Homegrown Teacher's Gift

It was the first day of school for three of our children...

We're so blessed and thankful that we have the opportunity to send them to a small Christian school.

The grades are combined, and the teacher's are excellent.  The accountability they feel in helping us parents in guiding  our children's spiritual growth is such a blessing!
Both of my children's teacher's will be implementing many of the concepts in the book...Shepherding A Child's Heart, by Tedd Trip.

I'm so inspired by this, that I'll be reading the book as well.  I've heard such wonderful things about it.

For a first day Teacher's Gift this is what they received. :)

There is only two gifts, because two of my children are in the same class.

We grew everything here on our acreage.

Basil (still drying), half dozen eggs (from our chickens), fridge pickles, and lots of homegrown tomatoes... :)

On the bag I wrote Isaiah 54:13.

"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Have a very wonderful school year.

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,
Thrifty momma

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Basil?

Basil anyone?  :)

My mother in-law brought me over this huge bowl of lovely fresh cut basil on Saturday.

So naturally I got busy bundling it up, and hanging it to dry.

My kitchen smelled so wonderful.

We had so much I had to hang some in the sitting area next to the kitchen. :)

Once this all dries I'll put it in a food processor to use for cooking through out the winter.

What a wonderful blessing...homegrown organic basil.  ;)

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,

Thrifty momma

mmm, good.

Some yummy grape tomatoes from our garden...

Aren't they pretty?

I cut up some cucumbers (also from our garden), grape tomatoes, and put some ranch dressing with Parmesan cheese on top.  Oh my, it was so refreshing and yummy. 

I served it with my Supreme Chicken Casserole, which is a family favorite!  ;)

Supreme Chicken Casserole...

2-3 chicken breasts cooked and chopped

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 8oz. cornbread stuffing mix

1/2 stick butter melted

1 16 oz. sour cream

1 can chicken broth

Combine: cream of mushroom, butter (melted), sour cream, and chicken broth.

Then mix in stuffing and chicken.

Place in casserole dish and cook at 375 for 35-40 min...until golden and bubbling.

Sure to be a family pleaser!! :)

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,
Thrifty Momma

Breakfast planning and preparing...Frozen yummies

I've been preparing and freezing supper meals, so I decided I was ready to try breakfast meals.  ;)

I made 13 breakfast burritos, and 12 egg mcmuffins...yum

I started out by browning 2lbs. breakfast sausage...This ended up in both my egg mixtures, with some left over to freeze for gravy and biscuits.

Once that was prepared I used 13 eggs, a little milk, and some of the sausage and poured into a baking sheet.

This went into the oven on 350 until the egg was cooked, not over cooked.

Once I had that placed in the oven I then scrambled up 12 more eggs, and then folded in some sausage.

This I used for the breakfast burritos.

I placed one large spoonful of egg mixture and some shedded mild cheddar on each tortilla shell.

Then rolled them up in parchment paper and placed in freezer ziplock bags.

Before I could finish the burritos the eggs in the oven were finished, so I took them out to cool.

The eggs made nice baked squares for the egg mcmuffins.

I placed one slice of cheese, one egg with sausage square using an English muffin.

The remaining eggs I just wrapped indivdually up, and froze.

This has worked out well...

In the mornings for our daughter...I just grab out two squares, place on a baking sheet in the oven on 350...just to heat it up...and done.  She loves holding them and feeding herself.  :)

It is so nice to have these breakfast meals ready for my lovely family...
It will also come in handy to have breakfasts like this on hand once our newest blessing arrives in December, too!

I wrapped each egg mcmuffin, and place in a freezer ziplock bag.
Now all we have to do some mornings is grab and heat up. 
Wonderful!

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,
Thrifty Momma

Pantry reveal

When we first built and moved in we had combined our mudroom and pantry area.  The front part was the mudroom, and on the other side of the half wall was the pantry.  Well for a growing family and a household who believes in stocking up for a rainy day...this space became small very fast. 

As did the mudroom part...the winters in the Midwest are filled with snow, ice, and freezing temp. ;(

Which means snow pants, heavy coats, and snow boots...the little area we had planned out just wasn't working.  So we decided to build a new pantry, and leave this whole room here for a  mudroom.

Glorious...a momma's dream...right? ;)

My husband built a new pantry by basically dividing up another room, and knocking out a door in this wall.

Yep, it was that easy...haha!

After finally finishing the drywall and priming, we began the move into the new pantry.

It took a full day, and boy was it exhausting.

I did preserve all this food... :)

We have tomatoes, green beans, chicken, beef, and broth all canned...

More of the food supplies...

The other side of the pantry holds more of the things that we had stored under our stairs.  Which I'm so glad we got cleared out.  Things such as my wheat mill, bread maker, cannier, canning jars, etc...

The space under the stairs this year will be to store wood for our woodburners.  Which I'm happy about.  Wood can be very messy bringing it in, and stacking it to use.  So under our stairs is the prefect place.

We often get..."why do you have so much stored?"
Well, my husband is in the home improvement business, and with this economy, and him not working obviously outside in the winter...We prepare for it, and prepare for anything. :)
We believe that we're to be good stewards with what God provides, and teaching our children to plan ahead.

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,
Thrifty momma

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15 freezer meals.

I began my freezer meal cooking...

I ended up with 15 homemade freezer meals. It's a wonderful feeling to have those ready for my family!

This is the meatloaf, and meatball mixture.  We love it!  It made 4 meatloaf's , and 2 meatball meals.

A few tips that make this cooking day easier...

1. Start with an empty trash bag.  You'll be throwing away cans, and scraps from cutting onions, peppers, etc.

2.  Have one sink basin full of warm soapy water.  Helps to rinse hands off, and or a quick wash of mixing utensils.

3.  Keep a dishtowel on your shoulder for easy drying of hands, and utensils.   And have an apron on if you have one.

Three of my meatloaf's cooking...The fourth I kept in the fridge, and we had for supper. :)

This is the chicken supreme casserole mix, and south of the boarder chicken waiting for the chicken. ;)

Meatballs ready for the oven.  I half these for two meals.  While I formed the meatballs I already had the chicken boiling, and the sauce going for ziti and lasagna.

Sauce mix which made baked ziti and lazy lasagna.

Two chicken supreme casserole's ready to be covered, marked, and place in freezer

I made 2 lazy lasagna's. :)

2 baked ziti's.

3 south of the boarder chickens.

Ready for the freezer... :)

My over all time, not including kitchen clean up was...2 1/2 hrs. (with a few interruptions. :) )

I'm hoping next week to try some different recipes, and continue this on a weekly basis.  This way I should hopefully have a nice supply come Dec. for the arrival of baby.

For the love of Faith, Family, and Home,
Thrifty Momma

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