3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days - Day 13

This morning we had a quick and easy breakfast of pancakes from the freezer. I wanted to get started on my cooking early since there was a lot I wanted to accomplish today. I was not able to get my chicken stock started as early as I hoped because the chicken was still frozen solid, even after sitting in the refrigerator for 24 hours. So, I let it sit in a sink full of cold water until mostly thawed.

While that was sitting, I realized that I had really lacked forethought when I made out my menu plan for the week. I can (just barely) stomach pulling all of the chicken off the bone after it has boiled, but I can NOT then eat it that night for dinner. So, I decided to make one of the other meals for this week and just switch meals around a little later in the week.

I was able to get dinner completely made and ready to be baked before Gracie was done with breakfast, which is always very exciting for me! I made a cheesy pasta bake that has been affectionately dubbed "everyones favorite casserole" around our house. Here is the recipe:
1/2 pkg. egg noodles, cooked and drained
1/2 - 1 lb. ground turkey or beef (optional)
1 18 oz. can tomato sauce (I use 2 c. of my tomato-veggie sauce)*
5 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sour cream
garlic salt, pepper
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
*If you are just using plain tomato sauce, you will need to add some seasonings to boost the flavor

Place the egg noodles in a 13"x9" casserole dish. Add ground meat on top of the noodles, if using. Pour sauce over that. Blend together cream cheese, sour cream, garlic salt, and pepper. Put dollops of that mixture over the tomato sauce. Cover with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

After that was done, I mixed up the dough for the pita bread. I found this website today, and I used the recipe from there, although I replaced the white flour with wheat. They turned out excellent, and I'm excited to try more recipes from this site too.
I also made hummus for lunch. I did not have any tahini on hand, so I just blended together some garbanzo beans, garlic, olive oil, and lots of seasonings and spices. It turned out really good, even without the tahini. So our lunch today was hummus, pita bread, pineapple, and yogurt.

Before we ate lunch I was finally able to start on the stock. I don't know if I would make stock if it didn't smell SO good! And I do love to have the stock on hand in the freezer.
After I let it all simmer for a couple of hours, when the chicken was fully cooked, I pulled out all the chicken.Then I took all the meat off and put the bones back in to simmer a few more hours. I was able to get a ton of meat out of the 10 pounds, probably 6-8 meals worth. You can't really tell in the picture but those are really big containers. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get it all cooked into meals and freezing all but tomorrow nights dinner. I won't hold my breath though! At least it is good to have a plan, right? Don't forget to stop by Toni and Joy's blogs to see what they've been cooking up in their kitchens this week! Also, please stop in and join us Friday, May 16th at 10pm EST for the second episode of 3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days Live at Talkshoe. Leave a comment with your email address if you'd like an email invitation, or you can just click the button in my sidebar to join us.