Spinach Salad

Our family really enjoys spinach salad. Yes, these GUYS love spinach salad. Amazing. Most times one thinks of spinach-and-fruit salads as a girl kind of thing. To my surprise I've served this numerous times and there's still a fight to clean out the dish.

Ingredients-
Spinach
Fresh fruit - apple, pear, strawberry or whatever you like
Cheese- feta preferred, but you can use any kind
Lemon
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Nuts
Butter (or coconut oil)
Salt, optional
Pepper, optional
Poppy seeds, optional

Use a whole (8 oz) bag of spinach. I use Aldi's spinach- $1.19 @ bag. Tear it into smaller pieces, wash and spin dry.

It has a strange color because I accidentally grabbed
the grapeseed oil instead of olive oil. It's still good.

Juice a lemon. Make a dressing using equal amounts of lemon juice, maple syrup and olive oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper if you like. Poppy seeds are good but we seldom use them. 

Add fruit (an apple or two, cut into small slices, sliced strawberries or pears) to the dressing.

With the spinach in a serving bowl, spoon the fruit and dressing evenly over the top.

Sprinkle with 2- 4 oz of cheese.

Put 1/2 - 3/4 cup of nuts (sliced almonds, walnuts or pecans), a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of maple syrup in a cast iron skillet. Heat over low heat, stirring to spread butter and syrup evenly over the nuts. Watch it carefully, stirring once or twice. Spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan after every stirring. 

When it is nicely toasted, turn the heat off and immediately remove from the pan. I usually sprinkle it directly onto the prepared salad at this point but you could put it in a small dish and break it up when it's cool.

Thomas says there's only one thing wrong with it. There's never enough!

Milk Products

A gift from one of my Sunday school students. The perfect dish for butter!

Have you ever wished for a family cow? It's wonderful! And then sometimes... the load (or overload) of milk is exhausting.

Our cow gives seven or eight gallons of milk per day. We are doing a cow share with another family of eight so that takes care of the between days. But we need to do something with the other twenty-eight gallons that are produced in a week.

Today I am making or have made...

...butter.

Butter draining in a sieve.

...yogurt.

Milk cooling after being heated to make yogurt

...tapioca pudding (baby pearl).

Cooling in a sink of water

And here is a gallon of milk that I am contemplating what must be done with it.

Condensation on the jar

Often we set it out in a bucket to sour/clabber and then we feed it to the chickens. But as much as I'm able I like to keep it edible for humans. I also make hard cheese and cottage cheese.

What would you do with gallons and gallons of milk?

Counting Blessings

There is a challenge going on at Frugal Family Food. It's "low spend month" where we are challenged to use from pantry, fridge and freezer instead of getting as much from the grocery store. (Subscribe to their newsletter here.)

When the challenge was announced I thought there would be no way for me to participate. This is the time of year when my canned and frozen food is nearly depleted. Out with the old, time for some new.

But then I began to realize how much I had. One day I took pictures of things I was given and that came from our own farm. It has happened more than once that I decide to not buy as much and then God begins to shower me with food from sources I never thought of.

Peas and strawberries from the garden.

 20 lb bag of potatoes for $4.

 Milk from the cow.

Free cheese from my bro-in-law, who drives a food truck.

 Green things from our garden.

 Shucked peas (from our garden).

 Carrots from our friends' garden.

 Honey from our friends' bees.

 Eggs from our chickens.

 Blueberries from friends.

 Black raspberries from our orchard.

 Blueberries from our orchard.

Homemade butter.

Basil from the garden.

It is good to count one's blessings!

For a bonus here's a video of our youngest son mowing the yard. He has been bugging us for awhile to be allowed to do it. Our oldest was mowing with this same machine at 8 yrs of age. Why are we reluctant to allow the nearly 13 yr old youngest one to do it?

Alfredo Pasta Recipe

This quick, simple meal can have variations of meat (or no meat at all) and pasta. Follow the pictures.

Put 1 lb of turkey burger (or your choice of meat) in a skillet

Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the pan

Add 1-2 tsp of garlic salt 

1/2-1 tsp black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

 Fry meat over medium heat until well done.

Add 1 cup of milk

1 stick of butter

8 oz cream cheese

 Chop and stir together over low heat
until the butter and cream cheese are melted.

Cook 1 lb of pasta per directions on package, rinsing slightly with cold water when it's done.

Put half of the pasta in a casserole dish

Spread half the Alfredo mixture on top and
then repeat the layers once more.

Does that seem like a lot of food? Our family scarfs it up in one meal and wishes for more.

As I made this dish, I just pulled the recipe from my head and kept thinking I'm missing something. Now I remember- I usually add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese to this. Well, it was good without it.

If you go meatless, start with melting the butter. Then add the milk and other ingredients. You can also use raw garlic and onion if you wish, rather than garlic salt and onion powder. Just saute them in the butter to begin with.