Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for the ‘Food Stuff’ Category

 

If you have been thinking about signing up for Plan to Eat and simplifying your cooking, shopping and life, but couldn’t justify the cost — this is a great time to start!

Save 50% OFF sale this weekend only (Friday 25th – Monday 28th) for all yearly subscriptions. That’s only $19 (or $1.58 a month) for a whole year!

Whew! The meal is over, and can you believe the kitchen is also cleaned up too??!!!  Everyone pitched in this year. It was great! Sweet Peanut fell asleep from the wonderful turkey tryptophan properties. And there was a cold or two threatening to ruin someone’s fun. But it was a great time had by all and off to bed after a time of giving thanks.

But what does tomorrow hold? And how will I proceed?

To be sure there are a few homemaking worthy Black Friday sales deals to be had. Such as…

1.  Christine at Menu Planning Central has 90% off her Holiday Bundle. 12 Holiday resources for only $10.

Oh! She’s also selling her Lifetime Menu Planning memberships for only $50 instead of $199.97

 

2.  Maria Gracia at Get Organized Now! is offering a BOGO offer order any of her Get Organized Now! products. Email her             at getorgnow@charter.net with the order number and let her know which complimentary digital product you would like. Get your        product within 24 hours. You can choose from  the following

* Finally Organized, Finally Free for the Home – Digital

* Finally Organized, Finally Free for the Office – Digital

* Easy Organizer – Digital

* Holiday Planner – Digital

* 501 Tips and Ideas For Finding MORE TIME For the Things You Love – Digital

* The Ultimate Guide For Professional Organizers – Digital
(Note: This one is if you’re wanting to start your own organizing business.)

 

3.   MomAgenda is offering 20% off site-wide PLUS free shipping! Woo wee! Get those gorgeous planners now!  Use Code: 20MOM

And…AND if you want an extra 10% off all orders over $65!  Use Code: MOM10OFF65. This one ends next Wednesday on the 30th.

OR an extra 10% off orders over $75 Use Code: MOM10OFF75 which also expires on Wednesday the 30th.

and…

4.   Now is the time to get your 2012 calendars. Save up to %60 off site-wide at Calendars.com and free shipping with every order. This weekend only.

But really what I am concerned about is….

 

What am I going to do with all those leftovers??!!!!

Well luckily Tawra over at Living on a Dime has us covered.

Using those Thanksgiving Leftovers and 

More Creative Ways to Use Thanksgiving Leftovers

Whew! I’m glad for that because I was getting a little stressed.

As we do whenever preparing to have guests over for dinner my husband and I make out a to-do list with his chores and then mine. As Sweet Peanut gets older she usually pitches in with one parent (mostly daddy).  As the countdown for Thanksgiving is here I thought you might like to see our list. Just a note: each guest is contributing to the dinner. Our dinner is about 3:30 or 4pm on Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Wednesday (Hubby is at work here)

Me

1. Pick up last minute items
2. Scrub down kitchen (I’ll usually have Peanut underfoot here)
3. Make cornbread for stuffing (Peanut will want to help here)
4. Work on some nice Thanksgiving craft with Peanut
5. Brine Turkey (Peanut helps with this)

It’s time to at least start thinking about getting ready for Thanksgiving and Fred Meyer is starting you off with their spend $150 and get a free turkey deal. This is on a Private Selection brand Premium frozen turkey only so if you buy the fresh, free range, organic (like we do) turkey you’re out of luck.

Find more great deals this week at your Fred Meyer at Frugal Chic Living

 

 

 

F8926E7NCFUZ   Image by Sifu Renka via Flickr Top Sirloin has been on sale at our local organic grocery so I stocked up to make a few tasty meals. One that has been a real winner both in the original meal and the leftovers Teriyaki Marinated Steak the first night and then The original recipe calls for grilling the steak but I seared and then oven roasted/baked what have you. I also have to use pseudo soy sauce (my own homemade) as I’m allergic to soy.

Pseudo Soy Sauce

• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• Put in a pan and bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced by half. Add salt and/or ginger. Refrigerate.

 

Teriyaki Sirloin Steak

• 1/ cup pseudo soy sauce (or regular soy sauce)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil of choice
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons mustard
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• two boneless beef sirloin steaks 1 to 1 1/2 pounds  each

Combine all ingredients in a bag and marinated beef overnight or all day. When ready to cook preheat oven to 450 and then add a tiny dash of oil in cast iron skillet. Sear beef on both sides then place in the oven. Bake until your preferred doneness (internal temp: Medium Rare-145, Medium-160, Well Done- 170).  Serve one steak with potatoes and veggies.

Steak Tortillas

The next night (or whenever you choose to serve the next meal) slice the beef thinly.  Sautee some onions and peppers. Add beef and heat through. Serve on warmed flour tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Yum!

My husband had a birthday recently and a request for a specific cake. He’s not really much of a cake person and would have probably preferred pie but this is what he said.

He wanted a yellow cake with strawberry frosting. Not fakey strawberry frosting and not a cake mix (which I can’t use anyway) but real strawberry flavor frosting.

Not really finding what I wanted online or in my newer cookbooks I turned to my vintage cookbook for strawberry frosting and found a very simple worthy recipe.

For the cake I turned to America’s Test Kitchen cookbook for a good recipe that had been perfected. The cake was called simply a butter cake but since that’s what yellow cake is, with the complete egg (instead of only egg whites), I went with it.

Picture and recipe are below. Since the frosting recipe was kind of vague about how many strawberries I might have used a bit too man as the frosting didn’t stand in stiff peaks like I like. It’s still very yummy though and was deemed a success!

 

 

Strawberry Frosting

1/2 package of frozen strawberries

1/2 cup (or one stick) butter

1 pound powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

I  mixed the strawberries and butter in the mixer and then add the powdered sugar half a box at a time. Drizzled in the vanilla last and whipped it up with my wire beater attachment on high until I thought it looked good. It was enough to frost a 2 layer 9 inch cake.  I left the sides free so it wasn’t overly sweet.

I’ve had so much going on I’ve almost been too busy to blog (see previous post). In addition to preparing to start the homeschool year, and all the foods I’ve been preparing for the freezer we did our first canning project this week. My husband and I. He really wanted in on this. We opted for apple sauce. We wanted a fruit.  A fruit product we already eat. And something easy. It was painless really. We canned in really small jars. We should have used 1/2 quarts but oh well. Next we ‘say’ we’re going to try apple butter and then some pear sauce.

I’m also giving ginger syrup a try. I’ve been wanting to make some ginger molasses cookies and I found this recipe on King Arthur’s website. I remember having seen Ming Tsai make some very easy ginger syrup with bonus ginger candy (if you’ve ever been pregnant or just nauseous ginger candy can be a lifesaver) on A Moveable Feast (cooking video with a few famous chefs) so I  found his recipe and it’s simmering now. Wanna  join me?

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

Ginger Syrup Recipe

Ginger Syrup video

Now I’m off to help my mother shampoo her carpets.

Toodles!

 

 

So just in case you think I’ve been letting the blog go stale on purpose…

Do you switch up your meal plans during the warmer summer weather?

We sure do.

Here are some of our favorite summertime family meals.

Ground Turkey and Chicken burgers: We have various ways of serving them up. Buffalo Ground Chicken Burgers, Greek Turkey Burgers, Teriyaki Turkey burgers to name a few. Our family recipes are adapted from those found in the Taste of Home Light & Easy Magazine.

Summer Dinner Salad: These are great with so many fresh veggies in season. Mixes of the following…lettuce, boiled eggs, cooked potatoes, olives (sometimes), tomatoes, avocado, various cheeses, beans (sometimes), cooked chicken or turkey, and dressing. Don’t forget pasta and potato salads too.

Wraps: Well we call them tortillas but I guess since they rarely carry the traditional ingredients we’ll have to go with the name “wraps”. We really like them with cooked chicken, sauteed with onions and peppers. Then just add lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes.

What are your favorite summertime dinner dishes?

Betty Crocker has a whole section on their website to entice you to try tasty new dishes this summer. Betty Crocker Red Hot Summer Trends

 

So I have a new freezer and I’ve been spending some time hugging getting to know it. I’m a little shocked that after emptying the above the refrigerator freezer into it that it is more than half full already. I think that’s pretty telling of how packed my above the refrigerator freezer was.

So here are some great tips and resources I found that might help you too.

Organization

I knew that although the freezer came with two hanging baskets the real job is organized below that. The stuff at the bottom. After reading around I discovered that those plastic crates you find in office supply stores can work pretty well. I have an 8.8 cu ft freezer and was able to fit two of these in there. I designated one of those for raw meats and the other for prepared meals. I will admit that I have a tiny bit of frost on the sides of my freezer and when I pulled up one of the crates it grated against that little bit of ice and ssshhhhiiiivvvveeerrrrrr it was like nails on a blackboard. I can still ‘hear’ it now… ssshhhhiiiivvvveeerrrrrr

I also have smaller baskets that I’m using for butter, veggies, fruits, and my specialty flours (buckwheat, barley, graham, teff) . I have room for a few more baskets and I know I’m still getting accustomed to the whole thing.

 

Filling it Up

My goal for the freezer is preparing those meals that will help save time in the future and storing good buys and excess from the garden.

For great tips on preserving your foods from all sorts of sources I found this site Pick Your Own it’s about pick your own farms, how to can, freeze, dry and more.

For ideas on what kinds of meals to put away I have quite a few resources, mostly books. There is this nice article to give you an idea of what you can put away.

Then these are the books I’m using for recipes.

Frozen Assets Lite and Easy: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month: I’m like the way this books is organized. By mini sessions by meat. For example I’m eyeing the ground turkey mini session. It’s all laid out with recipes, shopping lists and preparation instructions. I never thought our menus were so light but I could work with this book.  I’m checking it out from the library.

Make-A-Mix: I don’t use all the recipes in this book but I do like the cookie and the baking mixes. I own this one.
More Make Your Own Groceries: This is an excellent book for freezer cooking and making staples. I have no idea why it is so expensive on Amazon. I own a copy. There are two editions, 1 and 2. I have both. 2 is the cover of the link and 1 has a yellow cover. They are both excellent.

Keeping Track

For keeping up on what’s inside I printed up a new sheet from my planner (yes I use Vintage Household Notes too) and put it in a sleeve. For now I taped it to the top but I’m looking at other ways to attach it. I opted for writing the ususal suspects in pen and then hash marks in pencil for how many I have going there.

I hope some of this has been a help to someone.

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