A couple of Sundays ago, I made a big pot of chicken soup. I took a whole chicken and boiled it until it was done. Took the chicken out of the broth to let it cool enough for me to debone. To the pot full of broth, I added carrots, celery, onion and some parsley that was just going to go to waste otherwise. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and let it simmer till the vegetables were nearly done. Then, I added the chicken back to it all.
The next day, Matthew and I each took about a pint of soup to lunch each. When I heated it up and tasted it, I was so pleased, it was great soup, had been easy to make and tasted better than canned soup (and was probably less expensive). That night, we put away 9-10 quarts of soup in the freezer (there are only the two of us living in the house, so this soup should last us a good long while for taking to lunch at work).
A week later, we are still eating the soup. I'm getting tired of it but it's not bad. It still tastes good on the cold days that we've been having.
However, today, ten days later, I eat the soup and it nearly makes me sick even after taking a break from it yesterday. It's almost the worst thing I've ever tasted. It's very interesting to me that I've progressed from it being the most awesome soup in the world to something I can barely keep down.
This is the problem, I think, with bulk cooking for two people. Even normal recipes make way more than the two of us together could (should) eat but bulk recipes fill up our freezer and we eat on them until we can't even imagine eating that particular food again for a long long time. I think the next time I do a big bulk meal on the weekend, I'll do more than one so that we at least have some variety with our lunches. I just need to get better about managing my time on the weekends so I can get everything done that needs to get done (but that's another story).
I think tomorrow, I'll bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Adventures in Bread Baking: Bake Harder
Two weeks ago, Fenrirwulf tried baking bread from a step-by-step recipe that he found on the internet. The bread looked really pretty in the pans and it smelled really nice baking but we had some problems removing the loaves from the pans and the taste of the bread was also flat and a bit bitter.
I augmented the recipe yesterday and added 1/4 cup honey and 2 tbsp of salt to the recipe instead of what was listed. The bread rose nicely (I turned the oven on to preheat and sat the dough in a container on the stovetop so it was plenty warm this time).
I didn't get the four 1.75 pound loaves and one 1.25 pound loaf that I should have. Next time, I'll probably work in more flour...maybe one to two cups more. I had to have Fenrirwulf shape the loaves for me because I was getting very frustrated because I was trying to make bread in a very limited amount of time.
We sprayed the pans with Baker's Joy spray and they came out beautifully this time.
We tasted the bread last night and it tastes much better. Not at all bitter. But, it still needs more honey and more salt. I'll probably add 1/2 cup honey and 3 tbsp of salt next time.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Eat Your Veggies
One of our goals for this year is to eat healthier foods. To me, healthy means homemade (and ideally homegrown) so that you know what goes in your food and you know that you are eating quality food. Healthy also means the dreaded V-word. Vegetables.
For the first 8 years of my life, I lived on my paternal grandparents' farm and they raised all kinds of vegetables. Okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, collards, field peas, green beans and yellow squash to name a few. While there were always a few vegetables I didn't like, my parents were both diligent about making sure we at least tasted our vegetables to make sure we didn't like them (and to at least get some nutrition from the bit we did eat). So, I have never had a huge problem eating most vegetables and I'm finding, as an adult, my tastes are changing and I like more of the vegetables that I hated as a kid.
Fenrirwulf, however, is a different story altogether. As far as eating the vegetables is concerned, he likes what he likes and that's what he wants to eat. His parents didn't really force him to eat things he might not like, like mine did. Sometimes this makes it hard to plan a nutritious meal because there are things he doesn't like or doesn't want to try (like okra).
So, what's a girl to do? My answer to that is to hide the veggies in whatever you are cooking.
Last night, I made what we normally call Pasta Bake for our lunches this week. We combine spaghetti sauce, ground beef and rotini and top it with cheddar cheese and bake it in the oven. When I do things with commercially canned spaghetti sauce, I like to add things to it to make it seem more homemade. So, to one can of Hunt's spaghetti sauce, I added 1 pound of browned ground beef (browned in olive oil), an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 large carrots and some spices (salt, pepper and italian seasoning). I looked through our freezers and our cabinets to see what other veggies we could find (to both stretch out the pasta for more meals and also add some more nutrients to our diet). In one of the freezers, I found a half bag of yellow squash (which is a veggie we both like but is not something we would normally put in spaghetti). So, I took it out, defrosted it, diced it and added it to the sauce. I dumped the sauce into a baking dish and added about a pound and a half of macaroni (I did not pre-cook the macaroni), a cup of part-skim mozzarella cheese and a quarter cup of shredded parmesan cheese and baked it all in the oven for about an hour.
Fenrirwulf saw me put the squash in and kind of made a face, but I carried through and put it in anyway.
Today, at lunch, I ate the pasta for the first time. As far as I could tell, the squash had broken down and become lost in all the pasta. I couldn't really taste the squash at all, either, but I knew it was in there. I think that if he had not seen me put it in the sauce pot, Fenrirwulf would have never known the squash was there.
Now I wonder what else I can make and hide some veggies in so that we are getting a more diverse diet. It may be worth looking through both The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals and Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food .
For the first 8 years of my life, I lived on my paternal grandparents' farm and they raised all kinds of vegetables. Okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, collards, field peas, green beans and yellow squash to name a few. While there were always a few vegetables I didn't like, my parents were both diligent about making sure we at least tasted our vegetables to make sure we didn't like them (and to at least get some nutrition from the bit we did eat). So, I have never had a huge problem eating most vegetables and I'm finding, as an adult, my tastes are changing and I like more of the vegetables that I hated as a kid.
Fenrirwulf, however, is a different story altogether. As far as eating the vegetables is concerned, he likes what he likes and that's what he wants to eat. His parents didn't really force him to eat things he might not like, like mine did. Sometimes this makes it hard to plan a nutritious meal because there are things he doesn't like or doesn't want to try (like okra).
So, what's a girl to do? My answer to that is to hide the veggies in whatever you are cooking.
Last night, I made what we normally call Pasta Bake for our lunches this week. We combine spaghetti sauce, ground beef and rotini and top it with cheddar cheese and bake it in the oven. When I do things with commercially canned spaghetti sauce, I like to add things to it to make it seem more homemade. So, to one can of Hunt's spaghetti sauce, I added 1 pound of browned ground beef (browned in olive oil), an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 large carrots and some spices (salt, pepper and italian seasoning). I looked through our freezers and our cabinets to see what other veggies we could find (to both stretch out the pasta for more meals and also add some more nutrients to our diet). In one of the freezers, I found a half bag of yellow squash (which is a veggie we both like but is not something we would normally put in spaghetti). So, I took it out, defrosted it, diced it and added it to the sauce. I dumped the sauce into a baking dish and added about a pound and a half of macaroni (I did not pre-cook the macaroni), a cup of part-skim mozzarella cheese and a quarter cup of shredded parmesan cheese and baked it all in the oven for about an hour.
Fenrirwulf saw me put the squash in and kind of made a face, but I carried through and put it in anyway.
Today, at lunch, I ate the pasta for the first time. As far as I could tell, the squash had broken down and become lost in all the pasta. I couldn't really taste the squash at all, either, but I knew it was in there. I think that if he had not seen me put it in the sauce pot, Fenrirwulf would have never known the squash was there.
Now I wonder what else I can make and hide some veggies in so that we are getting a more diverse diet. It may be worth looking through both The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals and Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food .
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Menu for January 17 - January 30, 2008
01/16/08 is our grocery day for this paycheck. Here is our menu for this period:
01/17/08
01/20/08
01/17/08
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Pasta Bake
- Dinner
- Salmon Cakes with Homemade Tartar Sauce, Au Gratin Potatoes, Salad
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Pasta Bake
- Dinner
- Salmon Cakes with Homemade Tartar Sauce, Au Gratin Potatoes, Salad
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Leftovers
- Dinner
- Turkey, Dressing, Green Beans
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
01/20/08
- Breakfast
- Eggs, Bacon, Biscuits
- Lunch
- Leftovers
- Dinner
- Turkey, Dressing, Green Beans
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Spaghetti and Meatsauce
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Beanie Weenies (Made with homemade baked beans)
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Spaghetti and Meatsauce
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Pot Roast
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Pot Roast with Vegetables
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Sausage, Eggs, Biscuits
- Lunch
- Leftovers
- Dinner
- Fried Chicken, Hashbrown Casserole, Green Beans
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Bacon, Eggs, Grits
- Lunch
- Leftovers
- Dinner
- Fried Chicken, Hashbrown Casserole, Green Beans
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Hamburger Steak and Rice
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Blackened Chicken Salad
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
- Breakfast
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal
- Lunch
- Chicken Noodle Soup/Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
- Dinner
- Blackened Chicken Salad
- Snacks
- Apple Wheat Muffins, Homemade Yogurt, Brownies, Granola
Monday, January 14, 2008
Adventures in Bread Baking
So for some reason, I decided I wanted to bake some homemade bread on Sunday, from scratch, even went as far as to forgo the bread machine. The bread machine is fine when you just need to dump some ingredients and forget about them, but once you slice it, half the slices are mangled due to the mixing blade. Also the shape leaves something to be desired, the slices are two big to use two slices for a normal sized sandwich, but yet too small to cut in half for a serviceable one. Anyway, me not being a baker, I was a little surprised out how well it turned out. I followed the instructions at http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Bread/BREAD_whole_wheat.htm and they were pretty clear cut and accurate. There were a few snags. First, due to Chandler being hot-natured and me being a cheap bastard, we keep the thermostat at a balmy 63 degrees. Not very friendly to the beasties that make bread rise. It only rose about half of what I the pics on the website suggested it should. Also, the taste is rather flat, Chandler says it needs salt and sugar and I agree. She thinks she can correct it, but only time will tell. Oh yeah, also, 3 out of the 4 loaves stuck to the pans. I brushed them with oil as suggested, but either that doesn't work or I misunderstood. The one non-stick pan I used (yes, Teflon is the spawn of Satan) made a pretty nice loaf if somewhat small. Despite all these minor imperfections, I am quite happy with how it turned out. Fankhauser's instructions on how to shape the loaves were perfect, each one came out with a nice, smooth top. The recipe as a whole came together quickly and easily, which is surprising due to my past record with baking. I am not a bad cook, I am just bad at following recipes. I preform a more freeform atmosphere where I can substitute at my whim. A big pot of chili is pretty forgiving, (I have yet to formulate a true recipe for it), but baking not so much. I ripped the bottom third off of one loaf trying to get it out of the pan. I think that loaf's destination may be croutons, something else I want to try at home. The other two that stuck are salvageable, but given that dull, lack-of-salt taste, they may end up also as croutons, or bread crumbs, or the ever-noble garlic toast.
I am actually eagerly awaiting my second go at this whole wheat bread recipe. All I am waiting on is an excuse to use up the first four loaves, and a recipe correction from Chandler. Other than her adding salt and sugar (that being in the form of honey and/or molasses) we will let the dough rise in the oven on its lowest setting next time. I will also be more careful about greasing up the pan, but whether I will resort to Baker's Joy or the old standby of Crisco, I think I will leave the decision to the heat of the moment.
I am actually eagerly awaiting my second go at this whole wheat bread recipe. All I am waiting on is an excuse to use up the first four loaves, and a recipe correction from Chandler. Other than her adding salt and sugar (that being in the form of honey and/or molasses) we will let the dough rise in the oven on its lowest setting next time. I will also be more careful about greasing up the pan, but whether I will resort to Baker's Joy or the old standby of Crisco, I think I will leave the decision to the heat of the moment.
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