A loves McSkillet burritos but doesn't love that a) he has to go to McDonald's to get one when we live 30 minutes from the closest one and b) they cost $3-$4. Solution: we make our own and have a stash of skillet burritos in the freezer which take only a couple minutes to heat in the microwave and cost less than $1 each. We keep a whole box of breakfast items in one of our freezers (I have 3 freezers plus the one on the fridge), and this is a staple along with waffles, pancakes, and muffins. When I buy the eggs, block cheese, tortillas, and sausage patties at Sam's Club plus the potatoes and enchilada sauce on sale at the grocery store, these cost $0.85 to $0.90 each. Sorry that some of this is a little vague - that's the problem with coming up with something all on your own!
Copy Cat Skillet Burritos
12 eggs
3 regular size cans enchilada sauce
4 medium (fist sized) potatoes, baked and cooled
12 sausage patties
4 cups shredded cojack or cheddar cheese or cheese to taste - make sure you don't put on too much or you won't be able to shut the burrito!
12 burrito size flour tortillas
12 paper towels
2 gallon freezer bags
Thicken the enchilada sauce by simmering gently until it is reduced by 1/3 and is about the consistency of barbeque sauce.
Scramble the eggs.
Dice the potatoes into bite size pieces.
Cut the sausage patties in half.
Lay out a paper towel. Lay a tortilla on the paper towel. In a line down the middle of the tortilla, leaving an inch and a half or so of room on either end, start the layers. Two sausage halves laid end to end, then a single line of potato pieces, 1/4 cup of scambled egg, 2-3 T thickened enchilada sauce and 1/3 cup shredded cheese. Fold one side over the line of filling, then fold in the ends to seal in the line of filling, then roll over to form a burrito. Repeat the wrapping procedure with the paper towel around the burrito.
Continue the process 11 more times to make a total of 12 skillet burritos.
The burritos can be put directly into gallon freezer bags. To reheat, microwave for 2 minutes or so on high straight from the freezer. You'll need to experiment a little with your own microwave to figure out the exact timing.
Have fun and enjoy one of A's absolute favorites!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
If At First You Don't Succeed.....
Feedback on crabapple jelly and pineapple jam: crabapples and crabapple juice might have a lot of pectin but it still takes a heck of a long time to cook to gelling point and I will *not* be doing a pineapple jam recipe without added pectin again (it was the one in the Ball Blue Book). I am re-affirming very loudly that I am not a fan of no pectin added jams and jellies. With a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old, they take too darn long to cook and require too much attention. On a brighter note, the crabapple jelly is a stunning red color, beautifully clear, and bursting with a warm, spicy flavor. The pineapple jam is a jar of captured sunshine, warm and bright in flavor and hue. I'll just be looking for variations on the recipe that keep the flavor and color but speed up the process!
While checking out crabapple recipes after we had done the jelly, I did find a recipe for crabapple butter that used the pulp from having made the juice (to make the juice: cover the tiny little crabapple with water and simmer for 20-25 minutes, then drain through cheesecloth). Being the type of person who doesn't like to compost anything before I must, I leaped at the chance to use the pulp before putting it on the compost pile. I milled the big bowl of pulp I had set aside and came up with 12 cups of crabapple sauce. I did have to add a few cups of water to it as I was milling, as it was fairly dry. I stirred together in my 6 qt crockpot the crabapple sauce, 4 cups white sugar, 2 T orange juice concentrate, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg. It's cooking on low from mid-afternoon until bed time tonight, and I'll stir it a few times. At bed time, I'll turn it to warm if it's simmering and let it do it's thing until morning. When I get up tomorrow, it will be ready to can, and I think I'll get 14 jelly jars (14 cups) of crabapple butter. Judging by the smell, it should be a warm, spicy, sweet-tart spread that can't help but make one think of fall. And now the pulp that is left can finally go to the compost pile.
While checking out crabapple recipes after we had done the jelly, I did find a recipe for crabapple butter that used the pulp from having made the juice (to make the juice: cover the tiny little crabapple with water and simmer for 20-25 minutes, then drain through cheesecloth). Being the type of person who doesn't like to compost anything before I must, I leaped at the chance to use the pulp before putting it on the compost pile. I milled the big bowl of pulp I had set aside and came up with 12 cups of crabapple sauce. I did have to add a few cups of water to it as I was milling, as it was fairly dry. I stirred together in my 6 qt crockpot the crabapple sauce, 4 cups white sugar, 2 T orange juice concentrate, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg. It's cooking on low from mid-afternoon until bed time tonight, and I'll stir it a few times. At bed time, I'll turn it to warm if it's simmering and let it do it's thing until morning. When I get up tomorrow, it will be ready to can, and I think I'll get 14 jelly jars (14 cups) of crabapple butter. Judging by the smell, it should be a warm, spicy, sweet-tart spread that can't help but make one think of fall. And now the pulp that is left can finally go to the compost pile.
Saving Some Summer
I love preserving food. I mean, really, who doesn't? I take all of my extras and stash them for later. What's not to like?! The beauty of canning for me is that I get to save some of my summer and fall bounty to eat in the depths of winter when all the world outside my windows is cold and white. Jams and jellies that glow in their jars like rare jewels and glisten on foods, beckoning the gourmand to taste, to savor as the flavors slide across the tongue, some comforting and some dancing, all making your senses dance and hum in excitement. Syrups sliding from jars and across breakfasts, ice creams, desserts, adding their rich flavors. Pickles and relishes sitting bright and refreshing in their jars, waiting to zing the palate and add zip to a meal. Stewed tomatoes as rich and fragrant as when they were freshly picked from the garden. Fruit sauces just waiting to grace the table with their gentle sweetness. The list keeps going, and all of it is right there in my pantry!
Today's canning is a combination of summer bounty and hey-it's-on-sale. First, I'm going to do pineapple jam. Being in the Upper Midwest, pineapples are definitely not part of my summer bounty, but they are on sale for $2.99 each, so I picked up a few and am making pineapple jam, a favorite of C's and something I love to put on ice cream. The summer bounty part comes into play with the second canning item: crabapples. A friend has a crabapple tree that is ready to pick, so I'll be picking crabapples and then experimenting. I've never done anything with crabapples, so it will all be new. My plans: crabapple pie (will freeze some if the trial pie turns out nicely) and crabapple jelly, and possibly crabapple juice to use later in other recipes, crabapple cordial, and crabapple butter. We'll see what we get!
Since nothing I'm doing today is a recipe I've done before, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to post recipes and the verdict on each one. Meanwhile, I have a day in the kitchen ahead of me!
Today's canning is a combination of summer bounty and hey-it's-on-sale. First, I'm going to do pineapple jam. Being in the Upper Midwest, pineapples are definitely not part of my summer bounty, but they are on sale for $2.99 each, so I picked up a few and am making pineapple jam, a favorite of C's and something I love to put on ice cream. The summer bounty part comes into play with the second canning item: crabapples. A friend has a crabapple tree that is ready to pick, so I'll be picking crabapples and then experimenting. I've never done anything with crabapples, so it will all be new. My plans: crabapple pie (will freeze some if the trial pie turns out nicely) and crabapple jelly, and possibly crabapple juice to use later in other recipes, crabapple cordial, and crabapple butter. We'll see what we get!
Since nothing I'm doing today is a recipe I've done before, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to post recipes and the verdict on each one. Meanwhile, I have a day in the kitchen ahead of me!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
More Crockpot Dinners
First, let me say that the swiss chard recipe I posted yesterday was quite good. It isn't something I'll crave, but I'll heap a big serving on my plate when it's served at dinner! The only other thing I did was to add the garlic when I added the swiss chard stalks to ensure that it didn't burn. It was a very nice dish, made all the tastier that I felt guilt free even with the bacon and bacon grease because there were so many greens and they are so good for you!
Now today is turning into a hectic and very difficult day between meet 'n' greet at the school this afternoon, story time this morning, and S's autism coming out to show itself due to the overstimulation of grandparent visit and school starting. I'm going simple and pulling out the crockpot to make some classic hamburger bbq. We'll probably eat ours rolled up in tortillas (those tortillas really hold everything in!), and A will probably spread nacho sauce on his too. Add some carrots, celery sticks, green onions, and a handful of chips, and I'm calling it dinner. Even nicer: I will freeze leftover bbq in 1/2 cup portions which will be a super quick heat and eat later!
Hamburger BBQ
3 lb lean ground beef (use slightly more if using fattier ground beef such as 73/27 or even 80/20)
1 large onion, chopped
3 6-oz cans tomato paste
9 T ketchup
2 tsp worcestshire sauce
3 tsp prepared yellow mustard
3 T brown sugar
3 T cider vinegar
3 tsp tabasco sauce
optional: 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Add in the chopped onion and cook just until the onion is softened.
Put all ingredients in a crock pot and stir to combine. Cook on low for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. It can stay in the crockpot for many hours safely, making this a great party, potluck, or on the go food!
This recipe is modified from a sloppy joe recipe on www.Recipezaar.com.
Now today is turning into a hectic and very difficult day between meet 'n' greet at the school this afternoon, story time this morning, and S's autism coming out to show itself due to the overstimulation of grandparent visit and school starting. I'm going simple and pulling out the crockpot to make some classic hamburger bbq. We'll probably eat ours rolled up in tortillas (those tortillas really hold everything in!), and A will probably spread nacho sauce on his too. Add some carrots, celery sticks, green onions, and a handful of chips, and I'm calling it dinner. Even nicer: I will freeze leftover bbq in 1/2 cup portions which will be a super quick heat and eat later!
Hamburger BBQ
3 lb lean ground beef (use slightly more if using fattier ground beef such as 73/27 or even 80/20)
1 large onion, chopped
3 6-oz cans tomato paste
9 T ketchup
2 tsp worcestshire sauce
3 tsp prepared yellow mustard
3 T brown sugar
3 T cider vinegar
3 tsp tabasco sauce
optional: 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Add in the chopped onion and cook just until the onion is softened.
Put all ingredients in a crock pot and stir to combine. Cook on low for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. It can stay in the crockpot for many hours safely, making this a great party, potluck, or on the go food!
This recipe is modified from a sloppy joe recipe on www.Recipezaar.com.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Meeting Our New Dinner Guest: Swiss Chard
I freely admit that I am adventurous when it comes to my food. We eat a wide variety of ethnic dishes, and I'm not afraid to play in the kitchen, creating new dishes on the fly. I extend this to my garden. This year, I have growing in my garden three foods I've never even tried before let alone grown before: swiss chard, fennel, and kohlrabi. The fennel is still growing and doesn't look quite like I've seen it at the farmer's market, so we'll let that one go a bit longer. The kohlrabi looks ready but also looks like it can both grow a bit more or sit in my fridge to be used another day. The swiss chard is ripe for the picking, though, so it's on the chopping block for dinner.
I've grown rainbow swiss chard, which has some stunning color to it: bright, glowing yellow, delicate light green, and deep ruby red stems topped by dark green crinkly leaves. This was a filler vegetable for me; I have room around my still young and growing blueberry bushes in the blueberry bed, so I scattered a dollar packet of rainbow swiss chard seeds around the bushes and let them do their thing. Now I'll harvest some of the swiss chard stalks and leaves, leaving the center of the plant so that it will grow more and I can harvest again in a couple weeks. The leaves can be used as a spinach substitute or even a cabbage substitute, and the stalks can be used much like asparagus. Swiss chard is very high in Vitamin A, calcium, and iron, so this is a great vegetable to eat besides lovely and easy to grow.
Now for recipes. I admit, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll also admit - even though it might shock readers of this who are fans of them - that I'm not a fan of the Food Network show *Down Home with the Neelys.* Sorry, but there it is. Their mannerisms drive me bonkers. Nothing personal, as I'll show by next statement. I often like the vegetable recipes they have, such as their roasted broccoli and cherry tomato recipe, so I'm going to give their swiss chard recipe a whirl around the dinner plate. You can find it, complete with a picture that I find uninspiring, on www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/swiss-chard-recipe/index.html but I'm also including the simple recipe. To go along with this quick swiss chard dish, I'm going to do a couple more tried and true dishes (general rule of thumb here: serve something you know like along with the complete mystery recipe), namely herbed pork chops (rub pork chops with herbs, sear in a hot skillet with a little olive oil, cook until not pink in center), rolls, and fresh tomato slices from the garden. Even if the swiss chard is a flop, we'll still have pork chops, rolls, and tomatoes!
Swiss Chard
2 large bunches Swiss chard (I have no idea how much this is, so I'm going to go with a few big handfuls from my garden)
1 T olive oil
4 strips thick sliced bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces (I'll use pre-cooked bacon from my freezer, crumbled, and some of the strained bacon grease I keep in a jar in the fridge, using 2 T bacon grease in the recipe where it says to saute the onion and garlic in the bacon fat)
1 large onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Slice te stems into 1" pieces and reserve. Stack the chard leaves into a pile. Roll together into a bundle and slice into 1/2" ribbons.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the bacon and saute until browned, rendering the fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent. Add chard stems, cook for 3-4 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.
Begin to add the chard ribbons in batches. Once the chard wilts down, add the next batch, stir occasionally until completely tender, about 5 minutes.
Recipe from *Down Home with the Neelys* from Food Network.
I've grown rainbow swiss chard, which has some stunning color to it: bright, glowing yellow, delicate light green, and deep ruby red stems topped by dark green crinkly leaves. This was a filler vegetable for me; I have room around my still young and growing blueberry bushes in the blueberry bed, so I scattered a dollar packet of rainbow swiss chard seeds around the bushes and let them do their thing. Now I'll harvest some of the swiss chard stalks and leaves, leaving the center of the plant so that it will grow more and I can harvest again in a couple weeks. The leaves can be used as a spinach substitute or even a cabbage substitute, and the stalks can be used much like asparagus. Swiss chard is very high in Vitamin A, calcium, and iron, so this is a great vegetable to eat besides lovely and easy to grow.
Now for recipes. I admit, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll also admit - even though it might shock readers of this who are fans of them - that I'm not a fan of the Food Network show *Down Home with the Neelys.* Sorry, but there it is. Their mannerisms drive me bonkers. Nothing personal, as I'll show by next statement. I often like the vegetable recipes they have, such as their roasted broccoli and cherry tomato recipe, so I'm going to give their swiss chard recipe a whirl around the dinner plate. You can find it, complete with a picture that I find uninspiring, on www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/swiss-chard-recipe/index.html but I'm also including the simple recipe. To go along with this quick swiss chard dish, I'm going to do a couple more tried and true dishes (general rule of thumb here: serve something you know like along with the complete mystery recipe), namely herbed pork chops (rub pork chops with herbs, sear in a hot skillet with a little olive oil, cook until not pink in center), rolls, and fresh tomato slices from the garden. Even if the swiss chard is a flop, we'll still have pork chops, rolls, and tomatoes!
Swiss Chard
2 large bunches Swiss chard (I have no idea how much this is, so I'm going to go with a few big handfuls from my garden)
1 T olive oil
4 strips thick sliced bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces (I'll use pre-cooked bacon from my freezer, crumbled, and some of the strained bacon grease I keep in a jar in the fridge, using 2 T bacon grease in the recipe where it says to saute the onion and garlic in the bacon fat)
1 large onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Slice te stems into 1" pieces and reserve. Stack the chard leaves into a pile. Roll together into a bundle and slice into 1/2" ribbons.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the bacon and saute until browned, rendering the fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent. Add chard stems, cook for 3-4 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.
Begin to add the chard ribbons in batches. Once the chard wilts down, add the next batch, stir occasionally until completely tender, about 5 minutes.
Recipe from *Down Home with the Neelys* from Food Network.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
House Guests Gone, Now for Canning!
Now that my house guests have come and gone, it's back to cooking and blogging. Today's topic: canning. I'm going to be doing a good bit of canning over the next two months, so now's a good time to start talking about what's being planned. First of all, I can because I love knowing that I have good, homemade, often homegrown or locally grown food in my pantry. I also love that I save loads of money doing this and rarely need to worry about food recalls!
Friday we celebrated Christmas with the kids' grandparents who never get to see them at the holiday, so we had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Not one to let anything go to waste, I of course made turkey stock from the carcass by combining the carcass, a bag of celery ends, onion peels, and garlic peels from the freezer, and enough fresh, cold water to cover in my 18 qt roaster oven (like a huge crockpot). Turn to 400 for a couple hours to get things going, then turn down to 250 and simmer from Friday evening until after lunch on Saturday. Turn it off, let it cool a little, then use a slotted spoon to scoop out most of the solids and put them into a bowl to discard. Finally, scoop or pour stock through a colander and into Rubbermaid containers to get the last of the solids. Then all of it (three containers!) went into the fridge for a chill. Tomorrow, I will pull them from the fridge, scrape off the fat which has floated to the top and congealed, then heat it again in my large crockpot and pressure can my turkey stock - I should probably get 10 pint jars! It is a lovely deep golden brown color and so fragrant that I can hardly keep from dreaming of making turkey noodle soup! You can certainly do this and freeze in portion sizes that are good for you, but I love the convenience of having it canned and have the ability to do it, so I choose to pressure can it instead.
My wild chokecherries that grow between a couple of my pastures are ripening and should be ready in a couple weeks. I'm making plans on what to do with them since I've never had chokecherry anything and this is a grand experiment!
Another grand experiment: corn is in and prices are falling on locally grown corn, so I'm going to be hitting up friends for their corn cobs when they are freezing cut corn kernels. My plan: make corn cob jelly and corn stock. I know, you are thinking I am incredibly odd, but the corn cob jelly is supposed to have a delicate honey-like flavor which sounds so very nice, and the corn stock is supposed to be a wonderful addition to things like chicken corn soup, corn chowder, vegetable soup, herbed rice, and anything else that can use a light, slightly sweet, slightly corn-flavored broth. I'm game to try it with something that otherwise will be tossed on the compost pile!
Ripening soon: wild plums to make into wild plum jam and pears to make into all sorts of things! The tomatoes are starting to ripen too. I've heard that I can core my tomatoes and put them in the freezer as they ripen to wait to can them until I have enough for a batch of salsa or stewed tomatoes or whatever, and an extra bonus besides "holding" my tomatoes safely is that when they thaw, the skins slip right off so that I don't have to blanche the tomatoes to peel them. Fantastic! Hmmmmm, my thoughts are now wandering towards salsa, stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and homemade barbeque sauce. I'm also thinking about trying a trick I heard for a use for the tomato skins - put all the tomato skins and seeds into a discard bowl and then spread them on dehydrator trays (the kind used for fruit leather, not the open ones!) and dry. When dry, put through the food processor and make a tomato powder which can be used to thicken soups and stews or as a seasoning. Yippee, another food otherwise destined for the compost pile leaps back into my kitchen!
Okay, enough about canning. Stay tuned for school lunch plans, because school starts on September 1!
Friday we celebrated Christmas with the kids' grandparents who never get to see them at the holiday, so we had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Not one to let anything go to waste, I of course made turkey stock from the carcass by combining the carcass, a bag of celery ends, onion peels, and garlic peels from the freezer, and enough fresh, cold water to cover in my 18 qt roaster oven (like a huge crockpot). Turn to 400 for a couple hours to get things going, then turn down to 250 and simmer from Friday evening until after lunch on Saturday. Turn it off, let it cool a little, then use a slotted spoon to scoop out most of the solids and put them into a bowl to discard. Finally, scoop or pour stock through a colander and into Rubbermaid containers to get the last of the solids. Then all of it (three containers!) went into the fridge for a chill. Tomorrow, I will pull them from the fridge, scrape off the fat which has floated to the top and congealed, then heat it again in my large crockpot and pressure can my turkey stock - I should probably get 10 pint jars! It is a lovely deep golden brown color and so fragrant that I can hardly keep from dreaming of making turkey noodle soup! You can certainly do this and freeze in portion sizes that are good for you, but I love the convenience of having it canned and have the ability to do it, so I choose to pressure can it instead.
My wild chokecherries that grow between a couple of my pastures are ripening and should be ready in a couple weeks. I'm making plans on what to do with them since I've never had chokecherry anything and this is a grand experiment!
Another grand experiment: corn is in and prices are falling on locally grown corn, so I'm going to be hitting up friends for their corn cobs when they are freezing cut corn kernels. My plan: make corn cob jelly and corn stock. I know, you are thinking I am incredibly odd, but the corn cob jelly is supposed to have a delicate honey-like flavor which sounds so very nice, and the corn stock is supposed to be a wonderful addition to things like chicken corn soup, corn chowder, vegetable soup, herbed rice, and anything else that can use a light, slightly sweet, slightly corn-flavored broth. I'm game to try it with something that otherwise will be tossed on the compost pile!
Ripening soon: wild plums to make into wild plum jam and pears to make into all sorts of things! The tomatoes are starting to ripen too. I've heard that I can core my tomatoes and put them in the freezer as they ripen to wait to can them until I have enough for a batch of salsa or stewed tomatoes or whatever, and an extra bonus besides "holding" my tomatoes safely is that when they thaw, the skins slip right off so that I don't have to blanche the tomatoes to peel them. Fantastic! Hmmmmm, my thoughts are now wandering towards salsa, stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and homemade barbeque sauce. I'm also thinking about trying a trick I heard for a use for the tomato skins - put all the tomato skins and seeds into a discard bowl and then spread them on dehydrator trays (the kind used for fruit leather, not the open ones!) and dry. When dry, put through the food processor and make a tomato powder which can be used to thicken soups and stews or as a seasoning. Yippee, another food otherwise destined for the compost pile leaps back into my kitchen!
Okay, enough about canning. Stay tuned for school lunch plans, because school starts on September 1!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Crazy in Love with Pizza Kits and Leftovers
It was a rough few days to wrap up the week last week, but I'm back!
Friday night was family movie night, complete with pizza, french fries, and green bean fries. Yes, green bean fries. We went bold and daring and tried a copy cat recipe for TGI Friday's famous green bean fries. In one word - yum! I waited to post until I had also tried freezing and reheating them. I can now say that they freeze easily (just toss into a bag and freeze, no need to flash freeze, they don't stick together), and while they come out kind of rubbery when reheated in the oven, they turn out quite nicely when deep fried again for a minute or two straight from frozen. I used homegrown green beans and wax beans, water and beef base instead of the chicken broth, soy milk and Eggbeaters for the wash, and whole wheat bread crumbs. Here's the link for the recipe as I found it, but it can also be found in the top secret recipes book by Todd Wilbur, which by the way is generally a very good recipe book: www.recipesecrets.net/forums/recipe-exchange/19114-t-g-i-fridays-crispy-green-bean-fries.html. I will be making plenty of these green bean fries with my fall crop of green beans, wax beans, and burgundy beans, which I can then fry up in a couple minutes and love all winter long!
The other part of dinner was pizza, and I am in love with pizza kits, a true convert. I cook down plain tomato sauce in my 6 qt crockpot until the thickness of pizza sauce, then cool and bag in 1 1/4 c. measures in sandwich zipper bags. Squeeze the air out, seal, lay flat on a cutting board, and freeze. I bag 2 cups of shredded mozarella in another sandwich bag, seal, and freeze. A good handful (about 2-3 oz) of sliced pepperoni goes into a snack bag and then frozen. All of those parts go into a gallon freezer bag. About half of those gallon freezer bags also have added to them a ball of pizza dough tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. When I am planning on pizza, I pull one of the complete kits out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours. Roll out the dough into an 18" pizza pan, spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese, lay out the pepperoni, and bake for 12 minutes at 450 degrees. When I'm not so planning but want pizza, I pull out a kit without dough, thaw the sauce, mix up the dough of choice, the proceed as usual. Doing kits this way and buying the ingredients in bulk at Sam's, the cost of an 18" pepperoni pizza is $2.34. The cheeseless version that I eat costs about $0.75. I love pizza kits!
Now for making leftovers on purpose. Most people run from leftovers like the plague, but I'm embracing them! We're having venison kabobs for dinner tonight, and while the charcoal is hot, we're grilling up 4-5 lb of venison that has been marinated in garlic balsamic vinaigrette. We can freeze this grilled venison, which can be thawed in the fridge and warmed for dinner with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, sliced thinly and placed on top of a bed of salad greens, diced and put into an omelet or fried potatoes, sliced thinly and put on top of pizza with onions and peppers, the list goes on! This will be a big time saver, plus it will maximize the expensive charcoal. Leftovers can be absolutely wonderful!
Friday night was family movie night, complete with pizza, french fries, and green bean fries. Yes, green bean fries. We went bold and daring and tried a copy cat recipe for TGI Friday's famous green bean fries. In one word - yum! I waited to post until I had also tried freezing and reheating them. I can now say that they freeze easily (just toss into a bag and freeze, no need to flash freeze, they don't stick together), and while they come out kind of rubbery when reheated in the oven, they turn out quite nicely when deep fried again for a minute or two straight from frozen. I used homegrown green beans and wax beans, water and beef base instead of the chicken broth, soy milk and Eggbeaters for the wash, and whole wheat bread crumbs. Here's the link for the recipe as I found it, but it can also be found in the top secret recipes book by Todd Wilbur, which by the way is generally a very good recipe book: www.recipesecrets.net/forums/recipe-exchange/19114-t-g-i-fridays-crispy-green-bean-fries.html. I will be making plenty of these green bean fries with my fall crop of green beans, wax beans, and burgundy beans, which I can then fry up in a couple minutes and love all winter long!
The other part of dinner was pizza, and I am in love with pizza kits, a true convert. I cook down plain tomato sauce in my 6 qt crockpot until the thickness of pizza sauce, then cool and bag in 1 1/4 c. measures in sandwich zipper bags. Squeeze the air out, seal, lay flat on a cutting board, and freeze. I bag 2 cups of shredded mozarella in another sandwich bag, seal, and freeze. A good handful (about 2-3 oz) of sliced pepperoni goes into a snack bag and then frozen. All of those parts go into a gallon freezer bag. About half of those gallon freezer bags also have added to them a ball of pizza dough tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. When I am planning on pizza, I pull one of the complete kits out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours. Roll out the dough into an 18" pizza pan, spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese, lay out the pepperoni, and bake for 12 minutes at 450 degrees. When I'm not so planning but want pizza, I pull out a kit without dough, thaw the sauce, mix up the dough of choice, the proceed as usual. Doing kits this way and buying the ingredients in bulk at Sam's, the cost of an 18" pepperoni pizza is $2.34. The cheeseless version that I eat costs about $0.75. I love pizza kits!
Now for making leftovers on purpose. Most people run from leftovers like the plague, but I'm embracing them! We're having venison kabobs for dinner tonight, and while the charcoal is hot, we're grilling up 4-5 lb of venison that has been marinated in garlic balsamic vinaigrette. We can freeze this grilled venison, which can be thawed in the fridge and warmed for dinner with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, sliced thinly and placed on top of a bed of salad greens, diced and put into an omelet or fried potatoes, sliced thinly and put on top of pizza with onions and peppers, the list goes on! This will be a big time saver, plus it will maximize the expensive charcoal. Leftovers can be absolutely wonderful!
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