Freezer Burritos

15 Burritos Ready to Freeze

For the past 7 years or so my husband has wanted me to make and freeze breakfast burritos.  When we were in Germany our freezer was too small to make and freeze anything.  Now that we're back in the States we have a little more freezer space.  

These sausage and egg burritos were easy to make.  I plan on making them again.  My husband raved over them and has become one happy man in the morning.  He can now take a few frozen burritos with him to the office and is satisfied until lunch time.

Freezer Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Burritos

Ingredients

1 lb. ground sausage (if possible, use organic)

12 organic eggs (you don't have to use organic but I highly recommend it, even if you don't use organic sausage or cheese)

12-15 tortillas (I used 15 whole grain and multi grain tortillas)

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste

foil for wrapping the burritos

2 large gallon freezer bags to put them in

Directions

Cook sausage until no longer pink.  Drain and put in another dish.  In the same pan you cooked your sauce scramble and cook eggs, add salt and pepper to taste.  Place eggs in a different dish.

Place one tortilla on about 12 inches of foil.  Scoop some egg, sausage, and top with cheese.  Wrap stuffed tortilla into a burrito and wrap the foil around.  Repeat until you have used all of the sausage, eggs, and cheese.  I made 15 burritos.  Place wrapped burritos into large gallon freezer bags.  

To eat: Unwrap burrito from foil, place on a microwave safe plate and heat for 90 seconds.  If burrito is not cooked all the way, add 30 seconds at a time until heated through.  Enjoy!

Get all your ingredients ready

Fill tortillas

Wrap tortilla into a burrito

Wrap foil around burrito

Place in freezer bags, label, and freeze

Blueberry Pie Recipe

Organic Blueberry Pie

Now that Autumn is upon us, I have been in the mood to bake.  I love Blueberries and have always wanted to try Blueberry Pie.  Given the health benefits of blueberries, I figured a blueberry pie would be healthier than say a chocolate pie...just don't talk about the sugar in it.  Anyway, I have to say that Blueberry Pie is delicious!  Another benefit to making pie yourself is you know exactly what is in the pie and you can use all organic ingredients if you want.

I got this recipe from the book Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer.  The beauty of this pie recipe is you can freeze it, if you want.  I, however, wanted to make and eat it right away.  The the book the pie recipe is called Mom's Blueberry Pie.  I made my own pie crust and even though this pie recipe does not call for a crust on top of the pie, I went ahead and sprinkled the other pie shell on top of the pie because my husband loves pie crust.  So you can make it with or without a top pie shell.  Here's my pie crust recipe.  If you prefer to do the top layer the traditional way then roll the pie crust and cut in strips.  I found sprinkling the pie crust on top achieves the same purpose and saves time.

Mom's Blueberry Pie

4 cups blueberries (I used organic frozen blueberries that I bought at Costco)
2 heaping Tablespoons of flour
1 cup sugar (I used about 3/4 cup)
1 Tablespoon butter
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice (I didn't have any lemons so I left this out and it turned out great)

Directions

Rinse berries in colander.  Place berries in saucepan with flour, sugar, butter, and lemon juice, and bring just to boiling point.  Pour in unbaked pie shell.  If you want to freeze it, use foil and plastic wrap to freeze.

If cooking day of, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 40-50 minutes or until filling bubbles.

If baking from frozen state, preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes.

Hint: If pie crust is getting too brown before filling is done, cover lightly with foil and continue baking.

Make your pie crust first

Heat and stir the filling

If you don't want a top crust, bake or freeze just like this

If you want a top crust, add it here

Yummy Blueberry Pie!

Quick and Easy Pie Crust Recipe

Tasty Pie Crust

I finally made my own pie crust and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  Not to mention the taste was 10 times better than the frozen pie shells I usually use.  This took me only about 5 minutes to make and I knew exactly what was in my pie shell. 

Many pie crust recipes use lard, some oil, but I wanted one with butter.  I don't have any lard and didn't want to go to the store for one thing.  I found a recipe that uses butter here.  I used unsalted Simple Truth Organic butter that I bought at Kroger's.  Although the original recipe calls for Land O' Lakes butter, I don't think it really matters what kind of butter you use.

Butter Pie Crust Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup cold 

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

 

Directions

Combine flour and salt in large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I used a knife and flaked it off the stick.  Stir in enough water with fork just until flour is moistened.

Divide dough in half; shape each half into ball. Flatten slightly. Wrap 1 ball in plastic food wrap; refrigerate.

For 1-crust pie, roll out 1 ball of dough on lightly floured surface into 12-inch circle. Fold into quarters. Place dough into 9-inch pie pan; unfold dough, pressing firmly against bottom and sides. Trim crust to 1/2 inch from edge of pan. Crimp or flute edge. Fill and bake according to pie recipe directions.

For 2-crust pie, roll out remaining ball of dough on lightly floured surface into 12-inch circle. Fold dough into quarters. Place dough over filling; unfold. Trim, seal and crimp or flute edge. Cut 5 or 6 large slits in crust. Bake according to pie recipe directions.

For baked unfilled pie shell, prepare dough as directed above for 1-crust pie. Prick crust all over with fork before baking. Bake at 475°F. for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. 

 

*Rolling the dough Tip

Place dough between two pieces of wax paper.  Roll dough with rolling pin over the wax paper.  This made rolling and clean up so much easier.

Classic American Goulash

My sister shared this recipe with me.  It was delicious!  She got this recipe from allrecipes.com. This is not a Hungarian Goulash but the typical American Goulash.  I followed the slow cooker directions and it turned out great.  If you cook with organic ingredients, this is an inexpensive organic recipe compared to some.  I buy my organic ground beef at Costco and you can get organic canned tomatoes and tomato sauce for not too much more at most grocery stores and Target sells a number of organic spices.

Classic Goulash Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 large yellow onions, chopped
• 1-1/2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1-1/2 bay leaves
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni

1. In a large Dutch oven, brown the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up as it cooks, until the meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain excess fat, and stir in the onions and garlic. Cook and stir the meat mixture until the onions are translucent, about 10 more minutes.
2. Stir in water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, soy sauce, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and salt.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the macaroni, cover, and simmer over low heat until the pasta is tender, about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, discard bay leaves, and serve.

** For slow cooker, preheat a slow cooker to High heat. Make recipe through Step 1; place the ground beef-onion mixture into the preheated slow cooker. Stir in water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, soy sauce, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, seasoned salt, and macaroni until thoroughly combined. Cook on High for 1 hour.

Gluten Free Mini Apple Crisps with Hemp Hearts

Mini Apple Crisps with Hemp Hearts

We're trying to eat less gluten.  There are several studies done regarding auto-immune disorders and the benefits of eliminating gluten.  However, I love fruit crisps and most include flour.  Since fall is approaching, baking season has started.  I made these in individual ramekins.  See guideline below for serving sizes.  Here is my flour-free Mini Apple Crisps.  They are reasonably healthy thanks to the oats, hemp hearts, and apples.  My 3-year old loved it!

Gluten Free Mini Apple Crisps

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Servings	1	2	4
Apples, peeled	½ apple	1 apple	2 apples
Splenda or sugar (I used Splenda)	¼ tsp sweetener	½ tsp sweetener	1 tsp sweetener
Melted Butter	1 Tbs	2 Tbs	4 Tbs
Raw Hemp Hearts (or you can used chopped Walnuts)	1 Tbs	2 Tbs	4 Tbs
Brown Sugar	½ Tbs	1 Tbs	2 Tbs
Rolled Oats (gluten free if you’re avoiding gluten)	1 Tbs	2 Tbs	4 Tbs

In a small bowl, mix the apples and Splenda (or sugar).  Scoop apples in individual 6oz. ramekins.  In the same bowl you had the apples in, mix together the oats, melted butter, brown sugar, and hemp hearts.  Spread evenly over the apples in the ramekins.  Place ramekins on cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Serve with ice cream. 

Mini Apple Pie Bites

Mini Apple Pies

What American does not love Apple Pie?  Okay, in all honesty, I did not like it as a child but as an adult I love it!  A friend gave me the idea for these.  I took her recipe and used what I had and they turned out delicious.

Mini Apple Pie Bites Recipe

2 large apples
1 roll of crescent rolls
2 tsp Splenda or sugar
1-2 tsp melted butter (or use spray butter)

Peel and cut the apples into bite size pieces.  Roll out the crescent roll dough.  Sprinkle with butter and Splenda.  Wrap each apple bite around the crescent roll.  Tear it apart and make 3-4 apple bites per crescent roll.  Top apple bites with butter and Splenda.  Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes.  Serve warm à la mode!

How to make Walnut Milk

Walnut Milk

Walnuts are one of the 5 healthiest nuts you can eat according to Shape Magazine.  Studies show that people who consume walnuts have better cognitive function and healthier hearts.  Walnuts have the highest amount of omega-3 fatty acids, contain the antioxidant ellagic acid (which supports the immune system), and contain 16 disease-fighting polyphenols.

Given the nutritional benefits of walnuts, I decided to try and make Walnut Milk.  My family stopped drinking cow's milk about a year ago when Blue Rock struggled with anemia and his doctor said cow's milk can contribute to anemia in some people.  My husband is lactose intolerant so he never drank cow's milk and I figured I would try and give up my love of cow's milk too.  This was rather difficult but I can proudly say I've done it.  Typically we buy Almond Milk and I plan on making my own Almond Milk, eventually, but first I wanted to give Walnut Milk a try because walnuts are so healthy!

Easy Walnut Milk Recipe

4 cups of water (5 if you want it thinner)
1 cup of walnuts
4-6 dates (more or less depending on desired sweetness, or you can use an alternative sweeter)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Put everything in a blender and blend away! I have a Vitamix and it blended everything nicely. If your blender doesn't blend it as fine, put it through a strainer or milk bag. I put my first batch through a strainer since I had never made nut milk and everything went through. You can also add vanilla for taste. Pour into a glass container and store in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.  It was delicious and goes great on cereal! :)

Indian Garlic Chicken Legs

Indian Garlic Chicken Legs

Do you like garlic?  I sure do!  I'm always thinking of new recipes and this one turned out great!  Lots of garlic and turmeric make a delicious Indian dish in this easy, slow cooker recipe. 

Indian Garlic Chicken Legs

2.5-3 lbs of chicken legs
20 to 25 peeled cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 medium onion, sliced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 tsp pepper

Put sliced onion in the bottom of a slow cooker.  Combine chicken, garlic, turmeric, oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl, mix well. 

Pour chicken mixture over the sliced onions in the slow cooker.  

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. 

Serve with roasted vegetables, greens, and a side of rice.