A Quick Lunch

There is something wonderful about having a decent repertoire of lunches that are quick, simple, delicious, and use ingredients that are always on hand...like tuna salad sandwiches. But it is easy to get into a rut!

So I have a couple ways I spice up my tuna sandwich.

First is the tuna mix itself. While I often do the simple tuna, mayo, pepper and onion salt with a bit of celery and red onion if I have it, I try to remember to make a lower fat version.

The low fat version is actually high on taste! You take one can of tuna, a tbsp of mayo, a tbsp of mustard, some red onion, celery, and grated carrot or finely chopped sweet pepper if you want to be fancy and add more veggies. Then add just enough red wine vinegar to make it a nice consistency. It is very delicious.

My other trick is simple tuna melts. You make your salad any way you would like, then assemble the bottom half of your sandwich (bread, butter, tuna salad mix), top with a slice of cheese and put under the broiler until the cheese melts. It is so delicious and it is certainly encouraging little girls around here to eat more fish!

Of course, it helps if it has a side of homemade pickles and grapes!

And that is my kitchen tip for today!

Making Lunches Easy

For me lunch is that odd man out for meals. Breakfast food is a big favorite around here, and we have lots of supper favorites, but lunch was getting ignored. It was hard to get worked up about it. But with the start of officially homeschooling now I knew I had to get my act more together and I had to make it easy and nutritious.

So I thought I would share my kitchen tip with you for making lunches easier.

First I have have a handful of super easy meals that I can get together in 10 minutes or less, start to on the table. They include such favorites as:

1. grilled cheese sandwiches (with a bit of cream cheese in addition to regular cheese) and fruit
2. poached eggs, toast and fruit
3. cold sandwiches and fruit, although I try to make sure the sandwiches have protein in them
   
4. leftovers
5. Snacking lunch of fruit, cheese, crackers
   

But my new secret weapon for making lunches easier is the 2 day plan. I plan a meal, usually a casserole of some type, a skillet meal, or a pasta that will be good for 2 meals, and plan them staggered. This, of course, adheres to my favorite kitchen rule of "why do one when you can do two!" which truly helps me so much!

So my menu for lunches often looks like this:

Monday - Pasta Meal
Tuesday - Casserole
Wednesday - Pasta meal again
Thursday - Casserole again
Friday - easy meal

The beauty of it is that it means for at least 2 days of the week there is minimal kitchen prep for lunch, almost no clean up, and nothing hot turned on! This makes it easier for me to have nutritious meals at lunch and still spend lots of time with my girls outside the kitchen!

Although this helps me a lot, I would still love to hear what else you do to make lunches easier! With two littles and one starting homeschooling in the mornings I would love some more ideas!

Share with a Neighbor

I think my best kitchen tip is to have a very good and very close (location-wise) friend who has similar kitchen interests to yours!

It helps if it is your next door neighbor.

Since we have moved here and become friends with our neighbor I find I am encouraged to try new things in the kitchen, and do a better job because she encourages me (no competition, just spurring each other on!). We both have a last ditch help when we find we have run out of something. We get calls about what that delicious smell is. And we pass cookbooks back and forth. On top of that, we have also been know to pass food back and forth, share project Fridays, and swap freezer meals.

I know that in a crunch we can count on them, and vice versa. It is not just a kitchen thing.

Also, I have a friend who I keep in touch quite closely with via email, and because of her I am trying lots of things that I would not have tried without her encouragement, and that is resulting in a healthier menu!

But this is kitchen tip Tuesday, so that is my kitchen tip!

Pancakes Please!

Saturday morning I sent Miss Pear upstairs to ask Mr. Pear what he would like for lunch. He was not feeling good, and I was not sure what he could eat.

Apparently Miss Pear went up the stairs and asked Daddy if he would like pancakes for lunch - he said yes. There was not time to make pancakes before nap time (I was thinking would he like sandwiches, toast, or soup the way he had been feeling!)

Saturday night, after running errands the question was again, what would you like for lunch - again Miss Pear chimed in Pancakes! We had a different plan.

So finally Sunday night we had to make pancakes before Miss Pear's one track mind exploded!

Miss Pear loves pancakes, but sometimes the whole ones are a little too big for her, but she thinks "silver dollars" are great!

So for

I thought I would share my tip for making silver dollar pancakes (the little guys) that are all the same size and very little mess!

I make my regular pancake batter (Either the Buttermilk one from Better Homes and Gardens, or the More with Less one from the Baking Mix).

I use my big griddle, even though I am making small pancakes so that I can get 7 or 8 to a batch.

To transfer the batter to the griddle I use a small ice cream scoop (instead of the soup ladle I use for regular pancakes). I use one where you can squeeze it to force the batter out, and it works great! I also rub the bottom of it against the batter bowl as I take the scoop out so that it cannot drip!

This really works well as I do not have drips all over the place, and all the pancakes are the same size so they look more like silver dollars, and cook evenly, which is important when your pancakes are so small!

Head on over to Tammy's for more great tips!

Using Fresh from the Garden Cilantro

Today for Kitchen Tip Tuesday I thought I would share a valuable lesson I learned.

We had planted fresh cilantro in our garden, and when I went to use it in chili I was disappointed to see that I only had about half of what I would usually use when I bought fresh from the store. But I put it in and hoped for the best. I was shocked to discover that it was REALLY strong, almost too strong, and had killed a lot of the chili flavor, so I added more chili seasoning.

The lesson I learned is that when using fresh cilantro from your garden start with a quarter of what you usually need and slowly add. It is much more potent than the fresh stuff you buy in the store.

Trust me, your family will thank me on this one!

Fast Cooked Dried Beans

I was talking to my neighbor recently, and she was saying that she loves the idea of using dried beans as they are truly so much cheaper, but with having to plan ahead to soak them and then cooking for so long on the stove top or all day in the crock pot, it is just too much work for her with three kids!

So this brings me to my kitchen tip tuesdsay! (By the way, I do the same thing as Tammy - I store my dried beans etc in glass jars and also the plastic ones from the spices I get at Costco as long as I can get the smell out!)

I cook my beans in a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers have become much more user friendly (and safer) than when our moms were using them. And I can decided I need beans at the last minute and still have them less than an hour later!

If I plan ahead, I soak the beans over night, rinse, add fresh water, bring to a boil, put pressure lid on, bring to pressure, set timer for 12 minutes keeping the pressure between the first and second rings (I have a gas stove so I usually just drop it to low). Then I turn off the heat and let the pressure release naturally (usually takes about 30 minutes).

If I don't plan ahead I soak the beans for what time I have or just rinse them. Add enough water, bring to a boil, put pressure lid on, bring to pressure, set timer for 16 minutes keeping the pressure between the first and second rings (I have a gas stove so I usually just drop it to low). Then I turn off the heat and let the pressure release naturally (usually takes about 30 minutes). If I cannot let the pressure release naturally I will set the timer for 18 minutes.

The joy of planning ahead is that I know better how much I can put in and can maximize the use of the pressure cooker!

I have done this three times in the last week and now have frozen bags of beans in the freezer for all the beans we use! I usually wait until I need them for a meal, then make what I need plus extra!

To freeze them I just put what I consider to be "one can" of beans in a zip top bag, squeeze out as much air as I can and then freeze it flat! It works great!

If you don't have a pressure cooker they can often be picked up cheap second hand!

Updated to add: Once I take the lid off (after the pressure is all released) I dump the beans into a colander and give them a quick rinse as we prefer the taste that way. I wish I knew a good use for the bean juice (is it good in a composter?), but until then, we go with this. Because I give the beans a quick rinse with cold water they are a bit cooler before I bag them. I just put the beans in, nothing else!

Waffle Batches

For my Kitchen Tip Tuesday, I have to confess a long standing short falling in the kitchen which I have FINALLY managed to overcome!

We love waffles around here, and occasionally even have them for breakfast! But usually as brunch, lunch or supper. And it always requires that I make a few and keep them warm while I finish making enough for our family - or more if it is for company! This has always resulted in the one at the bottom of the pile being a "throw away" as the condensation makes it collapse while keeping warm in the oven.

This is always horribly disappointing to me as it is so wasteful, and I make them from scratch!

But this weekend I finally had an epiphany. I took my cooking rack and placed it on my sheet pan. (I have a large cooling rack so it went right across and I could have two piles of waffles). I put it in the oven and set it to 200F. As the waffles were done I started my piles.

And when I was done, every waffle was a keeper.

Even the bottom ones!

But not being directly on the pan no condensation could develop, so the waffles were crispy top and bottom!

I am SO happy! And it was not just the strawberries and whip cream on the waffles that did it!

Quick and Easy Cookies

This is my plan this week - to use up some of those boxes of cake mix I got for free or next to free before they expire. (I bought them last summer / fall, so the fact that they are expiring is all my fault!) After all, it is only frugal if you use up the free (or next to free) stuff you get!

So today I will be following a recipe I found online. I could not find it again to link directly, but I think it was from Monica. It is the quickest and easiest cookie recipe I have:

Cake Mix Cookies

1 box cake mix, any flavor
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil or applesauce
any add-ins you want
(i.e. - chocolate chips, heath bits, raisins, craisins, etc.)

Mix together and cook for ~10 min at 350.

We LOVE Spice Cake Mix with Raisins (and either applesauce of pear sauce instead of oil).

Happy Cookie Baking!

Oh - for theology from my daughter who will be 3 next weekend, go here, too funny!

And for some bloggy fun, go here!

For more wonderful Kitchen Tips, head on over to Tammy's! And for lots of great frugal tips, head on over to Crystal's!

Do what you can, then relax

Lately I have been feeling behind on a lot of things. I am barely doing the baking for our family, let alone enough to be sharing with others. I am barely managing to cook our meals (food is still not my friend at 23 weeks of pregnancy), let alone commit to taking a meal to another family. My house is basically clean, could be neater. My laundry is cleaned, but not all put away.

Then top that off with the desires to serve more nutritious meals, to buy and grow more organic, to do better at stretching our budgets, to follow the examples of my dear friend who is the pro at cooking nutritious, organic meals and running a "green" house.

Yet I don't see her on the days when she is overwhelmed.

There is always going to be someone doing a better job at what we want to be doing, but then there will be areas where they are struggling too.

We accept in our spiritual lives that it is a journey, we walk with the Lord, we follow Him, it is a process of sanctification.

We accept in our children's lives that they are learning and growing.

We even accept that doctors are "practicing."

But we hold ourselves to the impossible standard of excellence.

So my tip for today?

Do the best you can, do what you can, then relax. This is not an opportunity to be negligent or lax, but rather an opportunity to be more joyful!

If you want to make more nutritious meals commit to serving a vegetable or fruit with every meal for the next week - a doable goal! And easier for your family!

If you want to cut back on your meat buying plan one meatless supper this week, and another next week, then after a month or two work in a second one!

Focus on gradual changes, think of it like a journey, and then enjoy it. Take the pressure off yourself so that you can enjoy caring for your family!

When making changes think baby steps not a sprint race.

Also, understand what is reasonable in your corner of the world, in your family and for your family!

I live in California, I will not get the deals that MoneySavingMom does in Kansas, but I can get some good ones!

I do not have the option of buying a portion of organic fed cow or a share of a grain CSA as they are not available here. But I can pick up organic fruit when it is priced right and use my back flowerbeds to grow fruit and veggies organically.

When I started doing our own baking I started with the biggest problems of nut contamination and slowly worked my way into doing all the baking. It was not an instant thing! (Although with an allergy to manage I was pretty motivated to move pretty quickly!)

My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and a pasta lover. To feed him funky health food in an immediate change would freak both him and my daughter out, but I can slowly try different things and hang onto the things that work! (And doing my own baking helps!) Plus with the fruit trees in the back yard we would like to see if we can make our own juice!

We don't have a grain mill, but are slowly saving for one so we can mill our own grain and it be more nutritious, and while I will start with basic wheats I will slowly be able to try different grains! In the mean time, I do the best I can with what I have!

And yet, when so many are having a hard time with the rising cost of groceries, our grocery/household budget remains unchanged from a year ago as I have learned to maximize it. In fact, I am under budget from the start of the year by over $200!

And when I think back to where we were a year ago, and where we are now I can see the baby steps of changes adding up.

And lest you think I write this for you, know that I am writing these words to strengthen and encourage myself.

So do what you can, take a baby step in a direction of growth, and then relax and enjoy the blessings of your life.

That is my Kitchen Tip, and it also works for me!

Summer Recipes?

Well, we had a heat wave this weekend, and it looks like it has broken, finally, today. It is hard to think about how hot it is here and then think of other parts of the country still under snow!

But it has me thinking. I had said that I was going to work this winter to compile a list of recipes for hot days. Either dishes served cold, salads, or things that could be made in the slow cooker, but ideally things that could be served cold. This way I would not be scrambling at the last minute or serving sandwiches with veggies, again.

While we do love to barbecue, in a true heatwave here, it is actually too hot to barbecue, shocking I know!

So on to my mini list, such as it is:

We love pasta salad! But you can only eat so much! (My recipe is literally cook pasta, toss with Italian salad dressing or vinaigrette of your choice while hot, toss in assortment of veggies and maybe some chicken, cool and serve)


Another one of my favorites is the Cold Plate. You just assemble on the plate:

• Salads of your choice (potato, pasta, coleslaw, whatever)
• Cold meat (with appropriate cold sauce if need be) Cold fried chicken is always good and most people don't seem to think of that!
• Cold beans (I still cannot eat "pork and beans" hot! You can also make beans with chunks of wieners inside, affectionately known as beanie weanies.)
• Assorted fruit cut up, or veggies are great too!
  

That is it!

As you can tell these two recipes are highly methodical! And you can probably also tell that I need help in this area to get more ideas!

So, could you help a girl out? What cold meals do you love? (Please include the recipes or links if possible!) Do you have a go-to list like this or is it just me struggling with Southern California summer heat?

Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker and Granola Oatmeal

A couple years ago we were given a fuzzy logic rice cooker for Christmas, and might I say that while I was appreciative of the gift at the time, I was not nearly as appreciative as I should have been. It makes consistently good rice, has a timer that lets you get your rice ready up to 24 hours in advance, and also lets you steam veggies, slow cook, make soup and oatmeal, and warm up rice.

This little appliance has been much maligned as expensive and unnecessary, I disagree, especially if you can get it as a gift or used!

Gone are the days of last minute panic that I forgot to start the rice at the right time, or burned it, or some other catastrophe. Gone are the days of Minute Rice saving my bacon! Now when I get as much of supper prepared in the morning as possible, that includes the rice too! I just put all the ingredients in and set the time I want it finished at!

A nice bonus is all the yummy breakfast options, like our favorite:

Granola Oatmeal
(our cookbook naturally falls open to this one!)

1 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned, not quick cooking)
3/4 cup granola
2 1/2 cups water
8 dried apple rings, or other dried fruit

Serve with maple syrup, and milk (or substitute brown sugar for the syrup)

Place the first 4 ingredients in your rice cooker, set it to the porridge or soup cycle and let it go. Let steam on keep warm for 10 minutes, will keep on the keep warm cycle up to 2 hours.

I will often make this for lunch during the winter, it is good for 2 week day lunches for Miss Pear and I, and it warms up beautifully.

I have to say that the rice cooker is one of my very best kitchen tips, and definitely helps me stay organized and on top of things when preparing supper. Often when we are having company and I am serving rice it is one of the very first things I get done!

Using Up Leftover or Stale Bread

Maybe I am the only woman this happens to, but I kind of doubt it. No one in our family will eat the heals of bread! And occasionally it seems like the last 3ish slices of bread get kind of dry. Okay for toast, but not much else. I absolutely hate to throw things I can use away, so if I do not have enough to make a batch of Overnight French Toast with it, I always put these chunks of bread in the freezer for the following uses:

Breadcrumbs - thaw bread, run through blender or food processor, and spread out on a half sheet pan to dry out (to avoid mold). If the crumbs will not dry out in a couple hours, or if you have the oven on any ways, place the pan right where the oven vents (ours vents at the back and "blows" onto the back elements), or pop it in the bottom of the oven when you are doing something else to get them dry. Store extra in air tight container.

Croutons - the recipes for croûtons vary, but all include using older bread, cut into bite sized cubes, tossed with flavored oil and baked. Search your favorite recipe site until you find one you like.

You can make your own homemade stuffing mix - no more shelling out for Stove Top!

You can take a couple of dried out pieces of bread and just crumble them up into your ground meat mixtures in place of bread crumbs - much more tasty! (If they are really dry you can run them under a bit of water to make them more manageable.)

I save all the raisin bread to make dressing (stuffing) for our roast chicken! So much better than just plain bread!

Or you can also make one of my favorite casseroles from the More With Less Cookbook (link on sidebar)

Garden Supper Casserole page 138 in my book

2-4 cups cubed soft bread
1/2 c shredded sharp cheese (because I use the 4 cups of bread I also use more like a cup of cheese)
2 Tbsp margarine, melted

Spread half the mixture in a greased 1-2 quart casserole and top with:

1 cup cooked peas (I just use frozen) 2 sliced carrots

Saute until tender:
3 Tbsp margarine
2 tbsp chopped onion (we like a little more, so I usually use more like half a medium onion)

Blend in:
3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Cook over low heat, stirring until mixture is bubbly.

Stir in:

1 1/2 cups milk

Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Stir in:
1 cup cooked beef, chicken or pork diced (I always use chicken)

Our this mixture over the peas and carrots. Arrange on top:

1 large tomato, sliced (optional)

Sprinkle with remaining bread mixture

Bake uncovered at 350F for 30-35 minutes.

(my changes to the recipe are in italics)

Simple Strawberry Jam

This morning I made a quick batch of strawberry jam. There was nothing special about the recipe that made it fast - I buy the no sugar pectin (but still add a bit), and just follow the directions that come with it.

The jam was so quick to make because the berries were prepared and frozen when they were at the peak of the season (and therefore rock bottom price), and are now just waiting for me in the freezer when I need jam. I do not have a cold room or a big enough fridge to store jam if I make a year's worth when the berries are in season, but if I clean and prepare the berries, then freeze them using the zip top bag method, freezing flat of course, I can freeze lots of berries - enough for fruit syrup and jam all year!

It is surprising how your time is cut down when you do not have to clean and cut your berries! Although this year I think I will lightly run them through the food processor before I freeze them as that is how we prefer our jam - not all big chunks of berry and syrup, but both in every bite!

So at least I got something productive done this morning in amongst caring for my patient (husband) and playing with my daughter, even though for some reason all three jars refused to seal! Plus, I am convinced that home made is much better for my family!

Head over to Tammy's for lots of great kitchen tips!

P.S. If you know of a way to save on the cost of pectin I am ALL ears!

Freezer Scones

My dear friend gave me a wonderful Christmas gift - scones for the freezer! They were delicious, and it was wonderful to have scones whenever we wanted with no fuss! She graciously shared the recipe with me, so now I am sharing it with you!

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (skip if using salted butter)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, or larger dried fruit roughly chopped) (optional)
• 2 1/2 sticks chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2/3 cups of buttermilk

Directions

1. Line an 11-by-17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine all dry ingredient with cherries, if using, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add butter, and mix on medium-low speed until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk, and mix until combined.
2. Turn out mixture onto a clean work surface. With hands, quickly pat mixture into a 16-by-3 1/2-inch rectangle that is 1 1/2 inches high. Score rectangle into ten triangles. Cover with plastic wrap, and transfer to the freezer for at least 2 hours.
3. (If freezing to pull a couple out at a time, remove from the freezer after about 2-3 hours, cut the rest of the way through, and freeze using the zip top bag method.)
   
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from the freezer, and cut into triangles with a sharp knife. Place scones 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden, about 20-25 minutes.

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken
Swapping Meals with a Friend
January Swap / Orange Teriyaki Chicken
Freezing Cookies
Redeeming Freezer Burnt Meat

Redeeming Freezer Burnt Meat

I LOVE using my freezer to make meal time easier, and even swap freezer meals with two friends of mine.

However, when we moved in the late spring, our freezer did not get defrosted, just tossed on the truck for the 2 hour drive. It needed to be defrosted.

Then in the fall, the door did not close quite right, but was quickly found. But it needed to be defrosted.

Then there was all that hot weather, and our freezer is in the garage. And IT NEEDS TO BE DEFROSTED!

But where it is requires the garage to be organized before it can be defrosted safely, and we are having ceiling shelving put in tomorrow (I found a deal where it is cheaper to have a pro do it than to do it ourselves!).

The whole point of this story is that a pocket of frost developed where I could not see it, and has all but wrecked a couple packages of stuffed chicken. Rather than toss it, or feed my family shoe leather, I will be cooking it up and dicing it up, removing the tough sections (this is easier once the chicken is cooked), then freezing it by using the zip top bag method (each bag will have 1 cup).

So that takes care of the chicken, but 2 steaks also got touched. Yuck! So I put pepper steak and tacos carne asada on the menu for this week. Even though these are meals that I would not normally use this cut of meat for, it is a good way to use it up as it is not fit for barbecuing now!

Now the best tip would be to not let this happen, but things happen, so I am very happy that I am not going to lose this meat, and that it will still be usable!

(Oh, and I do not anticipate this happening in the future as I was given a FoodSaver for Christmas...but still, I will use zip top bags for a lot of stuff, and this can always happen!)

However, managing to not throw out expensive cuts of meat always works for me!

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken
Swapping Meals with a Friend
January Swap / Orange Teriyaki Chicken
Freezing Cookies

Freezing Cookies

I bake cookies by the double batch around here, I have a family of cookie monsters who I love, so this helps a lot! And because I have a secondary freezer that is NOT frost free, I can freeze baked goods for a fair bit of time! If you have a frost free freezer, and leave them too long, funny tastes develop.

I was just starting to think about guidelines for how long I can keep cookies in the freezer when I picked up Cooking Light in December (Free at CVS, really, I needed it to get up to $15 so I could use my $5 off $15 coupon!).

Any way, according to Cooking Light, cookie dough for drop, rolled, sliced/icebox, and hand shaped cookies is good in the freezer for 3 months. (2-3 days in the fridge) They do not recommend that you freeze twice baked or bar dough though.

As for baked, well, all baked cookies are good in the freezer for 3 months.

As for packaging baked cookies, I just put them in a plastic tub (Rubbermaid, Tupperware, no name, whatever is the right size and fits) and pop them in. If they are delicate cookies I will layer them with wax paper.

Cooking Light also says that baked cookies are only good for 3-5 days at room temperature, so it is a good idea to freeze your cookies and then refill your cookie jar from the freezer! The cue for an empty cookie jar in our house is the lid left off, that way I know!

As for the 3 month marker working...I couldn't say, cookies don't last that long around here.

What is your family's favorite cookie recipe that you have to make in double batches?

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken
Swapping Meals with a Friend
January Swap / Orange Teriyaki Chicken

Project Friday

I have a new thing that helps me out in the kitchen so much I just have to tell you! A friend of mine and I get together on Friday's for Project Friday. Now I would be lying if I said we managed this every week, it is more like every second week...almost.

But on Project Friday we get together to do a project or to finish a project, usually baking. So one Friday we made pie crusts, and took them home in disks ready for use. Last Friday we made gingerbread man dough. We have made bread, hot chocolate for gifts, and a ton of other stuff. As a rule, unless absolutely necessary, we don't do the actual baking, just the preparation of the dough and clean-up.

And with two sets of hands and eyes is makes light work and the children are all playing together where we can see them! (Or helping us).

As for sharing supplies and keeping it "even", we take turns at each other's houses, with the one hosting being responsible for suppling the ingredients, but if all of a sudden I am short molasses, my friend will share hers. In the end it all works out!

This has been a tremendous help to me, so I would encourage you to find a friend you can do this with too! It is also helpful for crafting activities too! And if you are wondering how to get your Christmas baking done, now you know what works for me!

Sharing the Creativity and Work

I am finally returning to my freezer meal series for this edition of:

My tip this week is to find a friend to share the load! Once a month I meet with a friend of mine whose family preferences are compatible to mine, and whose kitchen meets my finicky standards (my friend says the same about me), so we are very well matched to do this. Before we meet I prepare two sets of meals, one for us, one for her family, and the we swap!

So I end up with 4 meals for my family out of this, which keeps Sunday's mostly covered!

This encourages me to try new things, and blesses our friendship! We plan our meals together so things are basically even, and include the recipe with each meal!

When choosing a friend to swap with:

• Make sure you have similar tastes, because if she loves spicy and you love bland it is not going to work!
  
• Make sure you are comfortable serving food from her kitchen to your family.
• Agree to meat standards (cuts of beef, chicken, etc. to use)
• Agree to serving size
• Agree how often to meet and how many meals will be swapped
  
• Brain storm together
• Share resources
• Always clearly label your package with name of meal and date
• Always include a copy of the recipe
• Always rank the meals so that the favorites rise to the top and the forgettable meals are forgotten!
• Be willing to try different things for different holidays (we are doing a cookie swap in December when we meet mid month!
• Take turns hosting
• Make sure to talk about concerns!
• Only add people if you both agree to increase in numbers and to include that particular person.
  

And while not vital, but spiritually important, while you are preparing the meals, pray for your friend and her family!

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken

Christmas Baking Lists

Two years ago I sat down and wrote down all the Christmas baking I do each year. This kept me from having to sit down each year and try to remember all the baking I do. So now, each year I just pull out the list and get started! It saves me SO much time!

On my list is:

Christmas Cake
Shortbread Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Cookie Square
Pink Icing Cake
Vinatarta
Mars Bar Square

Each year I also bake Cinnamon Buns ahead of time and pop them in the freezer, then Christmas Eve after supper I pull them out, let them thaw over night, and then warm them up in the morning for breakfast (with fruit and stuff, to tide us over to a big brunch).

If I make changes, or add stuff, I just update the list for next year!

And of course, I store it all in the freezer, and then use my special snowman plate and pull it out a plate at time so we always have variety!

This year I am going to also plan out my menus and then type them up so that I have a list because every year it is the same thing of asking myself what we do again!

My plan is by this time next year to have menu lists for all the special occasions in our lives! Of course, birthdays will still be a case of "What special thing can I make you?"

So that is it, it is a kitchen tip that works for me!

Fresh Nutmeg

Yesterday I posted about our Christmas Cake Baking experience, which was wonderful and resulted in our whole house smelling wonderful! One of the tricks I use is to buy the nutmeg "nut" instead of the already ground stuff. It is not technically a nut, so it is okay in our house!

To use it you just grate the nut on the fine part of your box grater or whatever you have to grate fine! The nutmeg has no outer shell, so you just go for it.

It smells so delicious, and with the Christmas season starting, it is wonderful on eggnog!

However, have a very light hand with it because it is much stronger and more delicious than the pre-ground stuff!