I learned something new..........

 

I bought a five pack of avocado's last week, as they were on sale for $2 for a pack of 5.  I had only got around to using the one and they were going soft.  

So I went on the internet to see if you could freeze avocado's.  They said the best was was to puree first, then freeze.  Didn't know that?

It also said you can use avocado's in place of butter when baking at a 1 : 1 ratio.  Didn't know that either?

I normally only use avocado's raw and sliced in salad's.  What's your favourite way of using avocado's?

Favourite things #4

 If you have been a follower of my blog for a while, or live in Canada, this won't be an unusual thing.

One of the way's we buy milk here in Canada is in bags.  You get 3 bags of milk which total 4 litres.  This particular bag was $5.69 at Walmart.  Which is the average price for this type of milk.  I bought it on January 10th and it has an expiry date of January 27th.  (I compose posts ahead of time.)

This is what the bags look like and those three bags last around 7 days in this household

I just bought this milk jug; I obviously bought it with the grands in mind.  You pop the bag in and snip the corner of the bag.

So now onto my favourite thing.  I bought this milk bag holder from Amazon.  It wasn't badly priced at $11.99.

I have had it a couple of months now and love it.

It holds the three bags of milk and it stops the bags slipping around the fridge and is much neater.

Here is where I keep it in my fridge.  I have no idea how I managed without it.

We have a Kitchen Aid fridge/freezer.  I wouldn't recommend it, you are paying for the name.  It is just over 4 years old and I think it was around a year ago we had to replace the container that holds the ice.  It had rusted!!  They did it under warranty, but not without a fuss!!  It has a water dispenser and ice maker; both are must haves for us as we use them all the time.  The water is also filtered.  I change the filter twice a year at a cost of around $60 each time.

It holds a lot and the two separate drawers are handy.

This is the freezer section and holds what we need.  I finally got rid of my chest freezer last year as all I was storing in it was some flour and a couple loaves of bread.  I was using this freezer all the time.

We drink/use 1% milk.  Do you drink milk?  Do you buy it in a plastic jug, or bags, or bottles.......can you buy glass bottles of milk?  We can at specialty stores.

Fish Pie

I am in the process of cleaning out my freezer.  Had this fish, there were five fillets in the bag.

I placed them in a pan and covered them in milk, added salt and pepper, and some grated nutmeg.  Simmered them for around 10 to 15 minutes.  I removed the milk and made a white sauce with the milk.  I added a couple tablespoons of dried parsley and some frozen peas in the sauce.  Then flaked the fish and added that to it.

I had enough mixture for a casserole for our supper, and two small portions for hubby's lunch.

Covered each dish with mashed potatoes.  Popped it into the oven at 350oF for 45 minutes.

I have a mini crockpot that hubby uses for work.  We have had it a few years and is worth it's weight in gold!!  Hubby plugs it in when he gets into work and his lunch is all ready at lunch time.

I forgot to take a photo of the cooked fish pie, but it was really good.

Organizing and Baking........

In my attempt to be more organized with meal planning I actually started using my chalk board in my kitchen:

As you can see I even wrote down our weekly menu plan in the hopes I will follow it.  I even ticked off the meal we had eaten:

I decided to do some baking on Monday afternoon.  After seeing this recipe on Simple Living for some flapjack.  I followed the recipe to the letter, other than I melted the sugar in the pan with the butter and I used a 9 inch cake pan to cook it in.  In my oven it only took 18 minutes to cook.  Oh and to make things a bit easier I lined my cake pan with parchment paper.  **Also make sure you cut it into portions when still warm.**

Now remember I am a lazy cook!!  So I made a couple dozen sponge buns/cupcakes using a cake mix.  

A dozen were made into Fairy/Butterfly buns.  For those of you who do not like the mountain of frosting on regular cupcakes, this way you get a little frosting and the added bonus of jam.  Not sure how to make them; I explain in a bit more detail on this post.  Dh will be whining though as I put glace cherries on them to make them fancy and he hates glace cherries....LOL

I also made a batch of peanut butter cookies.  Made around 4 dozen using this recipe.  This is one of the first recipes I posted on my blog.  I have been using this recipe for over 25 years.

We have nine foot ceilings in most of this house.  Our upper cabinets have four shelves in the kitchen.  If I stand on tip-toes I can reach the second shelf.  So I have a little set  of steps to reach the higher shelves.  I had them out on Monday afternoon!!

I spent around 2 1/2 hours in the kitchen.  Put two packages of cookies in the freezer along with a dozen cupcakes.  I have enough frosting left to frost those in the fridge, I used the Betty Crocker Whipped White Frosting.  I also cooked the chicken pot pie when I had the oven on.

 There was enough for both of us for supper and enough for dh for his lunch.

This is the second day we have eaten from the menu plan!!

All in all a productive afternoon.

It's Friday, so it's Buddy's time - freezers

Every Friday over at Margaret's Rambling, she hosts Buddy's, where we all post money saving suggestions.

This week I am going to talk about owning a freezer. We have two freezers at the moment. We have a side by side fridge freezer, like this one, and we have a chest freezer like this one

Now as many of you know there are only two of us in the household, so maybe the one freezer might be a good option for us, but I love the fact we have the two freezers. I buy meat in family packs and split them into portions that suit me and dh. If people come just pull out extra portions. Buying family packs generally saves us a bit of money, as they are cheaper.

I buy bread a few loaves at a time. Infact I go to one store where I know they reduce bread products and this week I was able to buy three packs of bagels and a loaf of bread for super cheap. Popped them straight in to the freezer as we wouldn't have been able to eat all the items before they expired.

Also dh takes sandwiches for lunch, and I buy a dozen bread rolls at a time. If they were left out all week, by the end of the week they would be stale, the way I do it, is pop them in the freezer and just take out what we need each day.

I also still insist on cooking for a family despite the fact there is only me and dh!!! So it is handy to put the leftovers in the freezer for another meal. I also keep a freezer inventory so that way I know what I have in my freezer. I wrote more about that on this post

Some do's and don't on buying a freezer:

1. Capacity Required: Do you buy for 2, or a large family? Are you near shopping areas, or do you have to buy in bulk? Do you have other freezer space available, or will this be your only freezer? Also how much room do you have to place this appliance, as that may limit the size you can buy? The appliance industry recommends 1.5 cubic feet of freezer space for each family member with 1 cubic foot of freezer holding approximately 35 pounds of food. So, the larger your family, the larger freezer you will need.

2. Do you want an upright freezer or a chest freezer?

There are Pro's and Con's to both:

Pros & Cons of a Chest Freezer

More capacity and can accommodate odd sized food items, but foods are difficult to get at, and can be forgotten in the bottom.
Lower profile will not obscure windows, but it has a larger footprint to locate.
More energy efficient - cold doesn't escape easily when lid is opened, and foods keep longer.
Most chest models are manual defrost - using less energy.
Usually more economically priced than uprights.

Pros & Cons of an Upright Freezer

Ease of retrieving, sorting and organizing foods.
Smaller footprint like a refrigerator, but taller profile.
Some models come with automatic defrost for ease of cleaning, but foods can freezer burn more quickly, and energy costs are higher.
Foods are more visible - and not forgotten or lost within.
Easier to relocate; will generally fit through doorways (there are extra wide models).
Usually priced slightly higher than chest models.

There are a number of advantages of having a freezer in your home and they mainly relate to saving time and money:

Shopping can be done in bulk, which will free up time to do other things plus it will reduce money spent on shopping.

Cooking can be done in bulk thus saving time and energy costs.

Items that can be cooked from frozen may be kept for "emergencies" when you don't have time to cook.

You can buy large cuts of meat, joint them at home and freeze them until needed. Larger cuts of meat are much cheaper to buy than already cut and packaged smaller cuts.

If hungry unexpected guests arrive at your house, you will always be able to welcome them and feed them if you have a well-stocked freezer.

Fresh fruit and vegetables may be frozen when in season and consumed all year round.
Food may be frozen until needed and less is thrown out if not consumed by the use-by date, which ultimately save money and time (you would have to go shopping again).

The top of the freezer may be used as an extra work surface if needed.

Consumers Reports says that annualized sales of upright freezers sales jumped 17%, chest freezers 10%.

There is more information in this article, which you may find useful.

I hope this has given you food for thought?