Freezer Meals

Stress has tried to get the best of me this week with migraines, trouble sleeping and fatigue.  Due to my stress-induced migraines, I had to miss my Bible Study, a wedding coordinator meeting with a bride, and a half day of work.  This cannot continue, so I have decided to take action.  First and most importantly, I'm doing a lot of prayer and Bible reading.

Then my grandma gave me a book by Dale Carnegie about ridding your life of worry called, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Right up my alley. 

 I'm on chapter 4 and so far it's been pretty helpful with giving real strategies that I can apply to my daily life.  I'm also considering letting go of my responsibilities as wedding coordinator for my church.  I think that will help my stress level.  My mom came and helped me with my classroom after school yesterday for 2 hours so we got 4 hours worth of work done.  YEAH!  I feel so much better about my upcoming work week now.  Also, we go to dinner with Tom's parents every week so we decided to change that to every other week.  It was a hard decision, because family is very important, but it's hard to rush home from work, rush to their house, rush to Bible Study and rush home to bed.  Too much rushing in one day.  Finally, I have decided to make better use of my weekends so I can better enjoy my weekdays.  As a result, I decided to take three hours of my Saturday morning to make as many freezer meals as possible.  That is exactly what I did this morning. 

Here's what I made...

8 servings of 3 Ingredient Chicken Tacos

8-10 servings of Mom's Turkey Chili

8 servings of Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

5 servings of turkey and mushroom spaghetti

8-10 servings of 1 Skillet Chili Mac

That equals approx. 40 servings of food!!!  How exciting!  Our week night dinners and week day lunches are DONE for TWO WEEKS!  All we have to do is warm them up.  Praise the Lord for the invention of the microwave! :)

This is what made it so easy...

• I chose recipes that are SIMPLE.
• I used recipes with similar ingredients to make grocery shopping easy (ground turkey, diced tomatoes, chili powder, etc.)
• I only used 3 pans-1 skillet, 1 medium sauce pan, 1 dutch oven (just kept rinsing them out and resusing).  This is SUPER important for not having a hige pile of dishes afterwords.
• I never had to turn the oven on for the stuffed peppers because I just boiled the peppers, pre cooked the meat and rice then mixed the stuffing.  It will all cook together when I warm it up in the microwave.
• Choose one recipe to put in the crock pot so it does the work for you.

**Happy Dance**

Healthy eats on vacation...my "how to"

Tom and I just got back from vacationing at Wisconsin Dells.  We've been doing really well with eating right and making good choices so I didn't want that to stop just because we were going away from home.  I did end up eating some goodies and I'll tell you about that in my next post.  But this is all about my meal planning.  We stayed in a cabin with a fridge, fire pit and a microwave.  We brought a toaster with us. So I planned out all of our meals except for one dinner, which we decided would be a nice dining out experience :)

Here's my valient attempt at a stress-free healthy eating vacation...it worked too, because we only ate out once and it was planned!  Go us!! :)  Here's how we did it...

Step #1: Plan out breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners (remember drinks too!)

Step #2: Be choosey on what, when and where you want to eat out.  Make sure it is something you will enjoy, you don't get often, keep it special so you won't feel like you are being deprived of eating out on vacation.

Step #3: Avoid typical camping food like premade salads (pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, etc.) They are full of mayo and won't fill you up.  Plan for lots of fresh fruits, veggies, hummus, string cheese and whole wheat crackers instead...think picnic at a rest stop instead of McDonald's drive-thru.

Step #3: Write down every single necessary food item to make those meals (don't forget condiments!)

Step #4: Write down every appliance, dish and utensil needed to make (and serve) the meals.

Step #5: Write down everything you will need to clean up or wrap up leftover food (think foil, cling wrap, zippy bags, paper towels, clorox wipes, etc.)

Step #6: Make a grocery list of everything you don't already have on hand.  Go shopping!

Step #7: Prepackage, prewash and precook anything you can.

Step #8: Pack wisely.  Utilize all those reusable grocery bags you get for free.  Put all snacks in one bag.  Put all appliances in another.  Pack all paper goods together, etc.  Take a small cooler for picnics or for day trips (to waterparks, theme parks, etc.) Pack a big rolling cooler with ice for all of your refridgerated or frozen items. 

Step #9: Fill up milk jugs with water ahead of time and put them in the freezer.  Then pack the cooler with them so you don't need as much ice and then you have drinking water at the end of the trip and you won't have to resort to that gas station soda!

Step #10: Enjoy, have fun and eat great food without guilt!

Here's a few photos of my food prep...

My shopping trip for some of our snacks and sides for the week.

We got a good deal on a meat bundle at HyVee...pork chops, brats (for Tom), chicken sausage (for me), chicken breast (I cut it up and precooked it).

I divided up the Pirate's Booty into individual servings.  Otherwise, I would eat half the bag in one sitting.  I also did this with my oatmeal so I wouldn't have to bring the huge container of oats or a measuring cup.

Prewashed cherries, blueberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery.

I used naan for my lunch sandwiches.  Naan, chicken, spinach, tomato and cheese...mmm.

The directions say they need to be warmed in an oven, but I just stick the pieces in a toaster :)

There it is folks...it does take time to plan, shop and pack, but it was totally worth it! 

I'll weigh myself in the morning and let you know my progress!

My haul

As you all know, I LOVE Aldi.  Once again, it was a successful trip to the grocery store.  How many of you can say you are smiling when you go grocery shopping? Yeah that's what I thought. 

Here's my haul from my stop at Aldi today...

5 containers of blueberries, 4 ears of corn, 1 gallon of milk, 1 celery bunch, 6 kiwi, 30 freezer bags, 8 apples, 2 lbs strawberries, 2 lbs tilapia fillets, 1 dozen eggs, 4 cups mozzarella cheese, 10 oz cheddar cheese, 2 cans mushrooms. 

How much was my bill?  Come on, just guess...

$50?? Not even close.

$45??  Try again.

$40??  Nope.

$35?? Getting close!

Okay I'll just tell you...

The grand total was:

$34.99!  BAM!

I really get so excited about this type of thing if you couldn't tell.  Seriously, this is an amazing store.  Oh and I almost forgot to show you the gorgeous roses I got there earlier this week for....

drumroll please...

$3.99!!  How awesome is that?? 



Are you convinced yet?  Don't worry, I'll keep at it. ;)

Pottery and Pirate's Booty!

Last week my sis-in-law and I celebrated our birthdays together by going to paint pottery.  Today was the pick up day...it's always a little nerve-racking because you think about how much money you spent on the item and how much time you put into it and what if it looks like a pre-schooler did it??  But then you remember that you had a wonderful time painting it and it is what it is-yours.  And you will love it no matter what because you put your heart and soul into it...well at least your mom will love it ;)  Anyway, it was all good because when I went into the "pick up" room I saw a bowl and I thought I want that bowl.  Well, guess who's bowl it was??  This girl's.  Aw yeah.  It turned out exactly the way I wanted it.  It is a multi-functional bowl, so right now it's holding some gorgeous juicy apples.  It matches my kitchen along with another piece I made that is a utensil holder.  I'm excited!! 

Another great thing that happened to me today was finding an AMAZING new to me food product from "Pirate's Booty"  The name in itself makes it awesome already.  But what is inside of the clever packaging makes it double awesome.  Yes I know I just time warped back to 5th grade with that saying, but it's gotta be said.  Just hearing the name "Pirate's Booty" doesn't give you much clue as to what the product actually is, which just happens to be my most favorite snack of all time...cheese puffs.  Oh I have missed you cheese puffs and now I can have you because the wonderful inventors of "Pirate's Booty" made it sugar free, preservative free, nut free and DELICIOUS!  Here's a pic.  It's on sale at HyVee for 2/$3!!!!  Can you believe it??  All that crunchy, cheesy goodness for only $1.50!!!  I will most certainly have to go back tomorrow and stock up. 

Well, the house is smelling very cozy right now because I'm baking up some Apple Pineapple Crisp.  Sugar free love in the oven.  The recipe is in my last post. Mmmm...it's ready so I'm off to have some dessert!

Aldi and a Leftovers Breakfast Wrap

This morning I woke up to a gorgeous winter day.  Wow our God sure can make nature look beautiful even without any leaves on the trees.  I have so much to be thankful for and one of those things is our ability as a society to have virtually any kind of food at our fingertips.  Do I have to wait til berry season to get delectable strawberries, blueberries or blackberries?  No.  Do I have to fly to Hawaii to taste the sweetness of a pineapple?  No again.  Do I have to go to the streams of the North to find salmon?  No way.  We are so fortunate to have all the food we could ever ask for right down the street at our local grocery store.  So much of the time I get caught up in life and completely forget how blessed I am.  Today I went to Aldi.  I do hope you have found a place in your heart for Aldi.  It is THE BEST place for cheap, quality fruit.  Let me give you an example.  Here's what I got for this morning...

1 pineapple
5 lbs. apples
1 cantaloupe
3 pkgs strawberries
4 pkgs blueberries
2 pkgs blackberries
6 kiwi
5 limes

1 pkg whole wheat spaghetti noodles

3 jars of spaghetti sauce (no sugar in the ingredient list...yes!)

2 gallons of milk

4 lbs. oranges

1 container of chili powder spice

Go ahead and total that up in your head of what you would normally pay for that amount of produce and groceries.  Got it figured up?  Okay now I'm going to brag on Aldi a little here....

My total:  $33.81

Cha-ching!  That's the sound of my money rolling around still in my purse ;)

So BEFORE I went grocery shopping, I didn't have a whole lot to choose from so I made a leftover meal.  I just grabbed things from the fridge and here's what I came up with...

2 eggs

brown rice (leftover from dinner the other night)

sprinkle of colby jack

chopped mushrooms

handful of fresh spinach leaves

tortilla (last one in the bag)

I sauted the mushrooms with a little olive oil then added the eggs, a tbsp of water and sprinkle of cheese.  Stir up the mix and then when the egg is cooked and cheese is melty, add in spinach.  Serve on a tortilla.  As you can see my tortilla is almost completely covered up with goodness.  Yeah I had to use a fork at the end ;)

The Great Migraine Battle update:

Laura : 26  Migraines : 2

Praise God for anti-inflammatory foods! :)

Success!

This afternoon Tom and I went on our first grocery shopping adventure for anti-inflammatory foods.  At first, it was easy as we filled our cart with snap peas, strawberries, yogurt, milk, broccoli, cauliflower and salmon.  Then it was time for cereal and bread...that was a different story.  Anti-inflammatory does not include sugar (unless naturally found such as in fruits) or enriched flour so we looked at countless cereal box ingredients and bread ingredients. 

 EVERYTHING has either enriched flour or sugar added!!!  No wonder America has an obesity issue. 

 Finally, we ended up with 3 bags of Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice and no bread.  I guess I will be making my own bread or shopping at the natural food store.  However, we did not let that stop us.  Our cart looked very healthy and we were very pleased with what we were able to buy. 

After that, we came home, I fired up the oven and started in on my trial run of Roasted Lemon Garlic Shrimp....and....

Our first anti-inflammatory meal was a success!  The kitchen smelled terrific and best of all, Tom loved it.  :) So yes folks, it is husband approved.

Here's my version of Roasted Lemon Garlic Shrimp with Whole Wheat Noodles

 Here's what it looked like in the pan straight out of the oven.

I tweaked the original recipe and made it easier and just as delicious.

1 lb. bag of pre-cooked medium shrimp (take tails off)

2 lemons (sliced)

2 Tbsp. minced garlic

dash of pepper

dash of salt

dash of thyme (to taste)

olive oil (cover bottom of pan)

1/2 pkg. whole wheat noodles

Combine all ingredients in 9x13 pan.

Bake 12 minutes at 400 degrees.

Boil noodles while the shrimp is cooking.

Makes approx. 4 servings.

Bon appettite!