As I wrap up my first Back to School Night at my new school after a weekend full of putting a classroom together, I have many things I would love to blog about tonight. With all of these fascinating events happening in my career and life right now, there is a topic that is weighing heavily on my mind.
I write to you tonight simply heartbroken because today we lost not only a beloved actor and comedian but a father, a son, a husband, and a friend. Words cannot express my condolences and sympathy I feel for the loved ones of Robin Williams. I am honestly shocked at how much heartache I feel for a person I have never met. Maybe it is because I have lost a loved one to depression and suicide. Or perhaps it is because Robin Williams is one of the first actors I can remember watching as a young child (Mrs. Doubtfire was one of my all-time childhood favorites). Regardless of the reason, it does not change the way that many feel about this and it does not change the facts regarding his cause of death.
As I heard the news of Robin Williams tonight, my Twitter and Facebook feeds were filled with ignorant statuses, condolence messages for his family, and friends living out their day to day lives as if each day was a guarantee. What many do not realize is that depression is an illness and much too often suicide is an effect of that illness. It is not something that an individual can control, nor is it a person's way of "giving up." The reality is that depression effects one in ten Americans a day and more than 80% of people who have symptoms of clinical depression are not receiving treatment.
I want to encourage you to become aware of the symptoms of depression. Know the signs! These can be completely different depending on if you are a man or a woman and vary from person to person. Just like with a pregnancy, each person who experiences depression experiences it with different symptoms and for different reasons. Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance is an excellent resource.
Next, if you know someone that is battling depression or just doesn't seem to be themselves, talk to them. This can be one of the most difficult things to do because we all get so wrapped up in our own lives. If you know a loved one who is struggling, reach out. Take them to dinner or out for coffee. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to or friend to show that they care.
If your loved one's symptoms do not seem to improve, please assist them with getting help. Make the doctor's appointment for them, drive them to their appointment. Do everything in your power to help your loved one get the support and medical attention that they need. Up to 80% of people who are treated for depression show significant improvement within four to six weeks.
Finally, do not blame your loved one for their illness. Depression is a chemical imbalance and a serious illness. No matter how hard it gets, remember that this is not your loved one's fault. If you lose your loved one, do not blame them for giving up on life or for being selfish. The reality is that that person had all that they could possibly take. People who commit suicide are at a low that most of us cannot even begin to understand nor imagine. Suicide can be an individual's peace that they have been searching for for far too long.
I want to apologize for this post being so morbid. This is a topic that means an awful lot to me and I believe that depression and suicide awareness is something that we do not promote enough in our society.
I want to encourage you to find your own peace in life. Find your joy. Maybe your joy is a loved one, your love of art, or the career that you have chosen for yourself. Whatever it may be, I ask that you find it , grab ahold of it, and never let it go. Let this joy be the one thing that you hold onto even in your darkest days. Let this joy be your continuous hope for a brighter tomorrow. Let this joy be the one thing that makes your life worth living.
May each day be brighter than the one before.
Mary
Monday, August 11, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
My First Shot at Freezer Meal Prep
Well...here goes nothing.
I have been contemplating for weeks what my first blog post would be. Never in a million years did I think it would be about freezer meal preparation. After posting a photo on Facebook of the twelve freezer meals, I was able to prepare for my husband and I, I had an astonishing response. I had people commenting and messaging me for the recipes and wanting to know how I did it. Then, VOILA! I had my inspiration for my first post.
I began my freezer meal preparation when I joined a freezer meal group at a local grocery store. I went with a group of friends where we all prepared different meals for the group. The store did all of the grocery shopping for us and they cleaned up. All we had to do was go in for a couple of hours and prepare the meals. It was perfect!
After my husband and I changed our diet, I decided this grocery store freezer meal group wasn't for me. I decided I would attempt my own freezer meals at home. This would be a huge change for me, as I would have to do all of the grocery shopping (terrible, I know!), clean-up and prepare each meal myself. I had to keep telling myself that it would all be worth it to have the convenience of the meals once I went back to work and we would have much healthier dinner options. I am SO glad I kept telling myself that because what seemed like a lot ton of work turned into be something that made my life ten times easier!
I'm going to take thirty seconds to tell you now that freezer meals will save your life. As a teacher, I often work long hours and can be so exhausted at the end of the day. While trying to fit in a workout, run errands, get to appointments, etc., who needs the extra stress of coming home and taking an hour to prepare a meal? Freezer meals have been so great for Matt and I. We can throw them in the crockpot before we leave for work or lay them out and prepare them when we get home. It is so much less time consuming and in the end, it gives us more quality time together with less stress. These meals have been so great now, I cannot even begin to imagine how awesome they will be when we have children!
Alright, let's get started on my process for doing my own freezer meal prep at home. Below you will find the steps I took, followed by the recipes I used for this first trial.
Find the Recipes
I began my freezer meal prep journey by searching for healthy freezer meals on Pinterest. I found blog after blog. I had to really sort through to find meals that would be enjoyed by family. I love food in general and Matt can be rather picky so this ended up being quite the task. Let's be honest, I made this much more difficult than it needed to be. Really all you need to do is find ten recipes that work for you and your family.
One thing that I would urge you to consider is the ingredients, especially the spices and fresh produce, that you are going to use. I mean, who wants to spend $3 on a spice that you are going to use 1/2 a teaspoon of?! Certainly not me. I am a bit more practical than that. After choosing my recipes, I went through to make sure that some of the spices would be used in more than just one recipe. This not only helped me to save money, but it also helped to make preparing the meals much easier. If I had two meals that needed a half an onion each, I put the whole thing in the food processor at once and divided it in half. After filtering through the recipes, I did have to eliminate a recipe or two and replace it with something else. I wasn't 100% set on the recipes I eliminated so this wasn't a huge deal.
Make Your Grocery List
This was probably the most tedious task for me. I ended up making an Excel sheet with everything I needed. I used the following columns: Grocery, Amount, Store, Price. I began by adding each ingredient from the first recipe. I then went one by one through each recipe, adding the ingredients. If I came across an ingredient that was already on my list, I simply changed my amount for that ingredient.
Once my list was complete, I had to began sifting through the ads. Something to remember is that grocery store ads are only going to be for their hot items. They aren't going to show you every single item they have on sale. I knew that I was going to buy certain things from certain groceries stores. For example, I used the frozen chicken from Wal-Mart ($6.98/bag) and I always buy my spices at Aldi ($0.99/4 oz.). That part was easy. Make sure you look closely at each ad to find the best prices on your groceries. You are not going to get this perfect the first time and that is okay! To help with this, I created an Excel Sheet with all of my groceries, how much I spent on them, and where I purchased them. I will change the price and location each time I find the grocery cheaper. I am hoping this will help to ensure I am not spending too much on groceries. This time around, I averaged just under $10 per meal with 12 meals. I am hoping to stay at or below that in the future.
Grocery Shopping
Now that the hard part is over, it's time to do the grocery shopping. I went to three different stores and spent approximately an hour and a half doing the grocery shopping. Keep in my mind this was on a Wednesday morning. Now that I am back at school, I will probably do the shopping one evening during the week. Note: Along with Saturdays and Sundays being busy at the grocery store, Wednesdays also tend to be busy as the new ads have come out. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are your best bet for avoiding the crowds!
Meal Prep
You made your list and you have your groceries. It's time to get cooking! I found the easiest way to do this was to put everything in freezer ziplock bags. There were two meals that I ended up putting in tin baking dishes. I will touch more on that later. I use a Sharpie marker to write the following on each bag/baking dish: Meal Name, date prepared, and simple instructions for cooking the day of (Ex. 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes). I put each baggie in a bowl, while I measure everything out. I mix it up with my hand from the outside of the bag before adding the meat. I spent about 2 hours total preparing everything.
Once your meals are all packaged, load them in your freezer and you are set!
Recipes
Okay, I promise this part won't be as wordy. Below you will find the links to each recipe with how I adapted them to make them easier for me. I can only take credit for one recipe being my own. All others were found on various blogs or from my previous freezer meal group. Make sure to share the love and follow the other bloggers that originally posted the recipes!
All recipes serve 4-6 people.
Low Carb Chicken Tacos- Combine everything together in a freezer bag and cook in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating.
Pineapple Chicken Verde- Combine everything together in a freezer bag and cook in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating.
Cilantro Lime Chicken- Combing everything together in freezer bag. I added about 2 tbs. of fresh cilantro. Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours the day of eating. Divide this into two bags and get two meals!
Baked Ziti- Combine all together and place in disposable tin baking dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes the day of eating.
Healthy Meatball Sandwiches- We like these all by themselves! No bread needed! I ended up using 1 pound of ground turkey with 1 tbs of Italian seasoning. I combined it and put all in a freezer bag as one big clump to save space. I will form into meatballs and bake the day of. If you have the space, you could definitely go ahead and form the meatballs and freeze on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes the day of.
Spinach Lasagna Rolls- These will also go into a disposable tin baking dish. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-20 minutes the day of eating. Divide this into two pans and get two meals!
Roasted Lemon-Garlic Chicken- I left out the potatoes and put in celery, carrots, and onions. Combine it all together in a freezer bag. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes the day of eating.
Teriyaki Chicken- Combine all together in a freezer bag. Place in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating. We will make lettuce wraps out of these!
Chicken Fajitas- Our ultimate favorite!
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
I have been contemplating for weeks what my first blog post would be. Never in a million years did I think it would be about freezer meal preparation. After posting a photo on Facebook of the twelve freezer meals, I was able to prepare for my husband and I, I had an astonishing response. I had people commenting and messaging me for the recipes and wanting to know how I did it. Then, VOILA! I had my inspiration for my first post.
I began my freezer meal preparation when I joined a freezer meal group at a local grocery store. I went with a group of friends where we all prepared different meals for the group. The store did all of the grocery shopping for us and they cleaned up. All we had to do was go in for a couple of hours and prepare the meals. It was perfect!
After my husband and I changed our diet, I decided this grocery store freezer meal group wasn't for me. I decided I would attempt my own freezer meals at home. This would be a huge change for me, as I would have to do all of the grocery shopping (terrible, I know!), clean-up and prepare each meal myself. I had to keep telling myself that it would all be worth it to have the convenience of the meals once I went back to work and we would have much healthier dinner options. I am SO glad I kept telling myself that because what seemed like a lot ton of work turned into be something that made my life ten times easier!
I'm going to take thirty seconds to tell you now that freezer meals will save your life. As a teacher, I often work long hours and can be so exhausted at the end of the day. While trying to fit in a workout, run errands, get to appointments, etc., who needs the extra stress of coming home and taking an hour to prepare a meal? Freezer meals have been so great for Matt and I. We can throw them in the crockpot before we leave for work or lay them out and prepare them when we get home. It is so much less time consuming and in the end, it gives us more quality time together with less stress. These meals have been so great now, I cannot even begin to imagine how awesome they will be when we have children!
Alright, let's get started on my process for doing my own freezer meal prep at home. Below you will find the steps I took, followed by the recipes I used for this first trial.
Find the Recipes
I began my freezer meal prep journey by searching for healthy freezer meals on Pinterest. I found blog after blog. I had to really sort through to find meals that would be enjoyed by family. I love food in general and Matt can be rather picky so this ended up being quite the task. Let's be honest, I made this much more difficult than it needed to be. Really all you need to do is find ten recipes that work for you and your family.
One thing that I would urge you to consider is the ingredients, especially the spices and fresh produce, that you are going to use. I mean, who wants to spend $3 on a spice that you are going to use 1/2 a teaspoon of?! Certainly not me. I am a bit more practical than that. After choosing my recipes, I went through to make sure that some of the spices would be used in more than just one recipe. This not only helped me to save money, but it also helped to make preparing the meals much easier. If I had two meals that needed a half an onion each, I put the whole thing in the food processor at once and divided it in half. After filtering through the recipes, I did have to eliminate a recipe or two and replace it with something else. I wasn't 100% set on the recipes I eliminated so this wasn't a huge deal.
Make Your Grocery List
This was probably the most tedious task for me. I ended up making an Excel sheet with everything I needed. I used the following columns: Grocery, Amount, Store, Price. I began by adding each ingredient from the first recipe. I then went one by one through each recipe, adding the ingredients. If I came across an ingredient that was already on my list, I simply changed my amount for that ingredient.
Once my list was complete, I had to began sifting through the ads. Something to remember is that grocery store ads are only going to be for their hot items. They aren't going to show you every single item they have on sale. I knew that I was going to buy certain things from certain groceries stores. For example, I used the frozen chicken from Wal-Mart ($6.98/bag) and I always buy my spices at Aldi ($0.99/4 oz.). That part was easy. Make sure you look closely at each ad to find the best prices on your groceries. You are not going to get this perfect the first time and that is okay! To help with this, I created an Excel Sheet with all of my groceries, how much I spent on them, and where I purchased them. I will change the price and location each time I find the grocery cheaper. I am hoping this will help to ensure I am not spending too much on groceries. This time around, I averaged just under $10 per meal with 12 meals. I am hoping to stay at or below that in the future.
Grocery Shopping
Now that the hard part is over, it's time to do the grocery shopping. I went to three different stores and spent approximately an hour and a half doing the grocery shopping. Keep in my mind this was on a Wednesday morning. Now that I am back at school, I will probably do the shopping one evening during the week. Note: Along with Saturdays and Sundays being busy at the grocery store, Wednesdays also tend to be busy as the new ads have come out. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are your best bet for avoiding the crowds!
Meal Prep
You made your list and you have your groceries. It's time to get cooking! I found the easiest way to do this was to put everything in freezer ziplock bags. There were two meals that I ended up putting in tin baking dishes. I will touch more on that later. I use a Sharpie marker to write the following on each bag/baking dish: Meal Name, date prepared, and simple instructions for cooking the day of (Ex. 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes). I put each baggie in a bowl, while I measure everything out. I mix it up with my hand from the outside of the bag before adding the meat. I spent about 2 hours total preparing everything.
Once your meals are all packaged, load them in your freezer and you are set!
Recipes
Okay, I promise this part won't be as wordy. Below you will find the links to each recipe with how I adapted them to make them easier for me. I can only take credit for one recipe being my own. All others were found on various blogs or from my previous freezer meal group. Make sure to share the love and follow the other bloggers that originally posted the recipes!
All recipes serve 4-6 people.
Low Carb Chicken Tacos- Combine everything together in a freezer bag and cook in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating.
Pineapple Chicken Verde- Combine everything together in a freezer bag and cook in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating.
Cilantro Lime Chicken- Combing everything together in freezer bag. I added about 2 tbs. of fresh cilantro. Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours the day of eating. Divide this into two bags and get two meals!
Baked Ziti- Combine all together and place in disposable tin baking dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes the day of eating.
Healthy Meatball Sandwiches- We like these all by themselves! No bread needed! I ended up using 1 pound of ground turkey with 1 tbs of Italian seasoning. I combined it and put all in a freezer bag as one big clump to save space. I will form into meatballs and bake the day of. If you have the space, you could definitely go ahead and form the meatballs and freeze on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes the day of.
Spinach Lasagna Rolls- These will also go into a disposable tin baking dish. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-20 minutes the day of eating. Divide this into two pans and get two meals!
Roasted Lemon-Garlic Chicken- I left out the potatoes and put in celery, carrots, and onions. Combine it all together in a freezer bag. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes the day of eating.
Teriyaki Chicken- Combine all together in a freezer bag. Place in the crockpot on low for 4-6 hours the day of eating. We will make lettuce wraps out of these!
Chicken Fajitas- Our ultimate favorite!
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1/8 cup Lime Juice
1/8 cup Soy Sauce
1/8 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Chili powder
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp Garlic, minced
1 Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 cup Cheddar Cheese
10 Multi-grain Tortillas
Prepare:
1. Combine lime juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil, cumin, oregano, chili powder, pepper, and garlic in large freezer bag.
2. Slice chicken breast into strips and place in the above marinade.
3. Slice onion and peppers and bag separately.
4. Bag cheese separately.
5. Put all individual bags into one large bag.
Day of:
1. Cook onions and peppers in skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Cook chicken breast in marinade in same skillet until cooked through.
4. Add onions and peppers back to the skillet.
5. Service on tortillas with cheese
Chicken Santa Fe
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 bag frozen corn
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles
2 tbs homemade taco seasoning or 1 packet of store-bought seasoning
Prepare:
1. Place everything in crockpot.
2. Cook on low for 4-6 hours
3. Shred with a fork when done. This can be served on multi-grain tortillas or just by itself.
The final product!!!
I know this can all seem very time consuming but I PROMISE you it will simplify your life. Freezer meals are convenient, easy, save you time, and can give you healthy eating options each evening. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Please feel free to comment or email me with any questions you have about this.
Happy Cooking,
Mary
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