Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

Everyone has their own loves during the holiday season. We're all about the Homemade Country Christmas at our house. We love popcorn garlands, gingerbread cookies, homemade candies, and singing carols together. The kids love to get in on some of the homemade fun. This is a very easy and low-cost activity. The ornaments turn out darling and they look great hung on the tree or tied to a jar or gift bag of goodies to give away.

This project only takes two ingredients - Applesauce and cinnamon. (I buy cinnamon in bulk at our local grocery store and keep it in pint jars.)

Start with 3/4 cup of applesauce or so. It's all a bit of a guess with this recipe. Mix in enough cinnamon to make a stiff cookie dough consistency. (Be careful when young children are helping you. Too much cinnamon can be harsh on young skin. I try to do most of the mixing with a spoon to avoid any issues.)

Here is our dough.

Roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Remove the top piece of plastic and cut into desired shapes.

Place on a waxed paper lined baking sheet.

Use a drinking straw to cut a small hole in the top of each shape. Bake at 200 degrees for about an hour. After an hour or so, I just turn the oven off and leave the tray inside. The remaining heat helps dry out the ornaments completely. I'm sure you could make them in a dehydrator also. You just want to have them dry all the way through.

When done, you can paint with glitter glue to give them a shiny, glittery appearance. They also look fun with a small gingham ribbon glued on them. String a piece of yarn or thread through the hole to hang them on your tree or decorate up a package.

Food Storage and Provident Living Gift Ideas

Giving Food Storage gifts can be an inexpensive and fun way to show you care and help someone else be more prepared.  Since many gifts of this type are homemade it is often one of the best gifts we can give.  Below are a handful of fun gifts ideas for the holidays.  Enjoy!

Storable Baking Mixes Recipes

Storable baking mixes are a fun inexpensive gift that everyone loves.  You can package them up in jars with ribbons or ziplock bags inside fabric or paper gift bags.  Below are some recipes that you may enjoy or you might consider creating mixes from your own favorite recipes. 

Useful conversions:

1 cup fresh milk = 3 TBSP Non-instant powdered milk + 1 cup water

1 egg=2 TBSP dried egg powder + ¼ cup water

Add dry ingredients to your baking mix and wet ingredients to your baking directions

Delightful Apple Spice Muffins by Lisa T. (Allrecipes)

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground allspice

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:  Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag. Include baking directions on the bag or on a cute festive notecard.

Baking Directions:

Mix 1/6 cup margarine, 4 eggs, and 2 cups applesauce with muffin mix, place in muffin tins and bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 17-20 minutes.  Makes approximately 24-28 muffins.

Pumpkin Muffin Mix (All Things Provident by Tamara Price)

Dry Ingredients: 

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 ½ TBSP dry milk powder

Directions:  Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag. Include baking directions on the bag or on a cute festive notecard.

Baking Directions:

Add ½ cup water, ½ cup pumpkin puree, 2 TBS oil, and 1 egg to muffin mix.  [Pumpkin puree can be replaced by applesauce, mashed sweet potatoes, or butternut squash.]  Place in muffin tins and bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes. 

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes by Brosette Lewis (Allrecipes)

Dry Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 TBSP non-instant powdered milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 TBSP Sugar

Frozen Ingredient:

1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:  Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag.  Package the frozen blueberries in a separate bag or container.  (Be sure to leave frozen blueberries in clear packaging so they can be frozen immediately.)  Include baking directions on the bag or on a cute festive notecard.

Baking Directions:

Add 1 cup water, 1 egg, and 1 TBSP oil to pancake mix.  Gently mix in blueberries last.  (Blueberries do not need to be defrosted prior to cooking.)  Cook pancakes on hot griddle.  Enjoy!

White Sauce Mix (All Things Provident by Tamara Price)

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups non-instant dry milk powder

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

Directions:  Mix together all three ingredients into a ziplock bag.  Include baking directions on the bag or on a cute festive notecard.

Baking Directions:

Whisk 5 Tbsp white sauce mix with 1 cup hot tap water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick. Use in any recipe calling for 1 cup white sauce. Many recipes ask for 1 cup of milk, some flour and a little butter. You can use this white sauce in any of those recipes. It is a completely fat free alternative and tastes great!  It will store for up to 5 years on the pantry shelf!

Cinnamon Apple Pie Topping Mix by Kate Patten

Dry Ingredients: 

1 cup lightly spooned flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:  Mix dry ingredients together in a ziplock bag.  Include baking directions on the bag or on a cute festive notecard.

Baking Directions:

In small bowl cut ½ cup softened (not melted) butter (1 stick) into this mix until crumbly and use as the top crust for your apple or other flavored pie.  Sprinkle with white sugar for looks if desired. (Covers one 8” pie top.)

Christmas Ornaments Made from Food Storage

Cinnamon Ornaments (All Things Provident by Tamara Price)

Ingredients:  Cinnamon and Applesauce

Directions:  Combine equal parts cinnamon and applesauce.  Work with your hands until you have a dough ball that is not too sticky.  You may have to add extra cinnamon depending on how thick your applesauce is.  Roll out the dough and then cut with cookie cutters. Use a straw to make a hole at the top so you can thread ribbon through later or poke a thin piece of wire through the top of each ornament that you can use to hang it once it is dry.  Allow to air dry for a few days, turning as needed, to allow it to dry on all sides.  To speed up the drying process, you can place items on a baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees F until dry.  Again, flip items over, if needed to dry completely. Once the ornaments are dry, they can be painted with acrylic paints.  It is also fun to paint them with glitter glue.  Heating from the Christmas tree lights really helps the cinnamon smell comes out.

Dough Ornaments by ehow.com/ essortment.com

Ingredients:  1 cup salt, 4 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 ½ cup warm water

Directions:    Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Mix salt and flour together. Add water slowly and kneed until dough is stiff. Roll dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut desired shapes from dough using cookie cutters or similar objects. Make a hole in the top of each ornament using a pencil, straw, toothpick or similar object. Bake ornaments for 1 hour in 200 degree oven.

Allow to cool.  Then decorate with watercolors, acrylic, tempera or other type of paint or use colored markers.  Coat ornaments when dry with a clear protective coating if desired.  Put ornament hanger or ribbon through hole and hang.

Other Food Storage Gift Ideas

Homemade Jam

Homemade Wheat Bread

Bottled Fruit

Bottled Pie Filling, with pie instructions (really make it a hit and add the cinnamon apple pie topping mix)

Dehydrated fruits (peaches, pears and apples) or vegetables

Sprouting trays with seeds and instructions

Bulk spices and bullion in decorated pint jars

Recipes for food storage items and binders

Long-Term Food Storage Items (such as cans of wheat, beans, etc.)

Other Provident Living Gift Ideas

First aid kits

Emergency candles

72 hour kits

Hand wheat-grinder

Back packs

Alternative cooking stoves

Solar ovens and buddy burners

Propane Stove and Gas

Water filtration bottles and pumps

Water storage containers

Labeler machine

Eggs in Your Food Storage

Long Term Storage

For your long-term storage, you can store powdered eggs. These are a little pricey so many people shy away from them, but they work well in all of your baking. You need to remember that one can holds the equivalent of 80+ eggs so it is like buying 7 dozen at once. They have a shelf-life of at least 10 years, unopened.

To substitute in any recipe calling for eggs: 1 egg = 2 Tbsp dried egg powder + ¼ cup water. If you are mixing a recipe with dry ingredients, you can just add the egg powder with the dry ingredients and add the water with the wet ingredients without having to actually mix the egg up.

Shorter Term Storage

For shorter-term storage, you have two options. The FDA has determined that eggs are good for 10 weeks in the refrigerator. This means you can store almost all the eggs you need for a 3-month supply in your fridge. So you can change your buying habits and just make sure you have plenty of eggs at all times. The other option is to freeze eggs. Frozen eggs work just like fresh eggs once they are thawed out. You can even fry them up for breakfast!

To freeze eggs, crack them out of their shell and store in an airtight container. I use ½ cup-size freezer containers. One egg fits in each container very easily. They stack well in my freezer and it is easy to determine how many eggs I have. I can grab one or more depending on my recipe. I let them sit in a sink of hot water to thaw and then use just like a fresh egg.

Don't let the idea of storing eggs keep you from putting certain recipes into your meal plan. If French toast is something you eat on a regular basis, you can easily store what you need to make it again and again.

Many things can be substituted for eggs in most recipes. Remember that an egg is equal to about ¼ cup of liquid in a recipe. It is high in protein which helps with leavening and also contains a certain amount of fat that will help give you the texture you are used to in baking. Because some of the substitutes are missing fat, the texture may not quite be the same. You'll just have to experiment and determine which ones work best for what you are baking.

Egg Substitutions

Here are some suggestions of things I have tried and had success with. Each substitution is equal to 1 egg. It is difficult to have success when you try to substitute for more than 2 eggs at a time.

¼ cup mashed bean puree

1 tsp baking soda + 1 Tbsp vinegar  (You may need to add 2-3 more Tbsp water to make up for the liquid that is missing from the egg. If your recipe already calls for baking soda, you do not need to add any more. Just add the vinegar.)

¼ cup mashed fruit such as bananas, pumpkin, applesauce, sweet potato, etc.

1 Tbsp ground flax seed + 3 Tbsp water

These substitutions have all worked well in cakes or soft, cake-like cookies. It is much more difficult to achieve a chewy, chocolate-chip cookie type texture when you are substituting for the eggs.

Coconut Bread
Sweet and delicious!
¼ cup butter or margarine	1 cup reconstituted powdered milk
1 cup sugar	1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour	1 Tbsp white vinegar
¼ tsp salt	¾ cup flaked coconut
1 tsp baking powder	Cinnamon and sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients except the coconut and cinnamon and sugar. Mix until combined. Fold in the coconut. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350° F for 50–55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10–15 minutes and then remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

Banana Cookies
My daughter usually requests traditional chocolate chip cookies. The day I developed this recipe and had them ready for an after school snack, she declared them "the best cookie I had ever made!"
½ cup butter	1 tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar	1 tsp baking soda
½ cup brown sugar, packed	½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups mashed banana	½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla	1 cup chocolate chips
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Cream together the butter and sugars. Add bananas and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients. You can use half wheat flour and half white flour. Mix or stir together. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° F 8–10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a couple of minutes on a baking sheet before removing to a wire rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. You can freeze the cookies once they are baked.

Crazy Cake
This is the recipe that inspired me to experiment with egg-free recipes. My mom has had this recipe for years and it is the best "from scratch" chocolate cake! You can easily make your own cake mix with this recipe and just store it in a ziplock bag. Use a sharpie pen to write the wet ingredients on the bag for quick mixing another time. We love this cake served with a generous spoonful of chocolate pudding topped with a dollop of whipped topping in place of frosting.
3 cups all-purpose flour	2 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups sugar	2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt	⅔ cup oil
2 tsp baking soda	2 cups cold water
3–4 Tbsp cocoa
Mix all ingredients together. Bake in a 9x13-inch pan at 350° F for 30–35 minutes.

Source: All Things Provident by Tamara Price

Dehydrating Peaches or Pears

I'm behind in getting these pictures posted. Hopefully, you can still find some pears. The best peaches are done for the year in our area, but you may be able to still find some nectarines and you can dry them the same way.

Wash the fruit. Slice and remove the core. Slice into thin pieces, trying to keep them as uniform in thickness as possible.

Spread out on your dehydrator tray.

Here is a close-up that allows you to see about how thick to cut them.

Dry for 4-6 hours until leathery to the touch.

Slice peaches in a similar fashion. My favorite peach variety to dehydrate is the O'Henry. They are so sweet!

Here they are all dried.

Remove the dry slices from the tray and store in a ziplock bag for a year or more. It is hard to keep dried fruit that long at our house. The kids love it! It is a quick and convenient way to send fruit in their lunches. It also works great in the diaper bag for younger kids. When my sweet tooth acts up and I go to the pantry searching for a treat, I often grab some dried fruit. It gives me the sweetness I am craving, but none of the empty carbs.

Storable Snack or Dessert - Chewy (egg-free) Molasses Cookies

If you love ginger snaps, you'll love the flavor of this chewy cookie. It's a molasses cookie with a snickerdoodle texture. They are a Fall favorite at our house and at the many potluck events we attend this time of year. I altered the recipe to make them more healthy but I didn't have to give up any flavor or texture. No one will ever guess that these cookies have half the fat of their original counterparts!

Begin by creaming the butter, bean puree, molasses and brown sugar. In these photos, I am doubling the recipe. The dough freezes so well that I like to fill my mixer and have some waiting to bake another day.

Add the flour - I used hard white wheat to grind into the wheat flour. The mix of wheat and white flour adds whole grain without making the cookie too dry.

Add the remaining dry ingredients.

Drizzle the oil in a little at a time as the dough pulls together.

Roll into balls and then in granulated sugar.

Place on a greased baking sheet.

Smash down slightly with the base of a glass.

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool on a wire rack. You can freeze the cookies once they are cooked.

You can also freeze the dough before you bake it. I just wrap it in two layers of plastic wrap and place in the freezer. It thaws pretty quickly the day I want to bake it.

Chewy (egg-free) Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup white bean puree

2 cups brown sugar, loose

1/2 cup molasses (mild flavored)

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups white flour

4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup oil

Cream together the butter, bean puree, brown sugar and molasses. Do not pack the brown sugar when you are measuring it - this is a change from most recipes. Add the dry ingredients. Begin to mix the dough with your mixer and drizzle the oil a little at a time until it pulls together into a soft dough. Roll into balls and then roll in granulated sugar. Place on a greased baking sheet and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 5 dozen.

Freezing Peppers

Peppers are easy to prepare for the freezer. It is a simple way to preserve your garden bounty or to take advantage of a sale at the grocery store. All varieties of peppers freeze well.

Wash the peppers, cup open and remove all the seeds.

Be sure to wear gloves, I purchased a pair of kitchen gloves that have colored trim on the end. This way I know which ones to wear when preparing food and I won't mix them up with the ones that I do my cleaning with. When you are doing quite a few peppers at a time, the oil can really build up on your hands and it really burns if you have any cuts on your fingers or if you get it in your eyes.

You can chop in a food processor. This really minces the peppers which works great for making salsa or adding to soups for a little flavor. If you want larger pieces or even slices for making sweet and sour chicken or something similar, then you can just chop by hand with a knife.

Once chopped, place in a ziplock freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to a year. I chop a few at a time as they ripen in the garden and then I pull them all out for salsa making day.

Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce

Apple season isn't over for us until I have made some of this delicious chunky applesauce. It is so yummy straight from the bottle! We love to serve it over waffles for breakfast. It is also delicious served warm with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream for dessert. I love having a couple dozen of these bottles in my storage every year.

Begin by peeling your apples. Be sure to use an apple variety that will hold its shape after cooking. Some varieties are really only good for making sauce once they are cooked. My dad has red and golden delicious trees so I usually make this chunky sauce out of the apples we pick at his house. But many other varieties would work also.

Core and chop your apples.

Put the chopped apples in a pan of water. You want to keep the apples covered with water so they don't turn brown.

Drop a few vitamin C tablets in the water and let them dissolve. This also helps in keeping the apples from turning brown. You could use Fruit Fresh instead, but it is a lot more expensive and it never hurts to have extra vitamin C in our diet.

Once your pot is full, turn on high and bring to a boil. Cook until the apples are soft.

Drain, but reserve the juice so you can add some back if needed.

You'll add cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar to taste. I usually add about 1 tsp vanilla to a large pot and about the same amount of cinnamon. I then add sugar and taste.

Mix everything together with a potato masher. Mash some of the apples, but leave it chunky.

Here's my finished pot. I didn't add any juice back to this batch. The consistency was just right. Save the juice and let it cool down. My kids love to drink it.

Ladle into jars. Each pot only does 3-4 quarts. I store my bottles in the fridge and work on this project over a few days time until I have enough to fill my cooker.

Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Adjust for altitude if necessary.

Chunky Applesauce
Apples	Sugar
Vitamin C	Cinnamon
Water	Vanilla
Fill a large pan half full with water. Dissolve 3–4 vitamin C tablets into the water (or use Fruit Fresh to keep apples a light color.) Peel and chop your apples. (Choose a good cooking variety that will hold its shape when cooked. My parents have red and golden delicious trees so I usually use these varieties.) Add to the water. Make sure your apples stay covered with water. Bring to a boil. Simmer a few minutes until apples are tender. Remove from heat and drain most of the liquid off into another pan. I reserve the liquid to use with another batch of apples or to add a little back to my batch to get the right consistency. Mash warm apples just a bit with a potato masher. Add a little juice back in with apples, if needed to obtain the desired consistency. Sweeten to taste with sugar and cinnamon and just a touch of vanilla. Ladle into warm jars and process quarts for 20 minutes. Adjust time for elevation as needed.

Freezing Tomatoes

Freezing tomatoes is very simple. I freeze them a little at a time as I pick them from the garden. Eventually, I finally have enough to make soup, pasta sauce, or salsa.

First, wash the tomato and then cut the stem out.

Place in a freezer bag and freeze. Add more tomatoes to your bag as they ripen. When you are ready to use them, rinse them in cold water and the skin will slip right off. You can them chop and cook or process as desired. A quick and almost effortless way to preserve your garden bounty.