Eggies

Another fun use for the sandwich maker is to cook eggs with it. The kids love the portable triangle eggs and call them eggies. One egg with a spash of milk usually makes two triangles. They take about 4-5 minutes to cook and are a very easy clean up.

Boring Blah Winter? Time to Make Jam

Okay, this week isn't too blah as far as winter goes. I have Lost to look forward to on Tuesday nights and the Olympics start really soon! Yeah! But here's a tip. It seems like summer is so busy with activities it is hard to make time for canning or making jam. This year a neighbor gave us lots of apricots that were really ripe. I didn't have time to make jam, so I washed and pitted them and threw them in the blender. Then I measured about about 5 cups of puree and froze in individual freezer bags. Now when I have some time, I can just pull them out and make jam. Usually a jam recipe calls for about 5 to 5 1/2 cups of fruit (although you need less if you make apricot/pineapple jam like I did). In 2008 I froze lots of strawberry and raspberry purees. My mom was kind enough to make raspberry/strawberry jam when she visited in November 2008 after my daughter was born. That is my favorite jam ever!

I Don't Like Leftovers

Our family does not do well with leftovers. If I tell my husband it is leftover night and there is casserole, pasta, or meatloaf as your choices he almost always goes to the freezer and gets out his favorite Lynn Wilson bean and cheese burritos! That kind of defeats the purpose of leftover night. I've found if I don't eat the leftovers for lunch the next day they just sit in the refrigerator for a week until I end up throwing them away. One solution I have found to this problem is to freeze half of our dinner immediately after dinner. If I just throw it in the refrigerator with the intent to freeze it the next day, it just doesn't get done. However, if when I am cleaning up the kitchen after dinner I take the time to get out a freezer bag then it gets done.

Many meals will freeze well in freezer storage bags. Examples include spaghetti sauce, other pasta sauces, or most soups. Some meals are best split into two portions before baking like casseroles, enchiladas, lasagna, or others. If you don't want to use disposable aluminum pans for freezing these meals, first, line your baking dish with aluminum foil. Then, add your casserole or meal. Third, cover the pan with aluminum foil. Fourth, freeze the meal. Lastly, when the meal is completely frozen you can remove the pan and the meal will easily stack up in your freezer. The nice part about frozen casseroles or lasagna is that you can place it in a baking pan and put it frozen into the oven. It does take considerably longer to bake but no defrosting is necessary.

What are some meals you have had success freezing? What doesn't work well for freezing? Let me know so I can try it too!

Inventory the freezer and pantry

I like to freeze meals to use later on. However, I was looking through my freezer yesterday and found two potential meals that I totally forgot I had frozen. Luckily, they have only been in the freezer for a couple of months instead of being completely freezer burned and useless. Solution: I took a small piece of paper and jotted down the freezer meals I have in my chest freezer. I put my little paper by my calendar and cookbooks. Now if I can't think of what to have for dinner I can check my list and make sure the meals don't go to waste.

It is also a good idea to inventory your pantry or food storage. I have a storage room in the basement where I keep extra canned goods. I made a chart with each item listed followed by little boxes I can check off each time I pull out an item. When it starts to get low I circle the item on my list and when I see the item on sale I will stock up again.

Freeze those brown bananas

I hate bananas that have any sort of brown on the peel. I prefer bananas that are just barely yellow. If there are bananas that start getting spots and no one in the house will eat them then I just peel the banana and throw it in a ziploc baggie and freeze it for later. One frozen banana works great in a morning protein shake.

Chocolate Protein Shake
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 frozen banana
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Sweetener (if needed)

This makes a very thick and rich protein shake. I often make this in the morning and share with my 2 year old son.

Frozen bananas are also great for making banana bread. Once you have about 4 bananas you can let them thaw and thrown them in the mixer with your favorite banana bread recipe.