DIY: Spice Mixes/Rubs and Vanilla Extract

It is one of those evenings that my children are so lucky that human beings are civilized creatures that don't believe in doing violence to their young (at least if they are decent human beings).  If I can get through till bedtime without developing a tick in my jaw I'm going to feel SO lucky.

To take a "break" from my children breaking things (ha!  Pun intended), I decided to try my hand at making some different spice mixes I'd printed off the internet or just plain written down while watching my cooking show DVD's...or in one case I made some spice rub just to save myself from having to purchase another container. 

In a scene very much like the wine making scene in "Black Books" (if you haven't seen that show, you really should) I got out all of the spices and herbs I had in my cabinet (well I wish...my stockpile of different herbs and spices are actually pretty impressive...I couldn't BELIEVE how much cinnamon I found while making this stuff *laugh*) and spread them out on my kitchen island and proceeded to drink some coffee to counter act the Sinex I'd taken, and while ranting madly to myself threw spices this way and that in a paprika shaded cloud!  Ha! 

No, seriously, here's how it really went.  With Rob Thomas playing in the background to drown out my children watching TV back in their bedroom (a bit anyway ;), while drinking aforementioned coffee and constantly flipping through all the spice bottles I had on the island to find what I needed, I got down to work.  The first way sounds somehow more fun doesn't it?   This way was a lot less messy though ;).

First off was my most ambitious project.   You see, a while back I bought a Groupon...or was it a Deal Pulp...oh a whatever for Millford Spice Company.  I fell in love with their Pontiac Pig Powder, but not their customer service, so when I ran out making some ribs to freeze tonight I got online, looked at the price tag attached to getting another thing of it and said to heck with that when I threw in the price of the heartburn I'd get dealing with the company again.  I looked at the ingredient list, threw out the things mentally that I didn't have and replaced it with what I did have, threw it all together in a logical method (to me) of application for top notes, middle notes and end notes of the spice rub and got down to work.  I literally mixed every spice rub up in the same mason jar as I assembled (I mean since they all had some form of paprika in them, I wasn't overly worried about taste getting transferred from one to the other).  Here's how that knock off recipe went.  I just used the Rachel Ray system of measurement, ie I just used my palm to measure everything in parts :). 


Not Pontiac Pig Powder (but close enough for me)

3 big palmful;s of brown sugar
3 big palmfulls of iodized sea salt (it's like table salt made by Hains :)
3 big palmfulls of paprika
1 palmfull marjoram
1 palmfull garlic powder
1 palmfull onion powder
1 palmfull powdered yellow mustard
1/2 to 1 palmfull tri colored pepper mixture, ground (depending how spicy you like it :)
1/2 palmfull sugar (I just used sugar in the raw for that)
1/2 palmfull chili powder
1/2 palmfull black pepper (ground)
1/2 palmfull rosemary
1/4 palmfull ground cloves
1/4 palmfull allspice

Place all items into mason jar, screw on lid and shake to combine.  Easy peazy :).

Now while it doesn't taste EXACTLY like the original (since it called for things like the "Grains of Paradise"...a specialty spice I don't have and didn't feel like trying to special order), I think it tastes darn close to my taste buds.  I used it on my second set of ribs and I thought they turned out pretty tasty :).

Next up I made what Rachel Ray described on 30 Minute Meals as an "Israeli Spice Rub" just because the dish she made with it at the time sounded intriguing to me.  I tried to look it up online, but it doesn't have quite the same ingredients, and honestly I like her "on the fly" version better.  Here's how that dance goes...

Rachel Ray Israeli Spice Rub

1 good sized palmfull Paprika
1/2 palmfull coriander
1 palmfull cumin
1/4 to 1/2 palmfull oregano
Little bit of red pepper flake (1/4 to 1/2 tsp really depending on how hot you like it.  I used just a pinch since we're not big "heat" people around here).

Place all spices and herbs in a container with a tight fitting lid (I used a mason jar, Rachel Ray used a tupperware container) and shake your little butt off.  And done!  Keep in an airtight container (or various spice housing vessel) for up to 6 months without loss of flavor.

My opinion?  I really DO like this rub.  It's got a very earthy hint to it with some nice spice notes in the background.  I think this stuff would work on pretty much any meat you wanted to use it on.  I'm looking forward to trying it on grilled steak.  Yum!

To make myself feel better for my slap stick system of measuring I then made Emeril's Baby Bam Seasoning.  I'm not a big "Emeril fan" (shocking I know, but true), but I have to say that man can do a spice rub.  This stuff is excellent!

I then went and made myself one thing of Lynn's Fajita Seasoning, but omitted the bouillon powder because I'm pretty SURE that bouillon cubes are not gluten free.  I'm just going to use some concentrated chicken stock with 1/2 cup of water when I got to make this stuff up.  This stuff does taste really good though, I have to say :).

And last on my list I made 2 things.  Home made vanilla extract and home made vanilla sugar (the sugar isn't pictured because I forgot it on my island :).  They are SUPER easy to make.  Here's how to do it.

Vanilla Extract

Take 1 Small bottle of vodka (or a big bottle and just pour into a smaller container.  I got the above pictured one at Fred Meyer for like 4.00 and some odd change on sale).

Take some Vanilla Beans (I got mine on Etsy.  I got a package of 10 for like 10.00 shipped and I still have some left over for baking later on).

Place Vanilla Beans in Vodka (no one recipe I could find would tell me how many, so I stuck six in it)

Let steep in nice dark place out of the way for a few months (basically just steep till you get the desired color and flavor/smell you want) and voila!  Done!  Best part?  You can keep reusing the same vanilla beans, so if you invest in a cheap bottle of vodka you could make TONS of vanilla extract and give it away as Christmas gifts :).

Vanilla sugar is just as easy.  Here's how to do that.

Vanilla Sugar

I filled a small mason jar with raw sugar (you can use white sugar too, but I'm just experimenting with more natural styles of sugar right now :) and placed about 3 vanilla beans (cut in half) and tucked them down into the sugar.  Let sit to do it's voodoo for a while (I'm going to let mine sit at least a month just to see what happens) and you'll have some awesome tasting sugar to put on some fried apples or some pears for dessert or various other "vanilla sugar" types of applications (yum!).

And there you are folks.  My "culinary adventures" for this evening.  And now I am hopefully off to pick up the mass of clean clothes that just fell over in my laundry room *groan* and go to bed so we can get up early to go to the OT tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

OAMC April: Day 2 (sorta) Part 1...

After a "Break" in the cooking schedule yesterday, I figured I'd better get at least SOME cooking done today before we go over to the in-laws for dinner tonight.  So, since I'm totally wiped, I decided to start with really the easiest project first.  The Freezer Baked French Toast.  That took like five minutes, which was nice.  The finished "project" minus alluminum foil and labeling, is above.  This time I actually used a loaf of home made white bread that was starting to go stale on me for the slices of bread.  I just cut them to about 1" thick and made darn sure I used enough liquid to absorb into thick cut stale bread.  If it doesn't come out tasting like french toast...it's going to be darn tasty bread pudding if nothing else *laugh*.

Next up I'm going to make the meatballs and meatloaf to throw in the freezer later and I'm going to go and work on one of my more ambitious projects (for me)...layered popsicles for the kids (I found a cool recipe in the Williams and Sonoma kids cookbook and figured what the heck).  I hope I did a good job of making a level spot in the freezer to stick my popsicle molds...it took me FOREVER to get the popsicle juice off the inside of my block freezer last time.

The chicken soup to can is in the crock pot.   I'm doing things super lazy this time around just for conviences sake.  I used dehydrated carrots (no cutting them that way), some frozen onions and celery I had (since who cares if those come out mushy right?  I mean it's SOUP!), canned broth, etc.  I'm just using some canned chicken meat I have in the house for the meat, because it's already cooked, easy to throw into the soup and makes things just one step easier.  I DID cut up one lowly turnip I found in my veggie drawer that was feeling "wilty" (I guess is the best way to put it), but wasn't close to bad yet and threw that in.  The soup's been going since about 9:00 this morning so it should be ready to can soon (since everything is pretty much cooked ahead of time, it doesn't need to cook all day).  Yay!  I ended up making less than I normally do because of "lack of volume" of ingredients really, so I'm expecting to get probably 3 cans of soup out of this batch.  Especially since I'm not going to make home made noodles this time (too darn tired) and am going to use egg noodles I have instead.  I'm looking forward to having soup again...although soon I'm going to have to make some more beef stew again...I loved having the choice of chicken or beef...so being down to just chicken, even though I have the materials on hand, makes me miss the choice I had.

So, onto the next project.  Wish me and my tired brain luck!

OAMC April: Day 1, Part 4

Well, I have to say I did okay for output tonight, after a very slow day getting started.  Since our last update, I got the pork curry bake out of the oven (it's missing SOMETHING, but for the life of me I can't tell what...it might be tumeric...hmmm...).  The picture of it all bagged up and ready to freeze is above.  YES, it looks sort of gross, but it does taste good.  I just used canned veggies (I usually use frozen ones with the Lima beans in them because Lima beans taste AWESOME in curries...why I'm not sure why, but they do, but I couldn't find my frozen mixed veggies...darn).  Everything turned out tasting okay, so I guess I can't complain :).

I then decided to maximize my output by cooking the manicotti noodles (via the directions on the box) and the spaghetti for the Lo Mein and the bare noodles all in one batch of water.  That way I wouldn't have to wait for 5 quarts of water to boil twice.  It worked out beautifully.

The Manicotti was super simple to make and I'm very proud of myself (I've never made it before *laugh*).  I used a recipe that instead of using the traditional ricotta cheese, it just called for string cheese.  I didn't HAVE string cheese and didn't feel like shelling out 7 bucks to get some, but I did have mozarella in block form, so I just cut my own cheese sticks and stuck those in the manicotti.  It worked just great.  SURE it won't taste like traditional manicotti, but I always found the MASS of ricotta cheese in the traditional form to be somewhat overwhelming, so we'll see how the kids like this.

And then I made the noodles for just the bare noodles and the Lo Mein.  I decided to go with one recipe of Lo Mein, mainly because I didn't want to have to freeze too many different bags of veggies.  I ALWAYS separate veggies in dishes like this and freeze them separately because when you cook frozen veggies...when you reheat it the veggies turn to mush.  So, if you don't want that to happen DON'T cook the veggies until you are ready to prepare the dish and just freeze the raw veggies in a separate bag.  Even cabbage will turn out crunchy doing it this way.

So, there you have it folks.  The results of my work for today.  I'm going to cut this post short and skip the check off list until tommorrow.  My husband came home and quickly got into a TERRIBLE mood so I've been fielding the kids and now the kids are getting just as cranky as the DH.  So, I think I'd better just go and pray that bedtime comes quickly.  Enjoy your evening!

OAMC April: Day 1, Part 3...It's not DeGiorno, It's Homemade!

Well, I made the cardinal mistake of mothers everywhere.  I punched down the "taking over the universe" dough and then stuck it into the fridge to make it have a "chewier" texture when I'd make the pizzas.  So, then I sat down, sipped my ice water (aka lovely beverage), put it on the coffee table for a minute, put my feet up...and yeah I woke up an hour later when my kids woke me up.  Whoops!

But, I did put on the pizzas and they are now out of the oven (when I pulled the first one I took a picture of it for you :).  I cut up one for dinner and the other one I'm just going to stick on some cardboard and freeze.  Then we can just microwave the pizza when we want to eat it.  It'll be chewy that way, but I like chewy pizza, so I'm okay with that.

I then took some thin cut pork chops I had in the freezer and thawed out today and decided to make a pork chop curry bake with them.  I haven't made a good curry in a long time, so that'll be a nice change of pace.  It's cooking away in the oven now.

And now, onto my next project, the chicken lo mein and the "easy to stuff" manicotti.  Later!

OAMC April: Day 1, Part 2...

Okay, as I suspected, things have been going SLOOOOOWWWW.  It took me all morning to get the kids out the door and to the bank, then when I got home it took me forever to drag my daughter out of the mud puddles (oh the humanity to her new sneakers!) and into the house.  It then took me another hour to get the kids calmed down (whoever created popsicles deserves tons of awards you know that?) and it took me another hour and half of juggling the kids to keep them occupied and trying to get my dishes done.  So, I finally started work an hour ago, really.  But, I have gotten some accomplished so far. 

I got the turkey "loaf" (really it's just a fully cooked boneless turkey, but whenever something is missing bones and I feel like it should have a "shape" to it...well I call it a loaf) out of the fridge and cut it up into different hunks.  I sliced some of it thin and turned that into turkey lunchmeat.  I then cut some of it into more substantial "hunks" and threw that in with some herbed marinade, made from different recipe ideas I got from a Graham Kerr cookbook I have.  I think it'll turn out okay...at least the marinade tasted good...it's a compilation of some fresh parsley, some white wine, a little lemon juice (since I had some left over from the cranberry glaze), powdered thyme, some poultry seasoning, some nutmeg, sage...and a couple of other things I sort of threw in but can't quite remember right now.  I threw it all into a blender with some olive oil, hit puree (or in my case just turned my mixer to high power) and in like three seconds, voila!  Instant marinade!  I completely spaced what I was doing when writing down the title on the bag so it reads "Tequila Lime Turkey" (it's the same color as a marinade I have on hand*sigh*....me?  Tired?  Yeah, just a tad).  I know that I'll know what it is when I go to cook it though, so I'm not too worried about that.

The cranberry glaze was off a recipe I got online.  I just revamped it a bit to use the entire can of cranberry sauce.  The recipe dance goes like this...

1 can cranberry sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I threw in about 1/2 tsp. lemon juice and the rest I used orange juice...I love cranberry and orange together :).

Heat ingredients together in small sauce pan until everything is melted and getting along.  Then mix in your cooked (or raw) turkey and then bag and tag.  I'm planning on using this in a dish my dad refers to as "turkey casserole", that he picked up from a single's group.  It's actually made to use up Thanksgiving leftovers.  You throw a box of stove top in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, put turkey and cranberry sauce (it's supposed to be different layers, but eh...like I care) on top of that, green beans on top of that, and then you top with mashed potatoes and gravy, bake in a 350 degree oven until heated through and voila!  Instant meal in one dish.  My dad says it's really good, so I figure one of these days I'll either get courageous enough to make it or at least I can make the cranberry turkey and make the sides for dinner one night *laugh*.

I then just mixed up some powdered gravy mix (what?  Don't give me "that look".  Yeah, I could have made my own gravy, but powdered is darn tasty!  I never claimed to be Martha Stewart!  Don't judge me! ;).  I'm going to use that to serve on top of toast for open hot turkey sandwiches one night or just make some mashed potatoes and some green beans and call it a meal one night.  Easy peazy.

And now I'm going to go and get myself a lovely beverage, enjoy the fact that my kids are down for a nap and bake some pizzas before my dough takes over the world (it's growing pretty darn fast I have to say).  Onto the next project!

OAMC April: Day 1, Part 1

Breakfast of champions...pop tarts and coffee.  Ahhh, my diet is so terrible lately.

In actuality, today is off to a shaky start.  I crashed last night without remembering to put meat into the fridge to get a head start on defrosting (when I'm looking at cutting up a chicken...this might be interesting).  My kids are blatantly refusing to eat anything this morning (with the exception of juice) so can anyone say cranky???  I have dirty dishes stacked up to...well there's a lot, because I didn't get an opportunity to do them last night.  I haven't slept in *looks at watch* ohhhh...about four days, so the term "walking zombie" doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now *yawn* (thanks my beautiful son).  On top of everything, I got handed some errands to do this morning as well, so I can't really START anything until after 10:00.

But, despite all of that I'm going to go ahead and attempt this sucker anyway!  Insane?  Me?  Probably *laugh*, but I'm determined to at least try.  Hopefully getting the kids out of the house will at least cheer them up a bit and allow me to get something done today.  And hopefully the fresh air will wake me up as well.  We'll see how it goes.

I've been revising the "master list" as I pulled things from my freezer and added a few things to do/make and I keep rethinking my plans on how to best use my baking dishes to freeze things as tight as possible.  I'll keep you appraised as I make stuff on what I'm doing and from where I'm getting the recipes from.

Well, I need to go and get the kids ready to go to get my errand running done.  Be back in a little bit!

The OAMC master list...

Man, I'm hoping I'm not biting off more than I can chew tommorrow.  My son has given up sleeping at night, so I've been like a walking zombie for days.  I really and seriously need to crash this weekend.  I hope my husband is up to giving me some sleep Saturday *rubs eyes*. 

My freezer is still sort of full (some of it is going to get emptied tommorrow for ingredients and what not though), and I have some things I want to use up, like a bonless turkey loaf (already cooked I just defrosted it) that I was trying to figure out what to do with, so here's my basic list for tommorrow.

OAMC Master List

Farmhouse Chicken x 1
"Easy to Stuff" Manicotti x 1
Freezer baked french toast x 1
Chicken Lo Mein x 2
Bare noodles (for spaghetti and other dishes later) x 1
Turkey Loaf projects...

• Turkey slices with cranberry glaze x 1
• "Chipped" turkey in gravy x 1
• Thin Sliced turkey for lunchmeat x 1
• "Turkey Casserole" x 1 (if there's enough turkey left)

Coconut Shrimp x 1
Walnut crusted Halibut
Turkey Meatballs x 1
Home Made "Uncrustables" on whole wheat bread
Home Made Crock Pot Chicken Noodle soup, canned x 1
Chocolate Chip Cookies (which will probably ACTUALLY get done after Easter) x 1

And there you have it folks.  We'll see how far I get and how much room I can squeeze out of my freezers to fit this stuff in.  I'll post up recipe match-ups when I'm done and of course I'll keep you updated on my progress.  Wish me luck.

OAMC Day: Upcoming...

Well, the first of the month is coming up very quickly and thus that means that the meals I had in the freezer are pretty much gone (and will be completely gone with the exception of the Sweet and Sour Pork by the end of the week), so I'm planning on holding another "Once a Month Cooking Day" later this week (once my freezer goes down below "still stuffed with bread and other things" status, which should be really soon).  I'm planning on doing a slightly more laid back agenda this time around, and trying to use things that I already have in the house (because I do not feel like spending loads of money right now) to cook with.  So, we'll see how it all goes.  I need to take stock of what I have in the house and what will take up the least amount of space, etc (and also take a poll with my husband on what dishes he liked last time and which ones he didn't, etc.).  So, stay tuned for the "master list" and of course a play by play of the cooking day as it unfolds in all of it's "awaiting schedule flub ups" glory ;).

And so, I'm off to tear apart my freezer and cupboards to see what I have to work with.  And in the meantime, no I haven't forgotten about the weekly deals.  My husband is home sick today, so I haven't had a lot of time to get online.  I'll get the Wal-Mart and Walgreens deals done as soon as I can, promise!

Enjoy the BEAUTIFUL day outside in the meantime! 

OAMC Recap and Recipe Match-Ups...

Man I am WIPED today.  I worked hard the last three days though, and then to top it all off winter gets long this time of year, so I think we're all tired by about this time :).

I WAS going to take a picture of everything I made (and I still might and add to this post later on), but darn  I have this very intricate system of stacking in the freezer right now and I REALLY don't want to put everything on my table and then try to put it all back into the freezer again *laugh*.  I have to dig out a corned beef brisket for dinner tommorrow, though, so I might have to try it anyway.  We'll see how it goes. 

Anyway, I promised recipe match-ups and that's what you are going to get.  The fruits of my labor in all of their glory for the last three days are below.  Enjoy!

BAKING DAY MASTER LIST

Chicken Lo Mein x 1

Sweet and Sour Pork x 2 (the meat turned out AWESOME, but I'd buy prepared Sweet and Sour Sauce if you are looking for some real flavor for your sauce...it was sort of bland)

Rice x 1 (just steam your rice as normal, stick into a freezer bag, freeze flat and then break off "pieces" as needed.  Very easy and a real time saver).

1 Thing Chicken Thighs (just cooked the chicken thighs in some chicken broth on the stove with a decent amount of grill seasoning, we like flavorfull meat around here, and then stuck it into a freezer bag for a quick dinner or addition to a dinner later on)

Balsamic Pork x 1 (calls for 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, a couple of tablespoons of honey, a couple tablespoons of Dijon style mustard and 2 tablespoons fresh thyme in the marinade...thanks Robin Miller for that...I just use dried thyme, eyeball the rest of the ingredients and mix until the marinade tastes good and then dump in my pork...works pretty DARN good I have to say).

Taco Meat x 2 (hamburger browned on stove with taco seasoning.  Easy peazy!  Just throw into freezer bags when done and freeze flat, reheat when you want tacos and your dinner is done in, literally, like five minutes :).

Mini-Meatloaves

Freezer Chicken Kiev Piccatta.  I linked to the original Alton Brown chicken Kiev recipe since that's the recipe that inspired me to make this.

Pizza Crust x 2  People compared this pizza crust to Pizza Hut style.  I'm hoping it tastes that good =).

Halibut fillet cut into manageable pieces, lamb chops cut into managable hunks, half thawed and refrozen

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1  These do come out nice and moist, although I didn't really notice too much extra "chewy" to them.

Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1.  This recipe is made with Cheerios, peanut butter and other good for you things.  I halved the recipe so I didn't end up with like four dozen regular sized cookies.

Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1.  Made with bacon and corn flakes.  Believe it or not, it sounds gross but these actually DO taste good.

Farmhouse Chicken x 2   We love this casserole, although I add a LOT of grill seasoning and Italian Seasoning to the "gravy"...it's seriously bland otherwise.

Beef Terriyaki (steaks cup up and marinated) x2  (store bought terriyaki merrinade dumped in with cut up steak and frozen...how much more simple is that?  Just defrost and stirfry the meat when ready and serve with steamed rice and brocoli.  Yummy!

White Bread (breadmaker) x 1  (recipe from my owners manual)

German Black Bread (non-bread maker) x 1

Peach Pie x 1 (refrigerated pie crust and canned peaches.  What could be simpler?)

Refrigerator Pie/Quiche x 1  I just made this with bacon and cheese since I couldn't find my spinach to save my life.  It'll taste just fine though, I'm sure.

1 Recipe Master Mix

1 thing home made freezer french fries  Two cookie sheets worth filled the ice cream bucket, so that was cool.  I think this'll last us for a little bit anyway.

2 racks baby back ribs, BBQ

1 rack "Mesquite and cajun flavored baby back ribs"...t's a Frankenstein of flavors I put together.  I'll let you know if it comes out tasting okay or not.

OAMC Day 3: Recap...

Well, sorta.  I'm going to still put on some ribs to cook tonight (since they aren't getting any younger), but I plan on cooking all three of them at the same time in the oven, so I'm not super worried about it :).

Anyhow, what else did I get done today?  I got the chewy chocolate chip cookies and the two different recipes of breakfast cookies done (for some odd reason Blogger and my camera pictures don't get along sometimes and Blogger will flip the image vertical...that happened with the cookie picture and I finally gave up messing with it...sorry).  One is with bacon and corn flakes (for the DH) and one is with Cheerios, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and a SMIDGEN of dried cranberries (for me and the kids).  I'm super happy with how things turned out in the cookie department.

Then I am still making a batch of freezer french fries.  Basically the recipes I found online to actually freezing your own french fries was to put them in a 425 degree oven until JUST done and then you cool them on the cookie sheet, freeze them on the cookie sheet and then store them in either a ziploc bag or (in my case) a 5 quart ice cream bucket.  Since I'm officially going to have a butt load of these, I hope they taste as good when I cook them the "second" time as they do when they came out of the oven.  I flavored them by coating them with olive oil, some seasoned salt and some cajun seasoning (I just added the spices to the oil directly so I'd get an even coating on the fries :).

The orange rolls...well I cheated on those.  My daughter ate the orange I was going to use for the juice and the zest I needed to make them, so I just had my husband pick up a couple tubes of the Pillsbury ones at the store.  I mean come on they keep for at least a month, can be frozen when they are cooked later and they taste yummy (and there were a couple of tubes on reduced at the store).  What more do I need to know?

I'm going to make one lowly bag of pancakes when I make breakfast tommorrow (because I'm plain OUT of freezer space really) and I'm calling it good.  Yay!  I feel good about what I managed to get done though.  Let's check out the list huh?

BAKING DAY MASTER LIST

Chicken Lo Mein x 1
Sweet and Sour Pork x 2 (that are left anyway)
Rice x 1
1 Thing Chicken Thighs
Balsamic Pork x 1
Taco Meat x 2
Mini-Meatloaves
Freezer Chicken Kiev Piccatta
Pizza Crust x 2
Halibut fillet cut into manageable pieces, lamb chops cut into managable hunks, half thawed and refrozen
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1
Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1
Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1
Farmhouse Chicken x 2
Beef Terriyaki (steaks cup up and marinated) x2
White Bread (breadmaker) x 1
German Black Bread (non-bread maker) x 1
Peach Pie x 1
Refrigerator Pie/Quiche x 1
1 Recipe Master Mix
1 bag chicken thighs cooked with grill seasoning for later dishes
Blueberry Waffles (in G-5 grill)
Freezer Chicken Kiev
1 thing home made freezer french fries (we'll see if I have room for these in the freezer)
3 racks baby back ribs, BBQ (cooking as I post this)

Not too bad for three days worth of work.  I was hoping to get the list done quicker, but whatcha gonna do :).

OAMC Day 2: End of the Day Recap...

Well, woohoo, I'm done for the day.  And I did get a decent amount done today, despite the late start.  I will be doing some more work tommorrow, but not too terribly bad.  I'm actually rather happy with today's turnout, since I really didn't get to START working until about 4:00 or so.  So, here's the breakdown of what I did.

Pictured above is the Chicken Kiev Piccata (as I like to call it ;).  I just butterflied the chicken breasts to make them "flat", seasoned some panko bread crumbs and breaded the chicken and then pan fried them until they were cooked.  I then stuck them into a freezer bag with the "herb butter pre-sauce" that I made (I made herb butter, mixed it with a little panko bread crumbs, that will act as a thickener for the sauce later, and then put in a little boullion powder for depth of flavor.  I then took heaping teaspoons full and wrapped them in waxed paper like tootsie rolls, so that I can pull out individual portions when I need them.  I figure when I melt the butter to make it into sauce I'll mix it with a little white wine and a little lemon juice...I think it'll come out tasting nice.), bagged, tagged and stuck them in the freezer.

Next up, I was going to make hamburger patties and taco meat, but my husband shot down that idea, saying he didn't like re-heated hamburgers.  So, I made two things of taco meat instead (1 thing of it is pictured cooking above). 

I then took the ground turkey I had and made mini-meatloaves with it.  I added a little nutmeg to the mix to make the flavors pop a little bit more.  I think they turned out pretty darn good.

And my final adventure for the day was completing one thing of my "Sweet and Sour Pork" for dinner. Looks nice doesn't it?  I was happy with how it turned out (except the sauce was a little bland, and the stained counter I took a picture of with it *laugh*). 

I'll do recipe match-ups and all of that tommorrow, after I have the remaining items on my list done (or as close as I'm going to get).   So, my list for tommorrow isn't going to be too bad.  I think I'm going to switch the "waffles" for "pancakes" though, so I can make them itty bitty tiny so my daughter will be more likely to eat them (she'll eat quarter pancakes, but big ones she doesn't seem to want to eat...very odd).  So, here's what I got done today and what I have left for tommorrow...

BAKING DAY 2 MASTER LIST
Chicken Lo Mein x 1
Freezer Chicken Kiev
Taco Meat x 2
Mini-Meatloaves x 1
Orange Rolls x 1
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1
Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1
Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1
Pancakes
1 thing home made freezer french fries
3 racks baby back ribs, BBQ

I'm pretty confident I can get the rest of that done.  The cookies shouldn't be too hard once I get started and the ribs will all go in the oven together.  Here's hoping I can get it all done pretty darn quickly :).

OAMC Day 2: Part 2...

Pictured above:  My little helpers.  Alvah "helped" himself to some pop-tarts that were unopened on the table *laugh* and Armina "helped" herself to my pan cupboard.  I love my kids =).

Well, har, today is DEFINITELY turning out to be less productive than yesterday, but once the kids get up from their nap (and are thus less cranky...hopefully), my productivity SHOULD shoot up.

It took me three and what a half hours to get the Chicken Lo Mein done (but WOW does it taste good!).  I'll dig up where I found the recipe and post it soon. 

Today is, what I like to call, one of my daughter's "Eating Days".  She has this terrible tendency to go for like two days where she doesn't want to eat much of anything, or just wants to eat not-good-for-her foods, and then on a day like today she makes up for it by eating everything under the sun (and good for her foods too boot).  So, I've been busy fetching bannanas, apples, whole wheat toast, noodles (she's actually eating them plain...I'm planning on using the leftover noodles from the Lo Mein to make a quick thing of Spaghetti, but maybe I'll just freeze what little is left of the noodles *laugh*), juice, cheese slices, etc.  I'm sure not complaining about her eating at ALL, but it does eat up your time *laugh*.

And Alvah has just been cranky...poor kid.  So, I've been trying to keep them occupied while working.  So, hopefully I'll get more done here in a little bit =).  I'm still pretty confident I can get everything done tonight, but let's see how it goes.

OAMC Day 2: Part 1

I'm getting a very late start today, mainly because I went to bed completely and utterly wiped out (my son took a "nap" at 8:30 last night despite our best efforts to keep him up, so he was up till 1:00 am) and woke up later than I wanted.  Not to mention that it took me two cups of coffee to get even remotely going this morning.  But, that's okay really.  Because I remembered to go and play the Kroger Hit the Hoop Sweepstakes this morning and I won free Kraft Cheese!  Woohoo!!!  Me loves me some free cheese!

Once I get the cookies and stuff going it's just going to be an assembly line type of affair anyway and I don't have much in the way of breads and sutff to make today, so that'll cut down my time.  I think I'm going to tackle the most time consuming things first (chicken chow mein and chicken kiev) before anything else.  Because, really, this OAMC day is about getting meals done, and mainly DINNER types of meals (for me anyway) since that's the most difficult meal to come up with at the end of the day.  If I don't get to the breakfast stuff we have bread for toast, cereal in the cupboard and I'm going to make a thing of Crock Pot Oatmeal tonight for tommorrow morning, so it's not like I'm scrambling for ideas for breakfast.

Instead of doing traditional chicken Kiev, though, I think I'm just going to pound my chicken breasts flat, bread and fry them really quickly and then make an herb butter sauce...well herb butter with a thickener added type of deal...I'll just stick it in some small containers and freeze it with the chicken.  Why?  Because every single time I make chicken Kiev I have a HECK of a time getting the butter to stay IN the Chicken Kiev while I'm frying them. So, I figured, instead of trying to make herb butter and freeze it, pound chicken breasts to death and try to get it all wrapped around the butter, let it sit for hours on end before I EVEN fry them and stuff, I had this epiphany last night that maybe, JUST maybe doing it this way might be easier.  We'll see though.  Hopefully my husband likes it, because it's still going to be some work.

So, I'm off at a crawl today.  But, hey, the turtle won the race against the hare, so we'll see how I do today =).

Here's the list of things to do today...

BAKING DAY 2 MASTER LIST

Chicken Lo Mein x 1
Freezer Chicken Kiev
Hamburger Patties/Turkey Patties
Taco Meat
Orange Rolls x 1 (bread maker)
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1
Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1
Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1
Blueberry Waffles (in G-5 grill)
1 thing home made freezer french fries
3 racks baby back ribs, BBQ

OMAC Day: Ending of Day 1 Recap...

Wow...it's surprising how good it feels to sit down.  I didn't manage to get as much done as I wanted to, but the store took a little bit longer than I wanted it to (it was crowded), so  my schedule got thrown off a little bit.  But, I did get a decent amount done today. 

The Refrigerator Pie/Quiche is done (pic at top)and I got both of the Farmhouse Chicken Casseroles done, as well as a bag of additional chicken thighs to use in later "quick" dishes, so at least I feel pretty good about that. 

My husband asked for a few more "dinner" types of meals on the agenda for tommorrow and I can't see telling him no since we actually do have the space in the freezer, so I'm going to be adding "Freezer Chicken Kiev" to my list (that one might take a couple of days to get done, but is one of my hubbies favorites).  I also made a thing of Master Mix/Bisquick so that I'd have the "one up" on the waffles tommorrow :).  So, here's the list of what I have done (I struck those through) and what I have left to do tommorrow...

BAKING DAY MASTER LIST


Chicken Lo Mein x 1
Sweet and Sour Pork x 3
Rice x 2
Balsamic Pork x 1
Hamburger Patties/Turkey Patties
Taco Meat
Pizza Crust x 2
Halibut fillet cut into manageable pieces, lamb chops cut into managable hunks, half thawed and refrozen
Orange Rolls x 1
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1
Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1
Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1
Farmhouse Chicken x 2
Beef Terriyaki (steaks cup up and marinated) x2
White Bread (breadmaker) x 1
German Black Bread (non-bread maker) x 1
Peach Pie x 1
Refrigerator Pie/Quiche x 1
1 Recipe Master Mix
1 bag chicken thighs cooked with grill seasoning for later dishes
Blueberry Waffles (in G-5 grill)
Freezer Chicken Kiev
1 thing home made freezer french fries (we'll see if I have room for these in the freezer)
3 racks baby back ribs, BBQ

So, here's hoping I can get the rest of that done.  For now, I'm going to go curl up and cuddle with my husband and mentally prepare for the work tommorrow.

OMAC Day: Part 3...or is it 4?

Well, I'm making progress, but I'm definitely thinking this is going to be a two day affair.  The bread is out of the oven and cooling, the white bread is out of the bread maker and cooling (pictured above...the Black Bread came out tasting just fine by the way...thank goodness for bread machine yeast!), the chicken is now cooked and ready to go to make the "Farmhouse Chicken" casseroles.  The bacon is cooked in prepartion of making the Breakfast Cookies (yes, bacon in cookies...it wasn't a typo) for my husband and I have come to the conclusion that I'm going to be blowing through a quart of milk, I can't find my cornstarch (what the heck is up with THAT?  I mean who runs OUT of cornstarch???) and my Red Wine Vinegar has also gone MIA.  So, I'm off to the store for a small "grocery run" here. 

But, I THINK I can get everything except the breakfast stuff pretty much done tonight (I THINK I might be able to get the breakfast cookies done, but we'll see how my husband and kids are), which will be good.  I figured I was biting off more than I could chew for one day, but it was worth a shot.  I've also added a few things to my list (I'll give you an update here in a little bit :), so here's hoping I can get it all done today and tommorrow.  Bright side though is that I have TOTALLY kept on top of my dishes *blows on fingers looking impressed with self* my stove is clean and my floor WAS clean (I've got some touch up work to do on it).  Try doing all THAT while doing a OMAC without getting too far behind ;).

Not much has happened in the bloggosphere while I was baking, so at least I don't have to do a massive recap post here.  I'll work on the Carrs deals and Fred Meyer deals tonight and we'll see if I can get at least the Fred Meyer deals done.

OAMC Day: Update...

Well, the white bread is in the breadmaker, the pizza dough is resting in the fridge before I freeze it, the peach pie is on a plate in the freezer flash freezing away...and I figured out I made a huge flub up on the German Black Bread.  Okay, 2 1/4 teaspoons bulk yeast equals one cake of compressed yeast right?  So, why in all of my mind bogglingly bad math did I double that and get 2 1/2 teaspoons???  Ugh!  I figured it out when the dough wasn't rising after 1 1/2 hours.  Luckily, I'm a whiz when it comes to fixing my screw ups (I do them on a regular basis you know ;), so I dissolved 1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast in a little warm water, threw that in with the dough, remixed and added white bread flour until the dough was once again "bread dough".  I'm letting it rise (again) for another two hours.  Which, this time it's looking a lot more hopefull because the dough has risen some (yay!) after an hour.  So, I'll wait the two hours, do the second (or in this case third) rise and we'll see if the bread tastes okay.  Note to self:  Don't do math without full cup of coffee in stomach and helping brain to process information.

The kids decided to go down for a nap at the same time right when I was about 1/2 way through with the dishes, so I'm going to take a "break" so that I don't make a lot of noise to wake them up (I think I'll try to sweep the kitchen floor).  So, onto the next project!

OAMC Day: Part 2...

Well, what I thought would take fifteen minutes to accomplish took a lot more time.  Not a good start *laugh*.  Oh well...I can't complain.  My daughter made me stop to play "doctor and patient" with her for a little while (why little kids find fake coughing so funny I will never know ;) and my son has been far from in a good mood today (he's teething, hasn't been sleeping well and had a full day yesterday...I THINK that's catching up with the little guy).

But, the German Black Bread is in the mixer bowl rising, the pizza crust is in the bread machine doing it's thing and the peach pie (pictured above) is in the oven. 

Here's the recipe I'm making for German Black Bread (otherwise known as "Old World Rye Bread" in the book I got it from).  Warning to all who make this...this stuff IS dark.  My husband loves it though, so I make it once in a while (it is very flavorfull :).  This is taken from World of Breads .  I love this book.  It's like one of my few "Bread Bible" types of books that I reach for when I want to bake bread :).

2 Cups Rye Flour
1/4 Cup Cocoa
2 Cakes Yeast or 2 envelopes yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup light Mollasses (I used dark)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
2 tablespoons butter (I used softened)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat or white flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Combine the rye flour and cocoa (do not sift).  Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.  Combine the mollasses, the remaining water the salt and the caraway seeds in another bowl.  Add the rye flour and cocoa, the yeast mixture, the butter and 1 cup white or whole wheat flour.  Beat until dough is smooth.  Spread the reamaining flour on a breadboard and knead it into the dough.  Add more flour if necessary to make a firm dough that is smoooth and elastic.  Place in a buttered bowl, cover and let rise.  It will double in about two hours.  Punch dough down, shape into a round loaf and place on a buttered cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal.  Let rise about 50 minutes.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  Let cool on a cooling rack.

OAMC Day Part 1...

And Good Morning Everyone! Those of us from the legions of the "pre-coffee undead" welcome you to this editon of "My Trashed, But Functioning, House" ;). Seriously, I wanted to get my house meticulously clean last night so I could get up this morning and be welcomed by my beautiful house and not worry so much about cleaning AND cooking...but I ran out of steam at about 8:00 (didn't sleep the night before) and didn't get my dishes done. BUT I think I have a plan to get those done while things are rising and/or baking this morning so that'll work out (I hope).

I didn't get the Fred Meyer deals done yesterday due to my really sporadic internet connection. I ended up losing my printed Fred Meyer ad (thank goodness AFTER I used the coupons I needed out of it) to my daughter who tore it into confetti (who knew she could climb that high?), so I was trying to do things off the online ad. It didn't go well with my veerrrrrrryyyy slow internet connection yesterday.

But, don't despair. I will work on the weekly ads (Fred Meyer and Carrs) in between "baking dashes" (as I like to call it) when things are rising, or baking or whatever.

I created my "Master List" early yesterday, pulled the MULTITUDES of meat I had in the freezer to start to thaw on the counter, and took off to the dentist appointment for the kids (no cavaties! Woohoo!). Then, last night I started on some of the items that needed to be done last night and/or could be "blocked in" with what I was doing.

For instance, I had to marinate pork last night because my husband actually wanted to try one of the dishes I'm making later this week (or tonight more realistically), so I cut up the big pork shoulder roast I had and put it into four different portions (1 lb approximately each) and made up the marinades for the "Sweet and Sour Pork" (I tripled that one, so I SURE hope we like it) and then took the last pound of pork shoulder and made another marinade and put it to good use. I let the ones we're not going to use right away in the fridge for a couple of hours to "stew" and then stuck them in the freezer. Also, since we were having leftover Beef Terriyaki for dinner that I had made, I had to make rice, so I just put in extra with the original amount I was making and then made another batch while I was making the marinades for pork (and helping to juggle the kids of course =).

So, at any rate, here's the "Master List" of things I want to get done today. This is rather ambitious I have to admit. Worse comes to worse, I figure, I'll split it up into two days. I'll post up recipe match-ups/links and stuff when I'm done with everything (since I don't have time to look everything up right now).

BAKING DAY MASTER LIST

Chicken Lo Mein x 1
Sweet and Sour Pork x 3
Rice x 2
Balsamic Pork x 1
Hamburger Patties/Turkey Patties
Taco Meat
Pizza Crust x 2
Orange Rolls x 1
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies x 1
Breakfast Cookies, kids recipe x 1
Breakfast Cookies, husband recipe x 1
Farmhouse Chicken x 2
Beef Terriyaki (steaks cup up and marinated) x2
White Bread (breadmaker) x 1
German Black Bread (non-bread maker) x 1
Peach Pie x 1
Refrigerator Pie/Quiche x 1
Blueberry Waffles (in G-5 grill)

I'm not one to "Die by the list" so I'm sure I'll add and/or subtract things as I go along, but that's my master plan right now. Here's hoping I can get even a quarter of it done.

And now off to mix some bread, stick some pizza crust into the bread maker, make a peach pie and the quiche and get everything into the oven before I need a massive coffee break (and don't worry I'll post up a couple of cool things that are going on today before I do that).

The Baking/Prep day breakdown!

Well, the results of my labors filled half of my itty bitty little block freezer and would probably fill an entire over the fridge freezer =). I'm happy with it I have to say and was very impressed with myself when I saw it all laid out on the table like that. So, what all did I end up making? Let's do the list...

1 Loaf Bread I would have made more but I have literally 4 loaves of whole wheat reduced bread to go through right now, so I figured why bother?

2 Ham and Black Olive Pizzas I didn't have Canadian Bacon, so I just improvised and figured that deli ham was close enough for me. I also didn't have mozzarella cheese defrosted, so I just went with good ol' cheddar. I think they'll taste just fine though. I used pizza dough I had frozen in the freezer (I used two parts white flour and one part whole wheat flour in the recipe so they'd have extra nutrition...they also browned up nicely :).

1 Thing Breadsticks I just took one thing of pizza dough I had and figured I'd make breadsticks for the kids to eat when we'd have the pizza. I just coated them with melted butter and sprinkled them with parmesan cheese. I then did another coat with the butter and cheese when they came out of the oven to give them a more "soft" consistancy. They are dense, but they taste good.

1 Family size container, one individual serving and one quart freezer bag, Beef and veggie stew I also had this for lunch and dinner the last couple of days, which was nice since I'm fighting the nasty bug my family has had.

1 Recipe Mac N' Cheese Casserole Cups These came out pretty darn good, but it made tons more than the 20 cups the original recipe called for (I THINK I overdid the maccaroni...it called for a pound, but all I have is bulk maccaroni, so I had to eyeball it), so that resulted in...

1 Family Sized Container Mac N' Cheese Casserole (sans the final sprinkling of cheese)

1 Family Sized Bag, Spaghetti I thought of the individual spaghetti bags, and the big thing for me is getting dinner on the table more than lunches, so I figured I'd go with a big family bag and have that taken care of instead. As soon as I free up a little bit of room in the freezer I'm going to cut up some bread and make some garlic bread, freeze that and then we'll have a full meal ready for us in the freezer.

2 Meatloaves I was going to do the mini-meatloaves, but decided this would work better because it would stretch me 2 meals per meatloaf, by making things like hot meatloaf sandwiches with gravy the second night. I think this'll work slick. It'll be easy to throw a loaf of bread into the bread maker and have it ready by dinner time the second night for the sandwiches.

2 Family Sized Bags Chicken Tetrazzini I could probably have stretched it to three bags, but if I did that it would have been a smaller casserole. This way, worse comes to worse we'll have leftovers, but no one going hungry.

1 Casserole Dish Farmhouse Chicken I love this casserole =).

1 Bag, Meatballs I figure we'll have meatball hoagies one night.

1 Bag, Broccoli I bought some fresh, cleaned it and chopped it and threw it in the freezer as an additional side dish. Fresh veggies always taste better than the store bagged ones.

I skipped the lasagna because my husband asked if I could make it fresh for Christmas, since the freezer ones get sort of crunchy when reheated. Since I have no boil noodles in the pantry and the Ricotta cheese will keep, I saw no reason to worry about it.

1 Bag Chicken with Terriyaki Merinade I figure this is probably the meal I'll serve the broccoli with. We love terriyaki around here, so I'm hoping this turns out well.

1 Family Sized Bag Rosemary Chicken This came out awesome, so here's hoping it reheats well.

1 Family Sized Bag, Rice I decided to go this route instead of the Chicken Cheesy Casserole in the bag because really, Chicken Cheesy Casserole is meant to be layered and I like it like that. So, this way I'll have the rice ready to go as side dishes (for the Chicken Terriyaki for instance) or to go in casseroles later.

1 Bag Browned Hamburger I decided to do this instead of just the taco meat, because this way I'll have it to throw in with the spaghetti or the lasagna (when I make it) and I can also make it into tacos too or sloppy joes. This way I have some versatility.

1 Bag Hamburger Patties (not shown cause I took the pic before I finished them =). These BARELY fit in the freezer when I finished them, but they are done.

Bread (in breadmaker) for French Toast dishes.

1 Casserole Dish Sweet Potato Casserole This looks yummy. Hopefully it tastes good too. This will make a pretty good side dish I think.

1 Family Sized Bag, Home Made "Uncrustables". I put the sandwiches in individual sized baggies and then placed them in the big freezer bag so they were all together. I think it worked better.

2 Recipes Breakfast Smoothie Each recipe makes 4 quart sized bags filled with Breakfast smoothie. I made Strawberry and Blueberry ones, but instead of using fresh fruit for the berries I instead used flavored yogurts that I have a TON of in the fridget. I also used "Trail Mix Crunch" Cereal instead of the Mueslix that the original recipe called for. Boy did these come out awesome! I can't wait to drink them =).

2 Big Bags Pancakes For breakfast dinners really. I've got to buy some bacon to brown up here in the next little bit (I'm waiting for a sale) and then it'll be a really easy dinner.

1 Recipe Cinnamon Rolls I put 9 of them in a freezer bag and then took big ol' tablespoons of Cream Cheese Frosting and placed them in sandwich bags and just froze them right along with the Cinnamon rolls. This way when I go to heat them up I won't end up with really grody frosting all over everything but the Cinnamon Rolls. The other three I put in a storage container, which...well I've already eaten one *laugh*.

1 Family Sized Bag Bacon Brunch Bites I made Quiches instead of the recipe they made (there's not much difference seriously). The Crescent roll dough worked SLICK for the crusts though, there was no mess in the pan. I omitted the onion and just used bacon and cheese in the quiche...my husband will be much more likely to eat them that way.

A Couple Good Stacks Cranberry Cream Cheese French Toast The filling on these is YUMMY! I made just my usual french toast recipe and just made a loaf of breadmaker bread and cut it thick for the recipe. It worked pretty good. Honestly? One piece of this stuff will be a meal for my husband and I (since the slices are HUGE and thick!), so I have enough to last for about six meals. Sweet!

1 Recipe Veggie Pizza I actually stuck with the original recipe and used the recipe creations dough for this (since I got it super duper cheap on reduced last week). I didn't put cauliflower on it like it called for, but I doubt that'll make it taste any different. I also didn't sprikle the cheese on top, but I really don't know if this'll need it. I mean it already has enough calories to make your heart explode BEFORE the cheese, so I don't know if I'll put the cheese on before I eat them or not.

1 Bag Chicken Chow Mein Well, okay it's not REALLY Chow Mein. I just had some leftover spaghetti and a little chicken left, so I threw it in with some chicken broth, some seasame oil, what little soy sauce I had left and some frozen oriental style veggies I had and figure it'll taste close enough =). My daughter will eat anything that tastes half decent with noodles involved, so I figured I'd experiment.

And I THINK that's it. So, there you have it folks. The next month of meals (or darn close anyway :). I had a marinated pork loin in that mess, but we ate that for dinner, so it's not pictured either.

And now, onto the very small and cool shopping trip for this week!

Results of the baking/prep day(s)...

My brain is so foggy I can barely think. Doing a full day of baking, watching the kids AND trying to at least attempt to do the dishes as I went along pretty much killed me. BUT, the results were awesome! I'll post up a pic of everything I did tommorrow with a recap (since I did extra dishes as I went along). The only two things I didn't get done? The Freezer Mashed Potatoes and the Cranberry Upside Down Cake. Why? Because I ran out of freezer space until I can get into it and reorganize (hopefully tommorrow sometime). So, here's the master list and I've checked off everything I got done...

Breakfasts!

Cranberry Cream Cheese French Toast

Freezer Baked French Toast This was an opt out on my part...I didn't have the freezer space or the eggs left to do it =).

Bacon Brunch Bites

Cinnamon Rolls

Pancakes (made with good ol' Bisquick)

Breakfast Smoothie

Lunches!

Home Made "Uncrustables" With the exception of the grilled cheese...those are on tommorrow's list too.

Individual things of Spaghetti, frozen in baggies for lunches later. This was revised a bit...I'll get into that later.

Mac N' Cheese Casserole Cups

Beef and veggie stew


DINNERS

Pizzas Got the veggie pizza done today!

Mini-Meatloaves

Chicken Tetrazzini

Farmhouse Chicken

Meatballs

Lasagna This was revised too. I'll get into that tommorrow :).

Chicken Cheesy Casserole This one I revamped a bit. I'll explain later.

MARINADES/MEATS/Misc

Rosemary Chicken

Taco Beef (beef just browned with taco seasoning for you guessed it! Tacos!)

Cooked and Cubed Chicken (for use in recipes later) Actually used ALL of this in recipes today, so yeah...I guess it worked *laugh*.

Hamburger Patties These aren't done, but I just plain ran out of hamburger.

Bread (in breadmaker)

Tupperware Bread I got a bunch of bread on reduced over the weekend, so this isn't needed anymore.

SIDE DISHES

Sweet Potato Casserole

Freezer Mashed Potatoes

Deserts

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

None too shabby for two days worth of work living on nothing but coffee and an hour's sleep a night for six days straight huh?

I'm proud of myself! And I hurt all over, but at least I got a month's worth of meals prepared, which will keep me out of the stores and help me save money (hopefully).