Food Prep for Baby D - Day 4 ... after a great family weekend!!

We went to a hotel this weekend. It had been a month since we had seen Doodle, and since he's getting older and doing more with school functions, and friends up there... we decided if we can only have him for 24 hours, we would make the best of it!!
So we cashed in some of Hubby's points from his massive travelling this summer for a hotel 5 mins from Doodle's house, took the drive in our "new to us" mini-van (YAY!!!) and enjoyed every minute that we had with him... even though there wasn't much to do there, I still think we all had a great time with swimming & talking & hanging out!!

So this week is full of appts and plans, but I am determined to still get some extra meals cooked!!
After a morning dr appt to check on BD, I made 6 Tacaroni bakes (seriously; cook 1 lb of meat with onions, add taco seasoning & 2 "cans" of beans - add pasta, cover with cheese and bake 20 mins).
So I froze 5 bags of the meat/bean mix, and then made the last one into dinner for us!

I also finished marinating the chicken for the divans and bagged those for the freezer! Somehow I have 4 bags of chicken, but 3 bags of sauce.

Today's Recipe : Chicken Divan
3 lbs of chopped (raw) chicken - (orig recipe makes 2 meals, so you can make 1 and freeze one for a busy night!) - into a lemon-herb marinade
Here's mine:
zest & juice of 1 lemon,   1 small onion grated or minced,     1/4 cup olive oil,    
1 tsp each: garli, parsley, basil, oregano, & salt
1/2 tsp each: thyme, celery seed, & pepper
 - Mix well, divide into 2 bags the night before cooking. 1 in fridge to marinate for next day and 1 in the freezer for another day.

Cream Sauce:
3 TBLS butter & 2 TBLS flour - melted & cooked for 2 mins
add 2  1/2 cups milk, whisk in, cook until thickened and remove from heat
add 1  1/2 cups shredded cheddar, 1 cup grated parmesan, 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp curry powder & 1/2 tsp pepper.

Put 1 bag (1 1/2 lbs) of marinated chicken, cream sauce, and a 12-16 oz bag of chopped frozen broccoli into slow coooker for 6 hours on low.  Serve over fresh cooked, hot rice :)

Funny story:
As I write this, Butterfly & Ladybug are playing in the toy room... they are putting food into pots, pans and casseroles :D Butterfly keeps getting upset at Ladybug "eating" the chicken that she's "trying to freeze so we can eat it next month!".
I love that my girls learn from trying to copy me!!

Now onto a morning of making Taco stuffed shells, and an afternoon of getting ready for a visitation :P

Food Prep for Baby D - Day 3... or the 2 err, 1 day of grounding...

So... like I said, Butterfly was grounded yesterday. The negotiations showed me that she was getting the idea that attitude and aggressive behaviour are NOT acceptable. She very sweetly tried to convince me all day that she had learned her lesson and so 1 day was enough. So after only seeing her for meals and snacks, she was let off this morning on good behavior (she is still 4 and my baby, and I missed her... plus I really NEED her to distract Ladybug from hanging on me :D).

Lesson learned = reward for everyone!!

So yesterday, during the girls breakfast; I started the morning by draining, rinsing and starting the beans that had soaked overnight. Thanks to my parents no longer needing big crockpots, I have 3 so I can make Kidney, Black, and Pinto for refried; all at the same time!

Butterfly went to her room and I left Ladybug in her highchair. She watched me peel onions and chop them in the processor and throw them in the pot with 4 lbs of meat. I don't know what it is, but since our switch to the grass-fed beef from a local meat market the ground beef just melts into crumbles and as long as I move it around a bit, I don't have to chop it like I always did before!
So I left that to start cooking, and started making spagetti sauce and slicing mushrooms.

By this time, Ladybug was wandering the kitchen and toy room asking for her sister and throwing fits when I told her that sister was "nite-nite"... so I started feeding her snacks of mushrooms, cheese, and anything else I could find :D
Meat drained, spices & mushrooms... I had to find my BIG pot before I could add the sauce! More fun playing with Ladybug, until she melted so I got her down for a nap.

Girls had snack time, I finished the meat sauce and put it in a bowl to cool and started lunch. While they had lunch I entertained them with more onions then mushrooms in the food processor :)
Then I started the mushroom alfredo & the divan cream sauces in the pots and sent Butterfly back to her room.
Ladybug tried to "help" me with the cream sauces and then finally she went down for another nap and I finished them. Along with shredding a lot of cheese, and making the "cheese sauce" layer for the lasagna. I was ready to assemble and had the creams off the heat and cooling by the time Ladybug woke up.
Assembling took a lot longer than planned with my lil "helper" but I got 5 done out of the planned 4, so even with eating 1 for dinner (with lunch leftovers for hubby!) I put 4 more meals in the freezer!
Plus 4 1/2 bags of mushroom alfredo for stroganoff, and 3 bags of divan sauce means after I bag and freeze the meat (chicken divan marinade today) I am closer!!

Today's Recipe - Homemade Mushroom Alfredo
1/2 an onion, minced
3 TBLS butter & 2 TBLS flour
an 8oz pack of mushrooms thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup parmesan & 1/4 cup mozzerella cheese
salt, pepper & 1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp garlic powder (side note: I normally use 1 lg clove, but this much cooking = some cheating!)

Saute onions in butter until soft, add mushrooms until juicy, add flour and spices then cook 2 minutes. Slowly mix in milk (easier if warm, but I never remember) stir occasionally until thickened, remove from heat and stir in cheeses.

I usually use this with 1 1/2 lbs of beef cubes mixed with some Braggs Aminos for a Beef stroganoff. Throw beef and sauce into crockpot on low all day (8hrs+) then mix in 1/2 cup sour cream at the end, make egg noodles, and add a veggie side dish = Dinner!!

more prep, shopping & kids...

To make this whole experience a bit easier on our food budget, I am only buying massive quantities of things as they go on sale each week.
So last week I bought some sourdough bread 1/2 price, bought 6- 3lb bags of potatoes for $1 each (the 5lb bags next to it were $3.99 for comparison) and 15- 8 oz mushrooms, and some other things.

Yesterday, I toasted the bread and made breadcrumbs for the freezer (until I'm ready to make meatballs) then I sliced and froze the mushrooms that I wasn't using today & tomorrow. Yes, you can freeze mushrooms!! Fresh or cooked, lay them on a sheet pan with wax paper (I did 3 layers the second time and it worked a lot better) then a few hours later they go into a bag - like mushroom chips! Then I sorted 3 kinds of beans to soak overnight in crockpots so I can start cooking them today. Along with a grocery trip to buy more cheese, noodles, and meat at my new favorite meat market!

My plan for today & tomorrow is to make the veggie packs/starts to the roasts, the mushroom alfredo for the stroganoff, the chicken divan marinated chicken & cream sauces (separatly), and lasagnas.

I have gotten to thinking....
I multiplied each of these recipes by 3 or 4, but when I made 1 enchilada bake last week, it made 2 - 8x8s, and an 8x8 is enough for a meal for us (usually). So I think the lasagna should make 6 or 8 - 8x8s and one of those extras will be tonights dinner as well :)
With that math, hopefully some of these things will double as lunch the day after we make them, which wasn't in my original plan, so I can save money later with buying less "lunch stuff"!!

I am hoping that Ladybug will let me get plenty done, but we will see.
Today starts with Butterfly being grounded for 2 days...
Yes, she's almost 5 and this is her 2nd grounding.
Dad, Mom, I'm sorry for everything I put you though. If she is just like me, then there's hope... right?

Food Prep for Baby D - Day 2... or 6 done, 67 more planned

After a long morning of trying to figure out a way to budget this massive food trip... with no answers, I decided to finish what I started the day before!!
Last night I found 2 packs of 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs in the freezer, while looking for a sweet treat to make me feel better. I found some homemade Zucchini bread and that made me happy :)
So the thighs were put in a crockpot and covered with water on low over night. I removed them in the morning and put them in the fridge to cool (HAHA, dogs can't open the fridge :P).

So after lunch, the girls went down for naps, and I chopped chicken! then I mixed the 1/2 the chicken, 1/2 the cooked veggies, 1/2 a bag of broccoli, 1/2 bag of green beans... darn, no peas! (Oh well, hubby isn't a big fan, so we'll just go with it). Added some sauce until it was nice and creamy, then put it in 2 bags to freeze (these sat in my pie plate so I'm sure I have the right amount!!). Then I did it again with the rest of the chicken and veggies, adding sauce until it was creamy.
I finished with 4 bags of Chicken Pot Pie filling, and a 2 cup bag of Savory cream sauce! Guess I made too much :)

As I was getting the food out of the fridge, I saw the ground turkey that I had thawed the night before... but I already had a frozen lasagna in the oven (2 1/2 hour baking time) so I decided to go ahead and make last night's Enchilada Casserole and just freeze it for later.

So I did, and the original recipe is for a 9x13, but with my changes, it made 2 full 8x8s!!
That's 6 meals into the freezer :) and 2 are bonus, unplanned meals!

The Chicken pot Pie recipe is in Day 1.
But here's the recipe for the Enchilada Casserole - with my HM Enchilada Sauce & HM Taco seasoning recipes. (Orig casserole recipe thanks to Katie Rienke)

Homemade Taco seasoning:
1 TBLS each: chili powder, cornstarch
1 tsp minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 a small onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne, crushed red pepper flakes, or 10 shakes of Red Hot
1/2 tsp each: oregano, paprika, black pepper
1 tsp salt
1  1/2 tsp ground cumin
I usually add the garlic and onion to the cooking meat, then after draining the fat I add the rest with about 3/4 cup of water and keep over med heat until it thickens, stirring regularly.

Homemade Enchilada sauce
1 28oz can of tomato puree
1 taco seasoning
1 TBLS cornstarch (yes, extra added to the taco seasoning)
Stir and heat until thickened.

Enchilada Casserole          (makes about 1 9x13 or 2 8x8s)
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 taco seasoning
1 can or 2 cups corn
1 can or 2 cups HM black beans
1 enchilada sauce (28oz)
12 corn tortillas
12 oz shredded cheddar
While heating enchilada sauce. Cook ground beef with onion and taco seasoning, add corn and beans until warm, then mix in 1/2 the sauce.
Layer in baking dish: sauce, tortillas, 1/2 meat mix, little cheese, tortillas, 1/2 meat mix, little cheese, tortillas, rest of sauce, rest of cheese.
Bake 20 mins or until cheese melts (can freeze before baking, bake frozen 35-45 mins).
Serve with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream or your favorite taco toppings.

Food Prep for Baby D - Day 1... or "the dogs got the meat"

First, the idea behind this was that I had been craving Turkey and stuffing... and we had a whole Turkey in the freezer!!
So I had Hubby get it out and we thawed it, then cooked it with a small batch of stuffing (If i knew how to freeze that, I soo would!! Homemade sourdough stuffing is amazing). Back to the point. I was making Turkey stock from the bones, and had a lot of turkey meat left since I only wanted it for the one meal. So I decided to make pot pies to freeze for Baby since they didn't sound good to me right now (crazy preggo, I know).

So I chopped and measured the turkey and had almost 8 cups. I think 2 cups is about a lb, so I started planning to make 4 pot pies.
I chopped the potatoes, carrots and celery and boiled them.
I made the sauce.
Mind you, to write each step takes seconds, but to do each step took over an hour each with Butterfly "helping", Ladybug copying and needing diapers or drink refills, both of them needing snacks, stopping for lunch, letting the dogs in and out, and me getting exhausted so easily.

Now for the fun part of the day:
Everything was almost cool, so I took the turkey out of the fridge and set it on the table (so I could sit and mix instead of standing at the counter... it seemed like a good idea at the time!)
The girls had just woken up from their naps, so they wanted to taste the veggies and the turkey... I left the lid off the turkey bowl and we all went for a bathroom/diaper break and for me to check the time of an event that we were supposed to go to that night.
So just as I sit down to find the time, I heard a thump and a mad scramble from the dogs... yup! you guessed it, I got in the kitchen just in time to see them eating the last bites of turkey off the floor :(
* Mommy had a meltdown *
Then we put everything away, I scrapped dinner plans, totally forgot about going out, and we used our BOGO free Chipotle coupons and watched a movie.

The recipe for my pot pies:
to make 1 -
1 lb (2 cups cooked) chicken, chopped
1 cup potatoes, cubed
1/2 cup each: carrots, celery, broccoli, peas, and green beans (1st 2 chopped, last 3 frozen)

Savory Sauce:
1/3 cup each: minced onion, butter, flour - I usually guess that 1/2 a small onion is good
1/2 tsp each: salt, celery seed, sage, ground thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
1  1/2 cups chicken broth (I used turkey!)
1 cup milk

Pie crust (1 or 2, your choice, and I'll share my recipe later)

Preheat oven to 425.
Mix raw veggies (and chicken if raw) in a pot, cover with water and boil 12-15 minutes.
Drain, and let cool.

To make sauce: melt butter in a saucepan, add onion and cook until translucent.
Whisk in flour and spices, then let cook 2 minutes.
Slowly add broth and milk (slightly warm if you remember) and whisk until thick.
set aside to cool.

If freezing, let everything cool completly. Mix and freeze. Thaw, then assemble before baking.

Mix everything together, pour into pie crust or pie plate (your choice).
Top with crust, seal edges, cut slits. * can brush with egg wash if desired.

Bake 30-35 mins or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Family variation: double potatoes, omit crust, can use ground turkey - 8x8 baking dish for 20-25 mins. Serve with biscuits if desired for a different budget friendly meal.

Food Prep for Baby D - Intro...

We are 7 weeks from "BD" (Baby D, he's #4)'s eviction day.

 - Short background story on that: With Ladybug we had a lot of issues/complications at the end of the pregnancy that caused us to need an immediate induction. To avoid the re-occurance of some of those issues and avoid some new possible ones from such close pregnancies; we have already set the induction date for this baby as long as we can keep him in that long.

Back to this week: I realized looking at the calendar that we are running out of time! Standing on my feet for very long, bending over, and general "keeping up with kids and feeding the family" has gotten beyond difficult. Yet our family doesn't eat "typically".
We don't eat processed or pre-packaged foods, we avoid all artificial colors and especially sweeteners, and we generally try to make as much as possible from scratch to help our health and our budget.

I know after baby comes, a lot of people buy frozen meals or wind up eating out so that they don't have to cook. We don't have that option.
So I have come up with a plan that I will try to share with you, and we will find out together if it works!

Step 1 - Collect "freezable" recipes, make ingredient lists, and figure out how much food I need to buy to make enough food for us to last the final month of pregnancy and the first 6-8 weeks after BD comes.
Each meal has 10 mins or less of final prep, because I figure Hubby or I can only spare about that much time :D

So here's my list:
4 Turkey, err Chicken Pot Pies (filling and crust separate)
4 Meatloafs (orig recipe thanks Mommie)
4 batches of meatballs(orig recipe thanks Mommie)
4 Batches of Chili (Regular Beef Chili)
4 Enchilada Casseroles (orig, recipe thanks Katie Reinke)
4 batches of Beef Veggie Soup
2 batches of Pasta e fagioli soup
4 "Tacaroni" Bakes
4 Cheeseburger Macaroni Bakes
4 Taco Stuffed Shells (orig recipe on a food site posted by Laura Foor)
4 regular Lasagnas
4 Chicken Vegetable Lasagnas
3 batches of Chipotle Chicken Chili
4 meals from 2 Roasts with veggies, each doubles as Beef Stew a day or 2 later
3 Slow cooker Chicken Divan (orig recipe from Sandra Lee)
4 Beef Stroganoff
and some helpful starts:
3 Marinated Chipotle Chicken - for burritos
4 Marinated Teriyaki Chicken and peanuts - for Asian Wraps
4 Marinated Salsa Chicken - for Baked Chicken and Rice

So there you have it, 71 meals... (maybe more, some of these are 4x a 9x13 recipe and I have found that an 8x8 is enough for dinner so this amount might make 6 lasagnas instead of 4??)

Can Christmas be "FAIR"??

Last year we had this discussion... and thought we came up with an answer but this year we are again struggling with what to do for Christmas with the children.

See, Doodle is always with his mother for both Thanksgiving and Christmas Day... and being a few hours away we don't get Christmas Eve, but we get him the day after Christmas through New Years which works great for us. Except for the "Family Christmas" traditions that we like to have on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.

Doodle gets Christmas with his mother and her parents on Christmas Day.
Butterfly gets an extra Christmas with her father and his family near Christmas.

We thought about doing 2 Christmases, one on Christmas with the kids that live here, and one a couple days later when Doodle is here, but is that fair?
If we do that, how do we split the presents so that on 2nd Christmas everyone feels it's fair? without overloading the kids that live here?

Isn't it funny how Jesus is the Reason for the Season, and it's supposed to be about His Birthday, but somehow in this material world, no matter what we do - we know that it will come down to the presents for each child...

In some ways, the Holidays are really depressing in a Jigsaw family...