Date - Thursday January 21, 2010
Time - 7:00 p.m.
Classes:
- Using Coupons for Savings
- Quick Make Ahead Meals
- Savings at the Grocery Store
Nursery and Refreshments
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One of the Handouts from Betty's and Linda's Class
Strategy #1: Cook 20 different recipes and freeze - This works fine for some people and not so well for others. You make 20 or more different dishes, which can be a lot of work but gives you a lot of variety.S
trategy #2: Master Recipes - You cook a few master recipes that can be used for several different dishes, such as baking a turkey, cooking a large roast, preparing a large batch of chili which can double as taco meat and ravioli filling, etc. This is one of my favorite techniques and you will find I have used it is many of my plans.
Strategy #3: Bulk Cooking - You make large batches of several recipes and plan to eat them more than once. We eat pizza every Friday, so we make lots of pizzas and freeze them. We change the toppings for variety. You can plan around these "bulk cooked" recipes with quick and easy meals that do not need freezing so you are not eating a whole month of chicken meals or hamburger meals.
Strategy #4: Busy cooks' triple batch cooking -. Every Saturday make a triple batch of a main dish. Eat one batch for dinner that night and freeze the other two. Then, during the week, take out two different frozen meals from other Saturday cooking sessions. That way you are always restocking your freezer with very little effort. You could make a couple of different double/triple/quadruple batch recipes to get stocked up.
Strategy #5: Fill in the gaps- This strategy goes hand-in-hand with bulk cooking or with the busy cooks technique. If you do the chicken plan tomorrow, you still are going to want to eat more than chicken this month! So how do you supplement what you just made? By filling in the gaps! Be extra clever and double or triple recipes on these nights - they can be frozen, used in lunches, or used in subsequent dinners.
EXAMPLE:
Grilling - especially in the summer! Designate one night a week or at least two nights a month for grilling. It is easy, delicious, and your hubby can get in on the act. Don't forget to grill extra! Grilled meats can be used in salads, pitas, as fajitas, in sandwiches - you name it!
Crock-pot - This incredible invention can turn almost any cheap piece of meat into a tender, delicious, morsel. I like to make roasts in the crock-pot and treat them as master recipes. I shred the beef and use it in hot sandwiches, enchiladas, etc. An absolute must for the tightwad cook!Leftover night - Make sure your leftovers get used. They are essentially a free meal! The best way to get your family to eat them is change them into something new. You can also label and freeze leftover meats for future use. Get creative!
Soup/stew night - This can replace grilling in the winter and use up leftovers. Plan to have soup and sandwiches once a week or twice a month. You can make big batches and freeze ahead.Quick and easy meals - I try to plan at least five of these a month. These are meals your family likes and take less than half an hour to prepare. They may be recipes you have cooked so many times you know them by heart. OR they may be recipes that rely on already-cooked meats to make them fast. Whenever I bulk cook, I always freeze 2-3 cup portions of chicken, beef, ham, etc., just for this purpose. I also keep quick and easy recipes together where they are easy to find, so that I can whip them up fast. Items I consider quick and easy: Burritos, spaghetti, enchiladas made from frozen cooked beef or chicken and frozen sauce, stir fry, casseroles, etc.
Chain cooking - This is a technique of intentionally cooking extra to use in something completely different in a subsequent meal. When you make spaghetti, you can cook extra pasta to use in chicken cacciatore, or use pasta from one meal to make pasta salad. You can cook lots of spinach as a side dish one night, to go into a lasagna or casserole the next. This is basically "organized" leftover cooking.Planning: ( CHOOSE ONE OF THE METHODS ABOVE)Choosing recipes - Your first job is to decide what you are going to cook! If you are cooking for a whole month, pick about 10-20 recipes, depending on the above strategies you are going to use. Are you cooking 20 different dishes? Are you cooking master recipes that can be used to assemble several different entrees? Are you cooking things that can be doubled and be eaten more than once in a month? You call the shots! Try not to overdo it the first few times. Select recipes with ingredients that you know your family will eat, and that will freeze well. Most items with mayonnaise, sour cream and cooked eggs do not freeze well. Planning around what's on hand - As you are planning your meals, take a look at what you have in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. This will save you money as well as time that you would spend shopping.
Planning around what's on sale - Check your local papers for weekly sales. If you start using a price book, you will come to know which sales are actually bargains and which are not. I try to plan a bulk cooking of on-sale meats that will last several months. This is why many of my plans are centered around a certain meat, so you can take maximum advantage of what is on sale. Worksheets to use with recipes - Use worksheets to plan the meals you will cook and freeze, and the ones that you will use to "fill in the gaps". There are three approaches you can use: the calendar method, the list method, and the table method.
Gather your recipes - bring all of your recipes together for easy reference. I like to put mine together in a "plan" or staple them together. You could also put them in a notebook, or in plastic protectors that you can hang up and see while you are cooking. Shopping:Master lists - Once you have gathered your recipes, make a "master grocery list" of all of the ingredients listed in the recipes. Combine like items and make sure you will have enough for all of the dishes you are going to prepare.
Bulk buying - This is one of my favorite techniques for saving money on groceries! When you see a good price on an item, stock up!
Short on cash? As you start to save more money from bulk buying items and not needing to replace them at a higher cost, you will free up money. Another approach is to start bulk buying in the spring, when heating bills go down, giving you a little more money to play with. You can also bulk buy fresh veggies and fruits in season during the summer months and freeze or can what is in your garden. Price book - Perhaps one of the most effective tightwad tools around. After you set up your price book, you can track prices on items you use and only stock up on those items when they are at their lowest price. Preparation - This is your day/time to prepare master recipes, chop vegetables, shred cheeses, etc. Combine all like steps in recipes and do them at once. For example, if several recipes contain chopped onions, chop all the onions for all the recipes at one time. (You can go even further and chop all of the onions you have and freeze them, for present and future use). You can also prepare dough, sauces, marinades, etc. Cooking - Finish cooking your master recipes, then prepare them for use in the other recipes you are making them into. For example, cook the turkey or honey baked ham, then divide into the parts for the other recipes (such as turkey or ham slices, potpies, etc) that they will be used for. Boil, bake simmer, fry, do all of your cooking steps today. . Tips:Make sure your counters are clear of clutter and you have lots of paper towels, sponges and towels for quick cleanup, along with aprons and a mop! Have your recipes where you can see them. You can tape them up, put them in see-through plastic protectors, whatever you want! Take the phone off the hook, put the dog outside, send the kids to the sitter (or your spouse) and get cooking'!
Good suggestion: . I always throw something in the crackpot before I start cooking day; it's my "insurance" that dinner will be taken care of. You will be very tired at the end of cooking day!
Assembly: If you have planned well on prep day, and made progress on cooking day, it should go pretty fast. Assemble your dishes, cook if needed, or freeze. Make sure you label everything that goes into the freezer and put any reheating instructions on the label if you think you may forget. You can also tape items to the main dish that are to be served with it, such as taping a bag of tortillas to a container of taco meat. Check below in the "freezing" section for ideas and tips.
Freezing Supplies:Ziploc bags are very handy. I buy cheap freezer bags to put the meats in (you can't reuse them after meat is in the bags), then double bag them in the nicer freezer bags that I can reuse again and again. You can also freeze sauces, shredded cheeses, chopped veggies and other items in ziploc bags, close them tight and put them on their side, patting them flat. You can get a lot of food in a small freezer this way. Freezer containers in a variety of sizes are a necessity! I find the most useful sizes to be the 2-cup (good for sauces and gravy), and 5-cup (good for entrees that are put on rice or pasta) sizes, as well as the larger 11-cup sizes (good for casseroles, fried rice, any dish that is served whole with nothing else added). I try to buy most of my freezer containers at yard sales and thrift shops. Aluminum foil - Great for freezing in, I like to wrap up pizza in foil. Just don't forget to label your foods! Plastic wrap - Another alternative to double bagging. If you want to reuse Ziploc bags, wrap the meats thoroughly in plastic wrap, freeze on a cookie sheet, then place in a Ziploc. Take the meat out of the Ziploc before it thaws, so no blood gets in the Ziploc. If in doubt, throw it out! Don't take chances! Foil containers - Some people love to use those disposable foil pans to put large entrees in. I don't use them, but some of my friends love them, and even line them with aluminum foil, then lift out the frozen dish and reuse the pan. You can do this with baking pans too. Pyrex casseroles - I like these a lot! They cost about $5 each at Walmart and you can use them to bake, microwave and freeze in. I bought myself one a month as a reward for doing oamc. I stopped at four! I bought the 11-cup size, which is very versatile. I have prepared lasagnas, deep dish pizzas, pot roasts, roasted chickens and casseroles in them. I take the dishes straight from the freezer, take off the top, then defrost, then bake. No broken glass! I think these are worth the investment. They are deep enough to store baked goods in also. Freezer inventory - keep a list of everything you freeze, and mark it off when you use it up. This is very important! I like to keep mine with my meal plan, usually on the refrigerator. Safety: Here are some general freezer guidelines. For more information, check out the website for the National Food Safety Database:Never refreeze raw meat! If the meat was frozen raw the first time, you must cook it before refreezing! If in doubt, double bag it! Protect your food investment by making sure it is protected from freezer burn. Don't allow meat or eggs to defrost at room temperature. You are creating an opportunity for bacteria to grow, which can result in food poisoning! Instead, thaw these foods in the refrigerator or use a microwave. Better to be safe than sorry! Breads and other baked goods can be thawed at room temperature quite nicely and safely. They can also be refrozen but may get dry. If you are in doubt as to whether a food is still good, toss it! Many items keep well in the freezer from 3-6 months. Check the websites below for detailed information on how long different types of foods keep. Most of the oamc recipes posted here tasted fine even after a 3-6 month period of freezing, but I wouldn't go too far beyond that amount of time.
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Recipes at bottom of blog.
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