I talked to you yesterday
about what I've been doing to get winter ready.
My work continued bright and early the very next day. I didn't even wait to get dressed first! I was still in my pajamas when I went into
the kitchen and began by cooking up some Italian sausage and putting a huge
batch of pasta sauce on to cook in my large slow cooker. I set it on low for six hours and boy did it
ever smell good.
|
I browned up the Italian sausage |
|
I reserved some cooked sausage in small containers to use to make pizzas |
Once my sauce was in the
slow cooker I cooked up some pork breakfast sausage, whipped up a dozen eggs
and made a pan of scrambled eggs and sausage.
Then I pulled out some leftover grated cheese and some low carb
tortillas and made myself some breakfast burritos. I even sprinkled some chipotle Tabasco sauce
on the eggs before I rolled my burritos and that made them even better. Each of my breakfast burritos went into a
separate Ziploc bag and then I put all of them into a larger gallon sized Ziploc
bag and into the freezer. I was going
for ten and ended up with eleven burritos
(Spinal Tap anyone?) for quick grab
and go meals to take to work.
|
I already had eggs and tortillas on hand as well as some extra cheese left |
|
I drizzled each one with chipotle Tabasco sauce |
Next was to mix up some
meatloaf using the rest of the pork sausage and some ground beef I had
thawed. I made one for us to cook and
eat that week and one for the freezer. I
put the one for the freezer into a Ziploc bag and we can either use it as a
meatloaf or make meatballs out of it, whichever we choose. Then it was time to clean up a bit and move
onto my next project. Baking!
|
Chopped onion and some leftover mushroom I had in the fridge |
|
One meatloaf for now and one for later |
|
I divided the markdown beef franks into four meal sized portions for the freezer |
|
Wrapped and ready for the freezer |
We were pretty lucky that
day in that the weather was significantly cooler and I wasn't afraid to turn on
my oven. I also hadn't baked anything
since Christmas so I was really itching to do that. I decided to use up a couple mixes I had on
hand in the pantry picked up for mere pennies at the store. I made a batch of peanut butter cookies and a
pan of brownies (with added chocolate chips!) and that made my girls plenty
happy. Especially my youngest. She and I love our cookies, which is bad for
me, but good for her. I did indulge, I'm
not going to lie, and it was heavenly.
|
My daughter was thrilled to find a full cookie jar |
|
And brownies too! |
My daughter headed off to
work and I took a break until the pasta sauce was done cooking. Then I set up the canner and filled up nine
pint jars of sauce. Once they were
canned and cooling down my job was pretty much complete. In eight days we had managed to get us stocked
up and ready for the upcoming winter and it felt, and still feels, pretty darn
amazing. It was a lot of bargain
shopping and strategizing to get it all done and without blowing the budget,
but we did it.
|
Breakfast burritos, sausage for pizza and beef hotdogs ready for the freezer |
|
The broth from cooking chicken the day before sat in the fridge overnight |
|
I removed the fat and packaged it up for the freezer to use in future recipes |
|
Finished pasta sauce ready to be processed |
I will go over more about
what I spent on everything when I post my next grocery budget
update. I think you'll be
impressed. I was thrilled. Are any of you doing any canning or making
preparations for the winter ahead? I'd
love to hear about what you are doing.
"Why not just make 10 louder?" (I say that whenever the obvious has eluded any of us.)
ReplyDeleteBecause "These go to 11" Ha,haaaaaa! :0)
DeleteWow, you got a lot done! All I can say is... YUMM.
ReplyDeleteIt's still pretty hot here, though we've cooled off some. The stove pilot light stays off whenever possible -- I'll turn it back on, and actually do some baking, in early September. That works, when you buy your cookies at the dollar store.
LOLOL. Exactly right!
DeleteThat all looks so good. I plan to make meatloaves this weekend or early next week and freeze three and eat one. I baked chicken and froze some of it for later. But, I never do as much as you.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the allusion that Meg and you were talking about in her comment?
Oh, from Spinal Tap? I did not see that.
ReplyDelete