Buffalo Chicken Wraps

These are SOOOO delicious. I like them heavy on the buffalo, Alex likes the heavy on the ranch. Either way, these rock! You can eat them as is from the microwave, or open them up and put some lettuce and tomato in them for a little different texture.


2/3 cup franks red hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves cut into strips
1 teaspoon garlic powder, to taste
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Pre season chicken with garlic powder, salt and black pepper to taste. Combine 1/3 cup of hot sauce and 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a large plastic storage bag. Add the chicken and shake a bit to ensure chicken is evenly coated with marinade. Marinade chicken at least 30 minutes.
Grease pan with oil and margarine
Cook chicken with sauce in pan.Place chicken in bowl and add 1/3 cup of hot sauce.

5x Chicken Recipe + 1 Bottle Ranch + 6 cups Monterey Jack cheese = 34 Wraps

My June Plan

I always label my plans by month, but I don't cook every month, so I'm not really sure why I do that! It's usually more like every 6-8 weeks. I'm doing more than usual this month. Alex and I are both craving a little more variety in our freezer stash, so I'm making more different types of items than usual. At the same time though, it doesn't make sense to make 1 each of 4 different things when I could just as easily make 3 each of those 4 things in the same amount of time. Here's the plan:

4 Shepherd's Pie
2 White Chicken Chili (Will feed us for 4 nights)
1 Lentil Sausage Soup (Will feed us for 3 nights)
3 Chicken Curry
3 Asian Peanut Butter Pork
3 Lasagna
3 Enchilada Casserole

8 Tilapia Packets with Mushrooms
8 Lemon Tilapia with Asparagus Packets
8 Baked Fish with Almond Couscous Packets
6 Fajita Packets

3 Spanish Rice
3 Mushroom Rice
3 Glazed Carrots
3 Sesame Broccoli Packets

20 Breakfast Burritos
20 Mexican Burritos
20 Buffalo Chicken Wraps
20 Kung Pao Chicken Wraps

Hopefully all this should feed us for about 6-8 weeks worth of dinners and lunches! Not bad for $437! That's less than $70 a week.

Enchilada Casserole

Today was day 1 of my next big cooking spree. We did an ENORMOUS grocery shopping trip. (Thanks Barb for watching my girls!) This was a new recipe that I am trying. Adelaide thought it was wonderful, I just thought it was good. I'll make some changes next time: I want to double the amount of chicken mixture and the amount of cheese. Also, I used flour tortillas. I think corn would be better. I think I may add a can or two of corn as well.

Oh, and I'll pile the olives higher in one corner than the rest of the casserole. There were just too many for my taste. However, they were Adelaide's favorite part. So I'll just pile them up and she can have that piece!


1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon of oil
2 tablespoons of taco seasoning
10 ounces of chicken, cooked and cubed
1/2 cup of salsa
3 tablespoons of fresh cilantro, chopped
2 15-ounce cans of black beans, drained
1 cup of black olives, sliced
8 tortillas
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of cheddar cheese
1 cup of Mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, heat the oil. Saute the onion and garlic.

Add the taco seasoning, chicken, salsa, and cilantro. Stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish that can be placed in the freezer (Don't forget to line with foil so you can pop it out!). Line the dish with four tortillas.

Spread half the sour cream over the tortillas. Spoon half of the chicken mixture over the sour cream.

Add 1 can of the black beans. (this is where I will add the corn next time) Layer with half the cheddar cheese and half of the mozzarella.

Place another layer of tortillas on top of the mixture. Add the rest of the sour cream.

Spoon the rest of the chicken mixture on the tortillas, followed by the beans (and corn). Top with remaining cheeses and olives

Cover with foil and freeze.

Once frozen, thaw in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Bake covered with foil for 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly.

Burritos

Like the breakfast burritos, these are easy to do a million assembly line style and just grab throughout the day. This list is simply what I put in mine, but you can use whatever your family likes. Just beware not to use sour cream or guacamole. Sour cream will separate, and guacamole can turn brown when mixed with other ingredients. (I have heard rumors of people successfully freezing guacamole alone, but I have yet to try it.)

Spanish Rice
Browned Ground Turkey with Taco Seasoning
Onion and Bell Pepper Slices (cooked from frozen on a baking sheet)
Cheese
Salsa
Black Beans

Wrap it all up in a tortilla then wrap the burrito in foil. Label and toss in the freezer. To reheat, microwave on 80% for about 3 minutes. (Remember: microwaves vary greatly, so play with it a bit.)

Rice Pudding

I find myself making rice more and more often lately. For some reason, I have always been afraid of rice. People always say it's really easy to make, but I thought it looked hard. Turns out they were right; it is easy. But a lot of times we end up wiith leftovers. Not a problem by me at all! This is a great way to use up leftover plain rice.

I usually do mine with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, but you can season it however you like, really! And it freezes really well. I found this out when I was stuck with 5 cups of leftover rice recently. I do not know why I at the time thought it would be a good idea to use all of it for pudding, but I did. Stuck with 10 cups of rice pudding, I figured it would be a good idea to experiment with freezing it. It came out of the freezer exactly like it went in. Delicious.

2 cups cooked rice (brown, white, whatever)
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened and yummy. Stir occasionally, especially towards the end to make sure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. Then season however you like. I prefer cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little allspice. Serve hot or cold.

Freeze in a freezer bag. Or if you prefer to use plastic-ware, put a layer of plastic wrap over the top before putting on the lid. To thaw just put it in the microwave on low until warm.

Roasted Vegetables

Best part of this recipe (if you can call it that): someone else does the work for you! Frozen vegetables are a great ingredient. They're picked at the peak of freshness, and already trimmed and cut up for you!

• Open a bag of frozen vegetables (almost any variety will work -we like broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots).
• Scatter them on a cookie sheet.
• Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on the vegetables.
• Roast for about an hour at 375 degrees.

You can change up the temperature and cooking time if you're using the oven for something different. It's very loose. Oh, and make extra, it always disappears fast around here! We typically eat 2 "family size" bags for 2 adults and 1 toddler.

Fragrant Sticky Chicken

The original recipe required you to cook this all in a pan, but the chicken was under cooked and the glaze burned. So I played around with it a bit and it worked out pretty well! Really delicious served over brown rice.


1/3 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. chicken broth
1 T. grated gingerroot
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/4 c. honey

Combine soy sauce, broth, ginger, and honey. Mix well, then add chicken breasts. Pack into freezer bag and freeze.

To thaw and cook: Thaw chicken in marinade overnight in the refrigerator. Empty bag into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Once chicken is cooked through, remove from liquid. Pour marinade into small pan and reduce by half. Pour over chicken and serve.