jessicalawson – Life with the Lawsons

December 4, 2020

How to Make Healing Bone Broth on Your Own from Simple Scraps:

Bone broth is an excellent source of collagen and protein and is excellent for healing gut issues.

This year after Thanksgiving, instead of throwing away the scraps from the hen used to make dressing and the turkey we ate, I decided to make homemade bone broth.

It’s super easy, but time consuming. Some people use a crock pot or instant pot, but I had way more bones and skin that would fit in those, so I used a big stock pot like this.

Ingredients:

Scraps of bones and skin

2-3 carrots

2 onions, peeled and quartered

3 tablespoons of turmeric

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all animal scraps in a large stock pot and cover with water. I filled my pot almost to the top, just leaving about 2 inches of space at the top.

Bring pot to a boil.

Reduce heat and let simmer for 2-3 hours.

Chicken and turkey scraps simmering away!

At this point, skim any fat off of the top and discard, especially if you plan on canning the broth.

If you would like stock, you can remove the liquid now and strain. Process in pressure canner for 25 minutes if you would like it to be shelf stable. If you don’t need the stock, you can skip this step altogether and continue on with the next step. If you did set aside stock, refill your pot with more water and add more seasonings.

Continue to let simmer for 24-48 hours for bone broth. After 24 hours, enough collagen has been extracted from the bones and cartilage for this healthy and delicious broth to be beneficial, but a full 48 hours ensures all is extracted.

At this point, turn off heat and strain liquid into jars or whatever container you choose to store it in. This was such a large batch for me, I decided to can what I wasn’t using right away.

I used my pressure canner, similar to this, and filled about 3 inches deep with water and turned on high heat.

I then put my jar lids and rings in a pot of water to simmer.

I strained the broth through a mesh strainer and put into clean quart jars.

Wipe the mouth of a jar with a wet paper towel, place lid on top and add ring, just finger tight.

Add full jar into pressure canner on rack.

Once all jars are full, put lid on canner. Once steam is coming out of the top, wait 10 minutes and then add weight.

Once weight is rocking, set timer and let jars process for 25 minutes.

Turn off heat and let the canner completely depressurize and cool.

Remove jars and label. Make sure all lids have popped! If any haven’t, store in the fridge and use within a week.

This broth is so delicious and is an excellent anti inflammatory food!

I used it for a 48 hour bone broth fast to help reset my gut after the excess Thanksgiving food and I feel amazing!

Let me know what your favorite things about bone broth are!

November 11, 2020

Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder (I prefer this aluminum free version)

Place stick of butter in baking dish in cold oven. Preheat oven with pan in it to 350 degrees. (Sometimes I will make several of these at a time to freeze or share with friends. If so, I use these pans with matching lids.)

While the oven is preheating, I will heat in a saucepan over medium heat, the sliced peaches and 1 cup of sugar until the sugar is desolved.

Whisk together 3/4 cups of the sugar, all of the flour, salt, baking powder and milk and pour over butter in heated baking dish.

Top with peaches and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

You can do this cobbler with other fruits as well, or even with canned fruit. If using canned fruit, reduce sugar to 1/2 cup.

These can be frozen after baking and cooling completely. After I freeze them, I will thaw overnight in the fridge and then bake on 300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until warm just before serving.

November 6, 2020November 6, 2020

Easy and delicious apple butter:

6-8 apples
1 1/4 sugar or natural sweetener (can also use half white and half brown)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

This apple butter is super easy and can be stored in the fridge or can be canned for shelf stability.

I don’t measure anything, so this recipe is an estimated amount. You can add or reduce the apples, seasonings, etc to your own taste.

I have made this without sugar or sweetener and it’s very good when using sweet apples, but if you’re using a more tart variety of apples, you may want to add something. This batch I’m showing I actually used half erythritol and half brown sugar.

Instructions:

Core and slice 6-8 apples and place in crock pot on high. (Or however many apples will fill your crock pot!) No peeling necessary!

Add 1 1/4 c of sweetener of your choice, if desired. When using tart apples, I use erythritol. (I’ve found this brand the best price when added to my Amazon subscribe and save order.)

Add lemon juice, vanilla and spices on top of apples and cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

At this point, I use my immersion blender until the mixture is totally smooth. You can also transfer the mixture into a blender for the same result.

Crack the lid open slightly, and continue cooking on high for another 4-5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

One it has reached the thickness you prefer, let it cool in the crock pot before transferring to jars.

It can keep covered in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks, or you can process in pint jars in a water bath canner for 7-10 minutes if you want them to be shelf stable.

November 4, 2020November 4, 2020

Quick and easy yellow rice:

I use this rice cooker, but you could use a regular saucepan and cook as you would standard white rice.

This recipe can also be divided or multiplied without affecting the end result.

Ingredients:

3 cups white rice

6 cups water

1 stick butter

1-2 cloves minced garlic or 1 tablespoon of refrigerated minced garlic

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 tablespoon minced onion (you can also use fresh onion)

1 Tablespoon chicken bouillon

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic salt

(You can also swap half of the water and all of bouillon for 3 cups of chicken broth)

I put all ingredients into my rice cooker and stir occasionally until the cooker clicks off.

You can also bring the water to a boil in a regular saucepan on the stove, add all other ingredients stirring thoroughly and return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. The results would be the same, I just find the rice cooker soooo easy!

I will make this on a Sunday and use it all week in different meals. Our family loves it! It’s filling, delicious, and the ingredients also aid as natural anti inflammatory agents!

This post contains affiliate links that help fund this page, but doesn’t cost you a thing! Thank you for supporting our efforts to share yummy recipes and more with you!

September 9, 2020

Save the Children! #endhumantrafficking

I’m sure you have all seen all of the disturbing stuff coming out about human sex trafficking. Y’all, it shakes me to my core. It is sickening and just weighs on my heart more than I can ever begin to write.

I almost wish I didn’t know. I almost wish I could bury my head and pretend like this weren’t a real thing. But it is. I have learned so much about what is going on under our very noses and I can’t unlearn it.

So, I was soooo excited when my friend Ashley at Savvi Sister’s Closet sent me this awesome shirt to try this month!

(Check out her Facebook page here.)

This shirt is so super buttery soft, is long enough to cover my bootie when I wear leggings, and is raising money to stop this madness! What do y’all think? I think it is so cute and so powerful all at the same time. Win, win!

Every bit of the proceeds for the sale of these shirts is being given to Operation Underground Railroad in a huge effort to save these children. The shirt is a great price for a great cause! Y’all go order one ASAP!

I’ll past the description and additional photos below so you can check it out yourself!

Per Savvi Sister’s Closet:

🟩🆕 ️PRE-ORDER UNTIL Sat, 9/12/20 🟩🆕️

Save The Children

$19

2T- 5X available

Professionally Printed on Bella+Canvas

Apparel!

Tee Color – Natural

In efforts to help to our part to end human trafficking, ALL profit directly from these tees are being donated directly to Operation Underground Railroad.

ALL TEES are professionally screen printed. Please allow 10-12 business days for printing and processing.

🔸️To order comment with email, size, ship or porch pick-up (Vilonia, AR).🔸️

#ENDHumanTraficking

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020

My new FAVORITE leggings!!!

Hey y’all! How y’all making it? We are great over here at the Lawson abode, and I’m even better after I acquired some awesome new leggings this week!

I know I don’t normally talk to y’all about products I use, and I do share an affiliate link here or there for Amazon but that’s mostly just to show what I use in my recipes (and I do get a small percentage of the purchase at no extra cost to you). But I have GOT to tell y’all about these leggings!

My friend Ashley from over at Savvi Sister’s Closet sent me these and they’re wonderful!!!

I opened the package and immediately I wanted to love them for two reasons. I love this plum color (actually called Deep Plum) and y’all, they feel like BUTTAH!!! Soooo soft!

So I put them on and I love these little cooling vents on the sides and my VERY favorite, most ESSENTIAL “I will not buy leggings without this” quality…phone pockets! On both sides!

But hold up. I know I’m a bit too excited to be all worked up just by taking them out of the package and putting them on, so let’s get to the real test. Wearing, washing, and wearing again!

So in full disclosure, on day 1 I didn’t do much. I wore them for about an hour and then went swimming the rest of the day so, although I really liked them, I hadn’t fully tested them yet. So I hung them up to try again.

Day 2 was the real test! I made a trip to Sam’s Club to do our meal prep, pantry stock for the end of summer and if you’ve ever done that, it’s HARD WORK, y’all! I mean bending, pulling, lifting, stacking, organizing, over and over and over for 2 hours. Then loading the car. And unloading. And the putting away!

So all that took a few hours and the leggings holding strong! No falling down, no pulling and tugging and having to readjust! I’m impressed! (Full disclosure, as a fluffy girl, I find myself “hiking” up my leggings over my belly a lot but not these!)

Then I took the littles on a walk, played on the playground and chased chickens (who won’t stay in their pen, but that’s another story for another day).

Still no sagging!

I made it through the entire day without complaint and I’m in love with these!

I washed them in cold water (turned inside out) and laid them flat to dry, so now I wanted to give them another good run to make sure they were just as wonderful after washing, because we all know, sometimes they’re not as good as the first time around!

After washing….I’m not sure if this is possible, but I think they feel even better today! I’m usually one of those people that saves my “good leggings” for going out and about but I wanted to be able to see how these did after washing and drying.

I cleaned house, chased and played with kids, crawled on the floor, attended my 7 year old’s yoga class (she has started hosting her own class for her brother and sister in our living room!), chased chickens, did a kettlebell routine and much more. So a lot of bending, stretching and running around! And now a little sitting! Whew! I’m tired!

But the good news is that these leggings are holding me in and staying up through it all! No sagging. No tugging and pulling and hiking them up. I’m definitely a fan and will order more!

So y’all need to holler at Ashley and get you some of these Savvi leggings! They also have some really cute casual clothes and much more! They’re my new favorite! I’ll include the link below. Let me know if y’all have questions!

This is a borrowed photo from the Savvi site. I love this color too!!!

| SAVVIFIT | – Stylist #27244

Once you register, you will receive a $5 coupon through email to use on any purchase! If you are a first time shopper, you can get a $25 giftcard for free!

Also check out their Facebook page, Savvi Sister’s Closet!

(Here is the actual description to the leggings I reviewed above!)

item # 7077 Volley Crop leggings (plus)

60.00 USD

Deep Plum

• Crop length • Side pockets • Mesh detailing • 4-way stretch • Moisture wicking • Tummy control • Squat proof • Model is size L, wearing size XL

• 85% Polyester 15% Spandex • Wash Cold, line dry

Also available in teal. These are plus size line.

When y’all try these, come back and comment and let me know what you think!

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020

Iced Lemon Cookies

My sweet hubby loves all things lemon! I whipped these cookies up last week and he and the kiddos went nuts over them! They’re delicious with or without the lemon frosting!

For the Cookies:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick of salted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg
Zest of 1 lemon
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Lemon essential oil (I dipped a toothpick in the oil and swirled into batter and that was enough) or you can use 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract

For the icing:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper or cookie paper.

In stand mixer (I use one like this), beat softened butter and cream cheese for about a minute or until well incorporated and creamy.

Add sugar and continue mixing until it gets fluffy. Usually after 2-3 minutes.

Add in egg and lemon zest.

Stir baking powder and flour together and slowly add to mixer.

Add lemon juice.

Dip a toothpick into lemon essential oil and swirl into batter, or if you prefer, use 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract.

Mix until well blended.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop dough onto cookie sheets, leaving plenty of room between cookies.

Spray a measuring cup with cooking spray and dip into sugar, as shown, and gently press cookies to flatten the tops.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool cookies on wire racks.

While cookies are cooling, mix together with a whisk or fork the powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Store in pie save or other air tight container!

Y’all try these and let me know what you think!

May 18, 2020

Easy Strawberry Pie

This is a light and cold dessert that is perfect for those hot summer days! Whip this up ahead of time for summer parties, weekend dinners, or just because! You can make this pie in the graham cracker crust described below, or you can use my Mamaw’s Pie Crust recipe here. Both are perfect and I have made this both ways, depending on my mood!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 sleeve graham crackers
1 stick of butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar

For the filling:

1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
1 small package strawberry gelatin
1 small package vanilla pudding and pie filling
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 cups water
8 ounces whipped topping

Instructions:

For the crust, combine all dry ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until fine crumbs. Add in melted butter and pulse until combined.

Dump into pie plate and use hands or a greased measuring cup to press into the bottom and up the sides of a glass pie plate. (Affiliate link: if you purchase items from these links, I will receive a small portion of the sale at no additional cost to you! Thank you for supporting my blog!)

Place in refrigerator to cool while prepping the pie filling.

Slice fresh strawberries and line graham cracker crust sides and bottom as shown.

Place crust with berries back in refrigerator.

In medium sauce pan, whisk together gelatin, pudding, lemon juice and water until it begins to thicken.

Set aside and allow filling mixture to totally cool.

Pour mixture over berries and refrigerate until the filling begins to set up.

Cover in cool whip and garnish with additional fresh berries or however you choose!

Enjoy!

May 18, 2020

Easy Oven Shrimp Boil

This is an easy week night favorite of the Lawson Family! It takes about 5 minutes to assemble, and 25 minutes to bake!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. raw shrimp
2 lbs. andouille sausage, smoked sausage, brats, or any combo of your liking
3-4 cups diced veggies (squash, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, brussels sprouts, etc.)
1 stick salted butter
1 bottle Zatarain’s crab and shrimp boil liquid concentrate
1 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions:

Line a baking with aluminum foil. Preheat Oven to 350.

Place stick of butter in the middle of the pan.

Dump shrimp, sausages, and diced veggies and spread evenly across pan. I keep my ingredients separate because of picky kids, but you can mix yours together if you’d like!

Squeeze lemon and then pour crab boil concentrate over meats and veggies. (Can use less of the crab boil if you don’t like your food very spicy.)

Sprinkle Old Bay seasoning over entire pan.

Bake for 25 minutes and serve immediately.

Super easy and delicious! This is always a favorite for our family!

April 23, 2020

Strawberry Lemonade Poke Cake

Ingredients:

1 box strawberry cake mix
1 small box strawberry flavored gelatin
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1 c. water
3 eggs
2 – 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. frozen lemonade concentrate
5 oz. evaporated milk
1 small box instant lemon pudding
8 oz. tub whipped topping
8 oz. Fresh strawberries, sliced
2 Tbsp sugar
Fresh lemon, optional, used as garnish

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 13×9 glass baking pan. (This is the one I have.)

Slice strawberries, sprinkle with sugar and refrigerate.

Combine cake mix, gelatin, oil, water and eggs until well mixed and pour into greased pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

While cake is baking, prepare the lemonade cream cheese filling by beating cream cheese in a bowl alone for 2-3 minutes or until creamy, then add the lemonade concentrate until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, mix evaporated milk and lemon pudding until fully incorporated, and then add pudding mixture into cream cheese mixture.

Scrape a handful of the cream cheese lemonade mix into a ziplock bag, and cut a small hole in the corner in order to pipe into the cake.

When the cake is done, remove from oven and immediately poke holes with a wooden spoon.

Once the cake has fully cooled, use the ziplock filled with cream filling and fill each hole as shown.

Spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over top of the cake and spread. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Top cream cheese layer with sliced strawberries.

Spread cool whip over the top of the strawberry layer. If desired, use strawberry slices, lemon slices, or garnishes of your choosing.