Last night, I was in the mood for tater tot casserole. I knew this would use up some things in our freezer (veggies, meat, tots,...) and we had planned on reorganizing our freezers so the less we had to deal with, the better.
I have made tater tot casserole before, similar to my mom's, with cream of mushroom soup but I was unable to find that recipe so I googled around for it. Instead, I found this recipe and boy am I glad I did! This recipe was so unbelievably good!! As with most recipes, we did modify it just a touch. We used frozen vegetables (we freeze peppers and onions when they're on sale, the corn was half a bag of frozen corn, and we added half a bag of frozen peas and carrots) and left out the chives but everything else was the same (that's probably the least we've modified a recipe lately).
We happened to have both the bold sauce and the cream cheese, even though neither is a staple in this house. I am pretty sure you could get away with using regular sauce if you wanted and leaving out the cream cheese if you don't have it. Since we added more vegetables (the peas and carrots) than called for, we just added these when we added the corn.
I'm not sure I agree with the 6 servings. Those must be real servings, not what people eat servings. We only got 3 servings out of it but we probably could've done 4 if we had to. 6 would've been a little skimpy (but probably healthier). Since we had the starch, meat, and protein all in the casserole, we didn't serve it with anything. That's the great thing about a casserole. However, if you were trying to stretch the servings, you could serve with a side salad or something like that.
As I mentioned, we also cleaned out our freezers last night. We have a chest freezer and the freezer attached to our fridge. Both were getting messy and hard to find things and our chest freezer needed to be defrosted. We put everything from the chest freezer into a big box and put it in the garage (our garage isn't heated and with the temps being in the negatives, we weren't worried about anything thawing). Then we left the freezer open and unplugged for a few days to let everything melt (we did an initial scraping but since we weren't in a hurry to get the food back in the freezer, we thought this was easiest). Then last night, we put it all back. We have two baskets and a shelf in our freezer, with the rest being open space. We made one basket meat (minus fish since it didn't fit), one basket fruits and veggies, and the shelf is what I call "quick food" (i.e. pot pies and TV dinners). We don't have a good way to organize the rest of it because it's just a big open space so we took a box without flaps and put our pizzas in there (you can tell we eat really healthy in this house...) on their sides and then put our fish and other miscellaneous items next to the box.
We have a lot of empty space in our freezer so we also have frozen 2 liters (of water. We drank the soda, then refilled) to take up more room (to make the freezer more energy efficient) plus we give these to Cocoa on hot days during the summer to lick and lean against.
Our other freezer was much easier to organize, simply because there was less stuff. Our chest freezer has a seal on it that after you open it once, you can't open it again for like 5 minutes (sometimes it's annoying, most of the time it's great). This means everything open that would go back in the freezer (for instance, a pail of ice cream), goes in the fridge freezer since this one doesn't have that seal. We also decided to keep all our after Teeny meals in there. This freezer is also rather empty looking but there's not much we can do about it. We looked into combining that freezer into the chest freezer but that doesn't help because we can't turn the fridge freezer off and it doesn't work the other way, to have the chest freezer go into the fridge freezer because it wouldn't all fit. Guess we need to go shopping!
Showing posts with label grocery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grocery. Show all posts
Friday, January 10, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Pulled Pork
I apologize for not posting the last couple days. We were having internet issues (and unrelatedly, extreme cold temperatures).
At the grocery store, they had pork shoulder ribs on sale and we decided to get some. No recipe in mind, I decided to try them in the slow cooker. I didn't want them barbecued since we already have a lot of barbecued meat stocked up. I decided to make what's called Korean Ribs. To me, this means putting my 4.5 pounds of ribs in the slow cooker with 1 cup water, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 cup soy sauce (basically the whole bottle). Because my ribs were frozen, I had them on high for an hour and then turned it down to low for another 8 hours (I timed this horribly and we ended up eating dinner around 8pm instead of our usual 5pm ish), turning over partway through.
It was so worth the wait! The ribs basically shredded themselves when you tried to turn them over. They had enough flavor on their own but since we were only eating a portion's worth before freezing the rest, we didn't want to season them too much. That night, we had them with a side of asparagus and mashed potatoes (both leftover from when we made lobster tails over the weekend. This was something we also found on sale and they are SO easy to cook!) Then we froze about half of the rest in individual containers for when Teeny is here and we want quick sandwiches and the rest went in a leftover container in the fridge.
As usual, we had no recipe in mind for the leftovers but figured we should put them in something, rather than eat them all plain. I found a recipe for Brunswick Stew (which I had actually never heard of before) and very very loosely based the soup I made on that. We used our pork (probably around 2 pounds worth, maybe a little more), a big jar of tomatoes (with their juice, fresh from David's Grandma's garden), 4 red potatoes (chopped), half an onion (chopped), 3 cups water (we wanted a broth and only have bouillon cubes. I only used two cubes instead of 3), corn (half a bag, frozen), paprika (a LOT, probably around 2 tablespoons), garlic (also probably around 2 tablespoons), and....I think that's everything. I was worried it was going to taste too much like chili, especially because we have already frozen some chili and I knew we'd be freezing this but it definitely turned out with a different flavor. It was really good! We basically just threw everything in the pot and let it simmer for an hour. This would've been another good recipe for the slow cooker but we used the stove top since it was already dinner time when we started (lately we've been having dinner later and later...)
So there you have it! Two amazing recipes to use both frozen pork ribs and leftover pork. Both gave us enough leftovers that now I am feeling more confident in the amount of meals we have frozen for when Teeny comes.
At the grocery store, they had pork shoulder ribs on sale and we decided to get some. No recipe in mind, I decided to try them in the slow cooker. I didn't want them barbecued since we already have a lot of barbecued meat stocked up. I decided to make what's called Korean Ribs. To me, this means putting my 4.5 pounds of ribs in the slow cooker with 1 cup water, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 cup soy sauce (basically the whole bottle). Because my ribs were frozen, I had them on high for an hour and then turned it down to low for another 8 hours (I timed this horribly and we ended up eating dinner around 8pm instead of our usual 5pm ish), turning over partway through.
It was so worth the wait! The ribs basically shredded themselves when you tried to turn them over. They had enough flavor on their own but since we were only eating a portion's worth before freezing the rest, we didn't want to season them too much. That night, we had them with a side of asparagus and mashed potatoes (both leftover from when we made lobster tails over the weekend. This was something we also found on sale and they are SO easy to cook!) Then we froze about half of the rest in individual containers for when Teeny is here and we want quick sandwiches and the rest went in a leftover container in the fridge.
As usual, we had no recipe in mind for the leftovers but figured we should put them in something, rather than eat them all plain. I found a recipe for Brunswick Stew (which I had actually never heard of before) and very very loosely based the soup I made on that. We used our pork (probably around 2 pounds worth, maybe a little more), a big jar of tomatoes (with their juice, fresh from David's Grandma's garden), 4 red potatoes (chopped), half an onion (chopped), 3 cups water (we wanted a broth and only have bouillon cubes. I only used two cubes instead of 3), corn (half a bag, frozen), paprika (a LOT, probably around 2 tablespoons), garlic (also probably around 2 tablespoons), and....I think that's everything. I was worried it was going to taste too much like chili, especially because we have already frozen some chili and I knew we'd be freezing this but it definitely turned out with a different flavor. It was really good! We basically just threw everything in the pot and let it simmer for an hour. This would've been another good recipe for the slow cooker but we used the stove top since it was already dinner time when we started (lately we've been having dinner later and later...)
So there you have it! Two amazing recipes to use both frozen pork ribs and leftover pork. Both gave us enough leftovers that now I am feeling more confident in the amount of meals we have frozen for when Teeny comes.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
How I Save Money at the Grocery Store
I already wrote a post about how much I love grocery shopping but if you aren't careful, it can get expensive. Here are tips I use to help keep costs down.
1. Buy at the right time. This applies to buying produce in season and buying the special of the month. Every month, grocery stores sell specific items cheaper. For instance, March is frozen food month. So this is a good time to buy frozen foods.
2. Clip coupons. Yes, it's dorky and another thing to remember to bring to the store with you but it can be so worth it. I have saved over 10 dollars in a single trip just because of coupons. They really add up, especially when they're for products you are already buying.
3. Stick to your list. Impulse buys are always expensive because that is money you weren't planning on spending. Plus, if it isn't in your weekly plan (see next tip), then it's going to be harder to work it into your meals.
4. Plan ahead. Make a meal plan for the entire week. If you need to, make it super specific. I don't have to do that. I just make a list of things I want to make that week and make sure I have the food to make it before I go shopping. This way, you never let things, especially produce, go bad or expire.
5. Buy generic. Most of this is a mental thing. We have been conditioned to think that name brands taste better. For some things, this is true but for most things, it's the exact same product. Sometimes, it's even made by the same company as a big name brand.
6. Buy in bulk. This has two meanings. The first is that most of the time (but not always so be sure to check), buying a bigger box of something will be cheaper (per ounce). The second is that when something is on sale, you should stock up a little bit, especially if it's a staple in your pantry, so you don't have to pay the regular price next time you want it. For a lot of things, you can freeze them (bread, butter, most produce,...) so this will help keep things fresh when you stock up.
7. Stay away from processed foods. Sometimes you can justify buying these items but for the most part, they aren't good for you anyway and they're a waste of money. If you stick to the outer edges of the store (produce, refrigerated, deli...), you will have a healthier diet and save money.
That's all I have for now. I'm constantly trying to save money and stretch my dollar farther so if you have any other ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments.
1. Buy at the right time. This applies to buying produce in season and buying the special of the month. Every month, grocery stores sell specific items cheaper. For instance, March is frozen food month. So this is a good time to buy frozen foods.
2. Clip coupons. Yes, it's dorky and another thing to remember to bring to the store with you but it can be so worth it. I have saved over 10 dollars in a single trip just because of coupons. They really add up, especially when they're for products you are already buying.
3. Stick to your list. Impulse buys are always expensive because that is money you weren't planning on spending. Plus, if it isn't in your weekly plan (see next tip), then it's going to be harder to work it into your meals.
4. Plan ahead. Make a meal plan for the entire week. If you need to, make it super specific. I don't have to do that. I just make a list of things I want to make that week and make sure I have the food to make it before I go shopping. This way, you never let things, especially produce, go bad or expire.
5. Buy generic. Most of this is a mental thing. We have been conditioned to think that name brands taste better. For some things, this is true but for most things, it's the exact same product. Sometimes, it's even made by the same company as a big name brand.
6. Buy in bulk. This has two meanings. The first is that most of the time (but not always so be sure to check), buying a bigger box of something will be cheaper (per ounce). The second is that when something is on sale, you should stock up a little bit, especially if it's a staple in your pantry, so you don't have to pay the regular price next time you want it. For a lot of things, you can freeze them (bread, butter, most produce,...) so this will help keep things fresh when you stock up.
7. Stay away from processed foods. Sometimes you can justify buying these items but for the most part, they aren't good for you anyway and they're a waste of money. If you stick to the outer edges of the store (produce, refrigerated, deli...), you will have a healthier diet and save money.
That's all I have for now. I'm constantly trying to save money and stretch my dollar farther so if you have any other ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Grocery Shopping
Grocery shopping is my absolute favorite part of the week. I go with my husband (we're newlyweds, what do you expect?) and it is in no way a chore. I love going through the ads and clipping coupons and comparing one product to another to find out which one is the better deal. I actually don't really like retail shopping, like buying clothes or that kind of thing but I love errand shopping. I feel like I'm probably not by myself but I can't see most people liking it. Let me know about you guys! Do you like it? Hate it?
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