Let the Nesting Begin!

Ok, so I really mean let the nesting continue... :) For the last 5 weeks I've been cooking, cleaning, decorating and buying anything in sight that I think our little love bug will need much to the dismay of my husband. One of those things included a Costco membership. For those of you who do know what Costco is, it's just a big box wholesale store in our area that has great deals on fresh produce and meat with most of it being LOCAL and organic. YES! I know! I was very surprised to see the variety they carry in everything from fruits, veggies to seafood. And let's face it, my husband is a Florida native and a seafood snob. We hardly ever eat anything that wasn't caught by someone we know locally so finding a place that carries local fresh seafood at a decent price was a miracle.

So why go and get a membership at a wholesale store when we will just be a family of three? I've jumped on the whole cook for a day and eat for a month bandwagon. Considering the amount of time we spend at work, and how incredibly exhausted and useless everyone continues to assure us we'll be in the first 12 weeks of parenthood, I figured it was worth a try. So, with a $250 budget, a list of ingredients and about 15 recipes, I set out to pull together 30ish meals that can be defrosted and tossed in a crock pot for anywhere from 5 to 10 hours and feed 2-4 people. Now, I took the short cut and didn't really cook anything (except for some ground beef for a few recipes) so everything was just cut up, measured and tossed into one gallon zip lock freezer bags. I hadn't planned on blogging this, but some of my mommy-to-be friends asked me to share what recipes I used and I promised to update them on how they came out, so I thought sharing it through the blog may be the easiest way to do it.

The recipes came from everywhere - friends, pinterest, cook books, blogs I follow and some family recipes that I just happen to adjust for the crock pot and work well. There won't be many photos so I apologize. This will just be one of those super long and wordy posts. :)

I looked at what I had time to assemble (this all took me a total of about 9 hours in the kitchen split between 2 days) and laid out the recipes, chopped the veggies and made up an assembly line. Before I started filling bags I wrote the name of the recipe and any directions needed on the bag itself. There is no telling who will be the one tossing it in the crock pot so I wanted to make sure every detail was taken care of just in case. I also wrote down a suggestion of what to serve the meal with for dinner. I focused on the beef meals first and got through one package of meat (about 10 lbs) before switching to chicken meals. I then stacked them in random order in the freezer so I won't get the same meal two days in a row when it's time to pull them out. BTW, we do not have a deep freezer so I just pushed all the air out of the bags and laid them flat in the freezer so I could fit more meals on the shelf.

***Just a note - anywhere that asked for boneless, skinless chicken breasts I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs (we just like them better and they were $1 cheaper a pound) and any recipe that called for a large beef roast, I used pre cut beef chuck or stew meat so I could stay within budget. Also, most of these meals will be served with rice, pasta, potatoes or a salad so I generally put about 1-1 1/2 lbs of meat per bag. Anytime a recipe called for beef or chicken broth, I used bouillon cubes and made a note to add water when cooking. For anything that called for bacon, I used pre cooked bacon bits and used it sparingly since flavors tend to intensify in the crock pot. Plus I'm not a huge lover of bacon anyway... I know, I know. I also have a VERY well stocked pantry so I had a lot of basics on hand but did have the following shopping list. ***

What I bought:
20 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
20 lbs beef chuck/stew meat
6 lbs lean ground beef
2 lbs baby carrots
2 lbs celery
5 lbs yellow onions (You may want to get 2. I ran out of onions)
10 lbs large baking potatoes (no I didn't use it all)
1 large jar of minced garlic
1 large bottle of soy sauce
1 lb bag of brown sugar
10 15 oz cans of tomato sauce
6 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 jar taco seasoning
6 blocks Cream Cheese (froze them to add to meals when cooking)
6 cans Evaporated Milk (set aside to be added when cooking)


My Meals
Balsamic Roast Beef - I split this into 4 one gallon bags with about 1 lb of meat each to make 4 meals
Beef & Broccoli - I doubled this recipe and made 2 meals split into 2 one gallon bags
Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken - I split this recipe into 2 one gallon bags with about 1 lb of chicken each
Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff - I split this recipe into 2 one gallon bags
Italian Chicken - I split this recipe into 2 one gallon bags with about 1 lb of chicken each
Chicken Tacos - recipe for 2 meals shown below
Carne Guisada (Puerto Rican Style Beef Stew) - I've adapted my mom's stove top recipe for the crock pot and I doubled the recipe to make about 4 meals out of this since it's always a hit with the hubs.
Beef Stew - used one recipe and split it into 2 meals
Chicken Stew - used Carne Guisada recipe but used chicken and chicken bouillon instead of beef. 2 meals
Chicken & Black Bean Burritos - made 2 batches for 2 meals. Serve with tortillas or over lettuce.
Chicken in Creamy White Wine Sauce - 1 recipe made 3 meals for me. Serve over pasta.
Corn and Potato Chowder - Since it's soup I figured it was just one serving so I made 2 batches.
Sloppy Joe's - I split this into 2 meals
White Chicken Chili - I used 1 lb of chicken to make 1 batch.
Baked Potato Soup - I used real potatoes instead of hash browns and got 1 batch.
Cheeseburger Macaroni - I omitted the bacon and made just one batch since I've never made this before.


Chicken Tacos

2 lbs of chicken thighs
16 oz fresh salsa
1 envelope or 1/4 cup taco seasoning

1. Add 1 lb of chicken to zip lock bag along with half of the taco seasoning and salsa. Smooth flat and   freeze.
2. When ready to cook, defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Dump all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10.
4. When done cooking, chicken will shred easily. Serve with your favorite topping and tortillas.


Carne Guisada with "Americanized" Beef Stew adjustments at the end.

2 lbs of beef stew meat
1 onion diced
3 large potatoes roughly chopped
1 tablespoon or 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1 hand-full of baby carrots
Green Beans (if you want)
1/2 cup of peas
Cumin
Smoked Paprika
1 table spoon Adobo (all purpose seasoning found in the ethnic section at your grocery store)
Flour
Butter
Dried parsley
Sazon (another seasoning found in the ethnic section - I use the one with black pepper and achiote)
1 cube beef bouillon or one cup beef stock (if using stock omit 1 cup water)
Water
Tomato sauce

1. In a large bowl mix about half a cup of flour with the adobo to season it. Rinse the stew meat and dredge it in the flour.
2. Heat a skillet on medium-high and add butter. Brown the beef - it should have a nice golden crust but not be cooked through. Remove from the heat and let it cool. (You can either send it straight to the crock pot and continue with the recipe if you are going to cook right away or let it cool and put it in the zip locks for later.)
3. Add the veggies to either the crock pot or ziplocks, about 1 teaspoon cumin and paprika, about 4 shakes of parsley, one packet sazon and a cup of water and about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. You want the mix to be wet but not soupy.
4. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours and serve over rice. If you want to change it up, serve it over plain cous cous. That is Dawson's favorite :)

As you can tell, this is one of those cook by taste recipes that I just "make". Tweak it to fit your taste and you can always just use salt and pepper instead of adobo and sazon and omit the tomato sauce for a more "Americanized" beef stew and serve it with mashed potatoes.


Chicken & Black Bean Burritos

1 lb chicken thighs
8 oz fresh salsa
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 packet or 1/4 cup taco seasoning

1. Mix all ingredients in zip lock or toss into crock pot.
2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred Chicken. Serve with yellow rice, sour cream, lettuce and anything else your heart desires.

I had about 13 or 14 meals done at this point and had to make more room in the freezer :)

Well friends, that is about it. I have about 15 different recipes (kind of - we eat a lot of beef stew in our house) and just over 30 meals in our freezer. I did have some celery, carrots and potatoes left over but my goal was to keep assembling until all the meat was gone. Really at that point you can just throw all the left over veggies in a bag with some bouillon cubes and call it soup :) I'll let ya'll know how they all came out - with only 34 days to go, I've still got a lot of cleaning and organizing to do!