Just throwing this out there because I know you say you get a lot of comments that food looks bland - the outdoor lighting while cooking on the grill was great! The taco meat, onions, and scapes looked super flavorful. Then when it was brought inside, the lighting inside definitely mellowed it all out. So it's 100% the lighting - not your cooking! Lol

I love how respectful you are of your children. You know that the one really doesn’t like banana bread so you made it when she was gone. I just feel like that’s just lovely.

I love your ingenuity when putting together meals from leftovers as long as the children are happy that’s all that matters ❤

Jessica, I want to thank you for putting Hannah on your back when cooking. So many have their babies in front of them. Such a danger. I had an adult cousin catch on fire and passed away from “just”cooking at the stovetop. Accidents happen, grease splatters. Throughout your videos your children are always in the forefront of what you do and make. Such a blessing.

I love the idea of saving the meat drippings and adding it to rice. What a great idea. I always throw that yummy flavored stuff away. I didn't think of reusing it. Thanks Jessica ❤

I totally agree with your kiddos...no fruit or nuts in the chicken salad!!! Sometimes simple is the best tasting and that lunch looked delicious

It is really interesting to see how your cooking changes from winter into summer.

You still get more creative with your menu than my mom did with 10 children. We didn't have any serious allergies though so you're doing a great job!❤

Good Sunday morning Jessica! I have also been going through my supplies this week. I ate leftover kebabs and potato salad, leftover chicken pad thai and rice, and made a trip to the orchard as well. The local orchard's berries left a lot to be desired, so I drove the 1.5 hours to the one my parents patronized for much of my adult life. Their berries were huge and maroon, and so juicy. I packaged 4 gallon bags of strawberries to put in the freezer for shortcake over the winter. I'm going back on the 24th with a friend, and we will get at least one more flat each to preserve for our families. I may make the journey before then, as those berries were amazing. The fellas asked what was on the menu for today on our way back to their home on Sunday. I mentioned that I had ground pork in the freezer (I always get it unseasoned) with which I could make pasta alfredo. Twin 1 wanted a garden salad, to which I was happy to agree. Twin 2 wanted veggies. I asked if they were okay with me just selecting any fresh veggies from the farmer's market (my garden STILL isn't planted - the perils of being a school teacher!), and they agreed. The farmer had gorgeous turnips and kohlrabi, which I plan to roast with a couple zucchini I purchased at the bulk grocery store (I was in the neighborhood for the orchard, and knew I needed a bulk bag of sugar) I also bought the lettuce at the Mennonite grocery, as it had been grown locally. I'm going to candy some walnuts and make a strawberry salad to go with lunch today. The mint iced tea is steeping, and the angel food cake just came out of the oven. I'm going to brush my teeth, grab a sweater and go to church before attempting to cook a meal today. Thanks for the inspiration to continue clearing out my bulk storage before preservation season starts.

All your little ones are growing way too quickly!! PRECIOUS children they are. Thank you always for letting us shar your lives, BIG prayers for ABUNDANCE in all. ❤

More than anything, watching you cook and meal prep, has empowered me to become a more intuitive cook. It helps to ensure that almost nothing is wasted :)

You’re an amazing and creative cook. I enjoy seeing all the great things you come up with and it inspires me to look at leftovers in a new light. That little Levi is a cutie. His silly expressions make me smile.

Looks delicious! I love how your children appreciate all your unique recipes:-)

Your banana bread recipe came at the perfect time. I'm making some today in mini loaf pans. There's only 2 adults here in my home, so I'll be freezing up for later. Love your family, Jessica. It's been so sweet to watch the children grow and see how respectful and happy they are.

I think its wonderful to use everything with no waste! I have been doing this for over 45 years and what a savings! I usually look at a recipe but never stick to it, if I have peach juice to use up then it replaces other liquids in baking. Love watching you do this as well. I really enjoy seeing how happy your children are when you serve them this wonderful home cooked food! BLessings!

I love to see Levi being silly on every video 😂💕

Great respect that nothing hoes to waste..you are a working machine. I'm guessing your children are not picky eaters...you are a true inspiration.

Looks delicious and so healthy! You inspire me to think out of the box to use up leftovers. We have an empty nest and it is really hard to cook for just two so we have to work at eating up leftovers so that we don't get tired of them! Great videos!

Prayers for your physical and emotional healing.🙏

Hi Jessica, I've never commented on anyones channel before now. I'm so impressed with you and your lifestyle. My kids (2) are grown and have families of their own. I'm dont know where all your energy comes from, but it is very impressive. You have a beautiful family. I will continue to watch ALL your videos. Liz NH

Your videos are absolutely inspiring. You utilize what you have to make tasty and nutritious meals for your family…and from the smiles on their faces, it must taste very good. Your children look healthy and happy…and I love that you are teaching them how to work and do their part on the homestead.

I like the idea of baking your bread/muffin recipes in a 9x13 pan and just cutting it into bars! Easy and clever!

Oh!! I’m sooo happy you gave your doggies a piece of bacon. I give our doggie a taste of food when he responds to something that smells so good to him…of course, as long as it’s safe for him. Nothing but the best for our sweet Baxter…❤

That peach salsa sounds delicious! When I hard boil fresh eggs, I put them straight from the pot into an ice bath for a few minutes. It makes them SOOO much easier to peel!

Jessica, I had a horrible time peeling my fresh chicken eggs, a friend shared this with me and I hope you will try. Start water, you want it boiling. Next take a meddle spoon and tap the egg at the air pocket end or fat end, tap until you hear a sound like cracking, it's not your egg its the air pocket. Then put directly into the boiling water Boil 13 min. Drain and cover eggs with super cold water add ice if you have, change cold water once if no ice. You will be shocked at how easy the eggs are to peel!! It's amazing!😊😊 just try it once!. Just remember tap until you hear the crack sound. Sometimes it takes a tiny bit more pressure to get the crack sound! I hope you love it like I do. It really is amazing.

My husband has some PTSD surrounding leftovers so it is really hard for me to get leftovers eaten. Mostly I try not to have leftovers or have just enough for one or two servings for the next day for my and/or one of my kid's school lunches. Recipes for leftovers are difficult to find but that is one of my favorite parts of watching you and other homesteaders who have a strong aversion to food waste. Using things a little unconventional like chops or steak in breakfast is just not something I am great at thinking about or creative ways to use up stuff from the pantry- like apple butter in the oatmeal. I have a few jars of raspberry jam that I loved but my kids didn't (it had seeds and 2 of them have braces) and I was able to put that in with a strawberry pie last week as a binder when I had just half cup less of frozen Strawberries than the recipe called for. I felt good about myself. It was so simplistic but that's the stuff I struggle to think of- especially if we are hungry or in a hurry

Once again total admiration from me to you. What amazes me is that you have a beautiful family of young children and yet you are one of the calmest people I know! In fact I would say you are 'serine' Jessica, you take everything in your stride. Your family are very lucky to have you by their side 🥰

The parsnips and parsimony sight adds cooked lentils to all her ground meat items. Burgers,meatloaf,meatballs,taco meat etc. Just an idea.

Her children and husband arises and calls her blessed. Everything she puts her hands to turns to gold. Not the gold of the earth but the treasure God sees as precious

Those livestock guardians definitely deserve some of that bacon!!!

I’m always impressed with how you put your fragments together to create a meal.

Jessica, I’m inspired by your pantry challenge week videos. I’ve never used meat drippings for rice! What?! I’ll never waste it again. Thank you!

I love how you just throw things together and everything looks si good. If I did that it would just be one big mess.😀

Relax moment of the week!

Such a great video with amazing meals. You get me to experiment more and step outside my box Jessica. I Ty so much. Have a great week.

I learn so much from you Jessica. Thank you! You just inspired me to look in my fridge to try not to waste anything. Tomorrow I’ll use some leftover oatmeal and half eaten bananas (toddlers😅) to make a breakfast cake, I’ll put leftover quinoa with ground beef for burgers and with a half can of coconut milk and half jar of pineapple preserves I’ll make popsicles for the kids.

You always inspire me as a Mom and homemaker. I do believe your food is fancy, beautiful, and always looks delicious. I love how you think outside the box. Also, I would love to eat your meals! You are wonderful.

You all are such a beautiful family!! God bless you!!!

These videos of meal preparations are some of my favorites.

As always much Love from Okc! !❤️I procrastinated 2 weeks and finally made my first loaf of bread 🎉 it wasn't perfect but it was so easy and the taste is very good. I got my sourdough starter going, and dehydrated bags of season blends to get out of freezer and on shelf. Made rice krispies. Laundry and Granola and crafting is on my list for today. Very productive week doing hobbies i Love ❤️. (Household size is 3 and our baby is 20 and we all maintain full time jobs🤞🏽)

You, Jameril, and Becky can always pull anything out of your behinds lol. I’m such a picky eater and ignorant to cooking on the fly. My family also doesn’t eat a wide variety of stuff either (yes a lot due to me) but even if I did make stuff they wouldn’t eat it. I would love to eat what y’all eat for a week and see if it would change my mind on eating certain things.

Oh….hum…..radishes in hamburgers? Now that is something I’ve never thought of. I love radishes too. The next time I make hamburgers, I’ll give it a try.

Jessica- totally LOVE your channel and you n your family. You mind me of my mom. She was 42 when she had me and I remember going to a friends for supper and her mom came and said to wash up supper was ready. I thought WHOA she’s so young. But ‘‘twas MY mom who was older. She could’ve been my grandmother. They had 3 children then Dad was in WW2 then they had 2 more children and 2 years later came my brother then 2 years I came. Dad said he saved the best til last ♥️😄😄. Lol. Everything she did was homegrown, home canned and homemade. I never come home from school snd she wasn’t home. I could smell our house coming down the side road- cookies, pies, cakes, bread biscuits etc etc. The world got fast paced and mom took cleaning jobs when we got older- and thus more store tin food and store bread etc… it was convenient she said with her working. When I got married I started canning ( everything was water bath canning then ) I put in my garden, had my babies and still did my own home making which got mom back into it and my dad was ecstatic. He called store bread sawdust 😄. I wish all moms could stay home with their children. Not all can and understandable to make ends meet I’m following along with your challenge as well and get ideas from you easy to do here. I lost my house by fire over a year ago so I’m in a small camper ( and my dog ) I tend my gardens, do what I can here with my harvest what I can’t do here I take down to the ( winter ) apartment , my son is there, and he does a lot there and freezes my tomatoes which I do once cold weather forces me to leave … I have awesome neighbors who tend all that’s here having to go through my driveway to get out to the road 👍 and text me if a problem comes up or I need to buy feed .. we’ll THAT was a book 😄😄. I just wanna say THANK YOU for the sharing as busy as you are with a baby which sometimes can stop production until she’s dry and full ♥️♥️ 😄.

John has the most beautiful and expressive eyes 😊

As usual it was a great video and I so enjoy watching what you're canning, freezing and drying every time. Such ambition!

Thank you for gifting us a great start to a new week ❤

Thank you Jessica, I’m trying the challenge & I live on my own ! You’re children look so healthy, happy & Hannah is growing so fast.

Hello from Guam Jessica! It feels so decadent to finally be able to watch your videos again. After Typhoon Mawar we were with out power and internet for 2 weeks. 40% of the island is still without power and internet after 3 1/2 weeks, many people are still without water. By god's grace even after 150 mph hour winds for over 9 hours no one lost their life. The power is inconsistent so we have stayed on our solar. Sooo that means lots of camp cooking for me. As usual your timing is great with all your grilling. Lots of fantastic ideas. I really miss baking and I am endeavoring to have a solar oven sent to me. I've really enjoyed watching you use yours in other videos. 90% of our agriculture was wiped out across the island and most of our backyard chicken farmers. We were right at harvest. I spent a week salvaging what I could. It resulted in 20 quart bags of frozen green mango 5 bags of starfruit, and 12 bags of avocado. I'll have to get creative with the green mangoes! I was able to salvage two banana stalks. We have the bananas propped up in hopes they'll still ripen if they do it will be 100 pounds of bananas. We lost 20 feet off our avocado tree and most of our avocadoes for the year. Somehow all my wild chickens survived. We only lost a few baby chicks, and one kitten. I will admit sheltering our rooster and laying hens inside the house was an adventure especially when our rooster was crowing in the house at 5:45am. We will rebuild and there are so many lessons learned. So many of our military spouses weren't prepared and didn't know the basics of cooking when the power was out. So that's my next class I'll be offering. I'm grateful for all of my canned goods. I had just put up a bunch of mango jam and pickles. Also because I container garden I was able to roll my tomatoes, basil and peppers back outside. I'm praying they live and I'll see a fresh tomato again this year. Thank you so very much for your videos, it's been like a wonderful vacation catching up on all I missed.

I'm subscribed to Hope's newsletter. Goodness, she is not only a good cook, but her home décor is wonderful. I wish I had a house like hers, but I don't so I enjoy seen hers. I'm satisficed and grateful for what I have.☺ I always look forward to these videos. It reminds me of my mother cooking for a large family. Once we were teens, we were to help her and learn at the same time. That rice with the peach drippings, oh my goodness, that had to be amazing. I would not have thought of that. Can you see the light bulb over my head? 🤔 Levi, that is my little star, you know that. I love seeing all of your children, especially Hannah, but Levi stole my heart. I send *hugs* to everyone.

I was low on mayo once and had some homemade ranch dressing. So I tossed in a couple spoons of that and now we use it every time

When I boil/steam eggs. When they are done I drain them & shake them against the pan to crack the shells and put them in cold water for about 5 min. They are easier to peel.

You feed your family well. It’s wonderful to see that they’re getting such healthy food. I enjoy your videos very much.

Always a pleasure watching you! You never disappoint! Best to you and your family!!

Hi Jessica!! Just wanted to say that you are looking fabulous!! You talk about diets and baby weight too much! You look GOOOOOOD!! We are all only human, no one is perfect. Love yourself a little more...... other than that, HAPPY HOME CHURCH DAY!! 💒🙏💒🙏 May you always know how much God loves you! Your Michigan Fan and friend, Araminta

Nothing fancy but extremely yummy 😋

I have read some of your texts on Instagram about negative folks complaining about YOUR opinions and ideas. I simply cannot figure out those people. I wish you could only focus on the positive comments you get, but being human, it's hard to control our emotions. My granddaughter was watching this with me, as you were fixing your hamburgers she looked at me and said I cooked just like you. It was the best compliment I have gotten in a long while. I hope you continue to live your life as the Lord continues to guide you. The Holy Spirit is moving in your household and it's great to be a witness to that! Thanks for all you do and share with us.

💚Yum, yum, yum!💚

Blessed Sunday Jessica. I’ve been trying to participate here at home. Made a large quiche, with pantry canned items, for dinner. Came out great and everyone enjoyed it. Plus, we have leftovers! My husband has a severe beef, pork and lamb allergy from a tick bite so I u dear stand not having certain foods in the house and your videos help me think more creatively. God Bless

Hey hey ❤️❤️❤️ wonderful ideas...thank you so much!

Speaking of someone's house I would love to eat at would definitely be yours. Cherry on top would be getting to hold Hannah. Your meals look delicious.

Volume of this video was very low...even though my setting was at its maximum. I dont know if others had same problem. I love your interaction you have with your children.❤ Oh, it just corrected itself! ❤❤

Lovely delicious homegrown home cooked food. Great job Jessica 🙏

I love watching you children learning to use utensils, a beautiful moment. The smiles are contagious. Thank you! For allowing me to enjoy those gifts.

Your kids are so cute. I love how Levi always makes faces and smiles. Such a happy, sweet boy. Thank you for another good video.

Love the Good Seasons Cruet with that measurements. Use mine all the time

Another bulk for hamburger that I've used is instant oats. Makes tummies very full in a healthy way❤

Jessica, you are the Queen of the Freestyle Home Cooks! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤎😂😂😂😂

Everything looks delicious. I love when kitchen experiments turn out not only delicious but I especially love it when I remember how I did it 😅. Thank you for sharing lovelies ❤❤

You're creativity and spontaneous nature are just so lovely and inspiring : )

Where did you get the griddle part for your camp stove? I looked at the link but I didn't see where it came with that feature. You are a wonderful mother and I love that you are not wasteful. Your children will have wonderful memories and cherish all of your hard work that you put into making your house a cozy, loving home for them.

Well they are very different combinations, but as long as the kids eat it thats all that matters.

I absolutely love that you are posting 2x a week!!! Thank you for such great ideas!

If you have any rose bushes, slice some super ripe bananas (peel too) and mix them into the soil of your rose bush. They seem to love super ripe bananas for some reason!

Great job with all those meals grea seeing the kids eat like they do. I think big family’s are better eaters than small family ‘s like my sister and mine. Two boys each. Sure can tell your a busy Mom. My Nephews and my Sons were fussy eaters even though we did all the garden stuff and I also worked outside the Family home. Great video and God Bless. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💜💙❤️🥰🤗

Hi Jessica I am a empty nester after having 6 children and I. Still meal prep and enjoy it . There is only some who will show up for dinner lol . I also do a lot of canning still love the fresh food all year round. God bless you and your family 😊

I love your channel. I love the way you handle things and push back against the negative comments. I must say…65+ is shocking to me. I’m 50 this year and I can’t with the 65+ analytics 😂😂😂

Eggs and some kind of bread is great in hamburgers. Look meatloaf made in to hamburgers! Yummy 😊

I'm 60 but learn alot from you thank you for your time in producing content that is valuable

Never occurred to me to use broth to make rice and I have been eating rice for many decades. Great idea.

I really enjoy your creative baking style. It is quite inspiring.

hey sista my childhood was filled with it doesn matter what it looks like we ate it in moments of it being put on a plate i love your inventiveness x

I love your fur babies

This is my favorite type of cooking! I go to the food bank once a week and you can get the most random things from there! So, it's always a challenge to find a way to use a new food item! Thanks for sharing all of your simple ideas on how to cook from your pantry! You are a true role model!

You CAN ADD COOKED RICE TO YOUR BURGERS TO BULK THEM UP AND IT IS FILLING IR BROWN RICE EXTENDING YOUR GROUND BEEF

Everything looked great!

Youre such a wonderful mother I wish one day to have my own homestead!

Try cooking your burgers in the oven when cooking for a crowd. My 4 kiddos are grown, but I always tried to get 5 patties per pound. Also made them thinner. Bread (filler) & toppings are almost always cheaper than the protein. Regardless, love your content. Sending support, love, and kindness from Lexington, Michigan, USA

Love your meals videos. Very inspiring.

A wonderful snapshot of your creativity in the kitchen! Amazing! Thank you!

Thanks for all the inspiration, I have worked hard this year to use up the older things I have.

Love all your videos. I learn something new from you every time. Plus you’ve given me the inspiration to try new things. Your children are so beautiful, what a blessing! I just can’t understand why more don’t subscribe.

Love your meal ideas❤

Your meal videos are my absolute favorites!! Thank you for sharing!

I love your creativity in cooking, you would win on the show “chopped”. You inspire me!🥰

I wish I could whip up meals like you do!!!!! So inspiring

Enjoyed tremendously. Blessings

Fabulous job Jessica 👏 👍

I so enjoy your creative meals, they all look so good.

Such a blessing to watch your vidéos ❤

You are amazing!