Baby Food Green Beans

This post won't apply to 92% of you, but I thought I would put it up anyway because this is what I'll be freezing for a while.

It's about that time again around here--baby food time. David and Avery hit 5 months this weekend. I'm not too eager to start baby food, but sometime in the near future. Because baby food is so expensive, and we are doing x2 this time around, I am planning on making most of our baby food again. I made the majority of Claire's food, and it worked out well.

My mom gave us a bunch of green beans from her garden so I decided to start there. It brought back memories of snapping beans every summer while growing up. I also remembered how much I hate snapping beans. Of all the garden help I had to put in as a kid, beans were my least favorite. No wonder I don't have a garden.

So, I started out with my steamer full of green beans. (I didn't snap them. I lined a bunch up on the cutting board and sliced the ends off. I felt like I was doing something wrong).


After they are cooked, pull them out and let them cool. I then throw them in the food processor and chop them until they are nice and creamy. I usually add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup water. Looks yummy doesn't it?

I freeze the green beans in ice cube trays. When they are frozen, just pop them out and put them in a freezer Ziploc bag. I got three ice cube trays with my green beans.

Over the next few weeks, I'll start stocking up. I do sweet potatoes, spinach, peas, chicken and ham. I'm also looking forward to fruit season around here. I'm planning to do lots of applesauce and peaches. When I serve it to the babies, I'll just pull out a few cubes to thaw in the fridge--usually 3 veggie cubes and a chicken cube for a meal then mix it with baby cereal. It's a little more work, but I really feel like it's worth it. Besides have you seen how disgusting baby food chicken from the jar looks and smells? Yuck!

BBQ Chicken

I always try to keep some frozen BBQ chicken on hand. It's so simple to make, but takes a while in the crock pot.

BBQ Chicken

6 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1-2 lg bottles of your favorite BBQ sauce

Place chicken in crock pot. Pour 1/2 bottle over chicken. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours. Remove chicken from sauce. Discard sauce. Shred chicken. Pour new BBQ sauce and mix to taste. Freeze in quart bags.



I have two favorite recipes that call for BBQ chicken. The first is our BBQ Chicken Pizza that I previously shared. The second is BBQ Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. I made this tonight for dinner. Yummm!

BBQ Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

1 Sourdough loaf
2 cups BBQ chicken
4 oz cream cheese
Kraft Mexi cheese blend
butter for grilling

Slice your bread fairly thin.Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on each slice.
Sprinkle one side of the bread with Mexi blend cheese.
Top the cheese side with BBQ chicken. Sprinkle more cheese on top of chicken.
Spread a thin layer of butter on the top of each slice and grill very slowly. The trick to this sandwich is patience. Because it's so thick you can't grill it on medium heat for 2 minutes. I grill it on medium low heat and even place it in the pan as the pan is preheating. It takes about 10-15 minutes, but it's so worth it.
A panini press would definitely work for this as well. I wish I had one.
This is one of my favorite sandwiches. I love the combination of flavors. It's not something you would expect to go together, but it's really quite enjoyable. Our dog was very jealous of my dinner tonight.

Beef Stroganoff

Recipe found in Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer, pg 126.
2 lbs sirloin steak
1 lb fresh mushrooms sliced
1 cup onion
1/4 cup butter
2- 10.5 oz cans beef bouillon
1/4 cup ketchup
2 small cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour
2 cups sour cream

Cut meat into bite size pieces. In a skillet, cook and stir mushrooms and onion in butter until onion is tender. Remove mushrooms and onion. In the same skillet, brown meat lightly on both sides. Set aside 3/4 cup bouillon; add remaining bouillon, ketchup, garlic and salt to skillet. Stir to mix. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Blend reserved bouillon and flour; stir into meat mixture. Add mushrooms and onion. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil one minute. Stir in sour cream and heat, but do not allow to boil. Freeze using the freezer bag method.

Serving day: Thaw completely and warm in sauce pan until heated through. Do not allow stroganoff to boil when heating. Server over rice and noodles. If sauce appears too thin, thicken by mixing flour with some of the sauce and adding to mixture while heating.


I order to cool the stroganoff as quickly as possible, I filled a Ziploc of ice and pushed it down into the center stirring frequently. I normally freeze a large water bottle (not the cheap bottled water bottles) and put it in the sauce, but I forgot this time around. The ice bag was slower but still worked.

My First Cooking Day Since the Twins

Our freezer has hit that depressingly empty point where there is little left to pull out of it for dinner. We have eaten up almost everything I froze in preparation for the twins. I decided it was time to start over and made two recipes this weekend. The kids were all amazingly cooperative, and I was able make both recipes yesterday. They were all super tired or Ryan drugged them because they all slept a big chuck of the day. Claire took a four hour nap. I can't remember when she last did that.

I made four batches of my standard lasagna recipe (although assembled them in one 9x13 and six 8x8's). I also made a triple batch of Beef Stroganoff from Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. I haven't made this recipe before, but my sister highly recommended it, and I am not sorry I made a large batch. It is really pretty fabulous. Here are a couple pictures from this round. I took several pictures of my lasagna process and posted those under my lasagna recipe I listed a while back.

This is how things look as I'm planning everything out. I pull out any cookbooks I'm using. I also now use my laptop to look up my recipes on this blog. It's turned out to be really helpful to have my favorite recipes posted here. I start making lists as to what I need for each recipe and check my pantry for what I already have.
The clean-up crew. She can have anything that falls on the floor. She really enjoys her job.

My finished lasagna. Yum.

Greek Pasta Bake

I tried a new recipe tonight from the Taste of Home Ultimate Chicken Cookbook. We really liked it, and it's one I will add to my list of potential freezer recipes. Whenever I try a new recipe I only make a single batch to make sure we really like it before filling our freezer with several pans of it. I have made that mistake before, and we had to choke through three batches of seafood lasagna that neither of us really liked.

I made a few adjustments to this recipe and thought the outcome was quite enjoyable. I would have used Greek seasoning, but I ran out and wasn't able to find more after searching two grocery stores. The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of basil and 1 tsp of oregano. I doubled both to give it more flavor. It was also a touch dry. After baking, it ended up being a bit dry. I added about one cup of canned spaghetti sauce which greatly improved it.

Greek Pasta Bake

1 pkg (12 oz) penne pasta
4 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
1 can (29 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 cans (2 1/4 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (divided)

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, chicken, tomato saouce, tomatoes, spinach, olives, onion, green pepper, basil, oregano, and 1/2 cup feta.

Freeze pasta mixture in a Ziploc bag. Place remaining cheeses in a separate quart size Ziploc bag and attach to the pasta bag.

Thaw in the fridge. Transfer to a 9x13 in baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining feta and mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 25-30 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted.

I know it is a success when super picky Claire is willing to eat it.

Café Rio Companion Recipes

The following recipes are not necessarily recipes I would do for freezer cooking, but go perfectly with the Café Rio Chicken recipe I previously posted.

I posted both of these on my family blog, but decided to include them here as well. Freezer cooking doesn't mean every part of the meal has to come from the freezer. In this case you could make these black beans and the salad dressing and have wonderful salads topped with the Café Rio Chicken you pull from the freezer. Sprinkle your salad with a little cheese, pico de gallo, and tortilla strips. It makes a great, easy summer meal.

I found these recipes as Kara's Kitchen Creations.

Crock-pot Black Beans
2 cups dried black beans
About 3 cups of water
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp cumin

Wash the dried beans pick out any rocks or beans that look funky. Pour them into a pan and add water till it is at least 2 inches above the beans. Let soak overnight (or for 8 hours.)
Drain off the water and pour beans into a crock pot. Add the 3 cups of water and the remaining ingredients. Cook on LOW for 8 hours. During the last couple hours of cooking, you can add extra water if you want them saucy.
(I added about 1 1/2 cups more water than the recipe called for. I also cooked them on high for about 6 hours and then turned them down to low for another 3-4 hours. I'm not sure that 8 hours on low would be enough. I like them very soft--almost beginning to fall apart. This recipes is also a tad salty. I will probably decrease it just a bit next time. I will also increase the cumin to at least 2 tsp.)

Café Rio Salad Dressing
1 cup mayo
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 of a bunch of cilantro with stems chopped off
1/2 - 1 small jalapeno (if you don’t like it spicy, remove the seeds)
1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tomatillos (remove outer papery skin and cut up)
1 garlic clove

Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender.
(We loved this stuff!)

Granola

I came across this recipe recently and loved it. The flavors are great. I especially enjoy it with fresh strawberries and milk. Next time I plan to make a triple batch and freeze the extra so it will keep longer.

Granola
3 ¼ cups Oats (Old Fashioned or Quick—any combination)
1 ¼ cup white wheat flour-freshly ground if possible
1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
¼ cup flax seed (optional)
1 cup or more coarsely chopped almonds and/or pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/3 cup water
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom

Preheat oven to 300. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, flax seed, coconut and nuts. Set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, butter, and water and heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture together until smooth, and then stir in the salt, vanilla and spices. (I increased the spices to 1 tsp each and the vanilla to 1 TB.) Pour mixture over the oats mixture and stir will to coat. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Spread mixture on a large baking sheet, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between clumps for the hot air to circulate. Slide it into the middle of the oven and bake until the top is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to break up the mixture into medium sized clumps. Return to the oven and bake again for 15 minutes before stirring again. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the granola is uniform golden brown and completely dry—this usually takes me about 45 minutes . Cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container.