Freezer Cooking - Meatballs

Dinner

Italian Meatballs - Yields 35 x Individual Meatballs @ $0.28/meatball(Prepare with pasta of any kind for a quick easy dinner)
Original Source
Ingredients:
2lbs Lean Ground Beef
1c. Bread Crumbs
1tbsp. Italian Seasoning (do not include if using seasoned bread crumbs)
1/2c. Milk
2 Eggs
1tsp. Salt
1/2tsp. Pepper
1tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
4 Cloves Garlic, minced

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

2. Shape into ball form (I used an ice cream scoop for consistency).

3. Place on baking sheet and place in freezer for 1hr to set shape before placing servings in ziploc sandwich bags and placing inside a large ziploc freezer bag. (My servings were 6 and one bag of 5).

4.. Label and place in freezer.

To Reheat: Thaw, place in baking dish. Cook at 350 for 20min, drain and add spaghetti sauce (enough to cover), cook at 350 for 20min.

*These can be thawed in the fridge overnight or by using the microwave.

Freezer Cooking - Shepard's Pie

Dinner
You've just come home from work, you forgot to take something out this morning and have a million other things to accomplish - so you do it, you reach for takeout. My dad always made Shepard's Pie growing up, I hated it, so when I got older I decided to give it another try the way I thought it should taste.

Shepard's Pie - Yields 4 x 3LB Dishes @ $4.25/dish 
(Feeds 3 adults or a wife and her hungry hubby)

Ingredients:
3lbs. Lean Ground Beef
3 Cans of Creamed Corn
14 Medium Red Potatoes, peeled
3/4c. Milk
3tbsp Butter
1 Head Garlic, minced
2 Packages 'Shepard's Pie' Seasoning
1 Medium Yellow Onion, minced - (optional)
2c. Shredded Cheese (optional)

Directions:
1. Brown ground beef, when almost cooked add seasoning mixes and onion and simmer until beef is thoroughly cooked (do not drain the beef during this step).

I use Clubhouse's Shepard's Pie mix, but you can use any seasonings you like, even Taco Seasoning!

2. While browning beef, boil potatoes.
3. Drain potatoes and add milk, butter and garlic. (I use my Cuisinart Mixer and paddle attachment to create smooth mashed potatoes).
4. Layer meat, cream corn and potatoes in dishes. (If you want to add cheese, add on top of meat layer).

5. Label and place in freezer. (I also label the side of my dishes, you'll see why when this week of cooking comes to a close).

To Reheat: Remove lid, place on baking sheet. Cook at 350 for 1hr 10min.

*Remove side label before cooking.

Freezer Cooking - Egg McMuffins

Now that Anderson has reach 7 weeks old most of my Freezer Meals have been eaten; Now that I realize the convenience of not having to cook, yet still eating a great meal with minimal clean up I decided to re-stock and share my recipes. When browsing Pinterest for inspiration I realized a lot of sites said they were inexpensive meals, but being mainly American sites I know that groceries are drastically less expensive down there, so I have recalculated every recipe to show you the price per serving/dish (I shopped at Costco and Walmart).

Breakfast
From what I can tell in the movies this is one of the busiest times in any household, parents trying to get ready for work, pack a lunch and get the kids bathed, changed and out the door in time all while trying to get the most out of their 'Most Important Meal of the Day'; when I last stocked my freezer in July I made Breakfast Burritos, Dan ate every last one of them - fantastic, but this time I saw an interesting pin that drove me to add Egg Mc Muffins to the list.

Egg Mc Muffins Recipe - Yields 12 @ $0.63/ea
Original Source 

Ingredients:
12 English Muffins
12 Large Eggs
12 Slices Kraft Singles Cheese
Butter or Spray Oil


Directions:
1. Grab a muffin tin and very lightly oil each spot in the tin with either butter or spray oil (I used oil).
2. Crack and egg in each muffin area.

3. Cook in oven at 350 for 15 - 20min (mine took 20)
4. While you're waiting for your eggs to cook, slice your english muffins in half and lay face up on a baking sheet (you'll need two sheets).
5. Once your eggs have finished cooking, remove from oven and run a knife along the edges to ensure they separate as they cool.

6. To toast muffins, place in oven at 350 for 10min (rotate pan after 5 minutes in case your oven has hot spots).
7. Remove muffins from oven and assemble with egg and cheese slice.

8. Place on baking sheet and place in freezer for 1hr 30min to give off moisture before wrapping in foil and placing in ziploc freezer bags.
9. Label and place in freezer.

To Reheat: Remove foil, place on baking sheet. Cook at 350 for 25min.

*These can be microwaved but it isn't recommended.

Baby Break

It has been a full week since my last posting, Anderson decided he needed to embark on a growth spurt and did nothing but eat for three days straight, followed by three days sleeping which allowed me to go on a very large grocery shop in preparation for this week's blog posts... Freezer Cooking!

Before Anderson was born I stocked our freezer with a multitude of foods that could be reheated/cooked easily in case we ended up with an overly-needy baby - thankfully we won the 'Baby Lottery' and Anderson is usually quite content in his swing speaking to Larry and Moe, the buddies that swing with him in unison which allows me to use my hands for cleaning, cooking, crafting and blogging!

Anderson telling stories to Larry and Moe - Larry is the green bug.

On Saturday, after venturing to Costco with my friend Richelle (who pushed a cart full of my groceries while I pushed a stroller with a 9lb baby - thanks Shell!); we met up with Chelsea and Nixon to hit the mall for to find costumes for the baby halloween party Chelsea is hosting - I have compiled a few spooky-recipe ideas on Pinterest, I'm excited this holiday is finally coming so I can try them out and share my experiences!

Chelsea took an adorable picture of Anderson during our visit which I feel compelled to share with all of you before I go lock myself in my kitchen for a full day of cooking - well as long as Anderson allows after Daddy goes to work and I'm back on my own...

Love this little man with all my heart.

Restore Your Cookie Sheets

We've all come accross the Miracle Pin the claims to restore your cookie sheets to their original state, and after staring at it for as long as I've been a Pinterest member it was time to give that Miracle Cleaner a try!

Before After

 

Over at One Good Thing by Jillee, Jillee gives a recipe for her 'Miracle Cleaner' of 1/4c. Baking Soda, then squirting in enough *fresh* Hydrogen Peroxide to make a paste, then by applying it with your fingers. I was all in, could something so simple really do such a great job?

I mixed up the paste as directed and applied with a Scotch Brite rather than my fingers (my long nails often get in the way), after letting it sit for 30 minutes I washed off the mixtures giving it a little elbow grease and to my amazement....NOTHING.... they looked just as stained as before - now I was on a quest for what would actually clean these pans.

I decided to give the same concauction a try that did so well cleaning my oven a few days ago; once again I mixed up the paste and applied with a Scotch Brite; after letting it sit for another 30 minutes I washed the pans off, and using the same amount of elbow grease I was able to scrub off quite a bit of the grime.

Before After

After reading the comment thread on Jillee's page I noticed many people were unable to obtain her miraculous results using the peroxide mixture, so I was not alone.

So now that my 'good' cookie sheets were restored, I dug out the REALLY nasty ones, we all have them, usually they're kept buried in the cupboard, but that's actually where I hide my good ones from Dan - my fiance and baby-daddy, usually I refer to him as my husband, it sounds less ghetto. I only allow him to use the bad ones as I am 95% sure whatever he is cooking will be left in too long and bubble over, then left out for it to really stick on before being placed in the dishwasher to get further baked on...

I knew there wasn't a chance that either of the cleaner's mentioned above would even begin to touch this mess, but what about Oven Cleaner... I know I was trying to avoid it in my 'Oven Cleaning Expedition' but I needed to break out the big guns for this job. I sprayed down the pans and sat them on top of garbage bags on my oven racks overnight. When I pulled them from the oven in the morning you could see the layer of grease on top of them.

After scrubbing down with an SOS pad (I went shopping) and some dish water I could see the sparkle coming through! There was still quite a bit of gunk left so I decided to go for Round Two.

Using a garbage bag as a tent, I placed the cookie sheet on the bottom and sprayed the oven cleaner until I could no longer see the pan - be sure to use Oven Cleaner in a well ventilated area as it tends to cut off your breathing. Then tie the garbage in a knot and set outside overnight, even better if you could set it somewhere that it could absorb some sunshine.

This afternoon I opened the bag and saw the same layer of grease had risen, I scrubbed down again with an SOS pad and dish soap and got even more grime off. I am satisfied with my results now, as I mentioned they aren't my 'good' cookie sheets but by repeating this process another time, or having the aid of sunshine they could almost be restored to 90%.

The results are pretty outstanding in my mind (if you can't see the results in the muffin tin, it's because I used the crummy peroxide solution on it rather than oven cleaner).

Rating: F (for the pin)

            A (for oven cleaner!)

Tiling Your Cabinet...

One of my Pinterest boards is titled 'Neat Ideas I'll Never Attempt' and that is exactly where I filed this ingenious idea from Apartment Therapy thinking it was clever but not something we needed, until I started this blog. It's a great idea for both kitchen and bathroom cabinets as we've all experienced some 'goo' stuck to the bottom of the cabinet and who doesn't like adding some ease to their cleaning routine!

BeforeAfter

You'll want to get a few supplies ready:

• Peel & Stick tiles - measure before hand to know how many you need 
• Tape Measure
• Scissors and Exacto Knife
• Ruler or Level - for straight edge

Step 1: Start by cleaning out the cupboard and giving it a good wipe down with an all purpose cleaner. You'll  need to wait for it to be completely dry before you can start laying down the tiles, they will not adhere to a damp cabinet.

Step 2: Measure your cabinet, you want to start at the front, marking the center of the cabinet, as well as the center of a tile, I thought about just throwing them in and laying them down but I knew Mike Holmes would not have agreed with that.

Once you have found the center, peel the backing off the tile, line up the marks and secure it to the cabinet.

Looking closely you can see the mark on the tile aligned with the mark on cabinet.

From here I added the tiles to the left and right, they were a no-brainer as they didn't require any cuts or marking, just had to but them up to the center tile.

Step 3: It was now time to cut the back tiles, my cabinet was not 24" deep - which would've allowed me to just use a second full row of tiles - but rather I had to cut down the back row  to 10 3/4" - I cut four tiles to this dimension and set them to the side.

Step 4: My water lines come up through the the floor of the cabinet - this may vary and yours may come out of the wall, which wouldn't require a notch-out. I lined up the back tile with the one in front and marked the width of the lines and how far they came out from the wall then transferred this onto the tile backing so I didn't have large marker lines on the front - you can do either as it's only inside of a cabinet and no one would actually see it.

Just as the first row, the tiles to the immediate right and left went down without any further cuts and it was time for finishing the edges. 

Step 6: You will want to measure the opening on the sides separately - if you've done everything perfect they should be the same, but mistakes happen and that's OK (mine was 1/8" off on one side). I needed to cut the right side down to get a 2 1/2" strip for the left and a 2 1/8" strip for the right, I measured in from opposite sides of the tile to ensure that it would look like a full tile on either side and not break the pattern. 

My 'straight' edge was knocked by an absurdly large cat, but corrected when I cut.

Repeat this process for the back row and voila, completed project! You'll notice the water line to the dishwasher was hanging down in my before picture, I found a small hook/screw and used it to hang it off the floor, allowing me more storage space.

Finished project! 

In total this project cost me $3.50 (tiles at 3/$1 at Dollarama) and took maybe 30 minutes. I think it was definitely worth the money and a good use of my time and I will be continuing into the bathrooms today! 

It also allowed me to clean out the cupboards of what REALLY didn't need to be in there; I'm the worst for purchasing a shampoo/conditioner set, using half of it only to be enticed by the next great commercial - I think I had 6 sets in the Main Bath cabinet, along with an array of random bath goodies that have come as stocking stuffers and freebies over the years. My friend Whitney gladly took all the shampoos/conditioners and I sold all the other goodies (not opened of course) to a lady on a local Facebook Swap N' Shop group - to which I'm also horribly addicted.

I'm currently searching for a better organization solution for my cabinets -  if you have any thoughts let me know! 

Grade: A+

Everyone Loves Freebies!

A typical morning in the Burchill home includes includes myself waking up with Anderson between 6-7AM, feeding him and setting him back to sleep. Then I creep down to the main floor of our 3-story town home for a caffeine fix, the morning news and a session of milking myself like a cow. After that I paruse the internet for ideas of recipes to try, crafts to accomplish and FREE STUFF!

It's been quite easy to find companies offering freebies for baby, as soon as we arrived home from the hospital  I signed up for Similac Group and Huggies Club as those were the products we used from day 1 of being home (we also chose Similac as that is what the hospital had given us to use). I had numerous amounts of hand-me down diapers that had been outgrown in size before being used up (thanks Chelsea & Nixon!) but with Anderson arriving 6 days late at only 5lbs 13oz we had to rush out for preemie diapers and outfits. 

Side note: Can you believe Walmart only had one brand option for this diaper size and only in a small pack?!?

Anderson at 3 days old having photos taken by his Great-Auntie Laura, Nana Burchill is holding him upright until the 'click'.

I received the Huggies package within three weeks only to find a few coupons inside, but any helps and they will be used as soon as we run out of the collection we've accumulated that Anderson has started to grow into. 

The Similac package took just over a month to arrive but was a GREAT score, we received a free canister of the Advance powdered formula, a can of Sensitive concentrated formula and about $40 in cheques and coupons. I've asked my family and friends into signing up and having these packages sent to them, we only use the Sensitive to Lactose but I will be donating the powdered formula to the local Crisis Pregnancy Center closer to Christmas time when I'm able to get together some of the clothes that are too small and maybe a few little kits for the moms - stay tuned as that idea is still in progress.

This morning I came across a few more sites offering free products, click the product names to be taken to the websites and sign up! 

Nestle (Good Start) 

Enfamil

Johnson & Johnson

Note: These links take you direct to the sites that are for Canadian Residents; You also do not have to sign up for any of their other promotional offers or mail-outs unless you want to and you will still receive the products.