A Few More Recipes!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes From Taste of Home

1 package spice cake mix (or you can use a homemade cake mix and add pumpkin pie spice)
2 cups chopped peeled tart apples
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla (was not in the original recipe, I added it because we love vanilla)
20 caramels
12 popsicle sticks

Prepare cake mix according to package directions; fold in apples and vanilla. Fill 12 paper-lined jumbo muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire racks completely. In a saucepan, cook the caramels and milk over low heat until smooth. Spread over cupcakes and sprinkle with the pecans. Insert a popsicle stick into the center of each cupcake. Yield: 1 dozen



Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 lb. shredded, cooked chicken
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can enchilada sauce (I used a packet of dry enchilada sauce)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
3 cups homemade chicken broth
2 cans of black beans
1 can green chilies
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cans whole kernel corn or 2 10-ounce bags frozen corn
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Add all ingredients to the crockpot and cook 8 - 10 hours or overnight. Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sliced green onions and sour cream. Enjoy!

Our Day at the Pumpkin Patch!!!

Like I said in an earlier post, we went to a pumpkin patch this past Wednesday with our homeschool group. Here are a few pictures of some of the things we did there. We had alot of fun.

They had a really neat hay bale maze. Behind it was a small field of millet that was called the Mississippi trail. It had alot of cut outs on the trail with facts about Mississippi.

Everyone had their face painted. Here is a photo of the youngest bug with her pumpkin! Everyone also got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Here are all the bugs painting their pumpkins.

And here are the finished products! Painted Pumpkins! We will enjoy these for the next week as painted pumpkins and then after that, we will enjoy them in some yummy desserts. Bake them, freeze them and eat them!

Menu Plan For The Week

Here's our menu plan for the upcoming week. We are new to this blogging so I haven't been able to put all of our recipes on here yet. Please bear with us. Maybe by next week we will know how to put the recipes on here that we are using for the week.

SUNDAY, October 30
Coffee (we don't eat breakfast before church)
Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup,cornbread and Pear Salad
Supper at Church!

MONDAY, October 31
Homemade Doughnuts with an Orange Glaze
Inside-Out Pizza (RECIPE FOLLOWS)
Spaghetti, Green Salad and Homemade Garlic French Bread

TUESDAY, November 1
Sweet Potato Scones
Homemade Pigs-N-Blankets and maybe a yummy Kefir smoothie if I can get around to making the kefir.
BBQ Boneless, Chicken Thighs, Corn on the Cob and Summer Squash Au Gratin and Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cake

WEDNESDAY, November 2
Mexican Eggs with Maple Oatmeal Bread
Ham & Cheese Sandwiches and Chips (Music Lessons Day, need something easy!)
Super Easy Crockpot Hamburger Veggie Soup (Again, something easy on music day, use a crockpot.)

THURSDAY, November 3
Oatmeal Icebox Cookies (Thanks to my friend, Jennifer Miller, for introducing us to these, YUMMY!)
Tuna Salad Sandwiches, chips and maybe some more of those yummy cookies from breakfast, if there are any left!
BBQ Pork Sandwiches on Homemade Dinner Rolls, coleslaw

FRIDAY, November 4
Grits, eggs and toast
Noodles and Tomato Sauce (a childhood favorite my mom always made us), (RECIPE FOLLOWS)
Taco Salad and Raisin, Carrot and Apple Cake

SATURDAY, November 5
Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup
7-Layer Salad
Cheesy Ham Au Gratin


Here are two recipes from our menu plan.

Inside-Out Pizza

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 T. yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 T. agave nectar or honey
1 cup warm water
4 T. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Start with the water and yeast and mix them together and let sit for about 5 minutes, until foamy. Add the remaining ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes. Roll the dough out into a circle, about the size of a large pizza. I use our large, round pizza pan for this. On half of the dough, spread your pizza sauce and sprinkle with cheese. You can also add other ingredients if you would like. Fresh herbs and cheese are really good.  After that step, take the side that has nothing on it and fold it over the sauce and cheese. Now you are ready to bake. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until golden brown.


NOODLES & TOMATO SAUCE

I never really measure anything for this but I will do my best. You may have to add a little or less of the seasonings.

3 cups of elbow pasta, can use any type of small pasta
1 small can of tomato sauce
About 3/4 of a cup of sucanat to sweeten, you can use any sweetener of your choice
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring to boil about 5-6 cups of water. Add your pasta and tomato sauce. Bring it back up to a boil and add your sweetener, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat until pasta is done.

Yummy Pumpkin Recipe!

Today, the bugs and I went to a pumpkin patch. They were able to have lots of fun with their homeschooled friends. We all met up and enjoyed the nice weather, a hay ride and a picnic lunch. They were able to pick a pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch to bring home with them. They are the small pumpkins, like the baking ones you can buy in the grocery store. Our plans are to paint faces or something on the pumpkins tomorrow. I will post some pictures of the finished ones as soon as we are finished. After October 31st, we will bake our little pumpkins and put them in the freezer for yummy recipes like the one below.  As for now, I thought I would share one of our favorite recipes that we make every year around this time when the pumpkins are in season. Here is a recipe I use out of a Taste of Home book I bought years ago and have adapted it to our likings. A much healthier version!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

3 cups Organic, unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sucanat (you can use regular sugar)

2 cups pumpkin (can also use canned)

1 1/4 cups coconut oil

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sucanat, pumpkin and coconut oil. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 - 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing pans to wire racks.

If you have any yummy pumpkin recipes, we would love to here about them. Leave us a comment!

Homemade Pudding Pops!

We are always looking for yummy, good for you recipes. We came across this recipe on a website a few months ago. As you can see, we are just getting around to making these yummy treats. Here is the recipe for these delicious, creamy pudding pops that everyone in this household enjoyed. http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-pudding-pops-2


This can be eaten as pudding or you can freeze it for pudding pops. We opted to freeze! We followed her Creamy Pudding recipe. There are three different types of pudding we could have made. Vanilla, Butterscotch or Chocolate. Of course, we chose CHOCOLATE!!!


Here is how we made our pudding pops:

Make a batch of the creamy pudding, and pour it into the 3 ounce sized bathroom cups. Insert a popsicle stick into the pudding. We found it useful to set all of the cups on a large cookie sheet and fill them.

Now you are ready to put them into the freezer and freeze. It took ours about an hour to fully freeze. When they are frozen, the easiest way to remove the paper cups are to run them under cool water and the cup slips right off.

Now it is time to enjoy. These were a great success and I don't feel bad about giving these to my bugs!

Making Butter!

Today we made some butter from our yummy cream we get from Mrs. Jaime Mauthe of Mauthe Dairy in Progress, MS. It is so much fun to make your own homemade butter from fresh cow's cream. We also make homemade yogurt and kefir from the fresh milk we get from her, but that's another post. Her are some of my girls making the butter.

We use our KitchenAid mixer to make the butter. It's  alot easier than making it by hand , that is passing around a mason jar and taking turns shaking it. We have so much fun in our kitchen making things like this. We will try to include some of our easy homemade recipes for making bread, kefir, butter, and even homemade laundry detergent!

Until next time.......

Dana

Peyton's 14th Birthday!!!

Peyton's birthday was October 7th. She is the oldest of our 5 bugs. This year we had a BONFIRE birthday party. We had close to 40 something family and friends over. We decided to honor one of our church family members by having a breast cancer awareness themed birthday. The person we honored is Mrs. Diane Van Norman, of Snow Dog Cabana, in Liberty, MS. Here are a few pictures of the cupcakes we made for Peyton's party.              We Love You Mrs. Diane!

Dana

Our New Layer!

Today, like everyday, we gather our eggs from the chicken coop. To our surprise, one of our little Bantams laid her first egg! Most of our egg layers are White Leghorns, which are white layers. We have a couple of Silkies, which are light tan layers, and also a few cross breeds (White Leghorn and Barred Rock) that lay brown eggs. This morning, one of the bugs (our kids), brought a green egg in. We were so excited to be getting another color of egg! Here is a picture of our little Ameraucana Bantam that laid our first green egg.

Dana and Peyton

First Time Blogging!!!

Hello from the Freeman family. This is our very first blog post ever! We will be sharing a glimpse into our lives in the different things we do each and every day. From gardening and homesteading to homeschooling and baking. Stay tuned!

The Freemans