Chest Freezer Inventory

We just bought ourselves a little beaut! We bought a deep freezer off on ones of those facebook yardsale sights. It only cost us $60 so we are thinking if this lasts us 5 years we will be very pleased. I originally wanted a stand up freezer, but for $60 I couldn't pass it up.

I have participated in a freezer meal swap the past few months so once a month I'm getting 12 freezer meals. That doesn't include normal freezer things, leftover I freeze and things to stock up on. So my little freezer over the fridge was not cutting it. I finally convinced the hubs that we needed one. The next day we looked around at freezers. Stand up freezers were $600 (that was the cheapest I found) and chest (which I didn't want at the time) was $175. We left discouraged and I thought we'd put this dream of mine on hold. The very next day someone posted it and I was very excited.

One of the reasons I didn't want to get a chest freezer was because they are terrible to organize. Now I'm not the queen of organization, but I can only take so much. So in hopes of not forgetting what we have in it I've created this freezer inventory spreadsheet. Wasted food = wasted money!




Because I'm still getting use to having an additional freezer it is pretty bare right now, but I imagine it feeling up pretty soon. Now to spend the week finding ways to organize the inside.

~CJ

Applesauce Pork Chops

This is one of those things where you find a recipe, you try it you like it, but it is just too much work and unnecessary things. The original recipe called for things like apple cider vinegar, dry mustard and other things that I don't normally have around the house. That is fine if you are trying to impress food critics. But when it's just my husband and I that is there for dinner SIMPLE is what I'm looking for! So this is my simplified version...

Ingredients:

4 pork chops (I've also done this with pork loin still in the long tubey form)

1 C apple sauce

1/4 C Brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix Everything together minus the chops
3. Brush on apple mixture
4. Bake for 30 minutes or so.

That's it, pretty easy right? You can also make a nice presentation and bake some apple slices with it. I hope you are willing to give this a try. Let me know what you think and any ideas you have to make it even better

.

~CJ

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

 Is it just me or does bacon make everything better??? 

If you agree you have to try this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus

1/2 package of bacon

Directions:

Chicken Cesar Salad

I made this the other night for a potluck with the in-laws. Big hit with the fam! I always hear, "I don't like Cesar salad, but this is good!"

Cesar Dressing
1C Mayo
1T Lemon Juice
1t Worcestershire Sauce (such a funny word...)
1 Clove garlic (the other night I just used like 1 1/2 t garlic powder instead)
1/4t Salt
1/8t Pepper
1/2C Parmesan Cheese (the powdery kind) 
1T Milk or half and half

Just mix together

Cesar Salad
I like to make a "not your typical Cesar", because really who wants a salad with just lettuce? So along with roman lettuce I added tomatoes and cucumber. Then the normal croûtons and grated Parmesan cheese (I didn't have any) and the chicken of course. We've done it 2 ways, the recent was just grilled chicken and then in the past we did breaded.

(How I make my breaded chicken is dip in egg, dip in Itailian bread crumbs, bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Dice chicken and add to salad.)

You can either add the dressing to the salad and mix, or let people add it themselves. For this big salad (hard to see how big in the picture) I only used a little over half of the dressing.

Enjoy!

~CJ

Spooky 7 layer bean dip

Ok so I love this time of year! It's not my favorite, but it means my favorite is getting close! Every October my family and 2 other families we've known since before I was born get together and have a black and orange dinner. What is this you might ask? It is so much fun! All the food is black and orange. Ex. black olives, baby carrots, Doritos  Whatever people want to bring. The main course is dinner in a pumpkin. I'll do a post on that later. We also always have orange jello with those plastic spider rings in them. So much fun. The last few years we've tried stepping out of the box. This is what I came up with last year.

If you have never made a 7 layer bean dip before start! They are so easy and always a big hit. My usual bean dip is this (Layer in order)

Refried beans
Sour cream
Guacamole
Cheese
tomatoes
green onion
olives

For this Halloween one I focused more on the halloween colored food showing; green guacamole, orange cheese, and black olives. I also ended with an extra layer of sour cream to make the web. I just put sour cream in a zip top bag and cut the end. It was pretty simple to do. I LOVE my little spider made out or an olive!

It was a huge hit! I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for something fun for this year, it's Sunday!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

~CJ

Partying with:

Chicken Taquitos

So since I am still lacking a computer I have no access to recipes. It requires planning and looking it up at one of our parents houses. (The Hubs' mom's computer just recently stopped working so now we are really limited)

One day we had some tortillas that needed to be used. Immediately I thought taquitos, but since I didn't have the chance to look up the recipe I made one up and it was gooood! So I thought I'd share...


Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts
1t chili powder
2 scoops sour cream
2 can diced green chilies
1/2 t garlic powder
a dash of salt
cheese ( I just winged it)
Tortillas (I used the burrito size because that is what I had, but any size will work depending on how big you want them.)

Bake chicken breasts for around 20 minutes at 350 degrees.   

Shred Chicken up, it's even easier if you have a food processor. It took like 5 minutes!

 Next add in all the ingredients and mix together, some of the cheese too...

 Spread the mixture on the tortilla. I was making these for lunch with no sides so I made them pretty big. If you were doing these as like an appetizer or something I would make them smaller with the fajita size tortillas not the burrito size. I made 6, but I think if you watched what you put in and used the smaller tortillas you could get around 12.

Roll them up and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes add some grated cheese on top and bake another 5 minutes until melted.

Top with whatever ingredients you choose. We personally love guacamole!

~CJ


Linking to:

Frozen Breakfast Burritos

Once a month/week cooking to HOT right now and I'm being lured in with everyone else. It is so convenient! Weather it be doing a big cooking day, or having a swap with some friends, it is cheaper, easy, and healthier. No more take out because you don't know what to cook!***

***Confession, sometimes we still get take out either because I forgot to throw something in the slow cooker or because we just feel like going out!

Why should Once a month/ week cooking be limited to Dinners with leftovers for lunch? I'm working on some different breakfast recipes. The burrito is my favorite! So many choices and so easy!

It took me about 1 1/2 hours to put together 22 breakfast burritos. It wasn't bad at all. I set up a table by the computer and watched Netflix.

This is what was in my burritos.
Tortillas- 22
Cheese- Probably 2 Cups
Eggs- 8
Sausage- 1 lb
bacon- a few strips leftover
ham- No idea
sauteed onions and garlic (Hubs claims to be the key ingredient)- 1 onion, 4 garlic cloves
Tator Tots- 1/2 large bag
Franks Red Hot

Frozen Apple Bites

My little bug is 18 months old. It is nice because he can pretty much feed himself without making a huge disastrous mess. However there are a few things I wont let him feed himself such as yogurt and apple sauce. I found a solution to the yogurt while looking at Pinterest. I don't know what link I first saw, but it's everywhere. Frozen yogurt dots. Interesting...

I wondered if the same theory would work for applesauce. I decided to give it a try and make Frozen Apple Bites.

More after the jump...

Lemon Ranch Chicken

Long time no post... Sorry about that! I've been busy/ lazy/ uninspired. I really haven't been up to much lately. The Hubs was off of work for the month of July so with him being home I didn't really do much crafting. Now that he is back to work since school started I can get the creative juices flowing again.

I was looking through some old pictures and realized I never posted this recipe I made up for lemon ranch chicken. I don't know about you, but I LOVE chicken! It is so easy and usually is the cheapest meat. I'm always looking for new ways to make it to change things up. So one day I came up with this Lemon Chicken Ranch recipe.

More after the jump

Bridal Shower: Candy Buffet

I recently threw a Bridal Shower for my best friend who is getting Married in August. It turned out so nice! I decided I wanted to do a "Love is Sweet" themed shower. What is more perfect than doing a candy buffet???

 Luckily I had plenty of help with this otherwise it would have cost me an arm and a leg. Candy is expensive!!! We wanted it to be the colors of the shower which were yellow, brown, and purple. Instead of wasting money on just getting the right colors, we bought the normal bags of candies and just picked out the candies we wanted. The men were willing to help sort for a small fee... a handful of candy of course! It looked so pretty:) I love having the different jars. We also put boxes underneath to give different heights.

I had a couple of the jars on hand, plus borrowed from my mom. I bought about 5 jars from Goodwill for about $5 on half price day. 

 The candy we used was

Cow Tails (One of the Brides favorites [with the wrappers off])

M&Ms

Tootsie Rolls

Lemonheads

Whoppers

Skittles

Rootbeer Barrels

Reese's Pieces

Kisses (Regular, Dark Chocolate, and Camel)

The favor was for the guests to fill up a container and take it home with them. I bought them at DollarTree it was $1 for 12 boxes. I was going to wrap them with leftover paper from the invites, but decided not to since it's just going to be thrown away. Instead I stamped "thank you" on it with some flowers.

It was a hit and The Hubs is loving the leftovers:) Have you done a candy buffet? It's becoming my new favorite thing! I'd love to see yours to get ideas for my next party:)

~CJ

Bridal Shower: Food

Looking for some ideas to serve at a Bridal Shower? Here is what I did for the one I threw for my Best Friend. The theme was "Love is Sweet" so we served sweets and treats.

I didn't take very many pictures so hopefully it's enough to give you an idea. We did cheesecake bites, brownies, cream puffs, s'mores bars and a chocolate fountain. Items to dip, strawberries, bananas, pretzel rods, rice krispie treats, and marshmallows.

It was the perfect touch for the love is sweet theme. So much good stuff to eat:)

Patriotic Pizza Part 2

Remember my post earlier about the Patriotic Pizza I was testing for a red, white, and blue family potluck? Well for the real deal we decided to step it up a notch. How about a nice American Hero Pizza? Like Captain America???

How fun would this be for a Super Hero Party or just for a fun lunch for your own super hero! I used the same ingredients as here. I used my son's Captain America shirt to get the order everything goes it.

 The Hubs dis a great job at the star don't you think? I was originally going to cut out a star and use it as a stencil, but forgot. I think it turned out great! 

The family was impressed with our creativity!

~CJ

Swap Week: Freezer Meal Swap

I hope you are enjoying swap week as much as I am. Today's swap is freezer meals! It seems all over the place you see once a month/week cooking and freezer meals. I did it myself too. You can see that post here.

A friend of my suggested a freezer meal swap. I had thought about hosting one, but since I had so many swaps going on I was holding off. It has been nice. We have only met the one time, but are already in the midst of planning another one hoping to do it once a month.

There were 11 of us involved. So we made 11 of one recipe enough to feed 4 people. This gave us enough to have 2 weeks worth (assuming you do a date night every week or eat with the parents etc.) There was a lot of variety! We also decided that we'd provide tortillas, bread, or noodles that went with it. We tried for just doing crock pot meals too to make things easier, but really what ever you decide.

I hope you love this idea as much as I do! Give it a try with your friends. It has been so nice to not really have to worry about making dinner. Just pop it in the slower cooker. Serve with canned veggies or a salad and your family will be happy. Can't get any easier!

Here is a list of the foods that everyone did.

1. Cilantro lime chicken tacos
2. Chicken Chili
3. Machaca Beef (for tacos)
4. Teriyaki Chicken
5. Buffalo Chicken- I add shredded carrots in mine
6. Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
7. Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini-
8. Taco's (Precooked) With Tortillas and Cheese
9. Chicken Enchilada/Tortilla soup with chips and cheese
10. Chicken Alfredo

Someone actually ended up cancelling last minute so we had prepared an extra one so we did like a white elephant and exchanged our extra, it was kind of fun and silly.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know how it goes! ~CJ

Swap Week- Recipe Swap

This is day 2 of swap week, you can see day one here.

Today I'm going to tell you about a fun recipe swapping idea I started the beginning of this year. A group of us get together once a month and bring a recipe to share with everyone. We bring some already made for everyone to sample. Then they get to take a recipe card so they can make it on their own.

There are usually around 10 of us on most nights. It has been so much fun. The first time I did it I was explaining to my Husband what a recipe swap was. His reply was, "It's a freaking buffet, I wanna go!" Since half the people that come are family he usually gets a sample too.

We usually have a theme which makes it a little easier to come up with something. Here is a list of the themes we have done so far.

• Appetizers
• Breakfast
• Pasta
• Side Dishes
• Crock Pot
• Salads- (This month)

Future ideas

• Main Dishes
• Dessert
• Beverages
• Secret Ingredient (the month before we'll each submit an ingredient and then randomly choose one.) 
• Christmas Recipe
• Snacks

That is the line up for the rest of the year (if everyone agrees). It has been so much fun on the plus I now have a bunch of awesome recipes! Give it a try with your friends, Let me know how it goes.

~CJ

Patriotic Pizza

On the second Sunday of every month My Husband's family has a potluck dinner. We try to have a theme to make it fun and to spark ideas of what to bring. For July, in honor of America our theme is Red, White, and Blue. I wanted to come up with something really fun and tasty. The easy way out is dessert. Assuming that most people will bring a dessert I did not want to go with that option. This is what I came up with... Pizza!

Banana Creme Truffle

This is one of those recipes that is so easy and SO good. I always get compliments on it. So here is the recipe for my version of Banana Cream Pie, I call it Banana Cream Truffle.

Ingredients
2 Boxes of Banana Pudding
Milk (according to Pudding directions)
1 Container of whipped Cream
1/2 box of vanilla wafers
3-4 Bananas, Sliced
Truffle dish (or other glass bowl)


Layer pudding, bananas, wafers, and whipped cream. End with whipped cream. Garnish with crushed wafers. It looks so nice and tastes great too! Best if eaten as soon as possible, wafers will get soggy. It makes quite a bit so you can half the recipe if needed.

Homemade Fajita Seasoning

I love Fajitas! Everytime we have them I say, "we should have these more often!" A while back I made them and realized once I started that we didn't have any seasoning. I turned to Google and found a few recipes. It was so good I have vowed to never do store bought again!

After looking at other recipes I came up with my own that is pretty basic. Thought I would share and inspire you to make some, so easy, tasty, and cheap. Though I don't know for a fact, I'm pretty sure it's healthier too!

Here is the recipe. Don't be afraid to double or triple it to have on hand.

Homemade Fajita Seasoning

2t Chili Powder

1t Salt

1t Paprika

1/4t Garlic Powder

1t Oregano

1/4t Sugar

Combine. Use about 3T for 1 Lb of meat. Store unused in an air tight container in fridge. 

Doesn't that look good! How I make my fajitas. I cook that chicken (sometimes I'll bake it and then throw in a pan). Add a layer of water and seasoning. Let that simmer covered for 5 minutes. Add peppers (the more color the prettier!), and onions. Cover again for 5 minutes. Add fresh tomatoes cut up and cover again for another 3-5 minutes. SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

I put in a tortilla, add cheese, sour cream, and guacamole! Tastes best when the tortilla is fried! Hope you enjoy!

~CJ

Linking up here:

Chicken Ranch Pasta

I almost missed another day for my goal of a post a day in May. Weekends excluded of course, who wants to "work" on weekends???

Here is another recipe that is a huge hit. Every time my mom has it she says, "you have to give me the recipe!" This ones for you Mom!!!

Chicken Ranch Pasta

1 Pkg. Pasta (Bowtie and Penne are my favorite for this)

2-3 Carrots, chopped

1/2 package of frozen broccoli

1 1/2C Ranch Dressing (Add more if seems dry)

(This recipe is the basic version. Add different veggies and see what your family likes. Zucchini, peas, etc.)

Cook pasta according to packaging.

Cook broccoli & other frozen veggies (I throw carrots in too)

Mix everything together and keep in fridge for around 30 minutes or longer. Serve cool.

(Sorry for the pictures, I'm so bad when it comes to food. I eat and forget pics!)

~CJ

Cook-A-Thon

***Hello visitors! I'd love for you to look around, and I'd really love for you to stick around and follow me if you like what you see!

So I have seen on Pinterest about all these women (I'm sure there are men out there that do it too) that do once a month cooking. WOW! Wouldn't that be so nice?!?! Well I decided to give it a try in a smaller dose. We have refered to it in our house as the cook-a-thon, where I turned a bunch of ingredients into 23 packages of meals. 

 Keep in mind 23 packages, not meals! For example one package is a 9x11 pan of lasagna. That would feed my family 3 meals.

Really these can't be called meals because we'll probably have a side with them and some of them are to be served over rice or noodles. On the blogs where I got the reciepes they said it fed their family of 3 (2 adults and a toddler) dinner and lunch the next day.

I started around 8am and wrapped up just in time for the Hubs to be home from work around 5pm. OK here you do the math in your head... 9 HOURS! Yes, but then minus an hour because we went and bought a washer and dryer, lunch break, diaper changes, Little Bug attention breaks. So if someone asked me how long it took I'd say more like 6 hours probably. 

***Update, it also was my first time, I have gotten a lot faster at it now. Also, a lot of these were cook before meals, the dump and go ones make it a way quicker process!

Hey World!

CJ is here and ready to share my craftiness with the world!

 Here will be my craft journal. I hope you enjoy my creations and can learn something here. I love to get ideas from others so I'm hoping I can help spark an idea in your world. To see some of my past crafts you can see them on the website ourdiydiaries. It is such a fun website so be sure to follow them. Thanks for reading and I hope you come back soon!


I would love for you to follow me! I'll return the favor! And grab a button if you so choose!

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