School is starting which means freezer meals were made.

We are starting back up with school on Monday and I am kind of excited. I have been having a little bit of anxiety with it already though because it is my first semester with classes on campus since I have had Asher. Which has been 3 semesters online. Oh how I love online classes, it just breaks my heart to leave Asher for long periods of time and I have classes 10-2 Monday Wednesday and Friday. Only one on Tuesday and Thursday thankfully.

Anyways when we are both in school we often have a hard time wanting to cook, just because we are busy with school and have other things on our minds. So we would often just grab a quick bite to eat. So to help calm my anxiety a little and save money, yesterday with a good friend, we got together and made tons of freezer meals. Thought I would share some of the recipes we did.

Chicken and Broccoli Bake

Ingredients:

    1 pound chicken, cooked and cut into chunks

    2 cups broccoli florets

    10.75 ounces cream of chicken soup (you can even make your own!)

    2 cups cooked rice

    1 teaspoon garlic powder

    1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix cooked chicken, broccoli, soup, rice, and garlic powder. Spread in greased 8×8 baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

**Optional variation: omit the broccoli and serve as a steamed veggie side dish instead.**

Freezing Directions:

After preparing casserole, spread in a greased baking dish, but do not bake. Cover with foil, label, and freeze. To serve: Thaw. Bake uncovered at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Servings: 4

Layered Enchilada Casserole

2 cup cooked, shredded chicken (I just toss a few chicken breasts in the crock pot in the morning to cook)

1 can diced tomatoes, drained (15 oz)

1 can black beans, drained (15oz)

1 tub Santé Fe Blend Philadelphia Cooking Crème

2 cup shredded cheese. ( I used a combo of 3 cheddar and Pepper Jack)

3 flour tortillas (I used 6 inch)

1. Mix the chicken, tomatoes, beans, and cooking crème in a bowl. Combine well.

2. Place a 1/3 cup mixture on bottom of a pie plate or 8X8  freezer pan.  I buy the foil ones. Top with 1 flour tortilla.

3. Top tortilla with chicken mixture and cheese. Repeat layers and end with chicken mixture on top and top with last bit of cheese.

4. Double wrap in heavy aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn.  Label.

Cooking Instructions: Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees 30 minutes or until heated through.

Baked Ziti (Rotini)

Ingredients:

    1 box of ziti or rotini shells

    Pinch of salt & pepper

    2 cups of ricotta cheese

    1 large egg

    1 cup grated parmesan

    1 cup mozzarella

    1 large jar of pasta sauce

Directions:

    Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Throw in your pasta and cook as directed. Drain the water.

    Combine the ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and egg in a bowl. Save some of the parmesan and mozzarella for the top.

    Pour half of the pasta sauce on the bottom of a pan (I was able to use two square pans).

    Add the pasta on top of the sauce. Layer the cheese mixture on top of the pasta.

    Pour the remaining pasta sauce on top of the cheese mixture. Sprinkle remaining parmesan and mozzarella on the top (I always use more than recipes call for!).

    Cover your pan tightly and freeze for up to 2 months. To heat, turn oven on to 400 and bake for 40 minutes.

Chicken Rice Wraps

I made these for Becky and Rett previously, and have heard of many other people making them as well so they seemed like a safe bet. I think these will be great for lunches!

Recipe (adapted from this document that I found on a cooking message board)

2 cups dry rice, cooked as directed on package

1 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded

2 cups medium salsa

1 pkg. Taco seasoning mix

8 large flour tortillas

In a large bowl, combine chicken, salsa and seasonings and cooked rice.

Spoon mixture into center of tortillas and wrap.

To FREEZE: Simply wrap each folded tortilla in tin foil and place in 1 gallon freezer bag. To reheat, unwrap and microwave for about 2 minutes, flipping once.

 Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients:

1 lb. Pork Sausage (I use Jimmy Dean)

1 Pkg. Hash browns (I use Simply Potatoes)

8 to 12 Large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 pkg. shredded cheese (I use cheddar today, but I have used a Mexican blend)

salt and pepper to taste

1 to 2 pkg. flour tortillas (I used the soft taco size tortillas)

Assemble everything how you like it. We added green peppers into ours and also added bacon and ham in with our sausage. Wrap burrito in Tin foil and place in gallon sized bags. Warm for 2 min rotating the burrito once. 

               

Black Bean Soup ~ 10 Minute Delicious Dinner!

Ten minutes AND delicious??  No lie.  Unless, you forget to buy black beans, at the store, like I did.  Then it takes more like and hour and a half.

 Alright, so this is what I used:  4 cans black beans, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 can corn, 1 cup salsa, and a pound of ground beef.  You can easily substitute the ground beef for chicken, or even do it meatless. I love to add avocado, tomato, olives, cheese, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips to the soup.  Mmmm!

Cook up your meat (ground beef, chicken, or nothing).  Set aside.

Chop up your soup toppings…tomatoes, avocados, olives.  Grate some cheddar cheese, and pull out your chips and sour cream.

Blend 3 cans of black beans with 2 cups of chicken broth.  You may have to split this into 2 sessions, if it doesn’t all fit.  Once it’s blended, dump it into a large pot.  Add about 1 cup of salsa.  You can add more or less, depending on your preference.  I like Pace Picante sauce.  But, I blend up my salsa first, no chunks for me!  Stir the salsa with your blended black beans/chicken broth. That is your soup base.  Heat it up.

Add the meat to your soup, your fourth can of drained black beans and a drained can of corn.  Heat and stir together, and that’s it.

Black Bean Soup ingredients:

4 cans black beans (3 to blend for base, 1 for hearty filling)

1 can corn, drained

2 cups chicken broth

1 lb. ground beef (or shredded chicken)

1 cup salsa

Optional toppings: avocado, grated cheddar cheese, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, crushed tortilla chips.

Directions:  Cook your meat, set aside.  Prepare your optional toppings, set aside.  Blend 3 cans of black beans with 2 cups of chicken broth in the blender.  You may have to do a couple sessions, if it doesn’t all fit in the blender.  Pour it into a large pot.  Add salsa.  I do one cup, but depending on your preference, you can add more or less.  This is your base.  Add the fillers to the base:  can of drained corn, cooked meat, and last can of black beans (drained.)  Heat all together.  Serve with toppings.

We also made  Chimi's and a pizza casserole, lasagna, and taco pasta shells. If you want recipes for these one, just ask and I can get them to you. We loved the burritos the most because after you wrap them individually you can take them out basically anytime to use them breakfast lunch dinner without having to have too much left overs or waiting for the whole family to be hungry.

California Trip

This last week we were lucky enough to spend sometime with Benj's family on a family vacation in Disneyland. Benj parents have a time share so it was like a little vacation in a different apartment, so great. While we were there we spent time in Disneyland, California Adventure, the Beach, and just relaxed. We were so busy making memories and having fun I didnt take many pictures but we did get some great pictures on the beach. Asher really loved it there and might even someday become a beach baby :). Here are some pictures of our trip.

14 months old.

Tonight I came across some pictures throughout this past year that i really loved wanted to share some of them with all of you to go with it are some fun fact about what Asher has been up to and all the new tricks he has learned lately.

1) "Yeah" is currently one of Asher's favorite words. When we can't see him playing in another room and he is being oddly quite I often ask Asher questions such as " Asher are you being naughty?" or " Are you doing something you know you're not suppose to be doing?" he almost always answers with a "Yeah!"

2) Asher's favorite thing to play with and eat is dirt. I know weird but he obsesses about it. Everywhere we go its "dit" in Ashe'rs language. My parents have a lot of plants in their home and he when we aren't looking he grabs a bunch puts half of it in his mouth and then squishes the other other half everywhere. We usually find a dirt trail leading into another room or two. When we go outside to play he also heads straight to the dirt.

3) Asher loves loves animals especially kitty's. One word that does come out clear is kitty. Too bad animals don't love him and usually run when they see him. Even dog are called kitty.

4) Asher is such a Chocolate lover just like his dad ( I dont care much for chocolate, I like my salty things bettter.) He even knows if something is brown it's most likely chocolate if it isn't chocolate he is usually disappointed.

5) He has such a tender heart. We have recently been teaching him to fold his arm's and be quite during prayer. Sometimes we get into a hurry during dinner usually when Benj has to be back to work in thirty minutes and sometimes forget to pray. He usually looks at us and folds his arms and waits till we pray before he will eat.

6) Asher loves music. If he likes the beat to the music he will drop whatever he is doing just to dance.

7) His favorite things to play with are my kitchen spatulas and plastic bowls.

8) Asher loves reading. Usually he fights us going to bed but if we read him a couple of books he goes down without a fight but usually asks us to read him a couple of more.

9) Asher loves fruit, but wont drink juice. He hates juice he wont even swallow most of the time, he usually will give it a try and then when it gets into his mouth he opens his mouth and lets is all drain out onto his shirt. But we always bring baby organic fruit pouches everywhere with us and if he seems them he will hand them to us and drink the whole fruit pouch usually in one sitting.

10) Asher is very friendly and loves to give kisses and hugs to almost anyone who will take it from him. My dad didn't like his open mouth kisses and said something about it to us when Asher was around. He must have understood because after that all or mostly all of his kisses are closed mouth kisses.

11)   Asher already has a best friend and loved him Lincoln and his baby sister V. Asher loves them both and can never stop laughing when around him.

12) Asher is already really good at ignoring us. When we tell him not to do something or to do something or to even simple come here he will look at us say "What?" a couple of times and then pretends to not hear us and does whatever he wants.

13) He is already good at taking pictures when we tell him to smile he usually cheeses it. What a ham.

14) we honestly couldn't have been blesses with a more perfect child in our lives. He is always so happy even when he is sick and rarely disobeys us. I hate that he is growing up so fast and is so eager to do so.

Here are my top favorite pictures we have of him so far.