Some Chicken Food Prep

Today is Monday, so that means using the 3 defrosted chicken breasts & the Costco Rotisserie Chicken.

With the chicken breasts, I decided to cut them up into bite size pieces and make the Chicken and Wild Rice dish from my new wonderful cookbook, Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook by Jessica Fisher.  I was just a little bit shocked that it takes almost 2 hours to cook!  But it came out great! And we have leftovers & even gave one serving away.

Next, I tackled the Costco Rotisserie Chicken.  I discovered, some of it was gone!  I think I have a chicken loving hubby in the house.  So, I got all of the lovely gelatinous stuff off the bottom and all the skin & extra fat too, then started taking the meat off the bones.  Once that was done, I started cutting it up into tiny pieces, maybe about 1/4 to 1/2 chunks.  I decided to make the Chicken Enchilada Bake with Green Chiles and Jalapenos.  I'm not a big fan of green or red chiles (even after living in New Mexico twice) or jalapenos, so I only used 1/2 of the amount of green chiles and no jalapenos.  Also, I'm not 100% sure that my kids will like this dish.   I then pulled out my Homemade Cream of Celery Soup from the freezer, defrosted 2 containers and chopped some onions & mushrooms.  I also had to shred some Monterey Jack cheese.  The recipe calls for cheddar or Monterey Jack, so I decided to use half of each.  I put all the "wet" ingredients in the bowl, along with the veggies, cheeses & spices and stirred like crazy.  Then I added the bite size corn tortillas.  It works really great to take 5-7 at a time & cut them in slices, turn the cutting board & cut crossways. Most of the pieces will be about 1 inch squares.  Then I added the cut chicken.  Stirred again like crazy.  The recipe states to put in a casserole dish, sprinkle with more cheese & freeze.  Since I'm getting a little tight on freezer space in our side by side fridge/freezer, I decided to just put the mix in gallon zip lock freezer bags.  Then I put those bags inside another freezer bag and added a quart size freezer bag of the extra cheese.  Into the freezer 2 meals went.

Yesterday, while the girls & I went to their weekly ski lessons, my hubby decided to make his winning chili again!  We came home to wonderful smells in the house. Not only did he make his chili, but he also cooked some rice and shredded some cheese.  His chili has these small pieces of steak in them and almost melt in your mouth. We like to eat our chili over rice with shredded cheddar. Some of us also like to add sour cream to cool off the little bit of heat.  We had more than 8 cups of chili left, so 2 cups went into freezer containers (from Glad) and the leftovers went in the fridge.

 this is the buttermilk cornbread mixes I made ahead of time, just for chili

I think between the steak meals, the enchilada bakes, the other chicken meals, the chili, Marie Calendar's pot pies and the frozen salmon, I do believe we will have some pretty good meals over the next couple of weeks.

I totally forgot to mention how the dehydrated food came out.  I did accidentally leave the celery & chard in the dehydrator too long, so the celery came out teeny tiny, but I still ended up with about a cup of it.  I can use about a tablespoon when a recipe calls for a stalk of celery.  The chard stems were still not dry, so I broke up the leaves & put them in a jar, crushing them as I went. I can then add the crushed leaves to recipes later.  The stems went back into the food dryer to finish.

I do still need to make the veggie bolognese, but that is tomorrow's task.

Bi-weekly Food Prep

Another paydate (for the hubby) and another time to prepare more meals.  (pictures to come in a couple of days.

I've been busy with beef & chicken this time (so far).

I made my Costco run on Friday buying the main ingredient for several meals (beef or chicken).  I bought 2 packages of tri-tip roast and another package of top sirloin steaks.  I got Costco's rotisserie chicken along with 2 bags of frozen chicken breasts.

On Friday, I made 2 meals of Mediterranean Style Steak, having one for dinner & freezing the other. The one for dinner is shown below marinating in the vacuum sealed container.

I also made 2 meals of Seasoned Steak with Gorgonzola Butter.

What do you do with all that extra gorgonzola from Costco?  Freeze it of course! It has gone into a quart size freezer bag.

I then started making 2 meals of Chipotle Rubbed Tri-Tip, but found I had no chipotle chile powder, so put the tri-tip roasts in their own zip lock bags & put them in the fridge.  I also put the rest of the spices in sandwich baggies.

On Saturday, I made my grocery store run. Went to Super One and got everything on my list except for chipotle chile powder as I could not find it in the hispanic section, in the herbs or in the organic section.  So luckily Smith's is only a block away, so popped in there to look for it.  I went directly to the seasons/herbs section & found it.  I could get 2 oz of the Kroger brand for $2.98 or McCormicks 2 oz for $8.39.  Sorry, that was an easy decision - $2.98!

Came home from shopping and finished the Chipotle Rubbed Tri-tip & got it in the freezer.

On to the chicken dishes.  I had already partially thawed one of the bags of chicken, so started preparing the following dishes:
Spicy Dijon Chicken
Tandoori Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken

The Teriyaki Chicken was supposed to be turned into skewers, but I chose to make them chicken tenders instead.

I also doubled the recipe for Homemade Cream of Celery Soup and put 2 cups in each freezer container.  This tasted sooooo good and now it's ready to add to other dishes.

Tomorrow or Mondays dishes will be Vegetable Bolognese and Quick& Easy Enchiladas.

this is the basil I grew, so used the mortar & pestil to grind it up for the bolognese

everything set out for the bolognese

burger & eggplant/carrots ready for pot

hot oil to get started

eggplant & carrots in oil

onions & garlic added

I will also cut up that Costco rotisserie chicken and either freeze the meat or use it to mix up some chicken pot pies.  I bought several of the mini-foil pie dishes just for these.  I will then take the carcass & the skin and use it to make Homemade Chicken Stock and also some Easy Chicken Gravy.

Today also was my Bountiful Basket day.  In addition to the normal fruit & veggie baskets, I also purchased a bag of 5 misc breads and a juicing pack.  I don't think we are going to be doing much juicing over the next few days, so I did the following:
1) I took the 2 bundles of celery I got 2 weeks ago & the 2 new bundles & cut them all up into 1/4" pieces and then put all those pieces on 4 trays in my food dehydrator.
2) I took the green chard and put those big leaves on 3 trays in the dehydrator.
3) I cut up the curly parsley and put it in a quart freezer bag in the freezer.
4) I fine shredded the ginger, put it in a quart freezer bag & in the freezer
5) The apples & blood oranges from the juice pack just went in the fridge
6) Not sure what to do with the 2 beets, but may end up dehydrating them as well.

As I was looking in the dehydrating book for temps & times, I came across carrots.  I can shred them & then dry the shredded carrots.  I can then take the shredded carrots & use them in a carrot cake or soup stock or whatever.

We'll see how my afternoon goes after the girls ski lessons to decide if I have time for the bolognese or the enchiladas, otherwise it will be on Monday.

Thanks for reading.

Pics of prepared foods

 These are the Bacon Cheddar Egg Bakes baked in muffin tins.  I was able to fit 12 in a gallon freezer zip lock bag.

These are the breakfast cookies.  I have 2 more gallon size bags in the freezer.

This is from a turkey we cooked for Christmas.  The leftovers immediately went into the freezer for some future meal - maybe pot pie?

 This is part of the block of Tillamook cheddar cheese I bought at Costco.

 This is the herbed butter chicken strips.

 These 2 are the Garlicky Italian chicken strips.

 I had 12 of these in the fridge - the breakfast smoothies.  Now there are only 5 left!  I guess that means the girls like them.

 These are the tri-colored peppers - some from Costco, some from Bountiful Baskets.

 I doubled this recipe for Maple Oat Waffle mix.  The only thing I have to add is water & maple syrup as I used powdered buttermilk, powdered eggs & powdered butter.

 This is a double batch of Bulk Batch pancake mix.

 This Oatmeal Chocolate Chip pancake mix has mini-chocolate chips in it.  Rather than doubling the recipe & putting in 1 bag, I put the ingredients in two bowls & then 2 quart freezer ziplock bags.

This pancake mix is from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook - again a double batch.

Fun pics

 The girls and I skiing on January 7, 2013

 My youngest trying on a silly mask at the sports store.

 The girls took pics of needles in me at acupuncture.

My oldest inside a new sleeping bag. This is how she would look if the head opening was all cinched up, IF we were camping in cold weather!

Sausage Patties

Here is a photo of the progression of my sausage today. I started with boneless pork ribs, ground them up in my Kitchen Aid meat grinder, formed them into patties, cooked them, then placed them on a metal tray, covered them with wax paper & a kitchen towel & put them outside in the snow to cool.  The temp outside is 27 degrees F.

Someone may be wondering why I put my food in the snow.  Well, my wonderful new cookbook says to cool your food before putting in the fridge or freezer to make sure the fridge & freezer don't have to work as hard to cool the food. 

Because our back porch is above ground 1 story without stairs, I don't have to worry about people or animals getting up on the porch & snatching food.  Plus, when it is below freezing outside, I am being green, using nature to help cool the food.  Very soon, my patties will be frozen and then I can bring them back inside, layer them between some wax or parchment paper & pop them in the freezer in a freezer zip lock bag.  How cool is that!

Here is a photo of the wonderful tools I used today.  I ground the pork in my Kitchen Aid meat grinder, then put it all in the bowl, added the spices and the paddle & mixed it up.  I have a small container of round cookie / biscuit cutters, so used the smaller size in the photo to make breakfast sausage size patties, then used the larger one to make hamburger sized patties.

Beginning this new journey

I am starting this blog because I want to share this new journey I am on.  I am starting to plan meals better, prepare meals ahead of time & even freeze some.

I don't like to cook, although I LOVE to bake!  When someone in my family asks what there is to eat - especially for dinner - my brain freezes - it just checks out & cannot process anything.  My husband is the real cook in our family. He is able to just pick some things from the fridge & pantry & throw together an awesome meal.  But he works full time and I am at home, so this really needs to be my responsibility.

I knew I needed better preparation & have tried in the past to create meal plans, but invariably I end up making something that sounds great to me, but the rest of the family doesn't like it so much, so I've pretty much given up - not a good decision.  We have ended up spending more on eating out or buying less healthy food.

Sometime over the past few years I came across a blog called Lifeasmom.com and subscribed. Every day I get a message in my inbox with lots of good tips: some one freezer food, some on being frugal, some on emergency preparedness, some on fun things to do for parties, and much more.  I have been reading the messages on freezing food and saving those message intending to go back & glean more info out of them, but never make the time to do so.

Then comes January 2013 and my husband's 1st paycheck of the year. As of December 2012, he got a raise, so was expecting a little bit more each paycheck. Boy was I surprised when his paycheck was actually about $50 less!!  Not going to go into politics & complaining, but I know it's due to the higher costs in healthcare & some changes in the tax rates that is making this change in his income.

So since we are a 1 income family of 4, this was my wakeup call!!  Time to do something different with our meals!  So I went back to my Inbox, looked at all the message I saved from Lifeasmom.com & found one where she mentions the cookbook she wrote regarding freezer meals. It is called Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook by Jessica Fisher.

Before heading to Costco & Super 1 or Smith's and spending a bunch of money, I decided I needed to check my freezer, fridge and pantry to see what I already had on hand. I then picked some recipes based on what I had.  From Costco I had a bag of frozen chicken breasts, 2 packages of Italian sausage, several packages of turkey burger, a package of organic hamburger, and a package of wild Alaskan salmon.  I also had a package of hamburger from a local grass fed cow (we bought some beef from another home schooling family).  We also participate in Bountiful Baskets, so I knew I had some fruit & veggies coming on Saturday.

Here are the meals I picked from Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook:
1) Garlicky Italian Chicken Breasts
2) Herb Butter Chicken Tenders
3) Breakfast Cookies
4) Breakfast Smoothies
5) Penne with Italian Sausage and Tri-Color Peppers
6) Bacon-Cheddar Egg Bake
7) Chile and Sausage Oven Frittata
8) Herbed Pork Sausage Patties.
9) Bulk-Batch Pancakes
10) Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Pancakes
11) Maple-Oat Waffles

I looked over the ingredients and made a list for Costco & the grocery store:
cheddar cheese, bananas, garlic, eggs, lean pork, whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour, mini chocolate chips, powdered buttermilk, powdered eggs, raw pumpkin seeds, plain yogurt, red, green & yellow peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, monterey jack cheese, freezer containers, freezer jars.

The freezer containers are with the plastic dishes in the grocery store, usually near the utensils aisle. The freezer jars are with the canning supplies.

I mostly defrosted the chicken breasts, then cut them all up into strips.  I doubled both of the chicken recipes and put the chicken with the spices and liquids in the freezer bags.  If you start this freezer process yourself, remember to write on the freezer bags first what is in them, any cooking instructions and today's date, then add the ingredients.  Trust me, it's way easier to write on the bags flat on the counter than trying to write on them with food inside.  We haven't eaten any of this yet.  The chicken is raw in the bags and marinating in the liquids & spices.  It will be simple to cook when we are ready.  I just have to turn on the oven and broil them or step out the front door & fire up the charcoal grill.  It might actually be fun to grill in the snow!

I am finding, just like the cookbook suggests, that it is best to double or triple a recipe. The prep time is only slightly lengthened and you get 2 or 3 meals put together at once.

I then made the cookies.  My youngest daughter was excited about them & my oldest daughter wasn't sure she would like them. When they came out, my youngest didn't really like them with the nuts & oats inside, but my oldest did and grabs one or two each morning since I made them. (it's only been 3 days). I forgot to factor in our elevation (3000 ft above sea level) and take out a little sugar & baking powder, add an extra egg & a little more flour - so most of my cookies came out flat!  Next time I'll take out my high altitude cookbook & refresh my memory as to the exact items to reduce and which ones to increase.

I also got all my dry ingredients & started putting together the pancake & waffles mixes.  About a month ago, I bought a #10 can of powdered butter at Super 1, so I had that in my pantry ready to use.  If you can find them, powdered buttermilk, powdered eggs and powdered butter make your mixes easier to use later.  All you have to do is add water.  We also have Ener-G powdered egg substitute since my hubby has an egg intolerance.  Once these were all mixed up, all I had to do was calculate how much water I needed for the buttermilk, eggs & butter, plus the water mentioned in the recipe. I wrote that down on the zip lock bag with the recipe name & the date.  The only extra ingredient besides water I will have to add is maple syrup & vanilla for the Maple-Oat Waffles. All the other recipes just add water.  We haven't made any of these yet, but am looking forward to it.

Also, on Saturday I make the Penne with Italian Sausage and Tri-Color Peppers. From Costco, I purchased the tri-color peppers in a bag in the fridge room. Their bag has red, yellow & orange peppers. I also got the same color of peppers in my Bountiful Baskets order on Saturday. I found sometimes it pays to wait to see what you get from your basket before going shopping!  I did not double this recipe as I wanted to see how it tasted first and how my family enjoyed it before making extra that may just end up in the freezer for a long time.  But now that I am thinking about it, it might be a good idea to double any recipe anyway because there is always a family from our church that needs a meal taken to them (our church has been growing over the last 6 months with lots of new babies).  My youngest didn't like the sauce, but she usually prefers her pasta plain with butter. My oldest thought it was really good & they had leftovers for dinner after their ski lessons on Sunday.  My hubby has a gluten intolerance so didn't have any. That means I need to buy more gluten free pasta for him.

Yesterday (Monday), I made the Breakfast Smoothies. I made The Red Banana (strawberries, banana & milk) as well as The Blue Maple (milk, blueberries, plain yogurt & maple syrup). I didn't have just plain blueberries in the freezer so used my three berry mix from Costco (blueberries, blackberries & raspberries).  I used my 6 of my 8 oz freezer jars for The Red Banana and the other 6 for The Blue Maple.  My girls & I tried The Blue Maple, so only 3 jars made it to the freezer!  We all liked it.  And they each had one this morning.

Yesterday, I also made the Bacon-Cheddar Egg Bake.  The ingredients call for bread pieces, but I decided to substitute hash browns (from Costco - in a large milk-like carton in the dry goods section - I don't think it was in the oil & vinegar aisle, but it might have been or the next aisle over.)  The recipe says you can make individual servings in 2 cup containers or a 9x13 baking dish.  Again, I changed it up & opted to use my muffin pans.  I have one metal pan & one silicon pan. For this I would really recommend using the silicon pans only!  I put a little bit of dry hash browns in the bottom followed by the shredded cheese and cut up cooked bacon, then I poured the egg/milk mixture of the top.  I cooked them according to directions, using my cake tester too verify they were done.  We had this for lunch!  Because it is winter out right now, I covered the pans with wax paper and then a kitchen towel & set them out on my back porch to cool in the snow.  I forgot they were out there until this morning, but it was 20 degrees F outside, so they were frozen.  The silicon pan made it very easy to get them out.  I just turned it over & rolled the edges off each one. Super easy! The metal pan was a little more tricky. I had to cut around the edge of each.  I then re-used the was paper, wrapping 6 of them in the piece & placed them in a freezer zip lock bag. Twelve fit flat in the bag.  My youngest was so funny while eating them yesterday for lunch. She said she didn't like the cooked cheddar cheese.  Daddy was home for lunch so he asked her if that meant she didn't like grilled cheese, quesadillas, and cheese burgers anymore since they all have cooked cheese on them.  The silly goose said she just didn't like it on eggs.  I personally thought they were wonderful as did my oldest!

Today's job is to finally use - for the first time - my meat grinder for my Kitchen Aid mixer.  I have a wonderful father-in-law who didn't need it any more & passed it on to me!  I will make the Herbed Pork Sausage Patties and the Chile & Sausage Oven Frittata.

Also, I got 2 bunches of celery as well as a small paper bag of brussel sprouts so will have to find some recipes for those.  With all those tri-colored peppers I had, I knew I wouldn't be able to use them all before they went bad, so I cut up all of them & put them in 3 quart freezer bags in the freezer.  It will be easy to pull them out & measure what I need in future recipes.  I know with the celery, I can either cut it up & freeze it as well, or put it in my food dehydrator & in jars with oxygen absorbers for later use.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to see any of my preparations with this first entry, but I'll see if I can take some today and you can at least see how they look in the bags.  Thanks for reading.