Homemade Poptarts

For real.
My kids like pop tarts but I'm not a fan. I think they look and taste like cardboard, but hey,they have sprinkles, so they love them. But they can get pricey and there aren't many in the box and split between 3 kids is about one box per breakfast.
There are a few different recipes for homemade poptarts, without the ingredients I can't pronounce ( and with sprinkles!) floating around Pinterest, but I found this one on Smitten Kitchen and we tried it tonight. I ended up cooking ours for longer than the recipe says to- about 20-25 minutes. We did half cinnamon-sugar and half (homemade) strawberry jam and they we so good! We also made them mini just for fun. The kids ate a few for a snack and we are saving the rest for breakfast. Next time I will try drizzling them with icing.Yum!

Go here for the recipe ( it's long, but these are so easy and quick to make.) I bet you could even freeze some and toast them later.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce for Canning

I made this sauce this week and really surprised myself- usually my spaghetti sauce turns out either too sweet or too spicy. But this one is just right. And it looks so nice in jars all lined up on the shelf...

Ball's Blue Book Spaghetti Sauce (with some minor adjustments)

-makes 4 pints plus a little left over (I doubled this and made 4 quarts)

2c chopped onions
2c chopped green and yellow peppers (2c total)
1c chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp oil
18oz tomato paste
24oz tomato sauce
1-28oz can whole tomatoes, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1\4 tsp pepper

Saute onions, peppers, celery, and garlic in oil until onions are tender. Add remaining ingredients, simmer 1 hour.
Remove bay leaves
To can, follow instructions for WaterBath Canning. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice to each pint jar. Remove air bubbles, wipe rims and process 45 minutes.

*I love to can and do it all the time,but I'm not a "professional". Please refer to the Ball's Blue Book of Canning for instructions and to answer any questions. Canning is a lot of fun, but its also pretty serious stuff so it's a good idea to know what you are doing before you do it!

Good grief. Is anyone else ready for Spring and warm weather and no more sickness? I sure am. I have more posts coming up soon and I am really excited to get back to blogging.

Our seedlings are growing and I can't wait to plant our raised beds and grow our own produce. So far we have a couple different kinds each of lettuce and spinach, a few varieties of tomatoes and some peppers. We are also going to do Amish Pie Pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions and garlic.

Why raised beds?  With raised beds you don't have to till the ground, there are less weeds and you have more control over where everything goes. You can plant things all over your yard instead of one big patch. Plus, we got some railroad ties from HH's brother and we don't have a tiller.

I'm also thinking of using the front flower bed as an herb garden.

And I want to plant lots of these:

Peppermint Stick Zinnias

credit

We get our seeds from Baker Creek- all heirloom, non-GMO.

We have virtually no idea what we are doing so this will be an interesting experiment. Our plan is to grow as much as we can, preserve what we don't eat fresh, and use some to barter for honey across the road, fresh eggs from friends, and who knows what else. The sky's the limit!
Have you ever bartered? Its not such a big thing here but a lot of cultures do it. I would like to do it- I think its a really interesting concept. Plus it would help save some money on groceries.

Speaking of which, I canned up some really great spaghetti sauce yesterday and I will post the recipe this weekend. See you then!

A New Month- Almost Over

Well, call me a statistic. The flu totally kicked our tails this year. Three weeks of jello, Netflix, and tylenol have really taken its toll on our daily routine. But now we are better and back to doing school, laundry and wearing clothes that aren't pajamas.

I can't believe that February is almost over already. Time flies when you are having fun sleeping through a fever. Well, even though its a late start for a short month, I've decided that this month's theme is ...

*Preparedness*

Doesn't that sound fun?

For the first post, we will talk about making a Family Emergency Binder. Basically its a binder for all your important information that you would take with you if you had to leave your home in an emergency. I'm sure there are other things you could call it, but thats what I call mine.

1. What kind of emergency are we talking about here? Well, we live in Missouri and we tend to get a lot of tornado watches and warnings in the springtime. And we don't have a basement, so in case of a tornado threat, we would have to leave the house and go to my in-laws in a hurry. Depending on your location other emergencies could include earthquakes, power outages where you would have to go stay someplace else, fires, floods, train derailment and subsequent evacuation, or any number of things.

2. What is in this Emergency Binder?

In ours, I have a page for every family member with a current individual photo ( for the kids I am also getting an older photo of each one with both parents in it). Each page includes ss# birthdate, hair and eye color, current height and weight, allergies, medications, parent contact info, alternative contact info,identifying moles/birthmarks,pediatrician info,school and work info,

 and I will be adding fingerprints also.

I also have pages for each of the following:

copies of drivers licenses, birth certificates, copies of passports, social security cards

info on doctors, dentists, pediatricians, etc

copies of most current utility bills, mortgage, etc

copy of statements from all bank accounts

current family photos

kids immunization records

copies of health insurance cards

a cd with our wedding photos

a cd of our family photos

a contact list of family and friends, and a special list of who to call to watch our kids if needed

a copy of all our adoption paperwork

car titles

photo documentation of important items around the house

instructions for turning off gas, etc

list of things to take with us if we have time

list of things to do to the house if we have time

some things you could also put in if they apply to you:

current credit card statements

pet info- vaccinations, photo, ver info, etc

lists of medications

rental agreements

copy of last paystub(if you get paper ones)

Basically, anything I would not want to have to rack my brain for in the middle of chaos and confusion is what I have in our binder. This way, I can grab it and go and have everything I need to know at my fingertips. Also, it would be helpful in proving ownership or residency in case of evacuation.

To order a birth certificate in Missouri go here

 Here is an excellent list for emergency binders with printables for child id kits

Homemade Baby Food : Stage 1

Now that The Babe has a tooth and is starting to eat "real" baby food, I am almost through my stash he got for Christmas. I have been saving those little plastic containers and lids and they are so convenient for holding homemade baby food.

Today I peeled,chopped, and boiled 4 lbs. of carrots (and about a cup of frozen corn we picked this summer), mashed them up in my blender and froze them into the containers as well as a couple of ice cube trays which give me the perfect size single servings for him right now. Label and date and call it a day. So easy. $1.76 for 32 servings and I know exactly what is in each one.

Homemade Frozen Pizza

I never would have thought of making frozen pizza at home. I usually just make it to eat right then. Tonight I doubled the Pizza Dough recipe and made 2 medium-ish pizzas for the freezer. Here's how I did it:

1. After the dough has risen, punch down and dump out on a floured surface. Knead to bring it together, until it is soft and elastic and easiily forms a ball. Transfer to a circular pizza pan (or whatever pan you intend to bake it on) and press with your fingers or use a rolling pin to stretch the dough out to fully cover your pan.
2. Sprinkle your dough with garlic salt and italian seasonings if you want to
3. Bake at 400 for about 8-12 minutes until firm and dry but not too dark brown.
4. Let it cool, then add sauce, cheese, and toppings. Freeze on the baking sheet until completely frozen, then take off the pan and wrap in plastic wrap

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Have you ever made french toast with cinnamon swirl bread? I did once and it was soooooo good. The other night I made my cinnamon roll dough and thought I'd test it out and see if I could make a good swirl bread and it worked! After I rolled the dough up with the cinnamon and butter inside, I cut it into thirds and fit it snugly in my loaf pans, let them rise until they were about a half inch or so higher than the top of the pan, and baked them until a toothpick came out clean. So easy. I ended up making 3-4 loaves and stuck them in the freezer until I have some time to make a batch of french toast.