Meal Preparation on a Saturday

I was informed this last week that the cook was taking a couple of weeks off to go visit her mother. Knowing if I didn't do something over the weekend, I would be starving or eating too much fast food while she was away. I pulled out my recipe books, tagged some recipes, made a list and then narrowed it down to 7 dinner meals I like to cook and trust the outcome. Then armed with a shopping list, I did my grocery shopping. And although I had a calculator in my pocket, I didn't use it, just put in the cart what I needed, a couple of things that sounded cool, and prayed the full cart wouldn't go over $100. $60 was all it came to. I was so impressed and pleased with myself. All that food and healthy and raw materials - no prepared stuff. Ok I did get a frozen lasagna but you've got to have a contingency plan for the night you don't want to do anything but throw it in the oven and eat right away. Right?

So here's the day's work in as little words as I can do.

I came across a powered milk recipe to make your own Hot Chocolate mix. Since I'm lactose intolerant, I've got some powered soy milk that I wanted to try out. It's not so great alone so I wanted to try it with Carob and see how it tastes. Why Carob you ask? Well it seems my "chocolate" allergy morphed with my MSG allergy and it too triggers migraines.
Yeah, no more chocolate for me. Migraines are SO MEAN!!!
(If truth be told, I actually prefer Carob) - what movie is that from?

My Hot Carob Mix
I wasn't sure how it would taste so I only mixed up a 1/4 of the recipe.
How does it taste? :( Honestly I'm not convinced just yet. Maybe with marshmallows and a candy cane to stir it with .... ? We shall see.....

Next Recipes: Meatloaf & Porcupine Meatballs

Onions Separate for the 3 different recipes I'll be using them in.
Meatloaf Recipe
Mix everything together and form into 12 good-size meatballs. Think 3/4 muffin tin size
Place on a cookie sheet and "flash" freeze. (I think that's the term) Basically by freezing them first this way, they keep their shape when put into the Zip lock bags. I was first introduced to this idea when I spent a few weeks with my cousin's family in Missouri. My Aunt Sally would mix up cookie dough and freeze it this way. I thought it was the coolest thing and beat cookie rolls for sure. With these you don't have to get your hands messy trying to cut anything, just pull them out and put them on the cookie sheet. This is the first time I've done it with meat but instead of a cookie sheet, I will use a muffin tin. Honestly I'm not quite sure how it would turn out on a cookie sheet. Could be interesting. Just make a note the meatloaf cooks faster separated into a muffin tin then all together in a loaf pan. Adjust time accordingly
Porcupine Meatballs ready for the freezer.
For those who don't know what Porcupine meatballs are they are your average meatball recipe with rice added to them. I think they're pretty good. The recipe calls for uncooked white rice. I used brown rice, which takes longer to cook and usually doesn't, at least not completely. And since I really don't like the "crunch" factor, I decided to cook the rice for 20 minutes. That way when the meat balls get cooked for the meal, the rice will definitely be cooked completely. Here's hoping. Just don't do what I did which was to double the rice recipe. I figured I would then split the portions with the stir-fry recipe, but I got too into the recipe and added all the rice to the meatballs. So these are one times the meatball recipe with twice the rice. Oh goody, hope I still like the rice aspect after this.

Now to prepare the veggies for a stir-fry and a Pasta Salad
Dense Veggies - Take longer to stir-fry

Pasta Salad Ingredients (including carrots)
I didn't want to make the same mistake I did with the rice so I made sure to separate the common veggies for both recipes.

So Pretty
Less Dense Veggies - cooks faster, bag separately so they can be added later

Chopped and ready for bagging

Now I know I'm going to be using these in the next couple of days so I'm not throwing them in the freezer but you can if you want to. Although the pasta salad ingredients probably shouldn't go in the freezer.

The frozen meatballs & meatloaf bagged and ready, enough for 4 meals serving 3-4 people. I'm pretty impressed with the afternoon's work. I made up four recipes that made enough for about 8 meals. The veggies I bagged together and will make up as one meal, I just know I'll have enough leftovers for a couple of meals. The meatballs and meatloaf I separated into two quart baggies so I only pull out what I need to serve for one meal. (If that makes sense)

After this I cleaned up the kitchen, put everything away and went downstairs to put my feet up. BOY were they killing me. I did it quickly because I was so tired, my feet hurt and I was afraid I would beat the first person who walked into the kitchen and asked, "So what's for dinner"

Note to self: Find a man who will be the kind of husband who understands that after a day like this, he takes care of the dinner, for the good of all concerned. If one can't be found, remain single cause that amount of food should keep you for at least 3 weeks if not a month.

PS: Movie Reference "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
PSS: So much for a "minimum" word post