So at the END of the day!

Wowzers I got a lot more done than I thought I would. I even got the kitchen cleaned up and dinner done just as the hubby and mil walked in. After all that cooking my back is killing me, but I have to pat myself on the back for getting so much done without a solid plan. Truth be told I wasn't even planning on freezer cooking today at all. I just had some burst of motivation as I walked in this morning after dropping off the Giant Baby aka (oldest son).

I did not get around to prepping any fruit for smoothies. I recently bought four cantaloupes that were on sale at Kroger this week for 1.39. I couldn't pass that up. We use cantaloupes a lot in our green smoothies. So I'll be freezing what we can't eat fresh. They are still not ripened much so I've actually got time. The bananas too are a much used fruit for smoothies and for banana bread. I love me some banana bread. But I think I will wait till the family has had their fill of fresh bananas before freezing them.

Did remember to bring up the block of sharp cheddar to defrost in the refrigerator so that I can have at it in the Kitchen Aide sometime tomorrow. I think I will make Taco fillings with one of the bags of browned ground deer, and go ahead and set aside the cheese for it.

So what I got for the freezer today was this:

• 1 bag of diced onions
• 2 sandwich bags full of diced chicken meat = 2 chicken Scampi dinners.
• 2 bags browned ground deer w/ onions.
• 2 bags spaghetti meat sauce.
• 2 portions of homemade chicken stock
• 8 cups (cooked) brown rice cooked in chicken stock.
• 2 mochicko chicken dinners
• 1 dozen single servings pureed carrot and applesauce baby food.
• 1 extra large dinner portion of Spaghetti Parmesan. 

I still want to get:

1. green smoothies prepped for the SHOH (Spiritual Head of Houshold aka Hubby)
2. I've got the pineapple frozen down stairs and the green grapes frozen upstairs. 
3. Cut up all cantelope 
4. bring up all frozen berries from down stairs
5. prep chicken breast for Katsu...wrap individually in press n seal wrapper.
6. prep chicken breast for French Friend Onion covered Chicken...will serve with Stove Top.
7. prep for blueberry muffin mix
8. cook up blueberry pankakes
9. cook up whole wheat french toast
10. prep for crab cakes (shirley's recipe)    

I say....NOT too shabby for an unplanned, spur of the moment First Freezer Cooking Day.
I just might blow it outta the park if I actually planned it out!

Spaghetti Parmesean (formaly known as Tom Cruise Spaghetti)

I already have some spaghetti cooked and frozen, and we just bought bacon that was on sale w/ a coupon. I thought to prep this for my weekly 30somthings Woman's small group. I didn't think I could really freeze this meal all combined and cooked because I think it just won't taste the same as when it's freshly made due to the eggs....but I looked it up and this article says that you can freeze beaten eggs. I think I will try some and see. I_Can_Freeze_That

Here I am browning the 1lbs of the bacon I diced up. I browned 1lb. at a time because I did not want to boil the bacon but to crisp it up and render majority of the fat. I then drained the crisp bacon into my trusty aluminum pan lined with paper towels.

Next I used about 2 cups of the onions I had pre-diced and added sliced fresh mushrooms to the skillet to cook till they were translucent. I then added the mushroom/onion mixture to the pan of dried bacon and mixed. As soon as it cooled...I transferred the mix into a large Zip bag.

How this dish was named...It's been years ago now...Tom Cruise was a guest on Oprah (like for the billionth time) and at the time he was dating Penelope Cruz..."Cruise/Cruz".  Anyway Oprah asked Tom...what does he like to cook at home for Penelope that she loved to eat?..and so I being the adoring fan that I am of the "Cruise/Cruz" couple...perked up and paid attention...not enought to really remember what he called the dish, but as I've seen in other recipe's with the same ingredients...this dish is likened to the Italian's Spaghetti Carbonara...ah it's all the same to me so I think Tom was cooking along the lines as Tyler is in his recipe...
tyler-florence/spaghetti-alla-carbonara...BUT what I did was substitute the pricey ingredients with the ingredients I usually always have on hand.

Panchetta = Bacon
Freshley Grated Parmesan-Reggiano Cheese = Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese
and I thought to use onions, added sliced mushrooms, and used house seasoning in place of the fresh cloves of garlic.

So Tom cooked this on the Oprah show. I modified it to be more user friendly for my kitchen, and thus was born what I called Tom Cruise's Spaghetti.
A few years later he is jumping on Oprah's couch declaring his love for (his 16 year junior) Katie Holmes...that didn't bother me much until he got started adamantly endorsing Scientology and disapproving Brooke Shields for her abuse of her star power to endorse drugs for her PP Depression. (I suffer from depression and there has been a time where medication was the only option to getting out of the pit of despair.) So needless to say I have not been much of his fan since then. And to call this delightful dish after him would ruin the taste of it...at least in my mouth. My family could care less...they inhale it!

Mochicko Chicken, a little taste of Hawaii!

Grew up eating this in plate lunches, but not until just recently did I make this for my hapa-haole family. They ate it like they'd been starved to death. So ONO as they say in Hawaii.

So for two batches I used an entire tray of chicken thighs, it's pricier but we buy the wholesale club vacuumed sealed chicken. I won't go back to the clustered tray of chicken meat that I'd have to individually repack to freeze. I inevitably always forget to divvy them up right away so it goes to spoil in the refrigerator or I just shove into the freezer, thus I end up with an entire tray frozen SOLID. So yes, I will pay for the convenience of having the portions individually vacuumed sealed, neat and tidy.

I was out of Mochicko flour (kinda funny that I'd be out of the ingredient that hence the name of the dish) so I just used cornstarch. The substitution is not noticeable.


Mochiko Chicken
5 Packs chicken thighs, skinned, deboned and cut into bite size pieces. (or chicken wings)
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup shoyu = 10 TBS
8 tablespoons Mochiko flour = heaping 1/2 cup
8 tablespoons cornstarch = heaping 1/2 cup
6 tablespoons sugar = 1/2 cup
1/2 cup green onion, finely chopped = 2 lg. stalks
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
oil for frying
Mix everything (except chicken and oil). Marinate chicken for 5 hours or overnight in refrigerator. Fry chicken in 1-inch hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Cool and cut into slices.

Whole Chicken Chicken Stock

This will be an awesome twofer....once the chicken gets all cooled I'll shred and dice the meat.

So once the chicken cooled, and I add to the pot some root veggies...carrots, celery, garlic, and onions just roughly chopped, a dash of house seasoning and a few bay leaves. Maybe next time I'll add some dried rosemary or oregano for some depth of flavor.
I shredded the chicken while standing next to the pot so that I could just drop the bones back into the pot to continue the cooking and extract all the flavor from the bones and innards (from the pouch found in the chicken).

I yeilded about 6 cups of flavorful..slightly bland homemade chicken stock. I did the bland intentionally, and you can do that when you make things from scratch. So much healthier for you.

The whole chicken yielded 2 sandwich bags full of diced chicken meat that I will use for Chicken Scampi later on in the month. I already have the spaghetti noodles cooked and frozen so the sauce is all I'll have to add when I make the dinner. I've found that the cream of chicken doesn't really freeze well and separates when thawed out so this is as far as I go to prepping this dinner.

As for the chicken  stock I have plans to use it to cook my brown rice. The extra flavor to the brown rice is really tasty. This will be the first time I cook brown rice to freeze it. We'll see how that turns out when I defrost to use for a recipe.

Homemade Baby Food..It's Time!!

My baby is finally old enough to start solids and oooh how I was looking forward to this time. I remember the first time I made homemade baby food and that was for my now 10 year old son. It was fun then but so time consuming and messy (canning jars were such a hassle). Third child later, I'm wiser and craftier so not a huge problem to whip up some tasty, healthy baby food for the baby....ahhhh VitaMix. Love, love my VitaMix. Pureed Carrots is first off. A handful of carrots ( I had baby carrots on hand today so I used those), a few tbs. of water and a few tbs. organic applesauce....VitaMix on for a minute or so and there she is...homemade baby food.

 

 

 I spooned it into a ice tray, covered and put them in the freezer. Will get them out a little later to put into a large Zip bag to actually store better in the freezer.

First All Day Freezer Cooking: Deer Meat

The morning went quick...already made 2 spaghetti dinners and browning more ground deer for the freezer...enjoying my freezer cooking day so far! I think the aluminum pans are a huge help. I have a bunch of them to use when I need to take food out to a social gathering (no worrying about remembering to take home the dirty dishes). So here I can use them to divvy up the portions, and help to cool down the entree before pouring them into the gallon size Zip bags that will store much easier into my freezer. It's also great that I use these pans because I know I can stick them into the dishwasher and easily reuse them. Gotto love that.

First All Day Freezer Cooking

Why am I blogging this I don't know...for my sake, sanity, and some laughs. I've found a lot of moms doing this to motivate themselves to do the best with what they have for the Glory of the Lord and sharing their experience to benefit others mutual pursuit. I'm jumping on the bandwagon of Blogging my adventure of Mommyhood.

So my first entry is this...I'm following along MoneySavingMom.com  as she and her readers are  tackling OAMC = Once A Month Cooking. Now I surely did not technically plan to do enough to last us a month of dinners for EACH night, but surely after our grocery shopping yesterday I know I can generate at least a dozen frozen meals for the family.

I am so excited to be doing this. I want so much to be able to feed my family healthy, home cooked meals but not at the expense of going insane and killing myself of exhaustion due to our busy lifestyle. Eating out has it's place, so does fast food but after a bit I just can't stomach the money wasted that could better serve to keep me from having to go to work. Also it's scary to overuse eating fast foods that are potentially hurting my family's health...so here I go on with the Freezer cooking!

The haphazard menu/game plan looks like:
Deer Meat Spaghetti
Whole Chicken boiled for Stock and meat.
Chicken Meat for Chicken Scampi...I've already got Spaghetti Noodles frozen.
Deer Meat browned w/ Onions that were previously frozen.
May be cutting up more onions to freeze.
Chicken Thighs for Mochicko Chicken
Chicken Breast prepped for Chicken Katsu

This may get more elaborate as I get through the day.