Newsletter for January 22, 2025
Three recipes, two tips, one plan
Intro
Welcome or welcome back to Caregiver Cooking! Here you’ll find recipes, tips, and ideas for helping to manage the load of cooking as a caregiver. This weekly newsletter brings together three recipes and two tips into one plan to support caregivers in their efforts caring for others.
This week’s three recipes are breakfast potatoes and sausage and beans, bolognese with peppers and onions, and loaded mashed potatoes.
The plan
Major components: potatoes, veggie chopping
Choosing the best potato for the week may mean considering the work required and outcome of what the potatoes are going into. This week, roasted and mashed potatoes both work well with Yukon gold potatoes or baby potatoes. Yukon gold potatoes are generally more cost effective but require more time cutting, baby potatoes could save notable time cutting and cooking in these recipes.
Adding something, like additional protein, to a food like mashed potatoes can be a good way to meet nutritional needs if you are concerned about a shortfall. Blended cottage cheese works well in this recipe and offers an option for ways to increase protein intake.
Tip 1
More chopping or more cooking?
Cutting components, like potatoes or peppers, in to smaller pieces generally reduces cooking time in exchange for more time spent preparing. More time cooking may be a more convenient place to spend time, as that does not require constant gripping of a knife, constant engagement, or constant standing (especially if using an oven preparation method). Neither is better or worse than the other — you know your time and energy budgets best and choosing where and how to spend those may vary from day to day. Options like a seated workspace for chopping or tools to assist can help to lessen the time needed as well, if a stool for working at your kitchen counter or a vegetable chopping tool could be helpful.
Tip 2
Freeze sauce in single servings
When storing sauces in the freezer, storing in single servings (whether that means one person or one standard family meal) makes storage easier to manage and makes future use easier. Reheating sauce from frozen can be done while cooking pasta for dinner, setting up a future evening of easy meal preparation.
Breakfast potatoes and sausage and beans
Description
This recipe yields about six portions. Prep time: 20-30 minutes. Cook time: 40-60 minutes
This (almost) sheet pan meal can be prepared ahead of time for easy reheating at breakfast or can work as a breakfast-at-dinner option. Topping with eggs, cheese, or salsa can bring variety to the same base if using across multiple meals.
Tips and substitutions to know in advance
- Yukon gold potatoes or baby potatoes work very well in this recipe, russet potatoes work well if they peeled and cut in to smaller chunks
- Sausage is already seasoned, if using unseasoned ground meat either add your favorite seasoning blend or consider increasing the paprika, thyme, and garlic powder by an extra ½ Tbsp and the salt and pepper by an extra ½ tsp
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of potatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 bell peppers (consider two colors)
Couple options! Frozen already cut potatoes and peppers and onions all together, use 2 bags totaling around 3lbs or Frozen already cut just the peppers and onions can be a great option, use one bag - 12 or 16 oz sausage or seasoned ground meat
- 1 can or 3c beans (if using) - black beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans would all be great options
- 1 Tbsp paprika or smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp thyme
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder, 4 cloves garlic, or equivalent minced garlic
- ¼ tsp Cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 ½ Tbsp cooking oil
- optional - 8oz mushrooms, sliced or quartered
Toppings if desired: cheese, eggs any style, hot sauce, and salsa are all good options
Process
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Peel potatoes if preferred; generally not recommended for Yukon gold potatoes. Cut potatoes to a size that works for you, anything from large chunks to bite size cubes. Smaller pieces will cook more quickly, larger pieces will cook perfectly fine if more oven time is better than more chopping time
- Chop onions and peppers, also mushrooms if using
- Add potatoes, peppers, onions, beans if using, and mushrooms if using to a large baking sheet (one with a lip), a casserole dish, or two smaller baking pans
- Add sausage or seasoned ground meat to peppers and onions on baking sheet
- Drizzle with cooking oil and seasonings
- Gently mix to coat using hands or utensils
- Bake at 375 degrees for 40-60 mins depending on size of potato chunks
- Serve and enjoy! Try topping with eggs any style, cheese, salsa, or anything else that tickles your fancy
Notes for storage and reworking later
This freezes well, about 1 ½ - 2 cups of finished recipe is one serving. Freezing in single portions can be convenient for thawing and heating in a pan or in the microwave later. Freeze without toppings to allow for best flexibility!
Bolognese with peppers and onions
Description
This recipe yields about six portions. Prep time: 10-20 minutes. Cook time: 30-60 minutes
Perfect for preparing and freezing, this sauce can work with a wide array of substitute options. Meatballs instead of ground meat, chickpeas in addition to or as a meat-free option, adjusting the quantity of peppers and onions, cooking on the stovetop or in the oven, creamy sauce or not, lots of options for this time and next.
Tips and substitutions to know in advance
- Any color bell pepper works well in this recipe
Ingredients
- 1lb ground turkey, frozen turkey meatballs, or other meat of your choice
- Optional: 1 can/3 cups chickpeas
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 onion
Frozen already cut peppers and onions can be a great option, substitute ⅔ bag - 1 28-oz can tomato sauce or puree
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp sage - if using ground turkey or chicken
- 1 Tbsp basil
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ -½ tsp crushed red pepper flake
- Optional - ¼ c sour cream or heavy cream
- 1lb pasta, cooked - can be cooked in advance and reheated in microwave or in sauce
- Toppings: parmesan cheese
Process
- Sauté onions and peppers over medium heat in a pan or pot large enough to cook sauce. For oven preparation, roast at 375 degrees for about 10-15 minutes
- Add meat (unless using pre cooked meatballs) and seasonings, stirring to encourage even cooking and breaking up meat
- Cook pasta in salted, boiling water if not already cooked
- Cook peppers, onions, seasonings, and meat together on medium or medium high heat on the stove for about 10-15 minutes until meat is cooked. If using meatballs, cook peppers and onions with seasonings on medium heat for 3-5 minutes. For oven preparation, crumble meat into pan or pot and place in oven at 375 degrees, stirring about every 5 minutes until cooked, about 20 minutes.
- Add can of tomatoes, beans if using, and meatballs if using
- Simmer on stovetop for 5-10 minutes or 10-15 minutes if reheating meatballs from frozen
- Keep warm on low until ready to serve. If using heavy cream or sour cream, stir in just before serving. If reheating pasta in sauce, add in about 5 minutes before serving
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes for storage and reworking later
If planning to store for future use, storing pasta separately from the sauce ensures both store better. Try freezing sauce in 1 cup portions for flexibility
Consider setting aside some sauce for storing or freezing before mixing in sour cream or heavy cream
To reheat sauce from frozen for future use, add sauce and a little bit of water to a pot on the stove over medium-low heat until heated through or microwave in a large bowl on 80% power in 2 minute increments until thawed, then heat through.
Loaded mashed potatoes
Description
This recipe yields about eight servings. Prep time: 20-30 minutes. Cook time: 20-40 minutes
Whether serving as a side or as a main event, these mashed potatoes add some additional nutrition using blended cottage cheese as a source of creaminess. To reduce prep time with this recipe and reduce chopping, choosing Yukon gold potatoes eliminates the need to peel the potatoes. Using baby potatoes (sometimes called bite size or little) reduces the cutting work more, as these can easily be cooked whole.
Tips and substitutions to know in advance
- 4% milkfat cottage cheese = more creamy result and same protein as 1% milkfat
- Any flavor of broth will work in this recipe. Some of the taste will likely come through, especially with stronger flavored broths; vegetable broth or chicken broth are good options for less noticeable flavor
Ingredients
- 3 lbs potatoes
- 1c cottage cheese blended up
- 4 Tbsp butter - if using lower fat cottage cheese, increase to 6 Tbsp
- Garlic - 2 cloves, equivalent amount of pre-minced, or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1c broth
- Optional - shredded cheddar or similar cheese (maybe from last week’s chili?), sour cream
- Toppings: chives, scallions, parsley, bacon, and gravy are all good options
Process
- Prep potatoes - peel if desired, cut into chunks Larger pieces will take longer to cook, smaller pieces will cook quicker
- Add potatoes to pot and cover with about an inch of water
- Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, 15-40 minutes depending on piece size
- Blend cottage cheese in a blender or food processor. A little blender like this one is great for this task
- When potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, drain and return to the cooking pot or bowl of your stand mixer
- Add blended cottage cheese, garlic, butter, broth, and any desired additional mix-ins such as cheese or sour cream
- Mash potatoes using masher, handheld mixer, or stand mixer
- Top with your preferred toppings and serve alongside anything that benefits from mashed potatoes or as a stand alone star! If serving alone, consider adding extra toppings for fun, flavor, and some additional nutrition
Notes for storage and reworking later
Reworking mashed potatoes with different flavors can range from putting them alongside a different main dish to topping with completely different toppings and a sauce
Shopping list
- 5 lbs of potatoes
- 1lb of ground turkey/chicken OR frozen meatballs
- 1 lb of turkey sausage
- OR 2 lbs of ground plain turkey/chicken
- 3 bell peppers, maybe make one colorful
- bag of onions/3 onions
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can garbanzo beans (if using)
- 1 small container cottage cheese (only using 1 cup)
- garlic or minced garlic
- 1-28oz can of tomato sauce or tomato puree
- 1 lb pasta
- butter
Maybe
- shredded cheese (maybe from last week?)
- sour cream (maybe from last week?)
- chives or scallions or parsley
- bacon
- mushrooms if using
Spices
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Oregano
- Sage
- Basil
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Cayenne (if using)
Likely in your pantry
- Salt & pepper
- Cooking oil