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Dinner is in the Oven

April 23rd, 2012 at 01:02 am

I am really liking having the whole week's menues planned out. Today since I knew I was roasting a chicken, I made sure I started thawing it out in the microwave at 3:15. It was a big chicken, 5.14 pounds and is one of the chickens we got for free last Thanksgiving when DH's work gave us that Safeway gift card. Which reminds me, there is still $9 and change on the card. Need to use that.

Anyway, I got it mostly thawed by 3:45 and then put it in a cold water bath to finish the thawing process because the inside was still a little frozen and I couldn't get out the neck and giblets. They had finished defrosting by 4:15 and they came out easily. Then DS and I rubbed the chicken down with extra virgin olive oil and massaged in basil, oregano, fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. It went into the oven to roast side by side with the turkey legs.

We did up nine potatoes (the eight I bought and the one left over) for baking and they are in there, too so we can make efficient use of the oven and the gas used to heat it. The weather has turned quite warm so heating up the house less often is a good thing. We will have the four smaller ones tonight and the other five will go into the baked potato soup I make on Tuesday.

After everything was in the oven I went ahead and cut up two heads of broccoli and one head of cauliflower, which I will start the water boiling for fifteen minutes before the food is due to come out of the oven. There is enough there to serve them for 3 meals, though DD will probably filch some to take in her school lunch as she likes to eat it cold, but cooked. It is nice to have everything going and not have to worry about it again for another hour.

I know I'll have a bunch more prep to do tonight. I'll have to pick off all the chicken that is left on the carcass so I can make stock with the carcass and have meat for enchiladas tomorrow. I will also save some for quesadillas as DS likes to have that as a snack after school. I will also pick all the turkey meat off the bones and throw those bones in the crockpot with the turkey carcass. Doesn't matter to me if the stock is chicken/turkey, it all pretty much tastes the same. I'll also have to peel and cut up two carrots, an onion, two stalks of celery and all the celery leaves to throw in the stock with salt, pepper, and garlic. I was tempted to buy leeks yesterday but it was $2.49 for 3 and I thought that was too expensive and I could make do with the onion.

I never got around to roasting the chiles or making the chili. I decided I would have too much food on hand these next few days if I made it. So I will wait until Wednesday or Thursday to make it as the whole idea of meal planning was to not waste food and money, but to have plenty of good, natural, home-cooked food on hand so I'm not tempted to swing through the drive-thru after school.

That will give me a few days with the chicken noodle soup and the baked potato soup without adding in the chili to the mix. The chile peppers will keep up to a week and I was careful to pick out the best ones with shiny skin and no wrinkling so they are very fresh. I will keep an eye on them and roast them if they start to wrinkle before I am ready to make the chili. DH comes home Wednesday so then having some extra food around, it will not be in as much danger of not getting eaten.

I think I will make a lasagna during the first week of May. It's been a long time since I've made one and it'll be a nice change. I have noodles, organic diced tomatoes, organic tomato sauce, organic tomato paste, herbs, and plenty of cheese on hand so all I'd have to buy is the hamburger and onions. I think I will double the amount of onions and diced tomatoes I normally put in so I can lower the amount of ground beef. I usually use 3 pounds of ground beef to one 9x13 pan of lasagna and I'd like to see if I can get by with 2 pounds as I'll be buying the more expensive grass fed beef. A lasagna usually feeds us for 2 dinners, plus a couple of lunches for DH. Plus I always have sauce leftover when I make it so I can freeze some for some hearty spaghetti later in the month.

I am having far too much fun planning this out, but it sure is taking a lot of the stress out of what I'm going to cook and knowing how much money I can save while still eating organic as much as we can.

Oh, I have enough leftover taco meat from lunch for me to eat a taco with my chicken noodle soup tomorrow. Leftover management...who knew I'd get such a kick out of it this time around?

9 Responses to “Dinner is in the Oven”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    1335140716

    We're both in cooking mode.
    I baked chicken legs in the crock pot tonight, and I have a small crockpot ready to start at bedtime with steel cut oatmeal with maple syrupe, cream, cranberries and raisins, and I'm planning to bake special breakfast muffins for the rest of the week.

  2. PatientSaver Says:
    1335140751

    Where do you buy the grass-fed beef?

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1335140877

    ThriftoRama, what is the advantage to cooking the oatmeal in the slow cooker, aside from having it ready when you get up? I mean, tastewise, is it any better than if you did the stovetop way for 1 half hour? Just curious.

  4. snafu Says:
    1335146040

    Great job planning! Can the kids help stripping meat off bones? Our guys thought it was fun plus there was popcorn or jello jiggles as reward. What's the plan for turkey meat? Will you make casseroles? Pot pie? Croquettes? Do you use frozen spinach in Lasagna to add vitamins, traditional Italian?

  5. Shiela Says:
    1335148638

    Great menu planning!

  6. LuckyRobin Says:
    1335149094

    PS--I've seen the grass fed beef in numerous grocery stores. It's with the organic beef and the ground buffalo in those one pound square packages. I usually get it at Trader Joe's or Haggen, which is a PNW chain, but I've also seen it at Fred Meyer (Kroeger).

    Snafu--the turkey is for my daughter to eat after school. Since she eats breakfast at 6 a.m. and lunch at 10:15 she's usually starving when she comes home so that gives her some protein and then she usually finds some veggies to nibble on as well.

    I just stripped the chicken while the kids cleared the table and washed the dishes. We were all in the kitchen so it just extended our family dinner time. We ended up with aleg and thigh left over from the chicken because it was so big, so I'll have to do something with that as well. I could do a couple of individual pot pies. And no, I don't put spinach in lasagna. My husband doesn't like it. Actually I don't like cooked spinach either, just raw. Sometimes I'll put shredded zucchini in at the end of summer when we're up to our ears, though. No one seems to notice.

  7. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1335150436

    Lucky Robin (or anyone),

    Is it possible for me to bake 4 or 5 sweet potatoes at the same time, eat one, then keep the others in the fridge for up to 4 or 5 days? (I know it's possible, I'm just wondering about food safety.) With it taking 2+ hours to bake, it sure would be nice to have some already baked and just needing warmed up. Smile

  8. LuckyRobin Says:
    1335160070

    5 days is pushing it. 3 days is what is recommended for food safety, though you can probably get away with four, just give it a good sniff and a visual inspection on that last day before eating it. Just make sure you put them in a baggy or keep them tightly wrapped in foil once they are cooked and in the fridge if you are going to push it. But you can cook them in the microwave, you know. When I do that I put a medium sized sweet potato in a bowl, poke holes, add 1/8 cup of water and cover it with a plate. It takes about 7 minutes to cook and then let it stand without removing the plate another 7 minutes to finish steaming. Your cook times may vary depending on your wattage and the size of the potato. If it's not quite done, nuke it a couple more minutes and let it stand another five.

    Also if you are baking them in the oven it should only take 1.5 hours at 400 unless you are at significant elevation. Try cutting them in half if they are taking longer than that to cook through. Just wrap each piece in foil.

  9. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1335241115

    Thanks LR,

    I've cooked them in the microwave before, but oven baked seems to just taste so much better. Yep, I'm at a pretty high elevation. Water doesn't boil here unless you put salt in it (and even then ...)

    So maybe I could do two at a time ...be safer. Smile

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