THE SPICES OF LIFE

As you already know I make most of my own Master Mixes.  Many people think of only baking mixes when I say Master Mixes, but that is not the situation. The post on making flavored butters I recently did is another Master Mix of sorts.  

I also make my own herb and spice mixes both savory and sweet.  This blog post is just a sampling of all the wonderful blends you can make on your own with just different combinations of some basic herbs and spices.

By making your own herb and spice mixes you can guarantee freshness, adjust to your family’s preference and cut the salt and sugar content. 

If you grow your own herbs from organic non gmo seeds you are guaranteed to have no chemicals in the process as well.

Drying herbs is as simple as hanging bunches of the herbs upside down to air dry.  I do put paper bags over mine to gather things like dill seed as it dries.  Back in history the herbs were traditionally hung from the rafters of the house.  Although I have exposed beams in my home that I could do that with I prefer to use my clothes drying rack to do so.  It’s a lot easier for me to reach since we have nine foot ceilings.

You can also dry herbs in a dehydrator.  They are fairly quick to do that way.  Of course you can also freeze herbs in water in ice cube trays, but then they can’t be used in herb mixes you plan on storing in the cupboard.

The main thing is to make certain any home grown herbs are completely dried before making the mixes if you are going to be storing the blends to avoid mold.

If you don’t grow your own you can still save a lot of money and have better quality herb and spice blends by buying your herbs and spices in bulk.   There are numerous bulk suppliers of herbs on the web, amazon included.  Or check your local phone listings for spice and tea shops   Many health food stores sell bulk herbs and spices as well.

As I list the various mixes with links to their respective recipes the recipe will say put x amount in a foil packet for individual packets of the mix.  You can do that if that is your preference.   I usually put mine in a half pint canning jar that I can vacuum seal to help insure freshness.  Then on the label not only with the herb mix name and date, but also how much to use per recipe. Of course I make numerous multiples of each recipe to be able to justify the use of space for a jar that big.

Good labeling is very important.  Chili seasoning looks a lot like Taco seasoning.  Carrabba’s style seasoning for olive oil looks a lot like pickling spice.  Don’t trust your memory. Label, label, label.

Now it is time for the list, broken down by categories.  As always click on the link for the recipe and how to use. Because of the basics like garlic powder that are included you will also see those items hyperlinked when they are used in a recipe. 

DIPS

Carrabba’s Seasoning Dip:  Another use for the Carrabba’s Olive Oil Seasoning Mix.

Creamy Dill Crudite Mix:  Great for dipping raw vegetables in, or thin it down with a little buttermilk for a salad dressing.

Create Your Own: by using any of the salad dressing mix recipes and mixing them with mayo, sour cream, yogurt or a combination you can come up with delicious dips for both vegetables and chips.

FOR BREAD DUNKING AND TOPPING

Olive oil blend a La Carrabas: My son and I love the seasoned olive oil that is served with crusty bread at the restaurant chain Carrabbas. It is only natural that we wanted to have that same blend at home to serve with the homemade Italian meals. 

Once I tweaked the recipe to where we liked it I wanted more uses for it.  I found if I added vinegar to the olive oil mixture it made a great salad dressing.  Add water to the salad dressing and a marinade was born.

Put the olive oil blend on the crusty bread and toast for a different texture.

Use it for your seasoning when making croutons.

Mix with sour cream for a baked potato topping

I’ve even added it to soups for a different flavor for our basic soups.  The possibilities are endless.

HERB AND SPICE BLENDS

All Purpose Seasoning: The name speaks for itself.  It is basically a seasoned salt blend.

Bouquet Garni aka: Fines Herbes: In this household this only occasionally used so why buy an expensive whole bottle of it? I just make what I need as I need it.

Cajun Seasoning: Adjust the spiciness to your family’s taste for certain.

Celery Powder and Celery Salt: Who knew it was so simple?  

Chili Powder: Finally you can adjust the “heat” in your chili powder to your favorite level.

Chipolte Seasoning: Add more of the dried chipolte if you dare.  I suggest you make a small batch and then adjust your chipolte to your liking in future batches.

Curry Powder:  Adjust your favorite herbs and spices in this recipe to make your own private blend.

Italian Seasoning:  So handy to have on hand.

Lemon Pepper: to use in any recipe calling for it or as a marinade.

Onion or Garlic Powder or Salt: make your own

Pickling Spice: Can’t pickle without it!

Seasoned Salt:  I don’t need to tell you all the uses for this.

Sloppy Joe Seasoning: No more Manwich.

Stuffing Seasoning Mix:  Make your own stove top stuffing quickly and easily.

MARINADES
All American Rub Marinade: Another use for the All American Rub Master Mix. 

Carrabbas Seasoning Mix Marinade: Another use for the Carrabbas Seasoning Mix

Lemon Pepper: Use your homemade lemon pepper to marinade meats, poultry and fish.

Spaghetti Seasoning Style:  Another use for the Spaghetti Seasoning Mix.

Create your own:  Any citrus or vinegar salad dressing can be used for a marinade. If using the mixes listed here simply add oil, vinegar and a little water to create the marinade.

PIES

Apple Pie Spice:  Easy as can be.

Pumpkin spice: Make the holidays easier by having your pie spice made ahead of time.

RUBS

All American Rub and Marinade: This is one of my favorite rubs to keep on hand.  I use it on all proteins as a dry rub before roasting or grilling. 

Mixed with a little oil and vinegar it makes a great marinade.  I’ve even mixed it with bar-b-que sauce to brush on the final stages of cooking on grilled meats.

Spaghetti Seasoning Mix Rub: Another use for the Spaghetti Seasoning Mix

SALAD DRESSINGS

Buttermilk Salad Dressing Master Mix:  Depending on what you mix it with you can use it on salads, to cook with, on top of baked potatoes, dips there are numerous uses for this basic mix.

Buttermilk and Onion: Great to have on hand to add a slight onion flavor to your salads when you are out of fresh onion.

Chipolte Buttermilk: a spicy version for those that prefer a little kick to their salads.

Chive Buttermilk: all the same uses as the standard Ranch version.

Creamy Italian: This can be used in numerous ways as well

Garden Herb: Can be made using Spike or other herbal season salt substitute.

Herb: uses your favorite herb to accentuate different flavors.

Italian: a wonderful marinade for a cucumber and tomato salad, as well as all types of other salads.

Italian French: A sweet and tangy salad dressing that can also be used in cooking.

Poppy Seed: For spinach and bacon, or spinach and strawberry salads this is a good dressing.

Ranch Dressing: Nothing more needs to be said, it’s Ranch Dressing.

SAUCES AND GRAVIES

Au us Gravy Mix: Make your own French Dips

Chicken and Brown Gravy Mix: If you make this one using butter or margarine you will need to store it in the refrigerator or freezer.  The recipe does include the amount of powdered butter or powdered margarine you can use to make it shelf stable.  It also has variations for Mushroom Gravy and Herb Gravy.

Spaghetti Seasoning: Always have on hand for a quick spaghetti supper or lunch.

SOUP

Onion: The classic onion soup mix clone.  Use it in any recipe that calls for onion soup mix.  My recipe also has changes for chicken and or adding mushrooms to it in a shelf stable form.

Spaghetti Style Seasoning: An additional use for the Spaghetti Seasoning Mix.

SWEETS

Spice Blend: Add a touch of spice to muffins, sweet breads, cakes, whipped cream, butters, pancakes, waffles and other goods.

TEX-MEX

Chili Seasoning: Just add your desired meat, beans and tomatoes to get quick chili.

Enchilada Sauce Seasoning: Make your own enchilada sauce with just the right amount of kick for your family.  Simply adjust the heat.

Fajita Seasoning:  Sprinkle on any fajita meat before searing for great taste.  Another use for the Enchilada Sauce Seasoning. 

Taco Seasoning #1: You may want to start with less salt for this mix and then adjust to your taste.  This is the recipe I originally used, but when I make it now I use about half of the salt as our tastes have changed.

Taco Seasoning #2: This one has far less salt and stronger flavors of the other herbs, I tend to use this one more than the other one.

BETTY BOTTER, BETTER BUTTER.

In the 1899 “Jingle Book” a little rhyme, by Carolyn Wells, titled “The Butter Betty Bought” first came to fame.  As time went on it would be included in the Mother Goose collection as Betty Botta Bought a Bit of Bitter Butter and soon spread to be one of the most well known of tongue twisters children and adults alike learn to recite.

Many auctioneer schools have the students use this rhyme in their training to speak quickly.  It is amazing to hear an auctioneer do the tongue twister.

It now has numerous versions but the most common is:

Betty Botta bought some butter;

"But," said she, "this butter's bitter!

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But a bit o´ better butter

Will but make my batter better."

Then she bought a bit o´ butter

Better than the bitter butter,

Made her bitter batter better.

So ´twas better Betty Botta

Bought a bit o´ better butter

What most who recite it don’t realize is that each of the basic vowels(a, e, i, o, u) are used in this b-tter rhyme.

So why do I mention this on a pantry blog instead of over on my language blog called Jan’s Wordless Words?   Because this post is actually about flavored butters and their myriad of uses.   

No I won’t be telling you how to make bitter butter like Betty Botta Bought, but how to make a variety of butters to have on hand for a delicious add to for numerous dishes.

So let’s get started. 

I personally use real butter for all of these recipes. I have, however, due to budget concerns have used in the past a good quality stick margarine for most of them with great success, but we much prefer the taste and consistency of real butter for them in our home. So I watch for butter on a good sale and then do a butter day of making up various flavored butters.

All have the same main ingredient, butter, obviously.  Whether you make your own butter, or purchase at the grocery it is something divine to always have on hand in both its salted and unsalted varieties. This I bring to room temperature before I start trying to mix anything.

While I am waiting for that to happen I assemble my utensils and ingredients.

Utensils

Small mixing bowls

Pastry cutter or forks

Spatula

Plastic wrap

Plastic storage bowls for flavors kept in the refrigerator for near daily use.
Labels and a permanent marker. 

Sauce pan, or oven cookware if making clarified butter, Ghee, or beurre noisette.

Ingredients

Unsalted Butter for all the recipes

The stir-ins for each of the various recipes I am making that day. 

I like to gather everything I need before starting that way I know ahead of time if I’m going to come up short on something and adapt my plans accordingly.  I also put up the leftover ingredients as I measure the proper amounts into a recipe so there is never any confusion as to whether or not I added something should I be interrupted.

Note: Because we use butter on a daily basis and refrigerated butter is hard to spread on bread, we own and use a device that dates back in usage for centuries.  Mine, of course, is not that old, in fact neither of them are.  We have two, one for the house and one for the camper, we are that big of butter fans in our home. 
 

They are called simply a “French butter keeper”.  They were thought to be first developed by the potters in Valauris, France in the late 19^th century.  Other locations also take credit for its development.

Whoever developed this ingenious design I thank them.  Basically it is a two part pottery cup that uses fresh water to keep the butter safely in temperatures of 80 or less at a spreadable texture.

You bring your butter to room temperature and fill the small cup that is attached to the lid section with the butter.  The bottom section you fill with fresh cool water up to a level that it won’t overflow the cup when the lid section is placed on the bottom cup.

When the lid is placed on the bottom cup the water comes up over the butter and seals it away from the air that could have bacteria in it that would cause it to ruin. 

Because of the natural fat in butter the water rolls right off of it and the flavor or consistency of the butter remains unaffected. 

You should change the water regularly to keep it fresh.

The size of the cup on your butter keeper will determine how much soft butter you will have on hand at any given time.  Our blue keeper holds a full pound of butter, while the white one only holds 1-2 sticks.

The pottery cups help maintain a constant temperature.

We do NOT put flavored butters in our keepers because the other ingredients might not keep as well in this non-refrigerated container.    Also, if we are going to be away for awhile we drain the water and refrigerate the entire crock.  We also thoroughly wash the crock between each refilling.

So our first bit of room temperature butter goes into our French Butter Keeper plain, for toast and other uses.

The rest are mixed together well with the ingredients of their individual recipes. Then either stored in a covered dish in the refrigerator for up to 3 days if using fresh ingredients, longer if using dehydrated ones, or formed into a log on a piece of plastic wrap, wrapped and frozen on a flat surface.  The frozen log is then  placed in either a freezer zipper bag, still wrapped in the plastic wrap or in a vacuum sealed bag for long term freezer storage.  Be sure to label your butters when you make them because it is amazing how many different butters look the same in the freezer.  A berry butter could be a real surprise in a Chicken Kiev when you thought you were putting in herb butter. 

The advantage of the freezer storage is you can slice off just what you need as you need it, and return the rest to the freezer.  This task can be made simple by heating the blade of your butter knife under hot running water prior to trying to slice the frozen butter.  Thus the phrase “like a hot knife through butter” to mean something was easy to do—a little wordless words plug there.

If you click on the hyper links you will be taken directly to the recipes for various flavored and types of butters. After reading a few you will soon see how easy it is to develop your own family favorites.

Since I currently do not have a free standing freezer I do not always have all the recipes listed below on hand, but each does make an appearance sooner or later in my food storage. 

I’ve broken them down by their types and usages for your convenience.

NOTE: For a special snack treat melt any of these butters and brush them over tortillas or pita bread then cut the tortillas/pitas into wedges and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 250 F. oven and bake until crisp.  WATCH CLOSELY they will burn easily.  You could also fry the tortilla or pita wedges in a small amount of olive oil with some of the flavored butter melted in with it, if you prefer.

Herb butters.  These get used for spreading on bread for a variety of toasts to go with a meal, seasoning vegetables, fish, and adding flavor to various meats.  You will soon see why having them on hand can pep up any meal with just adding a pat or two of butter.

Chicken Kiev or Chicken Cordon Bleu in various flavors can be made simply and quickly when you have anyone of the various herb butters prepared and in your freezer. Don’t stop with just Chicken Kiev with these butters, try them on various other meats you have prepared in a similar fashion, or spread them on meats as you grill them.  The additional moisture and flavor it will give the meats is beyond compare.

Want to give just an herbal hint to something you are frying?  Add a pat or two of the herb butters to the olive oil in your pan to do the trick. Mixing the butter with olive oil helps raise the possible burning temperature because butter will burn easily.

Perk up plain veggies by dropping a pat or so into them as you heat them up.  No need for time consuming extra measuring, it’s all ready all done and ready to go.

Breads of all sorts benefit from the addition of herbal butters either as fresh hot rolls or on toasted bread. You can also substitute the herb butters for all or part of the oil/butter in any bread recipe for a subtle hint of herbs.

One of our family quick favorites is to put a small amount of olive oil in a pan and add corresponding herbal butter pats to the oil then fry biscuits, either canned or homemade, that have been pressed thin until golden brown. 

Examples of this would be garlic butter for spaghetti, chili butter for a Tex-Mex meal, tarragon butter for a French meal the possibilities are endless.

Choose from these herbal butters or create your own using your favorite herbs. Each of the ones listed below can be accessed by this link.  

Garlic butter can be made two different ways, with many stir ins.  Who doesn’t love luscious garlic bread?

Chive Butter:  Use with fish, poultry and potatoes.

Chili Butter: Spread on crusty French bread, or corn bread or add to corn or popcorn

Curry Butter: Great to use on poultry, lamb, green vegetables or rice.

Dill Butter: Seafood, lamb, potatoes, rice and spinach all benefit from the addition of this.

Horseradish Butter:  What is roast beef or corned beef sandwiches without a little horseradish?

Mustard Butter: Ham and beef sandwiches benefit from this butter, as does spinach.

Paprika Butter: Poultry and potatoes, as well as some cheese dishes are brightened by this butter.

Parsley Butter: Add this to poultry, sea food, green vegetables and potatoes.

Tarragon Butter: Roast beef, steaks, chicken fish and even as a stand alone butter this adds great flavor.

Not truly and herb, but nearly consider also making duxelles for a Mushroom flavored butter to use on vegetables, roasts and poultry
.

Cheese butters.  Whether it’s to put on crusty breads, to stir into pasta for a quick dish, or to place on baked potatoes a good supply of cheese butters in your fridge will be a blessing. These recipes are here.

Roquefort Butter:  while not one of my immediate family favorites my mother loved it.

Tex-Mex Butter is great to spread on plain tortillas to throw into the oven or microwave until the cheese and butter melt for quick nachos. 

Italian cheeses butter(s).  Mixed with garlic or plain over pasta, on bread, on a potato a great side dish

Sweet Butters.  Whether on pancakes, waffles, toast, bagels, muffins, hot cereals and toppings for snack cakes these are always a hit.

Berry Butters, you choose the type of berry.  Use these in hot cereals, on waffles and pancakes.

Cinnamon Sugar Butter, a quick and easy butter to put on your bread for cinnamon toast with no mess.

Honey Butter.  One of my personal favorites to spread on homemade dinner rolls for a special treat.

Honey Cinnamon Butter.  Tremendous on pancakes and waffles.

Honey Orange Butter.  Use this on sweet potatoes, acorn squash, carrots, raisin bread or other fruit breads.

Brandy or Rum Butter, To use in desserts or sauces.

Lemon or Citrus Butter, handy to have for seafood, poultry, green veggies and potatoes.

Streusel Topping Mix.  Add to sweet potatoes, carrots, muffin tops before baking, to top cupcakes or cookies or anything you want to add a nutty crunch to.

Other butters that don’t fit into the above categories, but I like to have on hand are:
Washed or unsalted butter.  Turn regular butter into these more expensive butters to use in recipes.

ButterBalls for White Sauce.  Use these to make quick and easy white sauce.

ClarifiedButter. Because regular butter starts to burn at 350 F clarified butter is preferable for some cooking.  Clarified butter can be used for temperatures up to 425 F.

Ghee. Usually used in recipes from India. Some ghee is made from butter made with buffalo milk I tend to use plain old cow’s milk butter to do this.

Beurre Noisette is simply Ghee that has been slow cooked a little longer to a nutty brown color and you don't have to strain it to use it. 

Whipped Butter, for those who love the easy spreading of whipped butter.  Why buy expensive plastic containers of it when you can make your own

Dieters Butter for those that are watching their calories but still want the taste of butter.

One more thought for you.  What if you are cooking and discover you are out of butter?  Here are some quick substitutes for you.  For 1 cup of butter you can substitute  either 7/8 cup corn oil, cotton seed oil or strained bacon fat OR 3/4 cup chicken fat. 

Jan who is hoping you will get “buttered up” to try all the varieties listed for a whole new world of flavors in OK

PRODUCT REVIEW: WILTON’S MINI PIE MOLD

When we are traveling in southern Oklahoma my husband and I always make an effort to stop by the Fried Pie place there just off the highway near Davis, OK.  We are seriously hooked on these pies.  It is a good thing for our waistline that it is a 3-4 hour drive from home or we’d be eating them on a regular basis.

Thanks to a posting by my friend Anthea our waistlines are in jeopardy again.  She mentioned she had a couple of mini pie molds and posted some recipes for pocket pies.  UH OH!

Immediately my mind flew to all the possibilities not only for dessert pies like those little pies from McDonalds (only better) to homemade hot pockets of all types. 

After cruising utube to find tutorials on the use of the pie molds I decided they were definitely in our future.  I put one in my “to buy later” part of my ongoing amazon.com order and then waited until I needed some little something to put us up over the $35 limit to get free shipping.   I knew it wouldn’t take long to get to that spot because we shop amazon on a regular basis.  I was right.

I managed to hold off for a while after we received the Wilton Mini Pie Mold to actually use it.  This weekend was when I finally gave in and decided to give it a whirl.

Since we decided to make cherry pies instead of our weekend sweet rolls for breakfast I set ready made pie crust out the night before to come to room temperature.  This was my first mistake.  We found that slightly cool pie crust actually worked better as we tried our first run of the pies.  

While ready made are handy all three of us agreed my homemade pie crust would have been much better than the ones I had gotten for near free with a coupon and on sale. 

Whether you use the ready made or homemade is up to you.  Either way the crust needs to be about 1/8 inch thick.  Any thinner and you may have leakage problems on your pies.

Using the mold itself is easy.  You use the bottom of the mold to cut out your rectangle (the shape I was using) by placing that side down on your rolled out pie crust and pressing firmly on all edges.  Then you peel up the dough and place it in the opposite side of the mold.  

A few NOTES here:

1.     Work with your dough on a floured surface so that some of the flour clings to the dough or spray the mold with cooking spray because if you don’t the dough tends to cling to the mold.

2.     The cut out shape is just slightly too small for a good seal on the two halves of the dough if you don’t tease it up over the lip some.  One video I watched suggested instead of cutting using the bottom to make a slighter larger pattern of wax paper and cut the dough using that either way works.

3.     If you discover your piece is a little too small you can “patch” the edges of the dough with scraps of the dough. 

No matter your method you put the dough in the mold and in the bottom half you place approximately two tablespoons of your filling.  We were using homemade cherry pie filling  but the options are endless.  Jellies, jams, pie fillings, pudding, chocolate sauce, meats, veggies, cheeses etc. The main thing is to not put too much liquid in. 

I found that with my recipe for a nine inch pie’s worth of cherry pie filling I could make three 9” pie crusts worth of pocket pies using this mold.  I did so by cutting it out using the base twice and then re-rolling the scraps to form other sheets to cut from.  That made nine pocket pies with a few pie crust scraps left for cooking with a little cinnamon sugar on them as a treat.

Once you have your filling in the bottom half of the mold you brush the edges of both halves with an egg wash made of one beaten egg and a tablespoon of water. 

Next you close the mold and press.  Instant seal, and if your dough is not too thin it won’t leak when baking.  It does take a bit of practice to figure out the exact combo, but the final pies of our experiment were perfect.  

You can either then bake them or fry them.  We chose baking because of the possible leakage of the first few.  Plus the few calories it would save.

I brushed the top of each pie with the egg wash, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and pierced each one with a fork about 3 times to let steam out as it baked.  400 degrees for about 16 minutes and they were wonderful.

So the only negative I have to say about the mold is the cutting out area could be just slightly bigger to make sealing more concise, but other than that we love the Wilton Mini Pie Mold and give it an A- for overall convenience and ease of use.  

Jan who is thinking hand held pot pies made from leftovers for lunches in OK

WEEK #4: BONELESS PORK LOIN

Of course it is a long way from the fourth week of the year, but I finally had time to sit down and pull out my menus for week #4.  The big bulk buy for the week was a vacuum packed boneless pork loin from Sam’s Club.

When I first started cutting up pork loins for my family I did so per the instructions given me by a meat cutter at Sam’s. He had explained to me that the cuts I will explain are basically all the same meat, just cut differently and sold at hugely different prices.  He also suggested to me a book that explains how to save money on other meats by doing similar cutting or substitution on all sorts of meats.  That book was Confessions of a Butcher: Eat Steak on a Hamburger Budget and Save $$$ by John Smith, you can read my review on the book here.   Now the slicing instructions are right on the pork loin wrapper on how to do it. 

However, if your store doesn’t supply the instructions here is how I cut one.

I buy the large, approximately 10# boneless pork loin that is in one of the vacuum packages. 

I first open one end and drain all the liquid that I can to help minimize the mess while I am cutting it up.

Generally these are larger than my cutting mat so I rest the part that doesn’t fit on the mat on a plate or platter until I can advance it to the cutting mat as I make progress with it. 

The tools of my trade are a very sharp large knife, a good pair of kitchen shears, and four plates.

As I cut I leave all fat on the meat to help prevent the meat being too dry when it is cooked. It can be trimmed off later if need be.

Starting on one end of the pork line I trim off the tapered end until I have a flat area that would be one side of a boneless pork chop.  The part I trim off I cut into small cubes to use in pork stir fry, chili, casseroles and similar dishes that would require diced pork.   OR I put them on a plate to be ground up for recipes that use ground pork or to make homemade sausage.  I use the kitchen shears to quickly cut the meat into the size cubes I want to work with. This is plate #1.

Plate #2 is for boneless pork chops/pork steaks.  These are simply slices of the loin in the desired thicknesses for these products.  I do a variety of thicknesses depending on the menu for the week.  Everything from Basic Fried Pork Chops to thicker ones to stuff or grill.

The middle of the loin I cut into the proper size for roasting or otherwise preparing a pork loin dinner.  Plate #3

Moving on down the loin I cut several thick slices, that I then use the kitchen shears to cut into strips.  These are either boneless pork ribs or pork fajita meat.  Plate #4.

The remaining bits are cut up and added to plate #1.

How much of what type of cut you create is up to you.  If you are planning on several meals in the future that would call for browned  pork cubes.  Then cut more of those up, brown now and then preserve in your preferred manner for speedy food preparation in the weeks to come.  You can either can or freeze them. The same goes for if your recipes call for browned ground pork.

I personally often cut two small pork loins from one large loin for two different ways of cooking it on different weeks.   Or I may choose to ground half the meat to have ground pork on hand, either browned and canned, or frozen raw for meatloaves in the future.

Once all of it is cut up I either vacuum pack it for freezing or can it per the Ball Blue Book canning instructions. I can a lot because I have limited freezer space, plus we tend to have several power outages in a year and I prefer to have my meat dollar better protected.  Unless I am cutting it up to use that day, of course.

So now on to the menus for the week.

BREAKFAST OPPORTUNITIES:

Greek Yogurt either with the fruit cooked in or topped with:

            Granola

            Grape-nuts or other cereals

            Fresh Fruit bits

            Dried Fruit

Granola/EnergyBars

Raisin Bread, toasted

Cold cereal choices

            Rice Krispies

            Corn Flakes

            Grape-nuts

Hot cereal choices

            Cream of Rice

            Farina

            Multi-grain cereal 

Beverages

            Orange Juice

            Grape Juice

            Milk

            Chai

            Water

Fruit

            Dried Mango

            Dried Blueberries

            Clementines

COMMENTS:

My son and I love Greek Yogurt to the extent it was starting to bust our grocery budget with the amount we were purchasing each week, even using coupons.  So I decided to try my hand at making my own yogurt. 

I may never purchase grocery store yogurt again!  I used my dehydrator to make it and it was so super easy.  Even more important it was delicious, coming out the perfect thickness we love! You can read the step by step instructions, complete with photos here.

The flavor opportunities are endless, unlike purchasing it at the grocery from their limited variety.  We did find we prefer using preserves or marmalade to using jam or jelly for that type of flavoring.

I do now make a lot of plain yogurt to use in so many, many recipes. 

LUNCH OPPORTUNITIES

Fish Tacos, after the fish sticks are served later in the week

Leftovers of any sort

Sandwich ingredients

            Fish Sandwiches a La Mickey Dee’s after the fish sticks are served

            Shaved turkey breast—see comments

            PB&J

            Toasted Cream Cheese Sandwiches on Raisin Bread

            Baby Spinach

            Sprouts

            Mayonnaise

            Mustard

            Chipotle Yogurt Dressing

COMMENTS;

We love fish sticks, so you will often see them popping up in my menus.  They are scheduled for dinner one night this week, but I will cook extra when I do so we can have fish tacos or fish sandwiches for lunches.  As long as you do it in short bursts 15-30 seconds you can re-heat fish sticks for these foods in a microwave and have a quick lunch.

I discovered years ago that purchasing a turkey breast or boneless ham and asking the meat cutter to shave it for me was far less expensive than purchasing lunch meats.  I also own a meat slicer so sometimes I will purchase large ones of these to use for the bulk item of the week.  This week I just purchased a small one for use in lunches and breakfast burritos.

The Cinnamon Raisin Bread Cream Cheese Sandwiches are your standard grill cheese sandwich made with those ingredients.  It is a very nice change of pace.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #1:

Spicy Pulled Pork

Cheesy Potatoes

Cole Slaw

Buttermilk Artisan Bread slices

Blonde Brownies

Water

Tea

COMMENTS:

The pulled pork recipe is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on Pioneer Woman.  We enjoy pork loin cooked this way as a main dish or on sandwiches, in wraps, or in burritos.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #2

Three Way Chili

Cheddar Biscuits

Jarred Salad

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Water

Tea

COMMENTS:

Canned or frozen leftover Moo Gurgle from the week before makes this a quick and easy meal to throw together on busy nights.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #3

Breakfast Burritos

Fruit Salad

Milk

Tea

Water

Leftover desserts

COMMENTS:

The burritos can be filled with any variety of leftover meats you have from this week and last.  We particularly like putting in the pulled pork from night #1 this week or the shaved turkey that I purchased for sandwiches.

You don’t have to follow a recipe for fruit salad, any mixture of fruit you like will be a refreshing lift from the burritos.  I personally eat extra fruit salad on this night rather than a sweet dessert.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #4:

Butter Fried Pork Chops

Fried Potatoes

Cole Slaw

Peas and Pine Nuts

Pineapple Upside Down cake

Tea

Water

COMMENTS:

Definitely a heavy on the calories meal, but oh so good.  These Butter Fried Pork Chops are different from the Basic Fried Chops, but just barely. Peas and Pine nuts is exactly what it says.  I use either fresh, frozen or canned peas and prepare them in my normal manner, only I toss in a handful of pine nuts that are either plain or toasted.  It’s simply a twist on peas and pearl onions, without the onions because my ds does not care for onions.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #5:

Chicken and Dumplings

Jarred Salad

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Milk

Tea

Water

COMMENTS:

To make the chicken and dumplings I used home canned chicken from Week #2: Chicken Leg Quarters.  The salad and cake were of course leftovers from earlier in the week.

DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #6:

Corn and Cheese Chowder

Bread Bowls

Fruit Salad

RefrigeratorNut Cookies

Milk

Tea

Water

COMMENTS:

The original recipe I use for the chowder calls for bacon pieces in it, however, for the pork loin week I browned up small bits of the trimmed pork from plate #1 to season the soup.  I also used all pepper jack cheese to make it a spicer soup.

The refrigerator nut cookies were my dad’s favorite cookie.  He would have me make up a triple or quadruple batch of them the day I mixed them up and freeze additional rolls of them for future treats.

This is when I learned that I could do this with any cookie dough for fast slice and bake cookies on hand at all times.  Doing so saved me many a headache when my kids were in school and I was informed at a late time that the kids needed cookies to take to some meeting or another as they were growing up.

DINNER WEEK #4, DAY #7:

Fish Sticks

Macaroni and cheese

Peas and Pine Nuts

Leftover jarred salad or Cole Slaw

Refrigerator Cookies

COMMENTS:

Any leftover pulled pork can either be canned per the instructions for cooked meats in the Ball Blue Book canning cookbook, or frozen for future meals.

The other leftovers can be used for lunches for this week or next.  I believe you could freeze the leftover corn chowder, but I’ve never personally done it, because we consume the leftovers quickly for lunches.  

In fact most of the meals in this week would reappear in one of our lunches later in the week/next week because they all re-heat well and give us a large variety of lunch foods to stave off lunch boredom that could lead to visiting a fast food joint and wrecking your budget.

SNACK OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE WEEK:

Yogurt with any variety of toppings or plain

Clementines

Fruit salad

Blonde Brownies

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Refrigerator Nut Cookies

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Popcorn

Granola Bars

So there you have it Week #4, using foods you have previously stored in conjunction with your purchase of a single large pork loin that you cook for this week’s meals and for future meals.

You now basically have a month’s worth of meals you could use each month for a year, or you can continue to come back as I slowly at 52 different meal plans over the future weeks/months.   I am making a serious effort to work on my blogs more, but life happens here on the Rock ‘n Tree Ranch and the New Life on the Ranch can be both fun and a lot of work.  Please be patient with me all 52 are coming, eventually.

Jan who is sorry the 52 weeks are so slow in coming in OK