I think there may be a misconception that all of my recipes are these hard involved recipes like the unbelievably amazing tasting Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.  There’s a lot of work there.  Made much less if you cook ahead a few of the ingredients, none-the-less pretty involved, but oh so worth it.  I promise not everything I do is difficult.  I’d lose my mind if it were.

So, are you ready for, like, the easiest recipe ever?

Ingredients:

• 3-4 pounds country style pork ribs, boneless (or boneless pork chops)
• 1 family sized can cream of chicken soup (you could use cream of mushroom, but I don’t like cream of mushroom, therefore I use chicken)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put pork ribs in crockpot.  Pour soup on top.  Add a little salt and pepper.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

I normally don’t double this recipe since I serve it with veggies and rice – it usually makes enough for our family for one meal.  Want leftovers?  Double up!

I serve this with those in-the-bag steamable veggies found in the freezer section.  I put some garlic salt on the veggies with a little margarine.  I serve the Creamy Pork Chops with rice and pour the “gravy” they cooked in over it.

That would be it.

Sometimes I grab my recipes (see below), look into my cabinets to see what we have, and then write out what we’ll be having for the next 2 weeks in a list form (not a calendar day-by-day type that I tried before).  On the same page I make a grocery list, going meal-by-meal seeing what we need to buy.  This is one of my old lists I just happened to find.  Not pretty, but functional.  Notice I marked how many or what size of each item before going shopping (because I have no ability to think when I’m in the store with a bunch of sweet hooligans).

After shopping sometimes I post the same list, marked on and all, on the fridge.   That’s my normal menu planning.

But sometimes Matt shops (can I get a woo hoo! ?).  We shop vastly differently.  Viva la difference!  He’s not so much a plan aheader.  Nor is he a list taker.  I never make a list for him.  I love a list, he hates a list, what can I say?  So I quit fighting that long ago and rejoice in the fact that I’m not shopping this time.  Who cares what he comes home with, right?  It’s food and I didn’t buy it.  This was a life-saver and how we lived the whole time I was pregnant last time.  I not only couldn’t bring myself to think about food without throwing up, there was that whole swine flu debacle, not to mention my inability to walk by the end of the pregnancy.  He shopped.  I loved him for it.

But it’s hard to know what to cook when you’re not the one shopping, right?

Here’s the backwards part.  So, he comes home with all this food and I assess it.  Hmm, what I can make with this and this?  I make a list of what all he bought.  I put that list on the fridge with a number of how many meals I can get out of it (not leftover meals, mind you.  Completely separate days.)  Then I brainstorm and hit up my recipes and ask Matt what all he planned when buying (note the Hawaiian Chicken – he came home with a bottle of marinade which I poured over the chicken in a freezer ziplock and labeled – now it’s premarinated, ready to thaw in the fridge, and use in a Chinese meal).  Then I proceed to cook ahead like normal (ground turkey this time instead of beef).  I leave the list on the side of the fridge and as I use a meal I mark it off.  There are even snacks on there that I might forget are in the cabinets.

The arrows are to let me know the ones I need to use first before something goes bad, ie. uses produce or fresher bread that will go bad, etc.

And here’s where I discuss why I don’t use the day-by-day plan.  It didn’t work for us.  Somebody mentioned this in my comments or Facebook fanpage recently (I can’t remember which).  They said they might want one thing one day and it not be what’s for that night on the schedule.  Amen, sister girl!  Plus, we’re fly by the seat of our pantsers.  I might plan to be home Friday night and schedule some fancy meal.  And Matt might come home and say “Let’s go to town tonight!”  And then I have to make elaborate switcharoos.  Not my thing.  Or I might forget to pull out from the freezer to thaw one night for the next day’s meal and now I’m back to the switcharoo.  Ugh.  Or I might plan to make a crockpot meal and have fifteen kid emergencies right off the bat (can you say last Monday?!) and forget to start the meal until it’s too late.  This way I’m not bound by a schedule.  I can go to my list at any point, assess how much prep work any one meal will take and pull the stuff out to make it – make-ahead is great for this – last minute craziness?  I need a meal in the next 15 minutes?  I already have ground turkey browned – it’s going to be a spaghetti night!   I actually have my wits about me at the kids’ bedtimes as I pass by the fridge?  I set the boneless ribs in the fridge for tomorrow.  No schedule, just easy peasy.

30 Meals

I found the 30 Meals idea from Brenda.  Here is the official total 30 meals idea.  I love it, I plan to implement it a little at a time.  These are the ones that are already in rotation in my house.  Even though we’ll use this list most of the time, we’ll continue to always try new stuff – we like variety!  I hope y’all will post your list of 30 and link ‘em up (or put them in the comments) when I post a McLinky later.  I also eventually plan to put every recipe for these on here.  If you’ll let me know what your favorites are I’ll write the recipes in order of popularity!

1. Fajitas
2. Meatloaf
3. Chinese
4. Spaghetti
5. Chicken and Rice
6. Sour Cream Chicken
7. Mexican Chicken
8. Bacon, Eggs, Biscuits
9. Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwiches
10. Pancakes and Sausages
11. Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
12. Frozen Burrito with Enchilada Sauce and Cheese Bake
13. Egg Casserole
14. Beef Stroganoff (with beef tips)
15. 7 Layer Dip
16. Homemade Burritos
17. Salisbury Steak
18. Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes
19. Black Beans – Crockpot, Salsa, Sour Cream served on Garlic Bread
20. Roast with Veggies – Crockpot
21. Roast Beef Sandwiches
22. Creamy Pork Chops – Crockpot
23. Hamburgers
24. Melty Ham Sandwiches (with or without fried eggs)
25. Lasagna
26. Tacos
27. Barbeque Sandwiches – Crockpot
28. Chicken and Dumplins
29. Porkloin
30. Swiss Steak – Crockpot
31. Chili – Crockpot
32. Chilitos
33. Chicken Taco Soup – Crockpot
34. Lemon Pepper Chicken – Crockpot over Salad or Rice

Sides and Extras I’ve included these because they are (for the most part) staples we keep and will need to buy each time we go

1. Sweet Potato Casserole
2. Salsa
3. Twice Baked Potatoes
4. Drop Biscuits
5. Steamed Veggies
6. Granola
7. Muffins
8. Quick Breads – Banana, Pumpkin, Apple Spice
9. Devilled Eggs
10. Seasoned Rice
11. Noodles
12. Fruit
13. String Cheese
14. Yogurt
15. Instant pudding and Jello
16. Chocolate Chips

Because, though the old saying goes “Flat as a pancake”  really you want them fluffy.  I promise, you do.

I never thought there was an art to pancake making until I worked at the group home and then they taught me a thing or two.

Here are the how-to’s of successful pancake flipping and freezing (yes, freezing, if you’re going to all this trouble you might as well be done with pancakes for good long time, right?).  With a couple creative ideas added just for fun!

Take a deep breath, get as many skillets or griddles as you own out, grab a huge bowl, and get ready to make the entire box at one time.  Yes, you are.  Yes, you can.  The kids are playing Wii, watching a movie, doing SOMETHING, baby is sleeping, you can do this, I promise.  Measure out the ingredients by the directions.  Then keep measuring them out until the whole of the mix is there.  Then just multiply your wet ingredients by how many times you measured the powder.  For instance, if it calls for 2 cups dry mix and 1 cup milk, 2 eggs – then, if the whole box has 6 cups dry mix,  you use 3 cups milk, 6 eggs – got it?  Remind yourself you can do this!

For these I used Bisquick.  They’re my favs (fluffier), but I usually buy the off-brand boxes to save money.  The off-brand boxes usually just call for water, I add vanilla (just put a little in – a tablespoon for the whole box, maybe more? – I don’t measure) and an egg or two for good measure.  The Bisquick actually does call for eggs.  The main thing here is that whether you use off-brand, Bisquick, or a complete “from scratch” recipe you need to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl separately from the liquid ones.  Beat the eggs well, add the milk and vanilla all in one bowl and then add to the dry ingredients.

You do this because with pancakes (and muffins and quick breads) you don’t want to over mix – it makes them tougher and less fluffy – you want fluffy, remember?

After you add the liquid ingredients to the dry mix stir just until moistened.  This is important.  Don’t over mix.

Now, spray with cooking spray (or when we don’t have it I just use a stick of margarine and rub it right on the griddle) heat your griddles on medium high (or about 375 for the electric griddle) at first.  I usually lower that once I start cooking them, because I’m distracted by little people around me and I don’t want to burn them.  During this time you’re letting your now blended mix set there.  Untouched.  Also important.  By the time the griddles heat the batter should look a little different.

You know your griddles are ready when you drop a little drop of water on them and the water “dances” and disappears.

Pour your mix by spoonfuls (however big you want them, for the longest I made little bitty ones because my kids liked them, now we’re back to more “normal” sized ones) onto the griddle.  And wait.

When they look like this:

with dry edges and bubbles in the middle, it’s time to flip them.  You’re only going to flip them once.  I spray my spatula before flipping.

When you wait until they are truly ready to flip, then you don’t have much gooey mess to contend with.  Let brown on the second side (this takes much less time than the first side did) and remove from griddle.

This is the entire box of pancakes minus the 8 or 10 I served to the kiddos while finishing up the others.  That’s the beauty of this freezer meal – you can hand out the goodies while still cooking.  Keeps them busy, lets you finish the rest of the cook-ahead meal.

Yes, that’s a Waffle House plate.  From my husband’s lawless college days.  Let’s not talk about that, okay?

I cover loosely with plastic wrap and set in fridge.  When they are fully cooled I label gallon freezer bags and put about 10 – 12 pancakes into one bag (that’s how many we eat at one meal – do what works for your family).  When you want pancakes just pull them out of the bag, arrange on a plate, microwave for a minute at a time, rearranging and checking for warmth.  Butter, syrup, serve!

Now, for the fun stuff!

Sometimes we serve Seussian pancakes (as in Dr. Seuss, get it?)  When I do that I mix all the ingredients together and then break my don’t over mix rule.  I separate the batter into smaller bowls and mix in food coloring – a different color for each bowl: pink, green, blue, purple, whatever!  You can take the fun a step further and make polka dotty ones by swirling and dotting the batter when you drop it onto the griddle.  My kids beg for these every time.

I saw on the Bisquick site that you can write your child’s name in pancake batter if you have an empty squeeze bottle.  Put the batter in a bottle and draw out their name on the griddle.  I haven’t try that yet, but I really want to now!

Okay, last time we talked about freezer cooking I talked you into just browning a bunch of ground beef all at once.  How’d you do with that?  Have you tried it yet?  You mastered it, right?!  Now you’re ready for step 2 – mix up a bunch of pancakes and try it once.  See how it goes.  I wanna know.

A great “take somewhere” dish, but I make it just for our family too.  Any meal that is served with chips is considered a hit around here, like we’re cheating at dinner, or something!

This recipe makes enough to fill an 11×15 casserole dish.

Ingredients:

2 (1 ounce) packs taco seasoning mix

1 bag dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, slow cooked, and then “refried” with one chopped white onion – or you could use canned refried beans, but I don’t really know how much you would need – I’m thinking 2 (16 ounce) cans

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (16 ounce) container sour cream

1 (16 ounce) jar salsa (we’re usually mild eaters, but this is such a large dish I might go with a spicier version next time

2 large tomatoes

1 bunch chopped green onions

1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded

1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained (I used chopped this time because it’s what I had)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Optional – One pound ground beef – I sometimes add this when I’m serving it as a meal

Directions:

1. In a very large skillet, mix the 2 packets taco seasoning with the beans to “fry”, the small chopped white onion, and the browned ground beef.  Cook on medium heat uncovered, stirring constantly until the beans are mashed and the onions are cooked through.  Spread the mixture into the casserole dish.

2. Mix the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl.  Spread over the bean mixture.

3.  Top the layers with salsa.  Place a layer of lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions, and black olives over the salsa layer.  Top with cheese.

Serve with tortilla chips – the thicker for this dip, the better.

This is a good meal to have your make-ahead food on hand.  If you’ve already soaked your beans and slow cooked them, shredded cheese; chopped and frozen onions; browned, separated, and frozen ground beef then it makes this dish a lot quicker to put together.  And since it’s much better the next day, it’s also a great make-ahead meal when you have time then makes for fast food the next day when you have no time to cook.

This is the salsa I made last cooking day that has lasted us nearly 2 weeks of snacking now.  Yum!

I’ve been talking alot lately about food.  I suddenly want to make up for all that time I spent not eating the instant frozen stuff my family ate during that very sick pregnancy.  I want it all!  Oh food, glorious food!  And I’m just now getting back into the swing of juggling kiddos and cooking at the same time.  I forgot how much I loved it.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of all those dishes, and work, and crying baby who gets sick of me at the stove.  But I have to feed these sweet munchkins anyway, I don’t have a tremendous amount of money to do it, so I might as well make the best of it.

I’ve been following Life as Mom as she’s been freezer cooking this last weekend.  I love what she does.  Someday I’d love to grow up and be just like her.  However for this season at least, I don’t do it quite the same.  The concept is there, just implemented differently.

First of all, we either have less money than her, get paid on a different schedule (ours is every 2 weeks), or just don’t budget as well.   Either way, the idea behind freezer cooking (or cooking ahead, as it’s also know) is to make your time in the kitchen work for you.  Instead of dreading every meal, you can plan ahead, work hard when you actually have the time, and then coast for the rest of the days.  My thought is: I have to cook and clean anyway I’d like it to be on my terms.

The Menu Planning

Every two weeks I go through my cabinets, fridge, and freezer.  I make note of what I have.  All those random half meals.  Then I get pen and paper and list meals that I know of that we could make from what we have.  I use one piece of notebook paper for this list.  Next to that list of meal ideas I start a new column and list all the ingredients I don’t have to complete that meal.  This becomes my grocery list later.  If there is something like “Sirloin Tips thin cut steaks” in the freezer that I bought on sale once but have no idea what to do with it I go to Allrecipes.com go to their ingredients list and type in what I have.  Then I look through their recipes until I find something that sounds feasible and add the needed ingredients to my grocery list.  I do this until I have nearly 14 meals.  Then I brainstorm a few breakfast and lunch ideas.  Lunch (especially during the week when I’m homeschooling and time is slim) is usually nearly effortless (same with breakfast) or leftovers.  Muffins, pumpkin bread, apple spice bread, pancakes, french toast, cereal, granola, fried bologna, fried weenies, sausage, bagels with butter, cheesy egg wraps, and egg casserole are all favorite breakfasts.  Lunches that aren’t leftovers include hot dogs, pb&js, macaroni, summer sausage/cheese/crackers, carrots with ranch dressing.  Think quick finger foods.  I add these things to my list.  Snacks are cheese, fruit, veggies, popcorn (pop it yourself on the stove – much more cost effective), bagels, frozen yogurt pops, apple sauce, again, think: easy.  I again add any of these I want to my list.  I check my basics: flour, sugar, butter, etc. to see if I have enough and add any to my list.

When that menu plan is complete, I rewrite my grocery list by where I know items are located in the store.  I’m sure there’s a more time efficient way, but I don’t know it.  I do this because when I shop for 2 weeks (the Big Shop as my friend calls it!) I almost always have all 5 kids with me alone.  I need to streamline my time in the store. 

You can also see one of my frugal menu plans here.

Getting Home From Shopping  

I recruit the help of all 4 of my walking children and we get all the groceries in.  Then, they go play while I take everything out of the grocery bags.  I learned the hard way, don’t just look through the bags you’re more likely to miss something that needs to be refrigerated and you’ll kick yourself.  I put all cold items away.  I leave all the shelf items where they are (unless I have a toddler who will destroy all that is good and then I just set them out of reach until I can get to them.  I set nearly all my meat in the fridge.  Then I go about my day.  The next day is cooking day – no way I could do both in one day.  In that down time, I look over my menu and think about what I should put first on my list.  I make the actual daily menu at this point.  I take into account what I need to use before it will go bad.  Anything with lettuce and tomatoes goes first on my list, all casseroles with canned ingredients gets bumped to the latter part of the 2 weeks.  Then I decide, based on that what meat to freeze as is (roast sandwiches?  roast goes in freezer), and which I will be mass cooking. 

Cooking Day

I make a new list for the morning of the cooking day to know exactly what needs to be cooked.  I mentally note what I can cook all at once – every one of my burners can be on at once and the stove running.  I’ll have to rotate breads and potatoes or anything else that needs to be in the oven.  I plan what I’ll fix for dinner that night so that I know what to have completely done for the evening.  Then I get to cooking.  The idea for me is less of “I’ll have whole meals ready in the freezer” and more of a “I can throw a dinner together in less than 30 minutes.”  I boil and shred all my chicken.  I chop all onions, shred all cheese, brown all ground beef.  Most of the time I don’t have time in one day to cook everything for the 2 weeks.  So, when I have a morning free later in the week and want pancakes or french toast I pull out both griddles and cook at least 3 meals worth at once.  I’m already planning to cook, I’m already going to have clean up, I might as well make the most of it at once and get a free ride later.  When I’m making cheesy egg wraps I make a bunch: roll them all up, cut them in half, and set them in the fridge, then on church morning (read: crazy rush hour) I can pull out the food, zap it, and set it on the table.  The main idea on cooking day is to consider the most time consuming parts of your meals and do them all at once.  That way you can just throw together a meal. 

I live blogged what I did one shopping trip and how my cooking day looked.  I’m warning you, it’s crazy, but worth it.

More Power To Ya!

You can do this.  Even if you are not a stay at home mom.  Really.  Make your time work for you.  It’s yours – own it!  You can have “fast food” ready when you need it.  I promise, it’s doable!