Breakfast Sandwiches - Freezer Meal

If you are like me, one of your favorite meals of the day is breakfast. It’s so much my favorite that I can eat breakfast foods for lunch and dinner too! Like most other moms I know, I barely have time to run a brush through my hair and find clothes that match before dashing out the door to work each day. Most days I don’t have breakfast before I leave for work, so if I don’t remember to pack and apple and some yogurt, I’ve got a long wait until lunchtime.

In the past I’ve made a few different freezer breakfast meals that I can bring along to work and keep in the freezer to microwave on crazy days. I’ve done Bacon and Egg Breakfast Muffins , Breakfast Burritos, plus the usual type of baked breakfast (banana bread muffins, etc). This time I wanted to pull together a quick and easy (to prep) breakfast sandwich that’s easy and healthy at the same time.

I picked up the essential ingredients (all four of them!) and got to work yesterday. All in, this task took me about 20 minutes, including cooking and packaging time!

Breakfast Sandwiches – Freezer meal

Ingredients
1 package of a dozen English muffins
1 dozen eggs
1 package of deli ham
12 slices of cheese
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Crack an egg into each muffin cup, use a fork to slightly beat the egg. Season with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes, until the egg whites are cooked through.

While the eggs are baking away, slice the English muffins in half and put a slice of cheese and some ham on one half of the muffin. When the eggs are finished baking, put one egg on each of the muffin halves. Top with the English muffin top.

Wrap each breakfast sandwich in Saran wrap and store them in a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to eat them, unwrap from the Saran wrap and microwave for approximately 1:45-2 minutes.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! Hope you enjoyed this recipe! I had my first breakfast sandwich at work today and it was fantastic!!

Thanks for stopping by today, I really appreciate it!

Chicken Florentine Lasagne

Hello my friends!! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Today is the ONLY day on our monthly calendar where we have absolutely nothing on the calendar!! I am so excited to be able to sit in my house with my littles and do as close to nothing as humanly possible. We had a lovely family dinner last night celebrating Miss E's birthday - can you believe she turns SIX this week??

So we would be able to have a chilled out, relaxed dinner with the fam, we went with an easy dinner - lasagne, salad and of course, cake! I made two great big lasanges and a big tray of cheese tortellini with alfredo sauce (for the kiddos). For the lasagnes, I made my favorite beef lasagne, a Tex Mex Lasasgne I have shared with you on the blog in the past.

Since not everyone loves meat, I also wanted to make a chicken lasagne for the crowd. I hunted around on Pinterest and found a link to this recipe from tastykitchen.com. I immediately knew that this recipe would be a huge hit, and I was right! It was the first dish completely scraped clean from the pan and it was gone so quickly I didn't even have time to actually take a photo of the completed, cooked slice of lasagne.

The original version of this recipe was cooked right away and served. I needed this for the weekend, so I prepped it on Thursday and froze it until I needed it.

Chicken Florentine Lasagne
Recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients
9-12 whole Lasagna Noodles
½ cup Butter
1 whole Onion, Chopped
1 clove Garlic, Minced
½ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Chicken Broth
1-½ cup Milk
4 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, Divided
1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, Divided, Plus Additional 1/4 Cup For Topping
2 cups Ricotta Cheese
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
2 cups fresh baby spinach

Instructions
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent, strirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt and simmer until mixture is bubbly.

Add the chicken broth and milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for approximately 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate pan over medium heat, cook spinach until wilted. Transfer the cooked spinach to the sauce and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the shredded chicken.

Assemble your lasagne by spreading 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles and 1/2 of the ricotta cheese/chicken mixture. Repeat these layers again, finishing with the final 1/3 of the sauce mixture on top.

Sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese on the top of the dish.

You can bake this dish right away, at 350F for 40-45 minutes. I prepped this dish in advance of Miss E's party, so I froze it and on the day of the party, allowed it to thaw and cooked for about an hour. I put tented tin foil on top for the first 45 minutes of the cooking time, removing for the last 15 minutes to allow the cheese to get all melty and delicious.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, I know my family did!! Thanks for stopping by, I hope I have inspired you a little today!

Freezer Cooking: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Oats

Hello world!! I can't believe it's been seven months since my last post! Life is just so busy and between my two crazy girls and work and my husband I haven't had a spare minute to post!

I did try out a bunch of new recipes, and took photos along the way, so hopefully I'll find some time to get my fingers to type out the recipes for you guys!!

The recipe for today's banana bread is beyond simple! I found it in a book filled with great recipes, specifically for big batch cooking. The book is called "Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook" by Jessica Fisher. I doubled the recipe and made it twice (so four times the original recipe) and it made EIGHT glorious loaves of goodness. For the recipe below I am putting the original recipe amounts from the cookbook, so it'll make two loaves. I also use foil loaf pans from the dollar store (3 for $1) when baking these, so they are easy to freeze, transport and gift to others.

Today was rainy and the girls and I spent the day cleaning the house and baking and just chilling out. It was a great way to spend the day!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Oats

(Recipe from Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook)

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup mashed banana
1 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup oats
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips, plus another handful to sprinkle on top

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients and mix until well blended. Pour the batter evenly between two pans. Sprinkle another handful of chocolate chips on the top, just because chocolate makes me happy.

Bake for about an hour or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

A clear plastic treat bag (like the kind you use for goody bags) fits one of these loaves perfectly. You can seal one up and freeze them this way. It's also perfect for when you are making a bunch of banana loaves for a bake sale or some other fun event.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you like this recipe!!

2012 Round Up - Best and Most Loved Posts of the Year

I can hardly believe that it’s been almost a year since I decided to start this little blog. Back in Feb 2012 I wanted to participate in I’m An Organizing Junkie’s big organizational challenge. So I started this site and since then have spent many an evening baking, cleaning and organizing, all while taking photos and documenting the fun for all of you to read about it. 
 
In 2012 I managed to put together 164 blog posts! That seems crazy to me, and some weeks it was crazy! Fun, but a little insane. I’m lucky that my husband works evenings, so I don’t have to feel like I’m ignoring him when I sit under my blanket with HGTV on while blogging on my laptop.

I took a look at which posts were the most popular in 2012, and here is my round up of the most-viewed projects and posts from the past year.


Beef Enchilada Bake

An Organized Command Center

Little Girl Room Organizing

My 29 Day Organizational Success

Dr Pepper Cupcakes

Minimalish Rules

Spring Break Spring Cleaning

Tastes Homemade Box Cake Recipe

End of the Year Teacher Thank You Presents

Chicken Macaroni Bake Freezer Meal

Taming the Hair Ties

Linen Closet Loveliness

What do you think? Are any of these your favorites? 

 

Here are my favorite posts from the past year:

 

Secrets of a Happy Marriage

Butter Chicken Lasagne

Half Marathon Highlights

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting

 

Summer of Fun Chart

Turtle Cupcakes

Pasta with Prawns in Boursin Cream Sauce

 

Kindergarten Graduation Presents

Super Amazing Totally Irresistible Chocolate Trifle

I hope you all like what you have seen so far from my little corner of the internet! There are many more fun and exciting things to come!

Leftover Chicken Pot Pie Recipe (and Freezer Meal!)

Who loves Chicken Pot Pie? We do!! One of my favorite things to do with the Thanksgiving leftovers is to mix them all up in a big dish, add some extras to bring it all together and then turn it all into Chicken Pot Pie filling.
I picked up a couple of rotisserie chickens when I was in Costco and after making dinner for the family from part of the first chicken, I used the rest of the chicken meat to create two delicious dinners!
The ingredients for this recipe are pretty flexible, I just use whatever leftovers I have on hand. If there isn't enough mashed potatoes, I may whip up a package of instant mashed potatoes, or make a box of stove top if I'm short on leftover stuffing.

The trick to this recipe is how to tie it all together. I use cream of chicken soup as the binding agent for this pie. It is super creamy and is like a super yummy gravy in the pot pie. I top it off with a store-bought pie crust, only on the top of the pie. I don't know why exactly, I just prefer to have a top crust on my pot pie!

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
This recipe will make enough chicken pot pie filling for two dinners.
Ingredients:
4 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 box stove top stuffing
2 cups vegetables (I usually use a frozen blend of peas, corn and carrots)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pie crust (store bought or homemade, you decide!)
Instructions:

In a really big bowl, mix together the chicken, potatoes, stuffing, and veggies. Stir in cream of chicken soup and mix until well combined. Scoop half of the pot pie filling mixture into your favorite pie dish. Cover with pie shell, pulling the crust to all of the edges of the pan. 

 
Scoop the remaining pie filling into a ziploc freezer bag, mark with its contents and freeze to enjoy for dinner another night.

Bake in a 400F oven for 40 minutes, or until the pie shell is golden on top.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! You will see it on our menu plan often! I'll hopefully be linking this recipe up to A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Delightful Order and Joyful Homemaking.

Tex Mex Lasagna and Seasoned Taco Meat for the Freezer

Hello again! I'm back today with a delicious, healthy, easy recipe that you can quickly throw together with ingredients you probably have on hand.

When I purchase a big package of ground beef (when it's on sale of course!!) I try to pre-cook a few pounds and season it into taco meat. You could use a regular taco seasoning packet that you buy at the store, but I prefer to use this one, made by Victorian Epicure. It's made without added salt and makes for a healthier seasoning.

Taco Seasoned Ground Beef with Veggies
Ingredients:
2-3 lbs extra lean ground beef
3 tbsp Epicure Fajita seasoning
3 bell peppers, sliced into smallish chunks
1 onion, diced
1 jar of your favorite salsa

Instructions:
In a large skillet, brown ground beef until cooked through. Add Fajita seasoning, peppers and onions and cook until veggies are tender. Add the jar of salsa and mix together.

This will make a LOT of taco meat. I usually take this mixture and divide it into four marked ziploc bags, lay them flat and freeze the bags.

Tex Mex Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients
One bag of seasoned taco meat with veggies (recipe above)
1 16 ounce container of low fat cottage cheese
1 package of oven-ready whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups jalapeno jack cheese, shredded
Instructions
In a medium bowl, mix together the cottage cheese and the jalapeno jack cheese. Set aside.

In a large casserole dish, layer 1/2 of the taco meat mixture, top with lasagna noodles and 1/2 of the cheese mixture. Repeat meat, noodles and cheese.  Bake in a 350F oven for approximately 1 hour, until heated through and all of the cheese is melty and delicious.

I hope you like this one! It's one recipe that my husband goes back for seconds AND thirds!! It also tastes great for lunch the next day!

I am going to try to link this recipe up to Serenity Now, Delightful Order, A Bowl Full of Lemons and Doodles and Stitches linky parties!