Hawaiian Chicken

I think that it's kind of funny that as I'm cooking things, my kids always ask if what I'm making is for us.  I hope that's a sign that I'm teaching my kids how to help others.

In this chapter of my life, I can't really go and help someone move or help to take care of a new baby.  Bringing all five of my kids as I go to help would more of a hindrance than a help.

So what can I do to help others out?  I cook for them.  That's something I can do from home with all of the kids around me and still be able to help someone in need.

Today's dish is a great one for that!  My friend, Emma, is due to have her first baby any time now and you all probably know how much I love freezer meals when I have a new baby.  So, in hopes to help her out when the new bundle of joy arrives, I've been making freezer meals for her.

This is the one that I made for her today...

The recipe comes from one of my favorite sources for freezer meals, Deanna Buxton's "Dinner Is Ready."  It's very similar to her Cranberry Chicken, but my family likes this dish even more.

Here's what you'll need:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can cut these into tenders if preferred)

salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste

1 C. Apricot Pineapple preserves

1 C. Russian salad dressing

1 envelope onion soup mix, dry

Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

  

Place in a greased 9x13-inch pan.  

In a medium sized bowl, combine the preserves, salad dressing, and dry onion soup mix. 

Pour over the chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  

At this point, you can serve warm over rice OR you can let it cool, then place it in a gallon ziploc bag that's been labeled, and freeze.

If you freeze this dish, just let it thaw then heat it up when you're ready to eat it.

BBQ Meatballs

Well, hello!  It's been a while since my last post; sorry for that!  But we've been having a wonderful time the last couple of weeks celebrating the fourth and spending time with out-of-town visitors.  I love summertime!!

So, I just took a look at the pictures of things I've made that are waiting to make their appearance here and I noticed that I have LOTS of yummy goodies and treats and just a few dinners.  Can you tell what I enjoy making more?  But, hey, who doesn't?!

Anyway, today's recipe is one of the few dinners I've had patiently waiting.

                                    

This recipe comes from my friend, Holly.  I so look up to her!  She's a gorgeous, genuine person, a fantastic mother, she's has an amazing creative talent, and she's a wonderful cook.  She's totally the perfect woman!

I made these meatballs as one of my freezer meals and they were GREAT!  Everyone highly approved.

Here's what you'll need:

3 lbs. ground beef

1 1/2 C. milk OR 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 C. oatmeal

1 C. cracker crumbs (I used Ritz crackers that I smashed)

2 eggs

1/2 C. chopped onion OR 2 Tbsp. dried chopped onion

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. chili powder

Sauce:

2 C. catsup

1 C. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. liquid smoke

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 C. chopped onion OR 2 Tbsp. dried, chopped onion

Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the meatball ingredients, except for the ground beef.

Crumble the ground beef on top.

Mush everything together until all of the ingredients are evenly combined. 

Using a small scoop (or about 2 teaspoons), form meatballs and place on two large, greased baking pans.

 I ended up with about 100 meatballs.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs in ONE pan.  If you want to cover all of the meatballs (in both pans), DOUBLE THE SAUCE.

I loved that I had one pan of BBQ meatballs and another pan of plain meatballs that I can just throw into some marinara sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.

Two great dinner options from this one recipe.  Love that!

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

At this point, you can either serve the meatballs from the oven or you can let them cool and dump the meatballs and sauce into a freezer ziplock bag and freeze them.

If you freeze these, just let them thaw, then heat them up and you're ready to eat!

I also froze the plain meatballs after they finished baking (at 350 degrees for 1 hour) and cooled.

I love having delicious food I can just pull out of the freezer, warm up, and eat.  It makes my life so much easier!

I hope I'm making your life easier too!!  Enjoy!

Cranberry Chicken

As I've mentioned earlier, in preparation for our new baby's arrival, I made lots of freezer meals.  They've been so wonderful to just pull out of the freezer the night before, let it thaw in the fridge until I need it the next day.  Then I just warm the food up, get a few sides ready quickly, and PRESTO...dinner's ready.  

It's been a real lifesaver with the new baby, lots of homework, five days of baseball practices and games, scouts, dance and recitals, and so on.

These would be super useful even if I didn't have a new baby.  I have many, many days where I'm so busy, I can't spend a lot of time on dinner.

Today's recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks that is made up solely of freezer meal recipes.  It's called "Dinner is Ready" by Deanna Buxton.

At first I was a little worried that my kids would freak out about the cranberries in this dish, but they didn't even notice the few cranberries that hadn't cooked down.  Everyone actually loved this dish!

Try out this super simple freezer meal.  You'll love having something handy on day you're busier than a bee!

Here's what you'll need:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 (16 oz.) can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 C. creamy French dressing

1 envelope onion soup mix, dry

Place chicken in a greased 9x13-inch baking dish and season with salt and pepper well.

In a bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, French dressing, and onion soup mix.

Pour over chicken.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Place in a gallon freezer bag.  Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw.  Heat until hot throughout.  Serve with rice.

When I used this freezer meal, I thawed this and dumped everything in the gallon freezer bag into a crockpot.  Then I just turned it on High and let it heat through in that for a few hours.

You can assemble this recipe and freeze it before baking it.  In that case, thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Super simple!

Herb Roasted Pork

Today's recipe comes from allrecipes. We had just had our pig butchered and so I had LOTS of pork in my freezer and I wanted to try something new. So I hopped on their trusty website and found this recipe. We tried it out and fell in love! It makes a soooooooooo delicious, juicy, flavorful pork roast with an incredible sauce to boot. I LOVE it!!!! And it's nice enough to serve for company too.

Here's what you'll need:

2 tsp. rubbed sage
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed OR 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 (5 lb) pork roast

Sauce:
1 C. brown sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1/2 C. vinegar
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Rub all over the roast. Place roast in a roasting pan. Cover loosely and bake for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or until your roast reaches and internal temperature of 150 degrees.

For the sauce: Combine sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to bubble and thicken slightly. Brush roast with the glaze 3-4 times during the last 30 minutes of cooking time. Pour remaining glaze over roast and serve. Or reserve the remaining glaze to drizzle over the sliced roast, like I did here. And drizzle a little more over some mashed potatoes or rice. Then keep some glaze to dunk everything in while you're eating. It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!!!

This recipe freezes beautifully!  To freeze, place cooked, cut up pork roast in a gallon freezer bag and pour cooled sauce over all.  Shake and turn the bag until the pork is well coated with the sauce.  Freeze.

To serve:  Thaw and heat through.

Shredded BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Yay!! Recipes, finally!!! This recipe is one that we love and for three reasons: 1-it's really yummy; 2-it's super easy; and 3-it can feed a lot of people. About six months ago, when my baby was only a few weeks old, I hosted a luncheon at my house after church for lots of family members. As I pondered what I would serve for it, this is what I chose for the three reasons I love it. It was perfect!


Try it out; and even if you don't need to feed a houseful, size it down to what you need. Or you can make a lot of this and freeze it for future use. You can't beat a really good dinner, ready-made and homemade, that you just pull from the freezer and warm up!


Here's what you'll need:


Beef roast, whatever size you want - I went with a 4 lb. and a 2 lb. (6 lbs total) since I was feeding LOTS


Your favorite dry rub or seasoning - I like McCormick's GrillMates Montreal Steak Seasoning, but my favorite is the Kirkland Sweet Mesquite Seasoning that you can find at Costco


Your favorite BBQ sauce - I like KC Masterpiece


Cover your roast with your favorite dry rub or seasoning. Cook it in the crockpot until it's done (the length of time will vary with the size of roast you use - you could cook it overnight on low).


When it's done, remove the meat from the crockpot and discard the juices. Shred the roast and place back in the crockpot. Smother with BBQ sauce until you've reached your desired moistness. For the six pounds of meat that I used, we used an entire 45 oz. bottle of BBQ sauce. Let warm in the crockpot. Serve in buns or rolls or between two pieces of sliced bread. Like I said, super easy, really yummy, and can feed a lot of people.

You can easily freeze any that's left over to save extras for another day.  Just place in a freezer ziplock bag and freeze.  To serve:  Thaw and heat through.

Lasagna

Once again, it's been a while since my last post. I'm so sorry!! But I do have a really good excuse. We've had our little baby! YAY!!!!!! So I'm just barely getting back into the swing of things. Yesterday was the first day that I actually cooked and it felt sooooooo good to be back in the kitchen making yummy food! I've decided that cooking is therapeutic for me. So I'm going to have to be doing more of it to get through these baby blues!

But I do have to say that I have so many WONDERFUL friends who are amazing cooks! We've be SOOOOOO spoiled by all of the meals that have been made and brought to us. How lucky am I?!

Well the recipe that I have for today is a delicious lasagna. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, making a few tweeks to it, of course, and everyone loved it. But the best part is that it makes a big 9x13 inch pan. So now we have LOTS of leftovers - now I don't have to worry about dinner for tonight and probably the next night too!

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. dried onion, or 1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 t. garlic powder, or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
2 T. brown sugar
1 t. salt
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Italian style diced tomatoes
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
12 lasagna noodles
2 eggs, beaten
1 pint (2 c.) ricotta cheese
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
2 T/ dried parsley
1 t. salt
1 lb. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Italian style shredded cheese

Brown the ground beef, onion, and garlic together. In another pan, combine the basil, oregano, sugar, salt, diced tomatoes, and paste. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes, adding the ground beef when cooked.

Cook the lasagna noodles, according to package instructions. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and salt.

In a 9x13 inch pan, layer 1/3 noodles, topped with 1/2 the ricotta cheese mixture, 1/2 the mozzarella cheese, and 1/3 the tomato sauce.

Then repeat. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Sprinkle with Italian style shredded cheese (or you can use a mixture of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

Mmmmm - one of my FAVORITE foods!!

For a freezer meal, assemble the lasagna in a foil lasagna pan, using uncooked lasagna noodles.  Cover tightly with heavy duty foil or freezer foil, label and freeze.  To serve:  Thaw.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until heated through.

Taco Soup

My friend, Mandy, that I go walking with, told me this morning that she likes to check my blog to get ideas of what to make for dinner. So that has inspired me to post some yummy dinner recipes this week.

One of our family's favorite soups is taco soup. I got this recipe from my oldest sister and I LOVE this recipe because it is so easy and really good too!!

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb. ground beef, browned with minced dried onion, garlic powder, and salt for seasoning
1 can corn with liquid
1 can kidney beans with liquid
1 can stewed diced tomatoes with liquid (you can get the diced tomatoes with chilies for more of a kick)
1 can tomato sauce
1 corn can of water
1 packet of taco seasoning

Combine all ingredients, not draining any of the cans, and cook on medium high until hot; simmer until ready to eat. Top with sour cream and shredded cheese and eat with corn chips. You can crush corn chips or Fritos and sprinkle them in your soup. Or you can eat your soup with those corn chip scoops or Fritos scoops - that's our favorite! Yummy, easy, and quick - perfect for those cold winter nights!!

You can also use this recipe as a freezer meal.  Just combine all of the ingredients into a gallon freezer bag and freeze.  To serve, thaw and heat through.

Cheesy Ham, Noodles, and Peas

I believe I mentioned that I make lots of freezer meals when I'm pregnant so that I don't have to worry about cooking when I have a new baby. Well, today's recipe is one of those meals that I made for such an occasion.

The trick to using pasta in a freezer meal is to cook the pasta for half the shortest cooking time listed on the package directions. The reason for that is because while it sits in the freezer, the pasta absorbs moisture from the other ingredients, softening them even more. If you cook the pasta too long, then you'll end up with mushy noodles when you thaw and cook them to eat.

Or, if you don't want to worry about freezing this meal, then just make it as is!

Here's what you'll need:

1 (8 oz) pkg. corkscrew noodles

2 C. cubed ham (or shredded if you want to use leftover ham)

1/2 a 1 lb. pkg frozen peas

1 C. shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese

1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 can cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup

1 C. sour cream

Cook noodles as directed on package. Drain. Combine cheeses, soup, and sour cream. Stir in ham, noodles, and peas.

Place in a greased baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked through.

If you want to freeze this, cook noodles for half the time suggested on package. Drain. Combine cheeses, soup, and sour cream. Stir in ham, noodles, and peas . Place in a gallon freezer bag. Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw. Place in a greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 45 minutes. Stir before serving.

Spaghetti Pie

This recipe comes from my Aunt, Karen, just simplified a bit. It's really pretty easy and my kids LOVE it (as do my hubby and I)! It's just a fun way to eat spaghetti.

Here's what you'll need:

6 oz. cooked spaghetti

2 T. butter

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 C. Parmesean cheese

1 lb. hamburger, browned

1 (26.5 oz) can spaghetti sauce

16 oz. container cottage cheese

8 oz. pkg. Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Combine eggs & Parmesean cheese. Stir butter with the warm cooked spaghetti until it is melted, then combine with the eggs and Parmesean. Press into a "crust" into 2 greased 9 or 9 1/2 inch pie pans.

Spread each crust with a layer of cottage cheese (half of the container for each pie).

Stir together hamburger and spaghetti sauce then spoon over the cottage cheese layer. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Top with Mozzarella cheese and bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Cut like a pie and serve. Mmmmm...

To use as a freezer meal, assemble the pies in foil pie pans.  Cover tightly with heavy duty foil or freezer foil. Label and freeze.  To serve:  Thaw and bake at 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes and continue from there.

Cowboy Casserole

This dish is my son's favorite meal. I don't know if it's his favorite because of the name or if it's just that good. But what I do know is that it is quick, easy, and cheap to make. It also freezes well, which is handy when you have a new baby and don't want to cook. You just pull it out of the freezer, thaw it, bake it, and eat it. Handy, handy, handy!!

Here's what you'll need:
2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. dried minced onion
2 (15 oz) cans baked beans
2 C. barbeque sauce

1/4 C. brown sugar

1 or 2 tubes refrigerator biscuits (not the Grand's super big biscuits, just the cheap 50 cent store brand refrigerator biscuits. We like bread, so we always use 2 tubes and what doesn't fit on the casserole, we just bake to eat on the side.)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef with dried onion. Remove from heat. Stir in beans, barbeque sauce, and brown sugar. You can put it in a gallon freezer bag to freeze for another day or you can put it into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan, top with biscuits and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Top with shredded cheese and bake another 5 minutes. And that's it! How easy is that?!


If you haven't noticed, the majority of my meals are on paper plates. The reason being that the majority of my meals are going out to the people working on building my house, and they eat on paper plates. But even if I were to use real dishes, I only have one set. Maybe when I get into my new house with more room, I will have space to get fun dishes. Until then, you get paper plates. Sorry!

Spaghetti Sauce

One thing I forgot how much I loved while living at home, was my Mom's spaghetti sauce. When I moved away to go to college, I just always bought the canned spaghetti sauce since that was quick and easy. I did that for years. Just a few months ago, I went through this whole I'm-cooking-what-my-Mom-cooked-for-me-growing-up thing. Has anyone else gone through that before? Anyway, I totally reverted back to my Mom's home cooking and this spaghetti sauce is one of the things I made and remembered how much I loved! When I took my first bite of it a couple months back, I was instantly upset that I had been missing out on this for years!! I now rarely purchase spaghetti sauce at the grocery store anymore because this is WAY better! And it's quick and easy to make. One of the reasons why I like it so much is because it is more sweet than savory. Kind of hard to imagine, but just try it. I LOVE it!!!

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. dried onion
Salt & Pepper
Garlic powder

Brown the ground beef with the onion, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Drain off grease.

Then add:

1 can tomato soup
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tomato soup can full of water
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil

1-2 T. brown sugar (If you don't want your sauce to be on the sweeter side, go with 1 tablespoon; if you're like me and like it sweet, go with 2. And you can use white sugar, but the brown gives it a deeper flavor.)


Cook together with meat and serve over noodles. Also good for homemade pizza and lasagna.



This is also great to make, let cool, pour into freezer bags and freeze for another day.  Just thaw and heat through.