Did ya miss me?

Hi followers (and those who haven't figured out how to "follow" the newest and coolest blog)! Did you miss me? I've been a little busy because I'm home with my son while his daycare is closed. I don't think I'll get to do any freezer cooking this week but I did get to make my pizza dough last night and have 3 ready to go in the freezer.

I always question myself when I decide to make homemade dough, especially when Trader Joe's dough is fabulous, parve and cheap! I haven't fully priced it out yet (but I will next time I buy the ingredients), and I'm pretty sure the cost of making homemade and the TJ version is very similar. So, what's the deal? I do it because it makes me feel really good about myself. It makes me feel that I can make cool things and have them taste just as good as store bought (as evidenced by dh and ds gobbling it all up for dinner)!

Ok, the hubby needs to use the computer so I gotta go - but let me know how you are doing out there!

Recipe Share: Egg Roll Lasagna

I received several questions about the Egg Roll Lasagna I posted about, so I wanted to give everyone the recipe. I first found the recipe on www.thescramble.com. This is a subscription website, but if you are interested in receiving weekly menu plans (from someone other than me!), check it out. I hope you enjoy the recipe! I love doing fun things with egg roll and wonton wrappers - do you have any other fun ideas?

1 lb Morningstar Crumbles, slightly defrosted
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach
16 oz cottage cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 cups marinara sauce
16 oz. egg roll wrappers
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. That the spinach in the microwave and drain thoroughly.


In a medium bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, egg, and spinach.

In a 9x13-inch rectangular baking dish, build the lasagna in the following order: 1) one cup of sauce; 2) one layer of egg roll wrappers (to cover the sauce); 3) all of the Morningstar Crumbles; 4) 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese; 5) one cup of red sauce; 6) another layer of egg roll wrappers; 7) cottage cheese-spinach mixture; 8) 1/3 of the mozzarella; 9) one cup of sauce; 10) final layer of egg roll wrappers; 11) final cup of sauce; 12) final 1/3 of the mozzarella.

Bake the lasagna, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes until it is lightly browned and bubbly.

Allow the lasagna to cool for 10 minutes before cutting it. Or, refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.

This Week's Menu Plan

Check out this week's menu plan. For now, I'm just going to post the main entree. For most meals, I usually make frozen green beans because it's easy and I know the boy will eat them. What are you making this week? Please share your recipes with me!

Sunday, June 26: Southwest Rollups - I'll be taking one bag out of the freezer to cook up and have for the week. Hopefully the son will like it and then I can have them for lunch during the week. Remind me to cross a bag off my freezer inventory!

Monday, June 27: Eggroll Lasagna - This is a recipe I love. I use eggroll wrappers in place of lasagna noodles. It's yum! Since it is still just me and the kid, I'm going to make a whole pan and freeze half for a later date. I think it should freeze really well.

Tuesday, June 28: Chicken Tortilla Soup (in the comments section). I'm hoping to freeze some for Shab as well.

Wednesday, June 29: Takeout in honor of hubby being home! We will be using one of our Groupons! I'm also out of pizza dough (scroll down for honey pizza dough) in my freezer so I'm going to make a batch of that tonight to restock!

Thursday, June 30: Homemade pizza using some dough from the night before

Friday, July 1: Leftover chicken tortilla soup, marinated chicken

So, there we have it. Week 1. What do you think?

Creating a Freezer Inventory

I hope everyone had a nice Shabbos! Thanks for all the wonderful feedback I received on the blog - it makes me want to keep writing!

My sister (and most avid reader) made the suggestion that she would like to know how I froze things and how I plan to use them in the future. Obviously a very good idea and that's why it's a good thing I have readers! So, her question made me think how I was going to use the food...I hadn't really thought about that, lol. I just wanted to cook a bunch of food in an hour. I'm sure in the future I will be more organized (maybe).

So, I decided my next best step would be to create a freezer inventory. I'm going to create a Google document of all the food I'm creating and storing in my freezer, along with the date. That way, when I am planning my weekly menu plans, I can look at my freezer inventory to see what I have on hand.

Stay tuned for this week's menu plan and my first taste of the Southwest Rollups!

Let the Games Begin!

Ok...here I go! My plan is to make marinated chicken, couscous (to be eaten over Shab), Southwest rollups, and taco meat.

3:20pm: I brought my laptop into the kitchen so I have easy access to all the online recipes and the blog. I brought out the two pots that I will need - a large saute pan for the taco meat, and a smaller pot for the couscous. I also need a bowl for the Southwest rollup fillings. Other than that, I compiled all my other ingredients for easy access and I'm ready to go!

3:30pm: The first thing I decide to do is create the filling for the Southwest Rollups. That way, as I'm cooking other stuff, I will be able to compile the rollups. After I got those ingredients mixed up, I put the water in the pot for the couscous to bring it to a boil. I just realized that I'm running around the kitchen like a crazy person to make sure everything gets down in an hour. Just remembered, who really cares?!

3:35pm: Ok, I'm going to make a couple of rollups while the water comes to a boil. Need to get out the cheddar cheese.

3:40pm: My water is boiling so I pour in the couscous. I turn off the heat to let it sit for five minutes and get back to making my rollups!

3:45pm: The couscous is done so I will let it sit to cool off. I'm halfway done the rollups so I'm just going to finish them before moving on to anything else.

3:55pm: I'm totally going to do this! The rollups are done and I cleaned up my work space a bit. I think I'm just going to get the chicken bagged up since it is so easy and then finish up with the taco meat!

4:01pm: Chicken is done and I'm moving onto the final step! Taco meat! Just realized I should be listening to music...it's so quiet in here - next time! While I'm browning the meat, I will start transferring the cooled couscous into a ziploc for transport to Shab lunch tomorrow!

4:20pm: I'm done! Ok, so I still have to tidy the kitchen and clean the dishes, but if hubby was here he would do that, so for future endeavors I'm done! That was awesome! I feel so productive! And it also shows how much you can get down in such a short amount of time!

So here's what I made:

2 bags of marinated chicken...I really like making Italian chicken because its so easy. I'm not quite sure if this makes it any easier than cooking fresh, but I guess if there is a good sale on frozen chicken breasts it would be good. My plan is to do the slow cooker method.

1 bag of couscous (forgot to put it in the picture!)

1 bag of taco meat

2 bags of Southwest Rollups - I obviously didn't include the chicken so hopefully it will be filling!

Anyway, that wasn't too bad! So what do you think? Was this helpful? Fun to read? Let me know your thoughts!

Shab Shal!

A couple of notes...

So I just got back to the grocery store to find that I already have 2 followers! I am so popular. Anyway, I have a couple of notes I want to make before we really get started.

1. It will not always be so easy for me to blog. I got the idea this morning, and all the stars aligned. My husband is out of town (coming home Tuesday!), the son is at daycare, I'm off work, and I don't have to make much for Shab. As this project goes on, I probably won't be able to blog every hour (which you will be grateful for!), but I will try to stay committed to updating with my menu plans and how everything is going.

2. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. This blog will NOT change your life (sorry!). I do hope I can give you some ideas and inspiration along the way, and that you can help me, too.

3. Eventually I want to include money saving tips as part of this blog, but first I want to learn how to save money! I'm currently working on cutting our weekly grocery budget, but at this point, I'm too embarrassed to actually post how we're doing. So I'll keep those posts to myself and will hopefully be at the point where I want to share them with you!

Ok, I'm going to fold a few loads of laundry and then get started with my cooking. Check back later today for pictures (if I can figure it out) and how everything goes!

My first post!

Welcome to the new blog of this Koshy Mommy. I wanted to be Kosher Mama, but it was already taken so clearly my ideas aren't original :) In fact, my ideas aren't original at all! For the past several months, I have been reading a lot of blogs about budget planning, menu planning, and couponing. My two favorite blogs are currently Kosher on a Budget and Money Saving Mom. I love reading all their great ideas about how to save money and menu plan. But now I think its time that instead of just reading their great ideas, I put them into action (and *hopefully* come up with some of my own ideas, as well).

The main reason I'm writing this blog is because I think it will force me to stay on track with my menu planning and cooking endeavors. I hope that you enjoy reading about my adventures as a "Koshy Mommy" and that you share some of your tips with me, too!

This afternoon I'm going to do my first "freezer cooking in an hour" session. The idea came from Crystal at Money Saving Mom and I hope I can do it justice. The idea is to set out an hour for cooking and prepare simple items for your freezer. In a couple months, we will be getting a full-size freezer, so expect this part of my blog to grow.

Sorry if I'm rambling and disorganized, I hope to get better as we move forward! Is this even the website I should be using for my blog? Let me know if you have any other suggestions. Ok...I'm out...I'm going to print coupons off the Internet, head to the grocery store and then start my 1 hour cooking session! I will try to post again before Shab! Wish me luck...