Freezer Cooking ~ Part 2

Hey Kids,

Sorry Part 2 is a bit delayed. I was going to write it up yesterday but spent most of my day fighting with our cable company. They have been nothing but hassle since we moved down here. It been frustrating. But I think we are set (for the time being) so I am glad that is out of the way. So due to all of that, I figured I should hold off on writing this up until I was in a better space! :-)

Before I get into all the yummy deliciousness that took place, I will mention that I was asked to make a little something extra for my book club taking place Sunday evening. So Bob was kind enough to whip up a delicious pot of Baked Potato Soup. It never disappoints!

Alright, Sunday consisted of enchiladas, orange chicken, apple crisp, apple dumplings, the 2nd pizza of the weekend, and some buffalo baked chicken. I don't have pictures of all dishes, but I will have recipes/descriptions:

1. Enchiladas - BAM! The sauce came from, you got it, Emeril Lagasse via the Food Network and can be found here. And the recipe/how to put it all together came from Recipe Girl and can be found here. Broken record warning - obviously we used ground turkey rather than ground beef, but you can use whichever you choose. This recipe is easy and delicious.

And here is the end result:

YUM-O!

*Side note - we made a double batch of the sauce because we like it "saucy" in "The Bob's" household. We used all the sauce we wanted and froze the rest for next time.

After all the enchilada's cooled, we put some brown rice (that we steamed in our Rice Cooker) in the bottom of our storage containers and then placed 2 enchiladas on top of the rice. These were then placed in the freezer.

We used small soft tortilla which allowed us to make 14 enchiladas = 7 frozen meals.

2. Orange Chicken - This recipe came from "The Everything Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook" (which if you are looking for some great crock pot recipes, this is the book for you!)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons spiced ginger preserves

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 large orange, sliced into 1/8 inch - thick slices

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3/4 pound)

Instructions:

1. Whisk together the soy sauce, preserves, and juice in a small bowl.

2. Arrange the orange slices along the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. Top with the chicken breasts. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cook for 3 hours on low or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Per Serving

Calories: 170| Fat: 2.5g| Sodium: 560mg| Carbs: 10g| Fiber: 1g| Protein: 26g

Okay so thoughts on this recipe - I will admit I was not a fan of this recipe. Try as we might, we were unable to find the spiced ginger preserves. We used sweet orange preserves which ended up making it too sweet/orange-y. Dr. Bob thought it was too orange-y as well and wished he had added some more soy sauce and a little chili or sesame oil to round out the flavors.

We will most likely not make this recipe again -- Can't be perfect all the time right?! ;-)

3. Apple crisp - I am actually going to be a tease here and not give you the recipe yet because I intend to do a post full of apple recipes (soon, I promise). I will say that it was delish and my book club members that tried it, quite enjoyed it.

*Random side note - one book club gal actually skipped over it because she thought someone put beef (yes I said beef) on top of the apples and she doesn't eat meat. First of all gross, and second of all - who would do that?! Oh well!

4. Apple dumplings - Tease againq. Stay tuned!

5. Pizza - I was informed that because we were not going out to watch the Lions (Dr. Bob's team) play, he needed some football food so he kindly requested "delicious pizza." How could I turn him down?? If you missed it on Friday, you can find the recipe here.

6. Baked Buffalo Chicken - We were looking for some other football munchy food so we cut up some chicken, pan fried/simmered it in the buffalo sauce. We dipped it in some ranch. Yum!

I would ultimately like to get chicken *on* the pizza but we always seem to cook the chicken after the pizza goes in the oven. We will get there eventually.

That sums up our afternoon of cooking this past Sunday. Quite productive. We actually could not freeze everything we made over this weekend because our 2 freezers became over filled. So we made sure to plan our meals accordingly this week.

Question:

Have you tried any of the recipes we have posted? If so, which ones?

If you haven't but want to try one - which one(s)?

The Mrs' Morning Shake

Good Morning!

I thought I would share how I start my mornings off. It is delicious and easy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fruit (fresh or frozen - depending on the season)

1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1 scoop of whey protein (chocolate or vanilla)

1 heaping handful of spinach leaves

Cut up or pour the fruit into your blending cup. Right now I have been using a mixture of fresh blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries...yum! Plenty of antioxidants here my friends!

Note - if you are using frozen fruit, make sure to take it out ahead of time to allow it to defrost. I have an hour wait time of when I take my morning medicine and when I can eat - that is usually plenty of time to let the fruit defrost. Or you can put it in a container in the fridge overnight and you should be good to go by shake time.

Next, pile in the yogurt and whey protein.

When buying Whey - I usually find it in the grocery store near the protein bars and Ensure. Find one that has 20-25g of protein per scoop. I started off with Vanilla because I had never tried whey protein before and it tasted really good. I bought chocolate once when they were all out of vanilla and man was it fantastic! I think it is going to be a LONG time before I switch back to vanilla. But the choice is yours!

Obviously I ran out of room before getting my spinach in, so it will have to wait until I make some room in the blender.

I use a "magic bullet" knock off that I found at Big Lots for $20. It works amazingly well and it definitely saved my wallet a huge chunk of change!

Blend that around until you have room for:

Now, you are going to have to trust me on this one. I was super hesitant to put spinach in my shake. I was told that you can't taste it at all and it is a great way to get a helping of veggies in your daily diet without even knowing it. I was a doubting Thomas, but I gave it a shot ready to toss it or hand it to the Doctor if I didn't like it. They were right...go figure! You absolutely cannot taste it and my helpings of spinach have gotten larger over time...still no taste! I am super excited because if you know me, you know I am not a veggie fan. Win one for nutrition here!

Just make sure to cut this up before putting it to the shake to make the blending process a little easier.

I forgot to take a pic of the cut up spinach or when I added it to the shake because I was so excited (and hungry) to get this thing made!

And TA-DA...the finished product.

I am reliving the shake process as I am typing and very tempted to go make another one for a mid-morning snack ;-)

This shake is super tasty and good for you. There are lots of ways you can add things to it. I tried putting some granola in after everything was blended but I wasn't a fan of the texture. I like to keep things plain and simple. Some people add milk or juice to their shakes. I have found this recipe to work for me but it is fun to experiment with other ways!

Happy Blending!