Freezer Meals Part 1

We are less than 2 weeks away from baby time! Our newest is scheduled to be here on May 6th. So you know what that means, these last few weeks I have been/will be crunching with all the last minute to-do’s that I’ve been avoiding 🙂

If you follow my Facebook group, you know that I’ve been working hard on freezer meals over the last week. Freezer meals are a life saver! They are convenient, no matter what, but especially when you have a new baby. I made up a bunch of freezer meals when my last one was born, and it ended up being even more amazing than I had originally planned. They ended up keeping him in the hospital for over a week, and of course I stayed with him. If I hadn’t had all the freezer meals ready to go, my hubby probably would’ve ended up feeding my kids McDonald’s and pizza for that week.

This time around, I’m not anticipating needing the meals for this reason, but I am looking forward to not cooking, not stressing over what to make, and being able to have something the hubby can throw in if I’m too tired.

I know the only reason you all are reading this, is to see the recipes! But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

1. SHOPPING!
I spent a good 2 or 3 days making up a meal list before I did my shopping for the freezer meals. Hours were spent perusing Pinterest looking for new, freezer friendly recipes. It really doesn’t have to take that long, I just really wanted to update all my freezer meal recipes! As you can see here, a lot of my recipes use noodles and sauces. Make your freezer meal list, complete with all of your ingredients before you shop. Make sure you plan accordingly if you need to double recipes (like I have to do!). Once I had my complete grocery list made out, I put in my orders online thru Sam’s Club and Walmart Grocery Pickup and voila! Simple as that 🙂

2. STORAGE!
It’s necessary to stock up on storage for your freezer meals! I bought these pans and lids (sold separately) from Sam’s Club for about $15 (for 36 pans and lids). I buy the disposable pans when I’m planning to freeze oven meals, but if you plan on freezing Instant Pot or Crockpot meals, you can use gallon size Ziploc bags for storage.

3. LABELING!
I take a sharpie and write out what meal it is, what temp and time to cook it at, as well as add if it needs to be paired with a side (like bread). Some stuff works if you put it directly from frozen to the oven, some doesn’t. So I always make sure my label includes instructions on whether it can be cooked frozen, needs to be thawed, or both.

That’s the basics of my prep work! Not too bad, right? Now what you have all been waiting for….the recipes! 🙂

~~TUSCAN CHICKEN PASTA~~
16oz bowtie pasta
4Tbps butter
4 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2Tbps dried basil
8oz cream cheese (softened)
8oz sun-dried tomatoes
2cups milk
8oz grated Parmesan cheese
1/2tsp black pepper
1/2tsp salt
1 chicken breast (diced)

In a medium pot or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the whole time. Stir in the dried basil. Add the cream cheese, stirring with a whisk until the mixture is smooth. It will look curdled at first, but with constant whisking for 2-3 minutes, it will become a smooth creamy paste. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes. Keep cooking over medium heat and add the milk and whisk quickly and constantly until it is blended into the sauce. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, pepper and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the cheese is melted and the sauce is the desired consistency, 5-10 minutes. Fully cook pasta noodles and drain. Fully cook chicken in skillet (I season the chicken with salt and pepper only). Add everything into a 9×13 pan. Once cooled, cover and freeze.

To cook when frozen: Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until heated through
To cook when thawed: Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through.

 

~~CHILI & CORNBREAD~~
24oz can tomato sauce
24oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 packet chili seasoning (I use McCormick Original or Chili-O)
12oz chili beans (do not drain)
2lbs ground beef

Brown ground beef in a pot and drain grease. Add back into pot, and add the remaining ingredients. Stir together and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes. Transfer Chili into disposable pan, cover, and freeze.
To cook from frozen: Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.
To cook from thawed: Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

For the cornbread, you can buy boxed mix and make corn muffins, or do like I did this time and buy pre-made cornbread from the store. Transfer the bread into a gallon Ziploc and freeze.
Thaw cornbread and cook at 350 until warm (about 10-15 minutes).

~~Apple Raisin Oatmeal~~
**This recipe makes 4 9×13 pans of oatmeal bake!**
10 cups old fashioned oats
3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp All Spice
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Vanilla extract
4 small diced apples (you can peel or not, depending on preference)
2 cups raisins (or other dried fruit. I used dried cherries as well)
8 eggs
1 cup melted butter (melted)
10 cups milk

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together vanilla, apples, raisins, eggs, butter, and milk. Once both bowls are thoroughly combined, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Divide mixture among 4 9×13 pans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool, cover, and freeze.
To cook from thawed: Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

 

~~SALSA CHICKEN~~
3 chicken breasts
8oz cream cheese
1 small jar of salsa (whatever you like)
8oz black beans
8oz corn
Taco seasoning

Season chicken with taco seasoning, cook and shred. (I put mine in the crockpot for 6 hours on high, then shred it). Mix all ingredients together in pan and freeze. Serve over rice or on tortillas.

To cook from thawed: Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

 

Here are some links to other recipes I’ve made so far:

Chicken & Bean Taquitos
Baked Ziti

I hope you all enjoy! Check back for more freezer meal recipes coming up this week!

~~Heather~~

Blog? What Blog?

I haven’t blogged since September… whaaaaaat! Oops!

How about I pick up with some Homeschooling stuff? Yay!

I’m a member of a homeschooling Christian mama group on Facebook, and I’m always seeing people post asking why we all chose to homeschool. Loaded question! Made me think a little… Next year I will have 4 kids homeschooled, and my hubby and I have a different reason for each one.

Here’s the simple breakdown:
* 10yo daughter: She was held back in public school this year due to learning issues. The good news? Retaining her (with extra help) has helped her catch up! Yay! Problem solved! So why homeschool? Honestly? No reason other than she found out all of her siblings were going to be homeschooled next year and she didn’t want to be left out…
Hey, I’ll take it!

*8yo son: He has been diagnosed with an Intellectual Disability (ID for short). In public school (before the current school year), he was in “2nd grade ESE”. Academically, however, he is only on a Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten level in every subject. The public schools covered this delay with an IEP that set extremely low goals for him to accomplish each year in order to pass. His last year in public school, I was told by his teacher that he would sit in his desk and refuse to participate in any class work/activities pretty much all day, every day. But hey, he accomplished his IEP goal of “Identify 5 of 26 letters in the alphabet” and “Count to 5” so… he passes the entire grade!…? Let’s add this to the fact that he was being bullied and abused at school (by his teacher), and you can see why this year, he’s home with me… actually learning!

*7yo daughter: Lord help me here. I could write a never ending blog on the hardships of parenting this one… but I won’t. She’s our wild child, the one that tests every limit set in every aspect of life just to see where your breaking point is. She has been involved in counseling for the last 2 years to try and fix her behavior issues (which are too many to list here), but to no avail. She’s currently failing 1st grade, but let’s be honest here, with the standards of our public school system, she’s basically failing Kindergarten level material. And her teacher’s methods of teaching are severely lacking for this kids specific issues. She has been diagnosed with ADHD (don’t get me started on this, I don’t agree with it… not the place to get into it in this blog!) and is currently on medication that has been increased several times over the last few months, yet still doesn’t help one little lick!
Let’s be honest, she has an insane lack of self control, blatant disregard for rules, and non-existent self responsibility. Her school’s staff is obviously not equipped to handle a child like her, and it’s causing some severe safety concerns throughout this year (for both her and other students). Therefore, she will be home with me, under a more watchful and disciplinary eye.

*5yo daughter: Her birthday misses the public school cutoff to start Kindergarten by 1 day… ONE DAY! Therefore, without homeschool, she would have been held back an additional year, and would be 6 years old before she was finally able to start school. Thankfully, I don’t have a terrible public school experience to pair with her, and I intend to keep it that way!

So there’s all of my “why’s”! And my 2 youngest (2yo son and daughter due in May) will be homeschooled just because that’s how we roll now!

I promise I will keep up with posting over the next couple of months! I’ve got an awesome Summer project planned for the kids (details to come!) and I’ll be purchasing next year’s school curriculum later this month! I will definitely be sharing with you all! Thanks for reading 🙂

~~Heather~~
Psalm 127:3