Frugal Lunches for the week

I'm off work for the holidays but my husband will be going to work this week. One thing that I've been doing for a while now is making sure we have our lunches ready to go for the week before we go to bed on Sunday nights. It's one thing to say " we'll take leftovers" or " I'll come up with something in the morning". But what happens is that did not always happen and we ended up purchasing a lunch here and there and blowing our budget.

This nice little meal consists of a bean and cheese burrito, chicken flavored rice and pickled jalepenos that I put up this past summer. The entire lunch costs less than $1.50 TOTAL. I also had enough left over for about 2 servings of rice that I can eat for lunch sometime this week or we can use it for leftovers or in a soup or something for dinner and 4 bean burritos that I wrapped in foil and put in the freezer for a quick lunch or dinner down the road.

Here we go- five, frugal- yummy lunches that will ensure that my husband has a good lunch and we don't spend money on food we weren't planning to!

 

What are your go to lunch preps?

 

Happy Homesteading guys!

Prepping Breakfast for the Week: Frugal Breakfast Burritos

A few things are going on here: 

1: we have so many eggs coming in that we can't keep up- I've made and frozen quiches ( recipe here) and we eat eggs of course fried, scrambled, hard boiled etc. But this is another good way to make a good use of them. 

2: we have gotten a few wild boars this year and processed them so we have yummy sausage

3: it's rainy and cold here so I thought it was a good day to make some of these burritos for the freezer

4: My husband loves these and takes a bag of these to work and then eats one each morning after he goes to the gym. Quick ,easy, protein, cheap and ensures he eats a good breakfast

So  I assembled the ingredients to make breakfast burritos. 

Eggs- from our own chickens

1 lb sausage- we harvested and processed ourselves

tortillas

canned jalapenos - from our garden last year

an onion

taco seasoning - ( it's in the clear container) I buy it in bulk from a local Amish store

cheese- from a local farm ( wish we could do our own cheese)

Let's chop that onion up ( I love my Ulu knife, by the way) 

Brown the sausage then add the onion and taco seasoning. 

Add the dozen eggs and start scrambling them together. 

Add the chopped jalapenos ( fresh are great here too, we just don't have any fresh ones right now). I use bell peppers when making for the kids. 

Shred some cheese to add to the top. 

Wrap that baby up- then roll in foil. 

And here we go. A nice batch of breakfast burritos to add to the freezer. We use a lot of our own ingredients, and also I buy super cheap tortillas- you could probably make them but I can get 10 for .99 cents at Kroger. I have calculated each one costs about .22 cents. 22 cents for breakfast is not bad!! I do write "breakfast" on these with a permanent marker on the foil, because I do make lunch ones as well and write "lunch" on those so we don't get confused!

What all are you guys cooking, prepping, baking and freezing this week? 

Asparagus and Dill Quiche

I'm always ready for a good Quiche Recipe. We are blessed to have many eggs at the moment ( well most moments actually) and after a trip to the library and coming home with a book called "Pies" by Ashley English I found this Quiche that seemed just right for Spring. You could make your own crust of course, but I did not. I found them on clearance after the holidays and bought about 20... They were like .29 cents for a two pack. I doubt I could make them for that. Anyways.... the asparagus is not mine , but from a farmer's market we go to. The dill is mine, as are the eggs.

So you cut up a bundle of fresh asparagus into bit sized peices and put into the pie crust.

Then add the dill.

Then you crack your six farm fresh eggs into a bowl and mix well, then pour onto the top of your pie. This is also where you add the heavy whipping cream.

Cover with about a cup of Feta and bake at 350 until it begins to get nice and bubbly and brown on top.  My husband and I gave this recipe a 10! The kids gave it probably a 7.5. Either way it was a nice way to use up some eggs and it fed us dinner, then kept great as left overs for lunches for a few days. It's quite rich and didn't take much to fill you up.

I would say to number 1) check out this super fun book from the library, I gave it back but plan on getting it again in the summer when my fruits and veggies are more productive and two try out this recipe for a very nice Spring brunch, lunch or dinner.

Happy Homesteading!

Lentil Soup

I wouldn't say it was cold here today, but there was a slight nip in the air and it was overcast. I felt like a nice big pot of soup with some cornbread.

I had some lentils as well as some veggies so I whipped up this great Lentil Soup. I forgot where I got the recipe, but it's not mine. I found it in a magazine or something several years ago.


Start with about a Table spoon of olive oil in a pan. Then add 2 peeled, chopped carrots, a small white onion and 3 ribs of celery.

Then I added several sprigs of thyme and rosemary. I'm using my little ULU knife I got for Christmas from my parents. It is amazing!!

 Chop chop chop and in no time they are all chopped up. Love that silly Ulu. 

 Once they are all nice and browned, I add them to about 7 cups of broth. I used chicken broth because I had it on hand, but veggie broth would work. Add about 2 cups of dry lentils.

 While that is simmering I made up a batch of cornbread muffins. The ones on the right have fresh jalepenos chopped up in them for me and the husband. The others are just plain for the kids. I let everything simmer for about 30 minutes....

So good. No really, it is very good. I find such good flavor and just a really healthy, yummy, quick soup. 

Puttin' up Peppers!

It's getting hot in here!

It's not quite time for my famous pepper relish yet , but we do have a ton of these hot banana peppers. I only planted 4 plants this year, but just this morning I picked a 5 gallon bucket full! I have about a third to my dad and brothers to eat and kept a few for use to snack on. I also know that we'll have more in a few days. Anyways, I prefer the sweet ones, but will eat the hot ones occasionally, but my husband, father, father in law and brothers love the hot pepper rings.

 Just for reference, these are what they look like. Just imagine a 5 gallon bucket of them! So I pickled them of course.

 I just washed and dried them really well, then prepared my jars and rings. The mixture I use is just 2 parts water 6 parts white vinegar, maybe a tablespoon pickling salt, and some garlic.

 These aren't super bright. They are kind of a dull color to start with, but they will eat just the same! So what do we eat them on? Home made pizza, sandwiches, salads, tacos, beans, by themselves, really all winter the men can find something to eat them on.

 So I also planted some little tabasco peppers and they are beginning to make. I went ahead and pickled some to use as pepper sauce, used mainly on greens and with cornbread, at least around here. I then thought to myself, I bet I could get one of those cute little jars like pepper sauce ACTUALLY comes in. And with a quick search I found some on Amazon. I had some credits from my Swagbucks, Bing and Gift Hulk, and I have Amazon prime, so I ordered them, have free two day shipping and they cost me nothing out of pocket. I'll let you know when they get here and will show you how they work.

 

I'm sure I'll have more peppers I'll be putting up as well. Don't forget to check out my 2015 canning totals here.

 

What are you all up to in your kitchen during this hot summer?

Frugal Zucchini Sausage Soup

I'm trying to clean out the freezer and pantry a bit, keep my food budget low , and prepare some yummy stick to your ribs type meals during this ice storm. So what do you do?

Zucchini Sausage Soup. I kind of just made it up. I'm sure there are actual recipes for something similar, but here is what I used.

1 lb wild boar chorizo sausage

1 lb wild boar Andouille sausage

1/2 an onion

2 cloves garlic

3 zucchini

leftover brown rice ( about 1.5 cups)

2 pints of canned stewed tomatoes

1 pint tomato juice ( not pictured)

My husband and brother in law go boar hunting and you can make some great sausage out of it.

 So I browned up the sausage, then sliced the Andouille into bite sized chunks.

 I then added my 2 pints of canned stewed tomato sauce from last summer. Tomatoes are so versatile and easy to use in many recipes. I never can enough.

I ended up only slicing up 3 of the zucchini, I found that 4 would have been too many. I also ended up adding a pint of home canned tomato juice, as I needed more juice.

Throw all the goodies in the soup pot...

 Add a loaf of homemade bread from my trusty breadmaker....

 And we've got supper. I sprinkled a tiny bit of parmesan cheese I grated on top. The recipe made enough for plenty of leftovers as well.

Although there was initial cost in the jars, the hunting equipment to go boar hunting etc. Really this was a super frugal meal. The 4 zucchini were $2 total, so it would be about $1.50 for the zucchini, maybe .30 cents for the onion and garlic...The rice was left over from another meal, but even then I used about .20 cents worth. The bread is about .90 cents per loaf. So the ENTIRE meal including leftovers for tomorrow's lunch and maybe dinner would come to less that $3.00

Until next time..... Happy Homesteading

One Small Thing- Soup Bucket

Yes a Soup Bucket!

It's been unusually cold here, and soup is just nice on a cold night isn't it?
One small thing I've been doing for a while is to keep what I call a Soup Bucket in my freezer. It's really just a few freezer Tupperware type containers, but here's the premise:

- Every so often I have a few little tablespoons of veggies left over at the end of a meal.  Instead of throwing them out, I put them in the freezer. This works well for things like green beans, carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, even kale or spinach. Just throw it in there.

- Also when I make corn on the cob and have maybe one or two cobs left, I'll cut it off the cob and put the kernels in my bucket.

- We had a wild boar ham about a month ago and I had a few pieces left, I cut it in hunks and put it in my bucket.

- So yesterday I had to take all three kids to the dentist, I had made a loaf of fresh bread, and soup sounded good.

For the base of the soup I freeze tomatoes from the garden, so I took a few out, defrosted them, and ran them through my blender. It made a great tomato base.

I put it all in the crock pot and by the time we were back from the dentist we had a lovely meal ready for us.

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!

Super Frugal and Fun Birthday Cake

With three little ones, plus a husband, plus myself it seems like birthdays are coming around pretty often.

Next time instead of purchasing a super expensive bakery cake, try this. I do it for most of the birthday's around here.

Make their favorite kind of cake, and frost it. Then spell out there name with colored chocolate candies ( aka M&Ms). It's always a hit and done for probably about $4 total, if that. The biggest expense are the candies. The kids love to help decorate as well.


Happy Homesteading Ya'll!

One Small Thing- Smoothies

It's Spring Break for us this week and unfortunatly, after a BEAUTIFUL weekend it is raining and stormy.

I had a Mango that was too ripe so I decided the kids would like a smoothie.

We love fruit. I do buy some ( like a Mango) but we do grow our own sometimes. Fruit is expensive and so wonderful I just can't let it go to waste. So I have a little Tupperware container in the freezer and when I have a few strawberries, blackberries, raspberries etc that are too ripe I'll throw them in the container. Same with peaches, plums, nectarines, etc. I'll just cut them up and throw them in my "smoothie container".

Sometimes at our grocery store they will have overly ripe pineapples for .99cents. I'll buy a few and cut them up and put them in the container. Then on days like today I'll just open it up, put it in the blender and add a little greek yogurt. And there you have it- a delicious smoothie. Fresh, ripe REAL fruit, no artificial anything and it's fruit that otherwise would have been discarded.

The baby ( 18 months ) LOVES it and it's a great way to get nutrients into the little ones.

You can add honey I suppose, I find that too sweet, but otherwise most anything else is game. When the girls want more of a slushie type drink I just add ice cubes.

Just think about that next time you have a couple of really ripe strawberries that can't be used, or a Mango that is past it's prime. Think of how delicious a smoothie will be and think about the money you aren't wasting by not throwing it out.

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!!

One Small Thing- Crock Pots

In the south we say Crock Pots. Others call it slow cookers. Either way, they are amazing. If you don't have one you should really look into getting one. If you do have one, but don't use it, you need to really look into using it more. If you do use one a lot, awesome for you, you probably have some great recipes to share.

A great source for Crock pot recipes includes Allrecipes.com. You can click the picture below for one of my favorite recipes for refried beans!

 

Gooseberry Patch ( which I love their cookbooks) has a Slow Cooker cookbook also for relatively cheap and again, I just love it.

 

 

 

I found that when I do my menu plan, that I include at least one or two crock pot meals a week in the fall and winter. It just makes sense to me and my family and our needs. You dump everything in the morning, turn in on and when you get home from work you have a delicious meal waiting for you. This is especialy important for us in the winter when it gets dark earlier, which we tend to eat dinner earlier.

 

If you are trying to simply cooking, trying to try new recipes or just wanting more homecooked meals, please dust off that crockpot ( or find a good used one at a thrift store) and start making good use of it.

 

What are your favorite things to cook in the crockpot?

 

 

Linked up with Simple Living Wednesday, What we Wore, Read and Made,

One Small Thing- EGGS

One Small Thing- Eggs

 

I stated a few weeks ago in a blog post (here) that I wanted to start sharing a few small ways to really start sharing some great ways to start slooooooowly on your own Homesteading Quest.
One thing that I think everyone can do be it in the country or city is learn to love eggs. That's right EGGS!

I'm not talking about raising chickens ( we'll talk about that in another post) but I'm talking about really just learning to eat, cook and bake with eggs.

No matter where you get your eggs ( from your backyard chickens, neighbor, farmer's market or even the store) they provide a great source of cheap protein and are very versatile.

When trying to begin your homesteading quest, scratch cooking. learning to menu plan, more healthful eating and budgeting your grocery money better always seems to be up there on your list.

Learning how to eat eggs certainly fills all of those desires. It is a cheap, nutritious form of food that can really impact your grocery budget.

My oldest daughter LOVES hardboiled eggs, she eats them as snacks....and my husband and I do too sometimes. Isn't she cute??

MY ONE SMALL CHALLENGE THIS WEEK

So today, my challenge to you is to get 1 dozen eggs, hard boil them, peel them, and store them in a container in your fridge. When you need a snack, or a quick sandwich or salad topper, grab one or two and use it in your meal.

Tell me what you think? Could this save you money? Would your family enjoy some meals with more eggs in them? Would your pocket book enjoy it?

Happy Homesteading......

Linked up with Artful Tuesdays

My first canning party!!! 64 jars + 200 ears of corn

My oh my oh my!!! If you follow my blog you may recall me talking about forming a canning club. If not, you can read about it here.

So today was our innagural meeting. We are still trying to think of a name.... Anyways today it was just me and my friend E.

We started out with pickles. Bread and butter, dill, kosher dill and spicy dill.
We did spears, coins and whole small pickles.

I got my daughters involved.

It's great to be able to teach them skills and know how. Here is my oldest helping to pack the jars before we pour the liquid on it.

Totals:
Bread and Butter: 9
Dill: 10
Kosher Dill:9
Spicy Dill:8

Then we did some jars of pickled jalepenos. These are great as we use them on EVERYTHING. Lots of mexican inspired dishes, and even on salads and in omelettes.
Jalepenos: 10

Then on to the Blueberry jam...Yum. Thats all I can say about that.
Blueberry Jam: 10

Then we did Pepper jelly. This is very thick and  almost a chutney and is great to use on cream cheese as an appetizer type dish, or on beans, or even just on plain toast. Delicious.

Look at how beautiful they are. Great for gift giving also. These puppies are spicy!!
Pepper Jelly: 8

Then if that weren't enough, we each put up 100 ears of corn. That means we shucked and silked 200 ears this morning....

Corn: 200 ears

I must say that I'm exhausted. I mean really tired. It is so worth it though. Great company and knowing that I'll have great food for my family in upcoming days.

Total for our first canning party 64 jars and 200 ears of corn. Not too shabby I would think for our first meeting:)

Until next time, Happy Homesteading!!

Linked up to The Morris Tribe, Homesteading Barn Hop,Carnival of Home Preserving,Preparedness Challenge

How I Fry my Okra

Like most gardens in the South we have an abundance of Okra. I plan on pickling some, but honestly it is just so delicious right from the vine, into the pan , onto my plate. I fry it. I'm a good Southener..... I do use olive oil though, so that helps....

Start out with your okra, and cut up into "coins". I like to put mine into a colander, as it helps with the washing later on. I also like to cut up a garlic clove or two and tonight I put a few cayenne peppers from the garden in it for spice. Yum-me.

When everything is cut up I start to get the frying pan HOT. I pour in olive oil ( you can use other kinds of oil too, like vegetable if you want).

Then I wash the okra and kind of shake it to get the excess water off. Then I dump all of the newly wet okra into my mixture I made of yellow corn meal with a little salt and pepper.

I than shake off the excess corn meal mixture and put into the frying pan. And I wait. And I smell the delicious aroma, and I wait some more. And I stir. You want to reduce heat and kind of let simmer after the initial "shock" of the hot oil.

Add a few baby roma's fresh from the garden and another cayenne, and you have a delicious, frugal, delicious, ( did I say that already???) meal.

And a close up just to make you jealous...

Until next time, Happy Homesteading...


Linked up to What's Cooking Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Frugal Ways, It's a Keeper Thursday