Food Friday - Freezer Tips

Phil says that I'm the queen of freezing food.

As the Queen, I shall bestow upon you some wonderful tips about things that I've successfully frozen and then used. For me it is largely about convenience. I'm lazy like that.

• I've already blogged about freezing cheese. See here for that.

• I've already blogged about freezing fresh chicken strips or breasts so that they aren't all clomped together when you are ready to use them. See here for that. Also, this same concept works for pork chops or steaks or any other kind of meat.

• Did you know that you can freeze fresh spinach? I wasn't sure so I did a little googling and found that about half the people said "no way!" and the other half were divided in the ways you could do it. Some said to blanch it first, some said it had to be fully cooked, but some said to just buy the washed and dried stuff and stick it in your freezer. I like that idea. I had just purchased a HUGE amount at Sam's Club and was anxious to not waste it. So I pulled out my trusty qt. sized freezer Ziploc (no, I'm not being paid) and made several serving-sized bags and threw them in the freezer. It worked great! Here is the important tip: don't thaw it out. Take it straight from the freezer and steam it immediately. I've made several batches of spinach pasta (see here for a great tutorial and recipe) and it really does work great. You can use it in anything that calls for steamed or cooked spinach. Obviously it doesn't come back well enough to use in a green salad or anything that calls for raw spinach.

• I hate fatty hamburger. I've been paying the $4/lb for the really lean stuff but then I see the 80% stuff on sale for $1.50/lb and I think, "even when I subtract the weight of the fat it is a better deal." So what is a frugal-and-trying-to-be-healthier girl to do? Well, I bought the 80% and fried up the whole thing (several pounds). Then I drained and RINSED it to get all that yucko fat off. Then I took out the Ziplocs and created several bags of pre-cooked ground beef. This has been AWESME because I can pull it out to make any number of things (tacos, sloppy Joes, spaghetti, pasta bake, etc.) and my meat is already cooked. One less step for me and one less pan to wash for Phil. If this isn't a win/win I don't know what is. I got cheap meat, made it less unhealthy and I get the convenience of pre-cooked meat. Voila! (Oh, I still buy the expensive 95% stuff for those rare times we have hamburgers or some other recipe that won't work with pre-cooked hamburger - like meatloaf or something.)
  

• Cottage Cheese freezes pretty well so if you find a good deal on it, stock up and put some in your freezer.

• Butter freezes just fine so you can stock up on that too when there is a sale.

• If you grind your own wheat into flour, you should freeze the flour that doesn't get used immediately. It retains the nutrients better in the freezer than at room temperature.

• Bacon bits (either that you create or if you buy the big bulk bag) can just be kept in the freezer and then used as needed. They will last much longer in the freezer.

• Yeast should be kept in the freezer and just used from there. This will keep your yeast much fresher and it will perform better for you. While we are on the topic of yeast, I highly recommend Fleishman's Yeast found at Sam's in bricks. I open one brick and dump it into a freezer Ziploc and then keep it in the freezer.

• Freezer jam: it is so good. My only concern is that it requires so much sugar. I finally found some pectin that uses less. Now I buy Ball Freezer Jam pectin. It takes 1 1/2 C sugar to 4 C berries (instead of equal parts) and it is EXCEEDINGLY easy. Just follow the recipe on the pectin package.
  

• My freezer also has lots of frozen veggies. Whenever there is a deal on frozen corn or beans or broccoli (Eden's favorite) or stir fry or whatever, I stock up.
  

• Cake freezes great. Make cupcakes and freeze half of them for the next time. (Frosting freezes ok but it is messy so it works best to freeze them before frosting.)

• Breads and rolls freeze pretty well too. This recipe freezes and then thaws out really great and tastes yummy after freezing too!

• Pizza dough freezes well. This recipe is the one I use and it makes two pizzas. We don't eat two pizzas at a time and so I take half the dough and put it in a freezer Ziploc (really, no payment) and then I have a pizza crust just waiting to be used. Do not defrost in the microwave though. It will kill the yeast and your dough will be flat and tough. Take the dough out of the freezer at least two hours before you intend to use it.

• And now, for my number 1 favorite thing in the freezer:

Ice Cream!

What's in your freezer?

Internet Romance

I found a new site that I think I may want to start dating. I don't think I'm ready for an exclusive relationship with it, but we will definitely be hanging out!

Check it out here!

Cheese!

If your cheese of choice looks like this:

move along, this post is not for you.


If your cheese drawer looks like this:

... don't waste your time with this post.



But,
if you buy pre-grated cheese (Mozzarella or cheddar) you might be interested in this little helpful hint.

Sam's Club has 5 pound bags (approximately 20 cups) of grated cheese for less than $9. This is a good deal folks. But I can hear you saying, "what am I going to do with all that grated cheese, it will go moldy before I can possibly use that much!"

My answer is this:
Buy qt. size freezer bags and then measure approximately 2 C into each bag (label and date the bag) and then throw it into your freezer/deep freeze. Then you just take out 2C each time you need it. It is a great way to add cheese to your rotating food supply. It is very economical.

Layne, if you kept reading, please don't think less of me now that you know I'm a cheese-meh.

T'is the Season

The Christmas season seems to bring out the best and worst in society.

I may offend some of my faithful readers but I detest the whole concept of black Friday. To me it says, "let's interrupt what is to be a weekend of giving thanks and family and instead wake up early so we are grouchy then go spend the day consuming instead of giving thanks and in some cases being rude to other customers instead of enjoying our families." I mean stampedes to the point of death?? Really? What kind of society is this? I see shoppers frantically purchasing things because they feel expected to provide a gift. What happened to spending weeks in thoughtful preparation to show appreciation and admiration? It makes me sad to see how consumer-oriented the holidays are. This year we have the added, dualistic pressures of the recession: money is tighter, yet it is our patriotic duty to stimulate the economy. Sad.

On the other hand, people are so very generous during this time of year. I love to hear of and see people taking care of others. I see people reaching out to make sure children and adults have some kind of gift Christmas morning. Even in the midst of the recession, people give to the food pantry or to their neighbors. I love to see homes opened up to welcome the lonely into the circle of love and friendship and family during the holidays. There seriously is so much good that is done.

It seems that often during the year we think about giving in more global terms. We give to organizations (our church, non-profits, government agencies) but at Christmastime we more often reach out to individuals in our midst. It reminds me of a section in C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters*, in which Screwtape tells Wormwood, “Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary."

I love that at Christmas we show our benevolence in ways that it becomes wholly real. I hope that I extend that reality throughout the year.


*The Screwtape Letters is a fictional account of Screwtape (a devil) training his nephew (Wormwood) in the art of temptation. It is such an insightful and interesting book, I highly recommend it (and pretty much any of Lewis's books).

Eleven Years Without It - sorry Philo

Approximately eleven years ago I decided that cable was an expense that I could live without. I was just done with my masters and hadn't started making the big bucks yet and had student loans to repay so why not get rid of television? Besides, it gave me an excellent excuse to visit the boys two doors down when NBA playoffs came around*. I haven't paid for television since. No cable. No satellite. Not even rabbit ears.

It was seriously one of the best decisions (and easiest to live with) I've ever made. I can't imagine how I ever found the time for "must see TV" every Thursday night. I'm able to watch LDS General Conference online. I'm even able to watch a few other shows online these days (Monk and Psych are a couple of favorites). I've saved lots of money.

I was a pretty faithful follower of a few shows when I discontinued my television watching. I tried to have high standards and not watch trash. Then I saw some of those same shows and I realized that I had become very desensitized to them when I was watching every week. With a little distance between me and my beloved plots and characters I realized they were feeding me a large dose of yuck. I don't need any more yuck in my life.

Phil and I have discussed what to do about TV as our family grows. We don't want it to be the forbidden wonder that resides in the homes of friends and therefore gets partaken of in excess when accessible. For now, we'll stick to our decision to keep it out of our home. We'll probably be those weirdos who don't have TV for the rest of our lives.



*I ended up marrying one of those boys even though he never watched the playoffs with us.

Food Friday - Food Tip

If you are like me, you love those flash-frozen chicken tenders and breasts. They are just so convenient. Apparently, they are so popular that the supply-demand has determined they should cost more than fresh chicken tenders and breasts.

I want convenience and good prices!

What is a frugal-yet-lazy girl to do?

Well, last Saturday I found a good deal on some fresh chicken tenders (a HUGEGIGANTIC package) so I bought them. I didn't want to store them in freezer bags because they would all just glob together and defeat the purpose of buying nice-sized tenders.

Then I had a brilliant (at least I hoped it was brilliant) idea. I put a piece of wax paper down on a cookie sheet. Then I arranged the tenders (not touching) on the paper. Next, I put another piece of wax paper on top of the chicken. Then I put the cookie sheet (actually I ended up with two) in the freezer. I have a deep freeze so there was plenty of room, but you could do it on a small sheet for your regular freezer.

I left them in over night.

They froze.

Individually.

Without globbing.

I took them out and tore off the wax paper and put the "flash frozen" tenders in freezer bags where they will remain as individual entities waiting for that future day when I will take one or two out and make dinner.

It was brilliant after all! Yippee!