Easy Meatball Recipe

My family loves meatballs, however I forget about how easy and versatile they are. As part of our New Year's Eve snacks, I made meatballs with a homemade barbeque-like sauce. We devoured them! Not only do we like them by themselves, but we also like to serve them on french bread baguettes, as a pizza topping, or in our spaghetti.

You can buy frozen, bagged meatballs or you can easily make your own and freeze them for later use. Having homemade frozen meatballs, exactly how we like them is what we prefer. Not only does the homemade meatballs taste better, but it comes out a lot cheaper in the long run. Especially if you use venison and pulverized homemade croutons in place of the bread crumbs.

Easy Meatballs

1½ to 2 lbs. Hamburger Meat (could also sub in venison)

1½ cups bread crumbs (I used some homemade garlic and paprika croutons & pulverized them in my chopper)

2 eggs

1 medium onion;chopped

Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Add all ingredients into a medium bowl. Using hands, combine thouroughly.

Using a cookie scoop, or hands, form meatballs. Place into a baking dish. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, or until meat is no linger pink. Let cool. You can either use them immediately, or flash freeze for later use.

This post is linked to:

• Recipe Swap
• Tasty Tuesday
• Tempt my Tummy Tuesday
  

2010 Goals

We made it another year! 2009 ended up being a pretty good year for us overall. I haven't had a chance to do a recap of our 2009 goals yet, but I should have that posted next week sometime. Having a specific list of goals to concentrate really helped us to stay on track and keep motivated.

My list this year doesn't contain as much as last years because we are already very busy next year and we will have the addition of another family member. I don't want to be any more overwhelmed than what I have to be. :)

Spiritually

• Read the Word more often.
• Do a Bible Study on my own. I'm wanting to find a book to walk me through a book(s) of the Bible.

Financially

• We weren't able to pay off our truck (our final debt) in 2009, but we should be able to have it payed of by April of this year.
• Bump back up our Emergency Fund to allow room for medical expenses.
• Save additional funds for our first ever family vacation to Florida in May.

Home

• Figure out a Home Cleaning Schedule that really works for me. This seems to always be on my list of things to do. One of these days, I will finally master it!
• Get the children more involved in the daily tasks of maintaining a clean home.
• Get Rid of Clutter. I absolutely despise clutter, but somehow it has begun to take over my home. It's time for it to stop! This goes for storage spots as well.

Gardening/Food Storage

• Do majority of the garden from seeds, just like last year. This year will be a challenge since I will be pregnant through the entire spring, and up through most of harvest.
• Plant Wave 2, and probably replant Wave 1, of our Orchard. The deer found our fruit trees, and I'm not sure they will survive. :( We need to come up with a way to keep them out.
• Grow my own herbs. I'm going to try this again this year, since last year was a huge flop!
• Preserve as much fruits/veggies as I can.
• Continue to involve the children in the kitchen.
• Build up our meat storage--hopefully by way of buying a beef, and maybe a hog.
• Have meals ready in the freezer for when baby comes.

Self

• Read more books.
• Get on a exercise routine.
• Bring back one of my old hobbies. I used to love to scrapbook, sew (which I rarely did, but loved it), as well as make jewelry. I've not done these things in SO long, and would love to get back into atleast one.

What are your plans for 2010? Let's make this year a good one!

This post is linked to

• The Happy Housewife's 2010 Goal Link Up
• A Beautiful Calling

How to Use Fresh Pumpkins

A few years back I found it rather daunting and frightening to even think about using a fresh pumpkin for anything more than a Jack-O-Lantern. Now, the stuff in the can just doesn't appeal to me. The flavor from a fresh pumpkin is incredibly amplified compared to the canned variety. Surprisingly enough, they aren't difficult to deal with, either.

I posted a detailed post on how to get pumpkin puree last year when I posted my Pumpkin Pie recipe. Basically all you are needing to do, is take the seeds and stringy goodness out of the middle of pumpkin and cook it. I highly recommend using the pressure cooker method if you have one (or need another need to get one. ;) ) because it takes the least amount of time. A whopping 15-20 minutes from start to finish.

After you have cooked your pumpkin, you can either use it right away, just as you would canned pumpkin--or you can freeze it. Roughly 1 1/2-1 3/4 cup of fresh pumpkin is equivalent to one 15 oz can of pumpkin. One thing to keep in mind here is that pumpkin puree is not safe to can. Due to the difference in thickness of the puree and the acidity from one pumpkin to the next, there is just no way to determine exactly how to process it. Because of this, pumpkin puree is best frozen.

To do this, just add the desired amount of pumpkin puree to a Ziploc Freezer Bag and remove all the air. I like to stick to about 1 1/2-3/4 cup so that I have "a can" worth when I need it. While I usually will buy generic on everything, I've noticed that Ziploc is definitely the way to go with storage bags. The generics just do not compare. Another thing that I've been experimenting with is going ahead and seasoning it a bit with cinnamon and some pumpkin pie spice before sealing up the bag.

When removing the stringy goodness and the seeds, be sure to reserve the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds. I'm not sure what my favorite part is about using fresh pumpkins--the puree or the seeds?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

Butter

Salt

Make sure you rinse all of the stringy goodness and pulp off of your seeds. Place on a baking sheet, in a thin layer making sure none are overlapping. Coat the seeds in butter. I used a butter spray, but you could also melt butter and use a brush to lightly coat the seeds. They do not need to be doused in the butter, which is why I do not put them in a bowl and toss around. They really just need something for the salt to stick to, and add just a smidgen of flavor. Sprinkle the seeds with a pinch of sea salt.

Place in a preheated 300° oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and stir around a bit. Store in an air tight container.

I can't wait to play around with the spices a bit. I'm thinking the next time I will try a cinnamon/pumpkin pie spice/dab of sugar combo. Pumpkin seeds are great for snacks, in granola or even as a salad topper.

Another benefit to using fresh pumpkins, this supposed canned-pumpkin shortage this year isn't going to affect me. My home grown beauties, or the many I see around town, will do me just fine. ;)

This post is included in Tasty Tuesday , Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, and Real Life's Your Life Your Blog and Two Cents Tuesday.

Finding Freedom Friday: 2009 Goal Update

It is time to take a look back over the goals that we set for ourselves and our homes for 2009. I cannot say how glad I am that I actually set specific goals for myself this year. It truly has helped me!

You can see my complete list of goals for this year here.

This is where we stand right now:

• Spiritually: In the last few months I have really started amping this one up; but I am still no where near where I wanted to be. I've really been trying to study and understand the duties of a wife and a mom from the Biblical perspective. In doing so, I think that I have grown immensely in these areas--although there is still a lot of work to be done. I still desire to read more of the Word and sit aside time to read--and be consistent!
• Financially: Sweet Goodness. Where do I even start. I'm all about keeping it real and honest--so here it is: The summer was a disaster! We definitely could have done a lot worse that what we did. We are still trying to get back into our strict/tight budget, but we are getting there. Thankfully! As of today, our current debt is $11,131.57, with $8805.22 paid since January--or 50% of our goal. I'm overjoyed that we've made it that far. But, I've also come to grips that, at this point, it is highly unlikely that we will hit our goal. That isn't to say that we won't try!
• Home: I've gotten really good at keeping on top of the housework and keeping with my schedule/routine. What a blessing this has been! I'm also almost done with my Home Management Binder, Gardening Binder, Seasonal Binder, and my Budget Binder {which has become a sub-section of my HMB}.
• Gardening/Food Storage: The garden has been going good, although we never did plant my herbs. :( My food storage is coming along quite nicely, and I've got a lot of bulk food stored, as well.

How are you doing with your goals??

**Please remember to link to your blog post, not your homepage and link back here so your readers can see how everyone else is doing.**

A Full Pantry

A full pantry is a huge blessing and a big relief in those times when the grocery budget is feeling a little squeeze. This year we have been blessed with bountiful garden harvests. I am so amazed! Everytime I am harvesting our crops or putting them up so we can enjoy them in the cool winter months, I can't help but think that the "fruits of my labor" were once little tiny seeds and seedlings. God is amazing!!



Coming into this gardening season, Willie and I had big gardening plans. Our main goal was to store up enough food from our summer/fall harvests to make us through until the next garden was producing. We sat down and came up with a rough number of how many of what we needed, and we planted away. Mid way through the season, I was getting a little discouraged because things weren't going exactly as I had envisioned or planned them to be. I wanted the perfect garden, with perfect gardening beds and walkways, with no weeds. Any.Where. End of story. I worked, worked and worked some more--but things just weren't going as I wanted. My tomatillos came down with nasty bugs and once I got that taken care of my zuchinni plants and beloved pie pumpkins were compltely killed out by those pesky squash bugs. My green beans weren't producing at the rate that I thought they should in order for us to end up with what we wanted..so I gave up.



Seriously.



I got to where I didn't want to go out there, it was too discouraging. Then it hit me. You are blessed. Immensely and immeasurably blessed. And you're going to throw it all away?? Everything doesn't have to be perfect. You can't give up when the going gets tough. Persevere and you will be richly blessed.



Slowly but surely Willie and I are regaining the garden. It has been overtaken by weeds in the walkways, but it is still producing like crazy! We planted some more green beans and some asparagus beans (huge 2-3 foot long beans) so that we can have a small fall harvest to keep our storage up.



Looking in my pantry and in my freezer just makes me smile. God, You are so good!



As of today, this is what my pantry and my freezer hold--all of which is from this year. (I do still have some pickles and jelly from last year, but they are not included on this list).

• 33 bags (with roughly 1 cup each) Chopped Green or Yellow Pepper {frozen}


• 5 (½ cup portions) sliced jalapenos {frozen}


• 12 cups shredded zuchinni (I was able to get these before my plants were killed off) {frozen}


• 2 gallon bags of Tomatillos {frozen}


• 1 Ice cream bucket of Blackberries. {frozen}


• 46 quarts Green Beans


• 11 pints sliced banana peppers


• 4 pints sliced jalapenos.


• 4 pints Hot Pepper Mix (Chinese 5 color, Fish Peppers, Banana Peppers, Jalapenos, and Cherry Bombs)


• 3 pints Spaghetti sauce (We've been using some of these. I do believe there were also 2 quarts and a pint more)


• 26 pints Diced Tomatoes.


• 6 Half-Pints of Corn Cob Jelly {recipe to come Friday}


• 6 pints; 5 Half Pints Blackberry Jelly


• 4 Half Gallon; 5 Quarts Sweet Pickles.

In addition to this list, I still have jalapenos waiting to be turned into more Jalapeno Jelly (notice there is none on this list!), banana peppers, various hot peppers, green/purple beans, cucumbers, and 100 tomatoes ready to be preserved. As well as a few pie pumkins that are this close to pie.

Wow. So glad I didn't throw in the towel!

It may not be the prettiest garden these days, but let me tell ya something. It's mine. God gave it to me. ;)

How is your garden and your food storage coming along?

Q & A: Wheat

Earlier this week when I posted on Grinding Wheat, there were a flood of questions that came in. Instead of answering them all by email, which is what I usually do, I decided to do a post since a lot of the same questions were addressed. If you still have questions, fell free to ask in the comments, on BlogFrog, or even Facebook.

Thank you to everyone who weighed in on my dilemma of holey bread. Here are some of your tips:

• Anonymous: To keep my bread from having holes in it, I form the loaf and then slam (and I do mean slam) it on the counter to get rid of air bubbles. Just keep shaping and slamming until the loaf makes a deep thud. You'll notice the difference in sound after a few times. Then pop them in the pans and bake! I've always heard that making bread is a good stress reliever! Thanks for your help!
  
  


• Miriam: For the "mouse hole" in your bread, I used to have the same problem (mom's bread was notorious for them). I knead the dough a bit before I divide it into loaves, and then instead of just shaping the loaf, I knead it into shape. I also don't use any oil on the dough at any time, so there's no oily surfaces preventing the dough from sticking to itself inside the loaf. I don't know if that was the problem with your loaf, but that's what I do :) I hope it makes sense. Yes, that makes sense. Looks like I haven't been kneading enough...
  
  


• Lynn: I love my Nutrimill. Fresh ground wheat is so much better. Did you see my post on the book about whole grains? You would probably really enjoy it. Thanks, Lynn! That book sounds interesting.**If you are not familiar with Lynn's blog, you really need to check her out--her recipes are amazing!**
  
  
• Jena: I don't have much interest in grinding my own because I'm very lucky and have access to organic stone ground flour that is grown just 2 miles down the road. (Jealous!) I've been struggling to consistently make good loaves of bread with it for about a year now. My results are much better since reading "Laurel's Bread Book" which is entirely dedicated to baking with whole grains. My first single loaf made from the book turned out well but when I tried the double recipe they were pretty block like again. They either rise well and then not much in the oven or the rise a ton and collapse. Oh well, I'll get there! :) Is this the book you are referring to? You'll get it down in no time, at least it is fun and tasty to practice, huh? :)

Your Questions:

• hiptobeme: How long will the wheat keep before you grind it? Also, can you make it more convenient and use it in the breadmaker?
  
  
  
  • Oh goodness. Wheat berries, if stored correctly, can be stored for quite some time. I've heard varying things, anywhere from 10-50 years! Really, if you remove all the air, store in a cool, dry location and they don't have a foul smell or contain bugs--you are good to go! The only time you need to use it quickly is when it has been ground. Once the wheat berries are turned into flour, it loses it's nutrients very quickly. As for using it in the breadmaker, yes you can! It is fully interchangeable with store bought flour.
    
    


• JeannaMo: Does the wheat you grind always turn out brown like whole wheat flour? That is my only concern for home use as my family is pretty much a "white bread bunch". Yes, it looks very similar to store bought whole wheat flour as far as color goes.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Also, do you use it straight or mix it with white flour. That depends on the recipe. I prefer to use all whole wheat flour because of the nutrition and honestly, we prefer the flavor. But, there are some recipes that we still prefer to be "white", like some desserts and breadsticks.
    
    
  
  

Source

• What is "spelt" flour. How is it different than the all purpose flour I buy at the store. Spelt is still wheat, just a different kind of wheat, and one can easily be substituted for the other. It contains more protein (about 10-25% more) and fiber than a white or red wheat berry, and is also a bit sweeter and nuttier in taste. Spelt also has a high water solubility, which makes it easier for your body to absorb all the extra nutrients. There is a HUGE difference between all-purpose flour and any whole-wheat flour. All-Purpose flour is still milled from wheat, but it has all the wheat bran and wheat germ removed (when looking at whole wheat flour--those are the "brown specs" you see). Bleached All-Purpose flour has literally had a chlorine-bath to remove the color and inevitably any sort of nutrient that may be left once the bran and germ were removed. For this reason, when I use white flour, it is always unbleached.
  
  
• Where did you find the storage container that keeps the bugs away (is this something the farmer provided?) My friend said he could get me all the wheat I wanted and he said he could get it before they spray it with the stuff to keep the bugs away - eeek! Now I have to do it cause we all now know what we are eating - insecticides of some sort! We got our containers from a local merchant, but on a recent post, commenters mentioned that they were able to get food safe buckets with lids from grocery stores for no cost. Definitely something worth checking into.
  
  
Rachel R.: And, yes, it is generally a money-saver, if you eat 100% whole wheat bread to begin with. Last time I priced my bread - using extra-virgin olive oil, raw honey, and sea salt (not cheapy ingredients), it was about 70 cents a loaf. Now, wheat prices have gone up, so it's probably a little higher, but not nearly the $2-3 I would pay for 100% whole wheat bread at the store. And it tastes better. ;) Definitely! When I was at the store a few days ago, I decided to check the ingredients in store bought 100% Whole Wheat bread. I was a little taken a back by some of their ingredients, and I'm still trying to figure out why it contains HFCS! That is in ev.er.y.th.ing. Geesh.

Buying in Bulk

While I've always had a pretty good stash of food, there was never really a reason behind. Most of the time it was the result of my obsession with numbers, and not being able to buy less than 3 of anything. ;) I'm getting better. Maybe.




Since I have been consistently making our food from scratch, this makes the need for flour, old fashioned oats, and sugar far greater than before. While Aldi's prices are really good on these products, far better than Wal-Mart or our local grocery store, it still adds up and I'll take any savings I can get.





As part of my goals for 2009, I wanted to get a food supply up in the event that my husband loses his job and really, just for peace of mind (who knows, I could get trapped in my house again for 3 weeks this winter!). We just recently put up wheat berries for our wheat flour, so I was just missing the rest for my baking essentials. We hit up the local discount grocery store, which started carrying bulk products, and came home with 50 lbs each of old fashioned oats, sugar and unbleached flour. The only problem was storage. I still keep my small containers in my cabinets, but I needed somewhere to put the rest.




We found some food safe 5 gallon buckets with lids and decided that those would work best since they can stack on top of each other and would be air tight. One of the main things you have to worry about when buying in bulk, is bugs! While it would just add some extra protein, I'm just not for it! To prevent this, not only do you need an airtight container, but you need to get out all of the oxygen.



Insert oxygen absorbers.



These are just small little packets (similiar to the silica gel packets that you see in various products) that absorb all of the excess oxygen. This will help keep out the bugs, and also help your product stay fresh longer. We were able to get ours at another local-ish retailer that specializes in canning/bulk foods for about .10¢ a piece. Definitely nothing that will break the bank.



While initially I had the cost of the buckets, which added up fast, I've still made out on top. If I were to buy everything in their smaller containers from Aldi's, I would have spent roughly twice as much as I did for buying it all at once in bulk. If you have room to store bulk products, it is worth checking into, just make sure that you store it correctly so you don't ruin your product in the process.




Don't forget to label your buckets, especially if you have multiple buckets. Also, instead of using regular lids, you can get a "Gamma Lid", which not only is airtight, but screws on and off. Super handy when you are needing to refill your containers.




If you do not have a lot of pantry space, but are blessed with ample freezer room, you can also place your flour and sugar in the freezer. This will help it to maintain it's freshness, and will kill any weevil or insect eggs already in there. Storing it this way will keep it fresh for several years.

How do you store up bulk purchases??

This post is linked to:

• Works for Me Wednesday
• Frugal Friday

Grinding Wheat

I've been toying with the idea of getting a wheat grinder for many months now. The price of one had really turned me off from buying one, although the benefits are many. My birthday was in early July, and my husband kept hinting at buying me one. While I really, really wanted it--I didn't think it was quite the time since I hadn't been able to save up the full amount, yet.

But--he insisted. This is where I tell you that he is very hard to convert to the frugal wagon. Very. I know that I don't mention it a lot here, but seriously, converting him to frugal-ism isn't the easiest thing I've ever done. He sees the benefits, and he is pretty good, but he still wants what he wants, when he wants it. Which is exactly why not all of our snowball has been going to our debt in recent months. But, we move on....

He really did have a reason, though, on buying the grinder now. A local farmer, and good friend and co-worker of my husband, grows organic, spelt wheat. He offered us as much of it as we wanted...FREE OF CHARGE! Y'all that is huge! We just needed the grinder to make good use of it. Currently we have not one, but two (!) 55 gallon barrels of spelt stored (with oxygen absorbers so we don't get icky bugs. Although, that is just added protein.. ;) ) patiently waiting to be ground into flour.

So, for a little over a month now, my family and I have been enjoying free, freshly ground spelt wheat. It is delicious and oh so good for you!! The only issue that I have encountered is that my bread isn't as "pretty" and one time there was a big hole all through the center. Anyone know what caused that??? I did find an awesome spelt dinner roll recipe that I used to make a loaf a of bread again as bread bowls. So delicious!

I use a NutriMill Grain Mill, basically because it has a bigger capacity than the VitalMill (it's little brother) and the WonderMill. Ususally when I am making my goods, it is all in one day, so I just grind a huge batch and get it over with since the machine is rather large and noisy (it sounds like a vacuum cleaner--maybe a smidgen louder).

Here are some thing to keep in mind:

• Only grind as much flour as you can use. While you can go ahead and grind enough for a few weeks use--once ground, the flour loses about 45% of it's nutrients in the first 24 hours!! Can you imagine what they put in store bought flour to maintain nutrients?? Or how lacking it really is?? While placing the flour in a freezer will slow the process, freshly ground flour is still the best! Why go through the whole process and still end up with an inferior product??
• Keep this in mind: 1 cup of berries= about 1 ½ cups of flour. This depends a lot on how fine you grind your flour. I've been able to get about 2 cups of flour to 1 cup of berries--it was a very fine flour and took quite a while to grind. But, for everyday baking, this should be right about your ratio.
• Packed with Nutrients! Whole wheat flour (especially spelt) is packed with protein, amongst other nutrients, which is very good for you
• You are not limited to just grinding wheat. With most mills you are able to grind beans, rice, barley, as well as wheat berries. This opens up a whole new field of baking! A lot of these specialty flours are very expensive, but you can buy the "whole product" much cheaper.
• Expect to pay about $250. While this may sound like a lot (trust me--I thought so, too!) , it is worth it. Flavor alone is enough for me to recommend grinding your own wheat. While it may not end up being cheaper in the long run for most (I think it comes out about even, maybe just a tad cheaper), the nutritional benefits are far greater. Nutrition combined with better taste, and knowing exactly what is in your food is as good a case as any.
• Peace of Mind. Quite frankly--I don't know what the future holds. Now I know that if times get really tough, we will have bread products. There is no need to worry about flour products in my minimal grocery budget anymore. While I know that it may be impossible for some to store 110 gallons of wheat (or over 300 pounds!)-some is better than none. You just don't know.

Do you grind your own flour?? Have any tips/tricks and recipes to share?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Canning Tomatoes

After all the fuss of no tomatoes ripening, I've been blessed! We returned home from visiting family back in our hometown at about 7:30 Sunday evening, and I decided to take a peek at the garden. I knew I had some green and purple beans that were ready, and probably some peppers. Boy was I in for a surprise!

I took an ice cream bucket and a big green bowl that I have, only to have to ask Willie to bring me a 5 gallon bucket! I picked about 120 tomatoes, 10 green peppers, some jalapenos, an ice cream bucket of tomatillos, and 7 quarts of green/purple beans! Yes--this is what I've been waiting for!

That night Willie and I decided to go ahead and can the green beans so I could get them out of the way and have basically the whole day to mess with the tomatoes. While I love the end product, canning tomatoes requires the most work and makes the biggest mess. After using the juicer with the blackberries and getting amazing results, I tried using it on the tomatoes. Yeah, that doesn't work. So I'm back to using the tried and true method from last year.

First things first--Wash your tomatoes. Even if you haven't used chemicals, they are still icky. Then you need to get a big pot of water and turn it to about medium, or medium high. You don't necessarily want it to boil, but you need it to be hot.

Then, you need to cut out the stem and the core. The best thing I have found is a melon baller. They usually come with 2 different sizes, the smallest one is just about the exact same size as the tomato stem. Just push it down in and cut it out. When doing so you will see that inside the tomato (which is red) there is a green core. Make sure you get all of that out as well.

Once you have all of the tomatoes stemmed and cored, put them in the hot water for a few minutes. What you are looking for is for the skin on the tomatoes to start cracking. While they are in there, fill your sink with cold water. When the skins are cracking and starting to come away, plop them into the cold water. Not only will this cool them down and make them manageable again, but it will help the peels come off so much easier. If there is part of the peel that just won't come off--put them back into the hot water and repeat.

Now comes the messy part of seeding them! Taking a paring knife, cut the tomatoes in half horizontally. This will show you the seed cavities and make it much easier to get them out. Stick your pairing knife into the little seed cavities, scraping around and getting all the gel looking stuff, as well as the seeds out--discard. (We've taken the seeds and peels, covered in water and boiled them down and strained to make a "juice". While it may not be authentic, to my surprise, it wasn't bad.)

Now that you have the hard part down you can do different things with your tomatoes. I usually dice them up and can, or you can leave them as is. You can also make salsa, sauce, or spaghetti sauce. One thing to keep in mind when making sauce--it takes GOBS of tomatoes. For instance today I had 100 Roma tomatoes (which are a sauce tomato) to make spaghetti sauce with. I ended up with about 2 quarts! One that I canned, and enough for us to have for dinner.

To can tomatoes:

• Sterilize your jars and lids.
• For every pint add 1 Tbsp Bottled Lemon Juice to the bottom, and for quarts add 2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice. This is used to maintain the acid level and it is a must--you cannot go without it. I have never noticed any taste difference.
• You can either can them in their own juice or in water. I'm not sure why, but I've always canned them in water. After your tomatoes and lemon juice are in the jars, pour hot water over them, making sure to leave ¼inch headspace.
• Put the lid/ring on.
• Process in a boiling water canner. Quarts take 45 minutes and pints are 40 minutes.

To do a sauce:

• Process your tomatoes in a food processor.
• Put into a saucepot. If making spaghetti sauce, or other flavored sauce, now is the time to season. I used 2 green peppers and 2 red onions (all from the garden) and sauteed them in EVOO and garlic powder (processed them in the food processor once slightly tender) and seasoned with parsley, garlic powder, oregano, and basil.
• Simmer/Cook until reduced by half. This takes quite some time, so patience is a virtue. The taste afterward is worth waiting for!
• Sterilze your jars.
• For every pint add 1 Tbsp of Bottled Lemon Juice, and for quarts add 2 Tbsp.
• Fill your jars with sauce and add the lids/rings.
• Proceed as above.

Out of all of my tomatoes, 100 were Roma, which went to the Spaghetti Sauce, and 20 were Black Krim. I diced up the Black Krim's and canned diced tomatoes, and was able to get 4 pints (which is eqivalent to 2 quarts!). Definitely a big difference from the Roma's. Honestly, while we really enjoy homemade, home canned spaghetti sauce--I don't think I will continue doing it. After all is said and done I don't know that it is cost or labor effective. While the green peppers and onions cost me nothing, I used the fire out of the seasonings--although they really don't amount to much cost either. However, I was in the kitchen, processing tomatoes from about 12 until 5--with very few breaks in between. Considering I get my Spaghetti Sauce at Aldi (which out beat Prego and Ragu{amongst other brands} in our taste tests) for just over a $1, I'm thinking that is the route to go!

What do you do with your tomato harvest?

This post is linked to:

• Tackle It Tuesday
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
• Tasty Tuesday

Preserving the Harvests

It has been quite some time since I have last updated my garden progress. I planned on being home a lot more and spending more of my day in there than what I am. Nonetheless though, it is keeping us in food!

Our summer has been incredibly mild, with only one week that was so hot we could hardly stand it. The last week or so has just been amazing. As a matter of fact, we've had our windows open since Sunday--and it is gorgeous. The down fall here is, my peppers don't like that! My hot peppers are not hot, and my green peppers are just not progressing as fast as they should. I've only picked one--from 23 plants!

For one reason or another I am unable to find all of the pictures I took of our harvests. I can only find this one:




But I can assure you that there as been way more than that!! All in all this is what the garden has produced:

• (7) Half Pints Jalapeno Jelly (I've had tons of jalapenos, but not enough tomatoes to make salsa..yet so I had to get creative!)
• 3 batches Blackberry Jelly (I can't remember exactly how much that produced, but I think it was close to 9 pints)
• (13) Quarts and (1) Pint of green/purple beans and enough that we ate a mess for dinner one night. In addition to these, the boys picked another ice cream bucket full this evening, which should get us about 3-4 more quarts. This may sound like a large amount, but our goal was 100 quarts. Having this much will grant us about 2 quarts a week from now until harvest next year. We still have a long way to go!
• (6) Quarts Sweet Pickles. I toyed with the spices in a recipe last year, which produced our favorite pickle ever. But, because it was an experiment I had no idea how much we would like it and we ran out quickly. My Mom-In-Law has requested tons of these, and so has my husband, which leaves us in the same boat as the green beans--I need TONS more. Guess I can put that 5 gallon bucket worth of cucumbers to good use. ;)
• (3) Pints Pickled Banana Peppers.
• (5) Pints of Jalapenos--although not from the garden.
• And..we're trying something new this year and brining a 5 gallon bucket of Dill Pickles. We are on week 3 and it just doesn't seem to be progressing like it should. We'll see...
• Shredded 12 cups worth of Zucchini and fried one up for company Monday night. The squash borers got far more than I did. :( We may not have an organic garden next year. :)

With our picking this evening, we also got a big batch of tomatoes. I see a big canning day in my near future.

This post is linked to: How Does Your Garden Grow?

How is your garden coming along? Are you preserving any??

Finding Freedom Friday: OAMC/Freezer Meals

Have you ever just had one of those days where you lack all "want to" and gusto to fix dinner? It's in the plan, you have everything to make it, but you just aren't feeling it?

Insert Once a Month Cooking (OAMC). It solves that problem for you.

Ever forget an ingredient at the grocery store for your planned meal, and nothing else comes to mind to fix. Or the planned meal just doesn't sound appetizing at all?

You guessed it! OAMC solves those problems too.

Having a meal in the freezer has also saved my budget on those occasions when I think I want to eat out. Then I remember that there is some Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup, or a casserole waiting for me in my freezer. That isn't to say that we don't eat out, because we do..on occassion. Honestly, I can't wait until I have a whole freezer full of meals to choose from (I would be happy with half a freezer at this point!).

Basically the concept is to cook up a whole bunch of different meals or partial meals that are freezer friendly in one day (or a couple or even just do one extra when you make your regular dinner). I've been dreaming of doing a OAMC day, but frankly I've just not made it that far. Honestly, in the OAMC world, I've not made it far at all.

Here are some of my tips, from my very limited experience:

• Freeze your meat in a marinade. That way when you need it, all you have to do is take it out of the freezer and thaw.
• Freezing individual servings is ideal for lunches. For soups and broth, let cool first and then pour into a paper cup. Once frozen, you can pop them out of the cup and put into a Ziploc bag.
• Label, Label, Label. You will definitely want to make sure that you label everything, even if you think that you will recognize it later on. There are so many foods, that when frozen, look alike. Avoid the guessing game, by labeling when you put it in the freezer. I have guilty of this too many times to count!
• Cook like meals together. For instance; Hamburger meals, Chicken meals, etc. This will make your prep so much easier instead of having numerous different kinds of meat out.
  

What to freeze?

• I freeze lots and lots of soups mostly because when making them they take on a life of their own. By the time I am done I have a huge stockpot full and it just isn't possible for us to eat it all before we grow tired of it, or before it goes bad (which just isn't an option). To take up less space put them in a Ziploc bag and lay them flat.
• Pasta Sauces. Brown up a bunch of hamburger meat and add the desired amount of pasta sauce (perfect for the summer months when you have an abundance of garden fresh vegetables). Freeze in family sized portions. Perfect for lasagna, spaghetti, tortellini, or any other recipe that calls for a meat marinara sauce. Just thaw your frozen portion and proceed with the recipe!
• Endless amounts of baked goods. So very handy to freeze muffins, cookies, cakes, breads, etc for using later as snacks or in packed lunches. TIP: Pop a frozen muffin in your lunch box, and by lunch time it should be ready to eat. It also helps keep your other food cold.
• Various Casseroles.
• Breakfast Burritos. Scramble up a dozen eggs, fry up a pound of bacon or sausage, add some cheese and wrap up a bunch of burritos. Perfect for mornings on the run. I used to make up a bunch of these when I was still working and my husband and I would both grab one on our way out the door. When we made them, I would wrap them in aluminum foil. When ready to heat, remove the foil and pop in the microwave. Beats McDonald's burritos any day!
• And although I've never tried it (but have been meaning to): Make your own frozen pizza. Why not? Homemade pizza is way better than those processed, lacking toppings, no choice, store bought frozen ones. I'm hoping to try freezing our new favorites.

Right now that is all that I have tried, but it is just a sampling of the endless possibilities you have with OAMC/Freezer Meals.

Once you get started, you'll be Finding Freedom in no time!

What are your tips for OAMC or for making Freezer Meals? Have any recipes to share? How has it helped you?

I really can't wait to see what you all bring, but please abide by the rules. (You can find them at the bottom of this post)

1. Stephanie (Batch Cooking: What It Is and How I Do It Part 1) (Part 2)
2. Lynn
3. Amy- Cutting Coupons in KC
4. Changing Reflection (making meal prep easy)
5. pennypinchinmomma (guide to oamc)

100% Whole Wheat Bread

I've been on a search for a light, fluffy purely 100% Whole Wheat Bread for some time now--and I have finally found it! Previously I was making my husband French Bread Baguettes for him to make his sandwiches for work, but no more. He loves this bread so much more.



As a matter of fact, I sliced the homemade bread and put it directly next to some store bought bread--and the texture of the homemade stuff was exactly the same as the store bought stuff. The only difference, mine tasted LOADS better, and it wasn't the exact same shape (but pretty close!).



So, without further ado...

100% Whole Wheat Bread

1 ¼ cups warm water (not hot)

1 Tbsp yeast

1/3 cup sugar

2 ¾ cup Whole Wheat flour

¼ c Vital Wheat Gluten (You can find this at Walmart in the baking aisle, or at some health food stores)

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp dry milk

1 Tbsp Butter

1 Tbsp vinegar

In a mixing bowl add the warm water and the yeast and let sit until the yeast is bubbly. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix with Kitchenaid mixer for about 2 minutes. Your dough should be soft and springy to the touch, not too wet. If it is still a bit moist, throw in a small dusting of flour and mix until the right consistensy.

Cover and let rise until doubled. The time will depend on the conditions of your home. Mine takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Once doubled, punch down and form into a loaf shape. Grease bread pan and place in your dough. Cover with greased Saran Wrap and let rise until over the top of your bread pan.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until browned a bit on top.

TIP: A good way to tell if your bread is baked all the way is to thump it on the bottom. If it gives a hollow like sound, you are good to go. If not, pop it back in the oven and bake longer.

This post is linked to:

• Frugal Friday
• Recipe Swap

Recipe was modified slightly from Everyday Food Storage.

Grocery Shopping Trip

I've been rather absent from the grocery shopping world for a few weeks. We experienced a sleet/snow/ice storm a few weeks ago, that was the worst one to grace our area in quite sometime. It took quite awhile for everything to melt away, but even then we didn't return to school. Our high school apparently sustained some damage, so we had to wait until they could repair it before we went back. We were out a total of 8 days!!



I would have went grocery shopping by the start of the second week, but my driveway was horrendous, and my oldest cannot handle all the "extras" in the grocery store. I was just not up for the fight.



By the time I made this trip, I hadn't been in about 3 weeks! Thankfully I had a pretty good stockpile going on, and I still have a lot of meat, rice and veggies left. This trip had to replace some of the regulars as well as some kitchen staples. We made a quick trip to town to get one gallon of milk, so I'm going to add that in at the bottom in the final total.



ALDI:

(2) Dozen Eggs $2.78
Bag Apples .99
Quick Oats $1.79
Macaroni $1.69
(2) Cream Cheese $1.98
Shredded Cheddar $2.99
Velveeta Type Cheese $3.79
(2) Butter Quarters $3.98
Fruit Popsicles $1.99
Coffee $4.99
Creamer $1.95
American Cheese $1.99
Raisins $1.65
(2) Canned Mushrooms .98
Vegetable Oil $2.29
(4) Frozen OJ $5
Parmesan Cheese $2.39
Pepper $1.19
(2) Milk $4.98

TOTAL: $51.45

WalMart

Powdered Mil $14.28
Pull ups $10.24
TP $1.24
Dry Pinto beans .94
Dry Black Eyed Peas $1.26
WW Flour $2.86
Vital Wheat Gluten $1.84 (never tried this)
Oregano $2.58
5# Ham $6.98
Oscar Meyer Bacon $3

TOTAL: $47.44

I have temporarily misplaced my Walgreen's receipt. I didn't get anything all too impressive. I got 2 of the FAR items, some Sierra Mist, and a couple random deals. I didn't use any coupons this time *gasp*...so my total was around $27.

I stopped by the bread store on my way home and got 3 loaves of Sara Lee Honey Wheat for $1/loaf and 3 Sara Lee Bagels for .60 cents each. Total Spent $4.99



FINAL TOTAL: $130.88, plus random milk purchase of $3.50=$134.38

Hmm...a little over my $125/2 week goal. I debated on getting the powdered milk since it was a big chunk of money, but I've noticed how handy it is to keep around, so I got it anyway. It is definitely a good food storage item. Also, since I just got all my goods, and my grocery budget gets replenished again this Friday, and I'm slated to go shopping again Monday, I think I'm good. This trip contained all of my ingredients for this weeks menu, as well as next, so I won't have to pick those up. I'm actually secretly hoping that I can get away with $100 for my next trip, we'll just have to see how that goes.



To see how others did on their grocery shopping, visit Grocery Cart Challenge.

Food Storage

So, I mentioned in my goal post that I wanted to have a 3 month food supply stocked up. And how do I plan on doing that?



Well, I have been thinking about this for quite sometime. I'm sure that the economy may have expedited my goal, but a site that I found through twitter has also helped me to jump start my goal. And what site would that be?!



The original site was actually Everyday Food Storage, but they have teamed up with 2 other bloggers and formed Fun with Food Storage. It is fantastic. They walk you through the steps of planning your food storage (powdered milk, grains, beans, emergency kit, etc.), buying your food storage and even cooking/eating everyday foods with your food storage. There are some great recipes and they are frugal as well.



They have a great baby step program on their site to help you slowy build up your food storage.



And, while your over there, check out their awesome giveaways!