Oatmeal Waffles

Oatmeal Waffles

What You Need:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar

What You Do:
Mix flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Mix eggs, milk, butter and brown sugar in a bowl.
Add wet mixture to the flour mixture.
Cook according to your waffle iron.

How to Freeze:
Let waffles cool completely.
Layer waffles imbetween wax paper.

How to Cook:
Take out frozen waffle and reheat in toaster.

BBQ Chicken

BBQ Chicken

What You Need:
6 boneless chicken breasts
1 bottle bbq sauce
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons worchestire sauce

What You Do:
Mix all ingredients in a freezer bag. Add the chicken. Coat. Freeze.

How To Cook:
Cook on low 5-6 hours.

How To Serve:
Shred and put on buns.

Garlic Lime Chicken

Garlic Lime Chicken

We made this last night. I totally forgot to take a picture. But it was SO good! I didnt want to go to the grocery store, so I just served it with stuff we had in the house. I roasted some potatoes, served it with the chicken and a little fat free sour cream. YUM!

What You Need:
5 chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tablespoon worchestire sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp ground pepper

What You Do:
Mix all ingredients together in a freezer bag. Add the chicken and coat.

How To Cook:
Cook on high 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Cranberry Chicken

This is another meal that we prepared to freeze and cook in the crockpot. We really enjoyed it.

I really wish I had a crock pot that had a timer on it... I cooked this one day when I was working, so it actually cooked longer than it needed to, and was still delicious.. just maybe a bit dryer than it would have been if I had followed the directions. :)

We served it with mashed potatoes and salad.

Cranberry Chicken

What you Need:
8 oz Catalina Dressing
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1 lb can cranberry sauce
4 chicken breasts

What You Do:
Mix together the dressing, soup mix and cranberry sauce in a freezer bag. Smoosh all together to combine. Add the chicken and coat. Freeze.

To Cook:
Defrost the night before. Bake 350 for 1 hr. 30 min. OR Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low 5-6 hours in the crockpot.

Crock Pot Pork Chops

I mentioned that Craig and I are LOVING freezer cooking. And then when you combine the crock pot with it, we love love LOVE it.

This is one of the meals that we prepared and froze a couple of weeks ago. And when I say "meals" I really mean its the main course (the meat).. we still have to add sides. Last night was some frozen peas and carrots that I added some fat free italian salad dressing too. :) We REALLY do love convenience.

Anyway, last nights meal was really good. And super easy.

Crock Pot Pork Chops

What you Need:
4 boneless pork chops
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg lipton onion soup mix
1 onion- chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups water

To Freeze:
Mix together the cream of mushroom soup, the soup mix, the onion and the salt and pepper. Put in a freezer bag. Then add the pork chops. Squish it around to coat the pork chops. Put in freezer. :)

To Cook:
Let the pork chops defrost. Empty into crockpot. Add 2 cups of water. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

As I mentioned in my last food post.. Craig and I are LOVING our new deep freeze. We have found it simplifies our life (at least in the figuring out our dinner sense)!

Our son is a pretty good eater. He, basically, likes anything. However, you never know when he will be in the mood to eat. Some days he does GREAT at all three meals, and then many other days, he will do good at one and then hardly eat anything at the others. Who knows.

We like his breakfasts to be pretty simple. We cut up some fruit and give him eggos, frozen pancakes from walmart, or nutri grain bars.. normally.

We decided to go ahead and make these for him and freeze them. It, obviously, cost more upfront, because I didnt have the ingredients, but I have PLENTY to make several more batches of everything, so I know it will end up being more cost efficient.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, ours definitely didnt turn out as pretty as the original. But Jackson sure loves them. The original recipe calls for an icing type sauce to serve with it. We did not make the icing, since these are for Jackson.. and Jackson + any type of syrup = a huge mess.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want this to remain super-liquidy.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

(If freezing, let the pancakes cool completely. Layer in a freezer bag with wax paper between each layer)

Note: I think our cinnamon mixture was a bit too thin.. so it kind of went everywhere. She also suggested to let your batter sit for a minute or so before putting the cinnamon mixture on.. we probably should have done that as well. Ha!

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

I have been missing from this blog for a long time- I really havent been doing that much cooking since McKinley. My friend, Dara, invited me to a Menu Maker class right after McKinley was born. Basically, you go to a lady's home, she has all the ingredients to season the meats.. you put them in freezer bags and take them home and put your meat in each bag. You freeze it and when you are ready to eat, you defrost and either cook in the crock pot or the oven. It. Was. Awesome. Craig and I both loved having things ready to cook whenever we needed it.

We talked about it and figured that I didnt need to pay to go to someone's house to make freezer meals, especially now that the internet is FULL of great ideas. So, we decided we would try it on our own.

He was off on Thursday, I went to Crest to get all the ingredients for the marinades and seasonings and then we went to Sams to buy our meat. That afternoon, we filled our freezer bags and now our deep freeze is full of new meals and my milk. :)

We also bought a HUGE pork tenderloin from Sams, and cut it into thirds. I had pinned a recipe on pinterest for Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin, that you cook in your crock pot.. Yummy!!!!

We made it tonight and we will definitely be making it again!!!!!

Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) boneless pork loin- (Im not sure how big ours was, it was a third of the big one from sams)

1 teaspoon ground sage- (we didnt have ground sage, so we used italian seasoning.. it has sage in it)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

Enjoy!