system. This fixed the problem of me just stacking clothes on top of the chest of drawers, I assumed that I could at least stack them semi-neatly on the shelves more easily. But no, they'd end up a mess there as well, husband would always need the bottom pair of jeans of the stack and mess up the rest of the stack, and then I'd just throw the clean folded ones on top of the messed up stack and make it worse. Problem is too much clothes, of course.

Clothes shelves after, much better!

Not that I can any where near place all the blame on him, but my husband's pretty much only flaw is that he doesn't like to get rid of anything. He's ridiculously sentimental I guess, or something, personally I think having 25 t-shirts is too many, and that's undershirt quality t-shirts, not nice ones... Anyways, so since I wanted to get rid of something, I got rid of most all my crappy around the house work t-shirts, I'll wear his instead! Then I went through and organized everything, put away my "skinny" clothes and summer clothes. But to keep harping on my husband, not that I should, the bottom shelf and half of the next shelf are his clothes. I have a tiny stack of shorts, one of pants, and one of jammies. He's got five of pants and one of shorts. I do laundry every day, who needs 5 pairs of jeans and 6 pairs of khaki's? Especially when he has only 4 pairs of work pants and manages with that working 5-6 days a week! AHHHHHH, okay, I'll stop, I need to stop, I have the best husband in the world, and I have wayyyyyy more flaws than he does, it's just so much easier to harp on someone else than yourself...

I didn't take a "before" shot of the closet, it was pretty stuffed, here's the "after", all the coat hangers on the left were in use before, woohoo!!!

After a partial culling

Then I got started in the kids room, we built shelves covering three walls quite a while ago to house our massive book collection and Chris's massive junk collection. Okay, that's not nice, his massive "collectibles" collection. I hoard books, that's as bad, maybe, no actually, it's not, I refuse to say that, at least I read the books, the stupid junk just collects dust and is ignored. But then I don't really read the books, most of these are only good enough for a one time read, so "out the window go the books, out the window go the books", I doubt any of you will get the reference, most of you won't have seen Paint Your Wagons, but you should, you definitely should! My car is again stuffed to the gills, well, just stuffed with stuff to go to the thrift store. Five black garbage bags full, and 6 boxes of books, so far, I ran out of boxes and energy so the rest will have to wait for another time. That poor room needs massive organization, to throw three kids and their stuff into a room already full of books and junk... Bad idea, but really we didn't have any other options. Oh for a larger house!!! Well, it'll sure seem larger when I get done, I just have to pray my energy and drive holds out until then, I can't stop halfway there!

Banana Walnut Muffins, Grain Free Sandwich Bread, and more Butternut Squash!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0000

We basically eat pancakes or waffles every morning, I love to make a big batch and eat them over the next few days, but sometimes I want something new. I had several over ripe bananas so I decided to make muffins. I'm also tired of never having anything to take as a snack in town, then I have to deal with constant whining "I'm hungry" every time we're stuck in town. So I hit the computer this morning and found a recipe that sounded good, Paleo Banana Walnut Muffins. The batch made 18 muffins, I'll probably double it next time, my kids can go through that in a day. They were awesome with a dab of homemade butter, there were only five left after breakfast and snacking before lunch.

We managed to get a bit of school work done today before I ran out of patience, neither child was cooperating very well, actually all three of them were uncooperative. So I kicked them outside and went back to decluttering, I spent the entire evening yesterday getting rid of stuff after flipping out over a messy house. At least flipping out turned into something useful :) I got one garbage bag full of clothes gone, a box of shoes, a changing table that I've had for 6 years and never used for anything other than to pile stuff on, even our TV and VCR!!! We would pull that stupid thing, 19" 15 year old thing, out of the closet about once a year to watch a movie, totally not worth the space. If we want to watch something we have the computer, of course that means my poor husband can't watch any of his VHS's, not that he does that anyway, like I said, maybe once a year. Anyways, I went back to finding stuff to clear out and get rid of, I'm on a mission to build a school area, I want some sort of a kids desk with lots of shelves. I've got somewhat of a picture in mind but am not sure where to start, I guess I need to take some measurements and head to Lowes. I managed to clear out a corner in our back room, this is a super duper multipurpose room, it's got my 4x8' fabric cutting table plus a massive amount of fabric, the crib, probably 100' of loaded bookshelves, and the master closet with all our clothes. I neglected to mention this is the master bedroom that I moved us out of several years ago into a tiny room so I could put the big room to use... I need more room, badly!!! Oh well, I just have to declutter some more, and some more, and some more. And then organize! Not my strong points at all, I love throwing stuff away, but then I get in trouble, since my husband likes his stuff, and so do my kids. I was carrying out a kiddo chair thing to stick it in the car to go to the thrift store and massive amounts of tears erupted, I finally said they could take it to their tree house, where it will get ruined and then eventually I'll burn it, probably when they go off to college... Oh well, at least it's out of my house. Then it was time to cook lunch. Have you ever noticed your life is broken up into "wake up, clean house, cook food, clean house, cook food, clean house, cook food, clean house, go to bed"?

That pretty much seems like my life, I need a slave, one of these days I'm getting a slave... Okay, technically not a slave, but maid/housekeeper/cook /nanny/masseuse/hairdresser. Anyone want to apply? I think my husband needs a 2nd wife, the mail order type that's used to working hard for little to nothing. Anyways, that was me off on another tangent, happens quite a bit around here if you haven't noticed. I made some more super delicious Butternut Squash Cakes for lunch, I doubled the batch this time so there will be some leftovers for supper. Then I made a loaf of Grain Free Sandwich Bread, which didn't turn out as nice as hers but was definitely edible.

I also put my last butternut squash in the oven with the bread so I could make it into a Faux-Pumpkin Pie later, I'm now in love with butternut squash, it's just so versatile, I've got to go get a bunch more and find more yummy recipes.

Then I decided since the kids are in their room for quiet time, I get dessert! Some blueberry ice cream that I made yesterday, and no I'm not going to eat it all, that's just what I scraped all the leftovers out of the ice cream maker into. Well, I "might" not eat the whole bowl, we'll see. This froze much better than the previous ice cream, the addition of frozen blueberries gave it that extra chill to freeze somewhat firm. I did forget to put eggs in it, that's frustrating, I love putting raw eggs in ice cream for that wonderful added boost of nutrition. It also makes it creamier.

Now after all that cooking my kitchen needs cleaning, you can see all the clutter in the background of my pictures, unless you were too nice to notice. But heck with that, I'm going to go chill on the couch and read for a bit and maybe take a nap, then I'll clean later. Procrastination for the win! Or loss...

Grain Free Tortillas, Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream, and Home Schooling

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Picture from Nourished and Nurtured

I was perusing the internet, as I do more than I should each day, I've got to put a limit on myself, someday... But I did find a neat blog with some great recipes, Nourished and Nurtured. I made her tortilla recipe for lunch and made quesadillas with cheese and tomatoes, and guacamole on the side. They turned out so super yummy! I loved the addition of cumin, dried onions, and garlic to the batter, that just did the trick, else I'm afraid they wouldn't have been so good, but then who knows, I bet they'd be great with some cream cheese and fruit for a treat. Frying them in butter also helped, pretty much you can fry anything in butter and it's going to be good. Of course, as usual, we ate them all before I got around to taking a pic, they were just too dang good! Even Chris liked them, which is saying something, he's kinda iffy about my weirder grain free baking. So I guess that means this isn't too weird.

What her's looks like

Lately I've been reading how ice cream has basically the same macronutrient ratios as breast milk, great excuse to make ice cream, not that I need an excuse. And I still had two gallons of milk in the frig from last Wednesday that needed to be used, so I skimmed the cream for ice cream, and turned the rest into Mozzarella. Skim milk mozz isn't as good as whole milk, but I figure with pesto it'll still be good. Other option was to feed it to the chickens, but this way we get cheese and the chickens get the whey, so everyone/thing wins. The tortilla recipe called for egg whites, so I used just the yolks in the ice cream, which made it so super awesomely rich. I did about 3 cups cream, 1 cup milk, 6 egg yolks, two tablespoons raw sugar, I should have used honey but there's just a little bit left in the bottom of a one gallon jug and it's a pain to dig out. Plus a touch of stevia, vanilla, and peppermint flavoring. Oh holy cow it's good! Maybe not near as pretty as hers, but it's certainly edible :)

What mine looks like...

I don't know how people get their ice cream to freeze so nicely... My ice cream maker is awesome, but it pretty much is always ice cream soup. Maybe because I overfill it every time, the silly thing only holds 1 quart, which isn't near enough!

On the kid/homeschooling side of life, also on Nourished and Nurtured, she has some homeschooling recommendations, one of which is a great, and free, phonics resource Progressive Phonics. You can print phonics learning material for all different levels, and they are fun and entertaining, not the typical "bore you out of your mind" phonics readers. I printed off the first intermediate book for Ari and we did the first several pages, Tell sat with us and picked up some as well. He's really picking reading up fast, better than Ari that's for sure, thankfully, if I had to fight as hard with him as I do with her I think I would give up. We're working through the same book, Phonics Pathways, with both of them, Tell is doing 2-3 pages a day and I have to fight to get through one with Ari, I'm hoping when he catches up to her maybe she'll start feeling the competition and straighten out. If anyone has any great home school recommendations I'd love to hear them, right now we're doing The Well Trained Mind and whatever they recommend, I'm liking that style of teaching, at least what I've read so far. Since we're just in K/1st and preschool right now it's pretty simple, I know it's going to get harder and I'm not looking forwards to it :)

Butternut Squash Cakes, Honey Ginger Apple Shredded Pork, and Butternut Squash Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:21:00 +0000

The garden up the road has bunches of butternut squash, something I've heard is wonderful, but never used before. I need to figure it out though as I know they store really well and would be awesome to store for use in the winter. It looks like it can be used for delicious soups, savory dishes, as well as in place of pumpkin for pies. It pretty much sounds like the best all around vegetable out there! Sweet as well as savory, can't beat it. I just wish mine had made it this year, all my winter squash plants decided to die on me early on, and it was too hot to replant, or at least, I didn't... I sure wish I had... So anyways, I'm going to make a Faux-pumpkin pie out of one or two of them here today or tomorrow, but for now, I'm making Butternut Squash Cakes for lunch! Cooking is super pleasant right now, the lovely cool front made it actually cold in my kitchen, I can cook without sweating. Usually it's over 90 in the kitchen, today it's in the 70's. Plus the Pork Roast is in the crock pot, I started it a couple hours ago, and it smells delicious! The squash cakes used up 1/2 of a butternut squash, though it only made 8 patties so I'll probably double it next time. Here's the recipe, I used a potato peeler on the squash and it worked well, and then a hand grater, it worked quite well, though it you're doubling it it might be nice to use a food processor.

They are delicious, I ate three with sour cream on top, I wish I had some sort of a curry to eat with them, but I don't have time or energy to make any, I'll plan better next time. A lentil curry sounds really good, or my Paneer Masala that I thought I'd posted before but don't see on here so I guess I'll have to post soon, if you desperately want the recipe email me, it's to die for.

Frozen roast with lots of yummy stuff

Finding new pork recipes is now my goal in life, we have so much in the freezer and it's not something I've cooked much in the past, and I certainly love hunting for recipes. I found this one recently and put it on my to-do list. I love my crock-pot but have to remember to get cooking early so it's done by supper time. I did manage that this morning, it's so nice to have yummy smells permeating the house all day long, and to not have to stress about supper come supper time. I even had all the ingredients, which means it's simple! I of course didn't remember to get this out of the freezer ahead of time, so I googled "frozen roast in crockpot" and came up with bunches of people saying they did it all the time, and a couple saying that the USDA says "no, you'll die if you do that". Since I say screw the USDA, they don't know what they're talking about 90% of the time, I put it in frozen. If I die in the next few days you'll know I was majorly wrong and please pre-thaw your roasts. I did put it on high until it seemed completely thawed, which took about two hours, then put it on low for another 8. Though actually, that'll be 9:00 at night so hopefully it's done well before then. Dang it, I guess I didn't get started early enough... I'm thinking that maybe I could put everything in the pot the night before and put it in the frig, then just stick the pot on to cook first thing in the morning, though that'd require quite a bit more forethought than I'm usually capable of, I'll let you know if it ever happens. Oh, I also wanted to add, for those of you who like ginger but never can keep fresh on hand because it goes bad before you need it. That's what always happened to me, until I had a brilliant thought (make note of it, doesn't happen often), now when I buy a ginger root, I throw the whole thing into the freezer, then pull it out and slice off what I need when I need it. It only takes a couple minutes out of the freezer to soften enough to cut, and it's super easy to scrape off what you need. This way one big ginger root will last me 6 months to a year and I always have it when I want to whip up something yummy.

Then I decided to go ahead and make butternut squash pie, why not, I had the other half that was leftover from the cakes so I put that plus another squash, chopped in half and deseeded, in the oven for 45 minutes to cook. Then I scraped the meat out of the skin into the blender, threw in 5 eggs, 4 ladlefulls of cream (I'm guessing about 2 cups), cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, and stevia. Blended it all up, dumped it in a 13x9 and threw it in the oven, I'm thinking 45 minutes will do it, we'll see. I think I'll make some whipped cream to go on top, that'd just be so yummy.

Coming back to finish writing this after supper. The pig turned out delicious and super tender, it took about 3.5 hours on high and 5 hours on low, I had to bump it back up to high at the end as we were hungry and tired of waiting. Of course, starting out with a thawed roast will definitely shorten the cooking time, but all in all, starting with frozen and only taking about 8.5 hours isn't bad at all for a crock-pot.

And I never got around to whipping cream for the pie, but it was delicious without it. Maybe next time. Hey, I just noticed all of these dishes are or can be easily dairy free! You can put a can of coconut milk in the pie instead of cream. Sweet! Dairy free cooking is something that doesn't happen too often here, though I know it's important for many people.

Butternut Squash Cakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cups grated butternut squash, packed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup garbanzo flour
3 tablespoons almond flour
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup sour cream for garnish (optional)
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds for garnish (optional)

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion; cook and stir until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Place butternut squash in a large bowl, and season with curry powder, cumin, sea salt, and black pepper. Toss with a fork, then stir in the egg, garbanzo-fava bean flour, and corn flour. Mix in cooled onions.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Scoop about 1/4 cup of the butternut squash mixture into the pan. Flatten to a patty about 1/4-inch thick. Pan fry until crisp and browned, about 3 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining squash mixture.
Top with sour cream.

Honey Ginger Apple Shredded Pork
2 lb pork shoulder roast (or any other roast you prefer)
1 yellow onion, sliced
2 apples, cored and sliced
2/3 cup beef or chicken broth OR water
1 tablespoon raw honey
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger (use ground ginger if you don’t have fresh on hand)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 bay leaf

Pull out your crock pot and dust it off.
Add your broth or water, then onions, then pork, then apples then all your spices/garlic clove/and bay leaf.
Cover.
Cook for 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 hours on high.
Use tongs or a fork to shred your pork.

Butternut Squash Pie
1 large or 2 small cooked butternut squashes (about 3-4 cups)
2 cups cream or 1 can coconut milk
5 or more eggs, more will make it more custardy
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
stevia or honey to taste

Blend all the ingredients until smooth, dump into 9x13 dish and bake on 350 for 45 minutes.

Oven fried okra and eggplant no-parmesan

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:57:00 +0000

I got around to starting supper rather late, thankfully my husband was also running late at work so it wasn't too bad. I had tons of veggies in the frig that needed to be used, plus my bag of okra in the freezer was finally full! So I made Eggplant Parmesan, only to find out that I was out of Parmesan, oh well, no big deal, I can manage. I dipped the eggplant in olive oil, then in a mix of almond flour, garlic powder, dried onion flakes, Italian seasoning, and salt. I didn't measure anything, who does that anymore anyway? Then I laid them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven to cook. Then I chopped up a ton of okra, threw it in a bag with the rest of the eggplant breading, spread it out on another cookie sheet and threw it in the oven as well.

A bit of cheese? Well, it didn't look like so much before hand...

After about 15-20 minutes, the eggplant looked done so I took it out, put a bit of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish, layered the slices in the dish, slopped some more tomato sauce on top, and sprinkled a bit of cheese to top it off. This could easily be made dairy free, just skip the cheese, but we like cheese and haven't any dairy allergies, thankfully! I also got out some pork chops to thaw, but I don't know if I'm going to get around to making them, probably put them in a marinade and use them tomorrow.

The okra turned out good, I got tired of waiting and it wasn't crunchy, but certainly edible! The kids love this and eat the heck out of it. A good thing since they are picky about the eggplant.

Picnic time! Did we forget something.... Oh, ya, clothes! Oh well, we don't believe in clothes here, didn't you know? Actually, they had decided to splash in the pool and stripped for that, then of course they didn't get around to redressing, who needs clothes anyway. God didn't make us with clothes on!

Empty the Frig and Garden Egg Frittata (Dairy Free!)

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 02:29:00 +0000

Well, today was another busy day, I have too many of those it seems, we found a piece of property that sounded too good to be true, and of course it was. But we got to spend two hours hiking and driving around 160 acres and trying to figure out how to make it work, so that was fun at least, I got my exercise and the kids had a blast exploring. Then I came home and weed-eated until I ran out of gas, then of course when I refilled it I couldn't get it started again, so I said "screw it, I'm hot, tired, and covered in bits of grass, I want a shower!" Then I sat my lazy ass down at the computer to try to come up with some new recipes, and actually found quite a few that sound great. I've been using Pepperplate.com as it syncs with my iPhone, which is super convenient, that is, until they update it and I can't use it anymore... Apple sucks, since it's a 3g I guess it's obsolete and 1/2 of the apps now won't work on it. Very disappointing, especially since I got it for $10 off a moron and doubt I'll be able to get such a good deal on a newer one, and sure as heck won't be paying full price for one as I'm not a moron. Ha, I bet I offended half my meager audience, sorry guys, but a $200+ phone that continues to cost you $80+ a month is ridiculous. My free phone that costs me less than $10 a month works just peachy keen! Anyways, off the soapbox, now to food, nothing offensive there, just super yummy goodness.

I still have several squash in my frig purchased from the garden up the road a couple weeks ago that really needed to be used, plus some absolutely adorable tiny eggplants that I had no idea what to do with. Plus of course I wanted to use some of the massive amount of pig that's in the freezer, so a frittata sounded great! So I shredded a yellow squash and a zucchini and squeezed them dry and sliced up my cute little eggplants.

Then I ran out to the garden and picked what I could find, which was some bell peppers, chives, green onions, oregano, jalapeno's, and a few sad little tomatoes. I'm short two children today which meant I could use the jalapeno's without worrying they'd complain about it being too hot.

I chopped and diced and shredded everything, threw the onions and peppers in a skillet with some coconut oil and cooked until tender. Then dumped that all into my baking dish and cooked up the sausage real fast. Then mixed it all together and there was barely room for the eggs, ah, I bet it'll fit. So I put 14 eggs into the blender with 1 cup coconut milk, I also dumped in some garlic powder as I forgot to chop fresh garlic, and some Italian seasoning just for the heck of it. It did fit, though rather full, and I put it into a 350 oven for 35 minutes. It turned out amazing, super flavorful and delicious, Chris had three bowlfuls, though he did say "not enough cheese". Ha, there was no cheese and it didn't even need it! Dairy free dish for the win! And yes, I was too busy eating to take a finished picture, it's not super pretty so you're not missing much, the taste makes up for the looks :)

Umm, the recipe, umm, well, there's really not one, you can pretty much just figure it out from the above. Oh heck, I'll try, here goes.

Veggie/Sausage Quiche
2 zucchini or yellow squash, shredded and squeezed dry
some eggplant sliced thin
2 bell peppers
1 large onion
3 jalapeno's (red ones make it pretty and aren't as hot)
1 or two tomatoes, diced
chives or green onions, chopped
1 or two pounds sausage, Italian or regular, I used 1/2 hot and 1/2 medium regular sausage
2 tbs coconut oil
14 eggs ( or whatever seems like a good amount to you)
1 cup coconut milk
garlic powder
Italian seasoning

Saute the peppers and onions and eggplant in a skillet with 1 Tbs coconut oil until tender. Dump out into baking dish, add the other Tbs oil and cook the sausage, breaking it apart and crumbling it as you cook it, I like to take a potato masher to it. Mix it all together in the baking dish. Crack the eggs into a bowl or the blender, mix in coconut milk and spices. Mix it all together and bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

A super duper great day, and Zucchini Bread.

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:24:00 +0000

I woke up early this morning and have just had the best day, I got cows milked, kitchen cleaned, and floors swept and mopped by 9 AM. Before you start to think I'm Miss Betsy Homemaker or something, note that this has never happened before and is unlikely to happen again. Then while my kids cleaned their room, I got school stuff together, then we sat down and did our schoolwork. (This is beginning to sound like a pleasant dream, it's actually not, I swear) That went relatively smoothly, with not even a tear, again not the usual, Ari has a hate relationship going on with her Phonics book. Then I chased the kids outside, nicely, no I'm not an abusive mother, and then I proceeded to make two batches of cheese, one of mozzarella, and one of paneer.

Then I went out to the garden and picked a massive amount of basil, my plants are absolutely huge and beautiful. Anyone need basil, or bell peppers? I'd almost forgotten about the pepper plants as they've not really produced the last couple months, but I guess the cooler weather and rain has worked miracles, they were loaded. Plus a very few little tomatoes and some okra. I get about that much okra every couple of days, not enough to eat, so I throw it into a gallon freezer bag in the freezer and when the bag is full I cook up a mess of yummy okra! I've only had enough for about 4 batches this year, and it's so good, I'm planting 4 times as many plants next year.

And then I made a huge batch of pesto, yum! I love fresh pesto and mozzarella, I just wish the tomato plants were bearing, I got a couple tomatoes, I can't decide whether to eat them or to save them for my husband. He really likes pesto, cheese, and tomatoes, maybe I'll be nice and save them, I'm pretty stuffed right now with just snacking on the cheese as I was making it. Next I got started on a double batch of zucchini bread, my kids have been wanting something special and I haven't made anything for ages, plus I've got a bunch of zucchini from the garden up the road. I made some of it into Cheesy Surprises last night to eat with pork steak, from our freshly butchered pigs, oh super yummy goodness. Speaking of pigs, I'm way past due for a post about them, I managed to not get around to doing it when they were alive, maybe I'll do one now that they're in the freezer.

And now, I'm worn out and I think it's nap time, though it's only 12:40, the kids are still outside playing so nicely. I have such cooperative kids, they only come to the door occasionally to ask to be let back in and I just have to say "nope, no way, go away" and they are off again for another hour or so. (I'm not actually that mean, or am I?) I did give them peaches and a watermelon to eat to keep them happy, so I guess I'm not too terribly mean.

Here's the recipe for the zucchini bread, it was delicious. Make sure to squeeze out the excess liquid, I grate it into a thin towel/piece of cloth, then wring it out as good as I could. This is actually a double batch, so you can half it if you like. I just had a ton of zucchini to use up. And it's a good thing I did because we ate over half of it in basically one sitting.

Grain Free Zucchini Bread
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
6 tbs honey
1 tsp vanilla
stevia if you think it needs it
2 cups or so of shredded zucchini,
with water squeezed out
1 cup or so chopped walnuts (opt.) (I forgot to add nuts, wish I had)

Grease a couple mini loaf pans, and/or some muffin tins, I don't have any mini pans and I ended up with one big loaf and 12 muffins. Bake for 25 minutes for muffins, 35 for mini loaf, about 50 for full size loaf.

Most of it got eaten before I could remember to snap a picture.

A few recipes and a King Snake

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:55:00 +0000

I've made a bunch of delicious things over the past few days so I figured I'd just do a recipe post, plus a few pics of a couple massive King Snake's that I've caught in the eggmobile lately. This one had a cool orangey red belly. The other was the biggest I've seen, it was as long as I was. And I've decided that my camera hates my husband, it never takes decent pictures for him...

This one managed to bite me, the jerk! Though it was my fault, I was trying to grab my camera with the same hand that was holding his head and he managed to latch down on my finger, man that hurt! They have bunches of little tiny needle sharp teeth that curve backwards, so getting him detached wasn't easy. I hauled them down the road a couple miles and dropped them off next to an old cow barn, I imagine they'll find plenty of mice in there.

And now to food, the best part!!!
My freezer is full of blueberries and we're fixing to butcher a couple pigs and a bull, so I needed to use them. And I was getting tired of the same ol' same ol' for breakfast so I decided to make something special. It turned out absolutely delicious, I ate two bowlfuls and then helped the kids finish theirs off. And then I started thinking about how I've been eating way too much fruit, as I chopped up 4 gallons of peaches to put in the freezer. This time of year is awesome, but I've got ulcers on my tongue saying, "stop with the fruit already!!!"
Even though I had my camera sitting right beside the oven, I still forgot to take pictures... Oh well, take my word for it, it's as beautiful as it is delicious :)

Blueberry Crisp
4 cups ripe blueberries
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 cup blanched almond flour (store-bought or homemade)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup raw honey
Preheat oven to 350F.
Rinse blueberries well, then place them in the 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Mix almond flour with sea salt and baking soda in a large bowl, until well mixed. Stir in the unsweetened shredded coconut and walnuts. Melt the coconut oil, in a small pan over low heat, (heck with that, my house never gets below 76 this time of year, my coconut oil is always liquid) then add the honey to just barely melt the honey enough to mix it in. Stir the melted mixture into the almond flour mixture until well-blended, then crumble the almond flour mixture over the berries.
Bake for about 30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

Tomato Zucchini Casserole

This is ridiculously good, I ate so much I could hardly move afterwards. This is a perfect meal to use up the abundance of tomatoes and zucchini everyone has this time of year. Speaking of tomatoes, the garden up the hill from me is over run with tomatoes and he just posted on FB that he'll deliver for free. So if your in need of a bunch of tomatoes to put up check them out, their organic (not in the government sense of the word, but in the real sense of the word) too, and only $1.00 a pound. Of course they have many other yummy veggies as well. Check them out on FB http://www.facebook.com/upickitfarmgarden.winslowar

1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or a bunch of fresh
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or a bunch of fresh
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium zucchinis, thinly sliced
5 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter a 9x9-inch pan.
In a large bowl, combine Cheddar, Parmesan, oregano, basil, garlic, and onions. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
Arrange half of the zucchini slices in the pan. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese and herb mixture on top. Arrange half of the tomatoes, and top with another 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes.

I actually remembered to take pictures of this one, though I was a little late on the "finished" shot.

Pineapple Banana Pie

A super quick and easy yummy desert/snack/breakfast, I used to make this all the time when I was a kid, then I forgot about it until today when my brother emailed me and asked for the recipe. I used to use a graham cracker crust, instead I made an almond flour crust, which turned out delicious and tasted almost the same.

1 can crushed pineapple (or fresh if your so lucky as to have one)

3 super ripe banana's

Slice banana's and dump into a sauce pan with the pineapple, simmer for a few minutes til it starts to thicken a bit. Stick it in the freezer to chill, or fridge if your not in a hurry.

Mix 1.5 cups almond flour

3 tbs melted butter (or coconut oil)

a touch of stevia or a bit of honey

1 tsp cinnamon

Press into a pie pan and stick in the oven for about 10 minutes, then stick it in the freezer or fridge to chill. Once everything's cool dump the filling into the crust and enjoy! You can also throw some shredded coconut on top, though for some reason I prefer it without.

The Eggmobile, and Bocconcini with Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:43:00 +0000

Isn't it beautiful! It's finally done, and in use, and I LOVE it! The egg mobile turned out great, I threw up a bunch of roosts inside that need a bit of finish work, and was in such a hurry to get it into use I used sticks for the nest box entry, but for the most part it's awesome. I've been moving it about every three days, I don't want so much poop to build up underneath that it kills the grass. The chickens have been staying in the pen very nicely, we do have a hawk or two and an owl or two that like to perch in the trees and panic the chickens. I managed to find some goslings locally that hopefully will grow up fast so I can put them out with the chickens as guardians. I hate to loose my chickens to predators.

The first few days they laid their eggs everywhere, on the floor, in their food, out in the yard, and they broke and ate several. This made me panic a bit, it would be awful if my chickens became egg eaters from the stress of moving, but they settled down after a couple days and are now laying 100% in the next boxes, and not eating any. I put mats into the boxes instead of straw, and go down in the afternoon after they are done laying to gather eggs and pull down netting over the boxes so they can't roost in them. So this has completely curtailed my egg washing chores, which is wonderful. But I do have to walk all the way down to the bottom pasture several times a day, which is a pain, and the last time is after dark to lock them up. Last night I forgot to lock them up, and I knew I had to move the house today. I realized this at 2:30 this morning, so I had to get up and go down there, that wasn't much fun at all. My plan is to train the kids to go down and shut them up, I need to work on that. Right now I'm moving it every three days, it'd probably be better every two days but it's a bit of work, especially since the grounds so dry it's hard as rock and I have to hammer each fence post in. Oh how I wish I had enough acreage that I could dispense with the fence. But those stupid chickens will just come right back to the house, oh how I hate them sometimes, there are four that have been getting out and hanging out up here. I carry them down and they are back again in minutes, I don't know what to do with them, other than wring their necks, but they are worth too much for that.

I have been craving some fresh mozzarella cheese lately, and have been too busy to make any lately. But I finally got around to it today, I had a couple gallons of milk that was getting old and needed to be used. I also have a wealth of basil in the garden, and fresh mozzarella and basil is just too good. First I made one gallon's worth, then ate it all by myself, so then I made a 2nd gallon and the rest of the family shared that. I'm not going to write out the cheese recipe, Google 30 minute mozzarella, it's super easy and the best cheese you will ever eat, well, the best fresh cheese for sure. After the cheese was done I ran up to the garden and picked a ton of basil, which of course, when all was said and done, was only about 2 cups of leaves. And all the ripe tomatoes I had, which wasn't very many, out of almost 50 tomato plants I'm not doing very well. I don't know what's wrong with them. Then I ground them up with some olive oil, supposed to be 1/2 cup, I didn't measure, about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, about 1/2 cup of Parmesan, two big cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 tsp salt. Then I sliced up the tomatoes and pigged out. Oh my goodness it was the yummiest thing ever, as evidenced by the fact that I ate a gallons worth of cheese... Hmm, I'm writing this thinking about the two lonely balls of leftover cheese that's sitting in the fridge, maybe those need to be eaten right now, there might be room in my stomach by now, I haven't eaten anything it at least 10 minutes. Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to my friends at U Pick It Farms and say thanks for the lovely veggies, I hadn't been by there in a while and one of the boys brought me down two bags full of vegetables, tomatoes, squash, fresh herbs, banana peppers, and the most delicious carrots ever. Since I've already eaten all the tomatoes I could find in my garden, theirs will provide a lovely addition to supper!

Our mini-vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Tell building a trap with his hot dog stick,
I think he's planning on catching a deer with it

This last Sun/Mon we decided to take off and head down to Ft Smith State Park to go camping and boating and fishing, something that my kids have been begging to do for close to a year now and we've kept putting them off. Plus it was Tell's 4th birthday, another great excuse! I'd gone down to milking once a day last week, the dry weather and lack of grass has made the cow's production drop so much that it just wasn't worth the hassle of twice a day milking. So that helped free us up to get out of here for 24 hours. We packed up the entire house and then some, or it seemed like it, we
also bought a bunch of "camping food" at Aldi's, which meant splurges on junk food that we normally don't eat, marshmallows, chips, hot dogs, etc. But Chris says it's camping and therefore okay. We got there about 6pm Sunday, set up the tent and then headed down to the lake to paddle around and swim. According to the signs, swimming is not allowed in the lake, but us lawbreakers did it anyway. We just paddled to the opposite side of the lake, away from anyone who would care, and swam to our hearts content.

The girls chased Chris around in the canoe trying to catch him, while he pushed them under with his paddle when they got close, Kayli didn't mind being dunked but Ari cried. Toughen up girl!

Birthday boy, I made the most delicious cake ever, but of course no one took a picture of it, it was sinfully delicious, and sinfully unhealthy... Recipe at the bottom for those of you who are in need of something sinfully delicious and unhealthy :

We found a beach type area with tons of little clam shells, the kids collected a bunch to bring home. Which are now spread out all over my porch, at least I managed to keep them outside, the last thing I need is hundreds of sandy clam shells all over my house.

There were some really neat caves in the cliff on one side of the lake, the 2nd time we went out there were a couple young buzzards hanging out, I wanted to climb up and try to find their nest but we didn't. They were pretty easy going, we managed to get super close before they flew away.

And yes, my husband isn't so great with the camera, out of like 200 pictures, only about 10 of them are any good. Though I am thankful he took them, if it weren't for him we probably wouldn't have had any pictures at all.

Ender enjoying his cake, I forgot to bring plates or silverware, not that the kids cared, cups and hands work just fine. And yes, he's naked, anyone surprised? There wasn't anyone around to care, we had that end of the campground to ourselves thankfully.

Really Good Chocolate Cake
1 3/4 cup almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups plain, unsweetened yogurt
1 cup honey ( I cut it down a bit and used some stevia as well)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
(I also totally cheated and dumped some chocolate chips in there to make it super duper good)

Do I really need to tell you how to put it together? Throw it all into a bowl, mix it up, grease up a 9x13 dish or whatever, dump in the cake batter, stick it in the oven on 350 or whatever, cook til done. Around 30 minutes if you are so disciplined as to set a timer.

Cream Cheese Coffee Icing
Two packages cream cheese
Honey and stevia to taste
couple teaspoons instant coffee

Mix it all up and spread it on top of the cake once it cools off. I like coffee icing on a chocolate cake, it's just so good.

Yummy food, Squash, and Geese

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 01:31:00 +0000

Well, life has just been too busy, or rather, as most of you know, I'm pregnant and therefore most of what I do is lie on the couch moaning about how crappy I feel, and then getting up to rush through what I have to do so I can get back to the couch. I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself, not that I have any real reason to, I know people who have much harder pregnancies than me and deal with it much better, but it's my pity party and I can cry if I want to! Anyways, after not cooking my husband supper last night and feeling awful about it, I forced myself to get a decent meal cooked today. I picked a couple absolutely beautiful yellow squash from the garden today, that brightened my day quite a bit, I'm so in love with my garden, I just wish I didn't feel so sick when it comes to food. Right now vegetables are on my "do not talk about or I will vomit" list. But I love squash pie, that's not really a vegetable dish so I'm making it. I usually make it like a lemon custard, but after scouring my cupboards and not finding any lemon extract, I found another recipe, for a Squash Coconut Custard. Sounds good! I'm also having absolutely horrible carb cravings, so instead of making a healthy grain free meal as usual, I decided to make a cornbread. My husband loves cornbread and has been asking for some for a while, so no time like the present! It's only got 1 cup of cornmeal, and tons of other yummy stuff to make it healthy, so I won't give myself a hard time about it. I also whipped up some Heavenly Eggs, (Deviled Eggs, for the unenlightened) to add a bit of protein to the meal. Yes, I know, that's quite a strange mix of foods for a supper, but I'm weird like that. Who cares if they go well together, as long as it's all yummy that's all that matters.

First I made a crust, I usually don't bother with crusts for custard but I figured, why not go all out. I just mixed 2 cups almond flour with 2 tbs coconut oil and an egg, pressed it out in a bowl, and threw it in my preheating oven til it was pretty and golden.

Then I chopped up the two squash, threw them in a pot with a bit of water to steam for about 5 minutes until soft. Then put it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until super smooth.

Finished product, and it was yummy, though I ate so much of the Heavenly Eggs and cornbread that I couldn't eat much of it, oh well, it'll make a good breakfast. I completely forgot, again, to take a pic of the cornbread, take my word for it, it looked good and tasted better. I had several servings it was so good.

On the farm side of things, I let the goslings out of their pen today, the garden is fenced to keep out chickens, so I figure it'll keep the goslings in and safe, I think they are big enough that the cat's won't think they're edible, or at least I hope. They have been doing such a good job of eating weeds wherever I've moved their pen, I've had to move it three times a day to keep them fresh greens. I've not raised geese before and I read that after 6 weeks they can forage for 100% of their food, that's awesome! After having chickens which eat a ton, this will be a nice break for my feed bill. Not that they will really produce anything, but I've hopes that they will protect the chickens from the huge owl and hawks that keep hanging around my chicken pen. Actually, I guess they will produce more goslings hopefully next year, that'll be fun :)

And then I've just got to show off my squash, this has been a wonderful year for squash for me, I don't know if normal people's squash are this good, but to me this is amazing. My plants are huge, and loaded with squash, there are 5 yellow squash of differing sizes on this plant, and I already picked one off this morning, plus tons more blooms. I'm so excited :) Last year my squash were devastated by Vine Borers and millions of Squash Beetles, I probably got two squash out of 10 plants. I even bought a Shop Vac and spent hours vacuuming up beetles off my plants, I filled that vac
up several times with bugs, it was ridiculous. So far this year I've only seen a few, those *((*&^$# bugs had better stay the heck away from my garden.

And then I just had to show off my cute little pumpkin, this is the first year I've planted pumpkins and I'm so excited. I sure hope they turn out well, I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin custard, pumpkin pancakes, um, basically pumpkin anything, though the pumpkin soup I made once was just okay. Chris really liked it though.

Mexican Cornbread

2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (8 ounce) can cream-style corn (8 oz can? What's that? I used a regular 14 oz can)
1 large onion, chopped
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced ( I used a can of chili's as my jalepeno's aren't big enough yet)
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking dish or a cast iron skillet.
In a small bowl, beat eggs. Mix in butter and buttermilk. Stir in 1 cup shredded cheese, creamed corn, onion, and jalapenos.
In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown.

Coconut Squash Custard

1 cup chopped squash, I use yellow, if you use zucchini I'd peel it or the kids will probably flip
1 cup flaked coconut, divided
1/3 cup sucanat or honey

Stevia to taste ( I didn't add this and it's pretty much sweet enough, though it wouldn't hurt to be a bit sweeter)
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs (next time I'm going to put in a couple more, it was a little soggy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 pie crust (optional)
1 pinch ground nutmeg

Heat 1 inch of water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add zucchini, cover, and steam until softened, about 5 minutes.
In a blender or food processor, blend the cooked zucchini, 3/4 cup coconut, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth. Pour into the pie crust, and sprinkle with remaining coconut and nutmeg.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Blueberry Coffecake and Cheesy Surprises

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:10:00 +0000

I woke up with energy this morning, and was tired of the same ol same ol for breakfast, the kids whine when I make plain old eggs, all they want is pancakes or waffles. And of course that gets old after a while, for me at least. And since I've got 8 gallons of blueberries in the freezer from our blueberry expedition last week, and no I didn't blog about it, shame on me... And since my kids are still in bed so I've got the time, woohoo! I made blueberry coffeecake. It was fun, I got to lick the honey spoon all by myself, plus the spatula, and got to eat several spoonfuls of batter without sharing, I'm having the time of my life here! I highly recommend if you have kids that are awake to double this recipe, because they're going to want to eat batter, it's sooooo good, actually just double it anyway, leftovers are great.

Blueberry Coffeecake
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream/coconut milk/milk/yogurt/whatever milky like substance you feel like using
1/4 cup honey
Stevia to taste
4 eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all of the above, you can do the proper thing and mix dry and wet separately, I never do and it always turns out fine. Then put in a preheated oven, or not, if you're like me and forget, at 350 for 30-40 minutes til done.

And so, I completely forgot about taking a picture til I was on the last bite, and instead of getting up and getting the camera to document this momentous occasion, I just said "screw it" and ate it down.

But I do have pictures of the next part of this post, I decided, since I have lots of Zucchini, to make our favorite Cheesy Surprises. This was a term my husband coined last year to get the picky kids to eat squash, I've since improved on the recipe and it's oh so yummy.

Cheesy Surprises
1 cup Almond Flour
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp dried Onion Flakes (I love those things!)
Salt to taste

Mix all this in a bowl

Then beat 4 eggs, and slice up a bunch of zucchini, I cut them in half and then slice each half into big pieces, you can slice them into cute little circles, but that takes way more time and I'm all about time saving. Then dip the slices into the egg, then into the flour mixture, then spread them out on parchment paper on a baking pan.

If you don't have parchment paper go out and buy some now, you cannot live without it. I lived, barely, without it for many years, I only discovered it in the last year or two, and it's absolutely amazing. I reuse mine several times, I buy mine from Azure Standard and it's not bleached or anything and it's also compostable.
Then throw it in the oven for a while, until they look done. I'm not sure how long, I'm guessing 20 minutes or so at 350.

The thinner ones get super crispy and can be eaten like chips, I think I prefer the thicker ones though, the thin ones were a bit dry. I may go with more Parmesan and less almond flour next time to see if I can remedy that.

We also cooked up some Tilapia in butter with a bit of Tony Sacheries (sp?) Yum, I know it's not a very nutritious fish, but I can't really handle Salmon, too fishy :( I figure bland fish is better than no fish at all.

Carrot Cake and Sweet Potato Fries

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:38:00 +0000

This is going to be a food post as I've not had the forethought to take my camera with me when I go down to do the chickens in my brand new awesome eggmobile, look for that post coming soon :)

So this morning I was low on energy and not feeling like doing much, I worked out yesterday, and spent half the day in town, which always wipes me out. So I decided some yummy food might perk me up, I made a carrot cake out of my favorite recipe. It's not so smart to make cake this early in the day, there might not be any left by the time my husband gets home... Oh well, I'll make sure not to pig out too much. To help prevent too much overeating of cake, I'm making Sweet Potato Fries, one of my favorite foods ever. I've never liked sweet potatoes, until about 6 months ago, I had some that needed to be eaten, and I tried a fry recipe. Now I eat them like candy, they are so super good.

Slice up your sweet potatoes, I prefer to peel them just because most pesticides and chemicals are in the outer layer, and these are not organic unfortunately. Then throw them in a bowl, splash olive oil generously over them, then sprinkle (douse) them with paprika, chili powder, and salt.

Stir them up and spread on a heavily greased baking sheet, if you don't grease it you'll have stuck fries. Bake on 400 or so until they are done, usually I take them out when the little ones are nice and crispy, and I try to stir them once or twice. Right now mine are baking at 350 because they are in with the cake, which means it's going to take longer and I'm starving...

Meanwhile, my older two are swimming in the pool, they wish... They've been begging me for a pool but I'm too cheap, um, thrifty, to buy them one. So they make do with what they've got.

And then the baby, who loves anything with an edge, or anything that can cause blunt trauma, or anything with a motor, is "helping" chop sweet potatoes. For a while every time I turned my back he would remove all the knives from the silverware drawer and play with them. I had to put them all up in a high cabinet to keep them away from him. He's pretty careful with them, well, at least he never stabbed himself and he still has all his fingers.

And then, finally, time to eat! Of course I was too busy stuffing my face to take a picture, only when my stomach started urgently signalling me to stop eating did I think of the camera. Here's the leftovers, not very much left out of a three pound bag of sweet potatoes. We did also finish off the Venison Stew, we didn't just eat sweet potatoes, that wouldn't have been a very balanced meal. Though actually the cake has a dozen eggs in it so really I guess the meal would have been decently balanced just with the fries and the cake. And the cake was oh so terribly good, thankfully I was pretty full already, else I would have probably eaten myself sick

Yum!

And now for the recipes, I know you've been waiting patiently for this part.

Sweet Potato Fries (probably would serve 6 normal people)
3# bag of Sweet Potatoes
1/4 cup EV Olive Oil
2 tsp Chili Powder
1 1/2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp salt or to taste
Peel potatoes if they are not organic and slice into fries. Mix the olive oil and spices in a bowl then drizzle on top of the potatoes, stir til coated then spread out on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until done, stir and flip them over about halfway thru.

Coconut Flour Carrot Cake
1 cup sifted coconut flour
½ cup butter, melted
½ cup milk, coconut or whole
12 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup honey
¼ tsp stevia or to taste
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 ½ cups finely grated carrot
½ cup nuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins (opt)
Combine butter, milk, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt and spices. Stir into wet mixture. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in carrots and nuts. Pour batter equally into 2 greased 8 or 9x1½ inch layer cake pans or one 9x9x2 inch pan. Bake at 350 degree’s for 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cold cream cheese
5 tbs unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla
¼ cup honey
Stevia to taste
Beat and add additional sweetener until it reaches the taste and consistency you want.

Drag princesses and gardening

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:50:00 +0000

My son found some of his sister's dress up clothes and decided to try them on, this is the outcome.

I'm so beautiful

Oops, Cinderella lost her, um, his shoe

So then big sis had to get in on the fun and picture taking, the dress up clothes were a Christmas gift two years ago, they fit him better than they do her.

After the ball, with a bit of a hangover

Enough of adorable children... Did you know that you could regrow celery!?!?!?!? Organic celery costs close to $4.00 a bunch, and we can go through half a bunch just making Ants on a Log. So I'm trying it out, the first time my celery had been in the frig a month, and then after I planted it the chickens dug it up twice and the dog once. It tried to grow, but needless to say it failed miserably. So I'm trying again, this one is taking off admirably well, I need to get it planted in the garden today, hopefully somewhere where the chickens can't get at it. I did try to plant celery from seed this year, but it didn't make it, I planted it too late and didn't water it enough. It seems to be rather delicate, I'll have to start earlier next year, and take better care of it.

One of the first "fruits" of my garden, besides greens, snow peas! Of course, I could have been picking this a month ago, but I didn't get them planted as early as I should. Now I need to find a good recipe for snow peas, I'm not a big fan of Chinese food, and that seems to be the main way to cook them. I did find an Indian recipe for Potato's and Snow Peas, your supposed to use normal peas, not pod peas, but I don't care, I'm going to try it anyway. This is the recipe I'm planning to try http://www.food.com/recipe/aaloo-mattar-indian-style-peas-and-potatoes-158223

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Speaking of greens, here's my Kale, Collards, and Spinach.

And here's what they turn into:

Saag Paneer

Chop up an onion and cook in butter
Chop up 3-4 cloves garlic and some fresh ginger and add to cooking onion
Add 1 1/2 tsp Cumin
1 1/2 tsp Coriander
1 tsp Curry
1/4 tsp Cayenne (if your kids aren't eating)
Stir that up then add a pound or so of greens. Cook til wilted and tender.

Make this first, preferably a couple hours before hand. Dump a gallon or two of milk into a big pot, heat to 190 or so, dump in 1/2 cup or so white vinegar or lemon juice. Stir until it's all separated into curds and whey. Pour it all into some cheesecloth, stir in a tablespoon of salt or so and hang to drain. Then chop into cubes and fry in butter.

Mix it all together and stuff your face!

Next up, Monterrey Jack and Cheddar

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:08:00 +0000

Accomplishing quality cheese making is the task I'm currently setting my sights on, we love cheese, way more than we probably should. At least if I can make raw cheeses at home I don't have to worry about most of the unhealthy aspects of cheese. Of the hard cheeses I've made Cheddar and Colby, unfortunately they are still curing so I don't even know yet if I'm just wasting my time. I'm hoping and praying that they will be delicious, and I'm sure they will be, I actually followed the recipe's (for the most part, unusual for me) so they should be. Monterrey Jack is a relatively easy cheese to make, unlike Cheddar, while Cheddar is our favorite, it's a pain to make and takes quite a bit of time hovering over the stove. So I'm hoping we end up liking the Colby and Jack as much as the Cheddar, and I can just make them instead. So I start out with three gallons of milk, as that's all my pot holds, I'm really wanting a bigger pot, 5 or 6 gallons would be nice, but I'm not sure where to find one. Ah, the internet! Yes, that would work, but I don't want to pay the $50 to $100 for one. But I need to, it'd really make cheese making easier, I could make twice as much and save so much time. My husband just spent some money at Uncle Sam's Outfitters on some toys so that means I'm allowed, right? Actually, I bought him a gift cert to them for half off so it's kinda my fault he spent the money. But I think I'm still allowed. Okay, so that was a little off topic. Speaking of toys, I bought a new thermometer for cheese making. It's so cool! You can set the temp you want and it beeps when it gets there, so convenient.

All the hard cheeses start out basically the same way, with warming the milk up to around 86 degrees, then adding your culture. So far I've just been culturing with Mesophilic cultures, one of these days I'm going to get into thermophilic cheeses, Parmesan, Provolone, Swiss, the Italian cheeses. After stirring in your culture you leave it sitting keeping it at 86 degrees for an hour. Then you add rennet, which you have mixed with 1/4 cup of cool water, for what reason I don't know. After stirring it in you let it set for another 45 minutes to an hour, the rennet curdles your milk and turns it into a solid, it looks about like custard at this stage. When it's set you cut the curd into 1/4 inch to 2 inch cubes, depending on your recipe, then slowly heat it to around 110 degrees. This is the PITA part, I usually do it in a sink of hot water, as your only supposed to raise the temperature 2 degrees per 5 minutes. Having a double boiler would help, but I don't have one, so I fill the sink with 110-120 degree water and set the pot in it and do the best I can.

"Cooking" the curd in a sink full of hot water

You are supposed to stir frequently at this point to keep the curds from matting at the bottom, I tend to decide at this point to go out and water my garden for 5 minutes, which ends up being an hour, and totally forget about it. Not the best thing to do, but following recipes isn't my strong point. Then your supposed to hold it at that temperature for another hour or so, of course the sink water keeps cooling down which is a pain. But I figure close enough is good enough, I hope.
At that point the different cheeses will diverge, what you do at this stage makes them what they are, or something like that.

"Cheddaring" the curd

Cheddar you get to mess with for another couple of hours, what a pain, Colby and Jack are a bit easier and shorter. You have to hold cheddar curds at a certain temp for an hour or so, flipping them often, that gives them the "cheddar" flavor. Then you get to shovel your curds into the press and squish them for 12-24 hours. It's so neat taking your cheese out of the press, it actually kinda looks like cheese! Then it gets to sit out on a rack and dry over the next day or two, in preparation for waxing, just don't forget it, it's rather depressing to find it covered in mold. You also have to turn it twice a day to help it to dry out evenly.

Cheddar in the press, and Monterrey Jack air drying before waxing. I have to increase the pressure on the Cheddar over the next 24 hours, starting at 10 pounds and ending up at 50. I'm thankful for all the weights we have, they're in the way most of the time but work great for my homemade cheese press. Unfortunately, the only free space I seem to have for this is on top of my chest freezer, it's a pain when I need to get into it during cheese pressing time. I need more counter space, and a bigger house!

I decided to hold back some of the cheddar curds to munch on, and they are delicious. I ate a bunch fresh, then sprinkled some garlic powder and fresh basil on the rest, and ate a bunch more. This was after eating a big bowl of chicken soup for lunch, now I look three months pregnant, but dang was it good! This is what's left, I saved some for my husband, I'm so generous. Actually, I decided to make another batch and to make it all into cheddar curds, then I can bring some for snacks tomorrow as it's my "in town" day. Unfortunately, that means I've got another 4 hours worth of cheese making, and it's already 3:00, oh well, obviously I've got plenty of extra time, else I wouldn't be wasting it on this computer. Shame on me, there's clothes to fold and put away and floors to be cleaned and diapers to be sewn, ah well, back to the drudgery that is my life. Just kidding, I love my life :)

My lovely cows

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:31:00 +0000

I drag myself out of bed at 6am to milk, again, as I have for the past 400 plus days since I started milking. It's completely worth it, except when I don't feel like it, and then it still is! My cows decided this morning to make me come get them, instead of coming up to the gate, so now my feet are wet from the dew. Sweet lovely cows...

Meet Sage, this is her 2nd lactation, Cherry is her calf from this year. She's a pretty sweet cow, for the most part, well, for a cow. She still kicks occasionally, and hits me in the face with her tail, but I guess that's just what cows do.

And here's CBC, wanna know what her name means? Ha! It stands for Crazy B*itch Cow, and she's earned it. Thankfully she's settled down a lot in the last two years but when I started milking her she kicked me over and over and over again, I had to tie her to the wall to get milking done. And that was when I hand milked so it meant she'd kick the bucket over numerous times as well. Oh well, now she's almost my favorite cow, she definitely the best milker, she gives more milk and more cream than Sage, and she milks out twice as fast. She rarely kicks me anymore, thankfully, though when she does she kicks hard and fast. I love my milking stand, it protects me from getting kicked, before my husband and I built it I would have to jump when I felt them twitch, now I just laugh, "ha ha, you can't get me".

And then I get to carry the heavy tank, full of 5+ gallons of milk, into the house, sometimes it weighs as much as #60, no fun at all. I do love having the milker, before hand it was so hard to keep the milk clean, an open bucket underneath a cow is just a bad thing, they aren't the cleanest animal's in the world, and don't even get me started about the flies. Now I end up with pristine milk every time, and no carpel tunnel from hand milking, it's a win win situation! I do strain the milk into the jars, just in case, I like to be doubly sure it's perfectly clean, and then I stick it into my freezer, which is dialed down as low as possible. The thermometer this morning said -6 F, which is great as to have Grade A milk in a commercial dairy you need to be able to cool the milk to 40 degrees F in 2 hours. I usually can accomplish that, or get very close, which helps the milk stay fresh longer.

They gave 5 gallons this morning, that's about average, sometimes it's up around 6, depending on how lush the section of pasture is that they're on. It hasn't rained in a couple weeks, so the pasture is suffering. I'm trying to go 100% grass-fed, the cows get a handful of grain at milking, only because they wouldn't put their head in the stanchion if I didn't give them some. Once I run out of grain, which is taking a while at a handful at a time, I'm going to use alfalfa pellets, then they'll be 100%, which is awesome, better milk quality, healthier cows. Cows aren't designed to eat grain, they have four stomachs for a reason, to digest grass, eating grain messes up the pH in their rumen, and messes up their digestion. Obviously a handful isn't going to affect much of anything, but think about cattle in feedlots, they are fed so much grain that they have to be butchered around 15 months of age, or they will die of liver failure. Twenty five percent of feedlot cattle have liver abscesses, but what's great, according to the Beef Council, is that only severe abscesses affect cattle performance, and only about 6.5% have severe abscesses. So no big deal that 25% of the beef in the store is from a sick animal, as long as it continues to grow quickly and produce as much meat as possible in the shortest period of time, it's perfectly ok! Vote with your food dollars, that's the only way change will happen. If you are looking for a good source for grass-fed small farm raised beef, contact me and I'll give you the info for a friend of mine who butchers and sells wonderful meat.

Okay, so I kind of got off on a tangent there, sorry about that :)

So next on the list of things I need to do today is to make another batch of Mozzarella, I bought some more citric acid yesterday, it's in the canning section at the grocery store, if your needing any. To save on jar washing, I strained last night's milk right into my three gallon pot and stuck the whole thing in the frig, as I knew I was going to make some sort of cheese today.

And it turned out GREAT!!! The last 3-4 times I made Mozzarella it just didn't turn out right, it would end up being hard and dry and rubbery. This turned out super soft and stretchy and delicious! I taste tested it several times :) Yum, now I just wish I had fresh tomatoes in my garden to eat it with... It won't be long.

Chickens, Cows, and Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Wow, life has been busy and I haven't had much time with my computer. We spent Mother's Day spread out between the three Mom's my husband and I have between us :) So that meant Monday was "work your backside off day" to make up for having the day off Sunday. My husband got a bunch done on the chicken house, it's got all the walls and roof framed out, I'm so excited, just wishing it was done. I finally got sick of having a disgusting yard and locked the chickens up, they have a large grassy pen but still cluster around the door begging to be released to run free. This picture also shows the shack they live in, I tacked it together without any help as it was supposed to be replaced quickly, unfortunately, it's taken much longer than that. They don't seem to mind much though, it works.

Hopefully this next weekend we'll get the egg mobile finished and them out where their supposed to be.

The calves came up and wanted their picture taken so I obliged, actually, they wanted their bottle. The one with the heart on her head was a couple days after Valentine's Day so she was named Valentine. The other calf still doesn't really have a name, I decided since we couldn't think of a new name to just give her a previous calf's name, one that we sold a while back. The kids don't agree, but I think it's fine, so I say her name is Cherry.

My Colby is ready to be waxed today, I made it two days ago, completely forgot to take pictures or blog about that... But I'll document the waxing process at least. I bought a pan at the thrift store for melting wax, as the pan isn't usable for anything but that for the future. So when I was done with the cheddar, I just let the wax cool in the pan and stuck it in the cupboard for next time.

Now I'm reheating it to dip the Colby in. Colby is a washed curd cheese that is simpler to make than Cheddar, and only has to cure 4-6 weeks, instead of the 2-12 months for Cheddar. And I like Colby so I hope this turns out! It looks kind of funny as it's got little pimples all over where the holes were in the mold, next time maybe I should leave the cheesecloth on the whole time, but I didn't want the wrinkles the cheesecloth left. I guess I can't win. I'm sure it'll still be edible. I just wish my root cellar was finished, it's too hot to age at room temperature, and the frig is too cold, and I don't have enough extra room in my frig anyway. But that's where it will go for now, until I come up with a better plan, or my root cellar gets done. But I'm not holding my breath!

Ready to age! My lovely daughter made me the label, now we just have to be patient for another month. Now I think I'll go make some Mozzarella, I'm ready for some instant gratification, I hate wait!(Princess Bride quote if you didn't notice) I can't wait for my multitudes of Basil plants to get bigger, I made some Bocconcini, little mozzarella balls, marinated in pesto last year and it was to die for, except my dad stole it and ate it all. Though I have to admit it was my fault, I accidentally left it at his house. Oh well, I should have plenty of Basil this year and I'll make a bunch!

Weights, bugs, and monsters

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:18:00 +0000

Well, we had quite a day today, up at 6, then milking and chores as fast as possible, cooking our favorite pancake recipe (see below), loading up kids and milk and eggs in the car, and off to town to meet milk customers at 9:30. After selling milk and eggs I trained at the gym, I'm starting a new strength program, I was getting bored with Starting Strength and decided to try Wendler's 5/3/1. I warmed up with some jogging, 20# back squats and overhead squats and then did squats and bench press for my main workout Then did some assistance work - 4 sets of 13 lunges (what I could do in the room I had) with 2- #20 dumbbells, 3 sets of 10 inverted rows, a few sets of push ups and then some stretching and just for fun, some handstands. It's going to be hard to walk tomorrow, I can feel it already, yay! Then I delivered some more milk, and then just for fun took the kids to TCBY, we had bought a 1/2 off coupon like Groupon several months ago and needed to use it before it expired. Finally we got to head home sweet home.

Adult Potato Beetle

Nasty fat larva

It's been looking like rain off and on for the past couple of weeks, but we haven't received more than a few drops, so I went up to water the garden. I'm thinking it's going to be time for some sort of irrigation system soon, it's getting to where it takes a couple hours to water everything, well, I guess I was also weeding and squishing bugs. We are overrun with Potato Beetles, I loath the nasty things, the adults are hard bodied and hard to squish, the larva are little bulbous things that look like red dog ticks, and when you squish them they squirt fluorescent orange goo on you. Keep your mouth closed when you squish, or else... I usually get hit in the face a couple times, today they got me in the eye, and it burned! It was awful, I was so angry, nasty bugs! So I squished a bunch more for revenge.

I have one chicken who keeps getting in the garden somehow, despite the fence. Her favorite place is the compost pile, of course, but the problem is that I've planted bunches of squash in it, well, there used to be bunches, now there's like 6 left. And this is the 3rd or so planting, the previous ones were scratched up as well. I've got to find, or buy, some netting to throw over it until the plants get bigger, or kill a chicken... Though it looked like she might have been eating potato bugs, at least she was pecking something over in the potatoes before I ran her off, maybe I won't kill her.

I'm trying to find more space in my garden, and I spend too much time pulling weeds from the cement blocks lining my raised beds, so I'm seeing if filling them with herbs and other miscellaneous plants will

work. So far it's looking good, I've got probably 15 basil plants spread out around my beds, a couple dill, parsley, sage, even some bell peppers and jalapeno's I couldn't find a place for. We shall see how it works, hopefully well.

When I got back to the house, there were MONSTERS leering at me thru the sliding glass door, ahhhhhhh!

Yummy Grain Free Pancakes
5 eggs
1/3 cup milk, cream, or coconut milk
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Throw everything in the blender, blend it up, then make pancakes or waffles.