cycle cooking Archives - Character Ink https://characterinkblog.com/tag/cycle-cooking/ Home of the Language Lady & Cottage Classes! Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:49:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Podcast: Simplified Meal Planning https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-simplified-meal-planning/ https://characterinkblog.com/podcast-simplified-meal-planning/#respond Wed, 19 Aug 2015 13:47:31 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3412 Donna Reish, author of numerous writing and language arts books as well as Character Ink blog, Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar, and Language Lady blog, answers readers’ questions about efficiency in the kitchen. In this follow-up to Five Tips for Kitchen Efficiency, Donna shares more kitchen efficiency tips—especially meal planning for busy families. In […]

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Podcast: Simplified Meal PlanningDonna Reish, author of numerous writing and language arts books as well as Character Ink blog, Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar, and Language Lady blog, answers readers’ questions about efficiency in the kitchen. In this follow-up to Five Tips for Kitchen Efficiency, Donna shares more kitchen efficiency tips—especially meal planning for busy families. In this podcast episode, Simplified Meal Planning, Donna describes two “thinking” processes for deciding what to have for meals: (1) Basing meal lists on meats or main ingredients and keeping a running list of the things you make and (2) Keeping staples for the most common meals on hand. Donna shares her master entrée list in the accompanying handout to help get your creative juices flowing. She also focuses on making quick decisions and not getting bogged down mentally or time-wise with indecisiveness.

Click here to download the printable handout.

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Wondering Wednesday Podcast: How to Implement Cycle Cooking for Freezer Entrees and Starters https://characterinkblog.com/wondering-wednesday-podcast-how-to-implement-cycle-cooking-for-freezer-entrees-and-starters/ https://characterinkblog.com/wondering-wednesday-podcast-how-to-implement-cycle-cooking-for-freezer-entrees-and-starters/#respond Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:30:43 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3128 Donna Reish, author of forty curriculum books for homeschoolers and Christian schools and co-author/co-presenter of “Raising Kids With Character” Parenting Seminar (and blog), brings you another practical episode of Wondering Wednesday! In this week’s episode, Donna explains her “cycle cooking” for freezer entrees and starters, including how to freeze entrees, how to freezer cook efficiently, […]

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Podcast: How to Implement Cycle Cooking for Freezer Entrees and StartersDonna Reish, author of forty curriculum books for homeschoolers and Christian schools and co-author/co-presenter of “Raising Kids With Character” Parenting Seminar (and blog), brings you another practical episode of Wondering Wednesday! In this week’s episode, Donna explains her “cycle cooking” for freezer entrees and starters, including how to freeze entrees, how to freezer cook efficiently, how to utilize “meal starters” and “soup starters,” and much more. She takes the listener through all of her cycle types—shredded chicken, whole chicken breasts and fish pieces, crumbled ground meats, and shaped beef/roasts and teaches the ease in which a cook can get started and continue to fill the family freezer with meals.

Click here to download the printable handout.

SubscribeSubscribe to Character Ink! in iTunes to our Wondering Wednesday podcasts in iTunes.

 

Click here to see our previous podcasts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wondering Wednesday Podcast: Five Tips To Be More Efficient in the Kitchen https://characterinkblog.com/wondering-wednesday-podcast-five-tips-to-be-more-efficient-in-the-kitchen/ https://characterinkblog.com/wondering-wednesday-podcast-five-tips-to-be-more-efficient-in-the-kitchen/#respond Wed, 17 Jun 2015 20:06:42 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=3008 Donna Reish, author of Meaningful Composition, Character Quality Language Arts, and Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar as well as the Character Ink blog, brings you another episode of Wondering Wednesday. In this episode, Donna answers questions about efficiency in the kitchen. She gives her five top tips for becoming more efficient in the kitchen […]

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5 Tips To Be More Efficient in the KitchenDonna Reish, author of Meaningful Composition, Character Quality Language Arts, and Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar as well as the Character Ink blog, brings you another episode of Wondering Wednesday. In this episode, Donna answers questions about efficiency in the kitchen. She gives her five top tips for becoming more efficient in the kitchen including:

1. Using a crock pot

2. Having 10 meals that you always have ingredients on hand for

3. Cooking meat in the crock pot and freezing it

4. Making combination meals whenever possible, and

5. Putting something in the freezer each week.

Join Donna and she gives you inspiration and ideas for becoming more efficient in your kitchen.

 

Click here to download the printable handout.

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Low Carb Pizzadillas https://characterinkblog.com/low-carb-pizzadillas/ https://characterinkblog.com/low-carb-pizzadillas/#respond Wed, 03 Jun 2015 13:30:00 +0000 http://characterinkblog.com/?p=2514   Once I got on to using crepes (and/or tortillas, depending on your preference) for so many things (advice from DJ Foodie of Low Carbing Among Friends), I went crazy! There are literally dozens of things to do with crepes (savory or sweet) and/or tortillas—low carb or other!   (So if you are not a […]

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Low Carb Pizzadillas

Once I got on to using crepes (and/or tortillas, depending on your preference) for so many things (advice from DJ Foodie of Low Carbing Among Friends), I went crazy! There are literally dozens of things to do with crepes (savory or sweet) and/or tortillas—low carb or other!

 

(So if you are not a low carber but just trying to make things more healthfully for your family, read on….using healthy crepes and torts is a great way to reduce white flour and high carb/starchy use and feed your kids healthier options without their knowing it! 🙂 )

 

 

Making things with crepes or torts as the base is an amazing find for the low carber because these are either (1) easy to make (in the case of the crepes) or (2) easy to find (in the case of buying low carb tortillas). (Here are two of my faves to purchase: Mama Lupitas (they are brownish but I like them best—and I usually prefer “white”—they have a more nutty taste and make better tort chips and crackers imho and Mission (available in local stores too)—these are more acceptable to my teen sons.)

Low Carb Pizzadillas

Low Carb Pizzadillas!

 

 

I will be sharing the dozens of ways I use the crepes and torts (see using crepes as noodles here)  on the blog in the future, but today I bring you a super alternative to frozen pizza for your family! (My teen and college sons will eat this readily for a party/movie night—that is a really good sign!)

 

You cannot pick this dish up like you can pizza or even quesadillas simply because it is too chock full of yumminess. But it is worth all the messiness and utensil-needing!

 

 

Here’s the scoop (very loosely!)

•Crepes or tortillas

•Pizza or marinara sauce

•Pizza ingredients: cheeses, veggies, meats (precooked)…whatever you like

 

1. Place one crepe or tort on a baking dish sprayed (and I use parchment…always parchment…no time for messy dishes!).

2. Put sauce on that crepe (according to how saucy you like your pizza).

3. Put pizza ingredients on top of sauce.

4. Top with another crepe or tort.

5. Bake at 375 for about 15 to 20 minutes convection (20 to 25 regular) until filling is gooey and crepes are golden.

6. Remove from oven and slice with pizza cutter into fourths. Serve with forks! 🙂

 

Recipe Labels and Variations

 

 

Low Carb (LC): With the homemade low carb crepes, this is an extremely low carb dish. I would guess that with those, a full double-crepe pizzadilla (which would be a lot of food!) to be one-twentieth of a personal pizza carb count! They are extremely low carb and quick to make. Depending on which low carb tortilla you use, the carb count on the torts alone (two per huge double tort pizzadilla!) would still only be between six and twelve net carbs. Technically, depending on how full you fill the crepes/torts, a full pizzadilla (with two crepes/torts) is probably two servings anyway….very filling. So yes, very low carb!

 

 

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): This is one of my MOST family-friendly low carb recipes—especially with store bought, slightly higher carb torts (Mission). It is still going to be probably one tenth of a personal pan pizza carb-wise, so the carbs are still low even with the store bought, white torts. But the real kicker here is how “un-low-carb” this dish tastes. (Yes, that is a word when you are trying to feed teen and college boys!) Nutshell: low carb and kids love these!

 

 

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): You Stellas are in business here….you can quite literally buy everything in this dish and simply spend ten minutes assembling a bunch of them! Low carb tortillas; pre-cooked crumbled or link sausage; pepperoni;  pre-chopped onions, peppers, and mushrooms; shredded cheeses; jarred pizza sauce. Go make this!

 

 

Homemade Hannah (HH): For you Homemade Hannah’s out there, try the homemade low carb crepe recipe! It is a homemade treat that gives homemade cooks a lot of homemade options! (Emphasis on the “homemade” there!)

 

 

 Freezer Cooking (FC): I definitely use my freezer cooking skills to do prep work for this. In other words, I always have these things for this dish in my freezer: crepes (just make and stack in a plastic bowl with parchment between…always parchment…) and freeze; pre-cooked hamburger or ground turkey; pre-made sausage patties or links that I cut up for dishes like this one; and more. Other variations of this use other freezer items I have on hand: taco meat for tacodillas (!); shredded chicken and pre-cooked chicken chunks for Alfredo-dillas (okay, getting a little carried away here!); etc. Somehow I always dovetail all new recipes with my long-term-love-affair with freezer cooking!

 

 

 Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): While this is not an Oldie Goldie recipe, it is a whole lot easier than my OG homemade pizzas!

 

 

 Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This is a definite S entrée for THM’s. And depending on which base you use and what your fillings are, you could probably even make it an E—with low fat meats, low fat cheeses, and the right fat count base. I could see making this an easy E with shredded chicken, veggies, and Laughing Cow cheese.

 

 

 Cycle Cooking (CYC):  Just like my Freezer Cooking, this is not in a “cycle,” so to speak, but I do the various meats and even the torts in my cycles. Ground beef and taco meat are in my crumbled beef cycle. Shredded chicken in my Shredded Chicken Cycle; chicken chunks in my Chicken Breast Cycle; and the crepes in my Basic Flour Mix Cycle. Cycle cooking, along with Freezer Cooking, makes everything faster!

 

 

 Sugar Free (SF): No sugar in the crepes or torts to speak of. Definitely choose a low sugar pizza sauce or marinara (i.e. not the luscious, sugar-laden Prego!). My experience has been that lower sugar sauces are often found in glass jars (i.e. often more expensive, lesser known brands) and generic brands. Check them out!

 

 

 Gluten Free (GF):  The gluten-free option for this recipe is to make the crepes using the Basic Flour Mix Gluten-Free option. Very doable!

 

 

 Low Carb Mixes (LCM):  The crepes are made using the Basic Low Carb Flour Mix. Love my Low Carb Mixes!

 

 

DISCLOSURE: I am an affiliate for these products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links, I will earn a commission, but you will not pay more when buying a product through my link. 🙂

 

 

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