To celebrate, we had Jack’s Flapjack party last weekend! Perfect weather, yummy breakfast foods, sweet friends and family, and a new bounce house made for another great party!

{We gave this Little Tikes bounce house to Jack for his birthday. Thinking it is going to be the gift that keeps on giving!}

So, here’s the ins and outs of how my friend and I do freezer meals! I’ve read a ton of other blog posts about freezer meals, so this is nothing new. But, My friend Elizabeth and I feel like we’ve perfected our plan, so I know I need to share it with you!

First off, here’s my partner in crime:

This is 1/5 of our beach buddy family. We’ve known the Dempsey’s for forever! They had their third kid in August. One night in the fall we got together and both talked about being so busy and having a hard time getting dinner together every night. Hence, the reason for freezer meals!

So, here’s how we do it:

1. Find a friend to do this with you. You have to both like the same things and have about the same size family or it would get too confusing!

2. We pick a day. An ENTIRE day. We cook from around 8am to 5pm on a Sunday. The dads take the kids to church, out to eat, and then home for naps. We switch houses each time, so the dad that arrives at the cooking house for nap time gets the kids down and then is on dishes duty for the rest of the afternoon! {This is key! You need a third set of hands for dishes!}

3. We pick our meals. About a week before we each pick 3-4 recipes that we want to make, and that are good for freezing. I’ve found them everywhere- blogs, cookbooks, etc. We email each other the ideas just to make sure there are no dislikes in the recipes and so we don’t double up on the same thing.

4. Double each recipe you are going to cook and make a grocery list for yourself, and your friend does the same for her recipes. Doubling the recipe means you will get two 8X8 pans or 1 9X13 pan for yourself, and two 8X8 pans or one 9X13 pan for your friend. Make sure you have enough pans, plastic wrap, foil and freezer bags for everything you are cooking.

5. Cook! Again, we spend the whole day cooking. A few hints we’ve found along the way:

• Buy pre-chopped onions instead of chopping them
• Pre-shred your cheese or buy shredded cheese (I’m not a fan of buying shredded cheese, so I just buy block cheese and shred that morning)
• Each of you pick one recipe at a time and work on it, but also look at other recipes that may call for the same thing that you can go ahead and do. {For example, if three recipes call for ground beef to be browned, do it all together and then separate for each recipe.}
• While one continues to cook, have the other go grab a quick, easy lunch. No need to try to fix a meal while you’re cooking!
• You don’t need to buy lids with your pans. For best freezing, put food in pan and let cool. Then wrap entire pan a few times in plastic wrap. Then wrap both ways with foil. Write on foil any cooking directions. This has prevented any freezer burn. Also, some things we can just wrap in plastic wrap and foil and place in gallon freezer ziploc bags.
• If you can, divide your portion into two 8X8 pans, that way you come away with more meals. If you put recipe in 9X13 pan, just plan on eating it leftover a couple of days after you have it the first time.

6. Place all meals in Freezer! We ended up buying an extra fridge/freezer off of Craig’s List to accommodate all of our freezer meals, but it was well worth it! We usually come away with 10-12 meals each, depending on how we split the recipes.

7. Don’t cook for the rest of the month! Actually, we do spread the meals out a bit. I try to use 2-3 meals per week, then cook the other times. But man, it is AWESOME to know I can pull a freezer meal out that morning, bake it that evening, and viola- dinner is DONE.

Here are a few recipes we have used and they were a hit with both families:

Neely’s Baked Ziti

My Momma’s Chicken Enchiladas- recipe coming soon!

Black Bean Cheesy Chicken and Corn Waffles- similar to this one, but the one we use has black beans in it, so I’d add a can to this recipe. And we just use a few boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix and use the waffle recipe on the side- we freeze the chicken part in pans and the waffles wrapped in foil and Ziploc bags.

Chicken Spaghetti (any recipe)

Cheese-stuffed Meatloaves- similar to this recipe but we made them into little loaves and put them in one pan (see top left pan of picture below)

Broccoli Rice Muffins

Southwestern Pasta Bake

Chipotle Chicken Chili Mac & Jalapeno Corn Muffins

Lasanga (any recipe)

Black Bean Burritos (individually wrapped)- I made a crockpot of black beans the night before (similar to this recipe but I added a couple of strips of bacon for flavor), then wrapped beans, shredded cheese, and taco-seasoned ground beef in flour tortillas, then individually wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in large ziploc bag.

Homemade Salsa (I make and freeze this ALL. THE. TIME. Way better than store-bought salsa!)

Whew! I hope this helps explain how we do it! I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, so if you have questions, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to answer!

Yay for freezer meals! Our Cooking Sunday is hard work but so much fun, and so rewarding weeks to come. It is well worth the 10 hour cooking day!

{The kids’ first experience at Krispy Kreme}

{Yay for wings. Our fav place to eat in CS.}

{T doing a little reminiscing at his old duplex!}

{This little lady started screaming when Johnny Football came out}

{Jack watched the game. And Dora.}

{They let everyone on Kyle Field when the game was over!}

{Poor Jenn getting tackled! She was a good sport!}

{Aggie Family}

{I got to visit withmy college roommate Amber (right) and good friend Jennifer (left). One of my favorite parts of the trip for sure!}

{And I’ll leave you with my favorite pic of the day- these four have my heart! They can totally choose where they want to go to school (sort of) but I can just see this pic being reenacted 15 years from now! Gig ‘em!}

]]> http://crazyblessedblog.com/2013/04/weekend-in-aggieland/feed/ 2 http://crazyblessedblog.com/2013/04/happy-easter-2/ http://crazyblessedblog.com/2013/04/happy-easter-2/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:54:15 +0000 sherry http://crazyblessedblog.com/?p=4469 We had a very happy Easter 2013! We enjoyed an Easter egg hunt with our community group, making a few Easter treats, talking about the Easter story, Chloe “performing” her Resurrection Eggs over and over, going to church, and seeing both sides of our family! He is risen indeed!

When: Thursday, April 4th, 4-8pm

Email me for details: sherry {at} crazyblessedblog {dot} com

{Barbie Wedding. We play this almost daily.}

{Sweet Jack is such a good sport. He brings his tools/cars/nerf gun into Chloe’s room while we play Barbies. Sometimes he likes to hit or shoot the Barbies, which causes major drama!}

{IKEA run for this new desk! My back was not appreciating the computer up on the kitchen counter, so we moved it around. Love my new desk space!}

{Swimming next door in heated baby pool= ultimate spring break fun!}

{Park with friends/amazing weather!!}

{After playing Barbie wedding, Chloe wanted to watch our wedding! She was so cute and even teared up watching it!}

)

{Oh, Jack. I hope you’re always able to eat Pop Tarts and Donuts for breakfast!}

We ended our spring break with a trip to see Trey’s dad. He is recovering well after his stroke in the fall. We all love spending time with Pops in East Texas. Things just move a little slower and it is quiet and just easy. What a great way to finish up a fun week!

2. Chloe had Kindergarten Roundup last week! EEEEEK! I cannot believe we are about to enter elementary school. She is SO excited! I am preparing for a million tears. I can’t even talk about it.

3. This Torchy’s is about to open 1.4 miles from my house. This is not helping #1. Especially when their taco of the month is the Roscoe. Are you kidding me?

{yes, I’ve had it and yes, it is the bomb dot com}

4. This book by Big Mama made me laugh and cry and laugh and cry. She’s been my favorite blogger since I started reading blogs back in the dark ages of 2006, and her book did not disappoint. And, she’s already writing her second book!

5. Shane and Shane led worship at our church on Sunday. It took only a verse of the first song for me to recognize their sound, and it immediately brought me back to my college days when it was Shane & Caleb. I spent many hours at A&M listening to their songs on road trips, while studying, getting ready, with friends, and at Breakaway. It’s so crazy how music can stir so many memories! On Sunday they sang “You are Worthy of Affection” and it’s been on repeat in my car since. Such a fun treat to have them lead worship at Watermark!

I have way more than 5 things to share, but it’s spring break. I better get back to playing and enjoying the beautiful weather we have here in Dallas!

Ok, last post about Chloe’s birthday, I promise. Birthdays are a big deal around here, which means much to document! Trey took Chloe on a date the night before her birthday. Shopping, eating at Hopdoddy’s, and dessert at Yumilicious- sounds like a great date to me! I’m so thankful for a husband that loves spending quality time with his kids. Chloe was so excited. Yes, she’s wearing some lipstick, because I knew it would wear off pretty quickly and she LOVED it!

Birthday Breakfast- Donuts, candles, and presents!

She got the new Barbie movie for her birthday, so she watched that while we got ready for the day!

After we dropped Jack at school, we made our way to Drybar! It was a surprise and Chloe was so excited. She’s seen my Drybar hair a few times and has begged to go, so off we went! They have a “Shirley Temple” option for kids, so it was perfect!

Our next stop- the Disney Store! She loved that they put her name on the big screen again!

The rest of the day was spent at home with my parents who came in town, then we went out to celebrate at Chuy’s {her pick!} that night.

Whew! Birthday week has come and gone, and it was so much fun! Now Jack’s birthday is 2 months away! Better get to planning!