Planning DOES Work!

I know I have been talking about this for some time now;

however, I finally did it!

I planned our menu for a week and it WORKED!!

We did end up eating out twice.  Once was with my

mother and father-in-law.  The other time was due to

the fact mama came down with a nasty stomach virus.

So, I decided to kick it up a notch this weekend.

I decided to stock up the freezer.

That way I have items to build my menus around,

plus it gives me some easy weeknight cooking.

Let me tell you, though it was a little hard work,

it was a great sense of accomplishment when

I was through yesterday.

A lot of the recipes I have used lately have came from Pinterest!

I love Pinterest and am very thankful to whoever

designed that site!  I owe you a BIG thank you!

Yesterday consisted of three recipes.

First - my spaghetti sauce recipe.

Second - a quesadilla recipe from Pinterest.

Third - freezer marinated chicken recipes from Pinterest.

(I spoke about the third one a little in my post Satay my new love)

Sissy's Spaghetti Sauce:
Brown 1 to 2 pounds of ground beef with salt, pepper and a little garlic powder.
Once browned, drain off the fat.
While meat is draining, saute one onion and about 1 1/2 Tbsp of minced garlic
in extra virgin olive oil.
Once that is sauteed, add back in the hamburger and combine together.
Then add two jars of spaghetti sauce of your choice.  I use
Kroger Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce.  We like it much better than Prego or Ragu.
Then I add two 16 oz cans of tomato sauce and two cans of mushrooms.
Once that is all combined, I add the following spices:
Oregano
Italian seasoning
Basil
Seasoning salt
Garlic powder
Red pepper flakes (if I am feeling spicy -- LOL)
Then, I just let it simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occassionally.

Yes, I cheat by using the jar spaghetti sauce.
But hey, everyone has to have their help.

Again, like yesterday, I would show pictures if I could get them to load.
For some reason, blogger is not allowing me to upload any pics!

It is starting to drive me bonkers!!

The quesadilla recipe was found through Pinterest.
It actually came from a group of make-a-head casseroles
from Joyful Momma's Kitchen.
She has some really AWESOME recipes and I would recommend
following her blog if you don't already.
The quesadilla recipe can be found on her blog post entitled Top 5 Freezer Meals.

If you decide to start meal planning or stockpiling your freezer,
I wish you the best of luck!  Though it is a little time consuming
looking up recipes and get all the ingredients, the time
it saves overall is completely worth every minute!

Love to you all!!