Freezer Meals

So this is the story--when I was anticipating the arrival of my precious second baby, I started getting nervous about this huge new transition that was about to take place. My mom wouldn't be arriving for a week and a half after the baby was born and I wasn't sure how I could handle a needy toddler, a needy newborn, recovering physically, and getting dinner on the table. Thankfully, Robby was around for the first couple of days. . .but I wanted to be prepared after that. I started making a few freezer meals, then started dreaming up visions of having yummy home-cooked meals on the table with little time and effort aaaaand I started getting a little carried away :) I ended up with 23 freezer meals in total! 

My baby is now more than 3 months old and I'm just now getting down to the last few! And my dreams have come true! Dinner has been gloriously easy whenever I want it to be! (At first, I dipped heavily into the freezer meals, but then started to alternate between freezer meals and ummm. . ."just-cooked-that-day meals" (I dunno what to call 'em, but you know what I mean). The beauty of freezer meals is that you can just double a recipe and eat one batch that day and freeze the other. That way, you're maybe putting in 20% more work for 100% more meal. So here are some of the freezer meals I made. My plan is to periodically update this list. So check back!

Turkey Sloppy Joe's
Chicken Pillows--maybe my all-time fav. recipe EVER!!! (freeze the filling and sauce and keep crescent dough in fridge, thaw filling when ready and continue with recipe)
PF Changs Lettuce Wraps (On my husband's top 5 list)
Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
The Most Flavorful and Moist Meatloaf 
Easy Calzones
Freezer Beef and Bean Burritos 
Italian Stuffed Shells
BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Tortellini Casserole (I cut up one of those U-shaped turkey sausages into this cuz we're NOT vegetarians :) and it was the perfect addition)
Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas
Slow Cooked Peanut Chicken
Cream of Tomato Soup
Beef Stroganoff 
Baked Potato Casserole Instead of bacon, I got some thick sliced ham from the deli and cut it into cubes, I think it was about half a pound. It was great! And that way I didn't have anything to cook up ahead of time!

You'll also notice I cheated a little with some purely store-bought freezer meals, some you can see, some you can't:

• I got some Marie Calendar's chicken pot pies for Robby for his lunches (from Costco). 
• I also got two packages of Chicken Tikka Masala from Costco--SOOOO good! . . .Like better than Bombay House--I'm not kidding! Also, it freezes well, and if you add a can of coconut milk to it, it'll stretch to give you 6 servings! 
• Birdseye Garlic Chicken Pasta (Also from Costco)
• Mixed berries from guess where?! Costco! I use these to have berry pancakes. You can get Krusteaz pancake mix from Costco, but I prefer the 10-grain pancake mix from the bulk bins at Winco. You just add a Tablespoon of oil, an egg, and a cup of milk or water and voila! You have breakfast for dinner (serve with fruit, eggs, turkey bacon, or whatever other breakfast food). 

Other Frozen Foods

• I wanted to make sure my gluten free princess had food to eat, so I froze chili (compliments of my lovely cousin) in muffin tins, then threw those in a ziploc bag; made gluten free brown rice pancakes by the dozens and froze those. . .I'm gonna post that recipe one of these days, and lots of corn tortillas.
• Cooked chopped chicken in 2 cup portions has been a lifesaver many times--so versatile. It can be thawed and used for BBQ chicken pizza, a casserole, Hawaiian Haystacks etc. etc. 
• Homemade banana muffins--I'm so glad I had these, because we had lots of stuff for meals, but our snack supply withered down very quickly! In fact, when my cousin and her kids came to visit the new baby, I pathetically asked if they would bring me a piece of fruit, cause I was dying for a healthy snack!

Hey! Share the love! If you have a favorite freezer meal that isn't posted, share it with me :)

Alfredo Chicken Pizza

My husband LOVES white sauce pizza, so I made this for him one day thinking I might get a good reaction. He came through :) He said this recipe was "a keeper!" This was a few months ago now and I keep thinking about it, so I figured it was worth blogging about! The sauce would go great with chicken and fettuccine too!

Also note that the sauce recipe leaves you with leftover cream cheese. I'm wanting to try these microwave cheesecakes in a mug--I'd have enough leftover cream cheese to make two of these babies for a hot "date" in :) 

To Make Pizza Dough 

(this makes enough dough for one pizza, double it if you want to use all the sauce in one go) 

1 tablespoon active dry yeast 

1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees) 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 tablespoon honey 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

2 1/2 cups all purpose or white whole wheat flour 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

2. Mix yeast and water in a small bowl. Cover and let stand until foamy (about 5 to 10 minutes). 

3. Mix the oil, honey, and salt; add to yeast mixture and stir to combine. If using a food processor, add 1 cup of flour at a time, up to 2 1/2 cups, mixing well after each addition. Or mix in all the flour at once by hand (using a wooden spoon). 

4. Lightly grease pizza pan or cookie sheet with oil. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Gently stretch the dough to fill the pan. 

5. Let the dough rise (it will not rise very much) while you make the sauce and prepare the toppings. I usually just place the pizza pan on top of the preheating oven. 

To Make Alfredo Sauce

2 tablespoons butter 

3 cloves minced garlic 

4 ounces cream cheese, softened 

1 cup skim milk 

1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese 

garlic salt & pepper 

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. 2. Add cream cheese; cook 1 minute until mixture is smooth, stirring constantly with a whisk. 

3. Gradually add milk and cook 3 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. 

4. Add Parmesan cheese, stirring until cheese melts and sauce reaches desired consistency, about 2 minutes. Season with garlic salt and pepper to taste. 

Pizza Toppings (For 1 Pizza) 

several slices of ham 

2 cups cooked, cubed chicken 

4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 

1/2 cup red or green onions, chopped 

2 cups mozzarella cheese 

1. Spread alfredo sauce onto pizza crust. Top with slices of ham, sprinkle with chicken. 

2. Sprinkle cheese on top; follow with bacon and onion. 

3. Bake in oven until crust is golden-brown (about 12-15 minutes) 

Adapted from Foodie Misadventures

Sassy Prayer

So if you haven't noticed, lately I've been blogging every day. That's because I made a goal to blog daily for a week! Then, hopefully that will get me into the swing of things to successfully accomplish one of my new years resolutions--to blog once a week this year! But with being on my fifth day in a row, I'm running out of things to write (at least things that would be quick to write about. . .aaand I wanna go to bed!)

So you're getting a jazzed up recent Facebook post (from December 23rd).

Leila tonight saying her prayers:

"No Mom! I want to say it by myself!" *That's my lil' miss independent!*
". . .Heavenly Father.
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for mommy. She's a great lady." *sweet! I got on the kid's good side!*
"Thank you for that she has a big nose." *K. . .come again?! I didn't know my nose was big! Hmmm. . .maybe she's not on my good side right now! :)*
"Thank you for God. I love him. He's a great boy." *Awww! But what a good girl!*
"Thank you for Jesus. He's a great boy." *Yep! She's a sweetheart!. . .big nose though?!*
*Well. . . 4/5 things being sweet isn't a bad ratio *

These are statues of me. . . and my nose. But then it makes me think--it might have something to do
with a two-year-old's perspective. The one on the right looks bigger doesn't it? Maybe because
 we're looking up at it?! Hmmm. . .yep, I think I'll tell myself that :)

photo from tourists360.com

Bathtime Silliness!

Leila is definitely her Grandpa Dixon's grandaughter and her Daddy's little girl--She LOVES to make people laugh! The other day in the bathtub, Leila looked behind her, got a concerned look on her face, then announced: "Their's a CRACK in my BUUUUUM!" Then she erupted in giggles! She continued on: "I need to go to Dr. Savage so she can fix it! Bahaha!" The more I laughed, the more she laughed! She just "cracked" herself up (pun intended)! 

Sweet Sisters

Leila has done surprisingly well with the transition to having another little person in our lives! We thought, like many toddlers, she would be jealous of the attention the baby receives and maybe even be aggressive to express how she felt about no longer being the (only) center of our universe. But we've been pleasantly surprised to find that she has been so sweet! Perhaps most surprising to me is that she doesn't even become agitated when the baby cries! From day one, she would do what she could to soothe Heidi, and if that didn't work, she would go on her way and play. Leila will say "she wants me to sing her a song" and will proceed to sing. She will even say "she wants my blanket!" And instead of finding Heidi's blanket, Leila will bring her much beloved security object-- her yellow blanket, for the baby.

She loves to kiss her. . .

. . .hug her. . .

. . .draw pictures for her. . .

. . .give her dollies. . .

. . . Leila will even run and grab her very favorite thing in the world--her yellow
blanket made by Aunt Becky. She'll say "Heidi wants a blanket! . . .No! Not
HER blanket! MY blanket!. . .

And she'll just be her friend in general. She often says "when Heidi gets bigger we're going to be best friends! I'm going to share my food, play toys with her, teach her songs" etc. Leila said "I love Heidi" without prompting before she even said "I love Mommy!" I'm so proud of this little girl and the sweet sister she is! (And she just beams when we tell her that!)

Bald

My missionary sister-in-law emailed me a few weeks ago and asked why Robby went bald. I figured I'd better document that story.
Usually every other time, Robby will cut his own hair with his clippers at home. The rest of the time he'll go somewhere and pay to get it done. This was an at-home time. He got done with his part then, as per usual, he asked me to help finish him up: "Courtney, would you mind trimming me up in back?" There are two things he typically has me do--1) look it over for spots he may have missed and trim those down, and 2) trim his neck so that the hairline on his neck is straight. I thought he wanted the former. A different blade is used in each circumstance--one that leaves plenty of soft hair, and one that trims right down to the skin. . .he had the latter attached to the razor. So away I went with the intent of going over most of his head with . . .the wrong attachment. And this was the result:

I shrieked. He cheered! "Yay! Now I can finally go bald!" (Every man's
dream at some point I suppose).

He actually looks pretty good bald, I think!

Exceeeept. . .maybe not so much in this picture :)

When you have a cute little show-stealer like this, you can
probably get away with a little more without people noticing.

What do you think? Which baldy wore it best? Actually, this happened right before Halloween,
so we joked that Robby went bald to dress up like Heidi!

Looking Back: Sleep Training

Our little baby turned 3 months on Christmas! We've been working on sleep training her. She's been doing pretty well! Before putting her to bed I give her an ample feeding, swaddle her as usual and smother her with kisses. On the first night, she woke up and cried for a good hour and a half or more before falling back to sleep. Robby knew this kind of thing would break my heart, so he turned on the white noise in our room so that I wouldn't hear her and would go back to sleep. He then went into the living room so he could hear her and keep tabs on her. That was a few weeks ago. Now, some nights she will just sleep through the night, others she wakes up and cries, then typically goes back to sleep after just a few minutes. This all brought back memories from a year and a half ago when we were trying to sleep train Leila at ten months. I thought it was worth sharing. Here is the story I wrote in my journal.

May, 2013

I wanted to write about an answer to prayer I received. Lately I've been worried about leaving Leila with my cousin while we go to Thailand because Leila hasn't been sleeping through the night. I've been struggling to know what to do, so I prayed about it and thought I would do a scripture study on it. I looked up scriptures that talk about crying because we just let her cry herself to sleep after we sing her songs. We came to this method after much deliberation. We would try to cuddle her, bounce her, sing to her, feed her more and nothing would put her to sleep. . .it only seemed to make her more angry. As she cried we would just turn on the fan so we didn't hear her. I've been feeling guilty about doing this and I've been wondering if this is the right thing to do. 

The Scriptures I read talked about the Lord listening to our cries and that the Lord hears our prayers. I thought "maybe this means I'm supposed to hear Leila's cries and not turn on the fan." I discussed this with Robby and told him that maybe we should answer her cries and go get her if she has been crying for awhile. But although this made sense to me in my head it didn't feel right in my heart. I didn't think that we should answer to her every whim. I want her to learn to be content and eventually more independent and I didn't think we could teach her these things if we ran to her every time she cried. But I was torn because I also didn't want to just let her cry and feel upset and become insecure, thinking we weren't going to be there for her. I kept praying that Heavenly Father would help us to know what to do.

That night an amazing thing happened. In my dream that night, the words to two scriptures came to my mind. One of them was Psalms chapter 30 verse 5 "weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning". The other one was Isaiah 54:7 "for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will i gather thee". From these Scriptures I felt that it was OK to let Leila cry herself back to sleep when she woke up in the middle of the night. Robby was very supportive of this idea. The first night we tried this she woke up in the middle of the night and cried for an hour. The second night she cried for over an hour--probably about an hour and a half. But after that she has slept through the night since. There have only been a few exceptions where she has only cried for five minutes or so before falling back to sleep. 

This experience has been such a blessing and I know that Heavenly Father has answered my prayers. President Uchtdorf has said "The Everlasting and Almighty God, The creator of this vast universe, will speak to those who approach Him with a sincere heart and real intent. He will Speak to them in dreams, visions, thoughts, and feelings. He will speak in a way that is unmistakable and that transcends human experience. He will give them divine direction and answers for their personal lives (Uchtdorf, October 2014, Ensign, Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth). As we feast upon the words of Christ we embrace a tool that can make it easier for Heavenly Father to answer our prayers. As we become familiar with the scriptures, we are learning the language of God. Elder Scott has said "Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and inspiration from on high. They can become the key to open the channel to communion with our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. . . .Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values, and truths that can be called upon anytime, anywhere. . ." 
This experience has opened my eyes to how he must feel about us as his children as well. When he lets us go through hard times, he's not abandoning us. He is listening to us and he is watching us with his omnipotent video baby camera :) If he doesn't let us learn how to cope with some trials we will be left in an infantile state permanently and we won't progress. His heart must ache when he sees us go through trials, just like mine ached for Leila. But just as I knew that she would be happier if she slept through the night and she would be learning important skills by being able to self-soothe, Heavenly Father has our best interests at heart and he doesn't just hope that we will become better. He knows what we're capable of. It didn't make sense to me before I became a mom--that Heavenly Father lets us suffer because he loves us. But now I'm starting to understand.

The more familiar you are with the scriptures, the closer you become to the mind and will of the Lord . . . You will find that by reading the scriptures the truths of eternity will rest on your minds.-Ezra T. Benson

This was taken just before we left for Thailand. I was so sad to be leaving her.
Instead of just letting her cry, I got into the crib with her and sang to her and
snuggled with her, and told her how much I loved her. It was a special moment.