Bulk cooking, some recipes n setch

I hope this is okay to pop on in here!  I try and put this up for our newbies so they can feed themselves and their families consistently, because honestly, some days my givea**** is broken and since some of something is good for me, I do not feel like a whole to-do, but this helps my husband not feel like I abandoned him :}  Anyway, maybe this can be helpful for folks who are stressed out, busy, have bigger families to feed et cetera, or just maybe have a helpful idea or two!

Granted - cooking in bulk is not for everyone, I get it - but once you get the hang of it, one day of processing can free up tons of time later!

________________

Make it easy on yourself!!  This is how I made it easy on me, and I still cook like this.

And so...
I cook large chunks of meat at a time, let them cool, chop them up and then put them in smaller containers and freeze them.  I cook a whole turkey breast at a time, and save the broth in other smaller containers and freeze them, for some good broth to sip on. 

Wal-Mart has some Mason Jars (or maybe they are Ball) but they are freezer containers - they work nicely.  I just take a sticky note and put on the top "Unseasoned turkey Breast 3/23/2010" and then I know what, when, and if I made the original batch a "flavor"  I do that with ground beef (get at least the big 5 pound tubes or the family packs when they are a good price). 

Here is my thinking on why cooking in large amounts - sometimes afterwards you do not really CARE what you eat, just need to eat something.  Or you do not want to have to spend time in the kitchen, blahblah.  IF you can pop a container out of the refrigerator, nuke it, throw some salad on it for your family and salsa on it for you, then its done. 

Honestly, for my "skeleton" of meals, I essentially have the same thing - 2 ounces meat, 1 slice cheese, 1 T salsa, for 3 or 4 of my meals.  And then whatever snacks around the sides - usually protein shakes or now on maintenance, this peanutbutter cocoa cheese burrito thing I make.  But - so I have a container of cut up meat, I just measure out into my skeleton containers, dollop salsa, cheese slice them - ready to go.  Most meals of the day in a handy, just warm it up container - no deciding what I want, or giving myself room for decision making - in case I might not be caring to make good/better/best decisions that day. 

To all of the below, if you add water, celery (in big chunks, so you can pull out and freeze for putting in something later) and onion (big chunks again) - you make a nice broth which is good for freezing in smaller containers and sipping on when you want something later in the evening after your final meal snack, but it needs to not be food because you are to bed soon. 

Turkey Breast (cook whole in the crock overnight)
Big ol piece of beast (pork or beef, choose your beast) crock it!   Add some water and
Smoked Turkey legs (I chose legs and not wings).   Cook em up with some water in there, debone it, now you have good broth and a meat that is not only good on its own - BUT I will finely mince it in my magic bullet and add mayonnaise and pickles or capers (for me) and dried fruit and coconut for handsome fella and make what I call "hamnot" salad.  The smokey turkey meat tastes a lot like ham and on reduced cals - that is good!

Lessee for the beef, I use the base above and add a package of au jus powder and some allspice pimentos and that makes a killer broth!!

So - for your family - you can have the broth, add some stirfry veggies that come in a frozen bag, like from Wal-Mart (the sugar snap stirfry ismy fave!)  some meat and there you have a superdelicious soup!  Or stirfry.   You can also add a starchy thing for them if you like.

For me - I grocery shop every 2 weeks - and I usually do a heavy cooking day that Sunday after grocery Saturday, I "process" all my meats - find it easier to have containers that I can just stick in the dishwasher than have to buy more of - and then I have all my basics frozen - so if I do not want to cook from scratch - I do not have to!!

Also, if I get like 2 big ol London broils, like this weekend, I season one and stick in freezer, season other and broil it.  Then I cut it in half - stick one half in the freezer and label it, so later on, I can see I still have the option of the London broil and do not have to take the time to thaw and cook or whatever. 

Know what I love more than my indoor grill?  My convection oven!   YES!!  Those Tyson Tequila Lime wings (that have good nutritional stats and soon out you will not be able to eat more than 3) are kicking crispy in theer - it cooks stuff FAST and you can roast your own chicken in there!  Yes! 

I have learned that the less I do "off the cuff" the better decisions I make overall, so I can save my least best decisions on fun times (going to the movie say) instead of stuck times (was rushed and did not bring lunch to work and cannot resist the chinese food smell).


Good luck, girlie!








Here are the "tools of my trade" so to schpeak - Also, I forgot to take a picture - but the above pic - the containers with purple top that the guac is in?  those have freezery packs in the lids so they are handy when you are taking a stuff that needs to stay coolish.  I also got a blue ice "blanket" that is like little pods of freezery ice, that can be folded - so its not as unweildy as those hard plastic blue things!!

Okay, sorry its huge, but you can see what I wrote this way!




 


Unlike you, I REALLY like to cook, and my beloved, while happy to eat cereal and beanie weenies for dinner any time, has gotten used to having "dinner."  So, honestly, this does 2 things, for me -

It helps me to AUTOMATE my eating, so I dont *have* to make as many choices (save my poorer choices for fun times, not for just being unprepared) AND it helped fella not feel like my surgery has changed everything and the little things I used to do, I just wasnt gonna do anymore.  Ya know?

And you have the chirren too - so honestly - it just makes it so much easier *I think* to have premade things prepared, and just toss them together with some freshness and its a good, well rounded meal, and you can add whatever additions a particular family member might want or need.

Honestly, some days cuz of the day or whatever, my give a cra******iously damaged, and it really helps to have things I can just nuke and put together.   The other night I asked fella if steak N Cranberry Stovetop (he loves him some stovetop - and what the hell, dude can process carbs like its nobody's business - so it doesnt harm him any) for dinner.  ANd he says OOH YES!!  Well, the steak had been in the freezer, already seasoned and broiled, so I just popped it in the convection oven for 15 minutes - came out juicy and delicious and the stovetop had been made previously (I will stash 1/4, 1/2, 3/4th of things like that in freezer containers before I even serve it) and had frozen it, so 2 minutes in the nuker?  Add an eazy peazy romaine lettuce and cranberry salad wtih some walnuts (that were already chopped up, cuz I have a baggie of chopped walnuts with an 1/8 cup scooper in the baggie, cuz that's how much I use on top of my yogurt when I have a carbmaster sundae!) and voila - fancee dinner for the beloved, in what - 15 - 20 minutes max?

Another thing I do is - ends to things - ends of onions, celery, green beans, stuff like that?  I freeze for stock or soup mixins later. 

Also - My convection oven is like MissEye's toaster oven, its a cabinet sitting one - but here is a GREAT OPTION if you can get it - mine comes with this timer thing, and you turn it to the time you want it to be on, and then when it hits that time - it turns off - which is great if you, like me, might get distracted, or go inthe other room, or whatever, and have come back to a smoky room!!

Good luck girlie - this place is a wealth of information!! Yes!

Edit to add, when I got to maintenance and started needing to measure out peanutbutter - my little scale was too easy to fudge, so now I have a cool biohazard orange digital scale now!  I highly recommend them!

well, the digital scale, whatever color you prefer!  Its handy because it has a tare, so you can measure out multiple ingredients and not have to do more math! 

The orange!!  oooohhhh!! laaaaa!!!



http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/175-8430009-7936924?asi n=B000WDXFHA&AFID=Froogle_df&LNM=|B000WDXFHA&CPNG=kitchen&ci _src=14110944&ci_sku=B000WDXFHA&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

Thanks for all the great ideas. It's just me and hubby but I try to do the same, it just makes life easier.

 Wow! This is great stuff!!! I, too, absolutely love to cook and find when I plan in advance, have everything ready to go, it is MUCH easier for me to stay on track. I am so off track right now and you've given me some great inspiration to get cooking and planning!

Coolio!!  Yaaay!  I am glad it could be helpful!