Menu Plan ...

This week will be a little busy at our house- we have dentist appointments, once-a-month shopping to plan for, and once-a-month shopping to do! Where would I be without Menu Plan Monday?! Yah, for helpful planning!



SATURDAY:
kids choice
BBQ sandwiches (from leftover Boston roast) with coleslaw
Whole Wheat Hoagies for some, veggie omelets for others
Snacks: went out for an ice cream cone!

SUNDAY:
millet, toasted breakfast bread, homemade applesauce
Split Pea Soup, Quick Rolls, strawberry jam
Flat Iron Steaks and Peppers from the crock on flatbread, creme fraiche
Snacks: Applesauce-zucchini Cake , popcorn-n-butter

MONDAY:
soaked oatmeal
Split Pea Soup, whole wheat dinner rolls, leftover Applesauce-Zucchini Cake
Turkey-beef Meatloaf, potatoes, green peas
Snacks: cherry-mango smoothie, homemade crackers

TUESDAY:
kids choice
Main Dish Macaroni, green beans, veggie medley
Lamb breast, leftover macaroni, lettuce salad, wheat bread sticks
Snacks: Easy Apple Dumpling Rolls

WEDNESDAY:
brown rice, eggs
Minestrone Soup, spelt bread sticks
Liver with biscuits and gravy, applesauce
Snacks: carrots and celery sticks with dip

THURSDAY:
eggs and cheese on flat bread
salmon loaf, salad, green peas
hamburgers, potato wedges
Snacks: Pecan Snowball Cookies, carrot sticks

FRIDAY:
kids choice
White Bean Soup, Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
Salmon Patties, broccoli, lima beans
Snacks: leftover muffins, cherry-berry cream shakes

Creamed Asparagus...

1 bundle (approx. a pound) of asparagus trimmed, steamed and cut into bite-sized pieces

In saucepan, melt half a stick of butter.

Whisk 1 1/2 T arrowroot in one cup of fresh cream.

Add cream to butter and whisk over low heat until thickened. Add steamed asparagus pieces and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

*Served here with roasted Boston Butt Roast and Black-strap Sweet Potatoes.

*Tip: this cream sauce is easy and would be good with almost anything!

Tartar and Cocktail Sauce...

COCKTAIL SAUCE:

1 cup ketchup

1 T horseradish (or horsey sauce, may need more if using sauce)

1 T lemon juice

1 t Worcestershire sauce

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

dash of cayenne

1 T minced onion

2 T kombucha or vinegar

opt. dash of Tabasco and minced celery

_____________________________

TARTAR SAUCE

1 cup mayo

1 T pickle relish

2 T minced onion

1T lemon juice

salt & pepper, dash or two each

5 stuffed olives, chopped

opt. dash of Worcestershire and 1 t horseradish (kids may not care for this, but adults will love it)

___________________________________________

Mix and match the ingredients to suit the taste of your family and chill well.

Can be stored in air-tight containers in the refrigerator.

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Be sure to check out Frugal Fridays from more money-saving tips and recipes!

My "love" of blenders...

I don't know why exactly, but I seem to have some sort of predisposition towards wrecking blenders! Could it be that I push them too hard? Could it be that they are too small for a crew of 8 and I cram them too full? Is it me, am I cursed? ;-) ...I mean...I've only wrecked like say 3 or 4 in the last year and half or so....

Well, I think I've fallen in love with these beautiful machines and I think we're gonna be best buds for a (hopefully) long, long time!

You see- these Dual Wave Blenders have the best of ALL WORLDS!

They have 2 sets of blades to blend with! Woo hoo! Extra blending means a less likely chance of me burning it up!

And they hold a whole TEN CUPS!!! No more running it twice or giving everyone just a half cup or so! Woo hoo! - Anyone want a refill?

And my personal favorite part that I'm getting quite spoiled to is the single serve blending cups!

Yes! Can you see them in the bottom pic below? This comes with 2 of those single serve cups and they both are sitting on the blender in the pic. You see 'em? They are so cool! Here's why- you can blend one serving (great for us busy moms who want a healthy and light breakfast and sometimes need it 'to go') and turn it upside down, unscrew the blade thingy, then cap it, turn it back upright and it has a flip up lid so its truly 'good to go'! (No mess!)

I just wanted to share my excitement with you and hope you think they are as cool as I do.

A Fun and Fork-less Meal....

For the past couple of months or so, I've been trying to cook beans at least once a week and cook up a sizable quantity of them so I would have plenty to freeze for quick meals. This- would be one of those!


I made 'saucy beans' with the black beans. Adding onions, tomatoes, garlic, and seasonings such as cumin, etc.


I made brown rice that morning with some leftover bone broth and whipped up some flat bread and buttered asparagus for an almost fork-less meal.

I told them how in some cultures the flat-bread serves as a scoop and the kids got a kick out of shoveling it up!

Fun food- frugal food- and food that doesn't take a lot of hands on time to prepare!
(Not to mention- it was all 'real' food!;)

Love Southern Food, Don't You?

Crackling Cornbread, pinto beans, corn, and yummy kale greens! Mmm!

Talk about comfort food- does it get any better than this?

Today's Bread: Marble Spelt-n-Rye...

A Grain Filled Baking Book...

This book was given to me as a gift about 14 years ago.
Some of the recipes can be a little uhm, complex, but they can all be worked with basic grains and such from the kitchen. If you are new to baking and whole grains, its probably not for you
:-( but if you've cooked with grains for a while and you can wing a recipe pretty good- then you will LOVE this book!

I've found that I don't always have what it calls for but many things can be substituted.

This book has all sorts of recipes, both sweet and savory. There's pies and meat pies, there's cookies, cakes, and bunches of bread recipes.

Several of my recipes were born from this book, so if you like some of my grains baking recipes, then you would love this book!

Easy Apple Dumpling Rolls....

These won the favor of all my kids! They are quick to make and the flour can be soaked if you like or you could use plain unbleached flour too. You could also use fresh apples (grated) but I had some home canned applesauce that I put up last week that worked out just perfectly! (And also helps keep it quick.)

***

For the dough:

3 cups fresh spelt flour

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 T baking powder

3 T cane sugar

3 1/2 T melted butter

2/3 cup kefir

1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients, then blend in the wet (or if you elect to soak your flour, soak the butter, kefir and flour over night, then beat in the salt, sugar, baking powder, then the egg, and lastly the flour)

-you will need some plain or unbleached flour to dust for rolling-

-you will want to dust the area fairly well so as to easily roll the dough up-

Roll out your dough in large rectangle then spread with the following:

approx. 1 cup applesauce

then dust with cinnamon to your liking

sprinkle approx. 1/2 cup brown sugar and/or honey

Roll up into a jelly roll and slice into approx. 15 rolls.

Place in lightly greased 9x13.

*****

For the sauce:

mix 1 can of frozen apple juice concentrate (no added sweeteners)

and

1/2 cup water (opt. drop or two of red food coloring for looks, gives the sauce a darker cooked apple look)

Pour sauce right over the top of unbaked rolls.

Yep! Right over the tops.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until golden and the sauce has thickened.

See the nice sauce there on the right of the rolls? And in the middle?Oh its good!

Below is what they look like upside down, thought you might like to see how the sauce thickens. If you like, you may mix up a couple of cups of powdered sugar and a spoon of milk and drizzle over the tops, but they really don't need it- they're yummy just like this!
************

This post is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesdays

The good, the bad, and the grumpy: Video Games...

Living frugal often means that we don't have and buy all the latest toys, but we do have a couple of game systems (64 and PS2)that help make our home a fun place!

That's important to me! I want my kids to grow up in a fun and happy environment, yet- as a Christian, I don't want them to be a slave to anything except the Lord! Games are for fun times, but not for consuming all of our time.

But as a mom- where do you draw the line? Especially with "games"?!?! I mean- hey- they are toys- and aren't toys supposed to be "good" for kids and help them develop motor skills and all that stuff?!

Well, I won't pretend to have all the answers, and in fact, I'd love to hear more from those of you who have had to figure out this whole gaming thing too!

But the one thing I've learned to watch with my kids is their mood! Yeah, I know, who would believe that a happy, healthy, motor-skill-developing GAME would cause any child to ever be grumpy! But---- it does!

Have any of you noticed this very strange occurrence at your house? Or is my house the only one where kids take a strange emotional spin when they play video games? :-)

I tried to work on this real hard to figure out exactly what the problem was so I could find a "happy remedy", lest I fall to temptation and take the whole machine and put it in the very back of my closet- yeah, the place known as the abyss of no return....

But remember my goals of happiness and fun (note to me, not you) -and to figure this out! Well, here's what my conclusion was:
1) length of time played! --- Let's face it, sitting still, all tensed up and pushing buttons as fast as little fingers can go for an extended period of time would stress any normal person out! -But especially a child, who should be moving and playing and exploring in the world around them.
2) the type of games played--- I know that sounds like a no-brainer but I'm not talking karate chopping pandas or anything like that.. There are about 2 or more games here that my kids LOVE to play and several of them can play at once. There's one game in particular that they all have to move through the game together, and if one player wanders off course, the rest are stuck until that player moves to where the rest of them are- and that one game (its days are limited!) seems to cause more fussing than anything else in the whole house, the back yard, the neighborhood, and the whole county! But- they love it! Yes, it is the perfect example of a love-hate thing!

Those two things are the biggest culprits.

The remedy--- if it is the kids 'off day' and they are allowed to have several hours of fun, games, race tracks, webkinz, army men, etc with little interference from me, then I will periodically say "give me ten" and they have to get up and give me ten jumping jacks. (You know I have five boys, right? May as well prepare them for their drill sergeants, huh?) They think its fun. ...But if a certain amount of time has passed and they've not moved away from the video games on their own, then I tell them that they have to shut it down a while. And at a set time every night, all electronic devices are shut down.

And what of that one game? The rule with that game is they can play around 25 minutes tops, and if they fuss during that time, then they all are grounded from all electronic games for 3 days!
How often do they play this game now? Oh, about once every 2 months ;-)

Anyone else gifted with these technological difficulties? If so- what works at your house?

Bed-wetting.. a tough issue!

I know this is a tough issue for parents and children. I found it to be a very touchy, sensitive issue with children and, at times, a very frustrating one as a parent.






Above are two products that helped us, after all, the biggest monetary concern was the mattress not getting ruined! We also sought after thick underwear and snap-on, lined, undy covers. We were able to find some at various places; once we found some at our local medical supply company for a reasonable rate, and they even had bigger sizes.

The other big concern was how to help the child, especially emotionally, since this is such a delicate and private issue. It's hard isn't it?

Well, first, for me, I had to remember my struggles with it. I was a very hard sleeper growing up and I had a very hard time waking up. I slept like a rock! I tried so hard to stop it, even as a bigger kid, but couldn't seem to figure out how to make myself wake up! One of the last times it happened, I remember dreaming that I had gotten up, walked out my door, down the hall, and to the bathroom, and sure enough, I woke up in a puddle! *blush* ...Alright- I know I'm not the only one! ;-) (Oh come on- don't make me go ask your mommas!;)

But remembering my personal struggle, helped me to have more patience with my own children who had this problem. I did try to protect the bed, and I did try to help them keep it private. I made a rule that no other child could speak about the matter in an embarrassing way nor outside of our home. I limited drinks and sugar before bed, and I tried to wake them up and take them to the bathroom before I went to bed, especially if I knew that they'd had extra drinks.

For two of my kids, getting them up before I went to bed, when they had extra drinks, usually works. For one of my kids, nothing seemed to work until they 'grew out of it'. That was tough, but the bed-pads and other accessories helped preserve the bed and I taught them how to gather and wash their bedding and that helped keep them from feeling so embarrassed- for you see, they didn't even have to tell me, they could just wash their sheets! ;-) (Yeah, double bonus there huh?!)

What about YOU? Anyone else had this trouble? If so, what worked for your children?
And if you want to tell me that I wasn't the only bed-wetter- feel free to join me as I shamelessly try to parent- and blog! :-)

Menu Plan Monday...

Welcome to Menu Plan Monday- a great way to start the week!
Hope you didn't miss last week's blog menu: Rendering Lard, my shameless post about Bed-wetting troubles, and those wonderful cookies! This week, I hope to talk a little about video games: the good, the bad, and the grumpy?! And also, maybe just maybe, have a not-so-high-quality video of something whipped up from my kitchen!


SATURDAY:
kids choice
biscuits, natural sausage, greens smoothie with berries, banana, pineapple
fried tilapia, hushpuppies, scallops, potato wedges pineapple chutney
Snacks: granola bars, popcorn
SUNDAY:
sausage and biscuits, jelly
Sub sandwiches, with spinach leaves, onions, tomatoes, carrot sticks
meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green peas
Snacks: coconut-chocolate chip muffins, Old Fashioned Oatmeal Spelt Molasses Cookies
MONDAY:
soaked millet
nacho salad, cauliflower salad, homemade fudgesicles
beans, fried potatoes, crackling cornbread, kale, a scoop of fermented purple cabbage
Snacks: boiled eggs, homemade applesauce
TUESDAY:
kids choice
chili from leftover beans
beef patties, sauteed zukes-n-onions, mushroom rice
Snacks: kefir-blueberry smoothies, Easy Spelt Cinnamon Rolls
WEDNESDAY:
soaked oatmeal
split pea soup, Mmm French Bread
homemade chicken nuggets, steamed cauliflower, potato wedges
Snacks: bruschetta-pesto on toasted french bread, All-time Favorite Banana-nut Muffins
THURSDAY:
coconut rice, smoothies
Family Sandwich, leftover soup
Beef-n-Cabbage Bake, corn, speckled butter beans
Snacks: applesauce, carrot and celery sticks with Veggie Dip
FRIDAY:
kids choice- grits, homemade waffles from the freezer
baked salmon fillets, side salad, chickpeas from the freezer
Sammy's, carrot and celery sticks, pears
Snacks: Baked Chocolate Donuts, kefir-kombucha smoothies

Rendering Lard...

I've made it a habit now, for quite some time, to render beef fat. I was very blessed to get some 'happy' pork fat given to me a couple of weeks ago- and its been a great blessing! According to NT rendered lard from free-range oinkers, is supposed to contain vitamin D- woo hoo!

*

This is a pic of the box of fat as I received it.

I cut the pieces small enough to fit in the food processor and chopped them. I did not blend them until pasty as I sometimes do with the beef fat, because I wanted chunks of cracklings (gribenes) for cornbread.

Once I chopped it in the food processor, I tossed it in my extra large pot.

You can see below the chunks of fat along with the melting fat- that is the liquid and that is the gold which I seek!

I continued to melt it down, just as I do beef fat and then I drain all the clear liquid. which is melted fat, which is melted lard.

I took this off and drained after about 45 minutes when some of the pieces JUST STARTED to brown because I didn't want my lard dark.

After the lard is drained and cools, this is what it begins to look like :
looks like lard, huh?
It does look just like lard, except home rendered lard is not quite as solid, probably since you have no added 'stuff'!

These are all full of the first renderings lard; the pure lard.

I call it the pure lard because it is not brown at all, but white through and through.

Now, with the remaining fat, I rendered it again.

The reason, was to get these dark cracklings.

Below is a pic of them in the oven and as you can see,

there is yet more liquid gold coming from these fat pieces and the fat pieces are getting dark and crunchy. They taste just like pork rinds that you can buy in the store on the potato chip aisle but they are not quite that crunchy, in fact, no where near that crunchy.

Here are the yummy cracklings draining. I had several plates of these sitting all over the kitchen, draining. These nice dark and crispy cracklings were rendered in the oven.

Below is the 'lard' from the second rendering. You can see that it is darker and I labeled it as 'cracking lard'. You can still use it, but it seems to have more flavor so I will only want to use it in strong savory dishes or gravy!

This is some more fat, rendering for the second time, in the crockpot.

This is the cracklings draining from the crockpot rendering.

They did not get as crisp as the ones from the oven. They taste good, like pork skins from the store, yet they are very soft, almost melt in your mouth. Great in cornbread and you can use them to season other dishes and they still have enough fat in them to flavor cornbread and or toss them in potatoes and the like.

I bagged up all the cracklings once they were drained and cooled and tossed them in the freezer.

I made sure I marked the crackling lard so as to know that it was not pure white lard.

Now, what can ?

Well, anything you can do with store-bought lard or shortening. The flavor is prominent so it works great with all savory dishes. I've made some delicious biscuits with it! I've also sauteed and fried many, many things in it such as zucchini and onions.

Why go through the trouble? Well, according to NT, animal fat is better for you than any hydrogenated vegetable oil. The store-bought has questionable preservatives in it and you don't know how the little piggies were raised nor what they were fed.

And on the frugal side- this was given to me! Yah!

But- those who purchase straight from meat processors can ask for their fat with no extra charge as its normally tossed.

**************

A big difference that I noticed between beef and pork, is that pork will give up a whole lot more fat than beef. That's a big reason for the second rendering, as well as a 'pure' lard.

I got 3 or 4 times as much fat out of pork.

Rendered pork fat is also a little thinner than rendered beef fat. It doesn't hurt anything, its just something I noted.

Happy Rendering!

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Spelt Molasses Cookies...

I think these are now my favorite cookies! The butter- the honey- the hint of molasses- this cookie has a wonderfully rich and uniquely old-fashioned flavor. You will fall in love with the flavor of this cookie!
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c honey
1/4 c black strap molasses
1/4 c cane sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 1/2 c spelt flour
2 c rolled oats
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 c chopped walnuts
1 c raisins
1/2 to 3/4c unbleached flour*

Cream butter with honey, molasses, sugar, and vanilla.

Mix flour, oats, salt, soda, nuts, and raisins and add to butter-sugar mixture.

Drop by spoonfuls on lightly buttered baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Allow to cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet before removing with a spatula. Cool on racks for best results.

*If you like lace cookies, leave off unbl. flour; if you like a puffy cookie, add the unbl.flour.
I often will bake a small pan and adjust the unbleached flour to get the exact texture and density that I like. Either way- this is a delicious cookie!
***

Note: Joy made these as a cookie bar!

I will have to try this next time! ;-)

How To- make a heart-shaped cake- easy!

The pan caused a glare, but I hope you can see that it only take ONE square pan, turned like a diamond and ONE round pan cut in half for the rounded tops of the heart. If you click on the pic, it will show you a larger, and slightly clearer view.

Come on- Take Another Little Piece of My Heart!-

I couldn't resist the title, sorry--- but you know- take another piece of cake, take another piece of my heart.... ok, not funny- BUT- you probably are singing the old song now, right? ;-)

Ok- so much for my corny jokes-

Here's the big treat that I made for my Sweethearts for Valentine's!

My camera, once again, does not do this dainty its due justice!
I made a vanilla butter-cream frosting from; butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla.
The chocolate that you see is actually semi-sweet chocolate chips that were melted with a little butter and spread. Its spreadable, but when its sets back up- oh my! What a treat!

Then the red, is from raspberries- yummy!

They were ALL excited about this when they walked in the room - instantly making requests for their next birthday cakes!

Chopped Liver (or pate, what's the difference?)

One place I read said the main difference is the eggs! Well, anyway, here's an idea that MIGHT help you get a little liver down the tummies of your family! You can serve it as a spread on matzo crackers or as a dip with veggies.

This is easy and you can make it ahead and chill, or serve warm if you like.

It took me all of about 15 minutes to toss it together.

The traditional Jewish custom uses chicken fat and cracklings but I have no idea where to get that so I used rendered pork fat/lard and cracklings! :-)

Chop one medium onion and saute in pork fat, or rendered lard with a few cracklings.

(When using straight fat, and melting it down, it will 'make its own' cracklings.)
Toss in rinsed chicken livers (approx 1 lb) and brown slightly.
Add a dash of sherry and continue cooking on low for about 9 minutes while boiling 3 eggs.

Toss the 3 boiled eggs and cooked liver and onions in blender, salt and pepper to taste.

To make more of a "chopped liver", just pulse a few times. To make more of a pate or spread, blend well. Pate is often chilled and molded I think, but I served as a dip for veggies and a spread on matzos.

Chill or serve warm.

***

How did my family rate this?

Dh liked it very well- but he loves liver.

My 3 younger children will usually gobble up liver that's been breaded and fried, but they didn't care much for this, but they did follow the rules and ate a portion :-).

My older kids, who don't typically like fried liver, ate all that they were served of this with no complaints and told the younger children "its not bad".

I would love to make more of it sometime and add more seasonings and flavors to it, perhaps even something spicy and hot. One of the older children suggested blending in some sort of tomato, hmm...

Oh and- livers are very frugal! Chicken livers are a little over a dollar and this will serve us two days! ;-)

Wild Things in the Kitchen...

De Colores...
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers....... well I don't have a peck but I do have a little pint of peppers fermenting! ..Along with pineapple chutney and purple cabbage kraut.

I ate some of the chutney with my fish tonight and we will probably have the purple kraut with some beans and I might throw the peppers on a salad later in the week!

MENU PLAN...

Lots of weird food adventures at my house this Menu Plan Monday! I can hardly wait!...This week on the blog menu, hopefully, will be Rendering "Real" Lard and Old Fashioned Oatmeal Spelt Molasses Cookies that are out of this world good!

SATURDAY:
Easy Spelt Cinnamon Rolls, milk
Taco Salad, fruit salad
Sammy's, Old Fashioned Oatmeal Spelt Molasses Cookies (recipe coming)
Snacks: apples, nuts, grapes
SUNDAY:
-Buttermilk Biscuits, gravy
-natural pb and homemade apple jelly sandwiches, bananas
-Valentine's Dinner: Lamb, carrots, potatoes, spinach salad, cabbage, cheesecake
Snacks: cookies, chocolate (well- it is Valentine's!)
MONDAY:
coconut rice, banana-blueberry yogurt smoothie
chopped liver, fresh veggies, chicken bites, twice baked potatoes
Fried Cod, kombucha cole slaw, oven fries
Snacks: apples and pb-yogurt dip, boiled eggs
TUESDAY:
kids choice
Salmon Loaf, steamed cauliflower, spinach salad, spelt rolls
Black Bean Buffalo Chili, purple kraut, fried apples
Snacks: juiced apples, carrots, and oranges, boiled eggs
WEDNESDAY:
kefir-blueberry smoothies, whole grain grits
Leftover Chili, purple kraut, Apple Cake
Connie's Shrimp Scampi Pasta, spinach salad, Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Snacks: popcorn with butter, carrots and celery sticks with cottage cheese veggie dip
THURSDAY:
soaked millet, blueberries
Lamb Stew, Bread Sticks, baked apples
Liver-n-onions, biscuits, gravy, applesauce
Snacks: crispy almonds, raisins, pretzels
FRIDAY:
kids choice
Shredded Chicken Sandwiches, spinach salad with fermented red peppers
Veggie-beef patties, chutney, potato wedges, green peas
Snacks: chickpea veggie dip with carrot and celery sticks, juicer juice

Easy Spelt Cinnamon Rolls...

1 1/4 cup warm water

1 T yeast
Dissolve.

Mix in:
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/4 t salt
2 eggs

Mix in :
4 cups fresh spelt flour

Rest the dough for ten minutes and mix in
1 to 2 cups unbleached flour until dough is smooth.
*Dough should remain quite soft and slightly sticky-
be careful not to add too much flour.

Allow to rise until doubled.

Punch down and roll out into large rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick.
Melt half a stick of butter. Brush dough with melted butter.
Sprinkle with cane sugar, and/or drizzle with honey, and sprinkle with cinnamon.
(May add raisins if you like and/or nuts.)

Roll up like a jelly roll starting on the long side. Pinch seems together and slice into rolls
with dental floss. (Lay floss under roll, bring ends of floss over the top of the roll, cross and pull
firmly to slice.)

Butter a 9x13 and a pie plate and sprinkle lightly with cane sugar. Place rolls in pans.
Allow to rise while oven preheats.
Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned and centers of rolls are firm and no longer doughy.

Don't worry if they are not quite doubled when you place them in the oven. They will puff up after a few minutes as you can see just below.

Mmmm! All baked and ready to eat!

Makes 24 rolls.

How does your mold grow?

I snapped this shot the other day in my fascination... See, I had a loaf of WHEAT bread from the store on the counter that had been here for over TWO WEEKS. Now this was not just "cheap" bread, it was supposed to be "real wheat".

This bag contained homemade WHITE bread. Yes, supposedly lifeless except that it was unbleached flour that I made it with but nonetheless, "processed" to a degree.

But how old do you think it was when this decided to spring up and grow?!?!? FIVE days old!

Can you believe that??

Homemade white bread has LIFE forms at FIVE days, while my high-priced (supposed) wheat bread lasted over TWO weeks- and appeared completely lifeless!

Amazing huh?

Fried Polenta

I love to make polenta. I once made a "polenta pizza" that my kids claimed "was not pizza" but was actually quite good, in spite of the slight deception.

Polenta for a breakfast side or main is my favorite way to eat it and it's very easy to make because you can actually do some of the work the night before!

*I cooked it according to the package directions on Bob's Red Mill Corn Grits/Polenta.* After cooking, poor polenta into greased loaf pans (or pans of choice, some make it round, some make it thicker, etc). Place in refrigerator overnight if desired or until set.
Turn molded polenta out onto a plate.

Cut in slices.

Pan fry in butter until golden and slightly crisp on the outside.

I place mine in a dish in a warm oven in order to keep it warm while I'm cooking for my army!

Served here drizzled with honey, alongside soaked oatmeal, fresh eggs, and natural sausage, mmmm!

Could you grind your own grains to make this? I never have, but I think it would work very well! Anyone tried it?

*Some make this savory by adding veggies or sausage to it and even frying it in bacon drippings.