Wednesday, March 6, 2013

I'm back!

I am finally back to blogging!  It has been a long but necessary hiatus with the birth of our baby girl!  It has been an extremely busy few months.  I am looking forward to getting back to sharing my meal plans, recipes and wellness ideas with you!

With two children in the house, a part time job and all of the other normal household responsibilities on my plate, my menu plan strategies have shifted a bit.  A dear friend of mine and I have decided to focus more energy on freezer meals - I did this before the birth of my baby (see my last blog post) and they saved me during my maternity leave!  If all else failed, I could defrost one and pop it in the crock pot.  Preparing them is simple - you add the meat and veggies raw and freeze it, then defrost overnight and pop it in the crock pot for a wholesome meal at dinnertime.  All working parents should invest some time in this.  I made 3 recipes and my friend made 3 - we doubled them so each of us had 6 ziploc bags with the meals inside and swapped so that we each had 6 different meals.  It took me a total of two hours to prepare 3 recipes (6 meals).  So in 4 hours, you could have 12 meals (6 different recipes) to use throughout the month!

So, I will be dedicating some of my blog posts to freezer meals (both for the crock pot and for the stove/oven) and I will add them to my recipes page.  Have any of you made freezer meals for the crock pot or otherwise?  What works for you?  I'd love more ideas!

Freezer meals for this month (I am missing one recipe and will post soon)!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Italian Beef (last recipe in link, other freezer meals posted here too!)

Cranberry Pork Roast (I made this with homemade cranberry sauce and less than half the sugar called for in this recipe - I used sucanat)

Cajun Roasted Turkey Breast

Marmalade Curry Chicken