Kitchen / Garden / Sanctuary - Urban Homesteading to Nourish Body + Spirit

Tag: recipes (Page 17 of 18)

Nourishing + Frugal: Homemade Applesauce

Homemade Applesauce with Cinnamon

Homemade applesauce is one of my favorites for breakfast or a snack! And it’s SO EASY TO MAKE! Organic applesauce from the store is pretty pricey (especially at the rate I go through it), and the taste and texture just don’t compare with homemade.

We’re lucky to have a local health food store that puts out their markdown organic produce in $1 grab-bags. So when they put out bags of organic apples, I snatch ’em up to make applesauce. That means I can make 3 or 4 lbs of organic applesauce for only a dollar!

Here’s how I make my applesauce:

1. Dice the apples into small pieces. I leave the peel on for texture and nutritional value.

2. Place the pieces in a saucepan with a dash of salt (optional) and a small amount of water. For 2 or 3 chopped apples, I usually put in about 1/4 cup of water.

Homemade applesauce

3. COVER the pan, bring to a boil, and turn the burner down to low. Cook the apples until they’re very soft, stirring once or twice. This shouldn’t take long…maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

Homemade applesauce

4. When they’re very soft and can easily be mashed with a fork, dump them into a colander to drain off excess water.

5. Return the apples to the pan, and mash them against the side of the pan with a fork. You could also run them through a food processor, but I really like the chunky texture of hand-mashed applesauce.

Homemade applesauce

6. I enjoy my applesauce just plain, or sometimes with 1/2 & 1/2 (or cream) and a sprinkle of cinnamon. So delicious! Use your imagination…try toasted nuts on top for a more substantial meal. Or you could also make applesauce bread!

7. The applesauce doesn’t last that long in the fridge — maybe 5 days, tops. However, this applesauce freezes quite well, and I’ve also canned it with pretty good results (I prefer the freezer, though).

This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday over at The Nourishing Gourmet.

Cool + Refreshing Cucumber Raita

Cucumber Raita Indian Side Dish

I’m just thrilled this year to have an overabundance of cucumbers flowing from my garden! Cucumbers are one of my favorite veggies, and this is one of my favorite cucumber dishes to make. It’s a palate-cooling Indian side dish which would pair beautifully with a curry of some sort, or grilled meat or fish with a spicy marinade. I just eat mine plain, though, as more of a light dish for lunch or a snack. Once I start eating it, I can’t stop! It’s so good. For garnish, you could use mint leaves or some more Garam Masala sprinkled on top.

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Eat Well for Pennies: Zucchini Parmesan

delicious and frugal zucchini parmesan

I know, another zucchini recipe. And I’ll just tell you now…it won’t be the last. (Soon, I’ll be trying some Zucchini Peanut Butter cookies. I’ll let you know how that goes!)

As part of today’s Pennywise Platter Thursday carnival over at The Nourishing Gourmet, I’m sharing my delicious recipe for Zucchini Parmesan. If you find yourself with another bowling-pin zucchini to use, this is the perfect dish to make; it’s frugal, delicious, easy, hearty-yet-light, and will feed 6-8 people (or it’ll provide you with a weeks’ worth of easy lunches, as it is for me this week! 🙂 ) This is my own recipe, resulting many years ago from a combination of desperation and an 8-pound zucchini:

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“Pan Cookies”: Baking Cookies on the Stove!

Baking Pan Cookies on the stove

Ranger Cookies "baked" in a pan on the stove

Our apartment gets so hot during the summer, that I have to think long and hard before I decide to turn on the oven and make it worse. If I decide to use the oven, I organize myself days in advance so that I’m baking 2 or 3 dishes at once.

Recently, I had an idea. What if I “baked” cookies in my cast-iron frying pan, on the stove? I wouldn’t have to turn on the oven!

I was so excited that I tried the experiment right away, and it worked!!! It worked so well, I was shocked. First, I made up some Ranger Cookie batter using this recipe (although almost any cookie recipe would work)…

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