One of my old stand-by meals has been pancakes and sausage. In times when I was really broke, it was just the pancakes. There was a time when I ate more pancakes than anything else. After a while I could hardly stand the sight of them. Thank God, that has changed and now I can fix a pancake meal and enjoy it.
A while back my local grocery had pancake mix on sale for a ridiculously low price - the kind of mix that requires the addition of just water. I bought several boxes. Because I sometimes have a lazy streak when it comes to cooking for myself, I decided to spend an afternoon making pancake and sausage meals ahead for those lazy times - or for times when I needed to eat but was busy with other things. Sort of my own version of convenience food meals.
I mixed up a large amount of pancake batter and fried up the pancakes. As each was done, I put them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets to cool.
While cleaning out the freezer of my refrigerator, I came across several 1 lb. rolls of breakfast sausage. I had bought them on sale, stuck them in the freezer and promptly forgot about them. One of the things about getting old and having your memory fade at times is that your life is just chock full of little surprises like finding rolls of sausage in the back of your freezer! I defrosted a couple of the sausage rolls, sliced them up into patties, spread them in a single layer in cake pans and baked them until they were cooked through and nicely browned. I set the pans on my kitchen table to cool the meat to room temperature.
When it came time to assemble the meals, I tore off squares of aluminum foil and smaller squares of waxed paper. A waxed paper square went in the center of an aluminum foil square, topped with one pancake, topped with another waxed paper square, topped with a second pancake and another waxed paper square. Then I added two sausage patties and folded up the aluminum foil, sealing it tightly and into the freezer the packets went.
So now if I want a quick breakfast or supper, all I have to do is remove the waxed paper and heat the pancakes and sausage in the oven or toaster oven. I suppose I could lay the food on a plate and microwave it, but I haven't tried that as yet. I like the idea of having a quick and easy meal on my lazy or busy days. I'm thinking about trying this with a slice or two of ham or maybe some pre-fried bacon slices. And if I'm really hungry I can always fry up an egg or two to go with it. The frugal side of me likes that I got 12 meals for not much more than two similar meals from a fast food place. Convenience food homemade. I like it.
The Last Gasps...
6 hours ago
Sounds like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteThat's a wonderful idea. I am going to try that. thanks, Brenda from TN
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gorges. It works for me.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Brenda...I can be kind of lazy sometimes, so I like the part where I cook for a day and have breakfast or supper ready for a dozen days.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I,too, love pancakes. I first really started cooking them when I had teenagers in the house with hollow legs. Now I cook half a recipe and end up with surplus. The way I do it is cool the excess on cookie racks. When cool, I put the whole rack in the freezer. Then put the pancakes in ziplocks when they're frozen. I use a microwave to reheat which can make them a little rubbery if cooked too long. If I had a toaster over, they would probably reheat perfectly. The microwave is what I have so that's what I use.
ReplyDeleteI also cook a whole package of bacon at a time and freeze the excess. Love being able to just take out a piece or two whenever I want. A little bit of work upfront to save a lot to time later. From reading your post, I think I'll start looking for breakfast sausage on sale and precook that as well.
Nice as always to read another way to do things. Cheers, SJ in Vancouver BC Canada
SJ...That's a really good way to do it, too. With your method, you can just take out however many pancakes you want and then add whatever meat you want to go with them. I will be trying that method the next time I spend a day cooking.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it is difficult to cook for just one person. That's when I started freezing leftover pancakes. I'm thinking about freezing biscuits before they are baked. I am not fond of frozen baked biscuits, but I have seen the bags of frozen raw biscuits in the grocery, so I know it can be done. That would be great for a meal without having to make up a whole recipe. I think part of this kick I'm on is that I hate waste, and food gets wasted often when cooking for one. I am always open to new ideas. :)
I have a lot of pancake mix in those big pails down in the storeroom. Sometimes my wife will have me haul one up when the kids are home, but when they leave it goes back to the storeroom. Neither of us are much on breakfast unless we go out. I like sausage very much. Just bought a lot of it on sale at the local grocery store.
ReplyDeleteHarry...I'm kind of the same way about breakfast. I have no trouble packing away a breakfast of sausage, eggs, potatoes, toast, etc. if I am at a restaurant, but hardly ever fix the same at home unless I make it for my supper once or twice a week.
ReplyDeleteI like to have sausage in the freezer, but I have canned a lot, fried up in crumbles like hamburger, that I use in scrambled eggs or my favorite, biscuits and sausage gravy. I have heard tell about some who fry up sausage patties and can them and I think I might give that a try next time bulk or rolls of sausage are on sale. It is nice to have a variety on the shelves.
Glad I could be of help. You certainly have given me a lot to think about in your posts. And I echo your sentiment about cooking for only one. It is one of the toughest things I've had to learn in recent years.
ReplyDeleteIt's also why I now cook up the entire package of bacon. I had too many open packages languish in my refrigerator and go bad.
I also freeze waffles when I make them. They reheat well in my toaster.
I'd love to hear about freezing biscuits. I tried freezing biscuits from one of those 'pop-em' containers I bought at the store. When I went to bake them, they didn't rise. Still edible but only because I didn't want to waste the food.
SJ in Vancouver BC Canada
SJ...Somewhere I have a recipe for biscuits that are frozen before baking and in the next week or two I plan to give them a test. I think I might also try to freeze raw biscuits made from my old tried and true recipe as well as some made with Bisquick, just to see how they all turn out when baked. Good results or bad, I'll post about it.
ReplyDeleteI love bacon but had the same problem as you did until I started cutting a pound of bacon in half and freezing the smaller packages. I divide nearly all the meat I buy and freeze individual servings. Expect you probably do the same. Cooking for can be a trial, can't it.
I also like waffles but hadn't thought about heating them in the toaster. My old waffle iron gave up the ghost a few years ago. I may have to find a replacement now, for after your suggestion, I find myself hungry for waffles. With strawberries. And whipped cream. Or real maple syrup that Son brought me from the Farmers Market last fall. It's all your fault! :)