• May. 12, 2009
Onion Soup Mix Recipe

Thanks to Stacy at PROVERBSMAMA for allowing me to share this recipe here.  Be sure to check out her post on setting boundaries.

Onion Soup Mix

Makes 10 batches

• 1 c. dried minced onions
• 2 t. onion powder
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 1/4 c. instant beef bouillon granules
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 t. celery salt
• 1/2 t. white pepper
• 1 t. sugar
• 1/8 t. black pepper
• 1/8 t. salt

Makes 30 batches:

• 3 c. dried minced onions
• 2 T. onion powder
• 1 T. garlic powder
• 3/4 c. instant beef bouillon granules
• 3/4 c. parmesan cheese
• 1 T. celery salt
• 1-1/2 T. white pepper
• 1 T. sugar
• 1/4 t. black pepper
• 1/4 t. salt

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Store in an airtight container in a cool place.  I store mine in the freezer, where it can be kept for up to six months.

When you have a recipe that calls for dry onion soup, use 2 T. of this mix.

To use as a soup:  Combine 2 T. with 1-1/2 c. boiling water per serving.

To use as an appetizer:  Combine 1/4 c. of the mix with 2 c. sour cream.  Mix well and refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

Shannon

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• Mar. 20, 2009
Cooking for A Month part 5

My cooking for a month is finally complete.  After finishing the Porcupine Meatballs and Pizza Pockets today I have a well stocked freezer again.  I also made a huge batch of pancakes to put in the freezer as well which was not on my original list. 

I really enjoy the feeling of having all these meals prepared.  It is comforting to know that I have 12 meals in the freezer that I can go to whenever I need to. 

Now I just need to go finish the dishes!

Shannon

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• Mar. 19, 2009
Cooking for A Month part 4

I planned to make my last two meals today but ended up only making one because I forgot to thaw the meat for the other.  So - today, after taking the car in to be checked out and picking up my daughter and her friend from a sleepover (at her friend's house) to have a sleepover (at our house; yeah, double sleepover) I made the stuffed shells this afternoon.  Then we had a wonderful evening with friends over for dinner.  It has been a good day!

Shannon

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• Mar. 17, 2009
Cooking for A Month part 3

Just a note to say that I was feeling energetic this evening so I went ahead and made the Oven Baked Ranch Chicken Strips.  These were really easy to make and if you freeze them on a cookie sheet before you put them in a freezer bag it is just like buying a bag of frozen chicken strips from the store, only a lot cheaper!

Shannon

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• Mar. 17, 2009
Cooking for A Month part 2

Today I began putting complete meals together for the freezer.  I got 5 different meals put together.  (That was after running some errands and doing Tae Bo with Sarah!)  Here is what I got done:

I will finish my cooking on Thursday.  Tomorrow we are going to the zoo!  Now I am going to go sit for at least an hour!

Shannon

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• Mar. 16, 2009
Cooking For a Month

It's that time again.  Time to stock the freezer with a months worth of food.  We have finally eaten our way through last month's cooking spree and I am ready to do it again.  Since last month's recipes were an almost sweeping success, I will be using the same recipes with a couple additions.  I say they were almost a sweeping success because of two issues.  First, the tamale pie will not be repeated.  I thought it was okay, and Jay ate it without making angry faces at me, but I got the general vibe that it should not be included again.  Second, last month I cooked up all my rice in the crockpot.  I will not be doing that again.  The outside of the pot of rice was like glue and the inside was not cooked.  The rice that did not cook in the crockpot never cooked when put in the recipes.  This time I used the rice cooker which worked perfectly and was faster.  Here is what I plan to cook this month.  You can read the recipes by clicking on the names below.

• Rice - Just plain white rice cooked in the rice cooker
• Pulled BBQ Chicken - chicken, cooked in crockpot, then shredded and mixed with BBQ sauce
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Goulash
• Taco Soup
• Chicken Casserole - Beef Casserole
• Stuffed Shells
• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Baked Spaghetti
• Porcupine Meatballs
• Lasagna
• Oven Baked Ranch Chicken Strips
• Pizza Pockets
• Baked Oatmeal
• Banana Bread/Choco-Banana Bread

Some of this is already done.  Here is what I already have finished.

1. Made Spaghetti Sauce and froze it in 4 cup portions.
2. Cooked rice in rice cooker and froze it in 2 cup portions.  My rice cooker only holds 1 1/2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water at a time, but each batch makes 6 cups of cooked rice.  I made three pots and ended up with 18 cups of rice.
3. Cooked 12 lbs. of ground beef and froze in 1 lb. packages.  (This was 12 equal packages.  The weights listed above were pre-cooked weights.)
4. Last month when I made the Goulash I divided the recipe and froze it in two - half batches.  I still have one batch left in the freezer so I will incorporate it into this month's menu.
5. Cooked chicken in crockpot.  I cooked 6 chicken thighs and 6 chicken breasts, shredded them and will use them in the recipes above (except chicken strips ).  If there is any chicken left over it will be mixed with BBQ sauce to make pulled BBQ chicken.
6. Made Baked Oatmeal for Sunday School class and put a batch in the freezer.
7. Made Banana Bread and Choco-Banana Bread when I got some very ripe bananas on a great mark-down sale and put it in the freezer.  Choco-Banana Bread is made exactly the same as Banana bread except you use a chocolate cake mix instead of a yellow cake mix.  I like the regular better but the chocolate is good too.

Now, I did not do all this today.  This was done in little bits as I got the ingredients on sale.  All I did today was make the Spaghetti Sauce and cook the chicken in the crockpot.  I will post each day as I get more items marked off my list.

Shannon

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• Feb. 10, 2009
A Month of Meals E-book

Head over to Money Saving Mom to find out how you can get a Month of Meals E-book for only $4.00.  This is only a 3 day promotion so act fast if you are interested.

Shannon

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• Feb. 6, 2009
Cooking for a month part 4, final entry

Well, I am done!  I finally completed my list of things to cook and the feeling of accomplishment is a good one.  I only had three things remaining for today (which was good since I needed to do some other things that had gone by the wayside this week!)  Here is what I did:

• Baked Oatmeal (This was so good I had a hard time not just sitting down with a fork and the 9x13 pan!  The recipe suggests serving it with brown sugar and milk, but it was wonderful plain.  Kind of like a mix between cake and a really good oatmeal cookie!)
  
  
• Chicken Pot Pie
  
  
• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas (I only found this recipe in the last week when I was planning my list and now I can not find the source!  So, while I know the ingredients are correct, I am totally guessing on the preparation.  If anyone has any insight feel free to enlighten me.)

  1 can nacho cheese soup

  ½ cup milk

  2 cups cooked diced chicken

  ½ cup salsa

  1 4 oz can chopped green chiles

  1 tsp chili powder

  8 - 8in. Flour tortillas

  
  While the recipe calls for 8 tortillas, I had a package of 10 and I used them all.  Coat a 9x11-9x13 pan with cooking spray.  Combine soup, milk, salsa, chilies and chili powder and stir until well blended.  Reserve 1 cup of this mixture for topping.  Stir chicken into remaining soup mixture.  Spoon 1/4-1/3 cup of chicken mixture into a tortilla shell, roll up and place seam side down in baking dish.  Repeat until all tortillas and filling are used.  Pour reserved cup of soup mixture over top of enchiladas.  (Optional: sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top)  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through. 

I hope these posts have been helpful.  If you have any freezer friendly meals that your family loves I would love to hear about them.  Now I am going to go spend at least 1/2 an hour sitting in a recliner!

Shannon

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• Feb. 4, 2009
Cooking for a month part 2

After cleaning the kitchen and cooking the rice and ground beef yesterday I found that I still had some free time so I also baked the banana bread (boy is that stuff good!) and put two bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts along with 1/2 a bag of boneless skinless chicken breast tenderloins into the crockpot on low where they cooked overnight.

This morning I turned off the crockpot to let the chicken cool and made a large batch of waffles to put in the freezer for breakfasts.  My plan for the rest of the day is as follows:

• Dice chicken
• Chop Onions
• Chop Mushrooms
• Make Spaghetti Sauce (recipe below)
• Make Cream of Mushroom soup
• Assemble Stuffed Shells

Today is a short day since we have church tonight so that I all I plan to get done today.  We will see if extra time presents itself or not!

Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb ground beef

1 1/2 c chopped onion

1 12 oz can tomato paste

3 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes

2 cups water

4 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp sugar

4 tsp basil

2 tsp oregano

4 tbsp parsley

2 tsp salt

4 bay leaves

After browning and draining ground beef, add onions to pot and cook until soft.  Add all remaining ingredients to pot, stir and simmer for at least 1 hour.  (The longer it cooks, the better it tastes.)  After it has cooked remove and discard the bay leaves and use a stick blender to blend (or carefully transfer to stand blender and blend in batches.)  I like to freeze this sauce in 4 cup batches.

Shannon

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• Feb. 3, 2009
Cooking for a month

After making my list and checking it twice I finally got to the store and purchased the last of the items I need to do a months worth of cooking.  I will, over the next few days, be making enough meals to fill our freezer and last us for a month.  Here are the items I will be making:

• Goulash
• Taco Soup
• Chicken Cheese Enchiladas
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Pizza Pockets
• Tamale Pie
• Lagana
• Baked Oatmeal
• Banana Bread
• Stuffed Shells
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Chicken Casserole
• Beef Casserole

For the items that I have not hyperlinked I will post recipes over the next few days.  I will also post my progress of cooking through these items.  Between these pre-cooked meals we will eat things that I prepare fresh like roast, chicken, spaghetti, etc.  But having these pre-cooked meals will prevent the inevitable, "what in the world am I going to cook?" question.

Today I am basically making sure that my kitchen is prepared for 3 days of constant use.  I am however cooking up two things.  The first is rice.  I put 8 cups of rice and 16 cups of water into my crockpot and turned it on low.  In a few more hours I will have 16 cups of cooked rice that I will freeze in two cup portions to use in recipes in the future.  (Some of it will be used in the recipes I will be making this week.)  You can read about using your crockpot as a rice cooker HERE.  I also cooked up the 9.5 lbs of ground beef that I purchased today.  I have already put the seasonings for taco soup in a bag with 2 lbs of that ground beef and put it in the freezer.  That is all I have to do for that recipe because the rest of the recipe only involves opening cans!  Therefore when we are ready to have taco soup I just dump everything in a pot!  Since I have that item done already I will post the recipe here:

• Taco Soup -
  

  2 pounds ground beef

  1 envelope taco seasoning

  1½ cups water

  1 15 oz can chili beans

  1 15 oz can corn drained

  1 15 oz can pinto beans drained

  1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes

  1 10 oz can rotel

  1 4 oz can chopped green chiles

  1 envelope ranch dressing mix

  
  After browning and draining ground beef, add all other ingredients to large pot and simmer for at least a half an hour.  (This is one of those dishes that tastes better the longer it cooks.)  Serve with tortilla/frito chips, cheddar cheese and sour cream for garnish.

Shannon

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• Jan. 22, 2009
Chocolate Cola Cake

This is one of my mother-in-law's (and my) favorite desserts to get at Cracker Barrel.  Unfortunately they only have it seasonally and it is quite expensive to buy dessert at a restaurant, so I was thrilled to see this recipe in the newest All You magazine.  I hope you enjoy it!

Chocolate Cola Cake with Cola Frosting
Cake

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