Cooking Adventures Part 2: What's working for us...

Well, I should have known better than to say "stay tuned" for anything when it comes to blogging.  I'm pretty sure I meant to do the next post about recipes/meals that are working for us the next day, and that was, well, almost 2 months ago....

Things are going really well!  I feel like, as a family, we are making a lot healthier eating choices and even the girls are seeing the benefits of how much better your body feels without (too much) extra junk!  We are however a family who loves to eat, and bake, so we will never be a household where those things completely disappear- that would be way too sad!

It helps that I am in the midst of a 40 Day Paleo Challenge at my Crossfit box (is that the right terminology? still learning all this...).  Wow, it's challenging but I feel good!  I don't think Paleo eating will be a long term thing for our family- just not very maintainable over here, but it is definitely causing me to rethink some choices and learn other ways of preparing food.  Mainly we're focusing on foods in their most natural forms- heavy on fruits and veggies and protein, light on sweets.

I'm working on a healthy eating chart for the fridge for my little girls but I'm kind of having to come up with one myself, because everything I find online says something like "this is my reward..." at the end of the week and that's not what I'm looking for.

As promised, here are some meals that I've found that really work well for us. A lot of these will be links to other blogs that I've found and really enjoyed, some will be good old fashioned recipes from my handwritten recipe box.  I have a long list of others that I'm wanting to try and just haven't yet so, (dare I say it?), stay tuned....

Moroccan mango fish  Leave off the couscous and serve with just lettuce or other veggies and it's paleo.  We also do a similar fish for fish tacos that can be paleo too if in lettuce wraps.  Super yummy also with avocado.  (this is a great website- she has some great ideas especially for kids lunches)

Thai chicken:  I got this recipe from this blog.  She has some great ideas for freezer to crockpot meals.  I bought her e-cookbook, and do recommend it although I've changed several of the recipes to better suite our tastes.  The idea of freezer to crockpot meals has been great for us.   Here's our version of thai chicken:

I kilo bone-in chicken thighs (in Jordan I buy the frozen packages of Sabra thighs)

26 ounces coconut milk

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP soy sauce

2 medium onions

4-6 garlic cloves

2 red bell peppers chopped

2 green bell peppers chopped

2-4 carrots chopped

2 TBSP curry

2 tsp giner

Combine all ingredients in 2 gallon sized freezer bags.  On day of cooking, put in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours until chicken thoroughly cooked.  Remove chicken and shred with fork and stir back in to the liquid.  Garnish with scallions and chopped cilantro.  

(since you really can't go wrong with thai chicken anything, this is another coconut curry chicken recipe that we liked)

Since we're talking about freezer to crockpot meals, I liked this website also.  Especially the spicy vegetable beef soup.  It's easy and calls for stuff that I usually have on hand.  

 Marinated chicken or beef  I use this recipe tons and love it!  I usually slice my chicken or beef in strips, put it in the marinade and freeze it.  After thawing, I sauté it in the marinade and it's ready to go.  We use the chicken for "make your own salads"- a new family fave.  We make a big salad bar with chopped veggies, olives, avocados, hard boiled eggs, cheese etc.    Sometimes I'll just sauté the chicken along with some veggies and call it a meal.  Same with the beef.  The beef is also good for a black and blue salad with blue cheese, slivered almonds and either pears or apples.  

Speaking of salads, this is my current favorite salad dressing.  My girls also love it for dipping their zataar mannaeeshe in (I'm getting to what that is....).  

Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

3 TBSP honey (sometime I do less)

3 TBSP dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves 

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup olive oil

Combine all but olive oil and mix well.  Slowly whisk in oil until combined.

This lemony spinach recipe was a surprising hit with all of my family.  So much so that I have yet to be able to make enough of it...  This blog was also an instant hit with me considering the author is part Lebanese and you absolutely CANNOT go wrong with Lebanese food.  

This quinoa fried rice is also a new family favorite.  The quinoa means it's not paleo, but it is "clean" (WHO came up with all these terms anyway) and either way it's super good...  I changed it a bit and sautéed some chicken first that I stirred in at the end.  Also, we are not fans of green peas in our house so instead of green peas, I stirred in red cabbage- gave it more color anyway!

I really love using my crock pot.  Here are a some of our favorite crock pot recipes that taste yummy and make your house smell amazing all day.  

Crock pot greek chicken  (don't be intimidated by the cauliflower rice- another thing that my whole family has surprisingly enjoyed!)

Beef and broccoli  (not paleo but super yummy)

Thai beef stew  (also had this with cauliflower rice)

Thai chicken stuffed sweet potatoes  (yet another yummy surprise- sweet potatoes whether baked or oven fried have become a staple around here)

Moroccan chicken stew- this is Jason's moms recipe so I don't have a link, but it's too good not to share.  Can be made paleo by using almond flour or coconut flour and served over cauliflower rice or just by itself as a stew:

4 carrots, peeled & sliced

2 large onions, halved & thinly sliced

3 lb. meaty chicken pieces

½ cup raisins

½ cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

1 14-oz can chicken broth

¼ cup tomato paste

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1½ tsp. ground cumin

1½ tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

   Hot cooked couscous

   Pine nuts or slivered almonds, toasted

   Fresh cilantro (optional)

In a 5-6 quart slow cooker place carrots and onions.  Sprinkle chicken with ½ tsp. salt.  Add to cooker; top chicken with raisins and apricots.  In bowl whisk broth, tomato paste, flour, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and ¾ tsp. ground black pepper.  Add to cooker.  Cover.  Cook on low-heat setting for 6½ to 7 hours or on high-heat setting for 3½ to 4 hours.  Serve in bowls with couscous.  Sprinkle with nuts.  Garnish with cilantro.

So, I'm not doing wheat of any kind on paleo, but my family is, and this is a great all-purpose recipe.   I use it for dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, and our fave- Lebanese manaeeshe..

Hot Roll Mix- No Rise

1 TBSP yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 TBSP sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 cups sour milk, yogurt or buttermilk

1/2 tsp soda

5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

5 cups (or more) whole wheat flour

1/2 cup (or less) sugar- I usually don't put sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1 TBSP sugar.  Add remaining ingredients.  Mix and knead well.  Place in greased container.  Refrigerate.  The dough will keep a couple of weeks.  When needed, remove desired amount of dough.  NO NEED TO RISE!  Bake at 425.  

Manaeeshe

zataar (mix of thyme and other seasonings depending on the country)

salt (a little)

lemon juice (some)

olive oil (some)

Mozzarella or other local white cheeses

pizza dough rolled into mini pizzas (great for lunches!) or regular sized

Make dough.  Combine zataar and other seasonings to make a thick greenish paste.  Spread on dough and sprinkle with cheese if desired.  Bake 350 for 10-12 minutes until cheese is golden.  

If you know me, you know what a sweet tooth I have.  As I said before, we love baking!  Here are some recipes I've found to satisfy that while doing paleo:

Apricot power bars

paleo "brownies" with dates  (am NOT a fan of dates at all, but these were yummy!)

Cake in a cup (like she says, if you're trying to lose weight, this might not should be a frequent flyer on your menu JUST because it's paleo- but it's good!)

pumpkin smoothie (so yummy!  I lessen the ginger a bit...)

Here's a list of some other things I'm trying to keep on hand for snacks and quick side dishes/meals:

sweet potatoes ("bake" very quickly in microwave for an easy meal)

cucumbers and carrots watched, sliced and ready for snacking

blanched green beans (surprisingly another yummy snack!)

roasted almonds (also use to make almond butter)

apples with almond butter

hardboiled eggs

I'm sure there are others but I'm tired of talking about food and I have a 3 year old who's ready to make play dough.  Let me know favorite recipes or sites that you've found to make healthy eating easier for your family!  

Cooking adventures

Here's a look at my latest post on the cooking blog I share with some overseas friends.  It's been a while since any of us have posted, but I thought I'd start it back with sharing about my journey towards finding healthy and easy and do-able recipes for our overseas family.   You can click on "my recipes" in the top right on this blog or just go HERE.  Please let me know your ideas and any favorite recipes  and tips you have- especially for those of us trying to figure this all out overseas on a shoestring budget!

Here's my most recent post on the cooking blog:

Still here and still cooking- just never time to post about it!  We got back from several months of traveling this summer in severe need of de-tox from all the French bread and cheese and Belgian chocolate!

I'm in the middle of trying to revitalize the way our family eats as a whole.  In the past, I've been guilty of dieting myself but not really providing the healthiest of meals for my family in the process.  There are all sort of excuses to be offered not the least of which is the difficulty of getting certain "healthy" ingredients since we live overseas.  The bigger issue is not so much that exact ingredients aren't available but that foods that most diets suggest you avoid to lose weight- potatoes, pastas, white breads are the things that are available here in abundance at a reasonable price.  Meats overall are just so expensive that it's hard to build a diet around meats being a huge source of your protein.  On the plus side, produce here is typically less expensive and although not necessarily labeled as "organic", it's likely coming to you in it's truest form.  Meat, though expensive, is also quite fresh and doesn't have all the "junk" added to it that I'm reading about being added in American grocery stores.  (at least that's what I'm telling myself when meat that I bought 1.5 before and forgot to freeze or prep is already bad in the fridge...)

I am very thankful that no one in our family has any sort of allergies or food intolerances.  That allows me lots of freedom in the way I prepare our food.  On the flip side, it also makes me lazy on days when I'm just too tired or busy and the quick options aren't usually all the healthy.

I'm hoping that more planning on my part and a little more organization in the kitchen will help me not do the lazy, unhealthy thing quite so often.  Hopefully the result will be a healthier, happier family.  Again, we are so blessed to have no huge health issues that affect the way that we eat.  We do however have 2 family members over 40 (HOW?!) whose metabolisms seem to be on the decline, 2 teenagers who are learning to love cooking and have a desire to be healthy, and a school-ager and a toddler whom I want to lead in establishing healthy eating patterns and developing a love for all foods in their God created form.  I am not feeling led at this point to guide our family in completely giving up certain food groups or even types of food.  I'm still a bit old fashioned I guess in that I fully believe that moderation in all things food along with lots of water and plenty of exercise is key to good health.

My goal is to provide healthy meals for our family with food in it's truest form- I guess that's what many call "clean" eating or "real food"?  We're going to try and avoid processed food, stuff with mile long ingredient lists, cut back on sugar and ramp up on fresh veggies and fruit.  We're not going to be super strict with our rules because our lives at this point do not allow that.  Sure enough, as soon as I've gone 3-5 days with no sugar, we'll be invited to a neighbors and served chocolate cake and tea with enough sugar that's it's practically tea flavored syrup.  We're going to have a lot of grace with each other but the end overall goal is better health.  We may have seasons of no this or that just to see if it affects the way we feel overall.  Obviously my goals as a 40 year old needing to lose 5-10 pounds are different than the goals I would have for my teenage daughters who could give any teenage boy a run for their money as far as appetite size, and those goals are different yet again from my school-ager going through a pudgy stage but also hungry at every minute of the day, and with yet again different goals for my oh-so-finicky preschooler who most days doesn't seem to eat enough to keep a small bird alive.   I'm working on figuring out a way to help us all record our fruit/veggie intake, our water intake as well as keep a record of sweets and junk food with a goal of 1, maybe 2 treats a week, depending on the situation.

I decided that it might be fun (and helpful to me!) to record things that are successful, things that don't work so much and foods and recipes that I come across in the process.  There are SO MANY sources out there that it is beyond overwhelming to me, so maybe this might help some others who live overseas to narrow down the search and find things that are do-able for busy families.

Here are some cooking/shopping/prepping principles that I'm currently working with that I'm sure will change as I continue to figure things out.  These are things that are helping our budget as well as our bellies- at least that's the goal!

1.  Buying lots of fresh veggies and fruits means that I also have to allow prep time in the kitchen preferably on the day that I shop or at least the very next day.  I buy whatever fruits are in season (right now it's mangoes-yummy!) and chop them and freeze them in 1 cup portions for smoothies.  Also for smoothies, I've been buying tons of spinach and freezing it in 2 cup portions.  It takes a lot of elbow grease to get it clean sometimes but it's worth it!  I find that for us if I have carrots and cucumbers washed, peeled and sliced that it's instant healthy snack, and they are much less likely to sit in the fridge unused and get mushy and yucky in the veggie drawer.

2.  Meat also requires prep time.  If I do buy boneless-skinless chicken breasts (not regularly), I try and marinade it and freeze it the day that I buy it so it's ready for a quick fix.  I'll also try to season and brown ground beef to freeze and use for later or marinate red meat as well if I happen to find cuts that looks decent (doesn't happen often, unfortunately!).

3.  Stay on the lookout for local produce that is cheap and healthy that the family likes.  Cabbage in any form is cheap here and I've been surprised how much my girls love it.  Cauliflower in various forms is also a big hit.

4.  Take advantage of my girls love to cook and bake but channel it towards healthy things.  Maddie stocked us up last week on whole wheat pizza dough, and we have a favorite whole wheat dough recipe that is great for multiple things- Lebanese pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls etc.  I'm on the lookout for a few paleo bread recipes if I'm doing a no carb season and also whole wheat bread recipes for other times- things that I know don't have all the added junk of store brands.

(they are also great helpers when it comes to chopping/prepping)

5.  Dry beans cooked in bulk and frozen for use in soups etc is much cheaper than the canned version.     We do a lot of soups with red or white beans and hummus is a favorite around here as a dip for veggies or as a spread.

6.  Freezer to crock-pot meals are awesome and I'm always on the look-out for those.  Finding good ones has been a bit hit or miss but I'll share the ones that have been hits with our family.  I try to keep a stock of gallon sized freezer bags so I can get these prepped the day I get home from the store with all the veggies and meats.  I've found that the pre-frozen chicken thighs (much cheaper than breasts) are great in most of the recipes that I've found.

I'll add to this list along the way as we learn more and figure things out.  At this point everyone in our family is excited about healthier eating and I've been encouraged by my girls willingness to give new things a try.

Stay tuned for the recipes we tried over the past few weeks and the links to blogs and websites that have been helpful to me in planning.

My version of freezer cooking

Grrr!!  Today is the perfect example of why I haven't been blogging much!  I got Anabelle down for  a nap at a time that gave me about an hour of free time before Naomi's bus gets home.  I was torn- catch up on blogging (which is what I wanted to do) or be a bit more productive and organize my calendar for the coming month including meal planning etc.  Well, I opted for the blogging, and here I sit almost 45 minutes later.  That's how long it's taken for iPhoto to upload (very few) pictures and Safari to actually agree to open the webpages I needed opened.  My computer is on it's last leg and I'm so thankful to even have one, but it's so frustrating to have simple things take so long.  So again, grrr!!!  

This isn't really the post I planned to write, but now that my time is a bit more limited than I thought, I'll just go with it.  

Over the past year since we bought our freezer, I've tried out several variations of freezer cooking and am gradually coming up with something that best suits our family.  I thought I'd summarize here what is best working for me since reading a variety of other people's approaches is what has been most helpful to me.  If you want, you can check out this post that I did last year as I had just began trying to figure out what was going to work for us.   

I've discovered that I'm not that big of a fan of a lot of the freezer crock pot meals.  The veggies get a bit too mushy for our taste OR they call for large amounts of meat that we really can't afford here.  If you are interested in the freezer to crockpot meals, click here for my favorite website.  The savory beef and vegetable soup is really good and I actually do it without the ground beef.  The balsamic onion pot roast is AMAZING and is South Beach diet friendly.  When we are able to find good cuts of beef, this is definitely our top choice.  This month I tried a thai coconut chicken that's a freezer to crockpot recipe.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  

Otherwise, I've been trying to take one or two days a month (usually just a morning while the big girls are in school) to stock the freezer in a way that makes overall meal prep easier and also cuts down our grocery budget.  Here's what's been working for me...

MEAT:  I have pretty much stopped buying boneless/skinless chicken breasts.  Instead I opt for whole chickens that I usually cook all at once either overnight in the crockpot or on the stove.  I throw in celery stalks, carrots, onions and spices and freeze the resulting broth as well.  

I either use the chicken right away in favorite casseroles that I freeze, or I'll freeze it by itself in 2 cup portions.  Casseroles like chicken pot pie, chicken spaghetti, curry chicken and broccoli are some of our favorites.  I also do A LOT of soups.  Especially in the winter.  Here is my cooking blog with some of our favorites like Hearty Italian Chicken Soup, Lemon Chicken Soup and Chicken Tortilla Soup.  

I also buy frozen packages of chicken thighs.  I have several crockpot recipes that call for putting chicken thighs on top of veggies and/or sauce and then you shred the meat just prior to serving.  

On the rare occasion that I buy boneless/skinless breasts, I love using this marinade for chicken or beef (also South Beach friendly).  I cut the chicken in strips and freeze it in the marinade and then it's easy to cook up as a topping for dinner portion salads (one of our favorites also that the girls have dubbed "make your own salads") or to saute along with fresh veggies as a meal.  

I don't buy much beef anymore but if I do come across ground beef that I like the looks of, I'll usually cook it in advance on my cooking day to use in tacos or spaghetti or I'll go ahead and make up sloppy joes to have for a quick school night meal.  And some of our favorite casseroles are pasta dishes like lasagna, and this freezes well.  Our first few years overseas, I never made lasagna because my favorite recipe called for cottage cheese which is outlandishly expensive IF you can find it, which is a big if.  I discovered a few years ago that I can substitute labneh (the local version of sour cream but better) for cottage cheese in my lasagna recipe and we all love it.  

VEGGIES and BEANS

It's a lot cheaper here to buy dry beans and cook them in bulk and freeze them in 2 cup portions for use in soups and salads as opposed to buying cans of beans (which are readily available just expensive).  I soak them overnight (if I remember) then cook them for several hours.  I do this with black, red and white beans, chick peas and occasionally pinto beans.  

Fresh produce is fairly readily available here and actually mostly inexpensive.  I try to keep chopped red and green peppers in the freezer to throw in recipes.  I also peel and slice carrots and cucumbers to keep in the fridge for school lunches and snacks.  Fresh fruit is seasonal here so I try to stock up on whatever is in season and freeze it in portions for smoothies.  This most recent round of cooking, I did mangoes and peaches in smoothie sized portions for the freezer.  

BAKING/GRAINS  I'm still figuring this one out.  I've tried several recipes that are muffin cup portions of oatmeal but haven't settled on one that I love.  I always try and keep several loaves of some type of breakfast bread in the freezer along with muffins.  Some favorites include banana bread, pumpkin bread, bran muffins, apricot/orange muffins and applesauce muffins.  I don't have many of these recipes readily available online (I'm still pretty old school when it comes to cooking and mostly use cookbooks or recipes written on index cards in my recipe box), but if you message me, I'd love to send you any of the recipes.  I also try and keep several pie crusts on hand in the freezer.  I have a great recipe that makes 3 at once.  I use these for quiches, quick desserts and pot pies.  (a lot of these recipes can be found here at my already mentioned cooking blog).   Here is my favorite pancake recipe to keep in the freezer.  These cinnamon oat pancakes freeze well and make a great quick breakfast.  I don't have a bread machine but I have tried out several homemade bread recipes.  I haven't done this much and don't have any favorites yet but am open to suggestions.  If I have time I try and keep homemade tortillas in the freezer as well.  Many of these things that I don't get to on one of the days that I set aside for cooking, I'll try and do along with fixing a meal on any given day and sometimes that's easier anyway.  

MISCELLANEOUS  Most of these things may only apply if you live overseas, but they have helped me cut down on time and money in our kitchen.  The dinner hour (or 2 or 3) can be such a crazy time that anything I can do in advance to cut corners helps.  

For example: chocolate chips... Ridiculously expensive here.  I buy large bars of chocolate and cut them up into cup sized portions to keep in the freezer to quickly grab for an after school snack or dessert.

Spices here come in boxes in ziploc bags that are really annoying once opened.  I keep them in baby food jars in my spice cabinet and it's so much more convenient.  

I've found online recipes for things like taco seasoning mix, ranch dressing mix and instant chocolate pudding that are helpful to have made up and on hand.  

I'm definitely still learning and would love to hear what works for you in your kitchen.    

Freezer cooking

So a few weeks ago I posted about my new stand alone freezer and my first attempts at freezer cooking.          So far, so good!  I've been so pleased with everything I've tried.  Jury's still out on how it's helping our budget but that's an issue for another day..  Wanted to share what I've tried, what I like, and how I'm making it work for us.

First, I'll say, that I don't think I'm going to do the whole cook one day for a whole month deal.  The logistics of buying that many groceries at once are challenging here, plus the likelihood of me having an entire day free and then desiring to spend said day in the kitchen are is very, VERY slim...

So.  I've been trying to figure out ways to work freezer cooking into our already busy schedule.  We have entered that crazy phase of life with the ages of our girls and the activities they're involved in- even overseas and with limiting them to one extracurricular.  It makes for some crazy afternoons with band pick-up, basketball practice, ballet class etc.  I want to have healthy meals for our family and not find myself at 5 o'clock wondering what in the world I'm going to cook.  So what seems to be working for me is doing a little here, a little there and gradually building up our stock of healthy food on hand.

Breakfast is a biggie for me as far as desiring to simplify.  And don't tell me to buy cereal.  It is CRAZY expensive here.  I will buy it occasionally but I try to have something hot for most days even if it's just scrambled eggs and toast.  I love these spinach/egg cups and they freeze well and are quick to throw together.  I'm trying to get in the habit of throwing together something like this while I'm in the process of fixing dinner.  Or if I bake something like muffins of some sort or a loaf bread for breakfast (I usually do that also while fixing dinner or sometimes right after the girls go to bed before I collapse for the night), I am doubling the recipe to put at least one portion in the freezer.  When fresh fruit is in season (like peaches or strawberries)- we live in a place where you usually can't get something if it's not in season, then I buy A LOT and freeze it in quart size ziploc bags and use it for smoothies.

Some other things I've started freezing that I'm hoping will both simplify the cooking process and help the budget:

• buy kilo bags of dried beans (I do red, black and white)and cook all at once and freeze in 2 cup portions- overall much cheaper than canned and better for you!
• cook whole pumpkin (I use Pioneer Woman's tips here) and freeze in 1 3/4 cup portion (same amount as canned)
• cook 2-3 whole chickens overnight in the crockpot, then shred and freeze in 2 cup portions- great for casseroles, chicken salad etc
• haven't done it yet but I'm looking for good whole wheat pizza crust and bread recipes to freeze
• this is my new fave pie crust recipe.  I followed one reader's suggestion and make 3 crusts out of it instead of 4, so I have at least 1 to freeze for later, sometimes 2
• soup, soup, soup!!  We love soup in the fall/winter because it's yummy and because it's budget friendly.   Check out my cooking blog here for some favorites like chicken tortilla soup (SO easy!), and corn and zucchini queso chowder to name a few

Moving on to crockpot freezer cooking.  I have found several websites that have kind of become my "go to" on this topic, but they are basically the same idea.  You prepare your ingredients and freeze and gallon size ziploc bags and put in the crockpot the day of.  Some have additional instructions like adding broth or additional seasonings or garnishes right before serving.  I ordered this ecookbook from the mama and baby love website for $9.99 and it has been fabulous.  So far every recipe I've tried has been great.  She uses all fresh ingredients which I love.  Ironically, she has a disclaimer at the beginning that you need to be prepared to spend a little more money on fresh ingredients but here overseas the fresh produce is actually less expensive than all the processed stuff- score!  Her recipes do have A LOT of meat (at least in my opinion).  I have reduced the amount of meat in most of the things I've done and have had great results.  

Here are some of the other websites I've come across that have had some great tips and recipes:

melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com 

Super helpful blog!  She goes through and gives step by step for getting several meals in the freezer at once.  She groups meals together that can be done in about 2 hours tops.  Today I prepped cilantro lime chicken (from this blog), thai chicken (from mama and baby love above), and made moroccan chicken stew (my recipe that I'll share eventually) all in the first hour of Anabelle's nap.  

everythingmom.com

I love this resource!  It's a long list of all different types of freezer meals.  Haven't tried much but I think it will be a great resource!

Here is another great resource.  I've found that a lot of these blogs link together and have similar ideas especially as far as the crockpot meals.  Seems you can kind of interchange ingredients to suit your own tastes.  

I've had fun exploring this topic and I hope I'll be able to share more ideas with you!  Would love to hear from anyone who has more tips on this topic!  

My kitchen tried to kill me today...

Ok, so not really, but at the end of the day, that's what I felt like! 

 And it's completely and totally my fault.  

I'm not sure why but for some insane reason, I thought it would be a good idea to start freezer cooking today.  I've been wanting to try it out for a while.  So, today, the day that I also traded out summer for winter clothes and prepared everything for our family to leave on a 2 day camping trip tomorrow, seemed like the worst day in the history of the planet!! perfect day to start.  I mean, I was already fighting storage wars in the bedrooms, why not turn my kitchen into a battle zone as well!!

 Ever since purchasing our stand-alone freezer, I've been looking into freezer cooking and trying to figure out how to make it best work for our family.  I finally decided to just give a few things a try and see what we like and what we don't.  I love the concept of putting everything in ziplocs in the freezer and having it ready to go into the crock pot with minimal work on the day you want to eat it.  I also have a few recipes (soups and casseroles) that I know freeze well so I plan to double those when I cook them and freeze half.  Today I kind of did a hodge podge of everything.

I have a board on pinterest with several very promises freezer cooking websites but I haven't had near the time I would like to figure it all out.  I came across this blog and she had some great, easy to follow, freezer, crockpot recipes.  She goes through step by step how to put everything together.  Even has it kind of grouped by the ingredients you use.  Y'all, this was SO EASY!  (ok, I know I said that my kitchen tried to kill me but I tend to try and do a bit too much at once which was definitely the case today..)  I also loved what I saw over at mamaandbabylove.com.  Even bought her ecookbook that's mostly crockpot recipes made with fresh ingredients.  

What I really love about this is the idea of using really fresh, non-processed ingredients.  It takes a lot of elbow grease to chop all the veggies..

... but so rewarding to have all those meals in the freezer!

I'll update when we've actually sampled some of the meals, but I hope they are so good because I could get used to this!   

Here's what I made today...

Spicy beef/veggie soup (for crockpot)

BBQ Chicken with fresh veggies(from mamaandbabylove.com

Orange Beef and Broccoli (kind of made this one up myself-will keep you posted)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

2 chickens cooked in crockpot last night overnight turned into chicken salad and soon to be white chili

And in the midst of all the freezer cooking, we (by this time Maddie was helping) also made our picnic lunch for the camping trip of tuna and chicken salads and raw veggies, and Maddie made the most AMAZING sugar cookies.  Will post that recipe soon!

Oh, and here's a cultural funny...

At the grocery yesterday I was figuring out which cheese was least likely to bust our budget this month.  Cheddar is expensive but sometimes it's marked down.  Anyway, I noticed these packages on the deli counter....   

(in case you can't read it, it says, "Cheese Remains")

It was the "remains" of various kinds of cheese after they grate it- actually a pretty good mix of cheddars for a good price!

Cracks, me up when someone whose first language is obviously not English does the advertising or marketing or whatever you want to call it in the stores here.  

One time in a dept store just before winter, there was a big bin of "ear wormers" beside the scarves.  

Oh, but my favorite was the knock off brand toothpaste that someone decided to call "Crust"- gross!  Who wants to brush their teeth with Crust?!  

Ok, this post is getting more and more random so I'm signing off!  

This week...

I have several friends in the blog world who are very good at regular weekly posts called various things like "ordinary days" or "signs of life" where they just post about the day to day, occasionally mundane things that go one.  Well I know myself well enough to know, that I would not faithfully stick to a weekly post, but I have done more of these types of posts lately, just about random little things that I've caught on camera that make my heart smile.  

We have had a very sick, pathetic week.  We can't for anything get all of our family well.  Just when one of us is getting over something, the next one comes down sick.  Anything from stomach virus, to sore throat and cough, to just plain ol' fever virus.  Fun times!

Well, in our house, when you have the stomach virus, you get a "throw up bowl" beside you wherever the "sick" spot happens to be- big recliner in living room, bed, whatever.  I have no idea if this is normal in the world out there, but it's normal to me as I grew up sleeping with one of mom's big metal mixing bowls on top of a towel beside my bed whenever I had a stomach virus.  (isn't this a lovely topic?  i have a point I promise...).  Naomi, as my child who cannot stand to make a mess in any way, is especially fond of the use of the throw up bowl.  And given that, stomach virus or not, she pretty much throws up anytime that she's sick, she makes good use of it...  (I will say here, that the goal is always to make it to the bathroom, but if you have kids you know that's not always possible).  So Maddie came down with a virus this week- mostly fever and sore throat.  She was resting in bed, and I found this sign posted on her door by Naomi....  

(yep, that's our throw up bowl at the bottom, filled with, you guessed it- vomit- lovely... and yes, in case you wondered our throw up bowl is a yellow plastic kitchen bowl).  Thanks for the visual, Naomi!

Naomi was on an artistic kick this week.  She drew this lovely background to the lego airplane she created...

Let's see, not much else has been happening this week.  Oh, Anabelle started crawling like this...

Funny girl...

We had some beautiful sunsets out our balcony window..

Oh, and this cracked me up.  I was cleaning the kitchen one evening while the big girls were "playing with" Anabelle in the living room.  I went to check on them and found this...

(yep, that's the throw up bowl she's playing with- don't worry it was bleachy clean)

Didn't take her long to figure out how to escape...

In cooking news, Maddie and I created this yummy pound cake recipe...  So good!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

A treasured keepsake

 When Jason and I got married almost 17 years ago, the women in our families gave me a fabulous gift.  They gathered recipes from both of our moms, my grandmothers, and both of our aunts and compiled them in a cookbook for me.  The great thing is that all of the recipes are handwritten by the contributor so I have some precious treasures.  The cookbook also includes personal notes from both of my grandmothers and drawings by my cousins who were 8ish and 11ish at the time.   You can see from the picture that it is very well used and is starting to fall apart.

My cousin Sarah did the drawing in the first picture and this precious drawing that says, "Have a happy honeymoon!"  funny!!

Here's what the pages look like...

I know this gift is somewhat dated.  I mean I guess today it probably would have been put together online in some sort of fancy book, but it is that much more precious to me because it is handwritten and preciously put together.  I love it so much!  So thanks to all the ladies who made this book possible!  I bet you had all forgotten about it.  

Oh and the reason for this post was actually to share a recipe.  My cousin Mary (who was 11ish around the time I got married?) actually contributed a recipe called Cocoa-Mint Yo-yos and I confess that I had never tried it until this Christmas.  I can't believe we've been missing out on this yumminess for all these years!  These little treasures were fabulous- kind of like chocolate mint whoopee pies- so yummy!  

Click here to go to my cooking blog for the recipe

Pizzas!!

A few weeks ago, the girls had a pizza contest at school.  It was to raise money for a local hospital and all of the kids were supposed to bring their favorite pizza to sell slices of during recess.  They worked in pairs...

Abbey and her friend made a chocolate pizza

Maddie and her friend made a fruit pizza...

They both turned out pretty great!

And Maddie and Aya's pizza won best "sweet pizza".  Here's the photographer getting a close up..