Investment Cooking Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 7
This newsletter is for cooks who are interested in learning how to do investment cooking. Creating healthy home cooked meals in less time using whole foods. The newsletter is filled with articles, delicious recipes, product specials, and more.
IF YOU ENJOY THIS LETTER, PLEASE FORWARD IT
TO YOUR FRIENDS!
If you wish to unsubscribe, please use the link at the bottom of this
newsletter.
In This Issue:
In the Kitchen
A Week in the Life of an Investment Cook
Recipe: Krystal’s Chicken Marinade
Recommended Resources
In the Kitchen:
Fall has finally arrived! We are loving the weather and the fresh produce we get to enjoy this time of year here in Arizona. Our CSA (see July Issue for more information) is in full season and we’ve been enjoying tasty produce such as turnips, fresh salad greens, scallions, carrots, red chard, spinach, fresh herbs, and Asian pears in addition to the fresh milk and delicious eggs. (Who knew that egg yolks were supposed to be nearly orange instead of pale yellow?)
This month I am focusing on preparing food ahead of time. Filling your pantry and freezer with prepared foods (without the preservatives massed produced foods have) is a wonderful way to save money and especially time during this crazy time of year. It is also such a blessing to others when you can share what you’ve made with them. I was able to bless two families this past week with homemade food from work I did a few weeks ago.
I thought you might like to know that I have a new blog at www.mamakay.com/myblog.html on which I talk about investment cooking, homemaking, homeschooling and more. Drop by and let me know what you think.
Next month I will give you a recipe for quick breads that you can prepare as gifts for those you love. I will also be doing an article on virgin coconut oil.
Investing in Your Health: Preparing Foods Ahead of Time
Investment cooking becomes an integral part of your life as you learn to think differently about the way you spend your time in the kitchen. The greatest contributor to your success in preparing foods for your family is planning. When you have a plan it is easy to get food made up in advance. Doing so will save you the time and frustration later when you need to have a meal on the table pronto. We’ve talked about the different ways you can do investment cooking. Preparing a double or triple recipe when you fixing a meal that you can freeze for another day; spending a few hours doing a cooking session based on a particular food; or planning an investment cooking day where you only cook that day. This month I want to show you what I was able to accomplish in one week when I set my mind to doing some investment cooking. Please understand that I do not prepare this many dishes every week but since we did not have a day we could do a big cooking day I decided to do a little bit every day during the week to re-supply my freezer. I challenge you to look at your schedule and see how you can spend a little time here and there to reap great rewards when you are able to pull a meal together for your family in 15 minutes!
Most of these preparations only took 15-30 minutes a piece to complete. For future meal preparation it reduced the amount of time I have to spend cooking for 15 meals. I now have cooked beef and chicken ready to be turned into any number of complete meals plus snacks, bread and kefir for quick breakfast smoothies.
I have broken down my list by the days of the week. I hope this will get you thinking about what you can do for a few minutes today that will save you lots of time later.
Sunday evening:
Started black beans soaking
Started Steel Cut Oats soaking
Started Yogurt Dough for Crackers soaking
Monday:
Ate Oats for breakfast (with raisins, honey & butter added)
Cooked black beans in crock pot
Cooked 7 pounds of ground hamburger (1/2 regular & ½ taco seasoned)
Had Taco Rice for dinner with brown rice, corn, salsa, meat, cheese, black beans
Tuesday:
Made Coconut Crackers
Made Feather Light Rolls (used ½ dough for dinner; froze ½ dough for another day)
Marinated 9 pounds of chicken breasts; Grilled for dinner and froze the rest cut up in freezer bags.
Spouted 2 cups of wheat berries
Dehydrated them in the oven overnight
Wednesday:
Strained Kefir and Started a New Batch
Thursday -- Errands Day:
Made Trip to our CSA farm to pick up fresh eggs & milk
Went to Sprouts to pick up fresh fruits & veggies plus coconut oil and cod liver oil
Friday:
Made a batch of homemade mayonnaise
Started batch of Kefir Cream Soda
Grilling a whole bunch of chicken is one my favorite ways to do some investment cooking. (Especially, since my husband does the grilling!) Here is my recipe for mouthwatering grilled chicken.
Recipe:
Mama Kay’s World Famous Chicken Marinade
4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Marinade
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons dry mustard
2 cups olive oil
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic -- minced
Combine all marinade ingredients.
Option 1: Immediate use. Marinade chicken overnight for best results (an hour or two is okay it's just gets better with time). Grill 8 minutes per side medium-high heat. Let them rest for a couple minutes before eating. Juicy!! We plan for leftovers with this. We just slice up the leftover meat and freeze it in quart size bags.
Option 2: Use Later. Divide chicken pieces into 1-gallon freezer bags and pour marinade over meat. To use: Thaw and follow previous instructions.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 512 Calories; 38g Fat (67.1% calories from fat); 37g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 88mg Cholesterol; 2101mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 5 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 7 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
Serving Ideas: Use meat for Ranch Chicken Wraps, fajitas, sandwiches, stir-fry or in salads.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
This cookbook by Sue Gregg has some great tips and meal plans for making 5 casserole meals at a time for the freezer. It also includes some mixes for muffins and bread.
The Freezer Manual from 30 Day Gourmet
This cooking manual is a must if you want to do investment cooking. It has a step-by-step guide to help you plan and follow through with your cooking day. It also contains great recipes in a special format that helps you multiply how many dishes you would like to make. Also included in this book are great forms to help you organize your cooking day such as, Recipe Worksheet, Tally Sheet, Shopping List, What to Do and Bring and much more.
Thank you for reading another issue of the Investment Cooking Newsletter. I hope it has provided you with some great food for thought. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at kbickel@investmentcooking.com.
And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.
-- Genesis 41:35-36
Let us prepare food when we have the time to make sure we have enough when time is sparse.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with your family and friends giving thanks to God for the bounty he has blessed you with.
Copyright 2005 Binary Kingdom Enterprises