Freezer Meals: Take 1

Yes, I have jumped on the freezer meal bandwagon and I am loving it! I made 2 family dinner servings of 5 different freezer meals. That's a total of 10 meals prepared and ready for the freezer or the crockpot in only a couple of hours!! How could you not love that?! Last weekend I had one of those rare nights when both kids were asleep by 7pm (I think it was all the geocaching we did that day). I figured I would seize the opportunity to start meal planning before I was ready for bed. Here is part of the outcome my couple of hours of hard super simple work...

The meals I made were:

Semi-Homemade Meat Sauce (1 dinner worth)
Homemade Meatballs (for either Meatball Parms or Spaghetti) (3 dinners worth)
My famous Sausage & Peppers (2 dinners worth)
Ring Around the Rosies's Teriyaki Chicken (2 dinners worth)
Homemade Sloppy Joes (2 dinners worth)

Unfortunately, when it comes to my own recipes for cooking I don't usual follow the "recipe" the same time twice. I do know though that I love finding new recipes to test out, so I will attempt to make some recipes for the meals I made.

ITEMS NEEDED FOR ALL MEALS:

 -Gallon Size Freezer Bags
 -Sharpie Marker

Note: I like to write the date, what is in the bag, time in the crockpot, and anything else that needs to be added into the crockpot

Semi-homemade Crockpot Meat Sauce (Freezer Version):

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef browned

2 16oz an of tomato sauce (i use Hunt's Basil and Oregano)

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

Freezing Directions: While browning ground beef, Mix all other ingredients in a medium size bowl and divide in half. Put one half in a gallon size freezer bag, and keep the rest to the side for later (italian meatballs). After ground beef has been browned and slightly cooled add that to the freezer bag with other ingredients and gently shake to mix in ground beef.  If you do not want to freeze, skip the freezer bag part and cook on low in Crockpot for approx 4hrs

Italian Meatballs (Freezer Version):

Ingredients:

3lbs of ground beef

2 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

1 cup of breadcrumbs

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of oregano

2 tsp of basil

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of ground black pepper

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 Tblspn of oil

Crockpot Meat Sauce

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a large bowl by hand. Heat up frying pan with a Tblspn of oil. Roll meatballs into golf size balls (i like to use a cookie scoop to do this) and place in heated frying pan. Continue to turn meatballs in frying pan until cooked on all sides. Remove meatballs from frying pan and place on paper towels. Continue until all meat mixture has been cooked. Divide meatballs evenly (makes about 60) and place in 3 freezer bags. Put a 1/3 of reserved sauce from recipe above in bag with meatballs and gently shake to mix. When ready to use, cook in crockpot and add a jar of your favorite sauce (or create sauce above minus ground beef). Cook on low for approximately 4hrs.

Serve over spaghetti or on italian rolls with parmesan & mozzarella cheese for meatball parms.

As the week goes on I will figure out how I make my sausage and peppers and sloppy joes and will get them posted for you all. For now I hope you enjoy these recipes. You will definitely not be disappointed with them, especially the Italian meatballs, they are DELICIOUS!!

Happy Hump Day!

<3 Kris
Fabric Nerds

What's for Dinner?

Ever have one of those days when you desperately need to go grocery shopping but don't have time, no money for take out, and need to make something for dinner? Yup been there also...just this last Monday actually.

Here is a simple, no need to grocery shop, majorly family approved recipe for you all. Unfortunately I only got a picture of my husband's leftovers for lunch because by the time I got back from school it had all been devoured :) 

Crock-pot Apple & Onion Pork chops

Ingredients:

1. 4 boneless pork chops (bone in is fine or chicken breasts would be yummy too - whatever you have in the freezer)
2. 1 small onion (don't have on hand no problem you could use dried minced onion or onion powder)
3. 2 apples (any kind)
4. 1/2 cup brown sugar
5. 1/2 cup of apple juice
6. 1/2 cup of water
7. Approx 1 tbsp of Mrs. Dash Original (this is what I had on hand but many other seasoning mixes would taste yummy)

Directions:

1. Place pork chops in crock pot (they do not need to be thawed. I didn't have much time so threw them in frozen and they still came out extremely tender!)
2. Slice up apples and coarsely chop up onion and put over pork chops
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over pork chops
4. Pour apple juice and water over everything
5. Sprinkle Mrs. Dash all over (put as little or as much as you like)
6. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high
7. Serve with favorite sides (I served with rice cooked in bold chicken stock adds great flavor! and green beans)
8. Enjoy!

<3

Taste Tested and Delicious

If you are like me you probably sometimes get stuck into a boring repertoire of dinner foods. Mine usually involves a lot of pasta, pork, and ground beef/turkey. In hopes of getting out of this cyclone of boring meals I went to what I am known best for...google searching and found a bunch of easy, inexpensive, yummy meals. All which are kid and husband approved.

The first recipe comes from Weelicious and is absolutely fantastic:

Crockpot Pulled Pork Tacos

Photo courtesy of Weelicious

Pulled Pork Tacos (Serves 6-8)

1 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tsp Paprika
1 Tsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Salt
1 3 1/2-4 Lb Pork Shoulder, rinsed and cleaned
1 16 oz Jar Mild Salsa (I used Pace Chunky Salsa)
1 Pkg. Tortillas, corn or flour tortillas

Condiments: Salsa, Big Kid Guacamole, cilantro, diced onion, shredded cheese, sour cream

1. Place the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and mix.
2. Place the pork shoulder in the Crock Pot (slow cooker) and rub all over with the seasoning mixture.
3. Pour the jar of salsa around the pork shoulder.
4. Cook on low heat for 8-12 hours.
5. Remove the pork to a plate and using 2 forks, shred the into bite size pieces (I like to remove the visible pieces of fat).
6. Pour a scoop or two of the juices into the pork and stir to combine (If you want to remove the excess fat from the juice you will use, pour it into a cup and refrigerate it until the fat solidifies and can be easily scooped out. Only the juices will remain).
7. Place the pork into the tortillas.
8. Serve with desired accompaniments.

The second recipe comes from Mama Loves Food and is also a crockpot recipe.

Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

Photo courtesy of Mamalovesfood.com

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup Ingredients:

• 5 pounds russet potatoes, washed but NOT peeled. Diced into 1/2 inch(ish) cubes
• 1 medium/large yellow onion, diced
• 10 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 5 tsp of jarred garlic)
• 64 ounces (8 cups) chicken stock or broth
• 16 oz cream cheese, softened (I use low fat)
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt (I used Original Mrs. Dashes)
• optional garnishes: crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, green onions

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup Directions:

1. Add potatoes, onion, garlic, seasoning, and chicken stock to slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 10 hours.
3. Add the softened cream cheese and puree soup with animmersion blender until the cheese is incorporated and about half the soup is blended. (I used my little food processor and removed  half the soup and added cream cheese to an upright blender, then re-incorporated).
4. Stir well, top with your choice of garnishes & enjoy!

NOTE: You can use cream instead of cream cheese to help in the calorie department but the cream cheese just gives it a nice baked potato tasting kick.

WARNING: Yields TONS of soup :)

Last Recipe Courtesy of Pinterest:

Taco Bites (Was the kid camp out spot at Super Bowl Party and gone within 10 mins). Also great for an appetizer dinner night paired with your other favorite appetizer recipes.

Taco Bite Ingredients:

• Wonton Wrappers
• 1 lb ground beef/turkey
• 1 pkt of taco seasong
• Shredded cheese of choice
• Shredded Lettuce
• Diced Tomatoes (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Brown ground beef/turkey
3. Add taco seasoning (follow directions of back of packet)
4. Press a wonton wrapper in each mini muffin tin cup
5. Fill each cup with ground beef mixture
6. Bake in oven for approx 10 mins
7. Add toppings
8. Chow down!

Yields approximately 24 Taco bites

Hope these recipes help inspire your dinner meals. I have a bunch more in my binder of recipes to try, as they get taste tested and approved I will post more for you all :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

<3 Kristyn