Freezer Meals

Freezer Meals are an absolutely great idea!! I wanted to tell you some of the things that I have done and figured out today.  First of all, I want to tell you that there are a lot of people that do this online.  I stole everything for this day at Who Needs a Cape? blog. She has a post called 40 Meals in 4 Hours.  She actually put up all of the recipes--to double so you can get 40 meals.  And then she put up a grocery shopping list.

Second--you really need to block out a day--this took me WAY more than 4 hours!  The grocery list was so helpful because making that the last time I did this took sometime.

Third--make sure you have a good spot in your kitchen with a bunch of room.

Fourth--make ones that fit your family.  I love crock pot ones because I don't have to be home to start it 90 minutes before we want to eat.

Fifth tip--I'm not sure where I read this but it made a lot of sense to me--put the meat in last!  This actually really helped me with this, because I did the first half of some of the bags one day and then put the meat in the next day.  It also puts the meat at the bottom of the crock pot.

Sixth tip--Come up with a schedule and put together a binder.  I put all of these recipes in a binder and then we pick one or two each week to plan on having a certain day.  I have to start defrosting the night before so having it scheduled ahead of time makes sure that we actually use them! And this way I can mark what we might change, what sides worked, etc.  So I can do it all over again eventually.

Finally, label your freezer bags before you get started.  This helped me to make sure I got everything in the bags that were suppose to and then you have it on the label for the freezer too.

Here's my pictures :)

This is my command center--the kitchen table!

I filled up my whole bottom two shelves of my freezer!

Brian got a picture of me working away.

A New Recipe To Try: Teriayki Chicken with Vegetables

So as I have mentioned on here before, I absolutely love Pinterest!  However, I often pin things and then never use them.  I have been wanting to rectify this situation, and yesterday I actually started making progress on this by trying one of the many recipes that I pin all the time.  Maybe I will try to make this a regular thing on here :)

So the recipe was for Teriakyi Chicken with Vegetables. It looked simple enough--I like the low prep time.

Awesome About It:

• Super healthy.  With my husband on Weight Watchers we keep track of this pretty close--I think with the rice this was like a 20-point meal which is a perfect dinner number for him.  
• We loved the fresh veggies....no I did not use organic veggies as the recipe calls for because I'm not like that and it was still good
• The sauce was better than we thought--the honey seemed like it might not work but it was actually perfect

What To Change:

• Don't need the reduced sodium soy sauce....regular soy sauce would probably have been fine.  The recipe really is just written by a health freak :P
• Def double the sauce...not that it was dry, it just could have used more
• Next time probably brown the chicken in its own skillet and do the veggies in a separate skillet--carrots first because they take longer and then add the broccoli...the carrots could have used more "on the skillet" time allowing them to caramelize 

Overall though I highly recommend....and we have lots of leftovers for later :)

Our leftovers...told you there was a lot :)

Chicken Tomato Pasta Recipe

So I made dinner today....this gets a blog post because I do not regularly make dinner.  It is not actually my recipe...I got it from a freebie cookbook from Sam's Club.  I have done my own little twist on it though....so here it comes:

Its in that container because I was taking it to someone so its not on the pasta either...
It might not be the greatest picture but its better than nothing

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts (usually large!)
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (I don't really measure this...just do it until you feel like you have enough)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and ground pepper
Mozzarella Cheese (to sprinkle on top)
Pasta (I do spaghetti so its easy)

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Brown chicken breasts in a skillet for 3-4 minutes per side.  Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.  Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Make sure the meat is done (if you have a thermometer apparently 165 degrees)

Put the chicken on top of the cooked pasta and sprinkle with cheese as desired.

Its yummy can't you tell :)