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!

Keto and Paleo and Diets, Oh My!

 A few weeks ago, Kyle mentioned that he had been reading about this diet called the Keto diet and it was something that he really wanted to try. In all the years that I've known Kyle he's never seriously talked about losing weight, so I knew that this was a big deal. However, since I'm the one who does all the cooking I wanted to spend sometime researching it before we jumped in. So for the past few weeks that's what I've been doing, researching. I also came across the paleo diet which is very similar, and personally I like it a little better than keto. Therefore, Kyle and I are doing a mixture of the two of them. He's strictly keto and I'm leaning more towards paleo.

What I really like about these concepts is that it's more of a lifestyle change than a diet. Basically the goal is to eat healthier by only eating foods that can be found in nature, nothing processed, no carbs. We started on Monday and are planning on trying it out for the whole month of June, we're going on vacation the beginning of July, and will decide from there how it's working out for us.

I'll be posting updates on how it's going and what types of food we're having as we go along. Kyle says I can't post about his weight gain/loss unless there's a decent amount of difference!

I will admit that I cheat a little bit. I still have yogurt and homemade granola, and creamer and sugar in my coffee! Some things are just harder to replace.

What we're eating this week:
Meatloaf with steamed broccoli (freezer meal)
Teriyaki chicken (freezer meal)
Cheese steak in a bowl with mashed cauliflower (freezer meal)
Chicken stir fry (freezer meal)
Balsamic Onion pot roast

For breakfast/lunches we've been having eggs, bacon, grilled chicken lettuce wraps, and salads

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!

Individual Smoothie Packets

I've had a lot of new food ideas that I've been meaning to try and with Kyle working during the long weekend I decided now was the time to try them! So forgive all the posting that I'm sure will come of this.

I've been seeing homemade individual smoothie packets on pinterest for awhile now. I found the recipe I used here, Lacey In Love Blog. I used frozen raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. You can use whatever fruit you prefer as well as fresh fruit. I used frozen because it was cheaper. I also used regular vanilla yogurt instead of Greek because it was on sale.

First, I scooped a tablespoon of yogurt into my mini muffin pan, I didn't have any free ice cube trays. Once it was filled, I put the whole thing in the freezer. Mine took a little over an hour to freeze. I also had about 1/4 of the container of yogurt left.

Scooping in the yogurt

 All of my supplies

I put a little over 1 cup of fruit and 3 yogurt cubes into each bag. It made 8 packets, costing just under $2. You can use cheaper fruit to make it even more cost efficient!

 Finished bags