A Saturday of Bulk Cooking

It's a little scary how excited I can get by the thought of saving money, time AND energy.  Hence my recent foray into bulk cooking (& freezing) easy meals.  I usually enjoy the prep involved in cooking dinners at home, but breakfast and lunch are a different story.  Mornings are rushed and lunches need to be microwavable.  So I decided to spend a couple hours last saturday cooking and assembling about 20 breakfast burritos and 18 veggie burgers.  I had been wanting to try a couple vegetarian burger recipes anyway, so I took as the perfect opportunity.

First for the burritos.  These were easy.  I scrambled 8 eggs, sauteed 2 peppers and 2 onions, cooked 8 links of maple sausage and roasted some sweet potatoes.  Add some cheese and flour tortillas and you've got yourself an breakfast burrito assembly line.

Collecting the ingredients. 

Assembly commence!

I flash freezed them for about an hour and then individually wrapped in saran wrap, labeled with a "V" for veggie or an "S" for sausage.  From frozen, they take about 1.5 minutes in the microwave, but for a more even heating, defrost overnight and heat for about 45 seconds.  In a pinch, we eat them wrapped in a napkin on our commute to work, but with a few more minutes and some sour cream and salsa, we have ourselves a nice breakfast together.

In an effort to move more toward a whole-foods plant-based diet (which I hear is good for you for all sorts of reasons but while cheese and I may take short breaks, I could never divorce it; even if it gives me cancer) I decided to go for a lentil and barley burger with carrots, onions and parsley.  Since I already had the produce, a quick trip to Whole Foods for the dried lentils and barley (only $1.99 per pound, by the way; maybe the cheapest thing at Whole Foods) was all I needed to get moving.

In addition to the lentils, barley, shredded carrots and onions, these burgers call for tomato paste, Panko bread crumbs, eggs and a smattering of garlic and spices.  I added some lime juice for some extra acid.  The patties were pretty crumbly and hard to form, but I flash froze them for a couple hours and then they were easy to wrap up individually.

Fresh patties on wax paper, waiting to be flash-frozen. 

The verdict on these guys is positive, although with some reservation.  As burgers, they were difficult.  Once thawed, the patties did not stay formed while I browned them on the stovetop.  So I went with it and decided to make it a "hash" instead of a burger.  This was much more successful.  Fry up the hash in a little bit of oil and you have a hearty, healthy meal.  The flavors are great (although I'd add a dash of salt and pepper before serving) and the texture, once fried up, is nice and slightly crispy. I've even been eating them for breakfast lately.

Here's the original recipe, from All Recipes, which I followed pretty closely.

Also good to note: 20 breakfast burritos doesn't actually last you that long, as I had hoped.  When your husband eats two in the morning most days of the week, your stock will quickly be depleted.  Maybe next Saturday will be another bulk cooking day.  But this time I'll double my recipe.   

Adventures in Canning (or, the journey of a green tomato)

With the cooler, autumn weather approaching,  I decided to clean out & winterize my vegetable garden this weekend.  The tomato plants, especially, had grown very bushy and were overflowing out of the raised bed, over the fence and into our neighbors yard.  And the past few tomatoes had sat--firm, green and unripe--taunting me for weeks. It was time for them to go.

But as I started yanking up plants and vines, I started noticing more than just a few unripened green tomatoes.  I rescued almost 40.  Initially, I was a little bitter; I missed out on 40 delicious vine-ripened tomatoes?? What a waste. But after a little research I discovered Green Tomato Relish, which is evidently how many gardeners choose to use end-of-the-season tomatoes.  Dice up a bunch of green tomatoes, onions, peppers, season, simmer in vinegar, store in cans and you're good to go.  Sounded like the perfect Sunday afternoon activity to me.

Some rescued veggies. 

Well, let me tell you: the original vision for a leisurely, 2-hour relish-creating afternoon quickly turned into a 5 hour-long saga. Canning, as it turns out, is no simple task.

 

First, of course, you have to chop up a BUNCH of veggies.  I washed and cored about 35 small-medium sized green tomatoes and then diced them, alongside three red bell peppers, three green bell peppers and six large yellow onions.  That's about 45 minutes worth of chopping.  

I had so many veggies that I actually had to separate the recipe into two 6 quart stock pots.  

To each pot, I added 1.5 TB of celery seed, 1.5 TB of mustard seed, .5 TB salt, 1 cup of cider vinegar and 2 cups of sugar. Yeah, I know; the amount of sugar surprised me too.  And I even reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe by a couple cups. I brought the pots to a boil and then reduced to a simmer for about an hour and a half.  During which time I started researching canning; and started to see my relaxing evening dissolve away. 

Canning is evidently all about being sterile.  First you have to boil all your mason jars and lids. "Even brand new, never been used jars?" You ask.  Yes. Even brand new jars.  So instead of plopping them all into boiling pots of water for 30 minutes, I opted for a slightly simpler method: the dishwasher.   Plus, my only two big stock pots were already in use.  According to some website, the water gets hot enough in the dishwasher to sufficiently sterilize the jars and lids.   So, one hour later, I have clean jars.

But then you have to fill the jars with the relish and pack down the relish to remove air, and you have to do it quickly, so as not to contaminate the contents. Then you screw on the lids and submerge the filled jars in boiling water for another 15-20 minutes. This combination of heat and pressure is what creates a vacuum seal on the jars, to preserve the contents without refrigeration.  Then, as the jars cool down, you hear the "pop" of the seal snapping down, which for me, was the much anticipated indication that my canning adventure had ended. So, you ask, how's it taste?

Better than expected, honestly.  We had some with our BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and it added a nice tangy dimension.  It's probably best on meats (hot dogs, bratwurst, burgers, fish), but I bet it'd be tasty with goat cheese and crackers, too.  Verdict: if you have an afternoon and 40 green tomatoes to kill, give it a go.  If not, stick to fresh salsas with ripened tomatoes.  Or bug me for a jar; my plan is to give most of the jars away as gifts. 

{PS: here's the original recipe from AllRecipes. I made a few minor changes noted above.}

The Tacos of the Sea

If you're expecting a regular taco when you eat a fish taco, you'll be disappointed. Ask my husband. Cheesy and greasy they aren't.   But fish tacos are a fantastic option for a healthy (and cheap) weeknight meal.  Start to finish, prep takes about 30 minutes. That's my required tri-fecta of cooking: cheap, quick, healthy. And the mexican avocado slaw is great both as a side dish, and as a taco topping.  Add a greek yogurt-based chipotle creme, and you've got yourself a gourmet fish taco. This is my combination of a few great recipes I found online (my Pinterest page has links to the original recipes).  It'll make you six small-ish tacos.

Chipotle Creme
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced

Mexican Avocado Slaw
2 avocados, diced
1 mango, diced
3-4 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
medium jalepano, minced
handful of cherry tomatos, quartered

Dressing:
1/4 cup EVOO
juice of 2-3 limes
pinch of salt
1 tsp honey

Pan Fried Tilapia
3 frozen tilapia filets, thawed
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
1-2 TB olive oil

1. Thaw the tilapia filets. Cut longways so each filet creates two long pieces.
2. Combine the cornmeal, paprika and a dash of salt and pepper.  Coat each piece of tilapia.
3. Heat olive oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.
4. Fry fish in olive oil, 3-4 minutes per side.
5. Serve with mexican avocado slaw and chipotle creme on a corn tortilla.

Mexican avocado slaw. 

Considering I got all but the cilantro and chipotle peppers at Aldi's, this meal was pretty cheap (why won't Aldi's supply fresh herbs?).   I buy the tilapia frozen in bulk, so each filet ends up costing about $.60.  And Aldi's now has Fage yogurt ($3.20), mangos ($.80) and avocados ($.39).  The total cost of this meal is less than $10 (assuming you don't use a whole container of yogurt, chipotle peppers, etc.) And yes, Jake ended up loving them, as well. See you again soon, tacos of the sea!

Kamut is a... berry?

Kamut Berry Pilaf with Caluiflower and Butternut Squash

I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest (good ole' Pinterest; pointing me to all things interesting) and thought "What in the world is kamut berry?".  It sounded a little like "Mr. Pamuk", from Downton Abbey; as in:

 Lady Mary: "You mean my lover, mother, Mr. Pamuk?".

Which of course made me want to try it. I looked it up and it turns out kamut just means wheat.  But it's a nice hearty wheat, high in fiber and iron.  And because September just started, we have a plump grocery budget, so I wasn't too worried about the potentially bank-busting cost of the mysterious "kamut".  Come to find out, kamut might just be the cheapest thing at Whole Foods: it's $1.59 a pound.  And I only needed a pound.  (Actually the recipe calls for less.)

Well, what kamut gained in expense, it lost in cooking time.  Evidently from dry, it would take 2 hours to cook a pound of kamut.  Yikes.  But I did a little internet snooping and found a site that recommended soaking the grain overnight to cut down on cooking time.  Worked great.  It only took 30 minutes to cook.

Uncooked kamut. 

Cooked kamut. 

The berries taste better than I expected; they are nutty, chewy and buttery and have a little "pop" to them.  Probably wouldn't eat them alone, but lucky for me the recipe called for all sorts of fun additions: roasted cauliflower, roasted butternut squash, carmelized shallots and red onions, sherry vinegar, almond slices and fresh parsley.

Roasted cauliflower and butternut squash. 

Just starting the onions and shallots in olive oil. 

I have to say, for a vegan meal, this was delicious. Normally if I eat vegetarian, I have to pile the cheese on to feel satisfied.  This recipe didn't need anything else; it had all sorts of nice textures and flavors.  And it totally filled us up!

Finished product!

Tomato and Green Bean Quinoa Salad

I got into quinoa a couple years ago. I guess about the same time the rest of the country discovered it.  We love it.  As my husband likes to remind me every time I make it, "Did you know it's a complete protein!?" Why yes, baby, I did.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I told you that to begin with :)

I've made several variations of quinoa as both a side dish and also as a hearty chip dip.  But my favorite has to be this one.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed
1 quart of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup of feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup uncooked, rinsed quinoa
Balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Rinse your quinoa twice.  Put in a sauce pan with 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, over and simmer for 12-16 minutes.  Fluff and set aside.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, cut your green beans into 1 inch pieces. Cook in boiling water for about 4-5 minutes, until al dente. Drain. Set aside.
3. Once cooled, combine quinoa, cooked green beans, halved cherry tomatoes and 1/4 tsp. of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix in the feta.  Add about a TB of olive oil and a TB of Balsamic (more or less depending on your preference).  Mix. Refrigerate.
4. Serve as a side chilled or slightly warm.

Enjoy!