Homemade Frozen Hash Browns

Back when it was just the two of us, I would take the time to make homemade hashbrowns. I would just shred raw potatoes and cook them. Well that got to be really time consuming once we started having children so I would just buy Ore-Ida frozen hash browns by the 6 lb bag at Sam's every month!

I have been buying them for years! And it seems now that there is 7 of us eating I end up being short for one or two times I want to fix them at towards the end of the month.

So instead of going to the store just for hash browns and since I currently have over 20 lbs of fresh potatoes in my food storage. I took the time to do some research to find a homemade hash brown recipe.

Well what I found were recipes where people cooked their potatoes whole either with the skins on or off, then let them cool for several hours or overnight and then shredded the potatoes for hashbrowns.

So over the weekend, I took the time to go through the peeling and cooking of the potatoes. I peeled them and boiled them whole for the smaller ones and cut the bigger ones in half. Once they were tender-just enough to stick a fork through them. I drained the water and let them cool til after the kids were in bed(about 5 hours). Then I shredded them on a cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper and put them in the freezer to do a flash freeze of them. Once they were slightly frozen I left them on the wax paper and stuck them in a container back in the freezer where I can use them a "sheet" at a time or all at once.

HAH! Frozen hash browns!! The potatoes being cooked there is no browning or anything of them! They look very similar to store bought frozen shredded hash browns!

You can do this method for diced potatoes as well. I would par cook the whole potatoes, cool, dice, and put in freezer bags. :)

You can do this homemade french fries too...par cook then slice then deep fry for about 5 minutes(just so they are a little crispy on the outside--not brown) and cool and freeze.

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes!

Also go check out this new to me blog, Blessed with Grace that hosts Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays because there is more kitchen or food goodness! Also go to Freezer Food Friday for other freezing recipes!

**updated to answer questions that was left in the comments**

Menu Plan Monday 10/26-11/1

**Another week is upon us so that means it is time for another menu plan! This is just a plan and it could change on the cook’s whim!

Last week's menu plan went off without too much trouble after the rough week before. We tried a new recipe and it didn’t go over with everyone. If I make it again I will try some adjustments to it and see what happens. I did get some baking done last week but I have a ways to go!

This past Wednesday, the kids and I did a “community service day” and had a lot of fun! I wished that I hadn’t rushed out the door that day so that I would have remembered the camera!

This week's shopping trip was to just to get a few things. I wasn’t going to shop at all, however, I couldn’t pass up a couple of good deals that were going on. I made it out of the store for $30 for the week!

This week’s menu is just some run of the mill meals nothing to exciting since we are towards the bottom of the freezer stockpile! It is my birthday this week so I am working at doing some of “my favorites” this week! I still have a baking list that I am trying to get done so hopefully this week I’ll be able to cross off a few more things!

Lunches listed are for the kids and me. Usually with our lunches I serve carrot sticks, and some kind of in-season fruit along with juice or water to drink. Hubby usually takes dinner leftovers each day along with several items for snacks.

If you are looking for some inspiration you can find links to my menu suggestion lists over in my right side bar down by Organizing Junkie's button.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site! **

Sunday (10-26)
Breakfast: eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and chocolate chip muffins(out of a box)
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: sloppy turkey joes, fries & carrots
Snack: snack basket

Monday (10-27)
Breakfast: cereal and toast or muffins
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: steak/hotdogs, baked taters, corn
Snack: yogurt, muffins & milk

Tuesday (10-28)
Breakfast: waffles & sausage
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: saucy pork chops, rice and peas
Snack: snack basket

Wednesday (10-29)
Breakfast: bagels, cereal, & yogurt
Lunch: sandwich & chips
Dinner: lemon pepper chicken, noodles, corn, and homemade rolls
Snack: cookies & milk

Thursday (10-30) Happy Birthday to me!!
Breakfast: french toast and sausage
Lunch: pizza
Dinner: “no cooking day”; kids @ grandparents!
Snack: snack basket

Friday (10-31)
Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: steak & chicken tacos
Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (11-1)
Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”
Lunch: ??? probably leftovers!
Dinner: chicken n’ gravy, mashed taters, corn and crescent rolls
Snack: snack basket or popcorn

Weekly Shopping---Saved $36.61

I needed to work at decreasing my stockpile so this week, I decided to take a break from major deal shopping. I did go into Family Fare for a WIC run along with picking up a few of the 3 day deals and doing my "look" through the Manager's Special meat racks.

Well here is the breakdown of shopping trip...

1st Transaction:

• 4 bags candy $6.08



• 3lb bag apples $2.99



• 1 gallon apple cider $2.88



• 1.96lb B/S chicken breasts $3.51



• 1.87lb B/S chicken breasts $3.35



• 1.24lb ground chuck $2.77



• 1.17lb ground chuck $2.61



• 1.43lb ground chuck $3.19



• 1.15lb ground chuck $2.57

Total: $29.95
Savings Total: $26.53


2nd Transaction:

• 4 bags candy $4.08

Total: $4.08 minus $3.50 bottle refund = 58 cents!!!
Savings Total: $9.08(that doesn't include the bottle refund!)

GRAND TOTAL:$69.91
GRAND TOTAL OOP: $30.53
GRAND TOTAL SAVINGS: $36.61(not including using the bottle refund)

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings and Becentsable's Centsable Saving Stories.

Our Community Service Day!

We have a friend from church who works for a local rehabiliation hospital in their "Motion Analysis Center". He emailed us along with many other friends to see if we would be willing to help him and his co-workers with their "walking study". They are in the process of implementing a new protocol for studying the walking patterns of disabled patients. However, before they can begin using this clinically, they needed to collect walking data on 50 or more “normal” kids without any known disability or walking issues using this new protocol. This data will be averaged by age and, for the next decade or more, will serve as the comparison data against which their patients’ walking patterns will be compared.

So Wednesday, my three older boys had the privelege of being part of this study that will probably help thousands of disabled children and young people in their quest to walk like a "normal human being"!

When we got there...the boys had their weight and height taken along with measurements of their hips and legs. They had a series of about 50 little reflective spheres stuck on various spots of the body(mostly on their feet and legs) and then they had to walk 10-15 times back and forth a 10-meter walkway while ten state-of-the-art, high-speed video cameras recorded the motion of the markers on to a computer. When the boys were all done they could "see" how they walked on the computer. On the computer all that could be seen was "dots" from the reflective spheres.

My younger ones were too young for the study but the friend allowed them to also have the spheres stuck to them and let them dance on the "walkway" while it was recorded so that they could "see" themselves on the computer as well.

All total it took us about an hour and a half total out of our day for them to get through the study! It made my "momma heart" proud that the boys were willing to do this for the sake of others!

New Menu Planning System??

So I have been working through the October"Fall into Cooking" challenge that the ladies over at Happy to be at Home are doing as part of their End 08 Great Challenge. And I must say that I needed this challenge to help me get out my "cooking rut"!

Anyway, when they first introduced this month's challenge, Kate provided links to pdfs of a blank grocery list and monthly menu plan. I looked at them with great interest and wondered if I could use either of them instead of what I was using for my current system.

After looking at the grocery list in more depth, I realized that it would not be of benefit to me because I would have to be changing lots of different items on it. So I am keeping with using my current master grocery list.

However, the blank monthly menu plan really intrigued me, so I printed one off and thought to myself that this month I would work at developing a whole month's menu. Well, after about 5 days of the form sitting blank on my desk, I started my "quest" of filling out the monthly menu. I got one week done and then life happened and reality set in! Who was I kidding that I could do a monthly menu and actually stick to the whole thing when I have more than myself to think about when making a menu.

I wanted so desperately wanted to use this little form/sheet but it was looking like there was no hope! It really did look like it would work better in my "record keeping of meals" rather than trying to fill in a blank calendar and only have dinner meals recorded.

So I kept the form on my desk and thought some more as to how I could use the sheet while my planned meals for the week got moved around, or scratched or eaten.

Finally after taking some time to think, I have figured out what I am going to do with the sheet! I am going to leave it on my desk and use it as I figure out the week's menu. This way I have the previous week's meals on the same sheet and I can see what meals we had and what we didn't so far in a month's time so I can work at making a variety of meals rather than the same ol' thing week after week! If I find a new recipe to try I can plug it in on a day in the coming weeks right on the monthly menu sheet, so that the new recipe doesn't get forgotten!

So now instead of having several sheets of previous weekly menus, plus a master grocery list, plus my master menu suggestion lists(see left side bar for the lists), plus a list of "new recipes"'; I can have just this one sheet plus my freezer/pantry inventory sheet plus my blog opened to make my menus each week!

This should make for quicker and easier planning for me in the months ahead!