The Freezer Is Your Friend

A lot of singles or people with small families view the freezer as a place that ice grows in sometimes uncontrollable quantities. I've got a secret for you... the freezer is my superpower. Seriously it has magic abilities with which I fight the powers and forces of laziness that compel me.


My schedule, like many in my situation, is a bit nuts. A few days a week I have time to spend 2+ hours prepping and cooking dinner, and some days I have barely time to actually eat dinner. That's where my freezer comes in.

I could live off the food in my freezer for a good while which is great for weeks when I'd like to tighten the food budget belt a little. In my freezer right now I have:

• chicken stock
• an empty unbaked pie crust (an easy Friday treat!)
• waffles
• apple flax muffins
• a roast
• ground beef
• 6 meals (plus leftovers) worth of various chicken dinners already marinading or totally prepped (including some of that delicious butter chicken!)
• sole fillets
• steaks
• veggie burgers

Obviously your freezer will look different. But the question is, are you actually using it? Making a dinner with 4 servings is just as easy (in most cases) as 2. Even dinners that are more involved like stuffed chicken breasts or handmade ravioli don't take that much more work to do a few more. You've already got everything out already.

One thing my Mom does is once a month or so is take a Saturday morning and stock her freezer. Grilling and chopping chicken for easy salads and wraps for later, making crab cakes, etc.  I'm not quite that organized yet but I'm getting there. I tend to do mine as I go along through the weeks, stockpiling bits and pieces.

(Note I am not paid to endorse the following products any way!)

Ziploc's line of plastic containers are my lifesaver. They often go on sale at Superstore for $2.50 for a pack of 4, including a really neat colored line they've just come out with! When I first moved into my house I bought a "starter pack" of all different sizes for $9.99 - best purchase ever! Now every time I shop I swing through that aisle and see if they're on sale. They're perfect for lunches and single serving meals in the freezer. Best part is because they're so cheap you won't really feel bad throwing them out when they start to show their wear.

The trick with any kind of plastic storage is organization. No use buying them and then never using them because you can't find the lid to match the container! That is where the "freezer drawer" comes in.

(Yes it always looks that tidy!)

I keep the containers in stacks with the associated lid on top of the stack. Along with the ziplocs (honestly it's not worth buying the no-name brand of these) and saran wrap (again name brand is good here) I've got everything I need to store and sort food.

In summary today's message is very simple. Learn to embrace your freezer with the use of a few simple and cheap tools!

Butter Chicken (For Beginners!)

Today we have a recipe from another FANTASTIC website called Budget Bytes. It's one of the best cooking websites ever, and you should definitely bookmark it. I love how she breaks down the recipes by price, really helpful to show you just how much money you're saving by making food at home.

Butter Chicken

Makes 4-6 Servings

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tbsp garam marsala
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 (15oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup greek yogurt

1. Again having everything chopped to start is the best way to go. I find this makes cooking sooo much more enjoyable. Chicken in one bowl which I store in the fridge while I'm chopping the rest. Tomato and sauce in the other, and then everything else (except butter) in a final bowl
2. In a big pot on med. high melt the butter and then sauté chicken for about 2-3 min. (It doesn't need to be finished cooking!)
3. Take out the chicken, leaving the butter in the pot
4. Sauté the onions, garlic and spices (which you can adjust to taste) for 5 min
5. Add the tomatoes and mix well
6. Stir in the chicken and cover to simmer for an hour mixing occasionally

That's it, the butter chicken is done! Well in an hour it will be. While it's cooking I like to make naan bread from scratch and get the rice going. Personally I prefer basmati rice with it, cook according to directions on the package.

Finally, as a note for the others cooking for 1 (point 5!), this sauce freezes. Last time I made it I did a huge pot and doubled the recipe, shared some with friends and froze some for an easy meal later.

Bulk - Not Just For Big Families!

Are you in love with the bulk section of your grocery store? If you're not you should be!

There's two great reasons to shop bulk. Price and quantity. See you can buy bulk like buying 6 chicken breasts in a Value Pack at significantly cheaper than buying them by the pair. Then there's the bulk food section where you can actually buy 1/4 C of this or that (again at usually significant savings). That's a great way to buy those little extra things for baking like craisins, flax, etc. Eventually as you use them more you may want to buy in larger quantities but the price per 100g of the bulk section is hard to beat!

Couple things I always buy large quantities of: chicken, ground beef, flour, sugar, and candy. Working on the last one! Flour and sugar don't have an expiry date (or not one that is really relevant) so I buy big bags and then I go through them. It's a funny mindset that when we only have a little bit of something we want to conserve it. When you have a giant 11lb bag of flour you're ok with using it up spur of the moment because you felt like whipping up some cookies. If you just buy a small amount for a certain purpose odds are you won't use it for anything else.

When I buy chicken I buy it in two ways. Sometimes (depending on budget) I'll buy a huge box of chicken breasts from Costco. It's about $25 and it lasts a while. The only  two issues with buying it that way is that $25 is about half my weekly grocery budget so I have to make sure I plan ahead, and that it's already frozen. You can't (or you're not supposed to) refreeze chicken once it's been defrosted. That means no making stuffed chicken breasts and freezing, or tossing it in a container with some marinade for an easy dinner later. Those issues don't stop me though, a huge box of chicken for that price is still a great deal. The other way I'll buy chicken and ground beef is in the value packs.

Here's where taking a little bit of time can save you money. When I come home with the big packs I will divide them up. I roll the ground beef up, cover in saran and then toss them all in a large freezer ziploc. I divide the chicken, some in pairs and some singles. Sometimes I'll make some stuffed chicken and then freeze it, at the very least I'll toss it in a marinade (balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard with herbs is a great one!).

And the last thing I buy in bulk, candy. No seriously. Many grocery stores have snack food in the bulk section. From Jelly Bellies to chocolate covered pretzels. It's a great way to get yourself a little treat in the exact portion you want!

No Fuss Hummus

Hummus is an absolutely fantastic snack food companion. You can buy it premade in the store but why? It's so easy to make on your own. This recipe is dedicated to my friend Lorata who is happily living in Japan right now... too many miles away from tasty hummus. I'm sorry I wish I could UPS you some. Alas the best I can do is post the easiest recipe for it ever.

No Fuss Hummus

• 1 can chickpeas (15 oz)
• 1/4 C liquid drained from chickpeas
• 2 T lemon juice
• 4 garlic cloves (or to taste)
• dash salt

Put everything into the blender and mix. Seriously. That easy.

** Traditional hummus recipes call for tahini and oil. I don't like tahini, and I don't use much oil when I cook. So... I didn't use either.

Hummus can be served with chips, pita, veggies, you can put it in a wrap, anything. My personal favorites are with homemade taco chips (as pictured below) or with celery.

A Different Kind of Pasta Sauce

This week's recipe is adapted from Clean Eating Magazine, which if you don't read already you probably should. If I had a credit card I'd subscribe to it... one day perhaps. It's a low calorie dinner, coming in at about 400 calories per serving including the pasta noodles.

Zucchini Tomato Sauce

Makes 2-3 Servings

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 large white onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 zucchini
• 2 large tomatoes
• dash fresh ground sea salt
• dash fresh ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup fresh basil
• 1 1/2 tbsp ricotta

1. Chop all ingredients. I put the onions and garlic in one bowl, tomatoes in another, zucchini in a third, and the ricotta and basil in the last one. (Using bowls to keep ingredients separate makes for stress-free cooking and easy clean up!)
2. Heat the oil and add the onion/garlic bowl. Sauté til tender (2-3 min)
3. Add the zucchini and continue to sauté for another 5 min
4. Reduce heat and add the tomatoes until fully heated, stirring occasionally
5. After removing from heat add the chopped basil and ricotta
6. Serve on top of (homemade) fettuccine noodles

The Plan

Funny thing about Plans... they actually kind of need... you know Plans. In this case I'm talking about meal planning. Meal plans sort of save my life, a lot. I sit down when I'm in the mood and have the energy, usually sometime over Saturday/Sunday (my days off) and think about the things I want to cook. I've got a file folder full of recipes on my computer that I keep meaning to try so I tend to grab a few of those that sound interesting (and have over-lapping ingredients) and fill in the blanks with tried-and-true foods.

There's two three approaches to this. You can sit down and plan out what you're going to eat for each and every meal of each day. Or you can just put together a list of 7 Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners, making whatever strikes your fancy that day. Then there's the way I do it.

I've got a pretty set schedule, I like my life to have routine and my job is fairly set. This means I know what days I can spend 2 hours making dinner (it's fun for me, really... what else am I going to do?), and what days the microwave almost seems like too much effort. I plan my meals around that. Got a bunch of free time in the afternoon? Awesome... homemade ravioli and pasta sauce it is! Not getting into the door until 8 feeling like death? Nachos anyone?

Knowing your schedule and habits are essential to making a meal plan work. Don't give up if you don't get it right to start with. Give yourself a few weeks of paying attention to how you feel around meal times to work the meal plan into your life. When you really want to start getting fancy you can look ahead to the weather forecast and make your best guess as to what sort of food you might be wanting. Especially if you live in biopolar Lower Mainland like I do. Storms on day, sunshine and heat the next, oh and then the rain... yeah.

The last part of a really effective meal plan is something I touched on earlier, over-lapping ingredients. It would be perfect if we could go to the store and ask for 3/4 C of ricotta cheese, 1/2 C of Panko bread crumbs, etc. Except we can't. And in some cases buying in bulk and saving for weeks in the future makes sense (hurray for bulk boxes of Panko!), and in some cases it doesn't. Using up all of what you buy will really help your food budget stay reasonable while still allowing exotic and fun foods!

Meal planning aren't just for people with big families either! I highly suggest ANYONE in charge of cooking, even if like me you're cooking for one point five!

Which brings me to the final point about why everyone should start using meal plans. Budget. Oh yes, it comes back to money. It pretty much always does; stop fighting it now, you'll be happier. A good meal plan will make your budget happy. It greatly reduces food waste which is basically just tossing money into the bin.

To recap, a little bit of prep can save you a lot of stress, headaches, and money.

The Plan - And Other 4-Letter Words

Lots of great things have started with a Plan. It gets a capital so that you can see how truly important having a Plan is. The trick is, the really great thing happens when the Plan goes completely out the window and you wind up flying by the seat of your pants. You'd never have been there if it wasn't for the Plan, and you wouldn't be having nearly as much fun if everything had gone according to Plan.

So this post is about the Plan. The rest of the them are going to be about what happens when the Plan goes off the rails.

The Plan - And Other 4-Letter Words

I'm tired of diets. That's kind of where the Plan started. With the realization that they call it a diet because all of the other 4-letter words were taken. Diets are evil (another 4-letter word, see?). What happens when I go on a diet is that I think about food (the 4-letter thing is really becoming a pattern) All. The. Time. Normally I'm not. I mean I enjoy food, probably wouldn't need a diet if I didn't. But it's not an obsessive thing... except when I'm dieting. Then it's everywhere. Thinking about all the things I can't have and want. Ever notice when you're on a diet you crave things you don't even really like that much? It's that whole can't have it so I want it thing. But mostly I could pass that off as normal-ish (my life is kind of normal-ish so it wasn't that hard). Then I got a series of small wake up calls in the form of a little angel.

See I'm a single mom. Minime, as I call her, spends half the week at my house and half the week at her dad's. Now I didn't put her on a diet too and kept making her food she enjoyed. But like the Little Miss SmartyPants she is, she noticed. And she started talking about food a lot too, and weight, and diet. Did I mention she's 6? This was horrifying to me. No way was I going to pass along all of my food, weight, and body issues to my daughter. No. Freaking. Way.

When it all hit home I knew I had to do something. I wanted to keep losing weight but I wanted to do it in a way that wasn't intrusive, wasn't noticeable, and taught my daughter that grown women weren't in fact on diets all the time. Food is great, some food is amazing (and anyone who reads my other blog knows that I don't use awesome lightly).

So I had to sit down and define what eating healthy meant to me. For some people that means no sugar. I can respect that. I think they're absolutely nuts, but I can respect that level of insanity. I like the idea of everything in moderation a lot more. There are some really sound principles behind that line of thinking. So I decided to combine that with my dislike of chemicals and processing.

The last part of the Plan was inspired by a friend I ran into while grocery shopping yesterday. She said she really admired the fact that I even bothered to cook when it was just me at home (which it is 3-4 nights a week!). It's true... it's very tempting to just go with a bowl of cereal, or toast, or something really easy. I won't lie, I've totally had chips and salsa for dinner (and maybe for breakfast too but that's the great part of being an adult!) Truth is I really enjoy cooking. Even when it's just me. And a mini-conversation I had with a friend on Twitter today made me realize that some of the things I do might not be common practice. Maybe you've thought of it but don't think you can, or just need the encouragement. So the final part of the Plan is this blog.

Odds are the Plan is going to evolve as time goes on. That's the nature of life-long Plan things... they change.