Cass Cooks, Too!

posted by Cass on Oct 8

Or Moemill as DaBaby calls it. And I realize this post may not be rocket science, but I needed something to post, and I figured if I wanted to make oatmeal in the microwave, someone else will too, and mine is pretty good. And if you doubt that, remember DaBaby is 2 and half years old, and she asks me for it regularly. So, here’s how I do it.

Measure out 6 cups of water and add 3 cups of oats to it, plus a pinch of salt. Please do not forget the salt, because oatmeal without salt is nasty, and you can’t just add it after the fact. No need to ask me how I know, just trust me. I cook mine for 10 minutes on high. You can downsize the amount to suit your family size, but this amount feeds my family of 9. And it feed them pretty cheap!

Now comes the fun part: additions! I add raisins or other dried fruit, and/or nuts. We really like the cinnamon spice dried apples, dates, blueberries or craisins. I use brown sugar or pancake syrup to sweeten it, and you don’t need very much sweetener if you use dried fruit. But don’t worry if you don’t have fruit on hand. Given enough syrup, the kids will eat it and love it anyway

posted by Cass on Oct 3

It’s time again for Four Foods on Friday. Here are this week’s questions:

#1. Turnips. Love em or leave em?
#2. What’s your favorite roasted dish?
#3. Salsa. What kind of you like?
#4. Share directions on how to make your favorite quick meal, meaning start to finish in about 30 minutes or less.

I love turnips. They are so creamy and tasty. The greens I can take or leave, but the roots (rutabagas) are awesome.

Roasted. Roasted. Hmmm, roasted. I have a hard time defining that, since I think in terms of baked or fried, LOL. We really like roasted chicken though, cooked in any number of ways, including stuffed with rice OR roasted on a soda.

Peach pineapple, hands down. It’s put out by Great Value (Wal-Mart) and it is so tasty. Love it with chicken!

Nothing takes only half an hour when you are cooking for 9, except breakfast or canned soup. But I can come pretty close with Egg MomMuffins or pancakes. We like pancakes. I really thought I had posted how to make Egg MomMuffins, along with pictures, but I can’t seem to find it just now. It’s a basic play in that fast food item it most sounds like, and I cook the whole thing in stages on Uber Griddle.

posted by Cass on Aug 15

Ok, I hope you are ready. I told you you would need:

2 pounds of pinto and/or black eyed peas for around $4
A hunk of salt pork (or bacon ends) for around $3
Rice, 5 pound bag for around $3
Tortillas for around $2
A bag of precooked sausage patties for around $4
A chub or roll of sausage for around $2
Shredded cheese, 2 cups for around $2
Sour cream for around $2

I’m estimating prices, and I am estimating high. Like, Rachel Ray, spices are freebies, but you’ll need salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and thyme. So, we are coming in under $25 and I can feed my family of 9 at least three times, and there will be some sausage patties and rice left, along with sour cream.

So, the first day, around noon, wash your beans and put them in a pot with the salt pork. Cover them in fresh cool water and bring them to a hard boil. Let them boil maybe five minutes and then turn them down to medium. Let them simmer for several hours. Check the water now and again so they don’t cook dry. When it is time to eat, cook enough rice to serve with the beans, and also one sausage patty per person. Just before you serve, season the beans to taste with the spices listed above. You can discard the salt pork as well, unless you can afford the fat and calories. This is meal one.

For the second meal, fry up the chub sausage, and make sure it’s in small pieces. Heat up the beans and mix them together. Heat your tortillas and spoon the mixture into them, about 1/3 cup for the small tortillas and top with a little sour cream and a bit more of the bean and sausage mixture. That is meal two.

Meal three (and possibly four) are repeats of those two meals. We love the Mexican food around here, so we chose the tortilla option for lunch on the third day. Yum, yum!

To get the absolute most use out of the $25 you spent, add some eggs and a loaf of bread to your shopping list. Then you can serve scrambled eggs and toast along with the remaining sausage patties for breakfast one day.

I think that would bring us up to 4 meals for 9 people for $30 or less.