Once a month cooking update
It’s really more like once-a-week cooking around here (maybe twice a week) but it’s cut way back on our eating out and since that was my goal, I’m calling it a success so far.
What’s saved my life this week is learning about dump chicken. If you eat poultry, this is a great way to use up those frozen bags of chicken breasts that go on sale now and then but you can use any chicken pieces with it. You might be able to use tofu, too, but that would be more time consuming and also some people don’t like the texture of frozen tofu (I do but you might not — to each her own). On Sunday I made three dump chicken recipes, two lasagnas (in three pans) and fruit bars for Brett’s breakfast. (I made them with prunes and he loves them, which when you make things with prunes can be a dicey proposition.) And I made two loaves of bread and two calzones. Today I’m making a whole chicken (I use the innards to make broth — 20 hours in the crockpot. 12 cups of broth now freezing in 1 cup servings) and well eat off that tonight. Tomorrow I’ll turn it into two helpings of chicken tetrazzini and make more broth with the carcass. I also keep meaning to try this baked tofu (since my previous attempts haven’t been that impressive) because I think it might make a good snack for Madison. (Noah used to love tofu but recently has given that up.)
My grocery bill isn’t going down BUT our eating out bill has gone way down so we’re saving money. If I bought less organic then I think we’d be saving a lot (good to know if our budget ever changes). We’re also eating better since we’re staying home more and Brett is very very happy. (He loves a home cooked meal.) And I scored this rice cooker at a thrift store last week, which is improving my life a lot. (It was so great because as I was driving to the thrift store I was thinking, “I should ask for a rice cooker this xmas,” and then there was one for five bucks when I arrived! And a nicer one than I expected to get as a present!) The rice cooker is great because you can dump the rice in, it cooks everything a lot faster, it keeps it warm so you can do it ahead of time AND you can cook more than rice. So far I’ve tried it with brown rice, quinoa and steel cut oats. It worked beautifully for all three and I could toss it all in ahead of time then not worry about it. It doesn’t dry anything out, like the crock pot, since it goes to warm when the water has been absorbed. At least I think that’s how it works since it doesn’t seem to time itself.
The hardest thing about this way of cooking is staying on top of things. Keeping it up requires a certain degree or organization and commitment. Also I have twice now made double batches of food we ended up not liking so much. (Once a new bean dish and once with a fish chowder.)
Um, steel cut oats in the rice cooker recipe please! Someone gave me a rice cooker and I love steel cut oats…
What are other oats cut with, if not steel? Am I eating plastic cut oats and I didn’t even know it?
The cooking-ahead thing saved us from eating out as recently as tonight. I was craving a particular dessert from a local place, but I thought to myself, “Self, we have perfectly good tortilla soup waiting in the fridge, and you don’t even LIKE much of the stuff at Overpriced Chain, except that dessert.”
I recently made a bunch from the cookbook “Pot Pies: Comfort Food Under Cover”, which is not so much pot pies as various casseroles. They wok really well for make-ahead cooking… which I’m going to have to do again this weekend.
Maybe we’ll go for dessert afterwards.
:)
I really like that dump chicken page. Thank you!
that dump chicken page looks great - i will definitely be trying that soon.
meanwhile, i have lentil soup frozen in bags in the freezer. things have been crazy this week and we’ve been eating out or ordering in way too much (or ordering in). wish i had planned in advance and had more options.
I love the dump page too, heh.
I got a $5 rice cooker about five years ago at a yard sale, and I have so enjoy it - for the reasons you share.
You are an encouragment for me to get cooking, and I don’t know whether to thank you for that or not
I actually prefer the (more meatier) texture of frozen tofu. The trick with that recipe, though, would be to freeze the tofu a couple days before, thaw it back out the day before, cut it into 1/2″ “slabs” and squeeze the water out well. Then continue the recipe as before. Not only will the tofu have a great texture, it will also absorb the sauce quite readily.
Oh man, I love it when the universe hears me and provides at the thrift store like that. One of my great joys in life. Truly, I think half the reason I believe in a divine force is because of the stuff I find at the thrift store just when I realize I want it. Hey, we take our miracles where we can find them.
Oh and this is a crockpot baked tofu recipe that sounds really good.
http://www.yaaps.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=16&topic_id=460&mesg_id=462&page=
love the dump chicken page! i’ve got pot roast in my crock pot right now and I’m loving the smell of it all through the house. I’m doing the lazy OAM cooking– I did a session at Let’s Dish (www.letsdish.net) and am working our way through the meals I made then. It’s helping me stop food cravings too, especially for frozen pizza, my worst stand-by option.
Thanks for the update on the freezer cooking. I was wondering how it was going for you. I followed your link some weeks ago and decided to try it. For about a month I’ve been just double cooking. I put 7 dinners in the freezer tonight and will be making another 11 tomorrow with a friend I talked into doing it with me. I can already tell we are saving money from not eating out and buying last minute already cooked food. It’s lovely not to be stressed out preparing dinner. Now…need to find a rice cooker for 5 bucks.
Mind sharing the calzone recipe?