Power Outage Preparedness

We live in a technology-dependent society. Everywhere you turn, you see someone plugged into an electronic gizmo of some sort whether it’s a cell phone, MP3 player, tablet or all three rolled into one. What would happen if all that technology failed? How lost would we be as a society without electricity to run, re-charge and feed our gadget habit? We might just find out the answer to that question in a couple of months.

If you haven’t heard by now, the sun is supposed to wreck havoc with our lives at the end of this year with a long and severe solar storm. Although solar storms are cyclical and reoccur every so many years, the one predicted for the end of this year and continuing into next year is supposed to be the strongest we’ve seen in about one hundred and fifty years or so. Solar flares reaching beyond the sun’s gravity will emit particles that could shut down power grids all around the world. Evidently, the last solar storm of this magnitude disabled the entire telegraph network in the 1800s, causing more than a few of the telegraph machine to catch on fire.

Are we looking at a future that resembles the past or is this just another empty Y2K scare? I don’t know. What I do know is that we have a serious increase of people in the country who have a deep desire to learn ways to live more sustainable lifestyles, off the grid as much as possible, and that my own family has felt that same tug for quite a few years now. It makes me feel a little like Joseph. What I wouldn’t give to see the ultimate disaster survival plan he handed Pharaoh!

I teach a Living in Colonial Times class to second through fourth graders at a homeschool co-op. The kids are really starting to grasp how different life was without electricity, running water, and Wal-mart. Although we’ve made some big changes over the last couple of years to lessen our electric usage, teaching this class has me looking at things a little closer. What if I had to wash clothes by hand? Do I even know how?

When a hurricane took out our power for five days a couple of years ago, we survived just fine because we could just drive to another neighborhood that had power and do laundry at a Laundromat. Friends of ours across town let us come over for hot showers. Walking around an air conditioned mall a mile away provided relief from the midday heat. What if the next town over was without power, too? Now what?

For the record, I did not write this post to cause panic, only to get you to ponder a few things. How ready are you if something serious happens? I have to think that this nationwide Push for Preparedness has to mean something. I firmly believe that God will provide, but I also believe that sometimes what He provides is the conviction and motivation to be prepared, just as He did at the time of Joseph and Pharaoh.

Thanks for stopping by! I know I left a lot of open-ended unanswered questions in today’s post. But are you prepared for a global disaster? How about just a local one? No power, no water, no Wal-mart. All I know is that I might not be the most prepared person in the world, but I’m not running out of toilet paper!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Shared on:

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Menu Plan Monday 3/26

My baby turns 13 today. Sigh. I guess he’s not a baby anymore. Sigh.

Although my Jared has never been one for birthday parties, he’s willing to make an exception for his 13^th birthday. We have a tradition that when a child turns 13 they get a laser tag party. So, laser tag it is!

But not today.

We also have dear friends who will be out of town that we could not have a laser tag party without! So, the party is postponed for a week or two. No problem. I wasn’t exactly ready for it anyway. It’s been crazy around here…again.

I know I’ve mentioned that we love 4-H, but have I mentioned that as a 4-H parent AND a 4-H leader that there are a few times of the year that I love it just a little less. This past week was one of those times.

As part of their finished projects, the kids have to prepare and deliver a presentation to their club and then to a panel of judges at the county demonstration day. How is it that we all know the date back in September, yet every year most of us are gluing letters on our kids’ posters at midnight the night before Demonstrations Day while we force our bleary-eyed children to repeat their speech out loud just one more time? Did I mention that our children started creating these presentations back in January?

I honestly believe that there’s a worm hole in my house that shifts us forward in time without us knowing it. I’m certain of it.

Anyway, the entire club did an amazing job at Demonstration Day on Saturday. In fact, they did so well, that every single one of them qualified for the district competition in May. Well, everyone except our little Cloverbud. Cloverbuds can’t go to districts. She’ll be a junior next year. Then she gets to try to qualify for districts. She’ll do it. I’m positive. You know how I know? She has an awesome mom who stays up until silly hours of the morning, gluing pictures on posters and forcing her bleary-eyed child to repeat her speech just one more time. It’s so comforting to know that I’m not alone.

I pray you have a blessed week with less stress because you created a menu plan!

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 03/26/2012

Breakfast 

Fruit, granola, yogurt, smoothies., or oatmeal

Lunch

Lunch of the week – Salads, wraps or leftovers

Fruit of the week – Apples, bananas, oranges, and strawberries

Dinner

Monday – Lasagna, salad, and cake

Tuesday – Big salads, artisan bread

Wednesday – Teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs, smashed whites, salad

Thursday – Jared’s Cooking Lesson: Homemade pizza ( another week or so and he’ll be on his own with this one, too!)

Friday – Mexican chicken wraps

Saturday – Leftovers or sandwiches

Sunday – Roast chicken, halushki (cabbage and bow ties), steamed veggies, salad

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Sixty Quarts of Strawberries

Around this same time every year, we hit a U-pick farm for fresh strawberries. The next county over has some of the most productive strawberry farms in the country! Every year during and after the Strawberry Festival, a few farms open up for U-Pick.

When we first starting going to U-Pick strawberry fields a couple of years ago, we paid $1 for 4 quarts of strawberries. As prices rose, we were still able to shop around to find that same deal. The farm we visited for the last two years gave quantity discounts so I was still able to enjoy that same wonderful price. Unfortunately, the price has gone up to 2 quarts for $1. I know I shouldn’t whine since that is a great price compared to the price in the stores, but it’s still double what I paid last year!

Last year, we only picked 56 quarts instead of our usual 90 to 120 because a storm blew in. This year we only picked 60 quarts because of the price. After tasting this year’s crop, I’m glad my husband and I only picked 60 quarts.

Best strawberry picker ever!

 Sweet strawberries need a good freeze to make them sweet. Our winter was very mild and very warm. Stuffing all those berries in my freezer will help them become sweeter, not as sweet as a good freeze while growing, but sweeter and more flavorful than they are now.

So, what does one do with 60 quarts of strawberries besides whine about only having 60 quarts of strawberries? Well, let’s do a little math.

One gallon of strawberry wine uses 4 quarts of strawberries.

One gallon of strawberry mead uses 4 quarts of strawberries.

One batch of strawberry jam that makes 3 pints of jam uses 2 quarts of strawberries.

One batch of strawberry-lemon marmalade that makes 3 pints of marmalade uses 2 quarts of strawberries.

One recipe of strawberry shortcake uses 2 quarts of strawberries.

One batch of strawberry syrup that makes 6 pints of syrup uses 5 quarts of strawberries.

Can you tell I got tired of writing "strawberry?"

 Remembering that these are the only strawberries we will have all year, I will make more than a single batch of the jam, marmalade, and syrup. After I make my jam, marmalade, syrup, wine, and mead, and we’ve scarfed down way too many servings of strawberry shortcake, I’ll keep about four gallon-sized bags in the freezer for smoothies or for when I absolutely cannot wait another minute for more strawberry shortcake, which will happen about dinner time tonight, I think.

So you see, it’s pretty easy to find uses for 60 quarts of strawberries! Hopefully, next year’s harvest will be super sweet and plentiful and I can pick to my heart’s content!

Strawberry Shortcake

8 cups strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
½ cup sugar or honey*, divided
2 cups all-purpose or fresh-milled flour**
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup butter
1 beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
Whipped Cream

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Stir together strawberries and ¼ cup of sugar in a medium bowl. Refrigerate.

Stir together remaining sugar, flour, and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Combine egg and milk. Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Stir just to moisten.

Drop dough into 8 mounds on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack at least 10 minutes before serving.

Remove the strawberry and sugar mixture from the refrigerator. Spoon about one cup of the mixture into a blender. Blend at a low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir into remaining strawberry mixture. 


To serve, slice shortcake in half, horizontally. Spoon berries over the bottom layer. Replace the top layer. Top with more berries and whipped cream. Drizzle a little extra strawberry juice and chocolate sauce on top, if desired.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Chill mixing bowl and wire whip mixing beater in freezer for at least 1 hour.

Combine whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla in chilled bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes.

Tips:
This shortcake biscuit is nothing more than a regular biscuit recipe with sugar added. Feel free to use your favorite biscuit recipe and add a little sugar to make the shortcake more dessert-like.

*Don’t like white sugar? Substitute honey. However, do not refrigerate the honey-coated strawberries. Have you ever seen what the refrigerator does to honey? Talk about a tooth-breaker!

*When substituting honey in the biscuits, add the honey to the liquid ingredients instead of the dry.

If dessert is all about the whipped cream for you like it is for me, then by all means, add a little on top of the berries in the bottom layer as well!

**Fresh-milled flour makes a great shortcake with a lot of flavor that surprisingly, doesn’t overpower the taste of the strawberries. Since this is a non-yeast pastry, use a soft wheat.

Frozen strawberries work just as well as fresh strawberries. Because strawberries get sweeter with freezing and create a nice thick juice, frozen strawberries may even be a better choice!

Enjoy! Jared sure did!

Shared on:

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Homemaker by Choice's Homemaking Link Up 
Shared on Dandelion House's Farm Girl Friday

The End of the Growing Season

My two favorite parts of last week’s menu were enjoying an amazing coconut cream pie my daughter and I had on our day out together and walking out to the garden for the head of cabbage for our dinner on Sunday. There is something so special about picking your diner from your own garden. It doesn’t just taste good. It feels good!

Our main growing season is rapidly coming to an end. Quickly maturing crops like beans and peas or heat-loving crops like peppers have a chance of making it to harvest, but for the most part, the garden is winding down for the summer. Yes, I know that sounds strange to all of you northerners who are busy turning the soil and planting your spring garden. Here in Zone 9 Florida, our hot summer is like your cold winter: very few veggies survive. Our citrus and tropicals like mangos and pineapples will enjoy the hot muggy summers, but not much else, including me!

I am trying a new experiment, though, that should be interesting…if I don’t end up in jail, that is.

Doesn’t that sound scary?

Believe it or not, I’m not going to do anything outrageous. I’m simply going to plant sweet potatoes in my front yard. How is that going to land me in jail? Well, like many urban communities, we have ordinances that dictate what you can and cannot plant in your front yard. Unfortunately, with the rise in urban vegetable gardens, people are receiving fines and jail time for planting their raised beds in their front yard.

The ordinances usually call for “appropriate landscaping plants.” That vague wording is open to interpretation. Who dictates what appropriate landscaping plants are, and why isn’t a pretty raised-bed vegetable garden appropriate? I can assure you that a vegetable garden would be much prettier than the weedy wasteland my front lawn is now. Since I refuse to waste time, money, and resources on watering grass, the front lawn turns brown pretty quickly during the fall and winter when precipitation is scarce.

I’m looking forward to turning my high-maintenance front lawn into a low-maintenance sweet potato field. No more cutting grass constantly through the rainy season! Hopefully, code enforcement won’t be able to tell the difference between my neighbor’s ornamental sweet potatoes covering his front landscaping and my productive ones. Sweet potato vines really are pretty and send up these lovely purple flowers.

As you can see, even though the main growing season is almost over, I can still grow a few things through the hot summer like sweet potatoes, okra, and field peas. I’ll plant a single row of okra along the edge of the vegetable garden as well as those sweet potatoes in the front yard. The rest of the garden will be tilled under with a thick layer of manure and compost and topped with a layer of mulch to prevent weeds from moving in and stealing all those good nutrients. My husband and I haven’t decided whether or not we’ll solarize the soil this summer. Soil solarization really heats up the soil, killing harmful nematodes, insects, fungi, and diseases. Unfortunately, the long sheets of plastic covering the ground can’t handle the hot summer sun and are completely destroyed by the end of the season. I have a problem with sending that much unrecyclable and unusable plastic to the landfill. We’ll see.

Thanks for stopping by! How’s you’re gardening growing right now? Do you have your spring garden in? Are you still in the planning stages? Or are you like me and at the end of your season?

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Menu Plan Monday 3/19

I’ve been missing little things on the calendar lately, which has made my menu planning a little chaotic. I keep having to shuffle the menu a bit each week, but I’m grateful that I have a menu to shuffle. At least I know that if I move a meal or two to different days, I already have all the ingredients!

Do forgotten appointments or last minute changes send you to the fast food drive-thru or the grocery store deli for dinner? I used to do that, too! I put on thirty pounds in six months doing that. Stop it!

Dinner doesn’t have to be complicated. It never has to be complicated. It just has to be edible. Healthy would be good, too. Thankfully, healthy is actually simple. A salad can be a full meal. Add a sandwich and you definitely have a full meal. So many soups and pasta dishes take thirty minutes or less to prepare. You can feed your family and yourself a good dinner without convenience foods in spite of a busy schedule.

Have you read my menu lately? It’s about as simple as you can get! Between our various activities and the writing projects I’ve been working on lately, we don’t have the time or the motivation for complicated. Keep it simple when you have to. Make it complicated when you can. No one is going to starve.

I pray you have a blessed week with less stress because you created a menu plan!

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 03/19/2012

Breakfast 

Fruit, granola, yogurt, smoothies., or oatmeal

Lunch

Lunch of the week – Salads, wraps or leftovers

Fruit of the week – Apples, bananas, oranges, and strawberries

Dinner

Monday – Taco salad (This has been on the menu for three weeks, and I still haven’t served it!)

Tuesday – Big salads, artisan bread (Always the perfect dinner for grocery shopping day)

Wednesday – Teriyaki pineapple chicken meatball wraps, marinated cucumber and tomato salad

Thursday – Jared’s Cooking Lesson: Homemade pizza

Friday – Leftovers

Saturday – Chili, cornbread, salad

Sunday – Roast chicken, smashed whites, salad

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Uses for Eggshells

When you raise backyard chickens, even a small flock, you use a lot of eggs, which means you accumulate a lot of eggshells. Before you toss those shells in the trash, here are a few ideas on how to use those shells.

No matter how you use them, start by laying the shells out on a paper plate and set them aside to air dry. Use a paper plate that can be tossed into the compost pile later. When I used a plastic or glass dish, egg white and yolk left in the shells dripped on the dish and dried into a hard substance that epoxy would envy. Any residue left on the paper plate decomposes just fine in the composter.

Calcium Supplement for Chickens

Toss the dried shells into a blender, food processor, or coffee/spice grinder and pulverize. Don’t worry about getting the shells super small. The idea is that the crushed shells no longer resemble eggs. Offer the pulverized shells to your chicken free choice as a calcium supplement. Extra calcium in a hens diet leads to nice hard shells. If you already provide oyster shell to your chickens, just add the eggshells to your oyster shells supply.

Grit for the Worm Bin

Worms use dirt or sand the same way chickens use grit: to grind food. Toss the dried shells into a blender, food processor, or coffee/spice grinder and pulverize, but this time, make sure the shells are ground nice and fine. Sprinkle the eggshell powder in your worm bin or on your compost heap. Yep, there are probably worms in your compost heap doing their job who would appreciate a boost of eggshell dust so they can do their job more efficiently.

Calcium Supplement for Plants

Aside from the big three—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—plants pull thirteen other elements from the soil for healthy growth. A steady supply of calcium in the soil strengthens your plants and allows them to transport and retain other necessary elements. Toss the dried shells into a blender, food processor, or coffee/spice grinder and pulverize, and again, make sure the shells are ground nice and fine. Sprinkle the eggshell dust around the base of your plants and gently turn into the soil with a hand cultivator. This goes for house plants, too!

Start Seedlings

Start your seedlings in egg shells. Set your cracked eggshell halves in an old carton. Use a toothpick, heavy needle, or thin nail to poke a tiny hole in the bottom for drainage. Add starter medium to each shell along with a couple of seeds. When the seedlings are ready to set outside, crack the shell a bit at the bottom and plant them, shell and all. The eggshell decomposes and adds calcium to the soil as the plant grows.

I’ve read a blog or two that describes using the eggshell dust as a calcium supplement for you and your pets. I’m not sure that I’m up for sprinkling eggshells on my food or the dog’s, for that matter.

Thanks for stopping by! How do you use up your eggshells?

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Shared on:

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Time Warp Wife's Titus 2sday
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Dandelion House's Farm Girl Friday

Smashed Whites

When a large portion of your groceries come from your garden, you really do start to feel like a contestant on Iron Chef and the secret ingredient is whatever is ripe this week. However, instead of trying to make a name for yourself as an amazingly creative chef, your real objective is to find ways to serve the same vegetable to your family three times in a week without having to duck after you place it on the table. This is how the dish Smashed Whites was created.

Smashed Whites are really nothing more than potatoes, cauliflower, and turnips mashed together with a little butter and milk. However, we found that this simple way to use up veggies that all ripen at the same time is pretty tasty and easy to dress up with a topping now and then.

Smashed Whites

1 medium potato, peeled and cut into large pieces

3 medium turnips, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 head cauliflower, cut into large pieces

1 tablespoon butter

¼ cup milk

1 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place potato and turnip chunks into a pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes. Add cauliflower pieces and continue boiling until all vegetables are fork tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Drain.

Return drained vegetables to the pot and place over low heat to remove excess moisture. Smash vegetables with a potato masher until desired consistency. Turnips tend to release a lot of water at this stage. Keep heating and stirring to cook off any excess water. Add butter, milk, parsley, salt and pepper, stirring until butter melts. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve. Top with diced scallions, a sprinkling of cheese, chives, bacon, or just a little lemon pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t you just love an easy recipe? Me too. What kinds of interesting recipes have you created out of what’s on hand? Please, share!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Giveaway Winners!

Click for photo credit.

I had so much fun with this giveaway, and re-pinned a ridiculous amount of pictures because of it! Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter!

Although the winners were chosen at random, I did look at every single board, and gleaned a lot of great ideas for my garden, yummy recipes for my kitchen, and some great craft ideas. You didn’t know I had an ulterior motive here, did ya?!

Winners:

The winner of the $25 Amazon gift card is:

4. Lil' Momma @ Five in Training for HIM: Ok! Found the time. lol Check it out. http://pinterest.com/lilmommastrouse/little-farm-in-the-big-city/  Some of those where really hard. Wanted to pin multiple pins for a few of them. :^)

The winner of the $10 Amazon gift card is:

1. faithplusnothing: Great prizes! I would love to win! (I have never actually seen the number 1 come up before…ever! So, it really is possible to win as the first entry! Cool.)

Please, email me at bettymcnelis@gmail.com to claim your prizes!

Thanks again, everyone, for entering. That was fun! If you get a chance, hop on over to the original post and check out the fun pinboards listed in the comments. For some reason, they don’t show up as links, but you can copy and paste and check them out.

Oh, and for the record, “Quilted Punchbuggy, no punch backs!”

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Menu Plan Monday, 3/12

How do you plan your menu each week? Do you choose seven meals and decide each day which one you’re going to make? Are you a monthly planner? Or do you have to plan each day very carefully because your schedule is so full?

Around here, each day brings something different. Work schedules, co-ops, 4-H, church, and school create an odd schedule of long days here and short days there and on-the-go days in between. I have to be careful what types of meals I choose each day, or we’re eating dinner at nine o’clock at night…which has happened!

How do you plan your menu? I’d love to read your comments!

I pray you have a blessed week with less stress because you created a menu plan!

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 03/12/2012

Breakfast 

Fruit, granola, yogurt, smoothies., or oatmeal

Lunch

Lunch of the week – Salads, wraps or leftovers

Fruit of the week – Apples, bananas, oranges, and strawberries

Dinner

Monday – Roasted chicken, smashed whites, salad

Tuesday – Big salads, artisan bread

Wednesday – Homemade Pizza, salad

Thursday – Jared’s Cooking Lesson: Baked macaroni and cheese, herbed tomatoes, salad (He’s completely on his own this week!)

Friday – Taco Salad

Saturday – Mother/Daughter and Father/Son day! Colleen and I are heading out for a knitting class, manicures, a few laps around the mall, and the boys are going fishing. Yes, we are actually eating out!

Sunday – Corned Beef and Cabbage

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

If You Give a Homeschooling Mom a Sharpie...

Our homeschool support group forum admin recently started a fun thread on the support group’s website forum. I had so much fun playing along that I had to post my contribution here. Feel free to add yours in the comment below.

Finish this sentence:

If you give a homeschooling mom a Sharpie™…

…she’ll probably want some labels to go with it. When she’s finished labeling all of her bins of school supplies, she’ll want to put them all away neatly.

While she’s re-organizing the school room, she’ll find lots of old curriculum to sell on the PPEA classified forum.

While she’s posting her ads, she’ll see a cool field trip on the calendar, which she’ll have to research in order to create a mini unit study before attending the field trip.

During her research, she’ll find some cool pictures to pin to her field trip Pinterest pinboard and to share on Facebook with all her homeschooling friends.

At some point, she’ll look at the clock and realize that the day is almost over, nobody did any school, old curriculum is scattered all over the table, and a timely dinner is an impossible dream.

In desperation, she’ll call out for pizza delivery, play the mad dash book stash game, throw a few worksheets at her dear children, and spend too much time berating herself over a lost day.

When the pizza comes, she’ll need to sign the credit card receipt. When she reaches for a pen, she’ll accidentally grab the Sharpie instead. When she sees the Sharpie, she’ll remember all of the things that need labeling in the kitchen.

Please, don’t ever give a homeschooling mom a Sharpie™.

Can you tell, I love If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? By the way, this homeschooling mom uses a Sharpie™ to label canning jars and fix rabbit ear tattoos.

Shared on:

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Growing Home's Teach Me Tuesday

Rustic Cabbage Soup

Between great deals at the produce stand and the garden harvest, my kitchen often feels like it’s in an episode of Iron Chef. How many edible recipes can I come up with using the secret ingredient?!

The secret ingredient today is…cabbage!

I’ve already put up quite a bit of sauerkraut with one more batch still fermenting. We’ve enjoyed plenty of our favorite Polish dishes like halupki (stuffed cabbage rolls) and halushki (bow tie pasta and cabbage). I even made our favorite coleslaw as a side for sandwiches on one of our eating-on-the-go days. But I wanted more options. So, I searched for an interesting soup.

Most of the cabbage soup recipes I found looked exactly like each other. Did I not specify that I wanted interesting? I finally found interesting recipe at 101 Cookbooks: A Recipe Journal called Rustic Cabbage Soup. It’s a keeper.

Of course, I tweaked the recipe just a bit to suit my family’s preferences. The soup is very monochromatic so I threw in a few carrots and celery for color, and my potatoes weren’t the prettiest so I peeled them. We also didn’t have any parmesan cheese on hand and didn’t seem to miss it either. Whether you make the original version or my slightly tweaked version, this soup is wonderfully simple and has a serious comfort-food taste and feel to it. Enjoy!

Rustic Cabbage Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ pound potatoes, cut into ½” pieces

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon coarse salt

5 cups chicken broth

2 carrots, sliced

3 celery ribs, sliced

½ medium cabbage, cored and chopped

1 ½ cups white beans, precooked or canned, drained and rinsed well

1 tablespoon parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Sauté potatoes, garlic, and onion in hot oil over medium-high heat. Stir in salt and cook until potatoes begin to brown and the onions become translucent. Add broth, carrots, celery, and cabbage. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add beans and simmer another few minutes until the vegetables soften. Garnish with a sprinkle of cheese, if desired.

Shared on:

The Prairie Homestead's Barn Hop 
Growing Home's Teach Me Tuesday 
Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days 
We are THAT Family's Works for me Wednesday 
Our Simple Farm's  Simple Living Wednesday
Raising Homemakers Homemaking Link up  
GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday 
Our Simple Country Life's Hearts 4 Home
FarmGirl Friday  
Miz Helen's Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday 
Homemaker by Choice's Homemaking Link Up 

Giveaway - Pinterest Scavenger Hunt

Little Farm in the Big City hit 300 “likes” on Facebook the other day!! Amazing! I believe that calls for a celebration!! And a giveaway!

This giveaway was inspired by my nieces Janice at JaniceReyes Photography and Lacey at Strawberries & Tea. You can “thank” them for this wonderful torture fun.

It’s taken me a little while to warm up to it, but I now LOVE Pinterest. So, this giveaway is going to involve a Pinterest Scavenger Hunt. If you don’t have a Pinterest account, get one! You’ll love it. If you really don’t want one, don’t worry, I have a separate giveaway just for you at the bottom.

Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Rules

1.Create a Little Farm in the Big City board on your Pinterest account. 

2. Pin pictures to the board that represent the things on the list below.
3. Remember that this is a family-oriented blog. Keep it clean!

4. Use the number and description from the list as your description of the pin.

5. Post a link to your board as a comment to this post.

6. Bite your nails nervously as members of my family view and judge your pics.

7. Please, post your entry by midnight Friday, March 9, 2012. 

Non-Pinterest Users

If you don’t have a Pinterest account and don’t want to get one, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll be drawing a second winner from non-Pinterest users.

Winners

One winner will be chosen at random from the Pinterest posts and one winner will be chosen at random from the non-Pinterest users. Winners will be announced on Monday, March 12, 2012.

Prizes

The winning Pinterest board will receive a $25 gift card from Amazon and the winning non-Pinterest user will receive a $10 Amazon gift card. See, you Pinterest people will be rewarded for your extra effort!

I can’t wait to see all the fun boards!!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

Shared on Far Above Rubies Domestically Divine

Menu Plan Monday, 03/05

Do you plan your menu each week, or do you browse around your favorite blogs, saying, “I’ve got to start menu planning one of these days?” What are you waiting for?

This past week, I’ve talked to more women who stress over “what’s for dinner” every day than I thought possible. Honestly, I thought everyone planned out their meals for the week so they would only have to go shopping once during the week and never had to defrost anything at the last minute because they decided on a dinner plan at the last minute.

Like I said, “What are you waiting for?” Grab your calendar and sales flyers, open your pantry doors, and peak into that refrigerator and freezer and get planning! Yes, it really is that easy!

Use up foods that will spoil soon first to prevent waste. Keep an eye on your schedule for the week. Don’t plan on roasting a chicken on a day you’re walking in the door minutes before dinnertime. That sounds more like a slow cooker day to me. Check the sale flyers for inspiration. And clean out the refrigerator. You may find some still-tasty leftovers to put on the menu for dinner tomorrow, or you may find that you need to adjust that tuna casserole recipe a bit so more goes into hungry bellies and less goes in the garbage.

What are you waiting for? Simplify your week with a menu plan. A little extra time now in planning saves a lot of time and stress later.  

By the way, in case you didn't notice, your menu does not have to resemble the menu at your favorite restaurant. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. You're still going to eat all the foods you've been eating. You're just going to be better prepared.

I pray you have a blessed week with less stress because you created a menu plan!

Don’t forget to stop by Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas! If you’re looking for some new recipe resources, check out this Recipe Index Round Up.

Menu Plan for Week of 03/05/2012

Breakfast 

Fruit, granola, yogurt, smoothies., or oatmeal

Lunch

Lunch of the week – Salads, wraps or leftovers

Fruit of the week – Apples, bananas, and oranges

Dinner

Monday – Rustic Cabbage Soup, artisan bread, salad

Tuesday – Big salads, artisan bread

Wednesday – Grilled BBQ chicken breast, roasted vegetable medley, salad

Thursday – Jared’s Cooking Lesson: Baked macaroni and cheese, herbed tomatoes, salad

Friday – Spaghetti, salad

Saturday – Roasted chicken, smashed whites, salad

Sunday – Taco salad

Snacks – Crackers and peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, carrot and celery sticks, or popcorn.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty