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Post by malibou on Aug 6, 2024 14:59:31 GMT
Taco Works Tortilla chips. Now we hate other tortilla chips, so be warned. We love this brand, too, but our Costco in NorCal doesn't carry them. We get them from Grocery Outlet. Damn, they come out of San Luis Obispo, so I would think all of California would certainly have them. I'm sorry for those of you that won't find them, yet. They really are something special. |
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Post by peasapie on Aug 6, 2024 15:33:19 GMT
I didn’t know I could freeze rice and quinoa! It freezes quite nicely. I cook up a large batch and then separate it into 2 cup amounts. I lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet until frozen and then I stand them up in a basket that is as wide as the bag. It keeps it organized and makes it easier to tell when I am running low and need to cook more of something. I do the same with many different vegetables too. In fact I spent the afternoon today frying onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers, separately, in preparation to make up more breakfast sandwiches. I will make the egg patties tomorrow and then freeze the remaining vegetables for use later on. I can spend an afternoon sautéing everything and at the end of the day, I only have the one large frying pan to wash. Then as I am making something later in the week, it is so handy to just break off a section of mushrooms or onions to add to a sauce. Having my most often used items in the freezer like that cuts down on meal prep time and dishes too. Making dinner then just requires cooking a protein and making some type of sauce. And if it is a sauce that I know will freeze well, I will make a double batch and freeze the other half for the next time I want that same dinner. Wow. May I just follow you around in your kitchen for more helpful tips like this? The only things I have been freezing are tomato paste (when I only need a small amount from the can) and chopped raw onions. I didn't know I could sauté onions, mushrooms and peppers and freeze them. |
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naby64
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,433 
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Post by naby64 on Aug 6, 2024 15:52:30 GMT
I’m so upset that they seem to have discontinued their large jars of Solestado Olive Salad. They were always seasonal and were stocked in April. None this year and when I asked, they said they’d been taken out of their inventory. I don’t remember ever seeing the olive salad. I am sad that they are not carrying the raspberry chipotle sauce anymore. I loved that for basting on a Cornish game hen or even just a couple of chicken breasts. I found a couple of recipes and am going to try to make my own one of these days. It was that good. Just the right amount of sweet and heat. I don't know if they still have it but I got a bottle of Mango Hatch chili sauce. It is sooooo good. I agree on the raspberry chipotle as it was also good. |
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Post by mellyw on Aug 6, 2024 17:13:25 GMT
Can you post the Orange sauce recipe? Not Lexica - but I use good quality chicken light breaded nuggets (Just Bare) tp make Orange Chicken, and my orange sauce is really simple. I use a cup or two of chicken broth (made with stock cubes), I add a pretty good scoop of orange marmalade (Smuckers), some Hoisin sauce and a little soy sauce. You can add chili flakes, or I sometimes add Thai sweet chili sauce to heat it up a bit, I make a corn starch slurry to thicken it. Air fry the nuggets, throw them in the sauce to coat. Top with some green onions chopped and sesame seeds if desired. SO fast and easy! Your recipe sounds easy and tasty, especially because I almost always have all those ingredients. Going to give it a try, TFS! |
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huskergal
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,443
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Post by huskergal on Aug 6, 2024 17:29:05 GMT
Best find: Oasis Hummus.
Worst purchase: avocados. I have never had bad avocados from Costco, but they were all inedible.
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,734
Location: So Cal
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Post by caangel on Aug 6, 2024 17:58:04 GMT
The Tortilla Land Raw tortillas were our pandemic must have. I knew as long as I had those and the shredded Mex cheese my kids would eat something 🙄
But seriously they are so good and worth the few minutes it takes to cook. The package says don't freeze but I have for many yrs with no issues. Just defrost in the fridge.
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Post by sunnyd on Aug 6, 2024 18:09:07 GMT
My Costco list always includes organic spinach ($3.99 for a TON), blueberries, eggs, chicken breasts, flour and other baking supplies plus toilet paper.
My new find this week is Tru Fru frozen chocolate covered raspberries. They are on sale now for $7.99 a bag and freaking delish!!
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 18:35:21 GMT
littlemama, this is the recipe I used. I can’t remember which site I copied it from though. After reading through it, I realized that I had no desire to mess with the hot oil to cook the chicken in. That is when I went looking for premade chicken chunks. I just used their sauce recipe, but I am pasting the whole recipe here for anyone who doesn’t mind cooking chicken in oil as they recommend. I fully admit to being afraid of deep frying. I tried it once years ago and my kitchen smelled like oil for ages. And I had purposely used a really deep pot so that no oil would splash out onto my stove. My husband wanted me to make that dish again, so I went out and bought a portable burner and did the deep frying part in the back yard on the counter instead of in my kitchen. I had no desire to have to do a deep clean after deep frying ever again. Orange chicken INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN: 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch pieces
2 eggs lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
oil for frying
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/4 cup sliced green onions FOR THE ORANGE SAUCE:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons orange zest plus additional for garnish if desired
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CHICKEN * Place the eggs in a bowl; add salt and pepper to taste.
* Mix together the flour and cornstarch and place in a shallow bowl or on a plate.
* Heat 3 inches of oil in a deep pan to 350 degrees F.
* Dip each piece of chicken into the egg mixture, then coat in the flour mixture. Repeat the process for all of the chicken pieces.
* Fry 8-9 pieces of chicken at a time for 5 minutes or until browned. Repeat with all the remaining chicken.
FOR THE SAUCE * While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce.
* Heat the 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute.
* Add the orange juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, orange zest, crushed red pepper, rice vinegar and sesame oil to the pan. Bring to a simmer.
* Whisk together the cornstarch and water. Add to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, or until sauce has thickened.
* Add the chicken pieces to the pan and toss to coat with the sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions and serve. Garnish with additional orange zest if desired.
NOTES 1. It’s very important to use a deep frying thermometer for this recipe. If the oil is too cold, the chicken coating will absorb too much grease. If the oil is too hot, the coating may burn before the meat is cooked through. 2. This dish is best when served immediately, as the coating on the chicken will soften over time as it absorbs the sauce. NUTRITION Calories: 365kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 162mg | Sodium: 672mg | Potassium: 442mg | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 240IU | Vitamin C: 21.5mg | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 2.3mg When making this, I just cooked the chicken chunks from the bag in the oven, as directed on the packaging. I added sliced green onions and sesame seeds to it after it was baked. I put down a layer of rice, then the chicken chunks, and then just spooned the sauce on my own serving so that the sauce didn’t soak into all of the chicken chunks for any leftovers. I just heated the chicken chunks in the toaster oven again while I reheated the sauce from the previous meal to have it again a few days later. Just know that using premade chicken chunks will not give you the same crispy coating like a restaurant meal gives you. But the flavor of the dish was there, just less clean up required. It looks like everyone really likes the Just Bare brand of chicken chunks. I will give those a try after what I currently have is used up.
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 19:04:55 GMT
I don’t remember ever seeing the olive salad. I am sad that they are not carrying the raspberry chipotle sauce anymore. I loved that for basting on a Cornish game hen or even just a couple of chicken breasts. I found a couple of recipes and am going to try to make my own one of these days. It was that good. Just the right amount of sweet and heat. I don't know if they still have it but I got a bottle of Mango Hatch chili sauce. It is sooooo good. I agree on the raspberry chipotle as it was also good. I have been adding some of the recommended items to my Instacart list. I looked for mango salsa and I found a Santa Barbara Mango and Peach Salsa, which looked good, but that isn’t what you are referring to, is it? |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 19:06:56 GMT
We love this brand, too, but our Costco in NorCal doesn't carry them. We get them from Grocery Outlet. Damn, they come out of San Luis Obispo, so I would think all of California would certainly have them. I'm sorry for those of you that won't find them, yet. They really are something special. No TacoWorks tortilla chips at my Costco either. Well, not listed on Instacart at least. I did see that they are supposed to be stocked in a Walmart, so I will hunt for them there. |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 19:33:22 GMT
It freezes quite nicely. I cook up a large batch and then separate it into 2 cup amounts. I lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet until frozen and then I stand them up in a basket that is as wide as the bag. It keeps it organized and makes it easier to tell when I am running low and need to cook more of something. I do the same with many different vegetables too. In fact I spent the afternoon today frying onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers, separately, in preparation to make up more breakfast sandwiches. I will make the egg patties tomorrow and then freeze the remaining vegetables for use later on. I can spend an afternoon sautéing everything and at the end of the day, I only have the one large frying pan to wash. Then as I am making something later in the week, it is so handy to just break off a section of mushrooms or onions to add to a sauce. Having my most often used items in the freezer like that cuts down on meal prep time and dishes too. Making dinner then just requires cooking a protein and making some type of sauce. And if it is a sauce that I know will freeze well, I will make a double batch and freeze the other half for the next time I want that same dinner. Wow. May I just follow you around in your kitchen for more helpful tips like this? The only things I have been freezing are tomato paste (when I only need a small amount from the can) and chopped raw onions. I didn't know I could sauté onions, mushrooms and peppers and freeze them. Haha. My kitchen tricks are born from being a single mother from the time my son was still an infant. In order to work, run a large house, and be a very present mom, I learned to have a lot of shortcuts up my sleeve. We didn’t have a lot of extra money for vacations, so we went camping all over the state. My son adored fishing and hiking, so camping was the best vacation to him. I started doubling up on any meal that I thought would freeze well. We had part for that night’s dinner and then I made little single servings with my sealing machine. I labeled them and put them in the freezer. It was not that much more effort to double a recipe and the bonus of having home cook meals ready to go in the freezer gave me the ability to spend more time with my son. When it was time to pack for camping, we just pulled several meal choices from the well-stocked freezer in the garage. Then at the camp site, I just kept a big pot of water on the stove for the whole trip. I would just heat the water back up, drop in whatever pouch we each chose for dinner, and when it was hot, just cut off a corner of the bag and put it onto a paper plate. That meant no pots to wash, no dishes either. I just walked the used plates and empty plastic bags from the frozen food to the main dumpster in camp. There were usually bears in the campground areas and I knew they would go for the smell of our trash if I kept it in our campsite. I even made omelets by filling a sealing bag with all the ingredients and sealing it without using the air removal component. We could either cook it right in the bag or cut it open to make scrambled eggs. Doing it this way meant virtually no cleanup, plenty of variety, no mess from something that tipped over in the cooler, and allowed me to remain at the creek with my son while he fished rather than returning to spend an hour prepping dinner. Having healthy homemade meals also came in handy if I got sick. When you are the only parent, your responsibilities still go on even when you can’t. My son learned to do the same as we did when camping, choose a meal each and heat it in boiling water. I still continue to do a reduced version of this to this day. Now I tend to cook up all the various components in one full day and store them separately in the freezer. As long as you have a good system for labeling the bags and keeping them in a plastic container so that you can find them easily, it makes for faster meal prep for me. And now that I am older and have chronic pain from a failed spinal surgery and additional pain from fibromyalgia, I can’t stand at the stove for too long. I do have a raised stool that I pull up to the stove, but even doing that, when the pain decides to hit me, I can’t even sit at the stove too long. So, back to keeping things chopped and cooked in their own bags so that I can choose to either grab a fully cooked meal or just the components, depending on how I feel that day. And I don’t mean to sound all pitiful here. Most people deal with something, and this is just my thing to deal with. No big thing. I choose to keep on pushing and to live as normally as I can. Once you accept your limitations and then figure out a work around for things, life can go on as close to how it would do if everything was fine. |
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Post by Zee on Aug 6, 2024 19:46:15 GMT
We use the artichoke doom with chopped/shredded chicken meat and put it on a bun. Makes a delicious, super easy dinner. Oooh, I hadn’t thought of using shredded chicken and making it a sandwich! Especially with the sandwich thins I just discovered. I will try that when I get my small appliances unpacked. I knew I used them a lot, but now not having any of them, I realize I am almost paralyzed without them. I am used to taking a still warm chicken breast and putting it in the Kitchen Aid with a metal attachment to make shredded chicken super easy. Thank you for the idea. That will be much faster than making stuffed breasts. I'm not sure if you still have the cash, but have you thought about hiring an organizer to help you unpack all that? Wouldn't be cheap, but I know you spent a considerable amount to have all that packed up and stored for some time and now you have been moved in for months and still cannot get to things you need. Just a thought, as it might be nice to get all that sorted quickly rather than over months and months. |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 19:48:21 GMT
The Tortilla Land Raw tortillas were our pandemic must have. I knew as long as I had those and the shredded Mex cheese my kids would eat something 🙄 But seriously they are so good and worth the few minutes it takes to cook. The package says don't freeze but I have for many yrs with no issues. Just defrost in the fridge. I used these also! When I had my mom living with me, I used to make her this huge taco-type thing with one of those tortillas. I just cooked it like they recommend, then put some type of meat and cheese inside and put it back in the frying pan to crisp up. I used a nonstick pan with no oil and just whatever fat content that is in those tortillas allowed them to brown and get crispy. Mom used to ask for a mega taco like that at least once or twice a week. I have a package in my freezer right now. I usually do like you and just freeze the whole package, thawing it in the fridge to start using them. But since Mom wanted them so often, I started precooking them to almost finished. Then I stacked them back up with a sheet of parchment paper between them and putting them in the freezer. That made it easy to pull out the big bag of precooked tortillas and peel off two to use for dinner. Just a minute or two in the nonstick pan thawed them out and they were ready to make her a taco. I found these giant zip lock bags at a store that sold bulk items and an entire package of precooked tortillas fit into one of those. I think they were two gallon sized. It kept them fresh and you would never know they had originally been cooked a month or two prior. Oh, and I reused those sheets of parchment paper for the next batch of tortillas so that it wasn’t really wasteful. |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 20:10:22 GMT
Oooh, I hadn’t thought of using shredded chicken and making it a sandwich! Especially with the sandwich thins I just discovered. I will try that when I get my small appliances unpacked. I knew I used them a lot, but now not having any of them, I realize I am almost paralyzed without them. I am used to taking a still warm chicken breast and putting it in the Kitchen Aid with a metal attachment to make shredded chicken super easy. Thank you for the idea. That will be much faster than making stuffed breasts. I'm not sure if you still have the cash, but have you thought about hiring an organizer to help you unpack all that? Wouldn't be cheap, but I know you spent a considerable amount to have all that packed up and stored for some time and now you have been moved in for months and still cannot get to things you need. Just a thought, as it might be nice to get all that sorted quickly rather than over months and months. I have thought about doing something like that. Only my version was a cheaper idea of hiring a friend to help me. But every time I have made a friend here, they die! Seriously the first three friends that I made, two from my own neighborhood, have died. I know this is a retirement community, but these women were not that old. I feel like a jinx. I do plan to start swimming laps again when they finish the restoration to the pool and spa. Then I hope to meet people who may be a bit more long lived to make friends with. My backup plan to this is my best friend from California. He was going to come stay with me and help me, but then he had a really bad fall in his front yard taking his trash cans out. He broke his femur in two places. And while he was in the hospital having surgery to repair his leg, they discovered a problem with his heart so he had a pacemaker put in. And the day he was to be released after the pacemaker, They found another problem and he spent another week of tests and procedures. Then he needed a hip replaced and is now talking to his doctor about a knee replacement. And this guy is only three years older than I am! And he basically lived at the gym for the past 30 years, keeping in shape because he is gay and a bit vain, telling me that after a certain age, most men are already coupled up and the ones that are left, he doesn’t want. So he tried to stay in tip top shape. His father had died of heart problems when he was still a teenager. He feels very strongly that if he had not broken his leg taking the trash cans out, and in the rain no less, that he would not have learned he needed the pacemaker and he would have died too. He is still going to physical therapy, but when he is fully rebuilt, he will fly up and stay with me to help me unpack if I am not done yet. He is seriously considering moving to Oregon himself, or maybe Washington, so I told him he can live with me while he checks out the various areas. This house has what they called two master bedrooms, one at each end of the house. Except the one that I want for my master only has a half bath in it. I have to use the shower in the hallway bathroom. I don’t really mind that though. The important thing for me is the toilet close to my bed because I tend to wake to pee quite often and don’t want to use the hall bathroom for that, so the half bath is good enough for now. The other master is a little smaller, but it has a shower in that bathroom connected to the bedroom that makes it a preferred long term guest room. |
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naby64
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,433
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Post by naby64 on Aug 6, 2024 20:11:21 GMT
I don't know if they still have it but I got a bottle of Mango Hatch chili sauce. It is sooooo good. I agree on the raspberry chipotle as it was also good. I have been adding some of the recommended items to my Instacart list. I looked for mango salsa and I found a Santa Barbara Mango and Peach Salsa, which looked good, but that isn’t what you are referring to, is it? No, let me go look in the fridge. We had a bday party in the office yesterday and I brought the sauce here to pour over cream cheese. BRB |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 20:14:54 GMT
I have been adding some of the recommended items to my Instacart list. I looked for mango salsa and I found a Santa Barbara Mango and Peach Salsa, which looked good, but that isn’t what you are referring to, is it? No, let me go look in the fridge. We had a bday party in the office yesterday and I brought the sauce here to pour over cream cheese. BRB Oh, I love cream cheese as a block with a sauce to use as a dip. I used to use jalapeño jelly over cream cheese served with wheat thins. Delicious! And no fuss other than heating up the jelly a bit to make it pourable. |
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naby64
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,433
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Post by naby64 on Aug 6, 2024 20:18:43 GMT
No, let me go look in the fridge. We had a bday party in the office yesterday and I brought the sauce here to pour over cream cheese. BRB Oh, I love cream cheese as a block with a sauce to use as a dip. I used to use jalapeño jelly over cream cheese served with wheat thins. Delicious! And no fuss other than heating up the jelly a bit to make it pourable. Here ya go! I don't find it online. Hope you can find it. It's delish!! Not really hot but you get a nice something at the back of your throat.  |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 6, 2024 20:35:33 GMT
Oh, I love cream cheese as a block with a sauce to use as a dip. I used to use jalapeño jelly over cream cheese served with wheat thins. Delicious! And no fuss other than heating up the jelly a bit to make it pourable. Here ya go! I don't find it online. Hope you can find it. It's delish!! Not really hot but you get a nice something at the back of your throat. I will hunt for that. It looks so good! I love mango too. A friend used to bring a mango salsa when we had a group lunch at work. It was good, but he complained every time about how labor intensive it was. I find the raspberry chipotle sauce like that, not too much fire and very delicious. I think I need to start going to the actual Costco store again. I’m not sure they list every item on Instacart and the store may have them in stock. Thank you! |
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,559
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Aug 6, 2024 20:47:00 GMT
Frozen Pineapple Dole Whip. I honestly don’t remember the last time I ate anything that tasted so terrible I’ve purchased from Costco. It was so bad. Nothing at all like the soft Disney Dole Whip. So disappointing. That is so far from actual Dole Whip! I was mad when we purchased it. I continue to scowl at it when we pass the freezer section every week. >.< |
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Post by snugglebutter on Aug 6, 2024 20:53:38 GMT
The Tortilla Land Raw tortillas were our pandemic must have. I knew as long as I had those and the shredded Mex cheese my kids would eat something 🙄 But seriously they are so good and worth the few minutes it takes to cook. The package says don't freeze but I have for many yrs with no issues. Just defrost in the fridge.
I put off trying those for years because everyone I knew who tried them said they could never go back to regular tortillas. Something made me decide to try them and now we are also tortilla snobs. It has to be those or HEB tortillas now. (Walmart bakery has some that are a distant third)
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 7, 2024 2:19:25 GMT
I have thought about doing something like that. Only my version was a cheaper idea of hiring a friend to help me. But every time I have made a friend here, they die! Seriously the first three friends that I made, two from my own neighborhood, have died. I know this is a retirement community, but these women were not that old. I feel like a jinx. I do plan to start swimming laps again when they finish the restoration to the pool and spa. Then I hope to meet people who may be a bit more long lived to make friends with. Another option would be to find a college kid or high school grad looking to earn some cash for school. When I was in college there was a job board on campus where people could post job openings or even the occasional odd job that someone in the area needed help with. Now I suppose a posting like that could be put up on NextDoor or a community Facebook page to find someone local to you. I see posts on ours all the time for folks looking for help with yard work, lawn mowing, washing windows, plowing snow, whatever. I would find it so frustrating to not have access to so much of my stuff for so long! |
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Post by Scrapper100 on Aug 7, 2024 2:41:44 GMT
I sampled a spicy pasta sauce and it was so good. It was $6 something a bottle which is more than we normally would spend but it was good. Bought two everyone loved them so I went back and bought more. They had an asterisk so I was kind of surprised I got more before they sold out. It had a date of 2027 so I figured I was good.
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Post by AussieMeg on Aug 7, 2024 2:46:20 GMT
We have enjoyed pretty much all of the ready-made meals that we've tried from Costco. The ones that come to mind: The butter chicken tastes almost exactly like the one I make from scratch, but with a lot less effort!! DSO loves their mini taco kits. They used to have a Thai chicken soup that was sooooo good! We only bought it once, and they've never had it again unfortunately. The beef rendang is also really good.
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moodyblue
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,277
Location: Western Illinois
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Aug 7, 2024 3:23:03 GMT
I have thought about doing something like that. Only my version was a cheaper idea of hiring a friend to help me. But every time I have made a friend here, they die! Seriously the first three friends that I made, two from my own neighborhood, have died. I know this is a retirement community, but these women were not that old. I feel like a jinx. I do plan to start swimming laps again when they finish the restoration to the pool and spa. Then I hope to meet people who may be a bit more long lived to make friends with. Another option would be to find a college kid or high school grad looking to earn some cash for school. When I was in college there was a job board on campus where people could post job openings or even the occasional odd job that someone in the area needed help with. Now I suppose a posting like that could be put up on NextDoor or a community Facebook page to find someone local to you. I see posts on ours all the time for folks looking for help with yard work, lawn mowing, washing windows, plowing snow, whatever. I would find it so frustrating to not have access to so much of my stuff for so long! I second this idea. Relying on a friend who has had multiple health issues recently, and now might be having a knee replacement just pushes everything out for possibly months. I don’t understand living this long in your new home without having the things you want available to you. |
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Post by compeateropeator on Aug 7, 2024 10:41:08 GMT
I bought a bag of Reese’s peanut butter/chocolate covered animal crackers a few months ago for my father, who loved them. Actually a lot of us loved them. I keep meaning to look and see if they still have them and but keep forgetting . They are perfect for just a little sweet taste when you looking for something.
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Post by Judie in Oz on Aug 7, 2024 11:30:05 GMT
We have enjoyed pretty much all of the ready-made meals that we've tried from Costco. The ones that come to mind: The butter chicken tastes almost exactly like the one I make from scratch, but with a lot less effort!! DSO loves their mini taco kits. They used to have a Thai chicken soup that was sooooo good! We only bought it once, and they've never had it again unfortunately. The beef rendang is also really good. The butter chicken is great and convenient. Also like the chicken enchiladas. Non food-wise we get the ScoopAway cat litter, big boxes of Kleenex tissues, Omo Sensitive liquid laundry detergent, Dawn dishwashing detergent and Glad Press'n Seal. Out of all these things, the cat litter is the thing we like best. Tried about ten different brands of cat litter when ScoopAway was out of stock, and disliked all of them for one reason or another. Now have a small stockpile of ScoopAway just in case. |
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Post by Lexica on Aug 7, 2024 13:56:37 GMT
Ok, I am going to,sound ignorant here, but I am not familiar with butter chicken. My Costco doesn’t carry it, but they do have Tikka Masala, which, according to Google is similar. I have only been to an Indian restaurant once with a group of coworkers. One was Indian and she ordered for the table. The dishes were passed among us family style, so I don’t know the names of the dishes we ate that night but it was all delicious. I’m sure she must have told us, but I can’t remember any of them now. One website with a butter chicken recipe said it has similar ingredients to Tikka Masala, except butter chicken has no onions and is more mild. I know I have said before that I have zero experience with curry, at least that I know of. We may have had it that night.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,317
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Post by iowgirl on Aug 7, 2024 15:38:35 GMT
The Tortilla Land Raw tortillas I put off trying those for years because everyone I knew who tried them said they could never go back to regular tortillas. Something made me decide to try them and now we are also tortilla snobs. I love those tortilla's! I was first introduced to fresh tortilla's when I bought Guerrero Fresquiricas - and to me those are still the best. I can't get them local, but I can get the Tortilla Land ones at my Walmart. I love "Puffy Taco's" so I deep fry (sorta) the shells into a taco shape and fill with seasoned browned hamburger (not taco seasoned - just seasoned with S&P and maybe a little cumin and Mexican oregano. Fill the hot fried shell with the meat, then cheese, lettuce, etc. YUM! I just put a small amount of oil in a small pan, sometimes even olive oil and lightly fry into the taco shape. YUMMY!~ Fresh tomato season now, so even better! Yes, I can only have the fresh shells now! LOL |
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Post by peasapie on Aug 7, 2024 21:21:05 GMT
Wow. May I just follow you around in your kitchen for more helpful tips like this? The only things I have been freezing are tomato paste (when I only need a small amount from the can) and chopped raw onions. I didn't know I could sauté onions, mushrooms and peppers and freeze them. Haha. My kitchen tricks are born from being a single mother from the time my son was still an infant. In order to work, run a large house, and be a very present mom, I learned to have a lot of shortcuts up my sleeve. We didn’t have a lot of extra money for vacations, so we went camping all over the state. My son adored fishing and hiking, so camping was the best vacation to him. I started doubling up on any meal that I thought would freeze well. We had part for that night’s dinner and then I made little single servings with my sealing machine. I labeled them and put them in the freezer. It was not that much more effort to double a recipe and the bonus of having home cook meals ready to go in the freezer gave me the ability to spend more time with my son. When it was time to pack for camping, we just pulled several meal choices from the well-stocked freezer in the garage. Then at the camp site, I just kept a big pot of water on the stove for the whole trip. I would just heat the water back up, drop in whatever pouch we each chose for dinner, and when it was hot, just cut off a corner of the bag and put it onto a paper plate. That meant no pots to wash, no dishes either. I just walked the used plates and empty plastic bags from the frozen food to the main dumpster in camp. There were usually bears in the campground areas and I knew they would go for the smell of our trash if I kept it in our campsite. I even made omelets by filling a sealing bag with all the ingredients and sealing it without using the air removal component. We could either cook it right in the bag or cut it open to make scrambled eggs. Doing it this way meant virtually no cleanup, plenty of variety, no mess from something that tipped over in the cooler, and allowed me to remain at the creek with my son while he fished rather than returning to spend an hour prepping dinner. Having healthy homemade meals also came in handy if I got sick. When you are the only parent, your responsibilities still go on even when you can’t. My son learned to do the same as we did when camping, choose a meal each and heat it in boiling water. I still continue to do a reduced version of this to this day. Now I tend to cook up all the various components in one full day and store them separately in the freezer. As long as you have a good system for labeling the bags and keeping them in a plastic container so that you can find them easily, it makes for faster meal prep for me. And now that I am older and have chronic pain from a failed spinal surgery and additional pain from fibromyalgia, I can’t stand at the stove for too long. I do have a raised stool that I pull up to the stove, but even doing that, when the pain decides to hit me, I can’t even sit at the stove too long. So, back to keeping things chopped and cooked in their own bags so that I can choose to either grab a fully cooked meal or just the components, depending on how I feel that day. And I don’t mean to sound all pitiful here. Most people deal with something, and this is just my thing to deal with. No big thing. I choose to keep on pushing and to live as normally as I can. Once you accept your limitations and then figure out a work around for things, life can go on as close to how it would do if everything was fine. I do get what you mean about being a single mom - I was too. But wow - you are so organized in food preparation, and I admire that. I'm organized in many things but don't enjoy cooking and have never mastered cooking organization. Thank you! |
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