Fill the Freezer for Summer

It always seems that when we run out of Garlic Parmesan Chicken it is time to cook for the freezer again. We love that chicken- if you haven't tried it yet, PUT IT ON YOUR LIST!

I had NO TIME to cook as seems to be the trend lately, but the thought of cooking every night, because there are no meals in the freezer, actually kind of makes me have anxiety...so...here's how it went... And there aren't a lot of pictures, because, well....I kinda just got on a roll. Maybe this summer one of my girls can be the photographer for me...

A LITTLE HINT:  This is how I store my meals that I place in freezer bags.  First lay them flat to freeze and then they stand up very nicely in a dollar store container.  There are 6-7 meals in each bin like this.

Saturday night I decided to make my menu and print my grocery list.  Sunday, we have 2 services at church and after that was a Leader Meeting, so I headed to the store around 4- my wonderful husband took the kiddos home for me while I went to the grocery store ALONE.  Truth be told, I thought about taking a REALLY LONG time, but them realized ummm...family must eat this week, so work through the list I did.

After unloading the van with all the groceries, I threw in 2 packages of chicken breast into 2 crockpots, and in the other crockpot, I put ground turkey in to brown all ON HIGH.  I headed outside to play with the kiddos.  EASY!  After the girls headed to bed, I shredded or cubed the cooked chicken. The ground meat I made into taco meat.  Then I put 3 recipes in the crockpot and let them cook while I slept.  YAY!

Over the next 4 nights, I made 45+ meals for my freezer- some recipes made more than one meal for my family.

Here's what I cooked, and the real reason you are reading this blog anyway...most of the recipes are linked, so click to find the yumminess!

• Garlic Parmesan Chicken  Yes, I linked the same recipe THREE times- it is that good!
• Almost Ravioli
• Chicken Taco Pizza
• Make Ahead Burritos
• Taco Meat  (Make  your own seasoning with this recipe)
• Grilled Cheeseburger Wrap
• OMG Chicken  (This one is a recipe I made last time and we all LOVE it.  I did swap out the mayo for fat free Greek yogurt, just because I love that stuff!!!!!)
• Taco Cups
• Crockpot Cheeseburgers
• Crockpot Pizza
• White Chicken Enchiladas
• Lasagna Casserole
• Crockpot Barbecue Chicken
• Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
• Brown Bag Burritos 
• (We just had these for lunch- sooooo good!  I unwrapped them from the foil and microwaved until heated.  These are going to be a go to lunch or quick meal!)
• Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti  (I lighten this one up using fat free and reduced fat free soups and cheeses)
• Italian Chicken Marinade (Ready for the Grill)  This is just chicken breast and Italian dressing in a freezer bag popped in the freezer.
• Sweet and Spicy Chicken Grill (Summer is coming!) I just rubbed this on the chicken breasts and put in a freezer bag.
• Best Ever Chicken Marinade (We'll see about that)
• This was AWESOME chicken.  Reminded me of chicken I used to love when I worked at Steak & Ale. Next time I am planning on topping with a pineapple slice, provolone cheese (melt), and some diced tomatoes.  Try it; I think you'll like it.
• Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
• Cubed Chicken for Chicken Salad
• Chicken Philly Sandwiches
• Chicken Ranch Tacos

I still have the ingredients to do:

• Pepperoni Rolls- Sam's Club dough, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese rolled up and baked- so PERFECT for really busy days where everyone needs to be somewhere.
• Pizza Pockets  (And I don't make my own dough- Sam's Club does that for me.)  ;)
• Ginger Ale Pot Roast

Plus the wonderful hubby and father-in-law have been fishing and have stocked the freezer with a ton of crappie, so there will be several fish fry nights in our future. Add to that it is open house season here and shouldn't have to cook for a good 6 weeks!  Yahhhhooooooooooo!

Fill your freezer and share your favorite recipes with us!

Teacher Appreciation

So this week is teacher appreciation week and I wanted to do something other than Apple themed, lotion or candles. So I headed to my favorite spot Pinterest to get some ideas. I find so many things there then just take them and modify them to my taste. I never know how they will turn out.

For this project I bought glass jars the large ones are for the main teachers and smaller ones for specials.
I bought candy to use match my message.

I'm EXTRA happy to have you for a teacher. Don't SNICKER, but I think your great! You are MOUNDS of fun and have brought me so much JOY. I think you ROCK. Thanks for always being so JOLLY and helping me become such a SMARTIE. Teachers like you are worth a MINT. You are MIGHTY MAGNIFICENT. Thanks for all you do, you deserve a big PAYDAY!

I filled the jars with the candy trying to line it up around the sides in the order it was mentioned used  in message. After that I filled the center with extra candy, trying to put at least two of each bar.










Once the jars were filled I printed out my labels and inked around the edges to ad just a little extra color. I attached them to the jar  using double sided tape. Next I choose large flowers for the top of jars, using  brads and buttons for the center of the flower. Then I used stickles (one of my fave things) to add a little bling around the lid. There you have it!

The smaller jars were really simple. I filled them with Starburst, used ribbon around the edge of the lid and used my message as the decoration for the top of the lid.

 

I'm BURSTING with

HAPPINESS that your

my teacher.

That's it :) Happy Crafting!