The Big Cook

Ha, ha!  I just saw a double meaning in my post title.  The big cook had a big cooking spree on Monday.  I've been putting off writing about it because I have a ton of pictures to post and for some reason, I hate posting pictures.  I would love to be one of those people who could do step by step tutorials of everything, with lovely pictures. I do what I can.

So I spend most of the day on Monday cooking.  I prepped all my vegetables and browned meats while watching La Bamba on Netflix.  Then I baked, baked, baked.  It is a fun process where you are constantly making something.

Last Friday I made a turkey.  The first thing I did was strip the meat off and freeze the bones.  Then I cup up the veggies.  Next I sauteed the veggies with sausage for the turkey casseroles.  I put them together and baked while I browned the hamburger for the hamburger pies and cabbage casseroles.  I took out the hamburger for the pies and baked those with the meatloaf muffins while I sauteed the cabbage and other veggies for the casserole.  I assembled the muffins and they went in the oven with the cabbage casserole when the second batch of oven goodies came out.  When I had spare moments, I whipped up the ketchup, assembled the extracts and drained the soaked almonds.

I broke down and bought 5lbs of lean ground beef at the grocery store because it was on sale for $1.99/lbs and we are nearly out.  What a waste.  I doubt I even got 3lbs of meat out of it due to waste and shrinkage (they say its lean but there sure is a lot of fat in it!).  When I was able to present the evidence to Mark, I think he finally saw what I meant when ground beef from the farmer is a much better deal at $2.50 or even $3.00 a pound as there is no waste.  It is not injected with water and it is pretty much the same volume when done, not to mention it tastes so much better and is way healthier, better for the planet and local economy too!

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I also finally made my extracts.  I don't know why I put it off.  It was so easy.

So without further ado, here's the fruit of my labour:

Here is a wide view of everything I made.  Lots of delicious, yummy low carb food for the freezer and immediate use.  Don't mind my messy kitchen as I had so much stuff on the go (as you can see).  To the left are the cabbage (un)roll casseroles.  Then the white castle hamburger pies are in the front. In the large pan to the back of the fridge is the turkey and "stuffing".  The row next to it are my extracts, salmon muffins and tuna muffins and my soaked almonds.  Finally, the mushroom turkey and stuffing casserole and the meatloaf muffins.  The ketchup I made isn't in the picture.



This is a close up of the white castle hamburger pie.  I've probably mentioned it tons of times as it's my favorite low carb casserole.  So good!  Yes, I took a little bite in the corner.  Quality control, you know ;).  I made one pan this size and four small ones which are each about a serving size.

Too lazy to turn picture

Here is a close up of the cabbage (un)roll casserole. I will be posting the recipe soon as it was very good.  I would of liked a stronger tomato taste but that is easy to adjust.  These are the little baking dishes I mentioned in my previous post.  They remind me so much of the Le Creuset petite stoneware baking dishes that I had to buy them.  They were $2 each at the dollar store and are perfect for a single serving and heat up great in the toaster oven!

Search Amazon.com for le creuset petite stoneware

Soaked Almonds that I shelled myself

For these meatloaf muffins, I just filled the muffin cups with ground beef that I worked a bit.  These were level to the top when I baked and they shrunk a lot!  It is very easy to add extra ingredients.  I like them with spinach and feta cheese or you could put a piece of cheese in the middle or wrap in bacon.  Seasonings add endless variety.  I was going for simple though :)

This is one of the turkey stuffing pies I made.  The only difference between the two is one has cauliflower and the other one doesn't.  See, not much difference.  They are very good and it was a good way to use up the leftover turkey I had on hand.

Again, too lazy to turn picture.  I'm too used to face book where you can just rotate pictures after you upload them.  Some day I will remember.  So the top half are salmon muffins, just using salmon instead of tuna in the recipe.  I decided to put some in large ramekin dishes which would be enough for a good sized meal, easily heated and add a veggie or salad.  The bottom ones are a half batch of tuna muffins.

These are my lovely extracts.  I have two vanilla, one lemon, one star anise and one waiting to be turned into orange.  I would like to make some mint but I think I will wait until it is fresher.  I have dried but I am not sure how it will turn out.  After 24 hours, the lemon and the anise smelled amazing!  You could barely smell the alcohol.  I especially love the anise one!  Yum :)

Sitting on the stove until I can find room in the cupboard

 I had a lot of fun doing all this cooking.  I love it because you can reuse pots and bowls and there aren't many dishes when you are done.  It is also good for saving energy as you can cook several things at a time and save time by doing everything in big batches.  What I love most about it is there is lots of food for me to eat when I don't feel like cooking something low carb for me.  It makes it easier to stay on plan.

I will be posting recipes for the new things soon.  I linked most to Linda Sue's site in my previous post but as always, I made some alterations.  That's the best part about cooking; it's pretty flexible!

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I am in the midst of a big freezer cook and will be back later to write about it and come up with a meal plan for the week. What am I making?

-white castle hamburger pie

-mushroom turkey and sausage casserole

-turkey and stuffing quiche

-meatloaf muffins

-cabbage un-roll casserole

-salmon and tuna muffins
-ketchup

As usual, I've made adjustments to these recipes so I'll post more about them later and also show pics of the cute little baking dishes I got!  They are so cool!

Where's the beef?

It's in ma freezer!

We finally have the quarter beef that I have wanted to get for so long and now I can shut up about it, lol! It took me a while to convince Mark, but after watching Food Inc with me yesterday, I think he is starting to see things my way.

I got a call this morning to put in my cut order. Fortunately Heather walked me through it (but I imagine I'll need to be walked through it next time we order, lol!). Then she told me where to pick it up and that it would be ready at 1pm.

On the way, I got Mark to deposit the money I had been hanging on to which was almost enough to cover it. At the farm where our meat was cut, there was a friendly collie named Sophie and a black cat that eyed us suspiciously. We were a little surprised when we walked in as there was a carcass hanging right in front of the door! We were unsure if we should go in. I still have some of my OCD habits and being in a bloody-ish room with hanging carcasses and that earthy meat smell kind of turns me off. I ended up holding the door for everyone.

We ended up with two boxes and two bags of meat. It costs $350 and I forget how many cents. It was about 137lbs hanging weight and $2.55 a pound cut and wrapped to our specifications. It took up nearly a third of our freezer, making me very grateful we had been eating it down (although there is still a ton of food in there!).

I feel so blessed that I can have the comfort of having a freezer full of safe, organically raised (but not certified) grass fed pastured beef that was treated kindly during its life.

So for supper I took out a round steak and a t-bone steak, which we'll be eating with potatoes and fried mushrooms and onions. Sounds like a kings feast to me!

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Yummm...I made this cake yesterday and it is very yummy! Actually, I made the cake to bring to a potluck today and a cupcake so I could taste it. It was very good! I never used mace before and it had a nice taste to it so I imagine I'll be using more of it. I did make a couple of changes; I used all whole wheat. It didn't even occur to me until after I made it. I also tried using half olive oil instead of butter since I only had half a cup out. Won't make that mistake again! It overpowered the honey but it was still good. I also used a 9x13 baking dish since my recent bundt cakes haven't turned out so well and I couldn't afford for this not to turn out. I ended up baking it at a lower temperature the second half.

The kids and I picked 14lbs of blueberries the other day and on our vacation, we picked up a gallon of honey even though we have 3/4 of a 7lbs bucket left. Yumminess! Plus these two things go very well together :)

I haven't said anything in my main family blog yet, but my Facebook friends already know this. The kids are going to public school in the fall. The reasons are many. It will be hard to afford lunch and snack foods (their school doesn't have a cafeteria) so I plan to be making a lot more by scratch.

I will be posting more recipes here so I don't lose them, both successes and failures. I also want to try harder to eat more local food. I will be working on alternative food preservation (other than canning) since a lot of my past canning efforts were ruined plus from what I have read, there is a lot of nutrition loss with canning due to the heat processing. I am looking forward to having more free time to do this.

I am bound and determined to at least get a quarter of an organically raised local beef (they're still $2.50 a pound but will probably go up soon since they have finally been certified organic. I am debating between a local side of pork or a local pastured side of pork (as in advertised as pastured), the difference in price being $100. Maybe I should try to contact the farmer of the one not claiming to be pastured to see how his pigs are raised. I once read of how some cities fix their garbage problems by getting pigs to eat it. Gross! I was pretty turned off by pork for a while after reading that.

So we will need to eat down our freezer to have room for this. I want to stop buying convenience foods, which take up a lot of room. One of the blessings of having the kids in school is I will have a lot of free time to do the cooking I have always wanted to do.

Finding My Way

It has been quite a while since I have posted. I have come a long way and want to go a long way yet! I have had Traditional Foods on my mind lately. Local eating is a big concern. Organic...well, we can't afford it but when we can, we try. Food storage and emergency preparedness is still on my mind.

We have had a big problem I am having to deal with. Our food storage. There is a lot of food we will never eat. Remember to store what you eat because you will be eating what you store!! Now grated, I did not know I would be gluten free. I didn't know when I stored BPA would be a big concern. I didn't know a lot of what I canned we would never eat. I didn't know that I would buy too many beans and my intentions of using them would go awry.

I have been going through our stores and picking out what we won't use that is still good to donate to the food bank. This still leaves us with a lot.

Today, I went through our basement freezers and condensed all the food into one. I have a lot to toss that is no longer any good. I also kept track of everything so that I can meal plan. I want to eat the freezer down so we can invest in the side of beef and side of pork again this fall. I don't want to keep relying on the grocery store for our food and want to get it from the farmer where ever possible!

So, here are the contents of our freezer. I didn't write every little thing down (like the popsicles, juice and seed/nut meals).

Fruit

1 large bag of woods strawberries

2 bags raspberries

1 bag jumbleberry mix

2 jars strawberry freezer jam

Vegetables

3 1kg bags of broccoli

4 1kg cauliflower

1 1kg peas

1 1kg peas and carrots

4 bags of veggie blends (500-600g)

2kg bag california mied veggies (I don't know if these are still good)

300g package of spinach (may not be good for use)

Cheese and Dairy

4 110g packages swiss cheese

2 pkg provelone

3 blocks cream cheese

6 180g pkgs organic feta

1 jar 100% fresh parmesean

2 large packages of mozza cheese strings (I use these to make low carb garlic "bread")

2 200g packages of organic sharp cheddar

1 cup grated mozza

3 500g blocks mozza

5 1lbs blocks of butter

Pork

3 shoulders, approx. 1.5kg each

2 small packs of pork chops (0.5 lbs each)

5 large packs of pork loin chops

11 packs of loin roast (these are all about a pound each)

4 smoked shoulders

1 rack of ribs (2kg)

1 pack larsens sausages

13 packs of bacon

Beef

Hamburger, 2lbs natural, 0.5lbs pack, 2kg pack and 1.40kg pack from store

2 packs of liver (about a pound each)

1.125 pot roast

1 small steak

Chicken

1 large pack of breasts (1.25kg)

2 small packs of breasts (0.65kg each)

3 bags of 4 quarters

4 small whole chickens

Turkey

4 whole turkeys

1 pack of 2 small turkey drumsticks

1 small pack of turkey tenderloin slices (1lbs)

Other

Hot Dogs 5.5 packs of 12

1 1lbs package of moose meat

1 3.5 oz pouch of scallops

1 small whole wild salmon (2 or 3 lbs)

1lbs pack of wild salmon

2 frozen pizzas

1 small garlic fingers

4 tubs of 150g slivered almonds

1 pouch minced onion

Whew. That doesn't include what is in the fridge freezer. I know there is some in there I need to toss.

Here are some things that I have learned today:

Today I have learned today is not to prepare food for the freezer unless it is part of a meal plan. I am going to have to toss a lot of soup and other things I made that didn't freeze well.

Another thing is that some foods do not freeze well. For instance, I bought and froze a lot of cottage cheese over a year ago. It doesn't freeze well (unless you use it in a recipe, but I know I won't. Good thing it was really cheap).

Only buy items out of the ordinary to freeze if we plan to use it soon. Sometimes Mark or I will buy something different and it never gets used. We will save a lot of money by doing this.

Use older things first. I have a lot of food that is a lot older than recent items that we have eaten. Rotating is especially important for freezer food.

Only buy frozen veggies as I need them. These get freezer burnt pretty fast. I have a lot of cauliflower as I planned to make a lot of cauliflower crust pizza. I probably still will. It is yummy :)

I couldn't help thinking of my Great Grammy D who used to joke about having food that was old enough to vote, lol! I hope I never get anything that old in my freezer. She would of happily used up any old thing as she let nothing to waste.

So I need to come up with a meal plan to make sure we use our food before we start bringing more in.

I also want to be more accountable for what we buy and use as food. I need to keep better track of how much money we spend. I have been doing a lot better. We cannot afford to waste food.

I have so much to write about so I won't write it all today. This will be fun again!

Freezer Fun!

I'm going to write about this here since I sometimes wonder if people are getting tired of reading about food storage in my main blog, lol!

We got a second freezer last night! I can never again complain that we have nothing to eat, lol! It may just take some time and preparation, but I plan to really take advantage of our new situation.

I spent some time sorting the freezer out this morning and boy, were there some treasures! A gallon of organic milk! (yay! Our favorite. It's one of the few things I can really tell the difference between conventional and organic) Raspberries, yum! Chicken strips. Our poor turkeys stuck on the bottom. Tons of ham, chicken, bacon, hamburger I forgot about, hot dogs galore, tons of veggies and on and on.

I am dividing the different types of food into bags. I have a bag of single type frozen veggies, a bag of mixes (like California, winter, peas & carrots, ect..), a bag of hot dogs, chicken, ham and so on. I tried boxes and baskets, which were hard for me to get a hold of and shopping bags break. So I'm using some of our reusable shopping bags since they have handles, can hold a lot and are flexible.

Even if I don't buy anything for a while, we'll be good. I was thinking of buying a side of beef (actually a quarter), but I think it will just be too expensive. It would be about $900 for 300 lbs of hanging weight, which works out to under 200lbs of meat. First of all, that's a lot of meat! Second, that's a lot of money and a lot per pound. I'll keep buying the store stuff and try not to think about where it came from, lol! When Emin's has another side of pork sale, I think I will take advantage of that. $99 for a side of pork is much more doable and a greater value. Plus Mark likes pork products a lot better, I think.

So I'll probably be busy sorting for a while. I also want to keep a list on the freezer of what we have and keep track of what we use. That way we will no longer have any lost food.

I also plan on making lots of freezer meals. That way when I don't feel like cooking, I can just pop something out of the freezer and we have something good quick! I just need to find a day where I feel like cooking large quantities of food ;)