Tag Archives: freezer meals

Monday and it’s raining.

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, freezer cooking, home stuff, meal planning by

Menus for the week will mostly be stuff from the freezer/pantry.

Last night I used up the frozen shrimp and sauteed some tilapia. We had a salad pack that was almost past use by date.

For lunch, I had a Souper Cube mac and cheese. That’s used up one more frozen item. My son was still here, so he shared it with me. He brought some chili he had made, so that’s in the freezer now, too.

Monday- I defrosted some chicken, so I plan on using that. I’m not sure what side I’ll have since there’s no salad, maybe potatoes?

Tuesday- I think I’ll have the turkey chili my son brought up with corn muffins.

Wednesday- With all this rain, I think I’ll do a soup of some sort.

Thursday- Breakfast for dinner with bacon, eggs, and hash browns. The hash browns in the freezer need to be used up.

Friday- I may order a pizza, the veggie from Round Table is our favorite.

Things in the freezer that I’d like to use up now through March:

pot stickers

veggie burgers

ravioli

a frozen pizza

????

Today is a home day with all this rain. It’s raining pretty hard out there this morning. I didn’t get to the Goodwill to drop things off, so that’s on hold till there is a non-rainy morning. My son did take a big load to the dump, so he’s really getting things around the barn cleaned up. All this crap around the barn should have been dealt with long ago, but it is what it is, and I’m thankful he’s taken it on. Of course, my daughter does the bulk of the stuff around here as she’s here and he’s not. I’m so lucky to have both of them here to help.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, freezer cooking, simple foods, swimming, Walking by

A nice walk this morning, although a few people showed up. Still, nice enough, and it was not really cold. The rain is expected this afternoon and looks like it’ll be all week. It’s supposed to get quite cold, too.

I’m not going to the gym this morning either. I’m pretty stiff from my swim, so I’ll rest up. The pool is open on Monday, but I don’t think I’ll go down. I’ll have to see how it goes.

My son is coming up to deal with a garbage run and work on the barn some. Most everything in the barn now is his tools and stuff. I think he’s been getting rid of things, too. Yay for that!

Last night we watched the season finale of Stranger Things ( season 4). Geez, that show is intense. I may need a break for a few days. We had fondue with veggies and some bread. The fondue was an extra that I bought for New Year’s Eve. We also had some rosé prosecco. Yumm.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do today. I have the bathroom zone to do and maybe water my plants and ?? I do need to go drop stuff off at the thrift store, so I may do that because they don’t take donations if it’s raining. It’s not a lot of stuff, but I’d rather get it out of the house and back of the car.

I do want to freezer dive and see what I’m using this week. That’s a priority since it’s jammed packed. I might need to toss some things like bananas that I froze, as they’ve been in there a while. I had been doing that so B could have smoothies, but that’s now 8 months ago, probably time to toss. I could make some banana bread, but my daughter doesn’t really eat that kind of thing, so then I would, and I don’t need the extra calories. 😦

Here’s a view from my bedroom window.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, canning tomato salsa, cooking, Myeloma, Walking by

The day started with a walk in the park with NO ONE there but us!! Very unusual these days. But quite nice.

Then back home and right into prepping tomatoes to can. B did all the food milling and I got the canner and jars ready. Four Quarts of tomato sauce. They are in the water bath right now. Quarts take 40 minutes and I add 5 minutes for altitude.

I may or may not have a flu shot appt. I didn’t get a reminder and couldn’t find it in my messages as a confirmation. The website was useless. So I think I’ll go in at 11:30 and check. If it’s there great if not I’ll just reschedule. I’m skipping the gym because of canning and then going into town. I usually go to the gym by 8:30 a.m.

I pulled some ready meals from the freezer for tonight. Stuffed bell peppers( vegetarian) and a turkey chili. I need to dig down in the freezer and see what I have.

This week will be busy and different with going to the infusion center on Wednesday. I need to get to the library too. I have holds there. One is Demon Copperfield by Kingsolver. People love it or hate it. I suspect I won’t like it but I’ll try. Some of her stuff I have loved like Animal Dreams and Bean Trees but I disliked Poisonwoood Bible.

I also need to look at my swim times and rec center times and how that’s going to work. After Infusion, I’ll take Dex so the rest of the day is a wash and I never drive the next day either. Friday can be ok so I’ll just have to see. If I need B can drive me to the store or even down to the Rec Center. There are loads of trails there so he could walk or hang out in the library. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

I’m going to work on my Japanese quilt today as I got the quilt frame. The poles are way too long for me to use so B needs to cut them down. I’m not sure how much easier it is with the frame. The lady did not want it back even though I said I’m not probably going to do more. She just said pass it on. That was generous of her. Her father had made this frame and it is sturdy and looks professional.

Well onward and upward. At least the assholes in Congress passed something so the govt doesn’t shut down.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, California, cancer, cooking, Gardening, Gratitude, home stuff, husband, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma, swimming, Uncategorized by

I’m glad the doctor app’t went as planned even though he was an hour late:(

I never complain because you never know who before you is in a dire situation. So we agreed that I’ll get my next set of labs before Tahoe and if the rise is 20pts or more , we’ll start in October. He wondered whether I wanted to do a Pet scan/ Ct to look for lytic lesions first. I said I didn’t think at this point it would matter. I do have old lytic lesions where I had rib fractures and on my skull but at this point it’s my numbers that are the indicator and he agreed. He seemed to think Velcade will be effective again so that’s positive. I’m still a little concerned as this will be my third time. He also agreed that we’d know in 3 months whether it’s working or not which is what I wanted to do. He also indicated that this time I could keep up a maintenance schedule when my numbers are backing the normal range. This was something I suggested 3 years ago but at that point, he wasn’t inclined. So maybe now since I am at this stage it would be helpful and I definitely agree.

I’m thankful the weather is now Fall like. Beautiful days, cool evenings! I think there’s 1 day showing 90 but that’s it.

I am so thankful the indoor pool opened and it was not overly crowded. It probably depends on the day and the time. But after 3 months closed, it’s so nice to have it open and my drive time was 15 minutes less each way.

I’m so grateful to my daughter for being a wonderful gardener and planting all the tomatoes. I have another batch ready to go tomorrow. I dropped them in boiling water and took the skins off but I will still run thru the food mill to get the seeds out. She planted some late zucchini and now we’re getting just the right amount. I’ve made 2 more loaves to freeze for this fall/ winter.

As simple as it is, I am grateful for every day. I’m grateful to spend it with my husband and my kids( although my son is working full time and gone a lot, and my daughter writes full time and works at the library part time.) Still they’re around when we need them.

I’m grateful Barclay can do projects and improvements on our little abode.

Oh, that chess looking piece is my daughters anniversary present to us, a Peugot pepper mill. Believe me, if you love pepper you’ll want this. Why did I wait so long. It’s worth every penny.

I’m grateful for being able to make some freezer meals for when I don’t feel like cooking.

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.