March 5th, 2009

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21 Frozen Meals

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

So I’m working on putting 21+ meals in the freezer for after the baby is born.  I figured three weeks worth of pre-prepared dinners will come in handy.  And we have the freezer space to work with too.

This post is going to be kind of a running tally of this project.  I’ll post my 21 meal ideas as I think of them and cross them off or something as I actually get them into the freezer.  For each dinner I try to have a protein and 2 vegetables (or maybe a fruit)  or 1 vegetable and a starch (potato, rice or pasta).  Most of my casseroles have at least 2 vegetables in them so some dinners will be as easy as one-dish!

Any great freezer recipes anyone can offer, will be appreciated!

1. Meatloaf (served with broccoli from freezer and canned pears)

2.  Spanish rice, re-fried beans, corn & meat burritos

3 & 4.  Two dinners worth of enchiladas (with black beans & corn)

5.  Kielbasa (from freezer), canned sauerkraut, canned red cabbage and applesauce (from jar)

6 & 7. Two dinners worth of Spaghetti and meatballs (with sauce)  (pasta freezes pretty well)

8 & 9.  Chili (Jiffy boxed corn bread)

10 & 11.  Vegetable Beef Soup (Dave really likes this and it is really healthy!)

Okay, that’s all I can work on for right now.  Like I said, this will be a “working post”.

Recipe Books

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

I really enjoy reading and owning recipe books, but I’ve discovered that they are not practical instruments for usage.  I’ve got about 5 square feet of shelf space devoted to recipe books in our pantry and that is were they sit.  There are zillions of great recipes I’ve never tried because going through recipes when I’m making up our weekly menu plan is tedious.

So I want to go through each book and pick out recipes that have ingredients we enjoy and seem to be something I would actually make.  But what to do with those recipes after I’ve done this is my dilemma.  Do I copy them into a computer file?  Do I type them up and reprint them onto index cards?  I’m undecided as to whether to have them available on a computer screen or on paper.  I do have a computer in the kitchen and have accessed online recipes using them directly from the screen so I’m not opposed to this format.  Having them in a binder or on index cards also is perfectly acceptable to me.  But what is the most efficient and effective way to make these recipes more useful and available to me?

In the end, I’m not going to get rid of all my recipe books.  There are a few to which I hold no attachment and will get rid of as soon as I’m gone through them and decided what to do with the recipes I like.  Other books I will keep readily available in the kitchen, but the remainders are going into storage to free up space.  Oh, and I forgot to mention the billion or so loose recipes of every shape and size imaginable that I’ve collected over the years.

I’m kind of leaning toward a paper format for organizing these, mostly because I’m still sentimentally attached to paper unlike some folks from the generation behind me.  Paper is still easier for me to perouse versus a computer, but a computer can organize all those recipes in all sorts of useful ways.  Argh!  I’m not convincing myself of an organizational plan here.  Any ideas from anyone??

First Weekend Boiling Sap

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Last weekend Dave finally got to use his brand new evaporator.  He boiled some 100 gallons of sap from the first week’s run.  This week really didn’t look like the sap was going to run at all, which would have meant another weekend of boiling lost, but the temperatures are warming up so we might have some sap by Saturday or Sunday.

Dave’s used an amazing 3/4 of a mile of tubing for sap between his parent’s woods and three friend’s woods.  That’s not a very impressive number for the big producers, but it is a HUGE number for us and it meant a whole LOT of work over the winter for Dave and his Dad.

Dave’ Dad took some nice photos last weekend and I’ll ask Dave to put them on here for everyone to see later maybe this evening.