Chick 2/27/2013

Hello All, Been a little busy on the farm lately. We have had a sitting hen for about 21 days and yesterday I looked under her to find a baby chick. It is so super exciting as this is our first batch of hatching eggs. The baby chick is so cute. Hopefully by the weekend we will have some more babies. :)

Apple Cake

Today I made some Apple Cake with some of the reclaimed apples that I got this week. Here is the recipe and a photo of what it looks like.

Apple Cake:

2 eggs

1 cup coconut oil {or 1/2 cup oil or butter and 1/2 cup applesauce}

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon real salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 cups diced Granny Smith apples

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch cake pan.

Beat oil and eggs until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla and beat well.

Combine flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda together in a bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. The batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples. Spread batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until cake is done in the center. Cool.

Meal Plan for March

Hello All,

My menu planning for March is now completed. There are some days that I do not meal plan but almost all the other days are planned for. You will find below my plan. I will post recipes the day of.

March 4 Minestrone Soup

March 5 Sloppy Joes

March 6 Orange Chicken and Rice

March 7 Fish Tacos

March 8 Bean soup

March 9 BBQ Chicken and potato salad

March 10 Broccoli & Beef served with Rice

March 11 Meat Balls and Mashed Potatoes

March 12 Jambalaya

March 13 BBQ Chicken Pizza

March 14 Baked Chicken Tenders

March 18 Pad Thai

March 19 Sirloin Roast

March 20 Red Beans and Rice

March 21 Lentil Soup

March 22 Breakfast Sandwiches

March 23 Taco Salad

March 24 Bacon wrapped chicken

March 25 Au jui

March 26 Slow Cooker Lasagna

March 27 Cheeseburgers and Macaroni salad

March 28 Shepherds Pie

Mango Lime Jam

Today I made 5 jars of Mango Lime Jam. I will post the recipe below. It is pretty yummy. Picture to follow.

4 lbs. Under ripe Mangoes (I used ripe mangoes and it turned out just fine. Just cook it a little less)

4 Limes

1 cup water

4 cups white granulated sugar

Instructions

Peel mangoes and give it a rough chop. Peel and thinly slice the rind of the limes. Cut in half to juice. Place half the rinds covered in cheesecloth and put it in the pot. Place all rinds in the pot. Squeeze the limes into the pot. Add everything, except sugar. Place on medium heat for 20 minutes until mangoes are very soft and almost a puree. You can use an immersion blender at this point to puree or leave as is with whole pieces. Add sugar one cup at a time and bring to a hard boil for 10-15 minutes. Spoon a small amount onto a cold plate and touch if skin has formed, if yes, you're done!

Enjoy everyone.

Todays Reclaimed produce 2/22/13

I have been slacking a little bit about updating my blog. I have been slightly busy with the boys these past few days. Today I was able to reclaim 21 Avocados, 12 mangos, 3 oranges, 7 plums and some celery. Looks like tomorrow I will be making guacamole, mango jam, plum jam, and the kids will eat the oranges for snack. I will post recipes for the items I make tomorrow. I hope everyone had a wonderful Friday. Look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Well at least I hope so. I have included a photo of the items I reclaimed.

Its a busy day here today. Im making another batch of Tomato paste. I will post the recipe below that I have been using. It is the most easy thing to make. I will never buy any from the store.

Tomato Paste:

12 cups tomato puree
6 Tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat the oven 300 F.
2. Spread 2 tablespoons olive oil on three rimmed baking sheets. Pour 4 cups of tomato puree into each pan.
3. Bake, using a spatula to turn the puree over on itself occasionally, until most of the water evaporates and the surface darkens, about 3 hours. Combine the tomato paste onto one baking sheet; reduce heat to 200 F and cook until thick and brick colored, about 20 minutes.
4. Cool and divide into two ice trays; freeze. Store in the freezer in a zip lock plastic bag

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I have. Hope you all have a good day.

These are photos of beginning tomato paste, middle almost done, and the final outcome of the tomato paste. Never thought this would ever be so easy to make.