I would love to have chickens!

I also remembered we make our own Maple Syrup (2 cups white sugar, 2 cups water, 1 TBPS brown sugar, a few drops of maple flavoring .. boil it all up for 10 min, stirring constantly.) It will thicken in the fridge. We keep it a Tupperware container that has has a pour spout. The kids are so use to this kind that they don't like the fake stuff anymore. Mmm.

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

I just saw your post. I'll post mine but I'd be curious to see other's too. Mine is nothing fancy.

4 cups crushed tomatoes (either fresh and put through the blender or canned if they aren't in season)
1 can tomato puree (generic are less than 50 cents)
1 TBPS olive oil (if not adding meat later)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp sugar
Fresh basil, cilantro, oregano chopped finely (in season) - about 1/3 of a cup each or 2 heaping TBPS of "Italian" seasoning.
1 TBPS Bicks hot pepper relish or a splash of tabasco
1 tsp - 1 TBSP crushed garlic (depending on how much you like it)

Cook it for a long time (hours is best) on low until it thickens or in the crock pot all day. If in the crock pot, let the lid sit slightly off so the steam can escape and the sauce can thicken.

Then you can add one of the following
1 lbs ground meat ... well drained
1 package veggie meat.
3 cooked spicy sausages (this is is really good)
3/4 cup parmesan for a veggie meal high in protein and calcium. :-)

Enjoy!

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Mom to dd (age 9) and ds (age 11)
blogging daily about purpose and personal identity

How do you make your chocolate sauce? My DD loves this stuff and I try not to keep it in the house anymore, because the cost adds up and I try to limit her sugar intake. If I make it myself I can use splenda and/or limit the amt of sugar in it. Thanks.

I got this from hillbillyhousewife.com, there are lots of good recipes there. It says to store it in the fridge, but I don't I think it is too thick that way.

Chocolate Syrup

*

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1 cup tap water
* 2 cups sugar
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Find a 2 quart saucepan. In it, mix the cocoa and water with a wire whisk or fork. Heat the chocolate water over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and continue to stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and boil for a full 3 minutes. Remove the syrup from the heat. Add the salt and vanilla, stirring to blend. Pour the syrup into a clean pint sized canning jar, or a clean catsup container. Put a good lid on the jar and store it in the fridge. Use this chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk, or serve it over ice-cream. This is remarkably similar to Hershey's Chocolate Syrup in the can.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

Hmmm this post really got me thinking alot about making things from scratch. I try not to buy anything premade at the grocery store. I was a big coupon clipper but now that I buy from just the perimeter of the store I have been eating healthier and saving way more then with my coupons.

I also have chickens my daughter hatched from eggs in her school so we have nice organic eggs now that they are older and laying. I dont make too much from scratch but here is my little list.

I make:
Waffles, pancake mix
Jellies
condiments
Breads

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I just made homemade baked beans and froze them! That was this mornings project. I like baked beans, dh does not, and ds will eat a little. I never buy them because the the cans are just too big, even the small ones. So I bought a pound of dry navy beans and made homemade baked beans and put them in 8 oz. jars. I left some headway and am going to freeze them. One recipe I had said that they freeze ok, just to add a little water when you reheated. Now I don't have to buy the cans of them anymore!

Well yesterday I tried my hand at cheese stuffed shells and it was really fun and easy! I used the Barilla jumbo shells and they were really easy to stuff. I filled them with a mixture of ricotta/mozzarella/parmesean, herbs from my herb garden, and organic eggs. Mixed it together, then stuffed the cooked shells with the mixture.

I then 'flash froze' them on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper, individually, and then after two hours I took them off and popped them in a freezer bag together. I have a double recipe of jumbo stuffed shells in my freezer, this eliminates the need for me to buy cheese ravioli and cheese manicotti, as this is sort of a combination of the two.

I would love your recipe for pear sauce... I remember having it at my grandmothers house when i was young... (young? does that mean I am old? I'm 38)
Thanks
Donna

I would love to make my own bread also, with a bread machine of course. It seems like my family's been going through them like crazy.

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Sheryll