Bad Food Blog

Tag: pasta

• My Menu Plan – July 2020

  Posted at 11:28 pm by Rachel, on July 3, 2020

  I’m back with another month-long menu plan! Actually, I will share my June plan at the end of this post also. WordPress changed their post editor recently, and my pregnant brain was too tired to deal with that last month. 😂  And it is actually pretty intuitive, so clearly I was EXTRA tired last month.

  It’s Fourth of July weekend here in the US, and of course we are celebrating with a bunch of food. I’ve made this American flag pie for the last few years, and actually just baked one over Memorial Day weekend. It is so beautiful, but it has always turned out very juicy for me. I’m going to try NOT refrigerating the berries with the cornstarch this time – I am thinking that it makes the juices solidify too much and they sneak into the pie. We will see! If you are interested in a much quicker and easier dessert, strawberry shortcake (or chocolate strawberry shortcake!) is a delicious and classic option.

  Once again, the menus are printable – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab, scaled to print on a standard piece of printer paper.

  

  Salads

  Salads are easy meals to adapt for your kids. Mine don’t usually like things mixed up, so we just put little bit of everything onto their plates separately, either without dressing or with dressing on the side so they can dunk and dip.

  • Sesame Chicken Salad from Meals Made Easy
  • Panzanella and sausages from You Have It Made 
  • Southwest salad – Not really planning to follow a recipe for this one, we will see what happens. As long as there is avocado I’ll be okay.
  • Chicken and peach salad from Easy, Delicious Meals – This was a hit last month, and probably took 20 minutes to carve the chicken and dice the peaches. I subbed in feta for blue cheese and used lots of peaches.

  Pasta

  • Pasta with blistered cherry tomatoes – One of my favorite weeknight pastas
  • Creamy pesto tortellini with green beans and ricotta (adapted from Easy, Delicious Meals) – The original recipe calls for gnocchi, and it is amazing if you have access to fresh gnocchi (or you feel inspired to make your own!). But I don’t have fresh gnocchi right now, so I’m subbing in tortellini.
  • Spaghetti and meatballs – I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. My husband will be helping me with these one weekend, and I will likely freeze most of the leftovers to start preparing for baby #4.
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This is my third month in a row making this recipe! I took a little short cut last week and used a high quality jarred sauce, and warmed it with the basil in the microwave. It’s my current comfort food of choice.

  Vegetarian

  • Veggie stir fry – My kids don’t actually mind the sauce on this stir fry, and they go nuts for the baby corn and sesame seed “sprinkles.”
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto (inspired by this recipe) – I make some basic polenta with parmesan, roast a couple of sheet pans worth of vegetables, layer it on a plate, and top it all off with pesto from the store.
  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – These burgers have beans and beets and can be made ahead! Fingers crossed at finding beets in Hawaii in July!
  • Sweet potato and black bean tacos – I’ve never had these before but I am a sucker for sweet potatoes. I’ll still be chopping up some peppers and tomatoes for the kids though.

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Hamburgers, served with watermelon with mint, lime, & feta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This watermelon salad takes like 10 minutes to throw together and is amazing! Easy enough for a regular side dish, fancy enough to pull out and impress guests. It reminded me of the watermelon salad we ate at Frog Hollow Tavern a couple years ago.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker
  • Grilled chicken, served with Tomato Cobbler with Cornmeal-Cheddar Biscuits – This is one of those “plan the main dish around the side dish” meals. I was remembering the tomato cobbler recipe, which I haven’t made for years now, and I knew I had to make it again this month. Check out the cook time before you start – it is definitely a weekend recipe!
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – I’ll be saving some extra meat and the bones to make chicken soup for my freezer.

  And the “bonus” June menu:

  

  Happy eating!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, pie, pizza, salad, side dish, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – May 2020

  Posted at 10:52 pm by Rachel, on May 3, 2020

  Okay, I am giving monthly menu planning yet another try. Fingers crossed that no one gets sick this month and we can eat the whole thing!

  My Perdue Farms order was finally delivered a week or two ago, so it did take the full 5-6 weeks to arrive. Based on my one data point, I would say their current estimate of 2-3 weeks is probably accurate despite the upcoming meat shortage, although the package I ordered and several other products are not currently available. But talk about good timing! One of the reasons I ordered this meat in the first place was in anticipation of a meat shortage, and here we are. All of the meat we will be eating this month is already in my freezer – even the chicken from the cheesy farro, broccoli, and chicken that we had on Saturday was from a big batch of chicken breasts I baked a few weeks ago.

  Speaking of the meat shortage, you might notice that there isn’t a lot of meat in this menu plan. Not that that is atypical around here, personally I feel that the meat and three menu gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Of course no meat can get kind of boring too! So my categories this month are soup, pasta, vegetarian, eggs, pizza, and a meat night. My Monday and Tuesday nights switch between two categories because of some scheduling conflicts – just makin’ it work.

  May means Cinco de Mayo, and also… Cinco de Cuatro! Just in time too, because my kids have been asking if we can make chocolate covered bananas again.

  I made the menu printable again this month – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – requested by my kids
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – This probably isn’t the best French onion soup recipe ever, but it is pretty easy
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

  Pasta

  • Tortellini with pears and prosciutto (adapted from this recipe)
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – I’ve never made this recipe for myself, but my favorite vegetarian friend – the one who recommended this book to me in the first place – made it for me a while ago so I thought I would give it a whirl.
  • Spaghetti aglio e olio
  • Pasta alfredo

  Vegetarian

  • BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa from Thug Kitchen / veggie tacos for my kids – I made this sometime last year and it was sooo good. Hands-down the most flavorful burritos I have made at home. They were pretty labor intensive, which is why I haven’t made them since, but Cinco de Mayo seems like the perfect occasion for a repeat. Unfortunately the burritos were pretty spicy, and my kids genuinely hate spicy foods right now, so I’ll cut up some veggies for them to make their own little vegetable tacos.
  • Yeasted waffles à la King Arthur Flour
  • Weeknight enchiladas (bean and cheese enchiladas) / veggie tacos for my kids – Again, these enchiladas are really not very spicy, but I have tried and failed many times to get my kids to eat them. I’m going to make them on the super-mild side (with Monterey jack cheese instead of pepper jack, for instance), and also plan on some simple veggie tacos for them.
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli – like a deconstructed chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, but with farro
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Potato kielbasa sheet pan – I’ve never made this recipe, but it looks simple, a.k.a. just my style
  • Easy orange chicken – Why yes, you *can* make that sauce ahead and stick it in the fridge for later in the day
  • Slow cooker honey soy drumettes – This recipe has been in my mental bookmarks for YEARS. Literally, at least five years. Of course, basically every time I think to make it I have a baby under a year old doing baby led weaning, and the one food they are really not supposed to eat before they turn one is honey (thanks, botulism!). Hopefully five years of anticipation do not leave me disappointed.

   

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Covid-19, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Easter Recap 2020 and Menu Plan 4/19-5/2

  Posted at 11:06 pm by Rachel, on April 19, 2020

  Happy Easter! I hope you all had a peaceful holiday – it was definitely a different feeling this year with a stay-at-home order in effect, and while we all missed getting out to church in the morning, we still enjoyed lots of family time and plentiful food. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I planned to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Easter Dinner on 2 Sheet Pans, and a lamb cake for dessert.

  

  Guys, don’t make homemade cinnamon rolls unless you want to ruin the canned stuff for the rest of your life. I grew up eating a lot of cinnamon rolls – my dad made the canned ones for breakfast every Sunday morning and we made pretty frequent trips to the mall Cinnabon – but I never tried homemade until I made this same recipe about 7 years ago. While I haven’t taken the time to make them since then, I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy the alternatives either. This time I did most of the work the night before, and just popped the pan into the fridge after letting the rolls rise in the pan. I let the butter and cream cheese for the frosting soften overnight on the counter, so everything was ready to go in the morning. If you are like me and don’t want to spend an hour or longer making an extra special breakfast in the morning, this is the way to do it!

  

  I started making our Easter dinner on the early side. Maybe it is the houseful of kids, or maybe I am just a particularly slow cook, but recipes almost always take me longer than they say they will. Yet in some sort of Easter miracle, this recipe took me the exact amount of time it said it would. Amazing. The potatoes au gratin were the star at our house, and even my sauce-hating 5-year-old really enjoyed them. I don’t have a mandolin, but my food processor’s 2mm slicing disc worked just as well. One thing I would change about this recipe is the cook time on the asparagus and carrots – it was just too long.

  

  

  This year’s lamb cake started out dramatically the day before Easter when I lost the lamb pan. My kids really looked forward to this cake – they had spent the whole week divvying up the cake, and I had spent the whole week listening to them chime, “I get the head!” and, “I get the tush!” So it was a frantic and sad 30 minutes as I searched and imagined telling them that there would be no lamb cake this year. Of course I did eventually find it tucked away inside my stock pot. It is not the first thing I have stored in the stock pot and then lost, and sadly will probably not be the last. So after all that, I did get the lamb cake made. It was kind of sloppy this year, which is what happens when you forget to take it out of the pan for almost 24 hours and don’t pipe frosting until your kids are asking to eat the cake. The recipe does only call for 3 cups of cake batter, so if you use the The Cake Bible’s recipe for Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake (find the recipe online here), you will have enough leftover batter for seven cupcakes. This year I paired it with Sally’s Favorite Vanilla Buttercream. I think I still prefer the flavor of the coconut frosting from last year, but this one was a lot faster to make and still quite tasty.

  This week we are back to simpler, more standard fare. This will be my first time making the ham and Swiss sliders. We had them at a friend’s house a few months ago and my husband and I both liked them, so they seem like a good way to use up the leftover Swiss cheese from Easter (I subbed Swiss for Gruyere in the potatoes au gratin). The kids will most likely eat a deconstructed version of the sandwiches. I have high hopes for the chicken parm meatballs, which is the other new recipe we will be trying in the next couple of weeks. At least one of my kids is SUPER into meatballs right now and one is moderately interested in them, so my fingers are crossed on that one.

  I hope to make a menu plan for the entire month of May, but our grocery store continues to have shortages of random things, so we might stay more week-to-week for a bit longer. We’ve just gotta stay flexible right now!

  S 4/19 Pasta with burst cherry tomato sauce, green vegetables
  M 4/20 Ham and Swiss cheese sliders, broccoli
  T 4/21 Slow cooker tomato soup (from The Complete Slow Cooker), biscuits, spinach
  W 4/22 Leftovers
  R 4/23 Eggs, vegetables
  F 4/24 Pizza (crust, sauce), vegetables
  S 4/25 Chicken and snap pea stir fry, rice

  S 4/26 Pasta with chicken parm meatballs, vegetables
  M 4/27 Mayo-free chicken salad sandwiches, carrots, fruit
  T 4/28 Potato cauliflower soup, vegetables, bread
  W 4/29 Leftovers
  R 4/30 Eggs, vegetables
  F 5/1 Pizza (crust, sauce), vegetables
  S 5/2 Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli

  Posted in Menu Plans | 2 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, dessert, Dinner, Easter, food flops, holiday, Menu plan, menu recap, pasta, soup

• My June Menu Plan

  Posted at 9:34 pm by Rachel, on June 1, 2019

  Happy June! This is my last monthly menu plan for a while – we are moving in August so I will be spending July trying to use up the odds and ends in the pantry and using shorter-term planning to really hone in on what I already have. I usually do grocery shopping once a week, but last month I planned ahead and purchased all of our meat the beginning of the month. I really liked doing one meat prep, pre-cooking and portioning chicken for salads, chopping, and otherwise just making prep work easier for the rest of the month. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this all along with these monthly meal plans, because it did make dinner time go very smoothly all month long. All that to say, I was just at the store yesterday and I did the same thing.

  I picked up two cookbooks from the library this month – Thug Kitchen, which is all plant-based/vegan, and You Have It Made. I borrowed You Have It Made a few months ago, so I already knew that it had more recipes that I wanted to try. Most specifically I wanted to take a look at the salads because she puts together some really interesting ones. I picked up Thug Kitchen to take a look at making my own vegetable broth (super simple, by the way), and ended up bookmarking at least two dozen recipes with post its. I am trying several recipes from each book this month before returning them to the library.

  

  Slow Cooker

  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker with hummus, pita, and raw veggies (cucumbers,  bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and olives) – Sometimes I just buy a rotisserie chicken and BAM – a healthy, no cook dinner. Making my own chicken this time means a little more meat leftover for chicken soup this week and chicken, broccoli, & rice later in the month.
  • Slow cooker maple & dijon pot roast – It’s been a few months since I’ve made this one! I’m going to prep the night before so I can just turn on the slow cooker in the morning. This recipe suggests serving with grits, and yeah, that is really tasty, so I also recommend grits if you have the time (I use this recipe, which is actually for polenta, but hey, it’s still creamy cornmeal). If I’m short on time I’ll pull out some egg noodles.
  • Maple mustard chicken thighs – prepping this one for the freezer! I have made chicken thighs in my slow cooker using the maple mustard and sweet and sour marinades from this list and both came out great! Cook boneless skinless chicken thighs for 4-6 hours on low.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is a family favorite that always turns out excellent.
  • Rosemary chicken thighs

  Stovetop

  • Chicken noodle soup – It’s only going to be in the 80s here this week; that’s soup weather, right? 😉 But seriously, don’t let the bones go to waste!
  • BBQ bean burritos with grilled peach salsa from Thug Kitchen – Reviewing this recipe, it is really 3 recipes in one – rice, salsa, and finally burritos – so there will be some decent prep work involved. Hopefully it will all pay off!
  • Chicken, broccoli, and rice – I make a deconstructed version of the classic casserole, but with a lot more broccoli and probably a bit less chicken.
  • Beef tacos with pineapple guacamole from Thug Kitchen – Now that I am writing this, I can see the irony of pairing beefy tacos with a recipe from a vegan cookbook…

  Eggs

  Last month I made the broccoli cheddar quiche from You Have It Made, although due to some menu shuffling it ended up being a breakfast item instead of dinner. I don’t have anything special planned for egg nights this month, just our basic scramble with lots of veggies!

  Salads

  • Layered farro salad with kale, feta, and grapes from You Have It Made 
  • Berry chicken poppy seed salad – Last month I made this with the dressing from this recipe. I’ve made it a few times before and it is fine, but I am pretty sure we have some of this poppy seed dressing lying around, and it goes really well with this salad too.
  • Red cabbage & kale salad from You Have It Made – I’m adding some baked chicken breast to this one, and will probably substitute pepitas for sunflower seeds because I have a bunch.
  • Southwestern salad – As I have said before, I make different variations of this recipe with black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, and salad greens. Last time I added some cheese, and completely forgot about the pepitas. Don’t worry, pepitas, I’m still coming for you. The cilantro-lime vinaigrette I made last month was good, but this time I really might just squeeze some lime on top and call it a day.

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Pasta

  • Grilled eggplant with soba noodles from Thug Kitchen – I usually think of pasta night being more Italian-influenced dinners, but really why not throw in some Asian noodles to mix things up? I couldn’t find soba noodles at the commissary, so I ventured out to Earth Fare today to get some. I’m going to try cooking the eggplant under the broiler because I don’t have a grill and I’ve broiled eggplant a couple of times now. Overall this seems like it should be a quick and easy recipe.
  • Lemony broccoli pasta – Fast to make and my kids love the “worms”! I know I have said it before, but my kids will eat this as is – pasta and broccoli being mixed together, with lemon and all. That is a big deal around here!
  • Pasta with pesto
  • Fettuccini with vegetable bolognese from You Have It Made – There is no meat in this recipe, and I could not be more excited to try it.
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – My favorite, super fast sauce. Remember to dry the tomatoes on a towel after you rinse them to stop them from exploding all over your kitchen.
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 4 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• My April Menu Plan

  Posted at 8:00 am by Rachel, on March 31, 2019

  My kids keep reminding me that April will be here on Monday! And Easter is in April! All that to say that we are very excited for April. Here in Georgia, things are finally heating up, so I’m starting to pull out some of my favorite warm weather foods. I’m looking at you, dinner salads! I tried to keep the meals pretty simple for this month, so there is a lot of low-prep, make ahead, and some store-bought favorites.

  I still haven’t finalized an Easter menu yet. A couple of years ago I made Easter Dinner on Two Sheet Pans, and while it was a very satisfying meal, we really enjoyed our Christmas meal of appetizers and sides. Ahh, decisions! Either way, I’ll be making another lamb cake, and maybe some other sweet things since we like sweet things.

  

  Sandwiches

  My kids have trouble eating most sandwiches beyond a PB&J or grilled cheese – it is hard for their little hands to hold it all together! I usually serve them the sandwich components on a plate – it keeps them happy and is just easier for everyone.

  As with all recipes, if you want great results, start with high quality ingredients. Don’t skimp on the bread! I’m serving these up with oven fries – probably going to alternate between Russets and sweet potatoes, throw some different seasonings on them – these look pretty tasty.

  • Caprese sandwiches – fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and a balsamic reduction on some good bread
  • Black bean burgers – It’s been a while since the last time I made these. I am guessing that at least one of my kids will not want to eat the black bean patty, so I’m going to reserve some plain, unmashed black beans for them just in case.
  • Roasted Sweet Potato Wraps with Caramelized Onions and Pesto – These are SO GOOD and they freeze phenomenally. Even better, my local Target now carries Simply Balanced tortillas (no hydrogenated oils!).
  • BLTs

  Eggs

  Eggs are moving to Mondays for April! These are a great, easy meal, so perfect for a weeknight. I want to make the quick quiche from Ellie Krieger’s You Have It Made one night. It is nice to change things up from time to time and this was a solid recipe.

  Pasta

  I’m keeping things fast and easy this month. All of these pastas are easily served with or without sauce, and two of them (bowties with pesto and tortellini with red sauce) I’m just going to buy at the grocery store. My sometimes picky eaters will eat the Lemony Broccoli Pasta without modifications and sometimes like to dip their pasta in the sauce.

  • Penne with Arrabbiata Sauce
  • Lemony Broccoli Pasta
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – If you’ve never tried making a homemade tomato sauce, this is an excellent recipe to start with! It is so easy but still so flavorful. One or two times and you’ll be able to make it by heart.
  • Bowties with pesto
  • Tortellini with red sauce

  Meat

  • Maple mustard chicken thighs – Already prepped and in my freezer! I’m going to try these in my slow cooker.
  • Slow Cooker Shredded Balsamic Beef – I always like to try new slow cooker recipes, and I thought that this one sounded pretty good. I want to sear the meat before putting it in the slow cooker, and other than that I’ll follow the recipe as written.
  • Huli Huli Chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – My husband has requested this again! It’s so good and the leg quarters look so impressive when they come out from under the broiler. I’m no grilling expert, but I suspect you could finish this up on the grill instead of using the broiler.
  • Orange chicken – I plan to make the sauce and cut up the chicken ahead of time and stick them in the fridge until dinner – just a bit more manageable than trying to get it all done at dinnertime. I might try making it in my wok this time.

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Salads/Bowl Meals

  • Polenta with roasted veggies and pesto –  I’m linking this recipe so you can get the general idea and see a picture of what the end result looks like. The pesto and polenta recipes they include are probably great, but I have not tried them – I simplify a bit by using store-bought pesto and this polenta recipe. Also, tomatoes and zucchini are delicious, but feel free to sub in whatever veggies you like.
  • Greek salad with broccoli and sundried tomatoes – This looks like less prep work than my previous go-to Greek dinner salad, and it has sundried tomatoes, which we recently rediscovered at a friend’s house.
  • Southwest salad
  • Asian chicken salad

   

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Lent, Menu plan, pasta, salad, sandwich, soup, vegetarian

• Freezer Cooking for Baby #3 and My Postpartum Menu Plan (Part 3)

  Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on March 8, 2019

  This is the third part of a four post series on filling your freezer before adding a new baby to the family. Revisit Part 1 and Part 2.

  Before we go any further, I need to emphasize that 8 weeks of food is a lot to take on, especially towards the end of pregnancy. I had a lot of back and abdominal discomfort towards the end of my pregnancy that made standing for long periods of time difficult. If you want to pack your freezer, plan ahead – don’t wait until you are 39 weeks along! I started one month before my due date, and just kept cooking things and adding to our stockpile until a few days before my due date. If you have a helper, use them! Without my husband helping this would not have gotten done.

  

  As far as supplies go, I like to store my freezer meals in slider top freezer bags. I used to use Ziploc brand, but as far as I can tell they discontinued the slider top freezer bags. Don’t use the non-freezer bags in the freezer, as they periodically break and leak while defrosting. Ask how I know. And I really like a slider top so I know that the bag is closed. The Up&Up brand bags from Target have been pretty good so far (available in gallon- or quart-sized). Bags are good for slow cooker meals, soups, muffins, and anything oddly-shaped. Store them FLAT in the freezer so you can stack them or file them on their sides. Some meals freeze better in a casserole dish, and I use disposable foil pans for those meals. I have noted how I stored each food below for easy reference. However you store it, label your food with what it is, the date, and cooking instructions so you don’t have to dig them out later.

  Main Dishes

  

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup  (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I usually use Great Northern beans and dried sage when I make this. While I have not noticed it in the past, the cream separated from the rest of the soup upon reheating. This was more of an annoyance than anything else (it just made for a lot of extra stirring), but next time, I’m going to wait to add the cream until right before serving the soup.

  

  • Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I didn’t notice any separating with this soup, but it doesn’t hurt to leave the cream out until serving. Read my full review of this soup here.

  • All-American Beef Chili (single recipe, 3 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  This recipe is from The Make-Ahead Cook: 8 Smart Strategies for Dinner Tonight, which I borrowed this book from my library. This recipe on Brown Eyed Baker is the same, but half the amount the book recipe yields.

  Wow, what a great chili! It’s a bit too spicy for my kids (although they did enjoy the toppings and cornbread that we served up with it), but I thought it was a good amount of seasonings for grown-ups.

  

  • Easy Chicken Noodle Soup from a Leftover Roasted Chicken (2 single recipes, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  Do not freeze the soup with the egg noodles! You can add egg noodles once you reheat the soup, but this soup is also delicious without them. I prepped this soup twice, each time after I made a whole chicken.

  • Onion-Butter 2-Step Chicken (double recipe, 2 8×8 foil pans)

  I highly recommend cutting large chicken breasts into smaller pieces so they bake more quickly. I forgot to cut up the giant chicken breasts I bought and it ended up taking about twice as long to cook them all the way through.

  

  • Mini Garden Turkey Loaves (double recipe, 2 dozen mini meatloaves in 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I have made this recipe several times now and we love it. The mini meatloaves freeze so well and they reheat quickly in the microwave. However, be forewarned that the prep time listed on the recipe is way off. Especially for a double recipe, I think it took me about a half an hour to cook off all of the liquid from the vegetables.

  

  • Dijon-Pecan 2-Step Chicken (double recipe, 2 8×8 foil pans)

  Again, cut large chicken breasts into smaller pieces so they bake more quickly. My kids really enjoyed this one!

  

  • Slow Cooker Maple and Dijon Pot Roast (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I like the flavors in this pot roast recipe. Usually I only use 2 onions, and add about a pound of carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 – 1 inch chunks. I made it with bacon for the freezer, but I usually just throw some olive oil into the pan before searing the meat.

  • Ginger Peach Chicken (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  This is one of my favorite dump meals for the slow cooker. I’ve made it with fresh ginger and ground ginger and both versions were excellent. Mix everything in the freezer bag EXCEPT for the frozen peaches. Add those in for the final 30 minutes of cooking or they will turn to absolute mush. I also recommend slicing the onion VERY thinly (I use the 4mm disc on my food processor).

  • Slow Cooker Taco Chicken Bowls (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  

  • Tender and Juicy Slow-Cooker Meatballs (single recipe, 4 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  These are the meatballs I used for pasta and meatball night as well as for meatball sandwiches – they are my husband’s new favorite meatballs. However, it is important to note that I did not follow the recipe for the sauce, and instead added my meatballs to a single batch of the Best Slow-Cooked Tomato Sauce. I started the sauce first, prepped the meatballs, and popped them into the Dutch oven once they were out from under the broiler. Also, I used all of the meat to make meatballs (instead of making a meat sauce), and ended up getting about 32 instead of 16, great for stretching this into a few meals.

  

  • Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables (single recipe, 3 8×8 foil pans)

  I love this recipe, although I’m still working on convincing my kids that it’s okay for different foods to touch each other. I freeze before baking, and I cook the pasta for about 3-4 minutes less than what the box instructs. Use a high-quality sauce with a flavor you enjoy.

  • Vegan Tuscan Pumpkin Pasta Sauce (double recipe, 2 gallon-sized freezer bags)

  I wanted to throw different sauce into the rotation and landed on a pumpkin sauce. My neighbor used to make the most delicious pumpkin sauce with sage, but many recipes warned that they would separate if frozen and I did not want to deal with that issue. Finally I found this delightful recipe. It is vegan so no cream and no separating. Its flavor reminds me of a cinnamon raisin bagel, but is not so sweet that it felt weird putting it on pasta. You really just have to try it to understand – it is so good and so fast to make.

  Next week I’ll be wrapping up this series with Part 4, all about freezer-friendly sides, sweets, and extras!

   

   

  Posted in Menu Plans | 5 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, freezer friendly, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, slow cooker, soup, turkey, vegetarian

• Freezer Cooking for Baby #3 and My Postpartum Menu Plan (Part 2)

  Posted at 8:00 am by Rachel, on March 1, 2019

  This is the second post of a four post series on filling your freezer before adding a new baby to the family. Read Part 1 here or continue onto Part 3.

  Before I get into the specific items that went into my freezer, let’s talk about what didn’t:

  • Scrambled eggs – I make these every week because my kids usually eat them, they’re an inexpensive source of high-quality protein, and fast to make. Straight up scrambled eggs do not freeze well, but the prep and clean up are so fast that they really are not overwhelming to whip up for dinner, even with a new baby.

  

  • Roasted sweet potatoes – I love fresh roasted sweet potatoes so much, and it breaks my heart that they do not freeze well. I tried it a couple of different ways to try and make it work, but it really just does not work. The texture suffers. I cooked them a couple of times when I had the time to dice potatoes, but otherwise we made do without them.

  

  • Most pastas – Baked pastas freeze well, so in the past I have made a lot of them for freezer meals. However, my kids have been going through a “won’t-eat-foods-touching-other-foods” phase, and that makes casserole-style meals a struggle. Instead of fighting with them, I chose to make and buy different sauces for most of our pasta dinners (the exception being a baked penne that we really love). The meatballs with red sauce, pumpkin sauce, and baked penne with roasted vegetables went into the freezer; I could have added the pesto to my stockpile as well, but it was just as easy to buy it at the store as needed. Making just the sauces instead of pasta casseroles allowed me to serve sauce on the side for my kids and saved me a bunch of space in the freezer.

  

  • Pizza – We don’t have a great pizza place near us, and even if we did, ordering takeout every week can get expensive. Pizza dough actually does freeze well, but I have yet to master the art of stretching out pizza for a New York-style pie. What I do make about once a week is a Sicilian-style pizza. The dough for this pizza is so sticky that I have not found a good way to freeze it (if you have any insights here, please let me know!). However, it does refrigerate well! I experimented and learned that I could mix the dough first thing in the morning, let it rise for two hours, stretch it, then pop it into the fridge until I was ready to bake it. If you try this technique, make sure you stretch the dough before refrigerating, otherwise it will need to warm up before stretching – learned that the hard way! Pizza sauce would freeze well, I just never got around to making a big batch of it.

  

  • Slow cooker chicken thighs – It felt like a waste of a plastic bag to “prep” these for the freezer, seeing as how it would just be the chicken in the bag. My own very easy recipe requires so little prep work that it is easier to make it the day of than to freeze it ahead of time.

  Next up is Part 3, all about freezer-friendly main dishes!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 5 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, eggs, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, pizza

• My March Menu Plan

  Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on February 27, 2019

  March is upon us! Lent begins this month with Ash Wednesday on March 6th. Because this is a penitential season, I decided to limit how much meat I put on this menu. Specifically, I’ll be cooking meat on Thursdays as well as the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) and 19th (the Solemnity of St. Joseph). I intentionally chose Thursday as our main meat night, because Catholics abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent. Our lunch is usually the previous night’s leftovers, so this will be an active reminder of the sacrifice for us every Friday.

  My other food goals for the month are 1) to eat some eggplant and 2) take my new wok for a spin. One of my kids asked to try eggplant recently, and we have already made it to serve on the side once, but I want to take advantage of her interest and make it a couple of more times this month. I used my wok once last month to make this vegetable stir-fry, and promptly destroyed the starter-seasoning I did. Whomp whomp. So I will be re-seasoning in the oven and then, more importantly, using my wok! If you have any interesting stir fry or other wok recipes, please send them my way!

  

  Eggs

  It was fun getting a little fancier with a souffle at the end of February, but this month I am back to basics. I will be keeping Sundays simple this month with scrambled eggs and roasted veggies.

  Pasta

  • Spaghetti alla Carbonara – I’m using the recipe from How to Cook Everything, the first place I usually look for basic recipes
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – If you’ve never tried making a homemade tomato sauce, this is an excellent recipe to start with! It is so easy but still so flavorful. One or two times and you’ll be able to make it by heart.
  • Spaghetti Aglio e Olio – Another great basic – I will be pairing this with broiled eggplant
  • Skillet Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Eggplant – This will be my first try at this recipe. My husband requested a pasta topped with bread crumbs and my daughter requested eggplant – check and check!

  Vegetarian

  • Quinoa and Roasted Vegetable Salad – This salad is an offshoot of this recipe. The way I usually make it these days is pretty different from its mother recipe, but I still use that salad dressing. The original is great too, although it might be hard to find butternut squash this time of year.
  • Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas with Sweet Potato Cornbread – I will probably leave some of the fajita vegetables raw for my kids. As I recall, this recipe is more medium than mild spiciness, and they do not like spicy foods right now.
  • BBQ Sweet Potato Burrito Bowls – I know that this link leads to a recipe for BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls, but I will be omitting the chicken to make it vegetarian. I usually roast up the zucchini with some cubed sweet potatoes. About half the time I forget or just choose not to include the chicken and it is always a satisfying meal.
  • Weeknight Enchiladas – I think the last time I made these I ended up with 3 or 4 pans of enchiladas because there were so many beans leftover. Great for stocking the freezer or sharing with a friend!

  Skillet/Wok

  • Chicken and Snap Pea Stir-Fry – As I mentioned, I am trying to break in my wok. This looks like a nice, simple recipe for a beginner like me.
  • Potato Kielbasa Skillet
  • Stir-Fried Chicken with Kale from How to Cook Everything
  • Beef tacos with Budget Bytes’s taco seasoning

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Soup

  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
  • Vegetable Soup from Meals Made Easy
  • Unstuffed Cabbage Soup with Potato Cakes – My mom gave me a recipe for Unstuffed Cabbage Soup years ago and a few years back I adapted it for the slow cooker. Recipe forthcoming! Potato cakes are another family recipe. They are on the more indulgent side of ways one can eat a potato.
  • Creamy tomato soup – A solid recipe from The Complete Slow Cooker. My kids keep asking for it – no complaints here!
  • French onion soup
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Lent, Menu plan, pasta, skillet meal, soup, St. Patrick's Day, vegetarian, wok

• My February Menu Plan

  Posted at 4:03 am by Rachel, on January 26, 2019

  We have finally eaten most of the contents of our freezer and I am back with a monthly menu plan to share! I have really missed menu planning so I am excited to get back into the swing of things. Scroll down for recipe links and details on what I’m cooking this month.

  

  Eggs

  I would like to make a souffle again this month; I am specifically eyeing the Winter Squash Souffle from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. However, most egg nights we will be sticking to our traditional (easy) scrambled eggs and roasted veggies.

  Slow Cooker

  • Huli Huli Chicken – I borrowed The Complete Slow Cooker from the library recently and this recipe was one of our favorites. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for some new slow cooker recipes.
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker, sweet potato vegetable bake – I’m trying to expand my side dish repertoire and this recipe from You Have it Made is first up.
  • Pot roast – I usually make this recipe with 2 onions and about a pound of peeled, chopped carrots
  • Chicken thighs, Chili-Spiced Sweet Potatoes with Maple Pecans – This sweet potato recipe is also from You Have it Made. I made it for a neighbor recently and now I want to make it for myself. It’s freezer-friendly, but I have not personally tested that out yet.

  Soup

  • White bean and garlic soup
  • Chicken noodle soup
  • Creamy tomato soup – This recipe was another great find in The Complete Slow Cooker. My kids really enjoy helping me prepare it too.
  • French onion soup

  Pasta

  • Pasta and meatballs – My mom made us a bunch of meatballs on a recent visit, so we have a glut on meatballs in our freezer right now. If you need an excellent meatball recipe, I recommend checking out this one from Serious Eats (paired with this sauce).
  • Lemony broccoli pasta – The last time I made this, my kids gobbled it up with no modifications. Here’s to repeat success!
  • Butterflies with chickpeas – This is another recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It looks simple but delicious.
  • Gnocchi with chicken sausage and tomatoes – Truth be told I am not feeling too confident that I will find decent gnocchi to use in this recipe. If I can’t find the good stuff then I’ll probably sub in tortellini.

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Stove/Oven

  • Pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers – I imagine that some people would say “no” to pizza two nights in a row… fortunately I am not one of those people. I haven’t made these for a while, but they have been on my mind and I’m already excited to eat them.
  • Veggie Stir-Fry
  • Beef tacos with Budget Bytes’s taco seasoning
  • Cheesy chicken, broccoli, and rice
  Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, side dish, slow cooker, soup

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