Thankful Thursday

Umm, so lately I have been all about food. I’ve just been in the mode of cooking and eating, cooking and eating, cooking and eating. Maybe it’s because it’s getting colder out, and cold weather inspires me to fire up the oven. Or maybe it’s because I’m just a little piggly wiggly. Don’t know, but I’m enjoying the fruits of my labor. So in honor of my horrendous diet of the past few days, here is a thankful Thursday post that pays homage to some comfort foods that have recently found their way into the cozy house.

71. Mashed potatoes with mounds of butter.

72. Beef and noodles….Grandma T’s recipe!

73. Homemade mac and cheese….Grandma G’s recipe!

74. Pot roast and carrots in the crock pot.

75. Chocolate chip walnut banana bread.

76. Runzas…Sue’s recipe!

77. Homemade noodles.

78. Cheesy potato soup.

79. Rice crispy treats.

80. Caramel apple dip.

Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Mashed Potatoes, Rice, Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread

So our freezer is bare at the moment, void of any (decent) freezer meals.  I’m hoping to have a cooking day soon, but until then, I’ve been trying to schedule a few hours each week to put up a few things.

I had some potatoes that were on the brink of getting yucky, and decided to do a big batch of mashed potatoes to freeze.  I also had a bunch of brown rice, so I figured I may as well cook that and freeze it, as well. And since there were a couple of really brown bananas sitting on the counter, out came the Kitchen Aid to mix up a big batch of banana bread, too.

Nothing major to note when cooking any of these recipes.  You pretty much prepare them as you normally would…but I did have recipes on hand just to make sure I didn’t screw up any of the measurements.  The cookbook I used was “Don’t Panic – More Dinner’s in the Freezer,” which included lots of variations for mashed potatoes.  Jon’s a straight-up mashed kind of guy, so I kept them plain jane, but there are options out there that sounded super yum yum.

I ended up having about 4 pounds of potatoes on hand, which made about 6-7 cups of mashed potatoes.  I just prepared them as usual, which includes adding lots of milk, butter (about 1 stick), salt and pepper, then bagging it up.  I finally wised up and used a new method to make it easier to package hard-to-bag foods.  Usually I just try to balance the ziplock bag and hold it open while filling it up, be it with soup or BBQ pork chops or whatever I’m bagging.  This time, I grabbed a pitcher and placed the bag inside, which made filling it with mashed potatoes easy peasy.  Duh, Jen.  Not sure why it’s taken me two years of freezer cooking to do that, but I’m just glad I finally caught on.

The best part about making a huge bash of smooth, buttery mashed potatoes?  Licking the bowl afterward.  De-lish!

Cooking the rice was straight-forward, too – I think the only tip in the cookbook was to spray or drizzle it with oil before bagging it to keep it from sticking.

I also whipped up a few loaves of banana bread, with some chocolate chips and walnuts mixed in.  Dear banana bread – I love, love, love you.  It would have been totally easy to just leave all the loaves out and eat them up, but I exercised some self-control and froze them.

The thing I love about freezing food like mashed potatoes and rice is that you basically just turn them on and let them cook themselves.  Not much care and attention is needed, so you can turn them on and go about other tasks until they’re done. Plus, you can easily make huge batches.

So no main courses were frozen in this session, but these are definitely things that we eat often and will come in handy.

 

Totally Pointless Story of the Week

I made a coconut cream pie today.

I brought Jon a piece as we were lounging on the couch tonight. He poked at it and said, “I forgot I don’t like coconuts. They’re too crunchy. They’re too much like onions.”

Ok. Coconuts and onions.

Guess I’ll have to eat the whole pie myself.

Poor me.

Things That Rock My World

Sometimes there are things in life that I just can’t get enough of, and my excitement oozes out and onto this blog. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts…and this one was inspired by my breakfast this morning.

1. This cereal was on sale at Target last week.  There were about 402 flavors to choose from, and they all looked amazing.  I settled for this one, Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Biscotti, because I cannot at any level ignore the urge to eat something chocolate at every possible meal.

It.is.amazing.

There is just enough chocolate to make it sweet, and the bits of chocolate kind of melt in your mouth.  And the hints of hazelnut and biscotti and the crunch of granola…it is everything that cereal in my life should be.  It was pricey, but so is Jon’s Captain Crunch when it’s not on sale.  This is the best impulse buy I’ve made in a long time.  PLUS, as if the taste wasn’t enough, the container has a plastic flip top lid.  LOVE THAT!  No crinkly plastic bags.  Best ever.

2. Aveeno Baby Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash.  After trying what felt like every single baby wash option on the market, we have finally discovered one that doesn’t give Abby a little bumpy red rash.  Her sensitive skin has looked two thousand times better since we discovered this product.

3.  The Frugal Girls.  Learned about this site a few months ago, and fell in love with it right away.  I’ve recently “liked” them on Facebook, which has been seriously life changing.  In addition to offering fun recipes and crafts, they post freebies and deals that are very appealing (unlike a lot of other pages I “like” on FB).  There are usually at least a couple of free e-books every week, along with deals for ordering/printing photos, FREE magazine subscriptions (right now we’re receiving Field and Stream, Martha Stewart, and Popular Science in our mailbox…all for free!), online coupons, and on and on and on.  Amazing.  Super helpful.  Love it.

4. The Pioneer Woman’s show on the Food Network.  It took me a few episodes to warm up to my favorite blogger’s cooking show…but now I am 100% head over heels for it.  It’s totally refreshing to me to watch a food show that isn’t afraid of recipes that involve insanely huge amounts of butter, cream, and beef.  I love her style of cooking, I love her style of writing, and I love her style of living.  She is my hero in every sense of the word.

5. The 100 Workout.  First came across this workout plan on Pinterest, and thought it could be an interesting class to offer at the fitness center. Here’s the lowdown: 100 jumping jacks, 90 crunches, 80 squats, 70 leg lifts, 60 jumping jacks, 50 crunches, 40 squats, 30 leg lifts, 20 jumping jacks, 10 minutes jogging.  As Candice says, it sounds like torture, but it’s really not that bad.  I led it as a class for the first time last week, and it is an awesome workout.  Super fast paced – I think we were done in 15-20 minutes.  Love short workouts!  If you’re looking for a workout that will add some toning and a little cardio, give it a try. 

Jammin’

Jon’s been wandering home with ice cream buckets full of gorgeous red raspberries lately.

I love, love, love raspberries.  Mmmmmm.  So with the first batch I made a huge, overflowing raspberry crumble, the evidence of which is still covering the bottom of the oven.  (We had a little raspberry crumble oozing going on while it baked.)

This time, I decided to make raspberry freezer jam.

My college roomy introduced me to raspberry freezer jam; her mom made huge batches and so we always had loads of it in our freezer.  And it was amazing.  Fantastic.  I still dream about it.

Freezer jam is easy peasy.  Trust me…there’s a reason I make freezer jam instead of cooked jam.  It’s a piece of cake.  Plus, I think it will be divine in the peanut butter & jelly cupcakes I plan on making ASAP.  Yum yum.

Raspberry freezer jam calls for 3 ingredients: raspberries, sugar, and pectin.  I use Sure-jell pectin, because it’s what my mother and her mother before her used.  Ok, not really.  It’s just what I had in the cupboard.  (I do prefer it to Ball, but that’s just my personal preference.  Any brand pectin will do.)

First, put the baby’s bouncy seat on the counter and strap her in, because you know how much she enjoys watching you make messes in the kitchen.

Now, mash up your berries with a potato masher, ’til you have 3 cups of mashed berries.

To that you add 5 1/4 cups sugar.  This is when my mouth starts watering.

Seriously, is there anything more gorgeous than the color of raspberries?   LOVE.

Mix your pectin with some water and heat it to boiling.  Then add it to the sugar/berries and stir, stir, stir, as your baby supervises.

Ladle it into containers and…TA-DA!!

Raspberry freezer jam.

Bury them in the deep freeze until you’re ready to use them…all except one jar.  Put that one in the fridge to use right away.  Or eat it with a spoon.  Either one.  Guess which one I did. 

On the Menu: Meal Plan for (the rest of) August

I went on a cleaning binge this weekend.   Kind of.  Actually, I guess it was more like a de-cluttering binge…I attacked the piles of junk that have popped up on every spare surface in our house.  It was not a project for the faint of heart, let me tell you.  And I can’t even blame the mess on my husband…98% of what needed to be straightened up belonged to this girl.  Sigh.

Anyway.  Before putting away the pile of cookbooks/recipes that I dragged out last week to menu plan (and have ignored ever since), I made myself sit down and at least plan meals for the rest of August.  I ended up making a master list of our favorite meals, side dishes, and desserts, and then picked from that list to plan meals.

My goal is to use freezer meals or crock pot recipes on the days that I work, and leave the “cooking from scratch” meals for the days I’m at home.  Desserts may or may not happen, depending on the kind of day we have.

Something about having meals planned out makes me feel a whole lot more organized and more prepared for day to day life.  So I’m going to enjoy and revel in the feeling while it lasts for the next two weeks.

Extra bonus:  the Lion’s Club peaches will be here on Thursday.  YAAAY!  That means lots of yummy peachy desserts and some canning in the near future.

Sooooo….

August 22-26

• Monday: Swiss steak, noodles, asparagus (freezer meal), banana bread
• Tuesday: Crispy chicken, homemade mac & cheese, green beans
• Wednesday: Fish, coleslaw, rice, snickerdoodles and ice cream
• Thursday: BBQ pork chops, corn, mashed potatoes (freezer meal)
• Friday: Pot roast, potatoes, carrots (crock pot), peach cobbler

August 29 – September 2

• Monday: Tacos, beans, rice
• Tuesday: Homemade pizza, bread sticks, salad, triple chocolate dessert (crock pot dessert!)
• Wednesday: Spaghetti, garlic bread, asparagus
• Thursday: Ham and cheese ziti, green beans (freezer meal), fruit salad
• Friday: Round steak, potatoes, salad (crock pot)

Yesterday we had lunch with Jon’s parents, so I wanted to take a little something for dessert.  I saw this idea on a large tub of strawberry yogurt that we have in the fridge: mix strawberry yogurt, some whipped cream (Cool-whip), and a package of prepared vanilla pudding together for a yummy dessert.  It was super fast and easy and delicious…Jon had a serving before lunch, after lunch, and by the evening he had finished off the rest of the bowl, so it has my husband’s seal of approval.  I think it could be yummy with chocolate pudding and vanilla yogurt, too…may have to try that sometime.

An Eggplant and Lasagna Day

Abby’s taking a nice long nap, so I have been making a few things happen in the kitchen.

A couple of days ago, Phyllis sent the most gorgeous eggplant in the whole world home with Jon. I had no idea what to do with it, so up until an hour ago, it’d been making itself at home on the counter. I can’t say that I’d ever even eaten eggplant, let alone had one in my house. And it was so pretty that I was very content just looking at it, to tell you the truth. I called my mamaroo for cooking advice. Mom suggested paring it, slicing it, breading it, and frying it. That sounded doable.

So I heated up a little oil and sliced up the eggplant. I dipped it in egg; then I put some breadcrumbs in a bowl and added some “Veggie Supreme” spice seasoning by McCormick to the breadcrumbs. (Bethany clued me onto that seasoning and it’s been a staple in our cupboard ever since. It’s especially good on potato wedges and asparagus.) So I breaded the slices, fried ‘em up, and had them for lunch, with some ranch dressing (for dipping) on the side. Super duper good. It actually reminded me quite a bit of zucchini. I think I’m gonna attempt it in next summer’s garden.

I’ve had a hankering for some comfort food in the form of lasagna lately. Since it’s about 90 degrees outside, cooking traditional lasagna was not going to happen, so crock-pot lasagna was in order.

Mom gave me this recipe a while ago. Not sure where she found it, but I’m sure glad she did. It’s a lifesaver on a busy day. I often assemble it in the crockpot the night before, then just pull it out if the fridge, plug it in and go. It cooks in four hours, so it’s ready fairly quickly, as far as crockpot meals go. I think tonight we will have it with a salad or even maybe some fresh green beans on the side and some breadsticks. Mmmmm. I can’t wait!

Crockpot Lasagna

1 lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 29 oz can tomato sauce
1 c. water
1 pkg dry spaghetti sauce seasoning
1 12 oz. can tomato paste
1 8 oz. pkg oven ready lasagna noodles, uncooked
4 c. Mozzarella cheese
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1 12 oz. container small curd cottage cheese

Cook meat, onion, and garlic until well dine; drain. Add tomato sauce, water, tomato paste and spaghetti seasoning. Mix. Put 1/4 meat mixture in ungreased crockpot, and top with 1/3 noodles (break to fit in pot). Combine all cheeses, put 1/3 over noodles. Repeat layers 2 more times. Top with remaining meat sauce. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.

I usually cook this in our round crockpot, because it seems to get way overcooked in the oval crockpot…but you can experiment and see which you prefer at your house. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!!