Freezer Meal Prep

School's almost back in session. I can hear Maren Morris' voice, "Can I get a Hallelujah, can I get an Amen?" in the background. Am I right?? The kids are beginning to drive each other nuts, there are no more camps to serve as a much needed distraction, and I am in need of some alone time. I decided it was time for a freezer meal session. I wasn't really planning on doing this today, but the husband was home. Plus, so much of what I made took little to no work. All in all, I worked for about 3.5-4 hours, but I also cooked dinner which was none of this stuff. Although I did forget that there was asparagus roasting in the oven. Oops. Can't win them all.  

Prepare for stuff everywhere when you do a freezer session

I have tried a ton of freezer recipes, and I know what works for us. So this time I stuck to the tried and true for the Lowes. Here is what I came up with this go-round:

Lasagna - this is my tried and true lasagna recipe. I do sub ricotta for the cottage cheese though.

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti - I divided this one up into 2 loaf pans. This was really quick.

Taco Casserole - The kids like this one served inside a burrito with sour cream, guac, and all the toppings. I got 2 pans.

Crispy Cheddar Chicken - I make a cheesy chicken similar to this the kids like. This was another super fast one.

Pizza rolls - This was just crescent roll dough, pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni rolled up, cut and baked. 

Super Easy Chili - I have shared this before. 2 lbs ground beef (browned), 2 packs of chili seasoning, 2 cans light kidney beans, and 2 jars of salsa with a little water added into the crockpot. Cook on high for a few hours then cool, bag and freeze.
Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas - Rotisserie chicken, black beans, salsa, taco seasoning and cheese wrapped in tortillas and topped with enchilada sauce and cheese. Super fast.

The loot

Our freezer door was left open by accident for over 24 hours and everything was lost. So this bare freezer needed some stuff in it. Now, say a prayer for the poor sanitation workers tomorrow that have to get that trash. I cleaned out the freezer on Thursday....and trash day is Monday. Let's just say it isn't pleasant. What is pleasant is that we have some meals prepared to lessen the stress of the first few weeks of school. It isn't like we will be eating the stuff above every night, but when I know we are going to have a crazy afternoon of running around it is nice to open the freezer that morning and not think about dinner that night.

School Prep - AKA Freezer Meals

School starts Wednesday for my older two, and I'm trying to prepare some meals for the freezer for at least a few meals. I haven't done many freezer meals for us lately, but I have made a bunch for a ministry I have served with for years. The ones I did today are all easy ones that I could throw together quickly, use rotisserie chicken, divide into 2 dishes, and ones I know the kids will eat. They also all involve cheese. I also assembled tonight's dinner to throw into the oven quickly, and I think that one will freeze well, too, with the subtraction of the topping. I'll post that one, too. Here's what I made:

Chicken Parmesan Casserole - Before I cooked noodles to go with it after I thawed and reheated. Today, I cooked 16 oz of rotini noodles and tossed them in sauce and put them in the bottom of the dish, layering the rest of the stuff on top.

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas - This isn't really a "recipe". I threw together shredded rotisserie chicken, taco seasoning, black beans, salsa, and a little cheese. I wrapped up the mixture in tortillas, and I topped with enchilada sauce and cheese.

Baked Spaghetti

Swiss Chicken - To make this one freezer friendly, you just leave off the StoveTop and butter and add those before baking. Make some rice to go with it before serving.

Those were all the freezer meals for today, but I made Pot Roast Enchiladas for tonight. The kids love this one, and it sounds weird but it's good.
Pot Roast Enchiladas
To make it freezer friendly, I would probably freeze after assembling the tortillas, and add the cheese and sour cream before baking. The cheese would freeze fine, but I'm not sure about the sour cream.

Latest Freezer Session

I have been in a funk about cooking lately. The monthly grocery budget has suffered tremendously because I have done no meal planning. I feel like I've gone to the grocery store daily. I run in to get the makings for what I decided 5 minutes before would be dinner. In for chicken and salad and out with about $60 worth of stuff. I was surfing Pinterest the other night and ran across some new freezer recipes that I have never seen. I haven't had much luck with the "throw this in a bag and dump in crockpot" so a lot of those don't appeal to me. We have several favorites of those, but for the most part I steer clear of that kind of freezer meal. I found a site where two moms do a lot of freezer prep, and they are the "crunchy, Earth loving" moms that made their own dough and stuff. I "might" have fibbed a little on a few of those. There was another site with about 70 recipes I had never tried, so I made a list of ones to try, printed those off, compiled a grocery list, crossed off items I had after inventorying the pantry and freezer, and headed to the grocery store. This session took about 4 hours of cooking. I have to give a big old shout out to the hubs for playing with kiddos so I could do this. We will all reap the rewards. Here is the before shot:

All the ingredients

All the recipes

It took some time and some prep, and honestly if I had taken time to really organize beforehand it might not have taken as long. Freezer meal prep is a little messy.



During

But the yield was totally worth it!!! I got a ton of food.

Here's what will be on the menu around here for the next little bit:

Chicken Pillows - They have a quick sauce to mix up before and serve with them

Creamy Italian Chicken - This one was a dump recipe where you mixed everything up, put it in a      freezer bag and then you dump in crockpot.

Hot Chicken Salad - one small round pan

Beef Green Chile Taco Casserole - I got 2 pans of this

Cheesy Black Bean and Chicken Enchiladas - I got on big pan and one little pan. I cheated on this one with rotisserie chicken. I added dried onion and garlic powder. I also used store bought taco mix. This was the last recipe I finished, so I was tired.

Chicken Parmesan Casserole - Just add noodles to serve with

Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken Tenders - I doubled this one, and I got a big bag of chicken strips.

Baked Penne Pasta - I got 1 large pan.

Baked Potato Casserole - I got 3 round pans of this and a pan to bake tonight.


I am so happy I don't really have to plan food for a bit! I will let you guys know how it all turns out since all of these are new recipes for us.

Stocking Up and Waiting

I hope that you all have had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did here. The boys were so into Christmas this year - from looking at lights, to hearing about the Christmas story, seeing Santa, and all the fun of anticipating that one special day. I will share some pics from our day here in a few. I felt sort of like a big Scrooge on Christmas night. The hubs was at work, the house was quiet, and all I could think about was that I could sit and watch absolutely nothing on TV - because let's face it, nothing is on Christmas night - or I could be productive. Well, I chose the latter and took down all the decorations. It all went back into boxes and on shelves in the garage until next year. I have never had the urge to rip down decorations on Christmas night. However, I have never been 38 weeks pregnant on Christmas, either. There has been some serious nesting going on around here. Things are clean, organized, and today I tackled freezer meals. In 3 hours, some serious damage was done. I thought I would share the results. I tried to pick recipes that were easy, would make more than one dish, and didn't have a ton of prep. I ended up with this plus a bag of cooked, chopped chicken breasts which will be perfect for casseroles or chicken salad:

Here are the links and yields for each:

Roast Beef and Ham Freezer Sandwiches - I got 12 sandwiches (and I totally used the Cheese Whiz)
Baked Ziti - I did one large pan instead of 2 smaller ones, but you can do whichever works best
Poppy seed Chicken - I divided this into 2 round pans, left off the topping - will add crackers, butter, and poppy seeds right before baking
Cheesy Black Bean and Chicken Enchiladas - I got one large pan and one small pan of these
Crock pot Orange Chicken - this was super easy, no cooking before required, just mix and put in bag
Chicken Pot Pie - I got 3 small round pans. I should have done one more, but I didn't have enough crusts. As it stands now, I still need to place a top crust on the pies before baking but no biggie.

Most of these recipes came from the Six Sisters site. Press here for the link to 50 freezer-friendly dishes. After this bambino comes, I don't really want to have to think about meal planning and this will surely help. Now for the fun stuff.

I said earlier that Christmas was exciting for the boys this year. Jason and I don't go overboard with toys and stuff for them. A)I think that is just dumb to spend excessive amounts of money on toys B) I can't stand clutter C) they don't need a bunch of crap that they aren't going to play with D) that is NOT the meaning of Christmas. That list is in no particular order, mind you, since the last reason should be #1. After all was said and done, they got new toys and books and have enjoyed playing with all of them. Everything happily has a place which makes this OCD Mama very happy. Here are some pictures of the boys at their Christmas program at school and of our Christmas morning.

The Christmas Orange

And while we are talking Christmas, may I just say that at our house Santa does not wrap. I mean, ain't nobody got time for that! Everything is already assembled, those annoying plastic doo hickies meant to make saints curse removed, batteries in place, and toys ready to go. The boys had presents to unwrap from grandparents and other family but not Santa. The man is busy!

Now I must go clean the kitchen and try to induce labor (I am almost 39 weeks and nothing going on), so I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. Hopefully, we will be back to report news soon :)

Menus and Mayhem

Life is a little crazy in our neck of the woods right now. I am currently at 30 weeks with this pregnancy. It has flown by, and it still kind of blows my mind when I think about just how little time we have until the new little person arrives.Trust me when I tell you I have a long "to do" list to cross off in the next few weeks.Thanks to the maker of this handy dandy maternity support belt which has given me a new lease on life, they might actually get accomplished.

I skipped Bible study this morning. There, I have confessed. See, each small group has to help with the children once during this study. Today was our day. My kiddos are in preschool during this time and don't attend with me. I am in a season of life where I just honestly do not want to be around children that are not my own. I don't mean that as an insult to friends (I do like your children, I promise). But right now, child-free time is precious, and I don't want to add children to that time. Call me selfish if you want, and I am perfectly okay with that. My favorite age is the 2-4 age range, and I know that one day in the future I will find joy in helping with those ages again. Right now, as a stay-at-home-mom that is all I do, so I am perfectly happy to let those who miss this time step in and fill my shoes :)Speaking of what I do - here are some pics of the boys and what they have been doing lately.

One afternoon, the boys wouldn't stop climbing, so I decided to get out all the spare pillows in the house and let 'em go at it:

 Then there were Halloween parties at school:

Notice that little blue cast on Connor's arm? Yeah, he fought the end table and lost. Of course, it hasn't slowed him down at all. We finally carved a pumpkin yesterday. Connor jumped right in and started scooping out the guts while Jake said it was yucky and he took a pass.

I love this hair!!!

Since I did skip Bible study this morning, I knocked out grocery shopping. I made sort of a last minute decision to do some freezer meals with some of the meals I was planning. Jason is off today, so I had a little extra time to do a few things. I cooked a bunch of chicken breasts for casseroles that I will shred and freeze. Ground beef was on sale, so I bought 3 packages. I browned a pound and seasoned it for spaghetti, and into the freezer it went. I am making a pot of chili with another for the freezer - I will include the world's easiest chili recipe below. I did mix up the Pioneer Woman's sloppy joes and got 2 freezer bags ready for later in the month. Right now, our meals must be kid-friendly and fast. Here is the recipe rundown for many of our meals this month:

Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and a veggie
Pot Roast Enchiladas made with leftover roast
Sloppy Joes and fries
Cajun Chicken Pasta and garlic bread (one of our faves)
Chicken Piccata served with pasta and a veggie
BBQ chicken with some baked beans and potato salad
Feta Shrimp Pasta 
Poppyseed chicken making one to eat, one to freeze, served with mashed potatoes and veggie
Spaghetti - can thaw meat from freezer and add sauce
Breakfast for dinner
Chili

One of the nurses I used to work with made chili for work one day. All of us talked about how good it was. She laughed and told us her "recipe". If you need a quick and easy chili, here it is:
1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 envelope chili seasoning
1 large jar thick and chunky salsa
Place in crockpot on low for several hours and done! I usually add a little water. I am going to freeze until we are ready to eat, but seriously, how easy is this?

A few nights, I am sure the kids will get some mac and cheese from a box or frozen cheese ravioli that I boil and throw some sauce on, but this menu should get us through most of the month. Hope this helps any other busy mamas with ideas. Right now, I must go shred some chicken :) Until next time...

August Meal Planning

Now that the sight or smell of food doesn't make me want to run the other way, I can get back into the routine of cooking. Meals these days need to be prepared quickly and kid friendly. I made a list of potential meals today and made my shopping list. I didn't spend a ton on groceries, I will have meats left over since I bought in bulk, and we still have nights where quick and easy meals didn't make it on this list. I thought I would share this list since many of you guys are in the same boat whether it is staying at home with little people or working all day and needing something quick to cook when you get home. The only new recipes on the list are the crockpot lemon chicken, chicken spaghetti (this Pioneer Woman recipe is different from mine), and the penne pasta. I called my friend Julie because I could not find pine nuts for the pesto sauce. I texted something like "Brain died, where do I find pine nuts at grocery store?" She texted back with the appropriate answer, followed with a text that said, "confused for a minute, wanted to know who Brian was." Haha. After assuring her Brian didn't die, I went on to find the pine nuts. Thanks, Julie. And in case you are wondering, they are in the produce section near the specialty nuts. The following list (along with some rambling) is what I came up with for the month of August:

Crockpot Lemon Chicken
Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice
Chicken and Dumplings - we will have leftovers
Roast/Mashed Potatoes/Fried Okra - we will have leftovers
Red Pepper and Basil Penne with Rotisserie Chicken- should have leftovers
Man Pleasing Chicken -we will have leftovers
Taco Pie -we will have leftovers
Meatballs/Mashed Potatoes/Veggies - may or may not have leftovers depending on how much I want to cook
Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti (will have leftovers)
Cheesy Chicken Ranch Pasta -we will have leftovers

I also bought bagged cheese ravioli and pasta sauce, and there will probably be a breakfast for dinner night in there, as well. Here are the recipes for a few non-linked recipes above.

Chicken and Dumplings:

Several years ago, I was looking for a recipe for chicken and dumplings. I searched for Cracker Barrel chicken and dumplings because those are most like what I grew up eating. Please do not try to sneak peas or carrots or any other veggie in my chicken and dumplings. That is NOT what I want when I want chicken and dumplings. Also, I don't want rolled dumplings. I just want little balls of dropped in doughy goodness. Please and thank you. As it turns out, Jake and Connor (and the hubs) love chicken and dumplings or "chicklin and dumplets" as Jake calls them. Here is the recipe I use:

1 (3-6 lb) fryer chicken - or you can use a whole chicken cut up in pieces with skin on
2 quarts water - for the last two times I used one quart to cook chicken and added a can of chicken broth when chicken was cooked - I like that version better
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper - I love a lot of pepper
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons shortening - I use Crisco
3/4 buttermilk (I use 1 cup milk and add 1 Tbsp white vinegar, let sit for five min and pour out 1/4 cup to make 3/4 cup)

1. Cook chicken in water and salt. Bring to boil and cook for about an hour or until done.
2. Remove chicken and skim and pieces of skin from broth. Turn broth to low and keep warm. Cool chicken. Pull off skin and discard. Take chicken off bone and cut into bite sized pieces.
3. Bring broth to boil and add pepper - this is the point I add chicken broth from can.
4. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cut in shortening with fork. Add in buttermilk, stirring with fork until moistened.
5. Knead dough a few times until just mixed. Do not overmix dough. It will be sticky. Pinch off pieces of dough and drop into boiling water.
6. Stir in chicken once dough has cooked about 10 minutes. Let simmer for 20 minutes or so and enjoy.

Taco Pie:

Jason jokingly calls this my favorite recipe. When I worked 12 hour shifts, we ate this about once a week. It is done in about 15 minutes. Seriously, how easy is that? Plus, it makes enough to have leftovers.

1 lb ground beef
1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 jar picante sauce
taco seasoning
2 cups cheese - cheddar, taco blend, whatever you want
1 package cream cheese, softened

1. Brown ground beef. Drain and add 1/2 package taco seasoning.
2. Spread softened cream cheese on bottom of 9x12 or similar sized dish
3. When ground beef is cooked and seasoning is added, stir in picante sauce and beans. Pour mixture over cream cheese
4. Add remaining taco seasoning to cheese and spread on top of beef mixture. Place in 350 degree oven until cheese melts. Serve with tortilla chips.
5. I have added in an onion, green chiles, black beans, etc. You can add in whatever you'd like. Easy peasy...

Roast:

Any size or cut of beef roast to your liking
1 can Progresso French Onion Soup
1 package of Mushroom/Onion Soup mix
1 can water - from soup can

Place in crockpot and cook on low all day

Meatballs:

My sister gave me this recipe a long time ago. If you like meatloaf, this one is for you. What is great about this is that it makes a ton, it goes in the freezer and you take out exactly what you want, mix up a quick sauce, and cook.The following recipe for sauce is for the whole batch of meatballs. I just eyeball ingredients for sauce until it tastes how I want it to taste.

3 lbs ground beef
12 oz can evaporated milk
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. saltine cracker crumbs, crushed
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp chili powder

1. Mix together and form into walnut sized balls. Place on cookie sheet and place in freezer to flash freeze. Place balls in gallon sized freezer bag. When ready to cook, mix up sauce (below), place frozen meatballs and sauce into baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees until done (about 1 hr, if cooking from frozen).

Sauce:
2 c. ketchup
1 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup chopped onion - I use onion flakes

I mix up small amount of sauce to taste using the above ingredients since I never cook the whole batch at one. These are usually served with mashed potatoes and a veggie.

Many of these can be prepared ahead of time to some degree. I might get ambitious and cook the chicken spaghetti and freeze. I will prepare the meatballs for the freezer, divide up my chicken and ground beef. I got a rotisserie chicken to "beef up" the penne pasta dish, so I will take that off the bone and freeze in a gallon bag until I get ready to use. I chose these because most are super fast. I made the cheesy chicken ranch pasta the other night, and the boys gobbled it up. Best of all, it was ready in about 20 minutes! I hope that this is useful to at least one other person on the planet. It was a lot of typing :)

Monthly Meal Planning

This Mama is tired. I told Jason this morning that I would rather have a tooth pulled with no anesthesia than take my children with me to the grocery store. It was pretty painful. However, we are almost out of many things, and with Jason working all weekend I needed to put on my big girl panties and just do it. So, off we went to Wal-mart, Sams, and then to Kroger. Yep, you read that correctly. I had to park at Sams to get one of the carts with the 2 seats in the top, then headed to Walmart where we proceeded to fill it up in the cart and underneath. I don't know how many times I pried something out of the hands of my children. It took about 30 minutes longer than it would have if I had been by myself.

I said that we had been working on a budget, and last month was the first month we tried cash envelopes for most of our spending. I will say that when I had cash instead of a card, I was WAY more careful about what I spent. We've got some tweaking to do, but for the most part things went great. One of my problems last month was in meal planning. I decided this month that I was going to do a "once-a-month" meal planning approach. By that, I mean that I sat down and planned meal ideas for a whole month with the idea of having leftovers for certain nights, accounting for small group, etc. I felt like we had a lot of food leftover that didn't get eaten because it would sit in the fridge for days when we weren't around in the evenings to eat it. Also, by the end of last month, I felt like I had to watch spending in order not to go over my limit. It wouldn't have been a big deal to go over, but I took this as a personal challenge to come in at or under our set budget. I am a nerd that way. Here is a pic of the screen because I was too lazy to print and scan this:

I do realize this is a little intense, people. I just figured that if we knew up front how many meals (at least in a round about way) we needed, we wouldn't run low at the end of the month.

While the boys were napping, I got busy with my freezer cooking. There were groceries EVERYWHERE to put away.  In 2 hours, I had a ton of food prepared, and one dish cooking in the crock pot to head to the freezer. I bought a few meats that I either am going to cook soon or went into the freezer right away. Be warned, doing this much food at one time is not a clean process. I turned around at one point and had to laugh and almost cry a little. My kitchen looked like this:

And I promise I didn't put an empty pan on the stove to make it look like I was working :) There was butter melting to saute some veggies. In the end, I ended up with a bunch of food, and our monthly meals are pretty much set. I am not saying that we have to stick exactly to the schedule or anything, but other than fresh veggies or the staples like bread and milk my monthly shopping is done. Here is what I ended up with (not pictured are the honey BBQ ribs which were cooling in the crock pot):

Okay, I fibbed a little in the pic. Two of the pans are empty but represent the enchiladas that I have to mix up. They will be done in the next few days. Click on the link to find the recipes:

Lasagna (I will post this recipe soon) - 2 pans
Salsa Verde Enchiladas - recipe makes 2 pans
Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joes - 2 bags
Sticky Chicken - no cooking beforehand required
Beef Stroganoff - no cooking beforehand required
Honey BBQ Ribs
Chicken Spaghetti - makes 2 pans

Whew! It feels so good to have so much food DONE. It is my goal here in the next few weeks to create new tabs for the blog that include breakfast, crock pot, freezer-friendly and so on. That way, recipes will be easy to find versus having to search through all the files. One thing at a time...

Sun-dried Tomato and Chicken Penne & "Special Ladies"

Okay, so WAAAY back when I did my first batch of freezer cooking while I was big and preggo with Jake, I made this chicken penne. I picked it because it made 2 pans of food, was really freezer friendly, and you didn't have to thaw it before cooking if frozen. I recently made it again for a friend who had a baby, and I was reminded that I thought the original recipe was kinda bland. Martha Stewart usually doesn't let me down. I think maybe this was a "fresh outta prison" Martha recipe and anything that wasn't prison food was yummo. Okay, I made that up. Anyhoo, I made it again today for another new mom. I read the comments and found one lady that said the same thing, but she fixed it with the addition of some extra stuff. It was so much better. It made one pan to give away and one for dinner for us. Woohoo. Win-win. Also, it isn't a ton of ingredients. However, if you are watching your waistline, stop reading now. If not, here is the link.
I added basil (about 1 Tbsp), more sun-dried tomatoes, real bacon pieces, probably more cheese than called for in the recipe, and some salt (which you really need). I can't find a block of provolone, so I bought a package of Sargento provolone slices and sliced them into pieces. The sauce is thick - probably because of the extra cheese. Jake stood over me and yelled "cheese" while I took this pic:

Along with the meal for the new mom, I made these little mini cheesecakes. I made these a few nights ago for a ministry at church called The Sunshine Girls. I made some with cherry pie filling and some with caramel ice cream topping and mini chocolate chips. Jake came into the kitchen while I was making them asking, "Whatcha doin' Mama?" I told him I was making some food for some special ladies. He replied, "I be special yady, Mama. I want one." How do you refuse? So, he downed two mini cheesecakes and was happy. Today, I made another small batch. I gave Jake one of those, and he said, "Yum, special ladies." So, the mini cheesecakes shall be called Special Ladies in our house :) They are super easy and use mini-nilla wafers for the crust. If you make these, be not to buy the cheap pie filling. The cheaper ones have more "filling" than fruit. Click here for the recipe. Here is a picture of my Special Ladies.

Not the most figure-flattering menu on Earth, but every once in a while, a special lady or two five won't hurt you ;)

Recipe Rundown

Okay, so in this post, I did a bunch of freezer recipes. They were the EASIEST batch of freezer recipes ever because they required no cooking. I just put a bunch of ingredients into freezer bags, froze, and for the most part dumped from the freezer into the crock pot. It has been wonderful. I also promised to give the rundown of each recipe once we had eaten them all. I made double batches of almost everything, and we have sampled them all. There is one bag of most of the others still in the freezer. Here is how they turned out:

Mongolian Beef - this one was good. I made some rice and the roasted broccoli from Pinterest (the only way I cook broccoli now). The boys, especially Connor, gobbled it up.
Green Chile Pork Stew - this one is okay. It is pretty spicy which I liked but the hubs and boys don't really do spicy.
Teriyaki Chicken - this one was really bland to me, but the boys loved it. Jake and Connor ate it up. I served it over rice. I would make it again if just for them.
Sweet & Spicy Meatballs - this was not bad. I think if you made it with homemade meatballs it would be pretty good. But I have a recipe for meatballs that I usually use, and I like the other sauce better.
Honey Garlic Chicken - I wanted to like this one, but I thought it was kind of gross.
Chicken Caccitore - We have had this before, and we will have it again. It was super easy, smells great when cooking, and served over fettuccine with freshly grated cheese - yummy.
Island Chicken - this chicken had good flavor. I think this one would be good served in a salad
Maple Dijon Chicken - this one is all over Pinterest called man-pleasing chicken. Well, Jason and the boys did like it. It was good. I did not do this one in the crock pot. I thawed and baked.
Pesto Chicken (you are only doing the chicken from this recipe, not the pasta) - this was one of the winners as well. It was dinner tonight. We have eaten the second bag. I served it over angel hair pasta with pesto and freshly grated cheese.

These recipes have all had common themes of pasta and rice, it has seemed. Jason has worked a bunch lately, and it has been so nice to throw a bag of something in the crock pot, fix some rice (in the microwave) or pasta with a baby on the hip, and steam or roast another veggie to go along with dinner. Easy, peasy.

Summer is coming, and I did sort of a summer themed meal for our small group this week. We had some BBQ dishes. I did baked beans (I think they were a Pioneer Woman recipe), those crack potatoes that are all over Pinterest (seriously, yum), along with pulled chicken and pork. As I looked at the "menu" I needed something a little more light and fresh. I found this recipe for Fresh Corn Tomato Salad from the Food Network. This little recipe will go into my "summer staple" rotation. It was super simple, and really good.

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 ears fresh corn, husked (about 4 cups corn kernels)
2 cups halved grape tomatoes
1 bunch scallions (white and green), thinly sliced
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, I used the little balls of mozzarella
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves

Whisk the vinegar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil, starting with a few drops and then adding the rest in a steady stream, to make a smooth dressing.

Shear off the corn kernels with a sharp knife over a bowl. Toss in the tomatoes, scallions, and mozzarella. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Cover and let set for 15 minutes or up to 2 hours. Before serving tear the basil over the salad and stir.

I know that once the corn and tomatoes are actually in season this will be even better. Yay for summer food. Of course, it is February 10th, and here in South GA the gnats are already swarming in 70 degree weather. You know, it will feel like summer by the end of next month - haha.

People have asked how the freezer recipes were coming, so I hope this helps. It surely didn't take up much space in the freezer, and it was super easy. Also, this would be really easy to divide into small batch type meals if you are cooking for one or two.

Freezer Meals - Take 2

I am so excited about this post. Mainly because I am a huge dork, and this kind of stuff makes me happy but seriously, if you cook - this is cool. If not, just stop reading here because you will be sorely underwhelmed. You've been warned.

The hubs has been working like crazy on our monthly budget. We want to do a bunch of stuff around here, and there has to be a plan for that to happen. Our "go live" date for the budget is Feb. 1, so if I don't leave my house after that, you'll know why. I am only kidding. I am taking this as a challenge to see how much we can save.

I posted before about freezer meals. I love them! I saw a post on Pinterest a while back about crockpot freezer meals where you basically throw everything in a bag, freeze, then thaw to cook  in the crockpot. There was no pre-cooking. Well, sign me up. I looked over a bunch of the recipes today, and I had so many of the ingredients. I decided to go for it. I figured if I were going to spend a bunch of money, I might as well do it before the budget kicked in. Well, I was wrong because I just made 17 meals in 1 1/2 hours for less than $150 PLUS I had 4 bags of leftover chicken for other recipes!!!!!  How cool is that?

We started with this:

And we ended with this:

I doubled all the recipes except for the pork stew. I had 4 chicken breasts leftover and 21 chicken thighs (I split those into 3 bags). I promise to review these recipes later as we try them. We have had the chicken caccitore because it is a WW recipe, and it was yummy. Some of the recipes don't include instructions for freezing or cooking in the crockpot, but I was able to figure it out. I plan to thaw each bag in the fridge overnight before cooking in the crockpot the next morning. The only one I am not cooking in the crockpot is the maple dijon chicken. Click on the links below to get the recipes:

Mongolian Beef
Green Chile Pork Stew
Teriyaki Chicken
Sweet & Spicy Meatballs
Honey Garlic Chicken
Chicken Caccitore
Island Chicken
Maple Dijon Chicken
Pesto Chicken (you are only doing the chicken from this recipe, not the pasta)

I should say that for my money, I also bought a box of rice, several bags of frozen veggies, and some pasta to go with these meals. Still, it ain't too shabby. The hubs will be pleased. When the Jakeman saw the camera, he said, "Mommy, take Jake picture." So, here he is.

Freezer Meals

Okay, so I really hadn't planned on doing any stocking the freezer, but it sort of just happened to work out. Now, I am so glad it did. I posted a LONG time ago on making a bunch of meals for the freezer before Jake was born. I spent over 10 hours that day standing on my feet cooking at about 34 weeks pregnant. At the end of the day, the freezer was stocked, and I thought at first I had sent myself into labor. Not the wisest plan I've ever had, mind you. Occasionally, if I make a casserole or lasagna or anything else that I know will also freeze well, I will make one for dinner and an extra for the freezer. I just haven't done another marathon freezer session - until now.

The other day, I was surfing the internet looking for recipes for dinner. Connor had been really fussy during naptime and was asleep on top of me while I "shopped" for dinner ideas. I had made a spiral ham for dinner the night before and ran across a recipe that I could use to use up the ham. Sarah Spooner, who I worked with what seems like forever ago at the Medical Center, has a food blog that I was looking at when I ran across her "freezer sandwiches". I realized she had some other freezer recipes that sounded pretty good, too. It sparked a desire to do another big cooking day since Jason is about to start a string of night shifts. It will be the boys and me for a few days, but I would like to have dinner for Jason before he heads to work.

The "Before" Pic

I think I did really well. This was the EASIEST thing to do. There are no fancy recipes here, peeps. It is just easy, peasy family friendly eats. I don't think anyone is going to say, "Well, the Smiths are coming for dinner, we better thaw out the sloppy joes." However, for a quick and easy meal, who needs fancy? I picked a day that Jason was off, but truthfully I have been able to do all the cooking while the kids have been playing, napping, or last night after they went to bed. I am telling you - totally doable for even those with little kiddos. And for less than $200 in groceries, we have a TON of meals. I picked things that were quick and easy to prepare, quick and easy to prep once I got out of the freezer, and things that I didn't have to buy a ton of groceries to make.

My "must have" supplies include: foil containers with lids (I buy these at Sam's for about $13 for 25 lids and pans - they are a staple here for when I want to make someone dinner or if I know that what I am cooking is messy and just want to throw away a container rather than wash it), foil squares for wrapping sandwiches (you could just use foil you have), and gallon sized zip lock bags.  Anything that can go in a freezer bag (like the sloppy joes) can be placed in the bag, air smoothed out, and then spread the contents so that the bag is flat. Place it on a pan in the freezer to freeze and once it is frozen, then you have a very thin package to store in the freezer versus a bulky bag. Everything gets labeled with a trusty Sharpee, along with cooking instructions, and arranged in the fridge.

Here is the breakdown of what I made and how much I got from each (click on the item to go to the page with the recipes) I am WAY too lazy to type these out.

Chicken Spaghetti (recipe below - no link) 2 pans
Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joes (2 bags - I can probably get 4 sandwiches out of a bag)
Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper Spicy Shredded Pork (I got 3 bags of this to use for tacos and pulled pork sandwiches)
Paula Deen's Chicken and Rice Casserole (1 pan)
Freezer Ham and Cheese Sandwiches (I got 16 sandwiches using my leftover ham)
Spaghetti Sauce (I got 4 large bags of sauce for pasta and pizzas)

Here is how the cooking schedule went. I put on the pork during naptime yesterday since it has to cook for 6 hours. While Jake ran around and Connor hung out in the bouncy seat, I took about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon to assemble sandwiches. After the boys were in bed, I pulled the pork and bagged it. This morning, I put the chicken onto boil, and once it was ready, I shredded it using my KitchenAid mixer (great tip from Pinterest). I had enough left over for chicken salad. While Connor napped this morning and Jake watched an episode of Thomas the Train, I mixed the 3 casseroles and let them cool. During naptime, I made sloppy joes and spaghetti sauce. Easy, easy... I also had made a batch of meatballs a while back for the freezer, and if anyone is interested, I will be happy to give that recipe. They are similar to meatloaf, but you just take out what you want, mix up a sauce of ketchup/brown sugar/ and a few other things, and pop them into the oven without even thawing.

The "After" Pic - this is in our garage fridge minus the 4 bags of spaghetti sauce that are still cooling

Recipe for Chicken Spaghetti (courtesy of Brenda Gay) - makes 2 casseroles - halve ingredients for one casserole
8 chicken breasts
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans cream of celery soup (I use one can cream of celery and 3 cans cream of mushroom)
16 oz spaghetti noodles
2 sticks butter, melted
6 slices white bread

Boil chicken breasts in water and shred. Cook noodles in broth from chicken. Mix noodles, chicken, soups, and cheese in a large bowl. Pour into 2 casserole dishes. If you are cooking them now, tear up the bread and put on top of casseroles. Melt the butter and pour on top. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. If you are going to freeze, leave off the butter and bread. Cover and freeze. When you are ready to cook the casserole, thaw it completely, then top with bread and butter and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated and bubbly.
*Parmesan cheese is good on top and you can always add more butter/bread and cheese to the recipe

Smoky Chicken Chili

This recipe came from Southern Living, and it is one of my cool weather favorites. In fact, if you choose to make one recipe from the blog, let it be this one. It is yummy, quick, and very easy. The thing that takes the longest time to do is pull the chicken off the bone (aside from the one hour cook time).

Ingredients:
2 poblano peppers, diced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 (14.5 oz) cans zesty chili style diced tomatoes
3 cups shredded chicken - I never measure, just pull off meat from one rotisserie chicken
1 (16 oz) can navy beans, drained
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (12 oz) can or bottle of beer *Can substitute 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 (1.25 oz) packet of white chicken chili seasoning mix - I use McCormick's

Toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, cornbread, tortilla strips, chopped onion, black olives, cilantro, etc.

1. Saute first 4 ingredients in oil until tender - usually about 8 minutes or so.

2. Stir in remaining 6 ingredients and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook for one hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with desired toppings.

**This recipe freezes well. Let cool and put in freezer bags or container for freezer. Thaw and reheat when ready to serve.