So with the abundance of garden tomatoes we’re having (sweet Dustin picked 19 tomatoes during the cold rainstorm we had on Labor Day–just about froze him to the core!  I was just sure it was going to start hailing any minute and they would all be destroyed!) I’ve come up with a way to store them.

I’m not really feeling ambitious enough to have a canning session just yet, so I decided to try freezing homemade salsa.  So far, the results are quite enjoyable!  We don’t do spicy foods or onions over here, but you could certainly add them if you wanted them.  It’s super easy and flexible:

3 large tomatoes

½ tsp garlic

¾ tsp salt

2 tsp lime juice

½ tsp dried cilantro

¼ tsp chili powder

¼ tsp cumin

1. Chop tomatoes into small bite size pieces (about ½ inch).

2. Put tomatoes in blender, add other ingredients.

3. Alternate between blending on lowest setting and pulsing, just until all tomatoes are moving through the blender.

It’s nice to let the flavors develop in the fridge, but you don’t have to.

To freeze, simply store in freezer safe container, making sure there is little or no air in the container. Thaw slowly either in the fridge (24 hours) or on the counter (about 6 hours).

Here’s the much requested recipe.  Much thanks to my sister-in-law Therese for the recipe.   They are so good with bacon grease, but we don’t always have that much bacon grease on hand, so we use oil.

2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix dry ingredients in bowl.  Rub in fat and stir in water.  Knead lightly.  Cover with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile get station set up—skillet on medium temperature, rolling pin and oil out, and plate with dish towel.  Divide dough into 12 equal parts and shape into balls.  Cover with plastic wrap and keep covered until all are cooked.  Spread a little oil on the counter and rolling pin.  Take one and roll out on counter.  Then take that one and cook on skillet 1 to 2 minutes and turn over as soon as surface starts to bubble.  Wrap in dish towel to keep moist and hot.  Continue until all are cooked. 

Just this last week we cut them up, toasted them in the toaster oven and had whole wheat tortilla chips to go with our whole wheat hummus.  Very yummy!

I kind of doubt many of you have missed reading about my adventures in the kitchen, but if anyone has, here’s the latest:

Knowing that we’ll be moving some time in the near future, combined with the fact that our credit card has all the hospital bills on it and is quite a bit higher than we’ve ever seen it inspired us to start using our food storage more. Now, I don’t want anyone to get worried . . . we knew our hospital bills would be expensive and we had the money set aside to pay them, but we’ve been trying to use as little of our savings for them as possible. So I’ve been getting creative in the kitchen. Here is a recipe I came up with that is actually really pretty good, healthy and inexpensive.

Bean Burrito Casserole

8 whole wheat tortillas (I love them homemade, of course!)

2 cans refried beans or equivalent

about 1 cup milk

cheese

olives

tomatoes

I heated up the refried beans and thinned them down with some milk. I think they would probably be really good with some Mexican spices, but Dustin’s stomach doesn’t get along with those so well, so I kept the spices to a minimum. Reserving about 3/4 cup of the beans, fill the tortillas with the bean mixture, and place seam side down in a 9×13 pan. Spread remaining beans over the top and top with cheese, olives and chopped tomato. Bake at 350 until cheese is melted.

Not too gourmet, I know. If you’re looking for that, you’ll have to visit my cousin-in-law Emily’s blog. She’s amazing! But pretty good and practical!

Well, we are slowly widdling our way through the chicken. I’ve been filling my 5 qt crockpot and cooking the chicken overnight. I did a couple of batches seasoned with salt, pepper and marjoram, and then one last night seasoned with fajita seasoning, cumin, garlic powder, and maybe some other things. I’m not really sure. It was 11:00, and I had already been in bed an hour trying to sleep.

I may only need to do one more batch before we’re done. Now I’m worried that it’s going to be hard to use. I’m not sure why, mostly just because it’s been kind of a pain and I just hope that it’s not been for nothing. I was thinking, I’ve probably saved around $40. Has all of this been worth $40? Probably $40 alone, not worth it. But I’m hopeful that it will save a lot of time and energy over the next few months. So hopefully that will be good.

After this is over, I’m not going to want to see any chicken for a long time.

So Macey’s had chicken on sale this week for only 1.19/lb – but only if you buy a 40 lb box. I assumed it would be frozen, but when I got to the store, it was not frozen, but just in a big box. It’s pretty crazy – the chicken is just in these huge plastic bags in the box. Well, I’ve had to have the Macey’s employees help me get it onto my cart and then into my car, Dustin’s carried it in and then helped me get the chicken out. It’s actually quite a feat to even get the chicken out of the box. I have to pull it forward from the refrigerator shelve and balance it while I go digging with a fork to get the chicken out.

I’ve been hoping to stock up on essentials now before we have the baby. I’ve learned that sending Dustin to the store is generally less-effective for several reasons. One is that I usually have a list, but the items on the list are a wide range of needs and wants. Depending on the price and availability of the items, I pick and choose which things are most important and worthwhile to buy. When poor Dustin goes shopping for us, he doesn’t really know my priorities or good prices, nor does he know his way around the store as well as I do, so it generally takes more time and costs more money. We’re all about efficiency around here, and that’s just fine. He’s very efficient at doing dishes and all kinds of other wonderful things around the house.

Anyway, so I’m working on a short-term food-storage, so the 40lbs of chicken seemed like a good idea. I still think it is, although I feel like I’ve done a lot already and that there may be no end to that chicken. Last night I couldn’t sleep for a while, but I was thinking about freezing some of the chicken, so I got up and decided to give it a try. I managed to open the box by myself (quite an accomplishment) and get out a few chicken breasts. It’s interesting–the two breasts come still attached to each other–this is a new experience for me. Anyway, I trimmed the fat and other undesirables off the breasts and placed them in a 9×13 pan with a piece of plastic wrap over them and froze them. Come morning, they were stuck to the pan. I could only fit 4 breast halves on the pan, and that was about all that would fit in the ziploc gallon bag as well. I’m glad I did that, because I’ve decided it’s a somewhat less-effective way to store the chicken, at least space wise. I’m trying to fit as much as possible into our little freezer.

Anyway, later today, I filled my 5 quart crockpot with chicken, a little water, salt, pepper and marjoram. I cooked probably about ten chicken breast halves in that, and cut up the chicken. I used some in a big batch of white chicken chili that we had for dinner and I’m freezing some of it, and then filled three ziploc quart bags with shredded/chunked chicken. A much more efficient use of space. I really liked making the chili that will be ready to pull out of the freezer when we need it, but I don’t know how many meals like that I’ll be able to fit in the freezer. We’ll see how things go.

My first experiment was spinach and leek white bean soup. It was really good, but like I said, leeks are too much like onions for Dustin’s tummy. So I don’t think we’ll be having it again. But for everyone else, enjoy!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spinach-and-Leek-White-Bean-Soup/Detail.aspx

Thankfully I could put the remaining leeks to good use for a ward Enrichment meeting we were having in the following potato soup. It turned out really good and disappeared fast!

Ingredients:
7 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 large leeks, chopped (white part only)
1 cup diced ham
6 1/2 cups water
6 chicken boullion cubes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 stick + 2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP all purpose flour
4 cups milk

1. Combine the potatoes, leeks, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and bring to Enrichment in your crockpot!

I’m realizing it’s been quite a week of following recipes. This is unusual! I just made some minor adaptions to this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Ham-and-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx

Things I’ve discovered this week:

1. Sleeping with a pillow between my legs really does relieve back pain and helps me sleep better. Miraculous! I’ve been sleeping much better.

2. Leeks are very similar to onions, and although they are delicious, they still make Dustin’s insides upset with me. And they cost way more than onions!
3. Planning meals a week at a time relieves some stress and provides for much more interesting meals!

4. Every time I decide to put pictures up on our website, I realize that Dustin has the camera with him at work. Sorry!

So the week in review:

I decided to actually decide what I was going to make and write down what I would need to buy in order to make those things. This is both good and bad. It’s good to plan ahead–it was really nice not to have to worry about what we were going to have for dinner and if we had what we needed to make it. It’s bad because somehow I’m always able to create a meal out of things we already have, so I actually spend less when I don’t plan ahead. I did a pretty good job of figuring out what I already had and could use though, so it worked out.

Some highlights:

On Wednesday, the large bag of plums in the fridge had stared at me way too long–we’ve got to make something out of these! I purused all types of plum recipes, and finally decided to make a fresh fruit cobbler. I printed out a recipe I intended to use, but about halfway through, I just threw it away and made up my own Plum Crisp. It was delicious, and we managed to eat up nearly all of those plums! Essentially, I used about 4 cups of pitted and sliced plums along with a large can of sliced peaches. I mixed in about a TBSP of lemon juice and a 1/4 cup flour, and then topped it with a crisp topping of 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup honey, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup oats, 2 tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp cinnamon. I cooked it for about a half hour at 350, and it was really good!

For dinner that night we had Romano Chicken Supreme, except that I forgot to get Romano cheese and just used parmesan. It was really good, although I was hoping there would be enough sauce to serve it will noodles. There wasn’t. Maybe next time I’ll double everything but the chicken. This recipe is from the most recent Taste of Home.

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (5 ounces each)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 cup soft bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese

In a large skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, brown chicken on both sides over medium heat. Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray; sprinkle with salt.
In the same skillet, saute the mushrooms, lemon juice, garlic and basil in butter. Stir in the broth and orange juice; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Spoon over chicken; sprinkle with bread crumbs and cheese.
Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned and chicken juices run clear. Yield: 6 servings.

We also had some good soups this week . . . coming next.

The other night we got together with some friends and I opted to bring a pizza.  After I volunteered, I realized that I only had cheddar cheese and since I’ve realized how much cheaper it is to buy shredded cheese at Costco and how quickly we go through it, I couldn’t bring myself to buy more mozarella cheese anywhere else and didn’t feel like going to Costco outside of my normal Tuesday routine.  So I came up with this pizza.  It was really good and a nice change!  I really love making gourmet pizzas.  Maybe someday I’ll have to open a restaurant that competes with the California Pizza Kitchen.

Anyway, here’s what I did:

Bread machine crust – 2/3 whole white wheat flour, 1/3 all-purpose flour

Cook 1 large chicken breast in about 1/2 TBSP oil, 1/3 cup water and part of a fajita seasoning packet.  I don’t know how much seasoning I used.  You’ll have to experiment!

Mix some more of the fajita seasoning with 1 small can tomato sauce (I got these cans of tomato sauce on sale at Macey’s for $.15 each .  Now that I’m realizing that with a little seasoning they make great pizza sauce, I wish I would have gotten a lot more than 2o and amazed at how cheap it can be to make pizza).

Top the crust with sauce, chicken, sliced red and green peppers, olives, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese.  I also may have put onions and tomatoes on it, but knew that wouldn’t go over so well with my audience so I left them off.

I wrapped the pizza up in a lot of plastic wrap and we took it to Sandy and cooked it at our friends house – just like Papa Murphy’s.  It turned out great and it disappeared quickly!

Well, I love muffins–mostly for their convenience and potential to be healthy. I say potential because so many muffins are really more like desserts and pretend to be healthy to the unsuspecting soul. So I’m always on a mission to create muffins that are just as good as the best, but also healthy. Tonight was a success. I’ll need to tweak a few things, but overall, yummmmmmy! It was quite a while before Dustin tried one . . . I think he was burned out on the last big batch of muffins that I made that were anything but yummy. But once he had one he soon came back for two more. Anyway, enough prelude. Here’s the recipe:

I started with a pumpkin bread recipe my aunt Janice gave me when we got married. Here is what I ended up with after my experiment:

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, sliced in half (I think I will use more cranberries next time)

2 TBSP Sugar (I generally try to use natural sugars such as honey and molasses, but I wanted to make sure the cranberries were edible!

3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 1/2 tsp soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

4 eggs

2 cups honey

3/4 cup oil

1/2 cup cold water

1 big can pumpkin

1 TBSP vanilla

Struesal:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup oats

1. Slice cranberries and pour sugar over them. Mix and let sit.

2. Sift together flour and cornstarch into measuring cup for a total of 3 1/2 cups of flour and cornstarch. Mix in soda, salt, cinnamon and all spice.

3. In a second bowl, blend together remaining wet ingredients with a mixer.

4. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients until just blended. But make sure there aren’t flour lumps anywhere (I had this unfortunate experience). Stir cranberries and sugar again, gently blend into batter.

5. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 fill.

6. For strusel, mix butter, honey, vanilla and cinnamon, then mix in oats. Top muffins with strusel mixture.

7. Bake muffins at 325 until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (My oven is crazy–you’re on your to figure out how long!)

I saw this recipe in Taste of Home and decided to try my own version. I always want the best of all worlds – healthy, delicious, simple and inexpensive. This bread did a pretty good job of meeting all of those.

I used all whole wheat flour and left out the onions–Dustin and onions just don’t get along. It was great!

DIRECTIONS

In bread machine pan, place the first 11 ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).
When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a greased baking sheet and punch down (dough will be sticky). With lightly oiled hands, pat dough into a 9-in. circle. Brush with oil; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Bake at 400° for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into wedges; serve warm. Yield: 1 loaf (1-1/2 pounds).