Kitchen Tip Archives

Grinding Flour In Our Nutrimill

We’ve owned our Nutrimill for a decade and it has served us well. It is one of the best kitchen tool investments we’ve ever made. What is it? Simply put – the Nutrimill grinds actual grain (wheat, corn, etc.) into flour. I did tons of research before I bought this baby. I read everything I could find and I picked my friend Stephanie’s mind. I’m sure that she’s wishing Stacy would just go away. I’m like a boomerang that keeps coming back. We decided on the Nutrimill instead of the other various mills on the market because it was supposed to be the quietest, have the biggest storage container, and you can turn it off while it’s grinding (unlike some of the other models).

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How To: Spaghetti Squash

We LOVE spaghetti squash and I actually prefer it in place of noodles – hence my love of Spaghetti Squash Casserole. The texture is different, but it’s very pleasing to the palate…yeah, country Stacy just said that. It felt weird too. I’ve even been able to serve it to people and they didn’t know they weren’t eating REAL noodles. Cooking spaghetti squash is easy…so let’s talk about how it’s done.

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The Solution to Your Breakfast Woes

I previously shared with you my 10 easy go-to breakfast recipes and today I want to share another helpful breakfast idea. For a while now, our family has been using a method that has really revolutionized life for us. It just might be the solution to your breakfast woes!

You all know I love to cook. More than anything, I love to cook breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love me some breakfast, girl!

Butter, syrup, butter, muffins, butter, coffee, butter, butter in coffee. My first thought in the morning is – I’m so glad it’s almost breakfast time!

I’m definitely not one of those people who’s like, “Rats, I just forgot to eat breakfast today!”

Or you guys that wake up and say, “No thanks, I don’t eat breakfast.” I don’t understand you. I mean, we can be friends, but I don’t understand you.

My kids are the same way – they want to know all about what they’re gonna have for breakfast the next day as they climb into bed.

For those of you who are breakfast people (and those of you who wish you were) – I’ve got the solution to your breakfast woes.

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Tools for Bread Baking – A Video

By far the most questions I receive are about bread – and rightfully so…because y’all know I’m hog wild and pig crazy over bread. Baking bread is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen. I prefer it over any other type of cooking/baking.

So, Barry and I put together a little video about how to get started making your own bread – things you will want to have on hand. And you might be surprised how little you really do need.

Here are the links I mentioned in the video. Enjoy!

Grinding in a Nutrimill

Swagbucks

Here is the link to the thermometer with probe that I use.

The loaf pans I use here are Norpro but I prefer the USA line of loaf pans.

4 Options for Flavored Coffee Grounds

I have this thing for coffee. I like it a lot. I drink almost a whole pot full myself – I do share a little bit with Barry because I’m nice like that.

I also have this thing for flavored coffees. I love a good hazelnut blend….or even a fantastic mocha. But, here is something you might not know about us – we are caffeine free (except for chocolate, because to be chocolate free would be like going without deodorant). [Read more…]

40 Uses for a Dehydrator

Some of you have caught on to the fact that I own a dehydrator. You’ve emailed to ask me what kind it is and what I recommend – you’ve also asked me, “What am I supposed to do with it?” Today I’m going to look at that for ya…and at the end, Cultures For Health is going to let me GIVE AWAY one just like mine to one of you. 🙂 I love blessing y’all.

Before getting a dehydrator, I read around to see what I would like…that’s customary when Barry and I decide on a large appliance purchase…it quickly became apparent to me that Excalibur was a top notch model that gave great results. And if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. I had already attempted to use a small, round dinky dehydrator Barry had – but it didn’t get the job done…so, we tried to sell it (no one wanted it, so to Freecycle it went!) and then started looking around for one to buy.

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Meal Planning – A Video Tutorial

Here is a little video I put together for you all about how I use Plan To Eat to do our weekly meal plan. Some of you have asked me questions about how it works and how we do our meal planning, so I thought it would be easier to just show everyone at once. 🙂 (PS – The FTC says I have to tell you that’s my affiliate link. Blah, blah, blah.)

Also, take note that the way that I do our meal plans might not be the way everyone does it…because sometimes I do things weird – this is just the way I like to meal plan. And it will give you a general idea of how the software works. [Read more…]

6 Slow Cooker Tips and Cinnamon Cream Rolls

Guest post by Angela Coffman, The Grocery Shrink

A slow cooker cooks while you do other things, does it without heating up your kitchen; and tenderizes the toughest cuts of meats. I <3 my slow cooker.

6 Tips for Using a Slow Cooker

1. Use a Christmas Tree timer to turn your crock on when you want to. This especially useful for breakfast recipes that cook for less than 8 hours. Use wisdom when dealing with raw meats to avoid bacteria growth. [Read more…]

Keeping Costs Down in a Real Food Kitchen

I hear all to often that eating “healthy” is too expensive. When I was a coupon queen, I would have agreed 100% with you. But now I’m on the other side of things – I’ve been eating this way for two years now and I can honestly say that eating healthy is NOT too expensive. In fact, we can’t afford NOT to eat healthy. Otherwise, in years to come we’ll be paying out the wazoo for health care.

I’m over at Keeper of the Home today talking about how to keep costs down in a real food kitchen. It is very possible to eat a healthy diet on a budget – and I know that for a fact because my budget and I are not soon parted.

Some other things I’ve written in the past might also be of interest to you:

How We Eat Healthy on a Budget

Stacy’s Grocery Price List

So, if you’d like to have more tips about how to eat healthy without going to the poor house – and if you’d like to see just how we make it work – just hop on over to Keeper of the Home.

What do you think? Is eating a healthy diet worth the money?

Crock Pot Caramelized Onions

First off, let me tell you that getting an appealing picture of caramelized onions is a hard job – a job at which I did not succeed. Bummer. It’s as hard as Stacy trying to caramelize onions in the skillet without burning the snot out of them. I burn stuff a lot.

I had a 3 pound bag of onions in the fridge that NEEDED to be used…or else they were going straight to the trash without passing Go and collecting $200. I saw a recipe that called for caramelized onions and I thought I’d just try them in the crock and see how they turned out. Bingo, baby. Bingo. [Read more…]