Frozen Dinners

I am finally getting around to posting about my frozen dinner find. I wanted to provide more details but unfortunately I have a life (sometimes I forget). So in a nut shell here are my findings.

Smart Ones (on sale) make a great meal. I bought three each of four different types of entrees and added meat to make it a meal. To the Ravioli's and Pasta Primavera I added frozen Tyson chicken strips and to the Santa Fe meal and Cheesy Marinara I added lean ground turkey. They were all very yummy! The portion sizes were about 1 cup, not really filling so you will want to add a good vegetable and maybe a fruit for the sides. With the Santa Fe meal we had a couple of corn tortillas. Looking back at my tracker each meal including sides was about 6 to 8 points.

This is one of my favorites, so yummy. I bought Tyson already cooked grilled breasts (the ones I bought were hickory), so easy. I just heated them according to directions and served it over rice with these two great marinades I picked up at Sam's Club. One is called Mr. Yoshida's marinade and the other I can't remember the name but it is sweet and tangy (sweet and sour sauce only yummier). I added a vegetable (usually green beans) and some seasonal fruit (apple slices or oranges). My tracker said that with sides it was about an 8 point meal.

This one is my absolute favorite (we still have some in the freezer). I bought this Tilapia at Sam's Club and it is so good. Once again I served it over rice drizzled with sauce (sweet and tangy was my favorite). On the side we had broccoli and pineapple chunks. The fish fillets are 5 points each with sides my tracker says it was about a 7 point meal. The kids ate fish sticks.

There were some other things that we tried but these meals had the least amount of points and they were the yummiest. The frozen dinners definitely freed up more time to spend our afternoons outside chilling with the neighbors. However, the number 8 (meaning 8 points) may seem small to some but when you follow Weight Watchers the number 8 takes on an entire new meaning. An 8 point dinner put evening snack on the back burner for another day and I need my Skinny Cow.

All in all the frozen dinners were a success, everyone enjoyed them. It gave me more time for other things and no dinner time rush. I will definitely be adding a couple frozen dinners to my weekly dinner menu.

LOW POINT QUICK CASSEROLE COOKING IS NEXT!!

I am going to try to make two at a time one for dinner and one to freeze.

BRRR!!

I am still trying to hunt down those low point (Weight Watcher term for; Low Fat) freezer meals. I have had some success and we have already enjoyed two dinners a la "THE FREEZER". I am surprised about 4 things, 1. They taste better than I thought they would. 2. They cost less than I thought they would. 3. They are less points than I thought they would be. 4. We are actually ending up with leftovers.

Here is what I have in my freezer right now and a little bit about what we have eaten. This is just a quick summary with details coming soon. I found some marinated Tilapia (fish), shrimp stir fry, chicken fried rice and some yummy hickory chicken breasts all for great prices at Sam's Club. I also struck a Smart Ones gold mine at Safeway last week and picked up 10 one serving dinners. I bought three each of, Santa Fe Beans, cheese ravioli and elbow macaroni in marinara. I bought some precooked chicken pieces to add to the Santa Fe beans and cheese ravioli and I plan on adding ground beef to the elbow mac in marinara sauce. The meat stretches the Smart One meals and makes a feast for our entire family.

For sides we have been enjoying veggies from the garden, salad, canned veggies and frozen veggies. As well as cottage cheese, yogurt and fresh fruit.

THE KIDS: This is actually a hard one since they are such food detectives. I can't omit anything as it is already prepared. I have decided that on nights MY LB and I enjoy Tilapia and Shrimp stir fry they can grin happy to know they will be getting frozen pizza and chicken nuggets. The only two meals I have prepared so far are, Smart One Cheese Ravioli with Grilled Chicken strips on top and Chicken Fried Rice. The kids really liked both!

Preparing the food I was nervous that I wouldn't end up with enough. Surprisingly we had leftovers for MY LB to take to work the following day. I am really enjoying my quick food prep experiment and I am excited to bring it all together to make easy "Home Schooling Mommy Menus".

My goal is 10 frozen prepared meals (not consecutive and I am keeping a tally this time). Stay tuned, I plan on giving LOTS of details.

Crock Pot SUCCESS!!

Well here is the follow up to my 7 nights of Crock pot Dinners. It was a great week! To be honest the 7 nights were not consecutive. On the sixth night we took a break to eat all of our leftovers that were accumulating. Not only did we have dinner but the crock pot meals provided a few lunches and a leftover night, can't beat that. On the seventh night MY LB and I went on a date, dinner and the Temple. The eighth night I was right back on it for crock pot enchiladas and the ninth night we had super yummy Cranberry Crock pot Chicken.

It was a good thing the ninth night fell on this particular Sunday because right after Relief Society I was asked to feed the missionaries. We love having the missionaries in our home so the answer was easy. Facing the ride home with them in the dirty car and not remembering the condition of my home was not easy. However I knew dinner was in the crock pot and thank goodness it was the yummiest crock pot dinner yet. I actually did the same crock pot recipe today only with meatballs and it was so good.

Here are our recipes rated with our yummy meters, 5 being the yummiest. I added the recipe for the two we loved the most.

Ham and Potatoes Au Grautin - 2 yummies - Good but next time I will use bigger ham pieces.

Slow Cooker Lasagna - 3 yummies - Really good and made with ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese, which I loved.

Barbecued Pork - 4 yummies - Super good one of our favorites, the pork was so tender and filled with yummy flavor.

2lbs. boneless pork top loin
1c. chopped onion
3/4 c. diet soda (we used Caffeine Free Diet Coke)
3/4 c. barbecue sauce (we just used a Wal-Mart generic brand. Using different types could really add good variations.)

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook covered on high for 5-6 hours or until meat is tender (4 hours for us). Drain and slice or shred (we shredded and had sandwiches).
Make 8 servings at 4 points each (not including buns)

Cheesy Crock pot Chicken - 3 yummies - I cooked it a little long so the meat shredded which ended up being great for leftovers. I just added some taco seasoning and we had yummy Chicken Soft Tacos.

Cheese Enchiladas - 2 yummies - I love the idea of this and it gave me great ideas for putting my own spin on it next time. You have to be really careful with cook time so your tortillas don't get over cooked and end up being mush. STILL GOOD!

Cranberry Crock pot Chicken - 4 yummies (close to 5) - The mixture of these three ingredient creates the most amazing taste. Once again careful with the overcooking or your chicken will shred. We were at church or I would have stopped it sooner. I did not add the rice to the crock pot I made the rice separate and served the chicken over it. Again, I did meatballs tonight and it was so YUMMY!

16oz can smooth cranberry sauce
8oz fat free or low fat Catalina salad dressing
1 envelope dry onion soup
16 oz skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup Uncle Ben's Rice

Mix cranberry sauce, dressing and soup mix together in crock pot. Add chicken (or choice of meat). Cook on low 6 hours (to long for me, more like 4). Add rice and cook another 30 to 40 minutes until rice is done (I skip this step and serve over rice). Because of the variation in calories with the dressing the points weren't given. However, I added our up with Low Fat dressing and got 6 point 1 cup servings with chicken and 8pts with 5 meatballs (stinking store bought meatballs just aren't good for you)

The dinners were all fairly easy. The only real prep was with the potato recipe and the ground beef recipes. It was so nice to have dinner ready, it left no room for Mr. Helper or fast food to reside in our home.

FUNNY STORY! I guess you are wondering how kid friendly the recipes were. Most of the time we had at least three out of the four eat without tears. Twice they all ate without tears, Barbecue Pork and Cranberry Chicken. AND on the last day when I was pulling out my crock pot my little Kendal (two years old) pulled on the cord and exclaimed, "No mommy it's yucky, put it back." She would not let go and I couldn't help but to laugh, the crock pot didn't even have anything in it yet. After eight nights of carrying it to the table, she knew. She ate the Cranberry Chicken like it was going out of style.

Next week I am going to explore the great big world of pre-prepared meals. I will check the labels with my handy dandy Weight Watcher calculator and try for 6 points or less. I am hoping with exploration and trying new things dinner time will become easier and less fly by the seat of my pants. And at the end of my exploration I will build a menu, just in time to pull out the grill.

Crock pot recipes Weight Watcher style visit here; Taste Of Home.

If you can count read this, if not have a nice day.

I was just reading over my post and noticed there are only six nights of crock pot meals, MY BAD! Don't forget I did have the flu and I was in bed for two days. That can really mess a person up. Kudos to me for being honest! It was either that or bluff a Chili Crock pot night, yes I thought about it. I am human after all!

Dinner Time? No time for dinner.

Lately (since I filled my days up), we have been back to square one with dinner time. You know what square one is, right? Hot dogs, bean burritos, old MR. Helpers, rotisserie al la Frys, and my all time favorite going out to eat. I have thought over and over in my heads MILLIONS of times how glad I am those days are OVER. No more dad is at school, $70.00 biweekly grocery budget (that was stinky) and well to get right to it I wasn't sure what I was doing yet back then. Being a wife and mother was new to me.

Now I have twelve years of being a wife and ten of being a mom under my belt and I am back to square one. Why you ask? Well, I decided that being a wife and mother wasn't enough. Now I am the "TEACHER"! Yes, one at a time I am bringing the kiddos home for school. CRAZY, yeah I know! Matthew is the first and things are going great. Our relationship has changed dramatically. Just the other day we were outside with the neighbors and he came over and sat down in my lap and said, "I love you mom". It has been so long since he has said it without me pinning him down and making him say it. Side note: While sitting on my lap some girls his age walked by and I asked him, "Aren't you embarrassed to be sitting in my lap?". He replied, "No, they will just think I am sensitive."

So right now Matthew and I are busy getting organized and making plans for Spencer to come home and join us. Maggie is loving Kindergarten to much to even think about pulling her out, maybe next year. Meanwhile I teach Matthew for a majority of the day as well as parent a toddler and teach toddler classes for the City two days a week. Can't forget when 3:00 roles around my school kiddos come home and after a brief brake, afterschooling begins. You would think that I would be going "CRAZY" but actually I feel "Successful" for the first time in a long time. Everyday I make sure to take an hour and a half for myself (it would be 2 but I spend half of it reading with Matthew) in the middle of the day and another hour in the early evening before afterschooling begins. My cleaning all gets done between 8am and 9am (with Matthew's help) and what doesn't get done can wait (forever for all I care). It is actually a pretty good deal, will I get burnt out? Probably, but I am sure school teachers do too and that is what VACATION is for.

SO.... Dinner time has become, no time for dinner. That is why I decided to pull out the crock pot and start planning ahead. I set a goal of planning an entire week of crock pot meals and eating 7 in a row. Of course I googled Weight Watchers Crock Pot meals (can't get off track) and there were TONS of them. I was so excited and got to work straight way, picking seven that looked "yummy".

Today I am on day four and happy to say that all is working out great. Dinner has been in the crock pot by 11:00am and ready to eat by 5:00pm. I am being a real back patter right now so ignore if you want, I don't blame you. I have picked a great variety of meals and ones that are super easy. Let's see; Saturday was Au Grautin potatoes with ham, Sunday was Lasagna (which I missed because I had the flu but the leftovers were yum), Monday was BBQ Pork and today we are eating Cheesy Crock pot Chicken. All of which have been 8pts or under!

Everyone has enjoyed the dinners. Well, we have four kids so it's hit and miss but there has been at least three out of the four that have enjoyed the dinners. And the only real problem that I have run into is the "Onion Police" or should I call them "Onion Detectives". "I see something white, is it onion?" "I see it too and I saw her cutting onions this morning." (insert whiny voice) "MOM! You said it didn't have onions!" "SO ARREST ME, I LIED". I omitted the onions from the barbecue pork because three nights in a row might have got me nine years in the slammer.



For all of these recipes and more great Weight Watchers crock pot recipes go here: Taste of Homes. Don't forget to tell "Maddymoo" that Christy sent you! I kid, I kid!

Close to escape

Since the weather has been cooling off we have been aching to go hike the White Tanks.

Every time I visit the ocean I always think how crazy the locals are for not visiting it more often. Yet, we live very close to a beautiful dessert landscape that can be hiked, explored, biked or just visited for a picnic. And how often do we over look this great city escape?

I for one am going to try my best to take advantage to this dessert beauty and take more time to "escape".

Big shout out to Amy's Clan for escaping to the White Tanks with us!

THANKS

Our kids, just keeping it real!

My healthy dessert was a kiddie crowd pleaser. They were double, triple and quadruple dipping.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

Bye Summer, Hello Fall

As most of you know from some of my posts this summer I was a big cry baby (especially towards the end). I couldn't stand the thought of even stepping outside into the sweat provoking heat vapors. I made a big hurrah on every ones blogs that posted about beautiful weather and nondesert surroundings. And I may have done a little whining about wanting to move away from the dry heat.

You may be thinking big baby, right? Well that's OK because I found someone (something) that surely agrees with me.

Don't you see it? The signs of summer have taken a huge tole on this innocent STOP sign. Every time I look at it I think, boy that sign speaks a thousand words. You want to know what it says? No not stop, don't be smart. It says that summer is just not what it is cracked up to be.

Seriously I have looked at many more Stop signs and for some reason this is the only one that looks like this. I guess it was just made different then the rest. Not able to withstand the heat of summer. Yeah sure it still says stop and people still stop when they see it but still, it's different. I am not saying it is special or better then the rest, just different.

I love this sign that says STOP!

Last Monday we said goodbye to summer with a tasty summer treat.

Sour Cherry Soup

Today we say hello to Fall with a yummy Fall dessert.

Pumpkin Ginger Chiffon Pie

Cherry Soup 2pts

Pumpkin Pie 5pt

I have yet to make a cake or pie for less pts.

Kendal Turns 2

I know I always say this but it is so true. I love birthdays! Even the idea of them gives me goose bumps. A day all about "YOU" (whoever you are). Presents for you, a song for you, if you are lucky a party for you and birthday spankings just for you. Oh, I love birthdays.

Monday was Kendal's turn for a special day. She loved the attention and by the end of the day she would just tell people, "I TWO". So here is a run down of a birthday fit for a two year old.

First you can't have a birthday girl without a birthday dress.

(recycle project it used to be a women's skirt)

How about a birthday cake? You have to have one of those.
My third healthy dessert Monday in a row. This time I made Banana Spice Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting. It's a funny thing, people keep asking how can I afford to sew. But I am wondering how do people afford to bake. I had to buy a majority of the ingredients and in doing so I passed this cake that only cost $2.50.

I am not going to lie I was very tempted. Especially since the Birthday girl was crying because mom was doing circles trying to find the stinking ingredients. AHHH!

Of course this little birthday UNhelper made my healthy Monday baking all worth while.

Here it is the final product all girlied up for a special 2 year old.

Here is why it is a healthy dessert. Take note of the words low, lite and free.

I know what you are thinking, a healthy cake on her birthday? What a rip off, right? Don't worry the following day we visited Me-Ma and she hooked the girl up.

What child does not love Build A Bear Workshop? Please note that I did say child.

CHUCKEE CHEESE






No birthday is complete without....

Crazy brother antics

Tears

Romance

Daddy Kisses

And some words for Kendal.....

Kendal there are so many things I want to remember about you right now but I am afraid that I will forget. I will forget the way that you say "stop that ickles" or the way your barbies always need help, "help me, help me I dieing". You get so darn ornery when things aren't going your way but you can cuddle like a champ. Your curls are the cutest most unruly things in the universe, I never want to forget them. Or the way you call daddy mommy even though we ALL know you can say daddy (ornery). You are mine and daddy's last baby and we love you so much and despite all of the things I am afraid I will forget you have given me one gift that I will never forget. You have sealed the image of a wonderful daddy loving his babies in my mind forever. An image that I will visit often and smile every time I do.

THE END