Roasting Coffee Beans with a Popcorn Popper

I have a strange love for doing things at home that normal people just buy from the store. Exhibit A: homemade mozzarella cheese. Exhibit B: homemade deer jerky. And now Exhibit C: home roasted coffee. The beans on the left are the Columbian Supremo beans I received for my birthday. I'm not sure of their cost because they were a gift, but green beans are typically about half the price of roasted ones. A few months ago, I read this article on Lifehacker which pointed me at this series of Flickr photos. It looked pretty easy, and I already own a hot air popcorn popper (which I consider to be the only way to make popcorn - never burnt, never greasy).

This morning, I dug out the popper and aimed it at my sink. I poured in beans up to the popcorn fill line, cranked it up, let it do it's thing for about 7 min (6 min= light roast, 8 min = very dark roast). Then I poured them into a bowl and chilled them in the porch for a few minutes (a fridge or freezer is fine for those of you not in the arctic).

Verdict: delicious. Not a trace of bitterness. A very fine cup of coffee. The roasting process did make a little smoke, but no more than my blackened salmon. I hit the "ignore" button on my smoke detector, though, to avoid that issue. There wasn't a lot of chaff, and it all stayed in the sink. It really was a 10-minute, less than $5 experiment that was well worth it.

If you don't have a hot air popper, there are other alternatives in the Lifehacker link, but they're more involved. Like shaking a frying pan for 15 minutes. I really think investing in a used air popper (if you can find one) is the way to go. Mine was $5 at a garage sale almost 10 years ago. The things last forever... and also make popcorn, in addition to roasting coffee. Part of me now wonders if you can toast nuts in there. I hate stirring those things.

Eggs Mini-session

I have realized something: I am having a crisis of freezer space. I need to repack things more efficiently and organize it properly. So chicken has been put off for a while, but the egg dishes needed to be done, as I bought the eggs and mushrooms. I only made 2 dishes:
Aztec Quiche (doubled recipe)
So- Easy Stuffing-Egg Bake (new recipe, review to follow when we eat it)

Several failed attempts to freeze quiche without spilling some of the filling before it freezes have led me to just freeze the filling in a ziploc bag this time. The plan is to thaw it in the fridge, then dump into a pie shell to bake. I subbed a jalapeno and a red chili for the canned green chilis, which I just don't like. I also omitted the green onion and tomato from the stuffing bake, although I added just a bit of salsa to the top to add back a bit of flavour.

This was a small session, and thus, a very quick session. It only took about half an hour to assemble 3 meals. Eggs are not cooked before freezing, so prep time is really minimal. And yet... it's so nice to have quiche ready for the oven in about a minute.

Ground Beef Mini-session

I'm still on holidays and I want to restock my freezer before I head back to work. Unfortunately, my lower back has been bugging me and standing for long periods really aggravates it. I decided to break my plan into a beef day and a chicken/eggs day.

So today in 2 hours, I made myself:
Chili (see below)
Simple Lasagna (split into 2 8"x8" pans)
Sloppy Joes

Chili sauce is weirdly expensive here, so I sub salsa for the sloppy joes. I also sub cottage cheese for ricotta in the lasagnas because of cost, and to reduce fat. I improvise my chili as I go, and it generally turns out fine. All in all, there was 3 lb of ground beef in those recipes, and there was 6 or 8 servings of chili, 8 of lasagna, and 4 of sloppy joes.

Overall, if you're kind of intrigued by the idea of having a few meals in the freezer but don't want to spend a lot of time or money on something you feel may not work out, this is a great way to start. If you like ground beef, you will like these recipes. It only takes a couple hours, it doesn't take any expensive or extraordinary ingredients, and it doesn't take a lot of freezer space. Nothing is nicer than a warm bowl of chili on a cold evening... unless it's eating it after deciding it's a lazy, non-cooking day.

OAMC Steps:
1. Get out recipes, canned goods, spices, and fresh ingredients. Have everything out before you start.
2. Brown all beef in your largest frying pan. I did mine in two batches. Drain beef well (rinse with hot water if desired. It really does take all the fat out.)
3. Divide meat into 3 parts: one into chili pot, one into a dish to mix with sauce for lasagna (doesn't need to be heated again), one back into frying pan for sloppy joes.
3. Assemble chili so it can simmer.
4. Make sloppy joes so they can simmer 10 min.
5. Assemble lasagna(s) and bake as directed, 60 min.
6. As things finish, label freezer bags or containers. Package, allow to cool about 30 min on counter, then move to fridge or freezer.

Simple Chili
1 lb ground beef
1 large can crushed tomatos (28 oz)
1 can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans or mixed beans or black beans
1 cup frozen corn (or 1 can corn)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder

Brown beef and drain. Put into large pot (chili always takes more room than I think) or slow cooker. Add everything and simmer at least 1 hour or until you want to eat it. Add chipotle powder or cayenne pepper to taste if you like it more spicy. This is just a base recipe; other veggies or additional beans could easily be added.

Q&A

I was recently asked:

"I have been drooling over most of the stuff on your blog, and I know you are a big believer in OAMC... so would you mind if I asked you some questions?

1. Where do you get your recipes? From the blogs on your site, books, combo? Any particular book/website you really recommend?

2. Do you only go grocery shopping once a month? Or is that just for the main ingredients- you still go for fruits/veggies etc.

3. On average, how much does the big shopping trip cost? (I know you're really good at shopping sales, but a general idea would be nice.)

4. Do you *need* a chest freezer to save everything you've made, or would a regular sized side-by-side freezer work? (On your blog you said it could fit, but I'd love an updated opinion juuuust to be sure!)

5. What are you favorite recipes? I've read most of the updates and ratings, but a quick list would be great.

TIA!"

1. I now get most of my recipes from regular cookbooks and allrecipes.com, as I found that making a bunch of brand new recipes lead to a lot of failures. And eating food we don't like sucks. I started with this book: Once A Month Cooking. It gave a great overview of the process, but I really didn't care for a lot of the actual recipes. DH is also really fussy, which makes it more challenging. I did one full set of their cooking to get the hang of it, and now I can just do my own thing.

2. Gosh no. I go shopping once a week and have zero aspirations to do it once a month. I go once before a big cooking session, but one of my "once a month" sessions usually lasts 3-4 months as we don't eat those meals every day. Usually on the weekends, we cook fresh. On Thursday, we make pizza. The frozen meals are just for busy days and lazy days. If you do want to try once a month shopping, the book "America's Cheapest Family" does outline how.

3. I've only costed it once. I spent $130 on the groceries, and the servings per recipe ranged from 4 to 10. Average cost/serving was about $1.75. It will vary based on what you make - lentil based dishes are cheaper than chicken breasts. So it depends what you like.

4. If you freeze things flat in freezer bags, you can fit an incredible amount in a small space. I would eat your freezer down a bit in the weeks leading up to freezing a bunch of meals, and you could stick to fewer recipes (I usually do 10-12; you could start with 5-6).

5. Lasagna, Sloppy Joes, Chicken Souvlaki, Grilled Fish, Beef Sandwiches Au Jus, Blackened Chicken (or Salmon), BBQ Pulled Pork, Aztec Quiche, Pizza Dough (made weekly on Sunday, frozen for Thursday), Chicken in Enchilada Sauce. Whew! Those are the definite winners I would happily eat again and again. Yes, they're all meaty. We're carnivourous. I make an effort to serve with a salad or veggie side.

Two Bite Brownies

Two Bite Brownies

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 24 mini-muffin cups (or an 8 x8 pan).
In a large bowl, mix:
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar

Add:
6 tbsp cocoa powder (about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
Mix well.

Add:
2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Mix well again.

Use heaping teaspoons to fill mini muffin cups. Bake 10-12 min (watch carefully). For 8 x8 pan, bake 25 min.

This was my break-in recipe for my new mini muffin pans, and they are at least as tastey as the scarily shelf stable store bought variety. This is my go-to brownie recipe because I always have all the ingredients and it takes five minutes to mix up a batch.

Christmas Treats: Caramel, White Chocolate, and Milk Chocolate Popcorn

This is what I made this year for people I want to give small gifts to... in my family, that means cousins, aunts, and uncles mostly. I spend a lovely couple of hours with a friend, and we each got 14 bags to give away. We made a double batch of white and milk chocolate, and a single of the caramel (or about 1 cup of unpopped popcorn per type). The cost, including ribbon and bags, was less than $10 each. My favorite is the milk chocolate, but my friend preferred the white.

Caramel Popcorn

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 quarts popped popcorn

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3. Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Milk Chocolate Popcorn

• 12 cups popped popcorn
• 2 1/2 cups salted peanuts
• 1 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 300F degrees.
2. Grease a large roasting pan.
3. Combine popcorn and nuts in prepared roasting pan.
4. Combine morsels, corn syrup and butter in a medium, heavy-duty saucepan.
5. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.
6. Pour over popcorn and toss well to coat.
7. Bake, stirring frequently for 30 to 40 minutes.
8. Loosen popcorn from pan and allow to cool slightly in pan.
9. Remove to a wax paper lined cookie sheet to cool completely.

White Chocolate Popcorn

2 cups white chocolate dipping wafers
1/2 cup popcorn (measured unpopped), air popped

1. Pop popcorn.
2. Melt white chocolate wafers in glass measuring cup in microwave.
3. Pour white chocolate over popcorn. Stir well.
4. Spread on wax paper lined cookie sheets. Allow to harden.

Update to anyone planning to try these: 2 weeks later, they all still taste great. The chocolate and caramel are still very crispy. The white chocolate has more of a soft texture, but has been well loved.

I just may repeat this next year.

Chewy Granola Bars... a thousand ways.

I posted this base recipe back in September. I just whipped up another batch to take to work this week. It’s a very forgiving, flexible recipe, so I thought I’d post some ideas on how to vary the ingredients to get your very favourite combination.

First choice: Cereal (4 ½ cups total)

Oatmeal is the base – keep at between 2 ½ cups and all 4 ½ cups

Other options: rice crispies, puffed wheat, Kashi Puffs, Cheerios, bran flakes... any non-sugar cereal

Second choice: Flour-ish stuff (1 cup total)

Whole wheat flour is the default choice. You could sub up to ½ cup with:

Ground flax seed, wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ, protein powder etc.

Third choice: Fruit puree

I use banana, but any fruit will add some moisture and a bit of flavour.

Applesauce, pureed prunes, pureed peaches, mashed pears.

Fourth choice: Sweeteners

The honey is important for stickiness, but corn syrup would work. White or brown sugar doesn’t matter much. Could add a little molasses in place of some of the honey.

Fifth choice: Candy

The recipe calls for 1 cup of chocolate chips. I usually go with about ½ cup. Other options:

Dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, Reeses pieces, anything that works in cookies.

Sixth choice: Dried fruit

Raisins is the default, but of course you could try:

Dried cherries, apples, blueberries, mango, pineapple, etc.

Last choice: Nuts

Almonds, peanuts, walnuts... whatever you like, or none at all. I was out of nuts, so I subbed ¼ c peanut butter for ¼ c honey.

There you have it! A thousand combinations of deliciousness.