We enjoyed our first frozen meal of the month today. It was very yummy!
Here's the short version:
2 chicken breasts (I trimmed them fiercely, because I think chicken is gross)
1 red onion (I used a little one, and cut it in 1" chunks)
3 carrots (also cut in 1" chunks)
1 big can pineapple chunks (which are, conveniently, about 1")
3/4 c. teriyaki sauce (I made mine. It had soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and ground ginger. I didn't measure, so I don't know how to explain it.)
It cooked on LOW for 11 hours...because that's how long my day was. It was probably done after about 6 hours. But it wasn't ruined! If I had a CrockPot with a fancy timer, I would've used it, but I have a very simple CrockPot.
When I got home, I made rice (3/4 c. rice, 1.5 c. chicken broth). Then I cut up the chicken breasts into chunks (you guessed it....about 1"!) and served it all together in my pasta bowls.
The chicken was a smidge dry, but with the sauce from the CrockPot, it was fine. It was just enough for the two of us. I didn't make any other sides to go with it, but something green might've been nice. Maybe some edamame, but my husband doesn't like them. :)
Friday, September 7, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
All the dinners in September
Since we've been married, we've always tried to plan meals a week at a time. When we're on our game. Sometimes life gets busy, or we get lazy, and that doesn't happen. But when we plan, it's usually one week out. And then we grocery shop, and the food gets put in the fridge and the cabinet, and sometimes we cook it and sometimes we eat out instead. It's an imperfect system that wastes a lot of food and money and calories, none of which we can really spare these days.
So. With the advent of Pinterest, I have been squirreling away recipes and inspiration for meal planning and CrockPot cooking. I've toyed with the idea before, but never really tried it. This past week, though, I got a wild hair. I knew that we hadn't made any plans for Labor Day weekend, so I'd have about two and a half days in which to shop and cook. I used the monthly page of my agenda (where I already have recorded our work schedules and other stuff) to jot down meals for every M/T/Th/F/S of the month. Wednesdays are dinner group nights, and while I need to take a turn cooking this month, it didn't go into planning. Sundays we eat dinner with my parents, so I didn't need to plan those nights. Friday nights were easy stuff fun stuff, like pizzas. Saturdays varied, including two when I know we'll be busy or apart, so we'll eat out.
In the end, I planned five chicken dishes, three pork dishes, and four beef/venison dishes which can be prepared in advance and frozen, then cooked in the CrockPot or just heated up on the stove. I made a grocery list based on what we'd need (9 onions? 14 chicken breasts?!) and what we already had (venison!).
Yesterday morning, I dragged my tired first week of school self out of bed and Genevieve and I headed to Mom's. (Never brave WalMart for groceries with a baby without reinforcements, even if she is the happiest baby ever.) The three of us spent over an hour in Wally World, and I spent $140 on groceries, including some treats because I was getting hungry. Genevieve got lots of attention, and then she fell asleep in the front carrier, which meant that I was suddenly left handed, because her head was resting in my right hand. It's very difficult to manage produce bags with only your nondominant hand - hence the reinforcements. Thanks, Mimi! :)
When Genevieve and I got home later, we hopped back in the car with Matt and headed to Harris Teeter. I refuse to buy my meat at WalMart. I have some standards left. :) So we acquired 11 chicken breasts (turns out we had some already), a chuck roast, a *huge* pork shoulder roast that I ended up cutting in half, pork chops, and a value pack of chicken thighs. We also got a couple of things I couldn't find at WalMart, a six pack of beer, and 6 gallons of water for Matt's next brew session. He spent $88. (Probably about $60 on food stuffs...)
Last night I made a double batch of Mexitalian Spaghetti Sauce (with ground venison). If you've had spaghetti at our house lately, it's been this recipe, and it's awesome and freezes well. Since it's just the two of us eating (for a few more months...), a double batch made one bag that's in the fridge for Tuesday night and four bags that are in the freezer for next month or later. I also made two recipes of pizza dough - one traditional white-flour dough and one more rustic WW-honey dough. Each recipe made two pizza doughs, all of which I went ahead and rolled out and par baked. Those are also wrapped and frozen. The WW ones are smaller, so we'll probably eat both of those one Friday. The white ones are big enough that we can eat one this month the other time I planned pizza and save one for next month. Pizza dough is really fun to make, especially with a stand mixer and dough hook. The last thing I made last night was 6 individual batches of pizza sauce. Each batch is 1 can of tomato paste, some honey and spices, and warm water. I set up an assembly line of baggies and filled them all in record time. Now I have pizza sauce for all four of my crusts, plus two left over for next month or later.
Today I started by cleaning up the rest of the mess I didn't quite manage last night. Then I labeled gallon bags for all the chicken recipes and started cleaning chicken breasts (gross!!). When I finished, I divided them up into the appropriate baggies and froze the scraps to use in broth later. Then I chopped onions, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, ginger, and zucchini/squash and put them in the appropriate bags. There were cans of broth and soup, a batch of teriyaki sauce, and a little cooking, and then I had:
- Lemon Garlic Chicken (Leftovers of this for pizza one time.)
- Chicken and Spinach
- Sesame Ginger Chicken (one for this month and an extra to use up the rest of the value pack chicken thighs)
- Teriyaki Chicken
- Chicken and Dumplins
Then I moved on to pork. Matt used our meat cleaver to hack the 7.5 pound pork shoulder (bone in) in half, more or less. I made a double batch of the best BBQ sauce ever and put each half of the pork shoulder in a gallon bag with half the BBQ sauce and a 15 ox can of pineapple chunks. Yum. I also have a small two pack of pork chops to freeze.
- BBQ Pineapple Pork (2x because we like this a lot. Leftovers will go on pizza one time.)
- Pork chops
And then I finished up with the beef. I browned the chuck roast and packaged it with 4 onions and a lovely sauce.
- Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast
All of these lovely meals are now sitting in our freezer waiting to be thawed the day before we need them. All of them except the pork chops, spaghetti, and pizza get cooked in the CrockPot. I am so very excited!
For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, all the recipes are on my Hungry Hungry Hippos board. I'm writing this post on my old computer, so I'm not trying to create all the links. You can find them. Or ask me. :)
So. With the advent of Pinterest, I have been squirreling away recipes and inspiration for meal planning and CrockPot cooking. I've toyed with the idea before, but never really tried it. This past week, though, I got a wild hair. I knew that we hadn't made any plans for Labor Day weekend, so I'd have about two and a half days in which to shop and cook. I used the monthly page of my agenda (where I already have recorded our work schedules and other stuff) to jot down meals for every M/T/Th/F/S of the month. Wednesdays are dinner group nights, and while I need to take a turn cooking this month, it didn't go into planning. Sundays we eat dinner with my parents, so I didn't need to plan those nights. Friday nights were easy stuff fun stuff, like pizzas. Saturdays varied, including two when I know we'll be busy or apart, so we'll eat out.
In the end, I planned five chicken dishes, three pork dishes, and four beef/venison dishes which can be prepared in advance and frozen, then cooked in the CrockPot or just heated up on the stove. I made a grocery list based on what we'd need (9 onions? 14 chicken breasts?!) and what we already had (venison!).
Yesterday morning, I dragged my tired first week of school self out of bed and Genevieve and I headed to Mom's. (Never brave WalMart for groceries with a baby without reinforcements, even if she is the happiest baby ever.) The three of us spent over an hour in Wally World, and I spent $140 on groceries, including some treats because I was getting hungry. Genevieve got lots of attention, and then she fell asleep in the front carrier, which meant that I was suddenly left handed, because her head was resting in my right hand. It's very difficult to manage produce bags with only your nondominant hand - hence the reinforcements. Thanks, Mimi! :)
When Genevieve and I got home later, we hopped back in the car with Matt and headed to Harris Teeter. I refuse to buy my meat at WalMart. I have some standards left. :) So we acquired 11 chicken breasts (turns out we had some already), a chuck roast, a *huge* pork shoulder roast that I ended up cutting in half, pork chops, and a value pack of chicken thighs. We also got a couple of things I couldn't find at WalMart, a six pack of beer, and 6 gallons of water for Matt's next brew session. He spent $88. (Probably about $60 on food stuffs...)
Last night I made a double batch of Mexitalian Spaghetti Sauce (with ground venison). If you've had spaghetti at our house lately, it's been this recipe, and it's awesome and freezes well. Since it's just the two of us eating (for a few more months...), a double batch made one bag that's in the fridge for Tuesday night and four bags that are in the freezer for next month or later. I also made two recipes of pizza dough - one traditional white-flour dough and one more rustic WW-honey dough. Each recipe made two pizza doughs, all of which I went ahead and rolled out and par baked. Those are also wrapped and frozen. The WW ones are smaller, so we'll probably eat both of those one Friday. The white ones are big enough that we can eat one this month the other time I planned pizza and save one for next month. Pizza dough is really fun to make, especially with a stand mixer and dough hook. The last thing I made last night was 6 individual batches of pizza sauce. Each batch is 1 can of tomato paste, some honey and spices, and warm water. I set up an assembly line of baggies and filled them all in record time. Now I have pizza sauce for all four of my crusts, plus two left over for next month or later.
Today I started by cleaning up the rest of the mess I didn't quite manage last night. Then I labeled gallon bags for all the chicken recipes and started cleaning chicken breasts (gross!!). When I finished, I divided them up into the appropriate baggies and froze the scraps to use in broth later. Then I chopped onions, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, ginger, and zucchini/squash and put them in the appropriate bags. There were cans of broth and soup, a batch of teriyaki sauce, and a little cooking, and then I had:
- Lemon Garlic Chicken (Leftovers of this for pizza one time.)
- Chicken and Spinach
- Sesame Ginger Chicken (one for this month and an extra to use up the rest of the value pack chicken thighs)
- Teriyaki Chicken
- Chicken and Dumplins
Then I moved on to pork. Matt used our meat cleaver to hack the 7.5 pound pork shoulder (bone in) in half, more or less. I made a double batch of the best BBQ sauce ever and put each half of the pork shoulder in a gallon bag with half the BBQ sauce and a 15 ox can of pineapple chunks. Yum. I also have a small two pack of pork chops to freeze.
- BBQ Pineapple Pork (2x because we like this a lot. Leftovers will go on pizza one time.)
- Pork chops
And then I finished up with the beef. I browned the chuck roast and packaged it with 4 onions and a lovely sauce.
- Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast
All of these lovely meals are now sitting in our freezer waiting to be thawed the day before we need them. All of them except the pork chops, spaghetti, and pizza get cooked in the CrockPot. I am so very excited!
For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, all the recipes are on my Hungry Hungry Hippos board. I'm writing this post on my old computer, so I'm not trying to create all the links. You can find them. Or ask me. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)