HERSHEY’S EXCITED!

She loves to “go to school” to pick up the kids! Anyone else have a dog that is obsessed with the little things in life? ❤️

EASY PEASY & PESTO PASTA

Pea and Pesto Pasta

As I worked on my food storage supply for a rainy day or the day when the Daleks come down and dominate over all humanity I went to Food Lion to pick up a few things.

I found myself in the seasoning packet section of Food Lion and thought I bet I could do something with one of these.  I grabbed two packets of pesto sauce mix and a box of cute ocean pasta that I thought would help get my kids to eat it and was on my way.

I had dried frozen peas using my dehydration method I posted for you in another blog and thought they would go well with the pesto sauce.

I grabbed two jars, two rubber bands, the two packets, peas, and pasta.

I’m telling you folks, this is so easy!  I layered the pasta and peas as shown and banded the pesto seasoning packet to the side of the jar.  Done!

Now, all I have to do in order to make the meal is cook the pasta (and peas) as I normally would cook pasta and then fix the sauce according to the packet directions, mix it into the pasta and dinner is done!   Woot!

Pea and Pesto Pasta

 

WHAT DOES YOUR BOOKSHELF SAY ABOUT YOU?

I have been going through books like crazy lately. I have decided that I have so many that at least some of them need to find a new home! (Did I mention I was a teacher for 11 Years?) I’ve been donating books to my kids teachers on an almost daily basis.

I walked past my bookshelf this morning and wondered what does this say about me when someone comes in my home and sees this shelf? I’ve been trying to reevaluate how I think and feel about myself lately so I felt this was a good question.

Feel free to tell me in the comments what you think it says about me. I think it says I’m a nerd, a child at heart, love kids… I dunno. I’ve never been good at analyzing myself. You tell me.

Also, I challenge you to post a picture of your bookshelf and ask other readers to say what they think they can learn about you from it.

DIY VEGETABLE BROTH FROM SCRAPS

vegetable broth from scraps

Waste not want not!  I HATE food waste.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to waste anything!  So, I’ve been trying to find new ways to use everything I can.  This goes for everything from fabric to food scraps.

I bet you didn’t know you could save the peels and skins of all kinds of veggies and create your own yummy vegetable broth.

All you have to do is grab a freezer bag and keep it in the freezer.  As you prepare meals just take your mushroom bits, garlic and onion tips and skins, onion peels, potato skins, carrot tops and peels, leftover freshly chopped herb bits and stems, and whatever else you have and save it for later in the freezer for when you have time to make a broth.

If you want to make it a beef or chicken broth just save those fatty bits you cut off your steaks and chicken breasts and whatever.

When you are ready:

1. add the scraps and water to a pot with some bay leaves and seasonings and boil for a while.  (coriander, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, pepper, salt, sugar…)
2. Strain it and let it cool to put away or use it right away.

To make the vegetable soup:

1. Heat up broth in a large pot
2. add frozen or fresh veggies of your choice (I like the frozen bags of corn, peas, potatoes, carrots, and green beans)
3. add a few cans of diced tomatoes juice and all
4. add cooked stew beef or ground hamburger if you want to

STRAWBERRY DREAM CAKE

OK, so tonight I got a bit frustrated when I opened up what I thought was going to be an easy way to add color and flavor to my cake.  A store bought icing.

Hot Pink Vanilla Frosting

This is a big deal to me because I usually make  my own icings.  Anyway, when I tasted it I was very disappointed as it tasted very much like food coloring.  So I thought, “Well, there goes that easy way to finish my cake quickly while being pretty and tasty.”

Here’s the process in which I figured out how to fix it.  I say “process” because that’s what it was!

I wanted to keep the color nice and pink, but make the flavor so much better.  Here is what I ended up using.

INGREDIENTS:

• Fresh Berries (strawberries, black berries, raspberries, and blueberries)
• Naked- Berry Veggie smoothie
• Powdered Sugar
• Cream Cheese
• 1 packet of Dream Whip

So, I’m laughing at myself as I type this whole thing out because it was kindof a disaster in the works for a bit.  I thought of naming this post “A Berry Big Disaster,” but I thought better of it.

(Katie, keep yourself focused and tell the nice people about how you fixed it already!)

I figured if I added some softened butter and powdered sugar to the frosting it would make it taste better.  It didn’t!

Then, I thought I’d puree some fruit and that has to help the flavor right?

I put a mixture of berries in the blender along with a little of the fruit and veggie smoothie to help with color, nutrition, and the blender of course needs some liquid.  Then, I used a sieve to get the seeds and pulp out.

I added several tablespoons of the berry puree until I got the flavor right…or so I thought.  So, I tasted it.  Ugh!  I frantically searched my pantry and found I was completely out of powdered sugar.

I found a packet of Dream Whip.  I thought maybe that will thicken it up and help keep the icing, fruit, and butter from separating.  NOPE!  (see the picture).

Icing before the cream cheese was added. Still separated and the flavor wasn’t right.

1 Dream Whip packet

I’m in a bit of a panic.  I want my frosting nice and chilled by tomorrow when I make the cake.

In comes the hubby.  In my best seductive voice I begged him at 12:03AM to go to Walmart and grab more bags of powdered sugar and on a whim I asked for cream cheese too.

When he came back I decided I would try cream cheese first.  I added two bricks of cream cheese and BINGO!

Beautiful frosting

I will be baking the cake in the AM (Oh wait, it’s already 2:23 in the AM.  Why do I do this to myself every time I host a party of some sort?) and I will add the recipe for the cake when I’m done and add a picture of the finished product.

I have awoken! LOL Not really, I’m a zombie, but whatever.

So, at 7:00AM I was up and mixing cake batter. I took two boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix (pink and blue of course) and added 2/3 cup milk and 1/2 a block of cream cheese to each one. I added 3 large finely chopped strawberries to the pink one.

They are baking now. Once they have cooled I will get pictures. I forgot to take pics of the mixing process. Oops!

Edit: The flavor was delicious, but the pink cake didn’t rise like it should have.  The blue cake was perfect.  Work in progress I guess.  Anyone else have thoughts?

I may have over cooked the cakes a little because I… um…forgot to set the timer the second time around!🤦‍♀️

ORANGE CRANBERRY RELISH

Ingredients:

• 2 bags of cranberries picked through and washed
• orange juice with pulp
• sugar
• orange zest

Directions:

1. Put at least 1 cup of sugar into a large pot.
2. Pour 1 cup orange juice in and stir until sugar dissolves.
3. Add the cranberries and zest.
4. Stir and boil until cranberries have popped.  Add more Orange juice if needed.
5. Taste and see if you feel you need more sugar or zest to your taste.
6. Sprinkle 1-2 packages of Knox gelatin on top and whisk in if you want it to set. The amount of gelatin you may need may vary depending on acidity and the thickness you want.

LEMON & BLUEBERRY FUDGE

OK, I’m really sad to admit this, but I am kicking myself because I didn’t write down this recipe and I just remembered I had made this last year and it was THE BEST FUDGE I had ever made or even ever eaten!!!!  That’s saying something!

So,I’m going to attempt to remember the ingredients and directions.  This may take a few edits and changes in order to get it right so don’t go out and make this today or anything.  I’ll update the post when it’s correct and let you know you can go and make this delicious treat!

I know how much my mother loves anything with lemon and blueberries together so it inspired me to make this fudge.

Ingredients?

• lemon curd
• my mother-in-law’s homemade blueberry syrup
• white chocolate
• sweetened condensed milk
• lemon zest

EASY HEALTHY BREAKFAST BARS

 

Good morning Sunshine, it’s time to say, “Hello!”

I made this recipe up a few years ago an totally forgot about it.  I was on FB this morning and got one of those memory things and there it was.  So, I thought I’d share.  They were delicious and were eaten up very quickly!  I think I might make them again this weekend.

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 3 tablespoons chia seeds
• 3-5 tablespoons of whole wheat flour
• a few cups of rolled oats
• a few handfuls of dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• Dark Chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Heat the oven to 315 degrees
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl
3. Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil and flatten out the mixture on it
4. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top
5. Bake for 25 minutes

Note:  I don’t usually measure when I cook, so measurements are unknown or not exact.  When adding the rolled oats use your judgement.  I would add a cup and mix it up first and then see if you think you need to add more.

You can add a spoonful of PB or some other nut or seed butter if you would like or even a bit of vanilla extract.  Be creative!  I’ve made these with dried cherries too.

 

HOMEMADE INSTANT CINNAMON OATMEAL

DIY homemade cinnamon oatmeal

Like I mentioned in a previous post I am a “dumper” and not a “measurer” when it comes to recipes.  You will have to create this according to your instincts and individual tastes.  I used no recipe and just tossed it together in a giant mixing bowl.  This filled up a gallon glass anchor hocking jar.

Ingredients:

• 1 large container quick oats
• powdered sugar (to taste)
• powdered milk
• cinnamon to taste (and/or other spices)
• cup ground flax seeds
• 1-2 cups brown sugar

Add-in’s: chia seeds and poppy seeds

 

Directions: just add milk to make it the consistency of your liking and nuke in the microwave for about 2 minutes. You can use water instead of milk also because it has the powdered milk, but my daughter likes the milk version best.

Note:  Feel free to add in chopped nuts or dried fruits.  I can’t eat nuts and I didn’t have dried fruit on hand when I made this batch.  My 7 year old daughter LOVES oatmeal and really like this one!

“BANANA PUG” or “MOMMY’S LAUGHINT AT ME”

So, tonight Mommy was feeding us pooches a treat of honey bananas that failed to dehydrate properly.  (Evidently Mommy didn’t follow the recipe correctly the first time.  Oops!  Glad it was only one banana.)

Anyway, Mommy was tossing us the treats and one of the bananas landed on my back unbeknownst to me or my sister, Hershey.  For a good several minutes no one noticed this tasty tidbit stuck to my back except for mommy who was cracking up.   She still doesn’t know if it fell off or Hershey ate it off me…come to think of it neither do I.