Posts Tagged ‘ homemade ’

Homemade Granola

Packaged cereal has become a breakfast staple in America, but we gave it up long ago. In fact, we stopped buying cereal regularly long before I before I began this whole sustainable quest of mine, mostly because even after two (expensive) bowls full of cereal, my boys were hungry again by mid-morning. It just didn’t stick with them. Instead, I make homemade granola and I do it without a recipe. That means no measuring. Which means I can throw together a batch really quickly. Here’s how I do it: Oil the bottom of a large roasting pan to prevent sticking. Fill the pan to the halfway point with rolled oats. Add “extra” ingredients like puffed millet, chopped nuts, flaked coconut, or sesame seeds (whatever you have in the cupboard) so that the pan is about 3/4 full. Pour one-half to one cup of honey or maple syrup over the dry ingredients, stirring it in as you pour. Bake in an oven set between 300-350 (F) degrees. (The variable oven temperature allows you to cook the granola while you’ve got something else in the oven, making the most of your heat.) Stir every 10-15 minutes* for about an hour or...

Last Minute Handmade Gift Ideas

By Kris Bordessa

One more week! One more week til Christmas! And you still don’t know what you’re going to take to your office mates or Great Aunt Sally. Not to worry. You can pull most of these gifts together in under an hour. From the Kitchen: This berry sauce can be made from frozen berries and comes together in a hurry. If you have a few days, throw together a batch of homemade grainy mustard. It takes five minutes to make, but you’ll need to let it sit for a few days before it’s ready to give. Got citrus? A bottle of tangerine syrup would be a novel gift for a foodie. Put a little chocolate under the tree with a plate of homemade fudge or a batch of peppermint bark. From the Heart: Stitch up a set of mini bags for buying spices in bulk. Or follow the same directions and make larger bags for produce shopping. A ‘Make Your Own Laundry Soap‘ kit? Brilliant! Gather the ingredients (I’ve used Frugal Kiwi’s laundry soap recipe) into a pretty basket (I’d make mine sans plastic wrap). Years (and I mean years) ago, I made what became known as ‘rice babies’ for...

Homemade Hummus

By Kris Bordessa

It kind of blows my mind that so many people buy hummus out of the refrigerator case. But then it occurred to me that maybe it’s because that’s the only hummus they’ve ever had. Maybe they don’t know how easy it is to make! The first time I had hummus it was homemade by a woman who was hosting a toddler playgroup at her home and she graciously shared the recipe. I’ve been using it ever since. I daresay, that was before hummus was even sold in most stores, so if I wanted to have it again, making it was my only option. (And that toddler I was attending with? Starts college in January!) Easy Hummus 2-15 1/2 oz cans garbanzo beans (or prepared dry beans, see below) 3 tablespoons tahini 1/2-2/3 cup lemon juice 4 large garlic cloves, pressed 1 teaspoon cumin powder salt Drain beans, reserving some liquid. Put beans in food processor with tahini, 1/2 cup lemon juice, garlic and cumin. Process until smooth, adding a little more lemon juice, some of the reserved liquid, or water if necessary. (My husband thinks it’s too lemony if I use lemon juice; I like it that way –...

Swap out One Food Item, Change the World

By Kris Bordessa

Can I make you think for a moment? If you pondered your family’s eating habits and figured out the one prepared item that is used in your household, what would it be? I asked a similar question on Facebook the other day and got a variety of answers: ketchup, salsa, ranch dressing, Miracle Whip*, barbecue sauce, bread, spicy mustard… Now, think about the trash and plastic you could eliminate from the waste stream, the chemicals (in many cases) you could remove from your family’s diet, and the trips to the store you could avoid if you made that one item at home. What if instead of depending on Heinz and Kraft and Pace to fulfill your family’s desire for that must-have item, you made it yourself? Of course, you’ll likely need the help of a farmer or two for some of the ingredients necessary to make your version, but removing that whole step of manufacturing your favorite prepared item is better for the environment and very likely better for your health. It gives you the opportunity to choose organic or sustainably farmed items. And it teaches the younger generation that food, real food, doesn’t have to come with a...

Homemade Gluten Free Pizza Crackers

By Kris Bordessa

After reading my true confession about Cheez-Its, Amanda from High Prairie Homestead took pity on me and sent a recipe for homemade cheese crackers. I guest posted about making a gluten free version of Cheez-Its for Little House in the Suburbs, but while I was at it I decided to experiment with a gluten free pizza flavored cracker. For all of you people thinking “Crackers?? Is she crazy? Who has time for that?” let me tell you that my sixteen-year-old has taken to making homemade crackers. By himself. With no help from me. And the last time he did, he insisted that his older brother come watch, just so he could show him how easy they were to make. (Note that older brother was much more interested in how they tasted than how easy they were to make.) It took me about 15 minutes to get these ready to go into the oven. To make them with regular flour, just replace the sorghum and coconut flours with 1-cup all purpose flour (unbleached, of course). Homemade Gluten Free Pizza Crackers makes enough to last two teen boys about ten minutes ½ cup sorghum flour (plus more for rolling out dough)...

Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) Jelly

By Kris Bordessa

Otherwise known as passion fruit, lilikoi is Mother Nature’s answer to a SweeTart. The first sour bite of a lilikoi will jangle all the way back to your jawbone. Stick with it, though, and you’ll catch the tropical sweet undertones if this much-loved fruit. Filled with small black seeds wrapped in a juicy orange membrane, it grows on a vine that can get rambunctious in this mild climate. While I’m told there have been attempts to eradicate the vine as a pest, I consider myself lucky to have one growing in my backyard. One can only eat so much lilikoi fresh out of hand, though, so I find myself juicing much of my bounty to turn into lilikoi jelly and lilikoi bread. Earlier this week, I made a batch of lilikoi jelly in teeny tiny jars so that I can take them with me on my next whirlwind visit to see family and friends on the mainland. There are not a lot of lilikoi jelly recipes on the ‘net – and certainly none that are as low sugar as this one – so I thought I’d share here even though it’s primarily a tropical fruit. (Though if you really...

Homemade Grainy Mustard – Yes, Really

By Kris Bordessa

Mm. Mustard. I love mustard. But those fancy pants Dijon mustards give me a headache. I can get organic Dijon that comes in plastic. Or non-organic Dijon in glass. (Go figure, right?) Then it occurred to me that this is yet another product we’ve become accustomed to buying ready to use, when there’s a perfectly good way to make it at home. Never mind that I didn’t know the perfectly good way to make it at home; surely I could figure it out. Score one for me and the internet. I found a number of recipes with a variety of methods – including cooking the ingredients – but when I distilled all of this information, I decided to go with the simplest method. And my, how simple it is. Homemade Grainy Mustard 1 cup yellow mustard seeds (and yes, I bought mine in bulk and put them in my mini bags!) 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup water Place all ingredients in a covered jar and allow to sit for a couple of days so that the seeds soften. Don’t get too persnickety about the time frame. I can tell you with absolute certainty that if your week...

Homemade Spicy Italian Sausage

By Kris Bordessa

Making homemade sausage is really easy to do and the results are so much better than the stuff from the grocery store. It takes me about 15 minutes to make a batch of this sausage. All you need is ground pork, some spices, and red wine. I admit that this time I used ground pork from the local meat shop, but in the future I’d like to find a hunter who will sell us wild pork in bulk. I encourage you to try this, especially if you’ve got access to locally raised pork. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Ingredients 5 pounds ground pork 1 cup red wine 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning 5 teaspoons salt 8-10 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoons fresh ground pepper 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes 5 tablespoons smoked paprika Process Measure all ingredients into a large bowl. Mix with your hands until ingredients are well blended. We store ours in the freezer in roughly one-pound parcels and use it crumbled for pizza topping or made into patties for breakfast. Have you ever tried making your own sausage? I shared this post on Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFLINS and at the Homestead Barn Hop at the...

No Measure Homemade Vanilla Yogurt

By Kris Bordessa

I’ve been making my own yogurt for several years now* and I’m here to tell you: it’s easy. Homemade yogurt is tasty, MUCH cheaper than store bought, and it doesn’t come with any packaging. I make vanilla yogurt and top it with homemade jam or jelly for a variety of flavors. Ingredients: Half-gallon milk. (I’ve used whole raw milk and low-fat local milk with success. Use milk that has not been ultra-pasteurized, if possible.) 6 oz container of yogurt with active, live cultures Honey (about 1/4 cup) Vanilla (a splash) Pour the entire carton of milk into a large pot. Heat to 180 degrees (F) over medium-high heat stirring occasionally. Once you’ve achieved that temperature, remove the milk from the heat and allow to cool for about half an hour, depending on your household temperature. (I set my kitchen timer in ten minute increments otherwise I will forget about it) While your milk is cooling: Fill a container with hot water and place it inside a cooler. Close the cooler, allowing the hot water to warm the inside so it’s all ready to incubate your milk. I use an Icee Kool oversized lunchbox cooler and it is fabulous. Seriously,...

Guest Post: Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

By Kris Bordessa

When I posted about switching from boxed and canned goods to homemade alternatives, Heather Anderson, who blogs at A Mother’s Calling, commented: …The one thing I had a hard time replacing in casseroles and soups was cream of mushroom soup. But I found a great recipe that works great for me, so no more cream of mushroom cans from the store. Well, you know I had to ask Heather about her substitute. She kindly agreed to share her recipe here as a guest post. Thanks, Heather! I have been on a real food journey for over twenty years now, and I am always looking for ways to make inexpensive, healthy versions of things that sit on many people’s pantry shelves. In the last couple of years I have become even more concerned with where my food comes from. Is it sustainably grown? Is my money benefitting the farmer that produced the food or a bunch of middlemen and marketers? By making my own versions of products, not only do I cut down on packaging, I know exactly what my family and I are eating. One of my favorite and most versatile substitutes is for Cream of Mushroom Soup. This...

Page 1 of 2

1 2 »

Reader Favorites

Posts Tagged ‘ homemade ’

Homemade Granola

Last Minute Handmade Gift Ideas

Homemade Hummus

Swap out One Food Item, Change the World

Homemade Gluten Free Pizza Crackers

Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) Jelly

Homemade Grainy Mustard – Yes, Really

Homemade Spicy Italian Sausage

No Measure Homemade Vanilla Yogurt

Guest Post: Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

Join Me!

e-book

Search the Site

Welcome

The Author