Archive for Make Ahead Meals
Cooking Ahead for November
Posted by: | CommentsWe had completely eaten our stash of frozen foods, so it feels good to have some healthy convenience foods back in the freezer again! I didn’t get everything made that was on my list, but shucks…I NEVER get everything done that is on my list.
Can I tell you my biggest tip for making healthy convenience foods for your pantry and freezer? Don’t make freezer cooking difficult. Just make extra food here and there as you are cooking and working in your kitchen.
I have found that marathon freezer cooking doesn’t work for me. It wears me out and makes me feel behind in other areas. Instead, when I need to make Whole Wheat Tortillas, I’ll make a double or triple batch and freeze some for later. If I take the time once in a while to make a big bowl of Turkey Sausage and prep it for the freezer, then I’ve got Turkey Sausage ready for the next several weeks. If I am making one casserole, I’ll make three and freeze two. Cooking ahead really doesn’t have to be complicated. I am always SO thankful for the healthy “go-to” foods in my freezer!
Here are the extra foods that I’ve worked on during the past several days:
Applesauce Bread (x3)
Whole Wheat Waffles (x2)
We ate one batch for breakfast and I froze the rest.
Whole Wheat Tortillas (x2)
Yeah, these are almost gone already. :)
Turkey Sausage (x6)
I froze sausage patties on parchment paper lined cookie sheets,
popped them off and put them into freezer bags for fast breakfasts and lunches.
Taco Seasoning, right there in my pantry next to a jar of Ranch Dressing Mix and Italian Dressing Mix.
These mixes each take about five minutes to prepare, taste delicious, are SO much healthier and save a lot of money!!
Chicken Fried Steak Strips (x3)
Just like the turkey sausage, I prepped these, froze them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets
and put them into freezer bags for a quick lunch or dinner.
I am happy to report that the homemade, healthy poptarts I experimented with WORKED this time!!
I am sad to report that we ate them all already.
I am happy to report that I have the recipe written down and will type it out and share the EASY way to make these during the next week or two!!
Here are the items on my list that I just didn’t get around to making yet. Hopefully I will in the next few days…
Do you have anything yummy in your freezer, ready to pull out and fix quickly?
Recipe Parade Winners and Did We Really Just Finish Breakfast at 11:00?
Posted by: | CommentsWell…this week was LOADS of fun and I’ve heard from several of you that you’d like the parade to just continue and continue…
I loved everything about this week, so I promise we will do it again sometime. Just not next week. I kind of need to recover first. :)
Actually, my house and kitchen need to recover first. Between posting something like 17 posts last week and helping set up for our biannual church clothing exchange and schooling my kids…my house and kitchen look a little bit neglected. And of all things, our tomato plants seemed to have had one last hoorah so I worked for a couple of days to make and can a batch of salsa and a double batch of tomato soup!! I’ve been washing dishes all along (I promise), but this morning when I got up (late, thank you very much), I really needed to clean my kitchen before I could tackle breakfast. So I cleaned and I cleaned, then I decided to make a special breakfast: Caramel Frosted Donuts.
Why did I choose Caramel Frosted Donuts? Because I talked about donuts the other day and they sounded good. Plus, I was really excited about the fact that I can now make my own powdered sugar with Sucanat. And so, I experimented with a recipe for Caramel Frosting. Mmmmm…..
Long story longer, by the time I finished cleaning the kitchen, grinding flour for donuts, making powdered sugar and then making the donuts and frosting….we sort of ate a little bit late. Nothing like finishing breakfast at 11:00, huh? You’d think that my kids would not be hungry for lunch, but an hour and twenty minutes later, they are starting to ask what we are having. Wow.
Well, I suppose we should announce some giveaway winners, shouldn’t we? You didn’t really come just to stare at my donuts and hear about my messy kitchen. Here we go:
The winners of the free e-cookbook from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop are:
Rebecca (Stevenbecky03@)
Cheryl (pcreiter@)
Sabrina (isabelscharm@)
Kimberly (anderson.kimberlyallen@)
Carissa White (cwhite@)
Winners, email me letting me know which e-cookbook you would like from the shop!
The winner of the Stainless Steel Bakeware from Paula’s Bread is:
Sarah B. (sarahcsoth@)
Sarah, email me with your contact information and I’ll forward it on to Paula’s Bread!
And now, I am off to watch some YC soccer. Then I will come home and clean some more. I think I will pop some popcorn to take along for the boys to eat for lunch. Donuts then popcorn. A very nutritious day. I’ll make vegetables for dinner, I promise.
And…in case you were wondering, my Caramel Frosting experiment was a great success. Recipe Parade or not, you’ll be reading about that recipe in the next few days!
Crumb Topping – Premade!
Posted by: | CommentsI LOVED Christy’s comment/suggestion that she left on the Healthy Fruit Crisp post regarding how she makes a Crumb Topping ahead of time:
I melt the butter, then make a huge batch of crumb topping, pop it in a freezer bag, and stick it in the freezer. It is great to have on hand since a basic crumb topping will work for coffee cake, muffins, quick breads, and fruit crisp. I figure if I already have the crumb topping done, then I am half way to a great breakfast/dessert item!
Is she the smartest or what??!
Just in case you hadn’t read that comment, I wanted to make sure you all knew of that wonderful tip. When I was making Mini Apple Pies last week, I went ahead and made a big batch of crumb topping for future use. LOVE. IT.
Here again is how I make Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup butter (MELTED, if you recall)
1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut flakes (also optional)
Mix together oats, sucanat, flour and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter and joy upon joy, it creates crumbs with little to no effort. Add nuts or coconut flakes.
Just double or triple or quadrupal…or whatever…the recipe and have it ready to go!
I’ve learned so many great ideas from so many of you. I sure am glad all of you are so smart!
Cooking Ahead for October
Posted by: | CommentsWhy does it always feel funny writing the phrase “cooking ahead…”? Have I just lived with boys for too long, or does it sound like I’m actually cooking-a-head? Yuck. I promise I’m not.
Yes, I know you were all concerned about that.
Now that we got all that cleared up, I’ll show you some pictures of the progress I’ve made over the past few days getting food made up to have on hand for this month. Like I mentioned here, we will have a lot of company this month. In an effort to ENJOY my company, I’ve got the majority of our main dishes and a few miscellaneous food items all made up and ready to pull out when needed. (More about hospitality and enjoying company in my new podcast Friday!)
You are all aware that my house has been run over by an apple truck, right? About the time I think I’m finished making applesauce and apple pie filling…more apples fall from the sky. My fingers are all brown in their crevices. It’s attractive. I went real nuts one day and made two pans of Mini Apple Pies, a big apple pie and some Apple Pie Pockets. Oh, these are SO well worth the effort!!
I made a triple batch of Sloppy Joe Meat as Sloppy Joes are a wonderful quick meal to feed company. As long as I remember to get the dish out of the freezer to thaw, of course.
Mmmm, fresh whole wheat tortillas. We ate half of these right off the skillet as tacos, then I put the rest in the fridge for a quick meal of quesadillas.
There is something VERY not cute about the following picture. Raw meat in a pot…not so appetizing. However, I’m showing it to you anyway because you NEED to know how wonderful it is to make up a huge batch of Turkey Sausage to have on hand for breakfast casseroles or sausage-egg scrambles, or especially now for these Pancake-Sausage Muffins. The thing is, making this Turkey Sausage is a little tedious because you have to get out about 40 herbs and spices (give or take). If I’m going to do it in the first place, I’d rather do a bunch…and all the work of emptying and reloading my spice cabinet is worth it.
There it is…all browned up. I did six pounds of Turkey Sausage, then froze it in ten different containers. TEN meals ALL ready to go. Oh yes, that was time well spent.
I used some of the cooked turkey sausage to make a double batch of Pancake-Sausage Muffins. I think we may be addicted to these little treasures. Only a few of them actually made it into the freezer…
I plan to serve several salads to my guests, so I made three jars of salad dressing: Italian, Ranch and Thousand Island. Can I have three cheers for easy, healthy dressings that don’t contain any HFCS!!! But hey…what happened to all the Italian?
Because having cookies on hand when you have company is a must…or simply because I wanted one…I made a batch of Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I still have to finish putting together a lasagna. I have the meat browned, so all I have to do is layer it up and put it in the fridge. And I didn’t get Mudballs made like I had planned. I DID get a triple batch of BBQ Meatballs made, but the pictures turned out scary so I won’t post them.
Now, I need to go vacuum my ceilings and walls.
Too Tired to Cook
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I wrote this post suggesting that you eat out less as a simple step toward becoming more healthy, several of you asked, “So what do you do when you’re just too tired to cook?”
Well, thankfully I never get tired so this isn’t an issue at our house.
Just kidding.
I adore cooking and consider it to be one of my favorite hobbies, but there are several times a week (whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner) that I really don’t feel like cooking. Or I don’t feel like messing up the kitchen. Or the kitchen is already messy and I don’t feel like cleaning it and then making it messy again. Or I’ve been in the kitchen all day making tomato sauce or salsa or applesauce, which makes me feel like I’ve been cooking but there’s still nothing for dinner…and I’m tired.
Then my pitiful, starving children crawl into the kitchen clutching their empty bellies because it’s been like 28 minutes since they last put food in their mouths and they must…have…dinner…
This is when I am so thankful that I have taken the time to prepare food ahead of time and put it in the freezer.
So in answer to your questions about what I do when I don’t feel like cooking: I make good use of the food I’ve prepared ahead of time and put in the freezer. Healthy freezer foods are a life saver for me. I HEART freezer foods!!!
Now, some foods take longer to re-heat from a frozen state (like a lasagna casserole)…so hopefully I am aware ahead of time that I need to grab something pre-made out of the freezer for a meal. (A frozen lasagna casserole takes a good two hours (+) to thaw and cook.) Otherwise, many items just go directly to the oven in their frozen state, taking just a few minutes to reheat (like these burritos).
I encourage you to look through all the posts in my Make Ahead Meals series for ideas, recipes and suggestions for freezer cooking. It isn’t hard to spend a few hours each month making extra food and putting it into the freezer. Just do a little bit every few days until you have a nice freezer stash. You will be so thankful you did! The few hours you spend cooking ahead will save you many hours later. Plus it will save you a load of money and help you eat healthier too!
Here are the foods I’ve been making recently to have on hand:
Banana Bread and Banana Muffins (Yes, that is tomato sauce in the background.
It’s always good to bake something while you’re in the kitchen waiting for tomato sauce to cook down.)
Sloppy Cornbread Muffins – these can be warmed in the oven
from their frozen state and ready in just a few minutes!
Two loaves of honey whole wheat bread and two loaves of
cinnamon swirl bread. We discovered the other day that the
cinnamon swirl bread makes wonderful french toast for breakfast!
Hamburger buns…and YES, I figured out how to make hotdog buns.
SO EASY! I’ll share the “how-to” soon!
Yogurt – okay it’s not a freezer food -
but I’m so happy to have a big half gallon jar of yogurt on hand for snacks or for soaking grains.
Chewy Granola Bars – also not a freezer food.
I made a triple batch of these so now we have a huge supply in the
fridge ready for Matt or the boys to grab on the run!
I individually wrapped the granola bars and put them in a cute basket in the fridge.
The men in my life don’t so much appreciate my cute basket, but you appreciate it don’t you?
They do appreciate the contents of the basket, of course.
You already know that I had a big chicken party and made four huge containers of chicken broth…
And ten containers of cooked chicken.
I made and dehydrated a double batch of homemade noodles
to go with that chicken and broth – perfect for these chilly fall evenings!
Last but not least, I tried an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while – homemade poptarts!! They turned out so-so (read: tasty but really sticky and messy), so I’ll be tweaking the recipe before I share it with you. But you can look forward to it coming sometime!
A few other fall back meals I rely on when I don’t feel like cooking:
- Salmon Patties with vegetables
- Quesadillas (if I have tortillas on hand)
- Pancakes and scrambled eggs (using this pancake recipe - skipping the soaking part)
- Hamburger patties with vegetables
- Fried eggs on toast with smoothies
What meals do you make when you don’t feel like cooking, but you want to avoid eating out? Have you found that having frozen, premade meals in the freezer has been helpful to you?
Always Label Your Frozen Food – UPDATED! :)
Posted by: | CommentsWe are having an unidentified casserole for lunch today. Sounds delicious doesn’t it?
I made it during one of my recent freezer cooking days, but I didn’t label it. Why didn’t I label it? Good question. I think I didn’t label it because I figured we’d eat it within a couple of weeks and I’d remember what it was. But we didn’t eat it within a couple of weeks and my brain has blocked out that memory and now I have no idea what it is.
Any ideas?
I’m thinking it might be beef enchiladas, but I’m not sure.
So, my encouragement for you today is to always label your frozen food. It helps you know what you’re eating. Duh.
Now, I also recommend that you re-use your freezer bags if possible. The labeling of freezer bags, however, can become an issue when you re-use them.
Case in point: I once filled a freezer bag with bean and cheese burritos. I labeled the bag “bean and cheese”. Later I re-used the bag store zucchini bread. I knew what it was, but of course no one else did. My husband got ready to slice some for breakfast the next day and glanced down at the bag to see what kind of bread he was to be eating. He looked at the label and of course it said, “bean and cheese”. I think he might have jumped back in shock. Sorry, Honey.
I hereby resolve to become better at labeling my frozen foods.
Would you like an update on the identification of the unidentified casserole after lunch today?
——————————————————–
UPDATE!!
Sure enough…it was beef enchiladas. Once I could smell what it was while it baked in the oven, I had just enough time to make a taco salad and lunch was served. Hey, sometimes surprises are fun, right?
Cooking Ahead for August
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s coming…and I’m bracing myself. I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare and be organized so that I won’t be stressed and short tempered with my boys. Not that I would ever be short tempered with my boys. Ugh, I do try not to be short tempered with my precious angels who leave their stinky shoes in the middle of my kitchen floor so that I can stub my toe on them while I’m trying to cook and fill their constantly hungry bellies. I try.
So what’s coming, you ask? Just a very busy couple of months, that’s all. August and September are two months of very,very hard work while I do a lot of canning and preserving in the midst of beginning our school year and running to lots of soccer games. I absolutely love this time of year, but it can sometimes get hectic.
As soon as I finished writing and putting together Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Curriculum Kit, I saw that I had about three weeks before we were going to start our school year. (We like to start in early August at our house.) I decided that during the last part of July, I would prepare a bunch of freezer foods, stock up on items like canned salmon and tuna for easy meals and order meat from our local farm source so that I’d have a full freezer and plenty of meal options. I even pulled out Do the Funky Kitchen and read it again so that I could get my kitchen organized an in order! Anything that I could do ahead of time to prepare for this busy season, I did. I think. I’m pretty sure I forgot a few things.
Anyway, my pantry and freezers are well stocked so that putting meals on the table during the next few weeks will be easy and quick. I am excited now to begin a new school year with the boys! (More details on our school year coming soon.)
Here are some pictures of the food I prepared and froze during the last part of July:
Strawberry Bread - Pictured above is the unbaked version. Isn’t it a pretty pink?!
Mini Pizzas, using this Pizza Pockets recipe…
I’ll be able to just pop a few of these into our toaster oven to bake up while we finish our morning school-work.
Whole Wheat Waffles - ready to be re-heated in our toaster oven for a quick breakfast or dinner.
Whole Wheat Sourdough Biscuits - I may use these for turkey/cheese melts…or I may grab some turkey sausage I have pre-made in the freezer to make some quick gravy to pour over them. NOBODY would complain if I made biscuits and gravy. :)
Sloppy Joes and Meat and Cheese Burritos
Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread
In addition, I’ve got these items stashed in my freezer:
- Soft Pretzels
- Giant Breakfast Cookies
- Lasagna Casserole
- Bean and Cheese Burritos
- Popcorn Chicken
- Turkey Sausage
- Hashbrowns
I also started a new gallon sized batch of Homemade Vanilla, which as you can see, will be finished “extracting” in January! I didn’t get “carded” this time when I was buying my gallon of vodka. Sniff. Do you think that means I look older than 21 now? ;)
Call me a nerd (go ahead – you know you want to), but I purchased a whole bunch of canning lids and put all of my canning supplies into a basket and put the basket on top of my fridge. That way, I know where everything is and I have it all ready to go each time I’m ready to can a new batch of something. I may be one of the only people who think that canning supplies in a basket is…cute.
Okay, so food (lots and lots of food)? Check. Schoolbooks? Check. Canning supplies? Check.
Oh good grief…where are the soccer cleats?
I knew I forgot something.
How I Freeze Food
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve had many requests to show you how I freeze food. Silly me. I tell you all about what foods I make and freeze. Perhaps I could also tell you how I freeze the food. That would be nice of me wouldn’t it?!
I use these basic supplies:
- Cookie sheets and parchment paper
I often “flash freeze” food on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Some examples would be Chicken Fried Steak Strips, Popcorn Chicken, Burritos, Meatballs, Turkey Sausage, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls or Pizza Pockets made into mini pizzas: - Freezer Bags
I mostly use the gallon sized freezer bags. Unless I’m freezing raw meat, I wash out the bags and reuse them over and over. Beyond the food mentioned above, I usually use gallon sized freezer bags for baked goods like hamburger buns, breads, muffins and cookies.
Once the food is frozen, I transfer it to…
- Pyrex Dishes
I have six or seven pyrex dishes with lids, most of them are 9×13…but Matt surprised me with this last Christmas, so now I have a nice variety of other sizes too. I LOVE freezing food in these dishes as they stack so nicely in my freezer. If I make a casserole, this is what I freeze it in.
- Jars
Are you surprised? Don’t I use jars for everything? Just be sure if you freeze food in jars, you only fill it 3/4 full, or it will expand in the freezer and crack the jar. Also, be sure the food in the jar has completely cooled before you put them into the freezer. Cracked jars are sad. :(My favorite jars to use are wide mouth quart jars (for cooked rice and beans and hamburger meat) and half gallon jars (for broth and soup). -
One last thing I’ll tell you about is something I use A LOT this time of year while I’m freezing produce. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine bought me a Seal-a-Meal. I LOVE this thing. With the volume of strawberries, peaches, corn and green beans I freeze each year (usually a year’s supply of each), this Seal-a-Meal has been a wonderful way to make my freezer food last longer (cuts way down on freezer burn). Plus it is a HUGE space saver!! The Seal-a-Meal sucks all the air out of the bag so that I can get WAY more food in my freezer than I used to be able to when I just froze the food in freezer bags.
See how the air is all sucked out of the bags!?! So cool!!
I’ll try to do a video tutorial of this process sometime!
I think that if you just do a small amount of freezing foods…a small hand-held vacuum sealer is a great option. (I think Ziplock has a $5 variety at Walmart!) But if you do a large amount of freezer preserving like I do a Seal-a-Meal is the way to go! By the way, I buy rolls of bags and cut them to the size I need them. They are a bit pricey (again, worth it to me since I am able to freeze SO much food and keep it good in my freezer this way). Lately I’ve been using my Swagbuck earned Amazon cards to buy big rolls of bags!
Hopefully, I have now answered many of your freezing questions…but did I forget anything?!
Food I plan to freeze this month:
Freezer Cooking For July Wrap up
Posted by: | CommentsWell now, here we are…many, many days after my original post telling you about how I was going to cook and bake to get ahead in the kitchen for July. I’m sure you were waiting on pins and needles to hear how it all went.
Want to know my husband’s reaction when he saw my list? First let me say that usually when Matt sees my cooking-ahead lists, he gets excited about the food in his future. This time however, since I was working so frantically on finishing the curriculum kit, he looked at the list, then he looked gently up at me (beautiful, haggard me…with hair drooping pitifully into my face and contact lenses strewn about the table) and said not so confidently, “Really?”
I smiled weakly and said uh-huh, because we still needed to eat and occasionally I wanted to take a break from the computer, you know? What better therapy after being on the computer for hours than being able to go into the kitchen to cook?
Lest you look at these pictures and think I am really cool for getting all this done…do be made well aware that all of this took me no less than NINE days. I did not do it all at once. I did not do it very quickly. I just cooked a little extra each day when I was making our regular meals. And now, we have some lovely convenience food in the freezer.
And let’s all do appreciate the fact that having these lovely cooking breaks in between writing did much for my sanity.
Oh, and the children and husband also appreciated my sanity being provided with something to eat.
Take note that I did not get everything done on my list. However, I added a few things to the list so it all balances out.
I cooked a whole chicken, made broth from the bones and the whole nine yards, but I must have forgotten to take a picture. Forgive the lack of poultry pictured below.
I made some butterscotch bars for a reunion. And for breakfast that day, I made applesauce bread into applesauce cake. Note to self: applesauce bread makes good applesauce cake and a fun breakfast treat. Just spread bread batter into a buttered 9×13 inch pan and bake at 350° for 35 minutes or so.
I mixed up chocolate chip cookies, but instead of baking them, I just froze scoops of dough. Now, I can bake a few at a time as needed. Check out the red stained parchment paper. That was from freezing strawberries last month. I like to reuse parchment paper. The kids thought the cookies were bleeding, but that’s just because they’re boys and they like to think of gross things.
I made a batch of breakfast cookies one night, froze half of them and we ate the other half for breakfast the next day. Sorry about the poor quality of that picture. That happens late at night.
One day I got a whole bunch accomplished: frozen chicken fried steak strips, tortillas for burritos…
There are the finished bean/cheese burritos. With tortillas leftover. I love it when tortillas are leftover.
Another day I made a batch of buns.
Here’s your chance to say: “Wow Laura…nice buns.”
I made ice cream one evening and we ate it for dinner. That’s it. We just had ice cream for dinner. But it was this recipe and I felt like we were having quite a nutritious dinner. Minus any vegetables. It’s okay, we had green beans for breakfast Wednesday so that made up for it. We’re weird, aren’t we?
Somewhere in there I made a jar of peanut butter.
These weren’t on the list, but I was making lasagna casserole one night, so instead of one, I made three. Didn’t take any longer and now I have two in the freezer!
Now, as we approach August…I’ll probably just continue to make and freeze food as much as I can. August is very full with school starting, the garden exploding with food to preserve and soccer season begins again.
Bring on the freezer food.
Freezer Cooking for July
Posted by: | CommentsUm, first let me say that it felt very weird typing “July” just now. Really? July already? Weird.
Anyway, Freezer Cooking for July.
I’ll be doing a little extra cooking this week to try to stock pile some grab and eat foods.
Here’s a list of food I’m hoping to make and freeze (or eat) during the next few days:
- A Whole Chicken cooked and deboned/Very Veggie Chicken Broth/Rice Cooked in Broth
- Hamburger Buns
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vanilla Ice Cream
- Homemade Peanut Butter
- Taco Seasoning Mix
- Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers
- Chicken Fried Steak Strips (using this freezing method)
- Bean and Cheese Burritos
- Honey Whole Wheat Bread
It may take me a few days to get all of these foods made up. I just so happen to be in the middle of a huge, very big, gigantic, enormous project that I hope many of you will find interesting. If, that is, I EVER in my long leg-ged life get it finished! Matt is helping me. The boys are helping me. I’ve been getting very little else done but hours and hours of sitting at the computer…
I’m excited to tell you about it within the next few days if I can at least get one more tiny (big) thing finished enough to show you.
But let’s just say that having some of the above foods prepared ahead would be a good idea so that as I’m working away on the computer, the boys have something besides watermelon chunks or bread crumbs to eat.
Anyone care to take a guess about what I might be working on? I’ve mentioned it here before, but it’s been a while. ;)
