Category Archives: Recipes & Cooking

Favorite simple yet delicious recipes in my Texas Homestead kitchen.

Solar Cooking: Hard-Boiled Eggs In The Solar Oven

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by Texas Homesteader ~
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I love my solar oven. I’ve said it time & time again, I hate to fire up my electric oven during the heat & humidity of our Texas summers.

Not only does it cost fuel for the stove to operate, but boiling eggs adds even more heat inside our home. That requires our air conditioning to work overtime cooling it back down, therefore costing even more money.

Several years ago I bought a solar oven and I absolutely love it! What a great item in your Emergency Preparedness toolbox!

Then at a Mother Earth News Fair I attended a few years ago, a solar-cooking seminar presenter told us how easy it was to cook ‘hard-boiled’ whole eggs in the solar oven without even using water. Color me intrigued!

Solar-Cooking Eggs. I'm hearing that you can BAKE your eggs instead of boiling them. I decided to give it a try in my solar oven. Check it out. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Make Homemade Tri-Colored Pasta Noodles

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I remember when I first found out how easy homemade pasta is to make. Now pasta purists typically use a special pasta flour called semolina. And of course when I first started making homemade pasta I did too.

But y’all know I’m far from a purist with anything, especially in the kitchen! I want quick, easy & delicious without special ingredients.

So I now just typically use plain ole all-purpose flour for my homemade pasta noodles and they always turn out great!

Flour – salt – egg – water and BOOM! 

Now don’t tell anyone else how easy it really is – people always seem to be impressed to find out when someone makes their own pasta! So don’t rat me out, m’kay??  Pinky swear??

Recently I decided I’d try to make colored/flavored pasta using powdered dehydrated vegetables from my garden last year. I knew I had dehydrated Malabar Spinach in the pantry, and dehydrated carrots too! 

Come see what I did.

I love homemade pasta, but I wanted tri-colored pasta. So to my usual pasta dough recipe I added dehydrated & powdered spinach or carrots, leaving 1/3 plain. Delicious! #TexasHomesteader

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Easy Slow-Cooker Italian Flavored Pot Roast Recipe

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RancherMan’s quite the accomplished hunter. As such, we always have a freezer stocked full of pork roasts and I enjoy finding different ways to cook them. I often use my slow cooker to prepare those roasts. Most of the time I’ll flavor it very generically so I can remake the leftover cooked meat into whatever we’re in the mood for. I’ve made Carnitas Tacos, or Pulled-Pork Enchiladas, or even BBQ Sandwiches & more.

But today I’m in the mood for an Italian-style roast with diced tomatoes, chunky onions,  crushed garlic & minced fresh herbs.

Italian Flavored Pot Roast Recipe. Chunk a few simple ingredients into a slow cooker and then sit back & wait for supper to be cooked for you! #TexasHomesteader

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How To Dehydrate Fresh Pumpkin To Use All Year Long

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

When you dehydrate fresh pumpkin you can fit a whole pumpkin in a tiny ½-pint canning jar! And unlike storing pumpkin puree in the freezer, dehydrated pumpkin can set right on your pantry shelf in a sealed jar, it uses no additional energy to store.

Come see how easy it is, y’all! 

Learn how to dehydrated fresh garden pumpkin puree. #TexasHomesteader

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How To Get Zero-Waste Citrus Juice For Recipes – Easy & CHEAP!

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

There’s an easy way to get zero-waste citrus juice to use in your recipes. There’s no need to buy a plastic bottle of lemon or lime juice. I’m sharing a simple kitchen trick that’s cheaper and with no plastic waste. 

You could buy a plastic bottle of real lemon or lime juice, but why? Come see my easy, zero-waste (and CHEAP) solution for having 100% real citrus juice for my recipes. #TexasHomesteader

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