Winndy Hill Farm

Trim the Budget: Cabbage!!

 When the prices of veggies start climbing higher during the winter months I turn to my best winter veggie choice, cabbage!  Cabbage is healthy and nutritious and can be used in so many ways. 

Cabbage is high in vitamins K and C.  It is also high in dietary fiber.  You will also find some really good B vitamins such as, vitamins b6, b1, and b2 and vitamin A. 

It is also interesting to note that the vitamin C content in red cabbage is 6 to 8 times higher than that of white cabbage.  

Cabbage is chocked full of minerals: calcium, potassium, magnesium.  

And it even contains a little bit of protein and fat (the good omega 3 fatty acids).  

The best part of cabbage from a budget stand point is that it is so inexpensive this time of year.  I recently paid 45 cents a pound. I spent $1.15 for a head of cabbage that weighted around 2 ½ lbs.   

Ways to incorporate cabbage into your diet.. 

Eat it as a side dish.  I love to sauté chopped cabbage and onions in butter.  When it is soft, salt a little and enjoy with your meal. 

I also add red cabbage to my winter salads.  They are less expensive than tomatoes and add lots of color and nutrition to a salad.  

My all time favorite way to use cabbage is lacto fermented sauerkraut..  You can find my recipe and step by step instructions to make this delicious food here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemadekraut.htm

Yet another way I enjoy using cabbage is cabbage rolls. 

I made these yesterday for my family and they are always a big hit.  I made a double batch so the pictures show 2 pans of rolls, but the recipe will make one pan.   

Making cabbage rolls takes a little time, but is so yummy!  The first thing I do is prepare the cabbage.  I take a full head of cabbage and core it.  To do this I make cuts around the core until it is loose enough to be able to pull out.  Then I get a large pan and put about 2 inches of water in it and bring this to a boil.  I set the whole cored cabbage in the water, cover with a lid and bring it back to a boil.  I boil this for 15 minutes.  Carefully remove the head of cabbage and give it a few minutes to cool.  Once it is cool enough to touch you can begin removing the leaves.  If you find that the center of the cabbage is still to firm you can put it back in the boiling water for a couple of minutes to soften up.  I lay the leaves out on a towel while I prepare the filling.   

The Filling: 

1lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 t minced garlic
3 cups cooked brown rice
2 egg
1 t salt
1 t pepper 

Cook hamburger and chopped onion in a frying pan until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are soft.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and combine well.   

Now it is time to make your cabbage rolls.. 

Lay one leaf down in front of you and put a tablespoon or two of filling right in the middle.  How much filling you put in will depend on the size of the leaf.  Fold the bottom of the leaf up over the filling.  Fold the left side over and then fold the right side over.  Now take the top and bring it down.   

Lay the finished cabbage roll in a 9x13 pan (I spray mine with non stick cooking spray first).  Finish making rolls until you are out of leaves and filling. 

When the cabbage rolls are all made it is time to make the sauce.   

Cabbage Roll Sauce:

1- 8oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
3 T cane juice crystals or sugar
2 T vinegar
½ cup water
2T cornstarch combined w/ ¼ cup cold water 

Combine all ingredients into a sauce pan.  Cook on medium high heat, stirring occasionally to begin with and then more frequently as it comes to a boil.  Boil and cook the sauce for about 1 to 2 minutes until the sauce thickens.  

Pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls.  Bake in a 350* oven for 40 to 45 minutes and enjoy!!

Cost Break Down: 

Hamburger: $2.79
Cabbage: $1.15
Brown Rice: $1.02
Eggs: .25
Tomato Sauce: .80
Diced Tomatoes:  $1.60 

Approx. Total: $7.75 (I rounded up from the actual total) 

I served my meal with slices of fresh baked whole wheat bread and green beans.  Everyone walked away stuffed and satisfied! 

3 day weekend

     Happy President's Day. The Federal Reserve is closed today, so David is home. Jon doesn't have school either. They are in the garage working on Jon's pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts.

     Speaking of Cub Scouts, Jonny is in the Wolves den this year. There are 5 boys in his group. Last Tuesday, David showed them how to shoot bows and arrows. There were 5 very excited and happy boys. Their parents were happy too. What parent isn't happy to expose their child to a good activity that can be done outdoors? Archery is one of those skills that anyone can do. It just takes practice to become more accurate.

     I had been having cabin fever and my dear husband took us to Great Falls on Saturday. Jonny spent some time with his Aunt June and David and I got to shop around a bit. I got some oil painting medium and a couple of sale brushes at Michaels.

      I got a couple pieces of fabric at Joann's. A friend of mine has a hand sewn picnic blanket. Nothing fancy, just two fabrics sewn together. I will make one for Maria's July birthday. I  She likes practical items, so here we go. I will look for a picnic basket and some plastic dinnerware and I think it will make a cute gift for a girl who lives in the mountains.

     What a refreshing time. Thank you, Lord and thank you, David.

     Our Valentine's Day was quiet. I have a mild case of bronchitis, so I stayed home from church. In the afternoon, Jonny had a friend over to play and David and I watched a couple movies on Hulu. It was a very nice way to spend the afternoon with my valentine. I got a scarf crocheted, so I will have something new to wear to school tomorrow.

     We are on the letter Ss, so this week's crafts will include a school bus and a sky mobile. On Thursday we are having shells and cheese for our snack, along with hot dog octopuses. I'm sure it will be a big hit.

     The bus will have round faces to glue over the windows to represent children. We're practicing drawing simple faces, so they get to add the faces, which they will love to do.

     Thursday's sky mobile involves a large cloud (posterboard covered with pellon). Three items will suspend from the cloud by fishline: a star, a moon and a sun. I think we will fingerpaint the sun yellow and orange. We will sponge paint the moon and the star could be marble painted yellow and white.

     We have paint shirts, newspapers and a sink nearby, so we don't worry about messes. The children have learned to be neat and tidy for the most part, so we do plenty of creative projects. The janitor has some cans of spot treatment for the carpet, which I use on a regular basis! I want the children to learn to do a variety of art and not be overly concerned about the mess involved.

     Well, I have a kitchen floor to scrub and dusting and vacuuming to tackle, so good-bye for now.

                                                          Denise

Trim the Budget: Black Bean Sloppy Joes!

 Here is another meal that makes a large serving, tastes great, utilizes a low cost basic food (beans), and is delicious!!   

Black Bean Sloppy Joes

Usually sloppy joes are made with all hamburger.  That can be a lot of expense in meat.  The last time I looked at Costco hamburger was $2.79 a pound.  One way to still enjoy sloppy joes and save some money is to make Black Bean Sloppy Joes.  The black beans stretch the hamburger while giving you a delicious and nutritious meal!  You can find the recipe on my website here:   http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/blackbeansloppyjoes.htm  

Make sure to get your beans cooking in the morning so all you have to do come evening is assemble the rest of the recipe.  This will also give you the afternoon to make the rolls to serve the sloppy joes on.  

Making your own high quality bread products is also a good way to cut costs.  White bread will always be dirt cheap, but with no nutritional value and not worth the cost.. no matter how cheap.  Making homemade bread is one way to ensure better quality bread products in your home for a very reasonable price.   

This was a new recipe I tried out for the dinner rolls.  They were delicious!!  I wanted a sub sandwich type bread that was soft and would make great sandwiches or could be used for recipes like sloppy joes.  I was very happy with this one!   

Sub Sandwich Rolls
Crystal Miller

1½ cups water
½ cup honey
6T butter
½ cup oats
2t salt
1T yeast
2 eggs
5½ to 7 cups whole wheat flour 

In a small sauce pan combine water, honey, butter and oats and heat over medium high until hot and butter has melted, do not boil.  Pour this mixture into your Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixing bowl. Allow the mixture to cool for 15 to 20 minutes.  When it is very warm, but not hot to the touch add the salt, yeast and eggs.  Now begin adding flour.  Add 5 ½ cups and then add a half cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky, but still is a soft dough.  Knead 4 to 5 minutes in a Bosch or 7 to 10 in a Kitchen Aid or 12 to 15 minutes if you are doing this by hand.   

Let the dough rise for one hour.  Punch down and knead again for a few minutes to remove air bubbles. 

Divide dough into 10 pieces.  Roll each piece into an 8 inch log. Spray a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with non stick spray. Lay the bread dough pieces on the cookie sheet and cover with a towel. Let rise until double in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.  

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.  

To use for the Black Bean Sloppy Joe recipe I cut the rolls in half (lengthwise) and then sliced them in center (like you would if you were going to make a sandwich out of them).  You can toast the bread first before topping with the sloppy joe mix.  Serve the sloppy joes over the bread.  

----------------------

This meal is filling!  It is big enough to easily serve 8 to 10 people.  So if your family is smaller, you can freeze half of this for another night.     

I fed the 7 of us (4 adults, a 16 year old, a 14 year old and an 11 year old) dinner and still had sandwich rolls and sloppy joes left over.  I will serve the last of the sloppy joes to the family that is home today for lunch and if there are any remaining sandwich rolls after today they will get used up with our lunch tomorrow.  This meal gave me a lot of mileage for my money!   

Now for the budget cost breakdown..  I determine costs of bulk type items using the method I described here:  http://www.homesteadblogger.com/quiverfull/153483/   I don’t calculate the costs of things like salt or a ½ of an onion.  After I determine the cost of the main ingredients in a recipe I then round up to get and idea of the costs of the small items I did not include.   

Here is what I figured for last night’s meal: 

Black Bean Sloppy Joes:
Hamburger: $2.79
Black Beans: .95
Ketchup: $1.08
6oz tomato paste: .90  

Approx. cost: $5.72 or rounded up to $6.00  

Dinner Rolls:
Honey: .91
Whole Wheat (I grind my own wheat so this is the cost of the actual wheat berries, not the cost of flour):  .80
Oats: .05
Butter: .33
Eggs: .25  

Approx. cost of rolls: $2.34 or rounded to $2.50  

In the end, $8.50 fed my family a delicious, nutritious dinner plus I have leftovers.  If I had wanted to stretch this meal out for two full dinner meals for my family I could have added another cup or two of cooked beans and a little of the bean broth to give it the right consistency.  That would have increased the cost by just a few cents, and I may do that the next time I make this meal. 

Sometimes a girl needs her mom...

    I got a call from Maria tonight before I went to the library for work. She was feeling discouraged and needed an encouraging word. Tomorrow she and her assistants will be cooking a Valentine's Day banquet for students and staff at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible, about 80 people.

     She was frustrated because she is making prime rib and although she has some good instructions, tomorrow will be her first time preparing it. She was also strugging with the fact that she had ordered small shrimp from her supplier and she ended up getting large shrimp. Since the shrimp are large, they won't make a very good appetizer because there won't be enough for everyone to have even one. I suggested that she have a second appetizer on hand for when the shrimp run out.

     It was apparent to me that she was very tired. I pointed that out and reminded her that the enemy of our souls can easily discourage us when we are fatigued. I suggested that she spend some time in prayer with her kitchen staff, asking the Lord to give them success in their endeavor.

     Temps. got up to 58 degrees today so there was lots of melting going on. Usually when it is that warm in the winter months, the wind is blowing. It was still today though.

     My preschoolers enjoyed their Valentine party very much. They absolutely loved the pinata. I told them I would make another one for Easter, which occurs in early April this year.

     Well, time for bed. Have a wonderful weekend.

                                                      Denise

Salsa Questions Answered..

My last blog post generated a few salsa questions.. 

Kristi asked…I have a question on the salsa - first of all, could I use Romas that I froze (with the intention of canning more pizza sauce? and secondly, how long will a gallon of the salsa keep in your fridge?  

Kristi, I have never made the salsa from frozen tomatoes.  The salsa is basically a fresh type salsa.  I am thinking that frozen tomatoes would work better in a cooked type of salsa. 

As for how long it keeps in the fridge? We eat our salsa up pretty fast, typically.  This last summer when I had some extra tomatoes I made two gallons at a time.  Some of that salsa sat in the fridge for well over a month and it was just fine.  The salsa is fermented (like making cabbage into sauerkraut) and that is what gives it the long shelf life. 

Shell from Ohio also asked how long it would keep.. so that was answered above. 

Last Question: I have a question on the salsa. Could I substitute anything for the whey? 

Well, no, not really.. if you want the fermented salsa.  Whey is very easy to get.  I have instructions on making sauerkraut on my site and it shows how to get whey from a yogurt:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemadekraut.htm   

I make feta cheese to get my whey.. that too is very easy and you get lots of whey from this.  You can freeze the whey too. Plus you get a jar of yummy feta cheese to enjoy as well!  Here is the recipe:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/easyfetacheese.htm