Fortune Cookies

For some reason, this year my kids became very excited about Chinese New Year.  They wanted to know what we were doing to celebrate and what we were eating.  This caught me a little off guard because we have no Asian background in our family, but since we were planning to have Asian Chicken Salad for dinner that night anyway, I decided I'd run with it.

We had egg rolls (store bought), Asian Noodles, and homemade fortune cookies.  They were so fun to make that I decided to give it a go again.  Now, this is not a quick and easy treat.  When I am in the zone I can get six done in a batch...when I'm in the norm...more like four before they start drying because I'm not moving fast enough.  I watched a you tube video when I was looking for recipes.  I really wish I could find the clip again to reference it, but I do remember the girl saying to start with two at a time, then gradually work yourself up to six.

Before you start make sure you have your fortunes typed, cut and ready to go.

Preheat oven to 300
Blend together the following until frothy.  Do not beat so long the mixture becomes thick.
     2 large egg whites
     1/2 tsp vanilla
     1/2 tsp almond
     3 Tbs oil
Add to the above:
     1/2 c flour
     1/2 c sugar
     1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
     1 Tbs water
     1/8 tsp salt
Blend the batter together until it's smooth.
Generously grease a cookie sheet.  Use a tablespoon to drop the batter into small circles and spread evenly until it reaches approximately 3" in diameter.  You will probably only be dropping 1/2 - 2/3 of the batter out of the spoon.  That's fine, it should be plenty to create your circle.

• Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, or until the edges become golden brown.  If the cookies are cooked too long you will not be able to shape them.
• When the cookies are ready, open the oven and pull the oven rack out enough that you can remove the cookies from the cookie sheet.
• Remove the cookies one at a time, place the cookie upside down on your working surface, and place the fortune in the center of the cookie.
• Fold the cookie in half, then using a mug or bowl, fold the cookie in half again using the mug or bowl to help shape the cookie.
• Place the cookie in a cupcake pan to help hold the shape.
• Repeat until all the cookies have been removed from the pan. You want to move fast so the cookies won't harden before you shape them, and also because you are pulling them straight from the oven and they're hot!
• Keeping the cookies in the warmth of the oven will also help keep them from hardening too quickly.
• Start with 2 cookies on a cookie sheet, then work yourself up to more.  To keep the dough from touching on the cookie sheet, you can most likely do no more than six cookies at a time.

Thai Peanut Chicken

This is one of my favorite crockpot dishes, and yes, it is also a hybrid freezer meal.  This was thrown in the crockpot at noon, and dinner was on the table by 5:30 p.m.  The real delay was I didn't start the pasta early enough.  

12 oz. linguine (I used regular spaghetti)
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1 c peanut butter
2 c hot water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 c low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbs packed brown sugar
1 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into 1" - 2" chunks
1 1/2 c shredded zucchini
1 large red pepper cut into thin strips
1 c chopped cilantro, divided
1 Tbs lime juice
Chopped peanuts


To freeze: 
Cut the chicken into 1" - 2" chunks and place in a labeled quart size freezer bag.
Cut the red pepper, shred the zucchini, and chop 1/2 c cilantro.  Place items together in a labeled quart size freezer bag.

On cooking day:
Mix together garlic, peanut butter, water, bouillon cubes, soy sauce and brown sugar.  Whisk until well blended.
Place chicken and vegetables in crockpot.  Pour in the sauce and stir.
If you have previously frozen the chicken and vegetables, they can be placed in the crockpot directly from the freezer.  If this is the case, pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables and stir gently.  
Stir items in the crockpot every 30 minutes to one hour.
Cook on low 4 - 5 hours, or high 2 -3 hours.  (If cooking from frozen cook on low 5 hours, or high 3 hours)
About 20 minutes before serving toss in the lime juice.
Serve over noodles, garnish with peanuts and cilantro.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe found on Karen Petersen's 365 day crockpot blog.

Top Ten Reasons To Use Freezer Meals

1. Save money.  Cooking in bulk means buying in bulk, and it also means you can make sale shopping more valuable for your family. 


2. Save time.  Yes, you are investing a lot of time on one or two days, but the reality is you are investing minimal time on cooking nights, which is all the rest of the nights of the month.  And I don't know anyone who couldn't use some extra time.


3. Forces your family to branch out.  Being part of a freezer meal group means you may get recipes in your home you've never seen before...this is good.  Consider it a time to teach your family to explore.


4. Have meals ready when you need them.  It's always nice when something unexpected happens to know you have a back up plan other than McDonald's.  Not all freezer meals can be made on a moments notice, there are many things you can fully cook and you are dealing with reheating. 


5. Speaking of McDonald's, freezer meals inevitably mean you eat out less.  Knowing you have something for dinner in your freezer makes it a lot easier to avoid the fast food traps.


6. Freezer meals help you plan ahead.  Because you are cooking in bulk, you are also planning in bulk.  You can have a pretty good idea what you plan to eat over the next few weeks which is a lifesaver for those days that you don't know what to cook or just don't feel like cooking.


7.  Gives you an opportunity to cook with friends.  You can obviously do freezer meals on your own, but we're girls, we like to socialize, turn it into a Saturday cooking party, and everyone walks away with meals for their family.


8.  They help with your food storage preparation.  Because you want to have everything non perishable for the meal in advance, you'll be amazed how much of your short term food storage you can build up just from doing freezer meals.  How many side effects do you know of that are good for you?


9.  Cuts down on trips to the grocery store.  With making meals in advance, you know the perishables you need well in advance, making shopping trips a lot easier and less frequent.  We live in a snowbird infested area...keeping me out of those grocery lines. - Priceless!!


10.  Creates no excuses for dinner time with the family.  You have a plan, you have the meal, you can now adjust what your eating to that small window your family has together in the evening.  If you ask me, this is the best reason of all.

My kitchen's a mess...and it has nothing to do with dinner

My kitchen is still a disaster, I am soaking everything that needs to soak, updating my blog, going to bed and worrying about the mess in the morning.  This is not typical of me, but I had a cupcake explosion in the kitchen today. I could have totally been on that show Cupcake Wars if I had a cute apron and staff.  Fifteen minutes until we had to leave for mutual, not sure if the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes were cool enough to frost, the lime frosting for the coconut lime cupcakes wasn't as thick as I wanted it...if you have ever watched that show you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Oh, and the minor detail that i have one small oven and limited counter space.  It's good to imagine...Anyway, somewhere in the whole cupcake creating that was happening tonight, I had to worry about dinner for my family.  This is why I LOVE freezer meals.

We have been slacking, so I don't have my dinner calendar written out the way it usually is.  This meant at 4:00 p.m. it occurred to me that I didn't know what we were having for dinner and I certainly did not have time to create something.  So, I opened the freezer, the taco meat was staring me in the face, and I decided that I didn't need to complicate things further by looking around.

I grabbed the romaine lettuce out of the fridge, tomatoes were already cut from last nights salad, opened and drained a can of kidney beans, poured some shredded cheese in a bowl and some tortilla strips.  I will admit that Craig had to make some ranch dressing for those who don't like the salsa contraption (it's just salsa and ranch mixed together) but dinner was done. This is what I consider a hybrid freezer meal, only the taco meat was frozen, but heck, who cares...I didn't have to cook anything, and honestly, from start to finish it took about ten minutes to have dinner completely on the table and ready to go...and that includes the time it took to thaw the meat and have the superstar hubby make the dressing.  I'm not posting a picture, and I'm not posting an official recipe...you can use whatever it is that makes your taco meat yours.   The point is, even if you don't want to live by freezer meals like I do, you should really have something in there as a backup plan.  It is completely worth it!

Now, as for the mess in my kitchen.  I did have someone tell me the coconut lime was the best cupcake she ever had.  I love those.  I changed the recipe up a little today, and am a firm believer I need to make it again before I post to be sure everything is measured out and recorded correctly.  So for now, I'll just tease you with pictures.

  

 
I had made cupcakes for a birthday and used birthday liners...that was a great idea except they looked very silly with these cupcakes.  I took the liner off and it looked even sillier, so the cupcake is just kind of sitting in a new liner...you get the idea though. It's a coconut cupcake with lime frosting.  These are my absolute favorite cupcake, so I was very excited to expand the fan club for these babies.

 I also made a peanut butter chocolate cupcake.  Now, I am a long time fan of peanut butter and chocolate candy, but I've always felt like there were enough chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and I didn't need to jump on the band wagon. Today, I had some of those mini reeses and thought since I was making cupcakes it wouldn't hurt to try. These cupcakes are EXTREMELY rich; after a bite of this one I was thinking milk...and I don't even like milk. These may be a good mini cupcake...hmmm...

Now, the third cupcake was a cookies and cream cupcake.  These were really good, but a bit too heavy for me.  I like a light, fluffy, cupcake, not dense and thick.  A lot of people really liked these, simply because it's a classic, comfortable flavor.  I'll look at lightening up the dough a little before we finalize the recipe, but it definitely had potential. (See what I mean about the tacky cupcake liners now?)

Mexican Lasagna

I have to be honest.  I took photos of dinner tonight and thought to myself, "I'd never make that looking at the picture."  I promise, however, it is REALLY good.  It's a really easy meal, it's just not a photogenic meal. Also, I know there are some who refuse to cook with freezer meals because "they don't do casseroles."  Well, this is a casserole and it is easy, tasty, and even though the photos don't show it, it does look nice when served...


With that said, this is one that can also be a freezer meal.  You can actually prepare the whole meal in a disposable 9x13, cover and freeze.  To freeze the casserole, I recommend covering once with saran wrap and then again with aluminum foil.  Keep in mind there is no way to keep the air out of a frozen casserole, so you absolutely need to eat it with at least a month or month and a half.

We use the hybrid version of the freezer meal for this one.  We cook the chicken, freeze it, separate the cheese for the recipe, freeze it, and separate the tortillas, freeze them.  At that point, the only items that are not frozen are a can of green chiles and the enchilada sauce.  However, it means I only needed about 1/3 of the space also.

Mexican Lasagna

4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbs cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 cans green chiles
2 cups shredded cheese (jack, cheddar, or a colby jack mix)
1 can green enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas whole
6 corn tortillas halved

To prepare the chicken, we cook it in the crockpot with 1 can of green chiles, the cumin and chili powder.  Cook on low 4 - 5 hours and shred.  (If I am cooking this for multiple meals I will cook up to 16 chicken breasts and add 1 cup of water and 1 bouillon cube)  If you are freezing the chicken, you want to separate into labeled quart size ziploc bags.  Make sure there is at least 3 cups of shredded chicken in each bag.

When I prepare the rest of the meal for the freezer, I make sure I have on had the can of green chiles and the can of enchilada sauce.  Then place the cheese in a labeled quart size freezer bag, and the tortillas in a separate labeled quart size freezer bag.  This will ensure you have all the pieces of the meal on hand when you are planning to prepare it.  (Especially with the cheese if you have a family who likes to add cheese to their snacks or meals.)

To prepare the meal:
Remove 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese and set aside.
If you are using the hybrid frozen chicken, you will need to add the second can of green chiles to the chicken as we only used one in the crockpot.
Preheat oven to 375
Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan, and spread by tilting the pan.  Arrange four of the whole tortillas, and four of the half tortillas to cover the enchilada sauce.  Pour 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on top of the layer of tortillas and spread evenly.  Spread evenly 1/2 of the chicken over the tortillas, and then half of the remaining shredded cheese.
Repeat again starting with the corn tortillas, enchilada sauce, chicken and cheese.
To complete the casserole, layer the remainder of the corn tortillas, pour and spread the remainder of the enchilada sauce, and top with the 1/4 cup of cheese that was separated at the beginning.
Bake in preheated oven 35 - 45 minutes, until cheese is melted and it is heated through.
Allow the casserole to set for about ten minutes before serving.

If you choose to prepare the whole casserole before freezing, on serving day you can cook the casserole at 350 for 2 hours from frozen, or thaw ahead of time and cook at 350 for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Chicken Alfredo and Rolls

This is one of the simplest meals we prepare in our home, and it is also one of our favorites.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 c light zesty italian dressing
1 pkg pasta
1 jar alfredo sauce


We serve the meal with rolls and either a vegetable or salad.  I'll include the roll recipe also, but a loaf of french bread from the store works just fine for those who don't like to bake.  We bake the chicken in advance and it is frozen for future meals.

Chicken
Preheat oven to 375.  Lay chicken breasts in an 8x8 or 9x13 pan.  Use a fork to make several holes in the chicken.  Pour half the dressing over the chicken, then turn the chicken over and pour the remainder of the dressing.  Bake the chicken for approximately 40 minutes.  Baking time may vary depending on the thickness of the chicken.

If you are preparing the chicken in bulk for future meals:  Allow the chicken to cool completely.  When the meat has cooled, slice the chicken and then place 2 sliced chicken breasts in a labeled quart size freezer bag.  Squeeze out as much air as possible and place in freezer.

If you are preparing the entire meal tonight:  While the chicken is baking, prepare your pasta, warm the jar sauce and prepare any vegetables or salads that will be accompanying the meal.

I love this meal for a couple reasons.  First, the kids enjoy it so much there are never leftovers.  Second, it's very inexpensive.  If you are a coupon shopper, the Ragu brand of alfredo, which is what we usually purchase, can often be purchased on sale and with coupons for $1.00 or less.

My family also loves italian rolls with their pasta, so that is something else I make whenever we have spaghetti, lasagna, alfredo, anything of that nature.  I use a pampered chef fluted pan.  Any bundt pan will do, but I highly recommend using a bundt pan for these.

 
Rolls
1 c warm water
1 Tbs active dry yeast
2 Tbls + 1 tsp sugar
1 Tbls olive oil
2 1/2 - 3 c flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbls butter

I am a huge fan of my kitchen aid, so that is how I combine the ingredients.  You can use a bread maker, or combine them by hand.  It's entirely up to you.  Pour the water, yeast and sugar into your mixing bowl.  Allow the mixture to sit for five minutes.  You DO NOT have to dissolve the yeast, but you are more than welcome to if it makes you feel better.  While the yeast mixture is sitting, combine 2 cups of flour and the remaining dry ingredients.  You will need the butter for later. After the five minutes add the oil to the water/yeast mixture, then gradually add the flour mixture. Knead the flour until it pulls away from the side of the bowl if using a kitchen aid, or until it pulls away from the board if kneading by hand.  You don't want it to get too dry.

Allow the dough to rest for fifteen minutes.  We don't usually have a warm place for the bread to rise, so I use the inside of my oven.  I preheat the oven to 170, and then turn it off,  By the time the bread has rested it seems to be the perfect temperature.

After the dough has rested punch it down and knead for another minute.  Melt 2 Tbls butter in a small bowl.  Twist and pull enough dough to make a 2" ball.  Dip the ball in butter and place in an un-greased fluted baker or un-greased bundt pan.  Continue until you have used all the dough, spacing the balls evenly and stacking on top of each other in the pan.

Place the pan in the oven for 25 minutes.  After 25 minutes, turn the oven on to 350 and bake for 30 minutes.  Leave the pan in the oven while it's preheating.

After the rolls are finished baking, turn the pan over and serve.

I feel like the tedious part is baking the chicken.  Maybe it's because I have seen the value in baking enough for four meals at once and defrosting seems so much easier, but I'm sure there are those of you who will find me insane for baking the bread...all I know is it is well worth it!

The Beginnings of my Freezer Cooking

I am a huge man of freezer meal cooking.  I started freezer meal cooking in a small way when I had a very small family.  It's easy to cook a full meal and then eat leftovers for a couple days when you are only cooking for two or three.  In order to spread the leftovers out over a longer period of time I'd cook the entire package of ground beef, season it for tacos, and then freeze half.  This meant the second meal could be eaten in a few weeks, not a few days. As my family grew, I moved away from this because I was able to use the entire contents for one meal.

Over time I joined a freezer meal group.  There were a group of eight with families of comparable sizes.  We each cooked or prepared eight of the same meal, met together once a month to swap the meals, and we walked away with eight different meals for the month.  We had guidelines everyone agreed to and it worked great.  Each month you knew eight of your meals were ready to go.  You could plan them for two of your busy nights each week, or eat them all at once. This type of freezer cooking can be varied depending on the size of your group, the size of your freezers, and your individual needs.

In time we moved away from our freezer meal group and missed the convenience of being able to have those meals available when I needed them.  I missed the variety of the food coming into our home, and having days where I didn't have to think about what to cook.  In our new home our kids were coming home from school later, homework was a little more time consuming, and I realized I needed to do something to help the menu planning.  With no freezer meal group, we decided to try out making our own freezer meal rotation.  We had a friend years ago who had been doing this, and I felt inspired and motivated to make it my own.

Unfortunately, moving also meant we left our second fridge/freezer in the garage at our old home.  So, now I had all the ambition in the world to cook for a month, but only had the freezer in my kitchen to work with.  This created some challenges that we've worked through and I am here to tell you it can be done.  A variety of tasty food from the freezer in your kitchen.

Now, does this mean you won't have to cook at all? Probably not.  There are certain things that require, or are much better cooked the same day.

Does this mean you have to eat the same foods over and over again?  That depends on you and how much variety you want in your menu.  I have found with my family we typically were eating the same foods, or types of foods, over and over anyway.

Are there foods you shouldn't freeze?  Yes, any food with a high water content will not freeze well uncooked.  This doesn't mean you can't freeze these foods, it just means you have to be a little creative.  Science is on your side, and you may have to learn a little about science and freezing in the process.  Relax, no homework and no term papers in these science lessons, just a little experimenting.

So, how do you start?  Read on...

German Pancakes

Tonight is pizza night, so I've decided to post our breakfast recipe.  German pancakes are a favorite of ours, the kids inhale them when I make them, so with our crew I actually have to make two batches at once.  I'm only posting the recipe for one, however.  I know most who make these cook them in an iron skillet, the way they are suppose to be done.  I am not so fancy, we use a 9x13 pan...as you will see from the photos.

 

5 Tbl butter
5 eggs
3/4 c milk
3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt



Preheat oven to 450.


Cut the butter into quarters and place in your baking dish.
Beat the eggs well with a hand mixer or kitchen aid.
Add the milk and continue to beat well.
After the oven has been on approximately five to ten minutes, place the baking dish with the butter in the oven. (You want it to be in long enough to heat the pan and melt the butter, but not so long the butter burns)
Add flour and salt to the mixture and mix well.

When the oven is preheated completely, pour the mixture into the pan.  I usually open the oven, pull the oven rack out enough to pour directly into the pan, and slide the rack back into the oven.  I have found this helps from losing too much heat.

Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.

Our personal preference is to serve with sliced strawberries and powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

One of our favorites around here is chicken enchilada soup.  In fact, on a good day, everyone eats it without complaining.  I'm finally losing the battle with the guck just about everyone else in the house had, so I'm feeling like I need soup.  The great thing is this is one of our freezer meals too!  For me that means, take it out of the freezer, thaw, heat and dinner was ready.  It doesn't get better than that!

1 Tbs oil

1 lb chicken breast

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, pressed

5 c water

5 tsp chicken bouillon

1 c Masa Harina (corn tortilla flour)

1 c enchilada sauce

16 oz Velveeta cheese, cubed

1 tsp salt

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add chicken, brown 4-5 minutes per side and set aside. Add onions and garlic, sauté about 2 minutes.

Add water and bouillon, heat until bouillon is dissolved.

In a small bowl combine Masa Harina with 2 c water and whisk until well blended.  Add to pot with onions, garlic and broth.

Add enchilada sauce, cheese and spices and bring to boil.  Stir regularly to keep cheese and enchilada sauce from sinking to bottom and burning.

Shred chicken and add to pot.

Simmer 30-40 minutes or until thickened stirring frequently..

If you prefer a thinner soup, add water to desired consistency.

Serve with shredded cheese, salsa and tortilla strips.

 This is also one of my favorite freezer meals.  When making this for the freezer I cut the water down to 4 cups and double the recipe for two freezer meals.  Cool the soup completely. Place a gallon size ziploc freezer bag in a pitcher with the opening of the bag folded over the top of the pitcher.  (This helps you not to pour the soup on the floor or counter.)  When the bag is full seal it, removing as much of the air as possible.  Repeat with second bag and lay flat in the freezer.

On cooking day: Thaw and add 1 cup of water. Simmer on stove top until heated through, usually around 20 minutes. Serve with shredded cheese, crumbled chips and salsa.

Sugar Cookies

Today's post has nothing to do with menu planning. I'm making sugar cookies for my daughter's class, and it is our favorite sugar cookie recipe so I thought I'd share.  I was given this recipe by my friend, Whitney, years ago.  I believe she got it from her mom, and I'm not sure if she's the original source or if it came from somewhere else before that.  The cookies stay soft even a few days later, making it a great sugar cookie recipe for the holidays also.

We use the frosting recipe if we aren't stacking or packaging them, or a basic icing recipe if we don't want frosting on everything else they touch.  I'm including all three recipes, but the pictures are of the cookies with icing.  We also made these for valentine's day for the girl's classes and packaged them in white paper cd cases.  In fact, the whole reason they are being baked today was my daughter's after school group loved them on Monday and asked her if she would bring more today.

I do have one disclaimer with the cd case packaging, however.  The cd cases do not create an airtight seal.  This means your cookies will dry out faster regardless how moist and soft they are.  If at all possible, package the day you plan to deliver the cookies, or you can also use plastic wrap or a smaller plastic bag to seal the cookie in first before placing it in the paper cd case.

 

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 brick cream cheese

2/3 c butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbl milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/4 c flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar, cream cheese and butter.  Add eggs, milk and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and beat into creamed mixture combining thoroughly.  Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours.   

Roll dough to approximately 1/4" thickness and cut shapes.

Bake at 400 for 8 minutes or until light brown on a LIGHTLY greased cookie sheet. (I usually line mine with parchment paper or pan liners.

Frosting

2 cubes soft butter

1/2 brick cream cheese

1 lb bag powdered sugar.

Mix together, add more butter or milk if needed. (Makes enough for two batches of generously frosted cookies.

Icing

2 c powdered sugar, sifted

2 Tbs milk

3 1/2 tsp light corn syrup

1/2 tsp almond extract 

1/2 tsp vanilla

liquid food coloring, if desired

Blend together milk and sugar.  Add the corn syrup, almond extract and vanilla.  Mix together until smooth.  If the icing is too thick add corn syrup, 1/2 tsp at a time.

Divide the icing into separate bowls and add coloring one drop at a time.

I usually pipe mine from a ziploc bag.  You can also spread the icing with the back of a spoon.

Allow the icing to dry before packaging or stacking.

Menu by Mom

I've had a lot of people asking me lately about my menu planning.  As a result I've decided to start blogging some of my dinner tricks, recipes, and short cuts that make dinner a little easier at our house.

We have five kids in our house with five different opinions on what tastes good.  I'll include in the blog some of their favorites, and some of my favorites which may be their not so favorites.  I give no guarantee your family will like what I cook, but I will let you know how it goes over with our critics.

I'll also be including some ideas for once a month cooking, the purchasing and cooking guide we try to use at our home, and some tips for those who want to do something in between.  My hope is to make home cooking a little easier and a little more realistic for those who don't have as much time in the kitchen as they like.

Finally, I just hope you have fun!  Enjoy your kitchen, enjoy your food, and enjoy eating it with your family.