Update: Freezer Meals

I haven't COOKED A MEAL in over a week. It's glorious! 

Of course last week was Thanksgiving and we were out of town.   

But Monday before Thanksgiving we had the BBQ chicken. We put the chicken (shredded thanks to cooking so long!) on top of baked potatoes with a little sour cream - delish! 

We spent Sunday getting out all of our Christmas things so I knew we needed a good crock pot meal so we didn't have to focus on dinner.  We had the Curry chicken with basmati rice and homemade naan (frozen last time we had tikka masala).  

• Consensus was that it was good. I felt it was lacking a little flavor - maybe a spicy kick? Or salt. I tried adding more salt but it didn't hit the flavor note I was missing. Next time will add a touch of cayenne and maybe only one can of coconut milk instead of two. 

Monday night we had the Beef Pepperoncini sandwiches with fries and salad. 

• The kids thought it was a little spicy, but when you had the meat with cheese and the bread I put it on, the spice was cut for sure. Note: buy the chopped pepperoncinis or cut the stems off beforehand. :-)  I didn't think that through and I wound up burning my fingers trying to pull the stems off right before I served the sandwiches!

Tuesday we had the taco meat (ground beef, taco seasoning - homemade - and a can of rinsed black beans). We added water to the crock pot and let it cook.  About 20 minutes before I served it, I added half a bag of frozen corn to the meat. 

• The kids had seconds AND THIRDS!  I added ground beef that I had frozen before to my meal bag. Next time I will be sure to use unfrozen meat and flatten it out. It cooked the entire day in a lump. Easily remedied by using my potato masher, but the flavor may have been more consistent if it had cooked "crumbled" all day. 

Wednesday we tried the Mongolian Beef.  I sautéed green beans and broccoli with the drippings from the crock pot (mixed with a slurry of 1Tbsp of corn starch with 2 Tbsp of cold water). I served with brown rice. I put everything together in a bowl. 

• Husband and I would have eaten seconds - if I hadn't run out of meat!! I will DEFINITELY double the size of the roast I use next time in each package!  There are NO leftovers of meat from this meal, but we have extra brown rice and veggies.  The kids thought it was "ok" but I don't think it was their favorite of the foods we've tried. For me and hubby, it may be our favorite meal that we've tried so far!

All in all, this has been an EXCELLENT experience. 

What makes it better - ??   

CROCK POT LINERS! 

I've had barely any dishes to do post-dinner and it's been LOVELY. 

I think tomorrow night we will try either the wine/herb chicken or the rosemary honey chicken!  If the rosemary honey chicken is awesome, I may get a beef tenderloin to try with that flavor profile too. 

AFA my fitness - nonexistent now. I lost a total of 4lbs in November. Not too shabby but it's not where I'd hoped to be by December 1st. 

But that will change.

I resigned from my job last week. My last day is December 19th. I am looking forward to being home with my babies again, helping out at my KINDERGARTENER'S school, homeschooling my little guy until he's old enough for official preschool....   It was a hard decision but something that my husband and I agree is best for our family. 

So come January - the fitness/health will be kicking into high gear again. I am looking forward to being healthy about it. There is no doubt, looking back, that I was being unhealthy last Jan/Feb. I was working out 10+ hours a week, being ridiculous with my choices and becoming borderline obsessed with it. I am hopeful that I can keep an awesome balance for me and my little guy. 

So I'm taking December and having fun, enjoying my family and my last few weeks working.  But January - with the rest of the "new years resolution" crowd - I'll be kicking ass and taking names!

Freezer "OAMC" Meals

There's a lot of buzz around freezer meals lately. Or maybe it's not lately and I'm just late to the game. 

Oh well, whatever it is, I had a friend who posted about doing this last month and it REALLY inspired me.  We've been eating VERY poorly since I started working. I simply have NO inspiration and by the time I figure it out, whatever I've decided won't be ready for another hour or two.  And we have two small-ish kids with early bedtimes (for mommy's sanity!) 

When I read her plan and how she went about prepping her meals, I thought "hey, I can do that. And if I do it NOW, it will take me through the Christmas holiday!"   So I started looking through Pinterest and lots of blog posts finding some good and diverse menu plans.  I knew from the start that I wanted "dump" meals - I didn't want to spend a ton of time pre-cooking things and I wanted the prep on the day I cook to be minimal to nothing. 

I will say, almost everything in my meals is clean! I honestly didn't check the Worcestershire sauce or the A-1. 

I found the following meals: 

Mongolian Beef x2

Pepper Steak x2

Mexican Spiced Pork Loin x2

Coconut Chicken Curry x2

Honey Rosemary Chicken x2

Beef Pepperoncini Sandwiches* x2

Herb Wine "Dump" Chicken x2

BBQ Chicken (using SkinnyTaste BBQ Sauce!) x4

Tacos (my own creation) x3

Pizza Dough (following this recipe and process for cooking, but freezing after first rise) x3

I started the day with shopping. Costco and Walmart.  Here's my shopping list: 

Costco

5 lbs beef chuck roast

4.5 lbs beef roast (to chop into stew meat) 

2-5lb bags of onions

2-10lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

shredded mozzarella cheese

gallon sized bags (although we didn't need these!)

Worcestershire sauce

Walmart

Turkey pepperoni (to freeze for the pizzas)

Whole wheat flour

Fresh rosemary

Green peppers

Soy sauce

Hoisen sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Liquid smoke flavoring

Fresh ginger

1 lemon

2 jars pepperoncini

I had planned to shop today and prep all the food tomorrow. However, I came home and was too anxious looking at everything just sitting there to leave it be! (And my fridge was WAY too full!)   So I started prepping right away, around 3pm. 

After a brief run to the grocery store one last time (Helpful Hint: Don't just say "yes, I have balsamic vinegar in the pantry" - Actually MEASURE that you have enough. I was 1/3 cup shy for the recipe!!) I got to work. First thing I did was make up my own Italian seasoning and taco seasoning mixes. Then I started my pizza dough, knowing it would need to rise before I could package it away.  While my pizza crust was rising, I got to work on my BBQ sauce. I've made this recipe a few times, so I know I like the blend of spices & flavors so I made it exactly as written. 

Once this was done, I labeled all of my bags. I made sure to put today's date, the name of the recipe (sounds obvious, but it wouldn't shock me if I saw a bag mislabeled and could never find the recipe I used ever again!), any additional ingredients to be added at the time of cooking and the actual cooking directions! 

While that simmered and my pizza rose, I started chopping. I PURPOSEFULLY picked recipes that were fairly easy this time around (you know, the first time I've done this!)  Most of them were a sauce or spice mix and meat.  I chose very few veggies. Thankfully, my work schedule gets me home by 3pm everyday, so throwing together sides isn't usually an issue.  I have no problem making veggies and a starch once I'm home.  

My chopping prep consisted of  onions, 1 finger of ginger, 4 green peppers, slicing 1 lemon and some fresh rosemary. I even used pre-minced garlic to make it easier on myself. 

Around this time, my pizza dough finished it's first rise. I pulled it out, separated it into 4 servings and covered three to put away in the freezer. One became dinner tonight!

I put all of my chopped goods in the bags and moved on to the actual recipe ingredients. Sauces, spices, vinegars and sweeteners, if necessary. I did this one recipe at a time until I came to the end. 

Mexican Spiced Pork, Herb Wine Chicken

The last step I did was to add all of the meat. I started with the beef that I had to portion and chop into "stew meat" pieces. I weighed it out and added it to the separate bags - for Mongolian beef and Pepper Steak.   Then I pulled out the bags of chicken. We had an open bag in the chicken in the freezer so I started with that one.  Added frozen chicken breasts to each of the required bags. It took the remainder of the partial bag and a full 10lb bag. 

I didn't have a formal recipe for my bbq chicken or my taco meat. For my bbq chicken, I just made up the BBQ sauce then threw in 4-5 chicken breasts and froze. 

For the tacos, I took already frozen ground beef and added 2Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning and a can of rinsed black beans. I plan to add a cup of water to the crockpot and probably a bag of frozen corn just before serving.

Obviously I can't speak to whether or not these recipes are TASTY, as we haven't tried them! But I will be sure to update with reviews as we begin eating them!

Curry Chicken, Honey Rosemary Chicken

 Four and a half hours, 2 3 trips to the store - 24 meals ready to go into my crockpot!! Yay for no cooking or meal planning between now and Christmas!! 

BBQ Chicken

Mongolian Beef, Pepperoncini Beef, Pepper Steak