Food Preparation Day Recap

Last weekend I had a pretty big food prep day so I thought I’d share what I made with you all to hopefully maybe give you some ideas or inspiration.

Let’s start with chocolate syrup.  Our supply ran out and we have found that Hershey syrup does not keep anymore.  We’ve had it mold twice and that was enough for us (used to keep indefinitely in the fridge…no longer).  We used up the other stuff we found on Amazon but the price on that stuff went through the roof, so I made my own this time around.

I used this recipe.  I ended up having to add more sugar and water than was called for to stop it from tasting grainy and getting the cocoa powder to incorporate completely.  But, it is tasty.  Richer and less sweet than Hershey syrup (not a bad thing to me), but good.  Hopefully it keeps well.

I then made a pot of Japanese style curry one night and froze the left overs in individual portions this day.  I love Japanese curry, the family doesn’t mind it but they don’t adore it like me.  So, I froze the left overs for easy and yummy lunches for me.  Note:  I just follow the directions on the curry roux box for portions of onions, carrots and such, but I do like to double up the curry roux to make a really nice, thick curry :).

I also made a big pot of cabbage roll soup and froze the left overs that day as well.  My husband loves Erbswurst pea soup when he isn’t feeling well…I love cabbage roll soup. I ran out of it in the freezer so I was thrilled to add it back for easy meals later :).

I made two types of no cook ice cream as ice cream is ridiculously expensive anymore.   I made chocolate and vanilla.  My daughter is delighted with the chocolate ice cream as it is her absolute favorite (a nice, rich, chocolate ice cream).

Side note:  I wanted to thank the kind soul who sent me this ice cream maker off of my wish list a few years ago (they didn’t include their name when they sent it).  It has a compressor in it so you can freeze the ice cream on the spot and not waste freezer space with a bowl that has to freeze beforehand.  Unfortunately (true to form) Amazon doesn't ship this to Alaska anymore, so I didn't do an associate link to the ice cream maker (just a regular link to share for anyone who might be interested).  I had wanted one and found one that actually shipped to Alaska but it was so expensive that I just figured it would sit on my wish list forever.  I got two uses out of my new bowl style ice cream maker before the bowl started leaking white stuff around the seal, so I was very grateful to get it! 

I then made up a batch of breakfast sausage and the next day made up a batch of pancakes (I make sourdough pancakes so they ferment overnight) to make pancake wraps to go with the husband’s breakfast options.  This time I only got three wraps because the sausage was local sausage I wanted to try and it came with less links than the store bought sausage (good stuff though), as each wrap takes two sausages to put together.  My husband raided a few links for breakfast that morning which helped to reduce the amount of wraps possible too lol. 

I cut up what was left of a loaf of bread and made French toast that morning as well and my husband ate some for breakfast with the sausage.  The other 3 pieces went in the freezer for breakfast for someone later on.

I had been putting off breakfast bowls because I’ve been very tired (Alvah not sleeping the last month) and didn’t want to cut up and cook potatoes, but when I was cleaning out my little veggie scrap bags out of the freezer to make some stock I found a bag of hash brown diced potatoes that I had made and had gotten buried.  So, I pulled out some ground sausage, a dozen eggs and some cheese and made the husband some more breakfast bowls.  Glad to get those back in the freezer because my husband loves them so much.

Then I pulled out the thing of bacon I had defrosted and made some Erbswurst.  My husband loves it when he has a cold (tons of protein in it), so I was glad to restock it as he was nearly out.

Next up I took some fresh Granny Smith apples that no one but me would eat, cut them up and used them to make a double batch of apple cinnamon crumble muffins as they were starting to go soft and needed to be used.  I made a double batch because that was exactly how much cut up apple I had.  I skipped the glaze for the sake of less mess.  These are yummy and come out super soft!  I kept out six to eat and put the rest in the freezer for easy breakfast fare some weekends.

Lastly I took some strawberries I had bought fresh at a good price but were not holding up well, at all, and macerated them in sugar so they would keep better for desserts or to eat on yogurt or something.  They are now in a quart jar in my fridge and I’m going to use the rest of them to make strawberry panna cotta with tomorrow.  Great way to hold fruit over (macerating with sugar) just a bit longer if you need a hack for that.

And there you go folks.  One full day of meal prep.  But, it stopped food from going bad and put a bunch more options in our fridge and freezer.  I call that a win!