Zaycon Chicken...

Ever wondered what 40 pounds of chicken looks like? Here is my 40 pounds from my last Zaycon order. There are 5-7 breast halves individually wrapped in each gallon zip top bag. This is easily fits on just one shelf of our upright 40 cubic foot freezer. It does take a bit of time to cut the breast halves apart and trim them up but it is well worth it to be stocked up for a while. This time I packed all the chicken into smaller zip top bags then added those to larger gallon size bags. I found it much easier to have a bunch of the smaller bags prepped by opening them and flipping over the top edge to keep the bag open, then I could just put breasts in there as I worked. I even got my hubby into the mix this time, he sealed and packed all the bags for me.

 I really need to defrost! 

Not heard of Zaycon Chicken? Click here to find out more!   zayconfresh.com/refer/zf114247

FYI... I have not received any compensation for talking about Zaycon chicken. I am just giving my  personal opinions.

Meal plan 4/13 - 4/19/2014

    Often when I talk with people about meal planning their first reaction is "oh I could never do that!" Or "What if something comes up?" I say Sure you can and if something comes up roll with it. Last week was a perfect example for me. Sunday I was just plain wiped out so we ordered pizza and another night I had run out of an ingredient I needed so I swapped a recipe from another night. If I remember right I swapped dinner on Tuesday and Thursday. It was an easy fix and no stress. Meal planning does take a bit of forethought but in the end it has reduced my daily stress level. I started by planning out a few weeks at a time and now I try to sit down at least once a week and plan for about 2 weeks out. As we come into warmer weather I try to always have burgers, hot dogs or brats (paired with a nice salad of course) on hand for a quick grill option if we feel like being outside or I just want a quick easy dinner.

Here is my list for this week...
Sunday - Cheesy Potato soup W / ham
Monday - Kielbasa W / onions and bell peppers
Tuesday - Chili W/ Cornbread (Chili is from the Freezer)

Wednesday -  Roasted Chicken (in the Crockpot)
Thursday -  Mexican Chicken Salad Inspired buy this recipe
Friday - Crockpot steak fajitas
Saturday -  Pizza, We will be eating out since we will be at a family outing.

Easy Peasy School Lunch ideas

Ok so in my community there has been lots of talk and work to improve our lacking school lunches. "The Boy" would get school lunch almost every day just because he just likes to get lunch at school but does not always eat it all. "The Girl" is the opposite but is liking the salad bar at her new school. Most days they bring lunch from home. Yes I do pack it for them in the morning but you could pack it the night before or do enough for the week on Sunday evening. Here are some ideas...

(EDIT January 2014)  Our School lunches have improved a lot since my original post. Is there still room for improvement? Yes, but now my kids eat school lunch more often than not. Partly because I am working part time now and also because it is a choice we have made. I am leaving these ides here in hopes to help other moms who are struggling with choices :)

Sandwiches... OK this is a no brainer but "think outside the bread" :)
Meat and cheese roll-ups... roll favorite lunch meat with cheese and secure with a toothpick
Meat and cheese cut into shapes... I don't have the time and patience for this but some kids love it and it helps them be more adventurous.
Crackers ... add with cheese and meat and you have home made Lunchables!
Leftovers... anything that can be eaten cold, IE: Pizza
Frozen grapes... My kids LOVE these. I buy lots when they are on sale wash take off the vine and freeze.
Home made muffins ... freeze them! they will be perfectly defrosted by lunch :)
Freeze yogurt cups  ... this was a revelation to me! My kids love it and it's like they get ice cream with lunch! You can freeze the individual cups from the store or buy the big tubs and make your own.
Apple sauce ... make your own and freeze like the yogurt! Or buy the super size jug at the store and portion it out into your own containers.
Cut / wedged Apples ...  There are a few ways to keep them from browning... drizzle any citrus soda you have over them. I have been using a lemon lime soda from Aldi it's about .89 for 1 liter. Or wedge then wrap tightly back into it's shape with a rubber band or plastic wrap. The surfaces won't be exposed so the sugar will not oxidize as fast turning it brown. Use less sweet varieties, they brown slower!

 I will be adding more to the list but this is a start.

I also want you to know that I used to only think I could put pre packaged snacks and goodies in my kids lunch. It is only over the last few years I have begun to get more creative with their lunches.

See my all about lunch page for some pics of my kids lunches

10 minute home made strawberry ice cream without an icream maker!

So I was reading one of my Favorite Blogs the other day and she had posted about this "5 minute berry ice cream without an ice cream maker". I thought "hmmm I'm going to have to try that one day." One of the ingredients was heavy cream which I almost never purchase so I just added it to my "to try someday" file and forgot about it.

 A few days later I went to a local food distribution program and got all this heavy cream as part of a package deal.

So I decided to give the ice cream recipe a whirl!

I hauled out my trusty food processor (thank you swagbucks for helping me purchase this awesome kitchen tool!) 
I adapted This recipe a bit to make it easier for me and accommodate what I had available.

10 minute Strawberry Ice cream
Here is the Printable recipe

Ingredients:
4 cups frozen Strawberries, sliced, halved or quartered
1/2 - 3/4 cup of white sugar (adjust to your personal taste)
1/2 pint heavy cream (the cute tiny container)

Directions:
Add strawberries to your food processor.
Pour sugar over the berries.

Disclaimer: My pictures are not great for this post as I was impatient and it was super hot outside and I wanted to get this done and in the freezer ASAP! Also please ignore the weird stains on my very old counter tops. I have tried everything to remove them and they will not come off.

Pulse until the sugar and berries are mixed well and crushed pretty fine.

Slowly add in cream through the opening in the food processor. 
This part can get a bit frustrating if your processor is a smaller model like mine (it's and 8 cup vs. 12)  but if you take off the top and carefully move things around a bit with a wooden spoon (if you use a spatula you may cut it on the blade and if you use a spoon you could damage your blade) you will be all set. Turn on again and let it run until everything comes together. It will look all nice and slushy.

At this point you can put it in a container and freeze it so it gets nice and hard or you can serve it right away to you salivating children. I did both :)

This is what it looked like served right away

This stuff is AMAZING! I will say that I much preferred it after it had frozen solid. It scoops just like ice cream should and had a much nicer flavor I think after it had been in the freezer for 24 hours.

After serving this your family will definitely think you are the awesomest (yes it's a word, well today it is anyway) person in the whole universe!

If you find that you are getting lots of ice crystals next time stir your freezer mixture every 1/2 hour for a couple hours. It will help break them up.

Fresh Picked Strawberries!

So last week the kids and I went out to a local farm to pick strawberries. I was super happy find a place that still had berries available because most of the local farms were already picked out. I had meant to go the week before but I was knocked out by one of the nastiest bugs I have ever had.

It  took us about an hour to pick all this...

I think the boy ate at least a pint and he definitely ate more than he picked. The girl did well picking, a bonus of her growing up a bit but she ate quite a few in the field too :) It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast.

The best part to me about this whole venture was that the kids did all the hulling!

Wahoo!

Yay me!

Thanks kids!











I then made approximately 20 pints of freezer jam... Phew what a day! Last year I managed to stretch the jam out all the way to the end of the school year. Hopefully I can do that again because the kids really love it. Last year I tried 3 different recipes and below is our favorite.

My Freezer Jam recipe. Here is the printable Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 cups of crushed strawberries
1 package of no/low sugar pectin
1/2 cup of honey (local is best)
1 1/2 cups sugar (next time I will try even less sugar)
1/4 cup water

Whir up your berries in a food processor or blender, then put into a heat safe bowl.
Add 2 Tablespoons of Pectin to the berry mixture.
Add rest of pectin to a medium saucepan with the sugar, honey and water. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. You just want to heat it up and get everything blended. Turn off heat and add sugar mixture to berries. Mix well to blend ingredients.
Pour into prepared containers. Let cool for a few minutes before adding lids. I let mine cool completely before I put them into the freezer.



I forgot to take a picture of my pile of finished jam but the bottom of my 10CU ft freezer is FULL!

The jam did not use up all our berries. I filled 2 trays of sliced berries to freeze (what I used for ice cream (recipe to come). We also ate lots with vanilla yogurt or put them on top of vanilla  ice cream. They were so huge and delicious it was well worth the work and effort!