Category: Food

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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!

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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.)

Butter is melted and ready for batter!

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.

Yummy peaches!

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.

Batter

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

Yummy!

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.

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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. 

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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. 

Just dump and cook!
Super easy!

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!

All done!

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!

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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!

Delicious!

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!

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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.

Yum!

Place crust with berries back in refrigerator.

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

Pie filling mixture

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!

Ready to eat!
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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:

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!

Ready to bake!

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!

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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.

Strawberry cake is baking!

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.

Lemonade Cream Cheese filling!

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.

Holes have been poked!

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

Filling the holes!

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.

Yummy!
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Processing Fresh Pumpkin

One of the many things I love about fall is an abundance of fresh pumpkin! I love to make pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake…all things pumpkin!

This past week for Thanksgiving, I used fresh pumpkin for my Mamaw’s Pumpkin Pie, and it was so delicious! I’m not a fan of canned pumpkin. I’ll use it in a pinch, but only if I have no choice! 

I prefer to process my own pumpkins in the fall. I always get plenty to decorate the porch, but my ultimate motive is to use them for food!

This really isn’t difficult at all and it’s much tastier and much healthier than the processed canned pumpkin from the grocery store. 

Preheat the oven to 400°. 

Cut your pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds (more on this later) and lay cut side down on an oiled roasting pan.  Add 1/2-3/4 cups of water in the pan. 

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until it’s fork tender. The skin may be dark or have burned placed, depending on the type of pumpkin, but that’s ok! Just check the meat of the pumpkin periodically to make sure it’s done!

You’ll know it’s done when it’s easy to scoop with a regular spoon or fork!

Use a spoon and scrape all of the meat into a food processor or blender. If you use a blender, you may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to help purée!

Beautiful, fresh, pumpkin puree!

You can now freeze or your fresh pumpkin for use any time! 

Also, if you prefer to can your pumpkin, you can do that as well.  Just make sure you skip the blending or processing part, and cube your pumpkin instead.  The puree is too dense to can properly and runs the risk of bacteria growing, so the cubed or sliced pumpkin is ideal for canning!

What do you use fresh pumpkin for! Comment below and share your yummy ideas!

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Deer Jerky

Here we are, in the thick of deer season! In a family with deer hunters, that means many things for the Lawsons, but one thing is lots of jerky!!!  We love deer meat in place of beef for almost every single recipe so it saves us tons of money when we have our freezer stocked, but one of the best perks is the jerky. 

We love deer jerky!

My picky eating teenager will sometimes eat jerky as a meal when he doesn’t like what I’ve cooked for dinner (Shhh don’t tell the parenting police!) and I will pack it in my husband’s cooler for an easy keto friendly snack while he’s working. 

We have tried many different seasoning mixes, but the past few years we have been ordering this Backwoods multi pack from amazon because it has flavors our whole family likes and the price is better than in retail stores. 

Our favorite jerky flavors, all in one box!

You can use any ground meat for this, we just have deer on hand so it’s what we use. The thing I love about this method is it’s ease as well as there being no need for special tools or appliances. We don’t use a dehydrator, just our oven!

I start with ground meat and I use my kitchenaid to mix the seasonings in per package directions. 

I then leave the meat mixture in a glass bowl in the fridge overnight to soak up the seasoning. 

Seasoned to perfection!

I preheat the oven to 200° and I prepare my jerky strips. 

I have tried multiple methods and tools for this next step, but have found that my pieces come out much better when I use a little olive oil cooking spray directly on my clean countertop  and pat out with my hands. I can feel as I press and pat to make sure it is fairly even on thickness to make sure it dries evenly. 

I pat the meat out to about 1/8 inch thick, maybe a little more. 

I then use a small pizza cutter to cut into 1” wide strips and a silicone spatula to transfer over to a wire baking rack (these baking racks are only a dollar each at Dollar Tree!) sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. 

I put in the preheated oven with the door open to the first stop for an hour and a half. 

Dehydrating in the oven is super easy!

I then flip the pieces and leave for another hour and a half. 

If you can bend a piece 90° without moisture coming out, they’re done! If it breaks, it’s overdone. You may want to check your jerky throughout the last hour to make sure it doesn’t dehydrate too long and help you get a feel for the exact timing in your oven!

Ingredient and tools needed:

  • Ground meat (chicken, deer, turkey, beef, etc.)
  • Backwoods seasoning packs (or your favorite jerky cure/seasoning)
  • Glass bowl
  • Baking rack
  • Cooking spray

What kind of jerky do you like? Comment below with your favorite jerky making tips!

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