If you are watching your grocery bill and shopping the sales, chances are you’ve got a small stockpile of food in your pantry and freezer(s).  It can be difficult to keep track of what you’ve got and make sure you use it up in a reasonable time frame and don’t buy more of what you already have plenty of!  Keeping a freezer and/or pantry inventory can really help.

Via $5 Dollar Dinner Mom’s post on her own January Monthly Meal Plan I found Once a Month Mom and her fantastic freezer inventory sheet that you can download and use.

January is a great time to start some new habits and keeping an accurate inventory and using that list when you’re planning your meals is sure to help in your quest for Cheap Cooking.

How to Freeze Ground Beef

If you’re going to freeze ground beef, or other things, you want to have as little air as possible touching the meat. (Note: It does not affect the safety of the food, just the quality.)  The vacuum sealer things help out with this, of course, and I bought one a few years back when I was cooking for more folks.  I use it much less often these days but since the initial investment is made, it’s worthwhile to keep using it.

One trick I’ve learned with things like raw ground meat is that a flatter bag is easier to store AND much faster to thaw.  When I have raw ground meat to freeze, I seal the bag with enough room to press the meat flat. It really is much easier to store that way and if you’re in a hurry, you can throw a thin package of meat into a sink of cold water and it thaws out quite quickly.

If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, you can follow the same general principle. Put the raw meat into a freezer bag and press out as much air as possible before/while sealing. Then flatten the bag out.

Pesto from homegrown basil

I am going to freeze some of this pesto, so I left out the cheese in the main batch, following my former mother-in-law’s rule as well as Mark Bittman’s advice in How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, one of my favorite go-to cookbooks. I’ve added some as I went using this on some chicken breasts the other night but will freeze the rest without the cheese.

My basil this year is the best I have grown yet. It is flavorful and produces plenty of leaves! I’ve used in Thai curry, tomato caprese salad, pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil, etc.   But somehow I hadn’t yet made pesto!  So I will be making lots of pesto over the next few weeks. The plant is starting to flower a lot and I don’t want to lose it all!

homegrown basil

I picked a huge branch of it and trimmed the leaves off, not worrying about the smaller stems but definitely discarding the woody thick ones.  I left a few flowers in.  After trimming, I rinsed them all off in a salad spinner and then spun them dry.

• 2 cups of loosely packed basil leaves, rinsed and dried
• a bit of salt, to taste
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 Tbs pine nuts (you could lightly toast but I skipped this)
• 1/2 cup olive oil, maybe more
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if you’re using immediately

I used my food processor, first blending the basil, salt, garlic, nuts and half the oil. I had to stop and scrape the sides down a few times.  Then I added the other half of the oil and finished blending it all together, tasting to adjust the salt.  As I said, earlier I did not add the cheese yet since I was planning on freezing.

Note: if you don’t have pine nuts, you can use walnuts or just leave out the nuts. My MIL used to just mix the basil, salt, and oil together, then freeze in plastic bags laid flat. She could break off a pinch here and there as she wanted some fresh basil flavor in a dish.

What’s your favorite use for pesto, other than on pasta?

Last night I hosted a surprise birthday party for a friend. We had about 25 friends and neighbors gather. It was pot luck and folks brought all kinds of delicious appetizers and baked beans and salads.

I grilled chicken breasts and burgers–well actually some nice guests volunteered to man the grill so I can’t take credit for the actual cooking. But I got more compliments on these chicken breasts and everyone wanted to know what was in the marinade. So here you go!

This is from The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet: A Month of Meals Made Easy. It has some really good recipes and some great advice and worksheets for those of you who want to cook ahead and freeze dishes or prepped food, like this chicken marinade. You can freeze chicken pieces in this marinade, then grill or bake or use in fajitas or stir fries. I took frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts and popped them bags with this marinade and let them marinate while they thawed overnight in my frig.

This makes about 3 cups of marinade. I cut back a bit on the soy sauce as it seemed like a lot of salty stuff. The chicken does not taste salty though, just very flavorful. And the grillers cooked the chicken perfectly!

• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbs dry mustard
• 1 cup oil
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp dried parsley

Just delicious!  Mix it up and pour over chicken pieces in a gallon freezer bag. Freeze and pull out later, or pour over frozen chicken and let marinate while it thaws.

Another good one from Cheap. Fast. Good! Just a good basic Mexican flavored ground beef mix, suitable for burritos, enchiladas, taco salad, quesadillas, and nachos.  In all honest, the first night we had it for burritos and I thought it would have been better without the sour cream. But two nights later on a taco salad we all loved it. Go figure.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced onion (a small onion)
• 2 Tbs taco seasoning mix
• 1 14.5 oz can condensed tomato soup
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• 1 cup sour cream

Brown the ground beef in a deep skillet over medium heat, stirring and breaking up clumps.  Peel and dice the the onion and add it to the skillet, stirring. Cook until there’s no pink in the meat and the onion is soft, 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the taco seasoning mix and cook one minute, stirring.

Add the tomato soup and heat through, then mix in the cheese until melted. Remove from the heat or turn the heat down way low and stir in the sour cream.

We made burritos the first night, adding some sliced black olives, salsa, and diced avocado.

Two nights later we used the rest for taco salads. Chopped lettuce, Ranchero beans, sliced olives, diced avocadoes, a bit more cheese, salsa and/or Catalina dressing.

The local grocery had a ten pound bag of potatoes on sale for $1.99 this weekend. Really, unless you’re a low-carb person, quite a good deal. I bought a bag and came and home and scrubbed and poked about 2/3 of the bag to bake. When they were done, I made twice baked potatoes for later, flash freezing them, and a batch of potato soup for tonight’s dinner and half to freeze later.

I also peeled and diced and parboiled another half a dozen potatoes to freeze for hash browns later.

If you’re seeing similar sales in your neck of the wood, this site has a great many ideas for freezing potato dishes.

The twice baked potatoes are a great hit around here for an after-school snack on cold days. My youngest will pull out half a potato (or two if they’re small) and microwave them for a snack after school. And I like having a nice side dish nearly ready in the freezer.

I’ve not tried the hash browns before but will try to remember to report back. Certainly cheaper than buying a bag of frozen hash browns!

We’ve made and loved the baked potato soup before and we were all just fine with the texture after freezing. I’ll serve it as a main dish the first time, like I did tonight when it’s fresh, and then heat smaller portions later to round out another meal later.

Other costs to the baked potato soup I served tonight included half a pound of bacon (except we only used 1/4) and 1 cup of grated Cheddar cheese, plus an onion, and some dried herbs. The chicken broth was homemade so nearly free (most folks throw away the bones). For the 2 cups of half and half mentioned in the recipe I used 1 cup half and half and one cup 1% milk.

Am I the last person to buy a FoodSaver? Everyone seems to assume I’ve had one for years somehow, but I’m not generally a big fan of gadgets. But I broke down and bought one a few weeks ago and have been enjoying freezing meats and sealing up cheese to avoid spoilage. So far, so good! If you don’t have one yet, here’s a link to Save $10 off any FoodSaver.com order of $80 or more! Offer Expires 06-30-06.

Yesterday at Target I found a marinader. Supposedly the act of being under the vacuum pressure causes the food to absorbs the marinade faster. The canister is not cheap ($20 at Target for a 9″ square one) but if it helps me get a flavorful dinner on the table in a hurry some nights, I’m all for trying it. If I avoid one delivered pizza I’ve paid for it!

I have a few yogurt marinades I’ve used on chicken but decided to try the one on the FoodSaver site itself, which is also full of FoodSaver Uses and Tips. It turned out quite good.

1 Tbs oil
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp coriander
1/4 cup diced onion (I used about an 1/8 cup dried onion flakes)
1/2 cup yogurt
2 Tbs lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Heat the oil in a small skillet and stir in the cumin, paprika, and coriander. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then let cool. In a small bowl mix together the diced onion, yogurt, lime juice, salt, and oil/spice mixture. Put the chicken into a container or a bag or whatever dish you want to use, then pour the marinade on and turn the chicken so it’s evenly coated.

If you’re using a FoodSaver thingy, you can vacuum seal it and then let it marinade for 15-20 minutes. Otherwise I would do this in the morning and let it sit in the frig all day marinating. I have to say, I used the FoodSaver thingy and marinated it about half an hour and it was very flavorful!

You could, of course, bake the chicken at 350 for 10 minutes or so. I chose to grill it, along with my skewered marinated vegetables from the last post. I didn’t actually time it. Probably about 10 minutes total, turning halfway through. I always cut into chicken to ensure it’s done.

The kids each picked out their favorite vegetables, of course, but they did eat them willingly enough. I was told by my oldest, however, that I could cook green beans every night and she’d much rather eat those. Youngest loved the mushrooms though. And I’ve got just enough chicken, rice, and vegetables to make myself a nice lunch one day!

I’ve just received a cookbook to review and have to say I love the concept! The Warehouse Gourmet is out to help you shop the “big box” stores in an economical fashion. None of that overly processed pre-packaged stuff in here. Instead, the book is full of great-sounding recipes for “6 pounds of ground beef” or “3 flank steaks” and other common big package meat items. I’ve already tried one beef marinade that turned out great. Next time I get a chance to get out to Costco, I’m going to try a few more recipes. But I’ve gotten pretty good at “reading” recipes and predicting the results and these ones sound good!

You can buy the book off their website. It’s a nice looking, sturdy, spiral bound, well done book. I love cookbooks that stay open!

Oh, they’ve got a food blog too.