Homemade Sausage

Have you ever made homemade sausage? I've been worried about all the nitrites and nitrates that we have been ingesting lately. We really eat too much processed foods. I like sausages, lunch meats, hotdogs, etc. We eliminated beef from our diet several years ago with hubby's cousin died of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). We just decided we didn't want to take any chances, no matter how slim, and we knew that too much beef wasn't good for us anyway. We eat a lot of chicken. A lot. So I found my self buying more and more turkey smoked sausages, pork sausages, ham, etc. to alleviate some of the chicken boredom. But I think we eat way too much of the N/N filled foods.

We have found that Hormel makes a good bacon that is N/N free. I stock up when it is on sale. They also make good N/N turkey and ham lunch meats. I buy it when it is on sale and sometimes I even have a coupon for it. My daughter loves turkey and eats it often as a snack. Just turkey, no bread or anything. I haven't found any bologna or hotdogs in my area that are N/N free. I am sure Earth Fare may have something, but they are very pricy. But I need to check it out anyway. But in the meantime, I thought I might try making my own sausage with ground turkey or chicken. The next time my local grocery has ground chicken or turkey on sale I am going to use this recipe. If you have made your own sausage, will you share your recipe?

TURKEY BREAKFAST SAUSAGE

1 pound ground turkey

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the turkey, salt, sage, thyme, nutmeg and cayenne. Shape into eight patties. In a large skillet, cook patties in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear. Drain on paper towels.

Menu for week of January 16th

Monday: Bean Burritos, Scoops and Queso Dip (an easy pantry meal-everything can be kept in the pantry)

Tuesday: Freezer Meal-Chicken Tetrazzini, Salad, French Bread with Butter

Wednesday: Soup Night! Potato Soup (hubby's favorite) and Taco Soup (leftovers will be put in the freezer)

Thursday: Freezer Meal-Cranberry Dump Chicken (crock pot), Mashed Potatoes, Glazed Carrots

Friday: I'm thinking-Lovely Leftovers!

Saturday: Baking a ham (haven't decided what the sides will be yet)

Sunday: Ham and Cheese Sliders (Pinterest recipe) and Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup (leftovers will be put in freezer)

Loving my freezer meals and putting more back in. I call this Feeding the Freezer. I'm planning on slicing and dicing some of the ham and placing in freezer bags to use for future meals as well as making my favorite Ham and Cheese Muffins and Ham Biscuits for quick breakfasts and possibly a few ham casserole type meals for the freezer, yet to be decided. Thank you for stopping by Chaos Cottage.

Pam

The Homeschooling Mother's Journal

In my life this week…trying to get back into the groove of things around here. Making lots of plans but having a hard time getting going. There's a lot to get done around here before spring so that we can put our home on the market.

In our homeschool this week…school started back up this week. Trying to get back into the groove here too.

I am inspired by…Extreme Home makeover is down the road and doing their wonderful work for a deserving family. Too bad their show is getting canceled. I always enjoyed the show. I always have a hard time watching the show without crying.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…went grocery shopping yesterday and the store was pretty busy. We received at least one inch of snow and those snow forecasts always bring out the shoppers. LOL It looks like dd is going to get her sleepover with her new friends at her grandmother's house tonight. It had to be cancelled earlier. I think they are going to watch the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and eat pizza and have a good time. I am hoping for a date night with hubby tonight.

My favorite thing this week was…seeing hubby go off to work. We can't praise our God enough for this awesome opportunity he has given my husband. God is good. Hubs will be working 6:30 to 3:30 pm for a good while while in training. Early mornings and early bedtimes. This will be an adjustment for all of us.

Things I’m working on…I have a to-do list two pages long. Haven't felt quite up to tackling much of it yet. But I'll get around to it.

I’m reading…same thing. I just can't get into the reading groove either. I think I am spending too much time online. Hmmm...something to think about.

I’m cooking…hoping to eat out tonight with a gift card but am planning on making bbq chicken in the crockpot this weekend. Yumm-o!

I’m grateful for…God's provision, family, and our adorable cats! Pets bring such joy to our lives, don't they?

I’m praying for…friends who are unemployed and marriages to be strengthened.

Thanks for stopping by Second Star Academy and Chaos Cottage. Please visit again.

Pam

Menu for week of January 9th

Going to duplicate some of these meals this week to feed the freezer.

Monday: Lazy Lasagna, Salad, Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits

Tuesday Breakfast for Dinner (I'm thinking pancakes, eggs and ham)

Wednesday: Chicken Roll-ups, Rice Almondine, Green beans, Rolls

Thursday: (Freezer Meal) Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves, Mixed Vegetable Casserole, Rolls

Friday: Date Night

Saturday: Dump BBQ Chicken, Buns, Baked Beans, Veggies and Dip

Sunday Chicken Fried Chops, Scalloped Potatoes, Creamed Corn, Rolls

Chicken Roll-Ups

Tender and freeze well. You can bake half of them and freeze the rest.

8 servings

1 hour 30 mins prep

8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

8 thin slices deli ham

4 slices provolone cheese or mozzarella cheese, halved

2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated romano cheese or parmesan cheese

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 cup milk

1. Flatten chicken to 1/4 in.

2. thickness.

3. Place a slice of ham and cheese on each piece of chicken.

4. Roll up from a short side and tuck in ends; secure with a toothpick.

5. In a shallow bowl, mix crumbs, grated cheese and parsley.

6. Pour milk into another bowl.

7. Dip chicken rolls in milk, then roll in crumb mixture.

8. Wrap and freeze roll-ups for up to 2 months.

9. To use frozen chicken-Completely thaw in the refrigerator.

10. Unwrap roll-ups and place on a greased baking sheet.

11. Spritz with nonstick cooking spray.

12. Bake uncovered, at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until juices run clear.

(I can add one more piece of chicken and this recipe would make 3 meals for my family of 3.)

Thank you for visiting Chaos Cottage. Please some back again!

Pam

The Homeschooling Mother's Journal

In my life this week…last week of winter break before we start up school again. It was just my daughter and I Monday evening through Friday afternoon. Hubby had new employee stuff to do in Chattanooga. We watched the telly and I did a lot of freezer meals.

In our homeschool this week…we were off! It is so nice to have a true winter break. Last year, our first year of homeschooling, it seems we were always playing catch-up. We were always way behind in our work. Not this year. We're homeschooling experts now! LOL Not! But we are so much better.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…I haven't left the house all week. We had a cold front come through and I was busy with all those freezer meals that I just stayed in.

My favorite thing this week was…spending quality and quantity time with my dear daughter.

Things I’m working on…decluttering and deep cleaning the kitchen.

I’m reading…same ole thing.

I’m cooking…up lovely freezer meals for future dinners. I just love being able to pull a meal from the freezer.

I’m grateful for…hubby's new job and God's continual blessings.

I’m praying for…unemployed friends, marriages, and relationships to be restored.

Thanks again for stopping by Second Star Academy. It's real here folks.

Pam

Menu for week of January 2nd

Monday: Chicken and Bows (freeze one), Salad, Rolls

Chicken and Bows

12 Servings

Prep/Total Time: 25 min.

* 1 package (16 ounces) bow tie pasta

* 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (I'm using turkey)

* 1 cup chopped sweet red pepper (I'm using green, it's what I have)

* 1/4 cup butter, cubed

* 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

* 2 cups frozen peas

* 1-1/2 cups milk

* 1 teaspoon garlic powder

* 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/4 teaspoon pepper

* 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

* Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a Dutch

oven, cook chicken and red pepper in butter over medium heat for 5-6

minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Stir in the soup, peas, milk, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bring

to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 minutes or until

heated through. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Drain pasta; add to chicken

mixture and toss to coat.

Serve half of the mixture immediately. Cool remaining mixture;

transfer to a freezer container. Cover and freeze for up to 3

months.

*edited to add that only hubby and I ate some of this last night. There was so much leftover I was still able to fill up two 8x8 pans for the freezer and I only used a 12 oz. box of bow ties. It was very good. Better than I thought it would be. When reheating it I am thinking I might need to add a little more milk as the bows really soak up the creamy goodness. So we will be eating this again, at least twice, in the next few months.



Tuesday: Chili Corn Dog Casserole (freeze one), more Salad (didn't get to this meal last week-too many leftovers)

Wednesday: Spaghetti Casserole (freeze one), Green Veggie or Salad, French Bread

Thursday: Lil Cheddar Meatloaves (freeze leftovers), Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin, Fried Apples

Friday: Chicken Roll-ups (freeze meal), Leftover Scalloped Potatoes, Green Veggie

Saturday: Lazy Lasagna (freeze one), Salad, Red Lobster Biscuits

Sunday: Freezer Meal-Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Rice and Peach Cobbler with Whipped Cream of dessert

This will be a week of feeding the freezer. It's just as easy to double a recipe, or in our case, since we are a family of three to divide the meal into two 8x8 pans and eat one and freeze the other. Makes for easy meals down the road.

Since I cooked a turkey this weekend, I will be feeding the freezer with some of that too. It will be showing up in the Chicken and Bows today as well as the following meals later: Turkey and Biscuit Pie, Chicken Tetrazzini, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Gumbo Soup and if there is enough turkey left, Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup. Today I am going to boil the carcass and make broth for the freezer. I already have three containers of stock from the pan when I baked the turkey. I bought some noodles so I'm sure dear daughter will want some noodle soup this week too. I am really stretching that turkey :)

That's what's cooking at my house. Thank you for stopping by. I will be glad to share any recipes with you.

My New Years Resolutions

I did this last year and updated it at the end of December. I am doing it again this year to help me see how much I will accomplish, with the Lord's help. Here are my thoughts:

Home:

Our home is still in transition. If you have been reading my blog in the last year, you know my hubby has been unemployed for three years and we decided in 2011 to sell the house so we don't have a house payment any longer and buy another house. We have a lot of equity in this home. We began taking things to storage to make our home more presentable for sale. Then hubby was diagnosed with extremely high blood pressure and was given strict instructions to not do anything strenuous. This put a halt to our moving plans. We just had too much to do. Fortunately, and praise the Lord, he was offered a job and his blood pressure began dropping. It was at it's all time lowest on the day of his physical for this job! We agreed with our realtor to wait until spring 2012 to put the house on the market as things slow down so much during the cold weather. That gives us additional time to do all the things we need to do.

So, with that in mind, it has been very hard to stick to any kind of cleaning schedule with the house in chaos. Yet laundry continues, meal preparation and cleaning up goes on, vacuuming up cat hair has to be done. But the house is not fit for visitors on most days. My dining room is full of boxes and it is obvious we are moving.

I want to teach daughter homemaking skills, but that may wait until we are in our new home. But I can teach her some cooking and dish washing skills in the meantime. She is also going to get a few new chores added to her nonexistent official chores, when hubby begins his new job. One is cleaning the litter boxes. I despise litter boxes. The other is taking out trash and recyclables and getting them to the streets on Tuesday evenings as our pick-up day here is Wednesday.

Our garage is still a work in progress. I swear you would never know that anything was taken to storage, but it was. There are still many things in there that need to be sold or given away and stored and thrown away.

We have a small plumbing issue that popped up the other day. My sink in the master bath has started leaking. Our plumber put in new faucets and drain recently and has to come back and fix it. Not a big deal. I am just using husband's sink on his side of the vanity.

We have a kitchen window that needs repaired. It's just the outside wood trim. Which reminds me, hubby did get the wood replaced in the garage door opening that was rotting and caulked and painted that during the summer. I left that off my post in December where I took a look at our resolutions and accomplishments in 2011.

We have the ceiling in the den that still needs repairing. A professional drywall man will have to be hired to do that.

Front door didn't get painted in 2011 but hubby did paint all the trim and the railings and some of the deck's french door trim. I may paint it as well as the interior garage door.

We will need to get the yard professionally done, trimming and mulching, etc. right before listing it in the spring.

I need to pressure wash the porch, walkway, driveway, fence and deck. Then I need to stain the deck.

Paint has to be touched up throughout the house and smudges removed from the walls.

Blog:

Continue to try to post at least three times a week. Add more pictures to my posts. I want to make a household notebook and blog about it and a menu notebook and blog about that. You can find these all over the internet and I have wanted to do these for a long time. I think this is the year for that.

Family:

Faithfully attend church as a family.
Do more things together as a family, like bowling, movies, walks, museums, board games, wii games, picnics with excursions. Dollywood will be on our agenda this year thanks to hubby's aunt who bought us all season passes. We had to forgo those the last few years.
Re institute meal-time devotions and dinner at the kitchen table on most nights.
Eat more fruits and veggies.
Drink more water.
Implement age appropriate chores for daughter.
Do more volunteering at church.

Homeschool:

Include some bible studies that I have purchased into addition to her school curriculum (which already has bible).
Hubby is going to teach daughter about Photoshop and get her into more photography. She has quite the eye.
Daughter has shown an interest in guitar lessons. Check into that.
Take daughter on more field trips.
Teach her some homemaking skills.

Personal:

Take my vitamins daily.
Drink more water.
Exercise (ugh, this is so hard for me)
Daily Bible and prayer time.
Journal more often. (My blog is a journal, but I also hand write in a personal journal)
Get to bed earlier (so hard for us, we are all night owls)
Continue to learn to crochet.
Get back to scrapbooking (just had 100 photos printed this week-great deal at Walgreens, so excited to work on my albums again!)

These are my goals for this year. Most of the ones listed under Home, will get done in the next few months. I am hoping that posting this will help me to be more accountable and I intend to check back and update my progress throughout the year. You can't make resolutions and then never check back. You have to do that after the novelty of the new year wears off.

Pam