Freezer-to-Crock Pot Cooking

There is nothing worse than coming home after a long day and then having to prepare a meal. In fact, in my world, there is nothing worse than having to cook dinner, period. I never feel like cooking at dinner time. If I could make dinner at 9 am, well we would have fabulous meals everyday. This is why I love my crockpot!

I was excited to come across these recipes that get you to pre-prep your entire meal, throw it in the freezer until you need it, put it in the crockpot in the morning, and then have a delicious meal at the end of the day. Perfect! I made up all 3 of the recipes in about one hour.

The first recipe I am trying is the Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken. She has a family of 3 and divides everything into 2 bags: We are a family of 6 so I decided to put everything into one. It sounded like a plan but I could only fit the veggies in the bag. So I froze the veggies by themselves, left the chicken in the package and froze that, and decided I would add the rest of the ingredients on the day of cooking.

Today seemed like the perfect day to try it out as, surprise!, I have a feeling I will not want to cook dinner.

I took out the chicken first, figuring I would lay it on the bottom. Hmm, the chicken pieces all froze together and would not lay flat. So I had to separate them so they would fit. Then I added the bag of veggies.



I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the frozen veggies stuck way up out of the crockpot. Not one to panic, I decided to add the rest of the ingredients, ignore the fact that I poured half of the tomato sauce on the stove, put the lid on, turn to high, and wait for everything to thaw down.



After about an hour, things had thawed and shifted and I could stir the mix and put the lid on correctly. Here's what it looks like so far:



Is this pure genius or what? (not me, the nice lady who shared the recipes) We will have it with some brown rice and a salad. Yum!

The Great Cloth Diaper Return

(only) 4 weeks left ... and then I am finished lectures! Wow :)

I have had multiple requests for cloth diapers, especially custom orders. Well I can't promise when custom slots will return, I am planning a return to my sewing machine by the end of April. (I have finals and take homes until the 20th ~ then a few days for my mental and physical body to recuperate)



Is there a particular size of cloth diaper you are waiting for? Do you want to see a certain fabric?



My plans so far, include:
* medium cloth diapers ~ girly
* large cloth diapers ~ boyish



Customs slots:
* will most likely return in May