Productive Weekend

With the air conditioner getting fixed this past Wednesday, I feel like I have been ten times more productive--I even cooked yesterday and today!

(last weekend Theresa, my sister-in-law and I went to my parents house to prepare meals for the week for ourselves. We made lots of delicious things, including salads, tuna noodle casserole, sloppy joe's. We also bagged up some pineapple, strawberries, and veggies so we could have quick grab n' go meals for the week, as we both have crazy schedules and my darling husband (who often cooks while I'm at work) has been working himslef, we had to find something to eat for the week. So-last weekend, we cooked several meals, with the idea that if we got ahead one weekend, we would then be able to always have something in the freezer to grab for lunch--or dinner, if we didn't have time to make anything or were too tired.)

SO: This weekend, in an effort to cook at least 1 meal for the week to freeze, and keep up the lunch supply, I decided to make some soup. My friend, Jourdan, made some delicious wild rice soup last week. So, this inspired me to break out the ole cook book (Better Homes and Gardens...it's got some delicous recipes that I have neglected to cook--so I figured it was ABOUT TIME to try them out).

First recipe: Potato Soup. Yeah-I'm sure many of you have made it, but not me. Why ? I have no idea. I really like potato soup-just never made it. So, as I was parousing the soup options, I also came across a recipe for corn chowder. Hmm-THAT sounds good too....bacon, corn, potatoes...yup, I'm sold. So off I went to the grocery store to collect a few more ingredients for the soups and food for the week.

After a pleasant experience at Dillons I was back at home, ready to get to cooking.
(not that grocery stores are usually un-pleasant, but I was in and out of there in 30 minutes!! AND there were lots of people to direct me to a few supplies I was having a hard time finding, not to mention a friendly cashier accompanied by a nice "bag boy" (what else do you call them?) that was kind enough to help little ole (ok-big-bellied baby-Robin) to my car. It was so nice to find FRESH produce and delicous deals on fruit--yesterday blackberries were $1 !!! Shall I tell you I was pretty excited, so I stocked up and froze them. Whenever Karen decides her "strawberry plantation" needs some harvesting, maybe I can make a trip up to visit and put some of those in my freezer too....)

When I arrived home, mom was there to just "hang out." That is just fine with me : ) It's nice having family in town again--and she was more than happy to be put to work. I think she chopped, sliced, and bagged nearly all the fruits and veggies I got while I started getting the ingredients for my soups ready and cleaned up the dishes so I would have room to cook. THANKS MOM!!

So the cooking began:

I had black beans in my cabinet that I have been thinking about cooking for a long time. One of my favorite Food Network shows is Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d'Arabian. The host, Melissa d'Arabian was the winner of last summer's Next Food Network Star. So, as I watched the show religiously to try to come up with some easy, creative things to cook, Melissa caught my eye. With her show, she always cooks DELICOUS food for four people using only $10 or LESS! Even though she has never met me, I feel like we are on a first name basis, as I like her tips and ideas for cooking, not to mention they are pretty reasonable and inexpensive dishes. So often times, I will tell Chris that "Melissa does this...or Melissa said that" : -) in regards to cooking ideas and helpful hints for easy, cheap meals. ALSO, Melissa often talks about adding beans into your diet-as they are a cheap protein. So, began my thinking about black beans.

When I eat at Chipotle, I like to add black beans to my burritos, so why not try to make them? Sure, the cans are not THAT expensive, but according to Melissa, you can get a bag of dried beans for "not a lot more money" and then you can cook, freeze, and use them at your leisure.

So yesterday was my first attempt at beans of any type-I just happened to have black beans. I read the directions, and set out on my first adventure of the day. I followed the "quick soak" instructions, followed by setting the beans to simmer for the required time. As the beans cooked, I went on with my soups. After several hours (I stopped counting after 4) I decided that either the "quick soak" instructions were not such a great option, or I really could not cook beans. Unwilling to admit defeat, I let the black beans simmer all afternoon. FINALLY they were done cooking by about dinner time. After much releif of these relentless beans being cooked, I washed and stored them to freeze. SUCCESS. Then I though to myself: I don't like babysitting beans-I wonder if I can cook them in a crock pot? So, there I went-again-being adventurous with a new type of bean: Garbonzo beans. This time I skipped the "quick soak" instructions and soaked them for several hours (well, actually I decided mid-day that I would cook these new beans, so I started soaking them early with the intention of putting them in a crock pot to cook overnight on low). This morning: VOILA! perfecto! I ended up using 2 crock pots-a large one and a small one, but regardless, they were DONE and I was excited to have successfully cooked them while I was sleeping. Ah, I could get used to this! (but not the smell, I am not such a fan of that aspect of cooking them)

Oh-back to the soup recipes:
I made potato soup: Mom was kind enough to bring her food processor over for me to borrow while making the soup (and later hummus from the garbonzo beans). I made the soup, no problems. However, after babysitting the black beans all day, I decided that I was done cooking and put off the corn chowder until today.

This morning, after freezing the garbonzo beans (I think I will save hummus making for another weekend), I decided to get started on that 2nd soup. And it smelled WONDERFUL as i began sauteeing the vegetables ! Add in some bacon + potatoes + broth....delicious. Then the corn, milk, etc....yum!

I don't know why I haven't really made soups before. They are not really that hard. And they taste fantastic! I also have been wanting to try to make and freeze soups since last fall when I read an issue of Better Homes and Gardens where they discussed making soups when you have time, then freezing the soups flat on cookie sheets in freezer bags, labeling the bags, then storing the frozen soups like a "file" that is easily accessible when you want them. Ingenius! So today I got to give it a shot. So far, I'm loving it! It saves freezer space AND I like the idea of having a few options to pull out of the freezer when I need them. I can't wait to add to the collection.

Also, I decided to make a few roasts *(yeah-few-I made 2: one to eat for the week and one to freeze)* So now we will have delicous food for the week. yum yum. Can't wait until my wonderful husband gets home to enjoy the food (well, he will try the soups-don't know if he'll like them, but more for me if he doesn't!!) and hear all about his travels over the past week.

SO, if you see one of these:

With lots of these seats:

And the handsome man who looks like this:


Then I have a date with him when he returns this evening. I will even try to talk him into posting some photos and a short blog on his fun travels. Stay tuned!