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Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Batch Cooking Freezer Meals For Breakfast

 I went to town the other day and saw that the price of eggs are going back down so I stocked up. My kitchen has had a work out today. I have played ring around the island and set up work stations and had an assembly line going.


All those eggs turned into: 

36 pumpkin waffles

77 mini chocolate chip muffins

21 chocolate chip pancakes

48 eggbite breakfast cups

36 mini pumpkin muffins

24 pumpkin donuts

56 chaffles



Muffins: (you can double or triple this recipe)

2 cups All purpose flour (you can substitute half and half of a healthier flour if you like)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

optional stir ins include, banannas, chopped nuts, some kind of puree, blueberries, and chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray Muffin tin with pam or use silicone liners. In a mixing bowl, mix all ingredientstogether according to order in recipe. Mix until welll combined. Spoon batter into muffin tin. Bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, or muffins are golden brown. about 25 minutes depending on your oven.

I used the same batter to make the donuts.

Mini Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Donuts:



I used the same recipe to make the chocolate chip muffins, just used chips instead of pumpkin puree.

Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins:


My husband absolutely loves egg bites. I don't really have a recipe or measurements for the eggbites. I just crack a bunch of eggs and add milk and seasonings of my choice. In a muffin tin, I will add a vegetable, meat, cheese and then fill the cup with the egg mixture up to the top of the tin or liner in the tin. Bake for 25 minutes on 400 degrees. These are so versatile because you can add anthing to them you want to.





Pumpkin Waffles:

Waffles: (you can double or triple this recipe)

2 eggs

1 2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups all purpose flour (you can substitute)

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla or maple flavoring

Optional add ins can be pumpkin puree, sweet potato puree, banannas that have over ripened.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl then add wet ingredients. Blend or stir until smooth. Spray your waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray and pour batter onto waffle iron and cook until done. Take off and set off to side to cool. 




Chaffles:

Again I don't have an exact recipe or measurements for these because I don't go by the normal chaffle making way. It is suppose to be one egg per one cup of cheese. Then cook in your waffle iron. I do it a little different. I crack a bunch of eggs, pour some milk in to make them fluffier and stretch more (quantity) and then I sneak something nutritious in them like shredded squash or zuccinni, or spinach. Then I add a bunch of cheese and seasonings. I spray my waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray and laddle it on and cook until eggs are set. Set aside and cool. 



Chocolate Chip Pancakes:

Pancakes: (you can double or triple this recipe)

1 1/2 cups Self Rising Flour (you can add in another flour of your choice for a healthier version, but they will need sr flour in order to rise)

3 tbsp sugar

1 to 1 1/4 cups milk

1 or 2 eggs (very lightly beaten)

3 tbsp melted shortening, butter or cooking oil

You can add in chocolate chips like I did. Or you can use a puree.

Stir self rising flour and sugar together. Gently stir in milk and eggs. Stir in melted shortening, butter or oil

Bake on a hot griddle. Set aside and let cool. 




After all these have cooled, I store in  Ziploc Freezer bags and put in freezer. Viola" breakfasts are ready on the go. 





Here are links to some of the products I used. 


4D Farms Amazon Store links for products I use: Amazon Affiliate links:

Silicone Baking Cups:

https://amzn.to/3IzXRag

Mini Silicone Cupcake liners:

https://amzn.to/3q6zMSi

Silicone Mini Donut Mold:

https://amzn.to/3q7J2FK

Ziploc Bag Drying Rack:

https://amzn.to/3Ms1xfD

Power XL Smokeless Grill:

https://amzn.to/3OBOriA

My Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and Attachments:

https://amzn.to/3MxKxo1

Bissell CrossWave:

https://amzn.to/3MDum94

 


Monday, May 22, 2023

My Hydroponics Aerogarden Growing System

 Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Affiliate and by clicking on any links of mine, we will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support. 



A few years ago, my husband knew I wanted to dabble and experiment with hydroponics and growing some herbs indoors and starting seeds, so, Viola". One christmas I was the proud owner of my own hydroponics system from Aerogarden. I cannot tell you how much this simplified my success with growing herbs and starting some seeds indoors for our garden during those winter dreary months. I have inherited my late Mother in laws too. I put them both to use. In one, I will grow simple, quick lettuces that my granddaughters absolutely love to grow, snip, eat and regrow. We snip off some lettuce, wash it and make us a quick little salad and it just continues to keep growing. Another good feature about this system is you can remove the pods when they get to a certain height as in pics below and you can transplant them into pots and still keep in the house and grow. Then you can start fresh seed pods in the holes. You can have continuous veggies or herbs growing all year long. 

These are easy to clean, and the settings are so self explanatory. You can set the time for the lights to come on and how many hours to stay on pertaining to the type of plant you are growing. You can adjust the light stand to any height as the plant grows upward. You can customize your seed pod kits so the seeds are already in the pods or you can order the dirt pods with cages and buy your own seed packets. It truly is versatile. We have a few tomato plants in one of mine now and they started sprouting within 3 days of planting. This is so easy to set up that I let my granddaughters set one up all by themselves. The menu indicators even lets you know when to add water and plant food (included in your kits). It counts down the days for you to remind you when to add the food. It keeps up with the days that you planted so you can keep up with germination time. Even if the power goes out, it does not  factory reset, it keeps up from when it cut off. I am goin to leave a link below and it is the same one I have as in the pics. This is perfect especially for older ones who love gardening but can't physically work a big outside garden much less a raised bed or container garden. I can say this in all honesty because my Mother in law was 87 years old and did not want to let her gardening skills take a back seat to her physical health. We got hers for her for a Mothers Day gift and she thoroughly enjoyed snipping her lettuces everyday. It gave her such pleasure to know she could still grow something. Just to see her happy was enough for us. This is great for Birthdays, Anniversaries, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Christmas or just because you love them and want to make someones life easier. 

I absolutely love mine and hope you will too. They are so easy to set up as well. I had mine set up in 20 minutes (well maybe longer because my granddaughters couldn't decide which lettuces to start out with lol).






I really hope you give this a try. Here is the link to my store. 


Sunday, May 14, 2023

Happy Mothers Day

 I have been an emotional mess this week. This time of year I reflect on my childhood and the love I grew up from the greatest, most unselfish, Godly, sacrificial, patient, humble, loving human beings. My Mother and Grandmother. These women shaped and molded me when they didn't know they were. Yes, I was listening and hanging onto every word. These two prayed and brought Heaven down on my behalf on several occasions and still does. I miss my Grandmother because of the bond we shared. I see more of her in my mother every day. My momma is one of my best friends.  I know she will tell me the truth even if it hurts. I can call her and just have her pray with me or for me. We are do much alike, but she says, I am my Grandmothers child. I am so blessed to have had and still have this bond with them because now I have one with my own grandchildren.  

Nothing I have ever done in my life has made me happier than being a Wife and Mother. It's all I know how to do and all I ever wanted to do. I don't know how to do anything else. My boys will always be my babies. Yes, it is hard to let go. I just want them to know that I tried my best and will always be here. My grandchildren now and future will know my love. You hurt any of them and you will deal with me. 

I had the best Mother in Law God could ever have given me. So wise, unselfish, Godly, loving and humble. I miss our talks and her kind and wise counsel. She raised the greatest little boy ever and I got the blessing of having him and building a life with him and being his baby momma. 👶 lol. I promised her I would take care of her baby boy and I will not fail. You hurt him, you deal with me. 

I have mighty big shoes to fill from previous generations and it is always my prayer that I do my best. Don't wait until you get older to start looking back.

















Happy Mothers Day to all the Mothers today. 

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Road Trip

 I got to make a trip home to get some work done and plant the garden. I'm so glad I had help because if I didn't, I could  not have done it. As soon as I got home, Annie found me and was fussing at me for leaving. The next morning I sat on the front steps and had my coffee and devotion time and let her in my lap to snuggle. She wanted to take some selfies or at least I think she did. According to the look on her face, I'm not so sure. 

The next day, one of our boys tilled the garden for me so I could start planting. Caroline was spending the day with daddy so she got to help me. Atleigh was in school. Caroline worked so hard, she wanted to "do it all by myself GMaw". Ok. I showed her what to do and she did it. We got a few green beans planted until it started sprinkling and we had to call it quits. They came back later that afternoon when Ateigh got out of school and they got to spend the night with me. It had stopped sprinkling and it was dry enough to finish the green beans so I let Atleigh do her row. I had just a few tomato plants and pepper plants to plant and they wanted to do those all by themselves. So, I let them. They learned so much that way. Then we prayed over our garden. I always do. My PaPa taught me that. They each said a prayer. I know God heard and we will have a good harvest. 





The next day, my momma and daddy came to spend the day with us. They wanted to help finish in the garden but it had rained more that night and was too wet. So we planted flower seeds and bulbs instead. 


Some preferred resting under the trees and freezing to death watching us work lol

I love this pic, because my grandmother, my momma (in Pic) me, and Atleigh have a love for flowers. 4 generations of flower lovers. 




The next day I planted a little more and had a sandwich wrapped up in a sack in my truck and my little kitty stole and ate my sandwich. Bad Kitty

The girls got to spend another night with me and we did nothing but play board games. We laughed so hard and had so much fun. We made some smores in the air fryer. 



We got up the next morning and went to church. I had to take them home afterward because I had to share them with daddy. lol 

They knew I was headed back out the next morning to go back to Poppie. Of course the tears started out of Atleigh, but did not expect it out of Caroline. They knew I would be coming back for Atleighs Kindergarten graduation so that made them feel better. 

David was off that Saturday, so naturally that meant date night for us. 

The place where we are staying has a big field for hay but there is some red blossom clover growing. So I picked some, came in and brewed me a cup. You should look up the benefits of red blossom clover. 



When eggs went on sale I bought up some and froze them. Yes, they thaw out great and you can still cook and bake with them. I made David some egg bites for work.


And I found a clever hack using canned biscuits to make Danishes with. 


Saw another hack and tried it. I took a flour tortilla and pressed it down into a pot and baked it in the oven (if you don't like them fried). It made a great tortilla bowl for taco salad. I paired it with a crunch wrap and that was supper. 


What am I doing today, well as  I am typing this post, I am watching a family of geese cross the lake and as soon as I got to my picnic table and got set up, this little squirrel came up and was so friendly. I got to feed it out of  my hand. I about wet my pants.  I am at one of my all time favorite places. So  I am using my tablet to post while here. Sorry I haven't posted before now but trust me when I say I was very busy and then I took my computer to a place here and had them update everything on it. They put a bigger hard drive in it for me which gives me more memory and storage and GBs. I am loving the speed and an upgraded  version of Windows. It was time. I still have alot more computer and blog work to do. Well, I am going to enjoy the rest of what little time I have left here in my favorite little spot and enjoy my picnic lunch. 




May is National Military Appreciation Month. A big Thank You to those who have served and continue to serve our Country. 


We have several new videos on our Channel so be sure to check them out at Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms. See you there. 

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Some Great Books I Have Read

 I love to read books on Marriage, Parenting, and Homemaking.  

These are some books I have read lately and thought you might enjoy. 



So many times we think our spouses are the problems, however, this book was an eye opener to me. I promise, it will help you understand your husband better. 

 In this book she gives so many scenarios of women who have brought problems to her and just after hearing the first sentence, she had already pin pointed the problem. She will not hesitate telling you the truth. She has a website where you can sign up to hear her podcasts too. 



I  currently reading this book. It is so informative and hits the nail on the head for today's society.