We have started getting oodles of summer squash in our Happy Box lately. Is yours bountiful from your garden? I have been freezing it the last few weeks in cubes and slices as we use it for various purposes. From time to time there are recipes that utilize summer squash so I thought it made for a great Sliced & Diced.

Here is what my research yielded:

As is per usual, when making OAMM recipes you can assume the measurements for a medium summer squash. Remember to adjust accordingly if the vegetables you are using are sizes other than medium.

Here are some recipes on this site using Summer Squash:

• Parmesan Summer Squash
• Toddler French Toast Sticks
• 8-10 months SUMMER baby food menu

]]> http://onceamonthmom.com/sliced-diced-summer-squash/feed/ 4 http://onceamonthmom.com/sliced-diced-onions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sliced-diced-onions http://onceamonthmom.com/sliced-diced-onions/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:08:42 +0000 Tricia http://onceamonthmom.com/?p=6428 Oh my, time gets away from me. A few weeks ago I introduced a new series called Sliced & Diced where I will be bringing you the true for me measurements of different ingredients we frequently use on our Once A Month Mom menus. This week we will get started with onions!

And I thought cutting 12 pounds of onions for a Once A Month Mom cooking day was crazy smelly! Try cutting onions using different methods and sauteing them. My husband was so ready for me to be done with this post!

First of all, here is a look at my starting place. A small, medium and large onion. I have placed them all together in this picture so that you can get a sense of what sizes I am refering to. Most bags of onions have mostly medium sized onions in them. Therefore, this is the measurement we will most commonly use. I know you can’t feel them but perhaps looking at the comparison pictures will give you a starting place for judging the size of your onions.

You will also notice below that I have listed “1 cup” as a measurement size. This is simply to give you a frame of reference of the equivalent of 1 cup. In case you have all kinds of sizes and just want to use a cup measurement as your starting place.

Here is what I came up with:

From now on, I will be using these measurements to figure out our Once A Month Mom equivalents. I will use the medium size onion chopped in the food processor measurements and equivalents as I am assuming that most will be using a food processor. If you are using another method, please adjust accordingly.

I hope you find these helpful as you are preparing once a month meals, batch meals or simply bulk cooking.

Included in that series was the resources I use on a daily basis to figure equivalents, measurements and substitutions for ingredients. However, I would have to say that they aren’t the most complete and practical resources for some of the ingredients we are preparing in bulk. There are common equivalents and yields that I have struggled to find a source for. I also know that there has been inconsistency in Once A Month Mom menu recipes based on the quantity I say to cook and the actual amount that is yielded from menu to menu. We need some standards to go by!

So like any diligent person, if you can’t find what you are looking for, then perhaps you should do it yourself! So with that is the birth of the Sliced & Diced series! Over the next few weeks (or whenever I run out of ideas for things that we need) I will be doing a series on Friday’s looking at Sliced & Diced. Ideas forthcoming are onions, ground beef, chicken, tomatoes, pasta and rice. I am sure there are many others we can do so we will continue exploring these until we have exhausted our options.

Sliced & Diced will look at not only the raw measurements of items, but also what their cooked equivalent is equal to. Hopefully, this will help us when we are cooking and measuring items in bulk.

Which items do you struggle with figuring out amounts to when you are doing your Once A Month Mom cooking (or once a month cooking, bulk cooking, freezer cooking, oamc)?