Food for My Family » One Deal, Five Meals

One Deal, Five Meals: Let’s Talk Turkey

Shaina — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:22:23 +0000

Maybe you’ve already purchased another turkey and stored it in your freezer. If not, I want to convince you to go out and buy one this week at a discounted price. Just because you had your fill on roast turkey and mashed potatoes doesn’t mean you have to pass on that incredible deal at the local supermarket. This is the perfect time to stock your freezer full of last-minute meals, soups and casseroles that taste nothing like the Thanksgiving meal from last Thursday. Green bean casserole be gone. We’re breaking out the pomegranates and the alfalfa sprouts.

Here are five ways to turn that post-Thanksgiving turkey, leftover or purchased on sale, into five meals of deliciousness.

1. Gourmet Sandwiches: Turn slices of turkey into sandwiches that are more than your traditional meat and cheese. Different varieties of cheese, hearty bread, garlic aiolis, these are all your friends here.

2. Cream of turkey and wild rice soup: This has always been a favorite of mine. Use the turkey scraps and turn them into a broth for your favorite soup.

3. A make-ahead freezer casserole: This is the perfect thing for those busy nights when you’re running around from basketball practice to hockey practice or even if you just want something quick so you can get on with your holiday shopping.

4. Gingered clementine and pomegranate salad: The Christmas oranges are here, along with just a few more weeks of pomegranates. Turn your turkey into a zangy salad, sure to have you thinking nothing of the sweet potato casserole you previously associated it with.

5. Loads of ideas: There’s no shortage of turkey leftover recipes online. Don’t just use them as leftovers. Use them to take advantage of a good deal and stock up on easy meals as we hunker down for winter.

Turkey Pot Pie: Warm, comforting, creamy
Cranberry-Turkey Enchiladas: New twist on traditional
Turkey Cranberry Sandwich: Grilled with a kick of cranberries
Turkey tetrazzini: My favorite and a great one to freeze

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One Deal, Five Meals: Heavy Whipping Cream

Shaina — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:39:50 +0000

Okay, so heavy whipping cream may not be what you’re thinking when you the words “dinner,” “staple,” or “versatile menu item” run through your head. However, luxurious cream flowed freely this week. (It’s all about moderation and pairing with healthy options here at Chez O.)

The heavy whipping cream love affair started with a trip to a tequila bar with the neighbors, a glass of sangria and one physical education teacher requesting I make him “the best cheesecake ever.” That cheesecake was Junior’s, of course. If you’ve been to New York, you know that everyone will tell you Junior’s is the place to go for cheesecake, as Shawn informed me. Several times.

A true cheesecake lover myself, I was willing to give the Junior’s recipe a go. I committed to the cheesecake. (Look at the beautiful cracks.)

Hello, cheesecake! Junior’s has a fairly involved cheesecake recipe that, among other things, calls for heavy whipping cream. Now, being that I was gifting away a good portion of cheesecake and also wanted to have some for myself, I made two cheesecakes. Yes, two. Very large cheesecakes.

The recipe required a large amount of cream cheese, which is how I found myself at Costco, next to a quart of heavy whipping cream. For less than the price of a pint! Surely I can find something to do with all the cream. So, I bought it and became the proud owner of a sick amount of heavy whipping cream.

Here’s how we used it all:

1. Broiled cod with white sauce
We’ve been eating a lot of salmon lately, and this was the perfect excuse to prepare another variety of fish. I’ll be telling you exactly what we did soon.

2. Beer Cheese Soup
We made this for the soup swap and extended it to make cheesy rice as a side dish accompanying the tenderloin Ole shared.

3. Cornbread with Slaw Dogs
The cornbread was delicious, and it will be used next week to make cornbread stuffing, and we’ll use those leftovers to top a casserole to put in the freezer for a night down the road. (More on this later.)

4. Seafood pasta with portabella and tomato cream sauce
For this, we took the leftover cream sauce from the broiled cod and added onions, sauteed portabella mushrooms, tomatoes, shrimp and scallops and tossed it with fettuccine.

5. Baked/Shirred Eggs
These are easy, and they taste wonderful. I have a thing for breakfast, I’ll admit, and this is one of the easiest ways to get a hot breakfast to the table without a lot of prep work, and everyone just has that one tiny dish to wash instead of plates and skillets and bowls from scrambling. Plus, you get herbed eggs out of the deal. Did I mention not having to wash the scrambled egg pan with all the seemingly glued on egg film? I hate that.

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One Deal, Five Meals: Corned Beef

Shaina — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:53:53 +0000

What are egg rolls doing in a post about corned beef?

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and that means lots of corned beef and cabbage. I happen to love, love, love corned beef, and I can’t wait to get to the store tomorrow. Tomorrow? When all the corned beef is marked down, of course.

One surefire way to save money is by stocking up on seasonal meats. Turkeys after Thanksgiving, ham after Christmas, corned beef after St. Patrick’s Day. While corned beef keeps longer because it is brined, stores will usually drop the price per pound significantly after the green beer is back to a more golden hue.

The traditional way of eating corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day is with cabbage and potatoes, and I do both enjoy and look forward to it. Elise at Simply Recipes posted a great traditional corned beef recipe that makes me hungry, especially as I write this, corned beefless.

However, if you stock up on corned beef, chances are good you don’t want to eat corned beef and cabbage all. the. time. Here are five recipes that will help you stretch that corned beef and incorporate it into your meals without getting sick of it and letting it go to waste. (Click on the red links for the recipes!)

1. Reuben Sandwiches.
This is the perfect way to start using your corned beef. You can cook it up all at once to use in the other recipes, but not before turning it into tasty sandwiches with lots of gooey cheese.

2. Corned Beef and Cabbage Chowder
Perfect for all those St. Patrick’s Day leftovers, one word: yum. Using canned potato soup makes this recipe extra easy to accomplish because you have a stable soup base to build off.

3. Corned Beef Hash Casserole
This is a wonderful make-ahead meal. Toss it all together and freeze it until you’re ready to stick it in your Crockpot one morning before work. Serve this with dinner rolls and a mixed greens salad to make a complete meal.

4. Corned Beef Hash with Eggs
Make these corned beef hash rings ahead of time and store in your freezer. They’re easy to pull out and throw on the griddle and top with an egg on a weekend morning when you’re looking for a more substantial breakfast, something other than cereal or donuts perhaps.

5. Irish Egg Rolls
This is like St. Patrick’s Day dinner rolled up and fried in an egg roll wrapper. Serve it with Thousand Island dressing for dipping. They are wonderful. Did I mention how wonderful they are? Wonderful.

Bonus recipe!
I have to try this. Jenn at Frugal Upstate has a recipe posted for Reuben meatloaf. We are not a meatloaf family. I can’t even remember when we made it last. Just not our thing. But THIS is something I think I may be able to get the O6 to eat.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Photo credit: miss karen

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