We had another great week of easy, ready-to-go meals and it was awesome! I feel like these meals could actually reduce our monthly grocery budget which is so exciting. I know we will get better at them as we go along too!
I'm going to try to new ways of container-ing the food so that it saves me on freezer space and dishes. I will admit that I was a bit lazy this week and I just used my pyrex dishes. I had planned on lining them with foil but it seemed like a lot of work!
Another little trick I read about is to put a container in the freezer that we put our leftover veggies in until it is full. Then those veggies can be used for vegetable beef soup! I think this is a really neat idea! I got it out of one of my Paula Deen cookbooks.
I made a sauce in my slow cooker to use for lasagna and spaghetti and hopefully a 3-cheese baked ziti. Then whatever sauce I have left over can be containered up for later! Easy, easy! All I did was pour two large cans of plain tomato sauce and added lots of different spices and herbs. Then I browned some hamburger meat with minced garlic and drained that. Then I added my meant and chopped onion. It is delicious!
I guess I should tell you my menu plan, huh? You can click on a couple of the meals for the recipe if I used one as a guideline! I actually altered all of them though.
Lasagna
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole (I meant to have chicken in this but I forgot it!)
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole (I meant to have chicken in this but I forgot it!)
Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup
3 Cheese Baked Ziti
Chicken and Tortilla Casserole
Spaghetti
Chicken and Tortilla Casserole
Spaghetti
We had the lasagna on Sunday. Oh my was it good! I wish I had paid more attention to what I did on that because I'm not sure if I can do that again!
For the chicken and dumplings and the chicken noodle soup I just decided to make the "base." I bought bullion cubes instead of broth because I wasn't sure how much I needed. I ended up buying the bullion cubes that had herb seasoning mixed in them. Then I added a couple of large cans of cream of chicken soup to about 4 cups of the broth and I boiled that with some celery and pepper. You don't really need a lot of salt with bullion cubes. I felt like it was a bit too creamy but there was no room in my pot to dilute it with broth so I decided to go on and divide it and just planned to add more broth when I cooked it. I added chicken that had been boiled and shred into larger pieces too.
So tonight we decided that's what we would eat. We had a guest so we decided at 5 this was the best thing to make. Of course it took a lot longer because it had to be thawed. I like to use the Pilsbury biscuits for my dumplings. Their buttermilk biscuits taste more homemade than any other biscuit I've tried. All I did was add about 3 more cups of broth to what I already had and I felt like that was perfect. Then I brought it up to a boil and added my dumplings. I let those cook for about 15-20 minutes until they're not too doughy! I like to lean on the doughier side of things but Derek prefers them cooked all the way!
It was probably a lot easier than I just made it seem! My dumplings tasted great too! Anna-Kate and I went back for seconds and thirds!
So that's what we are eating this week and probably next week too! I'm going to work on a few breakfast ideas for our next cooking day. I think that would be really fun!
For the chicken and dumplings and the chicken noodle soup I just decided to make the "base." I bought bullion cubes instead of broth because I wasn't sure how much I needed. I ended up buying the bullion cubes that had herb seasoning mixed in them. Then I added a couple of large cans of cream of chicken soup to about 4 cups of the broth and I boiled that with some celery and pepper. You don't really need a lot of salt with bullion cubes. I felt like it was a bit too creamy but there was no room in my pot to dilute it with broth so I decided to go on and divide it and just planned to add more broth when I cooked it. I added chicken that had been boiled and shred into larger pieces too.
So tonight we decided that's what we would eat. We had a guest so we decided at 5 this was the best thing to make. Of course it took a lot longer because it had to be thawed. I like to use the Pilsbury biscuits for my dumplings. Their buttermilk biscuits taste more homemade than any other biscuit I've tried. All I did was add about 3 more cups of broth to what I already had and I felt like that was perfect. Then I brought it up to a boil and added my dumplings. I let those cook for about 15-20 minutes until they're not too doughy! I like to lean on the doughier side of things but Derek prefers them cooked all the way!
It was probably a lot easier than I just made it seem! My dumplings tasted great too! Anna-Kate and I went back for seconds and thirds!
So that's what we are eating this week and probably next week too! I'm going to work on a few breakfast ideas for our next cooking day. I think that would be really fun!
2 comments:
Those sound good!
Thanks Ashley! You should try the Texas Tortilla Bake (click on it in my post to get the recipe)- I think you would like it!
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