We Got Chickens at a Yard Sale

Like every Saturday morning, we were out going to yard sales. Our son actually didn't mind the car ride this morning. The last few weeks he has been fussy and we had to cut our trips short and come home. This morning he napped the whole trip. I noticed a dozen eggs on a table at the first yard sale we stopped at. (Lots of people in our area raise their own chickens and some sell the extra eggs, they just put a sign up in front of their house.) We asked about the eggs, then I heard the chickens clucking. We started talking to these people and they were selling chickens too!

Just yesterday, I had called a farmer on craigslist to ask about their chickens and was told their hens won't be ready for sale for another two weeks. Our chicken coop was ready for chickens and we could not get chickens.

Today was our lucky day. When we left the house this morning, we had no idea we would come home with chickens. This couple sold us three chickens since that was all that would fit in our animal trap/cage. My husband wanted to make a second trip and get three more, but I wanted to wait a few days so we can learn how to take care of chickens before getting more. They also told us where to get free hay for the nesting boxes, what kind of feed to get, and warned us of predators getting into the coop. We got two Leghorns and one Rhode Island Red. My husband actually caught one of the chickens to put into the cage!

We could tell these people have taken good care of their chickens because they are so friendly. The chickens seem really happy in their coop. They have been eating bugs all day!

Broccoli Ricotta Casserole

Hopefully, everyone had a great holiday weekend. This was our first Christmas with a baby, so it was a whole new experience. He wasn't old enough to actually open his presents so we opened them for him. I haven't posted in a few days because my husband has the week off so I've been a little distracted to post. We started working on our temporary chicken coop in the last couple of days. We just need to get food, pine shavings, and chickens. We will be doing that either today or tomorrow. I have tried a lot of new recipes since my last post but forgot to take pictures of most of them. I did get a picture of my broccoli casserole.

I had a head of broccoli and ricotta that I needed to use up to go with a pizza I was making. I googled broccoli casseroles and all the recipes were more like frittata bakes (they had a lot of eggs.) This was not what I was looking for. Then I remembered we were over at a friend's house for dinner a while back and had an eggplant lasagna type of bake without pasta. So I decided to try and make my own version of that with broccoli. This dish turned out to be delicious!

Broccoli Ricotta Casserole

1 large head broccoli
12 oz ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup sweet peppers, chopped
1 cup mozzarella
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp himalayan salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup pasta sauce

Preheat oven to 350F.

Chop up the broccoli and put in food processor with s blade. Process until broccoli is little tiny pieces. Place in bowl. In a separate bowl mix together ricotta, eggs and mozzarella. Combine both mixtures along with peppers, black pepper, salt, and garlic powder.

Grease and 8 x 8 casserole dish. Pour half of pasta sauce in casserole dish. Pour broccoli mixture on top. Cover with remaining sauce. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Frugal Gift Wrapping

I have never seen a point in buying gift wrap. The receiver just rips through it and in the garbage can it goes. Not to mention all the trees that are cut down just for gift wrap that goes in the trash immediately after the gift is opened. We try and recycle as much as we can so using the comics section from the Sunday paper is a good way of recycling. After the gifts are opened, we then recycle the paper. So we end up getting an extra use of the paper before recycling. I usually start saving my comics in November and I end up with extra comics. Now, my brothers always makes fun of my choice of paper for wrapping gifts but they are not as frugal as I am and they find all sorts of new reasons to mock me. I did immediately notice at my baby shower, one of my good friends did wrap my gift with comics! I was so happy to see that others do think the same way I do. We also save gift bags, bows, and tissue from gifts that we receive and we reuse these at a later date. Above, you can also see my homemade granola in a canning jar where I used comics in between the ring and the lid.

Here, I made a bow using an old Christmas card. I just the card in to 2-3mm strips. Then curled each end with my fingers. I put a piece of tape in the middle (either use double sided tape or fold a piece of tape over so both sides are sticky) then arranged the strips on top of the tape so they would stick. You can also tape something to the middle like I did in the first picture, I taped a little square i the middle. If anyone has frugal gift wrapping ideas, please share by commenting. Happy wrapping!!!

Grain-Free Almond Snowball Cookies

I have been making regular, unhealthy almond snowball cookies from the Food Network as Christmas gifts for years now. The people I make these cookies for do not care about eating healthy so I just make the same thing for them every year, including this year. As I was baking the cookies, I wanted to try one so bad but we don't eat white flour or white sugar and the ingredients were not organic so I couldn't have any. The next day I decided to try and make a healthy version for hubby and me.

Grain-Free Almond Snowball Cookies

1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 stick salted butter
1/4 tsp stevia
a few drops almond extract
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp honey
1/4 cup coconut flour
powdered sugar for dipping cookies

Combine butter and almond flour in a bowl. Add stevia, honey, almond extract, and vanilla extract and mix well. Add coconut flour and mix until combined. Put dough in fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheet and press down with fingers or the bottom of a glass. Bake for 20 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Remove from oven and leave on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Dip cookies in powdered sugar and place on cooling rack. After cookies are cooled, dip in powdered sugar again and store in an airtight container.

Makes 12 cookies.

Homemade Raw Grassfed Butter

I had bought a quart of raw grassfed cream for Thanksgiving and I didn't use it fast enough so it started to sour. I googled what to do with the cream once it sours and people said the butter you make with it tastes great. I put about 8-10 ounces of cream into my stand mixer and mixed away. After about 5 minutes, the cream started to turn yellow and I got excited! It finally turned into a large clump of butter. I poured the liquid (buttermilk) from the bowl into a canning jar and I rinsed the butter until the liquid was clear. Then I added himalayan salt, mixed it in, and poured it into a dish.

We have been wanting to get a cow or goat for dairy. I have wanted a goat and my husband wants a cow. After making my own raw butter, I am leaning more towards a cow because the cream separates naturally and I can make so many things with it.

Sophie the Giraffe Review

When I picked items for our baby registry, I researched everything. One of the items I put on the registry was Sophie the Giraffe teether. My husband thought that nobody would get this for us from our registry but someone did (my bff.) What I liked about Sophie was that it is made of rubber and it is painted with food grade paints, so it is safe for our son to put in his mouth. We gave Sophie to our son when he was around 2 months old. He is almost 4 months old now and he loves this toy. He puts it in his mouth to to suck on for fun, to self soothe, and he enjoys holding and squeezing it. When he gets fussy sometimes, we just stick Sophie up to his mouth and he calms down. I just want to clarify that he does not use this like a pacifier, he just likes to put it in his mouth and play with it in his hands.

Cold Breakfast Cereal

I came across Sarah's article at The Healthy Home Economist about how toxic store bought cereal is for you and how to make your own. Now, I have known that store bought cereal is toxic because of the high temperatures they use to cook the cereal. I haven't bought cereal in a while, but after watching her video, I decided to make some cereal. She buys fresh wheat and grinds it herself. I do not know where to get the whole grains to grind yourself, so I decided to try make the cereal gluten-free with flours I already have. I also made a third of the recipe as this was more of an experiment. Here is my altered version (feel free to multiply the ingredients by 3 if you want a lot more cereal):

Gluten-Free Buckwheat Cereal

1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup plain yogurt

Mix the above ingredients and put them in a large glass bowl and cover with a cloth for 24 hours.

The next day, add the following to the mixture:

1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Spread this out in a round cake pan and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Once it cools, crumble it up into small pieces and add 1/4 cup chopped almonds and spread out on a cookie sheet. Put in warm oven (the lowest it will go, I used 175F) for 4 hours mixing it every hour. Take out of oven and leave on tray to crisp up some more. 

This cereal came out amazing! You can change the flavors based on personal preference. The cereal does stay crispy in the milk. After I made this, I saw that Sarah had a gluten free version using almond flour. I will try that next time!