Lazy Day

Well.. Lazy day just means lazy in the kitchen. With this nice weather gracing us, it's easy to spend a whole day outside and wonder what the blazes to eat when 5 or 6 strikes. This is when all the hard work of making a few meals at a time and freezing them comes in handy! Today, I'm sharing my cabbage roll recipe (not really a recipe... you'll see) which is a McGrath favorite.

Cabbage Rolls

You'll need:

Ground meat (any kind will do - mixing meats is good for flavor) (optional)

Onion

Garlic

Celery (with leaves)

Rice, quinoa, or cous cous

Cabbage

Tomato puree

Sour cream (optional)

Cabbage rolls are a bit of work, which makes them a perfect meal to make in bulk and freeze. I actually never tasted a cabbage roll until a year or two ago and I was so sad that I had missed this important food up until then. I love cabbage rolls because they are versatile, forgiving, and always delicious.

Preparing the filling:

Because I always at least double or triple what I'm making I throw together ingredients in whatever ratio I have available and keep making rolls until I run out of cabbage. If there is too much filling, freeze it until the next time you need to make a few batches. Following measurements is quite tedious when it's something that is as forgiving as cabbage rolls. Just use your discretion and have fun being creative.

Begin by cooking rice, quinoa, or cous cous. I will cook 1 cup of any of these "fillers" per 8 oz of meat. If you are making these vegetarian, simply up the amount you make. This is a great time to use whole grains you normally wouldn't eat because of texture or taste - you won't notice them in this delicious dish!

Sauté onions and garlic in butter until soft.

While onions and garlic are softening, prepare celery and peppers, chopping them finely.

In a large bowl, combine ground meat, cooked grains, diced vegetables and herbs to taste. This dish is particularly good with parsley, pepper and salt. Mix the ingredients together with your hands making sure it really comes together and is mixed thoroughly. Refrigerate while preparing cabbage, or leave it until the next day to finish.

Preparing the Cabbage:

There are two schools on how to prepare cabbage. One is to freeze the cabbage thoroughly and then de-frost it. This will wilt your cabbage and soften it so you can roll it easily. The other method is to core the cabbage and boil it, removing it from the boiling water periodically to remove the cooked leaves and allow the leaves in the center to cook.

I always boil my cabbage, but just because I can never wait the day or two for the cabbage to freeze and then the third day for it to defrost.

Boiling Cabbage:

Remove the core of the cabbage, and gently place in large pot of boiling water. Cook for 3-5 minutes until leaves are bright green and tender. Lift cabbage out of water (you will need some sort of device for this - it's VERY hot (obviously)), remove cooked leaves and return to the pot. Continue to do so until all usable cabbage leaves are cooked.

*Do not discard your cabbage water when finished boiling, you will need this later in the recipe*

*Do not throw out outer leaves of cabbage, they can be used to line pot or baking dish to help your rolls not stick*

*Do not throw out center of cabbage that isn't good for rolling. Once cooled, chop into bite sized pieces and use for soup*

When leaves are cooled, take a paring knife and carefully remove the vein from the cabbage leaf. You will need to slice the vein off without actually cutting the leaf. Martha Stewart makes what she calls "stuffed cabbage" and the video can be helpful for this step:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/stuffed-cabbage?video_id=0

Putting it all together:

I was told last year by my very lovely Polish friend that there is such a thing as lazy-man cabbage rolls. You simply layer the cooked cabbage on the bottom or the baking dish, pile your filling on top and layer more cabbage on top. Leave some space to put your tomato puree and a bit of cabbage water. We've recently converted to this type of cabbage "roll" because we can use more of the cabbage we wouldn't be able to use otherwise (tears, leaf not big enough, etc.)

If you would like to make the traditional roll, here's how to do it:

Prepare your dish by lining it with unusable cabbage leaves. You should have the sides covered as well.

Place cooled and de-veined cabbage leaves in a pile so you can work easily. One leaf at a time, lay the cabbage out like a tortilla and place desired amount of filling not quite in the center of the leaf. Fold sides of cabbage over filling, and roll (stem end first) tightly.

My Dad loves cabbage rolls that are really stuffed, (Uniqpol in Brantford apparently makes a humungous cabbage roll) but I prefer a medium sized roll. If you have a lot of company or are attending a potluck you can make these as small as you'd like. Just be sure to increase cooking time for very large rolls so that the meat is cooked thoroughly.

If eating the same day:

You can line a Dutch oven with your unusable cabbage leaves and cook this right on your stovetop so there is no oven necessary. Simply line your pot with cabbage, fill with rolls, top with tomato puree and a few cups of cabbage water (until all rolls are covered) and cook for an hour or until cabbage is VERY tender.

If freezing for a lazy day:

Prepare tin (or glass) baking tray with cabbage leaves (not applicable for lazy man cabbage). Fill with rolls and top with tomato puree and small amount of cabbage water. Cover with tin foil, or if using a tin dish it usually comes with a tin lid. Place on a cookie sheet while freezing so that it doesn't leak or freeze unevenly. Do not stack before frozen - you will have one hoo-haw of a mess. Once frozen, I take the cookie sheets away and pile them in the freezer just waiting for a lazy winter day. From frozen, they need 4 hours at 350F to cook properly. I usually place the frozen tin on a cookie sheet or casserole dish with a bit of water to keep it moist while cooking. Remove tin foil from top of rolls for last 15-20 minutes.

Serve with sour cream on the side. Think that's crazy? Just try it and you'll never go back!

*I put the cabbage rolls on the bottom rack (I actually put both racks close to the middle and put it on the bottom/middle) so that I can bake other things that can be cooked at 350F at the same time. You might want to find a bun recipe that cooks at 350 (or close to it) so you can throw them in the oven close to eating time and have fresh buns with your delicious meal!*

Field Trip

Field Trip

Typically a day out means extra $ on food. Not preparing in advance can mean big bucks that you weren't planning on spending.

Whether or not you have a family, you need to plan on what you're going to eat. Going to a theme park for the day? Pick one thing you'd like to buy (funnel cake) and bring everything else from home. Taking the family to the fair? Let them each know they get their choice of one item and that's it. Having fun is not synonymous with spending money, in fact, it's usually the opposite.

PREPARE!

It's a special day, get/make special food! The McGraths spent the day at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, so Ron made chocolate chip cookies last night. I bought a few juice boxes (fruit + veggie juice boxes) but we brought big reusable bottles filled with ice cold water and the juice was just for a treat. I found some chips on sale (whole grain Pringles? They looked weird but tasted yummy) and that was Monty's treat after he finished his lunch.

The point is, a special day doesn't need to stress your wallet. Having portable snacks and treats is the best way to stop unnecessary spending. A few bucks for fries here and a few bucks for coffee and pop there really add up and just aren't worth it!

After a long day, the last thing you want to do is come home and cook a meal. We have a favorite meal around here that is fast, easy and healthy.

Taco Salad (sans Taco)

You'll need:

- Lots of leafy greens. This is a great way to get your kids to eat the darker greens - we always use baby spinach because it's the least bitter.

- Favorite Veggies ready for topping: shredded carrot, cucumber slices, peppers, whatever you've got in your fridge

- Ground meat of any kind. Always cook your ground meat with onion and garlic. Just frying ground meat can be very bland and kind of yucky. I also add a fajita spice mix from Epicure, but you could add chili powder or whatever seasoning your family enjoys. Vegetarians can use Veggie Ground Round (so so good) or skip the meat option. Love meat like a crazy carnivore? Add a bit of freshly cooked bacon to the meat list.... so delicious.

- Little bit of shredded cheese (we like Nacho mix but only if it's on sale/clearance)

Mix your salad in a bowl with whatever dressing you plan on using. This is not a recipe that suits sweet dressings like raspberry vinaigrette. Renee's Ranch has nice big chunks of garlic in it, so that's what we typically use.

After your salad is dressed, put it out on plates and begin topping with cold veggies and cheese. Be sure the salad and veggies are the biggest portion of this meal. You can't have this salad with half meat and half lettuce. 75% veggies, 25% meat and cheese works best for flavor and for keeping it on the healthy side. When your meat is hot and ready, top the salads and serve immediately.

Everyone down to the baby loves this salad. Want to get a 1yr old to eat a spinach salad? This is the way! We especially love to have this meal when I get a big box of organic baby spinach for 50% off - it's a great way to use most of the box and it's a really cheap meal.

Hamburgers and Chocolate Cake

Homemade Hamburgers.

Hamburgers are such a treat when they're done right. I didn't make the actual burger from scratch today, because they have burgers on crazy clearance right now and it's cheaper by the pound to get them pre-made.

When you are making your own hamburger you have to put a bit of

time in. Make a homemade barbecue sauce to mix in the meat before you make patties.

My Ever-changing BBQ Sauce:

Sautee onion and garlic until soft in a small amount of butter

Combine dry herbs and spices in food processor

I use: Salt, pepper, chili powder, parsley, basil, cinnamon, sometimes seasoning salt

Add 1 tbsp of each:

dark molasses

vineager

corn syrup or maple syrup

ketchup or tomato paste

mustard

Add onion and garlic, and puree

Stick a finger in UNPLUGGED processor and give it a taste! If you'd like more tomato flavor add more ketchup or tomato paste. Throw in some more cinnamon if you're making the bbq sauce for pork.

Put ground meat in large bowl, add bbq sauce (don't skimp) and get mixing with your hands. Form patties and chill until ready to cook.

Hamburger Buns

Now, if you've never had a hot hamburger on a warm-from-the-oven (NOT MICROWAVE) bun, you haven't had a real hamburger. Homemade buns are totally worth the effort, and if you're having company for a bbq - they are really impressive. You can make them ahead of time and let them proof in the fridge so you're not kneading dough with company over.

I half this if it's for 4 or less:

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm milk - not hot! If you want to leave milk on the counter for an hour or so beforehand, just use the luke-warm milk and make sure your water is a bit hotter than normal to warm up the milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter (not hot)
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, butter, warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the salt, and gradually stir in the flour until you have a soft dough. Divide into desired size pieces, and form into balls. Place on baking sheets so they are 2 to 3 inches apart. Let rise for 60 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the rolls for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool slightly, then split them in half horizontally to fill with your favorite burgers.

Chocolate Cake

For Dessert? The best chocolate cake recipe I've ever found! It's vegan, so if you know any vegans b

e sure to pass it along... oy this is a good recipe! This is changed only slightly from All Recipes.com

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour ( or 2 cups cake & pastry flour + 1 cup all purpose)
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil ( or 1/3 cup oil and 1/3 cup applesauce)
• 3 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Beat on medium for 1 minute. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.

What to top it with? Well, we had some eggwhites left over from the beginning of the week so we made a homemade marshmallow fluff, compliments of Martha Stewart:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/momma-reiners-homemade-marshmallow-cream

If you're not into marshmallow fluff (I'd love to meet you) make a standard icing by beating 2 tbsp butter and slowly adding icing sugar. I add a wee bit of milk when it's getting too difficult to mix and add flavour as desired (sometimes we use banana flavor which is a real treat!) but vanilla is the best on this super-chocolatey cake. Just stick your finger in and taste if you need more vanilla or icing sugar - it's hard to mess up icing. My sister makes a chocolate salt icing with big delicious flakes of salt - I don't have the recipe, but it's delicious and something to try.

* This cake recipe is great to make with kids. You can teach them the science behind mixing baking soda with vineager and of course they love to see the bubbles *

Penny Pinching

Penny Pinching

I didn't do any baking or cooking today, so I'm going to share a few more of my penny pinching tips that really make a difference in our house:

Milk

I love milk. I could drink a liter every day without noticing. We buy milk once a week (as a splurge) and drink it exclusively on it's own. We don't use it for cereal or baking. We use powdered milk for those types of things. Powdered milk costs $1.25 per litre, as opposed to $1.42/liter (which is for the cheapest milk, not the premium or organic varieties). The $1.25/liter is based on their mix suggestion, which is 1 1/2 cups for every 4 cups. I use 1 1/2 cups for 1.5 liters and get a far better bang for my buck and it just tastes like skim milk. Try a small bag of the powdered milk, see if you can handle watering it down to a "skim" or the difference in cost just may not be worth it. Make powdered milk well in advance (the night before you need it) so it has time to dissolve thoroughly - and you'll barely tell the difference (if you do it's probably in your head).

Candy/Treats

I love candy. I hate paying for it because it's like paying someone to produce something irresponsibly (look into Fair Trade sugar) that is bad for you! If you're going to indulge in something that is not even close to healthy, at least try making it for yourself! Think of something and you can probably make it (well, not red licorice or cheezies).

Some of our family favourites are:

Caramel.... yikes, only make this once or twice a year

http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Caramels-149204

Suckers/Hard Candy

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/halloween-lollipops

Marshmallow

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/momma-reiners-chocolate-covered-marshmallows

Sponge Toffee (sometimes drizzled with chocolate)

http://www.life123.com/food/candies-fudge/toffee/the-best-sponge-toffee-recipe.shtml

Caramel Corn

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramel-Corn-IV/Detail.aspx

Chips

- No recipe for this one. If you have oil for frying, simply use a cheese slicer to get nice thin pieces of potato, soak them in cold water, dry them off as best you can and fry at 350 until crispy and golden brown. My kids like sprinkling the popcorn flavour powder on them, but I like mine with just a bit of salt. You will only need a small amount per person, these fill you up a lot more than chips from a bag.

Other Kitchen Costs:

- Stop using paper towel for everything! There are a few brands of 100% post-consumer recycled paper towel available now, so our family is getting used to having paper towel back in our life - but we still don't use it for much. Use rags and cloths! The amount of money you are throwing in your garbage or compost would blow your mind! Not to mention the environmental costs of using paper towel. I'm not sure what's so hard about using a cloth, rinsing it out and using it again - but we seem to be pretty spoiled about this. Just try eliminating paper towel for a week and see how you fare.

- Bags bags and more bags. How many of you send your kids to school with litterless lunches? Do you brown bag it to work? Besides the environmental plusses of doing the "litterless lunch" there are many financial plusses. Bags, saran wrap, waxed paper and aluminum foil cost money. It may not seem to be that big of a deal, but over the course of a year it can really add up. I have all these items in my cupboard, but some of them last for years (literally). Why not use something that can be rinsed and reused? We've been using the same tupperware for lunches for two years, and the kids have managed to keep track of them. We don't wash everything every night (what's the point?) but we make sure they get a good scrub at least once or twice a week or when the jam leaks out of the sandwich, etc. This is a great opportunity to open dialogue with your kids not only about the environment and their responsibility, but about what things cost. They may want the Spiderman ziploc bag like their friends, but maybe if they want it that bad they can do a few jobs around the house to pay for it themselves.

Pizza & Sausage Rolls.... and Sunday's Banana Cream Pie

Monty posing with today's pizza and sausage rolls. As impressive as this heap of food is (for only $26.00) we already ate two pizzas and five sausage rolls!

Pizza & Sausage Rolls

I've got a GREAT and fast pizza dough recipe that I use not only for pizza but for sausage rolls as well - so today, it's pizza and sausage rolls.

I double this recipe for each (pizza & rolls):

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp yeast

Dissolve sugar and salt in warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let proof (5 minutes or until bubbly)

Add to yeast mixture:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup milk (or water)

Begin to add flour, one cup at a time up to

4c flour

Turn dough onto floured work surface and knead for 8 minutes or so (until you poke the dough and it springs back)

Cover with damp dishtowel/cloth and let rise for 1/2 - 1 hr.

Use this time to shred cheese, and prepa

re any toppings you'd like for your pizza.

Preheat oven to 450F

When dough has risen, punch down and remove from bowl onto lightly floured or oiled (I use oil) board. Separate into whatever size you'd like depending on crust thickness, etc. If you are uncomfortable stretching your dough, you can roll it out - rolling is also MUCH faster.

Place dough on greased or parchment lined cookie sheets BEFORE topping them. If you have any extra alfredo sauce or spaghetti sauce in the fridge use that for your sauce. I use a pasta sauce that has lots of veggies and spinach so that it's kind of snuck its way into the pizza without anyone knowing it. Bake for 12-14 minutes and let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

If you plan on baking for the freezer, I fully cook my pizzas before freezing. That way I can pull a few out before I go to bed and they're lunch-ready in the morning. Let the pizzas cool completely before freezing.

Sausage Rolls

Use the same dough recipe from the pizza, double if desired. While dough is rising I like to slightly brown my sausages so a lot of the grease cooks off before getting in the oven.

*I buy breakfast sausage in bulk. I don't always like buying bulk because for most people it means throwing more away. Buying frozen breakfast sausage made in Canada from Canadian meat can cost less than $2/lb if you're buying from a wholesaler such as National Grocer's or Costco. Price check, ingredient check (sometimes you don't want the cheapest option) and stock up! *

Roll dough into a flat 1 cm sheet. You may need to measure your sausage on the dough before you start cutting. Roll each sausage in enough dough to go around it ONCE and pinch the seam together. Bake at 425 F for up to 20 minutes depending on whether or not you've precooked your sausage and if the dough is browning nicely.

VEGETARIAN ALERT

Why let us meat-loving savages have all the fun? Red peppers are always on clearance (who can afford them full price?). Roast some peppe

rs and stuff the rolls with feta and peppers instead of sausage. Brush the inside of the roll with a bit of olive oil (and herbs if you'd like) to make it even more delicious.

These are great cold, hot, lukewarm, etc. The kids love a sausage roll in their lunch next to a half-sandwich. We usually have these eaten before we need to freeze them, but they'll last in the fridge for up to a week if you want to plan on a sausage roll week!

Breakdown:

$8.00 flour

$8.00 cheese

$2.00 spaghetti sauce

$3.00 pepperoni

$5.00 sausage

$26.00 made : 30 AMAZING sausage rolls and 29 DELIGHTFUL pizzas.

Take that, recession.

Banana Cream Pie

The family was invited to my parents house for dinner on Sunday, so I "splurged" and spent about $3.00 on making a banana cream pie to bring for dessert.

This recipe is adapted from Cooking Nook.com

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla or banana flavouring
2 to 4 bananas, sliced thinly
1 - 9" baked pastry shell

Combine sugar, flour, and salt in a saucepan. Add milk gradually. Cook, stiring constantly, over medium heat until boiling. Cook and stir an additional 2 minutes and remove from burner.

Stir small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks, immediately add egg yolk mixture to hot mixture and cook for 2 minutes, stiring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add butter and vanilla (or banana flavour) and stir til smooth.

Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture and cool.

I chose to top mine with leftover chocolate ganache from a few weeks ago, but you could make meringue from the leftover egg whites or top it with whipped cream.

*Don't throw away your egg whites - I'll be making marshmallows soon, and that is something you definitely want to try!*