Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal

One of my favorite breakfasts is overnight crockpot oatmeal. It is so easy to make and I love waking up knowing breakfast is already made and waiting for me. 

I love to add lots of different things depending on my mood that morning or what I have on hand. In the photo above I added walnuts, chia seeds, dried cranberries and maple syrup. In the summer it is fun to add fresh berries. The kids of course would prefer chocolate chips. 

Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal

2 cups water
2 cups milk (or 1 cup almond milk 1 cup milk)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups steal cut oats (I only had quick oats for the oatmeal above. It was still wonderful)

Put everything in the crockpot and set on low. Let cook overnight. 

30 Minute Mozzaralla

I used to think that making cheese would be much to0 difficult and one that I would not likely tackle, but after finding this 30 minute mozzarella cheese recipe I knew I had to give it a try. Now I am hooked and am trying to find more cheese recipes to try. 

The first time I tried making this I will admit that it took way longer then 30 minutes. Basically because I was trying to figure out how everything worked and trying to make sure I didn't mess anything up. 

This time it took me almost exactly 30 minutes. I realized that I had not budgeted my time well when I started and that I was going to have to leave in about 30-40 minutes to pick my son up from preschool. Since I had already added the citric acid to the milk I was committed and couldn't stop or I would ruin the whole batch. 

30 Minutes Mozzarella Cheese

1 gallon milk
1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid mixed in 1/2 cup filtered water
1/4 teaspoon double strength rennet mixed in 1/4 cup filtered water
1 teaspoon salt 

To get started pour 1 gallon of milk into a large stainless steel pot. Do NOT use aluminum or your cheese will not likely form. 

Since we do not have any dairy goats yet (if I can't talk the hubby into it we may never have them) I went ahead and used some milk from the grocery store. I prefer to use full fat for cheese, but any kind will work. 

To make the cheese you will need to buy citric acid for cheese making and rennet. Without these 2 items you can not make cheese. I prefer to use vegetable rennet because knowing where regular rennet comes from bothers me even though I am not a vegetarian. Here is the best place to find citric acid and rennet. 

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons to 1/2 cup filtered water. Filtered water is very important. Most tap water has chlorine in it which reacts with the citric acid and may cause your cheese to fail. It would make me so sad to go to all the work of making my own cheese only to have it fail because I used tap water. 

After you have your citric acid and water mixed add it to the milk and stir well. 

Now turn your stove on to about medium heat and slowly heat the milk and citric acid to between 90 and 95 degrees. To check the temperature of my milk I went the cheap route and used my children's thermometer that had a surface temperature setting. Ideally I should be using a candy thermometer or meat thermometer. 

Once your milk is warm enough turn the heat off. 

Next stir 1/4 teaspoon of double strength rennet or 1/2 teaspoon regular rennet into 1/4 cup filtered water. 

Pour the rennet water mixture into the warmed milk through a slotted spoon if possible to help the rennet distribute more evenly. 

Stir the milk well to incorporate the rennet into the milk.

Cover and let sit with the heat turned off for 5 minutes. 

Once five minutes have passed your milk should have separated into curds and whey. Take a long knife and cut the curds in a grid pattern to help break them up. 

Turn the heat back onto medium and heat the curds and whey to 105 degrees. 

Once they reach 105 degrees turn the heat off again. 

Next take a slotted spoon and spoon the curds into a strainer to separate the curds and whey. 

Sorry this photo is upside down. I could not get it to flip for some reason, but it gets the point across. Push all the excess whey out of your curds. 

Next take the curds and warm them in either VERY hot 185 degree water or warm in the microwave for about a minute. I cheated and used my hot whey because I was short on time. Not the best idea because you want to rinse as much whey out of your cheese as you can to help it keep longer. 

Once your curds are very hot (you may want to wear rubber gloves for this part) you need to start stretching your cheese. When you try to stretch it if it breaks it is not hot enough. It should start to get shiny and stretch like taffy. Curds are stretchable when they are 135 degrees.

Keep stretching until all the cheese is stretchable. 

Mine could have been stretched more, but like I said I was in a hurry.

After you have finished stretching your cheese sprinkle about 1 teaspoon iodine free salt onto a counter and kneed it into the cheese. 

This is a very important step. If your cheese doesn't have salt in it it will not taste very good. It will still be edible, just a little flavorless. 

In the summer I plan to add fresh herbs and sun dried tomatoes to my mozzarella. I can't wait!!

You should have about 3/4 of a gallon of whey left when you are finished. Don't toss it! It can be used in any baking recipe that calls for milk. Our dogs and chickens also love it.

Cold and Flu Fighting Honey Lemon Ginger Tea

Last week my daughter was fighting a nasty cold with a fever and congestion. I made her this tea and forced it down her. Within 24-48 hours she was feeling much better. She said the tea was a bit spicy for her due to the ginger, but I made her at least drink a little bit of it. 

I also gave her several doses of Cold Calm. I can not say enough good things about Cold Calm. I LOVE it. Whenever someone in my home needs to kick a cold fast this is my go to. 

I decided to drink several cups of tea myself to prevent catching her cold. So far so good. 

Ginger and honey are both wonderful antivirals that will help support the body when it is trying to fight off a cold or the flu. Not to mention ginger is an anti-inflammatory which helps with swollen nasal passages and congestion.  

This is a super simple recipe. If you can boil water you can make this. 

Cold and Flu Ginger Tea 

1/4-1/2 inch fresh ginger shredded or chopped
1/2 fresh lemon juiced
1-2 teaspoons honey or to taste

Fill a small coffee cup with water to measure then pour the water into a small pan. Place the shredded ginger in the water and simmer about 5 minutes. 

Strain the water back into the coffee cup and add lemon juice and honey. 

Please make sure you do not give this tea to children younger then 1 year old due to the honey on it. I am not a doctor and can not claim any health benefits. I am just a mom sharing what has worked for us.


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How We Have Kept Our Chickens Laying So Far This Winter

These are 2 dozen eggs we collected from our 7 hens in about 6 days in January.

I have been told by multiple people that chickens tend to stop laying in the winter or at the very least slow way down. When we had chickens at our previous home this is exactly what happened. We finally broke down and had to start buying eggs that winter. I am not sure if it was their diet or the fact that that winter had tons of snow and very cold temperatures. 

With my current hens I decided to see if there was anything I could do to encourage them to keep laying. From what I read chickens will usually stop laying as the temperatures drop and the days become shorter. I did lots of research and it seemed the only thing I could find was to add a light in their coop to help extend the daylight hours and trick their bodies into producing eggs.

I thought about adding a light, but was very uncomfortable with having unattended electricity in the chicken coop. I decided to try and find a different way to keep them laying. 

One day I stumbled on this video from Becky's Homestead about how she keeps her hens laying all year round. I decided it was worth watching since it was short. Her advice was so simple. She doesn't use a light, but simply changes their diet depending on the time of the year it is. 

The video recommended crimped oats and whole corn, but I decided to use what I had.

I started using her feeding schedule probably late October early November just as the weather was starting to change. Basically her advice was to feed crimped oats in the summer or 6 months of the year and switch to corn in the winter or the other 6 months of the year. She also recommends feeding bread everyday of the year. 

Her reasoning was that the corn had more calories in it and helped give them the energy they need to produce eggs in the winter. 

Not the most glamorous photo.

Of course they can't eat just the small amount of corn or oats in the morning so we also feed them kitchen scrapes and layer pellet from the feed store. I would prefer to buy organic feed, but since we are trying to finish paying off our last student load by the end of this summer we have to cut some corners somewhere for now.

Make sure that if you are feeding scraps you are only feeding fruit, veggies and grains. No meat, dairy or citrus. 

After giving it a try for the last several months I can say that it seems to be working. Out of our 7 hens we typically get 1 egg each during the warm months or about 7 eggs a day, but this winter we have averaged 4-5 a day. That is a win in my books considering most people say their hens stop laying altogether in the winter. 

Here is a sample of my daily routine with my hens...

8:00 a.m. I take out a little over 1 cup half oats half corn. Becky recommended only corn in the winter, but my girls were too picky and would not eat it without some oats mixed in. I then shut the pen to keep them in for the day and change the water. Keeping them in makes sure they eat the corn and gives my poor yard a break from the scratching and pecking. Plus the kids appreciate some playtime without them bothering them. I also check for eggs at this time and replenish their layer pellets. 

1:00 I take out the scrap bucket that I have been collecting since the day before. They get very excited about this. Especially when I have been either canning or dehydrating and have lots of peels for them. Again I check for eggs at this time and make sure the coop in in good shape. I usually have to clean the hay out of the water mid day. Or thaw the ice out of the water bucket. 

4:00 I check for eggs one last time and let the hens out for some free range time. The reason I check for eggs 3 times a day in the winter is because my girls lay all day long and I don't want to chance frozen, cracked eggs. This has happened before and you basically have to trash the egg.

Bedtime I make sure everyone is in and safe for the night. I don't always make it out at this time. It just depends on the day. 

Now, I will admit that we have had a pretty mild winter here in Kansas, but we have not yet had a day without at least 2 eggs even when there was snow or ice on the ground. 

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What To Do When You Buy 40 Pounds of Pears

A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready to place our bi-weekly Bountiful Baskets order when I noticed thay had a great deal on red pears. I almost didn't buy them because I wasn't sure what I would do with all of them, but when you are getting 40 pounds for nearly $.50 a pound you buy then and figure out what to do with them later. 

Do you have any idea how many pears there are in a 40 pound box! A LOT!! Way more then I expected. 

I picked up the pears just before Christmas so I had to just set them in the garage for a couple of weeks before I had time to even consider working with them. I am so thankful for the cool weather. The fruit has slightly ripened, but held up really well in the cold garage.

I ended up giving away as many as I could to family over the holidays to help spread the savings, but you can only give away so many. 

Next I tried to get my kids as well as my daycare kiddos to eat as many as I could. I was shocked to see that the daycare kids were less them impressed with them. I have had several and they are some of the best fruit I have had in a long time. 

So after eating as many as we could and giving away as many as I could talk people into taking I decided last night that I was going to have to figure out some other things to make so my great deal didn't end up sitting out in the garage rotting. 

So I pulled a bunch out and started chopping. 

First off I decided to take the easy route and just pull out my dehydrator and dry as many as I could. I sliced them as thinly as I could and laid them out on trays then transferred them to the dehydrator. 

My plan is to finish this round and do another round later this week as I have time. I was able to get 4 full trays, although I had hoped to fill all of them. The pears were too thick to fit all of them in. 

I set my dehydrator on 135 degrees and let them dry overnight. This is what I found this morning. They were still a bit pliable, but they looked finished. 

I was able to fill several quart jars with the finished product. I was hoping these would last us a while, but once my children discovered them I knew I was going to need to make lots more. My 8 year old told me they were much better then apple chips and tasted like candy! Score 1 for mom!!

Since I was on a roll last night and already had a messy kitchen I decided to go ahead and tackle some homemade orange, cinnamon pear sauce. 

I originally planned to can what I made, but was way too tired once I finished to mess with it. I ended up getting almost 4 quarts. I figured that with all the kids that come through my home I will have no trouble getting it used up before it goes bad. 

The plan is to make some more for the hubby that is sugar free and can it since he requested it. 

To start with I peeled and cored as many as I could get to fit in my vitamix. 

      

And then added a splash of orange juice. 

I filled my vitamix with orange juice and pears several times and pureed enough fruit until I had enough to fill a large pot. 

I then added a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and about a cup of raw sugar. After adding everything to the pot I let it simmer for about 20 minutes to let the liquid cook out a bit to thicken it up. 

Here are some other ideas I have for using up the rest of the pears...

Pear Cobbler
Canned Pears
Pear Bread
Pear Butter or Jelly


I would love to hear from you if anyone has any other ideas for me to use these up. 

My New Pie Safe!

I was poking around on some swap sites on facebook last week and I just happened to see this amazing pie safe for only $40! I quickly showed it to the husband and he said he had time to pick it up if I got it. I know it is not an original, but it is still so pretty. 

I ended up selling my bakers rack for the exact same amount within hours to pay for the new piece of furniture. I love it when things end up working out.