Another day with casseroles

With the summer coming I like to have crockpot meals ready,  Nothing is worst than having to turn on the oven in the heat. Also there is so many fun things to do outside that you don't want to be tied down to the kichen.  I bake lots of cookies and muffins and freeze them in small ziplock bags so there is just enough snack for one day.  That way we can grab and go and it keeps other things cool in the snack bag.  With all the rain this week it is a good time to bake and plan ahead for warmer days.
 I started stocking my freezer yesterday.  I pulled out a package of venision sausage (not that great to BBQ), 1 lb of ground beef, and 1 package of good BBQing sausages.  In the afternoon, (after I had a nap and the kids were still asleep) I fried up the ground beef and baked the venision sausages in the oven with some cookies to have for dessert later.  The cookies were from store bought cookie dough so I really didn't work hard but I got all the credit.
My plan was to have BBQ sausages for supper with salad.  I cooked Venison sausages to make a sausage stew and sausage chili.  With the ground beef I made 2 lazagnas.  This morning I took the leftover sausage from our BBQ and made a variation on the Minestrone Soup.  I haven't tried it yet but it smells good.
The nice thing about how I did this cooking marathon is that it was all cold and from cans. It had similar ingredients, for example I used 3/4 can of kidney beans in the chili and the rest in the minestrone soup this morning.
Ingredients:
2 cans of diced tomatoes
4 cans of spegetti sauce
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of baked beans
1 box of oven lazagna noodles
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups of frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower mix
salsa
celery
1 big block of mozzarella cheese
chili powder
1 container of chicken stock

  While the kids played, I assembled my meals in tupperwares like ice cream tubs and stacked them in the freezer.  I mixed 2 cans of speghetti sauce in a big bowl with 1 can of water, 1/2 can of diced tomatoes, all the cooked ground beef,  1 cup of frozen veggies diced and 1/3 cup of salsa. I grated all the cheese and layered two casserole dishes 8x11 with sauce, then noodles, then cheese, then sauce. cover and freeze.
For the venision sausage I chop up and split into two tupperware containers.  One gets 500ml of kidney beans, 1 can of speghetti sauce, 1 cup of salsa, 1 tbsp of chili powder, the other 1/2 of the diced tomatoes, 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 small onion chopped up, 1/2 cup of chopped frozen veggies.  - this will go in the freezer.  Then I will take it out the night before and dump it in the crockpot in the morning.  Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 or 6.

Italian sausage stew.  This recipe does have veggies to saute, same as minestrone recipe.  Cook twice as much split it for the minestrone soup in the next receipe.
Saute 1 small onion diced, celery, frozen veggies. I cook this with 2 tbsp of italian dressing (not necessary, just if you have it).   In the other tupperware container I have the sausage and I add - 1 can of baked beans, 1/2 can of diced tomtoes, 2 cups of chicken broth. 1/3 cup of salsa  - this will go in the freezer. then I will take it out the night before and dump it inthe crockpot in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 or 6.  I add egg noodles 20 minutes before finished cooking then eat with some cheese on top.  The taste is a little different from all the speghetti sauce casseroles but I find it a nice change.


This morning I made minestrone soup with the BBQ sausage from the night before, I had the veggies sauteed in the fridge from the italian stew.  I also had the remaining kidney beans from my 750 ml can. I used the rest of the box of chicken stock and the rest of the diced tomatoes.

So there is 6 meals - very good use of your time and money.  good luck.

Summer Harvest

I love the "Bounty of the Land" and I get this from doing a little gardening.  I do not enjoy doing a lot of gardening.  My lovely farmhouse yard is feeling more and more like my oasis as I look around at the spring plants growing. Every year I have added things that I love that will grow on there own with very little tending to. I have added easy perennials this year (peonies, mini iris and regular iris, tulips, daffodils, bleeding hearts and clematis around the seedums) and I already see my rhubarb coming on.  Pumpkins grow on their own in the field beside our house where the cows graze.  This fall I promise myself  I am going to start the long process of getting wild asparagus to grow in behind the garage in between the crab-apple tree and rhubarb.  We will again plant tomatoes in our 4 foot garden which I will weed occasionally.  This alone provides salsa and delicious pies all winter.  Plus the squash, cucumber, peppers, carrots and potatoes I get each year from my parents and my husband's parents.  I always feel so blessed to know how to provide for ourselves and also share with our community our "bounty".  Too bad I am not brave enough to eat dandelion leaves or experiment with the mushrooms that come up in our yard each year.

my daughter Emily getting her first taste of rhubarb.

my happy helper gardener Ashley

Donny and the perennials

Rhubarb Cream Pie
1 pie crust
fill with chopped rhubarb

in a bowl:
1 1/2 cup of sugar
3 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tbsp of butter
2 eggs
Beat together and pour into shell over rhubarb.
Bake at 400 for 15 mins, then turn down to 350 til done.  i forget how long.

stew

The easy stew recipe I use is
1 lb of stewing beef
1 cup of carrots
1 large onion
3 large potatoes
2 stalks of celery
1 can of mushroom soup
750ml of garden cocktail or tomato juice
(I have also just used 900ml can of diced tomatoes but you do need to add a little more seasoning like italian spice and garlic)


Put raw stewing beef in the bottom of a very big roasting pan or glass dish. Add all clean and chopped veggies on top.  Mix your 2 remaining ingredients together and pour over veggies.  add 1 tsp of pepper and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake at 275 for 4 hours.  It always turns out good.  I make this after we have a roast beef meal.  And put all the leftover meat, gravy and veggies in it. This meal can be froze after it is made to pull out for a quick lunch to take to work.  I have also pureed it for baby food and froze in ice cube trays for easy meals.   So another idea I had would be if you cooked your beef in a frying pan and let it cool you could mix this meal up and freeze it uncooked.  Then you could take it out of the freezer the night before you wanted to eat it and put it in a crock pot in the morning. cook on low for 8 hours.  I haven't tried it, but I bet it would work.  Have a nice loaf of bread ready.  Eat and Enjoy!

Minestrone soup

Crock pot Minestrone Soup
Dice these veggies and saute in a pan with 1 tbsp of oil.
1 onion
2 celery stalks
1 cup of peeled potatoes
1 large carrot
Put in crock pot with
1 can of diced or stewed tomatoes
4 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup of salsa
1 1/2 cup of tomato vegetable juice
1/2 can of kidney beans
Season with 1 tsp of pepper
1 tbsp of dried parsley
1/2 tbsp of Italian seasoning
cook on high for 4-5 hours
3/4 cup of noodles - boil  1/2 cooked and drain
add to soup - leave for 20 minutes -EAT

This is a very tasty soup and it makes a lot.
While this soup was in the crock pot I put a batch of bread in the bread maker.  They take about the same amount of time. A really lovely meal on a winter day with leftover meat for sandwiches.
We grow tomatoes in Sept and make our own salsa.  We use it in everything.  If you don't have salsa or some other ingredient listed here in the soup try substituting,  See how it turns out.  Make it spicy or cook sausage first with the veggies. If you add sausage then you probably don't need chicken stock.  (I haven't tried that yet.)  Also with our  tomatoes I cut the stem out and freeze them whole.  Then I can add them to soups and stews by running them under hot water and then the peel just falls off.  I put 4 frozen tomatoes in the Crock pot instead of the diced tomatoes. It turned out really good.
I froze the other half of kidney beans.  So the next time I made chili I just took out the kidney beans and 1/2 lb of cooked gr. beef  I had also froze and made a chili in the crock pot.  I halved this recipe. This is how I make it but you can try it with mild store bought salsa.

Chili
1 lb of ground beef,
2 cans of spaghetti sauce,
1 can of mushrooms,
1 can of kidney beans 
2 cups of our home made salsa.
2 tbsp of chili powder.
  Cook ground beef (sometimes with a chopped onion). drain, add spaghetti sauce to fry pan to heat up.
Throw all ingredients in crock pot and leave on high 5 hours or low 8 hours. The salsa is the secret. It makes the chili sweet and it adds lots of veggies but hides them cuz they are all cooked down.  I also sometimes chop up frozen carrot/broccoli/cauliflower mix real small and add it.

Turkey

Today I am recreating the Christmas dinner. I bought a couple turkeys at Thanksgiving.  They were .77 cents a pound.  I pulled it out of the freezer on Sunday so today I am cooking it for my parents that are coming for dinner.  I also won't have to make supper the next few nights.  So the turkey went in at 1pm for I'm guessing 3 hours.  At 4pm I will take it out and check it, then pour the juices off to make the gravy.
-here is a side note- it was ready at 4pm which was too early and I hadn't cooked my potatoes yet.  So.... maybe wait til 2pm for a 8lb turkey .
This gives me time to put it back in to cook for another hour if needed.  I will cook baked potatoes.  They take the least amount of work.  If I was planning ahead I would have make mashed potatoes earlier when the kids were asleep or even last night and baked them with cheese on it at 4pm when there is room in oven with the Turkey out.  This is a great idea because if I make enough mashed then they are ready for a quick Sheppard's pie or with a can of salmon make fish cakes.  Another way to make potatoes is to wash and cut them up and put them around the Turkey with carrots 1hour before they will be done cooking, as I mentioned in my post about Roasts.
So here is my speech about Turkey dinners. The Turkey cost me $7.44 and the bag of baby carrots to throw around the turkey $1.  (or better yet buy a 5lb bag for a little more and do more work yourself.) This week was dollar days at No Frills.  Frozen peas and frozen corn were $1.  A 10 lb bag of potatoes is about $3.
so for under 15$ you have a big supper with Turkey sandwiches for lunches and leftovers to eat the next day.  Buy 1 lb of ground beef  ($4) and a pkg of noodles (for $1) and 2 cans of spaghetti  sauce (each $1) and you have Sheppard's pie and spaghetti for supper the rest of the week.  That is about $21.  You still need bread, eggs and milk and essentials but I am just pointing out that is can be done.  Also what is wrong with box cake mixes? I buy them on sale for (you guessed it) $1! It makes a nice easy dessert when you really don't want to do extra work and with a Turkey dinner you have the oven on anyway.


So lets say you want to have the stuffing and cranberries and the rest of the traditional supper.  You may have your own recipes for sweet potato pie but I don't so I will tell you what I make.
Stuffing
  I save my ends of the loaf.  My family doesn't eat the two ends of the loaf so i keep them in a bag in the door of the fridge.  I cut them up for my stuffing. You need 1 loafs worth of bread.  Also I do make Chicken stock with the last turkey we ate. however Chicken Stock was also $1 at No Frills this week.  You will also need
2 stalks of celery
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic. (press with garlic press)
Saute in large pot with 1 cup of chicken stock on high heat until onions are translucent.
Turn off heat and add 1/2 the bread.  Stir and add 1 tbsp of celery salt, 1 tsp of pepper, 1/2 tbsp of thyme and 1 tsp of Italian seasoning. (like basil and oregano)
Add 1 cup of chicken stock.  Stir
Add 1/4 of remaining Bread. 
Add 1 cup of stock. Stir
Throw in remaining bread and stir until all bread is moist.
Bake in casserole dish or stuff the turkey.  In Casserole dish it is 40 mins or to your desired crispness.
Check internal temperature with a meat thermometer to 165.

Broccoli casserole
 This is not my recipe but I use it a lot.  Especially when I am out of fresh veg for a supper meal.
I buy mixed Frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.  You can also buy fresh veg and blanch or steam it, but why do the work.
Place frozen veg in a casserole dish.  Top with 1 can of celery soup, then 2/3 cup of grated cheddar cheese.
Cut 2 slices of bread into squares and stir quickly in 2 tbsp of melted butter.  Sprinkle bread on top of casserole.  Bake at 350 for 30 mins uncovered.

tip for the day

Here is a time saving tip. When you thaw one pkg of ground beef - thaw two and cook it all.  Then freeze what you don't use in a Tupperware. Cooked ground beef is so handy when you forgot to plan a supper.  You can add it to a can of spaghetti sauce for a quick meal, like your own hamburger helper but without the additives. Also Sloppy Joes, on nachos or mini pizzas.  Most things you can just add the ground beef from frozen but not when it is raw.

Today I made Spaghetti Bake.  it is not my recipe.  I am paraphrasing how I made it.  It makes a lot so use a big lasagna or casserole dish.
1 onion
1 green pepper
Chop and Saute
1 can of diced mushrooms
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 - 2 cans of spaghetti sauce, depending on what you are using
Cook spaghetti noodles about 1/3 of a pkg
Grate one brick of medium or old cheddar cheese
this is where I add ground beef already cooked.  However the recipe calls for cooking 1 - 2 lbs of ground beef first and draining it.  Set meat aside and start to saute your veggies and make sauce.
Layer sauce, noodles, meat, cheese till your dish is full.  Cover with Aluminum foil and remove after 30 mins. of  baking
Bake 350 for 40mins til it gets all bubbly.

Roast

My favorite meal right now is any kind of roast.  I love throwing a chicken, turkey, pork or beef into the old roasting pan with 1 to 2 cups of water, 1 chopped onion and bake. The times of cooking change depending on what you are cooking but from my experience more time is better.  1 hour before you expect your meat to be done I put in large chopped pieces of carrot and potato. I like to wash and cut these veggies at the kids nap time so it only takes seconds to put them in the oven when the kids are up and always playing at my feet. At supper time when I made the gravy i put my kids in their high chairs with a little meat and veggies to eat while I finish making supper.  I take the juice from the meat off and make a gravy. This does take a little more work and isn't necessary to make a delicious meal but my family appreciates it.  Also I usually cook in the microwave some frozen corn or peas since my rule at supper is 2 veggies for a meal.
The things that make this an easy meal is that there is always lots and often enough to reheat the next day.  At least one night a week we have other people stay for supper so this is enough for everyone.  Also I can put the meat in the roasting pan in the fridge the night before and then it is ready to cook the next day when I get home if I have a busy day planned.   Once the meat is in the oven I have supper done and can have a nap when my kids nap.
Two things I have learned from cooking meat is that it does turn out better if it is totally thawed and poultry will dry out if it is over cooked. Beef needs 20 mins to rest once it is out of the oven.  Both meats if done too early taste great if you slice it and put into the gravy to keep moist and reheated in oven later if needed.

Gravy

I use a small pot and take a tbsp of fat off the liquid that is with the meat.  I mix with 1 tbsp of flour til flour is dissolved.  Then I pour the meat juice out of roasting pan into the small pot.  Put pot on medium heat and whisk often. Bring gravy to a simmer.  Take 2 tbsp of cornstarch and 3tbsp of cold water.  mix in a glass and pour in to small pot.  this will thicken the gravy more.  if you find you don't have enough or that it tastes weak you can add dry chicken or beef stock powder and more water but you will need to repeat the cornstarch directions.  For seasoning I also add Italian spice and salt and pepper to taste.   Most people take the meat and veggies out of roasting pan and make gravy in it.  that is a great way as well but often I still need to keep the meat warm so by pouring out the juices and leaving the supper in the roasting pan I can put the whole thing back in the oven with the oven shut off to keep it warm while I make my gravy.  Then when supper is ready I just fill everyone plate from the roasting pan and they can serve their own gravy.  Less dishes for me.