Staniewicz

Adventures in cooking for the freezer

2010-01-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

For the past year I've been thinking I need to freeze more dinners for those nights when I'm just too lazy to clean the kitchen again. It isn't the first time in life I've thought about this but this is the first time that I'm home most days and have a family to freeze for. At first look I gravitated towards favorite meals but quickly realized they do not freeze well. So my first few attempts are with things that according to websites on this subject freeze well. My first attempt was macaroni and cheese. I made the whole box of elbow noodles and got three large glass pans ready for the freezer. Surprisingly though I only filled up less than two pans and this was before the kids and I even had our meal. Lesson #1. Volume. Even when you think you are cooking for a football team you really are just making a larger batch. We enjoyed this while Todd was out of town for a week in small doses but all in all this was unsuccessful as the kids really didn't like it and I only have one frozen pan in my freezer. My second attempt was last week with five pounds of ground beef and a ton of taco seasoning. About three years ago I switched from buying taco seasoning packets to the big 8 oz shaker as it is about 1/3 of the cost on an ounce to ounce comparison. While cooking this though I read the label and it has about 40 ingredients including MSG. Lesson #2. You can always improve on the recipe. I've now made my own taco seasoning from spices I already have on hand. We had some unexpected guests and the beef really cooked down so this time I didn't even have anything for the freezer. Today I made a third attempt. Lasagna. This is something I make regularly to clean out the fridge so the veggies and cheeses are always a bit different yet usually it is a hit. I've been aquiring more glass pans with plastic lids for my freezer as they stack well and quite frankly I'd love to open my freezer door and have it look like a page out of Real Simple. Everything with a label, in order, ready for dinner. It was enjoyable today and I ended up with two full size lasagna's (13x10 pans) along with four 9x9 pans and one mini 4x8 pan. This was fun and uneventful and made me think I could really get the hang of this. The icing for me today though was while I was preparing the lasagna I had five pounds of chicken breast slow cooking for bbq pulled chicken sandwiches for dinner. When I pulled these out five hours later I decided to put another five pounds of meat back in the sauce for the freezer. What made today successful? Everything just came together and I'm ready to go to bed with a satisfied feeling. I've got a pan of lasagna ready to cook fresh for dinner tomorrow, several more in my freezer. And I've got leftover pulled bbq chicken for lunch tomorrow. As a bonus I have another five pounds of shredded chicken in my freezer. Homework: get some new ideas from ready-to-go dinner places like Dinners Ready and Dinner Done.

Ahi paired with lava flows

2009-06-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Looking for a fresh unique easy dinner? Take a trip down memory lane to Hawaii dreams. Fresh ahi paired with a poke sauce and mango and watermelon. Served alongside lava flows, yummy rum based tropical drinks I first had at Duke's in Waikiki ten years ago. A few nights ago I was craving yummy ahi and put this together for dinner. Todd and I have great memories of eating ahi almost everynight on a trip to Maui five years ago. Enjoy!

Recipes:

Lava Flow
1 oz light rum
1 oz malibu coconut rum
2 oz strawberries
1 banana
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz coconut cream (I subbed coconute milk)
I also added blended ice to both the white mix and the red mix

blend the white mix (banana, coconut and pineapple) and set aside.
add the red mix (strawberries and rums) to the bottom of a glass. Then pour in the white mix to create a creeping lava flow type look as your glass fills.

Thanks to my sister Siobhan for the gift of a wonderful blender for getting my MBA in 2001. I'm still using it frequently and happy to have it.

Recipe for Ahi mango watermelon salad
Ahi Poke with mango and watermelon
2 lbs fresh ahi tuna
1 small onion, diced
3 green onions, diced
fresh garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce (low salt version if you have it)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp chinese chili sauce (such as rooster brand)
1 teaspoon hawaiian sea salt
fresh mango and/or avacado and/or watermelon to your pleasing. I used about a cup of avacado and a cup of watermelon.

cut ahi into 1/2" cubes and put in fridge
mix all other ingredients in large glass bowl and put in fridge for at least 30 minutes
marinate between 30-60 minutes prior to serving

Brad & Todd with a b-day cupcake

2009-06-23T21:57:00.001-07:00

Brad doesn't eat much but he'll enjoy some frosting when he gets a chance.

Av's 3rd bday party

2009-06-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

We made pink cupcakes the night before but she said she didn't like them. Sometimes pink is a prettier color than a flavor. So we went to the store about an hour before the party and she picked out some chocolate and strawberry ones with pink frosting and hello kitty plastic rings on them. Personally, I think homemade always tastes better but on this day I opted for a brownie bite instead. We celebrated with a bbq lunch at the house with some friends, neighbors, and family. It was 95 degrees out so the huge dolphin bounce house we rented did not get much use, although the kiddie pool we inflated and put in the garage did get a lot of activity. I wish I had pictures of all the kids raiding my swimsuit bin when they realized everyone was going in the pool. Ava is enjoying very girly things right now like Hello Kitty, fairies, Pretty Ponies, Barbie, and of course Dora. But she also likes Brad's toolkit and is "fixing" lots of stuff around the house with the plastic hammer and electric screwdriver.

2009-06-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

Brad really enjoys this big red car we keep in our house. He is a bit young to be able to move around much on his own but luckily Ava helps him out and now and then he gets a ride with one of his friends. Here he is with Trey last weekend. I'm not sure if boys instinctually like cars or if he just enjoys being able to move around quickly with these wheels. Lately Ava has taken to riding on the top of the car while I push the two kids around. We all have a good laugh when Ava drives the car when she picks up some sunglasses, credit cards, and keys off the kitchen counter first. She is really paying attention to the details of what "grown ups" do. I let her start my car engine today and she talked nonstop for five minutes about where she would drive to and how fast she would go.

June 16 2009 Ava turns three

2009-06-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

What a birthday for a three year old. Ava has been talking about her birthday and receiving "pink presents" for months. She even selected a pink packaged instant shrimp soup bowl as a present. She enjoyed opening presents over breakfast followed by a stop at Publix to pick out a donut. Ava chose poorly and didn't like the powder sugar coated jelly donut she selected but I had a back-up french crueler ready for her (I've learned from the past that she is adventurous in picking out her donut but often doesn't like what she selects). From there we joined some friends at the aquarium and played in the water. The Florida aquarium has a great toddler area water park place we enjoy going in the morning before it gets hot. We are there every couple weeks so I'll post some pics next time. Grandma Judy picked her up and took her to see Pixar's new film, Up and took her to Nordstrom for some new shoes and jewelry. Later that evening Citabria, Maggie and John came over and watched Finding Nemo and played dress up. Her party is this Saturday at the house and I'll post some pics. Attached is a picture that shows how excited she was to have her friends over. These days she wears her Barbie and Princess dresses, fairy wings,and accessories more than she wears her real clothes. I'm sure it is just a stage but it sure brings out smiles from strangers when we go into Target or the grocery store.

New to Blogging

2009-06-11T22:38:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our family page. I'm excited to have a place to capture some memories around our kids and their experiences and hope to do this in this blog. Thanks to Meghan for sharing her pics and introducing us to this idea. Ava turns three next week and is always asking "can we help" and grabbing her stool in the kitchen. Here she is mixing a bunch of spices in a bowl as we prep grouper for dinner.