Vegetarian Freezer Cooking: Spontaneous Session

Spontaneous freezer cooking sessions don't always work out, but I was on a roll one day recently and decided to see what I could get made, both to eat now and to stash in the freezer.

I started with a large container of cooked brown rice that I made the other day (2 cups uncooked), a bunch of kale that I needed to use up, and a bag of potatoes, which I decided to use to make a cheesy hash brown casserole.

First I boiled the water for nine medium-large potatoes, cooked them for 15 minutes, and cooked them.

Meanwhile, I shredded two blocks of cheddar cheese in the food processor and dumped it in a bowl. There was no need to clean out the processor before using it to shred a large bunch of dinosaur kale because the cheese and kale were going to end up together in a casserole anyway. :) It conveniently made exactly two cups of shredded kale (and my favorite part: it was super fast!)

One cup of kale went into a freezer bag for freezing, the other cup of kale was mixed with 4 cups of the cooked brown rice, eggs, milk, cheese, and other ingredients to make a kale brown rice casserole.

I'll use the extra kale to make a potato kale quiche!

I still had a lot of brown rice left and I noticed that right there on the other page of my cookbook was another easy brown rice casserole recipe, so I grabbed some beans, frozen corn, salsa, and more cheese, mixed it up, and plopped it in a freezer bag. (We'll see how it turns out when I defrost it and bake it!)

I returned to the potatoes, peeled the skins, grated them (easier than I thought it would be), and assembled the potato casserole. My original plan was to bake half and freeze half (to see how it would freeze), but I ended up baking the entire thing for a neighborhood happy hour. I'll definitely make it again because the neighbors inhaled the whole thing... no pictures, unfortunately!

I have two parboiled potatoes left (seemed like I had enough potatoes after I grated 7) that I stuck in the fridge, I quickly grated them and fried them with a little butter for dinner the next night, they were just as tasty as the casserole.

I also had cheese left that I used to assemble some bean and cheese quesadillas, which are always nice to have on hand for lunches, snacks, even a very simple dinner.

So in all, not a ton of items made it to the freezer: only 1 bag of shredded kale, 1 brown rice and bean casserole, and 12 Bean and Cheese Quesadillas.

But we also had the potato casserole and kale brown rice casserole along with two extra potatoes, so I consider it to be a successful session, and it took less than two hours!

You can read about another vegetarian freezer cooking session here.

Cleaning Beyond the Basics Week 1: Grimy Door Handles

Obviously there are household occupants who prefer to close the door to the garage using the door jamb rather than the door knob. Ask me how I know.

In our defense, my husband maintains and repairs his own bicycle, and there isn't a way to wash your hands in the garage.

 You know it's a serious situation when the Magic Eraser comes away like this...

And then the cleaning wipe you subsequently use (to remove the dirty water) looks like this:

But finally your door looks reasonably clean again. (I should mention that it is a painted metal door, YMMV when cleaning a different surface door.)

Time Investment: Minimal--less than 5 minutes
Materials: Magic Eraser with water, cleaning wipe
Payoff: Immediate!

Would I be going overboard to try and train my family to use the doorknob?

Cleaning Beyond the Basics: A 12-Week Series

Very tempting...

It never seems to end... the dirty floors, the dirty sinks, the dust... it takes our entire family plus a monthly cleaning crew to keep our 2,000 square foot house tolerable, and I feel like we cut corners all the time!

I'm tired of just being 'adequate' and I want to stay ahead. The problem is that there is more to cleaning a house than vacuuming the floors and scrubbing the bath tubs, although those tasks are a big factor. I'll be doing a weekly post about the little tasks that need to be done periodically around the house, the small details that are either overlooked until a huge mess is created, or the tricks that might help an appliance work better.

If you're interested, follow along, and please share if you clean these spaces too! Go here to read about what I've cleaned so far.

Kale Brown Rice Casserole

If you're looking for more ways to add greens to you diet, this is a great way to to do it--either for breakfast/lunch, or as a side dish for dinner!

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked brown rice (I used seasoned brown rice that was cooked in chicken or vegetable stock)
1 cup kale (or other green such as spinach or Swiss chard--I like dinosaur kale) minced in the food processor
1 1/4 cups milk
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes (I skipped this)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Preheat over to 375 degrees. I shred both my cheese and mince my kale in the food processor.

(I used a lot of that cheese for other recipes!)

Combine brown rice and minced kale, then put into a baking dish.

I layered half the cheese in the middle of the casserole.

Combine milk, eggs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper (and nutritional yeast if using) and pour over the kale brown rice mixture. Bake for 40 minutes or until firm.

Recipe adapted from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson.

Fast Easy Potato Salad with Picky Eater Option

My kids are sometimes very willing to try different things, and other times not. For some reason, they are very picky about a food that most kids have no problem eating... potatoes. For instance, my daughter loves mashed potatoes, and my son won't touch them (maybe a texture thing? He doesn't like mushy foods...) He prefers very simple baked potatoes, which my daughter isn't excited about.

As for the adults in the family, we like variety, and we'll eat potatoes any old way, but what I really like is a FAST recipe, because potatoes take some time to make, especially if you want them to taste really good! I can put this recipe together in 45 minutes beginning to end and it's so good that I've made it twice in the past week.

I found and tried this recipe from Southern Living Magazine, and it worked really well for us. Here is what I did to make it work for the entire family:

Ingredients:

For the potatoes:
2 pounds small fingerling potatoes (I used red potatoes), halved or quartered
1 tsp salt

For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon whole grain mustard
2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (I omitted this, but if you like heat...)

Instructions:

As the recipe states, wash, quarter, and place the red potatoes in cold water with salt. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 15 minutes. Immediately strain potatoes and place in a bowl to cool to room temperature for an additional 15 minutes. (You don't want them to get too cooked/soft.)

EXTRA STEP: Remove a portion of the cooked potatoes from the main bowl. Mix with a bit of salted butter and keep warm while preparing the rest of dinner (or reheat them before serving... or serve them room temperature as the Plainest Potato Salad Ever). Serve to the picky eaters!

While preparing potatoes, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, parsley, salt, pepper(s), and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together.

When ready to serve, add preferred amount of dressing to potatoes. Note: you will probably have more dresssing than you need, so you can use the extra, as a topping for fish, or steamed asparagus, or just save it to use as salad dressing on a salad!

Menu Plan Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

My Favorite Pot Roast

 This week's plan:

Baked Ziti with Mini Meatballs

• Sunday: Marinated Salmon (from the freezer) with Sesame Baby Bok Choy and soba noodles
• Monday: Best Pot Roast with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and fruit
• Tuesday: Bean and Cheese Quesadillas with leftover steamed broccoli and fruit
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs (from Trader Joe) with steamed mixed vegetables
• Friday: Kale White Bean Soup with Grilled Cheese
• Saturday: Maple Balsamic Chicken with Saffron Rice Pilaf, steamed green beans
• Sunday: Baked Ziti with Mini Meatballs (mini meatballs from the freezer), salad, fresh fruit
• Monday: Pizza Night 

Freezer Cooking While Making Dinner:

• Bake a double batch of Whole Wheat Banana Bread while making Salmon dinner on Sunday. Freeze one loaf, eat one loaf.
• Save the pot roast gravy and remaining meat. Freeze; add to Minestrone Soup next time I make it (Delicious!)
• Make Bean and Cheese Quesadillas until I run out of beans and cheese. Freeze extras not used for dinner on Tuesday.
• Freeze single and double portions of Kale White Bean Soup after serving it for dinner.
• Double sauce recipe from Baked Ziti with Mini Meatballs. Use half of sauce, freeze remaining half to go with 2nd batch of mini meatballs already frozen for the next ziti.

 I may also do some chicken processing for the freezer if I get the chance.

Find more meal planning inspiration at orgjunkie.com!

Menu Plan Monday: December 5th, 2011

Salt and Pepper Chicken: As Easy as it Gets!

The plan this week is to keep things as easy as possible. I'll also be holding a freezer cooking session on Tuesday to start re-loading my nearly empty freezer with holiday goodies.

• Monday: Marinated Flank Steak (broiled unless the weather is nice enough to operate the grill in the dark), brown rice pilaf, steamed asparagus
• Tuesday: Pizza night (sliced apples, steamed vegetables)
• Wednesday: Salt and Pepper Chicken, Spinach Rice Stuffing (using rice from Monday night), steamed green beans
• Thursday: Creamy Enchilada Casserole, steamed broccoli
• Friday: Dinner Out
• Saturday: Leftovers (Parents out)
• Sunday: Pot Roast over mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables
• Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, steamed vegetables

Find more meal planning inspiration at orgjunkie.com!