4 Recipes= 4 Successes

After the first week of freezer cooking, I will say, "I love it!"  It's so nice to have supper ready and I feel like I can spend more time with the family because all I have to do for dinner is pick out a vegetable.  Everything else is done.  We've had 4 recipes so far and we've liked it all!
We've tried:
Pepsi Pot Roast
Tasty Pork Tenderloin
Thai Beef with Noodles
Tangy Pineapple Chicken
Here is the link for the recipes I'm using this month on my SkyDrive (which if you don't have one, you should.  It's a really useful way to store things online and it lets you use microsoft applications w/o having them on your computer!  It's free if you have a hotmail account.)

SkyDrive

I got all of the recipes from Freezer Friendz.

Have I convinced anyone yet to try this? :)  Also, I'd love some ideas for next month...meals that can be easily prepared and frozen (no cooking ahead of time preferred! :))

Once a Month Freezer Cooking

Well, I decided to try something new that I stumbled on while looking at Pinterest (that website can be very addicting :)).  I used two blogs for ideas.  One from Mama and Baby Love: http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com/ and the other from Freezer Friendz: http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/ .  On Mama and Baby Love, the author talks about cooking one day to make meals for the month.  But then I needed some freezable recipes so I headed over to Freezer Friendz.  On Thursday this past week, I took the kids to the grocery store with my list for 12 meals.  After 2 hours (they were wonderful shoppers) and $215 later, we were headed home.  Then today I put all of the recipes together.  It took 2 1/2 hours; with the help of one little friend and one bigger one! :)  Matt was really helpful in browning 3 lbs. of ground beef and cleaning up/recycling things. 
I hope this will really help in preparing meals so at 5:00 each night, we don't look at each other and say, "What's for dinner?"  I wrote down each meal on the calendar so I know what to get out of the freezer each night.  I figured on 12 meals for the rest of Jan. because on Wed. we eat at church and there should be leftovers. 
Here is my list of recipes I made:
Pepsi Pot Roast
Mexican Dinner Dip
Thai Beef with Noodles (switched sesame oil-$6.99 a bottle!- for olive oil)
Angel Chicken
Um Um Skillet
Pasta and Fagioli Soup (1/2 recipe)
Tangy Pineapple Chicken
Chicken Tortilla Roll-ups
Stubb's Chicken
Pesto Chicken
Tasty Pork Tenderloin
Ravioli and Cheese Bake
All of the recipes came from Freezer Friendz and they are all new, which I am a little nervous about.  Thankfully Matt is not picky at all, Emerson isn't either.  Landon on the other hand won't eat much of anything.  So I guess, I may be the best critic! :)  I tried to choose a variety of recipes and those that didn't take a lot of preparation.  It didn't make a lot of dishes because I mixed/measured everything straight into th freezer bag.
Our first meal is Pepsi Pot Roast (if i can remember to get the 2 more cans of cream of mushroom soup I forgot to buy).  I'll update to let you know how the plan is working!

Snow Time

We finally had some snow and Jessica and Greyson came over to play!  The kids had a great time sledding, digging, making snow angels, throwing snowballs, and drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows!

Landon stil  wanted to ride his bike!

Although this is a great hill, the snow was pretty heavy.  The driveway actually made a better place to sled!

Yeah...so we were throwing snowballs and I threw one that landed directly in little guy's face!  Oops!

Our little girl is growing up

Time for a big girl bed!  Emmy (at 2 1/2 yrs.) is probably ready for a toddler bed.  Every morning she would yell, "Mommy (Daddy) dit me up!!"  So we figured she was ready to get herself up.  Below are pictures from the crib to the toddler bed.

Emmy in her new bed with her favorite lovies: pillow, baby and blankie.

Getting her new clock (which we LOVE because it teaches kids to stay in bed until the light is green)!

 We also had a Mommy/Daughter date while the boys went out and bought a new snowblower.  Em and Landon got some fingerpaint for Christmas from Gunnar, and she has been begging to use it!  We decided to do some fingerpainting.  It started off very timid (see first pic) and then ended up pretty messy (see second pic)!  What fun!

Love the happy look on her face!

We are so blessed by our little girl...who isn't so little anymore.  "I not a baby," she keeps telling me!

New Year's Eve Fun!

The festivities started this year a day early.  Several people would be out of town or heading out of town soon on New Year's weekend, so the Frye's hosted a New Year's Eve Eve Party.  We all had a great time with a live band, Euchre and Skii Ball Tournament, and a Midnight Ball Drop!

The ball: made from rags, aluminum foil, and Christmas lights.

The countdown to....still 2011!

Then the next evening, we drove down to the Bergers, met the Fryes, and some friends of the Bergers, to have another New Year's Eve party.  Matt and Mikel had a PU basketball game to attend and the rest of us had a great time playing with the kids, playing Settlers, and the Wii.  I apparently did not get my camera out except one time, because these are all of the pictures I have!  Oops!

This is Em when Matt asked her to, "Smile pretty!" :)

Here's to a wonderful 2012! 
Any resolutions out there?  I downloaded a Declutter Calendar from Pinterest with an idea to declutter and organize the house by doing one thing each day.  I hope it's not a resolution because mine never last long! :)