Guest Post--Slow Cooker Homemade Chicken Stock

Today's post comes from Zibi at Fresh Slow Cooking.


Hi, I'm Zibi I work as a researcher by day, and blog at Fresh Slow Cooking during my spare time. My slow cooker recipes start with real, fresh food. Usually I post recipes, but every now and then I also write about food philosophy and nutrition.

Since Melissa offers great money-savings tips and recipes on her blog, I thought that you would be interested in how to make your own chicken stock. Making your own stock has several advantages.

Health Benefits
Homemade chicken stock is healthier. You control the ingredients, so you can choose to use organically grown chicken and vegetables, and adjust the amount of salt to suit your tastes. Also, since it doesn't sit in a can, there's no need to worry about the leeching of BPA.

Cost
You can make chicken stock from scraps of chicken and vegetables that would end up in the garbage otherwise. If you buy whole chickens, (which is way cheaper than pre-cut), when you cut them up and debone them you can use the back bone and any other bones that you remove as the base for your stock. (If you're not ready to make your stock right away, you can collect these parts and freeze them in freezer bags.)

Preparing stock in your crock pot is also very efficient. One batch goes a long way. The stock is so rich compared to the store bought kind, that when you use it later to cook your favourite soup, you can dilute it with water at least 1:1.

Storage
You can freeze it! I have larger portions (~2 cups) frozen in freezer bags for use in soups, but I also freeze smaller amounts in a muffin/cupcake tray. These are handy for making sauces or diluting and using to prepare your favourite risotto.

Homemade chicken stock (For a 6.5 quart slow cooker)
1.5-2 lbs chicken pieces and bones (you can leave the skin on)
6 cloves of garlic
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
6-8 sprigs rosemary
2 carrots, whole
1 onion, quartered
2 ribs of celery, whole
10-12 cups of water (I use 10 cups if there's more bones than meat)
2 bay leaves

Place the carrots, celery, garlic cloves and onion into the slow cooker. (If you have kitchen twine, you can tie them in a bundle to make them easier to remove after cooking.)

Add the chicken pieces, bones, garlic, lemon rind and juice, salt, pepper, rosemary, bay leaves and water.

Cook on low for 10 hours or overnight.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables, garlic and herbs and discard. If you used chicken with a lot of meat on them ie. drumsticks, you can use the chicken in a salad or on sandwich, otherwise, discard the chicken pieces and bones too.

If you prefer to remove excess fat, refrigerate the stock for a few hours and discard the fat that hardens on the surface.

I have ongoing experiment for making vegetable stock so look for the results at FreshSlowcooking.com in the near future.

Freezer Cooking Plan

We have enough meals in the freezer to easily last us through the month of May until I am completely healed from my c-section. What we don't have are snacks and breakfasts like breads and muffins. So, while I thought I would have to skip this month of freezer cooking, my mom, who is only here through tomorrow, offered to make some baked goods for us. (Thank you!) Here is the plan:

Pumpkin Bread
Banana Muffins
Strawberry Muffins
Blueberry Muffins
Peanut Butter Bars

Grocery Shopping, 4/25/10

Tony's:


As I mentioned in my menu plan this week, we are going for convenience and speed with meals this week. You'll notice some convenience items I don't normally buy.

Alfredo sauce = 2.99
beef broth = .99
Instant potatoes = 1.99
Whole wheat pasta = 1.69
flour tortillas = .60
corn tortillas = .33
2 boxes Velveeta shells = 5.98
2 cans cat food = 1.00
bag spinach = 2.50
2 lbs. strawberries = 3.99
tomatoes = 1.27
green onions = .34
pears = 1.44
2 pkgs mushrooms = 3.00
1 bunch asparagus = 2.47
green leaf lettuce = 1.42
oranges = 1.92
broccoli = 1.00
red pepper = 1.61
green pepper = .54
grapefruit = 1.82
bananas = 1.47
French bread = 3.79
hot dog buns = .88
loaf bread = 1.89
cottage cheese = 2.49
parmesan cheese = 1.67
mozzarella cheese = 1.67
gallon milk = 2.19
pita pockets = 1.99
1/2 lb. deli ham = 1.57
1/2 lb. deli bacon = 1.56
2 rotisserie chickens = 9.98

Total = 73.89

I can't drive yet, so my husband will be doing all the shopping. He likes to go to one store and be done, so no bargain shopping for awhile. Still, I think he did a pretty good job this week.

Total for April = 274.33
Total for the year = 1262.17 (78.88/week)

Maximizing Freezer Space for Bulk Cooking

Many of you will probably be joining Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom for freezer cooking this week. For the first time in several months I won't be freezer cooking with them because of our new arrival. We also still have a fully stocked freezer from the last two months (thankfully!).

However, I thought I would share a tip today that has helped me maximize my freezer space for bulk cooking. I have found that the best way to utilize my freezer space when making meals to freeze for later consumption is to fill the ingredients in a freezer bag, suck the air out with a straw, seal it and lay it flat so it can be stacked. However, my bags never ended up completely flat when they froze.

Then, I found a tip to lay the freezer bag on a cookie sheet and put that in the freezer. The bags freeze perfectly flat every time! When they are frozen solid, you can stack them up together to maximize freezer space.

I shared this at Works for Me Wednesday.

Welcoming Our Baby Girl

(Big brother meets his new little sister for the first time.)

Our third child was born on Tuesday, April 20th. After much debating, we decided to name her Delaney. The delivery itself was a scheduled c-section and was uneventful.

However, looking back on the pregnancy, there were a number of near misses that we were happy to avoid. For the first 24 weeks of my pregnancy, when I went to the doctor for check-ups, she could never detect the heart rate. This was troubling at first, and then became normal for me. Each appointment then involved an ultrasound to check the baby's well being. It turned out the placenta was in the front of my stomach and blocking the doctor's access to the heart beat.

Late in the pregnancy I developed high blood pressure and had to go on bed rest. I was very lucky that the progression of this was slow so we were able to carefully monitor it and still have the baby on her scheduled date, rather than earlier.

When I was having the c-section, I asked the doctor to look and see if everything was alright internally because my husband and I have seriously thought about having four kids and I know risks increase with every c-section. The doctor told me during the surgery that my uterus was paper thin; she could literally see through it and said she had never seen one that thin without it being a uterine rupture and putting both baby and mom in danger. She thought if we waited one more day to have the baby it would have ruptured.

Of course, I am sad that this means no more kids for us, but I feel very blessed that there was no rupture and both of us are safe and healthy.

She is a very calm baby and her brother and sister are both excited to have her home, as are we.

Menu Planning, 4/25/10

Well, we are home from the hospital and doing fine. (I'll be blogging about the baby in tomorrow's post.) Life has gotten crazier since we have added our new addition to the family, so this week is all about trying to prepare health(ier) meals in a short amount of time.

Since I am recovering from a c-section, I am not able to help around the house much besides taking care of the baby. Luckily my mom is here for another 5 days, and between her help and my husband's, the kids are being well cared for and the house is remaining relatively clean. Meal preparation is the big chore, so you will notice many convenience items that I don't normally use, but if it keeps us eating at home and not ordering take out all the time, it is well worth it.

Monday--Mushroom Pepper Steak
Tuesday--Chicken and Rice Burritos
Wednesday--Broccoli Chicken Alfredo
Thursday--Chicken Pita Pockets
Friday--Rotisserie Chicken, mashed potatoes & spinach
Saturday--Beefy Shells & Cheese
Sunday--take out

We are buying two rotisserie chickens this week and using them for most of our chicken recipes.

Luches will be leftovers or sandwiches.

Breakfasts will be omelettes, oatmeal, breakfast burritos or toast.

Blogging Break to Welcome Baby #3

Tomorrow our third child will be born, so I will be taking a little blogging break. I hope to be back Friday or Monday, depending on the recovery process.

Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I can't wait to share the news of her birth!

Menu Planning, 4/18/10

I'll be entering the hospital early Tuesday morning to have the baby, but here is the meal plan I have made out for my mom to fix for the kids while she is watching them. I hope to be back home on Friday or Saturday, but I am looking forward to my mom cooking some of her favorites for us until I am back on my feet.

Monday--Lighter Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, spinach
Tuesday--My Grandma's Macaroni & Cheese, mixed veggies
Wednesday--Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff, baby carrots
Thursday--Spaghetti with Meatballs and veggie
Friday--Leftovers
Saturday--Iranian Kebab, salad
Sunday--My Mom's Scalloped Potatoes

Lunches will be cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese and leftovers

Breakfasts will be oatmeal mueseli, breakfast burritos and crockpot breakfast

Chicken Enchiladas - OAMC

Chicken Enchiladas are one of the reasons why I love freezer meals! These taste just as good after they have been in the freezer as they do fresh.

I found this recipe in the book, Don't Panic, Dinner is in the Freezer, one of my favorite OAMC cookbooks. (You can see the other once a month cooking resources I like to use here.)

1 c. onion, chopped
1/2 c. green pepper, chopped
2 T. butter
2 c. cooked chicken or turkey
3 T. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 t. ground coriander
3/4 t. salt
2 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 c. sour cream
1 -1/2 c. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
12 -6 inch tortillas

Cook onion and green pepper in 2T. butter until tender. Combine onion mixture in a bowl with chicken; set aside.

For sauce, melt 3 T. butter and stir in flour, coriander, and salt. Stir in chicken broth all at once; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup of cheese. Stir 1/2 cup of sauce into chicken mixture.

Fill each tortilla with 1/4 cup of chicken mixture. Roll up. Arrange rolls in a lined baking dish for freezing. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Freeze.

When you are ready to serve it, thaw completely in the refrigerator. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until bubbly.

I made this recipe x3; we ate one pan of enchiladas the night I made them and froze two more meals of this.

I shared this post at The Grocery Cart Challenge, $5 Dinners and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

Food Waste, 4/15/10

It was a bad food waste week. We had some food waste of Kraft mac and cheese. (I will have to start making only a half a box at a time because we seem to be wasting this on a regular basis.) I estimate this food waste cost roughly $1.00.

My husband made pumpkin pancakes the other day, so I found a recipe online for slow cooker pumpkin oatmeal and thought we would try that to use up the pumpkin. My husband, who will literally eat almost anything, found the finished product repulsive, as did our kids. There was no saving it. This food waste was at least $3.00. I will say $4.00. Yuck.

There are no pictures this week because my husband was so disgusted, he threw it all in the garbage right away! I hate it when recipes fail so miserably.

Food waste since February 1st = 23.48.

Update on Things To Do While on Maternity Leave

Five weeks ago I made a list of things I would like to accomplish around the house before the baby is born. I made pretty good progress until I was put on bed rest last week. At any rate, here is the final tally of what I was able to accomplish:

Clean our bedroom and rearrange the furniture so there is room for the baby. This is partially done. We were able to give the room a good cleaning, but it is still a work in progress and NOT finished. Hopefully we can finish it when we come home from the hospital.

Clean out our small dresser to make room for the baby’s clothes. Done.

Clean our living room book case. The bottom two shelves where my 16 month old daughter can reach are very neat and full of her books. The upper three shelves are a cluttered mess, and now that she is growing taller, she is starting to reach up there. I can just see everything falling on her head. This is done. I wrote about it here. What a difference!

Clean our entry way. Not done. I am hoping this is something my mom would like to tackle when she comes here to help after the baby is born.

Write several freelance articles. Not done.

Make at least 15 freezer meals for after the baby comes, which should get our freezer meal total up to 20 to 25 meals. I am so happy this has been accomplished. These freezer meals have been wonderful the last few days.

Declutter the house. I set the goal of getting rid of 200 items, which I easily accomplished, but I still need to declutter more this summer. Take a look at the difference in our kitchen!

List all of my son’s outgrown summer clothes on eBay and sell them all. I did list them all on eBay and managed to make $121. Yeah. Only 5 items of clothing (out of about 30 listings) did not sell.

Most importantly, decide on a name for the baby!!!! We have narrowed it down to two names. I don’t think we will be able to pick the actual name until a day or two after she is born, though we are leaning more strongly toward one than the other.

Just an FYI, I know my posts the last week or two have been heavy on baby material. Rest assured, my posts coming up will be back to normal and not so heavily focused on the baby.

Grocery Shopping, 4/12/10

Grocery shopping will be slightly out of control for the next few weeks. Since I was put on bed rest, my aunt very nicely agreed to come stay here and help and next week after the baby is born my mom will be here for two weeks, so we will have an extra adult (or two) to feed for the next several weeks. Also, my husband is having to do all of the shopping. He prefers to just get in and out, and at this point, I am not going to complaining. He is working so hard around the house and taking care of the kids.

This is just a crazy season in our lives, but it will settle down soon. Having said that, here is this week's groceries:

CVS:

1 roll toilet paper = .50
3 cartons baby wipes = 6.00
3 pkgs. diapers = 20.97

I used 2 $1.00 Qs from CVS and $5.00 ECBS to bring my total to $22.76.
I earned $10 ECBs.

Food4Less:

2 cartons ice cream = 4.90
1 bag cheese = 1.98
2 pkgs. bacon = 4.00
1 pkg. breakfast sausage = 2.00
1.74 lbs. oranges = 1.71
2.38 lbs. pears = 2.33
2 gallons apple juice = 1.78
1.40 lbs. fuji apples = 1.65
1 can cooking spray = 1.28
1 cucumber = .59
1 jar peanut butter = 1.50
2 18 ct. cartons eggs = 2.50
1 roll paper towel = .58
1 loaf bread = 1.28
1 pkg. hot dog buns = .98
3 boxes Kraft mac & cheese = 2.37

Total = 32.30

Jewel Osco Trip 1:
7 boxes of cereal = 16.86

Jewel Osco Trip 2:
2 lbs. baby carrots = 3.00
1 tomato = 1.45
2 mangos = 2.00
1 avocado = 1.00
1 loaf bread = .99
2 bags tortillas = 1.78

Total = 10.75

It seems that there should be one more Jewel receipt, but as I am not doing the shopping, I have no idea how much was spent. If I find it, I will revise this post.

Total for the week = 82.67

Reviving a Changing Table on Limited Funds

Nearly six years ago, before the birth of my first child, we received a pack and play playpen that came with a bassinet and a changing table. Once my son outgrew the bassinet, we took the little changing table that attached to the top of the play pen and put it on our bed and used this to change him on.

We did not want a changing table as furniture because we live in an apartment and did not have room for it. My son used the changing table from the play pen for three years, until he was potty trained.

A year and a half later, we pulled it out again when my daughter was born, but it was a bit worse for wear. The vinyl that covered the changing table was getting cracked; my daughter picked at it as she got older and eventually she started pulling out the thin layer of padding. It was in rough shape, and certainly not fit for baby #3 coming soon.

However, I did not want to spend the money on a new changing table. So, I dug out one of our padded playpen sheets and wrapped it around the changing table. It works perfectly. My daughter seems to like it as it is softer, and I am sure it will work for the baby.

A few weeks ago we took advantage of a diaper sale at Babies R Us and received a $15 gift certificate. We used that certificate to buy one more padded playpen sheet to use on the changing table so we will have two to rotate. A nearly free solution!

I linked this post to DIY Day at a Soft Place to Land and Works for Me Wednesday.

Monthly Goals

The baby is due in one short week, so now seemed like a good time to focus on our goals in order for me to be able to become a stay at home mom. Overall, we have accomplished quite a bit since last fall when we set these goals:

Save 5 months’ of living expenses. Thanks to a larger than expected tax refund, this goal is now 100% complete!

Have 2 no spending months. This has not happened yet, but it may happen naturally after the baby is born because I will not be able to drive for a few weeks.

Pay off 50% of my business debt. I put all of my store items on sale for three of the four weeks before the baby was born and sold quite a bit. I have now paid off 14% of my business debt. Once things settle down after the baby is a month or two old, I will try to focus on this one again.

Sell at least $500 worth of extra household items on eBay. In March I sold much of my son’s summer wardrobe from last year and made $122 (in addition to the $531 I sold in September - December) so I have sold a total of $653, making this goal 100% complete.

I think it is time to set some new goals to get us through the summer when we will have very limited income.

Menu Planning, 4/11/10

The doctor put me on bedrest last Wednesday, and having a week of slow cooker meals planned was a wonderful thing. My husband just dumped the ingredients in the slow cooker, and we had a great meal in the evening. He is so busy now trying to take care of the house that I planned another easy slow cooker week for us.

Just nine more days until the baby is born!

Monday--Slow Cooker Chicken Azteca
Tuesday--Omelet for Two with toast & blueberry/strawberry smoothies
Wednesday--Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Soup
Thursday--Tuna Noodle Casserole, broccoli
Friday--Brats, Oven Potato Wedges & carrot sticks
Saturday--Lighter Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & mixed veggies
Sunday--Stuffed Shells & broccoli

(The oven potato wedges, meatloaf & stuffed shells were all part of my freezer cooking, so we simply have to pull these out of the freezer. I am loving that!)

Lunches will be leftovers or sandwiches.

Breakfasts will be slow cooker pumpkin oatmeal, breakfast mueseli, pumpkin pancakes, omelettes or cold cereal.

Slow Cooker Dijon Pork Chops

No picture with this recipe, but we made this meal this week, and it was yummy. My 5 year old kept saying how good it was. (It comes from the cookbook, Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes.)

1 10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth (we just used water)
1/4 cup Dijon-style mustard
1 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. pepper
5 medium potatoes, cut into cubes
1 medium onion, diced
4 pork loin chops, cut 3/4 inch thick

In a large bowl combine soup, wine or chicken broth, mustard, thyme, garlic and pepper. Add potatoes and onion to the slow cooker. Pour sauce over them and stir to combine. Place pork chops on top of potatoes.

Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 1/2 hours. Enjoy!

I shared this recipe at The Grocery Cart Challenge and $5 Dinners.

Decluttering the Kitchen

The room next on my list was the kitchen. It was not functional, and I found myself being frustrated as I moved piles to try to cook. Here is the embarrassing before picture:



And here are the after pictures (much better!):





I had hoped to work on our bedroom next, but yesterday at the doctor, my blood pressure reached a level that concerned my Ob/Gyn, so she put me on bed rest. I am glad I was able to finish what I could before the appointment.

Now I will just keep my fingers crossed that my blood pressure stays in check before this baby is born. (Only 12 more days to go!)

Food Waste, 4/8/10

On the plus side, we had a cup of yogurt that had just passed the expiration date that we used in a yummy smoothie with apple juice, strawberries, blueberries and banana. Yum for avoiding food waste and having a great tasting drink.

The only waste we did have this week was 1/2 a block of tofu. This waste cost us $0.65 as we bought the tofu a few weeks ago for a little less than 1.25 a block. Otherwise, we had a great week avoiding food waste.

Food waste since February 1st: $18.48.

For more food waste posts, check out The Frugal Girl's blog.

Decluttering the Living Room

One of my goals before the baby comes is to declutter the house. Our living room serves as livingroom/diningroom/playroom, so it gets cluttered easily. In addition, my 17 month old loves to look at her books and rip them. (Seriously, my son never did this, but she loves to tear up books, even cardboard ones. Do other kids do this?) Every time she started to rip a book we just shoved it somewhere higher on the book shelf, which is part of the reason we had the disaster in the first picture:

BEFORE:

My son's books are on the second shelf, but we had to pack them in tightly so my daughter couldn't pull them out or she would rip every single one. The end result, though, is that my son also has a hard time getting his own books out, so I cleared out the entire second shelf and will make room for the books in his room, where he can read in peace.

I also found several items to sell on eBay and some to put on paperback swap. I filled a box with items for the garage sale and recycled quite a few items. Here is the end result:

AFTER:


The next area to tackle was their toy area.

BEFORE:


I weeded through quite a few unused items and added them to the garage sale pile. I also spread out the toys, putting my daughter's stuffed animals on the second shelf where my son's books used to be and creating a separate bin for all of the baby rattles, etc. I also put some toys (the big ones) up for awhile as they hardly get played with. I will probably bring them out in a few weeks so they will feel "new" to the kids. Here is the final result:

AFTER:

It feels so nice to have this cluttered space cleaner. I still have to do deep spring cleaning (hoping my mom will help me with this), but I think I am off to a good start.

I shared this post at Money Saving Mom.

My Plan for My Mom After the Baby Comes

In my experience, some people are cleaners and some people are cookers.

For instance, it drives my mom crazy when her house is messy; when she comes to my house, all she wants to do is clean. Yet, when it comes to cooking and eating, she really is not that fussy. She will happily eat a rotation of the same 3 to 5 Weight Watchers meals every night for dinner. Even when I was little and she did cook, it was always the same main meals.

I, on the other hand, am a cooker. It bothers me a little when our house is messy, but unlike my mom, I don’t feel immense satisfaction in cleaning the walls or heating vents. I just don’t care that much. I do, however, love to cook. I enjoy trying new recipes. Last summer I made a binder of our 90 favorite recipes; I thought that would be enough, but I still continue to want to cook new things.

I am only two short weeks away from delivery now, and rather than clean the house top to bottom, my nesting instinct seems to be coming in the form of cooking. I am trying to fill our freezer with yummy foods that will feed us for 6 to 8 weeks after the baby is born so we don’t have to rely on processed frozen food or take out.

Don’t get me wrong, I am noticing things around the house that need to be cleaned, but it is just that I don’t have much energy after taking care of my little girl all day and trying to stock the freezer in addition to getting my eBay business up-to-date while she naps.

My mom will be here for almost two weeks after the baby is born (huge thanks, mom!), and I know she will get antsy. I also know she will want to clean my apartment. This can sometimes lead to frustration on my part, because she seems to fixate on things I don’t care about like trying to get all the dirt build-up off of our ancient radiator in the bathroom. (It is impossible; she tries it every visit, and every visit she tries anew.) So, this time, I am making a list of the things I would like to clean but have not had time to do. That will keep her busy (and, strangely, happy) and I will end up with not only a freezer full of food, but a clean house.

Grocery Shopping, 4/4/10

It was a busy week of grocery shopping! I stocked up on some things we were short on like coffee for my husband who always gets up at 5 a.m. with our daughter and lets me sleep until 6:30 a.m.

Jewel Osco Trip 1:

7 boxes cereal = 15.39 (some for us, some for my mom & aunt when they come)
3 containers coffee = 17.972
coffee powder drinks = 7.98
1 bottle Dijon mustard = 2.79
2 bottles salsa = 3.39

Total = 48.66
(I received 3 catalinas for free milk and $5.00 & $1.00 off your next order)

Jewel Osco Trip 2:

3 containers coffee = 17.97
1 pineapple = 1.99
1 gallon milk = free (used Catalina from above)
2 boxes cheez-its = 4.98 – 2.00 Q = 2.98
2 boxes Club crackers = 4.98 – 2.00 Q = 2.98

Used the $6.00 off your next order coupons; earned 5.00 OYNO

Total = 20.64

Meijer:

6 cans cat food = 2.64
2 bags cat treats = 2.84
1 bag caramels = 2.19
1 container oatmeal = 2.99
1 box dryer sheets = 3.29 – 3.00 Q = .29

Total = 12.86

Tony's Finer Foods:

1 pkg. au jus gravy = 1.25
2 boxes onion soup mix = 2.98
4 cans condensed soup = 5.96 (ridiculous, I know!)
3 lbs. chicken = 5.291 mango = .99
1 lb. nectarines = .98
1 lb. broccoli = .502.74 lbs. apples = 3.51
1 cucumber = .99
4 lbs. bananas = 2.391 lb. baby carrots = .99
2 lbs. pears = 2.17
1 pkg. mushrooms = 2.00
½ lb. sliced cheese = 1.59
¾ lb. sliced deli ham = 2.46

Total = 34.90

Jewel Osco Trip 3:

1 loaf bread = .99
1 lb. ham steaks = 4.49
2 gallons milk = free (used the catalinas from trip 1)
Used the 5.00 OYNO Catalina from trip 2.

Total = .71

Total for the week = 117.77
Total for April = 117.77
Total for the year = 1105.61 (85.05/week)

To see the slow cooker meals we will cook for the week, go here.

Menu Planning, 4/4/10

I am so happy to have my freezer stuffed full of freezer meals, but now that I have lost much of my steam thanks to the tail end of pregnancy, all I want to do is start fishing out those frozen meals and using them! However, I will try to resist that urge as it will be really handy to have them all on hand after the baby is born.

Still, to combat my fatigue and still feed my family, I have decided to turn to my faithful slow cooker. Nothing like dumping all the food in in the morning and having a tasty meal in the evening.

Monday--Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Tuesday--Slow Cooker Dijon Pork Chops (I'll share this recipe on my Friday post if we like it )
Wednesday--Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak, baked potato, broccoli
Thursday--Chicken Quesadillas, lettuce, tomato, avacado
Friday--dinner out
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff, peas & carrots

Lunches will be sandwiches and leftovers.

Breakfasts will be smoothies (I have alot of frozen fruit I need to use up), cereal, omelettes, toast, oatmeal and muesli.

Would You Like to Guest Post?

I am looking for a few people who would be interested in guest posting on this blog (or my Dining Out Challenge blog) in late April and early May when I am having the baby and recovering. If you have a good recipe, a savings tip, a suggestion about living frugally, etc., please consider guest posting.

If you are interested, please contact me at sidelinemoney {at} yahoo [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Peanut Butter Bars - OAMC

While looking through my Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer book, I found this dessert and knew I had to try it. It is so simple!

1 c. melted butter
1 c. creamy peanut butter
2 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

Mix together the above and spread into a buttered 9 x 13 pan. (Note, the second time I made these I added some Rice Krispies which gave it a great texture. I would highly recommend this addition.)

If you would like a sweeter bar, melt 1 cup of chocolate chips and 3/4 cup of peanut butter chips together and spread over the bars. Yum.

I shared this recipe at The Grocery Cart Challenge, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays and $5 Dinners.

April Freezer Cooking Results, 18 Meals Made!

I apologize for the quality of my pictures; apparently mid to late afternoon on a sunny day is not conducive to great pictures. Also, not all items are pictured. (I was too lazy to dig them all out of the freezer.)

I did my freezer cooking over a course of about 8 days. Sometimes I just made extra of a recipe I was already making for dinner that night, and other times (when my husband was watching the kids), I cranked out several meals. I did not realize how much I had accomplished because the cooking spanned so much time. However, I now see that I got quite a bit done. I am happy with the results!

Chicken Pot Pie (x4)
Meatballs for spaghetti (x3)
10 freezer burritos
Turkey Croquettes (x3) (we ate these without the sauce the night I made them and liked them that way, so I don’t know if I will ever cook them with the sauce)
Sloppy Joes (x2)
Breaded Chicken (x2)
Chicken Burritos (x2)
8 peanut butter bars
Oven Potato Wedges (x3)

Just from this cooking week, I now have 18 meals ready to go after the baby is born. I also cooked several meals last month (10 of them) that I kept just for this purpose, so we should be set for about the first month.

Ahhh. Now I can put up my feet and relax a bit until the baby is born!

Food Waste, 4/1/10

The food waste this week looks like more than it is. We wasted a small bowl of wild rice & turkey soup, a few bites of macaroni & cheese, about 1 cup of cottage cheese and ½ cup of yogurt. I estimate the cost of all the items to be about $2.75.

However, this waste was annoying because it was made up of several odds and ends that we like to eat. Time just slipped away from us. I read on someone’s blog (I forgot whose, so if you know, please tell me), that she has a dedicated shelf in her fridge of items that are going to go bad soon and need to be eaten up. She goes to that shelf first and has greatly reduced her waste. I think we need to do that. It would help us avoid the kind of waste we had this week.

Food waste since February 1st: $17.83.