How to torture your kids all weekend...

So, this is the third week of torturing everyone by making them help me cook for a couple days of the weekend for food for the rest of the week. They hate it, mostly because MCDONALD'S HAS BEEN OFF THE MENU FOR FOUR WEEKS! No pizza. No Chinese.

Is that not amazing? We're saving money...and I'm not screaming trying to get dishes done to eat off/cook with. It's done before Monday!

I stretched it out over three days this weekend. I bought a ham and it threw things behind a bit, as well as this strange thing called sleep that my body seems to think I need every now and again. Go fig. That means I didn't work on my synopsis...then again, I'd rather do dishes...and I did...than work on my synopsis. They scare me. So, until then, I want to tell you about my hit of the week:

No More Salty Ham - Found at allrecipes.com.

It really, really works. I used a precooked Aldi spiral-cut ham, the same as I always use (when it's in season), and the salt taste was greatly, greatly diminished. It has to be precooked ham for this recipe. It was great fun packing brown sugar to the ham (pack, throw at KitKat, pack, get hit with brown sugar from KitKat), and somehow the pineapple sticks on there, and you can actually mold it to look like W.C. Fields if you're good enough. Not only does it look good and smell divine while cooking, the lack of saltiness will just amaze you!

Now, this is my addition to the recipe. I call it the Afterglow Ham Casserole. You have already made the No More Salty Ham, so now you have this wonderful juice from the ham at the bottom of the pan. SAVE IT -- save it in the original baking dish in which you cooked the ham. Put it in the fridge overnight, and let the fat collect on top. Scrape the fat off. Now, the best ratio for noodles to liquid is generally 3½ cups of fluid to 16 ounces of uncooked noodles (that's for a big family with intent to freeze some for later use). If you don't have enough ham juice, use bullion/broth until you have your desired fluid-to-noodle ratio. Rip up (or if you're a chef, cube) some of the leftover ham to your preference. Mix 1/4 cup flour with water to form a paste, then mix with the ham juice/broth in the pan. I added a can of undrained green beans. I used cheddar cheese because I like it best with the pineapple flavoring left over from the ham baking process. Arrange the ham on top of everything else, and then seal the gaps between the ham with enough cheese (or just smother it all!) to keep the noodles from floating. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes for thinner noodles, and 45 for heavier noodles.

It was very, very nice. I now have two generous single-serving tubs in the fridge (even after everyone ate dinner) and another three in the freezer.

So, to recap, the meals from this weekend:
1. Big, precooked spiral-cut ham ($13)
2. Afterglow ham casserole (had everything already)
3. Meatballs (Three cartons ground turkey, $7.50)
4. Tortilla soup (Bag of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, $5, plus processed cheese, $3)
5. Corn and barley casserole (repeat from last week, didn't buy anything new)
6. Cream cheesy mashed potatoes, waiting to be cooked until later this week (Potatoes $2.50, cream cheese $0.79).
7. Two loaves of French toast, only about 1-1/4 of which actually made it to the freezer for breakfast through the week (thanks, Tiger's Eye, ya hungry bum).

Remember, there's still ham! I have ham sandwiches for emergencies, and don't forget I still have frozen potato soup, enough for one serving, and another serving of broccoli and cheese soup.

Can you tell I'm excited? I'd forgotten just how much I like to cook. Also, if you don't have one of these awesome gizmos:

Chop Wizard

Make a friend just for Christmas to get one of these guys. It really cuts down on the chopping time. If you're cooking a lot, you can do all your onions at once, or if you're making one meal that calls for multiple veggies, you can cut them all up, because the base is very good size. It works on ham, too, and really anything else I've tried. There are two grating plates, one for cubes and one for fine. The kids take turns using it because it's so easy and it's kind of fun to watch half an onion suddenly shoot through into the base of the Chop Wizard.

Please note that I do not get paid for any of these advertisements. I wish I was, but I'm not. Chop Wizard people, if you see this, I'll take retro payments, k?

So, to end the weekend, KitKat made me a cake, and I'm high on sugar. I'm going to proofread this and post it, but remember what I said about the Chop Wizard. Oh, did I mention it goes through the dishwasher?

For more, please go to www.sapphiretigress.com.