With Hanna knocking at our door and the ever present risk of losing power, I am trying to eat as much stuff out of the freezer and refrigerator as possible.
On Sunday, I made a pot of CSA Navy Beans (which were quite tasty!), but as always I had some left over. Tonight for supper, I put them to use.
I took about two cups of beans and mashed them with a fork in a bowl, added black pepper and red pepper flakes, then 1/2 cup of leftover rice. After mixing that, I began adding cornmeal until I had a thick paste. I formed patties out of this and fried them in the cast iron skillet. I used an oil/butter mix to fry them in.
They turned out very well, but I think the addition of an egg would have been good too. They held together for the most part, but add an egg, they will bind a little tighter for you.
I topped them with shredded cheese and served them to the OHGTT, who does not like beans at all. She was unaware of what was in them and thought they were potato cakes. Needless to say, she really like them and was shocked they were made mostly of beans.
A simple reuse of leftovers. You know how much I love it!
All the best
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
2 meals from one cooking
This came about as an effort to cook one time and be able to eat it twice.
Day one:
In a large frying pan, saute 2 diced onions, 3 sliced carrots and 3 sliced celery stalks in oil. As the vegetables become soft, add about 2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken (see previous post) and heat until hot. Add seasonings as you like, I used black pepper, salt, butter and red pepper flakes.
In a separate pot, boil 5 cups water and 4 chicken bullion cubes. Add 3 cups of dry egg noodles and cook until soft.
Add one cup of the broth to the frying pan and continue to saute.
Drain the noodles in a bowl, but SAVE the broth, we use it the next day. You should also hold out about 2 cups of the chicken mixture, we need it tomorrow as well.
Serve the chicken mixture over the noodles.
Day 2:
Pour the reserved broth into a pot and add the leftover chicken mixture. You may need to add more vegetables depending on how many people you are trying to feed. Heat until hot. 10 minutes before serving, add a couple handfuls of egg noodles and continue to cook.
If your soup is thick, add additional water to loosen it up.
If you have green onions, garnish with chopped up green onions.
Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches or simple toast.
So we cooked a bunch of chicken a few days ago and now have had one supper and one lunch with one bag of it. Of course, this was only two people eating, however you can add additional vegetables, maybe more noodles and stretch this out. Ours was heavy on the chicken, so it definitely could have served 4 people both days.
Day one:
In a large frying pan, saute 2 diced onions, 3 sliced carrots and 3 sliced celery stalks in oil. As the vegetables become soft, add about 2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken (see previous post) and heat until hot. Add seasonings as you like, I used black pepper, salt, butter and red pepper flakes.
In a separate pot, boil 5 cups water and 4 chicken bullion cubes. Add 3 cups of dry egg noodles and cook until soft.
Add one cup of the broth to the frying pan and continue to saute.
Drain the noodles in a bowl, but SAVE the broth, we use it the next day. You should also hold out about 2 cups of the chicken mixture, we need it tomorrow as well.
Serve the chicken mixture over the noodles.
Day 2:
Pour the reserved broth into a pot and add the leftover chicken mixture. You may need to add more vegetables depending on how many people you are trying to feed. Heat until hot. 10 minutes before serving, add a couple handfuls of egg noodles and continue to cook.
If your soup is thick, add additional water to loosen it up.
If you have green onions, garnish with chopped up green onions.
Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches or simple toast.
So we cooked a bunch of chicken a few days ago and now have had one supper and one lunch with one bag of it. Of course, this was only two people eating, however you can add additional vegetables, maybe more noodles and stretch this out. Ours was heavy on the chicken, so it definitely could have served 4 people both days.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Save money and time
The next time you are in the grocery store and they have chicken on sale, buy as much as your budget will allow. Freeze some, but cook the rest.
I take as many leg quarters as I can get in the crock pot and cook it all day while I am at work. Use water, and some light seasonings if you want, or just cook it on low in plain water.
After supper that night, take the chicken out and separate the meat from the bones. Place the bones in a storage container and freeze for flavoring rice later. As you separate the meat, remove as much fat as you can.
Package enough chicken for one meal in either freezer bags or in containers and freeze.
When you are ready to use it, defrost one of the frozen bags and add it to your dish. This will save you time in preparing the chicken on the busy night you cooking supper. Plus, it will save you money, as it probably will not be on sale when you decide to buy it that week.
This is also very useful for sausage or hamburger meat. You can prepare it ahead of time and freeze it, then use it when you need it.
All the best!
I take as many leg quarters as I can get in the crock pot and cook it all day while I am at work. Use water, and some light seasonings if you want, or just cook it on low in plain water.
After supper that night, take the chicken out and separate the meat from the bones. Place the bones in a storage container and freeze for flavoring rice later. As you separate the meat, remove as much fat as you can.
Package enough chicken for one meal in either freezer bags or in containers and freeze.
When you are ready to use it, defrost one of the frozen bags and add it to your dish. This will save you time in preparing the chicken on the busy night you cooking supper. Plus, it will save you money, as it probably will not be on sale when you decide to buy it that week.
This is also very useful for sausage or hamburger meat. You can prepare it ahead of time and freeze it, then use it when you need it.
All the best!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Crock Pot Safety
As I constantly read cookbooks and websites to get new ideas, I keep running across something that bothers me immensely.
Most crock pot recipes state to add your ingredients, then turn the cooker on low. Sounds right.
However, think about this: My cookers take a while to come to cooking temperature. Therefore, if I have raw chicken in there, it is basically laying there for an hour, not doing anything. Would you lay it on the counter for an hour?
According to www.crock-pot.com, "Cooking meats in your Crock-Pot® slow cooker is perfectly safe. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bacteria in food is killed at a temperature of 165°F. Meats cooked in the Crock-Pot® slow cooker reach an internal temperature of 170° in beef and as high as 190°F in poultry. It is important to follow the recommended cooking times and to keep the cover on your slow cooker during the cooking process." I still don't like the idea of raw meat laying there while the cooker heats up.
My suggestion is to turn your cooker on low and add your liquids, while you are preparing everything else. That way when the raw meat hits the liquid, it is at least starting to get hot.
This may be paranoia, but for the fear of the food police, I think it is a great idea.
Most crock pot recipes state to add your ingredients, then turn the cooker on low. Sounds right.
However, think about this: My cookers take a while to come to cooking temperature. Therefore, if I have raw chicken in there, it is basically laying there for an hour, not doing anything. Would you lay it on the counter for an hour?
According to www.crock-pot.com, "Cooking meats in your Crock-Pot® slow cooker is perfectly safe. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bacteria in food is killed at a temperature of 165°F. Meats cooked in the Crock-Pot® slow cooker reach an internal temperature of 170° in beef and as high as 190°F in poultry. It is important to follow the recommended cooking times and to keep the cover on your slow cooker during the cooking process." I still don't like the idea of raw meat laying there while the cooker heats up.
My suggestion is to turn your cooker on low and add your liquids, while you are preparing everything else. That way when the raw meat hits the liquid, it is at least starting to get hot.
This may be paranoia, but for the fear of the food police, I think it is a great idea.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Soak the beans
Do you soak your dry beans before you cook them? If you are using a crock pot, there is no need to do this. They will soak as they cook and turn out fine. However, if you don't have the time or find yourself in the situation I did today, both crock pots are being used for dinner, there is a simple way I have found to soak the beans.
Place your dry beans in a colander that will fit in a big bowl. Wash the beans under running water in the sink (while in the colander), then place the colander in the bowl. Boil enough water to cover the beans and pour it over the beans.
They will soak while in the colander, then when you are ready to put them in the pot, simply pick the colander up and pour them in your pot.
This will prevent you from having to fish them out of the bowl or making a mess by pouring the water/bean mix through the colander. It keeps everything neat and tidy and saves you a bit of time.
All the best!
Place your dry beans in a colander that will fit in a big bowl. Wash the beans under running water in the sink (while in the colander), then place the colander in the bowl. Boil enough water to cover the beans and pour it over the beans.
They will soak while in the colander, then when you are ready to put them in the pot, simply pick the colander up and pour them in your pot.
This will prevent you from having to fish them out of the bowl or making a mess by pouring the water/bean mix through the colander. It keeps everything neat and tidy and saves you a bit of time.
All the best!
Green Tea Cheesecake
This recipe came about as a request from a loyal Hillbilly Gormet reader.
When I was first asked to make a green tea and mint cheesecake, I thought yuck! Then when I researched it a bit, green tea leaves are actually consumed in many oriental cultures on a regular basis. I was up for the challenge. I then discovered there are hundreds of green tea cheesecake recipes on the web, so I have created this one to keep it in line with the cheap and easy theme we have going here.
1 package softened cream cheese
½ cup sweet, thick milk (see instructions below)
1/3 cup green tea prepared
1/3 cup chopped green tea leaves
4 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tub whipped topping thawed
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
To make the milk mixture, use ½ cup water, ½ cup dry milk powder and 2 tablespoons sugar. Wisk until well mixed, if you have some left over, put it in the fridge and use with your coffee tomorrow morning.
Start by creaming the cheese and sugar in a mixer. When this becomes smooth and fluffy, add the milk and liquid green tea. Mix for a few moments and it will be runny. Add the leaves and honey. After this is mixed well, remove the mixer and fold in your whipped topping. Now that your mixture is well combined pour in the crust, I used the left over chopped leaves to garnish the top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
I used loose leaf green tea for this, because I drink green tea regularly and enjoy the whole tea ceremony experience (see the internet for more information on this). You absolutely could use tea bags for this and then after brewing, cut the bag open and pour that in the mix. Just make sure you do not have stems in there. Some tea manufactures mix stems into the bags (if you see one, pick it out).
A variation to this would be to leave the honey out and add ½ teaspoon of mint extract.
The OHGTT tasted this today on lunch and said, "This is actually pretty good and not disgusting like I thought".
I will have a picture of this up tonight.
When I was first asked to make a green tea and mint cheesecake, I thought yuck! Then when I researched it a bit, green tea leaves are actually consumed in many oriental cultures on a regular basis. I was up for the challenge. I then discovered there are hundreds of green tea cheesecake recipes on the web, so I have created this one to keep it in line with the cheap and easy theme we have going here.
1 package softened cream cheese
½ cup sweet, thick milk (see instructions below)
1/3 cup green tea prepared
1/3 cup chopped green tea leaves
4 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tub whipped topping thawed
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
To make the milk mixture, use ½ cup water, ½ cup dry milk powder and 2 tablespoons sugar. Wisk until well mixed, if you have some left over, put it in the fridge and use with your coffee tomorrow morning.
Start by creaming the cheese and sugar in a mixer. When this becomes smooth and fluffy, add the milk and liquid green tea. Mix for a few moments and it will be runny. Add the leaves and honey. After this is mixed well, remove the mixer and fold in your whipped topping. Now that your mixture is well combined pour in the crust, I used the left over chopped leaves to garnish the top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
I used loose leaf green tea for this, because I drink green tea regularly and enjoy the whole tea ceremony experience (see the internet for more information on this). You absolutely could use tea bags for this and then after brewing, cut the bag open and pour that in the mix. Just make sure you do not have stems in there. Some tea manufactures mix stems into the bags (if you see one, pick it out).
A variation to this would be to leave the honey out and add ½ teaspoon of mint extract.
The OHGTT tasted this today on lunch and said, "This is actually pretty good and not disgusting like I thought".
I will have a picture of this up tonight.
Monday, August 11, 2008
More fun with leftovers
Today for lunch, I cleaned out the fridge.
We had the leftover pinwheels from last night. But to change them a bit, I made a quick cheese sauce from a half jar of queso, several spoonfuls of salsa and two spoonfuls of sour cream. As it heated, it turned into a creamy spicy cheese sauce to pour over the pinwheels. I then put another dab of sour cream on top for garnish.
So in making lunch today, I cleaned 3 more containers out of the fridge. As I stated in the first Fun with Leftovers tip, you must change the leftovers into a new dish to keep the family eating them. No one wants to eat the same thing over and over again.
The OHGTT gave this one an awesome rating.
All the best!
We had the leftover pinwheels from last night. But to change them a bit, I made a quick cheese sauce from a half jar of queso, several spoonfuls of salsa and two spoonfuls of sour cream. As it heated, it turned into a creamy spicy cheese sauce to pour over the pinwheels. I then put another dab of sour cream on top for garnish.
So in making lunch today, I cleaned 3 more containers out of the fridge. As I stated in the first Fun with Leftovers tip, you must change the leftovers into a new dish to keep the family eating them. No one wants to eat the same thing over and over again.
The OHGTT gave this one an awesome rating.
All the best!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Angel Food is a good thing
Greetings on this first day of August.
I know I haven't been as active in posting as I should be, but with school, work and the baby, I am busy! So with that said, I am going to be more proactive this month and attempt for something new to be up everyday.
Today's entry will be about the Angel Food Ministries program.
If you are on this site you are either related to me or interested in saving money in the kitchen. With that said, the Angel Food program is an awesome way of doing that.
I encourage you to go to the website and see if it is a fit for you. My guess is yes. It is not welfare or public assistance, more of a private social program that reaches out to save people money on food.
Jennifer and I have done this for the past two months and it is truly a blessing. With the Angel Food we have bought (yes you have to pay for it), it has allowed us to spend less on food at the grocery store and more on gas (that being a different blog).
All of the food that you receive is restaurant quality and so far we have not gotten anything that wasn't good. However, this month we received a mushroom pizza (neither of us like mushrooms).
I encourage you to check out the website and go for it. At least try it for a month, if you won't eat what you get, you can always donate it to a food bank.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
All the best,
I know I haven't been as active in posting as I should be, but with school, work and the baby, I am busy! So with that said, I am going to be more proactive this month and attempt for something new to be up everyday.
Today's entry will be about the Angel Food Ministries program.
If you are on this site you are either related to me or interested in saving money in the kitchen. With that said, the Angel Food program is an awesome way of doing that.
I encourage you to go to the website and see if it is a fit for you. My guess is yes. It is not welfare or public assistance, more of a private social program that reaches out to save people money on food.
Jennifer and I have done this for the past two months and it is truly a blessing. With the Angel Food we have bought (yes you have to pay for it), it has allowed us to spend less on food at the grocery store and more on gas (that being a different blog).
All of the food that you receive is restaurant quality and so far we have not gotten anything that wasn't good. However, this month we received a mushroom pizza (neither of us like mushrooms).
I encourage you to check out the website and go for it. At least try it for a month, if you won't eat what you get, you can always donate it to a food bank.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
All the best,
Thursday, July 24, 2008
CORN/CORD
It is important to have a CORN or a CORD every week. I am not talking about the vegetable, CORN stands for Clean Out Refrigerator Night, whereas CORD is Clean Out Refrigerator Day. This is an important aspect to the overall budget reducing goal. We always have leftovers when we cook. In addition to making lunches or using them another night, we try to making something new out of the leftovers. As an example, I took leftover Hamburger Helper, added leftover queso dip and a little milk. While heating on the stove, I began toasting corn chips in the oven. I then poured the cheesy hamburger mixture over the chips, topped with shredded cheese and baked it again. When the cheese melted, I topped it with leftover onions and tomatoes, along with leftover salsa from taco night. Our five various containers in the refrigerator became a one time nacho platter, which we had for lunch. It looked a bit odd having the pasta on the nachos, but it tasted wonderful!
The only limitations to this, is your imagination. To help you get started, one simple and easy backup to this is a soup. Start with a tomato sauce base and then add what you got, it will turn out wonderful, be nutritious and get rid of leftovers. But the best part, it saves money! One thing I have found is adding a table spoon or two of barbeque sauce to any soup gives it a great smoky deep flavor. Consider it a secret ingredient
The only limitations to this, is your imagination. To help you get started, one simple and easy backup to this is a soup. Start with a tomato sauce base and then add what you got, it will turn out wonderful, be nutritious and get rid of leftovers. But the best part, it saves money! One thing I have found is adding a table spoon or two of barbeque sauce to any soup gives it a great smoky deep flavor. Consider it a secret ingredient
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fast and Easy Chutney
I made an apricot coconut chutney to put over chicken. I used canned apricots and pureed half the can along with a half a handful of coconut, then cut up the remaining apricots and folded them in. It gave a nice tropical feel to plain frozen breaded chicken breasts. I would recommend pureeing all the apricots and cutting a few fresh ones up to mix in. The canned ones were a bit mushy.
To go with that I made mango rice, using the leftover syrup from canned mangos (we had for dessert the night before) to cook the rice in. It was good, but I made a very sticky rice from the sugar in the syrup.
Not bad for a bunch of stuff just thrown together.
To go with that I made mango rice, using the leftover syrup from canned mangos (we had for dessert the night before) to cook the rice in. It was good, but I made a very sticky rice from the sugar in the syrup.
Not bad for a bunch of stuff just thrown together.
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