Finally, the August lists, and the pictures!
Edited for an update: We have eaten all of these meals, and below (above every meal) you will see my comments about whether it froze well or not. MANY of August's meals did NOT freeze well. They tasted really good when they were fresh, but not frozen. Some did turn out well though, so I will be putting notes by those as well. I hope this helps anyone out there who is planning to use this particular list of recipes!)
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I got the cooking done! Yeah!... I'm ready for the rest of this month and part of the next.
Here are two links to the lists:
Grocery list
(please let me know if you find any errors, or doubles in this list. I would be more than happy to correct anything I've missed.):
www.preciousinfants.com/ingredientsaug.htm
Recipe list
www.preciousinfants.com/recipesaug.htm
A real life saver for me this time around- I purchased an onion chopper from walmart...TIME SAVER! It cost 15.00, and was worth it's weight in gold. I was able to chop the potatoes, onions, bellpeppers, mushrooms, etc....all with this tool!! And the diced veggies look so nice too!
Here are the pictures I took of most of the dishes....
The Green Eyed Monsters (Note to J.J.: I don't know if I'm just a ditz or what, but I'm sure that I did something wrong here. LOL I think I would need to see pictures before I could figure out the instructions....but these should still taste good the way they are.
Sweet and Sour Stir Fry:
Ginger Beef Stir Fry:
South of the Border soup:
Stir Fry Supreme:
This was NOT good thawed
Closeup
In the bag:
I think this is the bacon Macaroni bake...I did not have any macaroni noodles (silly me, did not buy them), and I ended up using mixed noodles and linguine! It still works!
Okay...I know this one looks like cereal with milk all over it...but this is the potato potluck casserole dish. It smelled like it was going to taste delicious! I guess the corn flakes will make a nice and crispy topping!
King Ranch Chicken Casserole:
Closeup with corn tortilla topping:
Herb Stuffing Broccoli Casserole:
How my table looked the first day, after prep....
My pretty diced vegetables! Only took about an hour to chop all of this, instead of all day long!
How it began looking the second day, halfway through the process:
The creamy Asparagus soup:
Popeye Was Right Soup:
Mexican Style Cheesy Potatoes:
Beef Noodle Bake:
'
Taco Soup:
Elizabethan Pork and Fruit casserole:
Baked Ziti (my store doesn't carry Ziti noodles, so I went with mixed):
Pasta With Bacon, Mushroom & Caramelized Onions:
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry:
Cooked barbeque meat (made three separate meals):
Just like Thanksgiving (Chicken Casserole):
It is such a relief to have it all done, once again! Tonight, and every night for another month, I can put a pan in the oven for an hour, sit back, relax, and enjoy a delicious meal!
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I got the cooking done! Yeah!... I'm ready for the rest of this month and part of the next.
Here are two links to the lists:
Grocery list
(please let me know if you find any errors, or doubles in this list. I would be more than happy to correct anything I've missed.):
www.preciousinfants.com/ingredientsaug.htm
Recipe list
www.preciousinfants.com/recipesaug.htm
A real life saver for me this time around- I purchased an onion chopper from walmart...TIME SAVER! It cost 15.00, and was worth it's weight in gold. I was able to chop the potatoes, onions, bellpeppers, mushrooms, etc....all with this tool!! And the diced veggies look so nice too!
Here are the pictures I took of most of the dishes....
The Green Eyed Monsters (Note to J.J.: I don't know if I'm just a ditz or what, but I'm sure that I did something wrong here. LOL I think I would need to see pictures before I could figure out the instructions....but these should still taste good the way they are.
- These did fine.
Sweet and Sour Stir Fry:
- This did not thaw well
Ginger Beef Stir Fry:
- Tasted wonderful when fresh....did NOT thaw well.
South of the Border soup:
- This was actually pretty good thawed
Stir Fry Supreme:
This was NOT good thawed
Closeup
In the bag:
I think this is the bacon Macaroni bake...I did not have any macaroni noodles (silly me, did not buy them), and I ended up using mixed noodles and linguine! It still works!
- Very good- froze and thawed well
Okay...I know this one looks like cereal with milk all over it...but this is the potato potluck casserole dish. It smelled like it was going to taste delicious! I guess the corn flakes will make a nice and crispy topping!
- This was good.
King Ranch Chicken Casserole:
- This one was EXCELLENT. Will be making again!
Closeup with corn tortilla topping:
Herb Stuffing Broccoli Casserole:
- This one turned out delicious...I wish I had made several!
How my table looked the first day, after prep....
My pretty diced vegetables! Only took about an hour to chop all of this, instead of all day long!
How it began looking the second day, halfway through the process:
The creamy Asparagus soup:
- Froze and thawed fine, but I didn't really like the recipe.
Popeye Was Right Soup:
- Thawed fine
Mexican Style Cheesy Potatoes:
- Thawed fine
Beef Noodle Bake:
'
- Thawed fine
Taco Soup:
- Very good, thawed fine
Elizabethan Pork and Fruit casserole:
- Would not try this again, although it thawed fine. It was too sweet.
Baked Ziti (my store doesn't carry Ziti noodles, so I went with mixed):
- Was great thawed
Pasta With Bacon, Mushroom & Caramelized Onions:
- Was great thawed
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry:
- This was great fresh, but horrible thawed.
Cooked barbeque meat (made three separate meals):
- This always freezes well.
Just like Thanksgiving (Chicken Casserole):
- Did not like this recipe at all!
It is such a relief to have it all done, once again! Tonight, and every night for another month, I can put a pan in the oven for an hour, sit back, relax, and enjoy a delicious meal!
Wow! I gotta hand it to you. That looks great & I'm glad the chopping went faster for you this time around. I'll have to check out the lists & recipes when I have more time. Thanks for sharing!
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Wow, you are amazing!! It all looks SO yummy! And i've been wanting one of those choppers!!! Thanks for sharing, Bethany!!!
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Wow! That all looks so good! I used one of those choppers the other day, and I have to agree that the chopping goes by so quick. But I didn't know you could use it for peppers. I may have to buy one of these!
Roxanne
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Is it just me or is the links not working? I've been having a lot of computer problems these last few months. I really want to see the recipes!
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It's not just you, Rebecca...thank you for letting me know this was happening. I have fixed the coding problem that was causing that, but sometimes it takes a little while for the changes to take effect, so until then, you can go to the grocery list here:
http://www.preciousinfants.com/ingredientsaug.htm
and the recipe list here:
http://www.preciousinfants.com/recipesaug.htm
Let me know if those don't work!
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Great job! You continue to inspire me. Would you say that your chopper works better than something like those electric mini-food processors? Also, can you adjust the chopper's blade to the desired size you want your veggies to be?
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Thank you, Carol! Actually, I have no way to compare between food processors and this tool, because I have never owned a food processor. (Sorry I can't do more to help you)
I think that most likely, it would be better to have a food processor though.
I think there are adjustable blades for this, but it didn't come with the particular one I bought.
Hope that helps!
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Thank you, Rebecca, Roxanne, & Christine!
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Bethany,
You should be proud of yourself. What a lot of work. You are a good Wife and Mommy!
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Thank you, Sarah, I really appreciate your comment!
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The easiest way to do it is to take the normal amount of meat you'd use to make a burger and divide it in half. Make two thin burgers, place the pickles on one and then top with the other one and seal the edges. The pickles are actually inside the burger. Sorry about that.
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JJ, you know, I actually had a feeling that is what I was supposed to do, but I seem to not be able to understand directions unless I can see pictures. lol
Thank you for explaining that for me!
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Yummy, Bethany!! Great job - you always take such nice pictures of the dishes.
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I think you could do it with a 9 month old... what I do is I give the kids a little sample of each dish, as they come into the kitchen. And while I'm in there, I let them watch a cartoon or color with crayons...they usually are pretty good. They love coming in and getting a bite or two of what I am making, especially Noah, the littlest one! Maybe you could even bring your son's playpen in the kitchen, and give him some toys in there to play with, that way you could talk to him while cooking!
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Hi Bethany just recently found your site. I went right out and bought one of those choppers and used it on onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and even garlic. Works like a dream. Thanks so much for talking about it here.
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This stuff makes me hungry. I notice that 100% of people liked this blog, and I say hooray and no doubt - that's the way it should be.
Bethany, for all our arguments, you and your family are mighty precious indeed!
Best,
Doug
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Doug, thank you so very much....I greatly appreciate it.
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Will you be posting Sept, and eventually Oct soon?
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Oh, I'm so sorry, Tia, I didn't make one for September, unfortunately. I think that within a couple of weeks, I may be making a new list though...keep looking out for notices!...I'll be sure to let the readers know in advance when to expect a new list! Thanks for asking!
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No problem, I'm very new to the site, so I don't know if you did it every month or how you did it. I never did OAMC but the recipes look soooo good!
I also came across a good website. cooks.com. TONS of recipes. You can even search for recipes if you have one in mind. You'll get tons of hits. I've found some recipes that I've been looking for, for awhile.
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I don't know where you purchase your aluminum foil pans, but the dollar tree has aluminum foil pans as well. And only a dollar! I go there and stock up, especially w/the holidays approaching.
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Hehe actually that's EXACTLY where I got mine!
I love great deals like that...the aluminum pans really helped this time around! Thanks for commenting!
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I LOVE the dollar tree! When I was single, I went there and bought Christmas decorations lol. I bought an entire village, including some "people". People didn't know I bought it there. It reminded me of the same thing my aunt has in her house at Christmas.
I also, get my Christmas wrapping paper there, tissue paper etc, and gift bags! Gift bags are sooooo expensive anymore. I can get 10 gift bags for the same price as 2 or 3 at the drug store! I got my mother hooked on the dollar tree last christmas while we were picking up last minute wrapping paper. They had the cutest little red boxes, pre-wrapped in felt, w/a bow! The perfect size for giftcards! As cheap as I can be sometimes, after everyone was done unwrapping their gifts, and giftcards, I took back the boxes. Hey, I can't let good boxes go to waste!
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