Freezer Cooking

The husband recently started a normal work schedule which means that he will actually be eating breakfast everyday (some days he actually only ate one meal a day). That of course means one thing - that I have to cook breakfast for him everyday (hush up all you feminists!). But seeing as how I do not want (nor am able) to get out of bed early every morning to make him breakfast, he has to rely on what he can grab from the freezer.

I have blogged about freezer cooking in the past and have set aside days just for that purpose. But as I have said before,  that doesn't work for me most of the time. So I just fit it in where I can. Here is what I have made in the past two weeks to freeze as far as breakfasts go:

• 4 1/2 dozen giant breakfast cookies (I did make some small ones for the kid)
• 2 dozen peach oatmeal muffins
• 4 breakfast sandwiches
• 5 cinnamon glazed scones

One night after dinner as I was clearing the table I got out all my ingredients for the cookies and muffins and got to work. Food was baked and bagged before bedtime.

And as for the breakfast sandwiches? One Saturday morning I had four leftover biscuits from breakfast and two leftover sausage patties. So I made two sausage biscuits. I then fried two eggs and put those on the last two biscuits with a slice of cheddar cheese. I then wrapped them in foil (I labeled on the bottom which one was which but I'm sure the husband really couldn't have cared less) and stuck those in baggies. 

One day last week I made cinnamon glazed scones for breakfast, only baking enough for the kid and me for breakfast. The rest of the uncooked scones got flash frozen and bagged for future breakfasts. 

Breakfast is not the only meal I have been thinking about, though. Here are the meal components I have in the freezer for quick dinners:

• 4 jars of cooked white beans
• 2 jars of cooked black beans
• 8 black bean burgers
• pint jar of marinara sauce
• 2 meals worth of shredded chicken
• 15 cups chicken stock
• 2 meals worth of browned ground beef
• 2 raw hamburger patties

When I cooked white beans for spinach balls I had some left over, so I put those in jars in 1 1/2 cup portions and froze them, too. I did the same with leftover black beans. 

Then when I browned ground beef for dinner one night, I only used what I needed for that meal and froze the rest for quick meals. One dirty pan and a few minutes worth of work resulted in three meals. All I did for that was put the cooked meat in a container and place in the freezer once it was cooled. 

Earlier this week I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot so I would have chicken to make sandwiches out of. I then shredded the rest of the meat (I used the breasts for sandwiches) and made stock with the bones and skin. 

The marinara sauce and black beans burgers were a result of making a double batch of dinner. I quickly made the burger patties while cooking tacos one night, using the other half of the pound of ground beef I thawed for the tacos. 

It didn't take me much effort to get all this done but I sure am glad I have these foods in the freezer! They will save me much needed time and money. This just goes to show you that you do not have to have a lot of time to get ahead in the kitchen. 

Kicking the Cans: part 2

To read more about why I try to avoid BPA see Kicking the Cans: part 1.

I will admit right now that my home will never be 100% free of cans. At the very least I will have food storage stored in no. 10 cans (think the really big ones like restaurants use). While not all have BPA linings some do and I cannot be sure that mine don't. 

Right now I have only a few types of foods in cans. I have no. 10 cans for food storage (of course), tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, and pumpkin puree. There might also be one or two other random cans in there that never get used. I also buy canned tuna and salmon on occasion. Or at least did. I am still debating on that one. On the one hand I do not want the BPA exposure and can just use fresh/frozen versions. On the other hand, these versions are more expensive and using canned allows me to buy more produce/whole grains.

That is one of the problems with giving up canned goods: weighing the cost vs health benefits. But to be honest,  that is something I and many other people weigh on a weekly basis when they are doing their grocery shopping. Should I buy the 3-for1 frozen pizzas for dinner or make something using fresh/whole ingredients? It is the reason I haven't given up my canned tomatoes (which are particularly bad because their acidity causes the BPA to leach out faster). I've been buying my organic canned tomatoes from Costco because they are a great price for organic (some say that it doesn't make sense to buy organic if you are buying in BPA lined cans, but if I am going to be buying canned anyway, one bad thing is better than two, right?) but after I run out of my stockpile I will not be buying canned anymore.*

So what will I be doing instead? Using fresh or frozen. I have big plans of growing lots of tomatoes this summer (I have seeds started) and will freeze and can those (yes, canning lids have BPA but if done correctly they do not come in contact with the food...and besides, it is better than nothing!). 

Another alternative is to buy tomatoes in tetra pak containers or glass jars. But these two have one big issue - price. These alternatives can be expensive. Tetra paks can also be difficult to recycle and many states do not offer recycling for these shelf-stable containers. Glass jars will probably be what I buy when I must. Coupons can be sought out and combined with a sale (though it is important to check the label to see what is added!) to bring the price down. The jars can then be washed and reused over and over for storage. 

I got rid of canned fruit and vegetables a long time ago and do not regret it. First of all, I do not want to use these on a regular basis anyway because canning causes the produce to lose many important nutrients. I instead choose fresh and frozen. I do plan on canning my own produce this summer, though, so I will have it for shelf stable food storage. Or for whenever my craving for peach cobbler hits and I have no time do not want to wait to thaw peaches :)

As for my canned pumpkin, I plan on roasting a bunch this fall to freeze. Roasting a pumpkin is easy and I can freeze the result in amounts that are convenient for me (many times I do not need a whole can of pumpkin). This will result in less waste, too. 

While cans are very convenient, I do feel that limiting our use of them is important to our health. Not to mention the fact that many alternatives to the cans are much more earth friendly as even recycling is not a perfect process (think growing your own food, reusable glass jars, freezing in reusable containers).    

* The demand for BPA free products has caused the industry to reevaluate the linings of their cans and there are now several options available. Check these two links to see which companies and which of their products are available BPA free. For instance, Eden Foods beans are BPA free (NOT the tomatoes) and Muir Glen started packaging their tomatoes in BPA free cans on their last harvest. It also appears that Trader Joes has BPA free packaging for their beans, corn, beef, poultry, and fish (!), though I think I would like to contact the company myself to get a definite answer on that one. While this is good to know for when we need convenience, in the long run I think that limiting cans is still the best way to go. It also ensures that we will not learn in a few years that the alternative is not much better (don't you hate when that happens?). 

So what do you think? Have you eliminated cans already? Do you think you will you limit their use in the future? 

Teach By Example

Children are so...impressionable. They are very observant and though they definitely have personalities all their owns, their actions can be easy to shape as they must watch the people around them to try to figure out what is right and wrong.

Take the kid for example. He really likes to open the refrigerator and stand in front of it, surverying its contents while he decides what he wants to eat. Even though his options are generally fruit and cheese so it isn't very hard; I guess maybe he thinks I'm holding out on something else. Anyway. Of course this behavior is not allowed as we try to discourage having the refrigerator open needlessly and remind him to shut the refrigerator door.

Well last night I opened the refrigerator door to get the kid some grapes and left it, including the produce door, wide open while I got them ready. Well the kid was having none of that. He knew exactly what to do and walked up, shut the produce and  refrigerator doors, then looked at me with a big smile, waiting for approval. He definitely got it.

He has actually done this before but it never really dawned on me that he is watching me. He is watching my moves and my choices so he can make his. He is not quite two so he is still trying to figure the world out a little more than, say, a 10 year old would be, but the idea is the same. If there is a behavior you would like to implement or change, let the first change be in yourself. Whether that be eating a better alternative or not using plastic bags at the grocery store, sometimes the best way to teach is to simply act. To teach by example.

Kicking The Cans: part 1

image credit

No, this blog post is not about a fun and thrifty game to play with the kids. It is about getting rid of BPA laden cans. A post on reducing our can reliance has been on my mind for months now, for various reasons. Months ago I started to end my reliance on canned goods because 1) most foods you buy in them lose nutritional value in the canning process and 2) because even though I recycle them, there is still lots of wasted resources involved. I was finally given the big push to get it written after seeing article after article posted by my friends on Facebook (by the way, have you liked Green & Thrifty yet?) on the dangers of BPA. Not that the dangers of BPA were anything new to me. Before I get more into this, let me briefly explain what BPA is.

"Bisphenol A (BPA) is a an industrial chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic resins, epoxy resins, and other products." It can be found in numerous products around us such as CDs, DVDs, receipts, canned food and drink linings, cars, and food storage containers. It has been thoroughly tested since the 1960's and recognized as safe for use, with the EPA's safe level being much higher than human exposure. ¹ 

That all sounds well and good except that for years many researchers have shown that BPA does have potential risks as the chemical can leach out from the lining of containers and other products. This is of particular concern when food is involved.  BPA mimics estrogen in our bodies and has been linked to numerous health issues such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, low sperm count, and neurobehavioral issues. ² 

And just this year the FDA and other agencies have even expressed concern about the potential health risks:

But the National Toxicology Program at the Department of Health and Human Services says it has "some concern" about the possible health effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. This level of concern is midway on its five-level scale, which ranges from serious to negligible. The Food and Drug Administration now shares this level of concern and is taking steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the food supply by finding alternatives to BPA in food containers. ³  

image credit

 The problem is that BPA is all around us. According to the Centers for Disease Control it is in "almost 95% of us."  ⁴  But while we can't avoid BPA completely there are steps we can do to reduce our exposure including eating out less and switching to stainless steel or glass food and drink containers. For more ways see How to reduce BPA Levels by 60% in 3 Days and Ways to Reduce Your Exposure to BPA.

Many people wonder what the point to trying to avoid BPA is if there is no way to avoid it all together. Well there is no way to avoid death, but I'm pretty sure most of us do not spend our days jumping in front of moving buses. Okay, that comparison may be a little extreme, but just because I cannot do everything doesn't mean I shouldn't do anything. It is true that there are thousands of toxins all around us that we are exposed to that we can't do anything about. And it is for that very reason that I try to reduce the toxins and other "bad stuff" that we are exposed to that I do have control over. Whether that be the food we eat or the toys the kid plays with.

...to be continued with how I am reducing my home's reliance on canned goods


Sources:

1) Bisphenol A: Bisphenol A Frequently Asked Questions 

2) BodyEarth.net: BPA and Canned Tomatoes

3) Mayoclinic.com: What is BPA, and what are the concerns about BPA?

4) Safer Chemical Healthy Families: How to Reduce BPA Levels By 60% in 3 Days

Zero Waste Home

http://moneysavingmom.com/I came across this family yesterday via Money Saving Mom and I am impressed. The Johnson family strives in every aspect of their lives to produce as little waste as possible. Yahoo recently posted a video of them overviewing their life.

They also have a blog where they go into details about specific actions. I think that this is a great lifestyle to strive for. Though most of us will probably never be at this level of conservation, the Johnsons all have habits that we can adopt to reduce our own waste.



One thing that I found particularly interesting is that they do not follow merely the three R's of reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead they have adopted a fourth R that they follow first - refuse. Can they simply do without something that would produce waste? Can they do without the packaging on something? For instance, they bring their own jars to the store to buy food from the meat/cheese/seafood counter and also the bulk bins. While I have never thought of bringing my own container to the meat counter, I have read before about bringing my own jar to get food from the bulk bins. While I don't use these often, I think this is something I might look into.



This is not the last you have seen of the Johnsons. I will be coming back at later times to discuss the tips they give to reducing waste in various areas of the home and how you can do so as thriftily as possible!

Guilt

I haven't posted in over two months (though it seems like much longer) and I will admit that a lot of that has to do with guilt. Guilt because I have been using my dryer exclusively. Guilt because I haven't been turning off the water when I brush my teeth every time or always unplugging my small appliances. I also have been really, really bad about sticking to my grocery budget the last few months. I blame a large part of that on the little naked person swimming inside my belly (don't you like the way I put that?).

Yes, the Green & Thrifty household is going to grow by one (let's hope just one) in June. Because of this I was sick and super tired for a couple months and just did not feel like doing anything to be thrifty. So we ate out a lot, got take-out, and ate a lot of processed foods (thus another source of guilt). I also didn't feel like hanging my clothes to dry. We were lucky to get any clean clothes around here. I have just started to get back in the swing of things these last few weeks (and then there was Christmas...), even though I still get tired.

So you see, I couldn't possibly write posts telling you how to eat whole foods on a budget while eating my frozen pizza and Taco Bell. Plus I was just too tired to write them anyway :)

Guilt is something I struggle with a lot. I do not feel guilty because I think I am a bad person but because my actions are not good enough. Any mom (or parent for that matter) probably knows exactly what I am talking about (does the term "Mommy Wars" ring a bell?). You try your hardest to do what you think is the right thing, only to be told that it is not enough. I may feed the Kid fruits and vegetables, but he doesn't always eat enough of those or a wide variety. Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) he gets crackers. Sometimes I make macaroni-and-cheese from a BOX (though it is organic...).

Sometimes I feel that no matter how hard I try to feed my family healthily, it just isn't good enough. There is always something MORE I SHOULD be doing. Then I figure that if I'm never going to be good enough, I might as well give up and start stocking my shelves with Hamburger Helper and Little Debbies.

I also read a lot of blogs on saving money by other moms and I think that I'm spending my money on the wrong things or I am not saving enough or I am just spending too much all together. Then I go back to the above mentality and I want to throw this whole budgeting thing out the window and fill my grocery cart with whatever I feel like or buy that new pair of shoes.

But it is at these times where I have to (figuratively) slap myself and say that every step in the right direction is a good one. Yeah, I could spend less. I could eat healthier. There is ALWAYS something better we can be doing, something MORE we can be doing for ourselves, our families, and the planet. But we can't do everything. Not everyone can be a Superman or Superwoman. I am doing what I can at the moment while continually learning about ways to improve - and that is all we can ask of ourselves.

photos courtesy of Getty Images