Chicken Enchiladas from the freezer

The enchiladas were AWESOME. I made a modification in the recipe assembly and it turned out fantastic. I just wanted to make a quick mention that enchiladas of any kind would probably freeze really well. Happy meal freezing.

A New Round and and NEW ME (in 90 days)

I'm making a commitment to myself and the world. I'm starting a new round of P90X today and I have exactly 13 weeks to complete it before Thanksgiving. This will be my 3rd time starting this program but I feel like it might be my best shot at completion.

I have been on a weight loss journey since last October (2009) and so far I have lost over 20 pounds. I started at 165 and I'm finally down to 142 - lower than my pre-pregnancy weight of 150. I made a decision the other day after a personal epiphany that I didn't have to accept 147 pounds as my "natural" body weight. Whats interesting is that since that day, I started loosing more weight. I'm down from 147 to 142 and there is no stopping me till I get to 135. At my height, 5'7, 135 is the ideal weight for me in terms of BMI and the healthy weight range for a female at my age (I'm 28).

So with that, I have decided that with the start of school I will be able to routinely workout every day (well...6 days a week). I will be working out when I get home from school when Graham takes his second nap. when he transitions to one nap, I'll work out then. I'm not planning on following the meal plan that comes with the program because I already have meals in the freezer (see my 15 meals in a day post) and I plan to restock the freezer with more meals when those run out. Its a time issue rather than a food issue.

So with that, I will post my previous pictures and my Day 1 pictures this afternoon after I get a chance to take them. I will update you every 4 weeks with new pictures and a progress report!

Follow along or join in with me! The more the merrier :) If you want to get your own P90X, you can buy it at www.ActiveEasy.com (my personal beachbody website)

15 Meals in a Day

A few weeks ago my sister forwarded a blog post about a woman making 30 meals in one day. I had heard about this concept before but never found it necessary in my life to do this. Well, times have changed. I have 2 weeks until school starts and we had to really crunch our budget to afford to hire the nanny while I'm in school. So we cut our grocery budget by almost half and I'm soon to be short on time!

I decided to attempt a modified version of the 30 meals in a day using software and a book called "Dinner is Ready" (you can buy it at www.30mealsinaday.com). I choose 8 recipes and based on serving size, I was able to generate 16 dinners, 6 lunches and an unexpected pot of chicken noodle soup (which equals 2 more dinners and 4 lunches).

Using the software, I picked my recipes, printed my grocery list, food freezer labels and cooking instructions for each item on the menu. I was all set to start shopping. I had a few extra days to look around for deals and I made some concessions on my organic food and bought regular chicken. However, the organic grass fed beef at whole foods was almost $2 cheaper per pound than Jewel's non-organic meat. I got all my canned goods at Target and bought the target brand to save more money. I got my dairy products at Jewel because everything was on sale. Over all, the total cost of food and packaging products it cost me $143.45 (my grocery budget is $220 every 2 weeks) However, when calculating the cost per meal, I didn't include the freezer bags or the aluminum foil because I will be using that for many many more freezer meals and I didn't feel it was fair to include in the per meal cost. So when all the calculations were done and the freezer was stocked it came down to $7.70 per dinner for the whole family. If I include the 10 additional lunches that were also created and break down the cost per meal per person, it comes to $1.92. That beats the cost of eating out any day! There isn't even a hot dog place where I could get dinner that cheap.

As far as the cooking goes, I started one stove top recipe, one crock pot recipe and then I started assembling all the recipes that didn't need to be cooked at all ahead of time. I had cooked all the chicken the day before and cubed and shredded it based on the recipe (these were the recommendations from the book). I also used the food processor to chop 7 onions and shred 2 pounds of cheese. (I always prefer to used cheese not previously shredded because it melts better in any meal.) I started cooking/assembling at 10:30 and I was mostly done by 2. I have most of the kitchen cleaned before bed time. At 9pm last night I started the crock pot again with the slow cook chili and let it cook on low for 10 hours overnight. We woke up to an amazing smell in the house and those meals will be bagged once the chili cooks.

All in all, it was totally worth it. I have 10 lunches for me and Erik and 18 dinners that only took me a total of 5 hours to create. I still have $60 in my budget to include fresh fruits and veggies and of course breakfasts and lunches. Here is the dinner menu I choose:

Broccoli Chicken ad Rice

Cheese Manicotti

Meaty Lasagna

Chicken Enchiladas

Corkscrew Chicken

Cream Cheese Chicken

Slow Cooked Chili

Taco Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup-this happened on accident and I had everything I needed to make it after the face. I made my own stock when I poached all of the chicken ahead of time. The fresh veggies I already had in the fridge!

This was an awesome experience. I would recommend this for anyone on a budget, anyone with time constraints, anyone who doesn't like to cook or doesn't really know how, and really anyone just looking to free up some time in the evenings. The other thing that I thought about was that I will likely only have to clean up the pot I use to reheat the dinner in and the plates we use to eat with :) That saves me TONS of time in itself.

If you live in or near Chicago and your looking to get cooking, I'll be doing this once a month so hit me up if you want to jump on the Once A Month Cooking band wagon and I'll help you get started! I'll let you know how things taste as we thaw and eat the meals!

P.S. If I didn't already say this, the book and the software were what made this a piece of cake!

Let the Real Adventure Begin

Life is far from what I had expected as a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom for those that don't know). I thought it was going to be days filled with play time and napping and fun, fun, fun. It is fun, and we do nap and play, but I didn't realize all the other stuff that went into raising a child. I guess I did know, but not totally. Its cooking and cleaning, teaching, correcting, loving, hugging, napping, correcting, cooking, cleaning, napping, playing.....you get it.

So back in April or May the hubby mentioned that maybe I should consider going back to school. To be perfectly honest, the thought hadn't crossed my mind. It wasn't even on my radar. But at the very mention of it, I got excited. I could once again pursue my interests independent of Graham. I looked at the transfer requirements and the only school that I had enough credits to transfer to was DePaul. I submitted my transcripts and crossed my fingers. All my eggs were in this one basket and I wanted it to work out.

Good news....it DID work out. I was accepted and am enrolled for the Autumn quarter as a declared Chemistry major. . Now its time to navigate the traditional college world as a full time MOM.

In the next few upcoming posts, I'll be detailing the work that went into getting financial aid, a nanny for my son, adjusting to school as an adult student, making the budget work, my volunteer work (orientation is next week for that), and trying to grow my Beachbody business (and staying in shape) with all this stuff going on! Life is about to get a lot more interesting and adventurous and I'm ecstatic.

Menu w/ shopping list

I realized today that I hadn't been updating my blog with ANYTHING. No meal plans, no recipes. But yesterday I had a friend mention that she didn't know how to meal plan. I logged into my google documents and emailed her a link to 3 out of the last 5 weeks meal plans/grocery lists. Then I realized that was exactly what I wanted to start this blog for in the first place.

There are so many websites and cook books out there that have recipes and grocery lists. But the problem is YOU still have to search the internet, find recipes that you are willing and able to make, and then put all of them in one shopping list. So I have sort of done that for you.

What I realized was that when I make my grocery list for me. It takes into account what I have in my pantry and I only shop for what I need. So if stir fry is on the menu, I already have ginger, peanut oil, soy sauce and sesame oil- so those aren't on the list.

Well, I'm going to change that. From now on, I'll put all the ingredients on the sorted grocery list and then you can just cross off what you already have in your kitchen. I'll occasionally post recipes that I really love w/ cooking instructions. But if your just a home cook looking for fresh, healthy, relatively easy recipes to cook, just check back every week. I'll post my previous meal plans and then from here on out, I'll do all the work for you (minus the shopping and cooking!!)

Week 1)

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Abv9VgrShh8zZGc0NjVyM2dfNDJocHdxdHFocg&hl=en

Week 2)

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Abv9VgrShh8zZGc0NjVyM2dfNDBjanpycXJkZA&hl=en

Week 3)

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Abv9VgrShh8zZGc0NjVyM2dfMzZnN25iNXJnNw&hl=en

Menu Week 3/20/10

Sunday: Cheeseburgers w/ homemade buns

Monday: Turkey Mushroom Meatloaf w/ Steamed broccoli and Mashed potatoes

Tuesday: Pot Roast w/ Carrots, Potatoes, and Onions

Wednesday: Halibut w/ Rainbow Chard and Roasted Potatoes

Thursday: Grilled Chicken w/ Pesto, Pasta and Aparagus

Friday: Chicken Fajitas

I'm doing a 3 day Shakeology Cleanse to drop some quick pounds so I'm only eating salad and some kind of white protein (chicken or fish) on the grill. Because of this, I'm not planning a dinner for tonight (Saturday the 20th). I'll post the recipe for the homemade hamburger buns as well as the turkey meatloaf.

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White Fish w/ Rainbow Chard

I'm not always thrilled about veggies that I make. I like vegetables. In fact, I can't think of a vegetable I don't like. However they don't always turn out the way I want. But tonight I made baked fish with a lemon oregano bread crumb and a side of Rainbow (swiss) Chard with fresh ginger and jalapenos. It was FANTASTIC. The fish was fresh and light and the Rainbow Chard was tasty and refreshing. Everything was fresh from the market today. This was a great meal that even a novice cook can make for their family or friends.

So here is what I did:

White Fish-

Bread Crumbs:
1 lbs White fish (or other mild flavor fish like tilapia)
2 slices of bread (I used home made oat/wheat bread)
1 Tablespoon Parsley
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 Lemon (zest half lemon for bread crumbs and juice half or all of lemon in bottom of baking dish)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil (maybe more or less...you want the crumbs to be moist but not wet. They should still be separate but moist)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the fish into individual size pieces. I made bread crumbs from home made bread. To the bread crumbs I added parsley, oregano, salt, lemon zest, and olive oil. In a baking dish I added white wine, lemon juice, smashed garlic, and olive oil to the bottom 9x13 baking dish. I placed the fish in the in the dish, making sure not to place it on top of any garlic pieces. Bake for 20 minutes and serve.


Rainbow Chard-

1 bunch Rainbow or Swiss Chard
1 teaspoon fresh zested ginger
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 small Jalapenos

Cut colored stems off the leafy greens. Cut stems in half lengthwise and then dice into 1/4 inch pieces. Cut Jalapenos and deseed and devein them (if you like a more mild spice) then cut into 1/8 inch pieces. Peel and zest 1 Teaspoon fresh ginger. Heat skillet to medium high heat (12 inch is best, but I used a chinese wok because its the only pan I have large enough to hold the chard) with 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add colored stems, jalapenos and ginger zest and saute while you are cutting up the leaves. Cut Chard leaves into 1 inch pieces and rinse well then add to skillet. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes then remove the lid and continue cooking until the greens have wilted down and the stems are slightly soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste and Serve warm.