Category Archives: recipes

Life: Somewhere between The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Little Red Hen

Posted on by

I think that sometimes we are the strangest people on the face of the earth. No, really. Our family has a myriad of food allergies and then to top it off we are trying a gluten free diet for a variety of reasons. Now my wheat bread/pasta/cookie/pizza loving teens and husband are missing bread. After weeks of denial and struggling and paying a ton of $$ for gluten free mixes I got with the program today and did a little experimenting.

We have some very discriminating (picky) people in our house. We are also cooking huge quantities of food because there are three teens and two parents sitting down to  nearly every meal every night. We are also on a limited budget and I am not Julia Childs. After messing around with GF cup for cup equivalences at a cost of $6-$12 a 4 lb bag or GF mixes from Betty Crocker and King Arthur flour at the cost of $4.50 to around $7 a box, I decided that there had to be a better way. Pricing out our budget and then forecasting what our food budget would be if we continued GF eating I knew that we would never be able to continue.

I did a little research on the internet and found that I could grind my own flour in my coffee grinder. That is why I feel a little like Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Long Winter. They ground their flour in the coffee grinder as well. Mine is electric and ground the brown and white rice pretty quickly in small batches. Then I sifted it to get rid of any un-ground bits. Then I put together my own GF flour mix using white rice flour and brown rice flour and cornstarch and mixed it well in my stand mixer and put it in a canister. Whew that step was done.

Then I was ready to make King Arthur Flours awesome GF pumpkin muffins. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-pumpkin-muffins-recipe

I have to admit that they do taste better if you do include the sugar and salt, which I left out of the first batch. They are light and fluffy and the closest muffin to gluten muffins that I have eaten since we have been on the GF diet. I added 1/2 tsp of Xanthan gum and just followed the recipe slightly. I think the secret of light and fluffy Gluten Free muffins is to whip air into them with a mixer. I did everything but grow the rice which made me feel like the Little Red Hen!

While I was on this round of cooking, I also mixed up some GF brownies in a jar and Cream Soup anytime  mix. Here is my variation of the the cream soup mix which I use in place of canned of soup.

 

4 cups of powdered milk (dry)

1 1/2 cups of cornstarch

4 tsp of dried onion flakes or onion powder

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp of basil

1 tsp of pepper.

Mix it all up and store it in a cool dry place.

I then add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to reconstitute it and cook it just a bit. After it boils it will thicken up and be just like the soup out of a can. Be sure to stir constantly because it will burn. Then you can use this as a soup base or white sauce/gravy base. Just add as much liquid as you want to get it to the right consistency. You can also add any vegetable you want to get cream of ____________- soup, or you can use as a base for chowder.

Our kids like to cook and mixes make it fast and easy for us to eat healthier without spending a bundle.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Thankfulness Challenge: Day nine!

Posted on by

Today I am thankful for these three things!

  1. Children: specifically our children
  2. Parents: specifically our parents
  3. Freezers: specifically our freezer!

I just cleaned out the little freezer of our refrigerator and found food I didn’t know I had! I threw out some food that had been forgotten and organized the freezer to make more sense! I have been organizing and trying to streamline our food prep. system. This really means that we have been making food ahead of time like I did about 6 weeks ago. Today so far we have made granola, freezer biscuits (see recipe below) Pizza crusts, pre-made the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then also Ham and Cheese sandwiches and corn bread mix! Did you know that if you spread peanut butter on both slices of sandwich bread it keeps the bread from getting soggy after you add the jelly. So the sandwich would look like this  bread, PB, jelly, PB, and then topped off with the top slice of bread. We also did this with the ham and cheese sandwiches but a little different. Put the mayo or mustard in between the ham and the cheese and not right up next to the bread. There are enough for the week double bagged and in the freezer. Since  we home school we don’t need to have sandwiches everyday. The one day we do need to pack a lunch we leave early and get home late. I am trying to reduce the stress on that day. I will let you know if it works. :0)

Angel Freezer Biscuits

2 pkgs. dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
5 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
2 c. buttermilk

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Sift flour, cut in shortening. Add yeast and buttermilk to dry ingredients; mix well. Knead quickly 20 to 30 times. Cover and let rise in warm place for 2 hours.

Punch down, roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter. Place on a cookie sheet, then freeze. After frozen place in freezer bag until ready to serve. To prepare place unthawed on cookie sheet in cold oven. Bake 400 degrees until brown, 25-30 minutes.

We will be pre-prepping the dinners when the other crew gets in from the grocery store.  I am a bit more ambitious this time as I am adding some family favorites to the recipe list and increasing the number of meals to 25 main dishes, 15 lunches and ten  breakfast items. So far I think our grocery budget is about $257 spent. They shopped at Aldi’s first and then the Dollar Store. I had subdivided the grocery list into different stores as  Aldi’s is cheapest and the  Dollar store has the cheaper Mexican food items. The last store on the list has the best produce and meat so the big bucks will come from there. This list is also a bit inflated since we  needed to replenish the pantry. These meals should last the month which would be a great blessing to all of us since it promises to be a busy one.

Dinners

  1. Chicken Parmesan rolls
  2. South of the Border Lasange
  3. Pasta sausage and peppers
  4. Slow cooker Pork Chops
  5. Orange Rosemary baked chicken
  6. Beef Potato Casserole
  7. Stuffed Shells
  8. Pasta primavera or pasta salad
  9. Slow cooker Chicken chili
  10. Chicken Broccoli Stir fry
  11. Rio Grande Lasagna
  12. Slow cooker pork chop dinner
  13. Chicken and rice soup
  14. Crock pot spaghetti
  15. Chicken and Macaroni
  16. Chipped beef on Toast or rice
  17. Tuna Casserole w/ potato chips
  18. Tuna Crockets or we also call them Tuna patties
  19. Honey chicken/asparagus stir fry
  20. Spinach rice and cheese + burger patties
  21. Crock pot BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
  22. Chicken patty sandwiches
  23. quiche with bacon
  24. Beans and cornbread
  25. cheesy potato soup

Most of the dinner recipes are from the saving dinner website. I am adjusting most of them for freezer meals. I am also including in the shopping list the other meals that we will eat that are not freezer meals. We just needed a plan for dinner, lunch and breakfast. I am not satisfied that we are eating as healthy as we should. The names of the recipes are what the kids  call them so they are family food. I am also not a nutritionist so these meals are probably not balanced in some way.

Lunches

  1. burritos
  2. tomato soup and toasted cheese
  3. tuna salad with lettuce and tomatos
  4. tomato and swiss cheese with alfalfa sprouts
  5. left over soup
  6. pita bread sandwiches
  7. chips and cheese
  8. apples and peanut butter
  9. banana peanut butter sandwiches
  10. BLT’s
  11. Homemade pizza
  12. macaroni and cheese
  13. Broccoli salad with raisins
  14. ham and cheese bagels
  15. baked potatoes
  16. left over bean soup

Breakfasts

  1. oatmeal
  2. bagels
  3. cereal
  4. granola
  5. yogurt and granola
  6. Peanut butter and apples
  7. peanut butter and Bananas
  8. cream of wheat
  9. pancakes
  10. instant oatmeal
  11. Sausage biscuits
  12. Freezer biscuits
  13. muffins
  14. oven French toast
  15. Frozen waffles
  16. eggs

Well, I will write more later and include photographs of our dinners in process. The other thing to understand is that we will round out these dinners with vegetables, salads, side dishes and possibly, sometimes dessert!

What do you do to stay organized with your meals?

Karen

Super quick Valentine Party!

Posted on by

I decided about 2 pm on Valentine’s day that our family needed a special dinner. Specifically, that the man that bought the roses needed a pampering dinner. He doesn’t make much of a fuss about not getting special treatment, but he has been working extremely hard and needed some appreciation. So youngest dear daughter baked her first cake (chocolate wacky cake), and I frosted it.

Here is the Wacky Cake recipe:

3 cups of flour (being sure to level off the top of the cup measure after each scoop)

6 Tablespoons of cocoa

2 cups of sugar

2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of salt

Put all of these in the sifter and sifted them into a bowl. Then she stirred in the last four ingredients

2 cups of cold water

3/4 cups of salad oil (we used canola)

2 Tablespoons of vinegar

2 Teaspoons of vanilla

Stir it all together and pour it into your cake pans. We baked this at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool it and then frost as you choose.

The kids helped set the table, and iron a real red and white checked tablecloth. I do have a thing for table cloths besides they absorb spilled milk before it reaches the floor. :0) I started using tablecloths when the kids were much younger and the table over a carpet.

I took a  minute before the cake mixing started and made this garland. Yes, I was also on the phone and I am sure that my friend thought I was insane.

Here is the picture of the garland.

It took me about ten minutes, left over pink ribbon and scrapbook paper I will never, ever use for anything!  I cut out the hearts free hand with about four sheets of paper stacked together at the same time.  Using the straight stitch on my sewing machine I just sewed them onto the left over  cream seam binding and then the left over pink ribbon. Done! A heart garland to hang where my wooden words normally hang.

Our daughter wrote super quick place cards and put them on the plates. The guys set the table and carried in the super easy tamales(from the freezer section and steamed in the rice steamer). That along with the beans, rice, chips and salad made for a great meal. Everyone was happy and dinner was special. Did anyone notice the super quick garland? Nope!  Does it bother me, no! I called attention to it and everyone was happy. Blue moody feelings banished and everyone was pleased! Was the house spotless? Nope! Memories made and everyone happy! If we wait until everything is perfect then we will never create memories with our children or I am completely stressed and they are too.

What did you do special for Valentine’s day?

talk to you later,

Karen

Organizing part 1

Posted on by

As part of my efforts to organize and streamline my house and life. My mother and I are planning a freezer cooking session for next Friday. It should be a good thing for the both of us. My recipes are for six servings and she only needs one or two servings. Often at our house we only have 4 or five eating dinner as the older kids have work and activities. Do they eat the good home cooked dinner when they get home? No, they often eat at work. This plan should work as we will add up the receipts and then divide by six so we know the cost per person.

I used to cook freezer meals all the time when the kids were little. It sure cut down on the pre-prep mess and saved a ton of time. I don’t need to have freezer meals all of the time just two to three meals a week. We enjoy cooking so the other meals aren’t going to be a problem. Just the times when we all leave at 7 and don’t get home until 5 and head out again at 6 or 7. That is currently about  three days a week. So this will help Mom and I have hot nutritious food when we don’t feel like cooking. It is a huge peace of mind thing! lol

Our recipes and shopping list are from the http://www.saving dinner.com website. I am not clear headed enough to plan menus, make the enormous shopping list and then head to the store and do the shopping to cook the next day. I have done the meal planning, menu writing, recipe hunting, grocery shopping, and grocery list making for 30 freezer meals in one cooking session for the month in the past. I know my time limitations and that will not be happening this time.

We bought the 20 meal plan so we will have a variety to pick from. As one of the kids has food allergies we will drop all the recipes that have tree nuts  and fish unless it is salmon or tuna or we will make substitutions.

I will e-mail mom the recipe names and quantities of some ingredients so she can chop veggies and get a few of the items at her country grocery store. I will get the rest the day before while the kids are in classes.  I think that this is going to work well it will give us twenty freezer meals for about three a week for 5-6 weeks. A huge time and budget saver for the both of us. Stay tuned so you can see how this works out!

Here are a couple of websites for you to try for yourself!

http://www.dinnersinthefreezer.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Panic-Dinners-Freezer-Great-Tasting/dp/0800730550

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/easy-freezer-meals-00400000009133/

http://food.yourway.net/my-plan-for-stocking-the-freezer/

talk to you later,

Karen

Do you cook and put meals in the freezer for meals later in the week or month? How many do you prepare at a time?

I am just curious!