#freezerlovefriday reflections

When I started this blog 4 months ago, I knew very little about blogging. I was an avid blog reader, so I knew what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do, but mainly I knew I just wanted an outlet to reach all of you! I am still so amazed with the response and the love I have been given throughout that time.

This past month has been challenging in many ways, and I feel like I have let my blog suffer slightly. I don't speak about it too often, mainly because of safety and partly because I do not want it to define me, but Ryan is currently deployed. Free time is very rare when he is gone, my day is filled with giving Luke the attention he needs when Daddy is gone and trying to maintain a house and maintain my sanity. There are good days and there are hard days, but there is never a day where I have loads of time to think of, write and develop a blogpost. Normalcy is so important to me when Ryan is gone, so I have to carve out time to do things for me, no matter how hard it is. 

I have some really helpful deployment posts coming up for all my readers living the military life, I am in no means an expert but having 3 deployments in 3 years makes me somewhat helpful. So, be on the lookout for those coming in the next few months. 

That being said I am so very excited with what I have in store for October (think Fall and pumpkin), and THANK YOU for being so patient with me this past month. I have really enjoyed bringing you some of my family's favorite breakfast #freezerlovefriday recipes and am excited to re-post one of the blog's most popular #freezerlovefriday, the breakfast burrito.

 Ryan is still my super hero, and while we miss him every day, we are SO proud of what he does for us and our country. We love you, Ryan and can't wait to have you home and cooking with us again! 

**************************************************************************************
breakfast burritos for all - original post date 07/10/2015

Today's #freezerlovefriday is dedicated to my husband! Ryan is my super hero. No, really! He is such a great father, husband and supporter. He has been so sweet and patient with me while I have launched this blog, I love his input and his willingness to help. The man is BUSY! He works full time, goes to school full time, and wakes up super early to workout. His day starts around 4:30AM and ends around 8:00PM when he puts Luke down for bed, long day! 

Now he may be extremely dedicated, but actually planning ahead and thinking about eating breakfast is way too much for him. I am just thankful he remembers to make the coffee in the morning! I try to help out as much as I can by making a few days of oatmeal and hard boiled eggs for him, but I can only imagine how boring that becomes. 

My family LOVES burritos, which inspired me to make them into a #freezerlovefriday recipe! Financially, it makes more sense for me to make our own burritos and freeze them, rather than buy the packaged ones or drive through one of the many burrito shops here in the southwest.  Not to mention I know what is going into the burrito and I have control of the ingredients. There are so many different options to add into your burrito. Ryan requested potatoes, breakfast sausage, eggs and cheese. 

Here is the financial breakdown for our burritos. 

Eggs - $2.50

Burritos - $2.99

Sausage - $1.50 ( on sale )

Cheese - roughly $1.25 since we did not use the full bag! 

Potatoes - $.97

= $9.21

Per Burrito (14 total) - $.66

Amazing, right? We had so much fun making these as a family.

Luke is ready to roll some burritos! 

Luke and Ryan cracking the eggs!

Breakfast Burrito Recipe

Ingredients:

3 potatoes - diced 

2 TB Cajun seasoning

12 eggs 

12 OZ breakfast sausage 

14 wheat tortillas 

Cheddar Cheese (however much you prefer) 

Salt and Pepper to taste 

Directions:

Dice potatoes into small pieces. Add to saucepan with EVOO, cajun seasoning and salt. Cook through.

Cook breakfast sausage, while that is cooking crack and mix eggs completely. Add in eggs, salt and pepper to taste. 

Create an assembly line and roll up your burritos. Roll into foil, put a few into large zip lock baggies, let cool completely and freeze. 

Here are our burritos, rolled and ready for the freezer. We did 4 a bag, so he could take a whole bag into work for the week.

These turned out easy and yummy! We ended up having burritos for dinner that night, and froze the remainder! Here is a picture of the boys enjoying their handy work. Toppings like, sour cream and hot sauce, Ryan can take with him to work the day of. 



It is the perfect grab and go breakfast for my busy man! 

I have a few more recipes ready to go for #freezerlovefriday but what else would y'all like to see? Crockpot freezer meals? More breakfast meals? Just let me know. I love to hear from you! 

Happy freezing, 
Meredith 

#freezerlovefriday, it's pumpkin season!

It has been so much fun highlighting some fun and easy breakfast recipes for #freezerlovefriday. But, when I started this series, I KNEW that I was going to do my pumpkin muffin recipe. Those who know me well, expected this blog to be completely about cooking with pumpkin. I LOVE pumpkin season. 

Ya'll, I make these throughout the entire season of Fall and freeze loads to eat throughout the year. For some reason I don't cook with pumpkin, except for Fall and early winter, but I find it completely normal to eat pumpkin recipes all year. 

I am on a coconut oil kick, right now. Even though I recently read this article which kind of nips the "healthier" rumor in the butt. I have found the goodies made with coconut oil are much fluffier and richer, opposed to butter. Feel free to use the coconut oil or use butter, whichever you prefer. 

The BEST Pumpkin Muffin 

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all purpose whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree

½ cup coconut oil (straight substitution if using butter)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Directions:

Preheat oven 375°

Prepare muffin pan with muffin cups or flour based non stick spray.

Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice) set aside.

In large bowl mix together pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Mix until completely incorporated. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, do not over mix, mix until just incorporated.

I like to use an ice cream scoop to pour batter into the muffin liners. These will not raise too much, so I would fill all the way to the top.

Bake your muffins 22-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove and let cool on a wire rack. 

Freezing Instructions:

Let the muffins cool completely. You will want to pre-freeze these, put them on a cookie sheet and cover with foil. Keep them in the freezer for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Once completely frozen, place 3-4 in ziplock baggies and keep in freezer. 

Reheating:

You can microwave them for 2-3 minutes, or until completely unthawed. 

Or you can pop them in a convection oven for 10-12 minutes at 275°

These two gobbled up a BUNCH of these muffins!

#freezerlovefriday easy egg muffin

I am a creature of habit in the morning. I like to start each morning with one egg, one egg white, spinach, onion and feta cheese. It fills me up for the day and is just enough protein. That being said there are a few days that making fresh eggs is not in the cards. I have been wanting to try egg muffins for a while now. I was a skeptic but these things were so good reheated!! Our third recipe for #freezerlovefriday breakfast style are easy egg muffins! 

I enlisted the help of my fireman and got to the kitchen! 

Delicious Egg Muffins! 

Ingredients:

6 Eggs

2-3 Sausage Links

1 cup Mushrooms

2 large handfuls of spinach

Dash of Pepper and Salt

EVOO

I cup Monterrey Jack Cheese (or whatever cheese you prefer)

You can literally put anything you want into these egg muffins. Any leftover veggies you have in the fridge will work. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°

In a small saucepan brown the sausage links, remove excess fat. 

Add in mushrooms with a small amount of EVOO, cook through.

Add in handful of spinach. Be generous, remember spinach shrinks quite a bit when cooked. 

Meanwhile in a small bowl, add in your eggs and mix well. Incorporate all of your ingredients adding in most of the cheese as well. Mix well. 

Grease a muffin pan. I prefer using Bakers Joy, no stick spray with flour. Pour eggs into the pan, almost to the top. This recipe yielded about 8 for me. 

Cook on 375° for 22-24 minutes, until eggs are cooked through. Wait 2-3 minutes and pop eggs out. 

Enjoy!

Freezing instructions:

Just like the past few #freezerlovefriday recipes you will want to pre-freeze these. Wait until they completely cool, place on a cookie sheet and leave them in the freezer for at least 6 hours. Once frozen, add them to individual bags or to one large freezer bags bag. 
   

Reheating:

I recommend baking these to reheat. I was not a huge fan of them microwaved. Preheat oven to 350, place egg muffin on pan and heat about 5 minutes or until heated through. A convection oven is a great tool for this too ! 

Happy freezing,

#freezerlovefriday breakfast series

Muffins! Who doesn't love muffins? I find they are the perfect grab n' go snack to give to Luke (and myself)! The type of muffins you can make are endless! They also freeze extremely well. 

I chose the classic blueberry muffin for our second breakfast #freezerlovefriday post! I LOVE blueberries and I love that you can get them year round for relatively cheap, hello frozen aisle section. I picked up a bag of frozen, organic blueberries for $0.99 at the Dollar Store, the other day. They have an amazing frozen food section, and so much of it is organic! This is an easy and yummy recipe that is sure to please the little and big stomachs in your house. 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, melted

1 cup white sugar 

¼ cup brown sugar 

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 t vanilla 

1/2 t salt

1 t baking powder

3 cups flour (white or wheat flour, as always I used wheat in the muffins pictured)

2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh) 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°

Add butter and sugars into an electric mixer, mix until well incorporated

Add vanilla and eggs, mix well 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a seperate bowl, mix well 

Slowly add in flour and milk to the mixer and mix all ingredients until just incorporated, careful not to over beat. 

Fold in blueberries 

Line muffin pan with liners, drop in batter to just below the top of the foil. These will not rise much, so depending on how large you want them, is how you would fill them. 

This is a super fun activity to get the kids involved!

Bake 23-26 minutes, checking to see no batter comes out when inserting a toothpick. Place on wire rack to cool. 

Enjoy!

Freezing instructions:

Similar to the pancakes you will want to pre-freeze these. Wait until completely cooled, place on cookie sheet and leave them in freezer for at least 6 hours. Once frozen, add them to individual bags or to one large freezer bag. 

Reheat: 

Place in microwave for 45 seconds or until completely heard through.

OR 

Place in oven or toaster at 350 for 10-12 minutes. 

With all of these #freezerlovefriday recipes, my freezer can get a bit crowded! I am your typical Type A who loves an organized freezer. There are plastic bins that are the perfect size for ziplock baggies, so I have a bunch lined up in my freezer. Hope this helps to keep you organized!

Happy freezing, 

the 1st of the month brings a new goal..

It's September 1st! How is that even possible? Fall is my favorite time of year, by far. I grew up in Ohio so that means changing leaves, apple picking in jackets, comfortable outdoor running, lots and lots of pumpkin and of course FOOTBALL! 

I have A LOT going on this month, so I wanted to set myself a fitness goal that I feel is slightly unattainable. I know sounds funny, right? But, my whole fitness journey has been about me surpassing goals that I NEVER thought were possible. I push myself because I love proving myself wrong. 

I am currently signed up for two races this month. Pink Strides (5k trail race) and Dances with Dirt, the relay trail race that started it all for me. I am so excited for that weekend, it is an amazing time and a chance to be with family while running! 

Dances with Dirt - Hell (2014)

Dances with Dirt - Hell (2014)

 I thought I would do a monthly total mileage goal. I have never done one of these, but have seen many people conquer their personal goal and thought this was the perfect month. Finding time to run this month will be challenging for me, and 85% of my runs will be with Luke in the stroller, but those are the best! 

Personally, I think 50 miles would be safe. So, naturally I am going for 75 miles in the month of September. Now, last winter this would have been an easier goal for me, but I have really been focusing on sculpting, group classes and lifting this summer and not doing too much running (averaging 8 miles a week). I have a bit of a head start since I will be doing 12-14 miles the weekend of Dances with Dirt, but that is at the end of month. 

I started my month with a bang. I have wanted to try PortaPT running workouts for awhile now. I saw one of my running friends, Emily, post about purchasing one and knew that now was the time.  I opted for the Crazy Sprints workout, I have been wanting to improve my time, so I thought this was perfect. 

Whew, it was a doozie! I am proud that I made it through, and really only did about 3 minutes of walking recovery throughout, while maintaining my jogging recovery. I totaled 3.5 miles, not too shabby since I haven't ran since my Texas visit. 

Make sure to check out some of her treadmill workouts, use code  sbmrunchall for 25% off!! She coaches you and gives you some great motivational support throughout the entire run. I loved them and can't wait to purchase more!


I am amazed I was able to smile after that workout!

Who wants to join me? 
Do less miles than me, do more miles than me, try a walking goal, whatever you want let's just do it together! I am doing this to hold myself accountable, so will be happy to check in and do random posts to make sure we are all hitting our goals. 

If you are wanting to join, comment below and I will make sure to check in and include you on posts regarding the goal! Let's make it super easy to track and use hashtag #SBMrunchallenge! Or if you want a more personal approach, shoot me an email and we can hold you accountable that way!
Get moving!! 

Happy running,