Using the Ole Noodle

I’ve gotten into the habit recently of planning meals. I have a love/hate relationship with menu planning. I love what it does for me which is keep me organized, keep me ahead of the dance that used to exist; the one where I say ‘what do you guys want for dinner’ and receive no reply. Then I make something not knowing for sure what everyone wants only to find everyone’s grumping about the food prepared and digging through the fridge an hour later. This way you can look ahead and see what’s coming up so if you want to make adjustments you can!! The stinker in the whole deal is I can’t slack as much as I’d like. I have to shop on a Saturday after payday b/c that’s how it works in my house. If I don’t have my list ready I am buying stuff hoping I remember the menu plan and get all the items I need. The major bonus to this is that I save money. It’s not a huge massive chunk of change but over time it all adds up.

As a result of planning I’ve also learned what a time saver it can be to make a freeze food ahead of time. This has been a good and a bad thing too….I’m a yin/yan if you have not already noticed. THE GOOD NEWS is that on Sloppy Joe Thursday, I only have to take the frozen meat block out of the fridge, toss it in a crock, add some H2o and voila! When I come home from work the sweet smell of our main course has penetrated the fabric in our house. All I have to make is sides. WOO HOO. The bummer is that I usually spend one entire afternoon every 2 weeks or so making tons and tons of food. 

The good news …ah COME ON, you HAD to see that coming…the good news is I’ve been able to incorporate Meredith in this. IT’s a fun training, if you will. My mom never cooked with me. I think part of the problem was we were poor and you couldn’t mess too much with the food you had. If I cooked and blew it, you either ate questionable food or nothing at all because there was only so much to go around. So the food preparation I do I either learned on my own, from friends or online. God bless the internet because lord only knows where I’d be without it. 

It was a proud moment for me because I was able to teach Meredith to make homemade noodles. It was such a mess and so much fun. She felt big. She needs this. The poor dear girl is 9 and she’s short, really short and petite. She can’t reach the stove buttons yet and that’s my rule. When you can turn the oven timer on, you can run the stove. She’s not even close and very unhappy about it. But on the noodle extravaganza day she was happy as a clam. Here are some pictures.

 

I froze these puppies; made 3 batches and they turned out great! Thaw them completely; do not do what I do with the Joes and toss in a frozen brick. It turns in to one hot mess with noodles.

My recipe for noodles is dreadfully simple. This makes one batch; I double it because the Brunner’s are some noodle eaters!!

1 C Flour

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

Mix all together and roll out to your desired thickness and cut with a noodle cutter. That’s it and that’s all. How wonderful is that!

Got other frozen pasta ideas pah-lease share with me. My family loves pasta but I grow nervous when the freezer is introduced.