Weekends are for Adventures... and Maybe Making Yummy Food

Last week we had a pretty decent amount of snow dumped on us. We didn't get a couple inches, no not even just under a foot. We got just about 30" of snow dumped on us! While I don't love the two snow days it gave us I love that it allowed me to cross country ski and snowshoe on the trails behind my house as well as cross country ski on trails on a neighboring towns trails. I love being in the woods, there is something so peaceful about it but there is something truly special about being in the woods when everything is covered in snow. Everything looks different, smells different, and sounds different...it's so crisp and clean. I love it even more when I get to be the first one to walk on the fresh snow, I almost hate to ruin how perfect it all looks but I get to be the first one to explore and that feeling always wins.

So even though there was a feel like temp of negative 1 on Saturday two of my friends and I, oh and Kona, bundled up and hit the trails in a neighboring town to xc ski on trails in one of their land reserves. It's one of my favorites with a few different well marked trails, a few bridges, a pond, streams, and some fun little hills. We had so much fun xc skiing for three hours. We laughed as we made our way up little hills, talked about anything and everything, and enjoyed the sights around us.

Sunday morning I went xc skiing with Kai and Kona and we explored a new (to us) set of trails behind our house. They belong to a land trust in town. They were fun, pretty, and we can't wait to explore them more. Kona and I again went out with two of my friends and we went snowshoeing on a different set of trails in the woods behind our home. We mainly followed the main trail that I typically run on because a lot of the smaller trees were bent over due to heavy snow on them but it was so much fun and so pretty back there. Kona had a blast playing and rolling in the snow.  The snow was pretty deep for him though and he ended up being one tired puppy and slept through the whole Super Bowl. You should all go and search online to see if your town or the towns around you have nature preserves/reserves, land trusts, or parks with trails. Search for state parks too! You never know, you might have an outdoor adventure waiting for you a lot closer than you thought.

While this past weekend was about being outdoors and having fun it was also a little bit about food. It was really nice to come back from xc skiing Saturday and be able to just pull a bag of Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice soup out of the freezer and heat it up. It didn't take long and was so much better than stopping for a cup of soup or opening up a can of soup. I really like soup, it's one of my favorite things to have for lunch in the fall and winter but this one is one of my favorites, one of my top three. Dinner was equally easy since all I had to do was boil water to make pasta and pull a bag of left over chicken for Chicken Enchilada Pasta. Less than 15 minutes and dinner was on the table! It worked well since I was starving on Saturday! I hope you enjoy the following chicken recipes as much as I do!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup (freezes well)

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups of water

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 package of Uncle Ben's Chicken and wild rice

1 teaspoon black pepper

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 portobella mushroom caps diced

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 cups of heavy cream

Directions

Combine the first section of ingredients together in the crockpot.  Cook on low for 6 hours. Take out the two chicken breasts and shred with two forks. Return the chicken to the crockpot. In a bowl add the flour and some of the hot liquid from the crockpot. Mix together until well mixed and add a little more of the hot liquid from the crockpot until smooth. Stir the cream into the mixture and then add it the crockpot.  Cover the crockpot and let it sit (turned off) for 15-20 minutes to thicken.  

Chicken Enchilada Pasta (freezes well without pasta)

Adapted from

Ingredients

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1- 4 oz can diced green chiles
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 batch of homemade enchilada sauce

Pasta

Toppings (optional)

Shredded cheese

Sour Cream

Avocado

Green Onions

Directions

Place the first section of ingredients together in the crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken with two forks.  

Boil water for pasta, cook according to box directions.  Top pasta with chicken mixture, top with favorite toppings, and serve. 

Enchilada Sauce (freezes well)

Ingredients

3 cups vegetable broth 

1- 6 oz can of tomato paste

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cumin

2-3 cloves of garlic

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4-1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper

Directions (on stove top)

In a medium sauce pan heat the tomato paste and whisk in the flour. Cook 1 minute while whisking. 

Whisk in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add spices. Cook about 8 minutes or until slightly thickened. 

Directions (for crockpot with Chicken Enchilada Pasta)

Add all ingredients except flour to crockpot with the other ingredients from the Chicken Enchilada Pasta recipe.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours just like the previously stated recipe calls for. After shredding the chicken, remove some of the liquid and whisk in the flour until combined. Add that mixture back to the crockpot and mix. Let it sit (with crockpot turned off) for 10-15 minutes. 

Santa Fe Chicken

Ingredients

2-3 pounds of chicken breasts

2 cups of black  beans (or 1 can if you prefer canned)

2 cups of fresh cut from the cob or frozen corn (1 can if you prefer canned)

2 cups of salsa

1- 8 oz package of cream cheese

Directions

Place the first four ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Pull the chicken with two forks, add the cream cheese, let sit for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted, and mix. Serve over white rice or pasta or inside a wrap. 

Feed the Freezer, Free up Your Time, AND Stop Binge Eating Fast Food

Ever have one of those days where you come home from work and you don't have the physical, mental, or emotional energy to do ANYTHING? Me too. Those are the days I'm always tempted to stop for fast food, a pizza and wings, or Chinese take out on the way home. Then I eat All.The.Food. while in front of the television and crash. I usually don't sleep well and always wake up feeling crappy the next day. I know eating poorly after having a rough day is not the answer. I know it just spirals my mood and how I feel physically but I just can't help it. But, when my freezer is filled with healthy food or just healthier than the stuff I would have picked up food it's easier to avoid the crap food. I can have homemade spaghetti and meatballs on the table in about 15 minutes. 15 MINUTES! I can't order, pick up, and get back home with a pizza in 15 minutes.

Spaghetti and meatballs is actually one of my favorite I've had a crappy day comfort meals. I take the quart sized bag of meatballs and sauce out of the freezer, open it and rip it down one side. Place it in a skillet, cover the skillet, and heat it on medium/medium low heat until thawed and heated. Don't forget to start the water for your pasta right after you cover the frozen meatballs and sauce. Sometimes I stir the meatballs once or twice, sometimes I'm lazy and don't stir them at all. It honestly doesn't get much easier than that. I think it's even easier than takeout because lets be honest if you already made it home before picking up the takeout who wants to go back out. The most important part of preparing this meal is opening the bottle of wine. Sometimes I open it once I have the meatballs and sauce as well as the water started. Sometimes it's one of those days where you open the wine first and then worry about the food.

Not only does feeding the freezer help on my I have no energy days but it helps me to stop losing all my free time to cooking and food prep.  I shared a couple of the recipes I used that froze and thawed well in my last post but said I would share more later. Well here are a couple more I mentioned.

Meatballs (freezes well)

Ingredients 

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 small onion, diced

4-5 cloves of garlic crushed

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano (or a small amount of fresh oregano finely chopped)

1/2 cup bread crumbs 

1 egg

Directions

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Once mixed form into 1 1/2 inch meatballs and place them in crockpot.  Add ingredients for marinara sauce and cook on low for 6-8 hours. 

Pasta Sauce (freezes well)

Ingredients

3-28 oz cans of "Kitchen Ready" ground peeled tomatoes

3- 6 oz cans of tomato paste 

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced or through a garlic press

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (or a small amount of fresh oregano finely chopped)

1/4 teaspoon onion powder 

Handful of fresh basil, finely chopped

Directions

Add all ingredients to the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. 

Bolognese Sauce (freezes well)

Ingredients

3- 28 oz cans of "Kitchen Ready" ground peeled tomatoes

3- 6 oz cans of tomato paste

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced or through a garlic press

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 

3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped

3 carrots, coarsely chopped

2 cups of dry wine

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck

1 1/2 pounds ground pork 

1/4 cup parley, chopped

Handful of fresh basil, chopped

1 cup of heavy cream

Directions

Place all ingredients EXCEPT meats and cream in the crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. With an immersion blender or regular blender, blend the sauce to remove chunks.  While doing so brown the meats on the stove. Once sauce is blended and meats brown combine the two and add the cream. Serve over pasta with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.  

Eating Good Food Shouldn't Eat Up All Your Free Time!!!

I love to eat, I love good food, and I really enjoy making good food. However, I hate that it usually means that I spend at least an hour sometimes two hours making dinner nightly plus several extra hours on the weekends making breakfasts and lunches for the week. I felt like I was losing all my evenings and half my weekend to preparing food, not even eating it but preparing it. Late November I decided something had to change because I missed having my evenings being filled with fun things, my weekends being just for adventures, and being an adult not feeling so, well...boring. I decided I was going to go back to feeding my freezer but with more purpose.

I have always made double batches of soup and feed half of it to my freezer so I have it for later use for workday lunches. When I lived alone I would even freeze some of my leftovers from time to time to consume on an evening I didn't have time to cook but only did that every so often. December was going to be my month, my month to reclaim my free time and it went swimmingly. I spent a couple hours sifting through my favorite recipes and Pinterest for new recipes to find ones that I could make in the crockpot, make double or triple of and freeze the extras, and recipes that were delicious but quick.

While I still made some of my time consuming favorite recipes I reserved those for the 2 nights a week I scheduled in for longer cooking nights. The rest of the week were meals to feed us and the freezer, pulled from the freezer, a crockpot meal, and an occasional quick meal recipe. It. Was. Awesome! I had more time, I felt like I was always served a complete, healthy, and tasty meal, and I didn't feel like I was taking the easy way out.  December and January felt so much easier with January feeling even easier than December since I already had meals in the freezer.

By far my favorite meals we made were ones I could make in the crockpot AND freeze some of it. In the crockpot with extra to freeze I made Swedish Meatballs, Bolognese sauce, Meatballs with Marinara sauce, Chicken Enchilada Pasta, Chicken Fajita Soup, Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, and Black Bean and Salsa Soup. When I made Hippy Loaf (vegetarian meatloaf),  Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers, and Chicken Tikka Masala I made extra and froze them. In the crockpot I made Chicken Parmesan and it was alright but not a favorite, Smothered Chicken (I felt the same way as the Chicken Parm), Santa Fe Chicken (yum!), and Honey Mustard and Herb Chicken (so delicious!)

I linked three of the recipes for now and will post the other recipes soon. :)