Soaking Grains

It must be the weather. The temperature is in the 60s and rainy. Or, it could be the signs of autumn:




Whatever it is, this week I have been in a cooking mood! On Tuesday I made four different marinades and packaged up 15 pounds of chicken. (It was on sale for $1.69 a pound!! It was begging to go into my freezer.) Below you get a nice view of the inside of my frig (you're welcome) in which I have Lemon-Pepper, Middle-Eastern, Cranberry, and good ol' BBQ marinades happily creating tasty future meals. (The dish with the green lid is cucumber soup.)

This morning I checked my upcoming menus for the weekend and discovered I had lots of bread recipes planned. Following the advice in Nourishing Traditions, I soak my flour with homemade cultured milk to neutralize the phytates. Doing this makes the nutrients in the grain bio-available (cool word, eh?) to your body. Without soaking (or using sourdough, or sprouting the grains), the nutrients sort of move through your body without really benefiting it. To read more about that, click HERE.

I have three bowls of flour soaking for three different bread recipes. The soaking time is overnight, so tomorrow will be a baking day.

In the picture below, starting on the left, you see my grain mill bottom (I LOVE my grain mill), and a large blue bowl holding spelt flour dough for making 4 pizza crusts. On top of that (in the bowl that states, "The Good Stuff is In Here"), is oat flour for biscuits. In front of those bowls is tomorrow's breakfast--Buttermilk pancakes. The tall jar holds some oat groats (lovely name).

I really do think it's the weather. How about you? Are you in a cooking mood due to conditions beyond your control?

(BTW, if anyone would like to contribute some recipes for my "Emergency Cookbook" request HERE, please email me. My email address is at the top of the page.)

Batch Cooking Recipes: Ground Beef

In my LAST POST I showed the results of batch cooking my 18 pounds of ground beef. Below are the recipes I used:

BBQ Hamburgers (My husband's recipe):

6 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 large vidalia onions, chopped
6 T Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup smoked BBQ sauce
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
6 eggs

Mix. Press into patties. Freeze at this point. Fry, bake, or grill when ready to eat.

(Note: "Regular Hamburgers" on my list in the last post means I ran out of the BBQ sauce. I used two pounds to make the six burgers.)

Ground Beef Mix

6 pounds ground beef
1 large vidalia onion, chopped
1 T minced garlic
8 ounces tomato paste
16 ounces diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt

Using a LARGE pot, cook beef, onion, and garlic together until done. Add tomatoes and salt and stir. Freeze in 2 1/2 cup portions (approximately 1 pound) in ziploc bags.

When ready to use, just add to different ground beef recipes (eg chili, tacos, add rice and beans, etc.)

Nourishing Traditions Meat Loaf

4 pounds ground beef
1 large vidalia onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 stick butter
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
2 tsp. sea salt
3 cups bread crumbs
2 cups whole milk (recipe calls for cream)
2 eggs
Tomato sauce, tomato paste, or ketchup

Saute onions, carrots, and celery in butter until soft. Add chili flakes and salt and remove from stove.

Soak bread crumbs in cream/milk.

Mix meat with sauteed vegetables, soaked bread, and eggs. Using two 9 x 13 pans (I had only one--the other pan is slightly smaller) lined with waxed paper, form into flat, rectangular loaves leaving about 1 inch of space all around.

Ice with tomato sauce. Freeze at this point. When frozen, remove from pans and wrap or put into ziploc bags.

When ready to cook, grease the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Set frozen meatloaf (minus the waxed paper) in middle of pan. Carefully pour about 1 cup of water around the perimeter of meatloaf.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

What to Do With 18 Lbs of Ground Beef?

I thought about posting just this picture as a "Wordless Wednesday" entry, but I just couldn't do it. I had to give the details as I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment!

Many years ago I used to do Once-a-Month Cooking. It was absolutely great, but I was bone-tired by the end of the three day process. I've now switched over to "batch cooking." This is an excellent example of that.

I don't know about other areas of the country, but ground beef has not been priced below $1.99 in literal years. I remember 99 cents a pound being a regular thing, but no more. This weekend (Labor Day) there was a S.A.L.E.!! At $1.49 a pound I snapped up all they would let me have. That happened to be 18 pounds. Of ground beef.

When I got up this morning, I knew I had to address those mounds of beef filling up the bottom of my frig. I made a plan. Five hours later (cooking AND homeschooling), I was able to take the picture you see above which consists of (left to right):

• 2 Nourishing Traditions meat loaves
• 7 bags (2 1/2 cups each) of "Beef Mix"
• 6 regular hamburgers (for tonight's supper)
• 18 BBQ hamburgers (layered in pan)

I'll post the recipes in another post as I have something more pressing to do right now.