Welcome to the Favorite Freezer Foods Ezine Issue #13: Make Mosquitoes Hate You

August 4, 2010

What’s New This Month?
Kitchens and Roommates
Make Mosquitoes Hate You

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What‘s New This Month?

On the home front: This last month I've done the unthinkable; I shared a kitchen. It's hard. You probably know just what I mean and if you don't I envy you.

At work things aren't exactly perfect either this month. First, there were tons of mosquitoes, they like the bright lights outside the front door all night. At any given time in the last week I've had upward of 40 bites. I even had a nightmare that I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

And after I got over the bug problem I'm even more paranoid now. A local hotel was robbed on the first. On the second two more were robbed (one next door to me!) and the RCMP called to warn us and give the guys description and profile. I'm hoping this guy gets caught fast!

On www.FavoriteFreezerFoods.com: I'm working my way through three new cookbooks to review for you; Fabulous Freezer Meals by Jenny Ahlstrom Stanger, I Can't Believe It's Food Storage by Crystal Godfrey, and Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton.

I've also been doing a series of challenges in the SBI Forums focused on improving my site. The biggest thing this means for you is pages that are easier to skim and pictures. *Gasp* Everyone loves pictures, but I've been a slacker in taking, editing and posting them.

Kitchens and Roommates

Clean kitchen with two empty chairs.

My biggest frustration with sharing a kitchen is coming home and needing to grab a quick bite only to find the roommates cooking up a giant mess and I can't make myself anything.

But instead of dwelling on the negative lets talk about the easiest way to deal with roommates and still eat home cooked meals. Freeze them ahead.

Seriously, the pros of freezer cooking are not just time and money but also drama savers for people with roomies.

1) Make a mess once, clean up once. You only get the kitchen messy one day a week and don't have to listen to your mates complain about how you load the dishwasher all week since you're only dirtying a plate and silverware.

2) Pre-cook meals to a stage where you can simply heat them in the microwave saves time, which means less time in the kitchen making it easer to escape awkward silences and evil eyes.

3) Homemade meals save you lots of money compared to eating out.

4) Less perishables in the fridge to fight about. No more "Why'd you cook my chicken?" "It expired today." "Well, why'd you dump the last of the milk?" "It went bad last week."

5) Anything you don't want your room mates to use, like your food processor that takes too much space or the Teflon pans they can't stop using metal in, can be put away and you don't have to worry about needing them yourself.

6) If you have your own freezer, or at least your own shelf, it's easy to say hands off these items.

Make Mosquitoes Hate You

Blood sucking mosquito.

There's quite a few old wife's tales about foods that repel mosquitoes. None of are scientifically proven but when I'm sick of getting bit and don't want to cover myself head to toe with DEET I give these a go.

Some people recommend vitamins B1 to repel, B12 to prevent bites and C to heal bites. I'm not a pharmacist or nutritionist so I prefer to get my vitamins naturally through my diet rather than taking pills.

Garlic and onions are the most classic foods to repel mosquitoes. I use them in my meatball recipe and in my tomato sauce. Meatballs are easy to make in bulk and reheat in smaller portions.

Pork is high in B1 and can mixed or substuted for beef in meat balls. Here's a bunch of meal ideas for using up all those frozen meatballs too.

You can also try my asian sauce or savory raspberry sauce on pork tenderloin, chops or a roast.

Turkey is high in vitamin B12 and could help prevent mosquito bites, try substituting ground turkey in this chicken meatballs recipe.

Ground pork or turkey can also be used in meatloaf or Sheppard's pie, both of which can be loaded with onion and garlic and frozen ahead.

Plus, as a bonus, potatoes are high in B1 and the dairy (milk, sour cream, cream cheese) in your mashed potatoes is high in B12.

Unprocessed nuts are also on the list for their B1 content. Try them on your icecream or in a salad. Use some lemons in your salad dressing because some say mosquitoes hate lemons too and the vitamin C from the citrus sure won't hurt.

There you have it. Salad for lunch, pork or turkey for dinner, nuts on your ice cream sunday for dessert and no more mosquito bites.

Contact me:
If you have any comments, opinions, content ideas, or requests I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter, or on Favorite Freezer Foods' Facebook page

Eat Well!
Michelle Zack


 

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