mac n cheese

Tonight I made pork roast with BBQ sauce along with peas and one of the mac n cheese bakes I made a few weeks ago for the OAMC. It was pretty good. I added some milk to keep it moist while it baked.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Davin's parents house with his parents and his sister's family. The kids had fun opening presents (who doesn't) and we enjoyed a great meal. Pics below.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread with Almond Slivers

The chocolate chip pumpkin bread with almond slivers was amazing. Pics below

cookbooks

Even though Davin's mom told him that this cooking thing won't last, I went ahead and ordered 3 more OAMC cookbooks from Amazon today. They were pretty cheap so I feel okay about ordering 3. I read the reviews and am pretty excited to see what I am getting. I'm not an online shopper so hopefully I am a happy shopper when they get here.

Food: Christmas, breakfast, dessert

Today I made the fridge mashed potatoes for Christmas day. We are having roast and fixin's. I also made a new breakfast casserole recipe that I am going to serve on Christmas morning. I made two meals worth of it and will serve one on Christmas morning so I'll have another left over for another day. I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread with almond slivers (2 loaves). Alea helped me make a batch of brownies with a carmel center (a jazzed up recipe for boxed brownies). Finally, I made a chocolate cookie toffee frozen dessert for Christmas day. Davin's parents are going to spend Christmas day at our house watching Alea open gifts so I wanted to have a few different things for the to enjoy because I know Jo is getting tired of the things she makes all the time (she told me this). Oh, I almost forgot, I also made a frozen pineapple salad (dessert type dish) to go with our Christmas day dinner.

I'm tired!

Davin says the freezer (we have a separate stand up freezer in the garage) is about full so I think we will focus on eating for a little while and focus less on cooking. Tonight we are having one of the rigattoni meals with green beans and parmesean knots. Yum!

cooking again

Today I cooked for my sister and her family. I made them a few dishes to put in the feezer and use over the next few weeks. Here is what I made them:

homeade spaghetti and meatballs
parmesan knots
southwestern casserole
South-of-the-border quiche
chicken and green bean casserole
breakfast casserole

Yummy stuff!

Texas

I am visiting my sister in Texas and am enjoying the weather. Of course my sister and her husband think it is freezing here but trust me...it's not. It was 56 when I got here today. Lovely!!!

Mikaela, it was 54 degrees when I went through Richardson, TX. I thought of you!

Dinner Review

Tonight we had the zesty pineapple chicken, broccoli bites, fridge mashed potatoes, with green beans and stove top. The zesty pineapple chicken smelled amazing as it was cooking. It was good but a little bit dry. I think if I cooked it less on the OAMC day then it might not get as dry on cooking day. The broccoli bites could have been cooked longer than the directions said because I would have liked them a littlel warmer. The fridge mashed potatoes were awesome as usual. Overall, a success with a few minor tweaks for the future.

Refridgerator Potatoes

The refridgerator potatoes I made at the first OAMC were for tonights Girl Scout leader meeting. (I thought the meeting was last week but it's okay because the potatoes can stay in the fridge for 2 weeks before baking). Tonight at the meeting I heard from behind me "who made these awesome mashed potatoes". I turned around and pointed at myself (cheesy I know). She wanted to know what made them so awesome. She asked me if I would make them for her family for Christmas. Of course I said no, but her compliments made me feel even better about my OAMC campaign. :)

Salsa Burgers

We had the salsa burgers tonight. They were good. We decided that salsa burgers (with Monterey Jack cheese on top) are for when you want a burger and the pesto burgers are for when you want something different. Davin said he likes the salsa burgers best and I like the pesto burgers best.

OAMC round 2

I know it hasn't been another month (in fact it has only been 8 days) but I decided to do some more cooking this weekend. I had a lot of fun last week and we enjoyed eating at home, especially with the colder weather setting in. The pictures of what I made are below. Davin didn't help today because he was watching the Chiefs game.

I made:

parmesan knots...I can't wait to eat these. 3 meals worth (bread)
honey lime chicken marinade 1 meal
rigatoni bake 2 meals
broccoli bites 3 meals (side dish)
sweet potato bake 2 meals (side dish)
cheesy vegetable soup 2 meals
watergate salad (not a freezer recipe...I just had some things I needed to use up)

A review of pesto burgers

Tonight we had pesto burgers...one of the OAMC dishes I made last weekend. The burgers were very tender. I think it was because I used my mixer to mix in the ingredients into the hamburger and therefore mixed the hamburger well and made it very tender. The pesto and other ingredients made the burger taste a little bit like the meatballs from my mom's homemade spaghetti and meatball recipe. It kind of made me think of Italian sausage because of the spices. It was a huge hit and I loved them. Davin said he liked them too so it's okay we have two more meals worth of this dish in the freezer.

Homeade spaghetti and meatballs on a week night!

Tonight we had homeade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It was delicious and a nice treat! I am loving the rewards of OAMC so far.

food pics

Check out the food pics below...read the post below this one first.

Prepare to be amazed...make that....prepare to be SHOCKED!

I COOKED FOR MY FAMILY!

Some of you (the two of you who I know follow this blog) may know that I don't cook for my family very often. Well, at school we are having a book fair (this is the long version of the story by the way) and I saw a cookbook for 9 x 13 recipes, i.e., recipes that are all for 9 x 13 pans. I thought the cookbook was interesting but instead of buying it I decided to Google 9 x 13 recipes. I found a recipe that said it was good for "Once a Month Cooking". I wondered what that meant. Was that for people who cooked for their families about once a month like me?! I Googled "Once a Month Cooking" and found out it is when people (okay, women) spend a weekend day or weekend cooking several meals for their family and then freeze them to eat over the next month and beyond. I have been to Pass Your Plate before where you do the same thing but they have the ingredients and dishes for you to use. I enjoyed that experience and having dishes in the freezer to have for dinner. I started Googling (I love Google) OAMC recipes and came up with several that I wanted to try. I also read some blogs and got tips for OAMC also known as freezer recipes. I went shopping after work on Friday and made a plan for cooking on Saturday. Davin was excited about the idea when I told him (I made grilled cheese for dinner one day last week and he was SO excited). He even said he wanted to help. That actual made me pretty nervous because I thought we might kill each other. It turned out to be wonderful that he helped!

I have been craving my mom's homeade spaghetti sauce and meatballs but it takes at least 4 hours to make and it has to be in the fridge at least one day to thicken before you eat it anyway so that was immediately added to the recipe list.

Here is what we made:
homeade meatballs and spaghetti sauce (2 to 3 meals worth...the sauce is still cooking as I write so I'm not sure how many meals I'll get out of it)
mac and cheese bake--main dish or side dish (2 meals worth)
twice baked potatoes--side dish (3 meals worth)
pesto hamburgers (3 meals worth)
salsa burgers (2 meals worth)
veggie quiche (1 meal--I halfed the recipe because one quiche meal is already pushing it with Davin)
chicken-biscuit casserole (1 meal---probably could have been divided into 2 meals)
zesty pineapple chicken (1 meal)
refridgerator mashed potatoes (1 meal...this is for a Girl Scout leader dinner I am going to on Monday that had to be made this weekend anyway...there maybe left overs for us on Tuesday...although I doubt it)

The idea isn't to eat hamburgers 3 times in one month, although we could. The idea is that next month I'll make other recipes and mix them in with the ones I already have frozen that we haven't eaten yet and eventually we will have quite the stock of meals. I know this isn't enough food to get us through the month but it sure is a lot more eating at home that we usually do. I'll even admit...it was fun. The part of cooking that I hate is the clean up and how you work on something for over an hour and then it is eaten in 10 minutes (or less if you are Davin). This way I can have a nice meal at home during the week and the prep time is very little...just side dishes and baking in the oven.

I have already Googled recipes for next month. I'll let you know what I make next time. Let me know if you want any recipes. I don't mind sharing.

I'll probably have a OAMC day over Christmas break. Can't wait until next time.

A new family record

This week we set a new family record with sickness. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I has home sick with strep throat. On Wednesday Davin was home sick with a cold. Thursday and Friday Alea was home sick with strep. I used three sick days this week and Davin used two. Someone in our house was home sick everyday. WOW! Bring on the lysol!!