Crockpot wheat berries and sausage soup

So I have had a hard time making myself sit down and put thing on our blog. I am not very good a grammar as you can probably tell if you have read any of my other posts.  I love to cook, but with a large family of picky eaters its hard to find something everyone will eat. This year I am going to be trying different recipes in hopes that I can find a few that they will eat.  This one was delicious, I loved it, my 13 year old son loved it. I even took it to my friend and her family, they loved it (or at least they said they loved it). But my five other children didn't like it and neither did my husband. :( I will share it with you, and I hope that you enjoy it.

Ingredients:
1 lb Sausage
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of Chicken broth
1 bag of cut green beans frozen
1 can Black beans
3 tsp onion powder (my husband doesn't eat real onions but can be used)
1 pd Carrots (my favorite part but less can be used)
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 cups raw wheat berries
1 1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2  tsp dried oregano
1 tsp  kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine all of the above ingredients in the crock-pot for 8 hour on low.  My crock-pot cooks hot so mine was done 7ish or just until wheat berries are cooked through and vegges are tender.

Cook and add sausage 30 minutes before you are ready to serve.

This really is so easy and so good for a busy day.

After

Before

Summer fun!

After a long summer brake the kids are back in school, I have mixed emotions about it. But with that I have a little more time on my hands to blog. :)  We have been working hard to get all the farming done so we have more time to get orders taken care of. But nothing ever happen exactly like we plan. My brothers have been here all summer, it's been so much fun to have them around. We will have two brother playing basketball in Wyoming and one coaching basketball at a high school in Louisiana. My brother Trevor is working full time on the farm. While our youngest brother is a Sophomore in high school.  My brother took the kids to see the fish in the ditch and they were so big.

 My dad is hard at work keep every thing going!

This years crop looks great! 

We have been really busy and appreciate you business and 

hope everyone will continue to be understanding.

We are headed camping this weekend, if anyone has a

recipe that they would like us to try while we are gone send them to davesfarms@gmail.com and we will give them a try and let you know how it goes!

Enjoy your long weekend and I dare you to try something with your wheat this week I promise you can do it. Just give it a try you might just like it ;) 

 

Wheat Grass

I have heard a lot of great things about wheat grass so I decided to give it a try.  All of our wheat can be sprouted. I decided to sprout our red wheat because it had more protein but have been told since that people sprout both red and white and there's not much of a difference. I couldn't believe how fast it worked and how thick it was. My husband would ask me everyday when I was going to mow my lawn.

Did you know that 2oz of wheat grass juice is nutritionally equivalent to consuming 2 lbs of greens.  It has a ton of Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the basis of all plant life. It is high in Oxygen and can help you body function at it's very best. Wheat Grass help purify the liver and improves blood sugar. And so much MORE... It costs as much as $6 plus at health food stores. So why not grow your own???

It's easy... I took a Tupperware with a missing lids. Since most of my lids are missing it was pretty easy. But I cut some cardboard to fit the bottom and when out to my garden and took some dirt to cover it. The dirt was less than one inch thick. I spread a layer of seeds over that make sure not to put them to thick. Don't put dirt over the top take a newspaper and wet it and lay it over the top. for the next few days take a spray bottle and keep the newspaper wet. The whole process only took about 7-11 days.

I cut about 1/2 wheat grass and 1/2 a banana and some apple juice. I chopped the grass the best I could and placed it in a blender. I would love to get a juicer but for now this works.

Not a good picture but had to show you my cute helper. I would be lying if we said we loved it and made it all the time. :) I need to get a juicer or a strainer it was kind of stringy and it smelled like fresh cut grass.   I'm glad I tried it and will be doing it again.  Good luck!

Brown Sugar and Wheat Muffins

Brown Sugar Muffins

I made these the other night because I wanted something sweet but still healthy. They tasted more like corn bread, or had more of that texture. I loved them and ended up making 2 batches so I could have them for breakfast the next day.

Instructions:

1 Cup wheat flour

1 Cup white flour (I'm sure you could do all wheat)

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 Salt

Mix in bowl

In another bowl mix

2 eggs 

1/2 cup oil

1/2 Brown sugar

I used old brown sugar and was pretty lumpy and I couldn't mix out all the lumps. It worked great for me. But mix this really well.

Then add 1 Cup milk and stir.

Add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredient and slightly mix. Spray muffin tins and pour into tins.

 Yields 12 muffins bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes.

I have baked for awhile but always with white floor and I would wait till golden brown and take what I was baking out. So baking with wheat is hard for me because I have to wait till it looks almost burnt to me. Be patient let them cook, wait till they almost look burn and they will be perfect.  I hope you like them as much as I did!

Blender Pancakes Whole Wheat, banana and honey

Blender Pancakes

100% Whole Wheat, Banana & Honey

Oh my goodness, these are so yummy!

 

 Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups whole wheat berries

1 ripe banana

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp. honey

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. Salt

Instructions:

I put the milk and wheat berries in the fridge the night before 6-8 hours but if you have a (Bosch blender of a Blendtec I don't think you would need to). The next morning I blended it for 3-4 minutes on high. Add remaining ingredients and blend to combine.

The batter is pretty thin and cooked really fast so be sure to turn down the heat I cook mine at 325 but each griddle is different so be sure to adjust your heat as needed. 

Makes 10-12, 6-8" pancakes. My oldest put peanut butter and maple syrup and like it. I had them with the butter milk syrup I shared the recipe for that with blender waffles post.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Great way to start out your day and even more for your kids.    

Blender Waffles

My mom made us a hot breakfast every morning growing up, so I work really hard to do the same for our kids. I am always looking for easy recipes that are quick and delicious.  This is an old family recipe and perfect for people that want to use their wheat but don't have a grinder.  I have made it before but my kids didn't like the chunks in their waffles, so I haven't made them in a long time. But the other night when I was thinking about recipes to share, this is the first one that came to mind because it is so easy. The recipe says to put whole wheat berries in the blender with some milk for 5 minutes but in my cheap blender they wouldn't grind very well. So I decided I would wait till we could afford a nicer one and filled it away. But I still have my cheap blender so I decided to soak them all night and it worked great. This recipe made 5 waffles, I have 8 people in my family and I had enough but next time I will probably double it.

Last night  I put 1 Cup of milk (I only used whole milk because I had it, 2% or 1% would work to) and 3/4 Cup Wheat berries right into the blender and put it in the refrigerator over night.

This morning I got up and started the blender first thing. Then I went to wake everyone up it only took about five minutes or so. I then added the rest of ingredients:

2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
2 eggs
1/4 Cup oil
2 Tbl sugar or honey

Start the blender again for only a minute or so this time until will mixed. Then cook in a waffle iron.

My kids love buttermilk syrup

1/2 Cup butter melted and browned
Then add
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Buttermilk
cook over med heat for 2-3 minutes
remove from heat add
1/2 Tbl Baking Soda

I know not super healthy but the are having whole wheat pancakes and I don't butter the waffles before I add the syrup. The LOVED them this morning!

Our oldest had basketball practice this morning so he missed out. But everyone else loved them this recipe will be added to our weekly rotation.  The waffles recipe had to be less then .10 cents per serving.  Healthy and cheap even better!  Win/Win Good luck!

ARIZONA

We had the opportunity to take a semi load of wheat and honey to Arizona. My dad (Dave), my mom (Julie), my cute brother Jace and also my husband Travis all made the trip. After I heard all the fun stories it sounded more like a vacation then work. ;)  The semi left on Thursday but Jace had a basketball game he wanted to play in so they all left at 5am Friday morning. They arrived in Heber around 4 where Tiffani had set up the drop off.  They spent the next 2 hours meeting everyone and helping people with their wheat orders. From there they went to Mesa to stay the night. My dad has this idea that if you just show up at a hotel they will just have a room for you.  So after a few stops they final found a place to stay. Travis said they got a good laugh out of it.
Early the next morning they were on their way to JoAnn's house. They spent another 2 hours meeting and helping people with their wheat and honey. I think that is my dad's favorite part, he love meeting people and hearing there stories. I know my mom loves it because she just loves visiting with people. From there they when to Holly's in Queen Creek AZ and spent another 2 hours visiting and helping. My husband is nice but not much of a people person and he even said how much he enjoyed the people in Arizona. Travis wants to retire and move somewhere, he came home and said he wanted to move there. We will see we have a few years yet till we can retire.
We want to send a special thank you to all the people in ARIZONA. Thanks for your support your and your kindness. Thanks to Tiffani, JoAnn, Linda and Holly.