It is a fact that participating in an occasional cooking/baking marathon is very therapeutic for me. (It is also a fact that I had no idea how to spell therapeutic, which is why I am very thankful for spell check options. You should have seen how I spelled it when I sounded it out. Let’s just say that I can cook better than I can spell.)
My spelling issues aside, I receive great pleasure from mixing up four or more recipes at once, getting most of my dishes dirty all at the same time, and covering every inch of counter space with a cooking project. I failed to take a picture of the kitchen chaos. Sorry about that. ;) But I did manage to take a few pictures of what I accomplished during my baking day. Looking at pics of chocolate chip cookies is much better than looking at pics of my crusty cookie sheets, so let’s focus on the chocolate, shall we?
I made a double batch Chocolate Chip Cookies to serve at high school huddle. Our family also did a little taste testing because quality control is our specialty. :)
While the cookies were baking, I mixed up a double batch of Honey Whole Wheat Bread.
While the bread was rising, I started cooking a double batch of Taco Corn Fritters. These refrigerate or freeze well and reheat easily in the oven or toaster oven.
And last but not least, I made a big batch of Sloppy Joe Meat and some Sloppy Cornbread Muffins.
Although we’ve already eaten a good portion of the food I made to try and get ahead for this week, I do feel much better having a few extras on hand to warm up quickly for meals. Healthy convenience foods rock. :)
What are your favorite healthy convenience foods to have on hand?
That’s funny to me that you guys ate most of it, because we are the same way, especially with so many boys! I keep a list of easy, healthy snacks here: http://themarathonmom.com/easy-healthy-snacks.htm
Oh yes, I’m sure you can totally relate to the difficulty of keeping food around the house!
Love the convenience foods. Our family favorites are salmon related and pepper poppers. We can get salmon cheap since we’re near the ocean, and we smoke our own in bulk. Then it gets turned into salmon spread w/cream cheese and salmon ravioli, and frozen.
I also buy the miniature bell peppers at Coscto and fill them with cream cheese and bacon and freeze – they make my house a popular canning destination for my friends and their teenagers in the summer!
We also do up “shake mixes” – berries, pineapple, bananas, cherries, orange juice, frozen in blender-sized proportions. Thaw slightly and blend with yogurt…
I make a ton of fruit leather in the fall and freeze it fast snacks, too. Homemade trail mix (almonds, dried cherries, chocolate chips) is popular around here as well.
I’m going to try your sloppy cornbread muffins – those look great!
Love your ideas! I’m trying not to be jealous of the sea food that is so good where you live. Here in Nebraska, we can never get our hands on good seafood!
quality control, sure , whatever you say Laura lol
Yes, don’t you think “quality control” sounds better than over-indulgence? :)
I bake up batches of muffins and store them in Ziplocs in the freezer. I also make batches of pancakes, toaster size, and freeze them as well. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong baking bread. I either make flat loaves that taste good but not tall enough to make a sandwich or bricks heavy enough to be used as door stops. It’s a good thing I can make other stuff!
Figuring out a good loaf of bread can really be a challenge – I’m sure you’ll master it someday. And yep, sounds like you do great with all those other yummy foods you mentioned!
I’m the same way. I bake up about 4-5 dozen healthy muffins. In fact, I need to do that this week. We’ve been muffin-less for a couple weeks now :(
Anyways, my kids love them and I love that I can pull them out of the freezer the night before for breakfast, stick them in the toaster oven and heat them up. Or toss one in my daughter’s lunch bag for school. They love muffins!
Hi, Melissa, I understand what you’re going thro’! My bread used to
turn out flat….it was perfect bread for when you needed to have
small bread chunks for casseroles. :) Some friends helped me
out and my bread turns out beautiful~most of the time! Here’s the
ideas:
You need to make sure that your dough is rising enough but not
overmuch. And it needs to be put in the oven gently and the oven door
needs to be closed gently.
Are you rolling the dough out or just
shaping it into loaves? I divide my dough into loaves and then with
each one, I press it out (with my knuckles) to a 15 x 13 (approximately)
size. Then I fold it in thirds one way, press with knuckles, and then
thirds the other way and press with knuckles. I put that in the pan
(folded edges down) and prick the top of the dough with a fork. All
this helps release air bubbles.
I also put a bowl of water underneath my bread as it cooks…heard
that helps keeping the bread moist. :)
Sorry to be so lengthy! Hope some of this helps you! Laura, I’m a
visitor from Money Saving Mom & I’ve really enjoyed looking around!
Thanks for sharing some great posts!
Blessings, Miranda
Hi, Miranda! I just posted below, but thought you might have some good input as well. I have a favorite bread recipe that always turns out amazing. But I took Laura’s idea of shaping the loaves out, freezing them for later use, and then thawing and baking when I need a loaf. It isn’t turning out well at all, although I really want it to work. Have you ever tried this? You can see my post under the name “Erika” 8 to 10 posts below. Thanks! :) Oh, and I usually rise my bread in a warm oven, and am always take care to not open/close the door, and all those other things that you should do for a nice loaf. If I don’t freeze it, it turns out great. Thanks for your help!
Hi, Erika! I use a Bosch when I make my bread, too, and it seems like it turns out better because it’s mixed so well! I’ve never tried freezing it before baking…we go thro’ it so quickly! I have frozen just the dough one time without it being shaped….it rose out of the container! :) So now, when I need to freeze it, I just bake the bread (or rolls or whatever I’m making) and freeze them already baked. It seems to work pretty well that way. Sorry I can’t be more of a help! I know you can buy frozen bread dough and just stick it in your loaf pan and let it rise and it turns out beautifully. Hope something turns out to you!! Blessings, Miranda
Here’s a site I found that might be of a benefit to you. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5100/freezing-bread-dough-bake-later Hope it’s okay to post an outside link on your blog, Laura. :)
I knew you had to absolutely love cooking. I keep reading your blog in hopes it will rub off just a little on me! I was wondering, and maybe you addressed this in another post I’ve missed, but is everything on your menu plan most weeks prepared fresh each day or do you often have some things in the freezer you just need to pull out and heat up?
It definitely depends on the week and what I’m able to get done ahead of time. If possible, I really love having food prepped ahead and ready to pull out and reheat. But that definitely doesn’t always happen! Here’s a link to all my “make ahead meal” posts if you’d like to look through those for ideas on how this works for me: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/category/make-ahead-meals
I love to make an extra chicken pot pie when I can and freeze it unbaked. Then I can just take it out in the morning, pop it in the oven in the evening, and my boys (including hubby) think I have slaved away! (Not really). I also love to make several pizzas, toppings and all on it, unbaked and wrapped on the stones. Then, when we have a town day and are running longer than usual, dinner’s a cinch because you don’t even have to thaw them, you just put the pizza in the oven while preheating and PING! Your sons’ absolute favorite meal is ready to go!
Baking triple batches of bread once a week is my husband’s favorite because he not only gets a plethora of fresh bread to munch on for the week, but there are also caramel-nut cinnamon rolls or regular cinnamon rolls to help sweeten the deal.
By the way, it is such a blessing to have family members around who are willing to sacrifice their time to taste test. I always thank them for takin the time and energy to do that for me!! ;)
Thanks for the ideas!
I’m a nursing mom so breakfast is hard to get some mornings since baby comes first. I make crustless spinach quiches in muffin tins and freeze them for a quick breakfast I can heat in the microwave. I’d like to make some of your pancake sausage muffins to mix it up, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
For a healthy snack, I make a big batch of granola bars every other week.
I also like to freeze meatballs for a quick meal of spaghetti or subs. I’ve been known to heat mostly frozen meatballs in sauce when I’m in a jam or forget to take them out on time. :) They always turn out well!
My husband watches our little man on Saturday mornings so I can make double recipe of a casserole or other freezable item – one for now, one for later. I don’t know what I’d do without my convenience foods!
Ok Laura, You have to show us your messy kitchen at some point lol! I absolutely love to cook and like you, mess up every bowl/pot in the house when I am on a cooking stint. But the clean up is what I hate. But it is so nice to get ahead sometimes!
Those taco corn fritters look good, but I just went vegetarian this year. Do you think I could add beans instead of the meat?
Yes, beans would substituted perfectly in this recipe!
I like to make my sweet breads in the summer/fall and freeze for later. We just had some zuccini bread that I made this summer for breakfast on Sunday. I also work outside of the home full time so I make my meals in advance for the week so we can just heat and eat, when we get home. We also have tortilla shells that I batch as well as snacks for the kiddo’s lunch boxes.
Do you freeze the fritters & cornbread muffins for eating later? (Or is that latter? See- we all have spelling issues!)
Yes, it works great to freeze the fritters and sloppy cornbread muffins to reheat later. I just reheat them in our toaster oven.
Hi, Laura! I love all of your ideas! I have a question about shaping the dough into loaves in bread pans and then freezing them for later. I thought that was a brilliant idea! I decided to make a lot of these for friends who wanted homemade bread, in order to earn money to buy a Bosch mixer. So I bought the mixer, however the bread isn’t rising properly once it’s been thawed out. Have you ever had a problem with this? I’ve tried it a few times to no avail. I’m using my usual favorite bread recipe, and they’re turning out like bricks. It could be a learning curve on my part with the Bosch, but I was wondering if you have any ideas or suggestions. I’m commited to using 100% fresh-ground wheat and don’t want to add any white bread flour. Thanks! By the way, I live in Fresno near the airport, and I bet you guys pass right by us when you come see your husband’s family. Small world!
Yep, I bet we do drive right by your place when we come to Fresno! I don’t have any experience with a Bosch or any mixer, so I can’t help on that part. But regarding why the bread isn’t rising properly once it’s thawed…well shucks…not sure I can help on that one either. Have you tried putting it into a very low, but warm oven to help the process? Wish I could be more help!
I like to have these on hand….
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Freezer-Crescent-Rolls?cpi=1&sort=
I want to try your bread recipe:)
Linda
I made it with half whole wheat the other day and they were great! I may add a little more whole wheat
next time.
Laura, What kind of cookie sheet is that in the picture? Do you use a stone cookie sheet?
Yes! Laura loves her cooking stones! :)
My comment was deleted =(
Oh wait wrong post :P I was looking for my menu plan I put on here b/c
I forgot to write it down on paper :/
Looks yummy!