Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

Thanks to my quest for breakfast ideas I found this recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes.  Turned out pretty good.  I used a bag of strawberries that my mom had given me from her patch over the summer, glad I froze them and found a use for them!

I've been eating this bread almost everyday at work for breakfast, right now they are giving out free oatmeal and well i'm not a big fan, it's free so I'll get it, I'll eat it but I am already getting burned out on it.

Ingredients

·         ½ cup butter – melted

·         ¾ cup sugar

·         2 eggs

·         3 oz. cream cheese

·         1 container of Greek yogurt

·         1¾ cup all purpose flour

·         1 tsp vanilla

·         ½ tsp baking powder

·         ½ tsp baking soda

·         ½ tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp cinnamon

·         1 cup strawberries – chopped (fresh or frozen and thawed)

Instructions

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the melted butter and the sugar.

2.     Next, mix in the eggs and the Greek yogurt.

3.     After those four ingredients have been mixed together, add cream cheese, and add the vanilla.

4.     Mix in all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

5.     Fold in chopped strawberries.

6.     Pour mixture into individual mini loaf pans (or 1 large loaf pan) and place in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (55-60 minutes for a large loaf).

7.     Once cooked through, remove from oven and allow to cool.

8.     I stored these in small Ziploc bags inside a big freezer bag for extra protection.

 

Sunday Football Chili

~Sunday Football Chili~

 

 

A very simple, quick & easy, yet delicious Chili recipe for those cold fall days or football Sundays, (which is the case at my house!)   This recipe is very versatile and you can add or remove various options to your taste.   I used home canned tomatoes but you can use store bought as well.   This was enough to feed my family of 5 and still have 2 bowls for leftovers to freeze.  You could easily ½ this and it would be a smaller amount or make a big batch and freeze it!.

1.5 lb ground beef or chuck

1 lb Italian sausage

4 cloves garlic

1 medium onion chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1qt. home canned tomatoes (or 3 sm cans tomatoes)

1 can 15 oz tomato sauce (or 2 8 oz cans)

1 (15oz) can kidney beans or Chili beans

1 Chopped green peppers

Red Pepper flakes – just a pinch or to your taste

1 tsp. worschestchire Sauce

½ tsp cumin

1 Tbs. brown sugar or Grape Jelly

1. Brown ground beef, Italian sausage, onion, garlic & green peppers in large stockpot, cook and stir over medium heat until browned, drain.
2. Stir in chili powder, salt, oregano, tomatoes, sauce, worschestchire sauce & cumin.  Cook stirring occasionally for 1 hour.
3. Stir in the beans and grape jelly, pinch of red pepper flakes (more if you like it hotter), simmer uncovered for another 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

~ENJOY~

~Freezer Cooking Trial~

Well I took about 3-4 days but I did start my freezer cooking.  And boy did I find A LOT of ideas and recipes.  So based on what I had on hand or was able to buy cheaply here’s what I made:

I froze the following:

2 -  pans Baked Ravioli, recipe is HERE. I used my homemade sneaky spaghetti sauce for this.

1  - bag homemade spaghetti sauce (from canned tomatoes from my garden)

1 -Sausage & Peppers crockpot meal.  This is new for us so we’ll try it.  Recipe from HERE.

2  - bags of porkchops in homemade marinade.

1  - bag of strip steaks in homemade marinade.

10 lbs of ground beef – used some for the spaghetti sauce, 1 night of tacos and froze 4 pkgs. With a family of 5 I use atleast 2 lbs when I make things like tacos and enchiladas.  You can find my enchilada recipe HERE .

2 - bags of marinaded chicken, going to use this for this Chicken Italiano.

1 - bag of shredded chicken for enchiladas. 

4 - small loaves Strawberry bread – recipe coming.  J

Breakfast melts – interesting recipe, may need some tweaking.  Recipe HERE from Pioneer Woman.

3 - Breakfast Egg loaves – Recipe coming! J  I had half of one of these for breakfast this am and it was REALLY good.  I am definitely going to stock up on eggs to make plenty more!

I also got a 13 lb ham from my grandmother, so I cut that up into smaller chunks to use for casseroles etc.  and I made plenty of Chicken stock.

I also made:

2 -big loaves banana bread & 4 small loaves.  They are pretty much gone, my husband took the big loaves to work and my kids devoured most of the rest.

*All that was left as of last night!

That is in addition to multiple freezer bags of veggies from the garden still and I have 3 bags with 5 ears each of corn on the cob for future meals.

It’s not an over abundance, but it’s a start.  Found LOTS of recipes, but a lot of things my husband won’t eat a lot of the other stuff.  Sigh.  Oh well, I do what I can. J  I have plenty more to try, my #`1 goal was to do breakfast ideas for me at work.  I spend way too much $$ at work in the cafe.  So as of today, this week I have spent .70.  for 1 bowl of hot cereal.  That was it.

 If anyone has any other ideas, let me know! 



Canning Recipes

Here is some new recipes, as I’ve been doing non stop canning!  Since I’ve had an overabundance of Jalapenos I decided to make some salsa, jalapeno jelly and cowboy candy.  Yeehaw!  Ok ok so I’m from the Midwest, but a woman can dream right!?

First up is the Jalapeno Jelly.  This recipe was given to me from a girl at work who has made it for years.  It’s wonderful! 

Jalapeno Jelly

3/4 lb of Fresh jalapenos, cored and seeded (leave seeds if you wanted it hot!)
2 cups apple-cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
2 pouches liquid pectin
3 drops of green food coloring to make it a ‘green’ color

Get your jars, lids and rings sterilized.in hot water. 

Wash, seed and core the jalapenos wearing gloves! This is from first hand experience ya know ;)  Puree in blender or food processer with 1 cup apple cider, I used my Ninja machine, which also by the way makes amazing Margaritas!  Pour into LARGE pot (yes large I learned the hard way)..  add the rest of the cider vineager and all the sugar, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Allow to boil for 10 min (make sure to watch it closely! Again learned the hard way).  Add pectin and let it rapidly boil for one minute. Remove from heat and add food coloring if you desire. 

Ladle jelly into hot jars (your choice of size), (I used small ones). Leave ¼” headspace.  Wipe the rim and put lid and ring on, screwing tight but not overly tight. Boil in water bath for 10 min, let cool fro 24 hours and check for seal.  Serve with Cream Cheese and crackers or use as a topping for whatever you heart desires!

Cowboy Candy yeehaw!
It sounds weird, I know but they actually turned out very good.  I don’t care for hot stuff and next time I make these I will leave the seeds and stems out mostly, the jalapenos are hot enough directly from the garden as it is!  Still a great thing to serve at parties, work or just as a snack.  Serve them with cream cheese and crackers, or as others were doing at my party they put it on everything, burgers, brats, etc. crazy right??????
I took the recipe from here Cowboy Candy and it was amazing!  I had so many people ask me how I made it!  I do think that next time I will scoop out the seeds and membranes though, as some of it was a little too hot.  But either way it was good! 

·   3 pounds Firm, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Washed

·   2 cups Cider Vinegar

·   6 cups White Granulated Sugar

·   ½ teaspoons Turmeric

·   ½ teaspoons Celery Seed

·   3 teaspoons Granulated Garlic

·   1 teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper

Preparation Instructions to can:

Prepare clean jars by washing, sterilizing and having your lids/bands heating up in hot water.

Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.

Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds, remove seeds and membranes if desired. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.

Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a chopstick or some other utensil (wood or plastic only), I use a citrus peeler to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on seals and lids to finger-tip tightness.

To can, place jars in a canner and cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth, then label.

Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating.

For non canning:

Simply put the jars in your refrigerator and store them there.

These are great served on cream cheese/crackers but can literally be used for anything, sandwiches, pizza, etc. The syrup if any is left makes a great marinade.

I will have to gather my recipe for Salsa and get that posted as well.  It's one Scorching Salsa!

Gardening & Canning.. oh my!

My garden this year has far surpassed my expectations!  IT has been unreal even with the drought, which has affected some of it.  I’ve canned so many jars of stuff, I’ve had to buy more jars, lids and still need more!  I’ve canned 7 qts of green beans, 5 pints carrots, 3 pints green beans, 4 pints beets, 18 jars salsa,  7 qts tomatoes, 6 pints tomatoes, 15 jars pickles, 10 jars hot peppers, 3 jars Cowboy Candy, and 2 ¾ jars spaghetti sauce.  That of course does not include the 10 freezer bags of green beans, 6 freezer bags broccoli/cauliflower mix, 50 ears of corn (planning on decobbing and canning some of this) plus 3 bags of carrot sticks for snacking AND I’m no where near being done.  And of course what we've eaten fresh!

I have had countless amounts of cucumbers that ARE massive.. and I mean massive, we are talking HUMUNGOUS SIZE! Some were atleast 1.5 feet long!  Unreal.. needless to say we ate a lot of cucumbers and I made A LOT of pickles! J  I’ve picked over 100 jalapeno peppers not including the other variety of hot ones I planted.  I’ve got atleast 75 habaneros’ growing right now, what on earth will I do with them!

Many things are done, many are still growing, like broccoli, beans, cantaloupe, tomatoes and peppers.  The carrots are done, the corn’s pretty much done. The watermelon didn’t do much of anything and the tomatoes have grown beyond my control, they seriously have become crazy mutant plants that are like 4 feet wide and are falling everywhere!  Ahh.. I digress, I can’t complain I will surely have lots do with tomatoes in the next month. 

Now the weather.. oh my goodness. It went from unusually warm spring to super oober hot summer, we’re talking major drought!  90% of the corn in IL was fried due to the heat.  As were my peas, a batch of beans and my kiwi plant that they said would grow here. L  Now it’s August and we are down to the 70s, which I just don’t get. Ugh.  Hopefully the warmer weather stays otherwise I’m going to have gazzilions of green tomatoes!

So the end result of this first year of my raised bed gardening (there may be duplicates I already posted prior but they are all in one post now!):

The plan

The start

just starting out

Work in progress we are growing!

 The produce

Monster cukes!

Behomth carrots!

 

This was all from 1 Sat morning!

My little corn helper!

Making salsa

Habanero salsa!

Potatoes i just dug up waiting to get canned

all my canned goods

Pickles and green beans

50 ears of corn to freeze!

I think it’s fantastic!  Starting to prepare and plan for next years garden, going to have to change things up a little bit and build a grape arbor for next year where my berry bushes currently are, they got overrun by cantaloupe and weeds.  I hate (yes I know strong word)  well despise weeds!  Darn things just keep coming back!

And in between all that we took our boys to a Cubs game for Build a Bear Workshop day and even though the seats were sucky and the Cubs are horrible this year, they got to ride on a train, experience Wrigley Field (highly recommend for those who never have!) and got a FREE Cubs bear!  What better way to spend a birthday with my 9 yr old!  Next week back to school!!!!!!  Mom says YAY! Kids say BOO!  Ha Mom wins!

Well what do you all think and what have you done if any gardening this year?  I’m so going to be stocked for winter!

Garden Extravaganza!

My garden guard!

He's such a good boy!  He is guarding mama's garden, he knows his brother would go 'raid' all the veggies!

Well with the major amount of heat over for now atleast, I hope (it's back to 80's) my garden has started producing some more veggies.  My cauliflower has come in heavily and my broccoli plants that I have left are producing numerous side shoots.  I'm hoping to have some more broccoli for the fall, we will see.   My green beans have by far taken the brunt of the heat we've had.  I had to pull up a entire box of Contender beans, they produced once then died.  Didn't seem to matter how much I watered either, they just didn't survive.  I've now planted new beans in it's place, which are sprouting already.

So to date I have had countless and I mean countless (atleast 30) humungous cucumbers and they taste sooooooooo good!  I'm definitely going to be stocking up on Biotamax for next year!  IT's made a world of difference on them!  Tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, they too have responded well to the Biotamax, probably woudl have been better I did it when I planted but alas..   I've had to pull one Zuchinni plant out as it died, but it produced atleast 15 fruits.  I have a 2nd one going but it's only got male flowers now, only had a few fruits off of it, so I'm not sure what it's doing.  Beets were pulled and canned already, so I've planted more.  Lettuce has gone to seed, so I pulled that and replaced it with green beans.  Had tons and tons (over 100) hot peppers.. All varities.. jalapeno, pablano, habanero, banana.  My one and only serrano pepper plant didn't survive the drought.  oh well..  Green peppers are doing ok, was hoping for some sweet peppers but nothing is turning red :(  My corn in the raised beds has grown tremendously (albeit now beetles are attacking the ears!) the corn with my pumpkins not so much, it's definitely stunted by the drought and heat.  As is 90% of the rest of IL, and we are feeling it.. Gas prices are up to $4.15 a gallon today!  YIKES!  I'm wishing I worked closer to home so I could walk! 

So with all this mass amount of produce I've been harvesting  We have been eating salad atleast a few times a week, hubby and I are the only ones who will eat the lettuce, which we like but aren't over crazy about every day so we do a few times a week.  Been snacking on cucumbers for lunch, grape tomatoes and green peppers.

I have given countless zuchinni, lettuce and kale to my grandmother and my mom.  They have frozen, shredded and baked zuchinni bread with it.  (We don't eat zuchinni). 

So here's what I've canned/frozen this year so far:

10 pints of bread n butter pickles
9 pints hot peppers (listed above)
7 qts green beans (though I think I over processed them a little)
4 pints green beans
3 pints cowboy candy (candied jalapenos)
4 pints beets
2 frozen pkgs. green beans
5 pints tomatoes
50 white onions

Not too bad for being in a major drought most of the summer with no rain and temps over 100 daily.  The small amounts of rain we have recieved have done wonders for my garden.  Check out some of my produce from the last few weeks:

Beets

Mega cucumbers

Hot peppers, broccoli and cucumbers

Pickles, beans and hot peppers

These I picked Sat.

This was picked 3 weeks ago

2 weeks ago (for the pickles & hot peppers)

AND this is only some of it!  I've given away countless zuchinnis, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cucumbers and green peppers!

I can't wait to be able to make some cheesy broccoli, cauliflower soup.  Waiting for my carrots and potatoes to come in! 



How is everyone else's garden surviving?  I'd love to hear about your garden, the size, what your growing, how it's doing etc. :)

Garden update!

Well I didn't do any regular grocery shopping this last week.  My inlaws were in town and all I did was hit walmart for my nephew's birthday gift and dog food.  Picked up a couple of clearance bakery goods and milk.  Still going to plan out my CVS trip, but that will happen later this week after I get paid.

Now on to the fun stuff!!!!!!!!!  GARDENING!  Whoohoo.. I finally got the rest of my garden planted.  Not everything has grown yet, or even made an appearance but due to weather I had to wait until Memorial day weekend to get things planted!  I have kept some Kale, Swiss Chard, lettuce & broccoli for fall crops as well.  I have 32 tomato plants.. yikes!  How did I get so many?  I have no clue.  I hate to waste things!  I started my own but they were so darn leggy I wasn't sure what was going to survive and what wouldn't.  So I planted them all and figured some would die off.. But nope not yet.  Oh well hopefully that means I'll get to can lots and lots of tomatoes this year!  I definitely have learned some for next years planting.  Going to change things a bit but overall I'm satisifed with my garden.  I also have intermingled some flowers within the beds to help pollination as well as my hanging baskets on the fence.  Still have to get some cheese cloth for my strawberries and my grape vines.  Darn birds keep getting my strawberries and they done picked all my grape buds clear off my vines!  Found some netting at a garage sale and covered up my berry bushes as I've got blueberries, blackberries and raspberries starting. 

Here's some hightlights of what I planted:
(and I only bought about 9 plants, which for me is hard to believe!  5 tomato, 1 green pepper, 2pks cauliflower  and 1 pk broccoli)

Cauliflower
Corn
Beans
Peas
Tomatoes
Green/sweet peppers
Hot peppers (variety, jalapeno, Habanero)
Cucumbers
Kale
Swiss Chard
Arugula
Lettuce
Spinach
Beets
Onions
Potatoes
Various Melons
Zucchini
Pumpkins
Various herbs
Carrots


I will take additional pics as time goes on when they start making more progress.  I've already decided next year I'm going to do a few boxes as the square foot method, so I need to read up on that.  Wish I had done that this year but didn't and then I forgot what I planted where!  So I've got somethings growing I'm not really sure what it is.  Mostly herbs and greens that I can't remember.  Things like beans and peas are pretty easy to figure out.  lol

  Until next time!  Happy gardening!!!!!!!!!  I'll try to get some better pics this coming weekend, as the plants have grown so much in just 2 days since I took these pics!