Butternut Squash Soup

Even though it is summer, I still really enjoy having soup for dinner.  I have been making a lot of soups lately with mostly the same recipe but I just change up the veggies that I use.  What is great about the recipe it is creamy without needing cream :)  I freeze the left overs for another day!  Carrot would be great to add as well but I was out.

Ingredients

2 boxes of chicken broth
1 diced onion
Half can of white kidney beans (you can use navy beans)
One butternut squash peeled and diced
Handful of diced cauliflower
3 stalks of diced celery
2 diced potato
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a pot with EVOO.  Add onion and celery and sauteed.  Add all the other ingredients and cover with broth.  Add salt and pepper to your taste.  Bring to a boil.  Once at boil, turn down to a simmer.  Simmer on med-low for about 30 minutes.  Check the veggies to see if they are soft.  Once soft, turn off stove and let soup cool.  Once cooled, blend together with hand blender. 

I like to top my soup with cheese and bacon bites.

Other versions:

Asparagus with cauliflower and navy beans (omit the celery)
Cauliflower and broccoli

Pasta with Sausage

I had some sausage in the freezer and I was craving some pasta.  I threw together this random recipe and for once it worked.  I have not tested this out as a freezer meal but I do not see any reason why it wouldn't turn out.  This is toddler approved.  My little guy in the middle of dinner said to me "good Mommy". 

Ingredients

One diced onion
Some minced garlic
One can of tomato sauce
One small can of diced tomato
Penne (I used 4 handfuls)
Fresh basil
Sausage with case removed
Handful of cut up spinach
Shredded cheese (I use mozza about a cup)
Parmesan cheese
Bread crumbs

Heat oven to 400.

Heat some EVOO.  Add onion and garlic.  Once cooked, add sausage and brown. 

While browning the sausage, boil water and cook pasta.

Once sausage is broken up and cooked, add tomato sauce, diced tomato, fresh basil and spinach.  Mix all together and heat up till spinach is wilted.

Drain pasta from water and combine with meat and tomato mixture.  Mix everything together.  Once mixed put into baking dish.  Top with mozza cheese, parm cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake for about 20 minutes until topping is golden brown. 

Easy Breaded Chicken

I can not remember where I got this recipe from but it was so good and the chicken was juicy!  The best thing about the chicken is it really goes with any side dish!

All you have to do is dip the chicken in ranch dressing, then coat with bread crumbs.  Put the chicken on a baking sheet and flash freezer.  Once frozen, package into freezer bags.

Day of cooking, defrost as you normally would and bake on baking sheet at 350 for approx 35 min.

Freezer Pancake Mix Solution!

I normally make my pancakes and then freeze them but here is another great way to freeze the mixture!  Must try!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXGNj3xHQRssJqaaeGaanmbgYXhVnHziQHNLXBnf5o0LiIZPUgAJURNeCmaVU8SDMAp7_q2EmJfqV3tdZ937b8WcAHpOTETjFQTJxDspo45mZW6mr6SZOx-SUwckezqwk2YOBL3zcZpY/s1600/img_0764.jpg

Chicken with Dijon Glaze

Tonight for dinner was a recipe that came from Pinterest.  It was really good.  I found the balsamic vinegar to be a bit over powering.  The only thing I would change to this recipe is the amount of balsamic vinegar.  I served it with twice baked potatoes and green beans.  Yum!

Enjoy!

http://www.juliashealthyitalian.com/2011/03/chicken-with-dijon-glaze-freezer-bag.html

Toddler Friendly Chicken Quesadilla

I have pinned a couple of quesadilla recipes for my little guy to try out.  I finally had some left over chicken from dinner last night.  I wasn't sure if he would like the avocado/salsa combo but he ate everything today for lunch.  I am going to take that as a sign that he likes it :)

Ingredients

1 avocado
1 cup of salsa
Cooked chicken
Shredded cheese
Wraps

Spoon the avocado into a bowl.  Take a fork and soften so you can spread it on to the wraps.  Once soften, add the cup of salsa (you can add more to your taste) and mix together.

Once mixed together start assembling the quesadilla.  I layer mine as follows, avocado/salsa, cheese and then chicken.  Fold in half and place on baking sheet.  Once ready, place all quesadilla on to the baking sheet and put into freezer to flash freeze.  Once frozen, place into large freezer bags.

I dont wrap mine again as we go through them pretty fast and keep well in just the freezer bag.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Defrost and cook in panini grill.

Toddler Freezing Tips

For the past couple weeks I have been making freezer meals for my little guy (stews, chicken meals, etc)  I started freezing in muffin tins to get the right meal portion size for him.  However, I found after I would flash freeze in the tins, it was hard to get out.  Well I was out getting groceries, it came to me, duh, by small freezer sized bags!

So my tip for freezing for little ones, to get the prefect meal size, freeze in the small freezer bags :)