Favorite Freezer Meal

Okay, so some friends have been asking me for awhile now about the freezer meals I made last year.  I haven't made a whole lot this year since Danny's home and life hasn't been quite so hectic.  However, we are entering football season so I decided to at least have one sitting in the freezer.  Plus, it was an added bonus that the ham steaks were on sale at Kroger.  Also, I needed something to take my mind off the fact that we still have not received an email about our next PCS. 

I am only listing my favorite crockpot freezer meal today.  However, when I am getting ready to really do two weeks of freezer meals, pinterest becomes my best friend.  I go through at least 3 or 4 different pins to find the meals that I want to make.  I have yet to find someone else's list that is good in its entirety for my family.  For the most part my kids and Danny aren't too picky.  However, Danny doesn't like soy sauce and the kids hate pineapple with their chicken, so I have to stay away from those meals now (I made at least 4 of the last set of freezer meals with soy sauce and Danny choked them down).  Also, now that I've gone through a couple of the different meals, I know which ones are good and which ones are horrible (hint:  if the recipe says 'world's best chicken' and its a crockpot meal--unless you REALLY like mustard--its not).  So I go through these lists picking about 6 to 8 meals that I think would be great.  That gives me 12 to 16 freezer meals because each one doubles.  Then I go through and make my shopping list.  I set aside a day or one or two days right after I shop to make sure I get it done before the fresh ingredients spoil.   It usually only takes 2 to 3 hours to do all the freezer meals.  However, make sure you look at the recipes because sometimes you have to actually cook the meat before you can put together the meal.  One of my favorite recipes is an enchilada freezer meal, but you have to cook the meat in the crockpot overnight before you can put together the meal. 

Okay, so back on track.  One of our favorite freezer recipes is Scalloped Potatoes and Ham from
Six Cents: Crockpot Freezer Cooking 101  She does a great job listing lots of recipes that are pretty easy.   The reason this recipe is one of my favorites is that I can do it pretty inexpensively, its quick, and no one complains.   From start to finish (including clean-up) it took about 30 minutes.   So here is my picture of all my ingredients.

Then I get my freezer bags ready.  I label them with the recipe and the cooking instructions with sharpie.  I always double bag the freezer meals because some bags have been known to leak and cause a mess in a freezer.  (Not pretty when you have a freezer full of meals and are unsure which one leaked!) 

Then, and here is what I love the most, you mix your ingredients inside the gallon (or 2 gallon) baggie.  Unless you really like cleaning extra dishes, just throw it in the baggie as you go.  This is what my meal looks like after I've thrown everything into the bag, mixed it up, and then double bagged it.  Note:  For this recipe it calls for a can of water to be added.  Do that at the end when the bag with stand up on its own. 

And Here is what I had to clean up:

If you have ever been around when I cook or bake, then you know that I am typically a messy cook.  So when I can cook and there not be a mess I am really excited. :) 

My next project is to create a pinterest board with all the freezer meal links I've tried and leave comments on it.  I will probably be making freezer meals in October again and will blog about those for you all. 

Wow--its almost been a year?!

Okay, Okay, Okay...I completely dropped the ball on this blog thing last year.  Part of the reason is that last October I hit a wall and was in a pretty big deployment funk.  I was having a rough time with it and some other things and didn't want to be negative or use the blog to say things I shouldn't.  Plus, when I'm in a funk like that I don't want to do ANYTHING. 

So what has happened since October?  Danny came home on Christmas Eve.  This is the second time he's come home on Christmas Eve and it makes it a super special reunion.   Here is a video of that reunion that our church made extra special. 

This summer we found out that we will be moving again.  We were given a 6 month window for PCSing (Permanent Change of Station aka moving), but not really told where or when.  Since we've been told that its been a daily struggle to not worry or stress about the details.  I'm a planner by nature so the not knowing anything is a struggle.  I pray every day for peace, then I pray for some answers to come quickly.  We have been told that we should know something next week, so that is exciting.

Moving is never easy.  Well, the actually packing and moving is easy because the Army does it all for us.  They hire movers that pack it all into boxes and load it all onto a truck.   However, its hard emotionally.   This move will be especially hard for all of us.  God blessed us with some pretty wonderful friendships since we've been here--for all of us.  Bryce and Jace are already upset to leave friends.  Jace has a couple of friends on our street and one day Jace said "how can I leave them Momma?  We're the three amigos!"  Today he asked if we can just wait till he turns 15.  I don't know why he picked that age other than that it might seem a long way off to him.  Bryce has been struggling also and has already cried a couple of times at the thought of leaving her girlfriends.  

We've also been blessed to have a great church family.  Its sad to me that Bryce won't be here to grow up in the student ministry--that she'll miss the opportunities I was excited for her to experience.

I'm sad that we'll miss other opportunities that the kids have had here--great football organizations and coaches that love on Jace and are great role models, First Tee Augusta and the relationships Bryce has built there, the 4H program here that Bryce likes, and that Jace would love if we were here in 5th grade for him to start.  That's always the hard part, being in a community and knowing that at some point you'll have to leave.

Once we know where we are going, we can start counting up the positives of the new place.  I know that where ever we go God has a plan.  When we moved to Augusta I was worried about finding a church home because we left a wonderful church in Tennessee, but God provided exactly what we needed and then some.  I have faith that where ever we go will be good for us. 

Right now, I'm not having a hard time with the emotional aspect, probably because we don't know when or where we are moving it isn't "real" yet.  I am so preoccupied thinking about the when and where of it that I have put the other, harder, parts of the move out of my head.  

As we enter this next "here we go again" adventure in the Army, I will keep you all up to date.  Hopefully better than I did since October ;)