Whole Wheat Apple Baked Pancakes

 

This is such a yummy recipe!  My fellas love pancakes, but I destest having to stand there and make them...considering I have to make a kazillion just to fill my guys up.  AND since, I'm the last to eat since I have to stand there cooking the pancaked for all my hungry fellas...it's nearing noon before I get to eat any (just kidding!).  This is a pretty healthy breakfast, but one of these days when I get some extra time, I want to experiment with either soaking these or making them sour dough.  But, for now this recipe makes my fellas pretty happy in the morning =)

Whole Wheat Apple Baked Pancakes

2 tablespoons butter
2 c. whole wheat flour (preferrably fresh ground)
3 tbsp. rapadura
1 tsp. Sea salt
1 1/2 - 2 c. milk (depending on how thick you like your pancakes) – Raw is preferred
3-4 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
5 tbsp. Coconut oil
¼  teaspoon vanilla
2 small apple, very thinly sliced
3 teaspoons cinnamon-sugar (made with rapadura sugar)
Maple Syrup

Heat oven to 400°F. While oven is heating, melt butter in 9-inch glass pie plate in oven.  Meanwhile, in large bowl, with a whisk, mix together the whole wheat flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  To the flour mixture, add the 2 eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Stir together well, mixture may be lumpy. Pour over melted butter in the casserole dish. Arrange apple slices on batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are deep golden brown and toothpick inserted to center comes out clean. Serve warm with maple syrup.  Recipe can be easily doubled and cooked in a 9x12 inch casserole dish, which I suggest doing if you have a large family or just boys (and husbands!!) who have hollow legs.  You may have to cook a bit longer though, so do the toothpick test after 20 minutes and go from there.

Goes good with scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage.  

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Layered Mexican Bake

 

My family loves Mexican and Tex-Mex foods.  I think they would be perfectly happy eating some form of it everyday...if it weren't for me, we wouldn't eat anything else.  I'm the one who really likes a variety of meals.  I found this recipe last week, provided  by Kraft foods and I altered it to make it a bit healthier as well as doubled it, yet it still is pretty quick and easy.  Plus the family loves it!

Layered Mexican Bake

2 lb. ground beef
2 onion, chopped
2 green pepper, chopped
4 tsp. chili powder (I used more like 1 tbsp...we like spicy!)
2 1/2 cups salsa (or 2 cans Rotel Tomatoes)
2 (10-oz.) pkg. frozen corn
6 sprouted grain tortillas  (or whole wheat if you can't get sprouted grain tortillas)
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded, divided

Preheat the oven to 375-degrees.  Brown the beef with the onion and peppers in a large skillet.  Stir in chili powder and stir.  Add salsa and corn and mix well.  Simmer for 5-6 minutes.  I had to double this recipe for my fellas; I simply put it in a 9x12 rectangle casserole dish and did the following layers

1/4th of meat sauce on bottom
top with 2 tortillas sitting next to each other
1/4th of meat sauce
1 cup sour cream (spread to cover)
1/2 cup cheese
top with 2 tortillas sitting next to each other
1/4th of meat sauce
1/2 cup cheese
top with 2 tortillas sitting next to each other
1/4th of meat sauce

Bake for 25 minutes or until casserole is heated through.  Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese; bake, uncovered for 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

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Tex-Mex Bean Soup in a Crockpot

 

I'm always experimenting with ways to fix beans.  First of all, my family loves them. But on top of that, they are cheap and versatile.  I especially like bean dishes that are 100% meat free, as they are so frugal yet are extremely healthy.  Meat can be expensive and by supplementing our menu with a few vegetarian meals a week, I can afford to buy better quality meat, such as grass-fed beef.  This makes a big difference to our family and helps us to eat nutrient rich foods, yet stay within our budget.  Beans are our friends =).  I cook this recipe in my crockpot, which makes it really easy to prepare and not a lot of work.  It can be prepared conventionally on the stove as well, but I love to use my crockpot to make my life easier!

Tex-Mex Bean Soup in a Crockpot.

2 pounds small red beans (pintos will also work)
4 tbsp. vinegar
Water to cover beans
2 quarts beef stock (about 3-4 cans purchased)
Water
1 tbsp. garlic powder (or 3-4 cloves, chopped)
1 onion, chopped
1 can tomato sauce
1 can rotel tomatoes
Sea salt & pepper to taste
Sharp cheddar cheese, grated (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)
Fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

The night before you plan to eat, place in the crockpot, the beans, vinegar and just enough water to cover beans.  DO NOT TURN ON.  Cover and let soak for 8-12 hours.  After the soaking time if finished, drain and rinse the beans.  Place the drained and rinsed beans back into the crockpot.  Add the beef stock and water, if needed, to fill up crockpot.  Turn the pot on high and cook for about 5-6 hours.  About 1-2 hours from serving time, add the garlic, onion, tomato sauce, rotel tomatoes, and season to taste.  Add water as needed to keep the crockpot full.  To serve, dish up into bowls and top with grated sharp cheddar cheese.  Also good with a dollop of sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro.  I usually serve this with cornbread, we really like the Frugal Cornbread by Jenny over at Meanwhile Back at the Ranch...

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Spaghetti Squash Ole!

 

It's been years since I've eaten spaghetti squash.  I'm not a big squash eater...I really don't care for it much, I think it's a texture thing.  But when I went to the grocery store, we were walking through the produce aisle and pointing out veggies to the boys.  I showed them the spaghetti squash an they talked me into buying one.  I've never cooked one before, so I thought this would be a fun time to try.  One thing I did not know...those bad boys are HARD to cut in half!  I was sure wishing I had a hatchet handy instead of a kitchen knife...lol!  So I looked around on the internet and looked for some recipes and using them as a jumping off point, I created my own recipe.  And let me tell you...it was a hit.  I haven't seen Riley eat that well in a LONG time!  Not to mention that it created a HUGE meal that even my fellas couldn't finish off...I had leftovers!  I can't believe it!!  So, I'm going to share the recipe with you.

Spaghetti Squash Ole!

1 spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
2 lb. ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
1 stick butter
1/2 tbsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 can tomato sauce
1 can rotel tomatoes
4 cups cheese, split

Preheat the oven to 375-degrees.  Place the squash on a baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, until squash is tender.  Remove from heat and cool.  Shred pulp with a fork.  Set aside.  Reduce the heat to 350-degrees.  In a skillet, brown the onion in the butter, garlic powder and black pepper.  Add the ground turkey and cook until meat is brown.  Add the chili powder, tomato sauce and rotel tomatoes, and stir well.  Stir in the spaghetti squash pulp and mix well.  Add  2-1/2 cup cheese and stir to incorporate.  Pour into a casserole dish.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle on the remaining 1-1/2 cup cheese on top and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted.

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Quilting Project Beginnings

Today, I did something that I've needed to do since this summer.  I laid out and chose the pattern for a nice lap quilt.  This summer, while we were in Missouri visiting my brother and his family, my Mom, Sister-in-law (Kathy) and I toured some local quilt shops.  Mom bought me this really nice pattern book called "Charm Quilts" by Suzanne McNeill.  She also bought be enough charm squares to make one of the quilts in the book.  There are 11 beautiful lap quilt patterns featured in this book.  So now, I had the patterns and fabric, but I had to pick out WHICH pattern to use...that was SO hard, as they were all beautiful.  Well today, I finalized which pattern I'm going to use and laid out the charm squares according to the pattern and took a picture...for some reason, laying it out and taking the picture really helps me to see how it's going to look.  Here's a preview:

I chose a pattern from the book called "Fresh Air".  It makes a 59" x 77" lap/throw quilt.  It will only take 140 charm squares to make the quilt, so I have quite a few left over for another smaller project.    Here's the fabric I chose for the borders.  The red fabric will be the first border and the green fabric will be for the outer border and binding, I'll do the backing with muslin:

Mom bought these beautiful charm squares through Connecting Threads, that's also where I got the border and binding fabric.  They have some really beautiful fabric collections there that are actually pretty reasonably priced.  The fabric I'm using for this quilt is from their "Hearth & Home" Collection.  I just love the colors in this one.  I also really love their "Riviera" Collection, "Aqua Terra" Collection, and their new "Bed & Breakfast" Collection.  I'm going to have to start saving now so I can buy some more charm squares in these collections.

So this is one of the projects I plan on finishing up this winter, as well as a couple of other quilting projects.  Most of the quilting I've done has only been smallish things, so this will be one of my first bigger projects...working my way up to bed size before too much longer...lol!

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Why We Don't Celebrate Halloween

 

We don't celebrate Halloween as a family for many reasons. But, let's start at the beginning, we have to go back to when I was in high school.  Somewhere around my junior and senior year, I became interested in things such as ghosts and other "scary" things.  I reveled in watching the newest horror movies and read all sort of scary books about ghosts, demons, vampires, etc.  I was the first in line at the haunted houses.  I loved frightening myself.  I was the kind of kid, that when I was allowed to stay at home by myself at night...I'd watch a horror movie to scare myself.  I also enjoyed scaring other people...which at Halloween time, I was able to do and I would do it often.  I was slowly becoming obsessed with the darker side of the world.  This started becoming a real problem when this obsession started bleeding over into the activities that I would do after hours with my church youth group.  The Halloween when I was a senior is a prime example.  After youth group meeting, we would usually all go and eat at McDonald's or something, I often drove a lot of the younger kids so they could go...often having a car full of them.  That Halloween, I thought it would be fun to scare them and I often did that by telling them local ghost stories and driving them around spooky places.  Also during this time, I got really interested in the history of a local graveyard, which had all sorts of spooky rumors about it, as well as about a rumored witch's coven that was supposedly in the area.  Not realizing what I thought was harmless fun, was actually Satan working in my life to spread his lies.  To make a long story short, my actions that year gave the youth director ammunition against me and armed with that and a number of falsehoods, he was able to turn most of the parents of my friends against me and I suddenly found myself an outcast.  No one ever even came to me and asked if the rumors were true...they automatically accepted them as truth, because the lies were mixed in with enough truth to make it believable.  I left the church and very nearly gave up my faith at that point...but I DIDN'T give up my love for Halloween.  I was so hurt by the lies, but it took me a LONG time to come to terms with my part in the whole incident.  By my actions, I gave the youth director the extra ammunition to make his lies believable.   

But, for many years after that, I still celebrated Halloween.  When Marty and I got married and bought our first house, I reveled in decorating it for Halloween...the spookier the better!  By the time Colt was born, I had started growing out of my obsession with Halloween.  We still would let Colt dress up and trick-or-treat.  We'd carve a jack-o-lantern and things like that.  We never let Colt dress up as anything really evil or scary.  Also, by this point, I couldn't watch those horror movies any longer...they just would tear at my soul.  We would pretty much just trick-or-treat or take Colt to a church Halloween party.  But it wasn't until after Riley was born that we totally gave up all celebrations of Halloween.  We decided to stop celebrating for several reasons.

While the Halloween of my childhood seemed innocent enough, modern Halloween has become an evil day.  It's all about blood and gore, Satanism and just plain old evil.  I cannot believe the evil portrayed in some of the costumes that parents let their children wear.  Why would any parent in their right mind let their child dress as the currently popular movie serial killer is beyond me.  Halloween has become a day to honor murder, mayhem and evil.'

Even pretend evil is evil.  Satan revels in it.  He loves that what we think is good innocent fun is actually promotion of him and his.  This goes for movies, TV, books and Halloween.  He uses these things for his glory.  I honestly think that books such as the Twilight series and TV series such as The Vampire Diaries are not just good innocent fun...they promote evil and make it seem more mainstream...but it's still dealing with evil, witches and Satanism. 

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." --Galatians 5:19-21
This scripture simply shows that witchcraft is evil, along with all these other things.  If you participate in any of these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.  I believe that when you read and watch these types of media that is the same thing as promoting evil.  I'm just as guilty of this as anyone else.

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;"  --I Timothy 4:1
The types of evil that Halloween promotes have gotten more and more mainstream in our world.  I do believe that these things are seducing our children and teaching them things that are far from Godly.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." --Philippians 4:8
Everything we read, watch, and participate in should be measured by this rule.  If it doesn't fit this standard, then the Christian should not participate in it.

Halloween encourages inappropriate dress.  While I am always shocked by the blood and gore that comes with Halloween now days, you can't over look the costumes of little girls that reveals much more skin than is appropriate.  Or the kids dressed up as such heroes at "Bratz", "Britney Spears" or her equivalent.  There are entirely too many "sexy" costumes for young children.  Even some of the "Disney" princesses have bared bellies.

We spend all year telling our kids not to talk to strangers, but forget that on Halloween.  This one really gets me!  Everyday, we tell our kids not to talk to strangers, yet on Halloween, we send them out, in costumes none the less, and tell them to knock on stranger's doors and take candy from them.  With all the child abuse, murders kidnappings, etc in the news this is FAR from wise.  While many parents escort their children from door to door, many do not.  They just send their kids out on their own with no supervision.  This is a danger I'd just assume avoid.

Do your kids REALLY need all that sugar??  I know mine don't!  I would just assume that the candy stay out of my house and I certainly don't need to send my kids to the neighbor's house just so they can get a sugar rush.  Not to mention that all this candy is highly unhealthy for your children.

So how do we celebrate Halloween?  We simply don't.  Halloween is considered just like any other day for our family.  Even with it being shoved down our throats at every turn.  You can't go into any store without seeing some sort of Halloween themed ad....it's everywhere.  To our kids, we acknowledge that the majority of our nation celebrates this holiday, but because of the reasons above, we feel that this is not "God's Best" for our family and we simply don't celebrate or acknowledge it.

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Texas Gals Meet & Greet :: November 28, 2009

Any of you Texas Gals up for a blogging "Meet & Greet"??    How about we meet up at the Homestead Heritage Craft & Children's Fair!  Here's the information:

What:  Texas Gals blogging "Meet & Greet"
Where:  Homestead Heritage Craft & Children's Fair"
Date:  Saturday, November 28, 2009
Time:  To be decided, but probably around Noon.
Cost:  The Fair is free, but there is a parking fee of just $5.00 per vehicle, good for all 3 days of the Fair.

If you're intersted or have questions, please email me at homestead.momma.blog@gmail.com

I'll post more information as long as the expected participants as the time draws closer.  

Come on by and join us!  It will be a lot of fun getting to meet each other, as well as get to know each other better!

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