Take the guesswork out of dinner planning!

Bethany Farrar, 

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One of my favorite hearty meals to make is called Inside Out Ravioli - a childhood favorite. In our small family of 4, we only made it when company was coming over, and we usually had extra to put in the freezer for another time. 

Now, in our large family of 8, I love making this, because it usually serves us for one meal and some leftovers. 

If you’re into freezer cooking, it easily doubles and makes 3 9x13 dishes! 

Here’s the recipe!

1 lb ground meat (I like to use our farm raised sausage, but ground beef or ground deer would work great too!)

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

32 oz. tomato sauce

12 oz. tomato paste

1 envelope spaghetti sauce mix 

1 t. salt

Water that the spinach cooks in

16 oz package of small shell macaroni, cooked

10 oz box frozen chopped spinach

4 c. shredded cheddar cheese

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

Instructions: brown together the ground meat, onion, and pepper. Drain off the grease. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce mix, and the water from the cooked spinach.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cooked macaroni, spinach, cheese, eggs, and oil. Mix together thoroughly, and spread in the bottom of your greased baking dish. You should have a thick layer in the bottom of the pan. A single recipe of this makes 1 9x13 pan and 1 8x8 pan, or 2 8x11 pans.

Next, ladle the sauce on top and sprinkle with grated monterey jack cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before cutting. 

This dinner doesn’t photograph the prettiest, but it sure is a nice hearty meal, and I like to serve it with a nice big caesar salad and some crispy bread. 

If you make it, I would love it if you’d like this recipe, and tag me! 😀

Homesteading: Where do I start?

Bethany Farrar, 

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You don’t have to start here.

Start with a “why”. No matter what level of homesteading or self sufficiency you start out with, you need a why. A why will keep you motivated, a why keeps your spouse invested with you, and a why gives you your passion to keep going. You may have more than one “why” and your spouse may have others, but the why matters

Our Why:

BETH: To provide healthy, homemade/homegrown food for our family and community, whether that’s through gardening, raising our own meat, cooking from scratch, or sourcing from other trusted farms. 

TIMOTHY: To be able to feed my family with consistently healthy options where we knew what was inside, and therefore had the ability to make actual informed decisions about our health. For me I want to be as involved as possible, so making, or growing that food was especially important!

Talk with your spouse, if you have one, and decide on your why. Write it down. Place it somewhere where it’ll constantly remind you when things get difficult. Talk with your kids if you have them! Kids love to be involved, and will be more likely to be on board with helping out if they know why they’re doing it.

In February 2021, we sat down with our kids, covered the table in paper and markers, and told everyone to draw what they wanted on a farm. It was beautiful! We sat and dreamed and talked about it together, and a couple of us kept the drawings for later. 

That same April, God provided such a wonderful, beautiful farm for our family, and as one of our kids pointed out, each of us got at least one thing we wanted here. 

Our family in front of our new farm.

As much as possible, consider your capacity. When I was raising babies, and I had so many littles (we had 6 children in 9 years), I did not have capacity to garden. That was something my husband primarily did, or we just chose not to garden that year. 

I did however, make my own bread, experiment with cloth diapering, make my own cleaning products, etc. 

Sometimes, you just have to realize you can’t do everything, so pick something that you and your household is comfortable with, and run with it! 

If you are comfortable sharing, I would love to hear your “why”!