More from our kitchen as we winter in...

We have been stocking things up for the winter months... basically just when they are in season we buy a little extra and then we can enjoy it through the months it is not in the stores.  I shared the pumpkin baking not too long ago.  

 After thanksgiving we used a few turkey carcasses to make stock (ladies from our church gave us their's).  It is SO SUPER SIMPLE to make stock... everyone should be doing this and saving money.  It is SO delicious, too!  Great for soups, stews, sauces and a variety of other cooking uses.   

and I have a few bags of pecans that have been frozen.  

I am, however, quite low on my frozen bananas for smoothies!  LOL  Must raid a store soon to see if they have some bulk buys on overripe bananas.  They make great banana bread and muffins, too.  

There are also frozen blueberries, a variety of meats purchased on recent holiday sales and frozen Amish bread and a meatloaf.  I am hoping to get back to more bulk cooking and baking in the new year.  It is so very convenient to have things ready to heat and serve.  :)  It also saves a ton of money since most our money goes to the crazy gas prices these days... we will take the savings wherever we can get them.  LOL

Make-Ahead Meatballs

I got this fantastic recipe from an old Quick Cooking Magazine (one of the Collector's Editions). I use it ALL THE TIME! All of these recipes are from that issue sent in by Ruth Andrewson of Leavenworth, Washington.

Make-Ahead Meatballs

4 eggs
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 Tablespoon salt (I cut this back a bit)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 pounds lean ground beef (or other ground meat - if you use chicken or turkey you will need to add an extra egg for moisture)

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add the next five ingredients. Add beef; mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls, about 12 dozen. Place in single layers in ungreased 15-inch x 10-inch x 1-inch baking pans. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until no longer pink, turning often; drain. Cool. Place about 30 meatballs each into freezer containers. May be frozen for up to 3 months. Yields 5 batches (30 per batch).

Of course, you can make the classic spaghetti and meatballs with this but there are other things you might try that are delicious, too.

Meatball Sandwiches

1 batch of the meatballs thawed (30)
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke, optional
6 sandwich rolls, split

Place meatballs in an ungreased 1 quart baking dish. Combine the next five ingredients; pour over meatballs. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (or you could put these in the crockpot on low for a few hours). Serve on sandwich rolls. Yields 6 servings.

You could also use the sandwich recipe and just make little meatball appetizers served on toothpicks for a get-together with friends or church dinners and such.

Sweet and Sout Meatballs - follow recipe except use meatballs instead of chicken

Other links for you...

Crockpot Meatballs - lots of links here for different ideas!

You can pair them with lots of different sauces.

Try barbeque sauce on them in the crockpot.

You can combine barbeque sauce and a fruit preserve for a sweet and spicy combination.

You can turn them into Swedish Meatballs with a basic sour cream sauce.

Make your meatballs smaller and make a Grilled Swedish Meatball Kebab.

Cooking Meals Ahead - a mini session

Today I am in the kitchen cooking some things ahead for the weeks to come. I am doing a mini version of OAMC and using some techniques that I think are very helpful.

* First of all I need to bake about three to four days worth of bread (about four small loaves). Dan usually takes one loaf with him for lunches for him and oldest boy. He has a mini fridge at school and keeps it there to keep it a bit longer. A typical loaf is good for about three days but I usually use the end of a loaf for bread crumbs and French toast for breakfast one day a week. Anyway, today is a baking day...

* I also need to cook up some ground beef and some stew meat that I purchased toward the end of last week. I will be making meatballs and chili with the ground beef. I will get about 6 batches of meatballs our of the meat I bought and then I will get a meal's worth of chili for later in the week made.

* I will be making A GIANT batch of stew and will be letting it simmer all day in the crockpot. I will store it in the freezer without the potatoes in it and will add potatoes when I thaw it and reheat it so that they are not mushy. I will be able to back about four containers of stew for later in the summer as we need it for quick dinners on busy days.

* I will be making pizza for the kids again today because I am making bread. That will be our lunch.

A few really key things that I want to stress include...

1. Get your kitchen REALLY CLEAN before you start! I wash everything up and then unload the dishwasher so that I can rinse and load as I cook. This saves TONS of time!!!

2. I get everything out before I start. I will have all the ingredients grouped on the counter and will measure things out as much as I can before I start. All my meats are thawed and ready to go and all my grains are milled and ready.

3. I use two different cutting boards as I go and wash them in between each use. I have the meat board and the veggie chopping board. I NEVER want to cross contaminate those things.

4. I will utilize everything for cooking. I use a crockpot (I actually own two and might have both going at the same time depending on what I am working on), a pressure cooker, a pot or pans on the stovetop for browning and sauteing, and the oven is on and in use the entire time I am working usually. Use what you have and utilize your tools and space to get the most work done in the shortest amount of time.

5. I always start with something that takes the longest to cook. I will often start with bread if I am making bread so that it can be rising while I am working on something else and I get it out of the way before bring out the meats that just dirty up everything.

6. I make sure I am drinking LOTS of water as I work. I also take a break for meals. It keeps you going and lets you stay hydrated and nourished which makes you work stronger and better.

7. What about the kids? Mine usually play outside while I am working and I can see everything they do from my kitchen window. The only frustrating thing is stopping what I am doing to break up the typical fight! LOL

8. Let everything cool before you put it away. Help it along if you need to by putting things in ice baths or spreading things out so that they cool more quickly. This is ESSENTIAL!!! You do not want things sitting out longer than four hours in the danger zone - 41 degrees to 139 degrees (or 140 according to new regulations). You don't want all your hard work to be for nothing because your food spoils. Keep it at appropriate temperatures at all times.

9. You can use a variety of storage containers from zipper bags to ceramicware that goes from freezer to oven easily. I use a variety of these things depending on the item. My soups are stored in plastic containers and my meatballs will be stored in a zipper bag. I will often times make a lasagna and cool it and store it in the pan I cooked it in. I will merely cover it with parchment paper and then with foil - you don't want the foil touching the item directly.

10. Clean it up completely when you are done so you can enjoy dinner with your family and then designate dinner cleanup to someone else (my oldest and second oldest do clean up a great deal for us). After dinner make a pot of coffee or a cup of tea and then sit and enjoy it while the rest of the family does the final work. You can rest in the fact that there is lots of work and time you have saved for later and that will allow more time with your family and less time in the kitchen.

Cooking Meals Ahead - resources

I have several books on my shelf that fall under this topic. There are LOTS of books for this out there. Here is a place you can look if you like and you can pick what might fit your situation. You can find many of these books at most local libraries or have them sent in the interlibrary loan system. You can also buy many of these used...

My personal favorites are...

* Once a Month Cooking by Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson

* There is a second book that Lagerborg and Wilson did called Table Talk that is a great companion book to their first one.

* Frozen Assets - Deborah Taylor-Hough

* Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer

* The Everything Meals for a Month Cookbook

* Dream Dinners: Turn Dinnertime into Family Time with 100 Assemble-and-Freeze Meals - Allen and Kuna

* The Once-a-Week Cooking Plan: The Incredible Cooking Program That Will Save You 10 to 20 Hours a Week (and Have Your Family Begging for More!) - Joni Hilton (the meals in this are a little more fancy but VERY delicious!!!
* Mega Cooking - Jill Bond - this is a BIG cooking plan for six months to a year at a time cooking session.

Each one of these books has their own way of doing things. Some offer step-by-step and every recipe and some just give you an overview. Check them out and get started with a plan you can stay with and do easily.

Once a..... cooking - Cooking Meals Ahead

Once a month cooking is a great way to save money and time. I have used this method with great success. I have not been consistent with it but when I have used it I have loved it. I have found a method that works for me very well along the way and am trying to get back to that this summer. The key is to take what you can from this and make it work for your family. There are several options for people who like to prepare meals ahead to save time during the week.

Once a Month Cooking - OAMC

Once Every Two Weeks Cooking- mentioned in working your way up to OAMC by LupusLady

Once a Week Cooking - an experience of one blogger

The once a week and once every two weeks is merely a smaller scale of once a month cooking and for the purposes of our discussion we will call it Cooking Meals Ahead.

For your own knowledge there is also a Bulk Cooking scenario that is addressed in a book called Dinner's in the Freezer by Jill Bond - I have this book and it is FANTASTIC and full of tips and recipes for cooking for up to six months at time. You have to have TONS of freezer space for this method so I do it on a smaller scale. She does offer different amounts for her recipes if you want to scale it back or try a recipe first before making six months worth of it.

Also, Bulk Cooking is pretty much the same as OAMC. There are several links that I found under this title...

Bulk Cooking.com

Menus4Moms is a favorite of mine!!!

Now that we have defined some of the terms we can get started. There are so many resources out there for cooking meals ahead. There are books and websites galore. There are books that help you get started and plan your own meals and then there are books that give you the menus and recipes and talk you through the process step by step. There are websites that will send you meals each week with recipes, too. The topic is extensive and has exploded on the scene over the past 10 years. I won't rehash all of the information here. I will merely attempt to share my experience with you along with my favorite books and links. The main thing is making time to cook and store things properly and clean as you go... I know from experience on this one... LOL

As a beginning personal chef these skills are coming in quite handy. I utitlize much of this to cook for a client. I usually do the shopping and cooking over two days so that everything is as fresh as possible. The problem I have run into in our own family is budgeting for such a large shopping trip. It does save money in the long run but the initial investment in foods for that amount of time can be overwhelming. I have recently been more of the once a week shopping persuasion and then I will cook extra of something for the freezer. When I was pregnant, though, this method was FANTASTIC for getting my family fed while I was recovering from a pregnancy and dealing with a new baby. I will be doing more of this during the summer months in order to prepare for our very busy fall schedule that is coming.

Here are some magnificent articles that I thought you might like to read to encourage you to try this method.

What's For Dinner?

A Beginner's Guide to OAMC

Frugal Mom shares her experiences

Learn How to Plan Your Meals and Free Up Your Time!

A Lady a great deal like me!!! LOL She says she is a drop-out but she still utilizes much of what she has learned.

The key is to find what works for you and your family and make that happen.

Tomorrow I will give you lots of book resources that I have enjoyed and learned from.

Buttermilk Biscuit Mix...

I am allergic to soy so there are very few things that I can actually eat from the grocery store that are prepackaged. That is the biggest reason I choose to make my own when it comes to things like Biscuit mix. Here is a great recipe that I found back in 2000 in the Quick Cooking Magazine (it has a new name now but I am not sure what it is...) It was submitted by a lady named Katie Koziolek and I want to make sure you know it was her's and not mine. That being said, here it is...

Buttermilk Biscuit Mix

8 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk blend powder
4 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/3 cups shortening

In a bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; cut in the shortening until crumbly. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months. Yield is about 13 1/2 cups of mix. This is a MUST HAVE when we take camping trips so I am making a batch of it tonight. I will share a picture when I get a chance... :)