Whole Grain Egg-Free Pancakes + Freezer Tips

After we discovered Ava's egg allergy, I started experimenting with egg-free cooking and baking. I found a recipe for whole grain pancakes and have adapted it for her allergy and it's fantastic! I made a double batch last weekend for breakfast and to freeze. On Thursdays, Ava's school serves pancakes for breakfast. Aaron liked them too! I keep egg-free muffins, pancakes, waffles, and french toast to bring to Ava's school so she can participate in the meals without causing an allergic reaction. Since she sees her friends eating pancakes too, it's nice that she has some that are tasty and egg-free.

So far, I've made these pancakes with cooked millet or oats. We like them both ways. I cook the whole grain on the stove ahead of time and set them aside for making the pancakes when we're ready.

Step 1: (Make-ahead) cook whole grain - I like to use old fashion oats or millet. Store in the refrigerator or puree and store until ready to make pancakes.

Puree the whole grain (millet)

Step 2: (Make-ahead) Puree whole grain 1 cup + 1/2 cup water. Blend to desired consistency (you don't have to do this step, but the texture might be off for kids if you don't). Store in the refrigerator.

Step 3: Make batter and cook pancakes on the griddle. Serve and save the rest for freezing. Let pancakes cool completely and store between wax paper in labeled freezer bags.

Step 4: Reheat. Remove frozen individual pancake. Put on a microwave safe plate. I usually set this out about 30-45 minutes before we leave the house. I microwave the pancake for about 45 seconds on 70% and put int a container to bring to Ava's school. Ava likes to eat the pancakes cold, biting it like a sandwich. Very easy!




Whole Grain Egg-Free Pancakes
Makes 6 small pancakes


Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked whole grain (millet, oats, quinoa) + 1/4 cup water, pureed in blender
• 3/4 cup flour (1/2 cup whole wheat 1/4 cup all purpose)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• Egg Replacer (equivalent of 1 egg) - can buy at Kroger, Whole Foods, or Amazon
• 1 tbs butter, melted
• 1/2 cup milk (buttermilk, regular, almond/soy milk)
• 2 tbs maple syrup

Egg Replacer is mixed

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together pureed grain, flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together prepared Egg Replacer, butter, milk, and syrup until smooth. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and whisk to combine.
2. Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with butter and heat over medium-high. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into skillet. Cook until bubbles appear on top, 2 minutes.
3. Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside, 2 minutes. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more melted butter and remaining batter (reduce heat to medium if overbrowning). Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruit or preserves if desired.

Pancakes are cooking!

May Freezer Meal: Italian Beef, Giardiniera, Oven Fries, and Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Pies

Flash freeze the mini pies in 2 muffin tins

Our freezer meal exchange in May was awesome as usual! I hosted this time and we had a Friday night pitch-in instead of our normal Saturday afternoon meet-up because we were leaving to visit our family in Illinois that weekend. We usually meet on the 1st weekend of the month so that helps keep us on track for planning purposes.

The way it works is that each participating family makes 5 meals for the swap and then we bring them in coolers to exchange, packed and already frozen. We give a brief overview of the meal and how to tweak it if needed and prepare it. We share our recipes and cooking instructions in our private Facebook group. The meals we prepare are healthy and if it contains meat, it is locally sourced and natural. Most of us make 6 meals and so we can keep one for our own family. That leaves you with 6 prepared meals from the freezer for an entire month, which is awesome!

May Freezer Meal Exchange Menus:

• Erin - Frozen Breakfast Burritos (microwave from freezer), Guacamole, and banana bread
• Sarah - Broccoli and Chicken casserole, bread slices, and Chocolate Chip Bars
• Katie - Vegetarian Cheese Pasta, Baked Peas with Water Chesnuts, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
• Ann - Marinated Chicken for Grilling, Peas and Corn with Thyme Butter, and Smores Bars
• Rachel - Mini Meatloaves, Herb Roasted Carrot and Potatoes, and Strawberry muffins
• Amanda - Italian Beef Sandwiches, Homemade Giardiniera, Oven Fries, and Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Pies

We had 6 families participate so that means everyone goes home with 5 different meals, plus the one that they made at home. The day after the swap, we had that long drive to Megan and Todd's house so I heated the breakfast burritos and they were delicious.

Amazing Meals for May

Italian Beef stores well inside the tins and a gallon Zip Loc to protect.

If you're going to make my meal, here's the additional details.

• Italian Beef (from Cooking Light) - I bought 6 pounds of rump roast and cooked them in 2 large slow cookers. It made enough for 7 meals. I shredded the beef with and placed them in the tins with reserved cooking liquid to store in the tins. I bought loaves of bread from Costco and wrapped them for the freezer.
• Homemade Giardiniera - was easy and so good! After living in Chicago, I love this spicy veggie condiment. You can store it for 2-3 weeks in the fridge in a glass mason jar. I saved small glass pimento jars from another meal and used that to share with the families for the exchange. It makes enough for a quart jar.
• Oven Fries: These came out a bit crispy, which Aaron loved. But you may want to cut back on the cooking time when you're reheating.
• Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Pies (from the Pioneer Woman): I used the Trader Joe's cookies instead of Oreos and their House Whip instead of Cool Whip to avoid the hydrogenated oils in both. This recipe makes 24 muffin tin sized pies. See picture above. To make into minis, spray muffin tins and bake the crust. Then spread the filling in each muffin. Flash freeze for 1-2 hours. Use a knife to gently pop out and freeze flat in a quart ziploc bag. To defrost, place in a ramekin because they will be messy.

Reheating instructions:

•  Heat oven to 450 degrees. You can reheat the beef from the freezer directly or set it in the fridge overnight. Place the oven fries in the oven for 25-30 (cut back from 30-35) minutes at 450 degrees and place beef tin along side it. Place frozen bread in the last 10 minutes.
• Slice bread to make sandwiches and serve with giardiniera.

Freezer Meal: Beef and Quinoa Meatballs, Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, and Pumpkin Spice Mini Cheesecakes

Meat Balls cook quickly in the oven. They were fantastic!

My October meal got really good reviews by the families in my freezer meal exchange group so I thought I would share it! The meatballs were very flavorful and great for kids because they contain shredded zucchini and carrots along with a whole grain. I made 6 whole meals so I bought 5 pounds of ground beef and cooked about 2 cups of dry quinoa to make the meatballs.

The spaghetti sauce was fabulous! The recipe made enough for all 6 of my meals so you can make the entire recipe for many meals for your own family or to share.

With the exception of casseroles, when our meals involve pasta we provide dry pasta since it doesn't freeze well. This meal was very easy to reheat and serve to our family on a busy weeknight. I usually plan on Monday nights as our freezer meal night of the week and sometimes we make two freezer meals depending on how many we have on-hand.

Read below for the menu and tips for freezing and reheating!

Meal exchange day!

Freezer Meal Menu: Serves 5

Quinoa and Beef Meatballs, spotted this in a Whole Foods email newsletter

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, from the LLL Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook

Dry Spaghetti, cook when ready to serve

Frozen Peas (store bought)

Pumpkin Spice Mini Cheesecakes, made individual sizes in muffin tins and used graham cracker crust recipe from Better Homes cookbook. *I used roasted butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin. You can use any winter squash that you have on-hand.

Very Tasty Spaghetti Sauce (25 servings Large Quantity for Feast or Freezer) --I made 1 batch for 6 meals. Need a 10 qt saucepan or 2 pans.

• 6 onions, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers chopped
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 8 oz fresh mushrooms (I omitted)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 12 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 lbs ground beef (I omitted because I made meat balls - see recipe above)
• 7lbs fresh or canned tomatoes
• 26oz tomato paste
• 48oz tomato juice
• 2-3 tbs dried oregano
• 4 tsp dired basil
• 4 bay leaves
• Dash of pepper
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbs flour

Saute onions, green peppers, celery and mushrooms in olive oil in a 10qt saucepan over medium heat until tender. Add garlic. Saute for several minutes; remove vegetables to a bowl. Add ground beef to drippings in pan. Cook until brown. Add sauteed vegatables and add the next 8 ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil, reduce to a heat. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour. Discard tomato cores and bay leaves. Mix 1 cup of the sauce with flour. Stir into saucepan. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently. Freeze in needed quantities for later use. May add chopped green chiles to taste.

Freezer Prep Tips:

• Label freezer bags with printed labels or hand write with a Sharpie pen before you fill them. Make sure to include name, date, and any specific information such as reheating instructions. 
• Let meatballs and sauce cool completely. I portioned 20 meatballs per meal. Package meatballs with spaghetti sauce in 1-gallon freezer ziploc bag. Make sure air is completely out of the bags before sealing and "burp" them. Place flat on a cookie sheet stacked up, then in the freezer. 
• 24 Mini Cheesecakes (each meal had 4 minis): I used the recipe for filling, but to make the individual sizes I made my own graham cracker crust in 2 muffin tins. I made a double batch of graham cracker crust. TIP: replace the Cool Whip brand with Trader Joe's version so you don't get hydrogenated oils. I used TJ's graham crackers for my crust because they don't have high fructose corn syrup. After the crust is cooled, make pumpkin cheesecake mixture and spread evenly in all 24 muffin tins. Place filled muffin tins in the freezer for 1-hour. Using a knife, carefully pop out each cheesecake and place 4 mini cheesecakes in a pint-size freezer ziploc bag.

 Defrost/Reheating:

• Defrost meatball and sauce bag in the fridge for 1-2 days. Remove the cheesecakes from the bag and place into 4 ramekins covered with plastic wrap.
• Meal Day: Reheat spaghetti and meatballs on the stovetop. Cook spaghetti pasta according to package instructions. Cook peas or prepare other vegetable. 
• Serve the dessert in the ramekin or in another plate for dessert. Each mini cheesecake may be a bit large for a small child. I can usually serve 2-3 times to Ava for a small dessert. She loved it!

Freezer Meal: Sweet Potato Quesadillas & Black Bean-Corn-Edamame Salad with Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies

Quesadillas were perfect directly from the freezer!

Defrost and Mix.

I made this freezer meal for my September exchange and meant to post this recipe ages ago. Better late than never! I try to use seasonal produce because I'm making my meals in bulk and I want to buy top quality ingredients locally as much as possible. This meal is especially easy for the Summer since you don't have to use the oven to heat anything up, but it's great during any season. The quesadillas can be cooked directly from the freezer on an iron skillet. It was so easy!

Freezer Meal Menu:

• Sweet Potato-Sweet Pepper Quesadillas with homemade salsa verde Defrost salsa with salad and brownies. Quesadillas can be cooked on an iron skillet directly from the freezer
• Black Bean-Corn-Edamame Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing Defrost and mix in a bowl
• Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies Defrost and enjoy

Quesadillas: 
The recipe that I based this from used corn and since the salads had corn, I decided to use sweet potatoes and sweet peppers since I had so many peppers this time of year from my produce delivery. I diced the sweet potatoes very small the same size as sweet potatoes and cooked them on a skillet in olive oil with no seasoning, just a bit of salt. I used the Chile and Onion Trader Joe's tortillas. You have to be very careful with tortillas that you buy if you're shopping in traditional grocery stores because of the funky ingredients so I always buy ours at Trader Joe's. I made 30 quesadillas on a large non-stick griddle. I made the salsa verde with roasted tomatillos, onion, and jalapenos seasoned with lime, honey, cumin and salt. To cook quesadillas, warm them on both sides in an iron skillet. Cut in wedges and top with salsa and sour cream.

 

Homemade Tomatillo Salsa packs with the quesadillas.

Salad:

On Labor Day weekend, I had trouble finding fresh corn in Indiana since it was a bit late in the season. But I found an Amish produce stand where I picked up two dozen ears of corn by my in-laws lake house. I used one dozen for the freezer meal salads and the other dozen was for us to keep for the winter. I cut the corn off the cobs, then cooked the kernels in boiling water. You can also use frozen corn for this recipe since you're going to put it right back in the freezer if you make this in the off-season.

I cooked dried black beans in the slow cooker, which is my favorite method. Check out my post. If you use a 14oz can of black beans for each salad, make sure you rinse and drain it first. I always cook my own beans because you end up opening up way too many cans. Plus, it's more eco-friendly and budget conscious if you cook your own dried beans. You will need 1 1/2 cups for each batch for the recipe below.


Brownies:
These were very rich so I made two batches for the 6 meals so people would have a small sweet after dinner. I used a nice quality dark chocolate from Trader Joe's for the brownies. They were amazing!

I hope you enjoy these freezer meal posts. I really enjoy freezer cooking and our monthly exchanges. I usually set aside a couple weekends a month to make my meals on the weeks that we're home. Sometimes I have help from Ava and other times Aaron will entertain her outside while I'm cooking. Then we average a freezer meal per week, which we reserve for a Monday or Tuesday night.

Freezer Meal: Turkey Tomato Mac Casserole, Ginger Carrots, and Lemon Pound Cake

I've been trying to post this for a month! I finally finished the instructions!

For my August Freezer meal exchange, I couldn't think of anything to make so I decided to make a casserole that I throw together for my family. I made 7 casseroles this month so I could have an extra for our family and to give away to some friends who just had babies. The concept of freezer cooking is pretty new to me and we're loving the convenience of having a weeknight meal from the freezer. We started up a new freezer meal exchange group in February and have been going strong ever since!

We usually have to add a fresh green salad or cut up some fruit to serve on the side, but most of preparation is just reheating, grilling, or putting something in the oven. We defrost the meals in the extra fridge in the garage for about 24 hours. Some meals you can go right from the freezer to the oven or reheat on the stove top.

On Sundays, I pull out the meal for Monday and place the packages in a 9x13 casserole dish to catch any liquids that may spill out from defrosting. I usually prepare a freezer meal on a Monday evening and use the leftovers for lunch the next day.

My August Menu:
Tomato Turkey Macaroni Casserole
Ginger Carrots
Lemon Pound Cake

Tomato Turkey Macaroni Casserole

• 3/4 pound ground turkey (mix of light and dark meat)
• 1 1/2 cups dried macaroni noodles
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cooked corn
• 1/4 diced bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• Seasoning - salt, pepper, paprika, oregano

Preparation for Freezing:

• Cook macaroni noodles. Drain and set aside.
• Saute onions and garlic with ground turkey. Then add corn and bell pepper. Season with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and smoked paprika. Add tomato sauce.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine noodles, turkey-veggie mixture and 1 cup of shredded cheese.
• Line an 8x8 square baking dish with foil. Coat with cooking spray. Fill with casserole and add shredded cheese to the top. 
• Cover dish with foil and place in the freezer for about 45 minutes.
• Remove top layer of foil. Flip the casserole dish upside down gently on the counter. Then use the foil to cover the square casserole. 
• Place packaged casserole in a gallon freezer plastic bag in the freezer.

Reheating Instructions:

• Defrost in the fridge overnight. 
• Gently take off the foil from the top of the package. Then slowly remove the bottom layer and place into a greased 8x8 casserole baking dish.
• Cook for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven until bubbly.

Sweet Ginger Carrots 

Dump ingredients in a freezer pint plastic bag. Defrost in the refrigerator 24 hours. Then put contents in a sauce pan until carrots are tender. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. My friend, Windi's husband says these carrots taste like dessert!

• 1 lb peeled, sliced carrots
• 1 tsp ground fresh ginger
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 tbs brown sugar

Lemon Pound Cake:
Defrost and enjoy!

I found the Lemon Pound Cake recipe on Pinterest that made 6 mini loaves of pound cake in a single batch. This is convenient since we prepare 5 complete meals and I usually make 6 so I have an extra meal for my own family. I got a mini loaf pan that makes 4 at once. Then with the rest of the batter, I used my mini muffin tin to make 6 minis for each family (12-total). I have a bit extra batter to bake a ramekin dish size mini cake. The entire recipe was a perfect amount and the lemon pound cake was delicious.

Freezer Meals: Vietmanese Bahn Mi and Pho with Lemon "Donut" Dessert

Bahn Mi with Five-spice chicken thighs and pickled radish and carrot and vegetarian pho

Here's my latest freezer meal for our exchange tonight! I found all the recipes on Pinterest and they turned out great! I grew in East San Jose in a densely populated Vietnamese area. I love pho, Vietnamese noodle soup, and recently became a fan of Banh Mi sandwiches. The other families in my freezer meals groups are fairly adventurous so I thought it would be fun to bring in some Asian flavors. And it was a funny coincidence that another mom decided to make an Asian dinner.

For our freezer meals group, we make enough for ourselves and then trade about 4-5 entire meals with the other families. If we get more families involved we'll still max out at trading 5 meals, but we'll have more variety and can pick and choose which meals we want to bring home. It averages that we have 1 freezer meal per week for the month. I really like the deadline of the exchange to keep me on track with cooking for the next month. Here's my menu and how I made it freezer-friendly!

May's Menu:
Banh Mi Sandwich (on baguette) with Five Spice Chicken Thighs and pickled carrot and radish. 

• Serve the sandwich with mayo, lime wedges, strips of jalapeno, chicken and fresh cilantro. I marinated the chicken, then froze it. The families will grill or broil the chicken. The pickled carrots and radish are very sweet, but smell terrible. Don't let the scent throw you. 

Vegetarian Pho soup

•  Broth is frozen in ice cubes. Defrost directly in a saucepan on low, then turn up heat to bring to a boil. Add dry rice noodles. Warm thawed tofu and veggie packet and add to bowl with noodles. If you need more broth add vegetable or chicken broth and season with soy sauce or our favorite Bragg Liquid Aminos (a lower salt alternative).

Mini Lemon Muffin Donuts:

• Thaw and serve

 

Freezer meal all packed up and ready to go!

Freezing instructions:

This month, I wasn't sure how to freeze this meal because of the broth. Liquid is so hard to freeze and defrost in ziploc bags without a big mess, so I had the brainstorm to freeze the broth in ice cube trays. I used the ice cube trays with tops that I bought for when I was making Ava's baby food. Then, I popped the broth cubes in a quart size freezer bag.


Freeze the tofu and veggies in one bag and the marinated chicken thighs in another.


Don't freeze the pickled veggies. Store them in a mason jar with the brine, which will keep in the fridge for up to 4-weeks. The limes and jalapenos are sturdy enough to keep in the fridge for a few weeks or you can buy more. I didn't supply the cilantro, but you need that to be fresh.


I didn't freeze the rice noodles for the pho, but those can be stored in the pantry.

I'd love to hear your ideas on freezer meals you're thinking of making!

Freezer Meal: Sweet Potato-Chickpea Curry & Naan Bread

Last Sunday, Ava and I went to our third freezer meals exchange group. We take turns hosting the big swap. We trade family meals that we'll use for the next month. We trade 4 complete meals, but we plan to have more people in the group so we can have 5 meals to trade and people can have their pick for variety. One of the moms couldn't make it this month, but three of us met up tonight to swap meals. I'm really happy to have these meals in the freezer because we average one freezer meal per week. It's so convenient! The advantage that I found with the group is that we keep ourselves on track with the bulk cooking and then trade for a variety of different meals. We started the group in January and held our first meet-up in February an original four La Leche League moms. Since we're like-minded moms (eco-friendly, health-conscious) we started out with the guidelines to use as much local, organic ingredients as possible. Our meat choices must be local and natural too. We cook a family meal and provide an entree, side dish, and dessert. If your dish requires items from a pantry, then you need to provide it. We include the instructions for reheating and finishing the meal. When we started I bought some cheap casserole dishes to use for freezing. Anna told us how to package with freezing our meals into standard dishes and bags in the freezer to minimize space and eliminate the need for passing around dishes. I stocked up on plastic freezer bags, wraps, and foils and away we went.

We've discovered that it's helpful to spread out the cooking in multiple days. Yes, it requires some planning! I select my meal for the next month on the day we meet so I can spend the entire month planning. I consider the month ahead and plan the weekends when we're home to cook. It's working really well! I usually make an extra family portion for our dinner either cooking it fresh or adding to the freezer stash.

This month, I made a Chickpea-Sweet Potato, Cauliflower Curry with homemade curry paste with homemade Naan Bread, from my Simply in Season cookbook.I always cook dried chickpeas for the curry in the slow cooker. I provided a cup of Jasmine rice for every meal and a set of cookies for dessert (either Thumbprints or Sesame Sunflower Seed Refrigerator cookies).

I normally make the chickpea curry using a pre-made sauce from Trader Joe's. Since I was making such a large batch of curry I wanted to spread it out over 2 cooking days and make the curry paste from my favorite cookbook, Feeding the Whole Family. I spread it out in multiple steps: shopping for ingredients, cooking dried chickpeas in the slow cooker, cooking curry and naan bread batches in 2 different weekends, and baking cookies over 2 different weeks. It worked out very well! I used the time to make enough for our meal and then freeze the rest. This made it really easy to do the bulk cooking.

This version of the curry was made with: crushed tomatoes, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, coconut milk, cooked in coconut oil and seasoned with a generous portion of curry paste and sea salt. It was delicious served over the Jasmine rice. I finally nailed the Naan bread recipe, too! Aaron and Ava love it. You can reheat the naan in an iron skillet.

Next month, I'm going to make a Vietmanese meal with chicken Bahn Mi sandwiches and vegetarian pho. I'm going to pickle some veggies for sandwich. I'll reuse the small 4oz jars that I got from the pimentos that I bought for my March meal, Chicken Spaghetti casserole.

Pizza Crust

Let dough rise and double in size.

Just before Ava was born, we started a weekly tradition on Friday nights to watch a movie and make a homemade pizza. We started out using the Trader Joe's fresh, uncooked pizza dough. I'd roll out the dough each week for the pizza. Both the white flour and whole wheat options were great! But recently, I started to make our own pizza crust. Aaron thought I was crazy for buying flour in bulk at Costco, but we use it with all the baking and now pizza crust that I make from scratch.

I really like the recipe from my favorite cookbook Feeding the Whole Family. The dough is hearty. You'll be satisfied by this crust by eating less pizza. That saves calories! Ava likes the thick crust and it's easier for her to hold. She prefers our homemade pizza over the daycare or restaurant pizza!

Use 1/2 recipe for dinner and wrap the other half for the next pizza night.

I make the pizza crust once every two weeks. It makes enough dough for two full-size pizzas. I use my Pampered Chef pizza stone to bake it. Parbaking is a key step to homemade pizza. If you put the toppings on the fresh crust, it may not cook through before the toppings are brown. 

Time savings: I'd recommend breaking this up in two steps. Make the dough and let it rise overnight or when you have a long afternoon at home. Then package the dough. Later come back to the dough to make the pizza.

Marilyn's Best Pizza Dough (adapted from Feeding the Whole Family)
Makes enough dough for six, 8-inch pies or two family size 

Ingredients: 

• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (up to 3)
• 3 3/4 cups unbleached white flour (or 2 3/4 cups depending on your wheat flour)

Method:

• To make dough: combine the yeast in lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Let rest for 10 minutes while the yeast comes to life. Gently stir in olive oil. Mix salt and whole wheat pastry flour. Using the paddle attachment, mix flour with water/yeast mixture. Beat until stretchy or elastic. Add unbleached flour to make a soft dough. Change paddle attachment to the dough hook and knead until the dough is combined. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours OR overnight. **Often times, I let the dough rise overnight and on Friday morning, I do the next step to package in the refrigerator.
• To make the pizza: deflate, divide and shape into 5-6 balls or 1/2 in making large thick pizzas.  Relax the dough for 15-minutes.Smaller balls will make 8-inch pizzas, which is fun for customizing toppings for family members. **At this pint, package the dough in plastic wrap, then a plastic bag. You can either refrigerate or freeze the dough at this point.
• Preheat oven and pizza stone to 350 degrees. Shape the dough by using your finger to make tapping indentations rather than pulling the dough. I've also used the rolling pin too. Place the dough on the pizza stone or baking sheet coated with cooking spray. 
• Parbake large pizza for 10 minutes. OR small pizzas don't require parbaking. Add toppings and cook on 500 degrees for about 6-minutes on the lowest rack. 
• If you parbaked, add toppings then bake for another 11-12 minutes on 350 degrees.

  

  Pizza dough rolled and ready for parbaking.

 

Friday Night Family Pizza Dinner. Our favorite pizza combo is fresh spinach, olive, and cheese and we love it with Caesar salad. Time for a movie!

Ava's plate! She loves pizza and we serve her fruit on the side. When she's using her play kitchen she talks about making pizza.

Freezer Meals Exchange First Meet-up

What each person took home this week!

This week kicked off our first freezer meals exchange group. We met on Monday night at Anna's house. Anna is our organizer and I'm thrilled to take part. Four moms, including myself, participated this month. We cooked, froze, and packaged meals, which we transported to Anna's house. Here's a look at the first set of meals:

• From Windy: Healthy BBQ Chicken (slow cooker) served over penne pasta. Mini cheesecakes (cherry or chocolate chip) for dessert.
• From Anna: Orange Veggie soup with Beer Cheese Bread and pretzel white chocolate bark for dessert.
• From Rachel: Sun-dried Tomato Spinach Feta Bake and Chocolate Revel bars for dessert.
• I made Sweet Potato-Black Bean Enchiladas with Red Sauce and Glazed Carrots side dish.

Each person left with each of these meals! Look at the spread! Since Rachel cooked her meal on the day of the exchange and it was fresh, I baked her casserole last night for dinner. It was really tasty! I appreciated how easy it was to pop that in the oven when I got home from work. I made a green salad, cut fruit and sliced bread for the complete meal. Aaron tried the casserole, but his food aversions made it hard for him to eat it. But we ALL loved the chocolate revel bars. I'm glad to have the casserole for my own lunches this week. I really liked it.

Since I'm already doing bulk cooking for the exchange, I plan to add one or two extra meals for my own freezer. We're heading to Aaron's sister's house in a few weeks after our new niece is born so I'm planning on bringing an extra frozen meal to them! I figure with all the families I know there are plenty of people that can use an extra hand.

Here's the full menu and recipes that we exchanged. For next month's menu, I'm going to try The Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti. I've heard it's amazing and it will freeze well. I'm excited to host our next meet-up in March!

Freezer Meals Club and Sweet Potato-Black Bean Enchiladas with Homemade Sauce

I cleared a space in my freezer. Five pans of enchiladas.

Last night was my first meet up for the Freezer Meals group that I joined. One of the moms in my La Leche League group had the idea to start up a new group and there are five moms that are participating in this first meeting. Freezer cooking is a whole new world for me. I heard about stocking your freezer when you're expecting a baby, but I had no idea how to do it. Any busy family would find it helpful to have meals prepped in the freezer to whip out for a week night. I work from home two days a week, which helps because when I work in the office I don't have time to cook in the evening. I usually cook on Sundays for the week anyway. So freezer cooking appealed to me because you cook in bulk.

Our Ground rules: Our group decided to exchange frozen meals to serve 5 people in family. The meals should be healthy and if you include meat, it should be locally sourced without antibiotics. The idea is to provide a meal with a side dish or dessert and any add-on items for the pantry. We wrap up the meals in plastic wrap or foil and then freeze for the monthly exchange. The week before, the women add a blog post with their upcoming menu as the RSVP. I decided to make 5 meals to giveaway and 1 meal for ourselves, which I cooked on Sunday night.

My first freezer meal is Sweet Potato-Black Bean Enchiladas with homemade sauce and glazed carrots. I was disappointed with the corn tortillas because many broke open after I rolled them in the pans. But once you put the sauce on top, you won't notice. I make this filling all the time for my own family, but I wanted to make a homemade sauce similar to the one that my family makes.

Enchiladas cooked!

Enchiladas wrapped and ready to go with the sauce and side dishes. I packed shredded cheese separately for the exchange (left unfrozen).

Freezing the meals was interesting! I'm lucky to have another refrigerator in our garage so I could manage the bulk cooking. I cooked the enchilada sauce last Sunday while Ava was playing with Grandma and Grandpa. I stored a quadruple batch of sauce in the fridge all week. For the dried black beans, I had to cook it in the slow cooker in two batches because there were so many beans. I cooked 1 batch on Sunday overnight and the next batch while the slow cooker was still out on Monday while we were at work. Again, I'm glad we had lots of refrigerator space to store all those cooked beans! Then this weekend, I cooked the rest of the filling - sweet potatoes and onions with peppers. Saturday night, I assembled the enchiladas and placed them in the pans to freeze. I portioned the sauce in freezer bags separately because I read from another website that tortillas would be soggy if they were frozen with the sauce. It was helpful to space out the cooking load to several days.

Red Enchilada Sauce (courtesy of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)
Makes 3 cups 

I quadrupled this recipe to make 6 pans of enchiladas and I still have a couple more servings left with all the sauce. So I froze an extra batch to use later. The sauce is very thick compared to store bought. I couldn't find enough dried chiles for my extra large batch so I used 3 large poblano peppers chopped and cooked them with the onions and garlic.

Ingredients:
4 ounces whole dried New Mexico or Ancho chiles
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups beef or chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small cans of tomato paste
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Sea salt to taste

Preparation:

• Wearing gloves, clean the dried chiles by removing the stems and seeds. Don't touch your face. Set aside in a bowl.
• Saute onion in olive oil. Add cumin and cook, stirring constantly, until well amalgamated into the oil. Whisk in garlic, tomato paste and vinegar. Add stock and chiles, bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Simmer covered for about 45 minutes. 
• Pass the sauce through a food mill or puree in the food processor. Season with salt to taste.

Sweet Potato-Black Bean Enchiladas
Makes 12

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried black beans, soaked over night. 
• 1 sweet potato, chopped in bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper
• Taco seasoning - dried oregano, ground cumin, and chili powder (1 tsp of each)
• Sea salt (about 1/2 tsp) for the filling
• 12 corn tortillas
• 2 cups of red enchilada sauce
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese for topping
• Garnish suggestions: sour cream, avocado, chopped fresh cilantro

 Preparation: these can be done ahead of time and stored separately in the refrigerator.

• Cook soaked black beans in the slow cooker overnight or all day (on LOW for 8-hours). Water should be about 2-inches above the beans. See my blog post on detailed instructions.
• In a large preheated skillet, add cooking spray or olive oil. Cook onions, peppers, and sweet potatoes on medium-low until the sweet potatoes are tender (about 25 minutes). Add seasoning to the vegetables when you start to saute. 
• To assemble: Mix black beans with sweet potato-onion mixture and add sea salt. Warm tortillas. Fill corn tortillas with about 3 tablespoons of bean-sweet potato mixture.
• **If cooking immediately: coat 9x13" casserole dish with cooking spray. Add a few spoonfuls of enchilada sauce to the bottom of the dish. Begin adding enchiladas to the pan. You can fit 8 across vertically and 4 horizontally at the top. 
• **If freezing, line the casserole dish with plastic wrap. Build enchiladas in the dish in the same format. Freeze sauce in a separate container or bag. When cooking, add defrosted sauce on the bottom of the pan before baking. 
• Add remaining sauce by spreading evenly on the enchiladas. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
• Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 45 minutes.

If you have extra filling left, you can squeeze in more enchiladas or save it for a burrito for a quick meal later in the week.

Serve the enchiladas with vegetables or a green salad. Garnish with hot sauce, avocado, fresh cilantro, and sour cream. Let me know what you think!

Winter Squash Bars

Ava helping me make the Winter Squash Bars.

If you follow my blog, you know one of my favorite cookbooks is Simply In Season using the fresh seasonal produce in healthy, multicultural family meals. I highly recommend getting a copy of the book! The cookbook is made as a companion to your community-supported agriculture subscription.

Autumn is my most favorite time for cooking in season! I love squash, root vegetables, apples and the warm spices in the fall season.

I've made these Winter Squash Bars from Simply in Season a couple times recently with the butternut squash we've received in our produce bin. I use an entire squash in each recipe. Ava likes the bread for breakfast and snacks and it's great for sharing at a potluck or a surprise for your coworkers. The snack bread is very moist, fluffy, and light. You make a pan of the bars and freeze portions of it for later. I haven't tried it, but the book says that the recipe freezes well.

Roasting squash is really easy.

Preparing the squash / Make Ahead Step: Slice in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds and membranes. Cook in a preheated 350 degree oven on a cookie sheet for 30-40 minutes until tender. Let cool. Using a spoon, scrape out the cooked squash. Puree in the food processor. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.


Winter Squash Bars  (Makes 24)

• 2 cups winter squash or pumpkin (cooked, pureed) *I used a whole medium butternut squash
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat together in a mixing bowl or stand mixer

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix in. Pour into greased 11x7-inch jelly roll pan or 9x13 casserole dish. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

*The original recipe is 1 + 1/2 cups of sugar, but I think 1 cup is plenty.


Little ones in the kitchen: Ava loves to help in the kitchen and when she helps me, I let her beat the eggs in a bowl before putting them in the stand mixer. And you can see in the picture that she likes to spread the batter in the casserole dish.

Enjoy!

Easy Weeknight Dinner: Leftover Enchilada Casserole, Homemade Coleslaw, and Spicy Guacamole

Tonight, I made a really easy dinner for a very busy weeknight. I work in the office on Monday's so by the time I picked up the baby from daycare and got home and nursed her, I had a very short window for meal prep. Thank goodness I planned ahead for the busy week. I made Enchilada Casserole last night for dinner, which makes 6 servings and tastes great for leftovers. I love the concept of "planned-overs," a trick that I often use to make the weeknight even easier. You can pack up servings of this casserole in individual containers so it's easy to grab-and-go or reheat for a meal at home.

To fresh it up from last night's meal, I made Coleslaw with Homemade Poppy Seed Salad Dressing. Last night, I took the extra few minutes to quickly make the salad dressing and set it aside to use tonight. The coleslaw is super simple and has just a couple ingredients. To make the coleslaw, I shredded a small head of (cored) green cabbage, 2 shredded carrots, and about 1/2 cup of Homemade Poppy Seed Salad Dressing, with a dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Don't be this girl...Yesterday, I was at the grocery story and I saw a women with a bag of avocados and a Guacamole seasoning packet. I thought "WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!" My goodness! I never waste money on those things. Instead, I use fresh ingredients and spices on hand to achieve an even-better result. I buy a lot of avocados and eat them with turkey sandwiches, eggs, tacos, burritos, etc. I whipped this up and it was so good, that I couldn't even take a picture! There's only a few dollops left for my eggs in the morning. Next time I'll take a picture for the blog. Here's the recipe so you can make authentic Mexican Guacamole adapted from my mom. She doesn't like heat, but otherwise, she'd really like it.

Spicy Guacamole - Makes enough for1 family dinner
1 large (or 2 small) avocado
2 tbs minced seeded tomato
1/2 large minced, seeded jalapeno (to taste)
1 squeeze of lemon or lime (no fake bottle juices, please)
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp red onion, grated
Dash fresh ground pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste) - you need to salt liberally to accent the avocado
Chopped cilantro (handful)

Mash avocado and mix ingredients gently in a shallow-wide bowl (which you can also use for serving - fewer dishes to clean). Do not over-mix. Taste as you go to ensure you don't have too little or too much salt.

A little planning ahead really gives you the edge to be healthier. I don't have much time at night for meals because I have a 5-month old that likes to nurse a lot with her mama since we've been apart all day. I literally throw good stuff together from the seasonal, fresh produce in the fridge and stocked pantry and call it dinner!

Prepare A Freezable Meal Now for Busy Weeknights

I had dinner this week with my friend, Amber, who often prepares freezable meals for families in need with her church group. I told her about a recipe that I found really easy and delicious! For those busy weeknights that you have evening events, it's great to have meals prepared in the freezer that are ready to go!

It takes a bit of preparation (1 hr) to make the recipe and to wrap it for the freezer. Don't forget to write the date on the freezer bag.

Make these calzones now. Reheat them on a night when you're on the go and serve with extra marinara sauce, and a side of fruit, or green salad, or steamed veggies.

You can reheat them straight from the freezer while you're doing other projects around the house. I used pre-made pizza dough for this recipe when I made it. Making the dough from scratch is easy with a stand mixer (using the dough hook).

Sausage and Pepper Calzones

Cooking Light May 2007

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cupss flour, divided

1 cup warm water

1 package dry yeast

Dash sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Cooking spray

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 cups thinly sliced red bell peppers

1 cup chopped onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound chicken apple sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup cottage cheese

2 teaspoons parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

To prepare dough, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup warm water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl; let stand 15 minutes. Gradually add 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon oil, and 3/4 teaspoon salt; stir until a soft dough forms. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes); add enough of remaining 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands.Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.)

To prepare filling, heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add bell pepper, onion, garlic, and sausage; sauté 10 minutes or until tender. Spoon mixture into a bowl; cool slightly. Add mozzarella and remaining ingredients to sausage mixture; stir well.

Preheat oven to 450°.

Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 6-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Spoon about 1/2 cup sausage mixture onto half of each circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Fold dough over filling; crimp edges of dough with fingers to seal. Place calzones on a large baking sheet lined with foil and coated with cooking spray. Pierce the tops of the dough once with a fork. Lightly coat the calzones with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 14 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Coat a sheet of foil with cooking spray. Place 1 calzone on coated side of foil; seal. Repeat procedure with remaining calzones and cooking spray. Place calzones in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag; freeze.

Preheat oven to 450°.

To reheat, place foil-wrapped, frozen calzones on a large baking sheet. Bake at 450° for 40 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Yield 8 servings (serving size: 1 calzone)

Nutritional InformationCALORIES 327(30% from fat); FAT 10.7g (sat 3.5g,mono 2.4g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 16.3g; CHOLESTEROL 49mg; CALCIUM 124mg; SODIUM 680mg; FIBER 4g; IRON 3.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 42g