Freezer Cooking

I intend the majority of posts on here to be about jogging, but I also have other interests, one of which is cooking.  Recently, I called out to my facebook friends for help and asked them what their average per month grocery bill was for a family of four.  One mom with a family of five, was only spending five hundred dollars.  Boy was I impressed.  Some families were over a thousand dollars, which is very easy to do with today's grocery prices.  The families that budgeted and planned meals thought eight hundred dollars was a pretty decent sum.

I don't know about any of you, but the cost of groceries has been killing us.  We are a family of four who eats like a family of six!  I'm not a fat chick without reason!  My friend who spends five hundred dollars a month referred me to her blog.  It is freezerfriendly.blogspot.com

Rant ahead:  Please pardon my lack of a clickable link.   I am having a lot of trouble with the "new" blogger.  If I write html, and hit publish, my html code shows.  If I hit the button that says HTML and start composing, everything looks strange.  So maybe someday I'll figure this crap out, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I digress.  I checked out her blog and I was really impressed.  The idea is simple.  Think about that night you are running late and don't know what to cook for dinner.  You either grab takeout, or eat cereal, or buy what you can at the store without planning around sales.  With the exception of eating cereal, these are expensive options.  Plus I try to keep my son gluten-free and most take-out is not gluten-free.  That means even more expensive take-out, if I go with gluten-free pizza.  In my attempt to save money and time, I took some of my friend's ideas and utilized them today.  I have two meals ready to go and one meal marinating.

The first step was my Costco trip.  I purchased a pork loin for 2.13 a pound, two large packages of ground beef for 2.99 a pound, and four pounds of bacon for 3.50 a pound each.  Today I started on the pork.  You are supposed to do all your cooking in one day, but I have other things to do, like getting the old freezer dusted off and ready to go.

Last night I tried cooking twice as much meat for tacos as I usually do, so I could freeze some of that.  This probably works for most people.  Unfortunately if I cook twice as much, my family eats twice as much.  So that approach doesn't work for me.

But back to today.  One thing my friend had posted was a fajita recipe.  She assembled everything raw and then cooked it in the crock pot.  While I don't mind re-heating in the crock pot, my husband hates crock pot food.  No, I don't get it either, but it is what it is.

I googled a fajita recipe which called for fajita seasoning.  I found a seasoning recipe and made my own.  My spice cupboard is pretty well stocked and most store bought seasoning mixes have wheat.  I made my fajitas.  They were delicious even without the lime juice they called for.  I thought I had lime juice.  I was wrong.  It seems there is a dim memory of a bloody mary filled weekend, so I'm sure that's where it went.  So bam, fajitas made, cooled and frozen.  The day of, I will throw the frozen mix in the crockpot and heat it through on low, make some white rice and a salad, and serve it in tortillas with our toppings of choice.

The next thing I decided to try was a Thai marinade.  This also called for lime juice.  Note to self: Plan ahead next time.  At the moment, the pork is marinading. The marinade smells delicious.  I will cook it with onions and freeze it later.  This recipe calls for a peanut sauce.  I will save the sauce recipe and make it fresh to go over the meat when I cook it.  That's only because I don't currently have the sauce ingredients. Once again, this is a meal that will be served with rice.

The last part of the pork loin was carved into pork chops.  My friend's blog had a recipe where you rub your chops with dry Italian dressing mix, then add your oil and vinegar.  I made my own dry Italian dressing mix, rubbed it in, and then added the oil and vinegar.  Those I froze raw.  I will thaw them and bake them with potatoes some night.  They can also be grilled so if I play my cards right, maybe the husband could cook them.

Tomorrow I will cook up the hamburger.  I am making meatballs.  You bake them, freeze them individually on a cookie sheet and then put them in a baggie.  I am also making meatloaf.  (same recipe different shape - ha ha)  I can leave the meatloaf raw but I might bake it so it is quicker to reheat.

I am going to share the Thai recipe.  It was actually for chicken on skewers.  I'm too lazy to cook anything on skewers and I didn't have chicken.   It was 2.99 a pound at Costco for boneless, skinless and it is 2.49 a pound all the time at the local grocery store.  That's about the only thing cheap at the local grocery store.  Please note that we use gluten-free soy sauce, but I didn't specifically type that in the recipe.

So here is the Thai recipe if you are interested.  It was from the Costco Connection magazine.

Thai Marinated Grilled Chicken Skewers

Special Equipment
24 wooden skewers

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

Marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 TBS firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 TBS fresh lime juice
2 TBS oil
1 TBS curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp finely minced fresh ginger (I used powder)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Peanut Coconut Sauce
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk, not fat-free or light
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 TBS soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp curry paste

Soak the skewers in ice-cold water for 15 minutes to prevent them from burning.  Set aside.

Place the chicken in a medium bowl.  Prepare the marinade.  Whisk all of the ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Pour the marinade over the chicken and massage the meat with your hands for 1 minute to coat the cubes well.  cover the bowl and marinate in the fridge for at least one hour or as long as overnight.

Prepare the sauce.  Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Spray a grill rack with nonstick cooking spray and set the ehat to high or use a grill pan.  Thread 6 to 8 meat cubes on each skewer.  When the girll is ready, cook the chicken for 8-10 minutes, turning the skewers over halfway through.  Remove the skewers from the grill and allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes before serving.

Serve the peanut coconut sauce alongside the chicken skewers. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Variations:  Cubes of top sirloin beef or pork loin can be substituted for the chicken.

I am very excited to see how this works out for us.  I really hope to save money and have delicious meals every night.  Thanks for reading!