Jan. 6-12, 2014

Monday, Jan. 6- After preparing 9 slow cooker freezer meals, I made Tastefully Simple's Creamy Rice soup and added some cooked chicken to it for dinner.

Tuesday, Jan. 7-  I preapred one of the freezer meals for dinner, the chucnky beef stew and served it over cooked barley.  Side note it needs at least 8 hours on low.

Chunky Beef Stew

Yield: 4 servings

• 1 lb stewing beef
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 c beef stock
• 1 c chopped onion
• 1 c chopped celery
• 3 peeled and chopped carrots
• 2 white potatoes
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• ½ t rosemary
• ½ t thyme

1. Brown the beef and vegetables in a pot with some olive oil before tossing into the slow cooker
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 6 hours or until meat is tender
3. Season to taste and serve

Wednesday, Jan. 8-  With some leftover steak, I prepared steak fajitas for dinner.

Thursday, Jan. 9-  Although some leftovers have been eaten for lunch, there was still alot of the stew and soup remaning.  So this evening was a pot luck of leftovers.

Friday, Jan. 10-  I will make Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs and serve it over rice. Recipe found on allrecipes.com

Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs

Original recipe makes 4 servings 

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 5 tablespoons honey
• 1/3 cup soy sauce (such as Silver Swan®)
• 1/4 cup Asian (toasted) sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons Asian chili garlic sauce

• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• salt to taste
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1 tablespoon chopped green onion (optional)

1. Whisk the vinegar, honey, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, garlic, and salt in a bowl until smooth. Pour half the marinade into a large plastic zipper bag; retain the other half of the sauce. Place the chicken thighs into the bag containing marinade, squeeze all the air out of the bag, and seal. Shake a few times to coat chicken; refrigerate for 1 hour, turning bag once or twice.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
3. Pour the other half of the marinade into a saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring often, to thicken sauce. Remove the chicken from the bag; discard used marinade. Place chicken thighs into a 9x13-inch baking dish, and brush with 1/3 of the thickened marinade from the saucepan.
4. Bake 30 minutes, basting one more time after 10 minutes; an instant-read thermometer inserted into a chicken thigh should read 165 degrees F (75 degrees C). Let stand for 5 or 10 minutes; meanwhile, bring remaining marinade back to a boil for 1 or 2 minutes, and serve chicken with marinade. Sprinkle with green onions.

 Saturday, Jan. 11- We plan on heading over to the Meat House and will pick up dinner there.  We might stop off at Trader Joe's and add a side from their freezer section to dinner.

Sunday, Jan. 12-  I will either make the frozen crusted fish I have along with a veggie and some perogie.  Or we'll come up with something else for dinner.