At the start of our CSA membership program last year I taught our members simple "discard" tips on what to do with left over veggies that may have spent too long in the fridge and the possibilities of what to do with veggie scraps. Over the year our family really enjoyed making the simple veggie broth and thought we would share it here.
In our kitchen we never throw away cooking scraps if they can be used elsewhere for example our eggshells go back into the soil with our compost and our veggie scraps go into a freezer bag for veggie broth... the ingredients are literally free if you think about it!
Before cutting, slicing. dicing or peeling veggies we always give them a rinse. For broth you can save peels, stalks and greenery. Our favorite veggies to include in our freezer bag for veggie broth are onions, garlic, carrots, mushroom and celery (think of flavors that go well together! - yellow squash? probably wouldn't be AS great). Try what flavors you like best to create your own recipe. A rule of thumb is to stay away from cruciferous veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc. as they may leave a bitter unpleasant flavor (however, I can vouch that we have used brussels sprouts cuttings and loved the flavor).
BROTH RECIPE:
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon bag full of your favorite veggies scraps
- Redmond's Sea Salt
- Pepper
- 2 Bay Leaves
Directions:
Dump your frozen scraps into a large stock pot and fill with 6-8 cups of water. Include all other ingredients and add to taste. Bring ingredients to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook for at minimum 1 hour (uncovered). Strain the ingredients of your broth over a large bowl or additional stock pot (you only want the juice).
Storage Tips:
You will want your broth cooled completely before storing. Broth is great because it can be stored multiple ways and taste just as good later! Freeze broth in containers or freezer bags (often 4 cups per freezing for must recipes). Refrigerate broth in containers or mason jars up to 1 week.
Sweet Maple Farms TIP: We cooked ours down longer than 1 hour by accident and it created a more concentrated broth - you can do this as well and pour into ice cube trays to store for easy access to incorporate into meals.
Enjoy!
- Your Farmer,
Sophia B
Are roasted pumpkin seeds healthy for you?? Of course!! Pumpkin seeds are noticed as a “superfood” by many nutritionists due to their high level of vitamins and minerals. The seeds are also a great source of magnesium, zinc, iron, fiber and antioxidants. Pumpkin seeds are a great snack option as they are not only healthy, crunchy, gluten-free, vegan, paleo but they are delicious!!
With many trial and errors we have come up with a spectacular roasted pumpkin seed recipe that has never failed us!
First, you’ll want to scoop out all of the seeds from your pumpkin. Sift through the seeds with your fingers and pick out any big pieces of pulp. Next, sit your colander of seeds down in a bowl of warm water (enough where they will float) and let it sit for 10-15 minutes swirling a couple times. Placing the seeds in this water will help loosen any extra pulp that’s stuck to them and leave you with cleaner seeds to roast!
After cleaning the seeds you’ll want to remove them from water and place them on a paper towel to dry. Pat the seeds with a paper towel until they are mostly dry. Then, the fun begins... you’ll now start mixing your recipe for the best N O fail roasted pumpkin seeds.
This recipe is according to 1/2 cup of clean and towel dried pumpkin seeds, adjust recipe according to how many seeds you have.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
-1 teaspoon olive oil
-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-1/4-1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
-Clean pumpkin seeds (as mentioned above)
-Start oven to 300 degrees F
-Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil to cover
-Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste on top of olive oil covered seeds and mix
-Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and pour the seeds onto the parchment paper
-Press the seeds out on the parchment paper to a single layer across the sheet to ensure even baking to each seed
-Place baking sheet in oven and cook for 20-30 minutes, stir the seeds about every 8 minutes, cook until you are happy with their crispiness (we like our golden brown)
-Enjoy! The longer you let your seeds rest after baking the less chewy they will be (we prefer less chewy and more crunchy)
Let us know if you try this recipe!
XOXO. Sophia
Here we are in the beginning of 2021 and I am getting to share these same memories with Waylon and Kain in our cozy home in my hometown and get to play with them on our back acres and find the BIGGEST hillside to sled down.
Tonight we had the biggest snow within the past year so we took advantage of it and went sledding in the dark. Both of the kiddos schools are even closed tomorrow due to the weather. It was SO much fun! Afterwards we came inside and made some delicious snow cream and I just had to share the recipe I came up with Incase you too, got a huge load of snow!
INGREDIENTS:
-8 cups of fresh snow
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 teaspoons of maple extract
-1 cup of milk
HOW TO:
-Add all of the ingredients into a blender or mix by hand if you choose. And simply serve immediately. It’s that easy! Keep in mind this is real snow so it will melt accordingly.
XOXO, Sophia
Sweet Maple Living
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Ingredients FOR GLAZE:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 TBSP Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter (salted) melted
1/3 cup fine chopped strawberries
1/2-1 TSP vanilla extract
2 TBSP heavy whipping cream
INSTRUCTIONS:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-In medium bowl, stir together sugar/milk/oil/eggs/vanilla. In separate bowl combine together flour/baking powder/salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time. Stir/mix until combined.
-In small bowl, mix together the strawberries and 2 TBSP of flour. This will coat the strawberries so they cook correctly, also allowing them to not sink to the very bottom.
-Fold the floured strawberries into the bread mixture.
- Pour the bread mixture into a greased bread loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes (mine took 47 minutes, and I am very adamant about not over baking my recipes).
-You will know when your bread is done all of the way through by testing it with a toothpick, or if you’re like me, just eyeball it!
-Allow the bread to cool enough to remove it from the bread pan. I let mine sit for at least 20 minutes and very easily loosened the edges with a butter knife to assure it came out beautifully.
-Making the glaze: combine together powdered sugar/melted butter/Chopped strawberries/vanilla extract/heavy whipping cream in a small bowl. Mix until smooth and all sugar is dissolved.
-Once the bread is cool enough (hot will melt the glaze right off) pour the glaze mixture over the top center of the bread.
-If you feel inclined, you can add seasonal sprinkles for a festive touch like I did!
-Now you can slice and serve!
Eat up! Let me know if you try my recipe version out and how you liked it by commenting below or on my social media’s @sweetmapleliving
XOXO, Sophia
Sweet Maple Living
Grab a large pot in your kitchen and throw in the ingredients, bring to a boil and serve!
Ingredients:
-3 Cups Milk
-1.5 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
-7 oz (Half Can) Sweetened Condensed Milk
-1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
-1/8 Teaspoon Salt
-1.5 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips (or any kind you prefer)
Let me know if you try this recipe! Happy 😃 Holidays!
XOXO, Sophia Brown
Sweet Maple Living
You have old bananas and need to do something with them as soon as possible before they are no good, what do you do? Make Banana Nut Bread, of course! Growing up this was a “tradition” in our family when this occurred and today I got to share that tradition with Waylon. This recipe can be made in a loaf pan or an 8x8 pan.
Ingredients needed:
2 Cups Flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter
2 Eggs, Beaten
1 Cup Bananas, Mashed (About 2 Bananas)
1/4 Cup Buttermilk (We made our own with milk and lemon)
1 Cup of Nuts (if you’d like!)
A few grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange’s “Bakers Secret Spice Blend” to taste
Instructions:
Cream together the butter & sugar. Add eggs. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the bananas & buttermilk. Fold in nuts. Bake for around 50 minutes at 350 degrees. While letting cool, top with Bakers Secret Spice Blend. Enjoy!
Let me know in the comments or over at @sweetmapleliving Instagram with a picture if you try this recipe out!
XOXO Sophia & Waylon
Sweet Maple Living
This past week I made some pretty tasty Pumpkin Spice Muffins and I promised I would share the recipe with you all this weekend.
Bake at 350° for 15-20 min. This recipe makes around 11 big muffins.
- 1 Box of Spice Cake Cake-mix
-1 Can of Pumpkin Purée
(it’s really that easy!)
Mix together the dry Spice Cake cake-mix and can of Pumpkin Purée. No butter, oil, or eggs! I used my electric Kitchen Aid mixer to assure it turned out a good consistency but I suppose you can use a normal whisk as well. I personally like my muffins really big and a tad moist so I then spooned the prepared mixture into disposable cupcake cups. I filled my cups about 3/4 full. This mixture made me about 11 muffins total. Pop your muffins into the oven at 350° for 15-20 min depending on the size of muffins you create. Like I said, I like my muffins bigger so it took around 20 min to cook and still leave them moist on top.
You can also add in your favorite flavor of chocolate chips, raisins or cinnamon chips for extra flavor!
Enjoy! XOXO
Sophia
Wild Violet Jelly is one thing we always as kids, growing up, that I’d love to pass on to you! I was always really interested in the "magical color change". After collecting violets in a jar, you pour boiling water onto them. Then let the jar sit overnight to infuse and create a lovely sapphire blue "tea". When you strain out the flowers and add lemon juice, the dark blue tea turns purple. WOW!