High Five For Friday!

I have been completely out of the blogging loop with the busyness of school!

Not promising anything, but I'm hoping to post at least once a week. 

So here's a quick update!

1. It's Halloween time!

 I decorated a little bit as soon as October hit!

I just love Halloween!

2. Team planning meeting have really helped us to get our stuff organized.

I'm hoping that this will make the next quarter go much smoother. 

I've been feeling completely unprepared.

3. Stephanie and I have been meeting weekly to plan our newest Bible Study. 

It's been wonderful getting closer to her.

Plus, who can say no to Pumpkin Spice Frapps and The Lineage of Grace?

4. I tried making Taco Chili in the Crockpot for the first time and loved it!

Coming home to hot soup always feels like fall.

5. We got these super cute school shirts for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

Probably the only time you'll ever catch me in pink!

Homemade Crockpot Bread

When I first saw this pin I knew that I had to try it immediately. For one thing, my crockpot is my favorite appliance by far. If I could make everything in it I totally would. Second, I love making homemade bread. This artisan recipe I made the traditional way before and while I loved the bread I really didn't have the materials to do it properly. Plus, having to create the steam scared the crap out of me! 

If you haven't heard about Artisan Bread in Five you're missing out. Their dough is so simple to make and can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. The recipe makes four pounds of dough, enough for four loaves. I decided to only make enough for one loaf as a tester. 

Whole recipe can be found here

Ingredients (1 Loaf)
3/4 Cup Lukewarm Water
3/4 Teaspoon Granulated Yeast
3/4 Teaspoon Morton's Kosher Salt
1 5/8 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

 

Mix first three ingredients together in a large mixing bowl that has a lid. 

Isn't my little helper so cute! She was so excited to see how big the dough got!

Dump in all the flour at once and stir with a large spoon. Stir until all the flour is incorporated. 

At this point the dough will be very wet and much rougher than typical dough. Don't worry, it's supposed to!

 

Place the lid on the bowl, but don't seal. You want the gases from the yeast to escape!

 

Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for at least two hours. After this time, it will have begun to fill up the bowl and you will see bubbles throughout the dough. Allow it to settle, the top will be flat. Do not try to punch down!

At this point the dough can sit in your fridge for up to two weeks. You can use it immediately, but it is easier to work with once it has had time to chill. I let mine sit over night.  

Sprinkle flour, lightly covering the top. 

Take a one pound piece of dough and form it into a ball. Place on parchment paper. At this point the crockpot recipe states that you don't need to let it rise. Mine took much longer to cook that what the recipe said and I believe it might have been because it was still cold going in. Next time I'll let it sit out for a bit first. 

Place in crockpot. Cook on high for an hour. Mine ended up taking two. Bread is done when it feels firm to the touch on top. It will be a pale loaf.  (Apparently I was way too excited about eating this bread! I didn't even realize that I stopped taking pictures after this point until I went to upload them!) Place loaf under broiler from about 5 minuted or until it reaches the desired color. Mine was a little pale and soft still because I took it out too early.   Eat and enjoy! It was a much denser loaf than I was anticipating, but still really yummy!

I had to go back and take this picture the next day!

A trick I learned: Don't cover loaves with crunchy crusts because they'll get soggy. Just stand up on the side that you cut from! I don't know how long that'll last, but it's been a day here in humid Florida and it still is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside!

Linking up with Melissa, Amber, and Sarah for the Pinterest Project

Freezer Cooking Update

We've tried all of the recipes that I did in my freezer cooking batch a few weeks ago so I wanted to update on how they all turned out.

Teriyaki Chicken
We really liked the taste of the chicken, but we weren't a fan of the rest of the dish after it had been in the crock pot the whole day. It probably would be better on rice, but we're not eating it right now. Next time I'll put a side with it and only eat the chicken.

Meatloaf
Surprisingly, this is Kyle's favorite meal so far! He was never a huge meatloaf fan before, but without the oats it's much thicker. Kyle says it reminds him of a hamburger steak. In fact, we're having it again tonight! I also made steamed broccoli with melted cheddar cheese that was a huge hit as well.

Honey Chicken
This one was perfect! It tasted exactly like it does when I make it right away! I need to play with the recipe to make it more keto friendly now.

Chicken Stir Fry
I would have to say that this was the most disappointing of the freezer meals. Kyle's super picky about his vegetables and isn't a huge fan of stir fry to begin with. On top of that, I used a different mixed bag of vegetables because they were out of the ones I typically buy. So lots of vegetables we didn't like plus no rice equaled not so good. As Kyle put it, "I don't like picking through my food." I'm going to try it again but use my own vegetables instead of a bag to make sure there's only things we'll eat in it.

Grilled Chicken
I was thrilled with how the chicken turned out. It's been wonderful to have chicken that I can put in a salad or Kyle can pop in the microwave without having to go through the work of cooking it. I bought another bag to make this week.

I also ended up making a cheese steak freezer meal that I adapted from here, which I found on pinterest! I cut up the steak into thin strips and added onion and mushrooms to the bag to freeze. Then I dumped it in a skillet to cook. Once cooked I sprinkled with shredded mozzarella cheese and heated in the oven till melted. This was another big hit! I also made cheesy cauliflower mash, which was okay but more pudding consistency than I was hoping.

I'm really loving freezer cooking! I just need to find some more keto/paleo friendly recipes to try!

Adventures in Freezer Cooking

I had been hearing about Freezer cooking for awhile, and while that seemed like a great idea in practice I just wasn't sure how to make it work for us. Then, I read Andi's post at [Iron] Bowled Over and decided to give it a try. I decided to start small just to see how it goes.

The Menu
Teriyaki Chicken
Meatloaf
Honey Chicken
Chicken stir fry
Grilled Chicken
(yes, we eat a lot of chicken)

These are all meals that we eat on a pretty regular basis, so I figured they would be safe to try. I spent about 2 hours (including making dinner) and have 7 bagged meals, plus grilled chicken for Kyle's lunches/ cut up chicken for my salads! Each recipe is for two bags, except for the Honey Chicken.

Five bags of chicken meals!

Teriyaki Chicken
Matchstick carrots
Red onion
Minced garlic cloves
Pineapple Chunks
2 Chicken breasts
Teriyaki Sauce

Put in crockpot with 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce cook on low 8 hours.

Meatloaf
(I typically add in about a cup of oats, but we're not eating grains anymore! Hopefully it'll still taste good.)
2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs
Chopped onion
Minced Garlic Cloves
Worcester Sauce

 Place foil in pan, form meatloaf, pop out of pan and freeze. Then you still have your pan for later! Thanks for the tip Andi!
To cook, take meatloaf out of foil and put in pan to thaw. Bake @ 350 for ~20 minutes.

Honey Chicken  from mmmcafe
1 Chicken Breast
Minced Garlic
Chopped Onion

Sauce:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1/8 cup Ketchup
I put the sauce in a small separate bag inside the larger bag because it needs to be thawed before going in.

Put in crockpot, cook on low 3 hours. Pull out chicken and shred toss back into sauce.

Chicken Stir fry
Cube two chicken breasts
I bag frozen stir fry veggies of your choice
I can sliced water chestnuts (optional, I just love them)

Put a Tbs of oil into skillet/wok, cook until tender.

Grilled Chicken
I took a whole bag of frozen chicken tenders. Seasoned with Montreal Chicken Seasoning and Lowery's. Grilled on the Foreman.
After they cooled, I cut up 5 into strips to add to my grilled chicken salads and froze the rest for Kyle to pull out and reheat for lunches.

Freezer filled with goodies.

EDIT: For an update on how they all turned out go here, Update!