The Best Crockpot Easter Dinner Meal Plan Round Up





The Best Crock Easter RecipeRound Up
I have a little confession – I love to cook. I love good food but, if I can find an easier way to spend less time in the kitchen I am soooo there! And, I may have a slight obsession with my crockpot.

This year we will be changing things up a bit for Easter dinner. We are having friends over for a brunch and Easter egg hunt in the morning {thinking I will be making an egg bake breakfast casserole and my caramel french toast bake.}

But, what about dinner?

I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I could entertain in the morning and still pull off a somewhat traditional Easter dinner for my family and then, it hit me – my trusty old crockpot. Yep, I am pretty much over the moon excited we are going to have the best crockpot dinner ever and guess what, it’s going to be cooking while I hang out with our friends and family. Everybody wins!

{Oh, and if you only have one crockpot I highly recommend getting a second as it’s worth it’s weight in gold. We have 3 different sizes and I love them all!}

So, here’s the scoop for;

The Best Ever Easter Dinner Crockpot Meal Plan





The Best Crockpot Easter Dinner Meal Plan Round Up-maple-brown-sugar-ham-crockpot-green beans- corn dip- homemade apple sauce- home cooking goodness with less time in the kitchen

I am excited to try Life in the Loft House‘s Crock Pot Maple Brown Sugar Ham recipe – we are big maple syrup fans so this just sounds divine. A brown sugar rub, with a maple syrup and pineapple glaze cooked on low while I play with the kids – yep, I think I can do this.

Moms with Crock pots shared an awesome looking green bean casserole recipe – we will not being using bouillon cubes as most are not gluten free. But, we will sub them out with Better than Bouillon. *We will not be adding our bacon until the end as soggy bacon bits get me every time {gah}.

If you have never made crockpot brown sugar carrots you are missing out – they are so easy!

 

The Best Crockpot Easter Dinner Meal Plan Round Up




LifeCurrents Crockpot Corn Dip  looks like the perfect side dish or maybe even pre-dinner appetizer. Surely, I know my children can not be the only ones that insist on eating the entire hour before we sit down to a meal, right?!? Frozen corn, cream cheese, cheese, a zip of jalapeño, and spices slow cooked and served with organic corn chips should hold the littles over.

No Easter Dinner would be complete with out some homestead applesauce  and I’m thinking these easy au gratin potatoes inspired by Chelsea’s Messy Apron should do the trick…

Easy-Slow-Cooker-Potatoes-Au-Gratin-a-perfect-Easter-side-dish-save-room-in-the-oven-with-this-easy-dish-Plus-a-secret-tip-to-get-the-potatoes-crispy

And, if there is room for dessert after all that food I am thinking a scoop of ice cream from the local dairy farm should do the trick.

Get The Homestead DailyFREE-2

How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden for a Years Worth of Food for Your Family

How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden for a Years Worth of Food for Your Family-2

How much should you grow in your garden for a years worth of food for your family?

I don’t know about you, but every year I feel the cool air quickly turn to spring and all of a sudden (insert panic) I can’t seem to remember how much of anything to plant.

And, every year I seem to ask myself the same question; “how much do I need to plant in our garden to supply my family with enough food for the winter?”

Are you trying to figure out how much you will need too?

Well, I’ve gathered up some of my favorite resources and I’m hoping to break it all down for you. So, you can take the guess work out of your garden planning and spend more time actually gardening.

If you are new to My Happy Homestead you can ‘meet our family here“. We have not always lived in the country; in fact, most of our lives we have  lived in the city. So, growing all of our own food was not really an option in the past; although, we certainly did the best we could with what resources we had available at the time.

We had strawberry gardens, a raspberry garden, a small scale garden, and picked local seasonally ripe food from area farms whenever possible. We ordered a cow, a pig, and shopped at local famers markets on a regular basis. You can check out how I shop for our family of 6 once a month here.

All that said, our ancestors did not have the luxury of having a grocery store on every corner they depended solely upon growing a garden, having a farm, saving seeds, and preserving their harvest for survival. A garden was not a tiny, pretty little space in a perfectly manicured back yard – the garden was the entire yard. There wasn’t weekend dance classes, sporting events,  and weekly parties to attend. And, there certainly wasn’t countless vacations to be had. Life was the farm, and the farm meant survival.

Since I only shop once a month for our family of six I am keenly aware of how much food we consume. I pretty much have it down to a science {now, that goes with out saying as the kids have gotten older I have had to make some adjustments}.

But, I know we need 5-6 six packs of yogurt, 5 cans of each kind of bean {kidney, black, pinto, etc}, 1 Costco size sour cream, 3-4 gallons of milk, 2 lbs of ground meat for every meal, 8 packs of waffles, 3 bags/boxes of cereal, and on, and on.

How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden for a Years Worth of Food for Your Family

So, just how much ‘How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden for a Years Worth of Food for Your Family’ {disclaimer some of these we still have not grown but, this is based on my personal experience and research}

Asparagus 1-4 plants per person

Bush Beans 10- 15 plants per person

Pole Beans 10-15 plants per person

Beets 10-15 plants per person

Broccoli – 8 plants per person

Brussel Sprouts – 4 plants per person

Cabbage – 5 plants per person

Carrots 20-30 plants per person (100 seed pack would/should feed a family of 6)

Cauliflower – 5 plants per person

Celery – 4-8 plants per person

Corn – 20-40 plants per person

Cucumber – 5 plants per person

Egg plant – 1 plants per person (plus an additional 2-3 per family)

Kale – 1 5′ row

Lettuce – 10 -12 plants {obviously you can no preserve this over the winter months but, you can stagger your growing to harvest most of the year)

Onions – 30 plants per person

Peas – 30 plants per person

Peppers – 8 plants per person

Potatoes – 20-25 plants per person

Pumpkins – 1 plant per person {1-2 additional for the family}

Rhubarb – 2 crowns per family

Spinach – 10 -20 plants per person

Summer squash – 3 plants per person {there’s nothing like shredded zucchini already prepared for quick breads)

Winter Squash – 2 plants per person

Sweet Potatoes – 5 plants per person

Tomatoes – 5-8 plants per person

Another way to figure out how much your family would need to grow for the winter is think of how much your family consumes and research the approximate yield on a given plant.

For example; if it was estimated that a 10 ft. row of bush beans would yield 3-5 lbs. yield then, I know I would need approx. 100+ ft. row to sustain my family over the winter as we consume approximately 5-6 lbs. of green beans per month.

Of coarse this could not be broken down into an exact science since weather, natural disaster, and pests can all affect yield.

What I can tell you is this – plant what you like to eat and plant what you will use. If you are short on space plant what you can with what room you have available.

Do you have room behind your garage? That’s where our berry garden used to be. Try planting food where you would plant flowers – replace the dying tree in the corner of the yard with a fruit tree instead of an ornamental piece.

And, start learning about harvesting your seeds – there is nothing more rewarding than knowing you grew something from a tiny seed and you were able to save the seeds for next years harvest thus, repeating the cycle of life.

Hungry for more gardening goodness check out these (affiliate links) –

Spring Cleaning Your Homeschool Curriculum and 5 Tips For New Homeschoolers From a Mom of Four

%22All Good Thingsare Wild and Free%22




Ok. confession, I love homeschool curriculum. I love reading reviews and the smell of new homeschool books. I love reading about the various homeschool theories and seeing all that is out there. All that said, it can be very overwhelming at times. We are sucked in to the pretty pictures, newest homeschooling fads, and wanting to ‘feel’ like we are covering everything we ‘need’ to.

It is hard to believe this is our 7th year homeschooling {we started when Music-Bee was 2.5/3} I shared some reflections of journey HERE on Periscope. I also shared why we are spring cleaning our curriculum and what we will be doing on Fridays for the remainder of the school year.

As the weather and seasons begin to change we all get a little restless so it’s time to shake things up a bit…check out ‘My Happy Homeschool Fun Fridays’ on Instagram to see what we are up to.

5 {well, 6} Tips for New Homeschoolers From a Mom of Four

  1. Resist the urge my friends – do no buy a bunch of curriculum especially if your kids are little. The books are pretty and ah, that smell….resist it! There are far better ways…
  2. Do not stress if our 3, 4, or even 5 year old is not ‘doing’ school {unless required of coarse check your state laws HERE}
  3. DO NOT make your kids ‘do’ school all day or feel like you need to fill their days with constant entertainment.
  4. DO NOT feel guilty about saying no to the local homeschool co-op, library time, or playdate. Your kids will be social – they will have countless opportunities to ‘be’ socialized – if anything they will be ‘too’ social at times.
  5. DO enjoy spending time with your children – get outside as much as possible, read good books, go to the park, the zoo, the hands on museum, the beach, play games, and don’t feel bad for exposing them to ‘real’ life and hands on learning. Learning is an atmosphere – and, ‘the mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days’*. The road isn’t easy, but you are planting seeds for a love a learning…
  6. Implement a quiet time in your days and don’t feel bad if you have to close your eyes for a few to tune out the noise. We all need a break sometimes and don’t beat yourself up. As homeschool parents there is no ‘lunch room break’, ‘prep hour’, or ‘specials’ – you are it! You are on duty 24/7 – you are the lunch mom, the nurse, the principle, the art teacher, the reading aid, etc. take that break! And, don’t think twice about it!

This is a time in our home where hands  on learning and living books become one; Here are some of our favorite ‘living books’ {If you are not familiar with these they are classics not text books. They are literature based to help inspire, spark curiosity, and encourage a continuous love of learning} Click the picture affiliate links included for your convenience -if you order I will get a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you – it helps keeps this little blog running so, thank you!





Spring Cleaning Your Curriculum And 5 Tips for New Homeschoolers from a Mom of Four

*Charlotte Mason Quote

Some of our favorite Homeschool Spring Cleaning resources;