GONE FISHIN'

Old Mother Frugal likes to take time off from cooking and hang the “Gone Fishin’” sign. 

Well, not literally gone fishin’. 

Figuratively, gone fishin’. 

This episode of "Frugal Bugle" is dedicated to using the oven as my ‘fishing hole’. One strategy to defer cooking is to cook several meals at one time.  Sometimes it’s using three slow cookers simultaneously or the main oven. Today, it’s the stove-top and toaster oven.

Simultaneous cooking is a frugal use of time, energy (both physical and gas/electrical) and keeps money in the wallet by not dining out.

First, there is the time issue.  Plan to cook a minimum of three meals at one time.  Allocate about 2 hours maximum to this endeavor.  You may use only 60-90 minutes. There are only 24 hours in a day but preparing several meals simultaneously in advance gives you an extra 30-60 minutes per day.

Yes, Old Mother Frugal has figured out how to add extra time to your busy day. If you are a full time working person, slot 7-9PM one night when your Little Helpers are busy doing homework or 7-9AM on Saturday.  Maybe Saturday/Sunday afternoon works better for you. 

How are you saving time?  You are not repetitively taking utensils out of drawers and cabinets, not repetitively washing dishes, pots and pans.

This strategy works for dinners and it works for desserts (muffins, cupcakes, cakes, quick breads, etc). Start with your lightest color batter first and work up to the darker color batters (vanilla, banana, carrot, red-velvet, chocolate).

One and done.

Next is the issue of expending energy.  Physical energy.  Cooking can be tiring.  All that walking around the kitchen, back-n-forth.  If your oven is low, all those knee bends and squats!  Bending down to open and close drawers, reaching up to open and close cabinet doors. Cooking three meals in the oven at one time is less tiring.  

This brings up the next energy-drainer, the utility bill.  When you can turn on the oven one time and cook multiple meals, you are saving electricity or gas. Washing dishes one time conserves water and cost.

Dining out is pricey.  If you’re too tired to cook…not in the mood to cook… sick and tired to cook, how wonderful it is to reheat and eat!  No loading up the car with the Little Helpers. No waiting for a table or in a line to be served dinner for two or three or four or five.  No embarrassing public meltdowns by Mom due to hunger. [The Little Helpers never have public meltdowns]. No shocking bill at the end of the meal. No remorse the following month when the credit card comes due for payment.

Now, Old Mother Frugal has no qualms with dining out, but it’s budgeted in the spending plan.  When looking to find ways to save in the budget, look at money spent dining out.  You may be surprised!

There are three new meals in Old Mother Frugal's refrigerator for this week: one for chicken fajitas; one for chicken scampi and spaghetti and one for salmon patties over noodles. Extra meatballs from Sunday's dinner means a meal of meatball leftovers, maybe a meatball sub sandwich! 

What does one do with the extra time? Write a blog entry, of course!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip:  If possible, make an extra serving when doing your dinner prep. Build up your freezer with these extra meals so that you can periodically have meals from the freezer without having to cook that day’s dinner. Serve it buffet-style and let family members select which entrée they would like for dinner! 

                                                   SALMON PATTIES

ONE-PAN CHICKEN FAJITAS

                                                  CHICKEN TENDER SCAMPI

MASHED POTATOES

THE FORTY YEAR BURNOUT

Old Mother Frugal’s cupboards are full but sometimes the imagination is empty.  Gazing into the panty or the freezer can be daunting.  What is there to eat?

When the youngest of Old Mother Frugal’s Little Helpers was a child, a sign was created and erected onto the refrigerator door. It read “some assembly required” because too often, the refrain “there’s nothing in here to eat” was repeated over and over again. 

Friends would come over and read the sign as if Lego’s had found their way into the refrigerator.  “Some Assembly Required”???? 

The fact is that Old Mother Frugal suffers from “cooking block”.  Yes, as if “writers block” isn’t bad enough, what to cook for dinner has become, at times, a challenge.

Forty years of cooking and burnout eventually set in.  Factor in the budget or the ‘spending plan’ as it’s called in Old Mother Frugal’s kitchen, and well, cooking can be a lot less fun.  

Who amongst us isn’t constrained by tight finances?  Not seeing many raised hands out there in cyberspace.  Add some dietary restrictions and ‘less fun’ morphs into ‘no fun’.

To keep fresh and engaged in cooking, some weeks have designated cooking themes. Meals are planned around a movie, book or song title, a phrase or a play on words.  Just about anything to keep interest from drying up and dying out.

The idea of a “theme” came from The Little Helpers. For years, birthday parties were constructed around a party theme.  With a theme came direction. With a theme, there is laser-like focus. With a theme came a plan. Like a road map from the week’s topic to the kitchen table.

Some of Old Mother Frugal’s favorite themes have been…

§     -  A Wrinkle in Time – using canned foods with “wrinkles” or dents

§    - Top Shelf – a twist on the TV show “Top Chef”

§    - What Lies Beneath – movie reference to freezer foods hidden beneath other foods

§    - Outside the Box –recipes that have been collected for years in a box but never used

§    - State Fair – eating foods sold at the state fair

§    - You ‘Can’ Do This – using canned food at meal time

§    - Building A Mystery – song title reference using whatever comes out of the freezer

§    - The Cookbook Challenge – all meals for the week come from one cookbook

And there you have it, a focused plan with direction on what to cook for the week. It’s a bit Goofy and Daffy, but hey….that may be next week’s theme! Looney Tunes!

And so, as this entry comes to a close, you know what Porky Pig would say …"Tha Tha That’s All Folks!"

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s Tip: Using websites such as www.allrecipes.com and www.myfridgefood.com can plug you into a recipe by listing the ingredients you have on hand into a meal that your family will enjoy!

                                                 A WRINKLE IN TIME