French Toast Sticks and My 100th Post!

Hey! Hey! Today is post #100!What better way to do a 100th post than for back to school!We have just one week until school starts here. Just one week! A couple of the kids are excited, a couple could care less. I am torn. I am somewhat glad they go back in a week and somewhat sad. My oldest is a senior this year and that makes me very weepy. My middle girl starts Middle School and that makes me a little weepy also. My babies go to fourth grade. So they are still my babies for another two years.

Life has been really busy with all the back to school shopping and preparation. I have been shopping six times! I still have to grab a few last minute items this weekend. Then make another trip next week after I find out what the oldest girl needs in addition to what I have already gotten. I also have to tag everything with names. This year I will also be using waterproof labels to keep track of all of our lunch gear and I still haven't done that yet. Procrastination. Naw! I have just run short on time! LOL

Today I started stocking the freezer with breakfast foods for convenience. We have decided to stop buying and eating any food that has the following. High fructose corn syrup, Artificial dyes, Artificial preservatives or just plain old artificial ingredients. That means I will be doing a lot of baking and cooking. So for the preparation of hectic mornings I made: Four gallon bags of French toast sticks,(about 130 sticks) Two gallon bags of waffle sticks(about 60) and twenty waffles that can be popped in the toaster. After I had all that done I whipped up a batch of homemade Shake n Bake for chicken and popped potatoes in the oven to bake. The oldest girl did clean-up for me. Which I was sure grateful for because this mama was worn out.

I served up warm French toast sticks with syrup, apple slices and ham roll-ups for lunch. Yummy!

Hey, I had to have them do a taste test to make sure all my work wasn't for nothing! They loved them.

Later this week I plan on making dough for all my homemade crackers so I can just pull one out the freezer, thaw, cut and bake. I am all about healthy eating being convenient. If I have to utilize my freezers, So be it. Have a great start for back to school.

Spaghetti Mac!

Tonight we had spaghetti for dinner and this mama was completely out of spaghetti noodles. But that is okay I had plenty of elbow macaroni so I made spaghetti mac! It was a huge hit. I took all the leftover spaghetti mac and put it into these Ziploc containers. It freezes well. It also is great to pack in lunch. My boy will be so happy for lunch because he is a huge spaghetti fan.

 

Just take it out the night before packing and put into the fridge to thaw. When you are ready to pack lunch throw it in the lunchbox. My kids have a microwave they can use for reheating but you could put it piping hot into a Thermos also. I had ten containers so I popped two in the fridge. One for the boy for lunch tomorrow and one for my mom to reheat for dinner. This is so much better for you than  canned beefaroni . I am sure glad you stopped by and I hope to see you soon. Have a great day!

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

It only seems fitting to bring in the new year with my very first crockpot/freezer recipe. My family started making our own spaghetti sauce about a year ago to save money and cut out unwanted ingredients in our foods. My husband and daughter have developed a recipe that my family loves. Until yesterday the recipe was never recorded on paper only done by memory by one of them. So my sixteen year old daughter decided she would record it and get the measurements so I could bring it to you! I have always froze the leftover sauce for another time. We always made it on our stove top until yesterday when we used both of our new crockpots.                                                                       Now I can't take the credit for the idea of using the crockpot to cook the sauce. I got that idea from my friend Laura at Momables . Laura has awesome recipes and lots of homemade recipes and tips for meal planning. She even offers a subscription for meals at a great price!
So here it is my family's recipes for Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce.

This recipe is for 5 quarts of sauce. We used a 5 quart crockpot to make the sauce.

Ingredients:
1- 105 ounce can of tomato sauce
3 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. onion salt
4 tsp. basil
4 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoon on fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp. of red pepper flakes if you like it spicy( may omit)

Instructions:
Turn crockpot on low and add whole can of sauce. Add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Let cool. Put in gallon freezer bags. Lay flat and freeze. When you are ready to use the sauce defrost in fridge the night before.
It's that simple. Each pot of sauce should yield two bags of sauce. We have a large family so that is what we use. You can divide it anyway you want. Their really is no rule for how many bags you use.

We used two 5qt pots and ended up with four gallon bags and a quart bag of pizza sauce.

 

Here is the finished product. My daughter browned a pound of ground beef, made noodles, and added it to the sauce. This plate was for my youngest girl. She had mozzarella Italian bread, homemade spaghetti and a side salad. Yum! It was delish!

 

I hope you all bring in your New Years with positive thoughts and goals. Happy New Years!