Category Archives: Recipes & Cooking

Favorite simple yet delicious recipes in my Texas Homestead kitchen.

A Trick I’ve Learned…

by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan & I have been burning the candle at both ends lately it seems.  We’ve had business commitments, familial commitments and community commitments.  Truth be told we’ve been running a LOT!  So half of my gallon of milk sat in the fridge & got a little too close to it’s use-by date and ended up lightly soured.  I didn’t throw it away – I made cottage cheese with it!  It was very quick & so easy.

Homogenized Milk vs Raw Milk

Now I must say there are some very strong opinions out there on whether or not soured pasteurized milk is the same as soured raw milk.  I’ve tried raw milk before but I don’t much care for it so I buy my milk.  I haven’t done massive research on all the nuances into safety vs purity of raw vs homogenized milk.  I think there are valid points on both sides.  But in this post I’m sharing what I’ve personally done.

No Arguments!

I’ve made this cottage cheese from lightly-soured commercially-purchased milk several times.  My experience is that my homemade cottage cheese is absolutely delicious and tastes no different to me than commercially-purchased cottage cheese.  I’m happy to share this easy procedure with you.  But I won’t get into a soured raw milk vs soured commercial milk discussion, m’kay?  We’re all friends here & you have the right to your opinion and to nourish your body as you like, just as we all do!  I’m just sharing my personal experience here.  So we’re all good??  Alrighty then!

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Making Low-Carb Veggie Noodles, ZOODLES!

by Texas Homesteader ~
*Contains affiliate link

I’ve heard about it for years, using squash in the place of high-carb pasta noodles. Some people eat spaghetti squash as a low-carb noodle substitute. 

But I’ve found for us it’s best to eat spaghetti squash just as a fun-shaped squash. To me the taste is nothing like pasta. (I do have a delicious Cheesy Spaghetti-Squash dish we enjoy.)

Other people swear by making spiral-type noodles using fresh vegetables. Supposedly it’s a more realistic way to enjoy a noodle-shaped vegetable in the place of pasta. My garden produced so much zucchini I really wanted to give the spiral-noodle thingee a try.

There are  various contraptions made to cut your squash into noodles and I decided on the Veggetti. 

Making ZOODLES! Veggetti got the highest recommendations from my FB followers. So I bought one to make low-carb noodles 'Zoodles'. See how I make 'em! #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Free Vegetable Broth!

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I like to use broth for my cooking. Let’s face it – no matter what you’re cooking it’s just more flavorful when it’s made with broth instead of water. 

Want to know how I get vegetable broth for FREE? Check out this ridiculously-easy Homestead Hack…

I save nutritious vegetable broth that was previously wasted and use it for something I used to have to make myself or purchase. #TexasHomesteader

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Vinegar Made With Pineapple Scraps

by Texas Homesteader ~
*affiliate link

I’ve tried on numerous occasions to make apple cider vinegar.  But each & every time it was a failure for me.  I don’t know why but instead of turning into that ACV I desired, it turned into a sour mess.

But in contrast each time I’ve made vinegar with pineapple scraps it’s been successful!  So recently I had a fresh pineapple & I decided to make pineapple vinegar – it’s SO EASY! 

(Note: Some links in this post are for further information from earlier posts I’ve written. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click them and buy something (almost anything, not just the item noted) I could receive a small purchase. But the price you pay will NOT change. It’s an easy way to support this blog without anything coming out of your pocket. So click often! Thank you!)

And I used a *pineapple peeler/corer to peel and core that pineapple in less than ONE MINUTE!  (have I mentioned how much I love that thing??!!)

After enjoying that sweet, juicy pineapple I set out to make my own homemade pineapple vinegar.  It’s EASY, and I recently wrote an article for Mother Earth News Magazine about it.  Check it out!

After enjoying a fresh pineapple I made homemade pineapple vinegar. It's EASY, and I wrote an article for Mother Earth News about it. #TexasHomesteader

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*affiliate – Amazon, Mother Earth News

 

 

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How To Make Pear Sauce With Fresh Pears

by Texas Homesteader ~
*contains affiliate link

I’ve heard of people making something similar to applesauce but using pears instead – Pear Sauce! I love applesauce so I figured I should give it a try.

Using my slow cooker it was super easy too, the procedure is the same as when I made homemade applesauce. Check it out!

Pear Sauce is much like applesauce but made with pears. After being given a supply of pears I gave pear sauce a try. Check it out! #TexasHomesteader

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Tortilla-Sized Pizza Leather Made With Pasta Sauce

 by Texas Homesteader ~
*contains affiliate link

When our garden is producing extremely well I like to preserve as much as I can from it.  Oftentimes our tomatoes are producing like GANGBUSTERS and I’m making Tomato Sauce and Pasta Sauce from it Sometimes I dehydrate them into Tomato Powder or just Dried Diced Tomatoes to drop into my wintertime simmering soups.

But one of my favorite ways to preserve tomatoes is by dehydrating it into tomato leather.  That way I can roll it out directly on top of my pizza crust & just start piling on the toppings. The cooking process and the moisture in the toppings rehydrates the leather for me.

But I didn’t get many tomatoes this year so I find myself purchasing pasta sauce until I can make it myself again. (sigh…) But recently I had leftover pasta sauce and wondered what to do with it. Since we’ve recently discovered tortilla pizzas I decided to make some tortilla-sized tomato leather!

Recently I had leftover pasta sauce so I decided to make some tortilla-sized pizza leather. I'll use them on our tortilla pizzas! #TexasHomesteader

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