I am trying to catch up with this blog and hopefully by the second time we cook, there will be better continuity!
The first meals -
I had mentioned previously I had the big breakdown about leaving town for a week (okay, leaving my son) during the cooking event. I did not get to eat the first couple of meals, but it was nice to leave Mason and Eric with something home cooked while I was gone. I tried to pry some details out of my husband, but as he is a man... that did not go over well. Apparently the male attention span is non-existent after 4 days, proven fact... at least in my home! So I will never know the true deliciousness of the meatloaf muffins (which sound yummy) or the other meal he ate that escaped his memory...
So I will delve into the first meal I ate! We decided to try the "Uglies"... and while they were ugly indeed, they were absolutely YUMMY! We had enough for dinner with a small side of veggies with left overs for our lunch the next day. I even texted Megan to tell her how awesome they were and that one should be done again sometime. Don't worry, I'll be posting recipes sometime soon!
That meal was eaten a few weeks ago! Last night (and lunch today) we had Chicken Pot Pie, we REALLY enjoyed it. I make it often as it is a one dish meal, easy to make, is packed with veggies and the kids really enjoy it. I do not use the "soups" in this dish as most recipes suggest, but make a sauce with cream cheese (low fat works fine), this really cuts down on all the sodium. Also, while I did cook the chicken, I did not cook any of the frozen veg that I put in it (or the chopped veg). What happened is when it reheats in the oven (about 50 minutes) all the veg cook up for the first time then and it is wonderfully fresh tasting. Happy accidents! Also, by using low fat cream cheese, low fat sour cream it is really not bad at all, sure there is the crust (on the bottom too, you just have to) but everything else is good for you! Balance!
We are taking our first break tonight from the meals... only because my step kids are coming for the weekend and we like to do pizza one night a visit. Tomorrow night though... Spaghetti Pie! Hope they enjoy it, I hid lots of veggies in it! Mwah hahaha!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Our First Cooking Session!
When Megan called and suggested that she, Erica, Lori and myself start once a month cooking, I was excited. I had been thinking about trying this, but like most of my great ideas... I never actually DO anything about them. But if those girls were involved, it was going to happen! The basic idea was that one person would do all the shopping and host at her kitchen for the rest of us to cook, assemble and get ready for freezing all the meals. She offered her place up first and we started hammering out the details. First things first... how many meals? We decided it would be too ambitious to start off with a full blown month of meals. We all were to come up with 4 different meals, each one had to serve at least 4 people. Sounds good so far... that would be 16 meals and for some of us we could stretch it out for more meals as we only had two adults eating (and maybe a toddler or baby to feed). Next up, Lori suggested that we have one beef, one chicken, one pork and one seafood/vegetable dish each. We certainly wouldn't end up with 8 beef lasagnas that way!
We had our recipes and ingredients submitted to Megan on the Wednesday before we were going to cook (Sunday) so she could plan her attack on Sam's and Wal-mart! Lori offered to help out with the Sam's trip and I offered to help out with the Wal-Mart leg. The shopping trips were uneventful, except for some jokes from the patron's of Sam's Club when Lori and Megan were handling 10 lbs tubes of ground beef! Our Wal-Mart trip had only one drawback... we were shopping on the Saturday evening before SUPERBOWL (which I affectionately call "Stupid Bowl"). However, we finished all the shopping, managed to purchase an additional meal (pork loin) and lunch for all the girls (chicken salad and croissants).
We were to pay Megan back for the shopping as she shelled out for the initial food bills. The total per person was $150! WOW! That came out to $8.82 per dish (not including the lunch)! So, I think I am liking this already!
Cooking day -
We arrived at Megan's house at 9AM ready to cook our butts off. I should note that my butt saw nothing come off from this adventure!! We divided the basic chores - Megan oversees all and readies what can go in the oven, Lori was cooking at the stove and Erica and myself were chopping... and chopping... and chopping. It think I chopped for 5 hours straight! I like chopping, so I volunteered and was happy that I did as again, it really is something I like to do. One thing I learned... after the 6th onion, you no longer cry!
Things went smoothly, it took quite a while before we had made any dents in actual total meal preparation, but once a few got completed, it seemed like they were flying out! We only forgot a couple of items and learned that husbands come in handy for impromptu trips to the store! In the haze of chopping veg my mind began to wonder... what should we call our little cooking club? I like to personalize things and I like to play with letters so the first thing I went to was our initials... Megan, Erica, Angela and Lori... M.E.A.L., I was happy with that. And yes, I know it could just as well spell LAME, bite me!
We all need to invest in an electric fry pan... that was a life saver. I am already thinking of getting another as it made things easy. It helps to be able to have a couple of different cooking stations not so crowded together. A lot goes on in the kitchen, so having a pan cooking off on a bar or counter top away from the action was nice.
Cleaning up all along the way was fantastic. I don't think anyone ever stopped to question, if they had a second between steps and the sink had something in it, it got washed. You can never have enough large bowls, whether to hold something or to mix something... again something I think I need to get more of. Something good to know is how much a certain veg will be chopped up. Some recipes call for 1 onion while others call for 1/2 cup of onion. You want to chop ALL the onions and then measure out what you need as you go. So use this chart for some common chopped items -
Red pepper – 1/2 cup diced – 3 ounces = 1/4 pepper
Yellow pepper – 1/2 cup diced – 3 ounces = 1/4 pepper
Small onion = 3 ounces = 2/3 cup
Medium onion – 1 cup diced – 4.5 ounces
Large onion – 1 1/4 cup diced – 7 ounces
1 medium shallot = 1 ounce = 1/4 cup mince
1 large shallot = 2 ounce = 1/2 cup mince
1 rib celery = 2 ounces = 1/2 cup dice
1 small carrot 2 ounces = 1/3 cup dice
1 medium carrot = 3 ounces = 1/2 cup dice
1 large carrot = 4 ounces = 3/4 cup dice
10 mushrooms = 4 ounces
1 medium tomato = 4 ounces
1 ear of corn makes about 1.5 cups kernels
1 medium spear asparagus = 1/2 ounce
1 19 ounce can black beans = 2 cups
1 medium leaf napa cabbage = 1 ounce
4 cups arugula = 5 ounces
1 Tbsp. pine nuts = 10 grams
1 Tbsp. minced ginger = 3/8 ounce
1 lb. Mussels in shell = 3.5 ounces cooked and shucked
1 lime juiced = 1/4 cup lime juice
1 medium beet = 8 ounces
15 ounce can garbanzos = 1 1/5 cups
8 ounce tomato seeded = 5 ounces
1/2 cup diced pickle = 2.5 ounces
1 medium banana = 1/2 cup mashed
1/4 cup wasabi peas = 1 ounce
What else did we learn? You will invariably forget something, don't panic, just go get it! Watch large amounts of rice, mine turned to MUSH, in fact I believe the next time I use rice I will get boil-in bags. It is easier to portion out, takes up less space in the kitchen while cooking and isn't that much more expensive. Don't have a business trip the next day that will take you away from your son for a week and have a break down because the cooking took all day and you won't see him (yup, me). Make sure you can either take direction or give direction and do not mind going back and forth between the two! Enjoy the company of those you're with, I am lucky to have these 3 ladies as my friends, they are the most valuable asset to something like this! A bottle of wine proved nice to have as well, at least for Lori and I! Supportive husbands (thanks - Eric, Greg, Matt and Steve) are helpful as well and we are all lucky enough to have them! When you break for lunch it is almost impossible to find a time that all of you are in-between steps, but try to, it's nice to have that time.
It took about 10 hours to complete our cooking and that was including some scheduling issues (for example, I bailed a little early to hang with my son before leaving for business). I will post later about how things have gone since... it's been almost 3 weeks. I will let you know, it has been AWESOME so far!!!
We had our recipes and ingredients submitted to Megan on the Wednesday before we were going to cook (Sunday) so she could plan her attack on Sam's and Wal-mart! Lori offered to help out with the Sam's trip and I offered to help out with the Wal-Mart leg. The shopping trips were uneventful, except for some jokes from the patron's of Sam's Club when Lori and Megan were handling 10 lbs tubes of ground beef! Our Wal-Mart trip had only one drawback... we were shopping on the Saturday evening before SUPERBOWL (which I affectionately call "Stupid Bowl"). However, we finished all the shopping, managed to purchase an additional meal (pork loin) and lunch for all the girls (chicken salad and croissants).
We were to pay Megan back for the shopping as she shelled out for the initial food bills. The total per person was $150! WOW! That came out to $8.82 per dish (not including the lunch)! So, I think I am liking this already!
Cooking day -
We arrived at Megan's house at 9AM ready to cook our butts off. I should note that my butt saw nothing come off from this adventure!! We divided the basic chores - Megan oversees all and readies what can go in the oven, Lori was cooking at the stove and Erica and myself were chopping... and chopping... and chopping. It think I chopped for 5 hours straight! I like chopping, so I volunteered and was happy that I did as again, it really is something I like to do. One thing I learned... after the 6th onion, you no longer cry!
Things went smoothly, it took quite a while before we had made any dents in actual total meal preparation, but once a few got completed, it seemed like they were flying out! We only forgot a couple of items and learned that husbands come in handy for impromptu trips to the store! In the haze of chopping veg my mind began to wonder... what should we call our little cooking club? I like to personalize things and I like to play with letters so the first thing I went to was our initials... Megan, Erica, Angela and Lori... M.E.A.L., I was happy with that. And yes, I know it could just as well spell LAME, bite me!
We all need to invest in an electric fry pan... that was a life saver. I am already thinking of getting another as it made things easy. It helps to be able to have a couple of different cooking stations not so crowded together. A lot goes on in the kitchen, so having a pan cooking off on a bar or counter top away from the action was nice.
Cleaning up all along the way was fantastic. I don't think anyone ever stopped to question, if they had a second between steps and the sink had something in it, it got washed. You can never have enough large bowls, whether to hold something or to mix something... again something I think I need to get more of. Something good to know is how much a certain veg will be chopped up. Some recipes call for 1 onion while others call for 1/2 cup of onion. You want to chop ALL the onions and then measure out what you need as you go. So use this chart for some common chopped items -
Red pepper – 1/2 cup diced – 3 ounces = 1/4 pepper
Yellow pepper – 1/2 cup diced – 3 ounces = 1/4 pepper
Small onion = 3 ounces = 2/3 cup
Medium onion – 1 cup diced – 4.5 ounces
Large onion – 1 1/4 cup diced – 7 ounces
1 medium shallot = 1 ounce = 1/4 cup mince
1 large shallot = 2 ounce = 1/2 cup mince
1 rib celery = 2 ounces = 1/2 cup dice
1 small carrot 2 ounces = 1/3 cup dice
1 medium carrot = 3 ounces = 1/2 cup dice
1 large carrot = 4 ounces = 3/4 cup dice
10 mushrooms = 4 ounces
1 medium tomato = 4 ounces
1 ear of corn makes about 1.5 cups kernels
1 medium spear asparagus = 1/2 ounce
1 19 ounce can black beans = 2 cups
1 medium leaf napa cabbage = 1 ounce
4 cups arugula = 5 ounces
1 Tbsp. pine nuts = 10 grams
1 Tbsp. minced ginger = 3/8 ounce
1 lb. Mussels in shell = 3.5 ounces cooked and shucked
1 lime juiced = 1/4 cup lime juice
1 medium beet = 8 ounces
15 ounce can garbanzos = 1 1/5 cups
8 ounce tomato seeded = 5 ounces
1/2 cup diced pickle = 2.5 ounces
1 medium banana = 1/2 cup mashed
1/4 cup wasabi peas = 1 ounce
What else did we learn? You will invariably forget something, don't panic, just go get it! Watch large amounts of rice, mine turned to MUSH, in fact I believe the next time I use rice I will get boil-in bags. It is easier to portion out, takes up less space in the kitchen while cooking and isn't that much more expensive. Don't have a business trip the next day that will take you away from your son for a week and have a break down because the cooking took all day and you won't see him (yup, me). Make sure you can either take direction or give direction and do not mind going back and forth between the two! Enjoy the company of those you're with, I am lucky to have these 3 ladies as my friends, they are the most valuable asset to something like this! A bottle of wine proved nice to have as well, at least for Lori and I! Supportive husbands (thanks - Eric, Greg, Matt and Steve) are helpful as well and we are all lucky enough to have them! When you break for lunch it is almost impossible to find a time that all of you are in-between steps, but try to, it's nice to have that time.
It took about 10 hours to complete our cooking and that was including some scheduling issues (for example, I bailed a little early to hang with my son before leaving for business). I will post later about how things have gone since... it's been almost 3 weeks. I will let you know, it has been AWESOME so far!!!
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