[Happy Song]

Well it is coming down to wire! My Dh is going back to school and the responsibility for cooking is coming back onto me. Which is fine except I am on bed rest and i am expecting to give birth and have two little one to take care of. If there is one BTDT thing i know is that dinner time is the worst hour of the day.

When dinner time hits for some reason the toddler is hungry and wants to eat now. The husband will just be coming in from their days and the baby always needs attention. My teen will aslo have some additional activities so he'll need to get in and back out again. I need to be as prepared for dinner as possible. What we are doing for the start of school and for right after baby comes is having dinner all ready in the freezer to make pre time as easy as possible.

To help motivate me I am going to document the whole process, just in case someone else wants to try it. But the main reason is to get me motivated to get it done so I am stress free for the next two months. Yes that is right we are doing a two month cook off!

[Happy Song]

The Menu:

Sunday: Beef Bourguignon
Monday: Meat loaf roast potatoes and carrots
Tuesday: Minestrone soup
Wednesday: Chinese chicken rice and store bought pot stickers
Thursday: Fajitas tortillas onion bell pepper beans and rice
Friday: pizza pepperoni home made


Sunday: Lemon Rosemary pork loin
Monday: Hamburgers tater tots
Tuesday: Zuppa Toscana bread sticks
Wednesday: Chicken nuggets mac and cheese green beans
Thursday: Home made lasagna bread
Friday: Chile verde tortillas or rice jack cheese
Saturday: Pepperoni pizza home made

[Happy Song]

Beef Bourguignon

Originally from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller page 174. This has been heavily adjusted for freezer cook/crock pot cooking. Her original recipe was for a quick meal using good steak to make a stew.

1 lb bacon
2 pot roast/dtew meat for 4 meals
salt and pepper
1 cup flour
4 tsp Thyme
8 tsp garlic
4 cups red wine
enough beef bouillon for 2 cups beef broth/ or 2 cups broth
2 cans tomato paste
12 medium carrots
1 head celery
2 lbs slice mushrooms

1.In large electric skillet/pan cook bacon until crispy

2.Cut roast into cube 1 ½ inches season with salt and pepper. Dredge and fry in bacon drippings

3.Prep veggies into 1 ½ pieces

4.In 4 1 gallon freezer bags divide veggies. To each bag add 1spn Thyme, 2 tsp garlic, 1 cup red wine, 2 cups beef broth or bulion to add water later. ½ can tomato paste. Divide meat. Seal.

5.In sperate small baggie operate the bacon into 4 portions. Staple bacon baggie to beef mix baggie.

6.to cook thaw mixture in fridge. Cook in crock pot 6-8 hours on high. Stir bacon in right before serving.

Serves 4 days for 4

[Happy Song]

Meat loaf

I really don't have a recipe for this! I just add whatever we have around. In this one I plan to make 10lbs of meat loaf with veggies grated into it.

I am planning to freeze it raw surrounded by potatoes, celery and carrots. I don't usually freeze my potatoes and it will make then a little off but not like it going to be a huge deal.

Minestrone soup

Minestrone Soup



This is from the prudent homemaker web site. I plan on making this the day after the meat loaf and plan to start with the dripping and leaving out the can of Kidney beans and using some leftover meatloaf.

[Happy Song]

Chinese chicken.

Again no real recipe for this. DH will make this strating with 4 stir fry flavor packets. The veggies we are planning are broccoli, red bell pepper, onion and water chestnuts.

Once cooked it will be divide up in to 4 portions three will be frozen in zip lock freezer baggies. Add rice later and microwave to heat.

Snail shells

This origonally started out as Artichoke Manicotti in pesto cream. Very yummy but gives me BAD heart burn.

Filling: (for one box shells)

2 cans artichokes or asparagus (which are cheaper in the can)
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup threaded mozzarella cheese
½ cup Parmesan

Add all filling ingredients to blender. Blend until smooth. Fill zip lock freezer bag (regular ones tear) cut corner of the bag and fill cooked shells (or manicotti)

I use foil pans and layer canned spaghetti sauce on bottom add filled shells and cover with more sauce. Add more mozzarella cheese and Parmesan. Cover with foil label and freeze.

My blender is only about to one batch at a time so Ill do one batch asparagus and one batch artichoke.




Fajitas

This recipe is from America's most wanted recipes and is a knock off of the Chili's fajitas.

4lbs sirloin steak
8 oz diced green chilies
4 envelopes onion soup mix
4 cups water

cut meat into bite size pieces

Toss everything into the crock pot for 6-8 hours.

Divide meat into 4 zip lock freezer bags. Lable and freeze

I am planning to also cook up the onion and bell peppers in oil and freezing the veggies in a separate baggie as well as pre grating the cheddar cheese stapling all three baggies together

Serve with tortillas or rice with canned pinto or black beans.

Pizza
My DH is still looking for a new pizza dough recipe. So I am not sure how he is going to do this except that he will make up 8 batches of pizza dough dived into one meals worth and freeze.

The cheese should be pre grated and the pepperoni is in the freezer already. I like to use Sun dried tomato pesto for the pizza sauce he doctors up tomato sauce.

Hamburgers and tater tots

I am being lazy and buying pre made hamburgers and froze tater tots.

Zuppa Tosacana

America's most wanted recipes pg 159 Olive Garden

4 lbs Italian sausage
2 lbs bacon
4 cups water
2 cans chicken broth
8 lt potatoes
8 cloves garlic
4 med onions
8 cups Kale or frozen spinach
4 cups cream
salt and pepper

Cook up the sausage drain and set aside

Cook up Bacon drain and set aside

In zip lock freezer bags combine 1/4 sausage, ¼ bacon, ¼ potatoes, 2 cloves garlic minced, 1 medium onion. Seal freeze and lable

To cook up that mix in fridge over night add to crock pot in morning or stove pot that night. Add 4 to cups of water and 2 cans chicken broth. Cooking until potatoes are cooked.

Once potatoes are cooked add the frssh kale or frozen spinach and 1 cup cream heat but do not boil. Add salt and peper to taste.

Lasagna

Another toss it together recipe.

I used canned spaghetti sauce. Ground beef. Cottage cheese instead of ricotta, spinach, raw egg. Parmesan cheese.

This I layer into foil pans from Walmart. About 8x8. I foil the top label and freeze. I that in the fridge over night and all day and then cook at 350 for 60 min. Let stand for 15-30 before serving. Serve with bread and maybe a salad.

Chile Verde

This is a mama recipe that she brought home from work twenty years ago.

One large port shoulder roast
oil
flour
cayenne pepper
4lbs tomatillos
4 onions
16 oz diced green chiles

Cut port roast into 1 ½ inch cubes. Dredge in flow and fry sprinkling to taste (lightly!) with Cayenne papper)

Toss browned meat in crock pot on high.

Add cleaned and halved tomatillos, rough chopped onions and cans of green chiles cook 6-8 hours adjust salt pepper and cayenne before serving,

Serve with tortillas or rice and I prefer jack cheese.