I LOVE FALL!!

I know, I know, I say this every time fall comes around and here it is again....

I LOVE FALL!!

I love when the air gets cool and crisp. I love all the fall colors, the dark reds, oranges, browns. I love when school starts again because everything seems to get back on a schedule and I LOVE organization. And last but certainly not least....

I LOVE FOOTBALL SEASON!!

For those of you who do not know I am a huge football fan and a HUGE COWBOYS FAN!! WOO HOO!! And for those of you who missed it they looked AWESOME last Sunday!

So back to the subject...Our family also gets very busy this time of year with sports, scouts, etc. So I am trying something to see if it will help make my life a little easier and so far it has been great!! This has been my first attempt at "Freezer Meals" or "OAMC (once a month cooking)". I found this cool website Freeze Happy!and thought I would try it out. I am LOVE LOVE LOVING it. And my kids think it is great too. I started with the cookies and made both Chocolate chip and Peanut butter and jelly (both on her site). Now every day when my kids get home from school I cook up 8-10 cookies and they get hot homemade cookies and milk for a snack everyday not to mention I received the "best mom ever" award from them. :)


(PS - try the little trick she has on her site about dropping the cookies after pulling them out of the oven, it TOTALLY works)
(used mom's homemade raspberry jam for the middle of these YUM-O!)

So then I decided to try a little more and figured I would continue on with another simple recipe....mini pancakes. This was super easy and my kids just love that they can have hot pancakes every morning if they want. I just stick a few on a paper plate and nuke them for a few seconds and then give them a little bowl of syrup and a little bowl of jam for dipping. Besides being a warm breakfast it is a fun one too.



So after tackling breakfast and cookies I was really getting into the swing of things. I made my normal monthly menu and then went through and picked out everything I could make into a freezer meal. Here are the results from my first attempt at freezer meals.

Two pans of lasagna:
Three containers of Taco Soup:
Two loafs of Meatloaf (I totally understand this does not look appetizing, but after it is cooked and served with baked potatoes.....yum-o!):
And Two pans of Chicken enchiladas:

Everything is covered with foil (after the flash freeze process) and all cooking directions are labeled on foil with marker. All meals also have a green or red sticker on them. Green means "GO" take directly out of freezer and cook and red means "stop" need to thaw before cooking.

These meals are so great on nights like last night where we had both scouts and soccer. I pull out a freezer meal and after all the running I am not slaving in the kitchen but my family still has a warm, good meal. Try it, I am sure you will love it and I can't wait to hear from you after you try it.