A Real Revolution

One of the biggest challenges I face during the school year is making nutritious dinner meals.  A couple of years ago I would stop by the favorite fast food restaurant or grab some frozen contraption and consider it done. But my son developed high blood pressure at 14.  I realized what all the instant, processed food was doing to him. Last year I struggled to make sure that he was eating good, healthy, low sodium food but still fell all to often on frozen.

While surfing Pinterest I came across this movement called real food.  From that I found the novel idea of preparing crock-pot meals in advance and freezing them so that all you had to do is pull a bag out, throw it in the crock-pot and leave for the day only to return to a nutritious homemade meal.  A few years ago this idea surfaced in the frozen food isle. A famous manufacturer had this very thing and I used to love them. Now I realize how much sodium it had in it.  So now I find all these recipes with real food in them and the best part is, I control the ingredients and sodium amount.  I'm hooked.

Today I spent about an hour preparing 3 separate recipes which will make 6 meals.   I doubled each of the recipes. The recipes were found through links at Pinterest.  I'll let you know how each one works out. They seem to be really good recipes. Tonight we are starting with the teriyaki chicken.  If I can do this once or twice a week, I can have a myriad of different crock-pot meals. My life will be much easier this school year, and my family will be eating much more healthy home cooked meals.

Start by buying gallon size freezer bags. On each write what the meal is and what you have to do to complete it. (See pictures).

(Note: I have now made all three dishes and here are some suggestions. These freeze hard as a brick and you can't just take them out of the freezer and throw them in the crock pot. One way to work around that is to take it out overnight to thaw or 24 hours in advance to thaw in the fridge.  Also I think not adding any of the liquids until cooking is helpful.  My family of males tend to eat more than these recipes call for and the gallon freezer bags just aren't big enough to hold it all. So I may try putting the cut up vegetables in separate quart bags and labeling what goes with what. So when I grab the main bag I know what veggie packets to grab as well. That along with not adding liquids until cooking time should help alleviate that problems I had. The recipes were all good but I've added notes as to the additional seasonings I added.)

Teriyaki Chicken

Medium – Large bag of carrots

Red Onion into Large Chunks

2 large cans pineapple (undrained)

4 Garlic Cloves

4 Chicken Breasts

1 cup teriyaki sauce

Follow directions above and place into gallon freezer bag. Shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Instructions for Bag: Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to crock pot, Cook on low 8 h
ours or high 4 hours. Serve over hot rice.

(Note: I would add 2 cloves of garlic in addition)

http://pinterest.com/pin/33073378484233982/
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html

Beef Stew

4lb cubed stewing beef
4 cups baby carrots
4 cups baby red potatoes (cut in half)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 15 oz can tomato sauce (1/2 in each bag)
2 cup water
2 Tbs brown sugar
10 oz package dried lima beans (optional)
4 tsp quck-cooking tapioca

Follow directions above, and put everything except the lima beans and tapioca into a one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. Instructions for Bag: Add 10 oz bag of dried lima beans and 4 tsp quick-cooking tapioca. Cook on low 8 hours.

(Note: after cooking the original recipe I added the following 2-3 cups beef broth, 1/4 cup worchester, 4-5 cloves garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1 bouillon cube. I also think adding 1/2-1 cup red wine would add a nice touch. Without the extra seasonings, it was sort of bland and the beans soak up so much liquid you need the extra.)

http://pinterest.com/pin/33073378484233982/
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html


Crock-pot Pork Chops with Onion

I did not find this recipe originally on Pinterest but will be pinning it asap :).

4 to 6 pork chops
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup water
Potatoes
Onions
Carrots

Place pork chops in gallon freezer bag. Add water. Add peeled onions, potatoes, and carrots, as desired. Seal and freeze. Instructions for bag. Add soup mix to crock pot along with bag ingredients.. Cook on HIGH setting 3 1/2 to 4 hours or LOW for 6 to 8 hours.
Serves 4 to 6.

(Note: after cooking original recipe, I would add 4-5 cloves of garlic and replace the water with beef or chicken broth. You may need to add additional liquid)

 http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotporkchops/r/bl10c9.htm