In our little house in Fort Worth, I am the cook... I am also the housekeeper, laundry lady, toilet scrubber, bed maker, mail checker, and the list could go on and on... but mainly, I am the cook. It is a job that is very rarely shared in our house. Why? Well, Casey doesn't really know how to cook.
One night we were sitting in the living room and he said "I will make dinner tonight, how about tacos? What kind do you want?" I was puzzled... what does he mean what kind of tacos do I want? Like chicken or turkey? Intrigued, I asked him what he meant and he replied... "Yea, what kind? You know... Taco Bell, Taco Casa, Taco Bueno?"
I couldn't help but laugh! Since then, I have been teaching him (slowly) how to cook. His favorite is anything you cook in the crockpot because you just throw everything in there and let it do its magic.
With Dax coming, I asked Casey if he would like us to meal prep beforehand so we would have a freezer of food at his (and Caleb's) disposal when I didn't feel like cooking. He quickly agreed that it was a good idea. On top of this, one of our sweet cousins has offered to set us up a food train website so friends and family can bring over dinner and meet Dax. Hopefully with both of these, we (I mean I) wont have to cook for a couple of weeks.
I planned out 4 breakfast meals and 7 lunch/dinner meals to stock our freezer with. This paycheck we bought the ingredients to make half of the load and will buy the other recipes our next paycheck (if Dax isn't here by then).
Breakfast #1: Burritos (a family favorite) - we made 60!!!
Ingredients: scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, black beans, hash browns, grated cheese and tortillas.
Cook the eggs, sausage and beans, then fill the tortillas, roll tight and put in the freezer for about an hour before transferring them to a freezer bag (trust me, they will stay together better this way).
When you are ready to eat, pull them out and heat up for about a minute (give or take depending on your microwave).
Breakfast #2: English Muffins - we made 24 of these
Ingredients: eggs, English muffins, cheese and hash brown
We cracked 1 egg in each of the muffin tins, scrambled and baked for 20 minutes at 350. While that was cooking, I cut the English muffins in half. Then added the grated cheese (we forgot to buy sliced), hash browns (we had some leftover from the burritos) and the egg. I wrapped each one in its own foil and threw them in the bottom drawer of the freezer.
When you are ready to eat, remove the foil, heat in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.
Lunch/Dinner #1: Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Ingredients: 4 chicken breast, 2 cans of rotel, 1 package of taco seasoning, a couple bell peppers (I love these bags of mini sweet bell peppers from Wal-Mart).
Chop up your bell peppers (bigger pieces work better in the crockpot), and then dump them and everything else in a plastic zip lock freezer bag.
When ready to eat, dump contents in a crockpot for 4 hours on high. Shred chicken with a fork and eat like a taco or over rice.
Lunch/Dinner #2: Crockpot Turkey Chili
Ingredients: 1 pound of turkey meat (cooked), 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of green chilies, 1 can of rotel, 1 can of black beans (I ran out so I wrote on the bag for Casey to add them later), a couple bell peppers.
Brown your meat, chop up your bell peppers (bigger pieces work better in the crockpot), and then dump them and everything else in a plastic zip lock freezer bag.
When ready to eat, dump contents in a crockpot for 4 hours on high.
Lunch/Dinner #3: Creamy Burrito Casserole
*This one is more intense and takes more work before freezing*
Ingredients: 1 pound of turkey meat, 1 can of refried beans, 1 can of rotel, 1 package of taco seasoning, 1 4 oz. thing of sour cream, 1 can of cream of mushroom, 1 package of tortillas.
Brown your meat and then add the rotel, refried beans and taco seasoning. While that is cooking, mix together the sour cream and cream of mushroom. Then you will tear the tortillas up to make a layer in the casserole dish, spread the sour cream mixture on the tortillas, spread the meat mixture on the sour cream, and a layer of cheese... then repeat until you have filled the pan or run out of ingredients. We were able to make 2 of these dishes.
When ready to eat, heat at 350 for 30 minutes.
Lunch/Dinner #4: King Ranch Casserole
*This one is more intense and takes more work before freezing*
**I also got really tired at this point and my back was aching so I sat on the couch and coached Casey through making it by himself... I chalk it up to teaching him how to cook, haha**
Ingredients (ours differed from the actual recipe pictured above): 4 chicken breast, 1 tablespoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 3 tablespoons of flour, 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 small can of green chilies, 1 can of rotel, 1 package of corn tortillas, 2 cups of shredded cheese.
Casey cooked the chicken on the George Foreman and then shredded it up and put it in a pan with everything listed above except the tortillas and cheese. He brought that to a simmer. While it was cooking, he tore up the corn tortillas and started to layer the casserole dishes, then added cheese on top. Then he started to layer the meat mixture on top of the tortillas and cheese and did this until he filled up both casserole dishes.
When ready to eat: heat at 375 for 30-40 minutes
Next paycheck meals are the following:
Breakfast: Pancakes and Egg Muffins
Lunch/Dinner: Baked Penne, Salsa Chicken and Beef Stroganoff
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