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What did the WAHM cook make today?

So I want to live up to my recommendations to you and tell you exactly what I was able to cram into my lunch hour today.

During the lunch hour I was able to to:

• Batch cook 6 chicken breasts - 4 c for Country Chicken Pot Pie and 2 c leftover for future use stored in my freezer.
• Sauted beef strips - I had some beef steaks in the freezer so I decided to thaw one out and slice it into strips and cook in a pan for future use. I could use it in a stir fry (by creating an oriental sauce when reheating) or as fajitas (by adding pepper and onions and HG Taco seasoning)
• 6 batches of Master Bread Machine mix (easier to do than it sounds)
• 2 Country Chicken pot pies

I have pictures but have not had time to upload them just yet! But I wanted to show you that I actually do practice what I preach!

WAHM Cook Tip of the Day - A little extra goes a long way

So recently I was conducting a personal menu planning consultation with a co-worker of mine (a fellow WAHM) and I mentioned a little WAHM tip to her that I thought I should share with you.

Just this past week I made Italian Slow cooker chicken with fresh salad and Texas cornbread. Well during this easy weeknight meal I decided to go ahead and make ahead a yummy dinner/lunch treat for my 3 year old.

In half of the batter I put some cut up hot dogs into the muffin tin. So at the same time as I was baking a side item for that night's dinner I made a dinner and lunch for another day! I then cooled the muffins and wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed all of them in a freezer bag. Corn dog muffins are just a quick zap in the microwave away!

WAHM TIP:

When making dinner for any given night, think of how you can use that meal in another way for another day. Sometimes simply throwing in an extra chicken breast or cooking up one extra pound of ground beef at the time you are cooking the others can save you an hour on another day!

So I leave you with that quick tip of the day.

WHAM Dinner Tips - Batch Cooking

Okay so I'm sure that the conecpt of Batch Cooking is not new to you.....but are you actually doing it? I know that when I first heard of the concept of batch cooking it sounded great, but WHEN would I find the time to actually cook large batches of fresh meat?

Between shuttling the kids to daycare (yes even though I work at home daycare is a necessity in my day job), shopping, doing errands, oh yeah and doing that thing called Full time work, I just could not find the time to cook batches of chicken or beef.

I could have done it on the weekends but let's face it. In our busy world are weekends are filled doing all the things that we could not get done during the week right? Or if you are like me, between the shopping and cleaning you are spending as MUCH time focused on your kids and family then you are on actually cooking.

TIP: If you are one of my super couponing friends then this method is PERFECT for you! After you have stocked up on your super meat sales at the grocery store, you don't even have to plan what to do with your meat! I generally like to cook HALF of my quantity of meat in the batch and leave the other half uncooked for my smoosh meals/4 meals in 4 minutes

So, WAHM Dinner Guide to the rescue!

As I had mentioned before in ______________ using your lunch hour or other scheduled breaks during your work day is a GREAT way to start the kitchen battle. I can think of no great time well spent then that of cooking up 6-8 lbs of chicken or 5 + lbs of beef! Think about it, if you were to cook that much meat in only one hour, that shaves off 30 minutes to an hour of prep time PER MEAL!

So if you wanted to make tacos the first step is the cooking of beef right? Well, if you are anything like me in my crazy life, I'm lucky that I had the foresight to serve the taco dinner shortly after buying the ground beef. That stuff spoils quickly! If you've ever taken a look at the best by date on the package it usually hits that date 1-2 days after you buy it! Which is why doing batch cooking is such a great thing!

No, I don't really add things up in my recipes for the month and just precisely determine how much ground beef I'm going to cook for given recipes. But I do know that on average a recipe calls for 1 lb of meat. If it calls for more or less my 1lb cooked is still just right. Just think of all the possiblities that can come from having cooked ground beef or chicken on hand! Even if you are not a planner like me, you can easily look in your freezer and come up with several menus with some simple pantry staples on hand.

Let's take a look:

Ground Beef:

• Tacos - need I say more? (make it with our Taco Soup mix and it is super yummy, just add in 2 T when you reheat the beef on the stovetop and bam, you've got tacos!)
• Shepherd's Pie
• Beef and Biscuit Hot Dish
• Sloppy Joe's
• Mix into spaghetti sauce (Homemade Gourmet of course!)
• Tater Tot Casserole

Chicken Cooked:

• Chicken Salad - try some of our chicken salad mixes to think outside the box! (Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad, Tropical Chicken Salad Mix)
• Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole (I like to make mine without the poppy seeds! Find a yummy recipe here: cooks.com)
• Chicken Quesadillas - just heat up and throw on some cheese and taco season and you're good to go!
• Broccoli and Garlic Lemon Chicken Casserole - when I make it with my batch cooked chicken I just add the garlic lemon at the time of preparation of the dish, still tastes delicious!

Use your imagination! The possibilities are endless! Any recipe that requires you to cook your chicken or beef before preparing the dish can be made this way. Just add the required seasonings at the time you are reheating the meat!

This has become a HUGE time saver for me. Okay, so now I've talked you into it, but HOW do I do it?

Well there are several ways:

Chicken:

You can slow cook as may chicken breasts as will fit in your slow cooker.

You can cut up into cubes or slices and saute in a pan until done

Poach

You can grill them all up TIP! Another way to slowly build up some easy meals is to throw in one or two extra breasts or steaks or whatever into your marinade and COOK them with the dinner you make that night. Then freeze the extras for another night! Cook once and serve twice!

My favorite method, is to BAKE the chicken. I just love the flavor of a roasted chicken versus any other method and it is VERY hands off! While at lunch I just preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then when ready I put all my chickens on a baking sheet and place them all at once in my oven and let them go for 30-45 minutes. I like to do this with FROZEN chicken. I don't even have to thaw them out. I keep an eye on them about 10 minutes before hand to make sure I don't dry them out but then they just cool. After cooled I simply cut them up into cubes, throw into a freezer bag then into the freezer!

I usually store them in 2 cup portions since that is a typical amount called for in recipes.

EASY!

Beef:

Microwave - yes you can, I don't but you can

Fry in a pan - if you have a pan large enough or a few pans you can do this. Try not to crowd too many lbs into one pan as I find that the juice that is rendered tends to steam the beef rather than brown it. I like a nice brown and crisp beef.

I like to use my LARGE oval electric skillet for this task. It is wide and deep so it can fit alot of beef and cooks evenly around. This does require that you at least be in the kitchen making your lunch or on a conference call on MUTE on a portable phone!

I store mine in 1lb portions FLAT in a freezer bag.

I hope that this gives you confidence to do some mini batches in your small breaks during the day. The time savings is huge!

TIP: You will become so used to having pre-cooked meat on hand that you may sometimes forget that you have run out! Keep a little list on the fridge with the number of bags and just mark each tic mark off as you use it so you know when you are getting low!

Freezer Meals the WAHM Way - VIDEO!

Hi Wahm Cooks!

This is the debut of my first video blog! I show you just how easy it is to do freezer cooking the WAHM way! Watch me as I make a freezer meal in minutes!

Crazy Taco Night!

Okay so today was a very busy day at work. Started out with non-stop conference calls and TONS of configuration work right up to 5 pm! I still have a late night conference call tonight, as well as a host coaching call with a hostess of an upcoming party (excited about that one!).

This is why I was so thankful to have had an easy meal to throw together the WAHM way.

TACOS!

I had done my diligence earlier when I bought some ground beef on sale last month. I found some ground beef at $1.79/lb which is a STEAL here in North IL. On the day I brought the meat home I split it up into hamburgers (to which I sprinkled in some worstechester and Pepper Pizzaz seasoning) and froze them in patties. I also cooked up another batch into taco meat and then I simply just wrapped up some untouched meat for random quick dinners during the month. I had about 9 lbs of meat total.

Well I saved my taco meat in 2-3 cup portions and labeled it in a freezer bag and just had it hanging around. So when I did my meal planning this week I simply shopped my freezer. So I added tortillas to my shopping list, along with fresh lettuce, a tomato and I already had some frozen shredded cheese on hand. I also grabbed an 8 oz can of tomato sauce to make my mexican rice (a yummy recipe from my best friend). I also grabbed ingredients to make the Cinnamon Sopapillas for dessert, hubby's favorite!

Let's look at the WAHM way to cook this:

At a break or lunch:

• Cut lettuce - place in bag back in fridge
• Chop tomatoes - place in container back in fridge
• Set out the rice (you could even measure out the cup!)
• Set out the tomato sauce
• Set out the tortillas
• Set out the cream cheese
• Set out the chicken broth (or bullion cubes)
• chop onions (if using, I have mine already chopped in the freezer)

This way when I get home from the rush from pickups at daycare I just start dinner in the following way:

1. Start the Rice
2. While rice is cooking take out taco meat from freezer
3. Heat taco meat in microwave
4. Set out lettuce, tomatoes and cheese
5. Set table
6. Heat tortillas in microwave
7. Serve and enjoy!

Recipes:

Taco Soup Seasoned Beef

Mexican Rice

• 1 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 T oil
• 2T chopped onions
• 1 t garlic salt
• 1/2 t cumin
• 2 cups chicken broth (I made mine with bullion cubes)
• 2-3 T Taco Soup Seasoning (or Chicken Enchilada Soup or Tortilla Soup Seasoning)

Saute rice in medium sauce pan in oil until puffed and white. Add onion and cook until tender. Sprinkle seasonings over top and cook 1 minutes. Add tomato sauce and broth, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes until tender and all liquid is absorbed. Serve!

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Mother's Day Treat - Strawberry Tea

Have you figured out what to get for Mother's Day? I always like to give something to my Mom that can help her relax or make her life easier. She lives far away from me so I try and keep my gift small or have it shipped direct to her.

Homemade Gourmet mixes make a great addition to a relaxing gift basket. In the mood to create a nice relaxing drink for her? Try this yummy looking Sparkling Strawberry Tea recipe if you are in a creative mood! You can order the Mojito Mint Tea here.

You can have the tea shipped direct to you in time for Mother's Day!