January = No Eating Out

Because we are trying desperately to get on top of our finances and eliminate all debt, we have set aside January as our month of no eating out. Before, hubby and I would have date night on Friday nights, then maybe grab pizza on Saturday after working on the farm all day. Then Sunday after church, we would all be starved so we would grab some sandwiches. All of this would add up to over $100 just on the weekends. Then there would be times during the week when we would need to be in town around lunch or dinner time and we would grab something quick. That would equal quite a bit of income spent on something that wasn't doing our bodies any good. Ok, I must admit that SOMETIMES I do enjoy not having to cook something and having a restaurant clean up and wash the dishes but lately I have gotten to the point that I just don't want to spend the money on food that may or may not be healthy/tasty when I can make all kinds of goodies right here that I know taste good and are good for us. So January is our month of no eating out. That being said, I already had to break that rule. The kids and I went to a town 35 miles away to do our monthly grocery shopping. I thought that I had planned the timing right and we would be home in time for lunch. Well, that just didn't happen and the twins and I were starved (note to self, NEVER grocery shop when you are hungry!) so we made a swing through Chik Fil A. Not going to beat myself up about it, just gonna move on!
I do actually have a point to this post. If I am going to be cooking 3 meals a day, everyday, then I need to have a stash of recipes. I get bored with food very easily and do not like to have the same things day in, day out so I am constantly ripping out recipes from magazines. Until recently, those 100's of recipes were in different areas around my kitchen , dining room, bedroom, bathroom (don't ask). Whenever I wanted a certain recipe, I would spend half the day searching for it. Then I came up with, what I would call, a pretty doggone good idea.

This is simply and old milk crate that we no longer used and hanging file folders. Now, all my ripped out recipes have a place to go. I still need to work on the categories because some are too big and too vague but you get the idea. Now when I want to make Pork for dinner, I just go to the pork file and see what looks good. I had thought about scanning all the recipes into my computer but honestly I haven't figured out how to do that yet I just don't have the time and I usually have the laptop off when it's cooking time so paper recipes are the way to go for me! Usually, before the monthly grocery shopping, I will look through several files and make sure that I have the ingredients on my list so, during the month, I can make a wide variety of food and not be stuck making the same things over and over again. Now if I can just get the twins to do the cooking and the cleaning up and maybe the bringing it out to the table for me, I would never have to eat out again!


This is being shared at theprairiehomestead.com blog hop

No-poo...Really????

No-poo...Trust me, this has NOTHING to do with a toilet! This is all about going shampoo (and conditioner) free. I have seen quite a few people on some of the blogs I read doing this and, since I am all about the getting rid of grocery store stuff, I thought this might be interesting. I have shoulder length, very fine hair that is 'almost' uncolored. My hair tends to be very oily and I have to wash it every day. If our skin is our largest organ, why in the world do we insist on pouring, scrubbing and slathering on the toxins??? So, for the next 2 weeks I am going to try the no-poo method.  Here is a site that will give you all the details on why and how. Very interesting reading if I do say so myself. I have spent much time in the shower reading the ingredients on the back of shampoo and, after I get past 'water', things start to get a little dicey. I'll keep you posted as to how this is going.

Cream Cheese Squares

I am about to give you the ULTIMATE not good for you dessert. There is nothing in this dessert that will help you to grow up big and strong and you will not receive any essential vitamins or minerals. You will, however, be forced into an ecstasy induced coma and we all need a few more of those these days:)
I got this from onceamonthmom.com and changed it up just a bit.

Cream Cheese Squares

1-8 oz pkg. cream cheese
1         can crescent rolls
1         cup Sucanat (or sugar)
1/2      tsp. vanilla extract

For the top:
1/4      cup butter (melted)
1/8      cup Sucanat (or Sugar)
1/2      tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 pan with parchement paper or foil.
Open can of crescent rolls and unroll. Separate it into 4 squares and close up the perforations. Put 2 squares of rolls in bottom of pan. In a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and Sucanat (or sugar). Add the vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour cream cheese mixture on top of rolls in pan and spread around so it covers the rolls. Take the other 2 squares of rolls and place them on top of the cream cheese but don't mush it down.
Pour melted butter all over the top of the rolls. Mix together the Sucanat (or Sugar) and the cinnamon and sprinkle it all over the top of the rolls. Bake for 25-30 or until the top is nice and brown. Once they are done, let them sit for just awhile. You do NOT want to burn your mouth on the hot filling. Not like I would know ANYTHING about that....
Once they have cooled just a little bit, go ahead and cut yourself off a piece. Look at the picture and you can see a tiny corner of mine missing:)

Alternative To Chemical Carpet Cleaners

We were having some friends over the other night and my carpets were in some serious need of cleaning. With 2 dogs, 2 kids and one husband who wears his filthy work boots all throughout the house, the carpets needed a good cleaning. I got out my trusty Hoover carpet cleaner and went to the pantry to get the carpet cleaning solution. I looked high and low but there was none to be found. Oh No!!! I just knew my friends would walk in my house and immediately smell...dog...stinky feet...or worse! Never fear, I had baking soda...and tea tree oil! I got a little experimenty because I just couldn't bear my carpets any longer. I dissolved a heaping tablespoon of baking soda in some hot water and added about 1/8 teaspoon of tea tree oil. I figured that baking soda is a natural deodorizer and tea tree oil has wonderful antibacterial properties so this could actually work. I wasn't too worried about hurting my carpets because I wasn't using any chemicals so I poured my concoction into the cleaner holder and went to cleaning. Dirty, disgusting water being sucked up into the machine was a good sign. The tea tree oil scent was rather refreshing. I finished cleaning those disgusting carpets and noticed that the house smelled clean and fresh. Once the carpets were dry, I noticed that they were VERY soft! Of course, I had to get down there and sniff them. No stinkies!!!! SUCCESS!!!! This is just one more product I can cross off my list of buying at the store.

Homemade Brownies To Die For!

In this wonderful journey of eating whole foods, I have been trying to replace commercial foods with homemade ones. One thing that I was having trouble finding a homemade replacement for was brownies.
Yep, I LOVE those tasty made-from-a-box brownies and found that most homemade recipes just weren't very good. Well, all that has changed with this little chocolatey block of heaven. I found this recipe in Southern Living and I am really impressed with it. I just made plain ol' brownies because my son hates when I put little crunchy things in our sweets but there are so many additions that could be added to make them completely over the top scrumptious!
Are you ready?????

Here it is:

4 (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate baking squares
3/4 c. butter (please use real butter and not that fake stuff!!)
1 1/2 c. sugar (ok, I used white stuff. I know it will kill me but I wasn't sure how sucanat would taste)
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar (again, I used brown sugar instead of something healthier. I'm a rebel)
3 eggs
1 c. whole wheat flour (you could use all purpose but why???)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 pan with either tin foil (spray with non stick spray afterwards) or parchment paper and set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate and butter for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Whisk in sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until just blended. Whisk in flour, vanilla and salt.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs. Let cool in pan for about an hour then lift out of pan and cut into squares. 

These brownies are soooooo yummy. Feel free to add in nuts, coconut, peanut butter chips, whatever. Little boy doesn't know it but the next batch is going to be loaded up with all kinds of goodies!!!

This recipe is being shared at The Prairie Homestead Blog Hop and The Way Grandmama Does It Blog Hop

French Bread

Here it is! The easiest, tastiest french bread recipe. This recipe will make 2 very nice loaves.

Ingredients:

2     Tbsp. active dry yeast
2     C. Warm water (I test the temp this way-If I stick my finger in and it burns, it's too hot. If I stick my
       finger in and it feels very warm but doesn't burn, it is just right)
4-5 C. Flour-I use Hard White Wheat or Bread Flour. You can mix it up and use what you like.
2     Tsp. Salt
1     Tsp. Sugar (I used Sucanat this last time and did NOT like the taste that much)

Add yeast to warm water and let sit until foamy, about 5 or so minutes. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the dough hook add 2 c. of the flour, all the salt and all the sugar. Stir it up. Once the yeast is all foamy, pour it all into the flour mixture and start mixing. Add the flour, a half cup at a time until the dough comes together and cleans the sides of the bowl. You can take the dough out and knead it on a lightly floured surface but it is just as easy to leave it in the mixer on med. to med. low speed for about 5 minutes and let the mixer do the work. Once the dough is looking nice and elastic-y, dump it into a large, greased bowl and turn it over to grease the top. Cover with a towel and let sit in a warm place to rise for about an hour or when it has doubled in size. Once it has doubled, punch dough down and cut it into 2 pieces. You can finish this off in a couple of ways. You could roll each half out on a lightly floured surface into a foot long rectangle and roll it up by the long side OR you can just stretch it and sqeeze it till it forms a log about a foot long. Put both logs on a baking sheet (use parchment paper and you won't have to wash the pan-just sayin') and make sure they aren't anywhere near touching each other, cover with the towel again and let them rise once more till they are about doubled again. Usually takes about 30-45 mins. depending on how warm the kitchen is. Once they have risen a second time, pop them into a 450 degree oven and bake for 15 mins. They should make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom at the end of the baking time. If not, bake for another minute or two.
I am such a dork and never bothered to take any reference photos while I made these yesterday but today I got smart and photo'd the bread in it's breakfast reincarnation-FRENCH TOAST!!!

Oh, they were soooooo yummy!

Welcome 2012....

Ahhh, a new year full of possiblities! I love this time of year because I get a do-over. I get to try and fix all the things I did wrong in the past or at least some of the major ones! I don't do resolutions because I think that just sets me up for failure so I prefer to think of it as "improvements".
       
           1.  Try to eliminate as much grocery store food as possible. Yeah, I know that is a HUGE undertaking. But what is more important than taking care of your family to the best of your ability? How am I going to accomplish this? First by growing a bigger garden and preserving A LOT more of the harvest than I have in the past. Also, I will start replacing store products with homemade ones. There are so many great ideas out there that I would be a fool not to take advantage of others research and testing :) Hubby already hunts and provides about 65% of our meat. We figured that we need just 2 extra deer, and 3-4 decent sized hogs and his hunting could provide 90% of the meat. We have a pond that can provide some fish. My chickens are safe because their eggs are too valuable to me to eat the birds themselves so I am trying to find someone here that raises meat chickens. Someday I will tell you the story of the mass rooster slaughter we had on Easter morning a few years back.

              2.  Look for ways to save money on everyday things. This spring, hubby is making me a clothesline so I can drastically reduce the need for my dryer. We already cut the satellite bill down to almost nothing because we just don't watch much tv.( I was willing to get rid of the satellite altogether but hubby didn't want to get that drastic...YET)We are currently going through our bills and seeing where we can negotiate lower rates or cut things out that we can live without.

               3.  Sell things that we don't use or can live without.  This one is a little hard because I hate dealing with people. I know that sounds horrible but the older I get the more of a recluse I become. Thank goodness hubby has no problem talking to people. We have a big cargo trailer that we bought when we moved here almost 7 years ago and it really isn't doing anything other than storing tools and stuff so that will be going to a dealer to get sold. We are also in the process of harvesting trees on our property. Six years ago we harvested the mature pines but left the hard woods. Now they are ready to be cut. All proceeds will go towards eliminating our debt.

               4.  Make all our food from scratch. This one goes along with #1. Whatever I can make from scratch means I don't have to buy it from the store. Plus, homemade always tastes better! So far, our "from scratch" stuff includes: all our bread products and desserts, ranch dressing, taco seasoning, cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups (both for cooking and eating), all sauces and casseroles, all breakfast foods including some awesome granola, applesauce, jams and jellies. Once I make something myself, I no longer will buy it's counterpart from the store. Takes a bit of planning. I wanted to have burgers one night but forgot to make the buns. Can't exactly whip them up in 30 minutes so we couldn't have the burgers but I am getting better at keeping a good supply of breads on hand.

               5.  Get a milk cow. I am looking forward to this one more than anything! I cannot wait to have our own raw milk, cream, whey and cheeses. Where we live, selling raw milk is illegal so I cannot buy from any of the dairy farms here. If I can't get it from them, I will just get it myself. Yes, I know this is a GINORMOUS time commitment that will require a ton of work on my part. We have a friend who has a dairy farm in Maine and he has given us a pretty good look at what we will be getting ourselves into. The amount a time that this will require will be enormous but, again, what is more important than taking care of my family the best way I can?

These are just my top 5 improvements I want to make over the next 12 months. They are the ones that will take the most amount of time and planning. However, I think the planning part is the fun part!

Stay tuned for my bread recipe tomorrow. It is by far the easiest, quickest yeast bread recipe I have ever made and it NEVER fails!!!!! My 12 year old daughter can make it almost by herself.