Chicken Taco Night

Okay so I still had spanish rice and beans left over after making the enchilada freezer meals. I was thinking of chicken tacos and beans and rice but then I though a dry corn tortilla frozen then warmed up would get soggy. So I thought what about putting in beans and rice and chicken, the kids could microwave that and then all that would be left is to warm up some corn tortillas , add a little cheese and some salsa and we have another quick dinner!

I made up one container each for everyone.

Sounds good to me. Now don't get me wrong I love cooking. A few times a week I am in the kitchen for 4-5 hours cooking, baking, prepping, cleaning, etc. But then there are some days I don't even want to set foot in there and having something quick and easy is a must. Or if Joey and I decide to go out for a date there is something easy my eldest can warm up for them. Yeah I know it would be less time consuming and probably even cheaper at times if bought on sale at the store to buy one of those banquet meals or something. But the only thing I think I ever have bought like that is chicken nuggets, fries, taquitos, frozen pizza. Those things I actually like. Oh and Stouffer's lasagna.

But I try to make that kind of food on my own. I was even thinking of making taquitos yesterday. I need to get some baking done today, I need bread and bb muffins and dh wants more of that awesome Texas sheet cake! I told him I would make it but I am using half/half on the flour this time. Last time I used just white flour and it was soooooo good!!!

So after reading these 4 post you all know why I was in the kitchen so long yesterday! I even made a crock pot of chile beans but didn't finish adding everything yet. I got tired. :)

Chicken Vegetable Rice Bowls

Same concept as last post except we used the chicken breast this time. I also used all the stirfry vegis on the beef bowls so we just used onion, bell pepper, broccoli and cauliflour. I used 4 cups of chicken and 6 1/2 cups of vegetables. I made it a little meatier than last time because I try to watch red meat more closely than I do chicken.

I used the orange chicken marinade this time and am now all out. I need to pick more up. Well I guess dh gets to be the guinea pig today cause he took a chicken bowl with him to work today. haha I know all this taste great fresh, I am just wondering how it will translate with the microwave. I did something similiar a few months ago, but different. I made up a batch of rice and froze it in 1 cup portions in a sandwich bag, the same with the chicken but separate. I then microwaved it or cooked it on the stove, I can't remember but it was fine then I added sweet n sour sauce. But I have never done it this way. I hope it works out cause this is really convenient!

Do you make your own freezer meals?

Beef with Rice & Vegetables Strifry

I like rice and vegetables and meat. Not plain, but with some kind of marinade on it, sweet n sour sauce(the kind with the bell peppers and pineapples), oriental stirfry sauce(the kind with the high fructose corn syrup in it), orange chicken. Yes I know there is some sugary substances in it but it is a great way to get alot of vegis eaten.
Do you know why alot of Chinese/Oriental/Japanese people are thin and healthy? Because they eat a little bit of meat, a litle bit of rice and a WHOLE LOT OF vegetables! I am not kidding. I need to get more on the ball here. I think I average about once a week eating something like this. If I have something prepped and just ready to heat up I am more likely to eat it for lunch or something.

So Sunday I cooked up 2 beef tri tip roast that were about 3.5 lbs each. One in the oven, one in the crock pot. I also cooked up 8 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts. I also cooked 1.25 lbs of ground turkey. I also made 112 oz of Mexican home made enchilada sauce.
After cutting up all the meat into tiny pieces I put everything in the fridge for Monday. Monday was a very busy day. I was in the kitchen from 7:00-2:45 and I think I sat down for about 15 minutes total. I chopped up 3 onions, 10 cloves of garlic, got the frozen bell peppers out of the freezer, got out the broccoli and cauliflour, got out a bag of stirfry vegetables, the olive oil, the stirfry marinade/sauce, the orange chicken marinade/sauce.

I also cooked up 2 lbs of brown rice. That was in addition to the other 2 lbs of brown rice I made into spanish rice to go with the enchiladas.

Normally I would of wanted about 6 onions but that is all I had left. I mixed 1 3/4 cups of beef with 7 1/2 cups of vegis. My eldest dd was helping and complaining. That is not enough beef so I told her that was the whole point. A little beef, ALOT of vegis. lol That didn't stop her from eating a whole bowl for lunch and she loved every bite of it and even wanted more. ;)

I used my new rubbermaid bowls and made up beef vegi bowls for everyone and froze them. We wound up with 6 adult, 3 kids size and 3 youngest dd's size. I need to pick up some more marinade at Smart N final or learn to make my own, we are almost out!

Do you ever make stirfry? Do you make your own marinades?

Mexican Enchiladas & Home Made Sauce

I got this recipe from Recipe Zaar. I tried it about 6-9 months ago and we all loved it but I misplaced the recipe and pretty much forgot all about it. The store bought can I like is Montecito from Smart N Final. I was looking OAMC up on that site and bumped into this. I was glad I did. I wound up making up a bunch of food for the freezer these past two days and day 1 I quadrupled this recipe. I used it the next day(yesterday)to make 2.5 pans of enchiladas. It made about 112 oz of sauce(when you quadruple the recipe). That was enough for 2.5 pans plus about 10 oz left over that I tossed in with 2 15 oz cans of tomato sauce and some water into a pot of chile beans.

Normally I lay the tortillas flat but I wanted all this to go in the rubbermaid containers and into the freezer in individual servings. It still would of worked the other way but I was hoping for it to be a bit neater, two enchiladas all rolled up, instead of cut. My eldest dd was home yesterday and was actually in a helpful mood. All the other kids were at school except the youngest dd. I was in the kitchen from 7:00-2:45 I was son my feet the whole time and stopped at 12:00 to talk to dh for a few minutes and sample the enchiladas. They were great!!

As you can see by the picture they didn't turn out as cute as I had wanted. Oh well. They still tasted great! We warmed the tortillas up before rolling so they would be more flexible. They definately could of been cheesier. I usually use about 1 lb of cheese per pan. I had 2 lbs of cheese and made it stretch for 2.5 pans! I wasn't doing this to be frugal. I was trying to watch the portions. Each enchilada had 1/4 cup shredded cheese and 1/8 cup of roast beef, a little onion and olives sprinkled on top. They were really good and if I had more cheese on hand I would of made up a bunch more! I also cooked up a 2 lb pack of brown rice and made 17 cups of spanish rice to go with it. I also made a big pot of beans.

Do you like Mexican food? WHat is your favorite enchilada recipe?

Mexican Enchilada Sauce

I got this recipe from by grmil who was born and raised in Mexico City. The secret to its flavor is the cocoa

15 min 15 min prep
Change to: servings US Metric
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups water
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce


1. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste.
3. Pour into pan and add rest of water.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
5. Stir in tomato sauce.
6. Use in your favorite enchilada recipe.
7. The amounts on the ingredients are very flexible.
8. For instance, if I am feeding my kids who do not like"spicy", I will halve the chili powder and double the tomato sauce.
9. Experiment to suit your taste, but don't leave out the cocoa.
10. For a quick meal, we will soften a corn tortilla in a bit of hot oil, drag it through the sauce, and lay it flat on a plate.
11. cover it with grated cheddar cheese, sprinkle with chopped onions and sliced black olives.
12. Then cover with another softened sauced tortilla and melt the cheese in the microwave for 1 minute on high.

Rubbermaid vs. Gladware

Which do you use?

Please tell me the rubbermaid is sturdier. lol Yes I know these items aren't meant to last forever only tupperware but jeez you would think it could last longer than a month!
I had gotten alot of gladware about 2 months ago in various sizes and yes they were the freezer ones as well. It seems like every time I turn around one is cracking! I had some krusteaz mix in one salad size container in the fridge. It fell out of the fridge and cracked! Another container with spaghetti did the same thing!

Those kids of mine are pretty clumsy. Cause you know that I never ever, EVER drop anything! lol ;)

One of the small containers to put like single serve puddings in, I went to take the lid off and the tab broke off! Jeez!!!!

It almost seems like if the container is frozen or refrigerated they become highly breakable! None of those 3 were frozen , only in the fridge and I hate to think if they were. There would probably be more broken. I am going to keep them but at this rate they won't last long it seems.

Around x~mas I got some of the cute x~mas ones as well in 4 and 6 cup sizes and I froze some flour in those (pre-measured for exactly 2 loaves of bread) and those seemed fine. So far. grrr....

Anyways. I was at Walmart today and seen their rubbermaid take alongs on sale for $1.97 plus they all had a bonus container! So I went a little nuts.

At our wedding a year and a half ago someone had gotten us a set of the bigger storage containers, like the humongous bowls with lids, the huge rectangle ones. Those have held up fine, we haven't frozen them but don't remember if those ones were freezable or not. But we have refrigerated them with no trouble. The only problem was when we leave them sitting to close to an open flame. haha

They melt.

Anyhow so I seen the small ones on sale and thought I would give them a whirl. We got 16 of the 3.7 cup divided containers, 4 of the 4 cup rectangle containers, 15 of the 5.2 cup deep square containers, 15 of the 3.2 round containers and 15 of the 2.9 square containers.

We also got 2 of the 13 cup serving bowls since we liked the other ones we got at the wedding so much. That was the only one with a bonus bowl that was smaller than what I
was buying. It had a bonus that was a twist n seal. I think I paid $3.88.

All in all not bad. I think I spent about $32.00 for 68 containers and 68 lids.

Sonshine's Bagels

Well I tried something I have been wanting to try off and on for a while now. Bagels!

We had extra cream cheese from Christmas we hadn't used. A friend posted a recipe for me to try as the one I originally wanted to do I was missing an important ingredient, malt powder. These turned out great but I got irritated while I was mixing it.

Here is a picture I took of them after baking. I sprinkled them with a tiny bit of sea salt, some with rosemary, 2 of them with minced dry onion. About 5 of them I added a bit of cinnamon, sugar and a sprinkle of green for Joe. He likes "breakfast items" to be sweeter.

I doubled the recipe and my kitchen aid started acting up. This meant I would have to finish kneading it by hand! Arrggghhhh!!! Well Joey was home so I borrowed a pair of strong hands. lol He did a great job on the dough. ;)

Here is a picture of them snuggling in the boiling water. We made 24 and it took about 3 turns in the water to get them all done. It was fun and they turned out really good! I think there is only 7 left and I need to go hide those!

Have you ever made bagels before?

Texas Sheet Cake

..mmmmmm...this is the same recipe as the California Round Cake

that I made earlier this month except I used all purpose flour instead of the wheat this time. I also used the baking sheet this time instead of the round pans. It was really great. Even more awesome than last time.

I think maybe next time I will compromise and use half/half. It was so good I even went back for a second piece. It was melt in your delicious. We ate it warm. I managed to save dh the two last pieces so he can take to work soon.