Getting Ready For Baby: Freezer Cooking

In the next 2 weeks I plan on doing our mega freezer cooking marathon to stock the basement freezer with dinners and quick meals for when the baby is born. I came across some new recipes that I wanted to try out beforehand just in case they were flops. I learned my lesson after making a slew of meals that sounded great but in the end I had a freezer full of "yuckies" as Tommy said after eating one of the said meals.

Today while the boys were napping and Trent was doing some work I whipped up:
2 dozen Banana Cinnamon Muffins
1 dozen of Banana Cinnamon Muffin Bites
1 Beef Roast, half for dinner the other half for spicy tacos
2 dozen Sloppy Joe Cornbread Muffins
1 batch laundry detergent
6 Bacon, Egg and Bacon Breakfast sandwiches

The Banana Cinnamon Muffins are a favorite in our house. We can literally go through a dozen a day! The boys love them for breakfast or a quick snack. I altered the original recipe a bit to make it healthier.

Ingredients
1/4c white sugar
1t ground cinnamon
3/4c butter
3 c white sugar (I use Splenda)
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 (16oz) container sour cream (I only use 8oz)
2t vanilla extract
2t ground cinnamon
1/2t salt
3t baking soda
4.5c all purpose flour (I use 1c white flour, 3.5c wheat flour)

Directions
1.Preheat oven 300 degrees. Grease muffin pan. Stir 1/4c sugar and 1t cinnamon together in a small bowl. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture. We usually just use the cinnamon.

2. Cream butter and 3c sugar (or splenda). Mix in eggs, bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Put in muffin tins.

Bake 15-20 or until fork comes out clean. If making bread instead of muffins, bake for 1 hour.
Sloppy Joe Cornbread Muffins
Cornbread muffin mix:
1c cornmeal
1c wheat flour
1t baking powder
1t salt
2 eggs
2T honey
1/4c melted butter
1c buttermilk

Directions:
1. Stir together dry ingredients, add eggs, honey, butter and buttermilk. Stir.

Sloppy Joes:
I cheated and used Manwich with browned ground turkey

Spoon the cornbread mixture into a greased muffin tin, about half full. Then put a large Tablespoon of sloppy joe mixture in the center of each muffin tin.

I think I baked these at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, can't remember.
Breakfast Sandwiches

So incredibly simple!

Stirred 5 eggs then poured into 6 greased muffin tin. Baked at 375 degrees until done...20 minutes?

Meanwhile I cooked 6 strips of turkey bacon and toasted 6 English muffins.
When the eggs are done let them cool completely on a wire rack.
Make sandwiches, English Muffin, egg, bacon, slice of American cheese, top off with other half of English muffin. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and place all in a freezer ziploc bag.
When ready to eat unwrap and heat in microwave until warm, you can also place the sandwich in a damp paper towel when reheating.

Getting Ready For Baby: stocking the freezer

(cooking day from January 2010)

I am in high gear trying to get things in place before baby girl gets here. One thing I want to do is stock our freezer with easy meals for after her birth. Cooking dinner on a good day, now, is difficult. I can only imagine what it will be like with a newborn strapped to my chest!

I will have a massive day, or days of cooking at the beginning of October.

Here is my list:

Lasagna x2

Various soups (corn chowder, broccoli cheese, ham lentil) each x2

Homemade pizzas x5

Burritos x20

Goolash x2

Stuffed shells x2

Barbacoa meat for tacos etc x2 full roast

Freezer mashed potato x4

marinated ckn breast x6

Roasts x3

Homemade waffles x10

Meatloaf x3

various muffins (banana sour cream, to die for blueberry) x2 dozen

So far I have my list put together and I only need to make an ingredient list, do my shopping and get a cookin!

Freezer Cooking Day Part I

Due to some road blocks, ie defrosting freezer (thank you tommy...cough cough :), I needed to start our Freezer Cooking Day sooner rather then later.

Wednesday, with 3 small children under foot, I began the process. Seasoned and browned 2 chuck roasts and threw them in the crockpot with sauteed onions. The meat will be shredded and used in several Mexican dishes.

I also made 2 double batches of blueberry muffins. Again, Thomas was a huge help. He is a baker at heart.

The night before the big cook off I chopped onions and green peppers and made sure that all of the meat that I needed was defrosted. In hindsight I am thankful that I did some prep work the day before and will certainly do more the next time.

Cook off day started for me around 9:30am. Trent decided that he wanted his sleep in day to be on Friday so I got to sleep in a bit before I started to cook, which I think helped sustain me through the day. Because it was a long but very productive day!

I know that I am so lucky to have a husband that is more then happy to play with our boys all day long, refeer them, take the out in the snow and even on a shopping trip to the Dollar Store and Target. All while I was hard at work making this.................

Chili x2
Lasagna x2
Meatloaf x2
Whole Wheat Waffles x3
Meatballs x2
Broccoli Cheese Chicken Rice x2
Slab Apple Pie x2
Turkey Pot Pie x1
Shredded Beef
Enchilada Casserole
Freezer Mashed Potatoes xx2
Turkey Tetrazinni x3
Ranch Potato Wedges x2
Plain Potato Wedges x2
Blueberry Muffins
Banana Muffins
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Bean Burritos x8
Beef Stew

Plus I added:
Lentil and Ham Soup in the crockpot
Honey Muffins X2

I am very pleased with how the day unfolded and Trent says that so is he. I started around 9:30am, took a short break for lunch and then went through dinner and ended at 6:30pm, just in time to cuddle with all my guys and put them to bed for the night.

I even had lots of help in the kitchen!

I would like to try and maybe do all the cooking in 2 half days during the week and see how it goes with just me and the little fellas. But I will most likely take up my honey again on a weekend cook off.

What I would do differently is prepare more the day before and try and do my grocery shopping only 1 or 2 days before since our entire freezer, fridge and cabinets were busting from the seams with all the ingredients!

January Freezer Cooking Day

One of my goals this year is to get more organized in many areas of our lives. And food happens to be one of them! Between 4-5pm is the hairest time of the day around these part and the last thing I want to do is make dinner.

I have done a fair job at meal planning and making sure that we have plenty of dinner options available to us at any given time. However, I am forever running into road blocks (primarily small children) when it comes time to actually trying to get dinner on the table.

To me, having dinner ready for Trent is very important. It is one piece of the puzzle of me trying to do my part to be a supportive and loving helpmate. So, after failing many nights to not get the dinner that was defrosted and waiting to be served up on the table and after receiving much motivation from other Mamas dealing with the same exact dilemma, I have taken on the challenge of once a month cooking.

Here is my plan. Trent will be home over the holiday weekend and has graciously agreed to watch the kiddos, or at least try and keep them out of the kitchen for a good portion of the day. I figure it will take me all day to accomplish even some of my list. None the less, I am excited to see what I can get done!

List of meals:

Chili x2
Lasagna x2
Meatloaf x2
Whole wheat waffles x3
Meatballs x2
Broccoli Cheese Chicken Rice x2
Slab Apple Pie
Turkey Pot Pie x2
Shredded Beef
Enchilada Casserole
Freezer Mashed Potatoes
Turkey Tetrazinni x3
Ranch Potato Wedges x2
Plain Potato Wedges x2
Blueberry Muffins
Banana Muffins
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Bean Burritos x12
Beef Stew

Too ambitious? Perhaps, but this is my wish list.

All ingredients are purchased and ready to go. Deep freeze is now resting comfortably in her new home, the basement. Let's get cooking!!