Colorful 3rd birthday

With vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and peanut butter cupcakes!

Assortment Birthday Cupcakes

Better Than Sex and Cookies 'n Cream

Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting

Orange Dreamsicle

Freezer Meals Part 3

Easy Beef Enchiladas
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pkg 6 inch flour tortillas (8)
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can diced green chilies
2 cans enchilada sauce (heat level to your preference, I use 1 medium, 1 hot)
2 cups cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.  Cook onions and ground beef until hamburger is brown and onions are soft.  Add garlic and cook for a few more minutes.  Turn off the heat and drain off the fat (I usually save a little for flavor).  Add in 1/2-3/4 of one can of enchilada sauce, green chilies, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Stir in the cheese and cilantro to taste.  Your filling should have a thick but smooth consistency.  If necessary, add more sauce.  Draw a line through your filling to cut it in half.  This will make it easier to judge how much to put in each tortilla.  Spoon filling into a tortilla.  Roll up and place seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan.  Pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly and the sauce has a chance to thicken.  Garnish with cilantro before serving.

Classic-Meatloaf 
Yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

Meatloaf:

1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
3/4 cup oatmeal

1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce or ketchup (Hunts makes a really great meatloaf "ready" tomato sauce)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

"Glaze"

1 cup ketchup

4 T brown sugar

4 T vinegar

2 T Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in large bowl; mix lightly but thoroughly.
2.  Bake 40 minutes, remove meatloaf from oven and spread glaze over the top.  Return to oven and cook 10-15 more minutes or until meatloaf is cooked to medium (160°F for beef, 170°F for turkey), or until not pink in center and juices show no pink color. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

Freezing Instructions:

There are a few options for freezing:

1.  Freeze raw.  Wrap air tight then freeze in reusable or disposable loaf pans.  Thaw and bake as directed or put meatloaf in oven before preheating and cook 10-15 minutes longer than directed.

2.  Bake then freeze whole.  Allow to thaw and reheat in the oven or microwave.

3.  Bake, slice, then freeze individual servings.

Freezer Meals Part 2

I eat a lot of chicken so I knew I needed to have a few meals in the freezer for dinner while on maternity leave. I bought 2 small whole chickens in which I boiled and cooked myself to make my own chicken both. I froze any the left over chicken broth I did use for my freezer meals to later use. I then made all my chicken meals in one evening, one at a time as a little assembly line to make things easier on me. 

 

White Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken enchiladas with green chili sour cream sauce

• 10 soft taco shell
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (4 oz) can diced green chillies

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 pan

 2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese.  Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.

3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute.  Add broth and whisk until smooth.  Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  

4. Stir in sour cream and chilies.  Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream. 

5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

6. Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.

Chicken Pot Pie
makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cooked and cubed (or 1 lb cut up chicken pieces)

2 cups mixed frozen vegetables

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 tsp rosemary, oregano, or thyme (I like to mix up which spice I use each time)

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.) Unroll and place one pie crust in a pie pan, leaving the edges to crimp later.
2.  In a separate bowl, mix chicken and frozen vegetables, set aside.

2.  In a separate bowl, mix chicken and frozen vegetables, set aside.

3.  In a saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent, . Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and herb of choice. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.  

4.  Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, and seal edges. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.  Mix egg and water and brush over the top of the pie crust.  Sprinkle with extra herb you used in the filling. 

5.  Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cover edges of pie if start to get too brown. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Freezer Directions: Brush on egg wash and cover first with plastic wrap very tight, making sure to press down in all the creases, almost making a second skin.  Pop in the freezer until completely frozen, then cover very tightly with aluminum foil.  Write baking directions on top of foil.  If baked frozen add at least 15-20 minutes on cooking time.  If defrosted about 10 more minutes.  Watch for burning crusts!

Chicken Spaghetti
Yield: 10-12 servings

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked chicken
3 cups broken spaghetti
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1 jar (4 oz) pimentos, drained
2 cups chicken broth (I use the broth from my chicken)
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Cook 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat to make three cups. If you don't have a cut up fryer chicken, you can substitute any chicken pieces (sometimes I just use breast meat).  Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth (or in boiling water) until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except 1 cup sharp cheddar.  Spread mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cup of cheese on top and bake for another 15 minutes.  Another option is to go ahead and sprinkle with cheese just be careful the cheese doesn't burn, if it starts to turn, just cover with foil.

Freezing Instructions:
Prepare casserole, add cheese to top of casserole but do not bake.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil and freeze up to three months.  Allow casserole to defrost and bake as directed.

Freeze Ahead Breakfast

With the impending arrival of our little man fast approaching, I have been wanting to make a few different Make Ahead Meals to put in the freezer for after his arrival.

I must admit these last 8+ months I have gotten pretty lazy with cooking AND blogging about all my baking adventures...as my blog has reflected. I still have several baking posts to finish....eventually, maybe while I'm on maternity leave?! I'm assuming I will be even more lazy, or at least just won't have the time nor energy to make dinner once Baby Dexter is here, especially since I (fingers crossed) hope to exclusively breastfeed his first few months at least. 

Last weekend was a HUGE cooking weekend for me!! Aside from baking my last cake until the Fall, I did all my grocery shopping to prepare for my cooking event one day, poached my chickens and made homemade chicken broth another day, and prepared about 7 different meals on two other days.

Over the next week I will post several posts about the meals I made along with a few tips.      

Let's start with the most important meal of the day, breakfast!

I'm usually pretty boring when it comes to making myself breakfast, I usually stick to boring cereal, toast, or a bagel with cream cheese. Breakfast for dinner is a totally different story though and for an entirely different post, it's our favorite! When thinking about having a newborn around soon and not having a lot of time for breakfast in the mornings, I wanted to make sure I have the option of having something I can grab pretty quickly and make with little effort. I love me a McDonald's Egg McMuffin but am pretty sure I want to be leaving the house every morning with a little in tow to get one, plus all that added sodium and fat...we don't need. I decided to make my own breakfast burritos and sandwiches! These are quick, easy, filling, fairly inexpensive (compared to going to McD's every day), and I can control how much sodium is added to them.  

Ingredients:

·         1 lb. Pork Sausage

·         1 Pkg. Hash browns

·         8 to 12 Large eggs

·         1/4 cup milk

·         1 pkg. shredded cheese

·         salt and pepper to taste

·         1 to 2 pkg. flour tortillas

1. Brown sausage - drain on a paper towel.

2. Cook hash browns in the same pan.

3. While the hash browns are cooking - In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

4. Add browned sausage back to the pan with the cooked hash browns.

5. Add the eggs to the sausage mixture and cook until the eggs are done, stirring gently.

6. After eggs are done - lay a tortilla on counter. Place egg mixture on tortilla. Top with cheese. Roll into a burrito.

7. Depending on how many eggs you use and how large you make each burrito, will determine how many burritos you will end up with. I used ten eggs which made me twenty-five burritos.

8. Wrap each burritos in Saran wrap.  Then place the wrapped burritos in freezer zip-lock bags.

From Freezer: Take the number of burritos you want out of the freezer, unwrap Saran wrap and place burritos in a paper towel. Warm for 45 seconds, rotate, warm for an additional 30 seconds. Serve with salsa, sour cream, or plain.

Breakfast Sandwiches

Ingredients 

• 12  English muffins 
• 12 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 slices of cheese
• 1/2 pound of bacon

1. Start by cooking the bacon. I used turkey bacon because I love it more than regular bacon but either will work. I cooked my bacon in the oven on 350 degrees for 15 minutes until lightly browned, this is the best way to cook regular bacon so it won't curl up like it will in the microwave or in a skillet.

2. While the bacon cook, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl until combined. Cook in large skillet over medium heat until scrabled.   
3. Once everything had finished cooking and slightly cooled, assemble the sandwiches. Break English muffins apart and put a spoonful of eggs, one slice of bacon (I split mine in halves to fit), and one slice of cheese on each muffin.

4. Wrap each sandwich in Saran wrap and place them in a gallon Ziploc bag. Then they are ready for the freezer.

From Freezer: Unwrap sandwich from saran wrap, place in paper towel and heat in microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes.  

 Sausage Breakfast Burritos