4-H Fashion Show

The Wharton County 4-H Fashion Show was this past Sunday at the Extension Office. I was truly surprised to find that there was only 6 entries in the entire Fashion Show! This is absolutely shocking to me. When I was in 4-H we had 5-6 contestants in EACH category, not 6 in total! But that's ok, we still came out ahead!! I have been practicing with Rheanna for the fashion show since last week, and it definitely paid off!!!! Rheanna was the only person who had competition in her group. She was either going to get 1st or 2nd. I was a nervous wreck!!!! We had practiced so hard, I just wanted her to win 1st. But I knew the little girl she was up against was a talker and not afraid of anything! But I just kept a positive attitude and told Rhea no matter what, I was proud of her!

They also had Round-Up the same day and time so we had to wait until Round-Up finished to hear the results. Finally, they announced the awards for the Fashion Show. Rheanna's group was the last one to be called: 1st Place in the Division of Buying Casualty...........Rrrhhean (speaker trying to pronounce her name).........I jumped up and said RHEANNA EIDE!!! I couldn't help it....LOL! I was one super duper proud Momma!!!




Rheanna receiving her 1st place award.



Winners of the Fashion Show. (The girl next to Rhea, was the one she was competing against!)

Daddy was also busy this past weekend working on Rheannas Chicken Coop. We are almost done. We should have it completed at the end of this weekend. Rheanna helped as much as she could.

There is a lot more work done on it now. We have all the tin up except for one side. All we need now is to finish the windows and door. And we should be Chicken ready!!!

Well Until Next Time, God Bless!

A Weekend of Success!

This weekend was the wonderful adventure of FREEZER MEALS! It was a great learning experience and I will definitely be doing it more often! But as of right now, I have plenty to tie me over for a while. I was hoping to get 14 meals done but I ran out of chicken and was only able to do 11 meals. I still think that is plenty, we will only use 3 meals per week so we have enough meals done for 4 weeks! I took pictures from the start to the ending of ALL meals done. So, here you go.....



All of the food to be prepared today!

Sunshine Chicken:  Here is the cast of characters....

Chicken Breast, BBQ sauce, Orange Juice, and Ziploc Bags

First: Cut chicken into chunks and place in Ziploc Bag

Measure 2 cups of BBQ sauce and pour into bag with chicken

Measure 1 cup orange juice and pour into bag.

  

Seal bag, and shake. Freeze flat. When ready to eat, defrost chicken, either place chicken in crock pot on low 6-8 hours. Or place chicken in baking pan and bake on 350 for 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken

The cast of characters: Chicken Thighs, Wing sauce, and Ranch dressing packet.

Place frozen chicken in Ziploc Bag. (Normally you would use Chicken Breast, but I had some Chicken Thighs that were already in my freezer, so I used those instead.)

Pour all of the Wing Sauce into Ziploc Bag with Chicken.

Then, add the packet of Ranch dressing.

Shake bag well. Freeze flat. When ready to eat, pour contents into Crock Pot and Cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on your crock pot.

Crock Pot Ranch House Pork Chops

The cast of characters: Pork Chops, Cream of Chicken, Ranch Dressing packet, and Ziploc Bags.

Place Pork Chops in Ziploc Bag. ( I put 4 Pork Chops to a bag)

Pour in Ranch Dressing packet to bag with Pork Chops

Next pour in Cream of Chicken Soup to bag. ( Yes, I'm a cheapy person and always buy the off-brand.)

Shake together well. Freeze flat. When ready to eat, place Pork Chops in Crock Pot on Low for 6-8 hours. Serve with garlic potatoes.

Teriyaki Chicken:

The cast of characters: Chicken Breast, pepper, salt, garlic, red onion, Teriyaki, pineapple chunks, and carrots.



Place half a can of pineapple chunks and half a bag of baby carrots in Ziploc bag.



Add 1/2 red onion to bag and 2 cloves of garlic, diced.

Cut Chicken Breast into chunks and place in bag.

Add salt

And pepper

Add 1/2 cup of Teriyaki Sauce to bag.

Seal bag and shake well. Freeze flat. When ready to eat, place in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with fried rice.

Lasagna Casserole:

The cast of characters: 1 package of Egg Noodles, 2lb. Ground Beef, green onions, bell pepper,  2 cups tomato sauce, 1 cup sour cream, and 2 cups cottage cheese.

Brown ground beef. Once done add 2 cups tomato sauce.  Stir.

Cook egg noodles according to package directions. Once done let cool in foil pan.

Mix together cottage cheese, sour cream, green onion, bell peppers, salt and pepper.

Place half of the egg noodles in pan, then layer cottage cheese mixture, place remaining noodles on top.

Top with beef tomato sauce. Cover with foil. Freeze. When ready to eat, place in oven on 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken:

The cast: Chicken Breast, 2 cloves garlic diced, 1/2 red onion, BBQ sauce, Soy Sauce, Honey, Coconut Milk, Crushed Red Pepper and Olive Oil

Cut chicken into chunks and place in Ziploc Bag.

Add 1/4 tsp. of red pepper

Add 1/4 tsp. of pepper

Next add 1 TBS. Honey

Add 2 TBS. of Soy Sauce

Add 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce

Shake coconut milk well before opening! Add 1/2 cup canned milk.

Seal bag and shake well!! Freeze. When ready to eat, defrost chicken and cook chicken in skillet on stove top or place chicken in crock pot on low for 8 hours. (I know it looks kinda gross, but it is suppose to be very very yummy!!!!)

Meatloaf:

The cast: 1 1/2 lb. ground meat, 1/2 bell pepper (diced), 1/2 onion (diced), 1/2 sleeve of crackers (crushed), 2 eggs, salt, pepper, and 3/4 cup of milk.

****Oh and I promise there is nothing wrong with the meat, we just make our own ground meat by using venison and pork, so it has a different color to it!!

Combine all ingredients together and mix well.

Place meat mixture in bag and shape loaf size. Freeze. When ready to eat, place in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.

That's 11 Meals!!!

Whoa! That was a lot of food!!! It took me a few hours to prepare everything and probably would have been shorter but I was taking lots of photos as well. I started everything around 1 in the afternoon and had the entire kitchen cleaned and wiped down by 4:30. It was fun preparing everything in one afternoon and it is awesome knowing when I come home on busy practice days, we will already have a meal waiting on us!!

Well Until Next Time, God Bless!

Freezer Meals! ;)

So, since I have taken on the duties of being a Super Mom. LOL! Managing Jacob's T-Ball team, planning a wedding, Rheanna starting Softball, and the projects of 4-H (chickens come in March 14th!) and Fashion Show is this Sunday! I haven't had much time to prepare nice, big, home style meals! Well actually I did but we didn't eat until 8 or 8:30 so this really put us behind on our schedules! That is usually the time the kids are going to bed. So I have decided to finally go ahead and try these freezer meals I keep seeing posted on pinterest! Which I love so dearly! What I wouldn't do without Pinterest!!! If you haven't used it before, please make sure to go check it out....but be aware it is addicting!! LOL!

So, this Saturday I will go grocery shopping early in the morning and start a long day of gathering up meals for a few weeks! So far on the list to make is...Sweet & Spicy Chicken, Lasagna Casserole, Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken, Ranch House Pork Chops, Teriyaki Chicken, Meatloaf, Sunshine Chicken, and Beef Taco meat. Sounds like a lot, right?! Hopefully it won't take me too long to put everything together! But come next week we should be totally prepared for a complete meal every night we come home! We shall see how everything turns out :)

Here are some of the recipes:

Sunshine Chicken:
1 1/2 lb. Chicken Breast, cubed
2 cups BBQ sauce
1 cup Orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a Ziploc bag, Freeze flat. Thaw at least 12 hrs. before cook time. When thawed bake in pan for 40 minutes, remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes.


Rachel's Casserole:
8oz. egg noodles
2lb. ground beef
2 cups tomato sauce
2 Tbs. flour
1/2 cup chopped green onion
2 Tbs. chopped green pepper
1 cup sour cream
2 cups cottage cheese
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Cook noodles according to package directions. Brown meat, drain. Stir in tomato sauce and flour. Simmer 10 minutes. Mix cottage cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, onion, and green pepper. Place 1/2 noodles in 3 qt. baking dish, spread on all the cottage cheese mixture. Top with remaining noodles and cover with ground beef mixture. Freeze dish, when ready to use bake on 350 for 30 minutes. Enjoy!


Teriyaki Chicken
1 small bag baby carrots
1 can pineapples
1/2 red onion
2 cloves garlic
4 chicken breast
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in Ziploc bag, shake well. Freeze, when ready to use. Cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.

A lot of the dishes I am going to prepare for freezer meals, will be cooked in my crock pot. I have found a new obsession with using the crock pot! Its super duper easy, throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and when I get home supper is all ready! I am really excited to try all the recipes out! I will take pictures along with the cooking adventure this weekend so y'all can see how everything turned out! And more importantly how many meals I can get done!

Ok, all cooking put aside, the kids have been doing great! Jacob is getting better in school and Rheanna is thriving! Both kids started baseball/softball this week which is going to consume our whole week for the rest of this month and probably next. Rheanna is competing in the 4-H Fashion Show this Sunday. We have been practicing but I think she is getting really nervous. The fashion show consist of Rheanna comparsion shopping, and then presenting the outfit she bought to the judges. She has to tell them why she bought the outfit, how to care for it, the fabric content, where she can wear it, why she picked this outfit instead of the others, what did she learn from the experience and etc. I did this when I was in 4-H and placed 1st or 2nd every year in county and moved on to district competition! I'm a pro! LOL! This is a good way for her to overcome her shyness and learn how to speak in public, along with feeling confident about herself.
We also have chicken for the fair coming in on March 14th we will become a big responsibility for Rheanna. She will have to feed and change their water every morning and afternoon. She will be showing them at the fair this year and hopefully will get a high place and get to be in the Sale of Excellence.