Batch Cooking: Finished

Our third cooking day was a success! (See day 1 and day 2).  There are a few things we learned and will do differently in the future.  Overall, I'm extremely glad we did it.

Let me just take a second to gush over my dear friend, HB.  This girl can cook!  I am so thankful for her friendship as well as her desire to bless her family with nourishing food.  Our time together today was such a blessing.  We got to hang out, talk (uninterrupted!) and accomplish a major task that will speak love to our families.  Can I encourage you to find a friend to cook with?  You will learn so many things.

Like...

It's important to follow a recipe.  Every word of the recipe.  And it's important that if you're the person who doesn't like to follow recipes that you cook with someone who does.  Just be sure that the person who likes to follow recipes is forgiving if you mess up...on the most expensive dish you're making.

Above HB is browning the tenderized round steak that I tried to pass off as stew meat for the Boeuf Bourguignon.  Not a good idea - but it will work.  The red wine I bought for this dish was too sweet.  I should have read HB's grocery list a bit closer.  And, I made only half of the recommended requested chicken broth for the mulligatawny.  Details are not my forte.  I'm so thankful she is forgiving.

There were somethings I did right.  Like find a babysitter.  And make a fun cool drink.

HB's husband works from home so he was able to tend to their brood for a few hours.  Thanks JB - you're the MAN!

These chicken pesto quesadillas were yumma-lish!  It's what we had for dinner.

 Final tally of meals - we each took home these: 
2 chicken pot pies that will fit 9x13 pans, need crusts.
2 meals of beef tips and rice (HB needs to post this recipe!)
3 meals for boeuf bourguignon, serve with boiled potatoes drowning in buttah
2 mulligatawny soups, about 8 cups each though the bag says 6 cups.
2 gallon bags (at least 3 meals) of chicken pesto quesadillas (we ate one bag already).

In a previous post, I tallied the food cost at $90 and expected 7.5 meals for each family.  However, I can conservatively say there are 12 meals per family - which lowers the cost per meal to $7.50 which isn't bad considering we used quality meats!  We cooked a lot of nourishing food today.  And it was really fun.

-Julie
linked with Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Batch Cooking: I'm Ready

The fun begins at 2pm, we want to finish before the WAPF meeting at 6pm.  We'll start cooking in less than 3 hours from now.

HB just sent an email saying she was bringing:

- all the recipes so we don't have to refer to the computer
- 2 very big mixing bowls, 2 and 4 cup measuring bowls, ladels, large stirring spoons
- my 1/2 of the chicken, chicken broth and all the beef broth we will need
- prepared beef and sauce for beef tips
- onions and mushrooms cooked for bourginon
- my huge stock pot
- tortillas

Yesterday I cooked and shredded my chicken and made the pesto.

Today, I chopped the onions, carrots and celery in my food processor with the slicer blade shown below.  FYI: 8 cups of celery is about 2 bunches, and about 2 pounds of carrots make 8 cups.

My onions were all sizes, I bought 25 pounds at the farmers market a few weeks ago.  I have no idea how many pounds make 8 cups.

I've cubed my 6 pounds of round steak for stew meat.  Unfortunately I realized after thawing it that it has been tenderized.  This will make the recipe a bit different.  I hope not bad.

And soaked and cooked 6 cups of brown rice.

I just need to run my dishwasher so that we can start cooking with it empty.

I hope I'm ready!!

-Julie

How I Make Pesto

Notice that the title of this post is not "How to Make Pesto" or "Pesto Recipe."  Usually my cooking involves ratios.  This drives some people crazy.  Sometimes it gets me in trouble {insert flop}.

So, this is how I made pesto.  Today.  And it turned out just fine {insert smirk}.

First, give your basil bush a haircut.  Whack it waaaaay back.  You'll want about 2 cups worth, packed tight.

Then gather the rest of your pesto making supplies.  I used Chaffin Family Orchards olive oil, Honeysuckle Lane (local) raw cheddar, garlic, and soaked walnuts.

A word about the above ingredients:

I love Chaffin Family Orchard's olive oil (no kickbacks for this praise).  I buy a gallon once a year.  It is great tasting oil.  

Cheese - most pesto recipes call for parmesan, Parmesan-Reggiano, Romano, or some combination of the three.  I've found that as long as it is a hard-ish cheese and somewhat sharp (tasting), it will work just fine.

Nuts - soaking and dehydrating them is not crucial but helps to increase the digestibility of them.  I usually buy nuts in 5 pound increments.  Then soak/dehydrate all at once.  I found a dehydrator at Goodwill that works great. 

The Recipe

I grated about 1/3 cup of cheese into my food processor then added a generous handful (or two?) of walnuts and 4 garlic cloves.  Pulsed until the consistency was mealy.  Then I dumped 2 cups of packed basil leaves into the processor, then turned it on.  While it was running, I drizzled about 1/2 cup of olive oil - until it made the consistency I was looking for.

The below picture isn't a very appetizing one.  Let me assure you, though, that it is quite tasty.

-Julie

Batch Cooking: The Work in Advance Part 2

Yesterday I posted our meal plan and grocery list.  Today I went shopping and spent $68.89, roughly $35 per family.  We hope to get 15 meals (total, 7.5 meals per family) from this, which would be $4.59 per meal.

This is not factoring in the most expensive element - the meat.  HB and I both get our pastured chicken from Cove Creek Acres ($3/lb for whole birds - we get a discount for pre-paying).  She gets her beef, a quarter at a time for about $4.75/lb, from Falling Sky Farm.  Mine comes (FREE!) from my dad's farm in Kentucky.

Today I have about 9 pounds of whole chicken in my crock pot (9lbs x $3/lb = $27).  Tomorrow we'll cook about 6 lbs of grass fed stew meat, which will be $28.50 in beef.

$27 (chicken) + $28.50 (beef) + $35 (groceries) = $90.50 cost of food

$90.50 divided by 7.5 meals = $12.07 per meal


 EDIT: We were able to get 12 meals per family, making the cost per meal $7.50.


My family of four cannot eat out for $12/meal.  Plus, we'll most likely have leftovers from many of these meals.  Most of all - the meals we have planned are nourishing.

How to cut costs:

- Omit the booze.  I spent $14 in wine (20% of the grocery cost) for the boeuf bourguignon and chicken pot pie.   The wine is not crucial but it sure does make a huge taste difference, one that I'm willing to pay more for.

- In the picture of food, you'll see that I didn't buy organic everything.  In fact, most things are not organic.

- The mushrooms were on clearance.

- Use recipes with beans and rice.  The first day of batch cooking we relied heavily on beans and grains. We didn't do a cost comparison but I promise you the cost per meal was very low - much lower than this batch cooking day.

- Use recipes that call for nutritious homemade bone broths.

- Buy meat in bulk - with the bones.  Many farmers give a discount if you buy in large quantities.  Indeed pastured meats are pricier than their feed-lot counterparts.  However, pastured meats are much healthier for your family.  And if you consider that you will make bone broth with the bones (instead of buying the sodium, MSG laden canned versions) this will help you bite the bullet of paying more for grass feed meat.

Shortcuts we're choosing to make:
- I bought shredded cheese.  I know that it has icky fillers.  The price was a bit cheaper for the shredded cheese AND it was one less thing for me to do in advance.

- Using premade tortillas, instead of making them from scratch.

- The mushrooms are already sliced.  Truth be told I went looking for sliced mushrooms but it was a huge bonus to find them marked down!

What I need to do in the next 24 hours to prepare for the Batch Cooking Day:
- soak and cook brown rice
- chop carrots, onions and celery
- cook, debone, and shred meat of 2 chickens
- thaw and cut up my 6 pounds of stew meat
- make 1.5 cups of pesto from basil in my garden
- finalize babysitter (should I factor the babysitter for cost per meal?)

One more thing: our husbands love it when we have a batch cooking day.  They love the stress that is reduced from our family when we have a freezer full of nourishing food.

Tomorrow is the big day.  I will probably blog about the results on Thursday. EDIT: Here's what I've done 3 hours before cooking.

-Julie

Linked with Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday.

Batch Cooking: The Work in Advance

On Tuesday, HB and I plan to make our third batch cooking day (see the first here and the second here.)  We both homeschool and have little people in our house so cooking big on one day is definitely a life-time-saver.  Batch cooking is one way to keep real food manageable with a busy lifestyle.

The work on cooking day isn't the only work.  The work in advance is just as important, if not more.

Since HB did the grocery run the last two times we've cooked, I volunteered to get the goods (and begged her to just tell me what to get.)

Before I show you the grocery list, I should tell you what we're making:

2 (or double recipe) Boeuf Bourguignon - A La Julia Child
4 Chicken Pot Pie - a la Pioneer Woman
2 Beef Tips & Rice - a la HB's Momma, recipe coming soon
4 Mulligatawny Soup
3 Chicken Pesto Quesadillas

Here's the grocery list she sent me:


meat needed:
6 pounds stew meat for beef tips (you)
6 pounds stew meat for bourginon (me)
12 ounces unsmoked bacon (Whole Foods?)
8 cups ckn. for pot pies
6 cups ckn. for mulligatawny
5 cups diced ckn. for dillas

broth needed:
5-6 cups beef broth for bourg.
4-5 cups beef broth for beef tips
8 cups ckn. broth for pot pies
15 cups ckn. broth for mulligitawny

3 pounds butter
onions (between the two of us, I think we have plenty)
carrots (10 pounds should be good, we need 8 cups sliced carrots)
celery (two or three bunches, we need 8 cups sliced celery)
mushrooms (1 pound for beef tips, 2 pounds for bourguignonne, pre-sliced would be good here)
6 cups full bodied red wine (chianti is recommended)
tomato paste (small can)
white wine (for pot pie)
6 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups pesto (Julie makes)
3 cups shredded mozzarella
3 cups shredded monterey jack
5 cups cooked rice for mulligatawny
tortillas (I have 20, we need two more packs, small fajita size, medium would be fine too if you can't find small)
ziploc bags

HB's notes on prep pre-cooking day:
I can do beef broth. Between the two of us, I think we will have plenty of chicken broth. We will each need to have 8 1/2 cups cooked chicken ready to go. Is that two or three chickens each? I would think that'd be two large chickens or three small chickens. 


All the mushrooms need to be sauteed in copious amounts of butter the day before cooking day. I can do this. 4 whole onions need to be sliced in large chunks and sauteed in lots of butter as well. I can do that, too. 

And last, but certainly not least - the babysitters!!  We are still in the midst of nailing these down.  We intend to cram all this in about 4 hours on Tuesday before the WAPF meeting at the library.

Hoping for the best,

Julie

Mulligatawny Soup

This is a wonderful soup, that can be doubled and even frozen for future meals.  The chicken broth makes it nutritious and frugal.

1/2 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrot
3 T. olive oil
1 1/2 T. all purpose flour
1 T. curry powder
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 bay leaf
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/8 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. grated lemon rind
1/2 cup cream, warmed
1 1/4 cups hot cooked rice
1/4 cup flaked coconut, optional

Saute first three ingredients in hot oil in a dutch oven over med-hi heat till tender. Stir in flour and curry, cook over med heat 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered 15 minutes. Add chicken and next 5 ingredients; simmer uncovered 15 minutes. Stir in warm creamr. Ladle soup over rice in individual soup bowls. Optional garnish: coconut.

Yield 5 cups

Reminder: WAPF Meeting Next Tuesday

Come socialize with other foodies and learn about the importance of nutrition and brain function from Lisa Lipe.

Tuesday, August 30, 6pm

Terry Library Meeting Room

Price Comparison: Grassfed Beef to Processed Foods

by Tracy Youngblood
Rarely do I buy chips or candy at the store.  Usually it's for a party or similiar event.  When Matti sees the stuff in the buggy, she asks, "Where are we going?"  When she asked this the other day, I had a different answer for her.  I told her about the experiment I've been working on.

Many people new to the idea and focus of whole foods, real food or sustainable farms approach our booth, call, email or talk with me about our products.  One factor some folks choose not to try grassfed or pastured products is the price.  As I am in the typical grocery store I take note of the types of food in various buggies.  Most contain boxed, processed, high fructose corn sugar-laden "manufactured" foods and drinks.  I began to think about the choices we make.  Here are a few choice/price comparisons with our least expensive item, Grassfed Ground Beef.

Item                                 Price               Weight by pkg        Price/oz.
Grassfed Ground Beef   $4.50               About 16-20 oz.       $.23/oz.
Oreos                              $2.98                15 oz.                    $.20/oz.        
Pringles                           $1.50               6.41 oz.                 $.23/oz.
Snickers                          $4.94               22.55 oz.               $.22/oz.
Kraft Mac and Cheese    $3.72                 8.2 oz.                 $.45/oz.
Cheesy Chicken Helper  $2.88               23.6 oz.                 $.12/oz.

Red Bull                          $1.88                8.4 oz.                  $.22/oz.

As you can see, the price for locally grown, grassfed, intensively managed, hormone, antibiotic and grain free beef is relatively close to many of the items found in peoples' cart. 

It comes down to choice.  You choose with your fork.  You choose local farms, friends, whole foods, enlivening your local economy while boosting your health!  I really don't see any option here.  The point I make to people is:

We are in NO way similiar to grocery store meat, therefore our prices are higher.  If you choose to buy whole foods, prepare meals at home with an occassional dinner out, you can afford to have grassfed meat spilling out of your freezer.  When you quit buying pop, cereals, boxed dinners, chips, cookies and energy drinks, you'll have a much larger budget (and smaller waist) to shop for grassfed and pastured products.

Most of our customers are not wealthy monitarily, just a wealth of wisdom.   For them we are grateful beyond words!

You don't have to wonder which of the above product you could live the longest~that should tell you what you need to know.

Just for fun, here's the prices, by ounces, for some of our other products.

Sirloin Tip Roast            $6.85/lb.       $.43/oz.

Pastured Pork Chops      $6.25/lb         $.39/oz.

T-Bone Steak                 $11.25/lb.       $.70/oz.

We realize the YOU are the ones spreading the word about our farm and it's products.  We truly thank you for your support and encouragement.  What a blessing you are to us!

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, tell your friends about us, too.  We share up-to-date information with our Fans there throughout the week.  Prizes and giveaways too!!

-Tracy

Related: Americans pay less for food
Written by Tracy: Benefits of Bulk Buying Local Meat 

Family Day at Heifer Village

The “Living Local, Buying Local” Family Day will be on September 24, 2011 at Heifer Village, in downtown Little Rock, 10am-3pm

Bring your family to explore not only Heifer Village but activities that reveal why buying locally is not only fun but important to a community. The Family Day will include a mini-market featuring local farmers and vendors having demonstrations. The Root Café will be on hand to demonstration food preservation; The Green Corner store will display an array of offerings from local artisans and suppliers; Heifer Ranch will be highlighting their community supported agriculture program and how you may become involved.

Of course a family day wouldn’t be complete without a visit from our Ranch animal ambassadors and the many hands on activities such as creating your own “what’s in season” wheel, or traversing our “Life of a Tomato” obstacle course.

Learn more from the Heifer website or call 501-907-8800.

Chipotle in Little Rock

Today's an exciting day.  Chipotle Mexican restaurant opens today on Highway 10 (next to Chick-fil-a, near Panera.)

Chipotle is one of my all time favorite chain restaurants.  Their specialty is burritos - really fresh and delicious burritos.  Oh and the guacamole, you gotta try it.

Because they provide real food options at fast food prices, I recommend this restaurant.

-Julie