Short On...? Carry On, Part Four: Potato Things

Some people have written way more extensively than I ever have about ways to cook potatoes. I do not claim to be that much of a potato expert. 

Often the two of us settle for instant potato flakes. If you're buying potato flakes, look for Idahoan brand in a box, no flavouring, no additives. We have never found anything else that comes close.

But here are a few sort of different things we've done with real potatoes.

Baked Potato Soup: Mentioned here multiple times over the years. Cut the recipe in half if you have a 3 1/2 quart slow cooker, and in half again if you have an even smaller family and smaller slow cooker. Vegetable broth works as well as chicken broth; you can eyeball the amount of liquid if you're cutting the recipe.

Potato Casserole #1:  Making a potato casserole uses up as many potatoes as you have...and "potato casserole" could be as simple as cooking cut-up (sliced or chunked) potatoes in some broth or milk, and adding a little seasoning...and that could be in a pot, in the oven, or in the slow cooker.  Add some of the carrots and an onion, and you're on your way to stew.

Potato Casserole #2: If you have a boring ground-meat or vegetable casserole in the freezer, you can thaw it, maybe add a bit of extra seasoning, and top with mashed potatoes to make Shepherd's Pie.

Pizza Potatoes: cut-up potatoes, pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese, baked in a casserole or done in the slow cooker. Optional toppings: sliced olives, green peppers.

Mexican Potato Casserole, which we found in Company's Coming Kids: Lunches, but which is almost identical to the one on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook, and they say they got it from a church cookbook.  So it seems like one of those recipes that's made the rounds.  You coat cut-up potatoes in melted margarine and taco seasoning and bake them in a casserole; then, about ten minutes before serving, you add browned ground beef mixed with salsa and chopped peppers, and cheese on top. I just used the amounts of everything that we had on hand, including homemade taco seasoning and mild Cheddar instead of Jack cheese, but we thought it was pretty good.  (The recipe says not to peel the potatoes, but we prefer them peeled.)

Ranch-Spiced Potatoes in the Slow Cooker  This is pretty much Mexican Potato Casserole without the meat on top, and with different seasonings. You can also use homemade Sloppy Joe seasoning mix.

Perogy Casserole, Treehouse Version

Cook 15 lasagna noodles in a big potful of boiling water.
Prepare 2 cupfuls of mashed potatoes (you can use the same pot).
Grate or chop 2 ounces (at least; we like more) Cheddar cheese and mix this with the mashed potatoes; add some pepper and 1/4 tsp. onion powder. You can also add salt at this point; when I first wrote this out, we were trying to cut back on sodium.
Mix 1 cup cottage cheese with 1 egg or equivalent replacer, and another 1/4 tsp. onion powder.
Melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine  in a small skillet or pot; add 1 small onion, chopped small; cook until onion is soft.

Grease or spray a 9 x 13 inch pan; if you have one with a lid, use that; otherwise you'll have to cover the pan with foil.
Line the bottom of the pan with 1/3 of the noodles.
Cover with cottage cheese mixture.
Cover with second layer of noodles.
Cover with mashed potato mixture.
Cover with third layer of noodles.
Cover with hot cooked onions-margarine/butter mixture.
Cover the pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Let sit 10 minutes before slicing.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Lots of Socks

1. On this first official day of spring tell us something (besides the weather) you're looking forward to in this season of the year.

You mean there's something better than good weather? And no slush and salt?

Well, Easter. 

And celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Keys.

2. When it comes to spring cleaning would you rather wash windows or wash baseboards? Clean out closets or clean out the garage? Dust ceiling fans or dust bookcases? Wipe down the patio furniture outside or wipe down the light fixtures inside? Any of these tasks recently completed?

This week I organized all my crafting stuff that had been sitting around without a home. I do not have a lot of extra yarn or fabric or paper, but even my small stash needed a cloth bin (on hand), and a couple of clear shoeboxes (the store next door had a whole pile of them). It all looks much better now.

3. Your favorite thing to make/eat that calls for cream cheese? Sour cream? Whipped cream?

Baked potato soup with cream cheese. (We cut that recipe in half, and it still fills our 3 1/2 quart slow cooker.)

4. I read here a list of commonly mispronounced words. What is a word that gives you trouble when it comes to pronunciation?

Leisure, because one person's lee-sure to rhyme with seizure, is another person's leh-sure to rhyme with treasure.

5. What's a song you love with the word 'rain' in the title or lyrics?

The Eensy Weensy Spider?

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Are you wearing "lots of socks" today for World Down Syndrome Day?

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

A stretched-out applesauce cake

We've been making this since the days of the Grocery Cart Challenge Blog. Here's the recipe.

Baked in a slow cooker, this cake turns out small, round and fragrant with cloves and cinnamon.

But it also works in a long, thin baking pan, or other cake pan, or muffin tins. (Photo of today's cake)

Happy eating.

What's for supper? Storage room stew

I made this two nights ago from the rather sparse pantry leftovers we brought with us and a few things we had in the fridge. We will be eating the leftovers tonight.

Unstuffed Peppers, or Storage Room Stew

1 lb. ground beef
A bunch of mini red and yellow peppers, tops cut off
Some baby-cut carrots, chopped in thirds
A few mushrooms, sliced
Half a cup of mixed rice and barley
1 small can chopped green chilies
1 can tomato paste plus one can water
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. jarred garlic
Seasonings: dried onion, smoked paprika, salt, pepper
Leftover potatoes, optional

(I think that was everything I put in it.)

Brown the ground beef and drain as necessary. Add to other ingredients in the slow cooker, except for the potatoes. Cook 4 hours on high, longer on low, or until the grains and carrots are soft. We sliced some leftover baked potatoes and reheated them to serve with the stew.

What's for supper? Using all our gadgets

Tonight's dinner menu:

Beef-potato-onion-carrot stew in the slow cooker (thank you, Mr. Fixit)
Bread from the bread machine
Toaster-oven chocolate-chip cookies.

What's for supper? Improvised chili

A need-groceries dinner menu:

What's-in-the-cupboard Three Sisters Chili, served with cheese and sour cream
Bread-machine whole wheat bread
Assortment of fruit and cookies

What's-in-the-cupboard Three Sisters Chili (not meant to win chili cookoffs)

In the slow cooker, place:

1 can tomato sauce
1 can pinto beans
1 can mixed beans
1 cup leftover corn niblets
1 cup salsa
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
Some chopped red and yellow peppers

Cook until heated through and peppers are soft.

From the not-long-ago archives: Ranch-spiced Potatoes (two ways)

Recipe posted January 2015

Christmas 2016 update: I made this for Christmas Day brunch, in the slow cooker (four hours on high, cut the potatoes fairly small), and it worked fine. I also left out the sugar and cut the pepper in half.

The ranch dressing mix is from Stephanie O'Dea's book More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, but I've cut it in half for this recipe. The mix doesn't appear on her website, and I haven't found it anywhere else, although there are lots of other ranch seasoning mixes out there. Most of them use dill, and this one doesn't, which is one reason my family likes it. If you have some other ranch or seasoning mix you like, give it a try instead.

Ranch-Spiced Potatoes

Ingredients:
6 to 8 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cubed (large dice)

1/4 cup butter or margarine

Seasonings, to total about 1/4 cup:
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. dried minced garlic or garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp. dried minced onion, or onion flakes
1 tsp. black pepper (or less)
1 tsp. sugar (optional)
1 1/4 tsp. paprika
1 1/4 tsp. parsley flakes

Optional: sour cream

Grease a large casserole dish or pan (it doesn't have to have a lid). Put the potatoes into the pan. Melt the butter or margarine and mix in the combined seasonings. Stir into the potatoes. Bake uncovered at 400 to 425 degrees F for about 45 minutes, stirring once during cooking, and probably when you take them out to make sure they haven't stuck to the pan. You can add in some sour cream near the end of the cooking time, but we don't usually bother.

What to do with that (some kitchen tips)

Bits and pieces...

1. If you have a few less-than-tasty apples, not rotten but lacking texture, it's easy to turn them into applesauce. Peel them, cut them up (no cores), and cook them in a slow cooker or on a low burner.  Cook till they're fairly soft, then mash them with the back of a spoon. The process by which mealy apples can be reconstituted into decent applesauce would make a great homeschool science lesson. (It's all about cells.)

2. If you have a cup of orange marmalade, you can mix it with soy sauce, ginger, and garlic to make a good cooking sauce for four pork chops. If you have half a cup, you can do two pork chops. We found the recipe in a freezer-cooking download from $5 Dinners, and it is the best orange sauce we've tried--way better than recipes using frozen orange juice. There are variations of the recipe all over the Internet, but it's basically a smaller version of this recipe on the Smucker's website (but with soy sauce instead of teriyaki sauce).

3. If you have a few small, slightly stale dinner rolls, you can slice them into thirds or quarters, spresd them with garlic butter, and toast them to go along with spaghetti or stew.

A Crockpot Full of Carrots (Do-Vember #12)

Do-Vember

How could I not be intrigued by a post called "Crockpot Christmas: 30 Recipes for the Holidays?" This is yet another roundup post of links to other sites, hosted on Kids Activities Blog.

So there are recipes for candy, for beverages, for Christmas-morning casseroles, and then some party appetizers and main dishes. I'm not sure what makes the Vegetarian Two-Bean Stew particularly festive, but it does look filling and tasty. Problems: you need to have "trout beans" and Aleppo pepper, neither of which are staples in my kitchen. Mixing cayenne pepper with paprika apparently is a possible substitute for the pepper, and I'm sure there are other kinds of beans that would work.

We do have some serious spinach-artichoke dip fans here, although we usually make a simpler recipe than this one (or just wing it).

But the one recipe I think I am actually going to try (and not wait until Christmas) is Honey Glazed Carrots. As in, with tomorrow night's dinner. You put the carrots in the slow cooker with honey, butter, salt and pepper. Cook on high. That's it.

The backyard rabbits will have their noses glued to the window.

Thinking through the pantry and the freezer

I am a bit ahead with the HomeStorageSolutions decluttering calendar, which is all about kitchen cupboards right now. There are some cluttery things about our kitchen, but they're not all things I can control; so I just do my best. And yes, there are china egg cups and wine glasses and so on on the top shelf, but they're not hurting anybody. If I suddenly need a functioning top shelf that high up (hosting a team of basketballl players?), I'll do a Clean Sweep.

Looking at the next assignment, pantry food, was more workable for me this week. After I got done filling bags of dry mixes (which also let me know about any surpluses and lacks), I made a list of the canned food. I realized that we had more tomatoes and beans on hand than usual, and that was good, because we were out of freezer meals. Mr. Fixit picked up some chicken and beef on Saturday, and, along with a bag of peppers and a package of mushrooms, that was enough to make two bags each of:

Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken Chili
Chinese-style Beef and Broccoli
Sloppy Joe mix (browned meat and seasonings)
"Cheeseburger Soup" (misleading name because we use it for pasta sauce).
Plus one meal of chicken-with-chili-sauce that we ate when we were done un-cooking.

HomeStorage suggests that we eat from the food on hand over the next couple of weeks; that won't be a problem.

Mama Squirrel's Daybook: Two weeks till Christmas

Weather: Warm enough for the ladybugs to reawaken. Frosty and his Mini-Me (above) are the only snow we have.

News from the Squirrels: The Apprentice has moved into a new apartment, no housemates this time, so she's having fun fixing up her own space. Ponytails is busy doing the things she does. Lydia has started rehearsals for a school musical.

Plans for the weekend: The Apprentice is coming for a visit, and we'll put up the Christmas tree.

In the slow cooker: Chili, part of a small batch of freezer meals we made today: Chili, Cheeseburger Soup (which we use for pasta sauce), Tortilla Filling, Teriyaki Beef, and one bag of Beef Stew. We still have some chicken meals left from the last round, so this filled in the holes.

Also to eat: Doreen Perry Cookies made with chocolate chips and holiday chips (red, white and green); and a pan of Chocolate-Cranberry Shortbread Bars from a recipe in last year's Walmart Live Better magazine. And some nice things we picked up at Euro Foods...oh, right, those are not to eat. Not yet, anyway.

Frugal "that's-so-obvious" thing: After I made the big floor-sitter with upholstery samples, I had a couple of fabric pieces left. What can you do with heavy fabric squares with serged edges? Put them under things. I have a brown piece under the stable for our Nativity scene, and a red and green striped one under a basket of Christmas music.

Ready for more freezer-slow cooker meals

Cheeseburger Soup

Our stash of homemade freezer meals is down to one, so it's time to make more.

I went through the list of meals we made from $5 Dinners (from this package), and picked out the ones we liked the most: Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken Chili, Orange Pork Chops, Cheeseburger Soup (except Mr. Fixit likes it without the rice and cheese, served as pasta sauce), and Chinese-style Beef and Broccoli. Those we'll make again this time. I'm also planning on adding Cranberry Pork Chops, Honey Garlic Chicken, and Crock Beef Sandwiches from Saving Dinner.

This approach seems to have worked well enough for our current meal needs that we're willing to give it another go. It works especially well when we divide the meals-for-four into meals-for-two, because we can always cook two bags at once if we need them, and if I know it's going to be just two of us eating, I use one bag and the smaller slow cooker. Sometimes I remember to thaw meals overnight in the fridge, and other times I dunk the bags in water for twenty minutes--both ways seem to work. Our little slow cooker cooks hotter than the 3 1/2-quart one, so I set it on low and keep an eye on it; if the food finishes earlier than expected, I take it out and reheat it later. (I would just use the big one, but for smaller amounts, the 2-quart pot is handy.)

We are planning on going out sometime this week and picking up groceries for Marathon #2.

Freezer meal reviews #4

Sweet and Sour Beef, Islander Pork Chops:  These both turned out to have the same problem, which is that other members of my family don't really like slow-cooked chunks of pineapple along with meat. They are traditionalist Squirrels, and while pineapple is okay on pizza, they would prefer their beef stew and pork chops to be carrots-and-potatoes, not something-else. So this one isn't a recipe review so much as a note to self for next time.

Freezer cooking for tonight: Chicken Chili, which we've had once before and liked.

Freezer meal reviews #3

What we've eaten recently:

Chicken Tikka Masala: This was just okay, could have used more oomph. The next time I cook one of the Tikka Masala packages, I will probably try it on the stovetop (instead of the slow cooker) to see if the flavours hold up better.

Chicken Cacciatore: We had this for dinner tonight and really liked it. I added a small can of tomato paste because it seemed to need it; otherwise it was good as written.

Next up: I think one of the stew beef packages, because Lydia is trying out for basketball, and if she makes the team we may will be eating late some nights.

Freezer meal reviews

Orange pork chops: tasty.

Chicken chili: we cut down on the liquid (used half the recommended amount),  and that was a good thing or we would have had soup. But the flavour was pretty good.

When you open our freezer, it smells amazing. But it took quite awhile for the temperature to drop again, after loading it up, and most of the food wasn't even warm. Just something to think about if you're making a lot of freezer meals.

Freezer un-cooking ($5 Dinners Package)

Today Mr. Fixit and I did some freezer un-cooking, also known as "dump recipes." It's the equivalent of putting brownie ingredients into a bag and calling it a mix. The idea here is that you put meat, vegetables and other ingredients into freezer bags and then use them in the slow cooker or as casseroles. (Yes, I know some of you have been doing this for years.)

The recipes we used came from a new downloadable package at $5 Dinners: 20 Freezer to Slow Cooker Meals for $160 – 3rd Edition.  You get the shopping lists, directions, recipes, printable labels, and access to a video showing you how Erin Chase did the whole sequence. I skipped the printable labels because they're very expensive here (I used paper and tape); and I also broke down some of her 4-serving meals into 2-serving ones, because often these days it's just two or three of us eating dinner.

This morning we went to Eurofoods and brought home chicken breasts, ground beef, and a piece of pork (the directions called for pork chops, but it was less expensive to buy a large piece and cut it up ourselves). In the afternoon, we went to Bulk Barn (for a few seasonings) and Wal-mart, and got everything else that wasn't already on the shelf, including some beef that we also cut up ourselves..

At three o'clock, we put everything on the kitchen table and started to work.

Mixing up some sauce

In the home stretch.

Last round: the stew beef packages

Bags going into the freezer

Odds and ends of tomato sauce, one bag of ground beef, and two tired people. We were done like, um, dinner.

Overall reviews, based only on preparation? (We haven't actually cooked any of the packages yet.) My only real complaint is that the ground beef we bought didn't stretch far enough to make all the planned recipes, even though we weighed it out before putting it in the bags. The shortfall may have been due to shrinkage after browning  (the only actual cooking required in this packaging marathon), and we did swipe half a pound for our own dinner, but it was still a bit disappointing to have the other ingredients ready and then realize that we'd have to leave a few packages out. Next time we'll have to over-estimate.

There was also a bit of confusion around which recipes needed tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, or diced tomatoes; in some places options were given, but the grocery lists didn't always include those. I think I would say that, if you want to follow the recipes and not run short, it wouldn't hurt to buy a couple of extra cans of each type. We ended up filling in with a jar of pasta sauce from the pantry, which really isn't a problem, just something to keep in mind.

Best advice: work with a friend:. Even Erin Chase had her son opening cans for her. And make something nice for dinner at the end.

What's for supper? New lentil mixture

Tonight's dinner menu:

Sweet Lentil Stew from Saving Dinner

Reheated meatloaf

Garlic toast made with leftover dinner rolls (photo is before toasting)

Chocolate Easter bunny.

Never say I don't tell all.

What's for supper? Black and white chili

Tonight's dinner menu:

Black and White Checkered Chili, from Saving Dinner. I added an extra can of white beans at the end because I found it too soupy.

Frozen breaded fish, for those that want it

Bread, carrot sticks, and other assorted leftovers.

What's for supper? Soup and bread night

Tonight's dinner menu

Split pea soup in the slow cooker
Country White Bread in the bread machine

Assorted leftovers from the rest of the week

Pineapple-Granola Muffins
Apples and oranges.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Adapted from a recipe in The Perfect Basket, by Diane Phillips.

Ingredients:

2 cups yellow split peas (one of the little bags from the grocery store)
1/2 cup brown rice (optional)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper (I didn't have any so I used black pepper)
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth plus more water as needed
Some chopped frozen onion
A couple of carrots, peeled and chopped
Three stalks of celery, chopped

If you weren't going to do this in the slow cooker, you could start by sauteing the vegetables in a bit of butter or oil, then adding the split peas, broth, and seasonings. I just put everything into the slow cooker, adding water to fill it maybe three-quarters full. I set it on High for a few hours, then turned it to Low partway through the afternoon when it was bubbling hard. I think it would work fine to leave it on Low all day.

What's for supper? Bean chili

 Tonight's dinner menu:

Crockery Beanery, from Saving Dinner, which is a tomato saucy-bean-intensive chili. Or pasta casserole from the freezer if you preferred.
The Hillbilly Housewife's Garlic Breadsticks.