Once-a-month cooking

Ooof, I just finished my bout of cooking. The idea of once-a-month cooking is brilliant: once a month (or another interval, depending on the size of your freezer, ability to cook quickly, etc) you buy loads of groceries, cook them in various ways, freeze them, and enjoy for as long as they last without having to set your foot in the kitchen until they're finished. It took me a while to get a hang of it (in some ways, I'm still learning the best ways). Here's what you need: a standalone freezer, tons of freezer-friendly containers, a variety of freezer-friendly recipes, and a few days that are relatively free.

I used to freeze everything in Ziploc bags, because they take up least amount of space, but a) they're expensive, b) environmentally-unfriendly, and c) I found a better way: IKEA Distans Food Saver (7x2). They're four cups, which is exactly what I need for my family of four, given that one cup is one serving.

How to find freezer-friendly recipes? Almost everything you can make is freezer-friendly; exceptions are vegetables that contain quite a bit of water; for some reason, boiled eggs; and things that separate into water and fat (such as cream). The best way though is to try freezing a small portion to see what happens to it. I also found that rice (and other grains like buckwheat) freeze weirdly: it requires extra minutes in microwave when heating, otherwise it tastes strange.

For the month batch I try to select a variety of grains and meats, never making less than 6 dishes, usually more (this month it was 14). Grains are things like brown rice, buckwheat, couscous, pasta and meats are chicken, turkey, pork, veal, and beef (occasionally in the form of franks or ground). I prefer recipes that mix meat and the side, but I'm game to try anything that's easy to cook and adds to variety. I usually sit down and put together a list of recipes, a shopping list and a cooking schedule so I can use this group of recipes again in the future. I currently have seven groups of recipes that I rotate so the dishes do not become tiresome.

I usually do an evening of active grocery shopping, followed by a day of cooking. Sometimes if I don't have a whole day, I split the cooking into a chopping day (preparing all ingredients) and actual cooking day (to ensure that I cook all of my 350F recipes at the same time, all of my 400F recipes, etc, to maximize the use of the oven).

Now both of my freezers (refrigerator and standalone) are full, and for the next month or so my cooking is going to consist of taking a container out of the freezer the night before, making an occasional salad and frying an occasional fish (I like it fresh). Leaves more time for the kids.

Here are some of the recipes I used this time.

PARMESAN RICE PILAF
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 can chicken broth
2 tablespoons of preshredded fresh Parmesan cheese
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
marjoram
Cook rice. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic; saute 30 seconds or until lightly browned. Boil onions in broth and white wine till most of the liquid is gone. Mix everything.

OLIVE OIL SPAGHETTI
Spaghetti, salt, garlic, olive oil, cheese, parsley (optional)
Cook spaghetti with salt and water. Strain. Chop garlic & parsley. Pour olive oil into deep pan, put garlic, fry for one minute, add spaghetti, fry for 5 minutes; turn off, add cheese and parsley.

BEER BEEF
2 lb beef, 3 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 3 medium onions, sliced; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 1/2 c flour; 1 cup beef bouillon; 1 can of beer; 3 tbsp brown sugar; 1 tbsp parsley; 2 tsp thyme, salt
Slice onions, cut beef into serving size pieces. Brown on both sides in 3 tablespoons oil to which you have added 1 tbsp lemon juice. Remove steak to casserole. Layer onions and garlic over meat. Sprinkle flour over top. Preheat oven to 325F. Now combine bouillon, beer, sugar, parsley flakes, thyme, salt. Pour over steak and bake uncovered in 325 degree oven for 3 hours.

BAKED CHICKEN NUGGETS
4 Servings, about 3 ounces each; Chicken thighs, boneless, skinless 1-1/2 pounds; Bread crumbs 1 cup; Vegetta; Garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon; Onion powder 1/4 teaspoon
1. Remove skin and bone; cut thighs into bite-sized pieces. 2. Place breadcrumbs and spices in plastic bag. 3. Close bag tightly and shake until blended. 4. Add a few chicken pieces at a time to crumb mixture. Shake to coat evenly. 5. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a cooking sheet. 6. Place chicken pieces on cooking sheet so they are not touching. 7. Bake until golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes.

EASY MINI-SALMON BURGERS
1 can of salmon, 4 oz breadcrumbs, finely crushed, 1 onion, finely diced, 2 eggs, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 ts dill
Trim canned salmon of large bones and skin as desired. Mix well with other ingredients. Form into patties and fry lightly in oil until golden brown.

TURKEY POT PIE
2 lbs ground turkey; 5 ea potatoes, mashed; 1 ea egg, slightly beaten; 1/2 c mayonnaise; 1 tb lemon juice; 2 tbsp celery; 1 can green peas, drained
Cook & mash potatoes. Stir in egg. Spread in well oiled 9-inch pie pan. Combine mayonnaise and lemon juice; stir in turkey, celery, and peas. Spoon into potato crust. Bake at 375F 15-20 minutes or until hot through.

Reality vs. plan - Mar.7

So, reality vs. plan report. (See post below for plan for March 7.)

We woke up later (much later, at 8:30), because when the alarm clock woke me up at 7, I thought "Feh, sale-shmale, we'll figure something out" and went back to sleep. As it turns out, I was quite right to do so: the Outrageous Outgrowns sale sucked. Well, it might have been okay if we were looking for clothing, but we were looking for shoes. There was very little of that, and toys and books were pretty abysmal. So we ended up spending 15 minutes at most there, and were only 10 minutes behind schedule, which had padding planned into it anyway. We thoroughly enjoyed the Jungle, although it tired all of us out (which was the point). We climbed, and crawled, and rolled, and slid, up, down, left, right. This particular location is quite large (a plus) and noisy (a minus).

After we came home (youngest A. fell asleep in the car, but we woke him up) and had lunch, we drove quickly to the post office to get the kids their passports (so we can go to Canadian Niagara Falls in May), but it was by appointment only. We made our way home, had a great nap, did some quick-draw shopping (Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods), and went home for dinner. It's great to shop with kids: 1) they ask questions; 2) at Costco we get to try food samples; 3) also at Costco, they learn to sit side by side in the huge shopping cart; 4) they learn about things we buy and don't buy.

As always, activity of the day didn't go as planned: they simply refuse to play along a planned route. Which is, obviously, fine; I'm satisfied to at least push them in some way toward something new. I planned that we would use our play stove and cut-out food and spoons, and pretend to cook and serve the food. Well. Youngest 2.1-yr-old A. only wanted to play with the toy we bought at the morning sale; we thought it was Lego but it turned out to be some wheels-and-sticks constructor for much older kids. A. didn't mind it, he just spent the whole evening shoving little pieces in and out of the box. Oldest 3.6-yr-old L. took a bucket, one of the constructor sticks, and started cooking various toys on the couch. He would come up to me and ask what I wanted to eat, and then go to the bucket, cook it, and bring it to me. So, beads were pasta, jumbo lego piece was meat, toy man was salad, and so on. He even put on my IKEA soft slippers on his hands to serve as mittens against the "heat" of the stove.

Here are the recipes of the day.

For the morning, we had rice raisin kasha, a great and filling breakfast (freezes well, too). Ingredients: white rice, raisins, cream, milk, vanilla, a touch of sugar. Cook rice until almost done, drain, put back into the pot. Reduce heat. Add cream and milk, in proportion as function of how much fat you want in the dish (if no cream, milk and butter works fine too), add as many raisins as you like (the more the better), 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla, and a touch of sugar (raisins are sweet by themselves). Mix everything and let it stay on the heat until rice is completely cooked (if necessary, add more milk; the consistency of the kasha should be such that it's easily stirred with a spoon). Cover with a lid and let it sit for 10-15 minutes (gives the raisins time to plump). Yumm. Ours came from the freezer, because we rarely have time to cook anything of substance in the morning.

For lunch, we had my family's signature, builder's salad. Ingredients: boiled white rice, doktorskaya sausage (can also be boiled franks or boiled chicken), boiled eggs (optional), cabbage, mayonnaise, sour cream. Shred the cabbage (my mom does it manually, we do it in the food processor, you can also do it with a knife) and beat it a little with a mallet to make it give up the juice. Add rice in the same proportion. Add meat to be about 1/3-1/2 of the total. Add eggs, and dress with half-mayonnaise, half-sour cream mixture. For the best taste, do the salad the day before. We do it without eggs to cut down on calories.

Not-too-sweet Cookies

I don't really cook or buy cookies, but my kids love them as on-the-go snack. We used to buy the Russian tea biscuits just for that purpose, but we're trying to save money and those biscuits are not exactly the healthiest they can be either. In comes Google and cook's intuition. Here is one of the recipes that worked pretty well for us. Note: don't reduce sugar, I've already reduced it by half or more to make them just a touch sweet, but no more than that.


SUN BISCUITS

2 large eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil (add if too little), 3 tsp vanilla extract, 1 1/3 tsp lemon zest, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then add in oil, vanilla, lemon zest, sugar. Combine until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare ungreased cookie sheets. Make little balls from one teaspoon of dough and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball with a glass bottom dipped in sugar (re-dip after each cookie). Works best if use a patterned glass (I use their Target sippy cups, which creates a sun pattern). Bake for 6-8 minutes.

Here's another, Nantaises Butter Biscuit. When doing this recipe, I halved the sugar, and to save time, instead of cutting out circles, I just made it into a log shape, chilled, and then sliced thinly into circles.

Organizing the fridge

Cooking for working family is tough. The worst-case scenario (for me, at least) is deciding on what's for dinner and cooking every single evening. Who has time for that? One day I'll post about my once-a-month cooking, but for now, here's how I try to organize the fridge. Because most of our meals are in the freezer until needed and I don't really cook much between the big cooking days, the fridge is fairly empty. So I take plastic containers, put the day's worth of food in them, and label it. Generally, I can do it only for 2-3 days worth of food. This labeling serves two purposes: 1) I don't have to think about it every day, and, more importantly, 2) The food is less likely to get lost in the fridge and go bad. Inside each plastic container, there usually are smaller containers or Ziploc bags that are labeled 'breakfast', 'lunch', and 'dinner'. If needed, I also write something like 'add tomato salad' or 'add mayo'. I use masking tape and a Sharpie to do the labeling.