• Mar. 16, 2009
Cooking For a Month

It's that time again.  Time to stock the freezer with a months worth of food.  We have finally eaten our way through last month's cooking spree and I am ready to do it again.  Since last month's recipes were an almost sweeping success, I will be using the same recipes with a couple additions.  I say they were almost a sweeping success because of two issues.  First, the tamale pie will not be repeated.  I thought it was okay, and Jay ate it without making angry faces at me, but I got the general vibe that it should not be included again.  Second, last month I cooked up all my rice in the crockpot.  I will not be doing that again.  The outside of the pot of rice was like glue and the inside was not cooked.  The rice that did not cook in the crockpot never cooked when put in the recipes.  This time I used the rice cooker which worked perfectly and was faster.  Here is what I plan to cook this month.  You can read the recipes by clicking on the names below.

• Rice - Just plain white rice cooked in the rice cooker
• Pulled BBQ Chicken - chicken, cooked in crockpot, then shredded and mixed with BBQ sauce
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Goulash
• Taco Soup
• Chicken Casserole - Beef Casserole
• Stuffed Shells
• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Baked Spaghetti
• Porcupine Meatballs
• Lasagna
• Oven Baked Ranch Chicken Strips
• Pizza Pockets
• Baked Oatmeal
• Banana Bread/Choco-Banana Bread

Some of this is already done.  Here is what I already have finished.

1. Made Spaghetti Sauce and froze it in 4 cup portions.
2. Cooked rice in rice cooker and froze it in 2 cup portions.  My rice cooker only holds 1 1/2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water at a time, but each batch makes 6 cups of cooked rice.  I made three pots and ended up with 18 cups of rice.
3. Cooked 12 lbs. of ground beef and froze in 1 lb. packages.  (This was 12 equal packages.  The weights listed above were pre-cooked weights.)
4. Last month when I made the Goulash I divided the recipe and froze it in two - half batches.  I still have one batch left in the freezer so I will incorporate it into this month's menu.
5. Cooked chicken in crockpot.  I cooked 6 chicken thighs and 6 chicken breasts, shredded them and will use them in the recipes above (except chicken strips ).  If there is any chicken left over it will be mixed with BBQ sauce to make pulled BBQ chicken.
6. Made Baked Oatmeal for Sunday School class and put a batch in the freezer.
7. Made Banana Bread and Choco-Banana Bread when I got some very ripe bananas on a great mark-down sale and put it in the freezer.  Choco-Banana Bread is made exactly the same as Banana bread except you use a chocolate cake mix instead of a yellow cake mix.  I like the regular better but the chocolate is good too.

Now, I did not do all this today.  This was done in little bits as I got the ingredients on sale.  All I did today was make the Spaghetti Sauce and cook the chicken in the crockpot.  I will post each day as I get more items marked off my list.

Shannon

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