11 Acre Wood Blog

                                    We love you!

We’re finishing up breakfast (our 20lb muffins w/eggs) and are getting ready to go hike Flagg Mountain, the highest elevation in our county. Grandmother and Granddaddy should arrive shortly to join us. Off we go….. Until later, signin’ out.

P.S. If you leave a birthday greeting for Noah, don’t forget to sign your name.

 This week is my week to fix breakfasts so I thought I would share some breakfast idea’s:

                 

                Frugal Breakfast Idea’s ~   Our family loves cold cereal, so I have been trying to find cheaper, healthier ways to make it.                

          Easy, Healthy, Frugal Granola

                 Some of our family doesn’t really like oatmeal (although we still eat it) so, this is a yummy alternative!  

         8-9 cups of old fashioned oats

         1/3-1/2 cup of honey (add more if you like it sweeter and, want clusters)

         1/3-1/2 cup of coconut oil (also you can use butter instead if you want too, it just is not as cheap)

         2-2 1/2 tsp cinnamon (just shake some in until you get as much as you want, I don’t really measure it. J) 

        Preheat the oven to probably about 350 or 375 (something I always forget to do! J ) Put the oats in a BIG bowl. Melt the honey, oil, and cinn., on the stove until smooth, add to the oats. If you are in a time crunch (which I always am J) just skip the whole “melt the honey, oil, cinn.” thing, and mix it all together, it just makes it not stick together as well. Either way, when you are finished spread on 2 jelly roll pans (or just you know whatever you have that it fits on) and bake for…. well, set the timer for about ten minutes and then check on and maybe stir it…. It takes a little while to cook.. just about till it is golden. It is delicious served with cold milk and fruit (strawberries, blueberries…) also it is really good on ice cream! J   If you like your cereal more sweet and clustery (like store bought granola) add more honey, and butter/oil and less oats. We just try to make our’s go farther with adding more oats. Since we buy our oats, honey, and oil, in bulk I figured that we can make this cereal for about a dollar a recipe. Since oats are healthy and cheap, oatmeal and granola are frequently on our breakfast menu!      Note: If you can’t tell already, this recipe is extremely flexible (like my cooking J ) so try all different things in it, such as nuts, raisins, ext. Just revise this recipe so that it best fits your taste.   

   For a different variation, try substituting puffed red wheat (you can buy it in a 6oz bag in the cereal aisle at w@lm@rt called natural nutrition) for the oats, and just add some honey (about 1/4-1/3 cup), butter (about 1/3 stick), and cinnamon (a few tsp.), (melted together) in with the oats.  Spread it in a pan and you can warm it up on 350 for like a couple minutes. Serve in cold milk. I actually like this better than the granola! You can buy the puffed red wheat for a dollar a bag.

Basic Whole Wheat Muffin Recipe 

 2 1/4 cup freshly milled flour           1 cup buttermilk

 1 tsp salt                                        1 egg

 1 tsp soda                                      1/2 cup coconut oil

 1 tsp baking powder                      1/2 cup honey

 1 tsp cinnamon

Put dry ingredients into bowl , Add wet ingredients and mix just until well blended. Drop by  spoonfuls into greased muffin tins. Bake @ 400 for 15 minutes. ( Make sure you eat one while they are hot!)     * One of our favorite ways to make it is with blueberries, just add a cup of fresh or frozen blueberries to batter and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract instead of cinnamon. *  Enjoy!     This recipe makes 12 muffins.   We double, triple, and even quadruple the batch!!   We make it a lot!   

We are also trying to have eggs every morning for breakfast, because we always seem to have an abundance of those! J  It also makes breads, such as muffins go farther.

Supper Soup Idea ~ The other day Abs  made this delicious soup/stew. It is made with fresh okra, and we have tons of that in our garden, so if you have any okra from your garden or have access to some.. try this…Abbi is such a good cook..it is a very filling and yummy soup.     Here goes! :

 Pork and Black Eyed Peas-Crock Pot Recipe

        

      1 1/2 cups dry black-eyed peas

      1 small ham

      4 cups chicken broth

      1 green sweet pepper, chopped

      1 medium onion, chopped

      1 stalk celery, chopped

      2 bay leaves

      1/4 tsp. ground pepper

      2 cups sliced fresh okra (or one 10oz pkg. frozen okra, thawed and cut)

     

    Rinse black-eyed peas; place in a large saucepan (you can tell I’m typing specific directions!!!). Add enough water to cover peas by 2″. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered for ten minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour. Drain and rinse peas (yes, again!), In a 3-1/2,4- or 5- quart crockery cooker (whatever that means!) combine black-eyed peas, ham, broth, sweet pepper, onion, celery, bay leaves, and red pepper (basically, everything but, the okra). Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8-10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4-5 hours. Add okra. Cover; let stand for 10 minutes or until okra is tender. Remove ham. When cool enough to handle , cut meat off bone; cut meat into bite-size pieces. Discard (that means throw away) bones (oh, or feed to your dog) and bay leaves. To serve, stir meat into black-eyed pea mixture.  And it is oh so yummy!!!! 

                

Well, I hope y’all enjoy these recipe’s (or at least this post!), Leave a comment with your favorite healthy, frugal and easy recipe… I would love more ideas!!!!       May you all have a blessed day in our wonderful LORD!!

       Therefore, as GOD’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of CHRIST rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of CHRIST dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to GOD. And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of our LORD Jesus, giving thanks to GOD the Father through him.  ~ Colossians 3:12-17 ~             

           

Starting the roofing on the front with an injured knee (from working at a previous job site, I must point out).

The front is steeper than the back.

Holes cut for the vents.

The H-Vac guys have been stuck in the cool basement to work. What a tough job, out of the sun. J 

The air control units being set up.

The septic pump (as I’m sure you wanted to know all these details, right?).

It seems we have a two-tone octopus occupying a closet. J 

The daily chores around here.

Mr. Phillip cutting for the dormers.

Wee bit on the small side, but hey, it works!

Oh, drool………….OLD WOOD!

Daddy had some pieces of black walnut from a tree cut down in churchyard of Honeycreek church (the country church he attended as a child) that we finished and used for our mantle and supports. In the above picture you can see the original saw marks from when the tree was cut down. Momma put a satin coat of polyurethane on them and it looks more like a piece of furniture than a mantle piece. The wood shown was cut for the two supports.

Mr. Paul working to install it.

Sweepin’ up.

One side in, but not secured yet.

Levelling……..

To those of you who’ve built a house, do you have any funny story from the building process that you would like to share? We’d all love to hear it! Just leave a comment and don’t forget to sign your name. 

On evening right before a storm blew in, Bekah suggested we go up on the top of the house and take some pictures. 

So we did.

Panorama view of the front yard.

Off in the distance you can see the orchard.

Pond reflection.

                          “Your sun will never set again, 

                        and your moon will wane no more; 

                 the Lord will be your everlasting light…”

                                      ~Isaiah 60:20~

Pictures through a window.

Jared took their bobcat and gathered a supply of rocks from our pile….

 

…to use for building our front steps. 

Mr. Phillip and Jared worked on the metal roofing that day…..

…..while Mr. Paul worked with the rock.

Mixin’ mortar.

They finished putting the fieldstone on the hearth that morning.

Trying to find the right rocks to make it all the same height.

Up high.

They just worked on the backside that day.

Comin’ along.

Look at that gorgeous blue sky! We haven’t seen sunshine or blue sky since then.

Laying down the reflective bubble wrap.

Here the dark clouds started rolling in. Yep, it’s just been rain ever since.

Our finished front steps.

What d’ya think?

Pretty lighting (I’m sorry, I’ll close my mouth now).

                   “The precepts of the Lord are right, 

Spreading mortar on the mesh.

It’s really a neat process to watch. Like a gigantic puzzle with no directions. J 

Capers was up for the day finishing our rough plumbing. 

This is the stone that he used.

Discussing design decisions.

Close up. 

Very skilled and efficient.

Momma had the arch done at the top. Because this is a furnace, you have to have your mantle so many inches away from the heat. So the arch will hopefully help with the bigger gap.

The basement toilet was too close to the shower/tub unit. So it had to be moved over, which was no small task. J 

Chiselin’ concrete-lotsa fun!

Isn’t it pretty?

Outside the trench for the drain pipe is being dug….in the rain.

Our little driver.

Ahhhh…..we’re being attacked!

Nastiness.

Clay+water=red, slippery mud

Ethan helped Capers and learned a lot.

This week we have been flooded. Our poor seedlings and workers. The ground is so saturated it can’t hold anymore water! Pretty muddy and gooshy out.

Losing light at 4pm.

Mommy directing Rocking Our Fireplace, scene 2. J