Freezer Meal Cooking Pt 2

As promised, I'm back to update some of the recipes for the wraps I made as a part of my freezer meals. I'll do my best to share these recipes but be warned, I kind of made some of them up as I went and measurements aren't exact.

Breakfast Burritos
*recipe yields about 25 burritos*
30 eggs. scrambled
2lbs breakfast sausage prepared
8 or 9 medium red potatoes, heated in the microwave
1 large red onion, 1 large green pepper, 1 large red pepper-sautéed
shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag of Kale, rinsed and dried
25 Large flour tortillas

I laid out some wax paper, laid out my tortillas and just went at it like an assembly line, placing items in the shells as I went. I rolled them up tightly, tucking in the ends and wrapped them in foil. I typically like to double wrap, but was low on foil. Stick them in the freezer and move them individually to the fridge the night before you'll be eating them. We've used both the microwave (about 90secs-2mins) and our George Foreman grill to heat them the next morning.

Chicken Fajita Wraps
1 bag frozen chicken breasts (about 4lrg breasts), grilled and sliced thin
9 whole wheat wraps
shredded cheddar cheese
1 large red onion, 1 large green pepper, 1 large red pepper-sautéed
1 bag of spinach, rinsed and dried
1 large avocado mashed (in hindsight, for as much as I love avocado, I would have used 2), I put in a healthy scoop of Greek yogurt and some garlic powder to almost make a guacamole with it and stretch it further.

Lay out the wraps and start assembling with all the ingredients. Wrap them in foil and label them. Stick them in the freezer and move them to the fridge the day before you'd like to eat them. Heat in the microwave or GF grill.

Turkey Cranberry Wraps
1lb sliced turkey meat
9 whole wheat wraps
1 bag of Craisins (dried cranberries)
1 container of feta cheese
1 red onion, thinly sliced
spinach

Lay out your wraps and assemble them with all of the ingredients. I put the spinach directly on top of the wraps to create a barrier between the wrap and the turkey, as it was a little wet and I didn't want the wrap to get soggy. Wrap them in foil, label them and freeze. Move them to the fridge the day before you'd like to eat them and you can heat them in the microwave or GF grill.

Mediterranean Style Wraps
1 bag frozen chicken breasts (about 4 large breasts), marinated in lemon and garlic and grilled. Slice thin.
9 whole wheat wraps
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 can sliced black olives, drained
1 container feta cheese
1 package sundried tomatoes
1 red onion, diced
spinach or kale

I mixed the artichoke hearts, black olives, feta, sundried tomatoes and red onion together with a bit of olive oil and started assembling the wraps. This is the only recipe that I felt like was missing something. I really liked them, but they needed something more. I think next time I'll try adding some garlic and a splash of lemon juice or prepared pesto to the mixture and see if that does anything for me. I wrapped everything up in foil and put it in the freezer. Move them to the fridge the day before you'd like to eat them. Heat in the microwave or on the GF grill.

Chicken Pesto Sandwiches
1 bag frozen chicken breasts (about 4 large breasts) grilled and sliced thin
10 slices provolone cheese
20 slices of whole wheat bread
1 large red onion, sliced thin and sautéed
1 jar prepared pesto
sundried tomatoes, sliced thin
Greek yogurt

This was by far, the most delicious recipe I came up with. My husband has already gone thru our stash of sandwiches in just a few days. Even though all the prepped food was supposed to last a few weeks, I might break the rules and prep a few more of these next wee, since they were such a big hit.

I mixed the pesto, sundried tomatoes and a few healthy scoops of Greek yogurt together in a bowl. On one slice of bread, I placed the grilled chicken, on the other I placed a slice of provolone cheese. On top of the chicken I generously spread the pesto mixture and topped it with the red onion. My goal was for the cheese and chicken to create a barrier so the pesto mixture wouldn't get the bread soggy. I wrapped them individually and froze them. We move them to the fridge the day before we want to use them and heat them on the George Foreman so they are like paninis. Don't try subbing regular tomatoes in these, they don't freeze well.

Pesto Tortellini
2 packages whole wheat cheese tortellini
1 jar prepared pesto
sundried tomatoes
fresh spinach
sliced mushrooms
sliced onion

Prepare tortellini as indicated on packaging. Drain and mix all ingredients together. Split into 2 gallon Ziploc bags and freeze. Move to the fridge the day before you'd like to use them. Heat on stovetop.

I've also added chicken or shrimp to this to make it more filling. Next time I'll probably add feta (can you tell I'm on a Mediterranean kick lately?).

Freezer Meal Cooking Pt 1

I took a little break for a while, as we've been trying to clear our house of whatever bug keeps coming around. The little ones have been passing each other a cold/cough combo since February! It came back this week but doesn't seem to be as bad. With the weather getting nicer, I hope it'll stay away for good.

 

I decided to do a major freezer meal prep last week so we'd have some ready made breakfast, lunch and dinner items on hand. I was doing a lot of crock pot meals but thought we needed to switch it up a little and try some new recipes. I wanted them to incorporate less processed ingredients than normal, and more fresh produce. I decided on prepping a lot of wraps and sandwiches so we'd have items to quickly throw on our George Foreman grill. Breakfast burritos are a must whenever I do a freezer meal prep, so I bought extra for those. Below is the result of 2 days worth of prep, I had to break it up because I didn't have anyone to watch the kids.

 

I'm notorious for not really following a recipe or kinda making one up as I go, but I will link recipes below where I can. I'll try to do another post this week with ingredients for some of the wraps/sandwiches.

 

2 baked ziti (http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/08/baked-ziti-freezer-meal.html) I sometimes don't use the sour cream, sometimes I sub it for Greek yogurt, but it always turns out delicious. I also add a package or frozen spinach to the sauce after thawing and draining it.



2 batches sweet potato, cauliflower soup (http://iwillrunforfood.tumblr.com/post/14179170517/sweet-potato-cauliflower-soup) I added extra garlic, salt and pepper to this recipe.
3 batches chili
2 batches pesto tortellini
3 turkey meatloaves
2 batches lasagna roll ups (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/02/spinach-lasagna-rolls.html) I break my noodles in half before cooking them to stretch the recipe further. They are definitely still filling this way.
1 batch eggplant roll up I used the filling from the lasagna roll ups above for this one. For both of them, I placed them close together on wax paper and placed them in the freezer to firm them up before trying to place them in the gallon Ziploc bag.
10 smoothie pouches
25 breakfast burritos
9 chicken fajita wraps
9 turkey cranberry wraps
9 Mediterranean style wraps
10 Chicken pesto sandwiches 



Gallery Wall Revamp

 

I have been feeling like the kids' room needed a few more things on the wall to freshen it up lately. I did a few small crafts to hang and wanted to update their gallery wall. Here's a blurry pic of the before, Myles's shadow box had fallen down:

 

 

 

So I gathered my new frames and just kind of winged it. Normally I try to map out on paper where the frames will go, but I was flying by the seat of my pants and really like how it turned out.

 

 

This free printable is from http://www.lostbumblebee.blogspot.com/

Overall, I love how the room looks now with the pictures up and can't wait to add a few more things on the other walls to personalize above their beds.

 

Addie-isms

I live in fear of the moment I recognize I officially have 2 full blown honey badger babies in the house. Myles is still a little too young to realize his full potential. But I do know the day is coming that he may be just as sassy as his older sister. Here are some of my favorite Addie-isms while we wait for that day:

• Addie just went Jersey on Myles. He wandered over and took something she was using and she started screaming at him in Addish, ripped her shirt off and got in his face. I think she may have said 'Come at me bro' but I can't be sure.

• Me: I'm gonna need you to calm down.
  Addie: down? What's that?
  Me: its the direction of which I'd like you to calm yourself.
  Addie: umm... No.

• Addie ripped the top off her sippy cup and is blessing Myles like its holy water. I can't win

• The makings of a fun Tuesday night: a sneaky toddler, a full jar of mod podge and your phone.

• I just blocked Addie's access to the cat food. I don't understand her native tongue, but I'm almost certain she just threatened my life.

• Addie is devastated she doesn't fit into her bumbo anymore. I have the same reaction trying I fit into jeans right now, so I feel for her.

• So Addie has zero patience to wait for me to cook any of her meals or to do anything I ask her, but she has enough patience to sit quietly and unscrew every last knob on my dresser? That seems like a fair trade...

• Addie's new thing: She doesn't just say 'Yea' anymore. It's a very enthusiastic 'oh yea!' Kinda like living with a very adorable kool aid man.

• A thoughtful toddler who wants to help sweep the floor turns into me trying to do moves that I can only equate with some type of twisted prenatal yoga as I dodge a broom handle.

• I hope Addie realizes her tantrums are less effective when she goes to throw herself to the ground and takes the time to gingerly place her head down before continuing her rant.

• I thought to myself 'Addie must be pretty hungry bc she's eating so many mini pancakes'. Turns out she was just ripping them up and storing the pieces in the couch cushions.

• Sometimes when Addie gets mad at me I'm fairly certain she's swearing at me in her native tongue.

• Just caught Addie cuddling with my boots. You know I bought you some stuffed animals and a cat, right? You don't need to cuddle up to some Steve Madden knock offs.

• Addie's new favorite food is paper. Yummmm

• When I walked out of the room to make a bottle Addie and Abby were having a full conversation with each other. When I walk back in they both go quiet and give me a deer in the headlights look. Its so obvious they were talking about me. Now I feel like I'm at the nail salon...

Our mini getaway

We decided to take an overnight trip to an indoor waterpark for my birthday last week. We've been cooped up most of the new year with this terrible weather and needed to get out and do something fun. I'm really glad we did it because the kids had a blast and the pricing wasn't bad because it was a weekday. Here's some pics of the trip, of course mom is too busy taking pics to be in any.

Love is in the air!

One of my goals for the year was to decorate for each holiday. Valentine's Day gets bad mouthed a lot as a Hallmark holiday, but I personally like Valentine's Day. It might have a bit to do with the fact that my birthday falls on the 14th, but its always nice to celebrate love, whether its romantic or otherwise. As a couple, we don't really go all out for any holidays, birthdays or anniversaries, but we do like to celebrate each other in smaller ways. On Valentine's Day we make each other a card. Its so fun to see what my husband will come up with every year. He actually has fun doing it and tries to do it when I'm not home so he can surprise me with what he makes. I cheat a little and use my Cricut, but the thought is all the same. I'm so excited to be able to get the kids involved in this tradition as they get older.

I did a little decorating this year, and I love how it all turned out. I've been really obsessed with wreaths, so I knew I wanted to make a new one. I've done burlap and ribbon wrapped wreaths so I thought I'd try a yarn one this time. I used felt to make the flowers and scrap fabric for the banner. I have a ton of cream ribbon lying around to finish it off.

The burlap canvas is from Wal-Mart and I just placed the felt heart on so it would stay. Then I can reuse the canvas for another holiday. The twine wrapped bottle was a quick project and I had a bag of buttons to make the heart. I found the ribbon for the garland in the dollar spot at Target and used two spools.

The LOVE sign is one of my favorites because I made it by hand. I have a ton of those multi-colored frames laying around from a crazy sale at Michaels, I ended up paying between $5 and $6 for each. I wanted to use some of my fabric to make the sign and printed off a template online and then used that to trace it onto the fabric with a Sharpie. I love the way it turned out.

 

What Valentine's Day crafts are you working on this year?

Slip and Slide

A pretty well known rule of thumb with toddlers is that if they're quiet, they're making trouble. This could not be more true of my sassy 22month old, Addie. She has recently taken to a naptime and bedtime revolt. She fights it with every ounce of energy she has in her tiny body. When I put her down for a nap the other day, I heard some chatter and the sounds of her pulling out books and toys to occupy herself. After about 15 minutes, everything went quiet, and I mistakenly thought to myself 'She ran out of steam and went to bed'. I decided to take advantage of two sleeping little ones and shower. Just as I was turning on the water, I heard frantic screaming coming from her room. I opened her door to find her sliding and slipping all over the place. Her hair looked wet. She had silently climbed into her closet, pulled out a 28oz bottle of baby body wash, taken off the plastic seal and dumped most of the bottle all over herself and the floor. I could not believe she managed all of this without making a sound. The body wash made the hardwood floors so slippery, she looked like a newborn calf trying to walk to me. She was panicked and frantic. I could not hold my laughter. Half of me wanted to run and get my phone to take a video. The other half knew she was probably going to fall and hurt herself if I let her carry on much longer. I scooped her up and put her in the tub. The upside is that her room now smells like soothing lavender.