Tag Archives: batch cooking

Friday Things

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, California, cooking, home stuff, seasonal things, simple foods, Uncategorized by

It’s been a weird week. It started off with me having to take Buggie back to the garage because my fan speeds were not working. The girl at the desk became very defensive and I was also defensive that my fan wasn’t working and I wanted it fixed. It boiled down to when I brought my car in my fan was working when I picked it up(well my daughter did),the fan speed was stuck on high. I asked Sachi and she said the fan was on when she picked it up and just thought with the smoke and fires the garage had it running high. So the whole escalated the next day with the owner calling me and really ripping into me about how I was rude and ‘an awful person’ for confronting his daughter. Of course, I said look at it from my side,that I just spent $3000 on the car and I get home and my fan is not working. Well, it volleys back and forth that no way did they do anything to my fan and it must have been my daughter driving it home( which is 10 minutes folks) and cranked the fan on and broke it. Really??? are you kidding me.? no I didn’t say that. I just said, I don’t know what happened but she said the fan was on high when she drove it home and she didn’t touch the dial. I apologized that I offended his daughter but again, my point was my fan is not working. So, in long run, he said he spent ALL DAY fixing something( the switch??). I said thank you and took my keys and left. Obviously, I will never go back for service there. It’s always so weird to me how things can turn into an event when I simply went in saying I want my fan fixed since when I brought it in it was working and when I drove it next the fan was not working. I’m sure I was intense to a degree but not ‘rude’. Oh well, I thought of doing a negative Yelp review, but then just figured why bother?

Other than that, Tuesday I had my labs and my CBC, CMP are all the same pretty much and my Kappas just came in this morning and went up to 22.3 mg/L from 20.1. so an increase but not too dramatic. It seems my numbers are holding steady for the time being.

This morning is my covid booster so I’m planning on doing that and then going to Safeway for a few things and then home. Usually, Saturday is my swim day but I’m leaving that open as I don’t know if I’ll feel lousy or not.

Budget-wise, it was a good week with nothing extra spent except some salad mix, wine, and bananas. bb

I’ve been doing some batch cooking for the freezer. I made beef stew in the Instant Pot and then froze 2 quarts, lentil soup, and froze 2 quarts. A yummy quiche from Le Creuset cookbook. It came out really good with fresh thyme.

I got a lot done around the house yesterday and felt good about that. I changed the shower curtain, we put the rug back down in the bedroom, made the lentil soup, and washed all the couch covers. So everything is fresh for fall. I’m having B take out the cooler in the bed room this weekend and I’ll put up the fall/winter cutains soon.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized by

I’m doing a lot of food prep work for the week.

In the oven, I have a chicken roasting which I will cool and then remove the meat for lunches and dinner tonight. Then I put on a large pot of organic Lundberg long grain rice and will use that again for the week plus tonight’s dinner. I also have the crock pot going with organic pinto beans. I will use this for burritos this week too or rice bowls.

So lots of cooking going on here. But it will make the whole week easier.  I plan to make up some bean chicken and rice bowls for my son to help him not spend money out on food.

Today is sheet day so they’re in the washer and I think I’ll line dry them.

I went to the gym and it was pretty empty so I had a nice work out without having to circle for machines. This morning we had a lovely walk in the park and that too was empty.

A FOAL friend gave me a knitting instruction of a mini pumpkin. So I went to Michaels and bought some orange yarn. Now to remember how to cast on and do it. Usually, it comes back to me but I knit only when the mood strikes.  I post a picture if it comes out.

Dinner will be the pinto beans and rice with cheese, salsa, sour cream and lettuce.

 

 

Five on Friday

Posted in books, cooking, freezer cooking, simple foods, Uncategorized by

Well, we were successful in our date to Antique Trove and found 2  boxes/crates.

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The top one is cute as it is my daughters birthday( May 29) and B’s birth year 1950!! Plus on the other side, it says occupied Japan.

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This was my plan for that one and the other is in the front room.

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I haven’t finished putting some cookbooks in. I’ll probably put ones I don’t use a lot but still want to keep like a first edition ‘The Art of French Cooking’ my son found at Goodwill for me.

I am over the moon as I think crates/boxes are so versatile and can hold things if necessary.

Then we had a meh sorta lunch at the deli My sandwich was kinda tasteless. Not sure what it needed but I was glad I only had half.

Thirdly, I made double stuffed potatoes for the freezer. I bought the 15lb bag at Costco for $5.99 ( that is a great deal). So I baked ten but of course, you fill them higher than the plain potato, so I ended up with 10 halves to freeze. The rest of the empty halves went to the chickens.  I plan on doing the rest tomorrow as it is one freezer meal we all enjoy and so easy to reheat.

Fourth, I went to the gym for a quick workout.

Fifth,  nothing really, but it’s been a fun week with B off. Next week he’s in a meeting all week so it’ll just be me and my daughter who doesn’t work the first part of the week. My son is at school all day so I don’t usually see him except on the security camera.

It’s wasn’t a frugal week at all. Today was car registration for the Santa Fe and we had to buy tires as well. So pretty expensive. I’m not planning on any grocery stuff ’till May first except cat food when necessary. Ollie is not doing well but is still eating so we just give him food whenever he’s hungry.

 

 

 

Double stuffed potatoes….

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized by

If you shop at Costco, one of the best deals they have is their bag of russet potatoes. It’s a huge bag and the potatoes are always nice looking.  I have bought bags at Safeway only to throw 1/2 away because they have turned green or are sprouting. I’ve never had that problem with Costco’s potatoes.

This is a great freezer item and I keep them wrapped in foil and then in a gallon freezer bag. I also get the large sour cream at Costco and a block of Tillamook cheese. Plus I buy my butter there too, so overall these are great savings. I think the sour cream is like $ 4. something and it’s huge. At the store, the pint of sour cream can be 3.99.

img_0493 So first I bake as many potatoes as I think I need. In this case, I did the entire bag, so it was 15 very large russets. I put the oven on for at least 2 hours as with that number of potatoes it takes longer.

Then I let them cool img_0494some and then cut in half.

Then to the potato mixture, I add butter(lots) sour cream ( lots), and grated cheese. Then I mix together and start heaping back in the potato halves. img_0495

I heap it quite full and mound it over the top, so I get fewer halves than I baked. So from this batch, I ended up with 15 halves. The other halves go to the chickens.

Then I wrap in foil and bag in the freezer bag. img_0496

To use, I pull them out of the freezer a few hours before I bake but usually, I forget so I just pop them in the oven. I like to do a potato bar with green onions, bacon, more butter, and more sour cream. Sometimes that is the whole dinner with a green salad.

If you looking for some batch cooking ideas this one works great for us.