Protein Baked Oatmeal Bars

So a lot has been going on in my life lately. So why haven't I been blogging? I've certainly had a lot to write about, but at least one factor is the fact that my depression returned with a vengance. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until it hit me like a ton of bricks one day and I did something about it. I'm pleased to report that I'm doing much better thanks to the help of some wonderful friends, family, and medical care providers. And with that change in attitude and outlook I also felt a switch flip and decided that I needed to get myself healthy. I mean REALLY healthy. Not just mentally and emotionally, but physically too! I'll write more about this later, but the short version is that I got myself hooked up with an awesome personal trainer. In addition to kicking my butt in the gym several times a week he also introduced me to meal planning. I wasn't thrilled with the idea but the "rules" he gave me were pretty do-able even for my picky habits, but there were a few hurdles.

One was how to eat a good breakfast within an hour of getting up, particularly when I am working overnight. I can eat when I get home but that's sometimes SEVERAL hours after I wake up. I tried taking stuff to work to heat up but that didn't work. And I tried the overnight oats recipes floating around pinterest. We can add oatmeal to the list of things that I am not a fan of! Anywho, I remembered my old baked oatmeal muffins recipe that was supposed to be healthy in the first place and decided to attempt the healthy version with a few twists to fit within my new guidelines. So here is the recipe I came up with.

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 c. quick oats
2 scoops vanilla protein powder (I use Ultimate ProFit)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. splenda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Wet Ingredients
1 1/4 c. 1% milk
1 egg + 2 Tbsp. egg whites
8 oz plain greek yogurt
4 oz unsweetened applesauce

1/4 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. dark chocolate chips

I'm not much of a baker, especially when it comes to exact techniques, so I used a big mixing bowl to combine all the wet ingredients. I used my oatmeal container (since I was using the last of my oatmeal) to shake together all my dry ingredients. Dump the dry into the wet and mix it up, then add the chocolate chips and almonds.

I used a mini loaf pan so I ended up with about 8 bars (probably about 1/3 c. batter each) that I sprayed with a little cooking spray (and then promptly wiped out half of it!)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes

If I had it to do over again I'd probably use a little less cinnamon, but maybe it'll grow on me. Obviously you can use more or less of the nuts and chocolate and add or substitute fruit if that is your thing. Maybe I'll try apple walnut next time, or add some peanut butter.

Let me know if you try it out or make any variations! I'd love to hear what you thing.

"Made Up" Pasta Bake

Recently Jeff and I started a little weekly supper club with two dear friends, E&E. We alternate which couple hosts and cooks. The "visitors" bring the wine. We eat, talk, laugh, and have a wonderful time. This week we were hosting and I decided to make pasta. I figured it would be pretty good, but I didn't expect everyone to absolutely devour it! Mr. E was so impressed that there was no recipe, I just made it up as I went along. I'll do my best to describe it, but I'm sorry if I leave something out!

First, I cooked a package of ground turkey in a skillet. I seasoned it with a little bit of dried onion and some tuscan sea salt with herbs I got as a Christmas gift but save for "special" foods. I figured this was special enough! I drained the meat and wiped off the pan.

Next, I added one package of frozen spinach that I had defrosted and drained to the warm pan. I added a little bit more onion along with about 2 Tbsp of light garlic and herb cheese spread and a jar of light alfredo sauce along with a little bit of nutmeg (trust me, nutmeg with spinach or white sauce is awesome!) I didn't add garlic because the garlic & herb cheese was pretty strong, but if you just have garlic and cream cheese it would probably be pretty similar. I also stirred the meat back in with everything else.

Next, I cooked 1 lb of farfalle pasta and mixed it with all of the sauce. I dumped everything into a big casserole dish and topped it with a little bit of shredded 2% milk mozzarella and baked it until the cheese was melty. Basically I just stuck it in the oven and let it hang out while the oven pre-heated and I baked the rolls (for about 10 minutes). Everything was already cooked so it was just a good way to keep it warm until everyone got there. That, and I'm a sucker for melty cheese. It would still be super-tasty (and probably save a few calories) if you leave the cheese off the top.

The whole thing came together in probably 40 minutes. It probably could have been quicker but I wasn't in a rush (and I may or may not have been singing into my spoonula at points) I have a sneaking suspicion this would be an easy one to throw together the night before and then head up in the oven before serving. It might even freeze well, although I am not sure.

This should make about 8 servings and, according to the My Fitness Pal recipe builder, has 405 calories per serving. Not bad for a very tasty and filling meal. It's the perfect thing for spring time as it starts to warm up because it's still filling but not super heavy. Next time I might add some roasted red pepper. The spinach and turkey would probably also make a great filling for stuffed shells or lasagna rolls, too.

Do you have any "make it up as you go along" favorites? If so, please share. If you give this one a try, let me know, especially if you have any improvements!

"From Your Freezer to Your Family" E-Cookbook

If you have been paying attention lately, I have been singing the praises of Stephanie from Mama and Baby Love. I first discovered her blog thanks to Pinterest and her original post about freezer cooking only using slow cooker recipes and I kind of fell in love with her. She is a rock star in about a million different ways and she has sort of become my new P-dub! Her writing touches something in my heart and soul and I hope someday I can meet her "for real."

Recently, she published an e-cookbook with lots of her great slow cooker freezer meals. I purchased my copy immediately and I'm super-excited about finally trying some of these great recipes, especially the barbeque chicken. As if I wasn't enough in love with her and her stuff, she goes the extra mile to include grocery lists and printable labels for each of the recipes (and we all know how much I love organizing, lists, labels, and printables!

One thing that characterizes her recipes, and that she explains really well in the introduction to the cookbook, is the use of "real food." This is a very new concept for me since pretty much every meal I have consumed most of my life included at least one element that was processed. I am trying to baby step my way into some of this, and her recipes are a great introduction to this idea in a way that seems very approachable and pretty darn easy!

Right now you can get her e-cookbook for only $5.99. The price will be going up in a few weeks, so I would recommend getting it now! If you still need a last minute Mother's Day gift, this would be a great solution - you could put together a cute little basket with a new slow cooker (or even a cute serving bowl), a pot of fresh herbs, a couple of wooden spoons, and some cute towels.

You can get the book by clicking the new button on my sidebar (can I just say buttons excite me more than they probably should!) or by clicking here to visit Mama And Baby Love.

Onion Broth

I know I mentioned before about making onion soup. This is the original recipe I set out to make, but you know me and my crazy desire to make everything "my way". In the past I have made a court bouillon that was really great for other things, so I decided to try and combine the two recipes.

3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
3 Tbsp whole black pepper corns
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
pinch of salt

The results weren't as good as I was expecting because I went a little overboard with the black pepper and it still tasted a little flat. I later learned that if I added a little more water it toned down the pepper a bit and I could dress it up with some herbs and it was quite tasty (and also stretched this already inexpensive dish even farther). However, even in its original form it has a great flavor for cooking. I froze most of it into cubes, popped them into a plastic freezer bag, and let them hang out in my freezer so they're there when I need them.

If you're going to freeze it in cubes, one thing I would recommend is to measure the size of your cubes and then write that on your freezer bag so that when you need them for something, you know how much you have and how many you should use. In my case, three cubes is equal to 1/3 cup of liquid.

Next time I'm going to add some more flavor with a few herbs and maybe a little bit of wine. This may actually cure me of buying canned chicken broth forever!

Baked Oatmeal

I have discovered recently (within the past couple of years) that I really love oatmeal cookies. Not oatmeal raisin, just oatmeal. If nuts or chocolate chips are thrown in, that's peachy, but keep the raisins and craisins and other "sins" to yourself - or at least out of MY cookie!

That got me thinking that I might actually like eating oatmeal now. I used to not like it, but I also used to not like grits (it goes back to my "texture thing") but I love grits now so I might could get on board with oatmeal, too. Still, I'm timid when it comes to trying new things and I like to baby step into it. As I was wasting too much time on pinterest, I found a recipe for individual baked oatmeal cups. Hmm. Baked oatmeal? That sounds at least cookie-related. And it's small so they can be shared and enjoyed over time without needing guests or a huge commitment. So I pinned it and it sat for a while. The recipe I found was super-healthy - no sugar, sweetened by applesauce, including mashed banana. I started losing interest around the banana part, but I read through the comments and found there were plenty of people who were suggesting alternatives or just leaving the banana out. I decided I might could get on board with this after all.

Still, we don't keep applesauce in the house. I'm sure Jeff would eat it, but I had just been to the store not 6 hours ago and applesauce wasn't anywhere on the radar and I wasn't about to go back out just for that. So I started searching the internet for alternative recipes for baked oatmeal that might work. I found one that was much more my speed - butter instead of banana, brown sugar instead of applesauce. Yup. This is definitely sounds more in the neighborhood of "cookie" and less like "healthy breakfast" which I'm totally fine with! I combined the two recipes and made a few changes of my own, and this is what I came up with!

3 c. oatmeal

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

3/4 c. dark brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1 c. milk

2 eggs

Put cupcake liners into a 12 cup muffin tin, then spray the liners with cooking spray. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each cup and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Verdict: Yeah, I can eat oatmeal like this! I had one while it was still warm with a big glass of milk. Yum! It doesn't even need chocolate! The help with portion control is much needed. I froze half of them and stuck the other half in the fridge for grab-and-go snacks. Jeff gave them a big thumbs up, too!

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

This was one of the first thing I decided I needed to try from Pinterest, but I'm just now getting around to it. Part of it was the fact that the original recipe had you breading and pan-frying the chicken before putting it into the slow cooker. Um, no thanks! I've done this before and the breading never sticks and it's just more to clean up. The one advantage may be that the flour would help thicken the sauce a little bit. I decided to do it my way (no frying) and just add a little corn starch to thicken it.

I used about 2 lbs of chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces. The sauce was super simple - 6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate (defrosted), 3 Tbsp ketchup, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce, and 1 tsp corn starch. Because this was a sort of "trial and error" recipe I didn't do what I normally do, which is throw everything in and just let it go. I put  in the chicken pieces and mixed up the sauce with everything from the OJ to the balsamic in at the very beginning and let it cook on low. After several hours of cooking (probably about 3) I decided to try adding a little corn starch to thicken the sauce. Truthfully I didn't see a ton of difference which could mean that I needed more, but the sauce wasn't unpleasantly thin (at least in my opinion) so next time I will probably not even fool with it. I saved the soy sauce for last, after everything was done cooking (6-7 hours on low). I'm really sensitive to salt (what is normally ok for a lot of people is sometimes too much for me) so I added a little bit at a time at the very end until I found a flavor I liked. I honestly have no idea how cooking changes this since I don't use soy sauce much, but I am guessing it might intensify it some, so just know yourself and your preferences. If in doubt, do like I did and save it for the end. Remember, you can always add more but you can't take it out!

As a personal preference, next time I will also add some red pepper flakes. I like the combination of sweet and spicy, and I think that would really put this over the top. It was good without it, but I would have liked a little bit of kick with it, too.

I served it with fried rice and some steamed broccoli. You could absolutely toss some of your favorite veggies into the pot and let them cook with everything else. I thought about adding some mandarin orange slices, but my hubby gets funny about fruit in his savory food, so opted against it. Maybe next time.

I used the MyFitnessPal recipe builder to figure out exactly how "bad" this is. I guessed there were about six servings, but you may could stretch it even more than that. Using the " six serving" figures it comes out to around 235 calories a serving. Even with my fried rice it was still less than 400 calories for dinner. Not bad.

This would make a great and easy Mama and Baby Love style slow cooker freezer meal. I couldn't find any of the small (6 oz) cans of frozen orange juice concentrate, so I just got the big can and cut it in half while it was frozen and stuck the rest in a freezer bag for later. It would be just as easy to double this recipe and freeze half for later (or freeze both bags for later during a big prep/cooking day!)

Give it a try and let me know what you think! (And yes, I know I'm a blogging slacker because I didn't get a picture. Next time, I promise I will get one and come back to post it!)

Crock Pot Chicken Nuggets

I decided to try combining two different recipes and see if I could come up with something spectacular. The first was a recipe for chicken nuggets in the crock pot. The second was for a copy-cat of Chick-fil-a nuggets.

I started with about 2 lbs of chicken, which was three pretty large breasts cut into bite sized pieces.

I dipped the chicken pieces in a bowl with 4 eggs and about 2 Tbsp olive oil. Then they went into a mixture of italian bread crumbs with onion powder, chili powder, and a little powdered sugar. Since I had probably 1 cup of bread crumbs left in my little cannister, I just tossed everything in that and used it to do my breading since you'll be throwing out the leftovers anyway!

I used one of those liners sprayed with cooking spray. after a layer of chicken pieces, I topped it with a piece of aluminum foil with a bunch of holes poked with a fork. I got three layers and still had plenty of room in my pot for at least one more.

I put the lid on slightly sideways so it's vented and some of the steam could escape with the pot turned on high.

I checked on them after two hours and the small one I tested on the top was cooked all the way through, but it was still a little soggy so I left it for about another hour. When I came back the ones on top were perfect and several on the sides were nice, but the ones in the center of both the middle and bottom layers were still pretty soggy. Since I had the oven on for something else, I just tossed the soggy ones on a foil lined baking sheet for about 10 minutes and they got nice and crispy and perfect.

Verdict: Ehh. The bread crumb mixture was nice, but it'll never satisfy a Chick-fil-a craving. Still, I'll probably use it again. I'll probably do milk instead of olive oil with the eggs though, and maybe only three eggs. The crock pot method just wasn't worth the extra time and effort of layering and waiting. I'll probably make my own chicken nuggets again, but I'll do it in the oven.

Breakfast Sandwiches

I have developed a really bad habit of going through the drive thru almost every morning I babysit to get breakfast. It's tasty and easy. I'm not so much concerned about how unhealthy it is (although I probably should be) - my motivation was more about the cost. Hey, whatever works!

I combined several techniques I've seen and couldn't be happier with how this came out! I only made six sandwiches, but you could do 12 in the same amount of time and effort. Since this was my first time making the bacon and eggs like this, I did them separately so I could keep an eye on them. Next time, I'll totally throw them in the oven together to get it done that much faster and just keep an eye on them.

First things first - I had to cook the bacon. I decided to try baking it and it was perfect. I cut my bacon in half (so it was the size I needed when it came out of the oven!) and put it on a foil lined baking sheet. I was able to get about 20 half-pieces on my sheet (about half the package) I set my convection oven to 400 degrees and stuck the bacon in as soon as I turned it on (so before it was heated up). I set my timer for 10 minutes, which is just about as much time as it took my oven to heat up. I just kept an eye on it, and it was probably ready after a total of about 15-17 minutes. If you like it super-crispy, you could probably leave it a few more minutes. After I pulled it out, I just put the bacon on a paper towel to drain a little of the extra grease. Then once it had cooled, I just tossed the foil with the extra grease. So simple!

Next up was the eggs. I used some cooking spray to grease a muffin tin, then cracked an egg into six of the wells (but you could just as easily do 12). I turned the oven down to 350, but stuck the eggs in before it cooled down. I set the timer for 15 minutes, but when I checked them they weren't quite as done as I wanted so I let them cook about 5-7 more minutes. I'm not exactly sure because I was working on other stuff at the same time and forgot about it a little bit! I got them out and let them cool a little bit.

Then, I just had to put my sandwiches together. I used english muffins and put two of the half-pieces of bacon, then the egg, and a slice of cheese. I wrapped them in foil and tossed them in the freezer. This way I can pull one out the night before, then heat in the microwave for 60-90 seconds in the morning!

I got some frozen hashbrown patties and cans of Diet Dr. Pepper, so I have the same meal I get from the drive thru. I crunched the numbers, and 12 of these whole meals would come in at about $1.85 each. That's about 1/3 of what it costs at the drive thru! I'll count that as a win!

*For a slightly healthier version, you can use just the egg whites instead of the whole egg, a whole wheat muffin or bagel, canadian bacon, and low fat cheese.

Orange Congealed Salad

We called this "fluffy stuff" when I was growing up, and I had never made it so I thought I'd give it a try. I was really pleased with how it came out and I got lots of compliments on it from everyone at Easter lunch, so I decided to share.

2 small boxes orange jello (or 1 large box)

1 c. hot water

1 c. cold water

16 oz. greek yogurt

1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)

1 lg can crushed pineapple, drained

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

Take your two boxes of jello and dissolve into 1 cup hot water. Once it is completely dissolved, add 1 cup cold water and let it chill for about an hour and let it get semi-set. Mix in greek yogurt, nuts, pineapple, and oranges. Chill for several hours until set.

I make mine in a rectangle casserole dish. You could use a fancy ring mold or something else, but this way if it's a little bit soft it's not a big deal.

I didn't worry too much about getting ALL the juice out of the pineapple. A little bit of extra liquid is ok and it will still set up, but try to drain off a fair amount of it.

I also cut the mandarin orange slices into about two or three tiny pieces. You could probably skip this step if you wanted to, but I prefer little bits of stuff instead of huge chunks. It helps everything be more uniform.

That's it. It's very simple. The great thing about this is how versatile it is. You can leave out the orange pieces if you want or use any other kind of fruit and change up the flavor of jello to make pretty much anything.

Sugar & Spice Nuts

This is may be my new favorite treat of all time. They do take a little bit of time and attention, but just a little. I made these while seriously multi-tasking - doing laundry, making a wreath, and making candy. It would also be perfect for making on a rainy day where you want to extend very little effort, but not be bored out of your mind and end up with something very tasty!

I was very excited to discover this recipe for crock pot sugared pecans on Pinterest, but since I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon pecans, I decided to give it a shot with my rosemary cashews. When I combined them, I came up with this, and I've got to say, it's a winner.

Now, I know there are some folks out there that don't like the idea of using those slow-cooker liners because they don't like the idea of cooking in plastic because of chemicals, fumes, and whatever other yucky stuff is in there. I can totally respect that, but I think my slow cooker liner contributed to the success of this recipe!

First off, pre-heat the slow cooker on high for about 15 minutes. Then, melt a stick of butter. I had a couple of partial pieces that needed to get used, so those got thrown into the mug I used to melt my butter and I think I ended up with a little bit more. I'm from the Paula Deen school of "no such thing as too much butter" so that didn't bother me a bit. *For all my vegan friends, you could probably use about 1/2 cup of your favorite oil like canola or walnut*

I used 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. This didn't give me the same "candy coating" that you would probably get if you used just the powdered sugar, but I like the flavor of the brown sugar so I was willing to give up a little of that. Mix sugar with the nuts and butter in the slow cooker. Cover it and cook on high for about 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, stir it up, turn your slow cooker down to low, and leave the top off! Let them cook for 2-3 hours, stirring them occasionally. I checked on mine about every 30 minutes. This is where having the slow cooker liner came in really handy because, as I stirred up the nuts, I could shake them around with the liner and make sure the melted butter and sugar that collected in the bottom could pour over the nuts. It was SO much easier and I avoided burned sugar on the bottom and clumpiness on the nuts that get stuck on the bottom.

After about two and half hours mine were looking great. No, they didn't have a hard, shiny candy coating but there was very little melted butter and sugar left on the bottom of the bag so I decided they were about done. I turned them off, and topped them with rosemary and cayenne and just a little bit of salt (because I used unsalted butter) and gave them a good mix.

I couldn't resist the temptation to take a taste of the warm, sweet, buttery goodness. They were quite fabulous. The hardest part was staying out of them!

If you try them out, let me know what you think.

Crock Pot Chicken Enchiladas

This is a change from my usual "throw it in and run" crock pot cooking. It actually took about 20 minutes to put it all together, but considering how many people this could feed, that's not bad.

I started with one of my bags of cooked, shredded chicken that I'm guessing was about 1.5 lbs. I tossed it in a bowl with 1 can of enchilada sauce. I scooped a spoonful onto a small corn tortilla, rolled it up, and stuck it in my slow cooker. I didn't put any sauce in the bottom, just sprayed the liner. I kind of wish I'd put a little sauce in the bottom, but I'll remember that for next time!

I was able to get about seven in each layer. After I got the first seven in the cooker, I put a little bit of sauce over the top, and began working on the second layer. I ended up having enough chicken for about 17 enchiladas, but I could have easily fit several more. I poured all the remaining sauce over everything so it would run down over everything, then just put on the lid and let it do its thing on low all day. Because the chicken was pre-cooked, it probably didn't actually need that long.

It came out really nicely. The tortillas were nice and tender, but not mushy (which is why you have to use corn instead of flour. Flour get mushy!) It could have stood a little extra sauce, but we topped them with our favorite respective toppings. It also re-heated really well, both in the over and in the microwave. This is definitely a keeper!

One thing I may try next time is to make it more like a mexican crock pot lasagna - save myself all the rolling and layer it in the crock pot (adding cheese.) You could also toss in some beans and any other veggies you may want, then just top it however you like! This could make an excellent football party food, especially if you don't want to do soup but want something more substantial than just finger foods

So the quick summary -

1.5 lbs cooked shredded chicken mixed with 1 can enchilada sauce (I used red, but you could definitely use green, too)

1 package small corn tortillas (I used 17)

1 extra can enchilada sauce for topping

Cook on low 6-8 hours

Being a Do-er

In the past few days I got the urge to actually try a bunch of the stuff I have found on pinterest. I knew I needed to go to the grocery store this afternoon, so I picked up a few extra goodies.

I started with Japanese Onion Soup. I think I put a little too much pepper in it but it was quite tasty. I was proud of myself! I ended up putting a lot of it into my new silicone ice trays so I can keep it stashed in the freezer for whenever I get the craving for a bowl of soup!

I then moved on to dry mixes for cream-of-whatever soup (I did chicken this time), ranch dressing, and italian dressing. I haven't tried mixing any up yet, but they are safely tucked away in the pantry waiting to be tried out.

Finally, I decided we needed a little sweet treat. I decided to try some cake-mix cookies. Even though I already had spice cake mix in the pantry, the picture on pinterest was of strawberry cookies and so that's what I got in my head and that's what I wanted. I threw together the cookies very quickly and they were absolutely awesome. I got some vanilla glaze to go on them, but decided maybe I'd just make little cookie sandwiches with my cream cheese icing. I haven't made it that far, but I'm keeping that one as a possibility (if I can keep two cookies long enough to try it!)

It was so much fun to get back in the kitchen and be really productive! I'm really getting into making more stuff on my own so I don't have to use as much canned stuff. It was nice to fantasize about clearing out a lot of room in my pantry! The only down side is that I'll need a much bigger freezer to store it all!

Adventures in Freezer Cooking

This is something that, as a discipline, is new for me. Now, as much as I would love to pretend I'm a foodie the reality is I'm a junk food junkie who is all about convenience. Don't get me wrong. I love to cook. And I love to eat. But when I'm ready to do the latter, I have very little patience for the former. But I am sick of eating out (I never thought I'd say that!) and I miss having home-cooked meals. So, I'm willing to try different solutions to find something workable. I'm sure there are some freezer cooking purists who would say that, technically, what I'm doing isn't really freezer cooking because it's not making full meals, it's just extended prep. And after a while I may try my hand at more, but we're taking baby steps here!

Now, the thing that originally put me off of the idea of freezer cooking was simply the amount of prep and clean-up involved. Especially the clean-up. I HATE cleaning up the kitchen. HOWEVER, if I only have to clean one pot, it's not nearly as horrible. I can handle one pot. Heck, if Im creative I might can even get that one pot into the dishwasher! I might can even handle the prospect of one pot and one pan!

One thing I always dreaded was the preparing of the chicken. I eat a lot of chicken. I pretty much grew up on chicken casseroles. But the idea of boiling chicken every day (or even every other day) is not appealing to me. Plus there's the whole shredding it bit, which also doesn't appeal to me either. But I discovered a little tip on pinterest - put your cooked chicken (still warm) into your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and turn it on low for about 15-20 seconds and you suddenly have perfectly shredded chicken! Amazing! Why didn't I think of that? I can just freeze this and I'll be ready to go for just about anything. I cooked one large pack of chicken breasts (about six pounds) and, after shredding, divided it into four bags (so about 1.25 pounds each) I know Jeff will use one just to throw on top of salads. I have a casserole in mind, and perhaps some sandwiches or enchiladas. Only time will tell!

Another helpful tip - freeze meats in their marinade so that as they defrost they will also marinade and be ready to go! Love that! Especially for steaks or pork chops! Perfect for grilling and no pre-cooking is required. Awesome! I split a big pack of pork chops into three bags. Two I added teriyaki marinade and one I left plain.

Now, I have no idea why this never occurred to me, but I'm glad the switch finally flipped - pre-form hamburger patties. It makes it much easier to go from freezer to grill! The biggest reason we don't grill burgers at home is that it involves the fore-thought of defrosting the meat so we can make the patties. Now, we don't have to do that anymore. Love it! I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup to measure out my meat and make sure they were about the same size. I figure they were about 1/3 lb patties. I packaged them two to a bag so I can pull out two for just Jeff and me or more if we want leftovers!

Last but not least there is the pre-cooked ground beef or turkey. Take the mince (can you tell I've been watching too much BBC?) and saute it with onion and a little garlic (since I put garlic in pretty much everything anyway). Then I can divide it and freeze it and it's ready to go for tacos or spaghetti or a casserole or whatever. I divided my meat into two 1.25 lb bags - one just had the onion and garlic, but the other had some taco seasoning in it.

I had planned to do all my shopping and cooking in one day, but it just didn't happen that way. I did my big shopping at Sam's Club as the basis for all of this. I divided up the pork chops as soon as we got home since there was no actual cooking involved. I had the fridge space, so I saved the chicken and ground beef for the next day. I was expecting it to take a while, but it only took about an hour and a half to get it all done. I stuck the chicken on first thing. While it was boiling, I made hamburger patties (which really didn't take long thanks to my measuring cup. I'll have to remember that!). After that came the cooking of the ground beef. Once that was packaged the chicken was ready to go.

After it was over, I had one pot, one pan, one mixing bowl, one spatula, and one pair of tongs that needed to be cleaned up. That's it! It all fit in the dishwasher so it was super simple.

Next time, I'll probably try to put some carrot, celery, and onion in with the chicken and then drain and freeze the resulting broth, but I was pretty pleased with the results of this first attempt at everything! I've got at least 12 meals that can now be ready in 30 minutes or less with little to no prep time. Add this to my arsenal of crock pot meals and I'm pretty stoked about the possibilities.

Stay tuned for more adventures in freezer cooking that are still to come!

Christmas Menu

I'm in charge of cooking Christmas dinner for my family. I'm so excited! I love doing stuff like this. This year there's an added challenge of Christmas being on Sunday morning and that means I've got to do church. We're having our church service at 10 am so we can all get home a little earlier, but I wanted to keep this very simple so I can enjoy the day!

Turducken - This is my step-mom's contribution. I think we're all a little curious to try this! It includes stuffing so that's taken care of, too. All the prep should be done so all that is required is baking.

Beef Tenderloin - I found a recipe that says to grill it on high heat for about 25 minutes, then wrap it in foil and let it rest for about half an hour and it will finish cooking itself in the foil. We'll see how it goes! (If all else fails, we'll throw it back on the grill!)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes - I'm doing my own version of "semi-homemade". I'll probably test drive this one in the not-so-distant future.

Green Beans - quick and easy. Not complicated.

Macaroni and Cheese - prep the day ahead and bake the day of. Easy Cheesy!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes - another quick and easy one. We're forgoing the sugared and crusted casserole in favor of simply seasoned and roasted sweet potato cubes.

Balsamic Onions - cut in wedges, wrap in bacon, drizzle with balsamic, and bake.

Cranberry Sauce - from a can (because it doesn't count without the little rings on it!)

Turkey Gravy - from a jar (because I'm lazy and won't have drippings to use for homemade anyway!)

Horseradish Dijon Sauce - easily made the day ahead

Gorgonzola Port Sauce - also easily made the day ahead

I'll probably also have some sort of cheese appetizer. It may be a cheese ball, it may be a dip to go with crudite, or it may be a baked cheese and herb spread. We'll see how I feel closer to time.

I promise to provide "real" recipes eventually, and I'll try to remember to link back to this post, but just check back after Christmas to find out how it went!

Pizza Pops

I saw a recipe recently on pinterest that looked brilliantly tasty an easy - balls made of canned biscuits, pepperoni, and cheese (and any other pizza fixings you may want) and then baked in muffin tins. Brilliant! Well, since I've been looking for new ways to use my cake pop maker, why not pizza pops?

I found these super-precious tiny turkey pepperonis, so that saved me from having giant hunks of pepperoni or having to do lots of chopping. Basically, I just put a little sprinkle of cheese and a few tiny pepperonis onto half of a canned biscuit that I had flattened a bit, then wrapped everything as best I could and rolled it into a ball. the ones I thought had too much stuff in them turned out to be the best.

My cake pop machine recommends a baking time of 4-5 minutes for cakes, so that's what I did for my pizza balls as well. They were ALMOST over done for my liking, so I think in the future I'll do closer to 4 minutes. They did puff up into perfectly round balls and browned pretty evenly.

I saw an alternative version very similar to this where a large pepperoni was used along with cubes of cheese. Basically you lay down your bread, then lay your pepperoni, then put your cheese in the middle and wrap it all up. I think that would probably work better for my next attempt because the one thing I wished was that I had a bit more cheese, and the cube would probably be just what I need!

All in all, it was a success. I think they work great for a small group, but I don't know that I would do this as a party food, as cute as they are. The reason being that these are best when they are warm, but because you can only do 12 at a time in the cake pop maker, by the time you get all of them made, all the first ones are going to be cold! For a large group (like a football party, perhaps?) I would probably do it Monkey Bread style!

But just for me? The cake pop maker is perfect!

If you try these out (in the oven or otherwise) give me a shout and let me know how it worked, especially if you have some brilliant improvements!

Spicy Chicken Pasta

One of Jeff's all-time favorite foods has always been the Spicy Chicken Pasta from Steak and Ale. Since they went out of business several years ago, he has never found what he considers to be an "acceptable" substitute anywhere else. I decided I would be nice and try to come up with a home-made alternative for him, but that proved to be harder than I expected. All the copy-cat recipes I found had very generic references to "cajun seasoning" in the cream sauce. Clearly this is pretty important to getting it to taste right, so I gave up on trying to make it like anyone else's version and just make my version!

My cajun seasoning blend consisted of chili powder, paprika, season salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes. I used equal parts of everything but the season salt in my mix, but ended up adding a little more of that later, so you could probably do equal parts of everything. I mixed it all together in an empty spice bottle so it's all ready to go!

This is actually a really quick and easy meal. It's almost a one pan deal! I only made enough for two, so if you want leftovers you could easily double it.

I started by sprinkling three small chicken breasts with the cajun seasoning and searing them in my big pan with a little bit of olive oil. When they're cooked, I just pulled them off and let them rest on a small plate. Then I added 1 Tbsp of butter and let it melt. Then I added 1 Tbsp of flour and a little more cajun seasoning and let that all cook down. Then I added half a pint of heavy cream and about 2 Tbsp of parmesan cheese. After this all cooks together, just toss in half a pound of cooked pasta. I

Top the pasta with the cooked chicken (diced), diced tomatoes, and green onions. You could also add a little more parmesan if you like. Yum! I loved this because it had a really good flavor but wasn't overwhelmingly spicy. If you like it hotter you can easily add more spice (especially more red pepper).

As always, if you try it let me know what you think or if you come up with any other variations!

Toasted Ravioli

Yes, I know it's been a while since I experimented with my own recipes, but I am thrilled to finally be back at it!

I have a long-standing love for toasted ravioli reaching back to a high school band trip to St. Louis, which is where this is supposed to have started. I don't know about that, but I know it's tasty!

This has got to be one of the simplest appetizers/snacks I've ever made because of one thing - my little deep fryer. If you don't have one, you can just use a pot of oil (it really doesn't take a ton) but since I have the fryer, it was one less thing to fool with.

I tried this two different ways - plain raviolis tossed in the fryer and those that have been breaded and then fried. Those that were breaded were a thousand times more successful!

I used pre-packaged frozen raviolis. If you want to go to the trouble to make your own, I applaud you, but I don't know that I would fry beautiful homemade ravioli! The whole process was very simple. I defrosted the ravioli, dipped them in a mixture of egg and a little milk, and then into italian bread crumbs. It takes longer to bread them than it does to fry them, that's how simple they are!

They went into the fryer at 325 degrees a few at a time because I didn't want them to stick together and you need room to flip them. I really don't have a time on it because I'm guessing it's about 90 seconds total but you can't set a timer and walk away. You put them in and give them just a few seconds and they will start to float. After they're all up, give them a flip and keep an eye on how brown they are. I usually flip them a little too early (better safe than sorry!) and then flip them again just to let them brown evenly. Then pull them out and let them drain.

That's it! Serve them with a little tomato sauce (or just eat them plain!) I thought about taking a picture about the time I popped the last one into my mouth. Oops!

These would make a lovely addition to any party, football or otherwise! If you give them a try, let me know what you think!

Jalapeno Popper Dip

This summer Jeff and I decided to plant some jalapenos in the garden. I put one little plant up near the kitchen and for the most part, that was all we needed. Jeff put several plants down in the big garden and we suddenly found ourselves over-run with peppers. Jeff wanted jalapeno poppers. I made them, he loved them. I like the cream cheese in the middle but am not interested in the pepper outside. So I started thinking about it, and decided to give the dip a try.

I mixed a block of softened cream cheese with about half a cup of sour cream (you could probably also use mayo), one diced jalapeno, and some cooked and crumbled bacon. Then put it all in an oven-safe dish and bake.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It needed something. I'm not sure what, but I'm guessing extra spices. I have some left over, so I will probably continue to play with it for at least a day or two!

Brownie Bites

I got a new toy - a cake pop maker! I'm going to actually make cake pops, but I'm saving those for Christmas. Of course, I couldn't resist the urge to try it out, so I decided to use the fudge brownie mix we had hanging out in the pantry.

The directions recommended using a plastic bag like a piping bag to fill the little wells. In keeping with my eternal hatred of doing dishes, I decided to take advantage of the fact that there were only a couple of things to add to the mix and mixed the egg, oil, and water in a little bowl, then tossed that and the mix into the baggie. Then I squished it around to mix it. I mean, if I made ice cream this way in high school, why not brownie batter? Then, I just cut off the corner to squeeze it into the little wells. I cut the corner too big so I sort of made a mess, but it all worked out.

The first batch I baked for the five minutes recommended by the instructions for the machine. When I went to take the first brownie ball out of the maker, it exploded in a little chocolate lava bomb. Normally, this would be a great thing, but it was kind of making a mess. I left them a couple of minutes longer and got them all out, but they were still pretty soft and so they got pretty mangled. Not that I didn't love my little chocolate lava bites, but they definitely wouldn't have been "dippable" as the cute perfect little balls.

I expected the overflow to burn on the maker, but it didn't. Sure, it was more crispy than the rest, but still very edible and tasty. The second batch I baked for right at seven minutes to start with, and while still a little soft, they weren't quite as bad as the first ones. They never did get burned on the bottom (which was my fear) so I guess for future reference I'll have to remember that with fudgey brownies they take about twice as long as suggested!

Although not pretty, they were very tasty. Clean up was an absolute snap because nothing stuck at all! Everything, even the "mess" came off clean and beautiful, so all I had to do was wipe it off!

I'm loving my new toy and can't wait to try it again soon.

Chicken Tetrazzini

As I've said before, I ate a lot of chicken casseroles growing up. Chicken Tetrazzini showed up pretty frequently. According to my mom, it was one of my dad's favorites. I didn't love it and so I've sort of avoided it as an adult. Jeff didn't eat chicken casseroles growing up so this is a whole new world to him and he wanted to try it so, I decided to give it another shot. But I'm changing it up a bit.

In all fairness, I don't remember exactly how mom did this because most of our chicken casseroles were pretty similar - boiled chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces, cream of something soup (usually chicken or mushroom), sometimes some sour cream or mayo, some kind of starch (noodles, stuffing mix, crackers, etc.) and sometimes some cheese. I think part of my resistance to chicken casseroles was a result of the fact that they all were pretty similar and it just got old.

So my version was a little different: I started with the basic chicken base from my crock pot chicken and dumplings. Then, because that covered the cooked chicken and cream of soup, I just needed some noodles and cheese. I cooked the noodles a little less than al dente because I knew they'd cook a bit more in the oven. I also broke them up a bit so they were closer to bite sized (next time I may use another shape pasta) I also mixed in a little bit of cream cheese to add to the creaminess. I topped it with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese, but didn't mix in a ton of it. Then it all got tossed in a small casserole dish and baked at about 350 for 30 minutes.

The Verdict: Not bad! Next time I would probably add a little more cream cheese and perhaps a little sour cream. Jeff requested more cheddar cheese, too. Overall, this is a casserole I can get on board with.