I don't have any exciting recipes to share today.  It is just another Friday at the end of a busy week.  My family has been fighting the stomach flu the past 8 days.  We haven't been eating much but I still have to provide meals. I cooked a turkey on Sunday that I had kept from Thanksgiving when they were on sale. We ate bits of that all week. I have made a lot of soup and sandwiches.  Today everyone is feeling better and looking for food.  Because of the flu I have not been grocery shopping in a couple weeks.  I want to express how much I appreciate my method of freezer meals ahead for many days.  Once again this morning I looked in the freezer and found homemade apple sauce, frozen strawberries, ground beef.  Today the girls and I made applesauce muffins, Smoothies with the strawberries and we will have meatloaf, potatoes and frozen corn and carrots for supper. We have our own beef from our dairy farm but our neighbours sell beef with that is hormone free and would recommend splitting a cow with a friend and stock your freezer.  This is more cost effective and so much healthier when you read about all the contamination scares.
  I am always so thankful by how much we all have.  I think we should have National eat out of your freezer week. In our house we could eat for a month without buying anything at the grocery store.  It is a great comfort to me to know we have this food planned ahead. However it does speak to consumerism and how much we think we need verses how much we actually need.  I take comfort knowing these strawberries and apples in my freezer (as well as pumpkin, rhurbarb and other foods) we have grown or gotten from our neighbours. So that is what I am promoting. Plan ahead, stock your freezer while food is locally ready, Eat out of your freezer as much as you can in the winter.  Save money, Eat better, Stress less.

Pie Crust

I wanna brag again.
I made an apple pie one afternoon with some of the filling I had left over from the day before when I was canning.  It was SO yummy.  So I thought I would share my pie crust recipe.  I got this recipe from my friend's mom.  How did mom's get so smart?  My parents got so much smarter since they have had grandchildren!  I actually enjoy her advice now.  This mix keeps in a cupboard for quite a while if it is cool.
Pie Crust
6cups of flour
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp of sugar
1tsp of salt
2 cups lard (tenderflake box is 2 1/4 cup)
break up lard in to pea size pieces, toss lightly all ingredients together
keep in a container. This will make about 6 pie crust bottoms.
When you are ready to make one pie, put 2 cups of mix into
a bowl. Add enough milk to make proper consistancy. This amount will make a large
bottom and top crust of a pie.

Chocolate  Clusters (Macaroons)

2 cups white sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup margarine or butter

Melt butter.  Add milk and sugar.  Bring to a bubbly boil and let boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Add

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

1 cup medium unsweetened coconut, firmly packed

6 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

Pinch of salt

Mix together.  Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper. Makes 3 dozen

Not my recipe but these cookies are so popular and easy.   With Christmas coming I am whipping up batches of these for our MOPS group.   For church I will make a treat tray of Rice Krispie squares and macaroons to take for coffee time and I will be the 'Sunday Hero'!

Applefest

Today was another great cooking day.  I got up with 2 whiny girls.  I was frustrated that I would spend another 12 hours alone with my kids.  I wasn't feeling very creative.  I never thought I would ever get tired of 'playing' but you can only hide in the same spot for a 2 year old to find you for so long.   My day turned around when we ended up playing MY games and doing some things I enjoy.  It turns out Ashley is old enough to help Mommy do some of house jobs.  We decided to go pick apples in the morning and I thought I could peel, freeze and cook while the girls napped.  The 'U-pick' place was closed so I drove on to the next apple orchid and bought some apple seconds.  A HUGE bag for $15 of the apples that had scabs or had fallen off the tree.
I also got real apple juice.  Ashley has been suffering from a rash. My doctor thinks that it is food related.  we finally got rid of it but I am much more aware of the additives and preservatives in food.  I have been trying over the last week to feed her as close to original foods as possible.  That way if she does have a reaction again it will be easier to figure out which out which food it was.
So when we got home Ashley asked if she could peel the apples.  I got out the apple peeler and she went right to work.  What a treat to have my little girl do all the work (and a little snacking) while I measured and stirred and cooked up all my recipes.  We made 2 batches of applesauce, applesauce muffins, apple crisp for supper tonight. I froze chopped apples and canned 9 jars of apple pie filling.  Tomorrow I will tackle an apple pie and do some freezer apple pie filling.  I also want to make another batch of salsa but I need more jars! 
I just love cooking and canning.  It has been a beautiful, not too -  hot day.  Great day to cook with my kiddo's and do some things I enjoy.  The kitchen is a big mess but  I tired the girls out and filled their bellies.  Also Ashley is feeling very proud of herself.  I would say that was a great day!

Chocochip Banana Muffins

I buy a lot of banana's. They are a healthy snack and they travel well. The banana has it's own ziplock container and I can grab it and go.  My kids like banana's a little on the green side.  Not too ripe. I make these muffins a lot with the ripe bananas.  I also freeze my over ripe bananas which is a little messy and gross when they thaw but I hate wasting food and when the muffins are all baked no one will ever know the difference.  This is my own creation recipe. I love to use up my expired yogurt this way. Sometimes I put in jam and use less sugar.

3 bananas
3/4 cup of white sugar
100gram yogurt any flavor (I use expired)
1/3 cup of margerine
1 egg
beat for 1 minute
add
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 cup of chocolate chips
mix by hand well.

12 large muffins - bake 350 for 20 mins

3 blog posts ago the picture of muffins is this recipe. I like these muffins for my kids. They eat them almost everyday. They love the chocolate and I love that I know what is in them. Sometimes if we are out over lunch time it makes a great substitute sandwich. Grab a couple boxes of raisins and cheese sticks and we are out the door. Or if we are in a hurry in the morning they can eat one in the car. This recipe ALWAYS turns out for me.  

This morning I made coldslaw.  SO good.  I don't think i have posted my recipe so here goes.
1 cabbage
2 medium onions
2 stalks of celery
3 large carrots
1 pepper
Run it all thru the food processor slicer. Set aside in a large bowl.

1 cup of vinegar
3/4 cup of veg oil
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp of celery seed
1 1/2 tsp salt
Bring to a boil and pour over veggies, then toss.  This will keep in a fridge over a week.

I picked up a cabbage sunday at the local farmers stand. This salad is almost a whole meal at our house.  Today I also picked our first veggies from our garden.  They are small but Ashley and I are proud.

Planning meals

Planning meals saves money, stress and time.  It has been so hot that we have been eating crock pot meals a lot. Chili, roast in the crock pot, then stew with the leftovers in the crock pot. I even picked up a Pizza in town last night.  This morning was cool so I took the opportunity to refill my freezer meals.  Two weeks ago we were suppose to go to a family do but I had a sick kid so I was very thankful when I opened the freezer and found a loaf of bread, a bag of muffins and a lasagna. It sure was nice to have grilled cheese sandwiches and lasagna and muffins for the weekend since I was busy caring for my kiddo.  This morning I baked chocochip banana muffins and blueberry muffins. I will freeze most of the muffins in bags of 6 for a quick snack or even a breakfast at the cottage.  I made spaghetti sauce for supper and split it in half and layered a lasagna for the freezer. I am going to make a pasta salad tonight with the extra noodles from supper.  This weekend will be hamburgers and hotdogs since I will be away and Daddy is cooking. The salad will go good with that.  I also have chicken fingers and fries in the freezer for another quick meal. I have some porkchops for the BBQ next week and some chicken legs for the crockpot. Since it will be another hot week I am glad I have a plan.  Good luck to you all avoiding the heat.

P.S. The pulled pork was so easy and good.  Pork tenderloin and 1 can of root beer. Cook in the crock pot on low for 7 hours.  Drain off rootbeer and shread meat. Put back in crock pot with 2 cups of your favorite BBQ sauce. Mix and eat with buns. It was a hit with the company.