by Texas homesteader~
Almost every savory dish I cook includes sautéed onions and/or garlic. But although I’ve found a way to easily Preserve Garlic for cooking, I don’t always have fresh onions.
So I wondered, why not take this glut of Harvested Onions and chop/sauté them now for use later? (smacks forehead) why didn’t I think of that sooner??
by Texas Homesteader ~
I bought an Instant Pot last year and I absolutely love it. The first thing I ever made with it was Bone Broth. When I saw how quick & easy it was, I was HOOKED!
I’ve since learned to make my Homemade IP Yogurt – even easier than it was using the Stovetop Method. And I’ve even learned to make Cheesecake in my Instant Pot!
So to say I’m enamored with my IP is an understatement. It gets pulled out several times each week. A huge time-saver for me is cooking a whole bag of pinto beans. Come see.
by Texas Homesteader~
RancherMan & I enjoy a crisp salad filled with veggies almost every night. I’ve been making a Creamy Salad Dressing (filled with probiotics) for myself, and his favorite Thousand Island Salad Dressing for RancherMan.
After the lettuce is torn and added to the bowl, we pile on the extras. Chopped carrots, diced onion, sliced cucumbers, crumbled sharp cheese, etc. We also often peel a boiled egg and chop it up, sprinkling it into our salad as well for the extra protein.
Oftentimes this salad is so hearty it’s all we want for supper. And cool meals are a bonus in the heat & humidity of NE Texas summers!
But I recently read about a way to cook your eggs in an Instant Pot similar to boiled eggs. But the eggs are cracked and poured into a pan before being cooked. I’ve seen it called an ‘Egg Loaf’. Well color me intrigued!
~Texas Homesteader~
Many are surprised to find that I serve homemade meals every day. There are actually several good reasons for that. And none involve the words “Because I love to cook“!
Firstly, living in the country means there’s a limit to close places to go out to eat. And home delivery is certainly not even an option!
Secondly I know eating at home is a healthier option than the high-fat, high-sugar & high sodium options that tempt you at a restaurant. I’m able to serve a delicious homemade meal while still having control over any unhealthy ingredients in recipes.
Thirdly, it’s significantly cheaper to cook from scratch than to eat out, or even to utilize packaged convenience items sold in the stores. Being self employed means I’m extremely mindful of our budget.
But still it’s a surprise for many people, who ask:
Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret – I use several shortcuts. And they could help you too!
by Texas Homesteader ~
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I enjoy cooking from what we already have in our freezers and pantry. But we’re eating good, y’all!
Recently I was looking through the pantry and I spied a large 2-lb bag of pintos. Aaaaah the lowly pinto bean. I wonder if I should cook a whole 2-lb bag of them? Will we get tired of them before they’re all eaten?
I decided to cook them up and see how many different ways we could enjoy them before our palates got bored. Come see!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I love a multi-purpose product, don’t you? Take oats for instance. It makes a hearty, hot & healthy breakfast option. I like to drizzle some Honey From Our Hives and maybe sprinkle a little fruit on top. But there are other things you can do with oats besides make oatmeal for breakfast.
For instance, I often grind oats into oat flour for use in my Honey/Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe. It’s a low-cost yet healthy substitute for the more expensive whole wheat portion of flour that I used to use. And it maintains that heartier feel to the bread too.
But there are still more uses for this cheap, healthy product. I often use it as a substitution for breadcrumbs!
by Texas Homesteader~
We were recently invited to a family gathering. Now in my family invitations to a shared meal happen often.
Since it’s so common & also so that the burden doesn’t fall on the hosting family, each family in attendance brings something to contribute to the meal. There’s always lots of good food at our family gatherings!
This time I wanted to bring something snacky. So I offered to bring some homemade hummus. (If you haven’t seen my Stupid-Easy Hummus Recipe, you should totally check it out!)
Of course I’ll need something for dipping. But I hate how expensive that little bag of pita chips is! Hummm, I wonder…
I decided to make my own pita-type chips. Let’s see how it goes.
by Texas Homesteader ~
The cold winter months typically mean we’re enjoying some pretty soup-heavy meals in our home. Although we eat soup all year long there’s nothing like a hot, nourishing bowl of soup when the weather’s blustery outside. But y’all know I don’t enjoy being in the kitchen. So my homemade soups need to be quick & easy, yet delicious & comforting.
Are you looking for a quick and super-easy soup idea for supper tonight? Well you’re in luck. Check it out, here are several different faves in our household. The links to each of these recipes are in the titles. Enjoy!
by Texas Homesteader ~
It took me a long time to jump into the Instant Pot scene. I mean, I already had slow cookers, and I had a high-end stainless steel stove-top pressure cooker too. Why would I spend more money to buy something else I had to store? Wanna know what the breaking point was for me to decide to jump in?
Well I’d borrowed my sisters IP to see if I’d *really* use it enough to justify the cost. One of the first things I tried was bone broth. I was hooked!
Y’all, making your own healthy broth has really never been this easy!
~Texas Homesteader~
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RancherMan & I love tamales. As a matter of fact, tamales are RancherMan’s favorite Tex-Mex food. And heck with his mad hunting skills, we always have pork in the freezer from the Wild Hogs that cause so much damage to our property.
It’s pretty common for me to cook up all those pork roasts at one time and quickly Shred The Roast with my KitchenAid mixer. That way I have cooked, shredded roast in the freezer at any given time for all manner of our favorite Mexican-themed meals, whether Pulled Pork Enchiladas, even easier Enchilada Casserole or maybe Carnitas Tacos.
But now we were in the mood to make tamales, although we hadn’t made them in about 15 years or so. Time to dust off those skills and put a few tamales in the freezer!
