Crock-Pot Granola

5 cups original oats (not quick oats)
1/4 cup oil or butter
1/4 cup honey
1 TBS cinnamon
1 TBS vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (optional)
1/2 dried fruit (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients in the crock-pot.
2. Cook for 3-4 hours on high.
3. Vent the lid with a chopstick or knife and stir every 30min.
4. Watch carefully during the last 30 min to make sure it doesn't burn.

Local Foods Save Gas!

Did you know that if every US citizern ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organiclly raised meat and produce, we would reduce our countries oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week! What a better reason to shop for local food! Please support your local farmers by visiting farmers markest and local veggi stands. Yeah, it takes a little more effort to go to them instead of getting every thing at the store, but you will get a far better product and have a much more positive impact on the plant!

Homemade Pizza

That's right, homemade pizza from scratch and it takes only 30 min from mixing the ingredients for the crust to taking it out of the oven. The secret is in the yeast!

CRUST
1 envelope Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
3 TBS Olive Oil
2/3 cup Very Warm Tap Water

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Mix together ingredients in a bowl
3. Knead dough on a flour surface until smooth and elastic. Using more flour as needed. Needing should only take a few min.
4. Roll out to the shape and size pizza you want.
5. Top it with desired toppings. My family like tomato sauce, motzzerla cheese, garlic, tomatoes, and spinach.
6. Pop in the over for 15 min and enjoy!

While the pizza is cooking it gives you time to clean up your kneading area and whip together a quick salad or side veggie, so it all works perfectly!

3 Ingredient Black Bean Soup

This is a weekly favorite of mine and my families. I really love it because it requires no chopping, only one pot, there are always left overs, and it is really low cal. Oh yeah, and it tastes great!

1 cup salsa (homemade is best, but store bought is fine)
3 cans Black Beans (organic is best)
4 cups soup stock or broth

1. Simmer the cup of salsa for about 5 min on the stove.
2. Drain and rinse the cans of beans.
3. Add the beans and stock to the pot.
4. Simmer for about 15-20 min until good and hot.
5. Garnish with shredded cheese, avocado, or crumbled up tortilla chips (whatever you and your family like). My family and I also like to do quesadilla with it too.

30 Min Dinner From Scratch (or mostly)

In this busy world we as moms often think we are too busy to cook a home cooked meal every night for dinner. Now I understand that many moms do work full time and it can be daunting to think, "Now I have to go home and make dinner too!" but I do think what we put into our bodies is the most important thing we can spend time and effort on. Many dinners can take just as much time to cook from scratch (or mostly from scratch) as it takes to sit in a drive through. Lets face it, we only get one body and we need to take care of it! So I want to share some recipes that I use on nights were time is shparse.

Making Jelly is HARD!

For the 3rd straight year I have tyred to make Mayhaw Jelly. Before I moved to Louisiana I had never even tried to make jelly or jam, so I was learning from scratch. The previous 2 year I have had trouble with it jelling. Then this year birds came and ate my first batch of berries. So I ended up collecting a small second batch from my trees, berries from my neighbors trees, and some from some family members trees. So I'm thinking I will have plenty to make several batches....WRONG! One of the bunches of berries got kind of squished and somehow roted. Then the rest boiled up only enough to make juice for one batch. Then when I went to squish the berries to get out a little more juice I got some Mayhaw pulp in the juice. The juice was only enough to make 2 big jars and 4 little ones, then in the sealing process one little jar broke! Talk about frustrating! Since I only had a few jars for Mayhaw I also went ahead and made some mint jelly; I have a ton of mint in my yard right now. I don't know how the mint will taste since I have never made it before. Maybe I need to retire from jelly and stick to jams!

My Favorite Place to Shop

My favorit place to shop for local food between May and November is right here where I live.... in Dixie Garden. Half a mile down from me on Dixie Garden Dr. is Ray Day's Mini Farm. All of the produce only comes from as far as Mr. Ray can drive and get it (he is in his 70's) and they feature only seasonal produce. Along with produce they also have local honey (from right here in Dixie Garden) and some jelly and preserves. Right now they have tomatoes, onions, corn, potatos, sweet potatos, and some beans.

Life at it's best!

As a mother of a family I want my family to live their lives to the fullest. For our family that means live simple and going back to the basics. I grew up in the 6th largest city (at the time I was growing up) in the USA, so things like farming, canning, living off the land, making my own clothes, handmaking gifts, etc; were all kind of foerign things to me. However my mom had grown up in rural Vermont, so I knew these things were in my blood. In the last couple years I have been devoted to teaching myself how to be..... ummm I guess...ME! I hope who ever follows my blog gets some inspiration and good tips on how to live a simpler better life.