Winter Walk

Such and beautiful and peaceful day where I am today.  Found a partially fallen tree on a walk through the woods. Nature continually reminds me how amazing it is.

Meal Planning Update

We are half way through the last week of our month long meal plan and it has gone amazingly well. It has been so wonderful to not only know what is for dinner but to also have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Who knew a little organization could feel so good?

We have stuck to the plan pretty well, only changing a few things around when we realized that Sunday is too lazy to cook vegetarian, and swapping different meals within the week just because we felt like it.  Also, when we made Chili, the leftovers lasted longer than expected and we replaced Taco night with Chili taco night.  We are being really flexible yet sticking to the essentials of the plan. The only time we ate off the plan was last Friday when my in-laws unexpectedly picked up dinner for us. It is hard to say no to free food, especially on a Friday night when we were feeling lazy.

With the organized menu, we have increased our vegetables intake which was one of my goals.  Lots of salads and steamed veggies with dinner, and I am getting super into sweet potatoes. I mashed one today and ate it with a sandwich at lunch time. It was amazing! We have also ramped up our use of the bread maker, as I've been making tonnes of buns, loaves of bread, and weekly pizza dough.  Home made bread and buns are cheap, easy to make, and taste delicious!

In terms of cost savings, we actually spent more on groceries this month than we normally do. I think it is a case of spending more on the front end and over time it will be cheaper for us.  We bought some staple items that we won't have to buy monthly (a 10kg bag of flour, 2 jars of yeast because they were on sale, etc.), and my freezer is currently a stockpile of meats that will last well into February.  Just based on the amount of food we still have, I am predicting that February we will spend less than we normally do.

The plan for next month is to repeat the meals we had in January, accommodating for the minor adjustments we made.  I think this is a plan that will stick for us!

Freezer Meals - Steel Cut Oats

I love the idea of Freezer meals; just pull something out and heat it up. It's home made fast food. Actually making the food takes time, but the time saved when I am hungry is totally worth it.

I eat steel cut oats everyday for breakfast, and if you've made them before you know they take about thirty minutes to prepare.  That doesn't work for me everyday.  According to the package directions, prepared steel cut oats last 5 days in the fridge, so I used to make them in 5 day intervals.  That didn't work for me either. I first thought about freezing them while watching my friend Betony freeze meals for her daughter using ice cube trays. I did some internet research and discovered that prepared steel cut oats can be kept for 30 days in the freezer and that adults get to freeze their foods in cupcake pans.

Start with Steel Cut Oats.  Have you tried them? I think they have so much flavour and I love the texture.

Cook oats as per package directions. I cook 5 cups at a time, in two different pots, so I end up with 25 portions for the freezer.

Scoop hot, cooked oats into freezer containers.  I use a cupcake pan and a mini loaf pan, each portion measuring about 2/3 cup.

 
Freeze for about 2 hours.  Remove from freezer for about 5 minutes to loosen edges. Remove portions from cup cake pan and put in a resealable Ziploc bag and return to the freezer.

Pop in microwave when ready to eat and enjoy quick steel cut oats.  I eat mine with cinnamon, 1 tbs dried cranberries, and 2 tbs chopped walnuts.

On My Own Time Line

It is the last weekend in January and I still have my Christmas decorations up.  It is not because I am lazy (or tacky), it is just that I really like the glow of Christmas Tree lights.  Plus the cat has a pretty cool hideout under the tree.

I'm taking everything down today, but thought I'd ask what your tradition is.  Do you decorate for the holidays? How long before you take everything down? Are you judging me for keeping mine up for all of January? When I was growing up, there were some decorations that stayed up for years, so an extra month is an improvement on what I was taught. We are a funny bunch!

Pizza Friday

Friday is Pizza night on our meal plan and last night we may have made the best home made pizza we ever have! We changed up the dough recipe we were using, as we thought there might be fluffier options out there.  I searched around the internet and think I've hit on one that works.

The dough rises more than the dough we used to make, so John used this fluffier dough to make a thick edge around the pizza. He basted the edge with olive oil and spices and sprinkled it with sesame seeds. It ended up tasting like garlic toast which really helped to make this pizza a winner!

The best part is that there are leftovers today!! YAY!