OAMC, the easy way, no burnout, just good home cooking in the freezer

[Canadian gardener]

Beginner’s start by making double or triple of dinner and freezing the extras in meal size easy to thaw portions.

Ice cream buckets of frozen food take forever to thaw and reheat, try using flatter longer lower containers. The flat, long low package freezes faster, and thaws better resulting in safer food, and better taste.

This is why I use ziploc freezer bags a lot, plus they save space in my freezer. I also use cheaper no name sandwich zip lock baggies, for things I use up fast or things like my crumbles or grated cheese in 2 cup amounts. They can sit in a grocery bag in the freezer to keep them corralled, and also to protect them a bit more.

Bake extra muffins, and freeze. It's another way to make one mess, get tired once and have lots on hand.

Make a bisquick style homemade baking mix.

Try cookie dough logs. Most cookie dough can be formed into logs, saving space in the freezer then sliced and baked as needed. You can spend a quality day with your food processor, doing up batch after batch. Clean up and for months you can enjoy homemade conveniant fresh cookies without the fuss.

THEN consider a "meat plan" .

Technically I don't cook for a whole month in any one day. I spread it out. A LOT!

You can work more efficiently and cheaper by concentrating on a single "meat" plan in a day. You take advantage of sales, and spread out the cooking over a month. By the time you do several "meat plans" including some beans and dairy, you have a lot to choose from in fast food meals in your freezer.

If you need help planning a menu around your new frozen foods or help planning a shopping list, I will cover that later.

Right now lets consider using electricity to give us a big helping hand:

USE YOUR APPLIANCES TO GIVE YOU SOME HELP

The Joy of Food Processors:

Here's what mine does for me:

--Chops 5 lb packs of cheese into crumbly "grated" 2 cup portions for the freezer. I don't bother with the grater attachment, I use the chopping blade all the time for everything. Pulse it.

Most recipes calling for cheese ask for it in 1 or 2 cup portions. Don't freeze bigger amounts of pregrated cheese unless you enjoy chipping away at a block of frozen glued together grated cheese. A bit of flour or cornstarch keeps it from sticking together. Use the ziplock sandwich baggies for a perfect size bag to freeze in.

--Blends the spices and goop for the meatball mixture

--Chops onions, celery, cabbage, red pepper, mushrooms and so forth for cooking sessions. Chop (pulse briefly) into BIG chunks and tray freeze on wax paper then loose pack into a freezer bag for later use in a recipe or a big cooking session. Saves time and cleanup. If you don't want to use the veggies in a cooking session right away they stay good in the freezer.

NOTE HERE don't keep chopping till they are a mush . That will freeze in a solid block and be hard to use. You want biggish chunks so they tray freeze well, and can be loose packed once frozen, then scooped out in the quantity you want.

--Chops carrots for carrot salad, carrot cake or cabbage for coleslaw in a flash. These are both good salads to have in the fridge over several days of use.

--Chops veggies for a soup instantly. I like to pulse it thru with canned tomatoes for my veggie soups. My grannies frozen green pea soup is pureed cooked green peas with onion in a broth. Yummy and the fp does a great coarse puree.

--Chops my peel for homemade marmalade. Can be used for other type jam and pickle sessions.

--Chops and mixes onion, seasonings, mayo, pickle relish and salmon, tuna or hard boiled eggs for sandwich fillings. Ditto leftover hardened roast ends of meat. You can make chopped roast beef, steak, pork chop, turkey, ham sandwich fillings all the same way. Chicken breast cooked in broth, makes a wonderful chicken salad filling.

--Use miracle whip type salad dressing instead of mayo if you want to freeze selected portions of sandwich filling either in a plastic container or right in the sandwich, it won't separate like mayo. If you dislike miracle whip as my dh does, then freeze chopped meats for a few weeks at most, and thaw and use for fresh made sandwiches.

--Puree's cooked beans into a low fat refried bean mixture if you use salsa to "thin" it out a bit. That's how I liked them. Use as a dip, burrito filling whatever.

--Makes cheese balls and dips for parties.

--Makes pastry in a flash , chops in the lard into the flour and mixes in a moment.

--Makes homemade Bisquick (later).

--Mixes those biscuits in a flash . I like to make a batch when I am finished mixing up a new batch of bisquick.

--Mixes pizza or bread dough , although heavy doughs over time will damage the centre column. That's what killed my last fp. However it took many years of bread dough to do that. Pizza dough is actually better in the fp rather than the bread machine. It comes out ready to use, with a 5 minute rise.

--Chops dates, oranges, etc into muffins and mixes muffin batter FAST. Make batch after batch.

--Then there are cookie dough logs. Make your own pillsbury cookies for the freezer. Sugar cookies, shortbread and refridgerator cookies all work well for this. I have even made chocolate chip cookie dough in this manner. Mix them in the fp batch after batch. Roll them into a long sausage, wrap in wax paper, freeze on cookie sheets to keep them straight as they freeze then double wrap. When you want fresh cookies, thaw a roll or two, slice and bake. Any cookie dough that can be rolled out and cut, or dropped and pressed will do for this. They thaw quickly. slice while still chilled and bake as per recipe.

--When you are finished with all these uses it even cleans itself. Pour in some hot water and a drop of detergent and pulse it clean. Any leftover bit on the lid etc, just use a dish brush and the soapy water. Rinse well, and let it drip dry.

Joy of the Crockpot:
You heard my opinion of the food processor, now for the crockpot. BTW these 2 appliances are like having an experianced OAMC chef working for you in your kitchen. You only have to use them and that is often just getting used to what they do. I suggest you tape a list of uses for these 2 appliances to the front of your fridge or somewhere handy till you start making them a habit in your kitchen.

Crockpots can:

--Make soup and chowder (leftover chopped veggies in the freezer or fridge after cooking day? don't let them get whiskery with age, dump them into the stock from the ground beef crumbles and make a great homemade veggie soup). Eat one meal tonight and freeze the rest in meal size amounts. (smaller or flatter containers are faster to thaw)

--Soups with barley or lentils won't scorch and will get the best and creamiest flavour ever.

--Make stews, chilis, sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce, chicken fricassee and eat one and freeze 2! Any stew like casserole will do. Beef Bourgignon is a great example.

--Make pot roast. Some leftovers are sliced and frozen in gravy for another meal. Other leftovers are chopped into delicious meat spread sandwich filling.

--Make chicken pot pie filling in the cp and freeze in meal size portions in ziplock freezer bags. Thaw, and cover with pastry or biscuit dough and bake.

--Same procedure for shepherds pie or tamale pie (make bottoms in cp, cover with topping, bake, freeze rest of bottoms in ziplocks for later thawing, topping and baking)

--Make extra stuffing and cook OUTSIDE the turkey, (saves time stuffing the turkey, is safer, and makes more stuffing anyway) and keep it hot for serving at the big meal. Makes enough for a crowd.

--Make mashed potatoes an hour ahead and keep hot on Low in the crockpot. Makes enough for a crowd so is great for company dinners.

--Make spiced cider or hot cocoa for a crowd and keep it nice and hot for hours without a problem. Set it before going out christmas tree hunting or skiing and come back to a hot treat.

--Cook beans overnite so in the morning you rinse them in cool water, drain and freeze in 2 cup portions. Far cheaper and healthier than canned beans and if you use a microwave to thaw them, they are almost as fast as opening a can of beans. Do this with one variety after another and build up a frozen stash of chickpeas, pinto beans, red beans, white beans etc.

Cook the best baked beans and vegetarian chili ever. The beans have time for the molasses or chili flavour to bake right in, and they never scorch.

[Old fashioned mamma]

Canadian Gardener, your the BEST!! Thanks for coming to our rescue.

[Canadian gardener]

Boiling ground beef has a big advantage or two:

CONVENIANT: (pull out a package of pre cooked and browned "crumbles" for any recipe calling for a lb of ground beef, browned)

WAY EASIER and WAY LESS MESS! Think of it, the ease of stirring a simmering pot for 10 to 15 minutes instead of pan frying it all, splattering grease all over, when boiling it makes the same product, less fat and way less mess.

LOW FAT: It's even lower in fat than if you pour boiling water on it. This is the meat with most of the fat gone. Because of that defatting that happens, I buy the cheapest fatty regular ground beef and enjoy spectacular savings while discarding the fat in the EASIEST way possible

CHEAP: Because you can be sure of getting the fat out, you can use whatever grind of ground meat is cheaper, whether regular or lean or extra lean.

TASTES THE VERY SAME AS IF YOU WENT TO THE MESS AND FUSS OF BROWNING IT IN A FRYING PAN!!!!! Yes it does. Think of the clean ups you can avoid.

I use to season the water that I boiled the beef in, then I found out it made NO difference.

That meat still has all the normal browned ground beef flavour whether or not you use seasoning, and whether or not it is boiled or browned. Why go to the trouble of doing it any other way when doing it faster and simpler results in the same taste and less fat.

BUT WHAT ABOUT the ONIONS AND GARLIC AND STUFF??????
I simply take the chilled or thawed crumbles and add to a wok or frying pan with a little olive oil sauteeing the onions and garlic that the recipe calls for, and any seasonings and stir fry it a little to bring it to the usual stage in the recipe where it calls for browning the meat with onion, garlic and seasonings.

THAT IS IT!!!!!! Talk about simple. This way the seasonings are fresh and give the best flavour.

HOW DO I DO IT?
No seasoning, put just enough water to cover the bottom of a stock pot or big saucepan about an inch or so, add the ground meat. I do a big 5 to 6 lb package all at once.

Now bring to a boil and stir to keep from sticking on the bottom of the pot. Turn down to an active simmer. Simmer till no more pink. Take off heat.

Drain by pouring the meat and the broth into a heat proof (mine is stainless steel) colandar or sieve placed on top of a big bowl or pot.

I use my big stock pot to drain the broth into and stick the whole thing in a sink of cold water to start cooling while the crumbles are draining.

Reserve the crumbles and let cool. They will cool faster if you put them onto a cookie sheet and run a fan over them for a few minutes stirring a bit. Bag and freeze.

(Chill broth overnite and skim fat in morning. Now you have lovely jellied beef stock ready to use in diluting canned soups or for any recipe calling for broth.)

When the crumbles are cool, you pack by 2-1/2 cup measures into no name ziplock sandwich bags and freeze flat. Those are equal to a lb of browned ground beef. The ziplock sandwich bag is a perfect size.

More boiled beef tips--- Chill overnite in the fridge, and either package and freeze the next day, or use it making casseroles, and freezing them. Whichever you have the energy for.

Handling cool crumbles and broth the next day is easier than if they are hot still.

Chilling broth before putting in the fridge-- Set the pot with the broth in a sink of cold water and change the water every 5 minutes or so and stir the broth to cool faster. In about 20 minutes to half an hour it will be cool enough to stick in the fridge safely without making the fridge work harder and possibly warming the other food in the fridge.

If you have a secure outside porch, set it out to cool and take advantage of winter nights. In the winter I stick the stock pot lid on top of the colandar which is still on top of the stock pot and set it all out in the porch. By morning it's all nearly frozen.

Have it either way, enjoy pre cooked frozen packs of crumbles or use them the next day in a bunch of recipes and freeze the made up dishes. Whatever you have time for. Both will help.

ONE LAST TIP------- Have several freezer friendly recipes handy that use a lb of ground so you aren't left scratching your head wondering what to do with 48 bags of ready cooked crumbles. I'll be giving a few just below.

[Canadian gardener]

A simple Spaghetti plan (the non tomato based crumbles plan will follow)

here are some things you can do with Ground beef crumbles made into a spaghetti sauce. I like to make one serve many. I vary it to make the following dishes BUT I do have another Spaghetti-- here it is:

Simplest of all Spaghetti is a tin of Hunts thick and rich Spaghetti sauce and a package of crumbles served on cooked spaghetti.

WHEN I WANT TO DO UP A NUMBER OF TOMATO BASED RECIPES HOWEVER this is what spaghetti night looks like:

Large vat of Spaghetti Sauce adapted from Sue Gregg's cookbook Main Dishes. This is a useful basic recipe, the sauce is the basis for a number of other meals so it's worth making a lot.

Basic Spaghetti Sauce
In a large stock pot combine:
3--28 oz cans of diced tomatoes
3-- 6 oz cans tomatoe paste
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP oregano (dry)
1 TBSP Basil (dry)
1/2 head of fresh garlic crushed in clove by clove.
3 cups fresh or frozen mushrooms or 3 cans sliced
2 fresh or frozen diced green pepper
3 medium onions or 2 big ones chopped

6 cups or a bit more of ground beef crumbles or 3 frozen packages.

Bring to boil, turn down to a simmer and simmer 20 minutes.

The first night I serve this, as spaghetti sauce. Later I will assemble a lot of other dishes from it.

French Bread Pizza is simply this sauce spread on loaves of French bread, split lengthwise, with extra chopped onion, mushroom, red or green pepper, topped with grated Mozzarella cheese and wrapped in plastic and frozen for a pizza night. A friend of mine shared it with me, and I've seen this recipe on 30 day gourmet.

Almost Lasagna is simply this sauce combined with a container of cottage cheese and cooked multicolour pasta spirals or Rotini. Makes a yummy casserole.

Boil 4 cups Rotini

Mix with 3 cups of this sauce above (or 1 pkg crumbles and 1 tin Hunts spag. sauce)

and 2 to 3 cups cottage cheese (I use a carton that contains 750 ml or 3 cups)
Dump in a 9x13 casserole OR in a freezer ziplock and freeze.

Thaw and bake in the casserole for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes at 350, longer if frozen, till the center is hot and cooked thru.

Real live Lasagne goes together like this:
Layer sauce then
Uncooked lasagne noodles (the ordinary ones)
Cottage cheese (mix cottage cheese with frozen spinach, squeezed almost dry, some parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and egg and oregano and garlic for a nice variation)
Uncooked noodles again
Lots of sauce on top to cover
Repeat till done but don't over fill the pan, it tends to bubble over when cooking
sprinkle with grated mozzarella and parmesan.

Freeze in baking pan, and THAW before baking. Lasagna is notoriously dense and difficult to bake in the middle without burning the edges if you don't thaw it first. Bake till center is cooked. This will take a while. I allow an hour and a half at a lower heat like 300 to 325 if it's not thawed thru. If it's reasonably thawed then an hour at 350.

YOU DON"T HAVE TO PRE COOK THE LASAGNE NOODLES. The freezing and baking does it for you. No more burnt fingers or wrestling slippery sheets of wet noodle.

Manicotti is simply:
Fill UNCOOKED NORMAL MANICOTTI SHELLS with the special cottage cheese mixtrue above. Cover WELL with Sauce. Freeze and follow instructions above for reheating.

Mindless Moussaka:
Take 3 medium eggplants and slice. Salt them and let them sit in a colandar to drain the bitter out for 1/2 an hour. Rinse well. while they sit make the sauce below so it's ready to use.

Layer with the spaghetti sauce in a 9x13 pan

Cover with the following white sauce which you make in the microwave.

white sauce part:
In a big microwave proof bowl melt:
3 Tbsp Butter
Mix with 6 Tbsp flour and microwave till bubbly.
Add 2-1/2 cups hot milk and nuke on half power stirring with a whisk every few minutes till thickened.
then add
1/2 cup Parmesan.
Spread on top of the spaghetti sauce and eggplant and bake at 375 for 35 to 40 minutes.
This doesn't freeze, it is simply something I like to make with this sauce.

If I don't have the spaghetti sauce, I mix up a can of Hunts with a pkg of frozen crumbles and proceed with this recipe.

Sloppy Joes:
4 cups of the sauce (add more crumbles to make it nice and thick)
and about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup ketchup (squirt by eye)
a spoon of dijon mustard or yellow mustard
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
some chopped celery
1/4 cup brown sugar
Freeze in family serving sizes

Shepherd's Pie:
In a big freezer ziplock bag combine:
One package of crumbles or 2 cups fresh
2 cups frozen mixed veggies
2 cups of the spaghetti sauce approximately (another measure by what looks right)
any other veggies you want to add to use up
Freeze. Thaw in baking dish and pour out into dish when you can, chopping the frozen chunks up a bit.
Cover with mashed potatoes
Bake at 350 for half an hour or till bottom is cooked and bubbly, and topping is browned.

Tamale Pie:
SAME AS FOR SHEPHERDS PIE BUT
Instead of frozen mix veggies use FROZEN CORN
AND ADD 1 to 2 TBSP of CHILI POWDER to taste (cayenne if you need it hotter)
When you thaw it, simply top with either a recipe of corn bread or mix up some polenta, stiff cornmeal mush and bake a THIN layer on top.

Another way to do tamale pie is adding crumbles to leftover chili, add frozen corn and freeze. Top as above.

NO you wont' get all of these out of one batch of spaghetti sauce, but you can pick and choose from these variations on the spaghetti sauce theme

[Canadian gardener]

OK so now we are sick to death of spaghetti sauce and it's marvellous variations on a theme, what can we do with crumbles that ISN"T tomato based.

Ground beef Stroganoff from the Friendly Freezer:
Dump into freezer bag and freeze the following:
1 pkg crumbles (2 to 2-1/2 cups remember?)
1 cup fresh sauteed mushrooms (or frozen or canned)
1 cup beef broth (I save the broth from boiling the crumbles for soup or something like this)
3 Tbsp red wine
3 Tbsp lemon juice

To serve: thaw and heat the meat mixture.
Cook a bag of noodles till tender then combine with the meat and a cup or so of sour cream.

Serve (you can reduce the amount of noodles if you like)

Curried Creamy Zucchini:
1 pkg crumbles thawed stir fry in a Tbsp of olive oil with:
1 to 2 tsp to Tbsp of curry depending on what you like
Mrs Dash to taste
1 chopped onion
1 big honkin zucchini all chopped
till everything is nicely sizzly then add
1 can mushroom soup or 1 cup yogurt or sour cream depending on what's on hand.

Spinach Beef Biscuit Bake from Taste of Home by Bonnie Bootz: this is a FAVOURITE!!!
Combine the following in a big ziplock freezer bag and goosh to mix before freezing:
1-1/2 packages of crumbles or 3 cups fresh
1 small to med onion diced
2 eggs
1 pkg spinach thawed and squeezed dry
1 can sliced mushrooms (I use about 1/2 cup frozen sliced)
4 oz crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 to 2 cloves garlic crushed.
pinch of salt and pepper.

Goosh well and freeze.

When it's time to bake I make up 2 of my homemade Bisquick biscuit recipes for biscuits and line a 9x13 glass pan with the biscuit dough. Pour in the thawed filling and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or a bit less.

I'll include a homemade Bisquick mix later.

I am hoping you can see the possibilities in a humble and cheap package of regular ground beef once you defat it.

[smnoel]

I'm in awe. You should write a book. That's great information. Thank you! I need all the help I can get on just getting myself together in this kitchen.

I seem to do some basic tried and true recipes, but hope to broaden our meals a bit too. I need to start gathering some recipes to try and then seeing if they will incorporate into things.

Like today, I am making chicken cacciatore in the crockpot. Now, if I had planned better, I could have had a stash of sauce and even chicken in the freezer already for multiple sauce like or chicken meals and could map out a month ahead from things that were already at least partically started.

I'm ok with things like making roasts and then creating meals from it, but instead of cooking a roast and breaking it up and freezing, I end up having roast two days in a row and that gets dull for the taste buds kwim? (even if it's made differently the next day...it's still roast two days in a row)

Thank you again. I am going to be working hard in this area this year.

**edited to add** AND my husband bought me a food processor that is just wonderful, but unused! It's been just sitting there. Your post is encouraging me to get that thing out and get using it.

[Canadian gardener]

edited to add, you are so welcome. I wasn't sure if this OAMC stuff would fit here, and I didn't want to hijack the site, and hold it to casserole hostage! CJ knows me well and I do love the OAMC concept, although mine is more a component cooking style which is what I would call it if I write a book.

Here is some more

Supposing you find lean ground beef on sale, and are wondering how to use up great quantities.

The ground meat mixture:
I buy lean ground beef to make this following mixture. I do it more or less by eye.

This is DIFFERENT FROM CRUMBLES

Raw basic mix:
To a 10 to 14 lb package of meat dumped in my biggest steel mixing bowl I add the following:
2 packages of onion soup mix
1/2 cup or more ketchup
1/2 cup or more BBQ sauce (I like the Kraft classic one, it adds a nice smoky flavour)
Some Mrs Dash
about 3 cups to 4 cups oats
4 eggs

Mix it up using your hands till it's well mixed. Now make it into meatloaf, patties and meatballs.

Meatloaf: I use a loaf tin as a "measuring cup" and measure one loafs worth and dump into a big freezer zip lock and freeze flat. This is so much easier to thaw and bake later. I prefer the taste of freezing raw mix which I thaw and fresh bake versus baking the meatloaf then freezing it.

It is food safe too. The meat freezes faster in a flat ziplock shape. When you thaw it thaws all at once the edges aren't warming up with a frozen core and when you bake it, you aren't coping with overbaked edges and a cold middle (which probably didn't freeze as fast as the outer edges either).

Stuffed Meatloaf variation: It's nice to stuff the meatloaf for a company meal. Put about 1/3 of the thawed meat mix into a bundt or other ring pan. Make a stuffing, either boxed or homemade, (I use bread, onion, celery and sage, enough to make a few cups, moisten with egg) and kind of squish it down a bit on top of the meat then cover with the rest and BAKE.

Meat patties for burgers: Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out pattie portions onto wax paper lined cookie sheets or cutting boards. Flatten. Top with more wax paper and repeat. Freeze as is. Later when frozen, cut the wax paper, leaving it attached to the frozen burger patties and loose pack in jumbo freezer bags.

Meatballs: I like to make baked square meatballs using jelly roll pans or cookie sheets with side. Pat out a big rectangle leaving room at the sidesfor the fat to go!. Bake, drain fat, cut in squares, and freeze. Gently lift off when frozen and bag frozen "balls" in a big freezer bag. I also like to score the raw meat before baking, it makes cutting easier. Sometimes if I don't want to wrestle the fat out, I pop the meatballs out, cool then tray freeze on another cookie sheet, lined with wax paper. Freeze then pop into ziplock bags. Shake out what you need for a meal.

I also like using a mini scooper that I got from pampered chef, the size up from a melon baller.

You can scoop balls of meat out, and bake on the pans for round meatballs.

Now you have meatballs for anything you like from a meatball sub to spaghetti but I really like a bunch of wonderful sauces to ring the changes in.

Sauces to reheat the frozen meatballs in: Most of these take about 24 to 30 meatballs for each recipe of sauce. Most you just mix, pour over the meatballs and bake for half an hour to reheat at 350.

Meatball Bourgignoun or however it's spelled. Burgundy wine sauce anyway I got it from the Better Homes and GDNs Make Now Serve Later book.
1 tin mushroom soup
1/2 cup burgundy or red wine (I use our Ubrew red)
1/4 tsp Thyme
Parsley if you have it.

my dear friends' fast BBQ sauce which she kindly shared with me
Strawberry's BBQ sauce
1 can Tomato soup
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Brown sugar

Swedish meatballs
Combine in a microwave proof bowl:
1 cup water
3 Tbsp of bisto gravy powder (or 3 Tbsp flour, plus some beef boullion granules)
1 tsp dried dill weed
pinch of nutmeg and
pinch of allspice
Cook water, and bisto and spices together in microwave, whisking till thick, combine with
1 cup sour cream
and
1 cup mushrooms or 1 can sliced.
Pour over meatballs in pan and bake.

Meatball Stroganoff
1 can crm mushroom soup
1/2 c sour cream or yogurt
1 cup mushrooms or 1 can sliced
Pour over meatballs and bake or simmer on top of stove.

Meatball stew
Use meatballs in place of stew beef (which is SOOO expensive now!) and the broth from cooking the crumbles with a bay leaf, some carrots onions, celery, and pototoes in your slow cooker. YUMMY! edited to add, if you like your stews thick, at the end when the veggies are tender, stir a bit of flour into some cold water till the lumps are gone, then pour into the simmering stew. It will thicken up in a minute or two. Salt to taste.

and those are some ideas to use up an inexpensive ground lean beef.

If you want to experiment with making it even leaner, reconstitute TVP (textured vegetable protein -found at health food stores) equal amounts TVP and water and use it for part of the ground meat. It will take on the flavour and reduce the fat. It is made from soya and has little if any fat.

[Canadian gardener]

OK that was it for the ground beef section, lets take a little change and go do some vegetarian meals to bring this OAMC into real budget relief.

A gentle primer for the humble bean, on how to cook and eat with less gas!

Cheapest EASIEST way ever to cook is using the crockpot. Pour beans to about a quarter of the crock. Fill with water, stir, drain and fill again. That rinses the beans the first time.

Put a tsp or half tsp of GARLIC POWDER in with the beans. (smells good, BUT the reason to do this, is IT REDUCES THE GASSINESS OF THE BEANS!)

DON'T put anything else, not salt, not sugar, not tomatoe sauce not vinegar NOTHING else! in there with those beans or they will go all tough and won't cook down to tenderness EVER! it's a chemical thing, trust me.

Now let er rip (ahem, cook) for several hours and when you think about it, change the water, drain out, replace with fresh hot water and some more garlic powder.

That reduces the gassy factors again AND LISTEN TO ME HERE ---RINSING DOESN"T GET RID OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS! The B vitamins and all the minerals are still happily tucked in the middle of the bean all safe and ready to use. The bean has a natural little jacket on remember?

Now at some point towards the end of the day, you will come by, and test the beans by

pulling out a spoonful and blowing gently on them. When the skins crack and peel away they are done. Or you can mush them gently, but I always like the weirdness of the skins cracking and peeling.

RINSE ONCE MORE WITH HOT WATER! or cold if you plan to freeze the beans.

You now have COOKED beans ready to use in any recipe calling for them.

You can now proceed onwards to chili or baked beans or soup.

I like to then take 2 cup portions of the cooked rinsed beans and put into no name zip lock sandwich bags and freeze flat in the freezer.

EACH ONE IS NOW EQUIVALENT TO A ONE LB CAN OF BEANS or so in a recipe

I am now badly allergic to legumes so I don't do this anymore but that is how to precook huge amounts of beans.

[Canadian gardener]

2 more never fail beany favourites from my recipe files:

Sue Greggs Baked Beans: (these come out like the best baked beans in a can)-- sue has a website with more of her recipes and techniques at www.suegregg.com

Cook in crockpot overnight or till tender
3 cups dry white beans in 6 to 9 cups water (follow my bean cooking in the crockpot directions above) Rinse well when done.

Drain those beans and combine back in that crockpot with:
1 big onion chopped
1- 28 oz or 29 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup molasses
2 TBSP Honey (I have omitted at times but it adds a nice flavour)
2 tsp dry mustard (that is the mustard powder)
up to 1-1/2 tsp salt to taste.

cook on low all day.

Freeze leftovers (they freeze best if its' a bit soupy).

My friend Cheryl's Vegetarian Chili (mother of many, she is a versatile and frugal cook)

Cook 2-1/2 to 3 cups dry kidney or pinto beans (crockpot method)
Rinse and reserve

Dice up and cook till tender, drain and reserve to the end
1 big potatoe
2 big carrots

Saute in bottom of big big soup pot with a little olive oil:
2 onions chopped
4 garlic cloves diced

Now add to frying onions mixture the following:
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 small tin tomato paste
2 stalks celery diced
2 diced green peppers
1/2 bunch parsley chopped
1-1/3 cups frozen corn kernels
Juice of one lemon (or equivalent bottled juice)
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp oregano
1-1/2 to 2 TBSP of chili powder

Bring to boil, turn down and simmer for 1/2 an hour.

Now add the beans

Now YOU CAN ADD the POTATO and CArrot mixture. (too early and it will stick)

simmer a bit longer, stirring well and FREQUENTLY. Once the potatoes are in there it is thick and burns easily to the bottom of the pot.

Serve up, freeze leftovers in meal size portions.

Now if you want you can add one or two packages of ground beef crumbles

Big warning here, if you cook the potatoes and carrots, in this chili, instead of adding at the end they stick and burn like nothing on earth. I did this mistake when I first made this recipe, thinking to simplify, and boy was I wrong. We had a charred goopy mess on the bottom and it flavoured the whole thing, not nicely I may add.

[Canadian gardener]

and Lentils
Sausage Lentil Soup: this favourite was adapted from an old Canadian living recipe and kept us going during some pretty hard times one year.

Cut up and fry in bottom of soup pot in a little olive oil:
1/2 lb of sausage

drain fat and add:
6 cups water or stock
1/4 cup barley
1 cup red lentils

Bring to boil, turn down and simmer 1/2 an hour.

Now add:
1 big chopped onion
1clove garlic diced
1 finely diced carrot
1 stalk celery diced
500 ml tin (28 to 32 oz) of diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf

To taste add the following:
salt
Pepper
thyme (about a Tbsp)
basil (big pinch)

and simmer till done, adding more liquid if necessary.

If you have cabbage on hand, a few chopped leaves go nice in here, as does leftover cooked spinach.

I've even added cut up lettuce leaves to soups, especially chicken broth, when they are getting wilty. Quite nice.