Sunday, August 1, 2010

Bulk Food Series - Part 5, Meal Plans: Breakfast

My plans involve the freezer. I would be very challenged if I lost my grinder, my rice cooker, or my mixer but I would melt into a puddle without the freezer. It makes my sanity possible.

I am not a morning person. Before noon, my IQ is about 60 points lower. This is not the time for me to be figuring out meals on the fly. First priority then is breakfast foods. I’ve let this go over the summer since we didn’t have to be anywhere or do much on any specific schedule but knowing that school is starting means that I must, must, must have breakfast under control or we will not make it out the door on time. I’m going to lean toward things that are portable and can be eaten in the car if necessary. Muffins, quick breads, yogurt and granola, individual servings of breakfast casserole, eggs (love the egg cooker!), sausage balls, and bacon.

This day spent making breakfast foods will cover breakfast for me for at least 6 weeks.

Monday: Zucchini or carrot bread with butter, tea, soft boiled eggs
Tuesday: Pancakes and bacon
Wednesday: Granola and yogurt
Thursday: Egg cups
Friday: Scrambled eggs, muffins & milk
Saturday: Sausage balls, cream of wheat
Sunday: church (we don’t eat before communion)



1. Defrost my bacon. I purchase side pork in 20 lb packs and brine it for flavor then freeze it in gallon bags. Once I thaw it, I will cook it , drain and save the grease, then re-freeze it. When re-freezing I put the strips on a cookie sheet so they don’t touch, freeze them, and then transfer to a bag. You could skip the first freezing- I do it that way to spread out the labor.

2. Grind my grain mix. If you buy flour, you obviously get to skip this step. I'd like to move to all sprouted flours but the expense is just too high and I'm not going to be able to afford a really good dehydrator before spring.

3. Brown sausage. I have a local source for a very nice pork breakfast sausage without anything bad in it.

4. Make quick breads. I still have carrot and zucchini grated in the freezer from last summer’s harvest so I will be using that up first to make room for the new stuff. I did those in gallon bags and it was way too much in one container. This year: smaller bags! Or canning. I wonder how grated carrot and zucchini will can? And if I can open a can of grated carrot, drain the liquid off, add whey and ginger and ferment them?

5. Make muffin batter. A separate post on muffins and their storage will follow. I freeze the batter so there are lovely hot fresh muffins.

6. Assemble egg cups

7. Sausage balls- make them, freeze on cookie sheets, then bag.

8. Make Granola

9. Make pancakes. If I am a very clever girl, I can make the batter and put my husband to work cooking them. He does a great job of it.

2 comments:

AKmamaOf7 said...

You are now officially my food mentor. :)

Last few years I freeze 2c of zucchini in sandwitch bags, then about 6 of those will fit into a gallon freezer bag. Last year I skipped freezing the zucchini and made and froze the zucchini bread. Much more fun to take out of the freezer.

Steph said...

Do you sneak your grated veggies into other things? Stews, soups, tomato sauce, casseroles...