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!
Showing posts with label frugal living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frugal living. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Homemade Play Dough
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:
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.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Seed Starting - Getting Ready for This Year's Vegetable Garden
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
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Something From Nothing: Homemade Stuffing
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!
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!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Put A Little Extra Cash in Your Pocket (Updated)
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!
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!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
This Week's Meal Plan
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Granola
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!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Recap of Week 2 and Week 3 Plan
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!
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!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Fell off the Wagon... oops.
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.
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.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Eat From the Pantry Challenge: Recap of Week 1 and Week 2 Plan
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?
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?
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Eat From the Pantry: Week 1
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.
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.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
January: Eat From the Pantry Challenge
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!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
6 Months of Garlic
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.
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!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
More Cooking Ahead - Bread and Pork Roasts
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!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Freezer Cooking Day: The Results
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......
Freezer Cooking Day: The Plan
Today and tomorrow, Crystal from MoneySavingMom and FishMama from LifeAsMom are hosting a freezer cooking day, where they prepare a bunch of meals to freeze for another day. They have started doing this once a month to make life easier at dinner time. I have done versions of this in the past, usually on a smaller scale based on what ingredients I have on hand and what meat/protein I can find at great prices. I like to do this bit by bit so that I don't have to take the whole day to cook. When chicken is on sale, I buy enough for 4-6 meals, prepare them and freeze. The same goes for pork. When those huge loins are on sale, I have one or two sliced into chops and roast, season or marinate, and into the freezer they go for another day. By preparing a handful of extra meals here and there, before you know it, you have a freezer full of meals to choose from. Better yet, they have all been bought on sale and the cheapest prices I can get! Then, when I'm ready to eat them, I just thaw and bake/grill/put in the crockpot.
Before I decided to participate in this Freezer Cooking Day, I had already noticed that my local high-end grocery store was having a sale on chicken breasts for $1.49/lb, which is pretty good in this area, especially for good quality meat. I had planned to take advantage of this deal this week anyway, so it was a nice coincidence that a couple of my favorite bloggers are doing freezer cooking today also!
This morning I picked out the recipes I was planning on making, from Fix Freeze Feast and Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer (info is listed to the right), my two current favorite freezer cooking books. Then as I was looking through my refrigerator and pantry, I changed my gameplan. I decided to move along a bunch of condiments that I am sick of looking at. Instead of trying some new recipes this time, why not marinate a bunch of chicken breasts in sauces I already have? How's that for frugal...
So here's what I'm planning:
:: 35 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and divided into 3 pound portions. The breasts are usually huge, so I cut them in half the fat way, so I end up with a triangular piece and a sort of semi-circle shaped piece. Each portion of 3 lbs goes into a gallon-sized zip-lock bag. Before adding the chicken to the bag, I label with a permanent marker what is in the bag and cooking instructions. I am purposely buying more chicken than I need to account for trimming. Any extra chicken will be frozen on cookie sheets and put in a zip-lock bag for later.
:: 7 different marinades/sauces: two different BBQ sauces, mole sauce, curry sauce, sweet and smoky Indian marinade, raspberry salsa, and a sesame teriyaki sauce.
:: The marinade gets poured into the zip-lock bag, and I squish around the chicken and sauce until the chicken is coated. Depending on how much time I have and how creative I am feeling, I may add some pizazz to the bags like extra onions, garlic or other herbs and spices.
:: As for cooking, some are for the crock pot, and some are for grilling or baking. The BBQ sauces with chicken will go in the crock pot for healthy and delicious pulled chicken, similar to pulled pork but much easier! Same goes for the mole sauce, which will probably be served with tortillas for tacos or burritos. The others will probably be grilled or baked.
So it's that easy! The hardest part is cleaning up the chicken, which takes me awhile since I'm picky. If you wanted to do this even MORE quickly, you could buy the bags of indivdually frozen chicken breasts, count them out into your zip-lock bags, add your marinades and pop them in the freezer. In literally minutes, you could have many main dish meals in your freezer, ready to go. While the meat is cooking, make a quick salad and/or other vegetable and you have a healthy, cheap meal.
Do you do any freezer cooking? Tell us about it in the comments section!
Before I decided to participate in this Freezer Cooking Day, I had already noticed that my local high-end grocery store was having a sale on chicken breasts for $1.49/lb, which is pretty good in this area, especially for good quality meat. I had planned to take advantage of this deal this week anyway, so it was a nice coincidence that a couple of my favorite bloggers are doing freezer cooking today also!
This morning I picked out the recipes I was planning on making, from Fix Freeze Feast and Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer (info is listed to the right), my two current favorite freezer cooking books. Then as I was looking through my refrigerator and pantry, I changed my gameplan. I decided to move along a bunch of condiments that I am sick of looking at. Instead of trying some new recipes this time, why not marinate a bunch of chicken breasts in sauces I already have? How's that for frugal...
So here's what I'm planning:
:: 35 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and divided into 3 pound portions. The breasts are usually huge, so I cut them in half the fat way, so I end up with a triangular piece and a sort of semi-circle shaped piece. Each portion of 3 lbs goes into a gallon-sized zip-lock bag. Before adding the chicken to the bag, I label with a permanent marker what is in the bag and cooking instructions. I am purposely buying more chicken than I need to account for trimming. Any extra chicken will be frozen on cookie sheets and put in a zip-lock bag for later.
:: 7 different marinades/sauces: two different BBQ sauces, mole sauce, curry sauce, sweet and smoky Indian marinade, raspberry salsa, and a sesame teriyaki sauce.
:: The marinade gets poured into the zip-lock bag, and I squish around the chicken and sauce until the chicken is coated. Depending on how much time I have and how creative I am feeling, I may add some pizazz to the bags like extra onions, garlic or other herbs and spices.
:: As for cooking, some are for the crock pot, and some are for grilling or baking. The BBQ sauces with chicken will go in the crock pot for healthy and delicious pulled chicken, similar to pulled pork but much easier! Same goes for the mole sauce, which will probably be served with tortillas for tacos or burritos. The others will probably be grilled or baked.
So it's that easy! The hardest part is cleaning up the chicken, which takes me awhile since I'm picky. If you wanted to do this even MORE quickly, you could buy the bags of indivdually frozen chicken breasts, count them out into your zip-lock bags, add your marinades and pop them in the freezer. In literally minutes, you could have many main dish meals in your freezer, ready to go. While the meat is cooking, make a quick salad and/or other vegetable and you have a healthy, cheap meal.
Do you do any freezer cooking? Tell us about it in the comments section!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Frugal Thoughts for a Friday
Earlier this year, my husband learned that his company was doing an across-the-board pay cut. The percentage wasn't huge, but once it came into effect, it was more painful than we thought. We have never been overly extravagent people and both are decent at saving money, but in the past few years, we seemed to always find ourselves spending pretty close to (or going over!) what our monthly paychecks brought in. It's so easy to spend what you have, adjusting to each pay increase, isn't it?
Once we heard about the pay cut, we realized we really needed to look at our budget and cut out any and all unnecessary spending. I already was looking at our spending periodically to make sure we weren't missing any savings, but this time we had to get serious. We have some money saved as a cushion, but we really didn't want to dip into that to cover our monthly expenses. Somehow, we had to get our monthly spending to be LESS than our incoming paychecks!
Right around the time of the paycut, a friend shared a couple blogs with me: Moneysavingmom and Hip2Save. They are both dedicated to finding ways to save money on the purchases that we make everyday - from groceries to toiletries to gifts and lots more. Just to name a few, they post ideas on how to live frugally, coupon codes for online shopping and grocery store match-ups, which pair sale prices with coupons and other promotions that help you get items for free or at incredibly reduced prices.
In the 8 months or so that I have been following these and other great blogs, I have been getting tons of good deals on things I would normally buy anyway, and I have saved lots of money. The best part about it, though, is that it has totally changed the way I think of spending our hard-earned money. No longer do I traipse around the grocery store picking up anything and everything that looks good, only to forget about it once it is away in the pantry or freezer.
Now I will clarify that I am a total foodie and love cooking, and I haven't lost all the fun of grocery shopping. Using coupons and pairing them with sales to get products close to free has actually allowed me to try more new foods that I might not have spent money on otherwise. In some cases, I have loved the product, and in others, I'm glad I didn't spend more than a few cents!
Just recently we received word that the pay cut will be reversed, and this month we will be back to my husband's normal pay. Also, I changed jobs this month, which will give us even more wiggle-room with our budget. Will I go back to my old ways of spending? NO! I'm so excited to report that after the first month or two of the reduced income, I forgot we even had the extra savings that could bail us out if we charged too much on the credit card that month. I spent my time trying to get great deals and keep our out-of-pocket expenses as low as possible. I think that because I started small, and tried not to let couponing overwhelm me (because it can be very overwhelming!), I have continued to do it and enjoy it. Sometimes a big trip to the grocery store with my stack of coupons and shopping list that I have carefully planned out can be exhausting, but when I come home and proudly show my husband how much I did (and didn't) spend and all that we got, it is worth the extra effort in my opinion.
Here are some of the best lessons I learned when I had to tighten my belt these last many months:
:: Spending mindlessly is like eating mindlessly - you're left with unhealthy results, whether it is an enlarged credit card bill or an enlarged waistline.
:: Using coupons and finding bargains not only saves us money, but it fulfills my urge to shop! No longer do I go shopping just to go shopping, and yet I feel like I am living more abundantly than ever.
:: Patience is key. Unless I really need something NOW, I try not to buy it. Often, what I need really does go on sale and/or I find a coupon by the time I need it.
:: Just because something is free doesn't necessarily mean it is a good idea to buy it! There are lots of coupons out there for highly processed junk food. While the occasional (free) treat is fun, many times I have to just ignore some good deals. On a similar note, if you don't need it and it only costs 45 cents, you're still spending money and adding clutter to your life. So keep walking.
So yes, living frugally is a lifestyle not everyone can understand or want for themselves. The way I see it, I live frugally in some areas of my life by using coupons, not spending much money on technology (including cable) and really considering every purchase I make, so that I can live a life of abundance in other ways.
What are the best lessons you have learned from cutting back? Please share!
This post is linked to this post for Frugal Fridays.
Once we heard about the pay cut, we realized we really needed to look at our budget and cut out any and all unnecessary spending. I already was looking at our spending periodically to make sure we weren't missing any savings, but this time we had to get serious. We have some money saved as a cushion, but we really didn't want to dip into that to cover our monthly expenses. Somehow, we had to get our monthly spending to be LESS than our incoming paychecks!
Right around the time of the paycut, a friend shared a couple blogs with me: Moneysavingmom and Hip2Save. They are both dedicated to finding ways to save money on the purchases that we make everyday - from groceries to toiletries to gifts and lots more. Just to name a few, they post ideas on how to live frugally, coupon codes for online shopping and grocery store match-ups, which pair sale prices with coupons and other promotions that help you get items for free or at incredibly reduced prices.
In the 8 months or so that I have been following these and other great blogs, I have been getting tons of good deals on things I would normally buy anyway, and I have saved lots of money. The best part about it, though, is that it has totally changed the way I think of spending our hard-earned money. No longer do I traipse around the grocery store picking up anything and everything that looks good, only to forget about it once it is away in the pantry or freezer.
Now I will clarify that I am a total foodie and love cooking, and I haven't lost all the fun of grocery shopping. Using coupons and pairing them with sales to get products close to free has actually allowed me to try more new foods that I might not have spent money on otherwise. In some cases, I have loved the product, and in others, I'm glad I didn't spend more than a few cents!
Just recently we received word that the pay cut will be reversed, and this month we will be back to my husband's normal pay. Also, I changed jobs this month, which will give us even more wiggle-room with our budget. Will I go back to my old ways of spending? NO! I'm so excited to report that after the first month or two of the reduced income, I forgot we even had the extra savings that could bail us out if we charged too much on the credit card that month. I spent my time trying to get great deals and keep our out-of-pocket expenses as low as possible. I think that because I started small, and tried not to let couponing overwhelm me (because it can be very overwhelming!), I have continued to do it and enjoy it. Sometimes a big trip to the grocery store with my stack of coupons and shopping list that I have carefully planned out can be exhausting, but when I come home and proudly show my husband how much I did (and didn't) spend and all that we got, it is worth the extra effort in my opinion.
Here are some of the best lessons I learned when I had to tighten my belt these last many months:
:: Spending mindlessly is like eating mindlessly - you're left with unhealthy results, whether it is an enlarged credit card bill or an enlarged waistline.
:: Using coupons and finding bargains not only saves us money, but it fulfills my urge to shop! No longer do I go shopping just to go shopping, and yet I feel like I am living more abundantly than ever.
:: Patience is key. Unless I really need something NOW, I try not to buy it. Often, what I need really does go on sale and/or I find a coupon by the time I need it.
:: Just because something is free doesn't necessarily mean it is a good idea to buy it! There are lots of coupons out there for highly processed junk food. While the occasional (free) treat is fun, many times I have to just ignore some good deals. On a similar note, if you don't need it and it only costs 45 cents, you're still spending money and adding clutter to your life. So keep walking.
So yes, living frugally is a lifestyle not everyone can understand or want for themselves. The way I see it, I live frugally in some areas of my life by using coupons, not spending much money on technology (including cable) and really considering every purchase I make, so that I can live a life of abundance in other ways.
What are the best lessons you have learned from cutting back? Please share!
This post is linked to this post for Frugal Fridays.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Meal Plan For This Week
OK, I admit that last week I didn't come up with a meal plan, and I could really feel the difference! Things were much more chaotic at dinner time, but since we had a meeting Wednesday night and were heading out of town Friday, I slacked off and didn't come up with a plan. Thankfully I had done some cooking last weekend, and that saved us for many lunches and dinners during the week.
For more information on why I think meal planning is so great, check out this post and this post. In fact, I am actually considering trying to plan out two weeks of dinners in advance, but because I am short on time tonight, I will stick with one week and start thinking about next week.
Here is my plan for the week:
Monday: Leftover potato kale soup using potatoes from the farmers market and our kale, brats on homemade buns using this recipe and fresh ground flour from my new grain mill!
Tuesday: Homemade baked beans and cornbread using bacon from our 1/4 pig and navy beans that I cooked and froze previously
Wednesday: Experimental day - something with round steak from our 1/8 cow, a new carrot dish with my father-in-law's carrots and potatoes, possibly cooked in the crock pot and mashed
Thursday: Another new recipe - a chicken simmered in a soy sauce brine and roasted, sauteed zucchini from the freezer and leftover potatoes
Friday: Homemade pizza using this recipe for crust, veggies from the freezer, italian sausage from our 1/4 pig and anything else I can find that would be good on pizza
We'll see how cooking adventure Wednesday goes. I am going to come up with a recipe for the round steak and my pressure cooker, which I have never used except for some canning a few years ago. I am terrible about using some of the cuts of meat from our cow that I am less familiar with, so I'm trying to get motivated. Perhaps the speed of the pressure cooker will be just what I need to light a little fire under me! I am starting a new job too, so maybe my new schedule of working Mondays and Fridays will help me do a little more cooking during the week, which I have not been as good about lately. Maybe my husband will start making his famous casseroles on Monday nights! Hmmm... that's a lot of maybe's... Eat well and enjoy your week!
For more information on why I think meal planning is so great, check out this post and this post. In fact, I am actually considering trying to plan out two weeks of dinners in advance, but because I am short on time tonight, I will stick with one week and start thinking about next week.
Here is my plan for the week:
Monday: Leftover potato kale soup using potatoes from the farmers market and our kale, brats on homemade buns using this recipe and fresh ground flour from my new grain mill!
Tuesday: Homemade baked beans and cornbread using bacon from our 1/4 pig and navy beans that I cooked and froze previously
Wednesday: Experimental day - something with round steak from our 1/8 cow, a new carrot dish with my father-in-law's carrots and potatoes, possibly cooked in the crock pot and mashed
Thursday: Another new recipe - a chicken simmered in a soy sauce brine and roasted, sauteed zucchini from the freezer and leftover potatoes
Friday: Homemade pizza using this recipe for crust, veggies from the freezer, italian sausage from our 1/4 pig and anything else I can find that would be good on pizza
We'll see how cooking adventure Wednesday goes. I am going to come up with a recipe for the round steak and my pressure cooker, which I have never used except for some canning a few years ago. I am terrible about using some of the cuts of meat from our cow that I am less familiar with, so I'm trying to get motivated. Perhaps the speed of the pressure cooker will be just what I need to light a little fire under me! I am starting a new job too, so maybe my new schedule of working Mondays and Fridays will help me do a little more cooking during the week, which I have not been as good about lately. Maybe my husband will start making his famous casseroles on Monday nights! Hmmm... that's a lot of maybe's... Eat well and enjoy your week!
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