Month: December 2016

The bone broth is finished. I strained it twice and put it all in a stock pot. I added water until I had a total of 5 quarts of liquid for the soup. Next I began to chop. It didn’t take as long as I had thought it. I chopped up 3 cups of carrots, 3 cups of celery, one cup of onion, and picked off all of the meat from my chicken thighs that I used for the bone broth. I got 4 cups of meat.

The bowl on the upper right is holding my strained vegetables and meat from the bone broth. I just pulled out the big pieces and put it in a bowl in the fridge overnight. The meat was easy to get off, and I was really surprised at how little of the chicken became waste.

It was time to fill the jars. I followed a recipe from the Amish Canning Cookbook,  putting more meat and vegetables in than the recipe called for. The recipe said that it had a lot of broth so that you could add noodles and cook it right in the soup. I prefer to make my noodles separately so that all of my broth from the soup remains, so I filled them more. It was so easy, about 1 cup of raw carrots, 1 cup of celery, 1/2 cup of onion and 1 cup of chicken meat was put in a hot jar.

It was obvious pretty early on that I would need more vegetables. So I ended up chopping up the rest of the carrots and celery that I had bought, and another small onion. I added the hot broth to the jar, leaving one inch headspace, used the tool to get out all of the air bubbles, wiped the rim with vinegar to remove any meat oils, and put on the lid and band. Back into the pressure canner it went until all of the quart jars were filled. This recipe made 5 quarts with enough soup leftover for us to eat for lunch, which was good because the family had been smelling it all day and they wanted some!

I processed them in the pressure canner following the manufacturer’s directions (adding 3 quarts of water and 2 Tablespoons of vinegar to the canner.) Once the canner had vented for 10 minutes, I set the 15 pound pressure regulator on top and waited for the jiggle. My altitude requires 15 pounds of pressure.  I then processed it for 90 minutes, turned off the heat, and waited for it to return to pressure before opening the lid.

While it cooked, we ate the leftovers!

Instead of the daily "what are we going to have for supper tonight?" I know what we will have, and I've picked foods that can be done around our plans each night. Sometimes I use my slow cooker, sometimes I use my electric pressure cooker, and sometimes I cook a meal the old fashioned way on the stove or in the oven.

I thought that I would share my process with you! I use Google Apps because I can share all of my recipes and shopping lists with family members near and far, and I can access the information on my smartphone at the store, from my work computer, or anywhere I may be. It has been a saving grace on vacation!

I primarily use Google docs and Google Calendar for menu planning. If you already use google docs, then you are ready to start! I opened my google drive and clicked on the blue NEW button. I selected +folder at the top created a file named "Recipes."

I then clicked on the new file and added a new google doc for each recipe I had. Yes, I did spend two afternoons typing in handwritten recipes that were family favorites. After the hand written recipes were done, whenever I found a website with a recipe I liked, I just copied it and pasted it in a new document. Very quickly I had over 200 recipes in my folder.

Here is a link for creating a Google Account, if this is new to you.

I then shared the recipe folder with everyone in my family using their email address.

For google drive, click on the drop down menu from your folder name and click on share. You can then add email addresses and decide if each person can edit or only view your folder. I suggest that no one be allowed to edit them, or your recipes could accidentally change over time.

Now my adult children who moved away have instant access to my grandma's famous dumpling recipe and they don't have to call me or hope that I'm at home and can give it to them. When I travel, I can make oriental coleslaw, pressure cooker seafood boil, or give my cousin our grandma's Christmas cookie recipe. Everything is with me, all of the time.

Next I opened my google calendar and created a new calendar named "menu." I clicked on the drop down menu to the right of the heading "My Calendars" and it prompted me to create a new calendar. I have a "Family Calendar" that is yellow and a "Menu" calendar that is red. Both calendars are shared with every family member who wants access. My teenage daughters would check the calendar if they came home and we weren't there to find out if someone had an appointment, and my husband checks the menu calendar almost every day to see answer that question, "What's for supper tonight?"

Once I have the menu calendar established, I simply click on the date to create an event. I type in the name of the meal I'm scheduling for that day and make sure that it is saved to my menu calendar.

When you click on "create" the item is saved. It should save as an all day event and appear at the top of the calendar. Here is what it looks like with the yellow family calendar items and my red menu calendar items for a week back in 2014.

Yes, I even put in "leftover" or "Grab nights!" I can also go back to my google calendar from last year of the same month to get ideas of things I made then!

I share the calendar in a similar way that I shared the google drive folder. By clicking on the drop down menu to the right of my menu calendar (listed on the left column under "My Calendars" I can choose the color, and share this calendar easily.

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So, now you have the recipe files saved in a folder, created a calendar, and shared everything with family members. It's time to make the shopping list. It couldn't be easier!

In my drive, I open a new google document named "Shopping List."

You can see that I've already copied and pasted items from my recipes onto this document. If' I'm making cabbage casserole, I open the google file for that recipe and copy all of the ingredients. I don't worry if I already have some of the ingredients, I copy and paste the ENTIRE ingredient list. Once I have done this for all of my recipes for the week, I scroll down the list, combining like items. For example, I might need 1 can of diced tomatoes for the casserole and 1 can for another recipe later in the week. I just change one item to buy 2 cans and delete the other time it appears on the list.

Before I leave, I use the list to shop from my pantry, checking to see if I already have salt, spices, soup mixes, or canned mushrooms for example. If I have them, I take it off of the list.

I never have to worry about forgetting my list at home on the kitchen table, or worrying that I have a pen in my purse to cross off items. I simply open the shopping list document on my smartphone and delete the items as I put them into the cart. The document is empty again at the end of the trip, ready for a new week!

Let me know if you use google apps for your meal planning! It sure has made my life easier! Post a comment, please!