Baking Day Results

My baking days did not go exactly as I had planned. Starting Friday night and going through Saturday, we got a lot of snow. For part of the weekend, our pipes were frozen leaving us without running water. Saturday, I brought ingredients to my in-laws' house to make the chocolate-fresh cranberry scones I was planning to make. Once I got it all together, I found out their oven needed some repairs. So, that dough is ready to be baked tomorrow. Last night, I began soaking grains for today's baking.  I also soaked a few pounds of pinto beans. Here's what I ended up with:

These Giant Breakfast Cookies turned out quite tasty! I soaked the oats and whole wheat flour last night, substituting yogurt (watered down) for the butter milk, since that is what I had on hand. I also used Sucanat instead of honey, and coconut oil instead of butter. They are definitely not typical, dessert-y, ultra-sweet cookies, but they are tasty,filling, and healthy enough that I let my 11 month old have part of one. They sort of remind me of a muffin or a cakier granola bar. They will definitely be added to my regular rotation of recipes. I think it will make a nice grab and go breakfast on Sunday mornings, especially.

 

This was my first attempt at making homemade tortillas. I followed the recipe at Keeper of the Home, except I completely forgot to soak the flour for these last night. I was kind of bummed out about that, but I guess I can do it next time. There will definitely be a next time! I used freshly ground spelt flour and these turned out absolutely wonderful! The flavor is way better than store bought tortillas, and they are much healthier. In fact, they only have spelt, coconut oil, water, and salt. Much better than the long, yucky ingredient lists on some store bought tortillas. My sister-in-law helped me roll these out, which was such a help! I may look into getting a tortilla press, since I think these will become a staple at our house.

 

This was my first time cooking dry beans in the crock pot, and I am so pleased with the results! It was so easy! I had a ham bone in the freezer which I added to the pot while the beans cooked all day, and it added a really nice flavor. 

I am going to put some flour to soak tonight for bread and pizza dough so I can make those tomorrow. I accidentally let myself run out of Sucanat, so I am going to use maple syrup in the bread, and raw sugar in the pizza crust. Since there is so little sugar (1/4 cup for 4 pizza crusts), I am not too worried about it. I'd prefer to use Sucanat, but we are snowed it, so I have to just use what's on hand.

Linked to:

• Money Saving Mom's Baking Day Link-up

Freezer Cooking Plan

After yesterday's disposal of some freezer fails from past months, I will admit some slight hesitation about joining in freezer cooking again this month. I think for now, I am going to shy away from main meals, and focus on filling our freezer with some baked goods and cooked ingredients to help make meal prep faster. I am also going to begin experimenting some with soaking our whole grains, since that is one of my goals for this year. With that in mind (and assuming our power doesn't go out in tomorrow's expected snow!), here is a list of recipes I'm planning to try this time around:


Breakfast Items:
::Giant Breakfast Cookies: If my husband doesn't mind having cookies for breakfast, I think these would be an easy, healthy breakfast to eat on the way to church on Sunday mornings. We're always in a hurry, so it would be nice to just pop it out of the freezer and go! I'm going to soak the grains in this recipe overnight.

::Chocolate-Fresh Cranberry Scones: I still have some fresh cranberries in my freezer that I scored for about $0.60/bag and some organic chocolate chips I got way reduced, so I'm going to give these a try. They look delicious, and I think Ben would really enjoy them with his morning coffee! I'm going to use freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour instead of self rising white flour, though.

Main Meal Items:
::Homemade Soaked Tortillas: I have been wanting to try my hand at homemade tortillas for weeks and just haven't done it. So now, I'm going to! I don't have a tortilla press, so I'm going to have to hand roll them. I guess if it becomes something I do regularly, I'll probably look into getting a press.

::Pinto Beans: I am going to cook up a few pounds of pinto beans and freeze them in meal-sized portions. I have a ham bone in the freeze to include in the pot while they cook, so that should add some nice flavor. I'm going to freeze some beans with ham, to serve with cornbread, some plain to go in queadillas and chili, and season some with chili seasoning to use in the place of spicy chili beans in Fiesta Taco Casserole.

::Pizza Dough: I tried freezing pizza dough recently and it worked great! Just take it out of the freezer in the morning and it's ready to go by supper time. :)

Breads:
::Soaked Whole Grain Bread: I am going to try this recipe with a combination of wheat and spelt. I don't have any dough enhancer, so it probably won't turn out quite the same, but I bet it will still be good.

::Corn Muffins: Not much to say about these--hubby loves them and it's so nice to pull a couple out of the freezer and pop them in the oven to go with lunch or dinner, or even to have as a snack topped with some butter!

So, that's it for me this time around. I'll post some pictures Monday of the results!

Linked to:

• Money Saving Mom's Baking Day Plan Link-up

Freezer Cooking Day: Results

Above are the results of my freezer cooking day.

::2 loaves of pumpkin bread (the third is almost gone!),

::2 batches of Farmhouse Chicken (made with turkey; I also added some cooked carrots to the mix, and used a 6 oz. package of stuffing instead of 12 oz.). These are in the 8x8 square dish, and the round covered one.

::2 dozen corn muffins (minus the one I ate...)

::2 dozen banana crumb muffins (minus the two I ate...I hadn't had breakfast, so I munched a little while cooking!). They turned out a wee bit on the flat side this time...not sure if it's because I put more bananas, or if it's from using coconut oil instead of butter. In any case, they still taste good.

::2 batches of turkey tetrazzini, split up into three one-gallon freezer bags

I made it through my whole list, except the dinner rolls. I got started this morning right after Ben left for work (just after 9) and finished after 1. By that time, Katie had spent enough of her day in her high chair and exersaucer, so I decided to call it a day and play with my baby girl. I think the dinners I made will last us about 10 meals, and the muffins/pumpkin breads should last us lots of breakfast, coupled with scrambled eggs or alone.

If I can talk my sister-in-law into coming over and helping with Katie, I might actually try to do a full month of dinners next month. That will require more planning ahead and time cooking, of course, but I think it may just be worth it! I guess we'll see what happens. :)

I'm way late in getting this up...most people put theirs up yesterday evening. If you head over to Crystal's blog, there are 70 people with links up to their freezer cooking day posts. You should check it out for some inspiration if you're interested in trying it.

Note to self

When you want to do freezer cooking, plan to start in the morning. And do NOT plan to pick up a few things at the grocery store. And, don't offer to drop off your younger brother-in-law and sister-in-law to finish up a home school co-op project while you go to the store, because you will have to wait for them for an extra hour unexpectedly.  If you do these things, you won't start until almost three and you won't make it through your list. In fact, you'll only get through the first item (three loaves of pumpkin bread) before Katie needs attention, Ben comes home from work and you (of course!) want to hang out with him, and then it's time for dinner at the farm. If you do this, you will have to postpone the rest of your list until the following day.

Freezer Cooking Day: The Plan

Crystal at Money Saving Mom and FishMama at Life as Mom are hosting freezer cooking again this month, and I am planning to participate. It started today and continues until tomorrow. Tuesdays are busy days for me because we have to leave at 3:30 for class, so I am just jumping in tomorrow. I am not being nearly as ambitious as either of them, but I have a BUNCH of extra turkey to put in recipes, and would also like to do some baking for the freezer. So, here's the list:

Breakfasts:

Banana Crumb Muffins (x2)

Pumpkin Bread (x3) (This cookbook has my very favorite recipe for pumpkin bread! I just change it to whole wheat flour...delicious!)

Dinners:

Turkey Tetrazzini (x2)

Farmhouse Chicken (with Turkey instead) (x2)

Other:

Corn Muffins (x2)

Dinner Rolls

Here's the plan:
-Go to the store and pick up last minute things
-Make pumpkin bread
-While pumpkin bread is baking, put together tetrazzini and farmhouse chicken (turkey)
-Make dinner rolls
-While rolls are rising, make banana crumb muffins and bake them
-Bake the rolls
-While rolls are baking, make corn muffins
-Bake corn muffins
-Freeze everything
-Clean up my mess
-Have dinner at my in-laws' farm. Ha! :)

Baking Day(s) Results

Above are the results of my baking days, minus the banana crumb muffins which we already ate, a 2qt crockpot of pinto beans and ham that I forgot to put in the picture, some of the corn muffins which were also eaten, and a crockpot of chicken broth which won't be done 'til tomorrow morning.

I ended up with:

-1 dozen corn muffins

-1 dozen banana crumb muffins

-About 4 dozen cookie dough balls for the freezer (baked 16 cookies, too)

-5 cans worth of black/kidney beans

-2 qts. pintos and ham

-Italian beef and beans x2

-7 jars of organic sweet potato baby food (more on that another day!)

-5 cups of cooked, cubed chicken

-4 cups cooked, cubed ham

-chicken salad for lunch the next couple of days

It was fun! I think next time, I will try to do more full meals instead of cooking mainly meat/beans to put in meals later on. If you head over to Money Saving Mom, lots of folks are linking up to their freezer cooking results. I am looking forward to wading through the posts and finding ideas for next time!

Baking Day

Today, Money Saving Mom and FishMama are hosting a baking day. That is, a day to spend all day in the kitchen cooking so that you don't have to do that much for a while. I decided last night to jump on the bandwagon. So, here is my list for today. Hopefully, I'll be back this evening with photos.

-Cook black, pinto, and kidney beans (soaked the beans last night)
-Cook a whole chicken (in the crockpot). Debone and freeze meat in mealsize portions.
-Cook a ham and do the same.
-Make banana crumb muffins
-Cook up a couple pounds of ground venison and make Italian Beef and Beans to go over pasta. Freeze.
-With the chicken, make up some chicken salad and some quesadilla filling
-Make up some baby food for Katie (sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and pears)

I'd also like to do a couple loads of laundry since the sun is out today, and maybe work out. We'll see if I can get it all done. :)