Muffin Flip

My son had a random day off from school today. I was wondering what we could do for some fun when I spied some muffin mix in the pantry, Fiber One's Apple Cinnamon. Aha!

I love when Josh helps me cook. Of course, he thinks he can do all of it by himself and gets irritated when I try to help... but I figure he's learning and not watching TV and so what if the food comes out a little funny? Today he did a really good job and muffins were beautiful.

Now just a note: I hate trying to transfer baked goods to cooling racks. The tops of muffins and cupcakes get smooshed if you hold the pan & rack together and if you don't, one inevitably rolls away. Likewise cakes, breads and cookies break.

Today I had gotten 2 muffin pans out but ended up only using one. When I pulled out our muffins and saw the extra pan, I had an idea. I put the empty pan on top of the one with the muffins, held them together and flipped! Not one single lost, broken or smooshed muffin!

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our fresh mostly homemade muffins!! :D

Know Your Family

I posted earlier that I finally got a chance to go through my pantry and cabinets to clean out and organize.  Today my task is the freezer and refrigerator.  Once that is done, I can start this whole cooking ahead and freezing plan.  In the meantime, I have been looking at recipes, etc to get some ideas of what I want to do.

There are so many great recipes for making things cheaper and healthier at home!  However, I have run into two dilemmas: 1. Many of the ideas are for large families, so we would end up wasting or getting really tired of that food, and 2. I have two VERY picky eaters on my hands.

Luckily, most recipes can easily be halved so that I don't end up with an entire freezer full of one dish.  Also, I talked to the managers at my local grocery stores and both Bi-Lo and Food Lion will discount each item rather than making you buy the entire 10 to get the 10 items for $10 price, etc.  Harris Teeter on the other hand requires that you get the full number advertised to get that price.

One thing I have noticed about my picky eaters is that they each have their own limits.  For both, I can sneak in some items they don't really like if it's chopped up small and mixed in with stuff they do like.  I have discovered that one of my picky eaters really doesn't like to eat a particular dish more than two times in a row- even if it's something he likes.  Knowing that can help me decide how much of a dish to put in the refrigerator and how much in the freezer as well as how much time to leave in between similar dishes.

In short, know your family.  Know their likes, their dislikes, and their limits.  You can experiment to discover these.  I experiment with my son a lot since what he decides he likes can change at any moment.  Then I can use this knowledge to help plan my buying, cooking and storing so that we can make the best use of our resources.

Purging

We often hear the expression "binging and purging".  Because we binge, or overload, we end up with more than we can use. All that extra must then be purged, or cleared out, for us to get back to a balanced state.  I have spent this week purging my kitchen.  I was hoping to get done in one day, but it took me two days just to go through the pantry and cabinets!  I tossed everything that had expired, donated everything that would expire soon that I wasn't absolutely positive I'd use in time and inventoried and organized everything that was left.

I put the breakfast and snack foods that Josh can get by himself on a low shelf in the pantry.  The rest I grouped by spices, baking, mixes, pasta & rice, sauces, canned, etc.  Now I will easily be able to find things when I'm cooking or looking to see what I have as I plan my menu and shopping trip for the week.

I made several discoveries during this process.  When doing a task like this, we need to think about the "why" behind the "what".  Why did I have so many expired items?  Why hadn't they been used?  By looking at what I had that had expired, I realized that: 1. I had made plans to do a lot of baking at one point, bought all the stuff and then got distracted/busy and didn't do it, so I had a lot of extracts and things like that, 2. When I tried a new recipe, I would get a whole container of the ingredient and then not make the recipe again (at least not often enough to use all of that ingredient), 3. I'm a sucker for a good sale and had "stocked up" on items because they were a good deal rather than because I knew I would use them, 4. As with the "baking plan", I had gotten busy and bought "convenience food" rather than cooking at home, leaving many of my seasonings and other ingredients to expire.

So how do these revelations affect my future cooking and purchasing plans?  The main change that I need to make is better planning.  Going forward, I will check to see what ingredients I already have as I plan what to cook for the week.  Then I have to stick to that plan and not let my other "to do" items overtake my schedule.  The same goes for purchasing.  My goal is to purchase items on sale or with coupons, but I need to make sure they will be products I will actually use.  Otherwise, they'll just be a part of my next purge.

We can apply these same lessons to the other parts of the house.  Make sure that everything you have is something you will actually use.  If it's not, give it to someone who WILL use it.  When you find a good sale, only invest in the items you are sure you will use, otherwise it is just a waste of money no matter how cheap it is.  Once you have gone through what you have, keeping everything organized so that you can find it all will help you quickly see what you have and what you need.  That will help keep you from buying duplicates of things you already have.

Lasagna Recipe

Here is the recipe I used this week.  Everyone loved it- even Josh!  The original recipe is by Ann Hodgman and is on the Wonder Time website.  If you are planning to use this recipe for freezing, you can prepare the individual parts ahead (meat, sauce, veggies)or the entire thing.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef or ground turkey (or cooked chicken, Italian sausage, seafood, andouille, etc.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
26 to 28 ounces (about 3 cups) pasta sauce
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons red wine (optional)
1 cup chicken stock
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons white wine (optional)
12 ounces (3 cups) freshly grated mozzarella
6 to 8 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 cups cooked, well-drained broccoli, spinach, peas, or other vegetables (optional)
1 cup (about 4 ounces) freshly grated parmesan

1.  Heat oven to 400. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Thoroughly cook the ground beef, garlic, and herbs in a large skillet, stirring frequently and breaking up the meat. Stir in pasta sauce and bring to a simmer for about 2 minutes. Season to taste and add the red wine, if using. Set aside.
2.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring chicken stock to a boil. Add cream cheese, turn heat to low, and whisk until smooth, about 6 minutes. Season to taste and add the white wine, if using.
3.  Spoon half the meat sauce into the pan as evenly as possible. Sprinkle 1 cup grated mozzarella over the meat mixture. Top with 3 or 4 lasagna noodles. If using vegetables, toss them evenly over the noodles.
Pour the cream-cheese sauce over the noodles and cover with another cup of grated mozzarella. Arrange 3 or 4 lasagna noodles over the cheese, then spoon remaining meat mixture over noodles as evenly as possible. Top with the rest of the mozzarella and the grated parmesan.
4.  Bake until brown and bubbling, 35 to 45 minutes. (You'll need the longer cooking time if you have made and chilled the lasagna in advance.) Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes or it will be too gloppy to cut well. That would drive you crazy this late in the game.

Lasagna Success!

Originally posted December 14, 2010 on Time to be Mom.

I'm so excited!  Tonight was my first attempt at homemade lasagna.  I have been wanting to try to make it forever.  It seems to be a staple for a lot of people who like to make food ahead- you can cook the meat and veggies ahead or the whole thing.  I was a little nervous about how difficult it would be and the results.  I found a recipe (thanks to the  Life as MOM website) that was not only fairly easy, but includes TWO cups of vegetables!!  The lasagna recipe I used was written by Ann Hodgman and can be found at the Wonder Time website.

It took a little longer to make than I was hoping but I think that, with some practice, I should be able to put it together in under half an hour.  You can also adjust the recipe for which type of meat you want in it (or none at all) and which vegetables you use.  I used whole wheat lasagna noodles and spinach, mushrooms and onions as my vegetables.  Even Josh ate it (except some of the mushrooms- I'll chop them up smaller next time)!

Of course I forgot to take pictures until I had already served out our dinner, but you can still see some of the layering and the browned cheese on top.  A note: I went out to feed the horses while it was baking and that took a little longer than usual due to the cold.  When I came back in, the timer was going off (I don't know for how long), so my cheese is a little more browned than it should be.  Luckily it wasn't "burned" and was just delicious!  I'll definitely be adding this to my favorites list!

Freezer Cooking

Originally posted December 4, 2010 on Time to be Mom.

One of the things I had planned on doing in order to make sure we are being responsible with our money is to go through my freezer, pantry and cupboards to take inventory and make my meal plans to use up as much as possible, rather than buying new stuff and allowing what we already have to expire.  Anything that's close to it's expiration date already will be taken to a local food pantry where I know it will be used.

I have been looking around online at blogs and websites geared toward parenting, organization and saving money.  Several of them have mentioned "freezer cooking".  FishMama at www.lifeasmom.com uses this method to cook most of her dinners for an ENTIRE MONTH over a week(end)!  Sounds good to me!

You start out by taking inventory of what you have, then use that list to come up with ideas of what you could make with those foods.  Check your local sales circulars and coupons as you are brainstorming for maximum savings.  Then, when you go to the store, you are only buying the missing items, rather than the whole recipe's worth of ingredients.

When you get home, organize your supplies by dish and get cooking!  Not everything has to be a complete dish.  FishMama also freezes parts of meals that are better when fresh.  She has recipes for pizza dough, which can be frozen in balls, then baked fresh and shredded chicken, which she marinates, cooks and shreds, then freezes to add to fresh veggies later. 

Once the cooking is done, divide dishes into single dinner portions and freeze.  All you have to do after that is take out the meal you want to eat the night before so it has time to thaw out before you need it.  Add a side of fresh veggies and you have a quick and healthy meal even on a busy night.

This weekend, we will be doing some holiday preparations like getting our tree (yay!), but I'm hoping to get started on this as well. I'll let you know how it goes.