Cook Smart: Prep Once Cook Twice - using your freezer to advantage.

In the interest of more GRACEful living in 2016 I will be bringing you a series of posts which share some of my CookSmart strategies which make it easier to get home cooked meals on the table on a regular basis.

It's almost as easy to prep 2 meals in a marinade as it is to prep one. Tonight I'm making Five Spice Coconut Chicken for dinner, but I purchased double ingredients and I prepared a second batch at the same time as the first. An added benefit of this method is that before the meat freezes, then again as it defrosts it is also marinating so you get very flavorful results.

Label 2 one gallon freezer bags.

Add marinade ingredients to each bag, smoosh the bags to mix, then add chicken to each bag.

Turn the bag over on itself and press out any excess air, then seal.  I place one in a shallow container in my refrigerator, and the second I spread out flat & freeze for a future meal.
I find that things defrost more quickly when they're frozen flat this way, because they are thinner. I also measured my 9x13 baking dish and found that it's max capacity is 1 liquid gallon. So Anything I can freeze in a one gallon bag, ought to fit into a 9x13 casserole dish for baking, this opens up all kinds of possibilities for freezer meals.

Also See: The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority
Preparing Casseroles for the Freezer
Recipes which work well with this method:
No Leftovers Fice-Spice Chicken
Easy Picnic Chicken

The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority

"Everybody wants to get out to the gym, and that's a good thing too, but if we took as much time in our day to plan our meals and prepare them and maybe bring along a healthy food supply for the day. Then we wouldn't be at the mercy of the grab and go and whatever's out there and it would be so good for our bodies as a whole and we could probably get, (again I'm biased, exercise is great but being a clinical nutritionalist and knowing the outcomes that I have seen over the years) more mileage out of paying better attention to our diet every day."

The above quote is an excerpt from an interview with
Geri Brewster RD MPH CDN, a registered dietitian-nutritionist
from from the Autism Intensive Summit (January 10-18 2016)
I'm getting so much out of this informative online event!
You can register for this free limited time event at the link below.

http://theautismintensive.com/

Meal Planning On The Fragrant Hand

Menu Plan week of July 20

My son is having issues with his appetite so this week's menu plan is made up of some of his favorite things to eat.

• Monday - Eat Out
• Tuesday - Crispy Crumb Chicken
  with Lemon Thyme Dijon - making just the sauce from the recipe
  & Rice
• Wednesday - Five Spice Chicken
  with Green Pea Salad
• Thursday - Pumpkin Pasta
• Friday - Pumpkin Pasta Leftovers 

Green Pea salad will be a side with dinner on Wednesday & will be eaten with lunches for the rest of the week. I will make extra hard boiled eggs when I prepare the salad which will be used in Egg Salad Sandwiches for Thursday's lunch.

Watch my Instagram for photos of this week's food & activities http://instagram.com/sparrowapril
Instagram Photos of this week's recipes from the past can be seen below.

Make-Ahead Migas Breakfast Casserole

Now that Ethan is in high school the bus picks him up before the sun. In the interest of smoother running mornings I've been trying to utilize a lot of breakfast casseroles that can be baked Sunday night & re-heated throughout the week.

I wanted to come up with a casserole take on our favorite variety of migas inspired scrambled eggs. I knew I would need to solve the dry eggs issue in a casserole that was intended to be reheated in the microwave each morning. I remembered that my Aunt Virginia (a caterer) once told me the key to keeping eggs from drying out on a buffet was cream cheese. I've now made this casserole twice & it seems to be the current favorite.

Please be advised if you use a lower fat milk you may have issues with the casserole getting watery on you. The half & half is there in order to create an emulsion. For an explanation of why achieving emulsion is important in egg dishes please see Perfect Scrambled Eggs Made Easy.

For serving I cut a square, re-heat it in the microwave, then top it with taco sauce & sour cream.

Make Ahead Migas Breakfast Casserole

Chunky Filling Items
10 corn tortillas cut into pieces & fried
Ham I like to use a lot
1 onion, chopped fine
1 green bell pepper, chopped fine
1 can ortega chilis
2 cups of shredded cheese, I like cheddar, jack or a combination of the two

Egg Mixture
1 8 oz package cream cheese softened
8 eggs added 1 at a time
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups half & half or whipping cream
2 green onions (optional)
a handful of fresh cilantro (optional)

Remove cream cheese from refrigerator so that it can begin to soften.

Cut 10 corn tortillas into strips. Fry the strips in batches, in oil for about 2 minutes flipping them over half way through (they'll fry best if you wait to fry until your oil is between 350 and 375 degrees fahrenheit.) Drain fried tortilla strips on paper towels. To skip this step you could substitute tortilla chips but they will be much saltier, and I suspect greasier and containing more preservatives. Or you could use un-fried tortillas, but they will soften & disintegrate in the casserole giving a very different texture.

For breakfast ham I have used several different types depending on what was available at my market at the time. Sometimes I can find small sliced boneless hams that have been shrink wrapped, these are very easy to work with. Last night I had a ready-to-eat picnic ham, it was difficult to work with because of the fat cap & trimming around the bone. I wouldn't go that route again. Sometimes ham steaks are available in my meat department they are also quite easy to work with. Failing the above I get ham from the service deli. I have them slice it on the thickest setting & I get 2-3 slices depending on the size of the ham. The ham from the deli is the easiest option, but depending on the season other hams may be a better price. 

Place ham slices in a large skillet and heat them up, allowing them to brown a little bit on each side. Browning the ham seems to activate the flavors of the ham. Try an experiment & eat a piece of ham before browning, then eat a piece that has been browned. HUGE flavor difference! 
Remove the ham to a cutting board, stack & cut into bite-size pieces.


Add a bit of olive oil or butter to the skillet you used for the ham & saute the onion & bell pepper until soft. I like to use a bamboo paddle or wooden spoon and scrape up the brown left in the bottom of the pan from the ham. Ham flavored veggies is a good thing. When the veggies are soft, mix in 1 small can of mild Ortega chiles. I didn't add chiles to my 1st casserole & I felt it really needed this specific flavor.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. You can mix all the chunky filling ingredients with the cheese in a bowl & dump into the casserole dish. Or save yourself the washing of a bowl & add each ingredient to the casserole dish as you prep them, then take a pair of tongs & mix them right in the casserole dish.

Now for the egg mixture. You need to incorporate the cream cheese throughout the eggs, you want to form an emulsion, mix them evenly, not chunks or bits. There are 2 ways to accomplish this.
1) Cream the cheese in a mixer & when it is soft add the eggs 1 at a time mixing until creamed into the cheese (1st photo is after all eggs are added), then add salt, and slowly pour in the half & half or cream while the mixer is running.
OR

2) If you have a really good blender like a Blendtec or a Vitamix, you can mix up everything in your blender.
I have made this casserole both ways & both work.
Because I DO have a blendtec blender and I know it will blend evenly I also add 2 green onions cut in half to the blender jar. They gave great flavor. Last night I used the creaming mixture method but I wanted to incorporate some leftover cilantro I had in the fridge so I blended my half & half with the cilantro before adding it to the egg mixture. The cilantro was very subtle but if you have some handy, go ahead & add it.

Pour the egg mixture over the chunky filling ingredients in the casserole dish. I take a pair of tongs & lift up bits of the filling from the bottom in order to allow the egg mixture to flow in and around the ingredients so that I don't end up with chunky stuff on the bottom & eggs on the top.

You could top the casserole with additional 1/2 cup of cheese if desired I don't find it necessary.

Cover with foil Bake in a preheated 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 1hour 10 min. Remove foil & continue baking for 10 more minutes.

If serving hot allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting & serving. Or allow to cool, cover with foil & store in the refrigerator for future use.

Time Saving Pasta Tip

Here's a great time-saving tip for pasta for salads & packed lunches. A full pound of pasta makes far too much pasta salad for my family of three, but when I cook the pasta I cook the entire pound. I pour the pasta into a colander and rinse with cold water until the pasta is room temp then I make half of the pasta into salad. The second half I store in a zip-lock bag in the refrigerator. The pasta keeps in the fridge this way for a week or more. This enables me to make a quick pasta salad, a different flavor if desired, later in the week or the following weekend.

I've also found having cooked pasta in the fridge terribly handy for packed lunches. You can quickly mix up a single serving of pasta with salad dressing, or some frozen veggies and diced cold cuts, or make a quick homemade mac & cheese by whipping up a cream sauce in a skillet with a bit of cream and shredded cheese.

Pasta Mix-in Ideas - Mix and match:
salad dressing (creamy or vinegar based)
shredded (or cubed) cheese (consider Parmesan)
diced or finely sliced cold cuts (salami & ham are favorites)
frozen/canned corn
frozen green peas
grated carrots
snap peas
halved grape tomtoes
fresh herbs such as basil
cubed avocado
cheese sauce

Meal Plan Monday

This week I've planned meals for specific days as dictated by use-by dates of the meat I purchased & which nights I have very little cooking time. Tuesday I will pre-cook the taco items that need cooking & heat them up when we return home from appointments.
 
Five Spice Chicken recipe

I'm on Menu Plan Monday at http://orgjunkie.com/blog

More Meal Planning - WorkFlowy & Recipe Listing

Sometimes I try a new recipe & really like it, then after time passes, I forget which magazine, cookbook or website the recipe is in.  So now when I decide to add a recipe to my regular repertoire I add the name & source on my workflowy recipe listing.

Here's how it looks in the collapsed list
Here's how it looks when I open the Recipe bullet on it's own page.

Menu Plan Monday & My Meal Planning Process

I have a new meal planning process that I thought I would share.

I don't assign meals to specific days of the week. I choose a few meals that I'll make during the week, this leaves me wiggle room. Since my husband seldom eats dinner at home, I end up with leftovers & plan fewer meals. This way I'm planning for what is likely to happen & I don't end up having to toss food that's past it's expiration date.

I've recently begun using the website http://www.workflowy.com for organization. I've integrated it into my meal planning.

This week I began with leftover meat in  my fridge (sale meat for which I had no specific plan when I bought it.)  I listed the meat including the sell by or use by date so that I could easily remember what I had without having to go look in the meat bin of my refrigerator. I also have a link to my grocery list so that I can get there quickly. I mark each meal as completed as I make it (I liked to see items crossed off the list.) The next week when I make a new plan, I delete them. With Workflowy you can choose if you want to display or hide completed items.



This week I have leftover turkey sausage & chicken breasts so I set about meal planning based on those items.  I've added the recipes I will make with each dish & where to find them.

******(Update I no longer use this app or website, it stopped working, it wouldn't sync and started saying certain items like onions were already on my list and simply would not add them!)********
While I was building my meal plan I also have a tab open at http://www.groceryiq.com - This the grocery/shopping list app that I use on my phone. I love it because it's available for Android, iPhone (& iPad), Blackberry & as a website. I have it on my phone (android), my iPad & iPod Touch, and I've shared my list with my husband who has the app on his Blackberry. I can add to my grocery list no matter what device I have in my hand when I think of items to add, and it will be synced to all my devices. I can also send my list to an email address or print it from the website. Grocery IQ has a barcode scanner, so when I run out of a pantry staple I scan the empty box using my phone camera - and it adds that item to my grocery list. I've also found it's handy if my husband goes to the store because he may not know which type of Ritz crackers I buy, but if I've scanned the item it lists specifics and usually shows a picture.


So I've added to my grocery list & will take my phone with me to the market when I go shopping. I used to use a paper list, but I was often losing it, or forgetting to take it with me, thinking of items to add to it while I was at the doctor's office, or leaving it sitting on the seat in the car, in the parking lot of the supermarket. Keeping my grocery list on my phone has been a great solution for me.

This week I chose 1 cookbook - The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond, and a stack of 3 magazines. I knew what my meats were so I looked through the indexes (I love magazines with a recipe index in the back!) for recipes that used those items. When I wasn't finding anything for boneless skinless chicken breasts that tickled my fancy & went well with the potatoes I wanted to make, I searched for chicken recipes on http://www.cookscountry.com a site with which I have a paid membership. The quality of the recipes on this site make it worthwhile (to me) to pay a membership to have access to their full history of recipes (I believe that access to recipes from the current season of their program is free.)  I don't like to waste my time with recipes that turn out to be no good and I find that sites with user submitted recipes have a large percentage of those. I guess I'm picky.

I'm on Menu Plan Monday at http://orgjunkie.com/blog

Menu Plan Monday

My husband was in an accident with my van last week (he's OK, the van is in the shop.) Between that & a sick child I was housebound for all but one day last week. So I was thrilled to pieces to have his car, today, to be able to get out and do some long overdue marketing, thus the menu planning.

This weekend I got a new cookbook Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - so most of my recipes are from the new book this week. Review of cookbook & verdict on recipes Here.
Beef & Onion Pie recipe Here

Meal Planning: Kitchen Message Board

You might not have trouble with this, but I try so many new recipes & because I only choose a selection of meals for the week, rather than assign them to specific nights... sometimes, well OFTEN, I forget to make dishes I have purchased ingredients for. I end up using the vegetables & the meat in some meal, but sometimes I forget what recipe it was that called for the red curry paste I bought at the specialty market, or which magazine the recipe appeared in.

I am a cook of mood, and I have learned that I need to allow for this in my meal planning, or I will end up having food go to waste. I also have a love-hate relationship with my local market, I love the specialty market 20 min. from my house and I hate the one around the corner that has spoiled produce, sells items past their sell-by date, and is infrequently restocked. Almost every time I go to the store I end up not being able to get all the ingredients I need at one market (seriously my local market was out of chocolate chips for 2 weeks & I once had to go to a 2nd market just to get boneless chicken breasts - it is a TERRIBLE store, you never know what basic staples they will be out of.)

As a result of this meal planning for me has had to become even MORE flexible. I have had a list of 3 meals & not been able to get all the ingredients for a single recipe. If I am shopping for that night, I may have to add a meal or change my plan on the fly (yeah life would be so much easier if there was a decent market in my neighborhood!)

So perhaps now you begin to see my difficulty with remembering what I am supposed to make each week. I've begun to keep the info as a memo in my phone... I also note the magazine, cookbook & page number if it is not something I make all the time... but I've recently added another step. I have a dry erase board in my kitchen, I've started listing the meals on that. It helps me by being always in view and a it helps my family to know what's on tap for the week. For example if my husband will be working late one night he might request that I not make one of his favorites on that particular night. My son likes to look at it so he can anticipate upcoming dinners, he doesn't love surprises. I don't erase the board until it is full. I put a line thru each dish as I make it. And unintentional benefit of this is that it serves as a visual reminder to my husband about just how many great meals I make & what a variety of things we eat. He is used to eating this way every day and has a tendency to take meals for granted. This helps with that a lot, and it also helps ME feel good to see, Wow I did all that this week. That is the thing about cooking... if you've done it well there is no evidence lying around at the end of the week to testify you did it. It reminds me that even if I did nothing but dinner, I have still accomplished a lot by the end of the week.

Symbol Key:
Items with a line thru are dishes I have made.
Items with a + mean some ingredients are outstanding... a trip to the market is required for an item or two. This is mostly due to the aforementioned supermarket issue... but also for freshness. For example: cilantro doesn't keep long, and when I'm going to make shrimp I buy it the same day I cook it.
An F indicates a meal in the freezer that needs to be defrosted, this is a great way to remember to USE up those frozen casseroles & lasagnas!
(Message Board is from Southern Living at Home)

More About Meal Planning on The Fragrant Hand

Recipe Systems - How I handle Magazines & Cookbooks

I love cooking magazines! At present my favorites are EVERYDAY with RACHAEL RAY and Cook's Illustrated.

In the past I have had trouble remembering to try the recipes that looked good in magazines. By the time I thumb thru them and find a recipe to make, my window of grocery shopping opportunity is over. After having this happen repeatedly I've devised a method for working with cooking magazines.

When I am ready to do my first reading of the magazine I sit down at the table with my magazine, a lined post-it tablet, a pen & a cup of tea. As I go thru the magazine I note recipes that I think I might like to try in the future. I write one on each line. I include Page Number then the name of the recipe.

When I have gone thru the magazine I stick the list to the front cover of the magazine, then when I am doing my menu planning & grocery list I can quickly find recipes I'm interested in, without having to read the whole magazine. As I try the recipes I star or highlight recipes I like, and mark out the line of any recipe I didn't like so I don't forget and make it again.

My method for cookbooks is similar except that I use a regular tablet instead of post-it style and I tuck the paper into the pages of the cookbook. I update the list with new recipes because I find new things appeal to me on later readings (and I seldom make my way thru the whole book in one sitting.) After I have made a recipe I star or highlight recipes on the list & in the cookbook index. I also write comments in the book next to the recipe such as "Great, Ethan love this one", "This is nice with Asparagus" or "Ick, Never Again!" When I mark in the book I use my scrapbooking journaling pens, I learned my lesson on this one as I have had ink bleed over the years some of my cookbooks when using regular pens. To my way of thinking, a well marked Cookbook is a well-loved cookbook.

How do you do it... I'd love to hear your methods!

Meal Planning

I've written it on my kitchen message board & done the grocery shopping
This week I'm planning to make (in no particular order)
Chicken Georgia
Mughlai Chicken and Rice for a Curry Banquet
Zucchini Soup
Risotto

I wonder if I will stay on my plan... I cook a lot by mood & whim.

11/02/09 Update: I've made the zucchini soup & last night I made Chicken Georgia and the Risotto to go with it. I have 3 chicken breasts leftover so tonight I'm planning to have those with asparagus & make another batch of risotto, beuase it was heavnly. Holding off on the Mughali Chicken as Ethan and I have colds & I try to stay away from large amounts of dairy when fighting a cold.

I'm In the Kitchen: Rolling with the Punches

"Summertime and the living is eaaasy." I'm trying to get back into the everyday routine of life and this week I did my regular meal planning & grocery list, instead of the kind of slap-dash improvisation I've been doing.

Ya know I am so frustrated with my local supermarket, they are always out of stuff and I have to go to at least 2 markets to get everything on my list. Last week they were out of garlic. How can I cook without garlic?! Today they were out of Pesto (I found an expensive import to buy but I wanted to buy the refrigerated one I normally get), the broccoli was black on top, not gonna eat that! The yogurt case was half empty (looked like they had a mishap) and there was no fresh basil anywhere to be found, not even the little blister packs.

So it's summer, I'll roll with the punches & adapt, I'll just have to hit another market tomorrow and switch up the batting order of meals I have planned for the week. Courtney, creamy pasta is on the menu again this week so that I can show you how to re-heat it the next day :D (Pasta is waiting on that fresh basil I couldn't get.)

So tonight I'm making Pesto Chicken Grill Packets out of the June/July 2009 issue of Rachael Ray's Magazine. It was easy to put together and goes on the grill in little foil pouches. Unfortunately when I went to put them on the grill, the flame went out, I was out of propane. So I'll have to bake them in the oven. Not what I would have planned, but oh well.
We have about 20 more minutes of waiting before I can give my verdict. Pesto Chicken Grill Packets Recipe Here.

Menu Planning
I don't menu plan in the conventional way. I don't lay out what we're going to eat on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... I think about our schedule for the week and what we have going on, then I just select 3 or 4 recipes that I plan to make at some point in the week. I find that a dinner for every night of the week is far too much food for my family of 3. Generally I cook one night and we eat leftovers the following night. I like this, it means I only have to wash pots and pans every other night. Cooking I don't mind, I go into my kitchen, buzz around singing, I go into a happy place in my mind, and then there is delicious food to eat. Dish washing is the opposite of this zen-like experience, and it cuts into family time.

My vague menu planning allows me a certain amount of spontaneity in my cooking as well. Some nights I am just "in the mood" for certain kinds of food. I can switch to one of the other recipes in order to accommodate this, or sometimes I just make something up with ingredients I have that satisfies the craving (I nearly made asparagus risotto, tonight, except that I could already taste the salty tang of the pesto in tonight's new recipe.) I did end up making a simple rice with onions and garlic to go along with the chicken and veggies.

Preparing Casseroles for the Freezer

Casseroles are one of those things that it is just as easy to make 2 as 1. So I like to make a double batch and fix one casserole for that night, and put a second into the freezer. It's a great way to plan ahead for a busy day. There was a time I had so many casseroles in my freezer that sometimes didn't have a pan to bake a cake in (because they were all in the freezer with casseroles frozen in them.) So here is a handy solution to that problem.

Last night I multiplied the recipe by 1 1/2 so that I would have enough for 2 generous 9"x9" casseroles. I have a small family and a husband who travels a lot, so the 9x9 size works better for us than a standard 9"x13" casserole.

Baking dishes: Be sure your baking dish is one that can go safely from the freezer to the oven. Some materials will shatter from thermal shock if they go from being very cold into a hot oven. For this reason I use Pyrex when I freeze casseroles.

Prepare your casserole filling.

Line the baking dish for the casserole you want to freeze with 2 layers of Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil. You need 2 layers so you will be sure to be able to get the casserole out of the pan. The first layer only needs to be as large as the pan and actually you can use plastic wrap, or parchment paper, or even wax paper for this layer. The second layer needs to be foil and you want to leave enough extra that you will be able to fold the ends over on top to seal up the casserole in the foil.

Fill your lined dish with the filling, fold the foil over the top and place in the freezer until frozen solid.

When your casserole is frozen thru, remove the frozen casserole from the dish - if you used a layer of parchment, wax paper, or plastic wrap or anything that is not oven safe - remove and discard that layer. You now have a frozen casserole that can be wrapped and returned to the freezer - while you are free to use the pan for other things.

A 9"x9" casserole will fit into a gallon size freezer bag, I like to label the freezer bag with the contents, the date, and any baking instructions. A Sharpie marker will not bleed in the freezer. If your casserole is too large to fit into a freezer bag - wrap it tightly with more foil or plastic wrap.

When it is time to prepare the casserole, remove it from the freezer bag. Place the foil-lined casserole back into the original dish and place it in the refrigerator to defrost for at least 24 hours, then top and bake. You may need to adjust your baking time a little longer depending on how cold it was when it went into the oven. I often let the casserole sit out on the counter for 20-40 minutes in order to take the chill off before baking.

A note about toppings.... Crispy toppings should be left off the casserole before freezing, and added just before baking. Cheese also does not freeze well. A good rule of thumb is, if the cheese is mixed into the casserole filling it will do fine, but if a casserole calls for cheese on the top, leave it off before freezing and add fresh cheese when you bake the casserole.
Chicken Divan Recipe

I hope you find this helpful!