A few of my favorite things!

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS:

 

Donna Young Printables

(Grocery, Kitchen, Office, Daily Planner etc.)

Mandi Cresswell

This is a blog...if you scroll through, it is sprinkled with free printables for household, menus etc.

The Family Homestead
Packed full of recipes, homeschooling, advice, and homesteading in the modern world.

Ambleside Online
This is what we use as far as homeschooling.
It is a Charlotte Mason (literature/life learning) style curriculum and it is FREE!!

Homeschool Classifieds
A place to purchase almost anything homeschool related at 2nd hand prices.

Student Worksheets
Great printables especially for littles.  There are a lot of free ones however, we use it so much that I went head and paid the $19.95 for a year free access.

Gluten Free Cooking
I have a couple kids that are gluten free and this has helped so much!

Do Hard Things
An amazing Christian place for your teens and preteens.
"A teenage rebellion against low expectations!"
The book is so worth the money!






 

Gabrielle's First Bread Baking!!

 We all got a special treat the day Gabrielle decided that she was going to give a go at bread baking!!

You have to know though, that my first response when she asked me was a louder-than-necessary "NO, NOT TODAY!"

Which happens to be my first response, usually, to anything that will make a mess!!  ;)

 But, right after my "no", I do believe God spoke to my heart.  A clean house was absolutely nothing without the children whom seem to always mess it up.

I need to be better at saying "yes" especially in times like these for four reasons:

1.  She wanted to learn and do something that would be useful in life.

2.  Really, when we tasted the delicious Pudding Infused Breakfast Puffs, the mess was more than worth it.

3.  Because she accepted the help of the little ones, we all spent a good afternoon together...laughing, baking, quality time and eating together...precious memories.

4.  Let them be little, let them make a mess..........................and then teach them how to clean it up!  ;)

  

She also made cinnamon bread that was DIVINE!!

We have a few really good children's cookbooks...two of our favorites are:

Felicity's Cooking Studio (An American Girl Cookbook)

and

Better Homes and Garden's New Junior Cookbook!!

Now...THAT my friends is an indian taco!!

Please forgive the name of the food...I didn't do it. That is really what they are called...well, either that or Fat Albertos if you eat at The El Comedor in Great Falls, MT!

Only these are better, easier and MUCH cheaper!

I will give you my secrets!!

First of all, an Indian taco is pretty much a glorified taco without a shell. In place of a shell is fry bread!
Don't know how to make fry bread?

NO PROBLEM

I am about to give you some top secret information!!

One little thing I don't like about fry bread, though, is that it is chewy. You have to have a knife to cut into it!

So...

Secret #1

Grands buttermilk biscuits!

Just roll them out as thin as you can and pop them in about of an inch of hot oil. I just do mine in a frying pan.

This is what they will look like:

Secret #2:

Make A LOT!!

In the morning you can heat them up...put on a little butter and honey or syrup and YUM!!

So, now you know...it is no longer my secret. If you become famous with these little tricks, please give credit where credit is due.

That being said...I must say that my step dad, Roger, did lead me in the direction of cheating with the fry bread using biscuits...I just kept trying till I found something

PERFECT!!

We top ours with:

Taco meat (usually made with deer burger)

Pico

Cheese

Lettuce

Avacado

Sour cream

Salsa

The sky is the limit my friends!!

Pizza Burgers are the BOMB!!

I have to post this recipe because these are really so stinkin' good!! I make a BIG batch that I am going to post the ingredients for, but you can cut it in half depending on the size of your family. I make 72...we will eat about 12 the night that I make them, and we will assemble all the rest. Put the scoop of pizza batch in each bun, wrap them in tinfoil individually and then stick them back into the bun bags. 8 per bun bag.

PIZZA BURGERS

(Batch for 72)

7 1/2 C. Cooked ground beef

60oz. Pizza sauce

1 1/2 t. Garlic salt

1 1/2 t. Onion salt

3/4 t. Oregano

9oz. Pepperoni cut in small pieces (I use the mini pepperoni the have out now)

6 C. Shredded mozzarella cheese

72 Hamburger buns (We use the Wheat Montana wheat buns)

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, pizza sauce, garlic salt, onion salt and oregano. Add the pepperoni pieces and mozzarella cheese, stirring to mix well. Fill buns with meat mixture. Wrap each bun in aluminum foil (except the ones you plan to eat that evening!)

Put the wrapped buns back into your bun bags, and then label and write serving directions on bags!

Serving Directions

For the night of: Heat meat mixture and use an icecream scoop to put a hefty amount on each bun.

For freezer:

Oven: Thaw the still wrapped burgers for one hour only....or they might turn out soggy.

then bake, still wrapped, for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees!

Microwave: Unwrap and rewrap in paper towel. Thaw for .5 lbs or about 3 minutes. Flip and heat on high for 20 seconds.

YUMMY!!!

Quick Breakfast Tip

This is a tip I have shared before, but it is worth sharing it again.

My days are a bit hectic around here and I have had to resort to some not so healthy breakfasts in order to get things going here in the morning, but I am clinging to there is a season for everything and this is just a season.

Cereal has become a norm again and so has instant oatmeal and poptart (you can cringe...I am too!)

Anyway, all my kids like one or the other and so the mess gets a little much! I have a solution for

you!!

THE QUICK BREAKFAST BIN

In it I have prepared sandwich bags with measured cereal, oatmeal and poptarts. The kids go in there and pick out what they are having and then we also recycle the sandwich bags, so I have a grocery bag hanging in the pantry for them to put their used

baggies.

The kids are the ones to measure it all out on our "Kitchen Day" which is currently Monday.

This bin helps with not having all the boxes and bags wrappers etc. on the mornings that we have to travel in for a doctors appt. or church...whatever. The bin gets put back in the pantry and the baggies got to the grocery bag.

Clean up is a breeze!

I still try to cook a healthy breakfast a few days a week and they are almost always still hungry after they finish off their selection from the bin, so I always have fruit handy...just to keep my mind at ease ;)

I also restarted my:

QUICK SNACK BIN

It has premeasured pretzels, crackers, cookies etc. for those days when snack time just creeps up on me or when we need snacks for the road...they just make their selection and we're done!!

Questions Answered

I had a few questions about our menu for the week, so I am going to answer those here...also, in a previous post, I had a question about how we keep our children motivated during chores, so after I take a few pictures to illustrate, I will post about that as well.

First, Tara H:

Here is the recipe we use for our instant oatmeal. It was taken from The Family Homestead. It seems like a ton (you could probably half it) but it really does go fast. A couple of my children will eat about 1 cup in a morning, so 20 cups goes pretty fast.

Instant Oatmeal Mix

(Crystal Miller)

20 cups quick cooking oats

2 cup powdered milk

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon salt

Take about half of the oats and run them through a blender or food processor to make them smaller… you don’t want flour though! Then mix with the rest of the ingredients. I put this in gallon size jar for storage. This is much easier to use with a big family than little packets. Little packets of things just do not work at my house! For serving we do not really measure this. We scoop out some and put in a bowl. Cover it with boiling water and let it sit for a minute or so. Then mix in honey, maple syrup, dried fruit, milk or anything that you normally enjoy with oatmeal.

Then Cheryl:

For my Crock Pot Chicken, I just cut up my carrots and potatoes and layer them in the bottom. Then I pour about 1 cup of chicken broth over that. I lay my whole chicken in the crock pot breast down. That keeps the white meat nice and juicy. I then season very well the top with a Garlic mix called Santa Maria Seasoning and another salt mixture called Jonhny's. Add a little Italian seasoning and that's it! I cook on low for about 6 - 7 hours and baste throughout to mix up the seasonings. When it is finished, it falls apart!

* I also save the stock and freeze it.

And last but not least...Shannon ;):

Fat Albertos (I have also heard called Indian Tacos) are one of our family's favorites! They are made with fry bread (when I don't have a lot of time, I use Pillsbury Country style biscuits, flatten them to about 1/8 inch each and fry them in about 1/2 inch of veg. oil. We top that with taco meat, cheese, sour cream, salsa and olives!

You will laugh at my Spanish Rice recipe...I just make brown rice and when that has finished cooking I add salsa to taste!!

Nothing like this...

There is nothing like potato soup and homemade bread on a cold day!

POTATO SOUP

About...

(I say about because there is no recipe for this one.)

7-8 potatoes

1 can corn

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cups milk

6 slices bacon (cooked and broken into pieces)

1/4 cup sauteed onion

1/4 cup cubed velveta cheese

Salt and pepper to taste (I use quite a bit of both)

Peel and cube potatoes, cook in boiling water until almost done. Drain

Add all remaining ingredients. Cook on low heat till hot.

The bread is my favorite Amish Recipe...I will post that later.