This week's cooking adventure.

[lychee1968]

I'm trying my hand at once or twice a month food shopping and bulk cooking. This weekend I made;

1. Pasta Sauce. Made a veggie version of a bolognese; tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and cauliflower. Simmered in the crock pot for a few hours, then packed into 1 cup servings and frozen.
2. Tomato Soup. A great base soup to add veggies, beans, rice, or whatever to. Again, made a big pot and separated it into 1 cup portions. I'm feeling like tomato rice soup with spinach this week.
3. Rice. Made a nice big batch in the oven; love it! 1 part rice, 2 parts water. Cover and bake at 350 for an hour. So easy!
4. Baked Oatmeal. My god I love these. Makes 18 muffin sized portions of oatmeal. I put them in a small plastic container with some almond milk and zap them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. Perfect single size. This batch has 1/2 dozen each of blueberry-almond, raspberry-almond, and walnut-almond-chocolate.
   
5. Curried Butternut Squash-Chick Pea Soup. Made it up. Pretty good. Pureed it smooth and added some diced cooked chicken.
6. Waffles. Made a batch of waffles (from a mix, but when you add a tablespoon of ground oatmeal they taste just like Eggo's!). Layer wax paper between them and freeze, then just pull one out and zap in the microwave. Or, if you need it crunchy, use the toaster oven. I like using them as "bread" for a breakfast sandwich of egg, cheese, and bacon or ham.
7. Pancake Syrup. Super easy, makes about 32 ounces. I have a Mrs. Butterworth's bottle that I refill. The hubby thinks it tastes even better than store bought (though not as good as real maple syrup of course).
   

Also bought some ham ends at the deli section. I always check for packaged ends of meats, cheese, or rotisserie chicken. They're cheap. I shred the cheese and store it in the freezer to use for sauces, casseroles, and even sandwiches. The meat (I usually go for ham and/or turkey), I cube and freeze for use in casseroles. Sometimes we luck out and there will be sliced meat instead of just large pieces. When I find ham slices they're often a little thicker than what I'd get for sandwiches, so I cut them into rounds sized for english muffins. Now they're ready for b'fast sandwiches. Just remember to put plastic wrap or wax paper between them.

Am planning on making a crock pot of chicken stock as soon as I fill my freezer bag. I save all the chicken bones and scraps (fresh, pre-cooked, even KFC)  from meals in a large freezer bag and once it's full, throw it in the crock pot with an onion and carrot or two, cover with water and cook on low over-night. I usually get about 6 cups of amazingly flavorful broth. Awesome.