Taquitos

I've recently started doing more freezer cooking, preparing meals ahead of time to store in the freezer to be thawed and baked at a later time.  Let me tell you, we are loving the convenience it provides for us!  One of the meals we've tried out and been very happy with was homemade taquitos.  (Ok, so they aren't really a meal so much as a homemade convenience food, but it's better for you than the overpriced box of them you get at the store!)  I've had a couple friends ask how we did ours, so I figured I'd share the process here so you could try it yourself if you'd like.
You will need
one roast, cut (arm, rump, etc.) and weight of your choosing
taco seasoning
corn tortillas
oil
shredded cheese
crock pot
skillet
bowls
preferred method for shredding roast (either forks or food processor)
strainer
foil lined cookie sheets
freezer bags

First, cook a roast in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours with a couple packets of taco seasoning (or make your own) and 1-1 1/2 cups of water.  I cooked mine the day before assembling the taquitos and then let it cool in the refrigerator overnight.  This has the added benefit of the fat separating to the top of the cooking juices and solidifying, so it was easy to skim off the top.  Shred the roast with two forks or in your food processor, removing excess fat as you go.  Return meat to cooking juices to soak until you are ready to assemble the taquitos.

Soften your corn tortillas on a hot skillet (I like cast iron) in batches with a bit of oil.  I'm sure you can use whatever oil you'd like, but I used canola oil since I didn't want the distinct flavor of olive oil for this particular recipe. Remember, you just want the tortillas soft and warm - don't let them get crisp on the edges or they won't roll nicely.

I use my Pampered Chef Kitchen Spritzer for the oiling of the tortillas.  It gives you just enough oil to soften the tortillas without making things greasy.  I probably used 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil total  to get around 50 taquitos, which will cut down on the fat of your final product considerably compared to the store-bought version, especially considering those are deep fried before they are frozen.

I usually do 4-6 tortillas at a time if I'm doing this recipe alone.  Having a stack larger than that waiting for assembly can lead to dried out and cracked tortillas when you go to roll them up.  If you have an assembly line then just have one person in charge of tortillas and the other can handle the rest of the assembly on their own.

Lightly drain the juices from the shredded meat.  

I don't press all the cooking liquid out of the meat to maintain some of the juiciness, but if you were to just take the meat straight from the juices it would be too wet and soak through your tortillas.  Just putting the meat in a strainer placed over a bowl and letting it rest for a bit seems to work just fine.

Sprinkle some cheese on the softened tortillas and top with drained meat.

Tightly roll up taquitos and place seam side down on a foil lined cookie sheet, making sure they aren't touching.  Freeze for an hour or so until they hold their shape and filling doesn't come out when you pick them up.

Load frozen taquitos in labeled freezer bags, removing as much air as possible to help guard against freezer burn.  You can use a drinking straw to suck out the extra air if you want to be really thorough about this.  Store in freezer until you're ready to enjoy your tasty treats!

To Cook

Place frozen taquitos on a foil lined cookie sheet, bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, flip taquitos to opposite side for even crisping and bake an additional 5 minutes.

or

Warm in microwave for 30-45 seconds to take the chill off, place in a skillet over med/high heat and crisp them on all sides.

I may try making these with shredded chicken or even ground beef next time to see if we like those quite as well as the shredded beef ones.  Also, don't feel like you have to do an entire roast just for this.  This would be a great way to reinvent leftovers for a new meal (That's actually how I started making shredded beef tacos when we first got married since Matt and I could never finish an entire roast on our own.  Roast one night, add taco seasoning to the leftover meat and have tacos the next night.)

I hope this inspires you to try out some freezer cooking for yourself.  If you've already ventured into freezer cooking, what are some of your favorite recipes that you've tried?  I'd love to hear about them!

Protein Bars

I made these protein bars to have available as a snack after seeing the recipe on the MoneySavingMom.com and after a friend made them and said they were quite tasty.  They were quite good, but I can't just leave things well enough alone, and Matt requested more peanut butter flavor, so I played with the recipe a bit.  Here's what I ended up doing.

 1 mashed banana
3 cups dried oatmeal
4 Tbs. flax seed, ground
4 scoops vanilla protein powder
3/4 c. peanut butter (approximately, I just kept globing it in there after doubling the original amount.  Matt really likes his peanut butter!)
1/3 c. coconut, toasted (I don't like the taste or texture of regular shredded coconut, but toasted doesn't bother me)
1/2 c. coconut oil
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. dried blueberries
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I used a half semi-sweet, half milk chocolate this time around.  No dark chocolate in the house right now.)

Mix everything except dried fruit and chocolate in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment until well combined.  Divide mixture in half and add cranberries to one half and blueberries to the other half, mixing well.  Press firmly in to a foil lined 9x9 pan, blueberries on one half and cranberries on the other.  Melt chocolate in double boiler (or glass bowl set over a small sauce pan) over hot but not boiling water. (Don't let water touch the bottom of the double boiler instert/glass bowl.  This can scald your chocolate.)  Spread melted chocolate over bars, freeze until firm enough to cut, at least one hour.  Score chocolate with a sharp knife before cutting, otherwise your chocolate may crack and come off the bars.  Wrap individual bars in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

I eat them straight from the freezer, but you could let a bar sit for a few minutes to soften up a bit if you prefer.  They don't take long to soften up.

So basically I doubled the stuff in the bar we liked and left the chocolate on top the same so Matt would like the chocolate-to-bar ratio better.  The girls think the bars are very tasty as well.  I'm sure I'll tinker with the recipe a bit more in the future for fun (I'm contemplating using drained applesauce instead of the mashed banana just to see how that goes), so if anything else super tasty results I'll be sure to let you all know!

Recipe Round-up

As you all know I enjoy baking a cooking quite a bit, so I thought I'd share some recipes I've tried out over the last few months.  I'm only posting the ones that I think are worth your consideration, so if you do end up trying any of these out I'd love to hear what you thought of the recipe.

Fruit Braids

The one on the left has cherry pie filling, the center one has this blueberry sauce in it (minus the cinnamon) with most of the sauce drained off to avoid making the braid too soggy, and the one on the right has the apricot filling the recipe called for.  

These were FABULOUS!  Just one batch made enough dough for all three braids, so we were able to share these with our families for Easter.  I was definitely most partial to the blueberry, and the cherry came in a close 2nd.  I'm not a huge apricot person myself, although the filling was good.  I'm sure it would have been a totally different pastry if the filling had been made with fresh apricots instead of the dried ones the recipe called for.

Carrot Cake

This was a very dense, healthified carrot cake recipe.  Lots of fruit, nuts and carrots in it, and only 1 1/2 cups of flour in the whole thing.  Very tasty, but if you're looking for a more "cakey" recipe, this isn't the one for you.  The frosting was good, but I felt it needed a bit more tang to it, so I added a few squirts of lemon juice, which I thought made it just right.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Oh my word!  This stuff is delicious!  Heaven on a spoon!  Stop reading this right now and go make some!  Now!  You won't regret it (unless you eat the whole batch, in which case you might).

This is a very creamy recipe, and it definitely doesn't qualify as low-fat.  You could probably lessen the damage to your waistline by either using all half-and-half or subbing some 2% milk for some of the cream or half-and-half and still have a very tasty ice cream, I'll leave that up to you. 

Pancakes with Blackberry Sauce

I realize most people already have a "go to" pancake recipe of their own, so I won't be offended if you don't try this one (although it is very good, and works just as well with whole wheat flour as with unbleached white flour or half of each) but if you have access to fresh blackberries you really should try making the sauce.  Leave the brandy out if you'd like, but it really isn't very noticeable at all.  I originally served this sauce with ice cream and brownies, which was phenomenal, but I didn't take a picture of that since we had Matt's family over for dessert and that seemed a bit rude/tacky to take pictures of their dessert before they were allowed to eat it.  I used the leftovers on pancakes the next day and that is where this picture came from.  I've made this a few times since then, always with frozen berries we picked last season, and it always turns out wonderfully.  Truly a treat, especially with those brownies I was talking about ;)

Roasted Chickpeas

Very tasty and rather addictive, and inexpensive to make.  It's a bit tough to get them dried out to that perfect crunchy state, but oh so worth it when you do! 

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

This is a recipe from my mother-in-law, and it always goes over very well whenever I take it anywhere.  It truly tastes like summer and would be a welcome addition at any backyard food fest you may be attending this year.

1-16 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 medium tomato, chopped (I often use quartered grape tomatoes)

5 green onions, chopped

3/4 c. frozen corn (I almost double this)

2 T. cilantro, chopped

1 T. red wine vinegar (I often double this also)

3 T. olive oil

1 clove garlic, chopped or minced (I usually up this a bit)

1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin (to taste)

salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Combine and let set for 1-2 hours, the longer the better.  Serve with tortilla chips (Baked Lays Scoops are particularly tasty in my opinion)

Southwest Roll-ups

I read about these on one of the couponing sites I frequent and decided to give them a try.  We were not disappointed - they were very tasty and convenient.  I did make the homemade refried beans that were suggested, and they really weren't too difficult at all, and I think they made a huge impact on the overall taste (canned refried beans kinda gross me out).  They did dry out during cooking a bit faster than I had anticipated based on what the recipe said, but with a bit of salsa on the finished product you didn't even notice.  These were really handy to have individually frozen for quick lunches or dinners.  I'd unwrap them, pop them in the microwave for about 45 seconds to take the chill off of them and then toast them in the cast iron skillet for a crunchy exterior and serve with salsa.  Quick, satisfying and filling.  I hope to try out the homemade tortilla recipe in the future, but don't hold your breath for that post or you may pass out.

Baklava from "Good Eats"

*cue the heavenly chorus*

While all of the recipes I have posted here are worthy of your attention, this one is by far the most delectable morsel I have made in recent memory.  If Matt were to tell me I had to choose only one thing to give out to friends and family at Christmas time instead of my usual baking extravaganza this would be it, hands down, no second thoughts about it.  I followed the recipe as written and it was incredible.  I even went out and bought a coffee grinder so I could grind fresh spices (as recommended by the recipe's author Alton Brown - he really is a food rock star), which made all the difference in the world.  It's like a nutty, sweet, perfectly spiced celebration in your mouth.  I also tested this against another recipe and they were like two totally different desserts, with one being obviously inferior to the other.  I had some friends in my knitting group do a blind taste test and the Good Eats baklava won, hands down.  You could probably leave the rose water out and not have a noticeably different taste, I really couldn't taste it in the finished product, so that will save you a few bucks if you don't already happen to keep rose water around as a pantry staple (although I'm sure I'm the only person here that didn't have any on hand.  I'm such a slacker ;) )  As an added bonus, I discovered phyllo dough at Target today for almost half the price of the same brand at Dillons - wooohooo!
So yes.  Baklava is good.  This baklava is stupendous!
If you'd like to see the episode this recipe is featured on you can do so here.
(I so want to be an Alton Brown groupie)

Deep Dish Pizza
Mmmmmmm...pizza.
My sister-in-law Katie went to Chicago a while back and had a deep dish pizza sent home, which the family enjoyed for her birthday.  It got me thinking about making our own, so we decided to have a homemade pizza party at my in-laws a while back.  We used the crust from this recipe (scroll down for the crust recipe - be sure to get the semolina flour - it's what gives the crust that awesome crispiness) and made three different kinds of pizza - a beefy pepperoni pizza, a chicken/tomato/basil pesto pizza and a veggie pizza.  They were all DELICIOUS!

For the beefy pepperoni pizza we used the sauce mix ingredients listed here (as a side note I did make the puffy pizza in the crock pot that the sauce originally went with, and while it was tasty and the girls ate it, if you're really wanting pizza this isn't going to curb your craving.  Good for an easy weeknight meal though.) mixed with a little under a pound of browned ground beef and topped with mozzarella, turkey pepperoni and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Yuuuummmmy!
For the chicken/tomato/basil pesto pizza I just cooked a couple chicken breasts on the stove, shredded them into descent sized chunks and added some jarred pesto my mother-in-law had on hand (from Sam's) and topped it with mozzarella, sliced grape tomatoes and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Sooooo good!  I'm getting hungry thinking about it!
For the veggie pizza (not pictured) we used the same tomato sauce ingredients linked above and added mushrooms, peppers and onions along with the same cheeses mentioned above.  While I did not try this particular pizza (big surprise!) everyone else seemed to really like it.  Matt said he enjoyed how fresh it tasted with the veggies in it.
I plan to play around with this a bit to figure out a good way to freeze these pizzas.  The dough recipe (which I think is what made the whole thing so incredible) makes enough for two deep dish pizzas, so unless we're having company that's way too much for us.  I tried assembling a pizza, baking it for half the time and freezing it, then just taking the pizza straight from the freezer and baking it for an additional 25 minutes, but it was still a bit doughy in the center when the crust was perfect on the edges.  I'll probably try totally defrosting the pizza next time, which will take more forethought but probably taste better in the end.
Oh, and be sure to make your pizza in a cast iron skillet - it makes all the difference in the world!

Fortune Cookies
When my family gets together for dinner at my parents house we like to make stuff that's easier to do with more than one set of hands.  Bierocks and egg rolls are two of our regulars, and this past week we decided on egg rolls.  This gave me an excuse to try my hand at making fortune cookies.  Let me tell you, those little buggers are hot when you form then into that little crescent moon shape!  Holy cow!  This particular recipe was OK, but the cookies were very done on the outside edges while the center was still a bit sticky when the timer would go off.  This resulted in the fortunes Matt wrote sticking to the inside of the cookies (and Claire eating part of a fortune).  So while this is a novel item to make, it most definitely won't go on my regular rotation.

I hope some of these recipes have inspired you to try some new stuff at your house.
Bon appetit!

How to Make Egg Noodles

Homemade egg noodles from scratch is a Greenlee tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was a kid my Great-Grandma Gebhardt would make them for those special meals, but was rather secretive about the recipe and technique. They were always magically yellow, which bewildered my mom when she married into the family since she saw the raw noodles and knew they weren't yellow to begin with, and the chicken broth they were cooked in wasn't yellow either (grandma was hiding a bottle of yellow food coloring in her apron pocket she later found out).

Well Great-Grandma passed away when I was a pre-teen, and a couple years ago I was talking about the noodles and Matt's Grandma Palmer offered to show me how she made her egg noodles, an offer I eagerly took her up on.

When word got out to the family that I had learned the secrets of homemade egg noodles, I was appointed the noodle-maker for the holiday meals. My mom had made noodles for a few of the in between years, but her recipe was one she found actually written down in a cookbook, and everybody knows that if something is actually written down for mass publication that it just isn't as good as the stuff you just know how to make because a family member taught you (even though I thought mom's tasted just fine), so they had switched to using the frozen Reames noodles, which are more convenient but I still don't particularly care for (too thick for my taste).

I made noodles for Thanksgiving since we would be spending it with dad's side of the family, but informed dad that I wouldn't be making them for Christmas since they aren't a tradition with mom's side of the family. This made him a bit sad, since he really likes his egg noodles. So as a surprise I made a smaller batch for his birthday dinner (not the usual full dozen eggs worth that I make for the holidays). He was very happy, and there were even some leftovers, so he got to enjoy them for a few days afterwards.

Since noodle making is a dying art (if you want to call it that) I figured I'd share my knowledge with anyone that may happen to actually read this (so basically Michelle, I would guess :) )

Beat together by hand 2 eggs, 1/2 eggshell of water (2 tbs. maybe? I've never tried to put an actual measurement on it) and a bit of salt

(Matt's grandma uses 1/8 tsp., but I usually just shake in a tiny bit. You'll get

more salt from the chicken broth when you cook them)

Well-beaten egg mixture

Incorporate as much flour into the egg mixture as you can with your fork. The dough may be sticky still, but you won't be able to mix any more in without using your hands.

Divide dough in half and knead in as much flour as you can to form a dough that is no longer sticky-firm but not tough - and can be rolled out on a well floured surface. Roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with 2nd half of dough.

Put a generous amount of flour on the dough disks and roll the flattened dough jellyroll style. If you don't put enough flour on the dough it may be difficult to unroll later on. (This is 6 eggs worth of noodles)

Slice the rolls with a sharp knife using a rocking motion so you don't stretch out the dough, making slices to desired width (mine are usually between 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide)

Unroll the sliced noodles (this is a good place for kids or spouses to help out!)

Toss the unrolled noodles with flour to prevent the cut sides from sticking and spread them out into basically a single layer. Allow noodles to rest and dry out a bit on the counter, covered in a clean tea towel.

You can make these noodles in the morning and use them that evening for chicken and noodles, or once stiff to the touch they can be bagged up in a freezer bag and frozen for use at a later date. If you want to use them in soup don't keep the tossing flour in the bag with the noodles, if you want them to be in a thicker sauce keep the flour for when you cook the noodles.

Matt's grandma doesn't do the jellyroll part of the process, she just leaves the rolled out dough to dry and then slices her noodles from that. I don't have good luck with cutting my noodles from the flat dry dough - I tend to crack the noodles and end up with lots of short little pieces (I'm sure it's just a mental block I have since I was raised doing the jellyroll technique ) plus I think the tossing of the noodles when they're moist gives them more shape for later on - it all comes down to personal preference and if the extra steps are worth it to you.

I don't recommend making more than 2 eggs worth at a time since you're mixing everything by hand and it gets hard to incorporate the flour into a larger number of eggs. I just do 2 eggs worth at a time, let the bowl soak while I knead and roll, and then clean it out for the next batch.