Freezer Meals

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I made a bunch of freezer meals so we don't have to worry during those first couple of weeks of parenthood. I split most of the recipes into two portions because we are terrible at eating leftovers and plus we got more meals out of it. Most of the meals are chicken based and I took advantage of the $2.99 per pound at the Fresh Market on a couple Tuesday afternoons. (If you live by a Fresh Market you have to take advantage of this deal!)

I thought I would share which recipes I made. Many of them are new to me so I'll have to report back on how they work. Or if you have used them let me know.

Angel Chicken (one of our favorite crockpot meals via Southern Plate)

• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 2 packets Italian Dressing Mix Powder (0.7 ounces each)
• 1 Cup Chicken Broth (Original recipe uses white cooking wine)
• 2 cans golden mushroom soup
• 8 ounces cream cheese (I like using the onion and chives)
• 2-3 lbs chicken 

Instructions

1. Mix butter, italian dressing mix, broth, soup, and cream cheese in a sauce pot on top of stove. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until melted and well mixed.
2. I put two chicken breast in two freezer bags and split the sauce between them. 
3. Either thaw the chicken and bake or throw everything in the crockpot. Serve with egg noodles.

Cafe Rio Chicken (via Chef in Training)

• 2 lbs chicken breasts
• 8 oz. zesty Italian dressing
• ½ Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 packet ranch dressing mix (mixed with ½ cup of water)
• ½ Tablespoon chili powder
• ½ Tablespoon ground cumin

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on LOW for about 5 hours or until chicken is done.
2. Shred with fork and serve in salads, burritos, tacos...etc.

Worlds Best Chicken (via Rachel Schultz)

• 6-8 pound Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs or Breasts
• 1 cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/2 cup Maple Syrup
• 2 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
• Salt & Pepper
• Season after w/ Rosemary

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients and split between two bags. 
2. Season with fresh rosemary when cooking.  

 Garlic Lime Chicken (via Over the Big Moon)

• 6-8 Bone-In Chicken Thighs or Breasts
  1 Cup Soy Sauce
  1/2 Cup Lime Juice
  2 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
  4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
  1 tsp Dry Mustard
  1 tsp Ground Pepper
  2 Tbs Cornstarch

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients and pour over chicken in two freezer bags.

Lemon Garlic Dump Chicken (via One Good Thing)

• 1 – 2 tsp minced garlic (I like more so I used 2)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tbls parsley flakes
• 2 Tbls lemon juice (or the juice of one whole lemon)
• 4-6 chicken breasts (or 8 to 10 chicken tenders)

Instructions

1.  Mix all ingredients and pour over chicken in freezer bag.
2. Thaw chicken. Pour chicken and marinade into a baking dish, turn chicken to coat. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes. OR
3. Thaw and grill in a cast iron skillet on the stove, or outside on the barbecue grill, until no longer pink inside. OR
4. Place the frozen chicken in the crockpot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours (or high for 4-6 hours.)

Fancy Water

With the lovely new pregnancy development of my hands and feet swelling I did what every other woman in America now does, check Pinterest for solutions. I found that lemon and cucumber water was supposed to help with inflammation so I decided to give it a try.

Fill a large cup with half a lemon, quartered, a couple slices of cucumber, and a sprig of mint. The nice thing is that you can just refill with water throughout the day and the flavor continues to infuse and change.

Has it helped with the swelling? Well.....I'm not so sure. But it definitely has encouraged me to drink more water throughout the day, which hopefully will flush out any salt. Plus a couple coworkers have been super intrigued by my "fancy water" and have tried  it too. See, it's good for everyone's health.

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

I'm sorry to say that I literally pinned this recipes TWO YEARS ago and just now tried it. All those wasted opportunities to have made this wonderful dessert is sad. Anyway, I needed a dessert to take to my Mom's house for Easter dinner and we had everything we needed already in the kitchen, so win win. It's super easy to make and boy does it pack a flavor punch. I highly recommend this to anyone who needs a chocolate fix. Plus you can watch the calories a bit with low fat cream cheese and whipped topping, I did and it still tasted amazing!

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

via My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

For the Crust

12 Oreo Cookies, crushed into crumbs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup Nutella

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 (8 ounce) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed

For the Garnish

whipped topping, optional

chocolate shavings, optional

toasted, chopped hazelnuts, optional

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the Oreo cookie crumbs and melted butter. Evenly divide the crumbs between your individual serving dishes and press into the bottoms of the dishes to form a crust layer.

2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and Nutella until smooth. Add vanilla and mix to combine. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the whipped topping until well blended and no streaks remain. 

3. Evenly pipe or spoon the filling into individual serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. 

4. If desired, garnish with additional whipped topping, chocolate shavings, and/or toasted, chopped hazelnuts.

* The only change I made was instead of making individual servings I just put everything into a pie plate and cut slices. 

A Breakfast Worth Getting Up For

One of my favorite things my husband and I used to do was make breakfast on Saturday morning together. Brunch used to be Andy and my thing. We'd make all kinds of fun stuff just for the two of us on Saturday mornings and it was so great to spend that time with each other before the craziness of the weekend got underway. But honestly we haven't been doing that much lately. So after a quick Pinterest/Allrecipes search I found our brunch kickstart, Pancakes (from scratch!) and Baked Bacon.

Okay maybe I'm the only one who has never made pancakes from scratch, but man are they worth the extra enough. I don't think I'll ever make them from a pre-made mix again. We had everything we needed right in the pantry and every pancake came out perfectly. This recipe would be great to impress house guests or to make a Saturday morning in special.

Pancakes (from scratch!):

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

(I may have added a little cinnamon and mini chocolate chips. Trust me, it's amazing!)

Next came the bacon. I love bacon, but really who doesn't? I do however dislike cooking bacon. I feel like it smells up the whole house, makes the whole kitchen and you greasy, and sometimes it's hard to keep an eye on both the bacon and the pancakes to make sure they are done at the same time, but neither burn. I pinned this recipe for baked bacon ages ago and finally gave it a try. And again, I don't think I'll ever cook bacon the old way again. You just pop the bacon in the oven and it takes care of itself. All the bacon gets cooked at once, the clean up is a breeze with the tin foil lining, and your house and kitchen doesn't smell for days.

Baked Bacon

• Pre-Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit with the rack in the middle.
• Lay bacon flat on a foil or parchment covered baking sheet.
• Bake for about 15-18 minutes depending on how thickly cut your bacon or to desired doneness.
• Bacon will begin to curl & crisp up, but be sure it does not burn.
• Turn the pan once during baking so your strips brown evenly.
• Remove from the oven and transfer bacon to paper towel lined plates to drain.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

My father-in-law and Andy's paternal grandmother stayed with us last night. This was the very first time his grandmother had been to our house, so I knew dinner had to be special. The only problem was that I had a late work meeting and Andy would be in charge of making dinner. Now to be fair, Andy is an excellent cook and I totally trust him to come up with something, but I wanted the dinner to nice and thought out.

So I looked in the freezer over the weekend and found a whole cut chicken. I was really inspired by this recipe I found on Pinterest. After thawing the chicken I threw it in a gallon bag with the zest and juice of one lemon, two minced cloves of garlic, some olive oil, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper. I let it marinate all day and gave Andy instructions to put the chicken in the oven at 375 degrees and cook for 45 minutes to an hour with an extra squeeze of lemon.

Holy smokes, this was good. Tons of flavor and easy to throw together. I love that the original recipe suggests freezing the bag of chicken and marinade and then using it when you need it. I need more meals like that in my life. Plus the flavors are totally customizable.

Leftover Easter Ham Recipe

I don't know about you, but we still have a staggering amount of Easter leftovers in the refrigerator. And that's after we sent a ton home with the family.

I had my monthly girls night of wine and appetizers last night and I needed to make something quickly after work. I looked in the fridge and saw leftover Easter ham, extra cheddar cheese (which was shredded by hand for the potatoes au gratin), and Pillsbury crescent rolls. Bingo! Ham and cheese pinwheels it is.

This was super easy to make and I even made Andy a homemade hotpocket kind of thing with the extra ingredients for dinner. We are terrible at eating leftovers, so if we can repurpose food it works better.

Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

1-2 cups cubed ham

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mustard (I used plain yellow with a squeeze of honey)

Mayo

If you are starting with leftover ham, dice it up as small as your patience will allow.

Unroll the crescent rolls and pinch the edges together. I cut mine in half so the pinwheels would be small.

Mix the mayo and mustard together and spread on the dough. Then top with cheese and diced ham.

Start rolling it up and pinch the seam and ends together. Cut into slices as big or as little as you like.

Bake on a greased baking sheet at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Serve with a little extra mustard.

 

*P.S. The leftover pinwheels were great for breakfast this morning as well.*