CHatting with Charity ~ 32

Today, I have one last tip for preparing your freezer meals...label it well!  I always put what the meal is and cooking directions on the outside.  This will help you know what you have but also allows anyone to be able to make dinner on a busy day.  Plus, you could easily pass one it to a friend who needs a easy dinner. 
One last thing while we are talking about freezer meals, I thought I would share one of my families favorites!
Spinach And Chicken Stuffed Shells
24 jumbo pasta shells
1 15-oz. container ricotta
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup cooked chopped chicken
10 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
1 26-oz. jar spaghetti sauce

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Cook pasta shells according to package label directions; drain and set aside to cool. While pasta cooks, in a large bowl, stir together ricotta, spinach, chicken, basil, egg, salt, pepper.
2. Spread 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce over bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Stuff shells with cheese mixture and place in dish. Spoon remaining sauce over shells and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
3. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 10 minutes longer, until bubbly and cheese begins to brown.
I normally triple this recipe when I make it and it makes enough for 4 meals. One for that night's dinner and three to tuck in the freezer for later.

Charity

CHatting with Charity ~ 31

Good Morning!  So how many of you have made your tried and true recipe list and planned out your month on a calendar?  I hope you have and that it is helping to make dinner time a little more simple!  If not, don't fear, you can do it!  You just need to take the first small step! I hope today's tip is as life changing ;-) for you as it was for me! 
One year our family had the GREAT pleasure of spending almost a month in a travel trailer.  We spent a week and a half in the mountains came home for a week and then spent a week and a half at the beach, it was wonderful.  Before both trips I had premade and froze as much food as possible for our family to help keep us from eating out and so that we did not get sick of hot dogs and hamburgers!  It was a wonderful three weeks with very little cooking by me but plenty of home cooked meals.  One night towards the end I realized how easy it had made life and wondered why I hadn't been doing this at home.  Well, let me tell you, I did start doing it at home and it did make my life easier.  Did you know you can make ahead and freeze almost anything?  If they sell it in the frozen food section at the grocery store, you can make it ahead and freeze it yourself!
Here are a few tips to keep in mind
1. Stock up on freezer bags and disposable pans
2.  Always make double of what you are cooking and freeze the extra
3.  Most soups freeze wonderfully if you leave the noodles out.  Just add them when you are heating it to serve
4.  Lots of pasta dishes can be frozen before you bake, such as homemade macaroni and cheese and lasagna
5.  Homemade baked good freeze well
Just this week we have used two freezer meals.  The first was spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage, all I had to do was heat it up while I cooked the pasta.  The second was chicken enchiladas, I let them thaw, baked them, made a quick sauce, and dinner was served.  It made a crazy week feel a little more normal because we were still having a normal dinner routine. 
 Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Are freezer meals a normal part of your dinner routine?

Charity

Chatting with Charity ~ 30

 

 

Good Morning!! I hope you have your list of tried and true family recipes and are ready for the next step in menu planning!  Did you find any recipes that you had gotten about?  Any that you have never tried?  How about ones that you know you will never make again?  It is amazing how many recipes I collect that just do not work for our family! 
Okay, are you ready? 
Step 2
-Grab you recipe list and a calendar, you can use the one on your phone or paper.
-Look over your month and mark any days that you know you will be eating out. **feel free to do this for a week if a month is too overwhelming for you.  It will get easier over time.  I promise!**
-Now, find your busiest nights during the month.  Look over your recipe list and find your easiest/fastest meals and write them on those busy days.  Remember, breakfast foods make a fast dinner!
-Next find any special occasions you have for the month and pick out the perfect recipe to celebrate with....unless those are the nights you are eating out󾍇.
-Finally, look over your recipe list and start filling in the rest of the month.  Keep in mind your budget and don't put all your expensive recipes in one week.  Also, spread out types of food.  An example would be don't put two pasta or chicken recipes beside each other.
-If you enjoy cooking and trying new recipes give yourself a day or two during the month to do that!  Make sure it is a day where you will not feel rushed and you can enjoy the art of cooking!
The great news is once you have done a month's worth of planning you can look back to it month after month!!!! This is how I keep us from getting bored with or burned out from eating the same 5 things over and over!  Also, it just makes life easy when I don't want to think about what's for dinner. 
-Now, email yourself a copy of the calendar so you can view it from anywhere!
*I have a summer month plan and a winter month plan.  That way we aren't eating chili and potato soup all summer!
Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Have you ever tried to menu plan for a month?

Charity

Easy Dinner Prep Ideas ~ episode 1

I don't know about you but I love to cook....except for at 4:30 each night.  By that time of day I am tired and my brain is mush.  Because of this I try everything in my power to do things before this time of day.  Normally I will do some prep for dinner each morning, it helps keep me from the afternoon panic of having NOTHING thawed to eat!  But one of my best tips ~by far~ is to cook lots of meat recipes ahead of time and freeze them.  I am going to share a few ideas here.

Our all time favorite and easiest ever is what we call 

Salsa Chicken

Are you ready for the easiest recipe ever?

Here is what you will need:

Crock pot

8-10 Chicken Breast

2 jars (16 oz) of your favorite Salsa

Rinse and dry your chicken, place in crock pot, pour over 1 jar of salsa, cook on low 8 hours.  Remove chicken breast, shred using two forks, place in a mixing bowl, pour over second jar of salsa, mix, separate into freezer bags freeze. I told you it was easy!!!!  We use this in pasta, Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, and over rice.  It is as yummy as it is easy!

Recipe number two is just as easy.

BBQ Chicken

Here is what you will need:

Crock pot

8-10 Chicken Breast

2 jars (16 oz) of your BBQ Sauce

Rinse and dry your chicken, place in crock pot, pour over 1 jar of BBQ sauce, cook on low 8 hours.  Remove chicken breast, shred using two forks, place in a mixing bowl, pour over second jar of BBQ sauce, mix, separate into freezer bags freeze.  We use this for BBQ sandwiches and in Brunswick stew.

I do this same idea with 

Taco Meat

I just brown my Ground beef, drain, season, separate, and freeze.

Do you make any thing ahead of time to help make dinner time easier?

Charity

Spicy Sweet Potato Stew

Today, I am sharing a recipe I tried for the first time this week and we loved it.

I have been reluctant to share many recipes here because I tend to cook in large batches and stock my freezer with it. 

I have decided I can’t be the only person who cooks this way so I am just going to start sharing.

I love to cook this way because it allows me to cook several meals at one time and also saves money ( this comes in at around $5 per meal, that’s $1.25 per serving).  If I am going to have the kitchen a mess I might as well make more than one meal and if I am buying the ingredients to make it once there will normally be some leftovers but cooking in large batches allows me to go ahead and use up all the ingredients purchased.

This batch cooking recipe made four meals for my family of four.

Ingredients List:

4 Large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 in cubes

1 Rotisserie chicken, make your own or purchase one

olive oil

1 jalapeño (seeds removed)

8 Cloves of garlic

4 t. Cumin

4t. Chili powder

4 t. Oregano

2 Cans black beans (or better yet, make your own)

2 Cans corn (I use corn from the garden)

1 (16oz) jar of salsa verde

chicken broth

8 cups brown rice cooked

corn chips crumbled

lime

sour cream

1. Sauté jalapeño and garlic in the olive oil for 3 minutes and then add sweet potatoes, cumin, chili powder, and oregano and continue to sauté until potatoes are tender.

2.  Remove chicken meat from the whole chicken and chop in bite size pieces.

3.  Put the leftover chicken bones, skin and etc… into a pot and fill will water.  Bring to a boil and allow to cook for 30 minutes, this is to make chicken broth.

4. Put sweet potato mixture, chopped chicken, cooked rice, beans, corn, and jar of salsa into a 7 quart crock pot

5. Add enough chicken broth to fill crock pot, use store bought or make your own like I did.  Pour chicken broth through a strainer into a bowl.  Pour the chicken broth into the crock pot.  Pour hot water over the chicken in the strainer and into the bowl and you will get more broth, pour into the crock pot.  At this point your crock pot should be full to the top.  If not add more water.

6. Cook in the crock pot for 4 hours.

7.  Separate into 4 equal parts, cool three of them and put them in the freezer, serve the fourth.

8. Add corn chips crumbles, sour cream and a squeeze of fresh lime to each serving.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I would love to hear if you batch cook?

Charity