What's Left For Dinner?

This is officially week two of my two weeks worth of dinners I cooked last weekend and can I just say, I'm so happy I cooked for two weeks! What's left on the menu for this week you ask? Tonight, we had Russian Chicken (I will post the recipe below)...tomorrow will be chicken tacos, then we have enchiladas, spaghetti, chicken and rice, chili maple chicken, and another Russian chicken left. I'm about to start my menu for the next two weeks and will shop and cook those next weekend. Did I mention that I only spent $166 at the store last weekend? That's crazy! Here are a few recipes to tie you over until next weekend. I will take some pics of my cooking process to make it a little more interesting next weekend.

Russian (Dump) Chicken
4-5 pieces of frozen chicken breast
1 bottle of Russian dressing
2 packages of onion soup mix
1 tablespoon of apricot preserves

In a gallon ziploc baggy, pour the bottle of dressing, 2 packages of onion soup mix and preserves. Then add the frozen chicken breast (do not thaw). Zip the baggy and mix up the ingredients. Place in the freezer. When ready to cook, put in the refrigerator over night. Then cook on 350 for about 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is ready. Serve over rice. EASY!!!!!!!!

Enchiladas
1 pound of ground beef or turkey (I buy the big 5 pounder and use it for lots of things)
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 cans red or green enchilada sauce (I use the green)
1/2 bag of shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag flour tortillas

Cook the burger meat with the onions until the onions are clear. Drain meat. Add 1 can to meat mixture. I also add a hand full of cheese. Spoon mixture into individual tortillas and roll up. Put into Glad Oven ware (or your choice of freezer safe dish). I usually put ten in a dish and that's enough for my family of four. After you roll up all the enchiladas, pour the other can of sauce on top of the enchiladas. Then sprinkle cheese on top. You can put as much or as little as possible. Then wrap up and freeze. Thaw in the fridge over night and then cook on 350 until cheese is melted. ***Family Favorite****

Chicken Tacos

4-5 frozen chicken breast thawed and cooked on the grill
2 cans of rotel tomatoes
(I cook the chicken on the grill so that Tony can help me and it takes a little time off of my cooking. He can do this while I'm cooking my beef dishes)

Cut the chicken into small pieces. Put in the skillet with the rotel and cook until the liquid is almost gone. Then let cool. Place into individual ziploc baggies. You'll want to divide it up to the best size for your family. Then Freeze. Thaw over night in the fridge and warm up in a skillet. I use flour tortillas warmed in the microwave with cheese on top. You can add your favorite taco dressings.

The chicken one is great because you can use it for lots of things besides tacos! Happy cooking and let me know how it goes!

Mmmm! Mmmmm! Good!

Ok...seriously, I had to share with you the most amazing surprise that arrived at school on Friday! Well, it wasn't really a surprise because I kinda knew it was coming but non the less, I was still excited! My dear friend Hannah Jackson has started her own business called....



It's named after her grandmothers and she makes the most amazing cupcakes! So, I somehow convinced her to bring some to school on Friday for the ladies in my lunch to share! And she did!!!!! It was such a delight to have someone send us a treat that it took about 5 seconds for them to be gobbled up! So, I asked Hannah to send me some pics because I couldn't wait to share them with you!




I know! They are just as good as they looked!!!!! Now, you all know I love me some "Cake Boss" and have been known to watch "DC Cupcakes" a time or two...and I have to tell you, BettySues is right up there with the big dogs! I'm so proud of Hannah for deciding to share her talents! You will love her sweet heart as much as her sweet treats! Head over to hannah's website and become her friend on Facebook! Let's help Hannah get her business into full gear!!!!!

More Dinner!

This is where I find a lot of my favorite recipes! Not any that I have tried to freeze yet, however, some seriously good cooking! This is my neighbor's mom's blog and while she hasn't blogged in a while, I continue to go here for many a recipe from time to time. Just scroll through and look for "Sunday Dinners" and other fabulous things to eat! I hope you enjoy and I will be looking for more yummies this weekend!

BTW...swing by my other blog ---> just look over to the right for "The Search for our Baby Sister" and see what's new in our adoption!

It's dinner time!

So, for the past two weeks, I have been cooking dinner for the upcoming week and freezing it. Let me just say, this is the best decision I've made in a long time! This past week, as you know, school started. I knew with going back to work and all the other stuff we normally do, I wouldn't feel like cooking. Not to mention, it's like 110 here and who wants to stand over a hot oven when it's like an oven outside. So, what I decided to do was buy some of those aluminum pans with the lids and put my meals in them. Then this week, I found this...

I found them at Kroger. $4.99 for two. I'll let you know how I like them.

Here are some of the things I made this week.

Cheeseburger Casserole (not my favorite but the kids loved it!)
2 cans cheddar cheese soup
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 pound burger meat
1 bag frozen french fries

Cook the burger meat and add the soups. Pour into your baking dish and top with the french fries. Cover and freeze. Thaw in the fridge overnight and then cook on 400 until the fries are golden.

****I doubled this and made two extras because I had some ladies I needed to take dinner too. You could double and make two or if you are a smaller family, you could make one and put it in smaller dishes.

Bacon Chicken
6 chicken breasts thawed and cut in half long ways
1 pkg cream cheese
12 strips of bacon
seasoning of your choice (I used a garlic/wine powder)

Cut the chicken long ways to make it thin or you can pound it out flat. You will mix your cream cheese with your seasoning (the recipe called for onions and chives but I knew the kids wouldn't like that)Spoon a small amount of the cheese onto the chicken and roll up. Wrap with bacon and place in dish seam side down. Wrap up and freeze. You will want to thaw over night in the fridge. Cook on 350 for 30-45 minutes until the chicken is done. Then put the oven on broil for about 6 minutes to let the bacon get crispy.

**I cooked with fresh veggies from the farmer's market and the kids (including tony) loved this one!

Mexican Taco Pasta
1 bag of egg noodles
1 pound burger meat
1 pkg taco seasoning
1/2 cup taco sauce
1/2 cup chunky salsa
1 can of corn (drained) (I used frozen)
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

Cook the egg noodles and mix together all of the other ingredients. Put in dish, cover and place in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge over night. Cook on 350 or until the middle is not cold. You can add cheese if you'd like either before or after you freeze.

This week, I made lasagna, spaghetti sauce, "dump" chicken. I'll post those recipes in another blog.

Cooking all of this on a Saturday night took me about 3 hours because I bought 5 lbs of burger meat and just divided it out for each meal. I think it's a great trade off not to have to cook anything this next week!

Happy cooking and freezing. Let me know how this turns out for you. And if you have any recipes you want to share, please feel free to post them on my comments and I will blog them sometime too!

E6

As I begin my 4th year of teaching at Horn Lake, I realized that I have never shared with you my amazing classroom! Today, as I was leaving, I snapped a few shots of the place better known as "E6". That's my room number but I refer to my room as E6 all the time! I might be known to say something like, "E6 is MY house!" or "This is a dictatorship not a democracy when you're in E6!" I know that sounds a little harsh...and well...it probably is. But as you all know, I teach 9th graders and, well, most times "boot camp" is required.

I do, however, try to make my room a fun place to be. And apparently it is, because I will have many strays hanging around like they were invited!

This is what makes my room different then the rest. I have a painted ceiling. I let the students paint paper and we wrapped the tiles. Everyone just loves it and some teachers have copied my idea.

Next you will find my desk. This is a rarity because my desk is usually not that clean or organized! I like to make the kids think I'm all together the first day. It doesn't take long for them to figure out I'm a little cooky!



Another thing that makes my room special is the technology! I have a smart board, two lap tops, a MAC, a video camera and a digital camera. I try to use these things every day. If you're not a teacher you may not realize that we are competing with Tv and video games. We have to be up on techonology if we want to keep their attention!



I arranged my desks a little different this year. So far, I like it. I'm hoping it works with the "Zen" in my room. I know if you believe in Jesus you don't believe in "Zen" but sometimes room arrangement makes a big difference in the behaviors of the kids.
Well, we start the grind tomorrow! Brady met his teacher tonight...well, I say "met" but she is a long time friend. Mrs. Campbell will do a great job with Brady this year and I'm excited that she will be our teacher!

Back to School

Before we had to head back to school, our summer travels lead us to Cool, CA. This year it was unseasonably "cool" in Cool. The weather was amazing! Seriously! It was in the 80's most of the days and 60's in the evening. It was amazing not being in the Memphis heat for a few days.
We did so many things while we were in California. I've put up just a few of the millions of pictures!

Tony, Nolan (my step brother), Brady and Kaden laying on the bank of the American River. The water was super cold so we had to lay out and get hot just to tolarate the water!

This is University Falls. The boys and my step mom hiked six miles for a fun day sliding down the rocks! I couldn't go because of my foot and so, Kaden, dad and I played mini golf!

Tony and I had a date day. We took my dad's corvette to Tahoe City and had lunch by Lake Tahoe! This place was amazing and I would love to live there some day!

This is me, obviously, walking on the beach of Lake Tahoe! I love it!

So, today was day two of being back at school. The kids come on Thursday so say a prayer and wish me some luck! I'm excited to be teaching English 1 and Journalism. Last year I had a comp reading class which ment I had the same kids all year and it was exhausting! I will only have them for one semester now so I'm super excited! I'll try to remember to take some pics of my class room before the kids come.