Freezing in Portions

One of my goals the last couple months was to start freezing in portions when I put food in the freezer. It’s all well and good to have a HUGE batch of soup in there, but if I want some soup, the entire family gets some and it takes too long to thaw for a quick meal.

I was seeing other bloggers freeze soup or pasta in cupcake tins. But I think it would be difficult to take the food out once it was frozen. Maybe silicone would be great to freeze in and easy to pop out – but I wasn’t able to find any! So I came up with the idea of using plastic wrap.

Very simple. Just take a strip of wrap and pour soup/stew/whatever into the cupcake portion. 

Cover. Repeat.

Stick it in the freezer.

Then the next day (when it’s frozen) pull out pieces and put into a ziplock. I just left them in the plastic wrap. It isn’t difficult to unwrap them but I figure it is a little more protection from freezer burn.

These pictures were from a batch of stew in my slow cooker. We ate it for dinner and I was still able to freeze another meal on top of the 12 servings. I think my chili would work for dips or if I want a little flavor in another dish, I can toss a serving in. I like the flexibility and this will help my family eat from scratch rather than eat from a can.

I also did the same thing today with some cupcakes. When my sweet tooth needs satisfaction I need something quick and yummy.

What else do you freeze in single servings?

Shared at Shine on Friday, Frugally Sustainable and Cheerios and Lattes. 

Time for Corn Bread

A new day – a new Mix. 

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my mixes?!

I went to make some cornbread to go with my slow cooker chili that was simmering. The perfect comfort food for a dreary day!

I thought I could save a little time in the future by having a simple mix put together.  I mixed it all up in a ziplock bag so I wouldn’t make a mess transferring it into a container. And it was really easy to mix it up too. Then I made the corn bread with this mix and it turned out fantastic. I’m thinking that I should try making corn dogs with this. I have never made them, but seeing all the coupons for corn dogs this week in the paper makes me wonder if I can make and freeze them myself....

Corn Bread Mix

4 cup unbleached flour
4 cup yellow cornmeal
2  cup  nonfat dry milk
1/2 cup   baking powder

½  cup   wheat germ
1 Tbsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  

Store in airtight container.

To make:

¾ cup honey (you can also just add ¾ cup of sugar to the mix but I always prefer a honey taste)
1 egg
1/2 cup water or milk
2 Tbsp. oil
1 1/4 cup cornbread mix

½ cup corn (I used frozen corn because I like real corn in my bread, but this is not necessary)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine ingredients.  Place batter in greased 8" x 8" pan and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. If you double the recipe for a larger pyrex pan it will take 20-25 minutes

TaDa!
Believe it or not, 4 adults and 2 little kids ate this entire bread!

Bread Epiphany

I had this amazing “Ah HA!” moment and had to share with the cyber universe.

 

I have a million things on my mind this morning since we are planning on driving to Tahoe tomorrow (last minute trip!) and so I am packing and menu planning and thinking of what I can do now to make life easier this week. One thing is make a couple loaves of bread so we don’t have to buy some – I have become rather spoiled with my yummy homemade bread.

So there I was in the kitchen with all my millions of ingredients making my wheat grain bread and then – Bam! I have been making all these mixes lately (Cappuccino Mix, Muffin Mix, Cornbread Mix, etc.) and I’ve been brainstorming on other mixes I can make to make life a little easier. BREAD MIX!

Bread doesn’t take that long so I don't find it a burden, but who wouldn’t love a couple extra minutes to do something else?

So I took my recipe that I already had all the ingredients out for and realized that by adding the dry ingredients in a bag. I would only need 3 ingredients when I next make bread, which will be right when I get back from my trip with the kids.

I put all the ingredients and measurements in a bag and labeled it with the ingredients that will need to be added to the breadmaker later. The ingredients to be added are: water, oil, and yeast (which I keep in the freezer). Easy right?!

In fact, I’m going to make a dinner roll mix to take with us for dinner one night. This idea has just changed my life!


* linked at The Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways Wednesday Blog Hop

Muffin Bliss

I am so happy with my cappuccino mix, that I thought I would continue with this trend. I spent a couple hours searching for various mix ideas to try. Bring them on!

I have been making a lot of muffins lately partly because my son doesn't want to eat sweat breads (i.e. banana bread) as a snack, but he’ll eat a muffin… well, a chocolate muffin. I have hopes that he will expand his eating list, but for now I’ll add cocoa. I have posted a recipe for chocolate banana muffins before. Last night I made a similar muffin with the addition of peanut butter and oatmeal – SO good. I think this one is better than the last and I have reason to believe the kids feel the same since it was a hit for breakfast AND snack time. Anyway, while I was making the muffins I decided to also make a mix that will make muffin making much faster in the future.

The big benefit of the boxed ready-packed muffin mixes is that they take no time to make and only need a couple of wet ingredients. But there is a downside to the mixes and that is added ingredients meant to increase the shelf life of the mix while contributing to the obesity rate of the people consuming them (or is that a perk?). There can’t possibly be a good thing that comes from consuming ingredients that you can’t pronounce. So convenience is a good thing and saving money and time (which are synonymous) is a great thing.

I found a basic recipe at TasteofHome.com but because I am me I have to change it. Which basically means that I take out ½ of the flour to substitute wheat flour and add wheat germ and flax seeds to give it that added nutrition without the family knowing (adding these extra ingredients is one of the reasons why it takes me so long to make stuff). My recipe:

   Muffin Mix

4 cups all-purpose/bread flour

4 cups wheat flour

3 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/4 cup Wheat Germ 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Yield: 4 batches (10 cups).

Yes, this is a picture of the inside of my cabinet.
I LOVE these containers and my Brother Label Maker.

To Make Combine:

2 ½ Cups of Mix

¼ cup oil or butter

2 egg

1 cup milk

1 tsp Vanilla

¼ cup apple sauce (optional)

1/3 cup yogurt (optional)

1/4 tsp molasses (if you prefer brown sugar rather than white in a recipe)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners or use shortening/oil so muffins don’t stick. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until fully blended.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before you cover them or transfer to a freezer ziplock bag to freeze. 

You can add any variation of ingredients to the mix to make it the kind of muffins you want. For example, to make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins I mentioned earlier all I had to do was add:

1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter

¼ c baking cocoa

1 cup old-fashioned oats

A couple chocolate chips for the top of each muffin

Mix it up. Pop it in the oven. Gotta love it!

Cappuccino Mix

I have a list in my head of all the mixes I want to replace in my kitchen. These include mixes that I already buy or canned items I would rather not buy. And I am so excited to find recipes to replace these things! Not only is it a lot less money I’m spending on silly things, but as it turns out, it is much healthier since I don’t add MSG or “natural flavoring” or salt or food dies or… you get the picture.

One thing I have been buying that I recently made was Cappuccino Mix. I buy it for the convenience, but when Jeremy and I start going through a can every 6 weeks it is time to take a look at what is in it. As it turns out, a google search gave me a long list of recipes that were identical. So I decided to try it. YUM. A little more of a coffee flavor than I am used to, but that isn't a bad thing and I can use it the same!

The only ingredient that I didn't have on hand was the instant coffee, which cost the same as my store-bought cappuccino mix ($11) at Costco. However, the instant coffee will probably last me a year or more in homemade mixes. I don’t really want to do the math since it will hurt my brain. But that's a significant savings.

Homemade Cappuccino Mix

• 1 Cup  Instant Coffee crystals
• 1 cup chocolate drink mix (like Nesquik) or instant hot chocolate mix
• 3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Cup  Non-Fat Dry Milk
• 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
• ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon

Simply heat up water, place 2-3 tablespoons of your mixture into a cup, and then add water and mix! I shook it right up in the jar. I left the scoop from the old store-bought mix in there since it is the perfect size.

This jar was full. I already got into it!

There is a recipe variation that calls for 1 cup of non-dairy coffee creamer and so only ½ cup of sugar (there is sugar in the creamer). I’m sure the taste isn’t dramatically different, but after reading the ingredients on the back of the creamer I have opted to donate the can rather than open it to use. If I am making a mix myself, I don’t want to add anything with crazy ingredients. In fact, the nesquick can be replaced with Ovaltine or a wannabe mix like:

Chocolate Wannabe Mix
2/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Cocoa
Pinch of salt

This is a no brainer for me. Buy-buy store bought mix. . . Next!