The BLESSINGS of Canning

Our (not so little) seedlings are growing!!  Our tomato plants from seed are looking great.  Today I pulled out a jar of spaghetti sauce that was canned on my due date last year.  While pregnant, I always go past my due date.....and last year due date was celebrated by canning spaghetti sauce! Anyways, I'm going to be honest, while I enjoy being outside, enjoy being in the garden, I do not enjoy the prep or process of canning.  I never have, probably never will.  Last year didn't help between being massively pregnant, and then juggling a newborn.  BUT, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the blessings of canning.  It can make throwing a meal together so easy.


About a week in a half ago, a sweet friend of mine gave birth to her third little son.  A sign up sheet was floating around for meals for them.  I jumped on it because I remember from almost 9 months ago, that is one thing I would have loved, more meals to be ready and not have to cook or worry about dinner!  But, I was a bit stuck.  We are at the point of needing a grocery run and while I can scrounge around for dinner for our family, what I would serve would be an embarrassment for me to serve to another family! ha! I got to really thinking about what I had on hand that could make a suitable meal.

1) We have whole frozen chickens that we butchered for meat.  So I thawed one, roasted it, deboned it it and added some spices.

2) Garden Green Beans, we added garlic to ours because we are garlic fans! :)

3) Jar of apple sauce from when we went picking apples in the fall

4) For dessert, I took a jar of canned apple pie filling and made an apple crisp.  I got a bit apple crazy, but this is what I had on hand and to work with

5) I made a homemade loaf of bread

6) I threw in a jar of apple butter just as an extra.  (see an apple trend! haha!)

All that for very little effort.  The apple crisp, all I made was the topping which took maybe 5 minutes

The "sides" were in jars, ready to be served

I used my bread machine for the bread (10 minutes to throw ingredients together?) and bake in the oven.  A COMPLETELY homemade meal, and mostly farm/local grown as well!

I was sooo thankful for our effort and time spent on canning last year. Hopefully this year we will can even more to decorate our shelves with!