Last night we had our first freezer meal from the shopping trip and the weekend from Hades that it took to prepare it all. It was so nice to let something thaw overnight and the next morning just throw it into the crock-pot and let it cook all day. The hardest thing I did was prepare rice and steam a few cups of sweet green peas for a side. I also made drop biscuits on the side. Actually, I just measured the ingredients and my six year old made drop biscuits. Not surprisingly, her biscuits were much prettier than mine and she managed to make 12 large biscuits from a recipe that claimed to only make nine. My child obviously has cooking skills! (She DID NOT get that from me!)
This recipe was called Pork & Veggies and I got it from a website for freezer cooking. I included the link with the recipe below. This is one of the several websites I used and I LOVE some of the website owner's recipes. I altered this one a bit to match our tastes, but I can't go without giving credit where it is due!
I honestly was expecting this one to turn out with a soup type consistency. I'm not sure why I assumed this as there is not much liquid in it to begin with. The consistency reminded me of a stir-fry once it was finished. When paired with the rice, it pretty much resembles a stir-fry in consistency. The taste is not like a stir-fry, but it is very good.
I thought this was going to be an absolute "Family Favorite", but my kids proved me wrong. Here is a sample of last night's dinner conversation:
Andrea: Mommy, was is this?
Me: It's beef.
Andrea: It doesn't look like beef! (frowns disapprovingly and pokes her food with a fork)
Jake: It's CHICKEN! (He's two so everything is chicken for him!)
Andrea: It's not good. I'm not hungry. It's something nasty.
Me: It's beef! I promise!
Andrea finally tried her food about thirty minutes later and said it was okay. The kids did, however, eat their rice. I guess starch rules supreme in our house! Even though the kids disapproved, Russ and I really enjoyed the meal and he took leftovers today for work. I even split this recipe into two separate freezer bags and had leftovers from just one bag so I was pleasantly surprised. I'm very happy we get to try this recipe again over the next month. I'm sure my kids will be thrilled as well!
In the recipe below, I will write the original recipe ingredients I left out in parentheses. That way, if you want the stuff we took out included, you will have the instructions for it! Also, I'm fully aware the recipe says pork roast below. I accidently grabbed a rump roast at the store so that's the reason for the mix-up!
Happy cooking!
Pork & Veggies
(from http://www.lovingmynest.com/learning-activities/cooking/freezer-crock-pot-recipes/)
1 lb Pork Roast, cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, slicked
4 carrots, sliced
(1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1.5 T apple cider vinegar
1 t salt
2 t Worcestershire Sauce
Combine ingredients in a large zip top bag, freeze. Thaw contents of bag and place in a slow cooker. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve over hot rice. Serves approximately 5-6 people.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Grated fingernail, anyone?
If you read the title then you can probably guess I am back to my old ways of putting myself in danger in the kitchen. I finally got around to making the homemade pizza this weekend. My husband had the kids occupied so I grabbed the premade store dough, the pizza sauce and the pepperoni out of the pantry. It was all premade so the most "homemade" thing about it was that I slapped it all together and stuck it in the oven. I know we can all agree that sometimes even something that simple can be a challenge for me! I spread the sauce on and reached for the cheese. It was then that I realized I forgot to get it out and went searching in the fridge. I found it in block form. One part of me is thinking," Yes! I get to use my cheese grater and sound awesome on my blog!" The other part is thinking, "You idiot. You should have gotten the bag when you were at Publix and Russ kept telling you that you would regret it when you realized you bought a block." I really dislike when he is right.
I grabbed my poor, neglected grater and got to work. It took about 30 seconds before I realized I could grate my fingernail. *Note: Before you start gagging, none of the fingernail grating intermixed with the cheese. I'm positive! I would never feed that to my family or myself if I thought it had!* I am keenly aware that I have grated about a quarter of this block and I've already messed up one of my nails. For some reason this thoroughly aggravates me and I immediately progress to grating faster. What in the world was I thinking? I guess by grating faster I figured I could get done faster. Nope, not even close. I had to stop every few seconds to make sure I still had a nail. I did however manage to destroy two other nails. I finally finished the pizza and threw it into the oven. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but I still had to deal with chopping and dicing vegetables.
I started rummaging in the fridge for a salad to go with this medium sized pizza. I found lettuce, onion, tomato, bell pepper tops (freezer cooking scraps), half of a yellow bell pepper, broccoli, carrots and cheese. I opted out of the cheese and onion and started washing everything else. Russ waltzes into the kitchen and asks if I need help. I am wielding a very sharp knife at this point and wrestling a carrot. I start cutting it and the knife slips. He gasps really loudly. I stopped and looked at him and he says, "Um, I'm not in the mood to go to the E.R. so could you be a little more careful?" He ended up gasping two or three more times before he was shooed from the kitchen. Yes, I tend to be close to cutting off a finger, but I don't need an audience for it. I managed to finally get the salad and pizza ready and everyone settled down for supper. Five minutes into a nice dinner someone asks for ranch dressing and the room fell apart. Evidently we are out of that type of dressing. My kids protested and acted like salad was something I pulled from the garbage can. I guess I should have put ketchup on top of it. Anything covered in ketchup or ranch gets eaten!
Sunday was Father's Day and we celebrated by grilling out. My husband loves to grill sirloin so I splurged and bought some on freezer shopping day. I made a potato and onion bake and some BBQ toast to go along with our sirloins. It was a pleasant dinner (mostly because Russ handled all the grilling- if you want more on this story, go to the post Day 6- Queen of the Grill in 2011).
I will include the recipe for potato and onion bake below. We had our first freezer meal tonight and I'll update more about it tomorrow!
Happy Belated Father's Day and Happy Cooking!
Potato and Onion Bake
(There is an oven OR grill option)
1 bag of red potatoes (you will not use the entire bag)- I've used regular potatoes also. Very good either way.
2-3 onions
olive oil
Lawry's seasoning salt
pepper
shredded Parmesan cheese
Cut the potatoes in quarters. Cut the onions into small strips. Toss the potatoes and onions in oil, seasoning, and pepper. Proceed to oven or grill instructions.
Oven- Preheat to 350-375 degrees. Pour potatoes and onions into small casserole dish. Cover with foil. Cook until the potato and onions are tender (about 20 minutes). Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top when done. Let cheese melt and serve.
Grill- Wrap potatoes and onions in foil pouches (Tip-divide the potatoes and onions up into serving sizes and make one foil pouch per guest.) Cook on the grill until the potatoes and onions are tender. (15-20 minutes) Sprinkle cheese on top and allow to melt before serving.
**The cook time depends on the size of the potato slices!
I grabbed my poor, neglected grater and got to work. It took about 30 seconds before I realized I could grate my fingernail. *Note: Before you start gagging, none of the fingernail grating intermixed with the cheese. I'm positive! I would never feed that to my family or myself if I thought it had!* I am keenly aware that I have grated about a quarter of this block and I've already messed up one of my nails. For some reason this thoroughly aggravates me and I immediately progress to grating faster. What in the world was I thinking? I guess by grating faster I figured I could get done faster. Nope, not even close. I had to stop every few seconds to make sure I still had a nail. I did however manage to destroy two other nails. I finally finished the pizza and threw it into the oven. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but I still had to deal with chopping and dicing vegetables.
I started rummaging in the fridge for a salad to go with this medium sized pizza. I found lettuce, onion, tomato, bell pepper tops (freezer cooking scraps), half of a yellow bell pepper, broccoli, carrots and cheese. I opted out of the cheese and onion and started washing everything else. Russ waltzes into the kitchen and asks if I need help. I am wielding a very sharp knife at this point and wrestling a carrot. I start cutting it and the knife slips. He gasps really loudly. I stopped and looked at him and he says, "Um, I'm not in the mood to go to the E.R. so could you be a little more careful?" He ended up gasping two or three more times before he was shooed from the kitchen. Yes, I tend to be close to cutting off a finger, but I don't need an audience for it. I managed to finally get the salad and pizza ready and everyone settled down for supper. Five minutes into a nice dinner someone asks for ranch dressing and the room fell apart. Evidently we are out of that type of dressing. My kids protested and acted like salad was something I pulled from the garbage can. I guess I should have put ketchup on top of it. Anything covered in ketchup or ranch gets eaten!
Sunday was Father's Day and we celebrated by grilling out. My husband loves to grill sirloin so I splurged and bought some on freezer shopping day. I made a potato and onion bake and some BBQ toast to go along with our sirloins. It was a pleasant dinner (mostly because Russ handled all the grilling- if you want more on this story, go to the post Day 6- Queen of the Grill in 2011).
I will include the recipe for potato and onion bake below. We had our first freezer meal tonight and I'll update more about it tomorrow!
Happy Belated Father's Day and Happy Cooking!
Potato and Onion Bake
(There is an oven OR grill option)
1 bag of red potatoes (you will not use the entire bag)- I've used regular potatoes also. Very good either way.
2-3 onions
olive oil
Lawry's seasoning salt
pepper
shredded Parmesan cheese
Cut the potatoes in quarters. Cut the onions into small strips. Toss the potatoes and onions in oil, seasoning, and pepper. Proceed to oven or grill instructions.
Oven- Preheat to 350-375 degrees. Pour potatoes and onions into small casserole dish. Cover with foil. Cook until the potato and onions are tender (about 20 minutes). Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top when done. Let cheese melt and serve.
Grill- Wrap potatoes and onions in foil pouches (Tip-divide the potatoes and onions up into serving sizes and make one foil pouch per guest.) Cook on the grill until the potatoes and onions are tender. (15-20 minutes) Sprinkle cheese on top and allow to melt before serving.
**The cook time depends on the size of the potato slices!
Friday, June 14, 2013
Frozen Cookies....Not so much
Last night my husband pulled a fast one and wanted fast food. I argued about it for a few minutes until he finally admitted he just wanted something unhealthy and didn't want me to spend time in the kitchen. I would have fought it, but I was half asleep yesterday from lack of sleep the night before so I complied. So, tonight we will be having salad and a homemade pizza. I don't make my own dough yet, but that is a task I plan on trying in the near future. I'm mainly looking forward to my children taking on the task of spreading the sauce, cheese and pepperoni. It should be interesting considering they cannot sit at the kitchen table without whining about how the other is staring, how the other is being annoying, etc., etc.
I figured I would let y'all in on the fact that I had a major chocolate craving two days ago and decided it was imperative that I make chocolate chip cookies. After I picked up the chocolate chips at Walmart, I got home and put the kids to bed since it was bedtime. I still had several things to do around the house and I finally got around to making the cookies around midnight. (I am a hopeless insomniac.) Russ, my husband (for all my new readers), was somehow still awake and wandered into the kitchen as I was finishing the cookie dough. After having to promise the bowl, the spatula, and the beaters as soon as I was done with them, I finally started to put the cookies on the cookie sheet. It was at that point that I got the fantastic idea to make frozen cookie dough. I put about ten cookies in the oven to bake (I still had a craving to take care of) and I grabbed another cookie sheet and started putting little dough balls in lines. I put them very close together since I was just going to freeze them and then pull them off of the sheet and put them into a bag or a Tupperware container. I ran out of room on the cookie sheet before I ran out of dough so I stuck the cookie sheet in our deep freezer. I realized I didn't have room to put anything else inside the freezer without it being on top of the dough covered cookie sheet. I grabbed a plate from my cabinet and made the last 10 or so dough balls and put them in the freezer connected to my fridge. I finished up the cookies in the oven, had one to fix my craving, and cleaned a little and headed for bed.
When I got up yesterday morning I immediately remembered I had stuck the dough in the freezer. I had intentions to take the dough off of the cookie sheet and plate before I left the house for the day. Well, the cookies had other plans. This was supposed to be an easy task. Most things I try in the kitchen are supposed to be easy and rarely are so I shouldn't be surprised, but alas, I always am. I tried the dough on the sheet first. I grabbed a ball and pulled up and the cookie sheet came with the dough ball. I wiggled the dough ball a little and it came off as the cookie sheet fell on the table. Not only that, but I lost some of the cookie to the pan. Hmm. My thought was, "That one was stubborn. I'm sure it's just a fluke." Then it happened again, and again. I was getting a little frustrated at this point and decided to try the dough balls on the plate. Once again, I had the same stickiness problem! The dough was so sticky (and pretty much not completely frozen) that I just tossed them into a container and separated each row of cookie dough balls with a piece of wax paper. I had no idea what else to do so this would have to work. I wonder if it was the type of cookies I made or if it had something to do with me not spraying the pan prior to freezing. Either way, if you have a tip, please feel free to share in the comments below.
By the way, I always love seeing new subscribers so please subscribe and you will be notified whenever I post. There should be a button on the right side of your screen. :)
Chocolate Chip Cookies:
The recipe I used was on the back of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips bag. Although it doesn't freeze very well, the cookies I baked were fantastic!
Happy Cooking!
*I haven't decided whether or not to write on the weekend. I will either update tomorrow or wait until Monday.*
I figured I would let y'all in on the fact that I had a major chocolate craving two days ago and decided it was imperative that I make chocolate chip cookies. After I picked up the chocolate chips at Walmart, I got home and put the kids to bed since it was bedtime. I still had several things to do around the house and I finally got around to making the cookies around midnight. (I am a hopeless insomniac.) Russ, my husband (for all my new readers), was somehow still awake and wandered into the kitchen as I was finishing the cookie dough. After having to promise the bowl, the spatula, and the beaters as soon as I was done with them, I finally started to put the cookies on the cookie sheet. It was at that point that I got the fantastic idea to make frozen cookie dough. I put about ten cookies in the oven to bake (I still had a craving to take care of) and I grabbed another cookie sheet and started putting little dough balls in lines. I put them very close together since I was just going to freeze them and then pull them off of the sheet and put them into a bag or a Tupperware container. I ran out of room on the cookie sheet before I ran out of dough so I stuck the cookie sheet in our deep freezer. I realized I didn't have room to put anything else inside the freezer without it being on top of the dough covered cookie sheet. I grabbed a plate from my cabinet and made the last 10 or so dough balls and put them in the freezer connected to my fridge. I finished up the cookies in the oven, had one to fix my craving, and cleaned a little and headed for bed.
When I got up yesterday morning I immediately remembered I had stuck the dough in the freezer. I had intentions to take the dough off of the cookie sheet and plate before I left the house for the day. Well, the cookies had other plans. This was supposed to be an easy task. Most things I try in the kitchen are supposed to be easy and rarely are so I shouldn't be surprised, but alas, I always am. I tried the dough on the sheet first. I grabbed a ball and pulled up and the cookie sheet came with the dough ball. I wiggled the dough ball a little and it came off as the cookie sheet fell on the table. Not only that, but I lost some of the cookie to the pan. Hmm. My thought was, "That one was stubborn. I'm sure it's just a fluke." Then it happened again, and again. I was getting a little frustrated at this point and decided to try the dough balls on the plate. Once again, I had the same stickiness problem! The dough was so sticky (and pretty much not completely frozen) that I just tossed them into a container and separated each row of cookie dough balls with a piece of wax paper. I had no idea what else to do so this would have to work. I wonder if it was the type of cookies I made or if it had something to do with me not spraying the pan prior to freezing. Either way, if you have a tip, please feel free to share in the comments below.
By the way, I always love seeing new subscribers so please subscribe and you will be notified whenever I post. There should be a button on the right side of your screen. :)
Chocolate Chip Cookies:
The recipe I used was on the back of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips bag. Although it doesn't freeze very well, the cookies I baked were fantastic!
Happy Cooking!
*I haven't decided whether or not to write on the weekend. I will either update tomorrow or wait until Monday.*
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