Weelicious has done it again! Graham Crackers that are HOMEMADE and you can freeze them too!

Check out Weelicious for this amazing recipe. I used it for my son's birthday party to make dino grahams and they were so yummy! I was afraid they would lose their crunch and "cracker" texture after a day or so but true to the real graham cracker taste these babies are still crisp and delicious almost a week later. These can be made in any shape and frozen too! What a great snack and fun activity for kids. They are amazing with peanut butter or Nutela too!

Here is a picture of my dino grahams:

To see how Weelicious does it view her video here.

Yam and Millet Cakes- Potential Freezer Vegetarian Meal

I was walking through Whole Foods this weekend and looked at their prepared foods to discover Millet Cakes. I was intrigued. I love "cakes" like my Black-eyed Pea Cakes, Crab Cakes and more so I figured I would try my hand at this concept. So, I came up with this recipe and while I think next time I make it I'll tweak it a bit I really enjoy the flavor and texture of it. I also think that if these were flash frozen before cooking they would make a great Freezer Meal! It is so hard to find really tasty and unique vegetarian freezer meals. I served my cakes over spinach, added a pinch of chopped pecans and a drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette for a very yummy and easy meal!

Yam and Millet Cakes:
1 Tbs EVOO
1 cup Millet
2 cups chicken broth

2 yams peeled, cooked and smashed
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs fresh chopped basil
1 tbs fresh chopped oregano
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
1/4 c shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.
Add EVOO to sauce pan over medium heat. Add the millet and toast. Add two cups broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, stir once and cover the pot. Allow to cook covered for 35 minutes.
Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Check seasonings (there is no egg so feel free to taste away) and then add cooked millet. Make sure the mixture is well combined and then scoop with cookie or ice cream scoop onto greased cookie sheet and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Freezer method:
Before baking, flash freeze the patties by placing the cookie sheet in the freezer. When frozen, place the patties into a Ziploc bag and seal. Freeze until use. Thaw completely in fridge the morning you need them for dinner. This recipe makes 9 good sized patties, for three meals I'd make two batches.

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Teacher Appreciation Mum Gift Tag

I was just taking a peak at Skiptomylou and saw this adorable idea for Teacher Appreciation. Now that my kids are in school (and I'm going to be a teacher soon) I really love finding personal things to say thankyou to Teachers.

 
Visit Skiptomylou today to download the free templete.

First Batch Of Frozen Meals

With two days of crazy feet hurting, back aching, kitchen a mess cooking I got a lot done! Call me crazy/silly/stupid/nutty, I LOVED cooking like that. It was a lot of fun and my freezer is packed with ready to cook meals. I'm really excited about how this will free up my week. I used Fix, Freeze, Feast recipes but found that they all needed some tweeking to make them my own. For example, we like LOVE garlic and so I pretty much doubled it for every recipe. I also cooked up 10 pounds of onions for a delicious French Onion Soup and I basically made it my own recipe. It was so basic and I had to add red wine. Onions just taste so much better with wine.

Here is what I have waiting for me in the freezer for meals this week (and the next, and the next):

Cheesy Chiladas

Mustard Pork Chops

Honey Glazed Chicken Thighs

Tequila Chicken Breast

Tomato Basil Soup

French Onion Soup

Swimming Rama Chicken

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli

Cheese Steaks

Breakfast Cookies

Maple Oatmeal Pecan Scones (this was my own recipe and I'll post it after I test it again!)

Coming soon...

I have 20 pounds of potatoes to cook up!!!

My hope is to take these recipes and learn techniques so that I can make up my own recipes for frozen meals. As I create recipes I will post them as soon as they are tested. If you have any ideas for Frozen meals feel free to add them to the comments.

What Am I In For? Freezer Meals!

Well, I have been very neglectful of my blog for a while. I haven't had inspiration for meal plans. I haven't had time for cooking. I haven't had energy for big shops or coupon clipping. I have been adjusting to a new sleep schedule with the beginning of school. My husband also switched jobs last week and so our pay checks have been a bit "off".
All of this has inspired me to find a solution. I need to have dinners ready to go so that my family can sit down to a well balanced meal. I have to do all of my own cooking now because I have a yeast allergy and since yeast is in EVERYTHING (even nuts and chicken broths) I have to be very careful.
So, I started researching the web for freezer recipes. I was thinking Dinner Done in my head because I really enjoyed their services while my kids were newborns. The food was good, gourmet and it didn't feel like "lazy" cooking. There are actually some Dinner Done recipes on the web but not enough to really plan months of cooking around. So, I found a book. The book is called Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik. The recipes look very much like the food at Dinner done and their plan is pretty straight forward. I'm going to give it a go! Here is my plan for this week:

Chicken Broccoli Bake, I'm going to serve it with steamed rice and a salad

Southwest Stuffed Chicken Breast, served with steamed veggies. (This was actually a recipe that I modified from the ones I found online from Dinner Done. I will share the recipe later on).

Mariachi Chicken Rolls, served with steamed veggies.

Swimming Rama, served with fresh spinach and steamed rice.

Cheesy Chilada Bake

Tomato Basil Soup, served with Cheese Biscuits (mix)

French Onion Soup, served with roasted pear salad.

Cheese Steaks, served on rolls with oven fries and spinach salad

I found a lot of inspiration looking through this blog: The Coupon Project.

I highly recommend buying the book Fix, Freeze, Feast. I bought it at my local Borders with a 30% off coupon I found online. The total price was around $10. If you would rather look at it before buying, check the local library. This book is a great tool to help you learn the process of freezing foods in a "ready to cook" fashion. I will be developing my own recipes and hopefully will have many more vegetarian meals to add to my lists. I already know that the Harvest bake will do wonderfully frozen!

Lemon Gravy Chicken

There are some recipes that you just always have in the back of your mind to re-create. This is one of those recipes. When I was a teen I worked at a little Italian restaurant in Durham called Pasta Bella. On the menu was this chicken and fresh pasta dish with a lemon sauce that was really more like a gravy than a sauce. It was my favorite thing on the menu. My version is a bit lower fat and minus the indulgence of homemade pasta. Serve this sauce over mashed potatoes instead of pasta if desired.

Sarah's Lemon Gravy Chicken:
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbs fresh chopped tarragon
zest and juice of one lemon
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbs flour
1 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs EVOO
salt to taste and heavy on the fresh ground pepper
1/2 c fat free half and half

For the chicken:
4 lean portions boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
EVOO

Pound and dredge the chicken and saute in a small amount of EVOO.

Remove from pan and set aside. Add butter and EVOO, tarragon, garlic, and lemon zest and flour.

 Stir with whisk and cook about a minute. Add broth and carefully whisk and cook until low boil.

Add Fat Free Half and half and continue to cook and stir about 5 minutes. Whisk in Lemon juice and you are ready to serve over pasta, chicken, mashed potatoes or whatever you love with gravy!

My spin on the best frozen meal I've found- Mayan Harvest Bake by Kashi

I found a frozen meal that I absolutely love! It's Kashi's Mayan Harvest Bake and it is the best, most homemade tasting frozen meal out there. It has loads of fiber and protein, spice and sweet plantains. It's so good that I wanted to see if I could come up with my own version. The best part of this dish is that it's a totally healthy and COMFORTING dish that is perfect for all seasons. Try making a batch and dividing it into individual servings in the freezer to save money. I served it to my hubby with salmon with the Mole sauce and a bit of feta but trust me, this is a very filling and satisfying meal all by itself.

There are many steps but trust me, it is SO worth it!

Sarah's Harvest Bake:

For the Potatoes-
4 sweet potatoes, cut in fours and sliced (pieces should be about 1" big)
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
a good drizzle of EVOO (just enough to coat the potatoes).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine all ingredients and toss. Roast in a large cookie sheet for about 20 minutes, flipping at 10 minutes.

For the Plantains-
Slice three VERY ripe plantains at an angle. (I like to use plantains that are almost black, atleast spotted with black).
EVOO.
Drizzle plantains with EVOO and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast along with the potatoes for about 20 minutes, turning at 10. Make sure to keep an eye on the plantains because they are high in sugar they will burn easily.

For the Kale/bean mixture:
1 bunch kale, chopped
2 cans low sodium black beans
1 tbs EVOO
3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup Archer Farms Cocoa Chile Mole Sauce

Heat EVOO over medium heat. Add garlic and kale. Saute for about 3-5 minutes. Add black beans and Sauce. Reduce heat and cook about 10 minutes more.

For Polenta:
4 cups chicken stock
1 c polenta
1/4 c millet
1/4 c quinoa
1/4 c bulger wheat

Heat stock to a boil. Add ingredients, turn heat down to medium and cook stirring frequently about 20 minutes.

To prepaire the dish, pour polenta mixutre into a large baking dish. Top with black bean/kale mixture, then roasted potatoes, then plantains. Pour about 1 cup of Archer Farms Cocoa Chile Mole Sauce over the whole thing and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and sprinkle with pepitos (roasted pumpkin seeds).