Yes, I froze even MORE food for when the baby comes. This time around, I’m going to talk about the massive quantities of chicken breast I froze.

If you’re super co-ordinated, you can wait until chicken hits the low point in the 12 week grocery cycle (skinless breast usually hits $1.79/lb here at the lowest) and start freezing. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting (being a human time bomb) so I just picked up bulk breasts at BJ’s.

There are two ways to simple cook your chicken, you can poach it like I’ve talked about before, or you can bake it.

To bake chicken breast for storage, first trim off all the fat, membranes, veins, etc. Then salt and pepper your breasts and pop them in the oven at about 375 for maybe 30 minutes. I personally prefer to partially under most of my batches because they’ll retain more moisture for their reheating/cooking. I also fully cook a few so I can use them cold. Just make sure you mark which is which when you freeze.

I prefer to cube my chicken for freezing, since they thaw and reheat faster that way. About 1″ cubes seem to work the best and a heaping handful is usually about 1 serving, unless you have freakishly tiny or huge hands.

“Recipes” for Cubed Chicken: (These ‘recipes’ are designed for convenience and speed. Ingredients listed are per serving, unless noted. For more complex recipes, type ‘chicken’ into the search widget and you’ll find a bunch of recipes from my poached chicken series.)

“Stir Fry”

• 1 handful chicken
• 1 cup veggies (fresh or frozen, we’re partial to zuchini)
• 2-3 tsp prepared stir fry sauce

Stir fry your chicken and veggies together with a little vegetable oil on high. Add your sauce and continue cooking until fully heated. Serve over rice or ramen.

Chicken ‘Helper” (for 4)

• 2 cups diced chicken
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 can water
• 1/2 bag egg noodles
• 1/2 bag frozen broccoli (or green beans)

Saute onion. Add chicken and broccoli and cook until broccoli starts to thaw. Add soup and water, then noodles and whatever seasoning sounds good. Bring to a boil and then turn heat to low and simmer until noodles are tender.

Chicken Salad

• 1 handful diced chicken
• 1 Tbsp diced celery
• 1 Tbsp diced onion
• 2-3 Tbsp mayonaise
• 1 squirt mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• (optional: squeeze of lemon juice, tsp of pickle relish, etc.)

Mix ingredients and serve on toast.

Salad with Chicken

• 2 cups mixed greens (use a bagged mix for convenience)
• 1 handful chicken
• prepared dressing

Chicken ‘Alfredo’ (for 4)

• 2-3 cups diced chicken
• 1-2 cups broccoli florets*
• 1-2 carrots, diced*
• 1/2 cup diced red pepper*
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 jar prepared alfredo sauce

*Save yourself some time and just use frozen veggies.

Saute vegetables and garlic together until they soften. Add chicken. Stir in prepared sauce and cook until heated through. Serve over pasta.

Chicken Pot Pie

Pilsbury, take it away.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Part One – http://www.afamilyofgeeks.com/?p=1735

More on freezing meals for eating later. This post, I’m going to focus on freezing prepared meals.

As I mentioned last post, the Meat Sauce and Chili freeze quite well. I measure out 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup per serving (depending on whether it’s for kids or adults) and freeze the bags flat. Just don’t forget to mark the bags with the contents because it’s very easy to mix the two up and end up defrosting the wrong thing.

My Garlicky Meatballs are also excellent candidates for freezing and their small size means they defrost quickly (or you can just forget defrosting them if you plan to simmer them in sauce). Figure 3 meatballs per serving and freeze them on a baking tray first before bagging them so you they don’t get squished.

Meatloaves also freeze well, but I recommended splitting your recipe into smaller loaves. They thaw and cook faster, meaning you won’t end up with blackened insides and raw insides. I also like to only partially cook my meatloaves when I’m freezing them, so they’re not dry and gross when they’re reheated. (I’d give you my meatloaf recipe, but I don’t think I’ve ever made it the same way twice. You can try this one from Freeze Happy though.)

Baked Ziti

I don’t know why I never put this recipe up before. It made it to my other sites, so I’m guessing it may just be tagged incorrectly and buried in the mess of my archives. This is quite possibly my favorite thing to eat and it feeds a whole crowd (or it can be split into multiple meals).

• 1lb ziti or penne, cooked for only half of recommended time
• 1lb lean ground beef OR 1lb loose sausage (or .5lb of each)
• 2 26.5 oz cans Hunts Traditional Spaghetti Sauce (or any similar sauce
• 1 8oz can plain tomato sauce
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 lb part skim mozzarella,
• 1 large tub ricotta, drained
• 2-3 eggs
• garlic (I use almost 1/2 cup minced)
• oregano/basic (about 2 tsp each)
• olive oil

Prepare your pans. Either use disposable ones, or line your baking dishes with foil. For crowds, I use 9×13 pans (usually two) for smaller groups or freezing, I’ll use 4 9×9 pans.

A few hours before serving/cooking

• Drain your ricotta in a fine sieve or cheesecloth over a bowl in the fridge.

1 hour a before assembly

• Dice and fry the onion in oil in a nice big saute or sauce pan.
• When onions are translucent, add the beef and half of the garlic, oregano and basil. Brown.
• When beef is browned, add 1 can of spaghetti sauce and the tomato sauce
• Let cover and let simmer until ready to assemble ziti. Stirring often.
• Start grating the mozzarella.

30 minutes before assembly

• Start your pasta water boiling.
• Mix drained ricotta, eggs, and rest of seasonings in a large bowl. Let come to room temperature.
• Preheat your oven to ~375.

10 minutes before assembly.

• Cook your pasta for 4-5 minutes less than the packaging recommends. It should be just barely cooked through and very chewy.

Assembly

• In each pan, layer in the following order: 1/4 of pasta, 1/4 of ricotta, 1/4 of meat sauce, 1/6 mozzarella, repeat once. (If you are using 4 9×9 pans, use 1/8 and 1/12 respectively)
• Now mix it all together! (Why layer first? To make sure everything is evenly divided and mixed.)
• Split remaining can of sauce over the top of pans.
• If you are freezing the baked ziti, pop it in the fridge now.

Cooking Immediately

• Loosely cover pan with tin foil.
• Bake in over until heated through. If all the ingredients were still warm when they were assembled, this may take 45 minutes. If they were allowed to cool first, this could be closer to 90 minutes.
• Remove foil and top with remaining cheese. Continue baking until cheese is melted.

Freezing and Thawing

• To freeze, cover with tinfoil and freeze until firm. When firm, reposition the tin foil to lay directly on the top of the ziti. This will allow you to stack these large, silver bricks. If you are using regular baking pans, pull the foil out now and the ziti should hold it shape well enough to stack without the pans.
• To thaw, place in refrigerator at least 48 hours ahead of time. (If you are using regular baking pans, unwrap ziti and place in pan now) Because of the density, these bricks can take a ridiculously long time to thaw. Do NOT try to cook from frozen state.
• Bake as above.

Serving Suggestions

• Keep it simple. A large green salad and a loaf or two of garlic bread will satisfy everyone but the pickiest of eaters.
• To make garlic bread: Slice a loaf of Italian bread in half horizontally. Mash a stick of salted butter with a teaspoon or two of garlic. Spread on bread and broil until the edges of the bread start to brown.

Popularity: 12% [?]

This past weekend I spent a couple hours filling my freezer with food so I won’t have to worry about cooking in the first few weeks after baby comes. For the most part I cooked the building blocks of meals and  not whole entrees (although I did partially bake a few meatloaves and such). By not making full meals, I left myself with lots of flexibility but significantly cut down on the time Mr. and I would need to cook dinner.

To freeze ground beef, I use:

• 4-5lbs bulk beef (since I drain the fat, I often buy 80% which is cheaper.
• 1 bag of frozen, diced onions (you can dice them yourself, but onions are cheap and this is faster)
• small holed colander

If you don’t have a big griddle, this is best done in 2lb batches so you don’t just end up steaming the meat on top. Basically, just fry the onions for a minute or two and then brown the beef. Drain the whole mess in the colander and then portion it out into meal sized servings (.5lb packages for Mr and I). You can obviously repeat for as many meals as you need.

I find the meat stores (and defrosts) better if you squish the meat down in a freezer bag and lay them flat. You may need to use  gallon sized bags depending on how big the portion is.

Straight up, the beef won’t have any real flavor because there’s no seasoning, but that’s on purpose.  The lack of seasoning allows you to make different meals with it, but if you know you almost always make the same thing, go ahead and flavor the meat for that.

To thaw your beef, simply take it out the night before (I remember better if I do it while I’m cooking dinner) and pop it in the fridge. If you’re in a hurry, either take advantage of the defrost setting on your microwave or let it sit in a bowl full of cool water.

Recipes for Pre-Cooked Beef: (most of these recipes prize convenience, simplicity and speed over anything else, so anyone can make them if mom and dad are busy. They usually feed about 4, but you can double most easily.)

Meat Sauce (for Pasta)

• 1/2 ground beef
• 1 Tbsp garlic (minced)*
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1 can or bottle prepared spaghetti sauce (Traditional)

Fry the beef briefly with the seasonings and dump in the sauce. Let simmer until heated through. Serve over pasta (works best with chunky styles). This sauce freezes well, so you can make it ahead of time and freeze it as well.

Chili

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 Tbsp garlic (minced)*
• 3 tsp chili powder
• couple shakes red pepper flakes
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 15.5 oz can black or pinto beans

Fry first 4 ingredients together. Add tomatoes and beans. The longer it simmers the better. Serve over rice. Also freezes and reheats well.

Sloppy Joes

• 3/4 pound ground beef
• 2 cups tomato sauce (not pasta sauce)
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp Worcester sauce
• 1 Tbsp mustard
• 1 Tbsp garlic (minced)*
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Simmer ingredients together. Serve on hamburger buns.

“Stir Fry“

• 3/4 lbs ground beef
• 1 package of favorite frozen veggie (broccoli works well)
• 1/2 bottle favorite stir fry sauce

I’m pretty sure you don’t actually need directions here. Serve over rice.

Beef ‘Helper’ *cough*

• 3/4lbs ground beef
• 1tsp garlic*
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom or celery soup
• 1/2 can water or milk
• ~ 1 Tbsp seasoning salt or whatever looks good from your spice rack
• 1/2 lb egg noodles

Mix ingredients together and simmer until noodles are tender. You can also add a bag of frozen veggies to the mix instead of cooking a vegetable separately.

*I buy it pre-minced in water. Doesn’t taste quite the same, but the goal here is speed and ease of use.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Mr. likes to order Buffalo Wings when we go out, but I never understood why. They’re stupidly expensive for what they are, and the actual wings themselves just keep getting smaller and smaller.

If you’ve got a bunch of guests coming for the Big Game, save yourself some money and make your own wings.

[Pedantic NYer Moment]: Buffalo Wings are ALWAYS spicy because they’re made with cayenne pepper sauce. You can coat your wings in barbecue sauce, mild sauce, or whatever, but they’re no longer Buffalo wings if you do so., they’re just Hot Wings or Chicken Wings. [/Pedantic Moment]

Classic Buffalo Wings

• Chicken Wings (with skin on)
• Wing Sauce – 1 part melted butter to 1 part Frank’s Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Some people reduce the butter to 2 parts Frank’s to 1 part butter, but I think they’re sissies)

Deep fry (400 degrees, 10 minutes)  or bake your wings (500 degrees, 20 minutes) until fully cooked and nice and crispy. Coat with wing sauce.

How stupidly easy is that? Wings are cheap, the sauce is cheap (and Frank’s loves to give out coupons) and they’re so simple to make. Why pay someone a premium to make something so easy?

You can change up the recipe by using BBQ sauce, etc. or by using chicken breast and making wraps with tortillas and lettuce.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I’m sitting here, enjoying a delicious fried egg on wheat toast with my tea. It would be more delicious if it had a runny yolk, but alas, I can’t have my sunny-side up eggs anymore until I evict the kiddo.

Eggs are an important part of keeping our food costs low. They’re extremely versatile, fast cooking and tasty.  If I’m not in the mood to really cook, I can whip up something tasty in about 10-15 minutes. It’s probably not a great idea to eat them every day for every meal if you’re worried about fat in your diet, but an egg or two a couple of times  a week won’t kill you.

Quick Uses For Eggs:

• Breakfast Burritos
• Scrambled eggs
• Fried Eggs
• Fried Egg on Ramen
• Poached Eggs
• Eggs Benedict
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Egg Salad
• Deviled Eggs
• Omelettes (great for using up leftovers)
• French Toast
• Frittata (great for using up leftovers
• Quiche (great for using up leftovers)
• Fried Rice (great for using up leftovers)
• Spaghetti Carbonara

Popularity: 14% [?]

I was going back through some old entries and realized that I promised to write this post last year, but never did. My bad.

Since this is the coffee post, you will obviously need a coffee machine for some and an espresso machine for others.  If you really like fancy-pants drinks, an espresso machine is a great investment. If you only drink 3 or 4 a year, go ahead and hit up Starbucks, it will be cheaper in the end.

On another note, most of these are the more classic recipes. If you’re used the SB’s coffee, you may need to make them sweeter.

Making Your Favorite Hot Drinks at Home Part One

Basic Simple Syrup Recipe (you can add flavorings for vanilla, mint, etc. to make flavored syrups.)

Cafe au Lait

• 1 part coffee
• 1 part milk

Irish Coffee

• 6-8 oz. hot coffee
• 1 jigger whiskey
• sugar, to taste
• 2-3 Tbsp heavy cream

Pour coffee into glass, sweeten. Add whiskey. Pour cream over back of spoon so it floats on top of coffee. (May take a little practice. Have the spoon almost, but not quite touching the top of the coffee.)

Americano

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz hot water

Cappuccino

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz frothed, steamed milk

Pour in espresso. Half fill cup with milk, finish filling with foam.

Latte

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz of frothed, steamed milk

Pour in espresso. Fill most of cup with milk, finish filling with foam.

Cafe Mocha

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz steamed milk
• ~ 2 teaspoons chocolate syrup

Pour chocolate syrup in bottom of cup. Add espresso and steamed milk.

Starbucks Style Macchiato

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz frothed, steamed milk
• ~ 2 tsp vanilla syrup (vanilla flavored simple syrup)
• ~ 2 tsp caramel sauce

Put vanilla syrup in bottom of cup. Fill cup most of the way with milk, finish with foam. Pour espresso over milk. Pour caramel sauce over top.

–

If you’re serving these drinks to guests, you may want to finish them with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon/cocoa powder or some homemade marshmallows.

For a fun tasting party, make a couple pots of coffee and get the espresso machine ready to go, set out a couple of bottles of flavored syrups and let people mix their own concoctions.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I was so busy ranting about my carpets I forgot to post this.

This is such an easy recipe and it is soooo good. It requires a long baking time (about an hour) but the prep work is fast and easy. I figure one squash will serve 2-4, depending on what else you’re serving.

Ingredients (per acorn squash)

• 1 1-2lb acorn squash
• 3-4 Tbsp softened butter (half a stick)
• 2-3 Tbsp brown sugar – The amount of sugar used depends on your sweet tooth. A properly cooked acorn squash is naturally quite sweet.
• pinch of salt
• couple shakes pepper
• 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup (optional) – Real maple syrup, not pancake syrup. I wouldn’t buy it for this recipe, but if you happen to have it, go for it.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds*. Cut each half into fourths. Put squash in 11×7 pan, skin side down.
• Cream together butter, sugar and rest of ingredients. Spread on squash.
• Bake for roughly 1 hour. Occasionally baste squash with butter mixture from bottom of pan. Squash skin will be blackened and flesh will be fork tender when fully cooked.

*you can bake the seeds like you would pumpkin seeds and eat them.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Ask your guests to bring either a beverage or a dipper (banana, strawberries, orange slices, pound cake, angel food cake, pretzels…) and you supply the fondue and some very yummy marshmallows. Homemade marshmallows are a hundred times tastier than the store bought ones and well worth the effort. You can easily alter the flavor by changing the extract used.

You will have to start the marshmallows the day before, but they only take about 30 minutes to make, only 5 of which requires you to pay any attention. I highly recommend a candy thermometer (cheap ones are about $5) but you can use the cold water test if you prefer to test for the soft ball stage.

Homemade Marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallows
Modified from an Alton Brown recipe.

• 2 1/2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin (about 2 1/2 packages)
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup
• 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• pinch salt
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or preferred extract)
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Special Equipment: Candy thermometer, sifter, stand mixer with whisk attachment

Put 1/2 cup ice water into mixer bowl. Add gelatin.

Immediately put remaining water, granulated sugar, salt and corn syrup in small saucepan. Cover, cook over medium high 4 minutes. Uncover and cook until mixture reaches 240 degrees (soft ball stage). Immediately remove from heat.

Turn the mixer on low and slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl. Splattering, boiling hot syrup will give you a nasty burn, do not pour the syrup on the the whisk. Once the syrup has been completely added, turn the mixer to high. Use your splatter guard or plastic wrap to prevent flying syrup. Whip mixture until it is very thick and room temperature (will look like soft whipped cream), about 15 minutes. Add the extract during the last minute of whipping.

While the mixture is whipping, mix the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl. Spray two 11×7 pans (or one 13×9 if you like big marshmallows) with cooking spray and coat generously with sugar mixture. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan(s) and use a rubber spatula coated in the sugar mixture to smooth the top(s).

Allow the marshmallow to set, uncovered for between 4-12 hours. The longer the marshmallow’s set, the more moisture they lose and the less gummy the texture.

Turn the marshmallows out of the pan and onto a cutting board coated in sugar mixture. You may need to use a icing spatula or your finger to pry the marshmallows out, this is normal. Cut into cubes with a knife coated in the sugar mixture, coat them with yet more of the sugar mixture and store in an airtight container.

Using up leftover marshmallows.

Chocolate Fondue

• 12 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, Amaretto, or Kirsch (optional) OR
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, almond or peppermint extract (optional)
• Special Equipment: Fondue pot OR bowl set into larger bowl of hot water (double boiler method)

Bring 1 cup cream to a slow simmer. Stir in chocolate, a small amount at a time, until completely melted. Remove from heat and add flavoring if using.

Transfer to fondue pot. If mixture starts to thicken, add remaining, warmed cream, one tablespoon at a time until texture smooths out.

Popularity: 11% [?]

I don’t think I ever posted this recipe here. Anyway, this is a stupidly simple appetizer that could easily become a meal with a nice salad.

* Ravioli, any filling – Fresh or Frozen (thawed)
* Bread Crumbs
* Egg(s)
* Garlic Salt
* Basil
* Oregano
* Parmesan cheese (grated)
* Prepared tomato sauce (out of a can works fine here)

Preparation

* Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease baking sheet.
* Add a little water to your egg(s) to make an eggwash (1 will coat about 24 small ravioli)
* Pour your bread crumbs into a shallow bowl, add Parmesan. (I like a 3 to 1 mixture, about 1 cup will coat 24 ravioli. You can add more breadcrumbs later, but you have to chuck any eggy extras.) Mix in your seasonings.
* Dip your ravioli into the eggwash, then coat in breadcrumbs before placing on the baking sheet.
* Bake for ~12-14 minutes or until the ravioli are browned.
* While the ravioli are baking, warm up your sauce.
* Serve immediately!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Most of you have one of two questions on your mind here. First off is “What the hell is simple syrup?” and the other is “What the hell does this have to do with being frugal?”

First off, ‘simple syrup’ is a simple syrup (hurr) usually made from two to one or equal parts sugar and water and is an easy way to mix sugar into cold drinks without stirring futily for an hour. Many cocktails also take a simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water ratio) so the ‘recipe’ is quite useful for entertaining.

Take a guess as to which is cheaper: a mojito that you make at home or one that you purchase at a bar., If you like summertime cocktails or want to try making fancy pants coffee drinks at home, you’ll pretty much need simple or sugar syrup and with it selling for $$ at most kitchen stores, you’re much better off making your own.

Anyway the ‘recipe’

• 1 part water
  
• 1 part sugar (2 parts if you’re making cocktails)

Bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and store in glass container for up to 2 months.

That’s it. So simple.

If you want to go for extra credit, try adding a little bit of flavor to your syrup. Just remember to strain the syrup before bottling.

• Mint Leaves – Great for iced tea or mojitos
• Herbs – For those ‘sophisticated’ cocktails
• Citrus Peel – Iced tea or simple cocktails
• Vanilla Bean – Coffee, after dinner drinks or brushed onto cakes
• Ground Coffee – Fantastic on chocolate cakes

Great, and now I want cake. Stupid cravings *mumble grumble*

Popularity: unranked [?]