Strawberry Slushie

It's strawberry season here and oh my! I am loving it! They are one of my favorite foods to eat - and I can hardly wait until our garden strawberries are ready. I found a rock bottom deal on strawberries a few weeks ago (62.5 cents a pound) and bought a lot. I mean A LOT! Last year I showed you how to freeze strawberries or make strawberry jam. And I still had a few bags in the freezer from last year so I found myself looking for a way to use them. I kind of stumbled upon creating this recipe in a round about way. We loved it and I've made it several times since (in the name of perfecting it, right??). It's been so enjoyable, let me just tell you. We've missed ice cream since going sugar free and while this isn't exactly ice cream, it's a REALLY easy cold dessert that satisfies that "ice cream" part of the sweet tooth.

Fresh Strawberry Slushie

I'm going to show you two ways to make this dessert - you can either use fresh strawberries or frozen. There is a little bit of a difference with the two, but both are yummy. With the fresh strawberries, the texture is a bit icier like a slushy you would find at 7-11. I think I may slightly prefer making this with fresh strawberries just because of that. But both are yummy and both are easy to make.

Fresh Strawberry Slushie
Printable Recipe

*Makes about 4 1-Cup servings

INGREDIENTS:
juice of 1 lemon (fresh lemon juice is best)
1/4 Cup honey or xagave (or more to taste)
about 3-4 Cups fresh whole strawberries, washed with stems removed (between 1 and 2 lbs.)
about 2 Cups ice

DIRECTIONS:
Add lemon juice, honey or xagave and fresh strawberries to the blender and blend until strawberries are pureed. Then add the ice and blend until mixture reaches a "slushie" consistency. Add more ice or strawberries if needed to reach desired consistency. Then taste and add more sweetener if needed. Serve immediately.

*Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

Frozen Strawberry Slushie

Frozen Strawberry Slushie
Printable Recipe

*Makes about 4 1-Cup servings

INGREDIENTS:
juice of 1 lemon (fresh lemon juice is best)
1/4 Cup honey or xagave (or more to taste)
1 to 1-1/2 Cups water
about 3-4 Cups whole frozen strawberries

DIRECTIONS:
Add lemon juice, honey or xagave and water to the blender and blend until mixed together. Then add frozen strawberries and blend until mixture reaches a "slushie" consistency. Add more water or strawberries if needed to reach desired consistency. Then taste and add more sweetener if needed. Serve immediately.

*Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

I love these friendly fruits :)

This week I'll be linking to some of these link parties.

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Frugal Friday: Kitchen Tip/Tutorial: How to Make Yogurt Cheese

I've posted before about how I make my homemade yogurt (and have done for several years). This has been a big cost savings over time. We use the yogurt in smoothies or eat it with my favorite granola for breakfast. For today's post I want to share how I use yogurt to make yogurt cheese, which is a healthy (and cheap) cream cheese substitute that you can use in many recipes. You can also use yogurt cheese in place of mayonnaise or sour cream.

How to Make Yogurt Cheese:

First place the strainer in the bowl and the cheesecloth or dishtowel on top.

Pour yogurt into the cloth and let  the liquid strain out through the cloth and the strainer. Then put the bowl/strainer in the refrigerator while it is straining for about 12 to 24 hours. 

For this recipe I made homemade yogurt using Chobani Greek Yogurt. I really liked how it turned out. I think it's becoming my new favorite yogurt starter...

I test my yogurt cheese to see if it is done by forming the cloth around the cheese into a ball and gently squeezing. If liquid still drips out, it needs more time. If it doesn't, then the cheese is ready.

Here's what the liquid looks like that drips into the bowl...it's called whey.

Don't throw out the whey. It's really good for you. This batch made about 1-1/2 cups. I will use it to replace the liquid in a recipe that I make soon so that we benefit from all the good stuff in here...

And here's the yogurt cheese - this batch made almost a full cup. 

Homemade Yogurt Cheese

Printable Recipe

*Makes 3/4 - 1 Cup (or 6-7 oz.) of Yogurt Cheese

INGREDIENTS:

I recipe homemade yogurt or 3 Cups of plain yogurt

Strainer
Bowl that the strainer fits above
3 or 4 layers of Cheesecloth or thin cotton dishtowel

DIRECTIONS:
Place the strainer in the bowl and the cheesecloth or dishtowel on top. Pour yogurt into the cloth and let  the liquid strain out through the cloth and the strainer. Then put the bowl/strainer in the refrigerator while it is straining for about 12 to 24 hours. I test my yogurt cheese to see if it is done by forming the cloth around the cheese into a ball and gently squeezing. If liquid still drips out, it needs more time. If it doesn't, then the cheese is ready. Use immediately in recipes calling for cream cheese, sour cream or mayonnaise, or store up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

COST ANALYSIS OF MAKING YOGURT CHEESE:

In my cost analysis of yogurt post, I found that I could make a batch of yogurt (3 Cups) for $0.65 or less. I just bought an 8-oz. package of cream cheese at the grocery store for $1.65. I realize that's kind of a lot, and I usually wait until it goes on sale around $1.25 or less so I'll do my analysis based on both numbers just for comparison. 

8-oz. package of cream cheese for $1.25 to $1.65 works out to be about $0.16 to $0.21/ounce

6-oz. of homemade yogurt cheese for $0.65 works out to be about $0.11/ounce

The homemade yogurt cheese saves me from $0.05 to $0.10/ounce or $0.40 to $0.80 for 8-oz. 

That's a cost savings anywhere from 46% to 92%. That's significant savings! And will surely add up over time. That's not to mention the health benefits of the yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese.

The properties of yogurt cheese are a bit different than cream cheese so it's not always a perfect swap when using yogurt cheese as a substitution, but for many recipes it works just as good. Do some experimenting of your own or look for recipes that I'll post in the future that use yogurt cheese as a substitution for cream cheese.

Well now you know all you need to about how to make yogurt cheese. Have you ever made it? What did you think? What other things have you done to save money this week? Happy Frugal Friday and I hope you enjoy your weekend!

This week I'll be linking to some of these link parties.

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Garden Update

It's so beautiful outside today that I thought it was a wonderful time to give you a garden tour. Not everything is in bloom, but this will give you something to compare with in a few months when it is! :)

Here's the new blackberry fence that we built last year. This is the first year that the long blackberry vines on the eastern trailing blackberry vine have survived the snow. They love being attached to the fence. We're hoping for a lot of berries!

Here's our spring garden spot. We moved it this year to the center of our garden in hopes that we can get a late crop of corn this year by planting it after the spring garden is through. We'll see if it works. This isn't much to look at yet, but I love the little green things popping through the earth. So exciting!

 

We've got lots of peas,

Turnips,

and we're trying beets this year

and I think this might be the rutabagas...not sure. I'm trying them for the first time too...Also planted in the spring garden is chard, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, onions, and potatoes.

This is chard from last year's garden. It grows back the next year. And I picked some today for my first garden green smoothie! :)

Of course our most plentiful crop this time of year is dandelions...This is what the orchard ground looks like right now... 

Pear blossoms...make me happy. We planted 2 new fruit trees this year. One is a elephant hear plum to replace the one we lost last year. And then we planted another kind of plum for it's pollinator. We now have 14 fruit/nut trees on our property, but only 3 are mature. We also planted a new white concord grape vine.

This is another new face in our garden this year. We're trying to grow rhubarb. I planted it about 3 weeks ago and it looks like it's doing well. We've also started a new asparagus bed right next to the rhubarb. The nice thing about rhubarb and asparagus are that they are both perennial vegetables (not many of those exist). I haven't seen the asparagus yet though...so I'm hoping it's still alive.

Strawberry bed is doing great...

And don't forget the flowers this time of year. I love hyacinths

I've been working on transplanted these irises the last few years. It's surprisingly easy to do. In the fall I will finish transplanting these to fill in the gap. These will be beautiful in a few weeks.

And here's the last few tulips that the deer haven't seen yet....or they'd be gone. They were a gift to me by my husband who brought them back from Holland. So happy that I get to enjoy them this year. You can see where the deer got to them earlier in the season and munched down the leaves. I'm happy they've survived.

Beautiful ground cover...

That's it for the garden tour. Hope you enjoyed it. Have you planted anything yet? Happy Spring!

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Frugal Friday: How to Curb a Sweet Tooth

For today's Frugal Friday post, I'd like to share with you a few secrets I've learned about how to curb a sweet tooth and fight those sugar cravings. How does that relate to Frugal Friday? Well if you learn how to control the sweet tooth, you'll not only eat healthier, but save money on snacks and treats that are unnecessary expenses to the waistline and to the pocketbook.

Confession time. I've got a sweet tooth like no other - actually I probably have a whole mouthful of them. I don't necessarily think that processed sugar needs to be cut out in a healthy diet completely, but it definitely needs to be controlled. That's where my new year's resolution comes in. This year I decided that in order for me to help control my sweet tooth I would only eat sugar once a week (on Sundays) and avoid it the rest of the time. Now some people can say to themselves, I'll only one treat per day or other such resolution. Not me. That's actually harder for me than cutting it out completely. But I didn't want to go totally to the extreme so I'm sticking with one day per week.

Now you might be wondering "Is is really any progress if you go without all week and then binge on Sunday?" My response to that is well you see, I chose my day carefully. Sunday to me is a Holy Day, so I'm not really in the mindset to binge on anything really. We go to church for three hours every Sunday (where yes...I am away from treats...) and I fast once a month on Sundays (where I don't eat anything for two meals, let alone treats). And actually it surprised me that when Sundays roll around often I don't really even crave treats. Since I've avoided them the rest of the week I sometimes forget on Sunday that I can actually have them. We usually will make a dessert in the evenings - a whole grain, healthier dessert and it's so enjoyable to eat because I haven't had treats all week. So all in all, it's working really good and I've felt so much better.

Of course there are days that I have and will make exceptions: birthdays and holidays of course. And sometimes vacations and other special events. But I have to be careful not to make exceptions the rule. If I wanted to, I could turn every day into an exception because there's always something to celebrate; every day is a blessing. But I'm going to keep the balance and try to only have 1 or 2 exceptions a month, if any.

The hard part for me in trying to cut out sugar was the beginning when the cravings are SO strong. Your body is, let's face it, addicted to sugar. And after years of giving into those cravings and suddenly not, your body is going to be unhappy for a little while. Here's some tried and true tips that help me when I get a sugar craving:

TIPS ON HOW TO CURB A SWEET TOOTH:

1. Eat an apple or another piece of fruit right after a meal
2. Snack on plain, unsalted raw or roasted nuts
3. Eat some dried fruit - dried pears are my favorite "sweet" but healthy snack
4. Keep busy, your mind will eventually forget.
5. Watch out for the afternoon - that's when mine hits the worst - around 2 or 3 O'Clock.
6. Eat meals regularly and don't try to starve yourself or diet by cutting out meals. This will only lower your blood sugar and make the sugar cravings worse.
7. Give yourself a reward - pay a $1 for every day you go without sugar. Save up for something you want (not a treat). 
8. Remove the source; Don't buy it!
9. Manage stress healthily - It's easy to turn to sugar or food to help manage it, but there are healthier ways. My stress management tools include exercise, reading or being out in nature. 
10. Eat some veggies
11. Drink water
12. Brush your teeth - if I get a sugar craving right after a meal, brushing my teeth will often solve it because I don't like to eat right after I've brushed.
13. Exercise regularly - it will help you feel good.
14. Watch out for the emotional types of eating - when you're tired, upset, at certain times of the month, etc...
15. Cook really yummy meals - a really delicious meal will usually satisfy enough that you don't need a treat.

Remember that over time the cravings go away on their own as your body adjusts. I've been on a no sugar six-days a week diet since January and I don't really think about treats at all now. I rarely have to use these little tricks anymore because most of the cravings have subsided. So don't give up! Just stick with it and be consistent and your body will adjust.

As I've tried it cut out sugar I've been amazed at how much sugar our society consumes on a regular basis. There are treats given out for everything, everywhere you go. Treats are not really a "treat" anymore, they've become a way of life. For me, creating a healthy family means cutting back on sugar and reinstating a treat as a "treat"; something to be enjoyed just once and a while.

What about you? What do you think? Do you have any tips for us on how to curb a sweet tooth? I'd love to hear them. Happy Frugal Friday - hope you have a great day.

This week I'll be linking to some of these link parties.

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Easy Pear Sauce (No Sugar)

After I posted on fresh peach syrup a few weeks ago I thought I'd try creating a no sugar pancake/waffle topping with pears. I was amazed at how easy this recipe came together and how tasty it was. Even easier than the peach syrup (and that was easy). Since I've gone sugar free six days a week, I've missed being able to eat my favorite pear jam every day. And while this is not pear jam, it is a tasty alternative that I can enjoy that is satisfyingly sweet naturally.

Easy Pear Sauce
Printable Recipe

*Makes 2-1/2 to 3 Cups Pear Sauce

*Note: I make this sauce with home-canned pears. As an alternative you can use ripened fresh, pears (make sure you've ripened them enough so that they have natural sugar otherwise it won't be very tasty) and steam in a little water until just barely tender. I don't recommend using store bought canned pears because they are too soft and when pureed turn into something that resembles, well...baby food.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Quart home-canned pears

DIRECTIONS:
Pour quart of home-canned pears into strainer and drain off juice.*See Note Below Place drained pears into a blender and pulse 4 to 5 times or until you get a chunky, applesaucey-type texture. Do not blend too much or the texture will be less than desirable. Enjoy on pancakes or waffles or just plain.

*Note: You could argue with me that this recipe isn't totally sugar free because the pears were packed in sugar syrup. I'm not going to be that picky, myself. If you're a purist, you can rinse the pears to get the remaining sugar off, or pack your pears in something other than a sugar syrup when you can them. The real reason for using sugar in the syrup when canning is to keep as much of the natural sugar in the pears as possible, otherwise it will leach out into the juice around it and the pears themselves will be left flavorless.

*Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

I discovered a new favorite whole-grain pancake recipe that I will be posting soon! :)

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Frugal Friday: Is Higher Education Worth the Cost?

I've been thinking lately about the last fifteen years or so of my life (since I moved away from home) and feeling very grateful for the blessings that I've been given in my life. One of those blessings was the ability to gain a higher education. So that's what I'd like to talk about today for Frugal Friday.

I grew up in a home with five siblings and not a lot of extra money. My Dad worked hard to support our family, but there was never much extra money and things were always tight. My parents believed strongly that education is the door that unlocks opportunity and encouraged us toward getting a degree after high school. I was encouraged and taught young and it must of made a difference because from the time I entered high school I knew that I would be going to college. I had my sights set and there was nothing that was going to change my mind.

Looking back I realize that it must have seemed daunting to my parents to have a daughter so set on attending college without really understanding the cost of such a venture (because I didn't). But they never discouraged me. It was always encouragement. Always support. Always refocusing me back that direction when I would get discouraged. With their help (especially my Mom) I was able to apply for scholarships and grants and taught to work and save in order to make my goal happen. I feel so indebted to those generous people that gave so selflessly so that I could get a college education that wouldn't have been possible except through scholarships.

Receiving my Bachelor's degree

So was it worth it? Was all the cost, the work, the effort really worth the degrees that I received? Yes. And I wish I could shout that out loud and clear. YES IT WAS WORTH IT! And that's coming from a stay-at-home Mom who does nothing with her degrees now except enjoy a science experiment with her kids once and a while.

My parents were right. Education unlocks the door of opportunity. I was blessed to get that education when I was still young, before I had kids. But I realize that my path may be different from yours. The timing and type of your higher education will be different for you than for me. But it's never to late to get your education. It may not seem like the frugal thing to do. It's costly in time and money. It's hard work. But it's worth it. Every bit of it.

My grandmother got her degree as a older woman, after her children were all grown and raised. She worked at it and worked at it for years. Taking a little here and a little there. Fitting it in as her schedule allowed. Was it worth it for her? YES. Did she ever do anything with it? Not that I am aware of. But it was worth it.

I believe that obtaining a higher education is part of living a frugal life. It's helped me in so many areas of my life. How I live. How I think. How I see the world. It's helped me learn how to learn.

So now I'd love to hear from you. Do you think that higher education is worth the cost? What are you doing to help your kids set their sites on higher education after high school? How about you? Was or Is it important to you to get a higher education? Why?

Thanks for sharing and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

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Perfect Potato Salad with Quinoa

I had a wonderful time with my family over spring break, but it sure is good to be back home and back to normal life and a regular schedule again. One of the things I missed the most was eating healthy, home cooked meals. It gets harder and harder to eat processed-white-flour-packed-foods when your body is used to the flavor and nutrition of grains. But even after just three days of home cooked meals again I'm starting to feel back to my normal self.

One thing that I've discovered that I love about cooking from scratch is that you can change a recipe up to make it healthier with very little effort and without sacrificing any of the original recipe's deliciousness. This potato salad is a great example of this. I added cooked white quinoa to the salad, thus upping the nutrition by a lot because white quinoa is a perfect protein and very healthy (If you're interested in learning more about it, I devoted a whole post to white quinoa last year). White quinoa is the perfect grain to disguise in potato salad because it blends in so well and no one will even know it's there.

I'm excited to share with you this recipe that you can make in your pressure cooker. I wrote this recipe up for the pressure cooker, but don't worry if you don't have one, you can still cook all the ingredients on the stove and combine them to make a very delicious potato salad. Spring is here (despite the snow I woke up to this morning) and summer is close on it's way! This is a delicious recipe that you can serve with a barbecue or picnic this spring or summer. I brought it to a barbecue my family had over Easter weekend and everyone loved it. Enjoy.

Perfect Potato Salad with Quinoa
Printable Recipe

*Serves 10-12

*This is a pressure cooker version of the recipe, but you can easily make it without a pressure cooker by cooking the white quinoa, potatoes and hard boiled eggs on the stove. 

INGREDIENTS:
Salad:
10 eggs
1/2 Cup white quinoa
5 lbs. potatoes (I used about 10 large Russets, but you can use other varieties)
1 Cup sliced olives

Dressing:
2 Cups mayonnaise (Light mayo works fine)
2/3 Cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. minced dried onions
1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. yellow mustard

DIRECTIONS:

Hard boiled eggs (this step can be done ahead of time):

I like to hard boil my eggs according to this method in the pressure cooker because the eggs are easy to peel and come out perfect every time. Place the metal trivet that comes with the pressure cooker on the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add about a cup of water and place a few canning lids on the trivet (this is to keep the eggs from bumping into each other, but you may not need very many since you will be cooking 10 eggs). Arrange the eggs in and around the lids. Heat up the pressure cooker until it reaches low pressure and then cook for 6 minutes. Allow the pressure to go down naturally and then immediately remove the eggs and cool them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Let pressure release naturally and then cool and refrigerate the eggs. 

Cooked Quinoa (this step can be done ahead of time):

Add 1/2 Cup white quinoa to the pressure cooker along with 1 Cup of water. Pressure on high for 6 minutes, then do a quick release. Cool and refrigerate. 

Potatoes (this step can be done ahead of time):

Peel the potatoes and place on top of metal trivet in pressure cooker. Add 2 Cups of water to cooker, lock the lid in place and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes. Naturally release the pressure, then cool and refrigerate potatoes.

For the salad, dice the cooked potatoes into bite sized pieces and add to a large serving bowl. Dice the hard boiled eggs and combine with the potatoes. Add to the bowl the chopped olives and the cooked and cooled quinoa. Then toss potato salad ingredients together until evenly distributed. Combine the dressing ingredients in a quart sized canning jar or a blender and shake or blend until combined. Pour dressing onto potato salad until the correct consistency is found. Refrigerate potato salad at least 2 hours to combine flavors or until ready to serve.

Recipe Source: Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

This week I'll be linking to some of these link parties.

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