Gluten Free with Julie B

Friday, September 5, 2014

Freezer Cooking Day

Over the Labor Day weekend I decided to do my once a month freezer cooking day since Jon was home and could keep the little guy (mostly) out of the kitchen for a couple hours. Since coming up with our school year dinner rotation (posted here) I had planned on doing most of the prep and some of the actual cooking of the meals ahead of time. My reasons for this mainly being that it would save time, money and ultimately allow me to spend more time with Josh during the dinner prep hour (which is when he is usually wanting my attention) and not be stressing about getting dinner ready. Most of the meals I picked are freezer friendly and I was super happy with my end results. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up once a month! Here's a play-by-play of what I prepared!

I made:
- Baked and chopped chicken for caesar salads (2 dinners)
- Browned and seasoned ground beef for taco salads (2 dinners)
- Spaghetti Sauce (4 dinners)
- Spicy Chicken Sausage Stir Fry x 2
- Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken x 2
- Crockpot Balsamic Chicken x 2
- Burgers (x 4)

First I turned on some Friends to keep me company!

I threw some chicken tenders in the oven. These I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and italian seasoning.

Next I started browning some ground beef for taco salads

While the chicken and ground beef were cooking I chopped up bell peppers, onions and chicken sausage for stir fry

Taco meat done! I made my own seasoning for this just by googling a recipe for it. That way you can control how spicy you want it and don't have any fake additives.

Chopped Italian chicken for Caesar Salads

Next I started browning ground beef for my spaghetti sauce. I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe (here) and halved it since I didn't need the full 18 servings her recipe makes.

Spaghetti sauce simmering away!

While the sauce was simmering I prepared crockpot chicken meals. This was Balsamic Chicken (recipe here)

And Honey Garlic Chicken (recipe here)

Sauce is all bagged up and ready to freeze!

I also formed burger patties and flash froze them but I didn't take pictures of them :)

At the end of 4 hours I had 16 different meals ready to go in the freezer. I'd call that successful! We are eating the same things every other week so for most of the meals it was as simple as making double and then splitting the portions up. Easy peasy! I've already been enjoying the fruit of my labor this week especially since I came down with a nasty cold/bronchitis type stuff and was glad I already had dinners ready to go. Putting in the hours ahead of time is definitely worth it!

My end results!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Farmer's Market Saturday and the Morrison's Come to Town

This past weekend was so fun. After a full week of work and business we took some time Saturday morning to just relax and have fun as a family. It was so good to get outside and enjoy the Florida sunshine with my boys!

Saturday morning we took a trip to the Winter Park Farmer's Market. Jon and I used to go quite a bit when we lived in Winter Park before Josh came along and we always enjoyed it. It was even more fun this time taking Josh and watching him run around in the park and chase the squirrels. He loved it and we plan on going back really soon!

Always one of our first stops at the market!

Exploring the fountain with Daddy

Sweetest boy

Get me in that water Dad!

Love that dirty little knee!

Oh hi Mom!

Playin' ball

He kept walking back and forth to the fountain

Chasin' them squirrels

My boys!

We had a fabulous (but too short) visit from my dearest friend Janelle (JJ) and her hubby Josh (good name!) who were in town for a wedding. It was their first time meeting Josh and he absolutely ADORED both of them. Why does PA have to be so far away?!?

Gettin some lovin'

Still loves reading more than anything

Love this lady! We realized it had been 8 years to the DAY since we were roommates!

JJ and her two favorite Joshua's :)

Saturday, August 23, 2014

School Year Dinner Rotation

School started back this week, and even though I don't have a school aged kid yet I am starting 3 new jobs this year that follow the schedule of the school year. I'm really looking forward to all of them and luckily I get to do 2 of them from home! Definitely a huge blessing and will help us as we save for a down payment on a house this next year!

With something scheduled almost every day of the week I'm trying to streamline my meal planning so that I never have to wonder what to make or pour over past recipes and search for new ones. Jon and Josh aren't very picky eaters (just NO mushrooms, mustard or pickles!!!) so I've been able to make a variety of things. In order to simplify life and not spend an hour each night just on dinner prep, cooking time and clean-up I decided to make the same things for dinner on a rotation based on some of our favorite recipes. This makes shopping easier, allows me to choose easier things on busier days and hopefully will help save me some time! I decided to keep weekend nights simple and do the same thing every week. All the other days are on a rotation but I tried to keep the type of food the same (for example I always make some sort of chicken in the crockpot on Wednesday, and always an entree salad on Monday). I also plan on doing a monthly freezer cooking day (see below) and then only go to the grocery for fresh items once a week or as needed.

I'm sure there will be times when cooking dinner just isn't gonna happen and we have to resort to takeout, but I don't want that to be the "norm". Hopefully having this plan with help me not give in to the convenience of getting burgers at Burger Fi instead of cooking dinner (but for real...burger fi is always a good idea...am I right?) Just in case you're interested in what I plan on making here's the list I came up with. Happy school year everybody!

Monday:

Week 1: Taco Salad

Week 2: Chicken Caesar Salad

Tuesday:

Week 1: Frozen dinner from T Joe's, vegetable

Week 2: Frozen dinner from T Joe's, vegetable

*I'm currently trying out a few different options from the T Joe's freezer section. So far we really like the orange chicken, fried rice and gluten free pizza!*

Wednesday:

Week 1: Crockpot Balsamic Chicken, vegetable

Week 2: Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken, vegetable

Thursday:

Week 1: Lettuce Wraps

Week 2: Sesame Chicken Stir Fry

Friday:

Week 1: Bacon Burgers, vegetable

Week 2: Steak, salad

Saturday:

Every week: Spaghetti "zoodles" with homemade meat sauce

Sunday:

Every week: Nitrate-free organic hot dogs, vegetable and salad

*My goal is to do a freezer cooking day at the beginning of the month and prep the following:
- ground beef for taco salad
- baked chicken for caesar salad
- crockpot chicken in gallon bag so can just dump it in
- stir fry vegetables sliced and bagged
- burger patties formed and frozen
- spaghetti meat sauce

I'm planning on trying this rotation beginning in September and I'll definitely blog about how it's going and about my monthly freezer day! Do you guys find it's easier to keep to a set dinner schedule during the school year or just make it up as you go?

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

12 Months of Josh

I'm behind in posting Josh's last monthly update. Between preparing for his birthday party, still doing some projects around the house, and preparing for the start of the school year (which for me means the start of 3 new jobs) there just hasn't been much time for blogging!

So, even though he's halfway through the month I still wanted to share a bit of what Josh is up to these days. Plus I thought it would be fun to share all of his monthly photos to see the change in him over this past year! What a fun year it has been!

Josh is an absolute joy. I can't believe I get to be his mommy and spend every day with him. This has been a really big month for him. He's officially walking more than crawling and has mastered getting to standing from sitting. It's so fun watching his brain work and figure things out!

We have a pretty good schedule going. He's still sleeping well at night and I can usually count on at least one good nap. The second nap is hit or miss but he's not able to make it through the day with just one nap yet so we will stick with two for now. He's a great eater and definitely loves food! He will try just about anything! He's still not a huge fan of chicken and prefers ground beef in the meat department. He loves bananas, peas and will eat cheese all day if I let him. Also...goldfish. He shoves those babies in 4-5 at a time.

New skills: Walking!! He rarely crawls anymore because now he can stand back up if he falls. He's getting used to walking in his shoes which is super cute. He also is practicing eating with a fork and has started blowing kisses. He's pointing now too but with his whole hand. We'll work on getting that index finger!

Language: Josh is definitely a talker! I love hearing his little voice. He makes a lot of sounds but only has a few actual words that I can understand. Obviously he says mama and dada (still very selective with mama though!) but he also says book & cracker (pretty clearly) and then he says doggie and froggie but no one else would know that's what he's saying other than us :) His receptive language is really good and he understands quite a bit. He can follow commands and looks right at something and sometimes points when we ask him where it is. I just started working with him on naming his belly, nose, eyes and ears. He can sign "all done" and "more" too!

Measurements: Josh is just over 20 lbs and 30 inches long. He's mostly wearing size 9-12 month clothes and is in size 3 shoes. I love dressing my little man!

Favorite Activities: Walking all over the house! He's still super interested in books and will bring me books all day long. He also loves playing with his new birthday toys and dancing to music. He loves the water (both bath and pool), going on walks and wrestling with daddy.

Best Moments: When he walks over to me and gives me a big hug, hearing him laugh with his daddy, and celebrating his 1st birthday!

Bath time = best time!

Spending some time with Mimi at a Disney pool. She gives him whatever he wants :)

Mickey Wubba!

Trying out his new drumset from Gigi and Pop Pop

I love these pictures!

Always on the go!

Climbing on his new table from Gamps and Mimi

Visiting daddy at work!

Monthly Photos

Monday, August 11, 2014

Josh's 1st Birthday Party

We had a fabulous birthday party for our boy this weekend full of milk, cookies and lots of smashed cake! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Happy Birthday Josh!