Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 03/01/12

I can't believe it is March.  The stocks in the freezer and the pantry are holding out well.  This past week the grocery bill under $8 for the week.  I don't really have cost on our menus since I am using a lot of stuff that I bought months ago but do know they were all bought on sale at good prices so am accomplishing my mission of no impulsive buying and buying in quantity things that we eat when they are on sale.

The menu for the week went out the window again this week.  Have been under the weather for almost 2 weeks with this cold which is fine now but didn't always feel like fixing what I had planned.  Did make a dent in getting some of the food out of the refrigerator freezer however but still more to go but most is not protein so isn't happening real fast.  Plus I have been restocking it with breakfast food this week.

Thursday night dinner was Chicken Cordon Bleu with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus.  The chicken was made after I had a weekend garden retreat here and had made baked ham for sandwiches with swiss cheese which were both left over and the group here gave me money for the 16 of them to eat here all weekend so was really free.  The chicken was on sale for $1.99 a pound right after the left so I made up 9 meals and froze them.  Just have to pull them out of the freezer, bread them and into the deep fryer.  Asparagus was on sale here also for $1.99 a pound.

Friday night was crock pot beef stew with fresh homemade bread.  The stew had canned tomatoes from the pantry.

Saturday night Kielbasa with sauerkraut from the pantry on hot dog rolls

Sunday DB had left over beef stew and I opted for poached egg and toast earlier in the day.

Monday night Son-in-law had given us some fresh perch filet that he had caught ice fishing so we had it with mashed potatoes and what else more asparagus.

Tuesday night  pepper steak over egg noodles.

Wednesday Tacos.

Last week I showed a big pot of sauce cooking.  Ended up with 8 pints which cost less than $1 a jar.

Some of the week was spent replenishing the freezer with breakfast food and trying some new things.
Made pancakes and waffles.

Got to try the homemade Canadian Bacon yesterday and it is great.  After slicing it have enough of 13 breakfasts for my brother.

Also made a chocolate bread pudding for his breakfast using the a cup of Sugar Free hot chocolate mix that I made, an egg, a slice of stale homemade bread, 1 T of raisins and a little vanilla.  It makes just one breakfast in an individual oven crock.

I am on to a new adventure with St. Patrick's Day coming it is time to learn how to make my own corned beef.

Don't forget to visit our host Robin,The Gardener of Eden at and see how others are using their stash and what recipes they have to share.

Sugar Free chocolate milk and hot chocolate mix

My brother loves chocolate milk and hot cocoa for breakfast.  Around here I can not buy a sugar free mix for chocolate milk and only reduced sugar hot cocoa mix.  Decided it was time to make my own.  The hot cocoa was simple but the chocolate milk wasn't as convenient.  He usually makes his own chocolate milk which he can do with something like Quik however baking cocoa doesn't mix well with cold unless you first make a slurry with it so had to settle on a syrup.


Chocolate Milk Mix

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 dash salt

PREPARATION:

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Add water, and mix until smooth. Bring this mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for one minute, be careful this does not over boil. Remove from heat, when this cools add the vanilla.

Well this was great accept for him to measure out 2T and get it mixed up was a challenge so I make up a quart at a time for him and all he has to do is pour it in his glass.  I use 6T for a quart of milk.

Hot Chocolate Mix

makes 2 2/3 cups, enough for eight 3/4-cup 180 ml servings)

2 cups nonfat dry milk powder

1/2 cup lower-fat powdered nondairy creamer

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ Cup splenda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Mix together all ingredients. Transfer

to a self-sealing plastic bag.

When ready to use, place 1/3 c. of the mix in a heat-proof mug. Fill w/ boiling water and stir. I use 1/4 cup of mix.

I don't have a price on these but it wasn't important.  The important thing was he can have his chocolate and no sugar.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 11/3

It has been a busy week in the kitchen both putting up and taking out of the cupboard.  Hate when I have to start taking out of the cupboard.

 One nights supper had a lot from the root cellar (my cool workshop 40 degrees) Potatoes and cabbage for hot Italian Cabbage, from the pantry canned tomatoes and from the garden fresh parsley.

 Yep into the freezer meatloaf TV Dinners.  These will be handy when I have dinner meetings.  Since I am a caregiver, I have to fix supper for my DB who lives with me before I leave.  I place plastic wrap over these and put them in the microwave until it puffs up about 40 seconds and when you take them out the plastic wrap will collapse around the food almost like a vacuum wrap.  Let them cool, cover with aluminum foil and freeze.

 Weekend lunch.  Turkey noodle soup made from Turkey stock in the Pantry.

 4 1/2 pounds of carrots from the garden to the root cellar

 3 1/2 quarts of Chicken Stock to the Pantry to make soups and gravies from.

 Clarified Chicken Fat to the freezer check out All but the cluck

 Chicken pot pie with potatoes and carrots from the root cellar

 14 pints of Carrots

 3 1/2 pints of pumpkin

 Zucchini/Carrot muffin  

Made 1 1/2 dozen large muffins for the freezer this week for DB's Breakfast including these, blueberry and Bran.  All reduced sugar recipes.

Zucchini/Carrot Muffins

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar (substitute splenda)

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed (I make my own brown sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups finely shredded unpeeled zucchini

1/2 cup finely shredded carrot

Preparation:

Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Heat oven to 375°.

In a mixing bowl, beat the oil with eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients; stirring until blended. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired. Bake for 20 minutes.

I do alter this also by filling the centers with cream cheese.  Only put part of the batter into the muffin tins then place a heaping tsp. of cream cheese on the batter than finish filling the tins with the batter.

Now if someone could tell me how to get your tally of things put up or harvest quantities  on the side board of your blog I sure would appreciate it.

Don' forget to visit our host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

The Gardener of Eden 

And see how others are storing and using this week.

Cooking with less sugar

Most of my adult life I have been cooking for a juvenile diabetic so am used to exchange diets etc.  I would make special desserts for my son that were geared specifically to his exchange diet.  However now my brother who I care for has been diagnosed being a borderline diabetic but has no set diet just watch the carbs and sugar intake.  I have been working on my regular baking recipes to reduce but not totally eliminate all sugar.  I plan on posting some of my recipes and how I have adapted them and still enjoy them myself.  I had some lemons that were getting old and DB loves lemon are so this is what I made and I even liked it with no sugar.

5 cups water divided
1/2 cup splenda
1 cup of lemon juice

Since the original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar with one cup of water made into a simple syrup, I put the splenda into 1 cup of water but it dissolved immediately I didn't have to heat it.  Added the lemon juice and 4 more cups of water and it was just perfect.  Not too sweet, not to tart.