Cook for the Freezer

I’ve been learning a lot about freezer cooking. Cooking multiple meal ingrediants at once and freezing them to be ready for days that time is short and you want to break that habit of giving up too early and getting carry out or going out to eat.

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I decided to try a crockpot of chicken breasts. I popped 6 huge breasts into the crockpot in the morning, with a little water and some garlic powder and a little seasoned salt. Not too much, just a little so that I would end up with some broth as well of the chicken for dishes.

It was SUPER hot and humid, so it was great to have the crock pot working away and not adding to the heat in the moby.

About 6 hours or so had created perfect chicken cooked and ready to cool a bit and slice up.

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Once it was all cut up, I saved a bit out for my dinner (chicken and rice with veggies) and laid the rest out in a cookie sheet and popped it in the freezer to flash freeze for an hour or so.

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I skimmed off a whole quart of good broth to freeze up for soup or rice.

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And the little bit of fat and yucky bits I saved for my doggie friends…. I think a little bit of this chicky stuff on dry food will be delightful for my doggie girls! (I have an adopted doggie girl for a few days.. Miss Bella is staying at Moby Dog Camp while her folks are on vacation.)

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In the end, I’ve got a big bag of easy to use chicken ready for any good meal I want to put it in. Chicken and rice, or noodles, or dumplins or spaghetti or well, just for a little bit of chicken in ramen noodles or even chicken salad! I thought about freezing it into little baggies and all that, but I think the flash freezing makes it really easy to use a little or use a lot.

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And it will be great for the girls as well, just go in and grab a little chicken for whatever they want to make. We try and eat dinner together, but often, our schedules are a little weird, so this will help too on the amount of dishes we have to clean up, and all that.

I have done this in the past with sausage… I think I’m going to make sure I have a bag of sausage crumbles, and hamburger browned and flash frozen as well. Sounds like a great way to make it easy to make quick meals without resorting to eating out spending tooo much money on that. Eating out should be a pleasant and arranged event, not just because we haven’t thought ahead. It was so easy to do!

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Pantry Windfall

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Whenever you have a windfall of cash, for whatever reason… remember to boost your pantry. It’s one of the best things that you can do to add a little more security to your well being and family’s comfort.

It’s so easy to think that a windfall is great for a new electronic gadget or some fun evening out or anything like that, but honestly, you should really consider doing something boring like buying some extra staples for your pantry with some of that cash.

You just never know when things might get tight or difficult and a full well-stocked pantry could really make a tough time easier. And it doesn’t have to be something dreadful like a nationwide economical crash or war or whatever… It can be helpful when say your paycheck gets messed up and the main office is going to get it fixed in a week… or you get sick and just don’t want to go grocery shopping for a few days… having a nice basic stocked pantry and get you by for a few days or a week or more!

I had a little windfall come my way and I went to GFS, a restuarant supply company open to the public. I don’t often go there because even though things are “cheap” they are large supplies of things, so they cost more than I usually have available in my budget. I got flour, sugar, pasta, rice, crackers, chocolate chips, brown sugar, butter and things like that. It was great. Now I have some super basic stuff stocked up and ready!

(Okay, I also went and had a nice breakfast out and read the paper and just chilled out too… that was really nice. But the majority of the windfall was for my family and for our wellbeing. Don’t forget to stock your pantry! It’s a good homesteading thing to do….)

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Crib Trellis

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Repurposing things in your garden is a lot of fun. It can add some whimsy to your green spaces!

My favorite thing right now is to take old crib sides and make garden supports out of them!

Tim found this crib when he was out scraping one night and brought it back for me! It was missing one side, but that’s okay, he just screwed the long side in the middle between the two ends to make a sort of “I” shape.

I was able to plant sweet pea plants all around the shape, inside and outside of the angles and we’ll soon have TONS of fall peas!

I’m thinking this “I” shape would be great in the middle of a bed, and plant tomatoes in the four corners so that they would have support from the two sides and easy access to picking and harvest.

He’s on the lookout for a couple more for me!

The two sides that I found at the beginning of the season worked great! Right now they are home to more fall peas and a very involved pole bean collection!

Don’t forget to look at things at the curbside with a thought towards some functional whimsy in your garden!

A wire tall CD rack would be a great climbing trellis for a plant! And old windows make great cold frame covers! All cool stuff!

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