Chicken Noodle Soup Meal Jar

Recipe time!!! Here is a delicious meal in a jar recipe that will be shelf stable for 5 years when packaged as directed!!

I do not sponsor for any certain brand so you may use your brand of choice. I use a mixture of thrive, augason farms, and homemade.

For this recipe I didn't use any homemade items, but here you go! My chicken noodle soup in a jar!!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups egg noodles
1 cup freeze dried chicken ( for mine I used the vegetarian chicken alternative )
1/4 cup dehydrated chopped onion
2/3 cups freeze dried carrots
1/3 cup freeze dried celery
1-2 tbs chicken bouillon
a pinch of pepper

Layer all your ingredients in your jar, top with an O2 absorber and adjust ring and lid onto your mason jar.

For extra protection I also use my jar sealer attachment for my food saver.

This takes very little time so I usually do about 10 at a time!

Enjoy!!

No Sew Fleece Blanket

Living in the great northwest, most of the year we are covered in fuzzy pj pants, sweats, sweaters and fleece blankets! I don't buy fleece blankets, I make them. Today I am going to share how to make your own, NO SEWING needed!!!

What you need:
2 equal pieces of fleece material
Scissors
ruler


Choose the size you want your blanket to be, these ones here are for the kids when they lay on the couch so they are a bit smaller.

You will need two peices of fabric, the print of your choice as you can see this is my middle child's blanket so of course it is tinker bell! The other side is a purple solid color.

Lay them on top of each with the "wrong" sides facing each other or the softest sides facing down for the solid color on the bottom and the softest facing up for the printed piece. Getting them as flat as possible

I take a piece of cardboard cut 5x5 like so

Place it in the corner of your fabric and cut out your 5x5 piece of fabric. Do this to all 4 corners of your blanket.

To make the fringe cut your fabric 5 inches deep leaving 1 inch space inbetween, do this all around the blanket.

Take each fringe piece and double knot as tight as possible so it doesn't come undone!

Do this all the way around and.. I like to tie them once all the way around and then move to the couch to do the second knot so I'm not sitting on the floor for the entire project

Mr. Skyler didn't wanna get up so I could take a picture so I told him he was going on the internet.. so he covered his face .. haha silly boy!!

Tada! No sew blanket, I've never had an issue with the knots coming undone in the wash, or any other issues with these blankets. They are warm, fuzzy and fun!!!

Ms. Stacia showing off her brand new tinkerbell blanket!!
Here is another one of the John Deere one that I've recently made.. Adult sized.

Enjoy folks!!

Seedlings!!!

It is that time of year again!! Spring is upon us and we have the fever!!! I myself have gotten all 3 of my garden beds prepped and filled with dirt and manure. I have started a few of my colder weather seedlings (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and a variety of peas) and some of my indoor container plants as well like my jalapenos!!!

So in honor of spring I wanted to give some alternative/repurposing tips to save you money on seedling starters!!!

Grow your seedlings in eggshells. Yes I said eggshells, crack open your egg when making breakfast and save the shell halves. Fill with dirt then plant seedlings in them! When replanting you don't even have to remove them from the shell. Just break a the shell on the bottom to allow the roots to grow!

Eggshell Cartons. Fill with dirt then plant your seedlings!

Take an old paper towel roll and cut into thirds...

 I make 4 cuts in the bottom as shown

 and fold them over tape it shut.

 When it's time to transplant just remove tape, unfold and place in the ground :)


I hope that these have given you some ideas on how to get your seedlings going without paying the price for those expensive seedling pods :)

Trash to Treasure. Benefits of Coffee Grounds

For those of you who don't know. I am from the great state of Washington. What do you think of when you think of Seattle? Coffee?? Uh huh! hahaha.. well yes I do drink lots and lots and LOTS of coffee. So, why put those coffee grounds into the trash when they are so beneficial to your garden bed?  Don't drink coffee? No problem, just visit your local/favorite coffee shop and I bet you they are more then willing to share those rich grounds with you as well!!

Benefits of coffee grounds:

• Worms LOVE to feed on coffee grounds and we all know that worms aerate the soil for us, bring on the worms :)
• Cheap and easy to come by
• Coffee is a great source for Nitrogen, Calcium and Magnesium, which are extremely beneficial to your vegetable garden. 
• More tolerable to deal with then manure 
• Coffee is also a natural slug and snail killer... just spritz the ground with some day old coffee and keep them nasty buggers out of the garden!  

So before you throw out those old coffee grounds STOP no no no.. not in the name of love, and it's not hammer time either! Don't toss em, save em. I place mine in an old butter tub, It doesn't take but about a week for mine to fill.. I also crush up my eggshells and mix them together for a wonderful fertilizer! 

Cantaloupe Jelly

Afternoon y'all!!!! I went to our local farmers market yesterday to pick up a few items and picked up some fruit. I decided to play around and make up some cantaloupe jelly. It is so delicious!!!! My followers on facebook asked for the recipe in high demand.

Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe scooped out of the shell.
6 cups sugar
1 box pectin

Directions:
Heat cantaloupe meat and reduce to a liquid form.

Add box of pectin, heat till it is dissolved.

Add 6 cups of sugar stir and bring back to a boil.

Use sheeting test, to test your jelly.

Fill hot sterilized jars and adjust rings and lids.

Flip upside side down for 5 minutes then flip right side up and allow to cool!

Enjoy!!!

Our Westport Adventure!

Hey everyone, well it seems to have calmed down around here for the most part, so I thought I would share our weekend adventures with you from this weekend!!

My family loves to go camping, my dad has his motorhome, my older brother has his camper and we all enjoy the outdoors, well most of us do. This weekend we headed out to Westport, WA for the razor clam dig!!!

 My girls and my dad decided to head out on Friday night. Me, Jeromey and my son decided to have some alone time and hang back a night before heading out to the beach.  As you can see, the girls were totally heart broken hahah!

 The next morning, Jeromey, Skyler and myself all got up and got our bags into the car and headed out to the beach, it's about an hour and 1/2 drive out to Westport from where we live. I just have to add, that I did every bit of the driving during this trip.. I didn't want to drive ANYWHERE today!!!

We stopped off at the tower as soon as we go into Westport and met up with my dad and our girls. This is a view from the top of the tower.

 The weather turned out to be very decent for us, it wasn't too cold and we hardly got any rain, a little sprinkle here and there but nothing that us Washingtonians can't handle!!!

Next stop we went to have lunch and stretch our legs. So we headed to the Hearty Galley. Their fresh clam chowder was delicious!!! If you want fish and chips stay tuned though.. cause I have the place for that coming up!!!

Here is my monkey's and my dad in front of our lunchin spot!!


Next we did the tourist thing and walked the shops, most of the shops were closed though, right now it is still Winter for them and do not open for another couple months. We picked up some salt water taffy a few souvenirs and a couple other things that weren't on the list.. I got a gorgeous ceramic tiger that I just love!! It is sitting right next to my bed .. he's my guard kitty ;)

While we were at it we decided to do some sight seeing as well. Here is the old lighthouse.

This one is just of a random house that I thought was very interesting!!

Jeromey couldn't hang and decided to rent me him and my son a hotel room... two queen beds... so my son had his own queen size bed... can you say hog heaven??? This is where he was while I dug up clams, Mr. grumpy was too tired to go to the beach, so him and his dad just chilled in the hotel room while momma brought home the clams :)

 Big Bro getting things done!

 Dad 

 Baby girl Stacia showing us how things are done :)

 Baby Chase (my nephew) 

While on the beach my daughter came across an awesome find!!! Crab anyone?? 

At the end of the day the girls wanted to stay with my dad in the motorhome so me Jeromey and the baby boy decided to go grab some grub!!!! This place has the BEST fish and chips I've EVER had. I ordered the Battered Cod.. OH MY DROOL!!! Yes, it really really really was that good!!!!!!!!!! 

If you ever come to Wesport, WA, go to Bennets Fish Shack... best ever!!

The next morning we went to the Tinderbox and picked up a delicous vanilla latte and they suggested Westwind restaurant for breakfast... boy were they right. 

Westport is a very small town and a fishing town at the that. I love the small town feel and the ladies at WestWind were excellent, their home fried potatoes were to die for!!!! I cannot wait till the end of the month when we get to do this all over again!!!!!!!!!!!

Dehydrating Green Beans

Hey there friends!! I hope your monday wasn't too horrible, I am suffering from some major back spasms today, but I still have accomplished many things. I as able to add canned beef stew to my stockpile food storage, I did my monthly grocery shopping and snagged a few deals on meat and veggies. I also got the house picked up from our superbowl party!

This evening I am going to show you how to eliminate some of that precious freezer space!! I buy the bulk bags of frozen vegetables, corn, green beans, broccoli, peas, and even hashbrowns. 5lbs in each bag, with 3 little ones and two adults we go through LOTS of veggies and potatoes. I also have a tiny side freezer, so that space is very precious to me.

Did you know that you can take those frozen veggies and dehydrate them to save space? OH, yes, yes you can!!!

 Fill your dehydrator trays and dry at 125 F until brittle.

Can you say space saver? I can! How easy!!

This is one of the shelves on my bakers rack, 5 lbs fills a quart jar, if I have some that doesn't fit I just vacuum seal it with my food saver and put it on the shelf.

 I love finding ways to preserve my food that is convenient and space saving.

These veggies rehydrate wonderfully, I make stew meal in a jar with my own dehydrated veggies and it is amazing!!!

Canned Beef Stew

Hey y'all!!! Today was my big grocery shopping day and I found 6lbs of stew meat on sale along with about 10lbs of chicken breast on sale!! So I'm canning beef stew today and I thought I would share with y'all!!!

Whatcha need:
12 quart mason jars with matching rings and lids
Jar lifter
Non-metalic Spatula
Canning funnel
Beef Stew Recipe

Beef Stew Recipe:
1 tbs oil
6lbs Stew Meat (when I bought mine it was already cut, but you could always buy your favorite cut and cut it into 1 inch cubes)
15 small carrots sliced
3 onions cubes
6 large potatoes or 12 small
4-5 celery stalks sliced (I didn't add this to my recipe today cause my non caffeinated brain forgot to pick it up)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1tbs garlic powder

Take your Stew meat and toss it in a frying pan and brown meat in the 1tbs of oil.

While your meat is browning chop peel and slice all your vegetables and place into a large stockpot

Drain off meat and toss it in with your vegetables, and cover with hot water or beef broth, I do a combo of both, bring to a boil.

While your stew is coming up to a boil sanitize your jars lids and rims. Place jars in a 200 degree oven to keep hot, use your jar lifter to remove them from the oven.

Once your stew is brought to a boil, laddle hot stew into jars leaving 1inch headspace.
Using your non-metalic spatula remove the air bubble from your jars and wipe rims of jars with a damp towel, I usually put a little vinegar on my towel to cut through the grease from the meat.

Process quarts for 1 hour and 30 min
Process pints for 1 hour 15 min

Wait 3-6 after removing your jars from the canner and be sure all have sealed properly, store and enjoy within 1 year :)

Canned Portugeuse Bean Soup

Hey y'all!!! Got one more recipe for y'all today! This recipe is per request of my dad! We love feel good food and what is better on a cold fall day then a hot bowl of soup?

What you will need:
12 quart jars with rims and lids
pressure canner
jar lifter
non metalic spatula
Saucepot

I got my recipe over at My Hawaiian Home this is the closest recipe I can find to my mom's original recipe! 

This is how my soup turned out.. .doesn't it look delicious!!

The only thing I do not add is the macaroni, they will not withstand being canned. I have not come across any recipe where noodles were a success being canned. They seem to go rancid within just a few months and break down alot during the process. 

Cook recipe and fill your sterilized canning jars leaving 1 inch headspace

Process quarts for 75 min and pints for 60 min at 10# of pressure

Once processing is finished remove and allow to cool and wait for the "pings" 

Aloha!! 

Canned Spaghetti Sauce

Afternoon friends!!! It's been a busy busy day already! We are getting close to 800 fans now on my facebook page! This is so exciting for me. When I started my facebook page I never thought in a million years that it would grow as much as it has! I love everyone on there, I spend more time on there then I do my personal fb page. Oh and when I hit 500 I posted a giveaway go check it out Prepper Nicki's Giveaway.


Okay so onto my recipe!! Canned Spaghetti Meat Sauce!! You get to control the ingredients, which is the best part!

What you will need:
12 quart jars with rims and lids
pressure canner
jar lifter
non metalic spatula
Saucepot

Sauce Recipe:
5lbs Ground turkey or Ground Beef ( I use ground turkey for almost everything but if I find a sale I will use ground beef)

1 1/2 cups chopped onion ( 2 medium onions )

8 cups cooked or canned tomatoes

2 cups tomato paste ( to thicken the sauce )

4 tbs italian seasoning

2tbs brown sugar



In a large saucepot brown your meat, don't worry about it cooking all the way through the processing will take care of that.

Add your onion and cook till just tender and drain off excess fat

Add remaining ingredients and simmer till it has reached your desired thickness

Ladle hot sauce into quart jars remembering to leave 1inch headspace

Run your non metalic spatula and remove air bubbles

Put your lids and rims on and Process

Quarts for 1hr 15min, Pints for 1 hour at 10# of pressure!!

After processing pull your jars out and put them in a place to cool for 6-12 hours and then check to make sure all have sealed correctly ( I usually don't wait this long, I check them after about 3 hours, I don't like waiting for the next day then have my food go spoiled overnight!
"Pinging" can begin as soon as the jars are removed! :)

Enjoy folks!!

Canned Potatoes

Evening everyone, I am really trying to get caught up on my blog posts tonight, I have taken way too much time off from this, I must start getting on this on a daily basis!!

We are coming upon grocery day and I almost always buy the big 20lb bag of potatoes, but this month we just didn't go through them like we usually do, so I decided I would can them! 

I used about 10lbs of potatoes here and ended up with 12
Canned Potatoes Recipe

Peel and quarter potatoes.
Boil for 10 min
Pack hot jars with potatoes and cover with boiling water (I used the water that I boiled my taters in)
1/2 tsp of salt per jar
Process for 40 min at 10# pressure for quarts and 35 min for pints

Let sit for 12 hours and make sure all jars have sealed. tada!!

for daily updates visit Prepper Nicki's Nook

Garlic Parmesan Biscuits

Evening y'all! So this past weekend I spent a good amount of time with my new pressure canner.
20lbs of tomatoes later I have a cupboard filled with turkey meat sauce, ground beef meat sauce and chili (a few less chili cause my daddy took some with him when he came to visit last night.)

So if you read the previous blogs you will know that I have now posted 3 seperate blogs today and intend on doing one more before bed. I am whooped! Work was a breeze, I actually spent most of my time with the chickens and the dog. It was a nice relaxing day, it seemed fitting with how gloomy it was. I'm getting off track, so.. for dinner tonight I wanted something FAST cause I did not want to stand over a hot stove/oven all evening, spaghetti it was, not much too that just pop open a jar of the meat sauce and heat it up and boil your noodles.

The most yummy part of the meal was my garlic/parm biscuits. They really are just so super delicious.

Garlic/Parmesan Biscuits:
2 cups bisquick (homemade)
3/4 milk
1/4 Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs butter melted
2 Tbs garlic powder or 2 cloves finely minced garlic 


Preheat oven to 400
Mix it all together and roll into small balls and put onto a your baking sheet, you can oil your sheet if you want but I never have an issue with these sticking, all depends on your baking sheet I suppose. 

Brush tops of your biscuits with butter and bake for 15-20 min.

Dinner is served!!

If you like my posts here don't forget to go like me on facebook at Prepper Nicki's Nook

Homemade Better Bisquick Recipe

Ok, so since I did my mini pancake bites in my previous blog post, I figured I should probably give you the recipe for the homemade bisquick I make here and never have to run out of and always have on hand. (without the added stuff inside that you don't know what it is.)

Bisquick is so versatile, you can make numerous things with it... from pancakes, to biscuits to chicken and dumplins to fried chicken. It's expensive! So lets save you some money and make it at home!!!

Ingredients:
6 cups of flour
3 TBS baking powder
1 TBS salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

Take all your dry ingredients and mix together
take your 1 cup of shortening and cut this into your dry ingredients until it looks almost like a cornmeal.

I always make a double batch because I use it constantly with 3 little ones around.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, and use as you would the regular old bisquick.
( I do not know the original source of this recipe but I know it is floating around all over the interwebs )


WARNING: With this recipe you will never buy bisquick again!!! :)

Mini Pancake Bites

Afternoon y'all!!! 

   Well, we made to our halfway through point in the week, yay! We sure have been busy busy around here with our garden planning and regular house hold activities, kids going back to school after winter break and getting back into the groove of things. 

So today I thought I would show you guys a quick easy breakfast fix for those busy mornings, rushing kids out the door and getting yourself off to work. 

Mini Pancake Bites:

2 cups home made bisquick ( View next blog )

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Topping choices:

chocolate chips

sausage

bacon

really.. the choices are endless 

Preheat your oven to 350

Mix it all together and seperate evenly into a muffin tin. 

Pop on all of your toppings and back about 15 min.

Now, really how easy is that? To make it even easier mix up a big batch of pancake mix and store it in the fridge inside of a recycled ketchup container!! :-D

Next I will show you how to make homemade bisquick! 

Waste not, want not. Getting a second harvest out of store bought celery!

Morning y'all, and Happy New Year, man I've been up since 4am!! Really, I never wake up this early, but good thing I have my coffee in hand to keep me going through the day!

 Been a couple weeks since I've been on but I've been busy between work and my personal prepping at home and my new Facebook page, have a checked it out yet? Prepper Nicki's Nook. The page has really taken off and I love my followers so much on there, I just love the community I have growing on there.

Anyway's today I will be showing you how to re harvest that celery you bought from the store! Don't throw away that butt end! No, stop that right now and get you a glass of water to put it in... like so

Celery in the middle, yea.. that one.. do that!! As a couple days go by you can see those outer layers, those are gonna have to go, but not just yet, you wanna let some new growth begin before you start pulling off those outer layers.

Watch how fast this is growing for me, indoors, on my bakers rack, as we speak!!

 I was very surprised myself at how fast this took off for me, before this it was headed for the compost!!
You can see in the new few images how I have started to remove those outer layers as the new growth begins to come in strong.

On day 5 I put it into some potting soil, water just does not have enough nutrients for the stalks to grow up tall and thick. Make sure you water your new plant I have not had an issue with warmth or light so far and I live in Western Washington, right now we aren't getting much sun and the rain is constant, but like I said, this is an experiment I am doing indoors.

Day 7 and I have removed all of those extra outer layers and look at how beautiful and well this is growing!!

Today is day 8... and look at the significant growth from day to day!! WOW!! I will be doing daily blog updates on this to show you how my progress is going and any adjustments I would advice!!  Till the next update y'all!!!