Freezer Meals Pinterest Friday: Pumpkin Muffins as a Frozen Breakfast

A few months ago I found this Pin:

 Source: nomadicnomnom.wordpress.com via Jessica on Pinterest

And since I looooooove pumpkin, and cake, I tried it immediately! We love this recipe. This is one of the favorite things that I can make with my daughter. Because we are now sadly back on the no-egg bandwagon (*sigh*) this is the only baked recipe for cookies/cupcakes/muffins where she can eat the actual dough.

We now make this recipe in huge amounts and freeze most of the muffins for breakfasts on those days when we're screaming busy trying to get out of the house. 

Now you can do this with basically any flavor of cake mix, but we've developed our own favorite recipe, which I will post below!

Ingredients:

Instructions:

 

 

 

Bake according to the instructions on the cake mix package (mine was 20 minutes at 350 degrees), and you get:

 If you make a full two boxes, this recipe yields a full 24 (big) muffins. We as a family probably eat 10-12 on the first day alone, and freeze the rest in plastic baggies in sets of two for future breakfasts.

To thaw:

Put two muffins in the microwave on high for 25-35 seconds, or put on the counter overnight.

Freezer Meal Week: (Gluten-Free) Chicken and Rice Casserole

First off, I have to say that casseroles are great freezer foods.  You can freeze them in a casserole dish, in a plastic bag or tupperware.  They bake quickly and don't get too mushy after being frozen (Jessica might disagree with me about the rice...).  Many casserole recipes are often simple: veggies, meat, can of cream of something soup.  Easy, right?

Unless you eat gluten-free.  I have yet to find a "cream of" soup brand that is gluten-free which is a bummer! It definitely complicates things.  So here's a great recipe that freezes well and is gluten-free!  And for my gluten-eating readers, this recipe is still nice if you don't have a can of cream of something in the cupboard.  You just use regular flour instead of rice!

Chicken and Rice Casserole 

(makes two batches, if you just want to make one, half everything)

4 cups instant rice

4 cans of chicken, drained (or if you're fancy, several cups of chicken breasts, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes, cooked and set aside)
3 big cans of artichoke hearts, drained (marinated or not)

2 Tbsp butter
16 oz of mushrooms (I use two of those pre packed containers)

1-2 cups of baby carrots (or normal), chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 Tbsp of flour (wheat or rice if you are gluten-free!)
1 cup chicken broth

2 cups milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp dried parsley, crushed

1/4 tsp ground red pepper/cayenne pepper (if you like a little heat)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Follow the directions on the instant rice box and make 4 cups of rice in the microwave.

3. In a large mixing bowl, put in artichoke hearts and canned chicken (or real chicken) and set aside.

4. Heat a tiny bit of oil in a large saucepan over medium-heat.  Once warm, put onions, mushrooms and carrots into pan.  Saute until tender.

5. I push all the vegetables to one side, put the butter in the pan, melt it, put the flour on the butter, then stir it until the vegetables are coated.  Pour in the milk and chicken broth.  Add in parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper.  Keep cooking until the sauce is thickened.

6. Once rice is cooked, dump it into the large mixing bowl with the chicken and artichoke hearts.  Pour the saucepan with the sauce and vegetables.  Stir, then pour into two casserole dishes.  Cover one dish and put into the freezer.  Take the other dish and put it into the oven for 15 minutes.***

***Some people love crispy toppings like bread crumbs.  We sometimes sprinkle dried Parmesan cheese on top before we stick it in the oven.  It creates a nice crispy crust.

Whip-It-Up Wednesday: Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli Cheese Soup

One 32 oz bag of broccoli cuts (you can use fresh, but the frozen stuff is cheaper and faster!)

1/2 onion, chopped
4 cups of chicken broth
4 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour (gluten-free folks, we use rice flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
20 oz of Velveeta (or more or less depending on how cheesy you like it, 20 oz is a medium cheesy version)**
2 cups milk (we use 2%, whole milk would definitely be creamier)

1. Steam (or boil) entire bag of broccoli.  You want it really tender so you can puree it later.  Boiling took about 10 minutes, steaming is about the same.  Once tender, drain well.
2. Put 2/3 of the broccoli (about 6-7 cups) in a food processor with 1 cup of chicken broth.  Puree until smooth.  Set aside.
3. In a big stockpot, melt 2 Tbsp. butter.  Add onions.  Saute until onions are soft.  Add remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter, flour, salt and pepper and stir a few times, then pour in the milk.  Cook and stir until it is slightly thickened.
4.  Add the pureed broccoli, the rest of the whole broccoli, and remaining 3 cups of chicken broth.  Cube up the Velveeta and put it in the pot.  Cook and stir until cheese is melted (about 5 minutes).
5.  Serve with sour cream or cheese on top!

I served half of it to my family, then froze the other half in a gallon Ziploc bag.  Easy, quick and about $10 for the entire pot.  To cook later, simply put the bag of soup in your fridge overnight to thaw, then reheat in a pot!  Yum!

Enjoy! ~Hilary

**Velveeta?  Really?  Actually Velveeta is great because a) it melts easily and b) I was surprised to see it has almost half the fat and about 35 calories less than a comparable serving of cheddar cheese!

Thrifty Tip Tuesday: Cheap Freezer Baked Potato Soup

Baked potato soup is one of our favorite comfort meals in this house! There is nothing as delicious on a cold winter day then a heaping bowl of this soup smothered in sour cream and crisp green onions. The best part about this recipe is that it makes about 12-14 servings! We make this soup and literally freeze enough for two other meals! And you can make it in the crock pot which makes this possibly the easiest soup ever. And since potatoes are amazingly cheap around here, it's also an extremely cost effective batch of dinners.

Baked Potato Soup Ingredients:
8-10 potatoes (we like extra potato-y soup)
1 can chicken broth
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cups of water
3 garlic cloves, minced
6-8 carrots, peeled and chopped
6-8 stalks of celery, peeled and chopped
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk (I used 1%)
2-3 cups of chopped ham

For toppings:
Shredded chedder cheese
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
sour cream
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel the potatoes and chop or slice them up (no particular size is best, just makes them faster to cook). Put your potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, water and chicken broth to the crock pot and set on high for 5-6 hours, or low for about 8 hours.

2. Once the potatoes are finished cooking, I mashed mine with a potato masher until it incorporated into the broth. Fair warning! If you mash you potatoes too much you'll end up with no chunks of potatoes in your soup! Make sure you mash it just enough that it's soupy, but not so much that you don't still have chunks.

3. Add the cream, milk, and ham, and stir well. I like to put the soup back on high for about 30-45 minutes at this point to fully warm up the additions. 

4. Top with your choice of toppings, and serve!

5. To freeze the leftovers, I just unplugged my crock pot and waited until the soup had cooled considerably. Then we packaged them in gallon freezer bags and froze them flat for easy storage. After we gorged ourselves we still had two full gallon freezer bags left over!

Freezer Meal Week

Welcome to Freezer Meal week!  We figure that between the craziness of cooking Thanksgiving dinner and the upcoming Christmas/holiday dinners, its nice to have a few quick 'n easy freezer meals.  That way, after a long day of shopping, you only have to pop something in the oven, instead of whipping up a meal from scratch.

Besides, less time in the kitchen making dinner gives you more time to devote to a holiday favorite....baking!  (Cookies, fudge and fruitcakes, oh my!)

To kick it off, we are going to give you a recap of some of the freezer meals we've already shared.

Check out our Freezer meal 101 post - complete with multiple freezers meals from one pork shoulder as well as some helpful tips.

Don't forget to check out our recipes for...

And 

This week, check back for great recipes for baked potato soup (cheap and filling!), gluten-free chicken casseroles and more...

Lastly, don't forget to check out our Winter Giveaway.  It ends on Friday and includes a $15 Starbucks gift card!  Entering the contest is easy, just click on the picture below and leave a comment!

Giveaway Time!!

We've had so much fun doing this blog so far!  We've gotten to share lots of fun ideas and we have many, many more coming!  We want to thank everyone for reading our blog by doing a....

In honor of winter and cold weather, we are giving away a package with:

A white crocheted headband with a bow (see another picture here)

A warm white infinity scarf (see another picture here) 

A $15 Starbucks card

To enter, post a comment on the bottom of this post with your favorite thing about winter!  Do you love making snow angels?  The holidays?  Egg nog lattes?  Post a comment about something you love and you will be entered in the contest!

For an extra entry, go to our Facebook page and "like" us.  Then comment and let us know that you did and we'll throw in a second entry for you.

We will pick a winner and announce it next Friday (November 30th) at 5pm, so check back to see if you've won!

We will ship your goodies anywhere in the United States.

Next week is freezer meal week and we're ready...we've got tons of yummy soup and casserole recipes to freeze as well as an awesome muffin recipe and more!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so excited for say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!  We are grateful for our friendship, our incredible families and the blessings we've been given!

We are also thankful for all of you out there who have taken a few minutes out of your day to read our blog! Its been a great experience so far!

As a "thank you," we will be starting a giveaway tomorrow (ending next week!).  Our basket includes a beautiful scarf, a $15 Starbucks giftcard and a few other treats!

Check back tomorrow (Friday!) to find out how to enter!

Whip-It-Up Wednesday: Easy Egg Drop Soup

I have a confession. I LOVE soups. I could eat them every day. In fact, when someone would always ask "If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?" I would bypass the normal kids answers (doughnuts! candy!), and say, "soup." So not surprisingly, as it get cooler and more snowy outside, many of my recipes will be soup! This egg drop soup is wonderful.  Even just the eggs and thickened broth are tasty.  Its definitely a comfort food and only has about 150 calories for a huge bowl. Yum! 

4 c. chicken broth (I use 4 bouillon cubes and 4 c. water)
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 eggs, beaten
frozen veggies of your choice (I prefer peas, sometimes frozen corn)**
1 can of chicken (if desired)
sliced mushrooms (about a cup)
3 green onions, sliced
Lots of salt and pepper to taste!
**My ingredients are a little vague because you can literally just use peas and eggs and its still wonderful!  The other stuff adds flavor, but this is more of a "scrounge veggies out of your fridge" meal...

There are two ways to do this recipe:

If you do have canned chicken broth:
1. You can put 3/4 c. of the chicken broth in a small bowl with 1 1/2 Tbsp. of cornstarch.  Whisk it together.  Set aside.
2. Put the remaining broth (3 1/4 c.) into a saucepan on the stove and heat up.  Throw in the ground ginger while its heating up.
3. Put in unprecooked veggies at this point (if you are putting onions or fresh carrots in there).  
4. Bring broth to boiling and pour in the beaten eggs slowly, while slowly stirring in one direction (that makes those nice long strands).
5. You can throw in the frozen veggies at this point as well as things like mushrooms and green onions.  Mushrooms get mushy if cooked too long, so throwing them in at this point means they'll be soft, but have their shape.
6. Bring broth (with eggs and veggies) to boiling again.  Slowly pour the broth/cornstarch mixture into the soup.  Stir until thickened (a minute or two).  Serve!  Top with lots of salt and pepper!

If you DON'T have canned chicken broth:
1. Put 4 c. water and 4 chicken bouillon cubes in a saucepan and heat until cubes are dissolved.  Add ground ginger.
2. Take a measuring cup and scoop out 3/4 c. of the broth.  If you mix the cornstarch into the super hot broth immediately, it will cook into these chewy weird balls.  So I put the 3/4 c. broth into the freezer for a few minutes.  Once its lukewarm, I pull it out and mix the cornstarch into that broth and then set aside.
3. Put in unprecooked veggies at this point.   
4. Bring broth to boiling and pour in the beaten eggs slowly, while slowly stirring in one direction (that makes those nice long strands).
5. You can throw in the frozen veggies/mushrooms/green onions.
6. Bring broth (with eggs and veggies) to boiling again.  Slowly pour the broth/cornstarch mixture into the soup.  Stir until thickened (a minute or two).  Serve!  Top with lots of salt and pepper!

Thrifty Tip Tuesday: Simple Shower Cleaner

In the last few months, we've both started making a lot of our own household cleaners.  My rule is that I won't make cleaners from scratch if they aren't as effective as the ones I can buy at the store.  I like saving money, but cleaners aren't that expensive, so it has to be an improvement for me to make it.

When I first made this cleaner, I was skeptical, but found that a) it was easy to make, b) I had the materials around my house and c) it cleans as well as my Softscrub, without the bleach risk on clothing (since I have bad luck with bleach).

Here goes:

one spray bottle (used or new)

1 cup vinegar

1 cup dish soap (Ajax, Sun, Dawn)

Pour 1 cup vinegar into spray bottle and keep the lid off.  Microwave the vinegar for 45 seconds.  Pour 1 cup dish soap into the spray bottle and put the lid on.  Shake it up and make sure its blended.  If not, you can microwave it without the lid for another 30 seconds.

Spray the shower or tub** with the cleaner.  Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  Turn on the bathroom fan (the vinegar smells really strong!).  Wipe down with a sponge.  

**It also works in toilets and sinks!

We've tried it on countertops and stovetops, but because its so soapy and gets bubbly, its tough to wipe it all off efficiently, so I only use it for toilets, sinks and tubs!

Men's Polo to Peplum Top Refashion

I've been reluctant to join the peplum top trend for a while now, mainly because I have a very long waist and peplums tend to be cut very strangely for my body. But I've been eying this tutorial at Cotton and Curls for a men's polo shirt to peplum top refashion for a while, and my husband had just recently gotten rid of a polo that didn't fit him. Bingo!

This polo also just happened to be that mint green color that is super trendy right now. Mint green is another trend I've been avoiding because it tends to make me look sickly. But I was willing to try it out because, well, free is free!

I started with this:

And this is the result:

This tutorial is very basic but pretty self explanatory, and I think it's a really cute refashion. The one thing I will say is that her husband is clearly MUCH smaller then mine! The polo she used in her refashion turned out to fit her almost exactly when finished, while mine required taking in four inches along each side. Granted, my hubby is 6 foot 6 inches, so it's possible the sheer size of his polo was the issue. Next time I will use either a T shirt or a smaller polo for sure! I could easily buy a size men's M at a thrift and refashion that.

And surprisingly, the color doesn't make me look like I have the flu! Bonus! I wore this to see Breaking Dawn II and it was cute and comfy for a girl's night out. I may try this again with a funky men's concert t-shirt, I think the juxtaposition of the tough and the girly would be really cute.

DIY legwarmers (or faux boot socks)

 I have been lusting after boot socks for a while now, as is evidenced here. The problem? I am super picky when it comes to my clothes, and I literally could not find boot socks that met my extreme needs. The ones I bought and referenced in that post were a bust. They were too thin, too short, not slouchy enough, didn't fit over jeans...*sigh.* (Let me add that this was after going to six different stores looking for the perfect leopard print scarf and failing at that as well.)

So I decided enough was enough. I needed to bite the bullet and make my own, dammit! I scrounged through my pile of Goodwill donations and came up with two sweaters that could possibly work. Because one of them didn't have sleeves I ended up doing leg warmers two different ways. Which I will now show you:
  

The Sweaters

 

And

The Process

1. I started by cutting up the tunic style short sleeved sweater at the seams, and cut off the collar:

 For the record, my sweater had a shawl collar that was perfect for this method, but you could also cut  the ribbed collar off any old sweater and make it work, it just wouldn't be quite as wide as mine. Or as I will show you on the second sweater, you can just use strips of the body of your sweater.

2. You will need to cut a long thin strip from the collar out (this will be for your ankles) and we are going to make our legwarmers out of the center of the sweater like this:

All I did to figure out how wide my rectangle needed to be was literally wrap the sweater body around my leg and pin so I knew I had the right size of rectangle, then cut it out.

3. After you've done this, measure your ankles with the long strip from the collar:

Cut out two strips that are long enough to fit around your ankle somewhat snugly. You want this to be snug enough to keep your legwarmers in place when you put on boots! My strips ended up being about 5 inches X 3 inches long.

4. Stretch the ankle pieces out and pin them to your long skinny leg rectangles:

You will want to make sure you use lots of pins to hold it in place evenly!

5. Sew, but remember to keep the ribbed ankle piece stretched out while you sew! Like this:

This will make sure it's nice and evenly spaced and you don't end up with any bunchy folded fabric around your ankle.

6. Pin up the side of your legwarmer:

Sew it up and you're done!

Variation 

1. The second sweater I used has sleeves that happened to be the right width around and the right length, so I just hacked them off:

At the unfinished end, I cut down along the arm seam about three inches, to make a place for me to pin in the ankle binding. 

 2. I also cut two rectangles from the body of the sweater like this one:

If you fold these strips in half lengthwise you can pin and sew them on just like I did in steps 4 & 5 above. Then you can follow step 6 exactly the same way!

Here are my perfect new boot socks:

And..

I am IN LOVE with these! The tight ankle cuff keeps them in place when you put your boots on, and they are super long, so I can cuff them, make them slouchy, or pull them all the way up my thigh. And because they're made of actual sweaters, they're really warm! I can't wait to wear them.

Oh! And the piece of the second sweater that was left may look like this:

  

 Don't throw it away! We will be doing something else fun with that part later.

Pinterest Friday: Pinspired

Since this has been a busy week for us (thank you EVERYONE for visiting our blog!), we are keeping Pinterest Friday simple! Instead of picking one pin to try, we are going to a Pinterest "round-up" where we share the pins we are dying to try out!

Hilary's Top Three Pins 

1. I am in the crocheting mood.  Something about the cold weather and tons of skeins of yarn lying around means all I want to do is make scarves.  I have made several in the past few weeks, but they are all thick, warm scarves.  I love them, but they are too thick, big or warm to wear indoors!  So I want a lacy scarf pattern that I can wear indoors and not look silly!  There are tons of great lacy scarf patterns, but I've been eye-ing this one:

Source: theartofzencrochet.blogspot.co.uk via Hilary on Pinterest

I love the look of it and can't wait to try it!

2. I want to keep doing some clothing refashioning projects.  I love that I can raid our closet or the local thrift store and make "new" clothes for cheap!  One pin that I can't wait to try is:

Source: downwithclutter.blogspot.com via Hilary on Pinterest

This is a super easy tutorial and she does a great job showing each step!

3. Last, I LOVE big chunky necklaces.  I have one that I bought and wear constantly, but I'd love a few more.  Unfortunately, they are often expensive, so I haven't purchased anymore.  I was totally excited when I found this a few nights ago:

Source: doodlecraft.blogspot.com via Hilary on Pinterest

And for those who don't want to make them, she has an awesome Etsy store with tons of these necklaces for sale!

Jessica's Top Three Pins

1. Mermaid Doll:

Source: thecraftingfiend.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

My daughter is obsessed with anything ocean related right now (sharks are her favorite animals!) and this is on my list to make for her for Christmas.

2. Pumpkin French Toast Bake:

Source: foodgawker.com via Jessica on Pinterest

My daughter just got cleared by her allergist to eat eggs, after three years of dealing with an infant egg allergy! Since we've gone three years without french toast, that is going to need to END! I'm making this recipe tomorrow morning and I will be sure to take pictures for you all.

3. DIY Cream of "Something" Soup:

Source: 1orangegiraffe.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

We make a lot of casseroles, and with Freezer Cooking Week coming up on our blog, we're going to try and do a lot of casseroles to freeze! Since Campbell's "cream of" soups are pretty dang expensive this recipe looks like a cool way to save money.