Freezer Meals

I've been looking into freezer meals for a few months and I finally decided to give it a try.  About 2 weeks ago I prepared about a months worth of dinners and froze them.  Some of the recipes were new and some are our own.  The meals have saved me SO much time everyday and they are delicious!  I doubled almost all of these recipes, some tripled to get about 30 meals.

Here's a list of the meals I made.  The recipes that I found on other blogs are linked below.

Honey Glazed Chicken Wings (Bake)
Teriyaki Chicken Wings (Bake)
BBQ Chicken Wings (Bake)
Curry Chicken with Cabbage (Crock Pot)
Curry Turkey with Carrots (Crock Pot)
Chicken Soup (Crock Pot)
Spaghetti Sauce (Reheat)
Perdenales River Chili (Reheat)
Freezer Burritos (Reheat)
Breakfast Burritos (Reheat)
Oxtail (Crock Pot)
Ribs (Bake)
Pork Chops (Bake)
Baked Pork Neck Bone (Bake)
Browned Pork Neck Bone (Crock Pot)

Honey Glazed Chicken Wings

1 lb chicken wings
1 C honey
1/2 C soy sauce
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
salt & pepper

Place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag, mix & freeze.  Thaw, Bake at 350 1-1.5 hrs or until crispy


Chicken Soup

3 chicken quarters or breasts
3 carrots, sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 C chicken broth or water
salt & pepper
complete seasoning
scallion, chopped

Place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag & freeze.  Thaw.  Crockpot low 8 hours or high 4-6 hours.  Add potatoes, quartered during last hour of cooking.  Serve over rice or noodles.

BBQ Chicken Wings

1 lb chicken wings
salt & pepper
BBQ Sauce

Place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag & freeze.  Thaw, Bake at 400 for an hour or until cooked through.

Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb ground beef or turkey
2 zucchini, shredded
6 carrots, shredded
2 onions, diced
2 large cans spaghetti sauce

Brown meat.  Add all other ingredients, let simmer for 2-3 hours.  Let cool. Place in gallon ziploc bag.  Thaw & reheat. Serve over spaghetti noodles.

Breakfast Burritos

flour tortillas
eggs
cheddar cheese, grated
salt & pepper
paprika
milk

Beat eggs & season with salt, pepper, paprika. Add milk.  Scramble eggs in pan.  Assemble eggs onto tortillas and top with cheese. close burritos and freeze on a cookie sheet.  Once frozen, place into gallon size ziploc bag.  Reheat in microwave 2-3 minutes.

Oxtail

1 lb oxtail
salt & pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2-3 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
browning
complete seasoning
seasoned salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 C water

Place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag & freeze.  Thaw. Cook in crockpot on low 6-8 hours or hight 4-6 hours.  Serve over rice.

 Ribs

1 slab of ribs
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt & pepper
steak seasoning

Make paste with EVOO & seasonings.  Place in gallon ziploc bag with ribs and rub into meat.  Freeze. Thaw, Place into baking dish, add 1/4-1/2 C water & bake at 400 F  for 1 - 1.5 hours.

Pork Chops

5-6 pork chops
seasoned salk
pepper
2 sazon packets
complete seasoning
water (just enough to make a paste with seasonings)

Place all ingredients in bag, mix well & freeze.  Thaw Bake at 400F 1-1.5 hours.

Baked Pork Neck Bone

1 lb pork neck bone
salt & pepper
steak seasoning
extra virgin olive oil

place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag, mix well & freeze.  Thaw. Bake at 400F 1 hour.

Browned Pork Neck Bone

1 lb pork neck bone
salt & pepper
1 C water
1 Tbsp browning
complete seasoning
garlic powder
onion powder

Place all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag, mix well & freeze.  Thaw & cook in crockpot on low 6-8 hours.

Shrimp Scampi with Pasta

What is your absolute most delicious/favorite food ever???

Mine?

... 

Italian!!! 

I LOVE pasta. I love Spaghetti! I love Lasagna! And I love Baked Ziti!!!

Basically anything on top of or within pasta is awesome in my book!  =)  This dish is no different!

It's sooo EASY and DELICIOUS!  Who doesn't love pasta? Then throw on some shrimp. Heavenly!

If you love quick and easy, yet very yummy meals then you have to try this dish!

The recipe calls for linguine, but I used Thin Spaghetti. You can use any type of pasta you like.

I also doubled the recipe because I wanted left overs. =)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You can copy/paste the recipe below or watch my tutorial video at the bottom of the post.

Shrimp Scampi with Linguine

8oz Linguine

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

4 Cloves garlic, minced

1/2 Onion, minced

2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1Lb Shrimp, peeled & deveined

2/3C White Wine

3Tbsp Fresh Parsley, minced

1. Prepare Linguine according to directions on package. (I do this last while the sauce is simmering)

2. In large skillet heat olive oil.

3. Saute garlic, onion, & red pepper flakes until soft

4. Add shrimp and cook until firm, about 5 min

5. Remove shrimp into separate dish, cover to keep warm

6. Add wine to skillet & bring to simmer

7. Add parsley. Let simmer gently

8. Drain pasta & toss with sauce.

9. Serve with shrimp on top of pasta.

Enjoy!!! 

If you try this recipe and love it please comment below letting me know! =)

Crochet Bookmark Swap

I did a swap with some awesome ladies on YouTube!! Check out the bookmarks I made and received...

Checkout these awesome ladies' channels:

CatCrazyCreations

JennLikesYarn

GinaCraftyCrafter

https://www.youtube.com/user/123cardmaker

If you're interested in making any of the bookmarks that I made, check out the links below for the patterns:

Butterfly Pattern

Pink Pineapple Pattern

Heart Corner Bookmark Pattern

Blue Pineapple Pattern

Basic Crochet Beanie

I did a Crochet Beanie Tutorial for my YouTube channel and decided to write out the pattern for those that prefer the written version to the video.  If you want to see the video tutorial you can watch it at the end of this post. There are many, many ways to crochet this beanie so i'm just going to show you how I make mine. =)  I'm not using anyone else's pattern. I just kind of go with the flow when I make my beanies.

Before I start the pattern I want to explain how you can adjust it to fit any size head from a newborn to grown man.

First, check out this AWESOME Chart to determine the estimated hat circumference you will need to make for the beanie to fit properly.  After you have that number you need to divide it by Pi (3.14) to determine how many increase rounds you will need.  I chose to make an adult male beanie so according to the chart an adult male's head circumference is about 23-24".  I used 24" divided by 3.14 and got 7.6.  I stopped my increase rounds at 7" because a dc stitch is stretchy.  It's better for the beanie to be a little snug than too big. Once I got to my desired circumference I stopped increasing as you will see in the pattern. =)

I hope you enjoy this very simple pattern. Let's get to it...

Basic Crochet Beanie

Round 1:

Start with magic circle OR ch 4, sl st to 1st ch, 6 dc in ch space, sl st to 1st dc

Round 2:

ch 3 (counts as 1st dc) place st marker in top of ch 3, dc in same st, 2 dc in each st around (do NOT sl st to 1st dc)

**Move stitch marker to last dc of this round and do so at end of each round

Round 3:

1 dc in next st (top of ch3), 2dc in next st (this is the increase), continue pattern around

Round 4:

1 dc in each of next 2 st, 2 dc in next st. Cont. increase in every 3rd st around

Round 5:

1 dc in each of next 3 st, 2dc in next st. Cont increase in every 4th st around

Round 6:

1 dc in each of next 4 st, 2 dc in next st. Cont. increase in every 5th st around.

Round 7:

1 dc in each of next 5 st, 2dc in next st. Cont. increase in every 6th st around.

Round 8:

1 dc in each of next 6 st, 2dc in next st. Cont. increase in every 7th st around.

Round 9 - ?

1 dc in each st around

**Repeat this round until the hat is at your desired length.

(Optional 2 additional rounds)

1st Additional Round:

hdc in next st, sc in each st around

2nd Additional Round:

sc in each st around, sl st in next st, ch1

Cut yarn and pull through last ch to create knot

Sew in tails. 

ENJOY your new beanie!!!

=D

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Being that the holidays have just passed, I'm sure you have some extra cans of pumpkin and sweetened condensed milk in your pantry.  Bring them out for this yummy treat!!

This is everything you will need:

Now, let's get started.  =)

Pumpkin Pie Bars

1 1/2 C All Purpose Flour

1 C Finely chopped nuts

1/2 C Granulated sugar

1/2 C Firmly packed brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided

3/4 C butter or margarine

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 (14 oz) can Sweetened condensed milk

2 Eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp Ground all spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F

2. Combine flour, nuts, sugars, 1 tsp cinnamon.  Add butter, mix until crumbly.

3. Reserve 1 1/4 C crumb mixture. Pat remaining mixture on bottom of ungreased 13x9" dish.

4. Combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, 1 tsp cinnamon, all spice & salt, mix well.

5. Mix reserved crumbs with 1 Tbsp flour. Sprinkle of pumpkin mixture.

6. Bake 30-35 minutes or until pumpkin mixture has set.

7. Let cool 10 minutes on cooling racks.  Cut into bars & serve warm.

8. Store left over bars in closed container in refrigerator.

Enjoy!!!

Spiced Holiday Cookies

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We did and we're not even done yet! When our older boys come home from their Christmas break we have more gifts to open. 

Back to the matter at hand.

Everything I gave as gifts was homemade with one exception: my husband's gift.  I made homemade Playdough for kids and for the adult I made these delish cookies.  Check out the video below for the tutorial.  However, if you're not into that you can just skip it and copy the recipe below that. =)

I hope you give the recipe a try and let me know how you like them. =)

Don't they look awesome?!  They were a definite hit!

McCormick Spiced Holiday Sugar Cookies

2 1/3 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 C sugar

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 egg

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. 

2. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. 

4. Gradually beat in flour until well mixed. 

5. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight until firm.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

7. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.

8. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on greased baking sheets.

9. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

10. Cool on baking sheet for 1 min then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

11. Decorate with cookie icing. (Optional)

Cookie Icing

1 C confectioners (powdered) sugar

2 tsp milk

2 tsp light corn syrup

1/4 tsp almond extract (or other extract)

food coloring

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients until smooth

2. Decorate cookies.

If you're interested in what cameras I use to record you can check them out with the below links.

Camcorder I use: http://amzn.to/VMznsw

Camera I use: http://amzn.to/UAL4Xw

I would love to connect on other sites. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and of course, here on my blog.

If you would like to share your instagram pics with me feel free to include this hashtag: #everdaycrazyvlog in your caption. =)

Have a beautiful and safe New Years Eve. 

Many blessing over you and your family over the next year!

DIY Play Dough

This year for Christmas I'm doing all homemade and VERY frugal!! I don't have the budget to do traditional gift giving this year so I'm doing what I know best, making things and saving money!  I made this Play Dough as a tester yesterday and let me tell you, it's AWESOME!!  =)  It's so soft even I wanted to play with it.

Recipe:

1 C Water
1 C Flour
1/2 C Salt
2 Tbsp Vinegar
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
Food Coloring

Instructions:


1. Mix flour and salt in bowl
2. Mix water, vinegar, oil, and food coloring in seperate bowl or cup
3. Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredient and mix until smooth.
4. Cover bowl and microwave on high for 4 minutes
5. Let cool then knead dough until soft and smooth
6. Store in ziploc or airtight container.

If you're more of a visual person check out my video below. =)