Pen's Kitchen

OAMC: More lessons learnt

As the freezing books suggest, something are better to freeze than others as some simply do not handle being frozen and reheated. While my corn fritters did work, I did also eat them within 1 week of them being frozen but generally fried foods don't freeze well as the thawing process tends leave them vastly less crispy.

Watery based foods also don't freeze that well. Tomato sauces freeze and reheat well enough as does savory mince or chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces with honey mustard sauce, but cherry tomatoes cut in half and added to macaroni cheese ... not so much. It leaves a lot of water when defrosted again. I suspect this is mainly due to the included tomatoes but I will admit my cheese sauce split a bit before I even began freezing the portions. I am yet to perfect a cheese sauce made with fat-free milk that doesn't split but practice makes perfect.

Cooking all day seriously takes it out of you. Be prepared for sore feet and lower back pain from standing and walking around your kitchen all day. Do not under-estimate the time required to cook 8kgs of vegetables[1] even if you steam most of them in microwave. Equally so for the time required to cook pasta and rice - pasta is quicker, rice can be steamed in smaller portions in the microwave. Either line up someone to rub the offending and painful parts of your bod, and definitely take you out to dinner at the end of the long day cooking.

Better yet, spread it out over the weekend. Plan to do the shopping on the Friday night, the prep cooking on the Saturday and then put the meals together on the Sunday. Make sure ahead of time that you have all your freezing and cooking containers prep'd ahead of time to limit having to dash out for anything extra. Put on your favourite music, enlist the help of a friend if you can - even if only to keep you company and perhaps hold containers when you need to portion stuff for freezing. At least warn your family and friends that you are going to be busy the whole weekend and stiff for a few days afterwards (it is good exercise though.)

Speaking of freezing. Things that are good for freezing in: 

* ziplock bags as those tiddly-things just don't seal well enough for anything remotely liquid

* Plastic containers that have lids that don't extend too far over the edges to enable close packing in your freezer. Spray them with Spray-n-Cook to make it easier to get the portions out again for reheating and always make sure they are safe for reheating in.

* Those metal trays with cardboard lids. I don't plan to use these as I plan to microwave reheat my food but the books do suggest them.

With these lessons learnt, I am actually looking forward to this cooking marathon ahead of the next month of eating well.

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1. Based on the 5-a-day Fruit/Vege concept where an adult should eat at least 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of vege a day. A portion of vege is about 125g so for dinner an adult should have 250g for vege, and a 4-portion meal should therefore have 1kg of vege in it.

OAMC: Month 1 - getting started

In a bid to improve my health and stop spending so much money on food that I simply end up throwing out when it spoils. My lifestyle is generally not a healthy one - lots of late nights, early morning, bad broken sleep (when I can get to sleep), eating on the run so mainly fast food and easy meals - but I am looking to improve it. Eating better by eating more vegetables and eating more cooked meals, not fast food, is a start but with the little amount of time I tend to have when I rush home and then rush out again. I also need to improve the quality of the lunches I am having at work, as well as start eating some sort of breakfast/morning snack.

So seeing some books about Feeding the Freezer, Frozen Assets and Once a Month Cooking, I decided this would solve my problem fairly quickly. Unfortunately the books are not so affordable and most include only a small chapter on how to adapt the method for singles. (Yes, I live alone and it is often not the sunshiny ride that people tend make it out to be.)

After some long chats to my mother about how to get this to work, we unearthed her old Freezer Cooking books and I made up a plan for my first weekend cooking sprint. I learnt a lot of things that weekend. 

1. There are a lot of suggested foods that I simply wont eat.

2. Shopping after Pub Night (read: slightly sozzled) is not recommended.

3. I vastly over-estimated the size of my freezer.

4. I vastly under-estimated just how much 1kg of rice actually expands to.

I am now at the end of the month and preparing for the next one and upon investigating my freezer have discovered that my planning was perhaps a bit too much as I still have a freezer mainly half full of food. This could be partly to me not eating quite as much I should be - definitely when it comes to the veges. BUT this is a good thing as it will help me plan better for next month.

April's menu included the following:

4 portions pasta with tomato relish

4 portions pasta with tomato, onions and fried mixed peppers

6 portions mac-cheese with baby tomatoes

6 portions cottage pie with sunshine (butternut) mash

4 portions chicken in honey mustard sauce

4 portions corn fritters

4 portions corn

8 portions mixed vege

8 portions cut beans

8 portions broccoli

8 portions savory rice

This may seem like a lot but I was only working on dinners for 5 days out of 7 and lunches over the weekends too. So 30 meals with a few spare for drop-in friends.

I am thinking stews for the month ahead as the weather is getting colder here and I am wanting comfort food for the long dark nights head. With this in mind the veges left over can be reincorporated into the meals for the month ahead. I tend to eat more vege when it is incoporated into a meal than on its own but I am also considering looking at vegetarian meals so as to continue to up my vegetable intake.

I do need better containers to do this better as some of the portions came about a bit smaller than I intended but this method will definitely work for me.

Christmas mince samoosas

Source: The X-Diet Cookbookby Tabitha Hume
Makes: About 20

Ingreidents
1 egg white, lightly beaten
4 Tbsp (60 ml) fat-free milk
1/2 roll (250g) phyllo pastry
2 cups (500ml) fruit mince meat
1/3 cup (80ml) sherry, medium cream or sweet
caster sugar for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Mix together egg white and fat-free milk.
3. Cut the phyllo pastry into 40 strips 5x30cm and brush each with the egg-milk mixture.
4. Put about 1 Tbsp of fruitmince at the bottom of a strip, and fold over the bottom of the pastry to form a square.
5. Fold over again, and continue until you get to the end of the strip.
6. Place the square, with open sides horizontal, at the base on another strip. Fold in the same manner, to make a neat package.
7. Brush the top with sherry, sprinkle caster sugar and place on a baking tray.
8. Repeat until all fruit mince and strips are used.
9. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the pastry is browned at the edges.
10. Leave to cool slightly, until just comfortable to hold.
11. Serve as they are or as pudding piping hot with fat-free icecream.

Tips
Be sure not to use mincemeat made with suet. Look for a fat-free brand.

Notes
I usually make these folding them as triangles rather than squares as I find that easier

Mini Fruitcakes

Source: Fresh Living December 2009
Makes: 12

Ingredients
250 g Safari cake mix
50 g Sugarbird mixed citrus peel
50 g Moir’s red glacé cherries, halved
50 g Safari flaked almonds
100 g butter
125 ml brandy
125 ml brown sugar
5 ml Moir’s bicarbonate of soda
2 ml mixed spice
1 extra large egg
60 ml sherry 60 ml milk
200 ml Sasko cake flour
Sugarbird glacé fruit

Method

1. Place cake mix, mixed citrus peel, cherries, almonds, butter, brandy, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice in saucepan.
2. Bring to boil, lower heat and cook for 5 minutes while stirring continuously.
3. Leave to cool.
4. Beat egg, sherry and milk together then add flour and fruit mixture. Mix well.
5. Spoon into cupcake cases in a muffin tin and bake in preheated oven at 160ºC for 30 minutes.
   
6. Decorate with thinly sliced glacé fruit.
   

TIP:

• Instead of using brandy and sherry, use orange juice and add 5 ml Moir’s brandy essence.
• Double up on recipe for a festive treat.
• Bake in a lined deep cake tin for 1 ½ – 2 hours.

Fruit Mince Pinwheels

A quick and delicious alternative to classic Christmas mince pies.

Source: Fresh Living December 2009
Makes:16

Ingredients
1 cup (250 ml) fruit mince
2-3 Tbsp (30 - 45 ml) brandy [optional]
1 roll (400g) frozen puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Icing sugar, for serving

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220C
2. Grease and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
3. Mix fruit mince and brandy together.
4. Spread fruit mixture over unrolled pastry in a thin, even layer. Roll pastry up tightly.
5. Cut roll into 2cm thick slices.
6. Place pinwheels on baking tray and brush with beaten egg.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and puffed.
8. Allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Notes:
I made these for one of our DnD sessions and the boys polished them off with gusto, saying they were very good. For me they seemed to be a lighter alternative to normal mince pies and I will definitely make them again.

Rhodes Country Kitchen Spanish Omelette

Spanish Omelette

Source Rhodes Food Group
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1 can Rhodes Country Kitchen Tomato, Onion and Garlic
400g new potatoes, cooked and sliced (about 1cm)
125g bacon or chorizo sausage, chopped
1 red, yellow or green pepper, sliced
90g chedder cheese, grated
handful of chopped parsley
6 large free-range eggs
1 tbsp (15ml) olive oil
1 onion, chopped

Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Heat olive oil in frying pan and saute onions and pepper for about 5 min. until soft.
Add chopped bacon or chorizo sausage and fry for 3 min.
Add sliced potatoes.
Whisk eggs and chopped parsley in a bowl until fluffy and season with salt and pepper.
Add egg mixture to the tomato and potatoes and fold through.
Sprinkle grated cheese evenly on top.
Place the whole pan (if it is oven proof) into the preheated oven, or empty the ingredients into a greased ovenproof casserole dish and bake for 20 min. until the omelette is golden brown and firmly set.
Slice and serve warm as a delicious brunch dish or serve cold with a green salad nd crusty bread for lunch or an easy supper. Also great to fill lunch boxes or pack into a picnic basket.

My Notes
I put the mixture into a greased microwave oven safe dish and cooked it on high for 10 minutes instead of using the oven and it came out just fine.

Soft serve berry and bananas

Berry slush

Source: HealthyFood Healthy You
Serves: 4-6

Dress it up for a dinner party or have it for brunch - this is the perfect summer dessert. The kids will love it too!

Ingredients
4 bananas, frozen overnight
300g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 cups (500ml) plain fat free yoghurt
1/4 cup (60ml) fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon (15ml) toasted almond flakes

Method

1. In a blender, blitz bananas to break up
2. Add 1 cup (250ml) yoghurt to moisten and blend
3. Stir to loosen slightly
4. Add raspberries and remaining 1 cup (250ml) yoghurt and blend till smooth (stir it if it needs loosening)
5. Scoop out into glasses
6. Serve sprinkled with extra berries and toasted almond flakes

Handy Hints

1. Add less raspberries of you prefer the sweeter flavour from the bananas
2. Use vanilla flavoured fat free yoghurt for extra flavour and sweetness
3. Use any chopped seasonal soft fruit or berries as a topping instead of fresh blueberries
4. Freeze it overnight. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving to soften slightly and serve as a berry ice cream
5. Substitute raspberries with frozen mixed berries

Homemade Split Pea and Vegetable Soup

Source: GI Lean Lifestyle Recipes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
80g pearl barley, uncooked
1000ml vegetable stock
250g tomatoes, canned
100g baby marrows, sliced
150g red onion, chopped
100g corn kernels
200g carrots, chopped, cubed
400g split peas, cooked
fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Place pearl barley in a large saucepan and add vegetable stock
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and bring to the boil again and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add the split peas and heat thoroughly.
5. Sprinkle parsley over the hot soup and serve immediately.
   

Homemade Minestrone Soup

Source: GI Lean Lifestyle Recipes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
300g carrots, cubed
150g celery, chopped
200g tomatoes, canned
150g red onion, chopped
250g cabbage, chopped
100g patty pans, diced
5ml garlic
625ml vegetable stock
100g corn kernels
100g baby marrows, sliced
400g butter beans, canned and rinsed
250ml pasta, uncooked

Method

1. In a pot combine all ingredients except corn, baby marrow, butter beans and pasta
2. Bring to the boil and reduce heat.
3. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
4. Add the corn, baby marrow, butter beans and pasta.
5. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the pasta is cooked.
   

Homemade Butternut and Butterbean Soup

Source: GI Lean Lifestyle Recipes
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients
10ml Olive oil
100g onion, chopped
400g butternut, raw and cubed
5ml fresh root ginger, grated
250ml vegetable stock
250ml fat-free milk
400g butter beans, canned and rinsed
season with salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and saute the onions until they are softened.
2. Add butternut and ginger and stir-fry for as few minutes.
3. Add vegetable stock, milk and salt and pepper and bring to the boil.
4. Add butter beans and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Let the mixture cool, and then liquidise.
6. Reheat and serve hot.