Baking Day: Flour Tortillas

While my youngest two napped and my oldest one moved on to the playroom, I shaped tortillas with my rolling pin and cooked them up on the griddle. They didn't turn out as well as I'd liked, but they weren't too bad for my first try (see recipe for photo!).

Next, I sliced the Pita Pockets and bagged them for the freezer. My daughters absolutely believe every tastes better in a pocket - even peanut butter and jelly!

Our Hot Pockets got done just a little early for dinner, but I started some sides anyway and planned an early dinner for the night. Even my picky husband enjoyed them!

And I also bagged up the Raspberry Muffins for the freezer, but left out just enough for dessert! Our honey-wheat bread was sliced, bagged, and put in the bread box for sandwiches for lunch tomorrow!

Baking Day: Pita Pockets & Hot Pockets

Finally, the Pita Pocket dough was ready, so we pounded out some perfectly shaped circles and set them aside to rise some more! My daughters love rolling dough into balls and pounding on them, so they had an absolute blast.


While they went to town, I whipped up the filling for the Hot Pockets and let me tell you, no matter what the recipe says, you can not have enough cheese in these things! The more the better!


The Hot Pockets also had to be shaped and filled, then set aside to rise a bit more. They were incredibly easy and fun to make. My daughters enjoyed making them to much they couldn't wait to try them, and spend their time convincing me to throw out my meal plan, which included Spicy Garlic Chicken and Rice and have breakfast for dinner, so we did!


I popped the Pita Pockets into the oven to bake first, since they are done in 2-3 minutes, then baked the Hot Pockets.


Next, we're moving on to Flour Tortillas!

Baking Day: The Plan & Kick-Off (Raspberry Muffins & Honey-Wheat Bread)

Since I already love to bake, my new bread maker has become an addiction of mine. There is nothing better than just-out-of-the-bread maker bread! Plus, it's been raining here like mad, so my daughters and I decided to have a baking day and make some goodies to enjoy now and some to stash in the freezer.

Our plan for the day:

1 Loaf Honey-Wheat Bread

2 Batches Pita Pockets

1 Batch Hot Pockets

1 Batch Raspberry Muffins

2 Batches Flour Tortillas

Since the Pita Pockets spend the most time rising and take some preparation time, we started there.

Next we prepared the dough for the Hot Pockets, because they took the next longest amount of time. And then we moved on to the Flour Tortillas, since they only need a small time to rest. Finally, while our doughs were rising or resting, we threw the ingredients for the Honey-Wheat Bread into the bread maker and whipped up some Raspberry Muffins.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 Cup Shortening

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs (Beaten)

4 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2/3 Cup Milk

1 1/2 Cups Raspberries (fresh or frozen)

First, cream the first two ingredients together adding the sugar a little at a time and then add the beaten eggs. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then add to the sugar mixture. Add milk, and then the raspberries. Mix well. Fill 12-18 greased muffin cups 2/3rds full.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Now the muffins are cooking, the bread is making itself in the bread maker, and we are about to start shaping Pita Pockets, Hot Pockets, and Tortillas!

Freezer Series: Cooking Day (Chicken, Pork, & Steak)

Day two was a busy day, so I was cooking in between swim classes, physical therapy, and so many other things on my to-do list! However, I did get everything on my cooking list done. My to-do list still needs some work!

I started with the Orange Chicken and Baked Chicken Nuggets. Instead of making both separately according to the recipe, I modified it so the chicken in these meals were a bit more oriental, but could easily bake in the oven to be healthier. Basically, I combine the recipes in a way and baked two cookie sheets of nuggets.

While they were cooking away, I threw the Beer & Brown Sugar Steaks and Teriyaki-Marinated Pork Chops on the grill to cook away.

And then I cooked the chicken for the Chicken Manhattan's on the stove top just a bit, then placed it in a crockpot to slow cook for the day.

While everything cooked, I threw together the Sticky Chicken, which didn't call to be cooked at all until thawed. I also threw in a pouch of diced onions to make it a kit, so I could quickly throw it together when it was time for our family to enjoy it.

After that, I heated up the Orange Chicken sauce in a sauce pan and set it aside to cool. After that, I had some time to get some stuff done around the house. I came back when my chicken nuggets and grilled meats were done and set them aside to cool. Afterwards, I put the nuggets on a large tray to tray freeze them, so I could just pull a few out at a time.

The steaks and pork chops went into a Ziploc baggie and into the freezer, along with a bag of nuggets. I used half the nuggets to make the Orange Chicken kit and included the a baggie of the sauce inside to store together.

Afterwards, I waited until evening when my Chicken Manhattans were done and after they cooled, bagged them up to freeze!

That's 7 more meals down!

CHICKEN PLAN
Chicken Manhattans
Orange Chicken
Baked Chicken Nuggets
Sticky Chicken (Thanks Organized Home!)

STEAK & PORK PLAN
Beer & Brown Sugar Steaks
Teriyaki-Marinated Pork Chops

Check back tomorrow to see how day one went!

Freezer Series: Cooking Day (Chicken & Vegetable Soup)

I broke up these meals a bit differently for cooking. Instead of tackling all the chicken meals at once, I broke them up by cooking style and paired the Chicken-Biscuit Casserole with the Vegetable Soup and Beef & Vegetable Soup, which shared many of the same ingredients.

Yesterday, I marinated and seasoned 12 chicken breasts for baking. I did the easiest thing first and placed them on a baking sheet and let them cook away.

Next, I diced up a medley of vegetables into bite size pieces to use through out the entire cooking plan. It included broccoli, celery, carrots, onions, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, cauliflower, and zucchini.

I placed two huge pots on the stove and filled one of them with the ingredients for the Chicken-Biscuit Casserole and the other with the ingredients for Vegetable Soup. I did double each recipe! The Chicken-Biscuit Casserole called for cooked chicken, while I planned to to toss some beef into one of my Vegetable Soups to make it Beef & Vegetable Soup, so I placed diced chicken and beef on a cookie sheet and baked it with the chicken breasts until done.

While everything was either boiling, simmering, or baking away, I threw the ingredients for 3 quiches into 3 Ziploc bags and shook until mixed well. Then, I removed as much air as possible and froze them flat to enjoy at a later date.

Next, I got the marinade ready for the Beer & Brown Sugar Steaks and Teriyaki Pork Chops for tomorrow. I also whipped together a quick Quesadilla Kit and placed it in the freezer.

By that time, things began to finish up, so I placed them around the kitchen to cool, before putting them into Ziploc bags for storage in the freezer.

This was an easy cooking day. Basically, in a little under 3 hours, I had 11 more meals prepared and ready to go.

CHICKEN PLAN
Chicken-Biscuit Casserole (Thanks Organized Home!)
Tomato-Basil Baked Chicken
Italian-Seasoned Baked Chicken
Garlic & Onion Baked Chicken

STEAK & PORK PLAN
Beef & Vegetable Soup

ADDITIONAL QUICK MEALS
Quesadilla Kit (**Recipe Coming Soon**)
Vegetable Soup (**Recipe Coming Soon**)
Quiche

Check back tomorrow to see how day two went!

Freezer Series: Cooking Day

Chicken is my families' weakness. In fact, I'm sure no one would complain if I decided to make nothing but chicken for the rest of our lives. So, of course, chicken has to be part of our "After-Baby Meal Stockpile".

On top of that, I'm dipping into our frozen meat stockpile to make a few additional meals. Check out the full "plan of attack" below!

After I finish this round of cooking, I'll have over 30 meals planned when I include left-over nights and salad nights (when my husband and my daughters make dinner together). Plus, I have a ton of hotdogs and some frozen pizzas in the freezer as well.

Of course, I do plan to do some more baking, since I'd like to have a nice stockpile of waffles and pancakes to add to my massive amount of muffins! And, we could always use more bread, since my daughters have already polished most of my first set of homemade loaves and my stepmom was nice enough to hand down her wonderful bread maker (Thank you Jacqui!).

CHICKEN PLAN
Chicken Manhattans
Orange Chicken
Baked Chicken Nuggets
Sticky Chicken (Thanks Organized Home!)
Chicken-Biscuit Casserole (Thanks Organized Home!)
Tomato-Basil Baked Chicken
Italian-Seasoned Baked Chicken
Garlic & Onion Baked Chicken

STEAK & PORK PLAN
Beer & Brown Sugar Steaks
Teriyaki-Marinated Pork Chops
Beef & Vegetable Soup

ADDITIONAL QUICK MEALS
Cheese & Veggie Quesadilla Kit (**Recipe Coming Soon**)
Vegetable Soup (**Recipe Coming Soon**)

Check back tomorrow to see how day one went!

Freezer Series: Cooking Day (Hamburger)

Like I said, when making a lot of meals at one time, it's helpful to plan meals that have similar ingredients. Of course, my hamburger plan did have hamburger, but it also shared onions and green peppers, which I diced up yesterday when making the enchiladas.

Who bakes ground beef? I do, when I'm making an excessive amount. For my Sloppy Joes, seasoned taco meat, and ground beef, I placed about four pounds of ground beef topped with green peppers and onions on a baking sheet and placed it in my oven at 350 to bake.

Tip: When baking large quantities of ground beef, stir often. Baking time depends on how much ground beef you're baking, so bake until cooked thoroughly. Mine was almost 4 lbs and cooked for 30 minutes.

While my ground beef was baking, I made the mini-meatloaf pizzas and meatballs, so they were ready to bake when the ground beef came out. The meatballs and mini-meatloaf pizzas shared some more ingredients - Italian seasoning and bread crumbs, so they were great to make together. When the ground beef was done, I slipped it out and slipped the meatballs into the oven to bake. Instead of using pizza sauce, I used spaghetti sauce I had on hand to make the mini-meatloaf pizzas. I had some left-over, so I stuck the remainder in a bag and froze it to make a meatball sub kit.

Once my ground beef was done baking, I took it out and separated it into 3 parts. One part I simply tossed into a ziploc bag. It was already seasoned with onions and green peppers, so I threw in some Italian seasonings to use later for spaghetti. (I squished the bag to mix up the ingredients.) A second part I threw also in a ziploc bag with some water and taco seasoning to use later for tacos. The final part, I simmered on the stove with the remaining ingredients to complete the Sloppy Joe recipe, before bagging up. I let all 3 cool, then placed them in the freezer flat for long term storage.

Once I did this, I was simply waiting for the meatballs to get done cooking. When the time beeped, I swapped them out for the mini-meatloaf pizzas and put the meatballs in the freezer to tray freeze (moving them to a different tray, because of the grease.

Next, when the mini-meatloaf pizzas were done, I served a few for dinner and put the remainder in the freezer to tray freeze. When they were ready, I placed them in a baggie for long term storage.

GROUND BEEF/VENISON PLAN (Day 2)
Mini-Meatloaf Pizza Cups (Thanks Sara!)
Baked Meatballs (**recipe coming soon!**)
Meatball Sub Kit
Easy Sloppy Joes
Seasoned Taco Meat
Cooked Italian-Seasoned Ground Beef

Freezer Series: Cooking Day (Baking)

Because homemade bread and pita pockets take hours to rise, I started with them.

First, I made the pita pocket dough and set it aside to rise for an hour. Next, I made the honey-wheat sandwich bread dough, which we tripled to make 3 loafs, and set it aside for 45 minutes to rise.

While our dough was rising, Ady and I did the fun part - muffin and fruit bread making! The cinnamon muffins are the quickest, so we whipped them right up and stuck them in the oven while we conquered the strawberry bread and muffins. I doubled the recipe I have to low-fat strawberry bread to make 1 loaf of bread and 12 muffins.

Our timing was perfect, because by the time the cinnamon muffins were out of the oven and ready to cool, we were ready to stick in the strawberry bread and muffins.

Next, we grabbed the dough and shaped the pita-pockets and loaves, then set them aside again to rise some more!

While everything else was cooling, rising, or cooking, we started on the banana-walnut bread and muffins. I used the exact same strawberry bread recipe, but I left out the strawberries and added 3 bananas in their place, plus a handful of chopped walnuts. We did double the recipe to make extra muffins.

While the waiting line for the oven grew, I threw together the enchiladas quickly and stuck them in the freezer to freeze. Because so many of my hamburger meals call for chopped onions and/or green peppers, I chopped up enough to use for all of the planned meals, plus threw some in the enchiladas.

When each set of muffins finished and the pita-pockets, I did tray freeze them to get them ready for long-term storage. After everything was done baking, cooling, or tray freezing, I packed it all up and stuck it in the freezer.

Tomorrow I tackle the hamburger meals!

BAKING PLAN (Day 1)
Honey-Wheat Sandwich Bread (Thanks Tammy!)
Strawberry Muffins & Bread (**recipe coming soon!**)
Banana-Nut Muffins
Cinnamon & Sugar Muffins
Homemade Pita Pockets (Thanks Tammy!)

ADDITIONAL QUICK MEALS
Easy Bean & Onion Enchiladas

Come back tomorrow to see how the hamburger plan goes!

Freezer Series: Cooking Day

It's the final stretch. Our son should be joining us sometime in July (unless he decides to come extremely late like his sisters). I've nested like mad - my house is clean, the baby's room is ready to go, and even my daughter's' rooms got a make-over. Now I'm moving on to the kitchen to start cooking!

With the help of my 4-year-old and 2-year-old daughters, we have a plan of attack to use up some of our stock-piled frozen ground beef and venison to make a few meals for "after baby". On top of that, I love to bake (and so does my 4 1/2 year old!), so we're baking away. Below is the cooking plan for the next two days:

Tip: If you're planning on spending a day or a few hours making freezer meals, it's helpful to select meals with similar ingredients, so you can multitask. Attempt chicken one day and beef another for example. If you're a beginner, don't attempt to do too many meals in one day! Spread it out, so you don't end up overwhelmed.

BAKING PLAN (Day 1)
Honey-Wheat Sandwich Bread (Thanks Tammy!)
Strawberry Muffins & Bread (**recipe coming soon!**)
Banana-Nut Muffins
Cinnamon & Sugar Muffins
Homemade Pita Pockets (Thanks Tammy!)

ADDITIONAL QUICK MEALS
Easy Bean & Onion Enchiladas

GROUND BEEF/VENISON PLAN (Day 2)
Mini-Meatloaf Pizza Cups (Thanks Sara!)
Baked Meatballs (**recipe coming soon!**)
Meatball Sub Kit
Easy Sloppy Joes
Seasoned Taco Meat
Cooked Italian-Seasoned Ground Beef

Check back tomorrow to see how day one went!