From Scratch...

YAY! It's Thursday! And our FIRST "From Scratch..." segment!

I hope that this segment doesn't DIS-courage you, but EN-courage you. I know what it is like to be a busy mom. I know what it is like to have a full plate AND a full SALAD plate! But a good full dinner, should always end with a FULL DESSERT plate! RIGHT?! Even though we are busy in our day-to-day lives, we still need to make priorities in life. One of MY priorities is to feed my family healthy food without breaking the bank. So I LOVE making things from scratch. It is like a nice dessert plate to me! It is satisfying to see my boys grow and be happy. It is also satisfying to see a happy hubby!

As I was telling a new friend, Debbie, yesterday on here, you can't start doing everything from scratch, all at once. First, I think you or I would totally hate it! Second, going from mostly convenience foods to all scratch made items, I think you may end up dyin' in the kitchen from exhaustion! I don't make everything from scratch yet, but I STRIVE to! And if I do little by little each week, I will get to it... maybe. HOPEFULLY! Starting from scratch just gives us a new skill in our lives as mothers, wives, home managers, housekeeper, nanny, bus driver, personal assistant (to a WONDERFUL MAN!), nurse, fire(wo)man & police (wo)man.

So, take it slow. Take it one day at a time. If it is a priority, it will work out.

And not everyday is a perfect "From Scratch..." kind of day. In fact, you WILL have flops and failures. When you do, don't let it beat you. Since when do you give burned or a nasty concoction of "so called food" permission to beat you? NEVER! Keep pluggin' away! Find a different recipe and try, try again! Ah, you will see what I mean in just a bit... I speak from experience!

Well, really my "from Scratch..." week started Monday. But I am going to start with Tuesday's Bread. The always delightful Grandmother bread. We have pretty much had this as our main bread in the house for the last several months. Everyone likes it. It's a keeper.



Yesterday, after I finally went and got my hair done by my sister (a WAY overdue appointment!), I came home in time to make some breakfast burritos with my oldest son. I got the idea from my SIL, Megan. With the idea of Breakfast burritos, you can pretty much do whatever you want. We started with our homemade tortillas. Well, I can't lie. I had some store bought that I had to use up also. Don't let food go bad! Use it! We also had eggs from our own chickens. And we used sausage patties that I got cheap a few weeks ago.


You put them together (I cut my patty on half to fit!), roll them in a paper towel (I used napkins, I don't have paper towels), then roll them in foil. Mmm...

We were able to make 14, with a dozen eggs. The boys are SO excited for breakfast. So, in the morning, turn the oven on, pop these bad boys in for a few minutes and EAT! I am SO not a morning person, so this is going to be great for us!

OK, I can't keep it from you any longer. The "flop of the week". That should also be a segment. I could probably give you one about once every 2 weeks or so... Don't tell, OK?

So, I posted my Yellow cake mix recipe on Monday. Before you start dumping your bags of mix that you put together or rip up your recipe card, IT ALL TURNS OUT GOOD IN THE END. I promise. So, we are going to be getting honey bees in the Spring. And I am trying to replace some sugar with some honey... Good right? Well, it started good.


See how pretty that picture is? I look like a professional cook or something! (OK, humor me alright?!) So, I got a couple mixes stirred and bagged. I got out my REAL VANILLA that my Mother-in-law got in the Dominican on a mission trip. YUM! I was set to go! I added 2 C. of honey instead of sugar... All looked well. I mixed it all up and poured it in the pan. I thought I would go fancy and do a Bundt pan. Look how fancy...


Yeah, major yuck... It was too moist. Half of it stuck in the pan! So, I decided to not be so gutsy, and also to not let this recipe AND HONEY beat me. So, try, try again! Next time, I used MOSTLY organic sugar, with honey. I normally do not buy organic sugar, it is definitely more expensive, but I had a good coupon!


So, mixed it all together with 1/2 C. of honey this time. And I could tell right away, while it was still mixing, that it was gonna be good... As it popped out of the pan, I was relieved! Here is the trouble maker with some powdered sugar on top:


Here it is with my dinner, YUM!


My problem the first time was too much moisture. I needed to cut out more of the water! DUH! :)

Last night we enjoyed leftovers for dinner, which in being frugal, you need to make sure you don't waste your food. Oh, and I didn't waste the "Flop" cake. My dogs and cats had a party! They LOVED it too! So much in fact, the didn't eat their regular food that night!

So, I can't wait to see how you all did! If you have a blog and posted, please share your link with us! If you don't have a blog, don't fret! Just give us a run-down of what you did in the comments section! I'm so excited to see how everyone did! Remember, one thing at a time!!!

Now, GO! :)