Baking Day

Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Black Bean Brownies, Frito Chili Pie, and the Grain-Free Waffle Flop

by Crystal on February 4, 2012

I took an hour yesterday evening to do some cooking for the freezer. I was anxious to try the Black Bean Brownies because I was just very curious to see how they turned out.

Most of my family members were quite skeptical of them and one even turned up their nose and wouldn’t touch them, but most of us declared them quite yummy. If you knew they had black beans in them, you could faintly taste them, but I doubt you’d figure it out if you didn’t know. You’d probably just think they were a really fudgy, light brownie.

I also made a big batch of Frito Chili Pie–well, the Chili part minus the Fritos. (We’ll add those in once we pull it out from the freezer.) I substituted kidney beans for the pinto beans (because that’s what I had on hand) and it ended up turning out quite yummy.

Unfortunately, the Grain-Free Waffles weren’t quite as successful. I did substitute almond milk for the yogurt, so that could have been some of the issue. But they tasted icky (well, they certainly didn’t taste anything like normal waffles!) and the batter got all stuck on the waffle maker. So stuck, in fact, that it took me a good 20 minutes to get the thing cleaned up after my attempt to make the recipe.

Oh well, you can’t hit a home run with every recipe experimentation!

Did you have any recipe successes or failures this week?

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40 pounds of beef + 7 hours = 40 freezer meals

by Crystal on February 1, 2012

Heather from Queen Bee Coupons shows how she took 40 pounds of beef and spent seven hours turning it into 40 meals for her freezer. Here are the meals she made:

10 taco meat meals (1 pound each x 10 = 10 pounds)
6 Italian mozzarella meatball meals (1 pound each x 6 = 6 pounds)
6 sweet and sour meatball meals (1 pound each x 6 = 6 pounds)
6 meals of Kalamata/olive burger patties (18 patties, 3 per meal = 6 pounds)
6 meals of burger patties (18 patties, 3 per meal = 6 pounds)
6 meals from lasagna dishes (6 pounds)

Head on over to her blog for pictures and details on she pulled this off!

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Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake, Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread, & Chocolate Peanut Granola

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by Crystal on January 27, 2012

I got a little adventuresome with my Freezer Cooking in an Hour plan for this week and chose three brand-new recipes to make. Here’s the play-by-play:

4:20 p.m. — After a busy morning and early afternoon, Silas went down for a late nap and Kathrynne and Kaitlynn turned on some Adventures in Odyssey CDs to listen to while they built with LEGOs. I took advantage of the quiet and pulled out the meat to start cooking for the Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake.

4:25 p.m. — While the beef was cooking, I turned on the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook and I put together the rest of the ingredients for the Beef and Bean Taco Bake.

4:30 p.m. — I doubled the recipe and quickly realized I had picked the wrong bowl to mix everything up in. I somehow managed to get everything mixed up in the bowl, though, and then divided the ingredients into three dishes to stick in the freezer. I keep stopping to write down quotes from the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook–it’s very good!

4:50 p.m. — The Beef & Black Bean Taco Bake is finally finished and I start whipping up the Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe. My assistant comes upstairs to go over a few things before she heads home. Jesse calls and we talk about our plans for the evening and how our afternoons went.

5:00 p.m. — The audiobook is finished, so I go ahead and download February’s audiobook–The Go-Getter–and start listening to that. I quickly finish the banana bread and put it in the oven and start in on the Chocolate Peanut Granola.

5:10 p.m. — The girls are having an argument, so I go to talk to them and help them resolve their issues. As I leave their room, I hear Silas stirring in his bed. I get him up and give him a snack. And then I set out to finish the granola.

5:15 p.m. — I end up substituting some things on the granola recipe since I don’t have peanuts (I use cashews instead) or sunflower seeds (I replaced those with coconut flakes and wheat germ).

5:25 p.m. — The granola is finally finished and ready to pop into the oven. Time to clean up the kitchen! I’m so thankful that it was a calm and mishap-free freezer cooking session. Those seem to be quite a rarity around here.

As an added bonus, all three recipes turned out well! The banana bread didn’t quite look as pretty as the original recipe (maybe because I used all whole wheat flour?), but it still tasted yummy!

Did you bake or cook anything to freeze this week? I’d love to hear about it and see a link to your recipe(s), if you have one.

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Finally! The Freezer Cooking List is done!

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by Crystal on January 20, 2012

So, I didn’t quite get my whole Freezer Cooking List done yesterday, but I did get the wheat ground, the chicken baked, and the Chocolate Granola Bars made. {By the way, the bars are fantastic. I will definitely be making this recipe again!}

Then, it was time to get ready for a date with my husband. And, after we came home and had our family Bible Time and put the children to bed, I crashed into bed myself. So much much for my plans of running and cooking after we got home from our date!

But I tackled the Whole Wheat Waffle recipe this morning–making some for breakfast and cooking the rest while we did our morning homeschooling.

And the kitchen, naturally, turned into somewhat of a disaster zone (it seems to be able to go from clean to this in about two minutes flat, I kid you not!).

I made the mistake of running downstairs to check something on my computer. Only to forget I was also cooking a waffle at the same time. Gratefully, I smelled a burned smell and quickly raced upstairs to rescue the waffle before it got too burned.

After lunch, the children watched a DVD for school while I participated in a Twitter chat with @TwitterBooks. So fun! Thanks to those of you who joined in!

And, then I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins before heading to get ready for a movie night at our friends’ house tonight.

It feels so good to have some baked goods in the freezer again–even if it did take me twice as long to make them as I was planning on it taking me! Hopefully, next week’s Freezer Cooking session will be more efficient than this week’s. But if not, oh well, sometimes that’s just life with three children!

Did you get any baking or cooking done today?

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Freezer Cooking Update (if you can call it that!)

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by Crystal on January 19, 2012

I promised you an update to my freezer cooking adventures at 2 p.m. and I’m afraid it’s well past 2 p.m. and I have little to report when it comes to actual freezer cooking done.

However, I did read four books aloud to the children, finish our morning homeschooling lessons with the girls, unplug a stopped up toilet and clean up and disinfect the bathroom, took Silas potty multiple times (he’s doing so well with potty-training! yay!!), make lunch with the children, teach Kathrynne how to make sushi (before you think I’m some supermom, I should make it clear that we had gotten a free Annie Chun’s kit in the mail so it was a snap to do!), start a load of laundry, play basketball with Kathrynne, help Kaitlynn get her banged lip to stop bleeding, clean up the lunch dishes, answer some emails, and have a short phone call with my publicist.

So it wasn’t like I sat around and did nothing.

And I also baked the chicken

And ground the flour.

But now that we’re done with homeschooling and Silas is down for a nap, it’s time to finish the rest of the freezer cooking list. I’ll report back later this evening with my progress. Hopefully, everything will get crossed off. We’ll see!

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Today’s Freezer Cooking List

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by Crystal on January 19, 2012

Since my book launch is finally behind me, I’m excited to get back to some more normal things in my life–and to get back to posting menu plans, freezer cooking, recipes, shopping trips, busy bag ideas, and do-it-yourself stuff here.

Today, after a four-week hiatus, I’m doing a short freezer cooking session today. I jotted down a quick list and am ready to roll up my sleeves and get busy. Well, after I get my room picked up (it looks like a stuff bomb went off!) and our morning homeschooling finished.

Here’s my list:

Bake Chicken Breasts

Grind Flour

Whole-Wheat Waffles

Chocolate Granola Bars

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’ll share an update on my progress and some pictures at 2 p.m.

Anyone else doing any freezer cooking today? I’d love to hear what you’re making!

{ 81 comments }

Carrot Cake Waffles with Vanilla Whipped Cream

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by Crystal on November 11, 2011

So, I have to tell you something: these waffles were totally concocted as a fluke. You see, I was in the middle of a crazy and chaotic freezer cooking in an hour session with Silas and Kaitlynn “helping”.

While I was trying to make Pumpkin Ginger Waffles, Silas dumped flour all over the waffle maker.

And then I turned my back to get something out of the fridge and came back to see that Silas had poured yeast into all the dry ingredients. I couldn’t get the yeast all out, so I had to start the batter over again.

At this point, needless to say, I was a little flustered. When I went to pull out the pureed pumpkin from the freezer, I accidentally pulled out pureed carrots instead.

I didn’t even realize it until I saw carrot pieces in the batter. By that time, there was really nothing I could do to fix my mistake, so I just decided to go ahead and finish making the waffles and see how they turned out with carrots.

The result? A winning recipe that our whole family loves! In fact, I’ve already made it again and we all decided we may like it better with carrots than with the pumpkin it was supposed to have.

Carrot Cake Waffles with Vanilla Whipped Cream

1 1/4 cup flour (I used all whole-wheat.)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk (I just used regular milk and added some lemon juice to it.)
1/2 cup pureed carrots
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter, melted

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, and cinnamon. Beat together eggs, butter milk, pureed carrots, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Mix wet and dry ingredients together until well blended. Cook on waffle iron.

Serve hot with vanilla whipped cream (beat 1/2 cup whipping cream, 1-2 teaspoons vanilla, and powdered sugar or honey to taste until peaks form.) and/or maple syrup.

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15-Minute Freezer Cooking: Chicken Lime Tacos

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by Crystal on November 10, 2011

I think the Chicken Lime Taco recipe is going to be a keeper. It’s so easy to make and very yummy.

I took the recipe times two and it made enough for two dinners for us (we’ll probably have some leftovers, depending upon how generous I am in doling out the filling on tacos. )

When I was making these, I realized that I had forgotten to pick up salsa at Aldi this week, so I just left it out and decided we’ll serve it with the tacos when we make them up. That might actually end up working better anyway.

Next time, I think I might mix in some black beans. This would give it more flavor and stretch it a bit, too.

By the way, I thought that you’d like to know that I also made chocolate chip cookie bars this afternoon, seeing as I’m not sure we’ve had enough chocolate yet this week. Ahem. Let’s hope I don’t someday find out I’m allergic to chocolate or something.

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15-Minute Freezer Cooking: Cookie Dough Baked Oatmeal

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by Crystal on November 9, 2011

This recipe was really quick and easy to whip up. I modified the original recipe some (no surprise there!) and took it times six so it would make enough for a 9×13-inch pan.

The final result was pretty good, though we didn’t love it. I think it was the bananas that made it a little on the weird side.

Yes, I know, we love bananas and chocolate when they are in desserts such as Black Bottom Banana Bars or Chocolate Banana Bread, but they just gave a little odd flavor and consistency to baked oatmeal.

I’m thinking we’d like it better if we used our regular baked oatmeal recipe and just added in chocolate chips for a twist.

But the good news is that we ate half the pan for breakfast and I froze the other half (cut in squares and stuck in a freezer bag) for breakfast next week. So this 15-Minute Freezer Cooking project actually made it into the freezer, unlike yesterday’s project.

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15-Minute Freezer Cooking: Chocolate Bottom Banana Bars

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by Crystal on November 8, 2011

So, I told you I was going to try out a new method of freezer cooking–just devoting 15 minutes each afternoon or evening to making one thing ahead to store in the freezer. It was a good idea and I think it will probably work well.

There was just one problem: I really should have doubled or tripled the Chocolate Bottom Banana Bar recipe. Because, you see, after I made them yesterday afternoon, everyone had to try one for dinner. Then, the typical 3 p.m. chocolate cravings hit this afternoon (please tell me I’m not the only one who has these!?), so out came the pan of Chocolate Bottom Banana Bars again.

And well, there are no Chocolate Bottom Banana Bars left to put in the freezer. Ahem.

But seriously, while I may have had a little more than my fair share of these, I promise I didn’t eat the whole pan. Just maybe, um, oh a fourth of it.

I’m going to try really, really hard for tonight’s baking project–the Cookie Dough Baked Oatmeal–to actually make it in the freezer. Well, at least part of it!

By the way, I tried a new setting on my camera today and was so excited with how this photo turned out. It was probably a fluke thing that I’ll never be able to repeat, but it made me happy nonetheless that I actually took a photo that looked halfway decent.