Freezer Crock Pot Meals

I love freezer bulk cooking. I usually spend two days when doing this. One day is spent preparing a master shopping list, shopping, and doing any food prep (chopping meats and veggies). The second day is spent cooking, assembling, and freezing the meals, and then cleaning up all the dishes used. Two days worth of work usually turned into 8-10 meals stored in the freezer. Pull them out the night before to defrost and cook the next day for 30-45 minutes. 4-6 weeks worth of food that's easy to prepare at night....That's the best!

UNTIL NOW!

I stumbled upon this blog on Pinterest that talked about freezer crock pot meals. I perused the different recipes, chose what I thought Peanut my family would eat, and then waited until payday to go shopping.

Payday hit on Friday and I'm sitting here on a Sunday. I spent one hour shopping and then...... Wait for it...... 1 hour and 15 minutes assembling 8 different meals!!! I still have to clean up, but that's only a few measuring cups, measuring spoons, a cutting board, and a knife. THAT'S IT!!! I'm figuring we can get 3 or 4 meals out of each bag of food, so I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes for 24-32 meals.

I spent roughly $175 in the grocery store on items for these meals (I had a lot of the spices and food staples at home already). It would have been $210 if I hadn't lucked up and found chicken breast packages buy one, get one free at Kroger. So, paying $175 and stretching out each bag to 4 meals, each serving is $4.86. Not too shabby!

Here are the steps I took to get my meals ready (I'm sure you could have your food assembled even faster if you had help!)....

Step 1- Gather your supplies and ingredients.

Seriously....this is all you need food prep-wise. Measuring cups, measuring spoons, a cutting board, and a knife or two.

Step 2- Label gallon sized freezer bags with name of recipe and cooking instructions.

Step 3- Divide up meat into bags.

Most of the meat used. I forgot to take the picture before I opened and distributed the London Broil roast and the chuck roast. Good thing chicken was buy one, get one free this week!

Everybody is in their new homes!

 Step 4- Add ingredients common to most bags and cross of on main recipe list as you go along. After this step, I worked with two meals at a time while the rest sat in the refrigerator.

 Step 5- Step back and admire your work.

Step 6- Freeze!

All of the meals can go straight from freezer to slow cooker with no defrosting (you can defrost overnight if you want), and cooks on low 6-8 hours. Easy peasy! If you use crock pot liners, the only things you'll have to wash are the dishes you eat off of!

Below are the recipes I chose (several of them are similar, and very heavy on the chicken- I kept 4 year old Peanut in mind when I chose these).

Hawaiian Chicken

Beef Burritos

Chicken Fajitas

Dijon Chicken

Italian Chicken

Honey Pineapple Chicken

Taco Roast

Honey Chicken

Now, after assembling these meals and blogging about this process, I need to point out that I haven't actually tasted any of these yet. The blogger who posted these recipes said they are really good, and the ingredients are things that I like, so fingers crossed. I'll update this entry after we have eaten these meals. Let me know if you make any of these and how they turned out if I haven't updated yet! 

Oreo Pops

A question for the ladies only. Have you ever been PMS-ing and perused Pinterest? If so, you've probably seen many, many, many pins for sweet treats that makes your hormonally imbalanced brain scream MUST! MAKE! NOW!!!!! That happened to me today. I came across a pin for Oreo Pops and then my brain screamed MUST! MAKE! NOW!!!!! said, "What a nice treat to make for Peanut to celebrate completing his first week of PreK."

These are super easy to make. I think it took a total of 20 minutes of actual work. Here is what you'll need....

Any sort of Oreos, candy coating (or even chocolate), jimmies (sprinkles), and cake pop sticks

I chose to go with the Double Stuffed Oreos because I figured this was already going to be horrible calorie-wise, why not go all out? 

Remove one side of your Oreo. If it doesn't separate perfectly, eat that one and then try again. Press a cake pop stick into the white, yummy goodness that is the center of the Oreo. 

Melt your candy coating. Put a little dollop of melted coating where the stick is stuck.

 Press the other side back onto the other half. Now go find something to do for 20-30 minutes while the coating hardens. 

Dip your pops into the melted candy coating. Twirl it around for awhile until it quits dripping.

This picture makes me happy! Look at all those jimmies!

Press dipped Oreo pop into your jimmies (sprinkles). I guess you could skip the jimmies step, but I don't see why you would want to. We may not be able to be friends anymore if you skip this step.

Lay on wax paper and continue dipping all of your cookies.

And then step back and look at your masterpieces. For those of you who are super observant, I did start out with 12 pops and ended with 11. The final cookie, while I was twirling excess coating off enthusiastically, fell off the pop stick and into the melting pot. It was then dropped into the jimmies and eaten as a giant glob thrown away.  

After letting it cool and harden, Peanut (being the brave guinea pig that he is) tried the creation.

I think it was a success! 

Upon finishing, Peanut told me he wanted me to give one to each of his teachers. Apparently, he is already learning how to kiss up to authority figures. 

A dummy's guide to removing silk from fresh corn

I. Hate. Removing. Corn. Silk. HATE IT. It's all stringy and silky and I can never get it to all go away. Then I have to pick it out of my teeth for a week (disclaimer- not really a week because I properly brush and floss). I hate it so much so that I don't buy fresh corn that I have to husk and de-silk on my own.  Maybe you have a trick to make it a bit easier. I've tried it.  It doesn't work.  UNTIL NOW....

I came across a pin on Pinterest. I didn't even repin it because I didn't think the miracle trick would work (they never do!). But, I had a recipe my mom and I wanted to try that called for fresh off the cob corn and the husked (husky???) corn was cheaper than the dehusked  ears of corn. I scoured Pinterest for the pin, found it, and tried it out. I figured if it didn't work, I could get my mom to remove the silk. But by golly, the miracle trick worked! You start by placing the entire ear of corn, husk and all, into the microwave. The directions said to microwave each cob for 3-4 minutes for fully cooked corn. I didn't need fully cooked corn, so I threw two cobs in and microwaved them for 3 minutes. I think I've seen this where you throw the whole corn into boiling water and cook for longer, but nobody got time for dat. Take the microwaved corn (caution- may be hot) out of microwave and cut the bottom 1-2 inches off the bottom of the cob. Then, start squeezing the top of the husk and the corn will slowly come out of the bottom with very little to no silk! The website made it seem like you just barely apply pressure to the top and the cob just pops out....I didn't find it that easy. Maybe if I had fully cooked the corn? Anywho, I'm not going to shy away from husking corn again!

Freshly husked corn. Hard to tell, but very little silk left.

This is the silk that I had to remove from two ears of corn after trying the miracle trick!

Now, the second part of this post isn't a review of a Pinterest pin. The following recipe was from an article found by my mom. It was about a trio of salsas, none of them tomato based. One was an apple pepper salsa, another was a strawberry fennel salsa, and the last was a cucumber corn salsa. I am hoping that you can guess what we made based on the first half of this post. I tasted the cucumber corn salsa right after making it and it tasted pretty good. I put it in the fridge and then had some with dinner a few hours later...AH.MAZE.ING. The flavors had a chance to mesh and it was very yummy. It tasted like summer. The article that the recipe came from said you can eat it with chips, add it to burgers, etc. We started out eating it straight up. I ended up mixing it with some BBQ that I was eating and it was delicious! Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

 

CUCUMBER-CORN SALSA

Start to finish: 10 minutes (it took me about 20 minutes...I'm slow)

Makes 3 cups

2 ears of corn, husks and silk removed

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

4 scallions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Hot sauce, to taste (we didn't add this)

Salt and ground black pepper

Carefully cut the kernels from the ears of corn. To do this, one at a time stand each ear on its wide end and use a knife to saw down the length of the cob.

In a medium bowl, combine the corn kernels, cucumber, celery, scallions, dill, and the lemon zest and juice. Season with a splash of hot sauce, salt and pepper.

Nutrition information 1/2 cup: 45 calories; 10 calories from fat (22 percent of total calories); 1 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 10 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 2 g protein; 105 mg sodium.

Rag Quilt Animals

I've been waiting over a month to post this entry. I came across a picture of a Simplicity pattern on Pinterest. That's it. No step by step instructions, no photos taken periodically as the project was completed. Just a picture of the pattern envelope. I filed the idea away for future use.  

Fast forward a couple of months. While shopping for fabric for another project, I remembered the pattern. I looked through the files in my local JoAnn's and voila! Found the envelope. I have two little sibling cousins who have extremely close birth dates, so I thought I would make a quilt for them to share. After I made the quilt, I realized how ridiculously easy it was, so I made two. I put my own spin on the pattern in order to personalize the two quilts. Then I had to wait a month to give them to the girls before I could blog about the project. Enjoy!  

 The first cat quilt, almost completed. At this point, I hadn't figured out how to personalize the project.  

Trying to decide if I should use a Peanut head or a cat head for the second quilt....

Two finished rag quilts.  I decided to add a collar and embroidered the girls' names onto them.

I think she liked it......

This pattern can be used to make a cat, rabbit, or a bear. I also bought this pattern and can make a turtle, dinosaur, or a caterpillar. I'm toying with the idea of buying this pattern so I can make the butterfly, flower, or the super cute owl. Anybody interested in a quilt? You could buy your own fabric and just pay me for the time spent on making it!  :)  

Skinny Spaghetti Squash Alfredo and Roasted Broccoli

Tonight I made two recipes that I have found on Pinterest.  I love trying new recipes but when it usually is just four year old Peanut and I eating dinner, I tend to stick with quick and easy.  We have an 11 year old friend staying with us for a couple of days so it gave me a reason to cook!

The meal was totally vegetarian.  I'm not sure if I had all the proteins you need and whatever....I'm not a vegetarian.  I just know there was no meat involved in the making of this meal.  Both the 4 and 11 year old loved it.  The 11 year old scarfed down two huge servings, almost like I hadn't fed her at all today (wait....did I?)

The Main Dish

My main dish was Skinny Spaghetti Squash Alfredo. Follow the link to get to the recipe and to see a prettier picture of what it's supposed to look like.  Super yummy, very rich tasting for it to be "skinny". It takes about an hour to cook the squash, so about 15 minutes before it finishes, make the sauce.  I wanted leftovers for the Woodman to take to work tomorrow, so I used two squash (squashes?) and then doubled the recipe for the sauce.  From what I saw, you probably didn't need to double the sauce recipe.  The four halves of squash were swimming in sauce, and I had a bunch of sauce left in the pan. I will definitely make this again.  I bet it'll taste even yummier when I can harvest a spaghetti squash out of my garden! 

The Side Dish

I have seen the pin for Roasted Broccoli for quite some time now. Every time I see it, the description always says "I'll never make broccoli another way again" or "Ridiculously amazing broccoli".  Well, I'll never make broccoli another way again! It was ridiculously amazing! A time saving tip- get bags of broccoli florets from the produce section of your grocery store. I bought 2 huge heads of broccoli and had to cut it up into florets. Not a HUGE time saver, but if you make both of these for the same meal, you might want to skip the step of cutting the broccoli up.  

 I whole-heartedly recommend both of these recipes!  Bon Appetit!

Toy Jail

Look at that body language. It's saying, "I'm devastated and I have the worst mommy ever for putting my favorite toys into toy jail!!!!"

Let's rewind a little bit. Say, a month or so. We had been fighting for weeks to get Peanut to be more responsible and pick up his toys on his own. He would argue, pitch fits, whine, and try to talk us into helping him clean up his mess. Finally, I SNAPPED slightly lost my temper and proceeded to get the box of trash bags from the kitchen. He sat dazed while I pulled out the first bag. Once it dawned on him what was happening....  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Grabbing on my clothes, screaming, throwing himself on the floor. I filled up three trash bags full of his junk that he refused to put away and took them out to the garage. Thinking he was a pretty smart little dude, I told him that if he started cleaning up on his own, I wouldn't "throw away" any more toys. I ended up collecting two more bags of toys. (Um.....maybe he has too much stuff if I was able to collect 5 trash bags of toys???) It took him at least an hour to fully calm down so we could discuss what had happened. I admit....probably not my finest mothering move. I'm still waiting for my "Mother of the Year" plaque to arrive for this episode. It took about a month for me to bring back the toys. He wasn't completely without toys. There were a few odds and ends left behind that survived my rampage. Plus, he got very creative and his favorite toy during this time was a long cardboard roll that he used as a sword (See, I was really just trying to jump start his creativity!).  

During the month where his toys were "thrown away", I came across the idea for toy jail on Pinterest. We went to Target and got a clear tub to use as jail. I figured a clear one would be better so Peanut could see the toys that were incarcerated. I explained that any toys left out after he went to bed, they would be jailed and he would have to do work to get them back. He seemed excited about this, which meant he really didn't grasp the abstract idea of toy jail and he needed to see it in action . He was good about cleaning up his toys....until last night. I gathered up the things he left laying around and locked them up!

I knew he would be upset when he saw his two favorite toys in jail- his light sabers (or savers, according to him). Peanut found the toy jail this morning, hence the first picture of the post.  

Once he settled down, I let him choose his chores he needed to complete to bail his toys out. Actually, there are some active "fun" things he could do as well. Here's what he picked....

Eventually, it'll be a chore per toy. But instead of making him do six separate things this first time, I just had him do three. His first job was to jump up and down. He loved it!

Next came dusting. He had never dusted before, but once I told him what to do, he actually enjoyed it! Notice Lucky supervising.  

Last came sorting laundry. No pictures here. Didn't want everyone to see the mountains of laundry I had to do, plus any unmentionables that may be visible in the different piles!  

As Peanut completed each task, he got two toys out of jail. By the end, he was cheering because he had freed all of his stuff. He is really a good helper, once you get him motivated, and he enjoyed helping Mommy out. I figure after a few weeks the fun factor will drop off and he just won't care enough to want to free his toys. At that point, I'll add the final rule for toy jail- any toy not set free after a week will be taken to Goodwill!

My verdict on toy jail- two thumbs up!  

Wood Butter

I recently thought back to what my spoon guy told me when I first met him. Wait...doesn't everyone have a spoon guy?  No?  Well, I met my spoon guy at the Yellow Daisy Festival, which is an arts and crafts festival that happens in September at Stone Mountain.  We have a pretty steady relationship.  I visit him every year at the Yellow Daisy Festival and I buy a hand-carved, wooden spoon.  Not just any type of spoon....a LEFT HANDED SPOON!  Yes, there are spoons made just for us lefties.  Angled just so to make cooking that much easier for us.  So much better than those horrible left handed scissors that teachers tried to make us use in elementary school.  If you were lucky, your teacher might have had one pair that you and the other two lefties in the class had to share.  Survival of the fittest dictated that you adapt to the righty scissors, which I did. I felt dirty and swore I would never again bow down to the man that is the right handed world.  But I digress. This post isn't about the unfairness of the world to lefties.  It's about wood butter.

Back to my spoon guy.  When I bought my first spoon, he told me that wooden utensils tend to dry out.  When they need a "drink", lightly sand them and then rub them with mineral oil.  I believe I left the festival and went straight to the store to buy these two items.  I wanted to baby my spoon.  Each year, I go back to him, get a new spoon, and get the same lecture about giving my spoons a drink.  And I hate to admit that over time, I have begun to neglect my spoons.  They were all dried out and rough to the touch and I really didn't want to take the 4 minutes to give them their drinks!

I came across the following pin on Pinterest- DIY Wood Butter.  A wood conditioner, if you will, for wooden utensils and cutting boards made with two ingredients: beeswax and mineral oil.  I could hear my spoons from the kitchen calling out (in teeny tiny voices) "We want wood butter!"  I'm not a savvy shopper.  I can't think of where to buy beeswax and mineral oil off the top of my head, so I wander over to Amazon.com.  Within 2 business days, I had my ingredients and made my wood butter.  The process was simple enough.  Following the girl's recipe in the above link, I melted and mixed my ingredients and poured them into Mason Jars.  It made a mess though and I thought I ruined my canning funnel and my 5 qt. mixing bowl I used to melt the beeswax in.  I could not get the re-solidified beeswax off of those two items.  After letting them soak in soapy water overnight, two hand washes, and a run through the dish washer, they were as good as new. After I let the wood butter cool, I put some on a clean, dry paper towel and buffed it into one of my spoons.  I swear it said, "Ahhhhhhhhh.....that hit the spot."  He looked all shiny and happy and hydrated.  Take a look at the picture.  Don't you agree that my spoons look happy?

So, to see if anyone is actually reading this.... I ended up with 6 jars of wood butter.  I don't need 6 jars of wood butter because a little goes a long way. I will give away 3 jars to interested people.  Just let me know and I'll find a way to get it to you.  PS- it makes a wonderful lotion for dry skin.  Absorbs fast and lasts forever! (Ok, not really forever, but a really, really long time).