Holidays are over, back to a normal routine, thankfully.
Starting some hardcore cooking for the freezer tonight.
Pork loin in the slow cooker for BBQ pulled pork.
Cheeseburger soup simmering on the stovetop.
Homemade enchilada sauce thawing and taco-seasoned turkey cooking for ground turkey/bean enchiladas.
Later in the week - creamy chicken & rice, chicken/potato/spinach stew, chicken parmesan, Italian pork with a bacon-infused red sauce.
All of these will be finished and pre-packed into portion-controlled (and freezer hogging) Gladware containers.
In addition, we have about two and a half pounds of ground turkey that we should be able to get about 10 quarter-pound turkey burgers stored away. Old-school Tupperware burger stackers are amazing!
Links and recipes coming soon. Stay tuned!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Grampy Brownies
I'm NERVOUS!
Today is the day.
I have put it off long enough.
I am attempting my Grandfather's "world famous" brownie recipe for the FIRST time!
Have I mentioned I'm nervous?!
This is a big moment.
I need to relax and just do it.
I am not sure if I will end up sharing the recipe but I will share the end results.
Here are 2 ingredients though:
I didn't say it was a healthy recipe! (It also includes 8...count them....8 eggs! YIKES!)
I am going to follow the recipe exactly this first time around, then I will see if I can make them in a way so as to not clog any arteries.
Wish me luck!
Today is the day.
I have put it off long enough.
I am attempting my Grandfather's "world famous" brownie recipe for the FIRST time!
Have I mentioned I'm nervous?!
This is a big moment.
I need to relax and just do it.
I am not sure if I will end up sharing the recipe but I will share the end results.
Here are 2 ingredients though:
I didn't say it was a healthy recipe! (It also includes 8...count them....8 eggs! YIKES!)
I am going to follow the recipe exactly this first time around, then I will see if I can make them in a way so as to not clog any arteries.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Freezer cooking for November
Well folks, Dr. Bob and I have been busy this past weekend prepping our freezer for the coming month.
All last week I was scouring recipe blogs looking for yummy new recipes to try.
I really liked all the recipes we made last month, but it gets old after a while. You can find all those yummy recipes here and here.
This month we are attempting to make more of a variety (without running out of freezer containers...proving harder than we thought!)
Too make this cooking weekend possible, we did the bulk of our basic shopping at Aldi, meat shopping at Kroger, and 2 quick back-up trips to Publix and a different Kroger (ask Bob about that story, you should get a giggle!). We ended up spending $182.48 and we got this:
So far we have made:
~ 34 turkey meatballs
~ 7 turkey burgers
~ BBQ chicken calzone (leftover BBQ chicken in the freezer for later use). Dough recipe can be found here.
~ Sloppy turkey joes - in the freezer to be used later
~ 7 or 8 individual containers of turkey chili. I will have Dr. Bob write up this recipe some time soon. Sooo good!
~ 4 individual containers of Corny Chicken Bake
~ 8 individual containers of a Creamy Southwestern Chicken Soup. Basic recipe can be found here but we made some modifications:
added diced jalapeno to onions while sauteeing, and added about 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp paprika, 2
tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. Chicken was cooked with garlic, cumin, paprika,
cayenne, salt and pepper. Added a can of black beans with the potatoes. During the final
boil/cook, added about 3/4 cup shredded cheese. Note: increased all measures (in initial recipe;
what's written here was as used) by 50%, to use the full 12 ounce can of evaporated milk
~ 6 individual containers of Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (Good guess Leslie!) (And thanks for the recipe Susan!)
~ 3 turkey and feta quesadilla's (more to be made this week)
~ 6 individual containers of a Deconstructed Burrito Bake: Rice mixed with salsa, can of refried beans, some taco seasoned turkey chili and cheddar cheese- layered in that order and then baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.
~ Teriyaki seasoned chicken - this will be packed with fried rice eventually. (Our rice cooker died yesterday so we purchased a new one today and have yet to make the rice due to football...ugh!)
~ Cheesy chicken paired with Cheesy potatoes
Still to come:
~ Pierogie lasagna
~ Fried Rice
~ Cheeseburger soup
~ Baked pumpkin ice cream glazed donuts
Here's everything ready for the freezer....look at all those containers.
That's over 40 meals ready to go for this month. I am so excited about all of the above! We have been taste testing it all and I can't wait to dig in!
Luckily I found more recipes than we could possibly make this month so we already have a list going for next month.
Any recommendations or suggestions to add to our list??
How was your Halloween? Did you dress up?
All last week I was scouring recipe blogs looking for yummy new recipes to try.
I really liked all the recipes we made last month, but it gets old after a while. You can find all those yummy recipes here and here.
This month we are attempting to make more of a variety (without running out of freezer containers...proving harder than we thought!)
Too make this cooking weekend possible, we did the bulk of our basic shopping at Aldi, meat shopping at Kroger, and 2 quick back-up trips to Publix and a different Kroger (ask Bob about that story, you should get a giggle!). We ended up spending $182.48 and we got this:
So far we have made:
~ 34 turkey meatballs
~ 7 turkey burgers
~ BBQ chicken calzone (leftover BBQ chicken in the freezer for later use). Dough recipe can be found here.
~ Sloppy turkey joes - in the freezer to be used later
~ 7 or 8 individual containers of turkey chili. I will have Dr. Bob write up this recipe some time soon. Sooo good!
~ 4 individual containers of Corny Chicken Bake
~ 8 individual containers of a Creamy Southwestern Chicken Soup. Basic recipe can be found here but we made some modifications:
added diced jalapeno to onions while sauteeing, and added about 2 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp paprika, 2
tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. Chicken was cooked with garlic, cumin, paprika,
cayenne, salt and pepper. Added a can of black beans with the potatoes. During the final
boil/cook, added about 3/4 cup shredded cheese. Note: increased all measures (in initial recipe;
what's written here was as used) by 50%, to use the full 12 ounce can of evaporated milk
~ 6 individual containers of Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (Good guess Leslie!) (And thanks for the recipe Susan!)
~ 3 turkey and feta quesadilla's (more to be made this week)
~ 6 individual containers of a Deconstructed Burrito Bake: Rice mixed with salsa, can of refried beans, some taco seasoned turkey chili and cheddar cheese- layered in that order and then baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.
~ Teriyaki seasoned chicken - this will be packed with fried rice eventually. (Our rice cooker died yesterday so we purchased a new one today and have yet to make the rice due to football...ugh!)
~ Cheesy chicken paired with Cheesy potatoes
Still to come:
~ Pierogie lasagna
~ Fried Rice
~ Cheeseburger soup
~ Baked pumpkin ice cream glazed donuts
Here's everything ready for the freezer....look at all those containers.
That's over 40 meals ready to go for this month. I am so excited about all of the above! We have been taste testing it all and I can't wait to dig in!
Luckily I found more recipes than we could possibly make this month so we already have a list going for next month.
Any recommendations or suggestions to add to our list??
How was your Halloween? Did you dress up?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
And the winner is...
... Leslie!!!
Currently in the oven - the newly named "Leslie Varney Buffalo Chicken Lasagna"!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
My feet are killing me...
...from spending the last 9 hours cooking.
There'll be more details coming later, with recipes, pictures, helpful hints (I'll give one away now - make sure your rice cooker hasn't $#!t the bed before you go to make a ton of rice for freezer meals of teriyaki chicken and fried rice).
So far, there's been meatballs, turkey burgers, a new taco casserole concoction (because of the need to not waste too much of the rice that didn't survive the attempt at regular stove top cooking), chili, BBQ chicken calzone, cheesy chicken, chicken with cornbread stuffing. That doesn't include the sloppy joes still simmering in the slow cooker or the teriyaki chicken in the skillet, or the rice pudding that is an attempt to salvage even more of the aforementioned rice.
Total casualties for the day - rice (started with 2 cups uncooked), the rice cooker, the OXO "slap chop" thingy (Thanks, cheap plastic for breaking so the spring could go BOOOOOIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG), and a thumb knuckle from a knife washing incident.
Time for a glass of wine.
Dr. Bob out.
There'll be more details coming later, with recipes, pictures, helpful hints (I'll give one away now - make sure your rice cooker hasn't $#!t the bed before you go to make a ton of rice for freezer meals of teriyaki chicken and fried rice).
So far, there's been meatballs, turkey burgers, a new taco casserole concoction (because of the need to not waste too much of the rice that didn't survive the attempt at regular stove top cooking), chili, BBQ chicken calzone, cheesy chicken, chicken with cornbread stuffing. That doesn't include the sloppy joes still simmering in the slow cooker or the teriyaki chicken in the skillet, or the rice pudding that is an attempt to salvage even more of the aforementioned rice.
Total casualties for the day - rice (started with 2 cups uncooked), the rice cooker, the OXO "slap chop" thingy (Thanks, cheap plastic for breaking so the spring could go BOOOOOIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG), and a thumb knuckle from a knife washing incident.
Time for a glass of wine.
Dr. Bob out.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Menu planning...help needed
Dr. Bob and I are getting ready to plan out another big freezer cooking day so we have meals for the majority of next month. While all of our food was delicious this month, we want to take a break from some of them...you can only eat so much mac&cheese and chicken&rice soup! We are looking for some new things to try out and would like to hear what some of your favorite recipes are!
I am pretty sure we are going to make a turkey chili of sorts, baked potato soup, and I just found an interesting chicken spaghetti casserole.
What do you recommend?!
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