January's Big Cooking Day

What exciting thing did I do on the first day of the new year you ask? I spent the day cooking. All. Day. Cooking. I wanted to continue what I had been doing the previous year as far as saving money on groceries, spending more time with my kids and more time to run! So we decided to do grocery shopping on Friday and Saturday I would cook my little heart out.

I got a new cookbook for Christmas called Don't Panic-Dinner's in the Freezer. I love the book because it describes in detail how to cook, package and freeze meals and even triples the recipe ingredients for you. There are lots of great freezing tips and techniques given in the book as well as tricks and shortcuts that make cooking much easier. The recipes sound very good and they aren't your usual casserole type things. Most of the recipes below came from the book. I am hoping that when trying these new recipes my boys will find more things to like and eat. It's hard finding meals that all 3 boys like.On a side note: I thought these plates were funny. My sister-in-law gave them to the boys for Christmas.

Snacks/Sides
Applesauce (lots of apples & cinnamon..that's it)
Banana Bread
Oatmeal Raisin cookies
Steel Cut Oatmeal x5 (I used the recipe on the bag of Bob's Redmill Steel Cut Oats then added apples, cinnamon, honey & flax seed)

Lunches
Chicken Salad

Dinners
Turkey Chili x2 (my thrown together recipe)
Chicken Picado x2
Lemon Glazed Chicken Breasts
Chicken Cacciatore x2
Honey Pork Chops x3
Dijon Roast Pork Loin x3
Chicken Enchiladas x3
Salsa Shredded Beef x2

Mini Freezer Cooking Session

Saturday I decided to have a mini freezer cooking session. I wanted to make some things ahead of time for our meals. Here's what I made:

16 Apples and Cinnamon Muffins
3 batches of Apples and Cinnamon Waffles (I added some diced apples and cinnamon to the original recipe.)
3 batches of Turkey Meatballs
20 Bean, Cheese & Chicken Burritos (I added some diced green chilies too)
3 batches of Oven Potato Wedges

Here's what we thought:

We all really liked the the turkey meatballs. The boys liked them so much that they ate them plain...Charlie (AKA The Pickiest Eater) even ate 5 of them! I like making these ahead of time because you can use them for all different kinds of meals (soup, sweet & sour meatballs, spaghetti & meatballs, etc..).

Charlie really liked the waffles, he ate 2 of them plain without any butter or syrup and commented on how good they were.

All of us have tried the muffins and they are great too. They're not too sweet and are great for breakfast or a snack.

Mike liked the burritos so much he told me that I could make a hundred of them and he'd eat them all...I think that might be a bit excessive, but I'm glad he liked them. We'll be taking these to work for our lunches.

Tonight I plan to make some oatmeal using steel cut oats, cinnamon and raisins for us to take to work for breakfasts. I've been doing this for the past month and we really like it, it's quick and healthy. I'll post a recipe for this in the next few weeks.

This post is linked up to Life As Mom's October Freezer Cooking post. Check it out for lots of great ideas and inspiration.

June's Big Cooking Day

Success is mine!

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I got done cooking a lot sooner this time than I did last month. I think that it's mainly because I started making a few things the night before. There were a couple of things that I didn't get around to making, but then there were also a couple dishes that I made more of...like the chicken fried rice and the pulled pork. It helped a lot that I was able to use my mother-in-law's crock pot. I only have one small one and hers is huge (Thanks Jane!).

I also realized that I still have a few dinners left in the freezer from last month's big cooking day!!
Now that I know I'm going to stick with this type of cooking, I think I need to invest in some large cookware, mixing bowls and possibly some more baking sheets.

Breakfast:

• Chocolate chip and banana pancakes (x 5)
  
• Rainbow Pancakes (x 5)
  

Sides:

• Applesauce (x 3)
• Garlic Bread (x2)
  

Dinners:

• Buffalo Chicken Fajitas (x 3)
  


• BBQ Pulled Pork (x 5)
  


• Lasagna Soup (x 3)
  


• Cheesy Ham & Pasta Bake (x 2)
  


• Chicken Fried Rice (x 4)
  


• Pizza Pinwheels (x 1)
  


• Chili (x 3)
  


• Teriyaki Chicken (x 2)
  


• Beef Brisket (x 2)

I really want to try making these Cinnamon Rolls next time. They look delicious and don't seem like they would be that bad for you...

If you want more menu ideas or recipes then you can check out Life as a Mom. If you're thinking about doing this type of cooking she's got so much helpful information to get you started.

Another great site that has information and menus for each week is Orgjunkie.com. She hosts Menu Plan Monday at the beginning of each week and other bloggers link up and post their menus and recipes too.

My Cooking Plan

Sunday is going to be a L-O-N-G day! That's when I plan to do my OAMC. Here is what I'll be making:

Breakfast:

• French Toast Sticks


• Chocolate chip and banana pancakes

Sides:

• Applesauce


• French Fries


• Spanish Rice


• Garlic Bread

Dinners:

• Buffalo Chicken Fajitas


• BBQ Pulled Pork


• Lasagna Soup


• Chicken Crescents


• Cheesy Ham & Pasta Bake


• Chicken Frid Rice


• Pizza Pinwheels


• Chili


• Teriyaki Chicken


• Pork Loin

Desserts:

• Haven't decided yet

Thanks to Life as a Mom for hosting Freezer Cooking Day. There are lots of other menu plans and recipes you can check out at her site.

May's Big Cooking Day

Since last month's meal plan was such a success (we didn't go out to eat once and never ordered take out) I decided to do everything on my own this time. I chose recipes that I thought our family would like and I also added some sides and breakfast items this time. I cooked most of this on Saturday and a little more on Sunday. I tried to make sure that each meal would make enough for a dinner and for lunches the next day.

I thought it would be nice to share the links to the recipes I used and to also add comments about each of them. Each month I will comment on which meals worked out and which ones didn't.

I'm on my second month and I am happy to report that it's been fun and we've enjoyed trying new recipes. Charlie doesn't always eat the new food but that's no surprise because he's always been a picky eater. I did recently find out that both of the older boys really like Spanish Rice!

Breakfast:

• French Toast Sticks - I made this recipe without the butter and not so much sugar. Charlie ate two of them without any syrup and he really liked them.


• Blueberry Pancakes - I used the pancake mix from a box I had in the pantry and added vanilla and blueberries.

Lunch:

• Chicken Salad

Dinner:

• Pork Loin - We bought a large piece and cut it up into 3 separate pieces and froze them. Mike will grill them with his seasonings when the time comes and each piece will be enough for dinner and lunch the next day.
• Turkey Meatballs - We tasted these after they came out of the oven and they tasted very good and were moist.
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Oven baked Potato Wedges - I got the instructions from a very helpful and informative article that explains how to cook, freeze and reheat any type of potato.
• Applesauce - I used Rome apples, added a bit of cinnamon and no sugar. It turned out great. The baby liked it! The other boys haven't tried it yet.
• Pulled Pork - this was really simple to make and turned out very tasty. I'll definitely be making this again.
• Stir-Fry Chicken With Garlic Sauce
• Baked Chicken Fingers - I used this recipe but I did not bake the chicken fingers, instead I flash froze them then put them in Ziploc bags. On baking day I'll put them in the oven at 425 for 18-20 minutes.
  

The meals we liked from last month:
These are the original recipes, but they were adjusted a bit because they were all frozen and cooked later.

• Slow Cooker Chicken in Mushroom Sherry Sauce - I ended up mixing everything together in a Ziploc bag and placing it in the freezer. I thawed it out the night before then baked it in the oven. I served it over egg noodles and it was good.


• Buffalo Chicken Fajitas - For this I combined the cut up chicken and sauce in one bag and the veggies in the other bag and put them in the freezer. I only thawed out the chicken and sauce the night before (kept the veggies frozen.) Then on the day of cooking I cooked the chicken and sauce in one pan and the frozen veggies in the other. When both were cooked I added them together and topped it with the blue cheese.


• Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls - I assembled these then put them in Ziploc bags and froze. The day of cooking I followed the regular baking instructions. I really liked these a lot and would definitely make them again.