Busy weekend

Oh, the recipes I could be posting about right now - 'big' oatmeal cookies, those famous World Peace Cookies, Asian glazed chicken drumsticks, strawberry bread, orange-zucchini bread, the most incredible coffee brownies. But, I don't have any of those blog posts ready - sorry! Stay tuned.

I cooked up a storm this weekend. Why would I do that on one of the hottest weekends in recent history? Well, we have air conditioning and it was too hot to do much outside so why not? I've been on a cooking ahead tangent since I am tired of rushing home to make dinner during the week and I am also tired of spending so much money on food. Planning and cooking ahead saves time and money.

I made a variation of Enchiladas Suizas last weekend and I put together two meal-size pans of them, one we ate last week and one was put in the freezer. Instead of using one package of boneless thighs for one dinner, I easily stretched it out to cover two dinners. I bought a pack of corn tortillas for $1 on sale, that had 30 tortillas in it. Not only did I make those two pans of Enchiladas Suizas, I also free-styled a Mexican lasagne with the last of them, using some ground beef I got on sale and using my homemade taco seasoning (scroll down on that link for the recipe).

I made enough Venison in Sauce for two meals last weekend too. This weekend I made Crockpot Pulled Pork. That wasn't planned but I came across pork shoulder on sale. One shoulder roast yielded three containers of pulled pork, for sandwiches or recipes like Barbecued-Pork Burritos and Barbecue Pork Pot Pie.

I cooked a lot of rice since I find it freezes well and I can use it for fried rice or as a quick side dish. Speaking of fried rice, I cooked some chicken thighs to be used in fried rice or stir-fries. It stretches a lot further that way.

I roasted beets. I bought some on a whim on Friday and I didn't want to forget about them like I forget about much of the produce I buy on a whim. I love beets and they really aren't hard to prepare except for the time it takes to peel them, which isn't an incredibly long time.

I sautéed a lot of cabbage. My favorite produce lady at auction had large heads of cabbage for $1 so I grabbed one. They weren't great cabbages - not very green like I prefer for cole slaw but perfect for cabbage and noodles later in the future. I never tried freezing the sautéed cabbage separately but I think it's going to work.

I made sloppy joes. I roasted chicken drumsticks.

The next couple of weeks should go a bit easier.