~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Potato Salad


A couple of days ago we cooked a pot of potatoes to have stewed potatoes with a meal.  While we were cooking we cooked enough to have some leftover to make potato salad.  Later when cleaning up the kitchen from that meal, I boiled eggs (from our chickens) and set them in the refrigerator to be used when I made the potato salad.

Today, I pulled the potatoes and eggs out of the refrigerator and set about making potato salad.  I peeled and chopped the eggs and added them to the potatoes.


Friday, January 18, 2019

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Pulled Pork

Thus far in this series, I've canned chicken, chicken broth and pinto beans.  Today, I'm sharing another meat that I canned … pulled pork!  When Boston Butt cuts of meat went on sale for $.99/lb recently, we purchased three.  One, I cooked for us to eat but the other two I canned.

All three of them in the oven ready to start cooking.   

I slow cooked them at 275 degrees for about 6 hours, the bigger one on the right had to be cooked another hour after I took the two smaller ones out of the oven.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Chicken Broth

In this post I shared about canning chicken, but I didn't tell you about the broth because that's a whole post of it's own!

After cooking the chicken and deboning it before canning, I put the bones, etc in another pot and started the process of making broth.  I added water, about a tablespoon of vinegar, dehydrated celery from my pantry, left over onions from my refrigerator, fresh garlic I had on hand and more celery from the freezer.  I didn't have any dehydrated carrots or I would have added them as well.

I brought it all to a boil and let it simmer for several hours.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Canning Chicken

During January and February I try to do what I call my 'winter preserving.'  Summers are filled with preserving the garden's bounty which keeps me busy, busy, busy.  In the winter though, when things slow down a little … well, that's when I concentrate on meats, broths and such.

A friend texted me last week and told me that a local grocery store had their chicken leg quarters on sale for $.39/lb.  Since I was already in town, I went to the store and sure enough there they were.  As an added bonus they were antibiotic and preservative free!  I made my purchase, brought it home and set to work!

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Pecans

Back in December I needed about 3 cups of chopped pecans for some holiday baking.  Instead of chopping only what I needed, I decided to chop/grind up a whole 2 pound bag.


Tuesday, January 8, 2019

What To do With a Spiral Cut Ham!


Over the past several weeks we've run across hams on really good sales while we were out and about and altogether, purchased three.  Each weighed in the 10 -12 lb range and that's a lot of ham.  There is no way we could eat that much ham, even if we wanted to!  

Here's what you can do with ham, after it's cooked, instead of eating it until you're tired of it …  (I wrap the ham in aluminum foil and bake it on this kind of  baking sheet.)

Remove the spiral cut slices and freeze them in meal size portions.

The bigger chunks can be bagged and frozen to go in beans, soups, casseroles, etc.  You can also can ham chunks.  

The smaller chunks/pieces can be diced into small pieces for use in omelets, frittatas, salads, etc.  They can be bagged and frozen into 1/2 cup portions or larger.

The liquid that cooked out of the ham can be frozen in ice cubes, bagged and used for seasoning purposes as needed.

The ham bone can be added to a pot of beans or a pot of greens while they're cooking.  All the remaining meat will come off the bone and add to your pot of whatever.  

Can you think of other ways to use/preserve a spiral cut ham?


 patsi

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family.  It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed.  It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.'

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Thursday, January 3, 2019

16 ways to add to your Pantry Using Leftovers from Holiday Meals


The holidays are behind us and it’s time to move on with our pantry building, but before we do did you realize that there were a lot of ways you could have added to your pantry using leftovers from those holiday meals?
Thanksgiving and Christmas meals are usually big and there are almost always leftovers.  From a pantry building aspect, let’s look at some ways we could use those leftovers to build up our pantries.
Veggie tray:  chop and freeze veggies to go in soups, stews and casseroles.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Meal Preparation at My House: My Philosophy!


I’ve been asked to start sharing more meals that we prepare from our pantry.  This is something I’ve thought about doing several times but for time restraint reasons just couldn’t make it happen.  I’m ready to make it a reality, but before I do, I need to share a few things about meal preparations at my house.
We intentionally cook more than we’ll eat at any one given meal so that we can have leftovers.  Leftovers usually show up as lunch the next day, incorporated into another meal or if they haven’t been used after a couple of days, frozen for the purpose of being used at a later date.
We are grab-and-go kind of people so for snacks I like to keep quick foods on hand.  I’d like to say that I always have healthy homemade snacks on hand, but that wouldn’t be true.  
When it comes to breakfast I like to keep things simple!  I’m all about the ‘make/cook ahead breakfast’ idea. For example, when I cook sausage patties, I cook several and refrigerate them.  One of my favorite quick breakfasts is to cut in half a low-carb flour tortilla, warm up a couple of already cooked sausage patties and slap them between the halved flour tortillas.  Fold the halved tortillas over the sausage patties making a sandwich and I’m ready to eat. This is quick, easy and tasty!  That’s not to say that we don’t ever do the full breakfast with all the trimmings because we do, but more often than not we’re reaching for something quick while we get ready for the day.
Another meal prepping idea that I focus on is getting ahead with freezer meals.  I really strive to have several in my freezer at all times ready to thaw, cook and eat when the occasion warrants.
I like using my crockpots in meal preparation as well.  This is another hands free way of preparing our meals.
I like being able to open my jars of home-canned foods and heating and eating them.
It’s not uncommon for us to have ‘leftovers’ from a previous meal for breakfast either.  We do not have to have only breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch type foods for lunch and dinner type foods for dinner.   We are very much a 'mix and match our meals to best suit what’s going on in our lives' kind of people.
As you can tell by reading this, I’m not someone who likes to spend a lot of time cooking.  Does that surprise you?  I like my food to be good, as healthy as I can make it and I like there to be plenty of it, but I also like to accomplish these things as easily with the least amount of work as possible … and as frugally as possible.  I’m not someone who loves to cook; I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either, cooking for me is a means to an end!  My husband on the other hand loves to cook (when he has time) and I love that he loves to cook.  My only requirement for him when he cooks is that he cleans up after himself!!!
Do you have a cooking philosophy?
patsi
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders.  I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.