Fresh squeezed homemade lemonade

 

This was so ridiculously easy.  Well for me because we have a juicer. :)  If you don't have a juicer just decide what is best for you in squeezing the juice out of the lemons.  Here is how I made it.

10 lemons - makes 2 cups of juice with our juicer

10 cups of water (basically 1 cup of water for every lemon)

2 1/2 cups of sugar (probably should have bumped it to 3)

MIX WELL!

You can use truvia, splenda - whatever kind of sugar you want to make this a little better for you.  I brought this to dinner at a friends house and the kids drank it up!  I probably would have liked a little more sugar in it but it was still good this way.  Next time I'm going to add strawberries to it and make some strawberry lemonade!  Total cost with the lemons at the commissary was about $3.60 - alot for some juice - but in the long run it's better for you because there are no preservatives and it's all natural! 

Homemade peaches and cream oatmeal

So I LOVE peaches and cream oatmeal but I don't like paying for it.  So I found a recipe online to make it homemade and decided to try it this morning!

First off you take 1 cup of water, 1/8th tsp salt and 1tsp of vanilla - put them in a pot and when it's JUST about to boil add desired amount of peaches (I food processed mine to make them smaller) and 2 TBS of sugar.  Let it finish coming to a boil.

Once you have it boiling add 1/2 cup of quick oats and stir. Stir to desired consistency.

Put in 2 TBS of vanilla yogurt for the "cream" effect.  Stir and serve.

My son DEVOURED my oatmeal this morning.  I gave him one bite of mine (normally he eats breakfast at daycare) to try and he wouldn't give me my bowl back!

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

• 12 cabbage leaves shopping list
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup instant rice, uncooked
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces (DO NOT drain)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder 
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper 
• 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce 
• 1 tsp granulated sugar 
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice 
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch 
• 1 tablespoon water (approximately)

Directions:

Cover cabbage leaves with boiling water and let stand about 10 minutes or until leaves are limp. Remove leaves and drain off excess water.

Mix ground beef, rice, onions, mushrooms with liquid, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce.

Place about 1/3 cup of hamburger mixture at the stem of each cabbage leaf. Roll leaf around mixture, tucking in sides.

Place cabbage rolls seam sides down in an ungreased square baking dish.

Mix remaining tomato sauce, lemon juice, and sugar; pour over cabbage rolls. Cover and cook in oven at 350 degrees for approx 45 minutes or until ground beef is done.

Mix cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water in saucepan. Drain liquid from cabbage roll pan and add to cornstarch mixture. Boil approx 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve this sauce with cabbage rolls.

Garnish with parsley or shredded cheese if desired

Pumpkin Pie crescent rolls!

The recipe I originally got this from had you make your own crescent rolls but in our family we just don't have time for all of that!  So I used the kind in the can!

The filling:

3/4 cup pumpkin

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

This was WAY too much for my 8 cresents so next time I will be splitting this in half!

Scoop the desired amount onto the cresent and roll up like normal.  Bake according to package instructions.  When they came out i sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon ontop, our family LOVED them!