Zaycon Chicken

Last week we got two 40 pound boxes of chicken breasts from Zaycon Foods.

This was our second time ordering from Zaycon and we were once again very pleased! We got one 40 pound box last fall when Zaycon came to our area and just finished using the chicken from that order last week.

Eighty pounds of chicken is a LOT. But considering we went through 40 pounds in 4 months, we got 80 pounds this time to last us until Zaycon has another chicken event in the fall.

The chicken is a really good price- $1.89 a pound and the breasts are huge! This is not certified organic chicken but from what I understand, the chickens are cage-free and are not given antibiotics. So it is a good price for what I feel is a bit better than regular grocery store chicken.

Erin from The Humbled Homemaker wrote a very informative post about Zaycon chicken that you can read here.

So do you want to know what I did with 80 pounds of chicken breasts? 

 Box #1: Trimmed and frozen in 1-2 breast packages.

Box #2: 20 pounds of the chicken were cooked in the crock pots. I then shredded the chicken and froze it in 2-4 cup portions to use later. Shredded chicken is so very versatile and will be a great base for many easy meals later.

Tip: Use your mixer to quickly shred all that chicken! I have a Bosch mixer and the batter hook worked well. I have heard that a Kitchen Aid mixer's dough hook shreds chicken really nicely too. I've used my food processor too with the dough blade but I prefer the mixer since I can do more at once.

I ended up with 21 containers of cooked shredded chicken.

The other 20 pounds of chicken from Box #2 were used for some crockpot freezer meals and one dinner that week.

I made 8 easy freezer meals. I chose 4 recipes we really liked from the last chicken extravaganza and made 2 of each.

• Honey Mustard Chicken
• Sour Cream Salsa Chicken
• Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce
• General Tso's Chicken

 Zaycon delivers all over the country. You can check their website to see if there are any upcoming events in your area. They sell not only chicken but also ground beef, bacon, sausage or ham. They usually sell only 1-2 items per event. For example: Chicken was the only item offered at last week's event.

I know a 40 pound box of chicken (or two 40 pound boxes) sounds overwhelming to some of you. If you don't have the space to store that much or just simply cannot eat it all in a reasonable amount of time, consider splitting a box with a friend or two.

And as a disclaimer: The links to Zaycon Foods in this post are referral links. That means that if you go to the Zaycon website and place an order through my referral link, I will get some credit towards my next Zaycon purchase. Thank you!

Zaycon did not pay me in any way to write this post. We're just very satisfied customers and want to pass this info along to you!

Fresh Bread

We finished the Whole30 this past Sunday and are slowly reintroducing different food groups. 

Today we reintroduce wheat. So I made some fresh French bread this morning. 

Recipe is here. (I used all white flour this time.) 

It smells so good!

Two-Week Pantry Challenge

It's a new year and my pantry and freezer are full of bits and bobs of random ingredients.

Time to clean it out!

We'll be doing a two-week pantry challenge this month in preparation for starting the Whole30 cleanse on January 18.

Time will tell, but I don't think I'll need to purchase much in the way of groceries to get us through the next two weeks. So my financial goal with this challenge is to spend $300 for both January and February groceries. $300 is the amount I normally spend each month on groceries so to make it stretch for two months would be awesome! Don't know if it's totally doable with the cleanse (meat, produce, healthy fats) but I'm going to give it a try. February is a short month too, which should help me out!

Even spending $400 instead of $600 for two months would be good! We have a couple savings goals this year and being able to save $200 or more in the first two months of the year would make me very happy!

I'm starting the challenge today since we just got back yesterday from spending time with family. I'll update a couple of times during the challenge as to what we're eating and how we're doing money-wise.

Anyone else eating from their pantry this month in order to clean things out and save a little cash? 

October Freezer Cooking: Take 1

In September, I did one grocery shopping trip for the month with some serious planning which included a freezer cooking session. It worked so well and saved us money so I did it all again for October!

This month, I split my freezer cooking list into two 2-3 hour sessions rather working non-stop for 5-6 hours like I did last month. Both work and are efficient but a shorter time slot was better for me this time. I made a plan, worked the plan, cleaned up the kitchen and left for work! Then the next morning I did it again!

We are relying on crockpot or easy make-ahead oven meals for dinner these days. Between September and October, I've tried a pile of Crockpot Freezer Meals that I've found via Pinterest. These are fabulous! Most require no prior cooking (except browning ground beef ) so they are extremely fast to put together. And so easy to put in the crockpot on serving day!

I doubled up on a couple of the recipes that we had already tried. I bought two packages of chicken and we got a good deal on a big package of sausages so I made two of the Thai Chicken and the Italian Sausages with Peppers and Onions. This will give me a head start on next month since we probably won't need them this month.

Ingredients for Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

Most of my 1st cooking session for October was assembling crockpot freezer meals.

Session 1 list:

• Slow Cooker Pepper Steak
• Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce (2)
• Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup
• White Chicken Chili
• Crockpot Italian Sausage with Pepper and Onions(2)
• Cook ground beef for crockpot meals, Beef and Veggies, Taco Soup and Southwestern Lentils , Cheesy Beef and Rice (7#)
• Make burger patties(2#/8 patties)

My Plan Of Attack:

1. Cook 7# ground beef. Drain and let cool.
2. Assemble Thai Chicken.
3. Make burger patties.
4. Chop/slice peppers and onions. 
5. Assemble Pepper Steak.
6. Assemble Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions.
7. Assemble White Chicken Chili.
8. Assemble Cheeseburger Soup. 
9. Bag and label ground beef for Beef and Veggies(3), Taco Soup (1), Cheesy Beef and Rice, Southwestern Lentils(1/2#) and and extra 1/2#. 
10. Clean up kitchen; fill up the freezer!

I've done lots of freezer cooking over the years. It has saved me hours of time and hundreds of dollars! I've simplified my methods a lot over time and making crockpot freezer meals definitely simplifies freezer cooking day. Making crockpot meals to freeze is a fast way to make a bunch of freezer meals! In fact, this post about crockpot freezer meals promises 20 meals in 2 hours. I could get into that!

Finished meals!

Tomorrow: October Freezer Cooking: Take 2!

28 Dinners for September

As I mentioned yesterday, to help with planning our once-a-month grocery trip, I made a list of dinners that we'll be eating in September.

I tried to take into account for Saturday and Sunday nights when I want easy stuff and also a few nights where we will be gone in the evening. For the nights where we will be away over dinner time, I just wrote in "Early dinner/big snack" and no specific meal plan. We'll either do leftovers or snack type foods that night like cheese, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, veggies, nuts, etc. We always have something of that nature on hand so it should work out great!

Most meals will be served with a veggie or salad which I will come up with at the beginning of each week. I will choose 7 dinners off the list each week and put them on my weekly menu plan.

There are some repeats throughout the month; these are listed in no particular order! Meals marked with** indicate freezer meals that I made after shopping day and are ready to cook and eat!

Warning: Lots of links in this post!:-) 

1. Sunday: Breakfast-in-a-hurry**
2. Sunday: Tomato soup, cheese melts
3. Sunday: Rice Salad
4. Sunday: Spinach and cheese casserole**
5. Saturday: Hot dogs
6. Saturday: Hot dogs
7. Saturday: Bunless burgers**
8. Saturday: Bunless burgers**
9. Early dinner/big snack: leftovers or snacky meal
10. Early dinner/big snack: leftovers or snacky meal
11. Early dinner/big snack: leftovers or snacky meal
12. Rotisserie-style chicken #1: Chicken salad lettuce wraps
13. Rotisserie-style chicken #2: Mexican chicken skillet
14. Rotisserie-style chicken #3: Chicken gravy over brown rice
15. Skillet spaghetti
16. Pumpkin curry soup (with chicken added)
17. Crockpot Pork Stew**(substituted pork instead of beef)
18. BBQ chicken legs
19. Crockpot Lentil and Rice Pilaf
20. Crockpot Taco Soup**
21. Crockpot Thai Chicken with peanut sauce**
22. Crockpot Italian Sausage with peppers and onions**
23. Crockpot Cheeseburger Soup**
24. Beef **and Veggie Casserole (used beef instead of pork)
25. Chicken, sweet potato, green bean bake
26. Meatza
27. Breakfast-in-a-hurry
28. Baked tilapia or salmon

**Many of my freezer meals this month were crockpot meals that I assembled in gallon bags and then popped in the freezer. These were very fast to put together!
 

Homemade Mayonnaise

I've been wanting to try making my own homemade mayonnaise for a long time now! The raw egg thing kind of freaks me out so I've  waited to try it until I had a good source for farm fresh eggs.

Store bought mayonnaise usually features less than healthful oils and often sugar too! So by making my own, I'm able to use good oils and make a more healthful product.

I had "make homemade mayo" on my list for this week and then I saw that Money Saving Mom is hosting a "Make It From Scratch" challenge. I don't know if I'll join in every day this week with a new project/recipe but today I will!

I had read several recipes for mayonnaise and finally decided on this one from Happy in Dole Valley.

 I don't have sunflower oil on hand so I substituted olive oil and grapeseed oil. Almost every recipe I read said to use extra light olive oil and not extra virgin as the taste will get really strong. My olive oil is labeled as a combination of refined and virgin. To be on the safe side, I combined it 50/50 with grapeseed oil. We'll see how it tastes after it sets a while!

The mayo was super easy to make. I used my food processor; you can also use a blender, immersion blender or by hand with a whisk.

First, I gathered my ingredients.

Then I put the egg and seasonings into the food processor.

After starting the processor and mixing the ingredients, I began pouring the oil in very slowly.

And lo and behold, we have mayonnaise!

We thought it tasted very good! I plan to use it in chicken salad tomorrow.

Have you tried anything new recently?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

**This post is part of the Make It From Scratch week at Money Saving Mom.**

How I Plan My Weekly Menus and This Week's Menu Plan

It's been a while since I posted my weekly menu plans here. But I still plan each week! For me, it's key to using the food we have wisely and minimizing last minute restaurant visits because I have nothing planned.

There are many different methods and menu planning calendars out there. What works best for me right now is to make lists of meals on a piece of notebook paper. Nothing fancy--anyone can do this!

I make a list of breakfast, lunch, supper and snack ideas based on what I have on hand. I usually list 6-7 supper ideas--sometimes we don't use them all. Whichever meals we don't end up using get put on the next week's list.

We eat mostly eggs for breakfast and then I'll add a 1 or 2  other ideas to my breakfast list to keep it interesting. I will often make a more extravagant breakfast on Saturday mornings if we have time.

Lunches are based mainly on leftovers and some other quick and easy ideas in case we don't have leftovers.

When I make my menu plans, I plan almost exclusively from what I have on hand in my pantry, fridge and freezer. I don't grocery shop every week so I try to keep the basics for our meals stocked up to give me a good amount of cooking options!

Sometimes my meals don't make the most sense and may not seem to always go together. We don't really care about that--I do try to balance the meals with appropriate amounts of protein, carbs and vegetables. I've learned to just use what we have for the most part and skip making that extra trip to the store! We haven't gone hungry yet!

My menu ideas are pretty simple. It doesn't have to be complicated! In fact, over thinking this  and trying to come up with a bunch of blog-worthy meals can be overwhelming and stressful. What do we eat and what do we have on hand? When I answer those questions and not worrying about it being fancy or "right", my menu plan comes together in minutes instead of a long drawn-out task. It's ok to have peanut butter sandwiches or cheese toast on the menu! Sometimes I don't know what to make specifically but I know I have a pound of ground beef. So I'll just write "something with ground beef" on the meal plan. We often have Pasta Night on Friday. This week, I wasn't sure what I wanted to make so I just left it at Pasta Night. I'll come up with something by Friday night! At least I have an idea of what we're going to have. Sunday nights are usually leftover nights.

I keep a variety of bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer. My grocery store puts these on sale every 4-6 weeks for $1 a bag. I stock up and buy 10-15 at a time when they are this price since we eat a lot of veggies. If I don't have fresh veggies, I just choose one of those to go with our meal. Cheap and easy!

This summer, I've been keeping fresh veggies cleaned, chopped and ready to eat in the fridge. We pull these out to go with almost every weekday lunch.

I've found this way of meal planning really helps to make use of fresh food I have and prevents waste.  I plan some meals for specific days and then just use the others as we want to. I cross the meals off as we use them.

We like to have an afternoon snack so I plan for those on my list--usually fruit!

My menu plan for this week:


Breakfasts

• Eggs- will fix them different ways
• Berries, Nuts and Coconut 
• Eat Out

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Picnic lunch--rice salad, salmon, cheese/rice crackers, hard-boiled eggs and fruit (Sunday)
• Egg salad, rice cakes, veggies
• Cheese toast (sprouted wheat bread), tomato soup, veggies
• Egg drop soup, cheese and rice crackers, veggies
• Rice salad, hard-boiled eggs, veggies

Suppers

• Eat out (2x)
• Chicken gravy** on rice, zucchini chips
• Spicy Dijon chicken**, mashed butternut squash, veggie
• Pork carnitas rice bowls** with cheese, sour cream, black olives, chopped tomato and sliced green onions
• Tilapia, sweet potatoes, veggie
• Pasta Night

Snacks

• Pineapple popsicles
• Nuts and raisins
• Berry smoothies
• Canned peaches
• Leftover pancakes with peanut butter, canteloupe and blueberries
• Berry popsicles( made from leftover smoothies!)

  *My birthday is this weekend so there is a little more eating out on the menu because of that! My husband will take me to dinner one night and his parents are coming for an overnight stay and want to to take me out for breakfast to celebrate!

**Previously frozen foods.


This post is part of Menu Plan Monday!

Saturday Morning Breakfast

 A leisurely Saturday morning breakfast!

• Hootenanny pancake
• Blueberry syrup--with fresh blueberries we picked on the 4th!
• Bacon

Have a  wonderful weekend!

Andes Mint Cookie Bites

After making these cookies, I was inspired to try them in a mini muffin pan as "cookie bites".

I needed to make around 4 dozen  cookie bars or small cookies for a special family occasion in a few weeks and thought that the mini muffin size would be a good bite size and would be easy to do--no cutting of bars and easy to transport!

I don't have a mini muffin pan--I used to have 1 or 2 but never used them--so I borrowed 2 from my neighbor.

Cake mixes and brownie mixes were on sale when I ran to the grocery store on Saturday so I bought 4 Devil's Food cake mixes and 2 brownie mixes to keep on hand. I knew I'd be using the cake mixes anyways so I might as well save a little money! I also bought 3 packages of Andes mints.

I bought a few other things but the cake mixes and candy made up the bulk of my shopping cart. I told my husband that it looked like I had a serious chocolate problem. To which he replied, "There is no such thing as a chocolate problem!"

Haha--we definitely like our chocolate around here!

Anyways, I made a single batch the first time to share for our Sunday Fellowship. Nobody minds being a guinea pig or eating mint chocolate cookies two weeks in a row--I served the original recipe last week!

I put small spoonfuls of dough in each muffin hole and baked for 8 minutes. I cut the Andes mints in half and put one on each cookie bite. I think half-size worked better than using the whole candy. A single batch in the mini muffin size made about 4 dozen.

We all liked them, so I made a double batch the next day which made 8 dozen. We ate a few and shared a few. I froze the rest to take with us in a few weeks so that chore is done and marked off the list!

I just thought I'd share how these turned out in case any of you wanted to try it!

Freezing Milk

 Jars of Milk: The jar on the right has already been frozen.

We don't drink milk often and sometimes don't use it that quickly. Often, I'm concerned that it will go bad before we can use it all!

So, instead of pouring it all down the drain, I freeze it to use later!

Milk freezes very well--just be sure to leave room at the top of the container for expansion!

Mason jars are my go-to canning and storage jars and I've had good success freezing milk and homemade broth in them. In several years of freezing in glass, I've only had one breakage so far.

Of course, any plastic container or even the milk jug can be used. I like to use quart size or smaller containers since there are just two of us and milk doesn't get used as quickly!

Because frozen foods can often end up looking similar I try to always label the containers! I'd prefer not to have chicken broth in my pancakes, thank you! 

I don't have a lot of experience using milk that's been frozen for plain drinking, although I've read that some families freeze jugs of milk to stretch out grocery trips. I've used the milk for baking, cooking,  pancakes, homemade yogurt and now, for making kefir. It works great and minimizes waste!

To thaw, I remove the jar of milk from the freezer and let set in a bowl filled with cold water. If I'm planning ahead really well, I'll set it in the fridge and it'll be ready to use in a day or two.

Freezing soon-to-expire milk is one way I save money by not wasting food!

Pinned It, Made It: Andes Mint Cookies

I've been trying some new cookie and bar recipes for an occasion coming up and these Andes Mint Cookies looked delicious! I pinned the recipe to my "Yummy, not necessarily healthy" board.

They only have 4 ingredients!

Yes, really!

Similar to the Cake Mix Cookie Bars, only cookies with yummy mint!

If you like chocolate and mint, you should try these cookies. If you are a fan of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies, make these cookies!

Very good and easy!

Get the full recipe and instructions here.

My notes:

• Use an ungreased cookie sheet. 
• Don't overbake although I would probably bake them a tad longer next time. 
• Let them cool almost completely on cookie sheet before removing them; they are fragile when hot out of the oven.
• I used my cookie scoop and one batch made 2 dozen cookies. 
• They are good right away but I thought they were even better the next day. 
• I think I'll try these in a mini muffin pan next time for little cookie bites!

**This post is part of Pinned It, Made Monday hosted by Country Girl At Home. **

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

These roasted sweet potatoes are similar to sweet potato fries but are a bit quicker for me to prepare.

I'm all about quick and easy food prep these days!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

• One medium sized sweet potato per person
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel sweet potatoes. Chop into smallish chunks. Place in a bowl or ziploc bag and drizzle some olive oil over the top, mixing to make sure all potato chunks are covered.

Place potatoes in a  single layer on a  cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast sweet potatoes for 30-45 minutes,stirring occasionally until potatoes are soft on the inside and brown and a little crispy on the outside.

Yum! We love these!

Spinach Cheese Casserole

I tried this recipe over the weekend and it was a hit. Even those who don't care for spinach said that it was pretty good.

Super easy too!

I got this recipe from a local magazine and wanted to share it here with you too.

This casserole would work very well for brunch or a light lunch or as a side dish to a heavier meal. Broccoli or any other kind of greens (such as collards) can be substituted for the spinach if you prefer.

Spinach Cheese Casserole

1- 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach (I used 16 ounces and it worked fine.)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
8 ounces cottage cheese
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spinach according to package directions and drain. Place in medium bowl and add eggs. Stir in cottage cheese, flour, butter and cheddar cheese until well mixed.

Spoon mixture into a greased 9 inch square baking dish. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Enjoy!

 

Fudge Brownies

Ok, so these brownies aren't healthy by any stretch of the imagination but they are a yummy treat every once in a while!

They're quick to mix up and bake and work really well when you need an easy dessert for hospitality. And most people love brownies!

I'm one of those people who loves brownies from a mix--it took me a while to find a homemade brownie recipe that reminded me of the boxed brownies! In my opinion, so many homemade brownies tend to be dry and not very chocolate-y but these are very moist and fudgy!

Fudge Brownies

1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
4 eggs
1 cup flour
Optional--1 cup chopped nuts

In a  bowl, mix butter, sugar and cocoa. Add eggs and mix well. Stir flour into egg mixture and mix. Add nuts if desired.

Pour batter into a greased 9 x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until brownies test done in middle. Cool in pan.

Makes approximately 18 brownies.

**I prefer brownies with a little gooey center so I only bake these about 25 minutes. Don't over bake!**

Best eaten fresh--within a day or two.

Good with or without frosting. This homemade chocolate frosting is delicious and easy. Or you can use a tub of ready-made frosting from the store--I've found that the chocolate is usually pretty good! For the brownies pictured, I used a can of Aldi chocolate frosting which is extremely yummy for $1.29.

Homemade Chocolate Frosting

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Pour all ingredients into mixing bowl and beat until smooth.

Enough frosting for one 9 x13 pan of cake or brownies!

Brownies to celebrate a friend's birthday!

How To Wash Lettuce

In my recent library pile was the book, In The Green Kitchen: Techniques To Learn By Heart by Alice Waters.

I enjoyed this book since I love reading cookbooks and how-to's. This book is a combination of the two.

One of the "how-to's" instructs how to wash lettuce. I knew I could learn from this!

Now you may be thinking, "Who wouldn't know how to wash lettuce? It's just putting lettuce in water, for Pete's sake!"

Anyways, while I knew the basics of washing lettuce, her instructions walked me through the simple process and left me with dry lettuce leaves instead of soggy ones in a very short amount of time. I also learned that smaller batches in the salad spinner do much better than stuffing it full--who knew!?!

So I thought I'd share "How To Wash Lettuce" with my readers.

How To Wash Lettuce

Fill a large bowl/basin with cold water--your kitchen sink can also work. Separate leaves, put them in the water and swish them around a bit with your hands. Let soak for a minute or two. The dirt and sand will settle to the bottom of the bowl. Lift leaves out of the water; drain in colander. Or do as I do and shake them a bit to get the water off.

If lettuce is still gritty or dirty, change water and soak again.

To dry lettuce: Put lettuce in salad spinner, no more than half full and spin leaves dry. Empty water after each batch.

No salad spinner? Use a colander to let leaves drain before proceeding. Or you can use this method. :-)

Lay leaves out in a single layer on a clean dish towel.

Roll it up. I let it sit for a bit like this. I think if I read the directions right, you can put your lettuce towel roll in the fridge.

Cut or tear your lettuce leaves for a salad or refrigerate until ready to use! 

Homemade Spice Blends and Mixes

One way I save a little money and minimize our consumption of preservatives is to make our own seasoning and mixes!

These are very quick to make especially if you have a  well-stocked spice collection.

Some of our favorites and the mixes I have on hand right now:

1. Rotisserie-Style Chicken Seasoning. I almost always use this when cooking a whole chicken. I triple or quadruple the spice blend recipe and have it on hand to save me time later!

2. Israeli Spice Rub. This is one of our very favorites--a little spicy. Good for chicken breasts  and even chicken legs. I've also used it on a turkey breast and want to try it on fish.

3. Ranch Dressing Mix. I've only used this in a recipe so I can't vouch yet for how it would taste as a dressing. But we really liked it in a  recipe. I did whir mine in my coffee grinder for a powdered consistency.

4. Onion Soup Mix. I've used this in both casserole recipes and as a dip. It's very good. The turmeric does make the dip rather yellow so if that bothers you, it can be omitted; I didn't notice any extra flavor from it.

5. Taco Seasoning. Simple and easy! I was using a recipe that was good but about a mile long. This is much easier with only a few ingredients!

These take minutes to mix and are easy to store in Mason jars--mostly pint or half-pint. I keep lids from mayo (and honey) jars to use on my jars for storage. The lids aren't exactly aesthetically pleasing but I'm ok with that! Baby food jars can be used to store small amounts of mixes as well.

I like to keep my spice blends in the freezer for freshness but if you're going to use them pretty fast, they should be fine in your cabinet.

These mixes are so handy to have all made up and ready to use!

Do you make any homemade mixes? 

Pinned It, Made It: Ranch Mushrooms

I tried these Ranch Mushrooms for our Sunday Fellowship potluck. Aldi had mushrooms on sale for 69 cents a package so it was a good time to make this recipe!

Only three ingredients and cooked in the crockpot! Mushrooms, a stick of butter and a package of Ranch dressing mix.

I used homemade ranch dressing mix because
 a) we try to avoid prepackaged stuff with preservatives and MSG and other fancy words and
 b) half of my household doesn't like ranch dressing!

I figured a homemade mix may not taste quite so "ranchy" but instead more "herby". This is the recipe I used--I whirred it into a powder in my coffee grinder so it would be more like the  bought mix. (The comments said to use less if powdered--I used around 1 Tablespoon.)

The verdict: 

This couldn't be easier and it turned out delicious! Everyone who likes mushrooms really enjoyed this dish.

I used my little 2 quart crockpot and 1 pound of mushrooms (2-8 ounce packages) filled it up. But they cooked way down....so next time I would add another package after they started cooking. There's plenty of sauce to accommodate more mushrooms.

I saved the leftover butter sauce as the pin said that it was great on steaks or veggies--thinking I'll use it to cook some other veggies this week! Yum!

I'll definitely be making these mushrooms again!

**This post is part of Pinned It, Made It Monday over at Country Girl At Home!**

New Recipes We've Tried

Today I'm sharing links to a  few new recipes we've tried recently:

Hot Fruit Salad In The Slow Cooker: This was really good! Something different to make for Sunday Fellowship.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse: Don't knock it until you've tried it! :-) We liked this so much I've made it a couple of times now. It does call for 5 avocados, so a good recipe to make when avocados are on sale! It keeps in the fridge very well for a day or two also.

Mango-Avocado Refresher: I'd wanted to try this for a long time and finally mangoes and avocados were on sale together! This was good, but...interesting. We liked it best mixed up for the sweet mango flavor throughout.

Spinach Artichoke Chicken: Yum!!! This was seriously delicious! My husband wants me to make this again.

What new recipes have you tried lately?

February Freezer Cooking

I've been trying to make a habit of planning for some freezer cooking once I do my big shopping trip at the beginning of the month.

With my fridge and pantry well-stocked, it's a good time to prep foods for easy cooking later in the month. Instead of bringing meat home and freezing, then thawing it to make into meals later, I've been prepping it right away--ground beef, chicken legs and chicken breasts are good for this.

What I made this month:

• 2 meatloaves.
• 3 pounds browned ground beef--bagged in 1/2 pound portions.
• Spaghetti sauce--5 containers of various sizes.
• Pot of chili--3 (quart) jars. 
• Chicken and brown rice stuffing--9x13 pan. This size will feed us for about 3 meals or is a good size for using for our Sunday fellowship. 
• Shredded cheese--11 (1-cup) bags.
• Brown rice-- 9 (2-cup) bags. 
• 2-Spicy Dijon Chicken (from this cookbook).
• 2- Garlicky Italian Chicken (from this cookbook).
• 1- Israeli Spice Chicken.
• 3- bags of chopped chicken for stir-fry. 
• Turkey gravy-- 1 (quart) jar. I froze this last month for the first time and it turned out really good!

This cooking was done in several 1-2 hour sessions.  It would be nice to just get it all done at one time but my schedule just doesn't allow for that right now! Plus I was feeling pretty sick last weekend so this all took much longer than normal as I was absolutely wiped out after about 1 hour of cooking!

Because of this, I simplified my plan somewhat, making meatloaves instead of meatballs and freezing plain cooked ground beef instead of seasoning some of it. 

But thankfully, I got this much cooking done and I'm feeling better too! I know not everyone is a fan of freezer cooking but for me it's a lifesaver. It would be very difficult to get home-cooked meals on the table every day without having some of the prep work done for me already!

It's important to us (and our budget) to eat mostly unprocessed foods and homemade meals made from scratch. Freezer cooking is one of the ways we can do this without cooking all. the. time.

I heart freezer cooking!

Lasagna Soup

I started making this soup back when we were first married. I've given out the recipe many times and can't believe I've never posted it here! A mom of one of our friends has made this soup a holiday tradition with her family!

When we stopped eating wheat and pasta, we figured this soup was a food of the past. A few months ago, it came to me that I could use rice pasta in place of the lasagna noodles. I tried it this way the other week on a sort-of-snowy-day and it was really good! Rice pasta is still quite high in carbs so we eat it in moderation--right now we have some kind of pasta on Friday night!

The list of ingredients seem long but this is really quite quick to pull together. 

Lasagna Soup
From Is it Soup Yet?
Serves 6

1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground beef
4 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
5 large mushrooms, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 cups beef or chicken broth (original recipe calls for 3 chicken and 1 beef bouillon cubes and 4 cups water)
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
8 lasagna noodles or about 4 ounces other pasta
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Crumble and brown meat in a  4-quart stock pot.Add onion, celery, garlic and mushrooms. Saute the vegetables for 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, broth, and spices.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Break the lasagna noodles into pieces and add to the soup. Cook over medium heat until noodles are tender, about 15 minutes.

Serve topped with ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

**This soup freezes well although I recommend leaving the pasta out and adding it when heating the soup to serve. **

Enjoy!