Two Happy Bellies

October is National Chili Month

Did you know this? We didn't and it was pure happenstance we enjoyed chili for dinner last night. Yum! Too bad we didn't take any pictures . . .

FTF - Twice Baked Potatoes

We did some freezer cooking on Sunday and tried something new . . . twice baked potatoes. I've known for a long time you can freeze twice baked potatoes, however we've never actually done them. Inspired by the Don't Panic ladies (and a huge bag of potatoes sitting in our kitchen) we made the leap.

We used 6 potatoes, 8 oz. low fat cream cheese, milk, onion powder, butter, fresh ground mixed pepper and some leftover parsley from our Meat Sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and clean your potatoes. Season the outsides if you are used to doing this (we enjoy EVOO or butter and coarse salt), then bake for 1 hour or until done. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle. Then cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides into a large mixing bowl. Add other ingredients, then mash away. You can also add any herbs (parsley, dill, etc.) at this point.

Spoon mashed potato mixture back into your shells, then sprinkle with any additional items that catch your fancy such as paprika. Wrap each potato half individually in plastic wrap and insert into freezer bags. The only thing you have to do when you are ready to eat them is to thaw potatoes completely and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until heated through.

While they turned out just fine, one tip I have for future attempts is to not let them cool as much as we did. It made it hard to get the flesh out without tearing the skins, so we had to leave a fairly large "wall" around the twice baked part. We do look forward to enjoying these yummy potatoes and they are easy enough, we'll be making them again.

FTF - Green Chile Pork

I have an old tattered copy of this recipe from (I think) my friend Jenn. I say old and tattered b/c it has been used so often there are food stains everywhere. This is one that we threw in the slow cooker late last week to have for dinner that night, and then froze the rest for easy meals later on. We have modified the recipe a bit to stretch the servings a bit more and allot for less meat in each serving. This would be an attempt to make it slightly more balanced.

(I know the picture isn't the most appealing, however once the fat is skimmed off, this is very tasty.)

• 3-4 # pork roast
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 t. ground cumin
• 2 t. oregano
• 2 C. homemade stock
• 2 4 oz. cans diced green chiles
• 2 16 oz. cans stewed tomatoes (Mexican style if you can find them)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Pour undrained tomatoes in bottom of insert, add all remaining ingredients, finishing with the pork roast on top. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 5-6 hours. When finished, shred meat. This is great on nachos, burritos, tacos, or over a baked potato or rice.

Freezer full of meats

Tracy and I have some wonderful friends at church that have a really nice farm but the coolest part is that they raise sheep. And we bought one. To go in the freezer. Locally raised, farm fresh, hormone free and then processed by a local butcher.

We paid just over $230 for 35+/- lbs of lamb chops, ground lamb, shanks and a few roasts. So far I have cooked up some of the chops and made lamburgers. For the lamb chops I have been seasoning them with some of the Penzey’s Lamb Seasoning. Usually when we do hamburgers we like to spice them up with the Northwoods Seasoning.

Tracy and I love lamb but most Americans do not. This is an interesting article from the New York Times that gives some insight to our aversion to eating sheep compared to the rest of the industrialized world. My understanding from a few people who have lived in Rutherford County for many years is that there used to be lots of sheep and goat farms around here. I also think that some people confuse the ‘gamy’ taste (in the pejorative sense) of lamb, goat and/or deer with a ‘this is natural’ taste of meat or maybe they are just too acclimated to a very mild flavor of beef.  When I went to London and Dublin in April 2007 several of the meals I had there were lamb. One of the very best lamb dishes I have ever had was in a small Iraqi family restaurant in London that served a lamb shank on a bed of rice topped with pumpkin seeds and golden raisins.  The presentation of that dish was just beautiful. While on that trip I snapped this picture of the Avebury sheep. They help keep the grass cut around all the monuments.
Another very good meal I had in Dublin was a lamb Boxty at this place.
So now we have a lot of lamb in the freezer and lots of recipes to try. Shepard's Pie? Rack of Lamb? I have never tried a Lancashire hotpot. Let's see what Tracy has to say about that....

Martha Ministry January 2012

Our church has a group that gets together once in a while to make food and freeze it for times of need. Today was the first one they had since we joined and we (of course) volunteered to help out. The group would be making several dishes and packaging them for families of four, both main and desserts. If a family larger than four needs a meal, we just give them two.

Promptly at 9 AM we got to the building to receive our assignments. We started off with a penne pasta with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, while chicken was baking to make chicken enchiladas verde. A beef and bean chile was also on the rotation while Tollhouse cookies, mock ice cream sandwiches, and frozen strawberry salad (dessert) were being created as well. With so many people showing up to help, we ended up also making baked spaghetti and three hours later the kitchen was clean with six pastas, six chiles, four enchiladas, and four baked spaghettis in the freezer. I did not see how many packages of desserts ended up finished but I sure did scoop a lot of muffin cups of strawberry salad so I'm sure there were quite a few of them as well.

All in all, it was a fun morning!

Lasagna Rolls

Normally I make Sloppy Joes with my Hearty Meat Sauce from the freezer however this time we decided to try the Lasagna Rolls recipe recommended as another one to try from the chapter "Once is Not Enough" in the WW magazine cookbook Two's Company (all recipes meant for two servings). They were really good!

• 1/2 C. low fat cottage cheese
• 1 T. grated fresh Romano cheese (we had Parm - that's what I used)
• 1/8 t. dried oregano
• 1/8 t. dried basil
• 1 1/2 C. Hearty Meat Sauce, divided
• 1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
• 3 cooked lasagna noodles
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 C. tomato sauce
• 1/4 C. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cottage cheese, Romano cheese, oregano, and basil in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Combine cheese mixture, 1/2 C. meat sauce, and spinach in a bowl; stir well.

Cut each lasagna noodle in half crosswise. Spread about 3 tablespoons spinach mixture on each noodle half, leaving a 1/4 inch border around edges.

Roll up each noodle, jelly-roll fashion, beginning at 1 narrow end.

Spoon remaining 1 cup meat sauce into a 1 quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Arrange rolls, seam sides down, over meat sauce.

Pour tomato sauce over rolls. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Yield: 2 servings

While these were really good, we would make a few changes. First, they needed to cook a little longer before adding the cheese topping as they weren't hot yet. They were warm, but not hot. Second, pouring plain tomato sauce over the top could have been made better by seasoning the sauce. (I had worried about that, but wanted to try it as written first.) Third, we'll use four lasagna noodles next time. It was tight getting all the filling into just three noodles. All that to say, we will make these again . . .

Black Bean Soup

The recipe I meant to make is for a Black Bean Soup using black beans from the freezer. However, since the last time we made these beans, we used pinto beans I thought I'd be making a Pinto Bean Soup. Yet, oops! What I accidentally thawed was some leftover Spicy Bean Soup. So when I went to start the recipe I realized I had the wrong thawed product. Reaction? Hmm, let's try it with this and see how it goes . . . Verdict? Fabulous! (We still plan on making the Black Bean Soup with Spicy Pinto Beans in the next week or two.)

• 2 C. Spicy Black Beans with liquid, undrained
• 1 T. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 t. ground cumin
• 1 (10 oz.) can tomatoes with green chiles, drained (I didn't)
• 2 T. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 T. reduced fat sour cream

Place 1 cup beans, lime juice, cumin, and tomatoes in a food processor or blender; process until pureed. Pour pureed bean mixture into a saucepan; stir in remaining beans. Place over medium heat, and cook 2 minutes or until warm. Remove from heat; stir in 1 1/2 T. cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls; top with sour cream, and sprinkle with remaining cilantro.Yield: 2 servings

NOTE: I had to post this early AM so as to link over to a friend's new game on Fridays . . . ick for the early hours!

Chile-Corn Muffins

One of the items I like to make for the freezer is chile-corn muffins which go great with chili. I don't make them everytime I stock the freezer, but this last time I did. Apparently it has been a while since I've made them as Aaron didn't remember them from before. For anyone interested - here you go:

• 1 C. yellow cornmeal
• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 T. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. chili powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 (8 oz.) carton plain fat-free yogurt (try finding an 8 ounce carton these days - I double the recipe and use a full 16 oz. carton!)
• 1/3 C. fat-free milk
• 1/4 C. egg substitute (um, yeah, we use farm fresh eggs . . .)
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 1/8 t. hot sauce
• 1 (8 3/4 oz.) can whole-kernel corn, drained (or frozen or fresh)
• 1 (4.5 oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, chili powder, and salt in a medium bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine yogurt, milk, egg, oil, and hot sauce; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in corn and green chiles.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan immediately.

Yield: 14 muffins (seriously?? who has a muffin tin that holds 14 muffins? and why would I dirty a second tin for only 2 muffins? which would be another reason to double the recipe which then gives me 24 regular sized muffins and several mini muffins to boot.)

To freeze: Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack. Place in a labeled zip-top freezer bag OR wrap in heavy-duty foil and label.

To serve: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Remove desired number of muffins, place on baking sheet, and bake for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated. OR place 2 muffins in microwave oven; defrost 1 minute - microwave at high 30 seconds or until thoroughly heated.

They went GREAT with our dinner of Chili tonight. I have to say, this past time I made chili, I had run out of chili seasoning so I made some up in a hurry. I accidentally used smoked paprika instead of our regular paprika and we will continue to make that same mistake. The smoky flavor that permeates this chili is fantastic!

Sausage and Black Bean Soup

One of my favorite go-to soup recipes comes from one of my standard go-to cookbooks: Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook from 2002 (9780848725259). What is so funny is this was a random "whim" purchase from a used bookstore. I have really gotten my money's worth from this one! Anyway, this soup recipe is very basic although I've added a few of my own touches to it. Recipe as written follows:

• 6 oz. turkey kielbasa sausage, sliced
• 1 C. diced green, red, or yellow bell pepper
• 1 (14.25 oz) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (15 oz) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 C. picante sauce or salsa
• Chopped cilantro (optional)

Coat a medium saucepan with cooking spray; place over medium-high heat until hot. Add sausage, and saute 1 minute or until sausage begins to brown. Add pepper; saute 1 minute. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; add beans and picante sacue, and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Top with cilantro, if desired. Yield: 4 (1 C.) servings at 2 points. Serve with Speedy Quesadillas.

 
However, I can only find sausage in a 14 oz. package, like my food spicy, plus enjoy a more substantial serving. And it reheats well. So I "double" the recipe - "quadruple" the salsa - and use black beans from the freezer. By doing this I get 4 (2 C.) servings at 3 points. Plus the points from the quesadillas.

Note: These are points on the old WW system. I have not converted any of my recipes to the new Points Plus system.

Thawed Beer Bread

If you remember us talking about freezing leftover beer for a future beer bread experiment, I have to say it was a tasty success. This time we threw in a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and had problems getting it out of the loaf pan. So we just ate from there . . .

 
Very tasty with our steak and salad and roasted Brussels Sprouts, made even tastier by a new discovery we were introduced to up in KY: balsamic glaze. I'll tell you about that in just a moment . . .