Freezing

Heather - posted on 12/12/2008

Here you go, Sara. I hope you have fun!

Lentil Soup:

* 1-1/4 cups dry lentils
* 8 cups water (2 quarts)
* 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
* 3 or 4 celery stalks, peeled and sliced
* 1 large onion, peeled and sliced
* 4 bouillon cubes or 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Dumplings

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 egg or 3 tablespoons more milk (see note below)
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1-1/2 cups flour
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon each salt & sugar

Begin by making the soup. Rinse the lentils under running water. Then place them in a large pot and cover them with 2-quarts of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes. The lentils will be almost tender. Add the vegetables, bouillon, garlic and black pepper. Stir gently and allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes more. The vegetables and lentils will both be tender. Taste and add salt if you think it needs it.

Now look over the amount of liquid in the pot. Add enough extra water so that all of the solids are well covered with liquid. They don't need to be swimming over their heads, but they should be wading up to their waists. Bring the mixture to a slow lazy simmer, not a boil. If the soup boils it will disintegrate the dumplings instead of cooking them up into fluffy, glimmering jewels.

While the soup is simmering, prepare your dumplings. Get out a big bowl. In it combine the oil, egg and milk until they are well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix it up to a stiff batter, like for drop biscuits. Set it aside until you need it.

When the soup is simmering slowly, it is time to drop in the dumplings. Take small rounded scoops of the dough with teaspoon and drop them into the simmering broth, on top of the vegetables. Keep dropping the dough blobs until you have scraped the bowl clean. Now put the lid, or a handy pizza pan over the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Do not peak. Let the dumplings simmer covered for the full 20 minutes. The thing about dumplings is that they cook partly from the boiling soup and partly from the steam. The steam is what makes them fluffy, and the simmering broth is what cooks them all the way through. If you peak while the dumplings are cooking then they will turn into lumpy, doughy rocks. When the time is up, serve the soup and dumplings as soon as possible. The soup will be thickened and the dumplings will be light and fluffy.

Makes between 4 and 6 servings.

NOTE: If you don't have any extra eggs, then leave out the egg and replace it with 3 tablespoons of milk. The dumplings will still be good.

Black Bean Soup:

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 carrots, sliced
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 1/2 a green pepper, chopped
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 4 cups chicken broth
* 15 or 16 oz can black beans (1-1/2 cups cooked beans)
* Goodly dash pepper

Heat the olive or other type of vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, carrots, celery, green pepper and garlic. Sauté until the vegetables become somewhat tender and very fragrant, about 5 minutes or so. Add the chicken broth and black beans. Stir the soup up and let it simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Now, if you have the time and inclination get out your potato masher. Mash the soup in the pan with the potato masher until it thickens slightly and the vegetables are mostly squishy. You don't have to do this step, but I like the way the texture changes after the soup is mashed. Serve the soup with a dollop of yogurt on top if desired.

Basic Spaghetti Sauce:

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 10 oz. cans tomato puree
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
2 cups water
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoons italian seasonings
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons sugar

Combine all ingredients in crockpot. Stir well. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4)

You can add or change ingredients to make this more palatable to your family -- sausage, peppers, mushrooms, more garlic, less basil. . . however you like it. Sometimes I use brown sugar instead of white to mellow the acid of the tomato. It's delicious. :)

Chicken/Turkey soup:

I like to bake a chicken on the weekend with stuffing and potatoes and use the leftovers to make soup (or pot pie, or chicken and dumpins) during the week.

Pick chicken over, removing most of the meat and set aside. Place bones, wings and skin in pot and just cover with water. Add an onion cut in quarters, a stalk of celery coarsly chopped or broken and a carrot. Some people like to add a teaspoon or so of vinegar to the broth to make the most of the marrow in the bones.

Bring to a boil and simmer on the stove for two hours or so. When the stock makes your lips a little sticky as you taste it, it is done. At this point you must remove the bones and vegetables by pouring broth through a colander. Now you can cool it completely, scrape the fat off the top and boil to reduce the broth for freezing or later use, or you can let cool a little and scoop most of the fat from the top and use right away (which is what I do).

Now you can add seasonings. Sometimes I add some bullion or canned chicken stock if the broth isn't as flavorful as I like (reducing the broth by lightly boiling for several hours also makes it more potent or if you made gravy when you baked the chicken you could use it in the soup) Now your soup is nearly done.

Add whatever chopped fresh vegetables you like and have on hand to the soup. (Because of the starch, I boil potatoes separately and add later. Same with noodles) Put celery, carrots, sweet potato etc in first to cook longest and add corn, broccoli, summer squash nearer completion of soup to keep veggies a little crisp. Add the meat you picked off the chicken before you started and serve hot with crackers or a good bread.

I hope this has been helpful. I love cooking for my family and these are some of their favorite recipes.

(I should add that I use the website hillbillyhousewife.com to get a lot of my ideas and recipes for cooking and then tailor them to my family's tastes. I don't want to take credit where it's not my due the recipes for lentil soup and black beans soup are two such recipes)

Sara - posted on 12/11/2008

Thanks for all your suggestions! I sometimes forget that I can just make a little extra when I'm cooking dinner and just freeze the leftovers. I would love your recipe for a couple of your soups, actually they all sound great! Also your spaghetti sauce. Mine never turns out quite right, so I end up just getting one of the jars at the store, and those never really taste that great either. I'm going to give the freezing thing a shot this weekend!

Heather - posted on 12/11/2008

I freeze just about everything. The way we do it is to freeze leftovers so that they don't go bad (and so we don't get sick of eating the same thing three days in a row).

Some things I find freeze best whole or in individual portions: lasagne, refried beans & homemade tortillas, chicken parmesan, chicken and dumplins, red beans and rice, soups (lentil, black bean, chicken, turkey) homemade spaghetti sauce, pot pie (I freeze the filling and gravy and pour into the pan before placing the crust and then bake, but if it's moist enough, single portions freeze nicely). . . and on and on.

I'll happily give you my recipe for any of those options, just say the word. I 'll tell you though that a simple way to make this work well is to buy the 1/2 cup size storage containers and save the last bits of whatever meal it is that you know your baby liked.

Mine likes pinto beans, lentil soup (or lentil chili), Amy's mac& cheese (I add veggies) teriyaki salmon, and pancakes (which I keep on hand and in which I add blended fruits and veggies such as sweet potatoes or apples).

Freezing them in such small quantities means you don't have to make a whole extra meal to freeze, but it also means a short defrost time. I just defrost it in the microwave for 90 seconds and then cook until it's warm.

I know you aren't home to cook every day, but even if you freeze the leftovers on the weekends you should have enough for your son. As for yourselves, I'd suggest combining freezing with using the crockpot. That way you can set something simmering in the morning and all he's got to remember is to scoop it into bowls or to make rice or pasta.

I have a few crockpot recipes, but I'm pretty new to crockpot cooking myself. So far the best things are homemade spaghetti sauce, southern turnip greens, and cooking beans.

Good luck!