Category: Meal Planning

Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

We’ve been experimenting with sourdough recipes for a while now and this one has been a favorite of ours. It’s super easy to make but does have a bit of time required for rising so we usually start these the evening before we need them.

You can mix them by hand, use a stand mixer with a dough hook, or even mix them up in your breadmaker… we’ve tried them each way and they all turn out great. I like to put the dough in the oven for its long rise… be sure to leave the light on for it to keep it comfy!

These work great for breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas, or with a bit of butter and jelly… yum!

This recipe may look a little tricky but once you made it a time a two you could probably do it in your sleep! If you don’t have a sourdough starter you can find tons of easy recipes online to start your own or you can buy some starter like we did HERE.** (Yes, that’s an affiliate link but it won’t cost you a penny more to use it.)

Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 c. active sourdough starter
  • 1 T. sugar or honey (we prefer to use local honey but that’s not really necessary)
  • 1 c. milk (I haven’t tried using milk kefir but it would probably work as well)
  • 1 t. salt
  • 3 c. all-purpose flour (may need a little more or less depending on the climate)
  • a bit of cornmeal of flour for dusting

Directions:

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Broccoli Slaw

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog7 Comments

We love this recipe with many meals all year round… it is so good. Feel free to add your own favorite fruits/veggies or omit some if you don’t like them.

Broccoli Slaw

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 – 2 pounds of Broccoli, broken into small pieces without the large stems (or about 3 cups)
  • 2-3 carrots, thinly sliced or grated (we usually leave this out as we have some carrot haters here)
  • 1/3 c. Onion, red/green/white, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 c. Raisins/cranberries
  • 1/4 c. Almonds/nuts/sunflower kernels
  • 1/2 pound Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Dressing:

  • 2 T. vinegar (we use ACV or Red Wine Vinegar)
  • 1/2 c. Mayo
  • 2-3 T Sugar, Monkfruit, or Maple Syrup
  • 1/2 t. celery seed, optional
  • salt, and pepper to taste

Directions:

The broccoli needs to be washed and dried and then cut or sliced into small bitesize pieces.

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Add in the remaining ingredients and toss well.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours to let the flavors meld together… the longer it sits, the better it tastes but we have eaten it right away and it still tastes pretty good.

broccoli-slawDownload

Getting in the right mindset to simplify… simplify your spaces

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

It seems like our lives can get so hectic so quickly without us realizing it is even happening. I know that I seem to get one thing running smoothly but then ten other things seem to just fall off the track and then everything turns to CHAOS. We need our homes to be comfortable and not a place we dread being.

For me, the very first thing I need to do before starting this process is to find a little time for me & God… I often find that life feels overwhelming when I haven’t been able to have any quiet time for myself. I have tried getting up earlier but that just isn’t working out right now, I often would take a few minutes after lunch when the baby was down for a nap but our school routines have been out of whack since adding a new kiddo, when the time bedtime rolls around I am worn out. I do find little bits of time here and there to have little chats with God but I just haven’t been able to have my devotional time and I think that may be part of the reason that I am feeling so overwhelmed.

When something is frustrating me I often go to Him in prayer and ask Him to help me and show me ways that I can change or that we can change as a family. I ask Him to give me wisdom and guidance about the changes and things we need to work on so that they will benefit everyone.

Where do we start when it seems like everything is the problem?

We use this process in our home for a lot of different problems, part of it we even use for teaching the kids to make good choices. I’ll give a couple of examples of how we have used this system in the past.

1. STOP and identify the problem.

This might be the most difficult part of the whole process because sometimes it can be difficult to actually narrow down what or where the problem actually is when you are feeling overwhelmed. Many times there are multiple problems and sometimes the problems are not actually what we think they are. If you do find yourself with a multitude of problems then just try to focus on the biggest one first and work on ONE AT A TIME or you may find yourself even more overwhelmed and frustrated.

Maybe your home just feels way too small and unorganized. What’s the biggest problem area? Well, the one that bothered me the most was the kitchen because that was where I spend the majority of my time.

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31 Ways To Go Plastic Free

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

I read about this Plastic-Free Challenge earlier this week but haven’t had a chance to post about it until now… If you’ve been following the blog you’ll know that I’ve mentioned that we’ve been extraordinarily busy this past couple of months and hopefully we’ll be able to share what we’ve been up to sometime later this month… it’s really exciting!

Back to the post though… part of my New Year’s goal was to start using less plastic and disposable items in our house. I know we probably won’t be a zero waste household anytime soon but I know that we can have really cut back on single-use plastic items in our home.

Just the other day I realized that our plastic storage containers have been disappearing. Where have they gone? Well, that’s a question that may never be answered but I do know that I really need to replace them. I’ve been looking at a few Plastic-Free options on Amazon and Walmart but haven’t decided what to get yet but I will need to find something soon.

I know that some things will not be replaced soon like our favorite lunch boxes but I have found some replacements for some time in the future. I have also been looking for non-plastic/non-glass replacements to the kids’ water bottles that they use at home. We do try our best to use reusable shopping bags when we go for groceries.

Here are a few ideas of things we’ve replaced recently:

I know that there are some items that might hard to replace but there are new solutions coming out every day. Making these changes one at a time will make a difference and you may find that it saves you money as well!

Join the Plastic Free Challenge Today!

So many places around us are putting bans on plastics as well so this is something that everyone really needs to adjust to. It’s crazy to see the numbers on the plastic pollution crisis and our family wants to do our part to help out with this. With the Plastic Free Challenge, you can choose where you will be going plastic free, what you choose to refuse, and how long you choose to go plastic free.

This week I got an email from Life Without Plastic about their Plastic-Free Tooth Tabs which can replace those plastic toothpaste tubes and are packaged in a paper box. They also talked about their new Plastic-Free Lunch Boxes which were funded on Kickstarter. They also have a wide variety of Plastic-Free Containers for packing those delicious lunches in.

Take the Plastic Free July Challenge with www.goingzerowaste.com

Take the Plastic Free July Challenge with www.goingzerowaste.com

Here are a few more interesting articles I’ve found about this topic:

It’s not too late to join the Plastic Free Challenge Today!

**This post does contain affiliate links to products and/or services that we use. We may earn a teensy weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission.

 –Thank you!

Easy Peasy Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

We have a breakfast schedule set up to help keep things running smoothly here which means that every Thursday we have Pancakes and then on some weekends we have Waffles. I also love our sourdough and kefir so we adjusted our original pancake recipe to incorporate these. This recipe is so easy that my girls make it by themselves.

Continue reading “Easy Peasy Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles” →