The journey of a girl playing in the dirt as life unfolds .
Tacos! Tacos! Tacos! I think I’ve maybe mentioned my love for tacos a few times. This is a fast and super easy recipe I hope your family will enjoy.
Perfect for lunch or dinner with a side of Mexican rice or Mexican corn salad 😋
Ingredients
Pork or beef Chorizo
Corn tortillas
White or yellow onion
Fresh diced pineapple or 1 can of diced drained pineapples
Cook chorizo and onions add in pineapple. Spoon onto cooked corn tortillas and top with salsa and cilantro
Enjoy!
I love this Latin dish and the simpleness of the recipe. The flavors are tasty and slopping a tortilla into it is delicious. This is a dish that most countries have some form of it’s own version. I would love to try all the different ways to make this! Yum
Taste as you go! Don’t be afraid to add more seasonings or more pepper. You want the flavors to become deep and yummy. This dish is also good topped over rice or on the side.
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 35 mins
INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE
4 Tomatoes
!/2 yellow onion
1/2 cup of water
1 tablespoon Minced garlic
1-2 Jalapeno peppers
1/2 oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cumin
INGREDIENTS FOR THE MEAT
Cooking oil
Yellow onion Diced
1 pound ground beef
salt to taste
1-2 medium potatoes, diced
2-3 Carrots, diced
1/4 cup frozen peas ( optional )
For the sauce
Add all sauce ingredients in a large blender and puree until smooth. Add salt and taste adding more if need be.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When hot add in the cooking oil. onion, ground beef, and a pinch of salt. Cook breaking up the meat until lightly brown.
Add in the potatoes, carrots and peas. Mix together, cover with lid and simmer for 10 min
Add the sauce over the top
Remove lid and cook for another 10 mins.
Remove it from heat, taste and add more salt if need be.
I have never been a big fan of Cinnamon Rolls until I came across this recipe. I have tweaked it here and there to get it to my Liking. Plus, when I can skip a step on kneading dough then I’m all in. And if you don’t have a Bread machine you can still make this recipe. You’ll just have to put in a little elbow grease. ( A bread machine is worth the investment) I have linked the Bread Machine I purchased from Amazon.
What I love about these Cinnamon rolls is that they’re gooey, buttery and soft all the way through and The cream cheese topping just adds to the mouth watering Deliciousness you get with ever bite.
Dough
Frosting
1 package of cream cheese
1 tbsp of vanilla
2 tbsp of softened butter
1 cup of Powdered sugar
mix until smooth
Add your dough ingedents into the bread machine and start the dough Cycle.
Pour the melted ½ cup butter unto the rolled out dough.. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon up in a bowl and scatter evenly on the melted butter.
Roll the dough And cut into even pieces. Places pieces Into your pan and set in a warm area for about 30 min to rise. You can make this step faster by preheating your oven to 350. Once it’s reached temp turn your oven off and place in the oven for 30 min.
Once the dough has risen place oven back to 350 and cook for 25 more min or until done. Let cool and add Cream cheese topping.
I am that girl that absolutely could eat Tacos everyday. They make me happy! Indian tacos (Navajo tacos) are tacos but the tortilla is replaced with FRY BREAD! Did I have you at fry bread?! I recommend eating the following recipe with a knife, fork and extra napkins because they’re deliciously messy.
1 pound ground beef
1 medium yellow onion diced
1 package of you favorite taco seasoning 2 cups of pinto beans or I love to add chili beans if I don’t have fresh pinto beans already made
1-2 tomatoes chopped
1/4 bunch cilantro chopped
1 can black olives sliced
2 cups or more shredded Mexican blend cheese or cheddar
Sour Cream, Guacamole, pickled peppers and your favorite hot sauce for Garnish
For the Navajo Fry Bread
2 cups flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 teaspoons powdered milk
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 cup water
-extra flour for hands and dusting surface. Your choice of frying oil I like to use lard
1.Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Pour the water all at once into the dry ingredients and stir until combined
3. Flour your hands and continue to squeeze the dough until it’s mixed well.
4. Cut the dough into equal pieces And roll into balls
5. In a pot heat up your frying oil. You can test the oil with a small piece to see if it’s ready.
7. Fry the bread one or two at a time until browned on one side, then flip over and repeat.
Brown the beef in a skillet until no longer pink add in beans then Add the taco seasoning and 1/4 cup of water to the ground beef and let cook until the liquid is absorbed.
2. Start putting together the tacos by staring with a fry bread, meat and layer the toppings
This is a family favorite and even to the non chicken lover in the family (the husband) he talked about this pulled chicken sandwich for weeks.
Ingredients
The garden gave us a wealth of Habanero peppers this season. So I have been doing a lot of different recipes that includes them or canning them for winter. (If you don’t have habaneros fill free to leave them out.) Also, this is a perfect recipe to throw all in the crockpot for a delicious and Easy lunch or dinner.
CROCKPOT- Mix all ingredients but the chicken and onion in a bowl. Add chicken and onions and pour sauce over the top. Cook on high to medium for 4-5 hours. Thicken sauce after cooked if you needed.
STOVE TOP – I like to season my chicken first, cook each side until it gets a nice crust. Take the chicken out to cool and then shred the chicken. Add sauce and onions to the pan cooking on medium heat for 5 min. Add the shredded chicken reduce heat to low. Allow it to cook soaking in the flavors for 10 minutes. Add in your flour or cornstarch water mixture to thicken. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until thickened to your liking.
Add the pulled chicken to a yummy bun and top with slaw mix. Enjoy! 😋
If you have a love for bagels like my family does. Then this is the perfect recipe for Homemade bagels. This recipe will give you flaky, soft and a delicious crispy crust EVERY TIME!
The thing I love about this recipe is the dough can be made by hand or toss the ingredients in the bread maker and enjoy a cup of hot tea while it does its magic.
For this recipe I opted to use the bread maker on the dough setting.
I topped my bagels with sesame seeds. To do so lightly toast sesame seeds in a pan. Once done set them aside. After placing egg wash on the bagels. Sprinkle with seeds and bake. You can use so many other yummy seasoning! Just get creative 🙂
Isn’t it funny how much we learn from the things around us? The garden is that place for me and for my kids. I feel like there are so many teaching moments it offers.
As you walk around the gardens you can feel the energy, the calm and the peace. But what you feel most is those teaching moments. From the different insects in the garden to the birds enjoying the seeds of the now dying sunflowers. Each plant gazing its beauty at you and sharing information.
The garden shows you signs of needing water, if it’s had to much water, the overall health of the plant and if it needs maybe a little boost of fertilizer.
Although, those are all teaching moments I share with my kids. The real teaching comes in taking in its complete energy. Listen as the plants move in the wind, hear the sounds of the insects, feel the soil in your hands. Breath in the calmness it gives you and embrace the beauty that surrounds you.
I often state that the garden is my little slice of heaven right here on Earth. And if I had to imagine what heaven might be like. It’s those moments in the garden. I am thankful for the teaching lessons and for it’s wealth of giving. It gives in more ways than an abundance of veggies to cook. It truly gives us an awareness of our spiritual self and God’s beauty.
Today, as we harvested and shelled bush Lima beans. I am Thankful for the lessons the garden shares with us here on the homestead.
So, after doing a quick google search on making my first blog post. It says the proper first thing to do is an introduction. So let’s start there and then we will move onto the next step, as advised by my google search.
My name is Allison. I have been married to my bearded, yet just enough nerdy to get this blog up and going for me, husband for 20 years. He truly is the LOVE of my life. We have four of the most amazing kids ages 20, 19, 14 and 8. We have 5 fur babies, a load of chickens and two ducks. We live on a 40 acre farm in Southwestern Oklahoma surrounded with large beautiful pecan trees.
I’m the type of person who truly believes the best therapy is in the kitchen cooking or in the garden. Cooking brings delicious smells into the home and food brings friends and family around the table. Conversations are started and bellies become full.
The garden…. The garden holds a special place in my heart. It is the place I retreat to when I need peace and clarity. It’s the love for getting my hands in the dirt, planting, watching things grow and then the harvest that truly brings me to a place of complete happiness.
Which leads me to the reason this blog even exists in the first place. I want to share my joy with you! Here we will talk all things life on the homestead from cooking to gardening. We will grow together, cry together (or I will cry) laugh together, learn together and most importantly we will find happiness in the littlest of things the Homestead brings us.
Here is the best part! You are getting a front row ticket to watch me tackle my first ever Flower farm adventure. I am, by no means new to growing vegetables. That, I can do and do pretty darn good. But a cut flower farm is a whole new ball game. I have no idea what I am doing. Sure, I’ve read the books, watched YouTube videos, researched and followed my favorite flower people on Instagram.But you and I are walking into this with very limited knowledge. The thing that I do know… is that everyone has to start somewhere and I’m that gal that goes all in. We’ve got this!
I hope that with each blog post you enjoy the pleasures and happiness of cooking and gardening with me. And maybe even get a good laugh in at my expense.
