Out of the Box Living

Freezer Cooking: Ground Beef Meals

2010-06-09T16:50:00.010-04:00

One thing that has been working really well for me over the past 2 years or so is freezer cooking. It all started when my sisters-in-law and my husband's cousin gifted me some frozen meals after my daughter was born. How wonderful it was to have meals prepped and ready to cook in the freezer! Who knew this would be the beginning of a way of life for me.

Since then, I've experimented with my freezer quite a bit. I've gone through the stage of shoving food in various stages of preparation in my freezer, only to forget about it or have no convenient use for it. This includes garden produce, meat, you name it, I've haphazardly tried to freeze it for "later." The only thing is, if later never comes, you've wasted your time and the food you lost in the freezer!

Motherhood has made me much more efficient in so many ways.  Two of them have been utilizing my freezer space and getting a good meal on the table, quickly. I now try to have a plan in mind with everything I freeze. If I freeze garden produce, it is typically for a particular use. For example, one year I froze bags of pepper strips for the heck of it, and there they were a year later, crusty with ice and unused. Now last year, I stocked up at the farmers market and froze bags of diced red and green peppers I knew I would use as a pizza topping for our frequent homemade pizza nights, in chili and in my favorite beef barley soup recipe. And I have done just that. It makes all the difference in the world when you freeze food for a purpose.  Even better, I have not bought an expensive winter pepper all year.

These days, one of my strategies has been freezing food in ready-to-go packages, to minimize day-of food preparation. Recently, I experimented with freezing cooked, unpeeled, diced potatoes using this method to use as a side dish with other freezer meals I've prepared, like marinated meat. Throw the thawed meat on the grill, the frozen potatoes in a skillet with some onions, and butter/oil, make a salad or other vegetable and you have a delicious, nutritious meal without much fuss.

Freezer cooking has become my favorite way to cook in this season of my life. Over the weekend, I took some of my frozen potatoes a step further and made several packages for the freezer of diced cooked potatoes, cooked broccoli and cooked breakfast sausage, to be used for an easy week-night dinner or brunch of egg casserole - just add eggs and milk, pour into a casserole dish and pop it in the oven. I was making this dish for us to have for brunch on Sunday anyway, so instead of making 1, why not make 4?

As you can see, I'm a big fan of doing messy or laborious preparation once and enjoying it many times over the following couple months. The funny thing is, I love to cook! Just not every meal, every day.

My plan for this coming weekend is a bunch of ground beef main dishes or parts of meals. Maybe it's my pregnancy talking, but the chicken in the freezer isn't doing it for me right now and beef sounds great! Who knows what will sound good next week. Either way, I like to have a variety of choices available to me in the freezer, and I find it most efficient to choose one main ingredient - in this case, ground beef - and make lots of variations on that. After a few cooking escapades like this, before you know it, you've got a selection of meals with beef, pork, chicken, beans, vegetarian or whatever other main ingredients you like to eat.

Here's what I'm thinking for this weekend. Ground round at our high-end grocery store is on sale, and I like to start with good ingredients; cheaper is not always better. You usually get what you pay for. Normally I would go for ground sirloin because it is leaner, but since I'll be making a combination of uncooked burger-type meals as well as cooked ground beef meals, ground round should work just fine.

         :: (4 lbs) uncooked hamburger patties - 4 packages of 1 pound each.
         :: (6 lbs) uncooked oven hamburgers (ground beef mixed with BBQ sauce, to be baked in the oven) - 4 packages of 1.5 pound each.
         :: (6 lbs) cooked meatballs (to add to spaghetti sauce) - 8 packages of 3/4 pound per package
         ::  (3 lbs) cooked ground beef (to add to spaghetti sauce) - 6 packages of 0.5 pound each
         ::  (4 lbs) cooked taco meat (using the homemade taco seasoning recipe from Make-A-Mix) - 4 packages of 1 pound each
         :: (9 lbs) cooked sloppy joe filling (fabulous recipe from Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer) - 6 packages of 1.5 pound each

So that works out to be 32 lbs of ground beef. Watch out, here comes the crazy lady buying 32 lbs of meat. The quizzical looks from behind the meat counter will be worth it. It will be WONDERFUL to have these meals in the freezer, ready to go. Added bonus: my "starting to become picky" toddler likes all of these foods!

Hello Out There....

2010-06-07T20:31:00.002-04:00

Hello, friends, it's been awhile. So where in the world have I been? Well, pregnant. Is that enough of an explanation? I didn't think so. I'm coming up on 6 months pregnant, and have been just exhausted for the last few months. Don't get me wrong, there have been many a blog post I have begun composing in my head as I go about my day, but when it comes time to actually get on the computer - during Molly's naptime or after she goes to bed - I've been choosing rest instead. In fact, I'm behind on all things computer, not just blogging about all the things I love to do!

That said, I'm still doing many of the things I normally talk about, I'm just not writing about them. I've been making bread and muffins (including fabulous chocolate chunk muffins) from my make-ahead mixes quite a bit, as well as gearing up for a wonderful season of fresh, organic produce. I've still been getting my bi-weekly produce delivery (which I have been getting mainly fruit) from this great company, and just received my third weekly box from the CSA I joined for the first time this year, which will provide mainly vegetables. And, in my own vegetable garden, I've planted broccoli, greens, sugar snap peas, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and more.

What do I plan on doing with all of this produce? Good question. Normally I do lots of canning and freezing. This year, who knows. My whole life feels off-kilter when I'm pregnant, and I can already tell I'm just not on my game right now. Last year, I did a ton of canning, though I often made it happen after Molly went to bed, into the wee hours of the morning. This year... I don't think I'll be doing that. So we'll see what happens. Generally, when something inspires me to can, I do it. I'm not counting on much inspiration this year!

One exciting thing going on at our house is that it is strawberry and asparagus season in Southeast Michigan!! After a long, cold winter, it is always so wonderful to see the sun come out and the asparagus poke out of the ground. Then, a few weeks later, flowers start to appear on the strawberry plants and soon beautiful red strawberries are popping out everywhere you look. This year, the warm weather has given us strawberries about two weeks earlier than normal. Before Memorial Day, I picked a small handful of berries that didn't make it into the house. On Memorial Day, I picked just under 5 pounds of strawberries. A few days later, I picked just under 10 pounds!!! I could hardly believe it.

What ever will I do with all of those berries? Well, normally I would make plenty of jam and experiment with other recipes, but this year I might just eat them, share with friends and freeze what is left. I did borrow my mom's food dehydrator, and had dreams of experimenting with strawberry fruit leather, but lately I think it might take all the strength I can muster just to get the strawberries cleaned and into a freezer bag. So we'll see. They sure are delicious.

So, there you have it. I have major respect for all those mamas out there having babies and taking care of their families and blogging all about it. I plan to keep sharing my escapades with you... if you'll keep reading.

Homemade Play Dough

2010-04-07T13:32:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been feeling like a lame mom. Molly is 20 months old and has lots of energy. She's also at the age where she needs constant supervision and loves being by my side. While I do love the cuddles and fun, I'm a bit lazy (and frugal) when it comes to constantly having new toys for her to play with and things for her to do. I also am already sick of cleaning up our every-day messes, so projects that create more messes are less exciting to me. HOWEVER, I know that toddlers need to do fun activities and make messes, and that it is my job as momma to clean them up.

I've been wondering if it is time for her to have play dough. That can't be too messy, can it?? I don't mind spending a few dollars on the stuff from the store, but I thought, just for fun, I would try making it today.

It took all of 5 minutes, and I am pleasantly surprised at the quality. It's actually pretty awesome! I used this recipe.

Here it is with all the ingredients in the pan:

You cook it for a few minutes and magically, it starts to look like this:

Then, you take it out of the pan and knead it for less than a minute and it looks like this!

The only modification I made to the original recipe is that I didn't add vanilla. I don't need another reason for my child to want to eat this stuff. Also, I actually like the smell the way it is... it reminds me of my childhood.

Refrigerator Clean-Out: The Update

2010-03-29T11:20:00.000-04:00

Earlier this morning, I decided it was time to clean out the refrigerator. I had a couple other goals too, including making bread and some broccoli salad. Well, as usual, I bit off a little more than I could chew. I was able to almost finish cleaning out the refrigerator, and I did get the loaf of bread made.

Here it is... can you smell it through your computer? I wish you could.

I ran out of time to get the refrigerator door cleaned out and organized, but the largest part of that beastly project is done. I took everything out, cleaned the shelves, cleaned the inside of the refrigerator and the fruit and vegetable drawers. There were some scary messes in there. But it's done, hooray! I do love a clean refrigerator.

Plans for Mom's Morning Off

2010-03-29T09:28:00.001-04:00

Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week. The day where I get to have my cake and eat it too. You see, I work two days a week as a dietitian, and stay home with 20-month-old Molly the rest of the time. On Mondays, I work at 1pm, and I still send Molly to daycare in the morning. So... I get to have a morning to myself a few times per month!

Those of you who stay home with your kids totally get it. We have no free daycare options (ie family) nearby, so any time we need childcare, we have to pay for it. Thus, not a lot of breaks for mom and dad. Molly is a very active young lady, and I am not always great at getting things done that I need/want to at home. Monday mornings are one of those times I get to do "extra projects" that don't always get covered during naptime.

On today's to-do list:

- bake bread (it's rising in the bread machine)

- make broccoli salad (my pregnant self can't stand cooked vegetables right now)

- CLEAN OUT THE REFRIGERATOR!

You saw the picture. It's pretty bad. That's my plan for this morning, and I have until about 11am to get it done.

What projects do you have hanging over your shoulders? Is your pantry out of control? Is your closet full of clothes a mess? Perhaps this is the week to tackle something. You'd be amazed at how much you can get done in an hour or two when you decide to get it done.

Off I go, time is of the essence. I'll post a picture when it is finished!

Winter Comfort Food: Tomato Soup and Simple Mac and Cheese

2010-03-17T14:27:00.001-04:00

Lately I have really been enjoying the recipes I have tried from Heavenly Homemakers. I recently came across this recipe for tomato soup that is made from fresh tomatoes and can actually be canned. I love tomato soup and I do love canning, so I was immediately intrigued.

You see, I grew up on Campbell's tomato soup. Despite the fact that the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, I still buy it and still like it once in awhile. It's a childhood thing.

Now in the summertime, we use just about every tomato we can get for our favorite spaghetti sauce canning recipe. But, I'm always open to squeezing in a new recipe if it's really great and if it's something we will love in the middle of the winter. If it can be an actual meal for us? Even better. I mean, I do like jam and jelly, but seriously, how much can you eat of that stuff?

So I happened across this tomato soup recipe. Four simple ingredients: tomatoes, onion, butter and salt. Three hours on the stove. A splash of cream. Heaven in a bowl.

I was just going to bookmark the recipe and add it to my list this summer, but then I had an idea. My father-in-law gave us a bunch of quarts of tomatoes he canned last summer, and I still had some left. I decided to use those to try out the tomato soup recipe so I could see how it tasted before I allocate our precious summer tomatoes to a recipe I've never tried.

I ran 6 quarts of tomatoes through the food mill to remove the seeds and doubled the tomato soup recipe. If a recipe is going to have to cook for three hours, I'm going to make a BIG batch. When it was finished simmering, I used my immersion blender to puree it in the pot. And then I tasted it... wonderful. It had just the flavor I was looking for: simple and tomatoey. And, it goes well with this delicious recipe for easy, creamy macaroni and cheese.

We ended up eating some that day (Molly gobbled it up), putting about 2 quarts in the fridge, and I froze another 3 quarts. This recipe will be definitely be on the priority list this summer. We'll see how much canning I get done with baby #2 due 9/15....!

Seed Starting - Getting Ready for This Year's Vegetable Garden

2010-03-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

Every year, I think I am going to try to start some of my vegetable plants from seed. Most years, I never get around to it. Planning 8-12 weeks in advance means thinking about gardening in the middle of winter, while there is often still snow on the ground. Usually, I don't get past the thinking stage.

Well this year, perhaps because because I have less time for projects/hobbies, I made it happen. Yes, you read that right, life with a 19 month old means I have less time, but somehow I sometimes actually get more done than I did in prior years. Call it better planning, an increased drive for autonomy, call it whatever you want. All I know is that when you don't have much time, sometimes you get more efficient about using the time that you do have.

Now, have I spent one minute organizing the basement, the garage, or the mountains of paperwork that also stress me out? Nope, somehow those projects just never make it to the top of my priority list.

This year, the stars were in alignment, I had the materials I needed, and I ended up making the time to get it done. I broke up the project of starting seeds in to three mini-projects.

One day, I organized my pots and containers that would hold them. And then Molly woke up from her nap.

Another day, I filled up the pots with seed starting mix, watered them and brought them upstairs to a sunny, south-facing window in our extra bedroom. And then Molly woke up from her nap.

Well today, during what I call my "Mom's Morning Off," when Molly goes to daycare in the morning and I don't have to leave for work until noon, I finished the job by actually planting the seeds. I do love my Monday mornings.

My Own Giftable Arrangement

2010-03-15T14:57:00.002-04:00

Ever heard of that company that makes beautiful bouquets out of fresh fruit? Well, I have, and they're one of my favorite gifts to give and receive. They don't wilt like flowers (though don't get me wrong, I still love flowers!), and yet they are a treat that doesn't happen to add inches to your waistline like cookies, cake or candy.

Over the weekend, I had planned to pick up one of these bouquets to give to a friend's daughter who just had knee surgery. Then, it occurred to me... maybe I could make it myself. I mean, really, how hard could it be to skewer some fruit and turn it into a masterpiece?

Well, here it is, so you tell me.

Definitely not bad for a first attempt. A little chaotic looking, but definitely fun, unique and delicious.

The recipient's family really likes pineapple, so I decided to start with that for an edible, yet attractive base. Then I washed up some strawberries, grapes, raspberries and blackberries. I also peeled and sliced the rest of the pineapple and used a cookie cutter to make heart shapes (yes, that's what those shapes are). Then I went to work with the skewers until it seemed like there was enough fruit.

In the end, I spent a fraction of the price I would have paid for the professional version, yet was able to use more exciting fruit like raspberries and blackberries, and we got to eat the leftover fruit! Which was good, since, while I was making the bouquet, I had to constantly fend off Molly, who must have eaten her weight in fruit yesterday. I guess there are worse foods to overindulge on.

Maple Syrup: As Local as it Gets

2010-03-09T13:42:00.003-05:00

As you may have noticed, I like to experiment with all things food. I also feel such a sense of pride when I can duplicate or recreate or improve upon foods I like that are already readily available. My husband and I are also big fans of domestic adventures, focusing on botanical and other... experimentation, shall we say. Since we've known each other for the last almost 7 years, we've dabbled in organic gardening, canning, freezing, beer-making, wine-making, vineyard and orchard growing, beekeeping, cheese-making and I'm sure other projects I'm forgetting.

Well, add maple syrup making to our list.

I actually don't know why it took us 7 years to come up with this idea, but this year we decided to learn how to tap the maple trees in our yard. The quick description of maple syrup "making" is this: you tap your trees, collect the sap, and boil it down until most of the water is gone, and you are left with sweet, gooey maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup. So far, after 2 days of collecting sap from one tap, we have... drumroll please.... 1 oz of syrup! Here it is!

I know, I know, less than impressive. I'm pretty excited though. This shows me that it is possible. I share more details on the maple syrup process below.

First, you find the south-facing side of your tree and drill a 1/2" hole 2 inches deep (eek, I felt like I was killing our lovely maple tree, but I know this is done all the time for maple syrup making, and their trees don't die!). I only did one tree the first day just to make sure it worked before drilling another tree. Once your hole is drilled, you push in the spile - that's the little spout that guides the sap out of your drilled hole into your collection bucket. The spile has a hook on it so you can hang your bucket.

I covered the whole contraption with foil to keep the sap as clean as possible.

Then you let it sit and the sap drips into your bucket. After 2 days, here's what we collected:

We couldn't believe it! You don't want to have the sap sit outside too long, as I'm guessing the sugars may start to ferment, so today I brought in the weekend's sap and started boiling. I poured it into a 4 cup measuring cup, and it was basically overflowing. I guesstimated it to be around 5 cups, or 40 oz sap. I poured it through some cheesecloth and then boiled it down for an hour or two until it got darker in color, thickened up slightly, and since there wasn't much there, I stopped boiling before it burned to the bottom of the pan.

And once again, here is my finished product, all 1 oz of it!

I tasted it a couple times, and it is definitely sweet and kind of mapley. Here's the thing: I knew we had at least one sugar maple, but I wasn't sure if I picked the sugar maple or the "other" maple tree to tap! Sugar maples have brilliant red fall color, and our other maples have yellow leaves in the fall. Since there are currently no leaves on any of the trees and I couldn't remember which was which, I just picked one. I don't think I picked the sugar maple.

A couple things to consider when trying to make maple syrup:

:: Sugar maples produce sap with the highest sugar content, but other types of maple trees produce sweet sap also that can be made into syrup. You just might have to boil it down longer to get more water out.

:: The time of year that you can collect this sap is in the spring when outdoor temperatures are below freezing overnight and above 40 degrees in the daytime.

So today, I tapped the other tree that I suspect to be the sugar maple. I used the other two spiles we bought, and put them both in the same tree since it is a bigger tree and apparently you can tap a few places on one tree.

I'll have to let you know how it all turns out! I'm hoping for another couple ounces at least, and then next year... we'll get started a little earlier.

Something From Nothing: Homemade Stuffing

2010-02-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite cooking escapades is to make something from nothing. That nothing is referring to a little of this and a little of that from the refrigerator, pantry or freezer which could easily be thrown out. Sometimes when you have the right amounts of nothing, you can make something quite delicious!

Today I am trying my hand at making my own stuffing from various bits of bread that I have been stashing away in the freezer. I've been making homemade bread for many months now, and sometimes I'm ready for a fresh new loaf before we finish the last one. Instead of throwing the old bread out, I've been cutting it into cubes or tearing it into little pieces and putting it in a bag in the freezer. My plan had been to make stuffing or croutons. Stuffing it was.

I somewhat followed a recipe from the book "Make-A-Mix" by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward and Madeline Westover. Basically you make a dry stuffing mix which you can store in your pantry like any other stuffing mix, and then add wet ingredients and bake when you're ready to eat it. I'm very interested in getting as many processed foods out of our house as possible, and I do love stuffing, so I figured it would be worth trying this recipe.

You're supposed to start out with 30 slices of firm-textured bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes. I just guessed and used what I had, which ended up being approximately the right amount. All of my bread was also frozen to start out with.

Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until the bread gets a little toasty and dries out. Stir occasionally as it is cooking.

Combine:
1/2 cup canola oil (reduced from 2/3 cup in original recipe)
3 tablespoons instant minced onion
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
2 teaspoons garlic salt
3/4 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper

When the bread is done, put it in a bowl and add the seasonings. Toss lightly until the oil mixture coats the bread cubes as well as possible. Then you can put the stuffing mixture in an airtight container and store in a cool, dry place for 3-4 months. I just divided mine into two containers: one for tonight's dinner, the other for another time.

To make the stuffing:

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 stick butter, melted (yikes! This is reduced from 6 tablespoons in the original recipe)
1 onion, finely chopped
4 large sticks celery, finely chopped (I used carrots instead because that's what I had)
6-7 cups of the bread/seasoning mix

Melt butter in a skillet and saute onion and celery/carrots until crisp-tender. In a large bowl, combine the bread mix with the vegetables and chicken broth. Toss lightly and put mixture in a lightly buttered casserole dish. The recipe didn't say to cover the dish, but I did. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

We went for total comfort food last night with rotisserie chicken, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Yum, it was delish. My husband couldn't believe it was homemade. This recipe is a keeper!

Put A Little Extra Cash in Your Pocket (Updated)

2010-02-24T14:50:00.002-05:00

Have you signed up for Swagbucks or Ebates yet? If not, why not? Maybe you've never heard of these two programs.

There are lots of scams out there, and I am typically very skeptical of anything promising free money. However, these two programs came highly recommended so I decided to try them out.

Basically, Swagbucks allows you to earn points for doing what you already do: searching for things on the internet. You earn about 1-3 swagbucks each day just by using the swagbucks search tool instead of something like google. The points easily add up, and then can then be redeemed for all kinds of things. My personal favorite is the $5 Amazon.com gift card, which can be earned with 45 swagbucks. So, with basically no extra effort on my part, I've been earning one $5 gift card for Amazon.com approximately every month. It doesn't seem like much, but you can save them up for something big that you've been wanting. And hey, free money is free money!

Update: hours after I posted this article, Swagbucks rolled out a new point system in honor of their 2nd anniverary. It looks like the only difference is that you now earn 10, 20, 30 swagbucks instead of 1, 2 or 3. Everything else looks the same.

Here's how to do it:
1. Click on this link to the Swagbucks website.
2. Sign up for an account.
3. I found it useful to download the Swagbucks toolbar so I could search from any website.
4. That's it! Start earning swagbucks.

Ebates works a little differently, though what I love about it, is that it also helps me earn money doing something I already do: online shopping! In a nutshell, when you shop online using Ebates, you get back a percentage of what you spent shopping. That adds up in your Ebates account, and they periodically send you a check! Yes, actual money. I just got a check in the mail for over $30 just from Christmas shopping I was going to do anyway.

Here's how to do it:
1. Click on this link to the Ebates website.
2. Sign up for an account.
3. Check out the long list of stores/websites that participate in Ebates: pretty much every place I've needed to shop except for Amazon.com.
4. The next time you're going to buy something, go to the Ebates website first. Find your store and click through to it from the Ebates website.
5. That's it, do your shopping and watch the money add up in your Ebates account!

So both programs are really that easy. I definitely would not recommend something that I had not personally tried and thought was worth it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, yes, I will earn a small referral if you sign up through me. But I also really just think these are two worthwhile programs.

Enjoy, and happy shopping!

Winter Fruit Salad

2010-02-18T13:06:00.001-05:00

Yum, today I was inspired to make a refreshing fresh fruit salad. I used grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, apples and bananas. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I cut the pieces very small, similar to what I had many years ago when I visited Brazil. Lots of little pieces of fruit, a little fresh citrus fruit juice squeezed on top to keep the apples from turning brown, and some chopped bananas added right before serving. The great thing about the little pieces of fruit, is that when you eat a spoonful of the fruit salad, you get several different types of fruit in the same bite and not just one big hunk at a time. It's a bit of work to do all the chopping, but it is so delicious and unexpected in the middle of the winter.

This Week's Meal Plan

2010-02-17T13:35:00.001-05:00

I have not been the best at posting my meal plans lately, but we have been eating, I promise. We sort of fell off the wagon, so to speak, with the Eat From the Pantry Challenge. Actually, I'm being pretty hard on myself, because really, eating from the pantry is what we always do! The challenge to not buy any groceries during the month of January is the part we failed on. I'm not that good with rules, I guess :)

We really do eat from the pantry/freezer/storage in the basement very regularly. I always take stock of what we have, what we need to use up and come up with our meals from there. I am definitely not the type of cook that gets a taste for a dish and then goes out and buys all the ingredients for them, no matter the cost. January's challenge wasn't all that different from my normal life, but I had a hard time going to the grocery store for a couple staples without picking up other items also. We did end up spending less than we usually do, so that's a success in my book!

On to the meal plan for this week:
Monday: Leftover "Jeff Casserole," ham, frozen corn
Tuesday: Turkey tortilla soup from the freezer, cheese toast, zucchini from the freezer
Wednesday: Arabic lentil soup, sauteed Brussels spouts with bacon and onions, ham sandwiches
Thursday: Mashed potato/carrot/kale/smoked sausage casserole with saurkraut using keilbasa from our 1/4 pig
Friday: Tacos with refried beans, rice, corn

I'm planning on making the taco meat on Thursday, so that it is ready to just heat up on Friday after work. I am always starving and tired on work nights, so anything I can do to make life easier on myself, I'm going to try!

I've got some soup and a new recipe for Brussels sprouts to try today, so I guess I had better get cooking while Molly is napping. Eat well and enjoy your week.

Making Mixes: Bread, Corn Bread, Banana Oatmeal Waffles

2010-02-17T13:16:00.001-05:00

We're finally catching up with life around here. The stomach flu made its way around our whole house, and it was slow going to feel motivated to do much in the kitchen. I think I'm back though!

On Monday I was able to grind a bunch of flour and prep ingredients for 6 loaves of homemade bread, which I store in the freezer in freezer boxes. When I want to make bread, as I do once or twice a week, I just get my flour out of the freezer, add the wet ingredients to my bread machine pan, add the flour and yeast, and start up the bread machine. It takes all of 5 minutes or less to do this. I have the bread machine make the dough, and I put the dough in a pan, let it rise, and bake it in the oven. It is SO easy and delicious. Not to mention 2/3 whole wheat, yet soft and tender, which is even better in my book.

This time I was feeling motivated to make a couple other types of mixes to have on hand. I found a corn bread recipe I like, in the Better Homes and Gardens (the red and white checkered one) cookbook of all places. I ground some popcorn into cornmeal - yes, that's the best corn commercially available for making your own cornmeal) and mixed up 4 batches of corn bread mix.

As I do for the bread, I put all of the dry ingredients for cornbread in the freezer boxes. I didn't take a picture, but I also wrote instructions on the container lids: what wet ingredients to add, plus baking instructions. This recipe is for a 9X9 pan of corn bread, or 12 muffins or 24-26 corn sticks. I plan to keep these freezer boxes designated for cornbread, so I thought it would be easier to write on the lids instead of fishing out the cookbook. It's all about convenience!

The third mix I made was for banana oatmeal waffles. Mind you, I am NOT a waffle maker or pancake maker at all. That is my husband's arena. However, my sister-in-law makes these banana oatmeal waffles and they are SO good, like banana bread. We've been making extra pancakes on the weekend and freezing them for quick week-day breakfasts, and I knew these waffles would be great for that too. Not to mention nutritious and something different.

So, into the boxes went the dry ingredients for banana oatmeal waffles. I also went out on a limb, writing instructions on the lids again, assuming this recipe would be a keeper. Now I feel a bit more prepared with my bread prepped and a couple other baking treats ready to go also. I love knowing exactly what goes into my food and avoiding all of the extraneous additives and ingredients in boxed mixes.

Have any good mixes that you like to whip up? Please share! My next mix to devise is whole wheat pancakes... see you later, Aunt Jemima.

Granola

2010-02-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

Mmm, last night I made granola. I had been in the mood for it for awhile after enjoying a few boxes of Cascadian Farms granola with my yogurt. I haven't made granola in a long time, but it was just as good as I remembered. The coconut adds a wonderful subtle flavor that makes it stand out from other granola recipes.

Here is the recipe:

4 cups regular or quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ (or ground flax seeds, oat bran, etc)
1 cup coconut
1 cup slivered almonds (optional - just add more oats if you omit this)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)

Combine all ingredients, except raisins/dried fruit and mix until well blended. Spread on a shallow baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes. Add dried fruit and stir. Will continue to crisp as it cools. Store in a sealed container.

One note: this is definitely not a low calorie recipe. You can try adjusting the oil if you want, but I have found the finished product to be not quite crispy enough when I've cut it down too much.

Enjoy!

Bagels!

2010-01-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been really inspired to make bagels. Maybe it's the Eat From the Pantry Challenge that is making me think twice about every food purchase, or maybe I was just ready for the next culinary adventure. Who knows. I've made three different batches of bagels in the last couple days.

First, I used my current favorite bread recipe's dough to make bagels. I had already made a loaf of bread and was going to make two, but changed my plan after I had already started the second batch of dough, so I thought I would see if the dough would make good bagels. I followed this recipe, which was actually my inspiration for making bagels to begin with, for turning the dough into bagels. Here are some pictures from that attempt:

Batch #1: Boiling the broiled dough.

The finished product. They were 2/3 whole wheat flour (freshly ground hard red wheat), 1/3 unbleached white flour. I made some with cinnamon sugar, some with sesame seeds and minced onion, the rest plain. They were pretty good, but a little bread-like, not so crispy outside/chewy inside like I was looking for. Not surprising, since afterall, I did use bread dough to make them!

Batch #2: Here is the finished product for the original recipe I had been wanting to try. They're 100% whole wheat, and that's how they tasted. A bit too wheaty for me. It could be that I used the hard red wheat instead of the hard white wheat I normally use. I had heard that the red wheat had a stronger flavor but had not used it much. I can't tell much difference in my bread, and these bagels were beautiful ... but wheaty. I'll let Molly eat those!

After I made the first two batches and saw that bagels were not as much work or as time consuming as I assumed, I decided to try to find a good recipe for New York-style bagels. Have I mentioned that I am a total bagel snob? I grew up in New Jersey, and have lived in the Midwest for the past 15 years, where bagels are just not the same. I still dream about New Jersey bagels and pizza.

So I decided to just forget about whole wheat for now, and work on finding a good bagel recipe that might get me close to my ideal bagel: crispy on the outside and chewy goodness on the inside. One-inch layer of cream cheese or egg salad... even better.

Batch #3: I found this recipe for New York-style bagels and tried it tonight. The bagels were pretty good! I would definitely make them again. Maybe I will even play with adding in some whole wheat flour. The recipe made 8 bagels, and they were huge, so I will probably try to turn it into 12 bagels next time. I substituted molasses for the malt syrup, since I didn't have any, though I may just have to get some for this recipe. As with all of the bagel recipes I tried, I used my bread machine for the dough.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Wow, I can't believe I made bagels! Have you had any culinary adventures lately?

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Recap of Week 2 and Week 3 Plan

2010-01-17T22:02:00.000-05:00

Well... except for the incident last Tuesday, all is well with January's Eat From the Pantry Challenge. I haven't been doing too much cooking, because it took us some time to get through all the food I made during week 1! We've just been eating leftovers and scraps here and there all week, and I've taken a little time off from cooking. Strangely... we're not exactly going hungry.

Our refrigerator is looking a little bare, so I'm back on the bandwagon and have plans to do some cooking this week. I'll try to control myself so we're not eating leftovers for a week and a half again! Here's our plan for the week:

Saturday: Homemade pizza with dough, sauce and toppings from the freezer
Sunday: Oven hamburgers, roasted vegetables, potato smiles, super easy black bean soup
Monday: Sweet potato black bean burritos (frozen) from last week's beans and rice with avocado and salsa
Tuesday: Country BBQ pork ribs in the crock pot, kale, potatoes
Wednesday: Chicken tikka masala, lentil biryani, broccoli
Thursday: Marinated pork chops, spatzle, salad, potato/bean/ham soup
Friday: Pancakes, farm fresh eggs, grapefruit

I'm not sure when I'll go to the grocery store next. We're set for most of the week with milk and bananas, so we'll see how long I can go! We had quite the glut of produce last week, so I'm happily working my way to the bottom of that in preparation for my produce delivery next week. Eat well and enjoy your week!

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Fell off the Wagon... oops.

2010-01-14T14:22:00.001-05:00

I have a confession to make: on Tuesday night, I went to Meijer for just a couple of things, and I ended up going hog-wild with some coupons and ended up spending an extra $40. Oops. It's not so much the money, but the principle of it all! We are supposed to be eating from the pantry this month, not buying more groceries. I have no great excuse except that... I was hungry... and I'm not the greatest rule-follower... and there were some really great deals that hadn't been available in awhile... and I was hungry...

OK, I had a moment of weakness, but I will move forward and continue my journey towards eating what we have on hand and not buying more "stuff." I shouldn't have even looked at the Meijer match-ups. The allure of Smart Taste pasta, frozen vegetables, Lance crackers and other great deals sucked me in, and I convinced myself that it was "just a few" things, and I wouldn't buy anything else unless it was on my list. For the conditions I set, I did pretty well. Did I mention that this was after a swimming class, and I was hungry, and I almost bought DONUTS?? But I didn't, I put them back :)

So, I'm hoping that this public confession of mine will reassure you that whatever goal you might be working on right now, if you fall off the wagon, pick yourself up and climb back on. The only way to reach your goal is to try again. You're that much further ahead than when you started the first time.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Recap of Week 1 and Week 2 Plan

2010-01-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

Week 1 of my family's Eat From the Pantry Challenge went very well, or at least I think so. Here was our meal plan for last week, and we basically followed it. The only thing I did differently was on Thursday, instead of making a bean and cornbread casserole with red cabbage on the side, I decided it would be wise to use up some of the turkey from the Trash Can Turkey we made last weekend. I made turkey divan and turkey-black bean-tortilla soup instead. Delish.

One thing I did not totally account for with my meal plan, is the sheer quantity of food all of those recipes would make! Not that it's a bad thing, but here we are on Sunday, and we still have lots of leftovers from last week to eat. Also, making at least one beef, pork and chicken dish each week is a lot of meat. At least it is for us, a family of 2 adults and one little one. You see, when I cook, I make enough for at least 4-6 people, because I'm a big fan of the cook once / eat many times idea. Sure enough... we are eating some of these dishes many times!

I haven't always cooked such meat-laden foods. Since I've been in the pregnancy/breastfeeding season of my life for the past couple years, during part of which I couldn't have ANY dairy, soy or nuts, meat became one of my few options for protein. So now I'm a bit torn, because I don't think we need to eat meat every day, but I am also anxious to move along some of that meat taking up valuable real estate in my freezer. I'll come up with a happy medium at some point. But for now... I'm cooking up a storm.

My schedule is a little busy early in the week, so it will be a bonus to have all these leftovers available. Here's my plan for this week:
Saturday: Meat pie from the freezer - an incredibly delicious annual Christmas gift from friends
Sunday: Trying a new recipe for beans and rice in the crockpot, roasted vegetables. Possible "Jeff Casserole"
Monday: Leftovers, broccoli
Tuesday: Leftovers, salad
Wednesday: Marinated pork loin chops, red cabbage, potatoes of some sort
Thursday: Baked Mediterranean chicken, kale, roasted root vegetables
Friday: Potstickers, broccoli

So far so good on the grocery spending. I did go to Trader Joe's this week for milk, bananas, yogurt and the month's worth of rice milk, and spent around $35. I only anticipate going once or twice more for the bare necessities, so I think we're still on track. I was also lucky enough to be given a dozen of the freshest eggs I have ever had (I saw them be plucked from their nests) when I visited this farm, where I am thinking of becoming a member of their CSA this summer. What a treat!

And, while I am enjoying this Eat From the Pantry Challenge, my husband and I are developing a little grocery wish-list of things we can't wait to have once we can grocery shop again! Here is our list so far:
     :: shrimp (lots of good shrimp recipes in my cooking magazines lately!)
     :: peanuts (for his rice cream)
     :: dried blueberries (for Molly's oatmeal)
     :: white miso (to make this fabulous salad dressing, which I have been craving lately)
This is good, we're coming up with alternatives and using what we have instead.

Have you decided to participate in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge for a week, two weeks, or even the whole month? How is it going for you?

Eat From the Pantry: Week 1

2010-01-03T23:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I made my plan for our take on the Eat From the Pantry Challenge. I did a rough inventory of our freezers, pantry and cupboards to see what needed to move along, and started various lists: meal ideas, vegetables and fruit available and other misc food items that needed to be eaten, among others. It went fairly quickly, since we are busting at the seams with food somehow. We could probably do this for two months instead of one!

Just to recap, one of my goals is to cook at least one beef, pork, chicken and bean dish each week, as well as two pots of soup/stew. Lunches are leftovers and mainly the soups, as well as anything else we come up with on the fly.

To keep you in suspense (and because I'm not sure when we'll be in the mood for what), I'll just share our meal plan for Week 1.

Saturday: Chili, bread
Sunday: Trash Can Turkey, lentil sausage soup
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs, roasted vegetables
Tuesday: Braised pork steaks with olives and mushrooms, sauteed zucchini, potatoes, applesauce
Wednesday: Southwest bean casserole with cornbread topping, some sort of red cabbage side dish
Thursday: Turkey and dumplings with lots of peas, carrots and celery
Friday: Rump roast in the crock pot, carrots, potatoes, prunes

So far so good. There have been a couple occasions that I had to remind myself that I couldn't really add anything to my grocery list, so this is already working! It's all about creatively using what you have and not just picking up everything you want from the grocery store.

Are you participating in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge? Tell us about your progress! Eat well and enjoy your week.

Winter Trash Can Turkey

2010-01-03T22:40:00.000-05:00

When turkeys were $0.40 a pound at Thanksgiving time, I bought two extras for the freezer. A turkey is nice to have on hand to roast over the weekend, and then enjoy leftovers in turkey and dumplings, turkey and noodles, turkey pot pie... the possibilities are endless.

This year, I wish I would have bought many more turkeys for the freezer. See this post for why I only had room for two.

We decided to try out a recipe that we did a couple times this summer - but on a 15 degree day instead of a lovely summer day. We made a trash can turkey! It was DELICIOUS. Seriously. You have to try it. The flavor is wonderful, the meat is incredibly juicy, and there is even a hint of smokiness to the meat, which I love. Not to mention that my 15 lb turkey cooked in less than 2 hours and there was no roasting pan to clean up!

Here are a few pictures of our culinary adventure today. First I laid out some heavy duty foil and poured an 18 lb bag of briquettes onto it. You light it the same way you would for grilling, and let them cook until they are gray. While that was cooking, we pounded a 2X2 stake into the ground and covered it with foil. I laid out other sheets of foil around the stake, to protect the turkey in case it happens to fall down the stake onto the ground (which has not happened to us yet).

In the house, I rubbed the turkey with canola oil, salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Then, I hung the turkey on the stake.

Then, we put the galvanized trash can (which has never been used for garbage) on top of the turkey. The turkey is not touching the inside of the can.

Once the coals were ready, using a shovel, we put 1/2 of the coals on top of the can and 1/2 around the base.

Then, since we had never done this in the cold weather before, we put the trash can lid on top of the coals and folded up the foil around the base, so that any wind wouldn't burn up our coals too quickly.

One hour and 45 minutes later, we used the shovel to take the hot coals off the top of the can, and scraped away the coals at the base. Then, we lifted the trash can and... viola! A toasty, perfectly cooked turkey. The heat from our experiment must have warmed the frozen ground, so the stake started to lean, but this didn't hurt anything.

Then, with oven mits on and foil against the bird, I took the turkey off the stake and plopped it in a pan. Here it is on our picnic table! We did go inside to eat it, of course. It was SO wonderful and amazingly juicy. Try it sometime! And don't forget to throw the carcass into your crock pot for some fabulous turkey stock. Mine is simmering right now...

January: Eat From the Pantry Challenge

2010-01-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

For the month of January, two of my favorite blogs are hosting a challege to us frugal-minded folks. The challenge is to eat from your pantry/freezer/cupboards for the whole month, drastically cutting down on trips to and expenses at the grocery store. I've tried to do this before, but usually only for a week at a time, so when I read about their idea to do it for a whole month, I was intrigued. You see, I'm a bit of a food hoarder.

Here is one area of my basement:

Here is another:

And another...

And then there is the huge freezer!

I have the best of intentions... I cook double-triple-quadruple batches of recipes to freeze and eat later. I freeze garden produce in the summer to be enjoyed throughout the cold, long winter. I get great deals on food by matching sales with coupons. I don't know what I'm preparing for... the day when I don't want to cook? The day I break a leg and can't cook? Who knows. What I do know is that we have LOTS of food in our house right now, and a challenge to make a dent in it sounded right up my alley.

Not to mention we might actually save some money by not spending so much at the grocery store. I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately. Before Christmas sales, after Christmas sales, I do love a good bargain. But even bargains add up.

One of the nice things about this Eat From the Pantry Challenge, is that it is up to each family to come up with their own ground rules since everyone's situation is different. Since we are busting at the seams with food, here is our list of "rules" for our family:

1. We will continue to get our twice-per-month box of organic produce delivered. I'll have to do a separate posting about this sometime, but basically it's exactly as it sounds: we get a box of organic fruit and vegetables delivered to our doorstep every other week from this company, and this takes care of the bulk of our fresh produce needs, when combined with what we have stored in our freezer and refrigerator. Our box is $23, so this works out to $46 for the month.

2. I will focus on cooking at least one meal each week of beef, pork, chicken and beans and will also make two pots of soup/stew each week. We have lots of beef and pork in the deep freezer from the 1/8 cow and 1/4 pig we bought... awhile ago. Also, I recently made a bunch of chicken and pork freezer meals that I talk about here and here. Then... there's the 25 pounds of black beans I bought that I could stand to get more creative with.

3. I will still buy staples like milk, eggs and bananas. Yes, not-even-close-to-local bananas are a staple in our house with a 17 month old. And, until we get our own cows or chickens, I will need to buy milk and eggs.

4. Since there will continue to be great deals to be had in the month of January, I allotted $10 per week to snatch up any hard-to-pass-up deals where I can get items free or almost free. I will focus on staying on top of cutting coupons and putting them in my coupon binder so that in February, I will be organized and ready to go.

So, I'm not really a purist. Everyone's got their limits. In fact, just this morning I already went against the Eat from the Pantry Challenge when I was lucky enough to visit a farmers market an hour away from home, where I bought red cabbage, turnips, parsnips, carrots, greenhouse tomatoes and eggs. To me, it was more important to support the farmers out there braving the frigid weather, thus having the treat of some locally grown winter produce than to be super rigid about this challenge. After all, we're all just trying to do the right thing, right??

So there you have it. I can't wait to see how we do! One week is pretty doable for most people and may help get the creative juices flowing. A month? Oh boy. Hopefully there will be no peanut butter and mustard sandwiches.... ha ha, no chance. Eat well and enjoy your day!

6 Months of Garlic

2009-12-10T12:33:00.001-05:00

One thing I love doing is cooking. One thing I don't have is a lot of uninterrupted time, what with chasing around an active 1 year old. Anything I can do to save myself time in the kitchen, while still preparing delicious, healthy meals for our family... I'm all over it.

Last night I prepped enough minced garlic to last us a good six months. I don't really know how long it will last, but a LONG time. I started with a huge 3 lb container of peeled garlic from Costco, which cost all of $5. Not much, if you ask me. I trimmed off the hard end of each clove, and popped them in my food processor.

I chopped up the garlic until it was minced. Then I dumped it out onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Using a spatula, and then another piece of wax paper on top, I pressed the garlic into a nice thin layer on the cookie sheet.

Once the garlic was pressed down, I took my handy pizza cutter and cut horizontally and vertically to get little squares, about 1 teaspoon each.

I covered that up with wax paper and froze both trays overnight. In the morning, I broke up the pieces and put them in zip-lock bags to go back into the freezer. Now, when I need garlic, I don't have to take the time to crack open a clove, have the skin stick to my fingers as I hurriedly try to mince it, inevitably ending up with too-big chunks. I just open my freezer, take out a square - or more - and throw it in my pan or pot. One thing I love about this, is that I end up using a lot more garlic this way, and I LOVE garlic! No mess, my favorite.

You could also do this with hot peppers, diced onions, or other high-maintenence veggies, though I have never tried it on this scale.

Eat well and happy cooking!

More Cooking Ahead - Bread and Pork Roasts

2009-12-03T22:18:00.002-05:00

Today I finally got to the grain-grinding and bread prep. portion of my "freezer cooking" adventure. I like to grind enough flour for at least 6 loaves of bread and then measure out the whole wheat and white flour into boxes for the freezer. Then, I just have to throw the wet ingredients into the bread machine along with the box of flour and yeast, and away we go.

For some reason, just having the flour already measured out makes the task of making bread so much less daunting! I am really not a baker, actually. That's why I have the bread machine do my dirty work and I just take the lovely dough, bake it in the oven and call it my own homemade bread. Boy is it good! Especially with freshly ground flour, oh my goodness.

I also experimented with grinding popcorn into cornmeal today. I haven't made anything with it, but I did pop it in my freezer to keep it fresh until I do use it. I'm thinking of making some corn muffins. How cool is freshly ground cornmeal?? I'm looking for a good cornbread/corn muffin recipe that I can use to make homemade mixes from. I would prefer more of a savory taste than sweet, and not too much milk/sour cream, etc since my husband tries to stay away from large amounts of dairy. Now that I'm grinding cornmeal, I will probably be experimenting with corn bread recipes in the weeks to come. If you have a great recipe, please share!

The one other quickie freezer meal-making I did was a few pork loin roasts. The huge ones were on sale at our high-end grocery store, so I bought one and split it into three big roasts, about 3 lbs each. They worked out to be less than $5 each, which is pretty good considering each will provide at least 6 meals but probably more for us. I seasoned one of the roasts with a new dijon marinade, and the others I left plain. I've got a maple glazed pork roast recipe I've done a couple times that is fabulous. Hopefully this will give us a little variety from the 35 lbs of chicken I just added to our freezer two days ago!

Freezer Cooking Day: The Results

2009-12-01T23:00:00.001-05:00

The results are in... I ended up making 10 meals of marinated chicken breasts using 7 different sauces. Plus, I have 5 plain chicken breasts that are trimmed and ready for whatever I might need them for. I was going to do 10 plain ones, but who am I kidding... which are more likely to be eaten? The ones that are seasoned and ready to cook!

When you break it down by cost, you'll see what a savings it really is to do this type of cooking where possible. I had all the ingredients on hand besides the chicken. Even if I had used the recipes I had originally intended from my cookbooks, I already had all of the ingredients anyway, so the only thing I had to buy is the chicken. For approximately 35 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I spent $51.93. I got 11 meals from the 35 pounds. As I said in my earlier post, the breasts are HUGE, so I cut them in half. Each bag got 4 breasts, cut in half, so 8 pieces of chicken, at $4.73 per meal. If we say that each meal is, on average about 6 servings, that works out to be about $0.79 per serving. Not bad, and definitely cheaper than take-out. The best part is, the work is done!

All in all, it took me about an hour and a half to clean the chicken, add the marinades, put the bags in the freezer and clean up. It took me less time than I thought, but I had to wait until after Little Moo's bedtime, since she did not grant me with much of a nap today! No one wants to be up to her elbows in chicken guts with a one-year-old running around.

The other part of my cooking in advance plan that I didn't accomplish was bread prep. When I grind flour, I do enough for 6 loaves of bread, and measure out the whole wheat and white flour into freezer boxes for the freezer. Doing this step ahead of time saves me a couple minutes when I'm making bread, which is so helpful! Every few minutes helps. Tomorrow is another day......