{Freezer Meals}

The day after Christmas I had surgery.  I was very concerned with my recovery time, as I am the one who cooks for our family, and I didn't know how I would be feeling to make food.  So, the week before Christmas, I decided to delve into the world of making meals and freezing them.  I cleaned out my freezer, and looked for recipes that I could make. Those meals were good!  And it was so nice to be able to pull them out of the freezer and make them without much effort.
Then on January 5th my friend had a freezer meal party.  She introduced me to a company called Wildtree. They sell super healthy spices and oils.  I was able to make about 15 freezer meals at the party.  We have absolutely been LOVING them!!
Tonight I pulled out some Italian Chicken Tenders and made a caesar salad with them.  It was delicious!  Anyway, my point is that I am now hooked on making freezer meals!  I think it is a great way to cook!  You spend one day prepping all of the food, and then you can eat for a long time!  The best part is that I don't really have to think about what to make for dinner all of the time.  It is so awesome!
Please stay tuned for some great freezer meal recipes that you can make too!

Food Storage

I received an email earlier today for the Preparedness Pantry.  I decided to check it out, since I can always use to get food storage.  On their site they have a completely free food storage analyzer that will show you how many days worth of food storage you have.  You can enter their food, or your own from the grocery store.  This is a fantastic tool that I will definitely be using in the future!!!

Philadelphia Cooking Cream and Pizza

Over the weekend I got to host a Philadelphia Cooking Cream house party!!  It was a lot of fun! The people at House Party sent me a free box with all the party supplies!  I got a brand new pan, and a bunch of other stuff, including coupons and recipe booklets to give to all my guests. There are four different flavors of this cooking cream.  Since they gave me coupons for free tubs, I got all four.  I made pizza and used a couple of the cooking cream flavors as the sauce.  It was really good!  I think it might even be the best homemade pizza I have ever made!  I've been trying to perfect homemade pizza for years because it is my hubby's favorite food, so when I saw this recipe for crust on my friend's blog, I decided to try it. It was really good!  I will definitely make it again!  Here is what I did:

Yummy Homemade Pizza

• Crust
• Chicken, cooked and cubed
• Pizza Cheese
• Mushrooms, sliced
• onions, sliced
• Philadelphia Cooking Cream (original and savory garlic flavors)
• BBQ sauce
• Ranch Dressing Mix (Dry)
• Pineapple Tidbits

I made two different pizzas.  The first was a BBQ Chicken pizza, the second was a Garlic Chicken pizza.

For the BBQ Chicken pizza, I combined half of the tub of original cooking cream and about 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce.  Then I added in about half of a packet of ranch dressing mix.  I used that as the sauce, and then piled on the cheese.  I then added chicken (cooked in BBQ sauce), onion, and pineapple. 

The Garlic Chicken pizza was easier!  I just put enough garlic cream on to cover, and then piled with cheese, chicken, pineapple, mushrooms and onion. 

Both pizzas were delicious!  I can't wait to try the other flavors and make other things! :)

Banana Pancakes with Butter Syrup

This morning I decided that I would make my kids pancakes instead of cereal.  I decided to save time and use the "Jiffy" baking mix in my pantry.  Here is the recipe:



Banana Pancakes with Butter Syrup

"Jiffy" baking mix
1-2 bananas, smashed
1 TBSP flax
Milk

Make the pancake mix as directed on the box.  Add in bananas and flax (I added it to give it a little more nutrition).  Mix in a little more milk to make batter the right consistency.  Cook like normal pancakes!

BUTTER SYRUP
(I got this recipe from my old neighbor, Annie.  We love it!)

1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 C Buttermilk
1 tsp. Vanilla

Melt butter on low heat.  Once the butter is melted, add sugar, buttermilk and baking soda.  Bring to a boil (it will get really foamy).  You just want to get the sugar liquified.  I just pick up some with a spoon and dump it back in the pot.  When there's no grains left it's done.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla, stir, and serve.

"Cafe Rio" Style Pork Burritos

One of our favorite restaurants is Cafe Rio.  They have the best pork burritos!  In an effort to save money, we have not eaten there in a while, but we have been missing it!  I had a pork roast in my freezer and decided that I wanted to try to recreate the pork burritos that you can buy there.  I looked online to see if I could find a recipe, and I found several.  This recipe is what I did with it, which was kind of a combination of several different recipes.  It didn't taste exactly like Cafe Rio, but it was REALLY good!

"Cafe Rio" Style Pork Burritos

Pork Roast
Coke
2-3 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/2 packet of Lipton Onion Soup

Put the roast into the crockpot and set it on low.  Pour a cup of coke over it and add the brown sugar and soup.  Cook for 8 or so hours, or until it can be shredded.

When the roast is cooked, shred it.  (I dumped the coke mixture out of my crockpot and put the shredded pork back in.  You could easily put it into a sauce pan to finish.)

Add the following:
1 cup or so of Coke
2 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Salsa
1/2 can Tomato Sauce

Let it simmer on low for 20 or so minutes.


Rice:

In the meantime, I put my rice cooker to use.  I cooked the rice in chicken broth and added some chopped Cilantro.  Next time I am going to add some green chilies and lime, as the rice was pretty bland.


We like our burritos without the beans, but you could easily add in black or pinto beans!  :)

To assemble:

Warm tortillas.  Fill with rice, pork mixture and cheese.  Roll up and place in an oven-safe pan. Put some green Enchilada Sauce on top.  Top with cheese and broil on high until cheese is melted and bubbling.

 Here is the final product, and it was tasty! My husband told me that it was even better the second day!!

Yummy Chicken Alfredo/Pesto Tortelloni

My hubby went on a business trip a few years back, and they had a pasta bar at the office he went to where they could pick their own sauces and ingredients to put with their pasta. He loved it! When he got home, he told me about this yummy pasta that he had. This is my attempt at re-creating it!

Mushrooms, sliced
Onion- sliced into thin strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chicken, cubed (For the two of us, I usually just do 1 chicken breast or 3 tenders)
2 TBSP oil
1 package of Tortelloni pasta (We like the 3 cheese flavor)
1 package of pesto sauce prepared per instructions
1/2 cup butter
1 cup cream (or fat free half and half works too)
Parmesan cheese to taste

Cook the chicken in a pan with oil. When it starts to brown, add in the vegetables. Saute until done. In the meantime, boil some water. Cook the pasta according to the directions. Drain. In the same pan, melt 1/2 cup of butter. Pour in cream and stir. Add in desired amount of Parmesan cheese to make it taste like alfredo sauce. Pour pasta into the alfredo sauce. Mix in desired amount of pesto. Add chicken/vegetables and stir together. I like to top it with shredded Parmesan. Enjoy!!

Popcorn Goodies

This recipe came to my attention when we were first married. My hubby worked for the DMV, and one of his co-workers made this for us for Christmas that year. It's really yummy and even my hubby (who doesn't like caramel popcorn) likes it!

In a large bowl combine:
6 quarts popcorn, popped
3 cups marshmallows

Melt 2 cups of butter in a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup Karo Syrup and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Heat until it boils. Let the sauce stand for 1 minute, and then pour it over the popcorn mixture. Stir until mixed. When it cools down, you can add in your favorite candy. (We usually put in M&Ms.) Enjoy!!