#9 Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

Today I spent all the majority of the day in the kitchen, but I was able to practically knock out another goal for my 101 in 1001.

Goal #9: Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

The reason for this goal may seem obvious, and the obvious reason is my reason for it. I don't know much about what it takes to be a mom, but I do know that it will take a lot timewise, especially the first few weeks. The hope is that we can have meals ready in the freezer so we can focus our attention on our lil' babe versus answering the ever-so-common question of "What's for supper?!"
Now I say that I practically knocked this goal out because I am not 100% sure that I made ten meals. I certainly didn't make ten different things, but I think that it's enough to last us over ten meals. :)

First off last night to jumpstart this project, I cooked 4 unnaturally large split-chicken breast and picked the meat off them. This was the most disgusting process and I recognize why my momma-cita is a vegetarian! Meat is gross! Chris also helped me chop up some onions and peppers that would be used in today's recipes.

Cookin' Chicken--Those white chunks are onions.
We added some "pizzazz" to our meat!

Anyways without further ado, here's the food that is now occupying our deep freeze:

Chicken Roll-Ups 2 meals
This was the last thing that I made this afternoon, so conveniently Chris and I ate a couple before freezing the rest for future meals. At least we know they are tasty! And boy were they tasty!!


All rolled up. Pre-cooked.


Inside the crescent rolls is a shredded chicken, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese mixture that has some salt, pepper, and some other seasoning off the spice rack that "looked right". [In case you didn't know, I'm no chef!]

After lupper [lunch/supper]--that's what we have on Wednesdays because Chris has 2-4pm off between jobs--I was able to freeze 11 roll-ups for future meals. I'd say that's easily 2 meals or more, especially if we eat something else with them.


Chicken Spaghetti 2 meals
This is a chicken and spaghetti--profound I know--combination with cheese, cream of mushroom soup, onions, and peppers. Furthermore I used whole wheat pasta because I don't really care for it so I'm hoping in "casserole" form that wheaty taste will be masked a bit more. Overall it reminds me a lot of turkey tetrazzini that was served a lot in college, we'll just hope it's a little more flavorful!

All ready for the oven freezer!
Two pans for "four" servings.

Meatballs ? meals [32 meatballs]

When reading through a few websites looking for recipes for freezer meals, meatballs was one thing that popped up quite a bit. Now in and of themselves, they aren't really a meal, but since they can be easily added to other simple ingredients--pasta & sauce or a bun?--most sites suggested having them in the freezer.

When I mentioned to Chris last night that meatballs is one of the things I'd be making, he inquired, "Have you ever made them before?!" To which I of course answered "Nope, but I'll eat them!" "Oh, okay because my mom has made them and they don't always turn out." [Sorry Nancy!]

Well because I've never made them before and the recipe suggested making them in a skillet, I went ahead with that method and consequently burnt 10 of them. So instead of burning cooking the rest in the same manner, I heated up the oven and baked the rest. I didn't take a picture of the "good" not carbon-coated ones, but they looked much better!

Carbon-coated Meatballs.
I ate one eventually and it was pretty good
despite its darkened exterior! :)

Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas 3 meals [13 enchiladas]

Usually when I am looking for recipes to cook, I'm drawn towards Mexican. Now I don't particularly like spicy, hot Mexican--especially the last few weeks everything seems hotter than it was previously--but I do enjoy Mexican in general. So when I came across the "recipe" for enchiladas.

This recipe consisted of shredded chicken, black beans, enchilada sauce, onions, red peppers, and cheese. I wrapped them in foil with 2 per foil to be able to "portion control" later on. I'm hoping these are delish, because I'm certainly looking forward to them!

Chiptole-style wrapping with enchilada filling.

"Chicken" Parmesan Meatloaf 1 meal, with leftovers :)

Just like I've never made meatballs before, I've never made meatloaf before either, but I went ahead and gave this recipe a try because the picture looked delicious and anything chicken Parmesan has to be great right?! [I put chicken in quotes because I actually used ground turkey to make it instead of ground chicken. It was cheaper!

After making it, I put it in a silicone foil-lined loaf pan and froze it for a while until it held its shape. Then I took it out and put it in a Ziploc bag to store in the freezer.

I didn't take a pic of this because it was just a raw meat mixture that didn't look so good, but I'm sure once it's baked and covered in sauce/cheese, it will be picture worthy.

BBQ Chicken Pasta 2 meals

The last meals to mention are actually the ones that I made first. If you followed the link in the meal listing, you'll see that the recipe isn't super clear. I am not 100% sure what this meal is supposed to be like. I don't know if it is a sauce or more of a bake, so it will be interesting when it's time to cook it. I just made the BBQ chicken part, not that pasta, and it's kind of an odd consistency. Not real thick, but also not really sauce-like. My thoughts are when its eatin' time to  just cook some pasta and then put the BBQ Chicken concoction overtop it and bake. We shall see. :)

So there we have it: 10ish meals plus the meatballs in the freezer before the arrival of our first child. It was fun to make so much in one day--even though a bit odd not to eat what I made--and I'm sure I'll be making some more in the near future. We'll see if we can avoid eating these meals until after the arrival of our babe. That'll be the real challenge!!