Wednesday, May 25, 2011

DAY 145 -- Number One Flunky

We made a batch of healthy muffins tonight, with my husband serving as the "number one flunky."  I tell him whatever I need him to do and he does it.  For instance, "mash the bananas," "break up the walnuts," or "those ingredients can be put away."  We make a great team and it makes baking more enjoyable for me.  I don't mind baking or cooking as long as I don't have to do everything.  I like being the mixer-upper and let someone else do all the chopping and preparation stuff.  And my husband likes how we work together in the kitchen.  He even puts up with me talking to myself out loud.  "One teaspoon of baking powder.  One teaspoon of baking powder.  One teaspoon of baking powder."  I have to repeat stuff to myself because I get easily distracted when cooking.  My daughter learned that first hand when she was helping me in the kitchen when she was a little girl.  We made tuna casserole together, and put it in the oven.  As we cleaned up our mess, I realized I had forgotten to put the tuna in.  We had to pull it out, remove the special cheese and crumb topping I make, stir in the tuna, and patch the topping back together.  :)

But I digress...

I usually like to make several batches of a variety of muffins (which we freeze individually wrapped, ready for snacks) but tonight we only had time to make one batch.  We were completely out of muffins in the freezer so we needed to get some made.  Hopefully I will have time Saturday to make more.

We also made a batch of a rice medley (Organic Harvest Medley from Costco) which we also freeze in individual size servings.  We've done this for years and it really works for us, especially since brown rice and our favorite rice medley takes so long to cook.  We do up a huge batch and then after the rice cools, we scoop small portions in little zipper bags.  This is very handy for lunches or for quick meals.  (Hint:  I usually under cook the rice a bit since it absorbs more water while it cools in the pan.)

We used the last of the previous batch of rice when we had our supper tonight, so that too needed restocked in the freezer.  I still need to make regular brown rice to freeze too.  Again... maybe Saturday... if my number one flunky is available!

(see recipe page for Crunchy Banana Muffins)

2 comments:

  1. I learned from a friend recently about freezing brown rice. I didn't know it would freeze well but it sure does. She also taught me to flatten the ziplocks to make it space effective. So many new things to learn! I actually made the rice in my rice cooker and it turned out beautiful. My husband is not a fan of brown rice but he's coming around as long as I let him put spice in it to his heart's desire.

    I thought of you this morning while I ate my bowl of steel cut oats with strawberries. I decided to not add any sugar to my bowl this morning and I was pleasantly surprised that it was sweet enough with the fruit. Yeah me!!!

    I love your blog!

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  2. We started freezing our rice when we became empty nesters, I think. I've thought about getting a rice cooker. Does it work well for brown rice? My husband likes the brown rice better (and the medley) when I cook it in chicken bouillon instead of plain water. I got a chuckle when you mentioned you let your husband spice it to his heart's desire. :) There are times when I try something supposedly "healthy" and think to myself, "This would taste great if I added some flavor!"

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