Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Homemade rolls, Blueberry Pie, Shepherd's Pie

Last night I finished off my grocery shopping with 14 pounds of roast, 64 oz. Plain yogurt, 16oz sour cream, 2 packages of hotdogs (for camping), and 1 lb yeast (grocery total: $46) so we could have a tasty Sunday Roast today. Here’s how it went:

Easy Slow-Cooker Roast

3-5 lb beef roast (rump, chuck, etc)
2 Tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning (I also really like Mrs. Dash for grilling)
1 large onion, sliced

¼ cup brown gravy mix

1 cup water

This morning before I got ready for church I seasoned the roast with some Montreal Steak Seasoning on both sides. I prepared about 5 pounds roast so I’d have enough leftover for a couple other meals and some for hubby’s sandwiches. I placed it in the slow-cooker with one large sliced onion on top and ¼ cup brown gravy mix stirred into 1 cup water poured over it. Cook on Low at least 8 hours.

When I got home from church, I decided to bake some rolls to go with dinner. While I was at it, I figured I’d make some hotdog buns for camping this weekend and sandwich rolls for hubby’s lunch this week. While not the quickest bread recipe, this is one of my favorites. From start to finish it takes about 2 hours which really isn’t too bad. Here is the recipe that I used.

Best Dinner Rolls Ever


7 cups Bread Flour
2 tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp Instant Yeast
½ cup butter
2 cups milk
½ cup water
2 Tbsp vinegar

Combine 3 cups flour with salt, sugar and yeast. Melt butter with milk and water in small saucepan. Allow to cool until lukewarm. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and stir until combined. Add an additional 3 cups flour. Dough will be sticky. Gradually add remaining cup of flour until dough pulls from sides of bowl. This should be about ½ cup flour. Take the remaining flour and sprinkle it onto a clean surface where you’ll be able to knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Dough should be smooth. Return dough to bowl, cover with a cotton dish towel and let rise about 45 minutes or until double in size. Shape into rolls and let rise (covered, of course) another 30 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes for rolls- 30 minutes if making bread. Makes 3 dozen rolls.

About 1 hour before serving time I started to peel the potatoes for mashed potatoes. I think the potatoes taste better if I add about 1 Tbsp salt to water that I’m cooking them in.

While the potatoes were cooking I decided I’d make a blueberry pie for dessert. I actually cheated a little here and used some oats (which supposedly I won’t have until tomorrow when I go to the Family Home Storage Center to buy some..) but it was for a good cause. Leave a comment if you want to yell at me for cheating, but to be fair I’ll bake another pie tomorrow and give it away to a lucky neighbor!

Pie Crust

1 ½ cup flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp sugar

½ cup oil

2 Tbsp cold milk

Combine dry ingredients. Add oil and milk and mix until crumbly. Press into pie tin (don’t roll out or it will be chewy instead of flaky). Use half dough for the bottom of the crust and the other half for the sides. Flute edges if desired. At this point you can freeze the crust for later use or Bake 10 minutes at 400. Allow to cool and add pie filling.

Blueberry Pie

1 prepared pie crust

Filling:

3 ½ cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon
Topping:
¾ cup rolled oats
½ cup flour
½ cup soft butter
½ cup sugar

Combine filling ingredients, pour into prepared pie crust. Combine dry ingredients for topping. With a fork, cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling. Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes. Remove and allow to cool 15-20 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.


(By the way, most fruit pies can be made with the same recipe, subbing out the type of fruit and keeping the rest the same)I set the pie aside at this point so I could bake it while we were eating dinner.

15 minutes before serving time I started a pot of water to boil for the corn on the cob ($.19/ea at Wal-Mart).

While the water was coming to a boil, I finished off the potatoes, put the rolls into the already heated oven (remember, 400F), and took the roast out of the crock pot. Make SURE you save the drippings from the roast for gravy. Even if you aren’t planning on making gravy for your meal tonight, it’s still worth saving for easy gravy down the road. You can also use it to flavor beef soups and more! Also, when removing the potatoes from the pot they’ve been boiled in, save the water if you’ll be making gravy.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
 
5 pounds potatoes, peeled and boiled
¼ cup butter
½ cup sour cream
½ cup milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp dried parsley

Combine ingredients while potatoes are still hot. Mix with Beaters on medium until smooth. Add more milk depending on desired consistency. Serve with warm brown gravy.

Brown Gravy
2-4 cups potato-cooking water (if water was unsalted, add 1-2 tsp salt)
2 cups roast drippings (or 2 cups beef broth + 1-2 Tbsp Montreal Seasoning)
¼ cup cornstarch or ½ cup flour
½ cup water

Heat potato water and drippings to a gentle boil. Combine cornstarch and water to achieve a smooth paste. Slowly pour, while stirring, cornstarch mixture into boiling liquid until desired consistency. Don’t pour too much all at once or you’ll get lumps! Also, if gravy is satisfactorily thickened before you’ve poured all your cornstarch into it, then stop!

Time to eat! Don't forget to put your pie in at 350F. Set the timer so you don't forget about it...
Oh! And leftovers.. If you're putting them away anyway, you may as well make them into a meal as you do it. Leftover Sunday dinner makes a yummy Shepherd's Pie!

Shepherd's Pie

1/2-1 lb roast - cut into chunks
1 cup brown gravy
1 cup corn
1 cup green beans
2 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Combine roast, vegetables and gravy. Spread mashed potatoes over meat mixture and top with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F or cook in your Slow-cooker on low 4 hours.

I actually just "put away" the leftovers right back into my slow-cooker and then put the dish into the refrigerator. We'll have Shepherd's Pie one day this week. I still have enough roast leftover for another meal as well. Maybe I will turn it into taco meat tomorrow and make some fresh tortillas to go with it.

And the pie.. was awesome. Only problem I had with it is that I ate too much and will go to bed with a tummy ache... whoops.

Dinner: Veggie Stir-fry with Rice and Egg Drop Soup

Today was a little chilly, at least it felt like it after a couple of hours of pulling weeds in the rain… So I thought chicken noodle soup sounded good for dinner. I opened the refrigerator, though, and changed my mind after seeing all the produce I bought yesterday! So instead I decided on Veggie Stir-fry, Rice, and Egg drop soup.

Veggie Stir-fry


5-6 medium carrots
½ bunch celery
½ onion
½ lb broccoli
½ bell pepper
½ lb cauliflower
8 oz mushrooms
1 small zucchini
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Mrs. Dash type seasoning (I used Bragg Organic Seasoning Blend)
1 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp Paprika
¼ cup Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
1 Tbsp corn starch or 2 Tbsp flour
¼ cup water
1 Tbsp oil

Heat oil in Wok. Chop veggies and add to Wok in this order: carrots, celery, onion, broccoli, pepper, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms. Carrots take the longest to cook so chop those first and allow them to cook as you chop and add each additional vegetable. When veggies are almost tender, mince garlic and add to the mix. Stir and add additional seasonings. Mix corn starch (or flour) with water until smooth and then add to veggies. Stir until sauce is thickened. Serve over rice.
 
 

My kids love to snack on carrots and peanut butter so I peeled and cut into carrot sticks a few extra carrots for that. I did the same with the cauliflower so they’ll have a couple options for snacks.


I also decided to peel, chop and steam some extra carrots and celery for some quick chicken noodle soup on Monday (if I feel like soup that is…). I let the extra carrots and celery steam while I got my stir-fry dinner going. Also, I doubled the amount of all the veggies in the stir-fry so I could have enough for another meal down the road.
 

While my veggies were cooking, I started some rice on the stove. For those who are unsure how to cook rice, it’s very simple. Rice : water = 2 :1 So, for every 1 cup of rice, you’ll add 2 cups water to your pot. Wipe some butter around the rim of the pot and lid to help keep rice from boiling over. Turn the stove to medium hot and bring rice to boiling. Then simply turn stove all the way to low and allow to cook for 15-20 minutes. You’ll know when it’s time to remove from heat when water no longer bubbles up through the rice.

When the extra carrots and celery were done steaming, I saved the water I used for my egg-drop soup base- throwing in a few pieces of carrots and celery before I bag it all up.

When the veggies were about 90% finished cooking, I took half of them and put them in a freezer bag to save for later. I purposely didn’t add seasoning for two reasons: 1. I may decide to use them for a different recipe later on. I’m constantly changing my mind about what to cook. And 2. Seasonings lose potency in the freezer anyway, so I’d rather just season them when I finish cooking them for another meal. Now to add the seasonings to dinner. I always say in just about any recipe you can substitute fat for flavor! Mmmm!

Egg Drop Soup

4 cups chicken broth (For mine I used 2 cups vegetable broth from steaming carrots and 2 cups chicken broth. I used 1 tsp chicken bouillon per 1 cup water for my broth)

½ cup cooked diced vegetables or peas
1 egg, beaten
1/8 tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp paprika
½ tsp dried parsley
4 oz egg noodles. (I used 2 lasagna noodles leftover from the other night. I just broke them up into small pieces first)

Heat broth to boiling, add noodles and vegetables. Let soup return to boiling and cook 7 minutes. Slowly pour beaten egg into broth, stirring as you pour. Allow to cook one minute more. Remove from heat and add seasonings. Serve hot, sprinkled with cayenne pepper if desired.

I thought dinner turned out terrific, but in true man fashion, my son and husband both asked where the meat was.. by 7:00 they were eating burgers at Arctic Circle... oh well! I try!

Breakfast: W.W. Waffles, Blueberry Syrup, Vanilla Cream Sauce, WW Muffins

Blender Waffles


1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat kernels
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
¼ cup oil
2 Tbsp honey

Put milk and wheat into blender & blend on highest setting for 4-5 minutes. Add rest of ingredients and blend on low speed. Pour onto pre-heated (375F) waffle iron and cook. (I , of course, doubled this recipe so I'd have enough for at least another breakfast during the week)

Blueberry Syrup


1 cup blueberries- mashed
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
½ cup water
½ tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in medium saucepan. Stirring constantly, heat to boiling and boil at least one minute. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir. Serve warm!



Vanilla Cream Sauce


½ cup sour cream
2 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Combine and mix thoroughly .

While I had the blender out- already messy with batter I decided I'd make some whole wheat muffins as well. I think they turned out pretty good since every time I turned my back my baby (18 months) was on top of the counter digging in...
 
 

Whole Wheat Mini Muffins


3 cups wheat berries
2 cups milk
2 eggs
¾ cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Put milk, oil and wheat berries into blender & blend on highest speed 4-5 minutes. Add rest of ingredients and blend on low speed. Pour into greased mini muffin pan. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes. (Optional) While still warm, dip into a bowl of cinnamon sugar. Makes 48 mini muffins. Freezes well.

Shopping Day & Easy Chili

I’m SO glad today is over!
I started the day with a pot of chili in the Crock-Pot because I knew I had to go shopping tonight.

Easy Chili
3 cans kidney beans
2 cans chili beans
2 cans Mexican-style diced tomatoes
16oz tomato sauce
1 yellow bell pepper- diced
1 ½ cup meat mix (that I made the other night)
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 ½ tsp oregano
3 Tbsp red chili powder

Combine Ingredients and set to LOW for 6+ hours.


For lunch today we had our last two oranges and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then I spent the next FOUR hours mowing the lawn… (Went like this: mow a couple stripes, chase kids and drag them back home.. Mow a couple stripes, empty the bagger, repeated SIXTY times! Ugh!)


By the time I was finished mowing the lawn I was free to go grocery shopping. Although I did eat & feed the kids first (thankfully). The chili turned out pretty good, but could have used a big onion diced up in there…We ate the last of our home-made bread with the chili (Just two more “mixes” left).

Shopping… with three squirmy little girls… Aaaaa!… As a last resort I bought 3 Nutri-grain bars at the check-out at Wal-Mart. There goes almost enough money for an entire pound of meat, but hey it got us through the check-out process. Next time I'll try to remember to bring a treat in my purse or something...

But all in all, we survived. The kids were wiped by the time we got home and I don’t blame them since we didn’t get back until an hour past their bedtime. I then spent the next hour putting away groceries. Of course I had to take some pictures first. (My hubby rolled his eyes at me)

Oops. Forgot the chili! It's been "keeping warm" for quite a while now... That’s not going to fit into the refrigerator, so I bag it up to put into the freezer instead. I probably won’t want chili again for a few days anyway.

If you’re lacking an extra set of hands, by the way, you can improvise by using a cup to hold your bag open for you.

Ok so how did I do? I spent $136.87 today. I got most of what I needed, but I still need to go to one more store tomorrow and to the Food Storage Center on Monday to complete my list. (With the exception of a few gallons of milk, few dozen eggs and one more round of produce. ) Some things were more than I expected to pay- but the biggest difference in price was only $2 which isn’t too terrible. Also some things were a bit cheaper so that was fantastic and it actually all evened out. I love to see my full refrigerator at the beginning of a pay period!

Revised Shopping List

I tried to keep my grocery list as basic as possible this month. Next month I’ll be able to buy a few extras and expand my pantry a bit because there are a lot of things on this list that I won’t have to buy every month. Like my flour, wheat, honey, baking powder, etc.. The goal is to buy a little bit more than I’ll need for as many items as possible so that next month I can stock up on other things.. This way I can gradually build up my pantry/food storage.

I also made a list of things that I’ll be using from my pantry this month that I won’t be replacing. These items will be a priority next month: sugar, condiments, tuna fish, peanut butter, jelly, canned tomatoes, canned beans. Other things like Stuffing mix and cream soups I can make myself with some of the basics I’m buying this month, so I’ll only add those if they’re a great deal.

Now.. The other thing I need to do with my list is PRIORITIZE! I can’t afford everything that I want to buy so I’ll have to make some cuts…
 
 

 

I’ve decided to cut the cheddar in half - 10 lbs was hopefully enough to carry over into next month anyway. Also we’ll have to do without the Parmesan- Mozzarella is cheaper anyway and should be enough. Also we’ll get less cottage cheese. For the deli meat, I’m going to just buy a big roast and slice my own “lunch meat”. Good quality meat (with nothing added) sliced from the deli is a GOOD price at $4/lb.. whereas I can buy a roast for $2/lb.. we can also do without the sausage and we’ll use less meat in our meals. I suspected we’d probably have to skip the chips this month.. I still need to find something else for hubby’s lunch instead.. And the flax seed will have to wait until next month. (I do have about 1 cup leftover from last month anyway.. I’ll just have to skip putting it into my smoothies.) I cut syrup because I have enough sugar still in the pantry to make my own syrup this month. I’ve added sugar to my priorities next month though… Also I added a few cans of tomatoes and beans to my list since I did find them on a good sale this week. I can't afford to buy them by the case at this point, but it's still nice to get what I can!

I'll post later tonight with what I actually ended up with at the store. Hopefully prices have gone down instead of up for some of the things on my list!

Lasagna, Bread, Noodles, and ...Hamburger Helper?

While cleaning out my refrigerator I found 2 zucchini that I’d forgotten about as well as 3 tubs of cottage cheese stuffed to the back of the shelf. So I decided that today after “work” I’d use the 4 pounds of ground meat (2 pounds beef, 2 pounds turkey) that I have in my freezer to make some lasagna for dinner. No… I’m not using all of the meat just for the lasagna. You’ll see..

Here’s what I’m starting with. See the yummy peppers? My friend gave those to me today so I’m going to throw those in. (I actually munched on one while I was cooking.. Sooo good!)

I wanted to snap a picture of the time so I could keep track of how long it takes me to get this done…

Normally I would think ahead for something like this and have the meat already defrosted, but since I didn’t, I will chop the vegetables while the meat is defrosting in a sink full of warm water. It’s ok if it doesn’t get totally defrosted, I can finish thawing it as I sauté it.

While I’m waiting for the meat to thaw a little longer, I’m starting a batch of noodles for the lasagna. I should have measured everything as I put it together, but I didn’t.. so I’ll guesti- mate for you..

3 cups flour, 2/3 cup water, 1 egg, 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Put ½ the flour into a bowl. Make a dent in the center, and drop in the egg, water, and oil. Mix well- it will be sticky. Add more flour gradually until dough pulls from sides of bowel. Drop dough onto clean , floured surface and work dough until smooth and elastic. Now you need to let the dough rest! I like to let mine sit for at least 30 minutes- makes it SO much easier to roll out!

The meat is thawed enough, so now I’ll sauté it. Once the meat is all browned, add the veggies and cook until they are tender.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I started a double batch of my “bread machine mixes” this morning before I went to “work”. [I don’t actually even have a bread machine so I figured since my sis had mixes I could just sub it with 4 recipes of my own. In this case I’m using my friend’s No Knead Bread recipe - just a couple changes but it’s good exactly as is. It is SUPER easy. Thanks for sharing Becca] Here’s what it looks like now after it’s been sitting for 12 hours.

It’s not something that you’d want to knead anyway…

Back to the lasagna… The veggies are now tender so my meat mixture is almost done. I just threw in some spices (1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp oregano) to finish it off and now I‘m ready to make my spaghetti sauce. I‘ll take about 7 cups of the meat mixture and put It into a 5 qt pot. To that I add 10 cans of plain tomato sauce (8 oz cans) and two cans of Italian-style stewed tomatoes. I also had just one small can of mushrooms in the pantry so I’ll throw that in too. The sauce will need to simmer for 30 minutes or so to thicken it up.

Three cups of the meat mix goes into a freezer bag. I‘ll use it down the road when I make chili.. Or something. We‘ll see.
 

- and look at the time! I’m not going to be able to have lasagna for dinner tonight (unless I want to feed my kids at 8:30.. Which I don’t) So I leave the remaining 1 cup of meat mix in the pan. I’ll add some Hamburger Helper to it and a can of green beans for dinner instead. (See, I really am eating canned veggies!)

 
Now, while dinner is simmering along with my spaghetti sauce, I’ll finish my noodles. The dough is nice and soft! Roll the dough out to about 1/8- 1/16 inch thickness. Then cut with a pizza cutter into nice wide noodles good for lasagna.
 
 

Back to the sauce. Looks good, but still needs seasoning. For a big pot like this I like to put in about ¼ cup Italian seasoning (or at least 3 packets spaghetti seasoning). Don’t forget the basil.. A lot of Italian seasoning doesn’t include basil. (I know.. How can they even call it Italian?)

Alright! Finally time to start assembling the lasagna. I made enough of everything for two lasagnas, but I only have one foil pan.. So I’m making my own pan with heavy duty foil and my 9x13 casserole pan.

You don’t have to pre-cook the noodles before you assemble the lasagna, but you can if you want to. (It takes more time and doesn’t, in my opinion, change the taste)

Ok, dinner is ready, lasagna is assembled and in the freezer.. Don’t forget to save your extra sauce for another day.

Also freeze the extra noodles for another meal.

Time to eat. Just one problem.. The kids all ran out the door so we played at the park and let dinner get cold. Ah well. We still ate by 7:00...

Oh and the bread… Here’s what it looked like before it went into the oven.

 
 

And just a note… It really is important to dust the pan with some cornmeal or course flour before you add the bread dough…

Whoops, just realized that I didn't include any recipes other than the noodles... so:
Meat mix:
4 lbs ground meat (I used 2 lbs beef, 2 lbs turkey)
about 6 cups chopped veggies
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
   I used: 1 bunch green onions-from the garden
              about 8 large jalepeno sized sweet peppers
              2 small zucchinis
  (you can also use celery, spicy peppers, spinach, etc.. just make sure they're mild veggies that can be used in a variety of recipes)
Spaghetti Sauce
7-8 cups meat mix
10 (8oz) cans tomato sauce
    or you can use 3 (26oz) cans spaghetti sauce (like ragu, etc)
2-4 cans Italian style stewed tomatoes (I only used 2 because that's all I had)
2 cans sliced mushrooms (or 8oz fresh)
1 small can sliced olives (optional)
Easy Lasagna (x2)
2 tubs (16oz) cottage cheese
1 1/2 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
about 12 cups spaghetti sauce
24 oz lasagna noodles

For each lasagna: Spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce onto bottom of pan. Layer in this order: Noodles, about 2 cups sauce, 1/2 tub cottage cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Make two layers like this. For the last layer: Sauce, 1/4 - 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan. If you are freezing lasagna, there is no need to pre-cook the noodles. Just be sure they are completely covered with sauce. To cook, bake thawed lasagna covered at 400 F for 1 hour. Uncover, cook 10 minutes more until cheese is browned. (If cooking while still frozen, add at least 30 minutes to covered cooking time and do NOT pre-heat the oven first)