Mini-Mega cooking day

Sounds funny huh?

I have been asked to help make meals for my husbands ageing grandfather. He is over 90 years old and for now, still lives independently; however, he is starting to have a difficult time cooking his own meals. He has been widowed for many years and has been self sufficient the entire time so the slow loss of ability that comes with advanced age is difficult for him. We’re hoping that since he knows I love to cook and often do big batches of cooking and baking that he will not take it as us viewing him incapable of doing it but rather as just the good gesture we intend it to be. I’m going to the dollar store to get some containers and plan on making approximately 20 meals. They all need to be relatively soft and easy to chew and also ones that can either be microwaved or reheated in the oven with little not no fuss.

So far, my ideas are:

Chicken and rice casserole

Taco Sheppard’s-pie-style with pureed hominy instead of the mashed potatoes

Stuffed tomatoes

Pastina and itallian sausage soup

Chicken noodle soup

I may not make all those or I may add more but that’s my idea list thus far. I will probably shop for ingredients on Monday and bake on Wednesday.

Mega Cooking Day

Missy and I were a cooking storm yesterday! Most of the foods focused on convince and a daily serving or more of veggies/fruits, in a sneaky way! Over the past three day’s here is what’s we’ve accomplished.

Breakfast

100 snack baggies of mixed cheerios and raisons

25 Egg (with purred yellow pepper and onion) cheese, bacon and sausage (turkey) burros

48 Whole Wheat Banana muffins (with pureed parsnips, plantains and carrots)

4 trays Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls (with purred butternut squash)

Snack:

24 Mini black bean, cheese and graded carrot burros

75 snack baggies of Snack Mix (whole wheat chex w/mini marshmallows or 100% fruit funs)

Lunch:

50 PB&J homemade “Uncrustables” on whole wheat bread

25 Open-face Ham & Cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread (with purred broccoli and carrots – you can’t tell!)

24 BBQ pop-over cups (with puréed red pepper and onions)

Dinners:

2 large trays Homemade Mac&Cheese w/veggie noodles (puréed carrots in the cheese)

2 large trays Chicken and Dumplings (with celery, carrots, onions and corn)
2 large trays Lasagna Casserole

1 large tray Chicken Enchiladas

Spaghetti Sauce with 24 homemade meatballs (with puréed Spinach)

4 quart bags Taco Meat

24 Ranch Chicken Drum Sticks

10 Mini-Meatloaf’s (½ ground turkey, ½ extra lean ground beef)

1 BBQ Beef Roast – shredded (with puréed red pepper and onions)

2 Cranberry Pork Roasts

1 gallon bag 15 Bean Soup (with carrots, celery, onions and sweet peppers)

I have some GREAT recipies to share later but for right now, I'm off on to the "special plans" for all this food. Check back soon!

Phew!

I am not even done yet and I don't have the energy to put up a full post but, this is my freezer:

Everything in there was done today! I'm so thankful Missy was here to help! I have a very special plan for all this food. Stay tuned tomorrow for more pictures, recipes and the revelation of the plan. I'm off to pass out!

BIG Cooking day!

We did it! We completed everything we wanted to. My cousin and I started at 10a and just finished, clean up and all, at 7pm. We even got an extra roast done. It was so much fun; we laughed, drank yummy champagne and baked in perfect step together. The only debate was what to eat for dinner for tonight. There was 4 Crockpot’s going, the oven was on constantly and the stove top was in constant rotation of pots and pan's.

I'm off to soak in the bath. My back is killing me!

Here's the Garden-Style Lasagna

Here's the Mediterranean Spinach Strata in process

Enchalada Cassarole pre-cooking:



The Rolls:

Here's the final picture:
4 Mediterranean Spinach Strata's
4 Garden-Style Lasagna's
5 Red Enchalada Casseroles
2 Green Enchalada Casseroles
4 Chicken Broccoli Casseroles (*see note below)
2 Gallon Ziplocks with Cranberry Pork Roast (nick named Cran-pig)
2 Gallon Ziplocks with Pad Thai Peanut Butter Pork Roast (nick named Peanut Pig)
The large crock pot is full of Green Chilli Beef
24 rolls

*The Chicken Broccoli Casserole was strange, it didn't have any rice, bread or pasta in it and was very creamy. It tasted more like an alfredo sauce that should be put over pasta or on baked potatoes, so, that's what we dubbed it: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Mega cooking/baking day

I am planning a mega baking day for next Thursday with my cousin. This will be our third one together. The first was focused on apples (sauce, bread, pie, chicken, etc..) the second was Christmas cooking (lasagna, quiche, marinara sauce, meatballs and a crock pot corn dish) and this time we're going to make healthy dinners. I think it's our most ambitious menu yet. Here's our agenda:

4 trays of Mediterranean Spinach Strata
4 trays Garden-Style Lasagna
4 Chicken broccoli Casseroles
4 Enchilada Casserole with ground turkey
4 Green chili shredded beef roasts
48 Whole wheat dinner rolls
48 Whole wheat breadsticks

I'll post the recipes for the Green chili shredded beef and the bread later in the recipie tab as both of those are my recipes and I don't yet have a link for them. My cousin and I split up the grocery list between Costco items and Grocery store items. It usually ends up pretty even that way. We are going to start around 9 and are usually done around 6pm. It’s a lot to do but the two of us work great as a team, cooking, cleaning, chopping, prepping, drinking…..

I’ll post pictures as we go, it’s an amazing sight to see!