Day 7: Meal#8 French Beef Dip

OH. MY. GRAVY.

This is oh-so-good.  It was so good, that we didn't get a picture of this one plated because we all ate it too fast.  My son asked for seconds.  My husband asked for seconds.  It is SO good.

You can't get thin slices of this because of the cut of meat, but you can cut pieces of it easily enough.  The mushrooms in this are RIDICULOUSLY delicious.  I mean, seriously.  The au jus is perfect.  Honestly, everything about this is perfect.  Even if you aren't doing my 30 meals in a day challenge, you need to get the ingredients and make this dish NOW.  Seriously.  Go.  Recipe is on the spreadsheet, right here.

I did manage to get a picture of the leftovers that are going into our fridge.  It's not a good picture, but you're going to have to trust me on this one.  Yum.

Day 6: Meal#7 Chicken and Cherries

So...life with a baby during exam time does not leave a lot of time for blogging!

I made this meal on Tuesday.  We ate it Tuesday night over rice, and Wednesday night in a quesadilla.  Both were delicious.  My husband and I decided we'd like a bit of chili powder in it, but overall this was a nice, tender, juicy chicken that had some nice flavor to it.  It looked like this:

As we get busier and busier this year, I am more and more grateful that I did this.  Obviously, these meals are going to last us more than a month.  We are not eating out anymore - we just have SO many leftovers that we really can only make a meal or two a week.  Crazy!  I think the 30 meals I made may last us TWO months - which really would be something!

Now, if you'll excuse me, there is a small child screaming his lungs out for a bottle. :)

Day 5: Meal #9 Orange-Beef Stew

I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I've posted.  It's been a busy weekend.  At any rate, on Thursday of last week, we made the Orange-Beef Stew.  (Wednesday we did leftovers).  Once it was made, it looked like this:

I served it over mashed potatoes.  The verdict?  We HATED it.  The flavors didn't go together, the boldest flavor was spinach, and it was just generally blech.  We couldn't even save it by adding things to it.

Now, the rest of the time since, we've been feasting on leftovers (for real!).  We've had both the pork and the chicken shredded into nachos/quesadillas.  My favorite, though, was that I made a pizza out of them.  SOOOO good!

Tomorrow, we'll make another meal.  We're finding that because of the amount of leftovers, we are only using about 3 meals a week.  That means that instead of lasting 4 weeks for us, this round of meals MAY last us 10 weeks. 

Day 4: Meal #13: Islander Pork Roast

Oh, you guys WISH your house smelled like mine.

It smells SOOOO good in here.  The pork, combined with the citrus and cloves is such a wonderful smell on such a cold and yucky day.

I made up some Jasmine rice, added a little cornstarch and water to the crockpot, and we ended up with this:

I wish this was a scratch and sniff computer.  Yum.

So, the verdict is that this was a yummy, yummy roast.  My husband wants more pineapple added, and then add a few water chestnuts.  I agree.  The flavor was good, but it needed a crunch of something.  Everyone ate it all without any complaints, so we have another winner here.  Seriously, yum.  Everyone should be so lucky as to have this scent in their house!

Day 3: Meal#1: BBQ

We decided to start this Monday off with some BBQ - which is meal #1 on the Spreadsheet.  I was SO excited - I love BBQ!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, in order to use the meals that are frozen, take them out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you plan on using them.  Then, just put in the crockpot and go (unless there are other directions on the spreadsheet).  So easy!

Anyway, after work, the house smelled lovely - but not really like BBQ.  I opened the crock and shredded the chicken quickly.  I made up some couscous and served it on top.  This would also be yummy on rice, on a bun as a sandwich, or by itself.  It looked like this:

Yum!

The sweet potatoes were a yummy touch to this recipe.  It gave it a little sweetness and some depth.  I cut the zucchini too small, so it was falling apart.  At any rate, the flavor was good, but I don't know that I would call it BBQ.  There wasn't much of a sauce, and what was there didn't taste much like a traditional BBQ sauce.  I think in the future I either need to make or buy a BBQ sauce to add to this - or maybe use in place of what the recipe calls for.  The husband had a migraine, so he has yet to try it.  The six year old loved it, and ate every morsel.  All in all, a tasty (but bland) recipe. 

Leftover Day!

As expected, these meals yield more than what my family can eat in a sitting, so we've decided to make today and tomorrow leftover days!

Today, we had the goulash again.  This time, I added a little water and some cumin and cinnamon, and my husband liked it much better.  I think that I may add a little water and some spices to it when I make it again later in the month.  So yummy!

If you're cooking this weekend, good luck!  Invest the weekend, and you'll have more time with your family later!

Day 2: Meal #20: Cheesy Potato Soup

**Note:  The meal numbers are in no particular order.  The number corresponds to the number on the spreadsheet of recipes, found here.  I thought this would be easiest for reference for you all. :)**

For my household, it was a snowday.  I got to stay home from my "real job", my son was home from school, we kept my youngest son home from daycare, and my husband worked from home.  It was lovely.  And what better way to top off our day at home than to eat a warm, comforting bowl of cheesy potato soup.

Can I just say, this is seriously the easiest recipe ever.  The prep work for it is simple, and then you add a few store bought ingredients and go out the door.  LOVE IT!  I'm all about little work for big reward.  After all, I'm a girl who wants it all;  family, career, yummy food and time to enjoy it all! :)

So - after adding the ingredients from the freezer, plus a couple extras, it cooks all day.  At the end, you do a couple of things, and then it looks like this:

This was TRULY delicious.  I mean, YUM.  It is warm, and creamy, and comforting.  My 6 year old LOVED it.  Both my 6 year old and my husband, though, thought that I should have added more bacon to it. :)

My husband and I are thinking of using this as a base recipe for several other soups.  We're going to play with it a little, so you'll probably see some variations of it in the months to come.

This one was a hit.  I can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow!