Freezer Cooking Fridays

I decided to start a new little feature here on the ol' blog: Freezer Cooking Fridays. I've talked about Freezer Cooking, or Cooking Ahead, before, and I've become a huge fan of it. It's so easy to get a bunch of meals planned and prepped and stashed in the freezer, then have them ready to go on a busy weeknight. And let's face it, is there ever a weeknight that's not busy? Not in our house. Both my husband and I work full time, and we have two small children who are in school all day. By the time we're all home, we barely have enough time to get dinner on the table and the kids bathed before it's time for bed. Who wants to cook? Not me.

Enter freezer cooking. Some people do a month's worth of meals ahead of time, but I'm not that organized. Plus I don't have enough space in my freezer for all of that, plus the giant bags of chicken nuggets and fishsticks that are staples. I generally prepare enough meals for about 2 weeks...or whatever I have time to whip up after the kids are in bed.

Here's the plan: every week I'll feature what I have prepared in the previous week and have in the freezer. Not necessarily a menu (again, not that organized), but just a list, and maybe it'll inspire some of you out there to try it. I know you all are busy too, and I can't thank you enough for stopping in and reading!

This week, I started with 5 pounds of ground beef, and 6 pounds of giant boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I love Sam's Club. On Tuesday night I started with the ground beef. Here was my plan:

I knew I wouldn't have time to do the chicken and ground beef in one night, so I'm planning on doing the chicken this weekend.

From the ground beef, I made:

• 1 batch of enchiladas (recipe coming!)
• 2 batches (entrees) of No Boil Baked Penne - the recipe calls for a 9x13 pan, but I split it into 2-8x8 pans.
• 2 pounds of taco meat - ground beef seasoned with Old El Paso taco seasoning. We eat tacos A LOT
• 1 pound uncooked meat that was supposed to be Cheeseburger Meatloaf, but it was 10:30pm and I still had cleaning up to do, so I skipped it and froze the uncooked meat.

This weekend I'll be working on the chicken side of things. The plan, as shown above, is:

• Teriyaki Marinated Chicken - I made my own teriyaki sauce a few weeks ago from a recipe in Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. This cookbook is my main inspiration for freezer cooking. You should check it out!
• Crockpot Salsa Chicken (recipe coming soon!)
• Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing - I haven't figured out how I'm going to make this ahead yet. More details to come...
• Cheddar & Cracker Chicken - this looks super yummy and I can't wait to try it!

I"ll post the missing recipes soon, and will continue to feature different recipes each week to help you on your way to a stocked freezer. Be sure to stop in next week for more freezer cooking fun!

Typography Thursday

Well, Typography Tuesday might sound better, but since it's Thursday, I'm going with that. Maybe in the future I'll actually plan posts instead of posting willy-nilly. One can hope, right? But, I digress.

I've always been a fan of typography. I love love love all of the font sites such as dafont.com where you can download any number of fonts of all kinds for free, or for a small donation. I'm a self-proclaimed font geek. I have so many in my collection that sometimes I don't even know where to start! But I still want more..

According to Wikipedia, the definition of Typography is "the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible." I believe it really is an art, and once upon a time when I was pursuing a degree in Graphic Design (never finished), the typography courses were my favorite.

I've recently rediscovered playing with fonts, and come up with a few fun prints that I thought I would put out there and see what the internet at large thinks. The first is an idea I've seen on Pinterest, and I thought I would give it my own touch. Just a simple print framed behind glass that can be used as a dry erase board to write in your own sentiment.

Cute, right? What a great gift to give to a new couple on their wedding day. These are available in any color you choose, and listed in the shop now.

This idea came to me after listening to "Someone Like You" by Adele a few times. I thought it might be fun on a postcard, or a card to give someone when you're breaking up, or when you've been dumped. Don't ask where my thoughts come from; I couldn't tell you. Or, maybe you just really like the song...

I really just wanted to use these colors and this part of the song. I haven't made this print into anything yet, but if you're interested, just let me know what you'd like!

So, that's what I've been working on. What do you think?

Pinterest: Be Warned, It's Addictive

Have you discovered Pinterest? If you haven't, you must go there. Now. Go on, I'll wait.

You're back? Good. See what I mean? There are SO MANY great ideas on there that I think I could literally spend days and days going through it all. Artwork, party ideas, quotes, recipes (OMG, the recipes!), crafty things, the list goes on and on. I love Pinterest because it's easy to keep everything that looks great to me all in one place. If I see a recipe I want to try, I just "pin it" to my recipes board so I can easily go back to it later. It sure beats bookmarking every little thing, or even worse, printing it out and then trying to find that paper later.

And it's not just ON Pinterest that you can pin things. You can install a handy little button on your browser menu bar so you can pin anything, no matter what site you're on. I.Love.It. And I'm an addict. It doesn't help that you can also get a Pinterest App. It's true. I use it.

I'm still on the fence about it, but I believe that Pinterest can also be used as a marketing tool. You don't want to constantly pin your own things, but I think that every now and then, like if you have a product you've created that you are really excited about, go ahead and pin it. I don't know how effective it is, but what could it hurt? Get your stuff out there. But again, don't go crazy with it. The Pinterest Etiquette states: "...try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion." If you have enough readers on your blog or in your shop, chances are it would be pinned anyway.

So, what have you been pinning?

Want to see what I've been up to? Follow my pins.

Frosted Mason Jar Luminaries

I'm obsessed. There, I admitted it. I'm still going crazy with mason jars! The latest idea just sort of came to me; why not frost a mason jar to use as a luminary? And, why not add personalization? So, here we have a Frosted Mason Jar Luminary, personalized! On the first jar I did, I only used a single letter for personalization. Then I had a custom order through my Etsy shop for a full monogram, which is pictured above. I think I love that even more than the single letter! I fell in love immediately.

If you want to do it yourself, it's super easy. All you need is a mason jar, or an old spaghetti sauce/pickle/canning/whateverkindofjar, Frosted Glass Spray Paint (found at your local hardware store or Walmart),a tea light candle or LED tea light, and a way to monogram/personalize. I used my Pazzles die cut machine to cut out vinyl lettering, but you could also use paint, or good old fashioned glue and construction paper. I also used flat black spray paint to paint the ring of the lid to make it all matchy-matchy.

I'll try to put up a full tutorial with pictures and everything very soon, but that list should get you started! Have fun!

The picture above has an LED tea light in it. I just love the glow, and it even flickers a bit like a real candle would. So cute!

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Jar Crazy: Mason Jar Luminaries

It's no longer a secret: I've gone jar crazy. It all started with the Redneck Wine Glasses. They're so simple yet so much fun! I've been making the glasses for a little while, and I've recently been thinking 'What ELSE can I do with these jars?'

Enter the internet and Pinterest. I'm also now addicted to Pinterest, but that's another blog post (coming soon!). I was browsing around and found that lots of crafty people have been making glass jar luminaries. Brilliant! Of course I had to try it. I'm trying to get a head start on holiday crafting, so I started with Halloween. The pic above is my result: Halloween Luminaries!

The process is very simple. All you need is a glass jar - I used quart size plain jars from Walmart, mod podge, tissue paper, and a foam brush. A lot of the tutorials I've seen out there say to cut the tissue paper into strips. That's a good way to do it, but I wasn't entirely happy with the way it came out. You can kind of see the strips on the Frankenstein luminary above. I decided to try one large piece of tissue paper applied to the jar all at once. I liked it much better, as it appears a little more seamless - that one was the orange jack o'lantern above. When I was finished and everything was completely dry, I just plopped a tea light in the jars to light them up, and voila!

I'll do a full tutorial soon, with pictures and everything, so stay tuned! In the meantime, I'll have to write down all of these luminary ideas I now have swirling around in my head.

Cheeseburger Meatloaf - The Recipe

-- Photo Courtesy of MoneySavingMom --

Cheeseburger Meatloaf

1 lb. ground beef
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup uncooked regular oats (I had to substitute crushed Ritz crackers - still yummy!)
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. minced onion (I used chopped raw onion)
1 large egg
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 dry mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup chili sauce (I substituted barbecue sauce instead)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 11 ingredients in a large bowl; stir just until blended. Shape mixture into a loaf, and place in an ungreased 8×4-inch loafpan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour chili sauce over meat loaf, and bake 40 more minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and cut into 8 slices.

To freeze: If you used meat that had not yet been frozen, you can freeze this uncooked. When you’re ready to eat, thaw, and follow the instructions above for cooking.

If your meat had already been frozen, bake without chili sauce on top. Freeze. When you’re ready to eat, thaw meatloaf. Pour chili sauce (or BBQ sauce) on top and heat in oven until hot.

---> Shannon's Note -> Freezer Packaging: Form into loaf, then wrap in plastic wrap. Wrap again in foil, label, and toss in the freezer.


-- Recipe and photo courtesy of Money Saving Mom


My First Attempt at Freezer Cooking - And Not the Last!

--Photo Courtesy of DailyDishRecipes 

Freezer cooking. Have you tried it? A few months ago I decided I would give it a go and see what it's all about. I had read about it on sites such as Money Saving Mom and Once a Month Mom, and was intrigued. You mean I can prepare and/or cook a bunch of meals in one day and then throw them in the freezer for later? Then on a busy weeknight just throw something in the oven and be done? I'm in.

I actually didn't even go overboard on this project - shocker I know. I decided that I would buy a cookbook and look online, pick out a few recipes, then prepare enough meals for a week's worth of dinners. I did a bit of research and found Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer on Amazon, used some Amazon gift cards I got from Swagbucks, and poof! it was at my door in a couple of days. Have I mentioned lately that I love Amazon? Anyway...As soon as I received the book I was going through and making lists; tons of great recipes that even my kids would eat. Cheesy Chicken Bundles? Done. Hawaiian Chicken in the Crockpot? You betcha. There's even a recipe for Teriyaki Sauce that looks good, but I still need to make.

So I did my shopping, hit Sam's Club for the huge trays of ground beef and chicken breasts, the regular grocery store for the fill-in ingredients and I was ready. I temporarily misplaced my camera, so I didn't get any pictures, but here's a list of what I prepared:

• 2 pounds of taco meat (browned ground beef with taco seasoning)
• 2 loaves of Cheeseburger Meatloaf (check "Recipes" page for details)
• 1 Hawaiian Chicken Crockpot dish - just need to thaw it and throw it in the crockpot - done!
• 8 or 10 (I forget) Cheesy Chicken Bundles - probably enough for 2 meals, the way the kids eat
• About 2 dozen meatballs - and I LOVE meatballs, so this will just be enough for one meal

All in all, I have about 8 meals ready and waiting in my freezer, and I did this all on a Sunday afternoon. There was very little cooking involved, thankfully - really the only cooking I did was the ground beef for tacos. Everything else I just prepared, packaged, and tossed in the freezer. Love it! Now all I have to do is figure out what we're having when, take it out of the freezer to thaw, then pop it in the oven. Dinner's ready! I love making taco filling ahead of time; all I have to do is warm up the meat, set up the taco toppings, and dinner's ready in about 5 minutes. Perfect.

If you're new to Freezer Cooking, or Once a Month or Week Cooking, I highly recommend Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. There are lots of other books out there on the subject, and excellent blogs and ideas online, but this is the book I used. They explain in great detail the best way to package the meals for the freezer, and all of the recipes sound yummy.

I'll post the recipe for the Cheeseburger Meatloaf right after this one. Its SO yum. You'll love it.

In my research for this post, I also found Daily Dish Recipes, and am totally in love. I'll be doing lots of recipe-printing in a few minutes!