Bulk Cooking Club

[TroubleT]

We processed another 10 lbs of green beans this past weekend. I even put my 2 kids to work in breaking the beans. We popped in a movie and sat in the floor with big pans full of beans to break. It was fun!

Last night, Tim found a frozen fryer chicken in our freezer (he was cleaning it out...I'm not sure what has him fired up but I'm not complaining!) so he put into our big turkey roaster with some carrots, celery, garlic and onion. He left in on low over night so we woke up to a house that smelled awesome! I just finished pressure canning the stock and we have just over 11 quarts!

If you are really considering getting into major bulk cooking and you have storage space, we love our turkey roaster. We use it every holiday to cook large chunks of meat. I've used it to cook for large pot lucks and to make mega batches of apple butter. Definitely worth it. They usually go on sale just after Thanksgiving at Walmart every year.

[NavyBlue4Eight]

Wow!  I miss a week and come back so many new ideas. 
This past weekend, I made a double batch of chili using ground pork and beef (we have a whole pig in the freezer, so I'm using pork in everything I can).  We ate some chili for dinner earlier and have 6 quarts in the pressure canner now (this is the first time we're using a pressure canner - so nervous!!).
I also cut up salad stuff and boiled eggs for lunches at work. 
I have a recipie for chicken stroganoff (crockpot) that I want to get started before work one morning, but there never seems to be enough time.  Going to try again tomorrow though.
I also froze another quart of tomatoes.  With 8 plants outside, you think we'd have enough to can or turn into salsa, but the dry summer seems to have really stunted their growth inspite of all the watering.

Depending on how this batch of chili turns out, my plan is to try some soup next.  I love the idea of coming home to good, home cooked food on a cold winter day.
I also have carrots that will need to be put up once they're ready to pick in the garden.

[TroubleT]

Chicken stroganoff? That sounds yummy!

I forgot to add that I pulled the meat off of the chicken used for the stock and froze it for later use and the carrots from the stock have been turned into dog treats. Our pup loves them!

[Kochopia]

I found some recipes for chicken that are really really good. Unfortunately they're not full meals, but veggies are easy to heat up and potatoes don't take too long either...

Creole Chicken
Lemon Garlic Chicken (looks amazing)
Spicy Sweet Chicken (it has apricot jam and salsa in it)
Two Awesome Lasagnas
We made some meatballs too...those freeze nicely


Also, I've started a "Make Ahead Meals" Pinterest page that I'll be featuring our thread on!

[sparrowlegs]

I am in the UK, I love to bulk cook, I make lasagna and divide it up and freeze in tubs (in UK we have £shops and can get plastic containers from there) I also make pasta sauces and bologniase, I also feeze casseroles, I make one in the slow cooker (crockpot) use half for that evenings meal and freeze the rest. So much easier having food ready or to hand when I just cant be bothered to cook that night.
I also make pastry and freeze

[NavyBlue4Eight]

Chicken stroganoff? That sounds yummy!

I forgot to add that I pulled the meat off of the chicken used for the stock and froze it for later use and the carrots from the stock have been turned into dog treats. Our pup loves them!

I finally got the chicken stroganoff made yesterday and it got rave reviews from both the hubby and the preschooler.  Now that I can recommend it, here is the recipe:
1 lb. chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
16oz container sour cream
1 package dry onion soup mix
Layer the chicken in a crock pot.  Mix up everything else and poured over the top.  Cook on low 6-8 hours.

I had a 1-1/4 lb package of chicken - still frozen.  I used it anyway.  Also, I only had about 12 oz sour cream as we had tacos earlier in the week, so I added a 1/2 cup of milk about 30 minutes before we ate.  I served it over brown rice. 
Next time I plan to add some fresh mushrooms in the beginning and serve over egg noodles instead.  I love rice, but it wasn't quite right with this.

[TroubleT]

Yum! Thank you for sharing your recipe NavyBlue3Eight!

[TroubleT]

I finally took pictures of the canned meats that we processed!

From left to right...smoked country style ribs, chuck roast (w/ red wine and herbs!) and meatloaf. We opened the ribs and meatloaf this week. Both were really tasty! My husband followed the recipes found in the Ball Canning book with the exception of smoking the ribs breifly before canning.


Canned bacon, both bits (on left) and strips...


We opened the strips tonight as part of dinner. The bacon strips cooked up super fast without the troublesome curling that can occur. The pressure processing removes the majority of the fat which sped up the cooking time.

[mama24boyz]

Well, I used my frozen potatoes and carrots in a stew.    If you remember I blanched them both for about 5 minutes (a little more for the potatoes).  Well, I won't be doing it again.  I don't know, the texture of both were just.....ewwww.  I ate them, but I wasn't impressed and won't do it again.

[Melladh]

Raw potatoes work better in the freezer, but only pre-chopped for oven roasting. They break down into a granular texture by the freezing, and only the roasting can push them back into an OK texture. (I haven't tried, but my friend is experimenting and says it works okay if you have more potatoes than you're able to eat before they go bad)