It’s Strawberry Season!

Really sweet strawberries only last a short amount of time. But I like them year round.   To preserve strawberries I flash-freeze and foodsaver them.

1. Line jelly-roll or 9×13 pan with wax paper or Exopat/Silpat non-stick baking mat

2. wash, cut and core strawberries and place on pan in a single layer.  You don’t want them on top of each other.  I can fit about 2# of cut strawberries on a jelly roll pan.

3. lay flat in freezer for 24 hours.  This is flash freezing.  You want to completely freeze each individual strawberry piece.

4. After strawberries are completely frozen, remove them and fill a quart size FoodSaver bag.

5. Using FoodSaver, remove air and seal the bag.  It’ll look something like this.   Notice how there aren’t air pockets?

6. Store in the freezer for a LONG time.  This is the beauty of storing in FoodSaver bags.  It reduces the amount of air that comes in contact with your food and therefore reduces the likelyhood of freezer burn.   And in my book, that’s a good thing.

I store these bags in my deep freeze and pull out when I want to cook with strawberries.   Usually they go into smoothies, so frozen is just fine.  If you want to thaw them out and eat like a fresh fruit, you’re going to get a different consistency.  Not gross, but more watery and not as firm.

I froze a LOT of strawberries last year and have been using them off and on throughout the year.  I just opened a package from 12 months ago for smoothies.  They taste wonderful.  No freezer burn either.

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Linked to Tammy’s Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Corned Beef and St Patrick’s Day

Corned beef seems to be the ubiquitous main dish for St. Patrick’s Day.  But what’s to say that you can’t have corned beef after March 17th?  If you wait until March 18th you’ll probably be able to snag some deals on this mid-March meat.  Check out some info from a John, a butcher for 30 years on what to buy and how to cook it.

I was alerted to this info from my friend Jennifer.  The Dollar Stretcher is a great resource with lots and lots of ideas for stretching your money.  Check out the website or subscribe to updates via e-mail or RSS.

Happy Savings!

Freezing Beef can Save you Dough

Every few months I’ll see a great deal on meat and I stock up.  Last summer a friend negotiated a great deal with our local Sam’s Club.  She was able to get 90% lean ground beef for $1.72/#!  The catch?  I had to buy in 10# rolls.  I bought 6 rolls or 60# of beef.  You may think I’m crazy,  but I had a plan for all that ground beef.  I started processing right away.  Some of it I browned for easy meals like tacos, taco soup, spaghetti, and cheeseburger pie.  I packaged some as is for who knows what.  I also made lots and lots of meatballs as well as some Alton Brown meatloaf/ravioli mix.  The key to dealing with this much beef is to have a plan.

1. Know what your family likes.  I don’t can ground beef because we don’t like the texture of it.  I used well loved recipes.  I don’t prepare in bulk if I don’t know if we’ll like it.
2. Fridge cleaned out.  This is vital. We only have 1 regular sized fridge. I needed space in the fridge to store the 60 pounds of beef while I was working on it.
3. Kitchen Counters and dishes clean. If there’s no place to work, or clean dishes to use, you’ll end up taking more time and chances are you won’t be happy about it either.
4. Extra Ingredients on hand – if you’re making recipes instead of just freezing beef, make sure you have all the other ingredients.  Making meatballs without eggs or breadcrumbs wouldn’t make very good meatballs.  And it’s no fun to have to make a grocery run in the middle of a big cooking session.

Watch for ideas for packing up all that beef.

This post has been shared on Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy’s Recipes

I just love the smell of baked goods flowing out of my oven.   One of our family’s favorites is a simple Lemon Poppyseed Muffin.  This recipe originally came from here back in 2004.  My smudged printout plays testament to the many times we’ve enjoyed these muffins.  Here’s my modified recipe.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl or mixer:

3 cups flour
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix well.
Add all wet ingredients

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup canola oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Mix only until all ingredients are combined.  Over mixing can result in chewy muffins.

Preheat oven to 400F.  Spray muffin tins with Pam.  Fill muffin tins approximately 3/4 full. Sprinkle a little sugar on top of each muffin. You’ll use about a teaspoon of sugar for 12 muffins. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and/or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for about 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. If muffins don’t come out of pans easily, run a blunt butter knife around muffin to loosen it. Enjoy.

Makes 24 muffins

Need a big bag of something?  Call your local GFS and see if it’s something they stock.  They have thousands of food items in their warehouse that they can often have shipped to the store within 2 days.  GFS supplies local restaurants and schools.  Their Marketplace stores offer large size packaging to the general public.   There is no membership or card needed to take advantage of their items.   Check out a full list of products at www.gfs.com. Last year’s catalog is available online as a PDF.  It’s 136 pages of products.  Use Adobe Reader’s ‘Find’ to locate an item.

GFS is a great store….but some prices are more expensive than your local grocery store.  Know your regular store’s prices and shop to compare.  Approximately monthly GFS will have a $5 off $50 coupon in their ad.  These coupons aren’t available at the store.

Items I buy at GFS:

• SAF yeast 1# about $3.29
• large containers of spices (great for making your own mixes)
• raisins
• single serve bags of chips (box of 36-50)
• big bag of potato chips, pretzels and tortilla chips
• cashews
• Cheddar cheese, block and shredded (price changes throughout the year)
• Parmesan cheese
• 5# bag of shredded lettuce
• frozen cheesecake
• frozen berries
• and more….

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Now 80% off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Cert. orders. Use code INDULGE and Pay $2 thru 01/19/10.

One great money saving habit is to cook at home.  Throughout this year I’ll be sharing with you some of our family favorites.  Try some out and then enjoy the time together around the kitchen table.

Years ago we had a soup pot luck.  Everyone raved about this soup.  But to be honest, it didn’t look appetizing.  But peer pressure won out and I ladled myself up a small portion of this soup.  I tried to get past the hodgepodge of ingredients and focus only on taste.  Guess what….it was delicious!  I asked for the recipe and have been using this ever since.  It’s a nice soup to have on a cold day.  It’s similar in texture to chili, but with different flavors.

Taco Soup

from my friend Dena B.

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion chopped
1 package taco seasoning
16oz-ish can corn, undrained
16oz-ish can drained kidney beans
28oz can diced or crushed tomatoes
16oz-ish can tomato sauce

Brown meant with onion.  Skim off fat.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients and simmer 25 minutes.

My Tricks:

• I use browned ground beef out of my freezer
• I use my own taco seasoning mix (to be posted soon)
• I use dried onions when I don’t have a fresh one around
• cook in a 6-8 qt pot so it doesn’t boil over
• cook in a slow cooker on high for about 4 hours.
• serve with sour cream and tortilla chips

Flour tip: ever had flour bugs?  To avoid the problem, throw your flour in the freezer for 48-72 hours.  This kills any eggs that *may* be present.  After 2-3 days, set out and bring to room temperature before storing.