Using Gift Cards to Stock Up on Food

Every month at the nursing home where I work we have an All-Staff Meeting. During the meeting they hold a raffle and give away all sorts of little prizes. The most popular prizes are gift cards, and I have won a few in my day. At the last meeting I attended I won a gift card to Olive Garden. I was quite dismayed by the idea, since the nearest Olive Garden restaurant is a 75 mile drive from my house, but then I got to thinking. I had a few gift cards that we had received a few years back as gifts, and if I combined them all I could buy a good amount of food. So, what was the plan? The next time I drove down to the "city" I would order food to go, portion it up when I got home, and use it to fill my freezer with lunches.

Too much Parmesan on my penne? I didn't think so either. 

You could do it with any gift card to a "sit down" restaurant, as long as you are ordering the right stuff. You want to make sure that what you are ordering is something that can be easily reheated, and won't be ruined by the microwave. Probably the best options would be pasta, soups, chicken dishes, or anything saucy served over rice or noodles. If you were planning to eat it within a day or two, you could get a salad and put it in the fridge, just be sure that the dressing is on the side and any toppings that would get soggy, or cause the salad to get soggy, are on the side as well. You can also use your card to purchase side dishes. For example, a card for a Mexican restaurant could buy you shredded meat, rice, beans, or salsa that you could use to make burritos at home. A card for an Asian restaurant could buy you fried rice or lo mein noodles, to which you can add your own meat. Avoid deep fried or breaded food, as it really doesn't reheat well. If you order a steak dinner, order your steak to be cooked a little less than you normally would, put the veggies and potatoes in separate containers to put in your lunch, and slice the steak thin to use in other dishes (put it on pasta, salad, in fried rice or cook it up for steak and eggs in the morning.) There are so many possibilities!

Zuppa Toscana and some crescent rolls from a can.

So, what did I do with my gift cards? I had enough gift cards to order four meals from Olive Garden, and each meal came with a choice of salad or a bowl of soup. I opted for the soup, so I could freeze it for later. My four meals got portioned into 7 lunch-sized portions and put into the freezer. Since the bowls of soup were pretty darn big, I ate one as a meal and portioned the others into six "cup-sized" portions and put them into the freezer. Now, whenever I want to take soup with me for lunch all I need is some bread or a sandwich to go with it! All I did was put the meals into the fridge a few days in advance to thaw, and add a splash of water before I microwaved it. The water will keep it from drying out or getting hard as quickly in the microwave.

Now, I believe that I have some Cafe Rio gift cards somewhere around here...

Food Storage: Load Up Your Freezer!

There are so many things that can be kept in your freezer! More often than not I feel like we associate frozen food with frozen burritos, TV dinners, and store-bought frozen vegetables, but there's all kinds of stuff that you can make, buy and grow to keep in your freezer!

Bread & Baked Goods

My grandma always kept an extra loaf or two of bread in her freezer, and it makes sense to do so. If bread is on sale, buy a few extra loaves to stash in your freezer. That way you have extra on hand in case family drops by. Defrost it in the fridge if you have a few days to allow it to thaw, or on the counter top if you need it right away. Likewise you can freeze hamburger or hot dog buns, hoagie rolls, dinner rolls, tortillas or whatever it is that's on sale. If you like to bake you can also freeze your homemade concoctions, bread, muffins, corn muffins, banana bread, tomato soup cake, biscuits, etc.

Vegetables

There are a great many different vegetables that you can freeze and keep. So far I have frozen onions, jalapenos, snow peas, bell peppers, and pumpkin. You can also freeze corn, peas, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, tomatoes, squash or green beans. We froze our jalapenos whole, diced the onions, and cut the bell peppers into strips. For the snow peas, I froze them individually on a wax paper-lined baking sheet before I put them into a zip-top bag. I would highly recommend spreading out diced onions or cubed vegetables on a baking sheet to freeze before bagging it up as well, otherwise you will end up with one big clump.

Fruit

Most fruit freezes and keeps very well in the freezer. I have frozen berries, bananas, cantaloupe, and kiwi fruit. You can also freeze mangoes, plums, peaches, grapes, or any fleshy fruit, really. For instructions on freezing fruit, and for peeling kiwi fruit, please visit my blog post Make It Yourself: Frozen Fruit.

Stock & Broth

This Thanksgiving Willie decided to use the "spatchcock" method of cooking our turkeys. So, the spines were cut out of the birds so that the carcasses laid flat and cooked more quickly. He also decided to remove the wings, as we never eat the wings from our turkeys. When faced with the dilemma of what to do with these extra turkey parts, he decided to make turkey stock. It was decided that the stock would be frozen so that we could use it later. Some of the stock was put into resealable containers and frozen "in bulk" and some was portioned out into muffin tins for use in smaller recipes. We lined the muffin tins with silicone baking cups for ease of extraction, but you can put the stock directly into the tins as well. If the stock is difficult to remove, just dip the bottom of the muffin tin in hot water to loosen it. Put it in a zip top bag and put it in your freezer! It is very helpful to measure how much liquid your muffin tin/baking cup holds so that you can estimate how many portions to use in a recipe. My silicone baking cups hold about 1/3 cup.

Pre-Made Meals

As I'm sure you know, I really enjoy cooking meals to take with me to work. It is a lot cheaper to eat something you have made yourself than to go out to eat every day on your lunch break. Often times I will make a huge batch of whatever it is, portion it out into containers, and put half of it in the freezer for later. I've made chicken lo mein, chicken and ramen stir fry, kung pao chicken, chicken and rice, Mom's stroganoff, keema mattar, fajitas and Mexican rice, and chicken and stuffing. This year we also portioned out our Thanksgiving meal to freeze for later. So, turkey, potatoes and stuffing went together, and the gravy got its own container. When your meals in the fridge start to dwindle, just pull another stack out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge. Add a little water before microwaving, and you should be very pleased with your results!

Burgers & Meatballs

Yes, you can buy frozen hamburger patties already formed, but if you ever want to spice things up (get it) you can always make your own seasoned patties, or patties with "mix-ins." We have made patties with onion soup mix, or garlic herb soup mix and they have turned out really well. You can also mix in items such as blue cheese crumbles, bacon bits, diced onions, diced peppers, mushrooms, or shredded cheddar cheese before forming and freezing your patties. Just be sure to separate the patties with wax paper before you freeze them, or you will have a heck of a time separating them! The other pre-made beef product that we like to keep in our freezer is meatballs. We make and can our own spaghetti sauce, so it only makes sense to make and freeze our own meatballs to cook with it! You can find instructions on meatball making on my Meatballs blog post.

Rice

This is a concept that I had never thought of before, but Willie, being the genius that he is, suggested that we portion and freeze white rice to take along with our lunches. So, any items that need a rice accompaniment, such as Mom's stroganoff, keema mattar or any sort of stir fry not involving a noodle, will have its own portion of rice. Just put the entree in its own container, and put a portion of rice with it in your lunch. There is no need to thaw the rice, simply add a splash of water, cover loosely and microwave. You will need to stir it around (or shake it with the lid on) midway through the heating process for even heating. Combine the entree and rice and you're all set!

Make it Yourself - Frozen Fruit

Why buy frozen fruit when you can freeze it yourself and make whatever combinations you want? Pick up fruit that is on sale or use what you have grown yourself, and you're in business for cheap! Although it takes a little bit of time, it is not at all difficult to produce your own frozen fruit medley. Since we use our frozen fruit for smoothies, I've been trying to figure out which fruits are best suited. For the purpose of this article I have purchased kiwi fruit, as I have not seen this particular fruit in the frozen foods section. We shall see how it fares in the world of smoothie making!



The tools for processing your kiwi fruit are simple, yet effective. A cutting board, sharp knife, and a spoon are all you need. First, cut off either end of the kiwi, and cut a slit down one side.







Using your spoon, peel back the skin all the way around, leaving behind a bright green barrel of fruit.









Once I was finished peeling, I cut my peels into manageable pieces and tossed them out the back door for the goats and birds to munch on. Here, I shall end the 'how to peel a kiwi' tutorial, and continue on with the 'how to make frozen fruit' tutorial.











When deciding how small to make your pieces, keep in mind how hard it will be for your blender to process your fruit. You want to make the pieces small enough to be blended easily, but not so small that you take all day to chop the fruit. Since bananas are soft and easy to puree, just peel and cut into halves or thirds. Remove stems from smaller berries, and halve strawberries (quarter if exceptionally large.) Peel, core and chop anything else.


Once your fruits have been chopped into appropriately-sized pieces, line a baking sheet with waxed paper and arrange the fruit pieces evenly over the surface. Store your baking sheet in your freezer (a deep freezer works best) for about an hour to an hour and a half, just long enough to freeze those puppies up firm. Remove your baking sheet from the chill chest, peel your now-frozen gems of deliciousness up from the wax paper and store in a zip-top bag.



Be sure to press all the air out, and return it to the freezer immediately. I always label anything that I remove from its original packaging, or process myself, with the date, and what is in the bag. That way you always know what you have, and you know how long it's been there!