Kefir Cornbread (Cultures for Health)

I have a fresh bottle of kefir and will try out this lovely homemade cornbread recipe to go with our beans. For most of the family, this will make the Beans & Cornbread meal a XO (crossover= mixture of fats and carbs, not as conducive to weight loss). This is the one thing I love about the Trim, Healthy Mama plan. She does not eliminate any food category. You will still eat some whole grains. You will still eat healthy fats. You can still eat fruits! I love that you can even have dessert! I read that the sisters who wrote it just learned that by eating whole grains without fats they were able to continue their weight loss. I love this balanced approach. I especially love that it means I can make ONE meal for everyone. Want to lose weight? Just skip the cornbread today or have a tiny piece to keep your fat below 5 grams. Want to feed hungry kids? Just serve them both with some honey and butter. YUM!

Back a long time ago, I had a herd of dairy goats and for a time a Jersey Cow that I milked every day. I used to make the kefir from scratch with the kefir grains that our local goat dairy gave me. It is probably the easiest fermented food you can make. However, since I don't have any cows or goats "in milk" I have been buying some unsweetened kefir at the local store. If you have used buttermilk for baking, this is very similar. Buttermilk is also SUPER easy to make. This reminds me that I still need to schedule an easy cheesy cheese making workshop. Who would like to learn to make some easy cheeses? I have a pregnant Jersey cow ambling around the pasture now, so I may be back in the dairy business this fall!

Kefir Cornbread from scratch

Fruit Harvests

Today I will be picking, washing, and preparing fruit for canning, juicing, and freezing.  I spent the morning picking blackberries and peaches.  The blackberry bushes have been neglected and I missed a lot of fruit with our crazy summer schedule.  I picked about a gallon baggie full of blackberries.  I plan to freeze them and then later, when I have 4 gallons, I will juice them for jelly.  Freezing blackberries is simple.  Just wash them and freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet. This will keep them from sticking together and you will be able to pull out a cup or so for a recipe/smoothie/etc.  However, if you know you are just going to be making jelly or jam later, you can freeze them in freezer boxes.  I will probably do the boxes for this batch, since my freezer is so full of the beef we just got from the butcher.  Right now I have to work with what I have available.  T

The peaches are overflowing.  Two trees are fully ripe with two more full of green and unripe peaches.  I usually make jam, but I may resort to juicing and canning for jelly at at later time.  I would love to freeze them, but I do not have enough freezer space.  I will teach Miss J to can a few quarts for pies and cobblers.  I hope they turn out well so she can enter them into the fair.  Last year she got a rosette for her Caramel Apple Pie filling.  We have one quart jar left and no one wants to eat the last jar. We keep saving it for a "special day."   I guess we need to make another batch of that too!  Here are a couple of recipes that I am looking at for the peaches!  I have a nice stock of dark honey so I plan to try it on at least one batch of the jam to see if we like it.

Honey Sweetened Vanilla Peach Jam

Honey Peach Preserves

Here is a LOVELY pdf of a vintage Ball Canning Blue Book.  The ladies on the front appear to be wearing clothing from the 1920's.  There are several recipes that are appealing in this pdf.  I also love the simple directions on canning at the beginning.  What is your favorite way to preserve your harvest?  Freezing, canning, dehydrating? 

Freezer Meal Survival

Hello! Life has been busy with all of the teen kids.  I really thought I was tired and busy when everyone was toddlers, but how mistaken I was.  This new season of mom as a taxi driver is a different kind of busy...and of course I have my tag-a-long littles to round out the fun.  This week I was taking little kids to swimming lessons each day.  I finish up my VIPKID classes at 9:15, classes start at 10 and it is about a 25 minute drive to town.  So each morning, I pretty much cross my fingers that the little kids (ages 8 and 6) have gotten dressed and grabbed a quick breakfast that I laid out.  I also am using the driving time to let my 15 year old practice driving.  2 licensed drivers, 1 in training, and 2 to go. I think I might be getting too old for this driver's ed thing. ;-) Anyway, as I have had such full mornings, I am relying on my slow cooker to survive this summer. How do you beat the drive through temptation? 
      I became a Pampered Chef consultant about a year ago and the one "party" that is my favorite is the Freezer Meal Workshop.  Of course, I had to try out a menu plan before I could offer it to my friends.  It has literally been years since I did regular freezer meal preparations and I had forgotten how nice it is to have food in the freezer.  In the workshops that I hold now, we usually prep one to two weeks of freezer meals in about 2 hours.  I run around and wash dishes and Pampered Chef gadgets. I keep trash bins empty and offer help as needed.  During the next week or so they can opt to cook their meals in the slow cooker, microwave (25 minutes!!!) or even pop it into the oven.  It has been so much fun to help other people get their freezers stocks and ditch the drive through. 
 

   Just do a "freezer meal" search on pinterest and you will see there are MANY methods for stocking your freezer.  Back in the day, I was a huge fan of "Once a Month" cooking.  You basically shop on Friday and then spend all of Saturday and even some of Sunday getting all of your meals prepped and in the freezer.  It was a crazy-hard weekend and at the time, I did not have any kids big enough to be helpers.  However, it was sooooo worth it to have a month of dinners in the freezer.  I loved the Once-A-Month Cooking book by Mimi Wilson.  We still enjoy several of the meals from this original cookbook.  I found this used copy on Thriftbooks.  I also love, love, love the website  30 Day Gourmet  They have a membership available, but I just used the free recipes on the site.  I love that all of their recipes have been broken down into different recipe sizes.  They have the amount for 1 recipe, double, or even more in one big batch to save you time.  They also send out new recipes in their newsletter.  Some of my favorite recipes from there are the Chewy Granola Bars, Time to Spare Spuds, and Loaded Baked Potato Soup (both the original and the lite versions).  In the coming weeks, I plan to share how I freezer meal prep now.  It looks a little different from my "once a month" days.  I generally snag a few minutes here and there and do a freezer meal or two at a time instead of cooking the whole weekend.  Either way, it is nice to have a freezer full of food ready to go!  What are some of YOUR favorite freezer meal recipes? How do you stock your freezer? Do you have a tried and true recipe?  Leave a link in the comments.  I would love to see other favorite recipes.  Here is a link to my Freezer Cooking Board on Pinterest.  Do you have a favorite pinner that you follow?