I tired it recipes, so you don't have to. . .

 

First, here is the link for the Pumpkin baked oatmeal with toasted pecans (The Real Dietitians). 

One of my biggest challenges has been to cook and bake without white flour, sugar and pasta.  Per my husband's doctor's strict instructions (for the last 7 years), I am trying my best, but as a baker and cook from scratch gal, it's been a huge challenge.  Hence, the new recipe trials.

I found this recipe on social media, but have no source for it.  I'm thinking someone just tossed stuff together.  Anyway...

  1st - I added cinnamon and nutmeg, and I'm glad I did.

2nd - they are a bit on the "dry" side, any ideas on what to add that is healthy?

3rd - they need more blueberries

Notes:  I used 1/3 cup monkfruit (I feel monkfruit is sweeter than real sugar), and used homemade vanilla.

I tried this recipe first, as I had frozen (vs. fresh) blueberries, and plain greek yogurt.  Oven bake times may vary, as you see mine are a bit toasty on top.

Mix 3 cups of almond flour with 1 Tbsp. baking soda.

In another bowl, whisk 4 eggs, 1/2 cup Greek plain yogurt, 2/3 cup swerve (or your choice of sweetener), 1 tsp. vanilla.

Mix wet with dry ingredients, and fold in 1 cup of frozen blueberries.  Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes.

I have another recipe that calls for milk and fresh blueberries to try soon as well.

Southern Beefy Skillet.  Delicious.  Uses beans vs. pasta.  Recipe is online with Eating Well (previously Diabetic Living).  Be sure to read the instructions first, as they left out the tomato sauce in the ingredients list.

I didn't quite follow it 100%.  I added a bag of frozen thawed, diced yellow squash to it as well.  I used home canned tomato sauce, the oregano came from the herb garden, and the bell peppers and jalapenos also came from the freezer (from last year's garden).  Sadly, I am out of freezer garden tomatoes.  Other than the addition, and using my homegrown sources, it was very good.  I will be saving this recipe.  I keep cans of organic butter beans on hand on a regular basis.

Butter beans, sausages and kale pesto.  A nice wintery dish. There are a few different recipes online for this, and they never specify exactly what type of "sausages" to use, so I decided to slice and cook turkey sausages (original recipes say to cook whole sausages).  It was delicious.  Next time I will serve a side vegetable too.  I have some kale pesto leftover, so I'll either be freezing it into cubes, or using it for a chicken dinner.  

My blog has once again compromised (or was anyway).  Why?  To annoy me?   Most likely the same person, however, did you know you can report an "issue" on your Google account?  You can. 

Enjoy!  The sun is out again today!

I tried it recipes, so you don't have to . . .  © Feb 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Parsley ~ Kitchen Purge ~ Sad News

 

I finally got parsley put into the dehydrator (sorry for the bad photo).  I love the aroma of freshly cut parsley.  Our weather is changing too quickly.  Rain is still in the forecast, which makes putting the garden to bed difficult.

Even after dehydrating the aroma was still strong and smelled delicious.

We got rain almost all day yesterday, so the refrigerator is completely cleaned and re-organized.

I also spent the day working on boxing up my computer area in the kitchen (aside from the computer itself).  We are prepping to move things to the living room to rip up the kitchen floor later this month.  I didn't realize how much stuff I had that needed thrown out, donated or things I just don't use anymore.  My computer area involves a kitchen counter with 6 desk drawers.  I will tackle the drawers, then start on the cupboards that will be taken out.  What a job!!  And this is just the prep work.

In a way I'm glad it's happening, because when things are in drawers and out of sight, it's not the first thing on my mind to clean/purge.

However, once we are completely ready to do the floor, I will lose use of my stove.  How do you grill breakfast?  I guess I'll be googling it or using a crock pot.  I could use my cast iron pan on the grill too.  Just thought of that.

In bad news.....my husband's sister and our niece both tested positive for covid yesterday.  Every worse....my husband's sister was moved to hospice care by dinner time the same day.  Please pray for Patty.

Parsley Sprouted

It took forever, but some of the parsley seeds have sprouted.  Makes me feel like Spring is just about here.

This morning however, it's snow covered and frozen slush everywhere.  School is closed.  It's 8°F out.  I'm thinking it's a crochet-PBS/Netlfix sort of day.  I got about 12 rows done on the baby blanket, maybe I can get 12 more on today.

Last night we had grilled cheese sandwiches with cowboy candy and Ezekiel bread, and home canned tomato soup.  I didn't need the cheese, but it was nice on a cold night. 

Our county is under a level 1 road emergency, and some a level 2 (which is the worst it's been this winter).  I'm ready for porch time, bare feet and sunshine. 

Random Tidbits

It cooled down quickly (woke up to the 40's) here, so home grown sweet potatoes, green bell peppers and garlic went into good use - sweet potato chili.  

After running into the basket in the kitchen too many times, my extent of "fall" decor was placing those hard-as-a-rock pie pumpkins on the porch ledge.  

The dead bolt on one of the doors broke.  I had to gently lay that news on Hubby.  It was stuck locked, and the latch to turn it broke.  Good thing I have another door to use. 

Avoiding the garden for the most part of the day, I baked some flourless brownies...

Whipped up some more whiskey butterscotch sauce....

Made a jar of homemade pumpkin pie spice.

Homemade pumpkin pie spice

3 Tbsp. organic ground cinnamon

2 tsp. organic ground ginger

2 tsp. organic ground nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp. organic ground all-spice

1 1/2 tsp. organic ground cloves

Mix and store in an airtight container.  I used a recycled baby food jar that was given to me.

I baked my first pumpkin poke cake, making the cake mix from scratch and using homegrown pumpkin puree.  Oh, and used homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce for the filler.  I'll have another post with the recipe.

I lied about the tomatoes.  I went out to pull stakes and plants and ended up picking another 6#.  

I made more homemade "lysol" wipes.  I have a big cleaning day in my bedroom and just about anywhere else after that.

I planted parsley and basil seeds in my kitchen window pots.

Emptied the dehydrator of lemon balm and filled it up with parsley.  I love the smell of fresh parsley.  The stems went into the freezer for future broth/stock recipes.  Tip:  Tie the stems together and simply toss them into the pot or roaster pan you making your broth/stock in.

I whipped up some organic buttermilk corn bread.  I make my own buttermilk by measuring 1 cup of organic milk and adding 1 Tbsp. of organic lemon juice.  

Today's plan?  It all depends on the weather.  We woke up to a chilly 42°F.

Tidbits ~ Herbed Omelets or Scrambled Eggs

Hubby and I were up at 5am this morning.  Had coffee on the porch before he left for work and I made him a sweet potato (more like an egg hash) burrito.  Both of us were up since about 3am.

I had to laugh this morning.  He asked me to open the door so he could carry his lunch, mug of coffee and half eaten burrito out to the car (truck is still down).  I looked down and he had socks and slippers on, ha ha ha ha!  I had to tell him, "um, hun? You don't have your shoes on."  We laughed and laughed.

It's operation homestead clean up again today.  I was abandoned by all kiddos, so I didn't have any help, but today I will.  More spider traps are going in place again too.

I don't see that it even rained last night, so we'll dig out more porch furniture.  I put a few pieces out yesterday, but golly, there is more to tidy up than I thought.

"Fire it Up" Herb/Spice Mix (aka Full Throttle Herb/Spice Mix ~ Good/Bad

We woke up to all the white stuff melted.  All of it.  I am so glad to see that.  It was an ice rink walking to the barn, to fetch wood and to get the mail.  It'll be sloshy out there, but I'll take warmer weather and mud over ice and freezing temps at this point.


There are so many nutritional and medicinal benefits of herbs and spices, so I won't go into detail of each one.  However, I mixed the following together for their benefits, and tried it on eggs, on sandwiches, meats etc.

Although I called it "Fire it Up" we like to think of (or call it) "Full Throttle" because it fires up our "engines."

A body boosting, immune boosting, sickness fighter, overall health boosting mix.

First I picked dehydrated garden parsley, and my home ground garlic. 

Random Tidbits ~ Pumpkin Hummus

The carrots are all out of the ground - 7.7# more. I got them all out after a day of rain, but it was so wet out there.  I could not pull dead plants, and then the rain returned this morning.  With a vengeance.  This puts all garden work, and barn work to a halt.