Katie Fish Batie

I decided to stock up my freezer this week with yummy homemade meals. My first step was to look in my pantry and fridge and see what I had to work with. I then sat down with my top three recipe books and picked out meals that we love. Then I made my shopping list. I doubled up on the proteins so I could get multiple meals with less cooking. I plan on cooking two days, for about two hours. This includes prep and cooking and not to mention multiple interruptions from a rowdy one year old. Here are the meals I will have at the end of my two days:

-French Dip Sandwiches on homemade french bread with sauteed onions and mushrooms and melted provolone cheese. (Eat same day)

-French Bread.

-Beef, bean and cheese burritos. Use the leftover beef, canned re-fried beans, canned green chilies and cheese.(Freeze)

-Spaghetti. Homemade sauce with ground beef and super charged with spinach, carrots, mushrooms and onions. (Freeze sauce)

-Garlic bread sticks. To eat with Spaghetti. (Eat same day or Freeze)

-Hot Pockets-made with bread stick dough and filled with leftover beef, spaghetti sauce and pepperoni, and ham and cheese. (Freeze)

-Veggie Pizza. Use spaghetti sauce without beef. Top with carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, and feta cheese.

Chili Verde Tacos- This is a cheat because I already made the chili verde and it is waiting in my freezer. I will just pull out the meat and the sauce and dump in crock pot. (Freeze)

Chili Verde Enchiladas- Use the leftovers to make enchiladas to freeze. (Freeze)

Cream Cheese Chicken- cooks in crock pot with can of cream of chicken soup, block of cream cheese, and packets of Ranch dip. Serve with rice.

Broccoli Cheese Rice- Use leftover rice and add broccoli and cheese. I put this in individual serving dishes to grab for lunches. (Freeze)

Chicken Nuggets- yummy. (Freeze)

Day One:

9:00 am

-Took out four breast of chicken to thaw. Then I prepared my beef roast by seasoning with salt and pepper and seared on all sides in hot skillet. Then put in crock pot and add onion soup mix packet, two cans beef broth and 2 cups water. Cook on high 4-6 hours or low 7-8 hours. (10 mins)

11:00 am

-Make my French bread dough and let rise for 1 hr 45 mins. (15 mins)

11:15 am

-Chopped carrots, mushrooms and onions. Sauteed carrots and mushrooms and added 3/4 bag of baby spinach. While sauteing, added tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to large pot on medium heat. When spinach was nice and wilted I added skillet to my amazing Blendtec and pureed. Then I added to puree to the tomato sauce. It kinda turned a maroon instead of vibrant red. In a clean skillet I sauteed onions and garlic and then added to sauce. I then added oregano, parsley, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, pepper until just right. Then 1/4 tsp baking soda to cut the acidity. It was yummy. So yummy that I boiled some noodles and had some pasta for lunch. (30 min)

12:00pm

-Once cooled a bit I poured the sauce into one small container to be used for pizza sauce this week. Then into two medium containers, one to be frozen for spaghetti later on. Once these are all the way cooled down I put in the fridge and freezer.

Note: food will spoil if put in fridge hot, allow it to cool to room temp.

-I chopped my veggies. Mushrooms and onions to be sauteed for sandwiches. Carrots, Broccoli and mushrooms for veggie pizza and broccoli for cheesy rice meal. (15 mins)

12:45pm

- Punched down dough and separated into 6-8 rolls. Kneaded and forms hoggies. Let rise for 1 hour 15 mins or until double in size. (15 mins)

1:00pm

-Took thawed chicken and cut into cubes. Put in Blendtec and pureed to create chicken paste. I put the chicken in a large bowl and added salt, pepper, onion powder, oregano and parsley. I formed seasoned chicken into balls and dipped in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then beaten eggs, and flour again. Fried nuggets until golden brown and put on cookie sheet to be cooled then frozen. (25 mins)

2:00pm

-Baked bread for 10 mins. (10 mins)

Total time spent= 2 hours and 5 mins

We will see how tomorrow goes.

Damian and Samuel

I have been waiting forever for Hulu to catch up with The Glee Project and post the finale. I gave up waiting and decided to find it myself. It was very difficult but I finally was able to see that my two favorites won, yeah!! They are both stalker worthy, if I was 18 again. I am so glad that they let both of them win a seven episode spot on glee. You just can't go wrong with a blue eyed, Irishman and then a sexy, dreadlock wearing, rocker. But I was so pissed when they gave Alex and Lindsay a two episode spot. I want to rip my eyes out just thinking about having to watch Lindsay on Glee. She is the type of girl you wish to experience multiple embarrassing moments in public. Anyway, I am excited for Glee to start so I can see Damian and Samuel!!!!