So, it's been a while since I updated this portion of my blog. But today warranted just that with the whole McDonald's BS. I hope to bring a menu to this section soon. With said menu, I hope to include a grocery list with 2011 costs. Everything that I make at home is EASY. I am not a cook. I do not have the patience to stand in a kitchen slaving over a stove for hours on end. I'll post a link to this page on the main part of my blog as soon as it's updated.
Freezables!
So, I spent Friday (3/19/10) at my MILs going through recipe after recipe trying to find some good ones to freeze. Saturday, Brian and I headed to Sam's and bought everything I'd need to do said recipes. So far, I have 3 weeks worth of dinners prepared out of one $14.73 Pork Tenderloin. It was HUGE... so I cut it into 3 sections, which will be plenty for us to eat on for a week (with a side). 2 sections, I stuffed using her dad's recipe and the other I left plain, but taped a baggie of Tones Rosemary & Garlic Seasoning with instructions. It took me less than an hour to get all three sections cut/rubbed/wrapped and in the freezer. So, here's the recipes...To freeze pork tenderloins without any preparation:
Cut in half (if not already). Wrap tightly in syran wrap. Wrap with foil. Tape end if it's not secure enough for your liking. Write name of meat and date on foil. Place in freezer. Thaw completely before preparing to cook.Rosemary & Garlic Seasoned Pork Tenderloin
* If it is not already cut in half, go ahead and do so. rub rosemary/garlic seasoning all over pork.
* Place in baking pan and add about 1/4 cup of water.
* Roast at 275 for 3 hours then 425 for the last 10-15 minutes.
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
* Combine the following ingredients in a small dish:
2 tsp black pepper, 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp ground red pepper (cayene), 1 tsp paprika, 1 tbs dried thyme, 1/2 tsp dry mustard.
* Rub inside and out of pork. If you are going to freeze, follow instructions above.
* Roast at 275 for 3 hours, then 425 for the last 10-15 minutes.
Stuffed Bell Peppers
* To freeze: Freeze stuffing separately and use fresh or frozen bell peppers.. just make sure both are thawed. Freezing together didn't prove to work out to well for us.
* If you have left over stuffing that you don't think you'll use for peppers again - try adding it to queso... it's yummy there, too!
* Bell pepper color suggestion... use yellow or orange.. they are sweet. The green is fine too, but we felt that the other colors gave it a nice contrast... Red isn't bad either, but we could only find it in "jumbo" so it was a little much for us to eat in one sitting.
So.. here we go (yields 6):
6 medium bell peppers
1 lb lean ground beef (I'm sure you could use venison.. we actually used nalgi)
1/3c chopped onion
1 (1lb) can tomato - drained
1/2c water (actually - follow whatever water instructions are on your rice, because we needed a 2:1 ratio)
1/2c uncooked long grain rice (don't be afraid to change this amount up or down to your liking)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
4 oz American cheese (USE MORE... noms..) :)
dash of salt (apparently a dash is about an 1/8 of a tsp)
1 dash of pepper
* Cut tops of peppers and remove the seeds and membrane.
* Precook the peppers in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes and drain on paper towel
* Sprinkle inside of peppers witha little salt or parmesan cheese (we used salt)
* cook the ground beef with the onion until meat is browned... Drain.
* Season with salt and pepper.
* Add canned tomatoes, water, uncooked rice, and Worcestershire sauce.
* Cover pan and simmer until rice is tender - about 15 minutes.
* Stir in American cheese.
* Sutuff peppers and stand upright in baking dish. (we found a large muffin pan worked great!)
* Bake, uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.
King Ranch Casserole
1 can of Rotel tomatoes (drained)1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of rice
Velveeta
Tortilla chips (crunched)
Cook the rice. Dump the first 3 ingredients into a bowl and mix together. At this point you can put it into a bag and freeze for later, or continue on. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish (9x9 or so) layer chips, mix, cheese until the mix is gone. Your last 2 layers will be chips and cheese. Pop in the over for 20 minutes or until heated... serve hot. Refrigerates well, but if you don't think you'll eat it all before you get to that point, I would leave the chips out so they don't get soggy.
Boil a Whole Chicken
Get a stock pot large enough for the chicken. Place chicken in. Fill pot with water to cover chicken. Add any desired seasonings (pepper... garlic... veggies even...). Cover. Bring water to a boil, then reduce the heat to about medium. Cook for 90 minutes or until chicken falls off bone. Remove from heat. Place a strainer in a large bowl and pour stock out. Let both stock and chicken cool. Ice helps with the stock... Debone the chicken and put in your favorite recipe or freeze for later use. You can jar or bag the stock for later use as well.At Sam's they had a pair of chickens on sale for $8. They yielded about 12 cups of chicken and 34 cups of stock. I saved over $60 by not buying canned chicken or boxed broth. Go me!
