Blue Berry French Toast

Well, the first freezer meal....wasn't ever frozen. No room in my freezer. So I decided to leave this one out and bake it first. Mostly because it just looked so dang good! And who doesn't love breakfast for dinner once in a while?

So, here is what it looks- sorry about the iPhone photos. Basically lots of french bread, eggs and cream cheese! 

 Bake for 60 minutes and here is what we have! It smelled Ahhhh-mazing!

 Mmmmmm... Don't you want a bite. This dish was well received. Tim liked it, B loved it and D, well, she eats anything. It also reheated well. We just popped it in the oven.All in all an easy meal. I'm curious as how it would freeze, with all the eggs, but we'll have to see next time. Hope you like it! Get the recipe HERE

Cooking Day...again

I'm beginning to not like cooking day. Ha. It's a big mess. Lots of work. This time there were 3 loads of dishes done. And I was in a hurry today because I had people coming over at 5 for dinner {on cooking day?!? What was I thinking?} and I sliced my finger open pretty nicely. Blood got...everywhere... But not in the food. I just got blood all over the drawer while fumbling for a band aid. I was slicing raw chicken at the time, so I hope I don't get some strange sickness...Anyway. I thought I'd share what was on the menu this month. I didn't do as great of job as tracking my money this month because I bought the meat at a different time when it was on killer sale. But I'd say it's about $200. So a little more. But not bad, especially if it stretches over 2 months like the spoils from the last baking day did. In fact I still have 3 meals left! Anyway- here is the line up. I had to make soups! It's Fall, Ya'll!

White Chili x2
Wild Rice Soup x2
Tomato and Leek Bisque x2 {I'm excited about this one, we'll see what Tim thinks}
Chicken A La King x2
Chicken Lalani
Chicken Paris x2 {Not to sure about this one..}
Navajo Tacos x2
Cottage Pie
Sloppy Joes x2
Hamburgers
BlueBerry French Toast bake- which actually didn't fit into my freezer, so we'll be eating it soon.

So 18 meals. Lets begin again, shall we?

Finger Licking- Stick To Your...

RIBS {too cliche?}

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a freezer meal per-say, but I thought I'd share the recipe anyway. A lot of people think Ribs are hard to make. We have invited a lot of people over for Ribs and they always seem impressed that Tim and I could "pull them off". We'll here is our secret- Ribs Are Easy. End of story. I had never in my life eaten Ribs until Tim and I were married. My first time at Texas Road House I ordered them and YUM. If you haven't ever eaten Ribs, try them. OK on to the recipe-

So I always buy Hormel Brand ribs. Usually baby back. They seem to go on sale on the "camping" holidays. You know- 4th of July, Labor Day, etc. Regularly they are about $4/lb, but I buy them only on sale for $1.99/lb. I usually buy a couple racks and just freeze em. Here they are- 

 You are going to want to get some tin foil and spray with Pam. Wrap your ribs. Then wrap them again. We don't want fat dripping all over the oven. Pop them into the oven at 275* for about 2 hours. Tim and I have tried different temps and times. This seems to work the best. If you cook them longer at a lower temp, it will dry them out.

 Once they are done in the oven, it's time to make the BBQ sauce. Back when we lived in ID close to a Winger's, we used to just buy Winger's sauce and use that. This is pretty much the same thing for lots cheaper {Winger's bottle is $11!}. To make your BBQ sauce you need 3 parts brown sugar and 1 part Franks Red Hot with a splash of water. I do 3/4 C brown sugar and 1/4 C Frank's. You can do more or less Franks, depending on how spicy you like it. Then bring to a slow boil until the sugar is completely dissolved. Please Note: you can just as easily use any old jar of BBQ sauce. This is just our favorite way.

 This is what the ribs look like out of the oven.

 Slice 'em in half. This makes them easier to handle on the grill.

 As a side note- I also made these Potatoes. They. Are. Sinful.

 Throw those babies on a med hot grill and baste with the sauce. Flip and baste a few times. This doesn't take very long. Grill just enough to make the sauce tacky and a little caramelized.

 Mmmmmm

 Remove and serve! See? So easy that this guy can do it!

Dijon Pork Loin

It seems like I am getting behind on this blog doesn't it? Well I guess I kind of am... but not really. I made this Pork Loin on Sunday and here is it Wends and we are still eating left over pork. Last night I did make it into shredded BBQ for a little change of pace. AND I halved this recipe too, remember? Wow.

Anyway, to the Pork! 

Dijon Pork Loin. Pretty easily assembled, just throw the marinade into a bag then add the meat and freeze. On cooking day the book recommended cooking in the oven for a few hours, but to me Sunday it crock pot day. Just an easy meal day. Plus I wanted to throw some potatoes in with it for an easy side. It was pretty frozen still when I threw it in, so I cooked it on high for about 4 hours, then switched to low for another 4 hours or so.

 I also go brave and made a batch of rolls. My bread almost never turns out, but these actually tasted good. I'll have to keep it up I guess! Here is the dinner- pork, rolls and potatoes.  This just says Sunday dinner to me. Too bad I didn't make a dessert...

The verdict? It was good, I give it a 7 because it tasted like any other pork loin I have ever made. I couldn't taste the Dijon mustard marinade at all. Maybe because I cooked it in the Crock Pot? I don't know.. It was still good though, not dry at all. Tim liked it. B didn't even try it {he is such a stinker, I have no idea how to get this turd to eat}. D loved it. I think I have mentioned how much she likes meat.

As I said above, this was  half the recipe. We ate it Sunday, Monday and Tues I made shredded BBQ {mostly because I was getting sick of regular Pork} and we will be finishing it off tonight! Wow, 4 meals isn't bad. I'd also like to say that come Thursday, it will mark 4 weeks since I did my "big" shopping trip. I still have a freezer full of meals! Awesome, I usually have to do 2 "big" shopping trips a month. Of course I still have to make the little trips, for milk and fresh veggies and cereal- I don't think any one eats as much cereal as we do. So I think for the month of Aug I spent about $190 on groceries. This is an estimate, but pretty close. That's awesome, I think. I mean before I spent closer to $300 sometimes almost $400/month. That's without coupons and all that. So, I am going to continue my Freezer meal experiment. I have gone through almost all my meals {I halved them tho- so I am starting round 2}. So this blog might be quiet for a while. But If I cook the recipes differently or add something -think Chicken Yawn, it's going to get a big make over- I'll share it with you! Until then-

Orange Pork Chops {From last time}

Dijon Pork Roast

Orange Pork Chops

Orange Pork chops, out of the freezer and into the pan. The oranges were frozen with the chops. These took a little bit of work on cooking day, but not too bad.

 We also had green beans that I had frozen earlier. I decided to oven "fry" them instead of in a pan with butter. I just added some olive oil and the good old Garlic Pepper to a bag and tossed to coat. Then cook them on the bottom rack at about 400*.  Turn the beans every so often. And just cook until crisp.

 YUM. These smelled heavenly. They tasted good too.

 And here is the Orange Pork out of the oven. It smelled de-LISH.

The verdict? I liked it. It had a strong orange flavor and wasn't dry at all. Tim liked it OK, wasn't his favorite though. B wouldn't even try it. D loved it. She loves pork.

I'll be back later with a recipe. I am a sleepy lady tonight! Chow!

Buttermilk Fixins'

Hello again! I have to apologize for the pictures in this post. My fancy camera's battery was dead... I discovered this right as I was ready to photograph. Bummer! So you get pics from my point and shoot instead.  Tonight we had buttermilk chicken, buttermilk biscuits, asparagus and watermelon. I had recently purchased one of those Groupon like things, $20/$40 worth of food at our locally run market. I love shopping a small stores that sell local organic produce, so I was all over that. 

That is where I picked up my watermelon and asparagus. Here is the watermelon. Looks normal, right? What? This is what I found when I cut it open. Hmm I have never seen a watermelon that was bright yellow inside. But it tasted like a regular watermelon. I, by the way, like sea salt on my melon. Tim thinks I'm crazy. What do you think? Am I the only one who likes this sort of foolishness?  ANYWAY-

Here is the chicken. Another super easy thaw and bake dish. It is marinated in a mustard and rosemary sauce. It smelled pretty good. According to the cook book, it's supposed to be grilled, but- the Dr. wasn't home and I really don't know how to "man" the grill {ok I can't even turn it on, I'm afraid I'll get blown up. Not kidding, gas and open flame= not for Stephanie} So I just put it in a baking dish instead.

 And asparagus. Yum. I love it sauteed in butter with garlic pepper. McCormick grinders are my friends. Love them. How else do you cook this veggie? I steamed it once, not good. Let me know, I am open to ideas. Until then- sauteed in glorious fatty butter.

 Here they are out of the oven. I loved how the spices stayed on the chicken during cooking. Usually they just slip off. This smelled very good too.

Sorry, no full dish picture tonight. The photo I had was just beyond help.   :(

The verdict?
YuMm-OOO
I give it an 8/10. And only and 8 instead of 9 or 10 because it dried out a tad in the oven, but I bet it would be amazing grilled. The chicken had a very good flavor. You could really taste the mustard. I think the fact the it marinates while freezing and them marinates while de-thawing may be the reason. Either way, it was super good and easy to make. Tim liked it, D liked it, B still doesn't want to eat, poor kid.

Get the recipe-

Buttermilk Chicken

Recipe!

Ok so a number of you wanted the chicken recipe. So here it is- except I thought it would be easier to share it as a google Doc. Then you could easily print it instead of trying to cook from your computer or cut and paste. So will someone try it out and let me know if it works properly? Thanks

Cheesy Chicken

And I already gave you the link to the potatoes, but here is is again

Twice Baked Potatoes

I'll be back later to share a fabulous Honey Pork Recipe that both me and the Mr. enjoyed! Have a nice day!