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More Make Ahead Meals
I found a fun site with lots of make ahead recipes and have tried several and have a long list of new recipes to try. We loved the biscuits, but I made the mistake of blending the butter into too small pieces and letting the biscuits sit too long before baking. It meant the biscuits had a round shape and weren’t flakey but they still had great flavor. I baked them before I froze them and the kids like to grab them out of the freezer to warm up for snacks or breakfast. I changed the recipe slightly by using 100% whole wheat flour and butter instead of shortening.
I tried the baked ziti recipe too and was so sure we’d love it that I quadrupled it. One to eat right away and 3 to freeze. It had great flavor but my kids were not impressed with all the zucchini and refused to eat it. I chopped it small, but not small enough for their taste. I have lots of pictures too. Lesson learned: Test a recipe before quadrupling it.
Homemade Soft Scrub
In the process of remodeling our kitchen, we had to replace a nearly new oven. It was a wall oven and our new layout used a range. We planned to resell the oven on craigslist, but I knew it would need a good cleaning to get a fair price. Unfortuneately, it was covered with baked on grease and carbon residue.
Thankfully there is a homemade softscrub that is non-toxic and chemically formulated to relase grease and dissolve carbon. When the grime is baked on as well as in the example above, a scrubbbing pad makes everything go faster.
1. Mix baking soda and dishsoap into a paste that resembles cake frosting.
2. Spread the mixture onto the trouble spot. Wait a few minutes for the baking soda to react with the carbon and the dishsoap to react with the grease.
3. Use a scrubbing pad to remove the grime. If you have to walk away and it dries out you can lightly mist with water to reactivate the mixture.
As you scrub, the mixture will absorb the grime and turn brown. It will dry and roll up into a ball. You can sweep this up and toss it and wipe with a clean rag to remove the remaining residue.
Notice in the above picture how you can start to see the blue around the glass again. The window is becoming clear too. A lot of elbow grease left to use and it will look barely used.
It’s not scrub free, but it works well. Although it’s safe for hand contact, I found the mixture drying and liked to use gloves with it.
I’ve taken to wiping down my new oven after every use. I don’t want to clean anything this bad again!
Homemade Bread Crumbs
I have several recipes that call for bread crumbs–homemade chicken nuggets, baked onion rings, manicotti, and meatloaf to name a few. When I make my own, I save money, but I also know the breadcrumbs are whole grain.
It’s a double treat, because my family doesn’t enjoy bread heels (unless they are straight from the oven, yum!) Sometimes I buy our bread from the day old bread store. It’s not as good as homemade but it holds together great for sandwiches :). I can snag a loaf of 100% whole grain bread there for less than $1 if I work it right. I immediately pull out the heels and place them on a plate overnight.
The next morning, I put them in my vita-mix dry container. A food processor works just as well. Once they are blended, I slip them in a baggie and label it. It takes less than 5 minutes!
You can do this with homemade bread too. It tends to dry out more quickly than store bought and once it’s no longer tasty, use a few slices for breadcrumbs and make French toast or croutons with the rest :). You can Italian seasoning to the mix for flavored bread crumbs too.
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What’s in Your Chimmichanga?
This week, we made Shredded beef sandwiches from the Slow and Savory Cookbook and had leftovers. A few days later I put on a pot of Slow Cooker Refried beans. I also found some hot poblano pepper turkey sausage ($.75 a package, short date sale) in the freezer that needed to be used. Chimmichangas seemed like the perfect tie up loose leftovers plan.
I thawed a package of burrito size tortillas. Then combined the shredded beef, refried beans and cooked and crumbled sausage in a saucepan on medium high heat. I topped each tortilla with a slap of meat mixture and a sprinkling of cheese and folded it burrito style. Then baked them at 375 for 30 minutes until the shells were crunchy. It had the effect of a fried chimmichanga without the expense and extra calories of a bottle of oil.
We topped ours with ranch dressing, salsa, and fresh cilantro.
Chimmichangas can be stuffed with other things too. Shredded chicken and pork are other traditional fillings. Rice and corn or black beans would add an interesting twist too. If you try it, let me know what you put in yours and how you liked it.
3 Chickens for the Freezer
If I’m going to go through the trouble of roasting a chicken, I decided I might as well roast 3. Hy-Vee had their whole roasters on sale for $.59 a lb a few weeks ago and I snagged 3 and filled my roaster. Once they were cool, I deboned the meat and put some meat in 2 cup portions in the freezer plus 3 frozen 9 x 13 dishes of chicken enchiladas. The plain bagged chicken can be used for chicken salad, chicken soup, burritoes etc. Here’s the Rub recipe I used:
My Mama’s Herb Chicken Rub x 3:
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon savory
3/4 teaspon thyme
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Place chickens breast side up in a greased roasting pan. Mix all spices and rub onto the breasts of the chickens. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 2 hours or until the chickens are browned and tender.
Meal from Frozen Chicken Strips
I just wanted to show you a photo of a meal you can make when you fill your freezer with marinated, grilled chicken strips.
This was torn romain with sliced baby bell peppers. I topped it with the grilled chicken, 2 T of shredded cheese, and a sprinkling of leftover spanish rice. I used salsa for dressing. The whole salad had less than 200 calories but was very filling and tasty.
Carmel Apple Cookies
This soft cookie recipe is a delicious taste of Autumn. I tested this recipe with a spice cake mix (on sale for $.49) , but have a from scratch recipe following that should be great too.
Here’s the original as tested:
1 box spice cake mix
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 stick butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup carmel chips (like the ones you melt for dipping apples)
1 peeled and chopped tart apple
Mix all ingredients well, folding in the chips and apple last. If the dough feels too wet add a little more flour. (This depends on how juicy the apple is.) Drop by rounded spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Cool. Makes 2 1/2 dozen.
From Scratch Recipe: I haven’t tried this version, but it “should” work :).
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup carmel chips
1 peeled and chopped tart apple
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix well. Stir in the salt, baking soda, flour, oats and spices until moistened. Fold in chips and apple. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.
A ruffled apron
Here’s another quick wedding gift idea for embellishing a purchased apron.
I dug through my scraps and cut 3 7.5″ wide strips twice the width of the apron. I hemmed the strips on 4 sides and gathered the top edge.
I top stitched the ruffles in place, so that the ends overlapped 1″. This hid the gathering line on the lower ruffles.
To finish the look, I roll hemmed a 1 1/2 inch wide ruffle and stitched it across the top.
To complete the gift set, I purchased matching dish towels and cut them in half, hemming the cut edgest for a quick set of every day napkins.
Wrapping is half the fun. I tied the napkins together with homemade bakers twine (cotton worsted yarn zigzagged over with red thread. A pintuck foot really helps here.)
