Category Archives: Recipes & Cooking

Favorite simple yet delicious recipes in my Texas Homestead kitchen.

How To Make Homemade Chicken Broth – Healthy, Cheap & EASY!

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Making homemade chicken broth is beyond easy, super healthy and makes use of bones/trimmings that used to be just thrown away!

And there’s a special ingredient to make it more calcium rich. Check it out.

Making my own chicken broth is easy, inexpensive and healthy. And there's a special ingredient to make it even more calcium rich. #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

Dehydrated Salsa In A Jar Using Dry Vegetables & Salsa Mix. Great Gift Idea!

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I was dehydrating lots of vegetables from my garden. Each one was placed in a repurposed glass jar in my pantry. Then I decided to assemble various dry veggies, add some seasoning and make dehydrated salsa in a jar as a gift. The gift recipients LOVED IT!

I mixed up a batch of dehydrated salsa using dehydrated veggies from my garden & my own dry salsa mix. Just pour in hot water & stir! #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrated DICED Tomatoes

By Texas Homesteader ~ 
*contains affiliate link

Tomatoes are the darling of the vegetable garden around these parts. Some like to plant squash, some like peppers. But by golly almost everyone has a tomato bush (or two, or three…) in their garden!

None of my tomatoes will go to waste. Even when they’re producing too fast for me to eat fresh. I like to dice & dehydrate those fresh tomatoes to use in  my wintertime soups. It’s easy!

I'm dicing fresh garden tomatoes, dehydrating them & storing dehydrated tomatoes in the pantry. it replaces an item I used to have to buy. #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

MYO Pumpkin Puree Using A Solar Oven

by Texas Homesteader
*contains affiliate links

This year I planted heirloom sugar pumpkins in my garden. And when it was time to harvest them I knew I’d first be able to enjoy them for a bit as decoration. I love the way those little pumpkins looked propped on our antique cast-iron Franklin stove.

But several days later I was in the kitchen enjoying the last of my favorite pumpkin granola.  I knew that  since I planted those delicious pumpkins for use in my granola it was time to cook those babies down into pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Puree, goodness from the garden! I have a secret weapon for keeping that cooking heat outside, even while cooking! My SOLAR OVEN! #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

MYO Italian Seasoned Tomato Leather – Pizza Night Just Got Faster!

by Texas Homesteader ~ 
*contains affiliate link

A dear friend told me about dehydrating tomato puree (sometimes seasoned) into a leather. WHAT?? Tomato leather??

Yes, tomato leather can be used to simplify your pizza night. Just plop a tomato leather on top of your crust and start adding fillings. The leather rehydrates as the pizza cooks. Oh yeah, I’ve gotta try this!

Make tomato leather to use for homemade pizzas - just roll it out & start adding toppings!. I decided to give it a go, come see! #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

MYO Quick & Easy Healthier FUDGESICLES!

by Texas Homesteader 

A few weeks ago I started playing with recipes for making my own healthier fudgesicles. I used RancherMan as a very willing guinea pig for several batches until I perfected it. 

Taste-Testing Homemade Fudgesicles?  RancherMan’s got a tough job, huh?  Poor guy!

I wanted to make my own fudgesicles for several reasons: They’re healthier, filled with probiotics, produce less landfill trash, are much less expensive. Plus, c’mon let’s be honest – it’s EASY!

Quick And Easy Healthier FUDGESICLES! See this recipe for making your own inexpensive yet healthier version of a cold, delicious fudgesicle. #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading

Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Plums

by Texas Homesteader

*affiliate link

I recently acquired two different varieties of ripe plums that totaled about 30 lbs. Now I love fruit, and plums are some of my faves – so sweet, so juicy! But I’m going to have to preserve some of these plums if I’m going to keep them from going bad before they’re all consumed.

I love plum jelly but I’ve made so much jelly lately including apple butter, blueberry jam and even honeysuckle jelly that I don’t need any more in my stockpile. Even though I like to stock my pantry with jellies to sweeten my homemade yogurt, with only two of us at home these days I don’t want to make more than we can use. What else can I do with these delicious plums?

Hummm…  I like to sweeten my homemade pumpkin granola with dried fruit and I recently used the last of my dehydrated jujube fruit. So maybe I can dehydrate these plums into raisin-sized chunks to naturally sweeten my granola?

By making my own dehydrated fruit instead of purchasing it, I've not only saved money but added no packaging to the landfill. Win/Win! #TexasHomesteader

Continue reading