Oatmeal Packets

I usually let my kids help put these together, but today when I was ready and had the energy to do it, they were working on school work and then had 2 others were making my laundry soap...  So I just did it.  Here is the basic that I used this time:

3/4 cup oats (they are the quick cooking, I bought a big 50 lb bag at the Amish Store in Maryland before leaving...)
1 teaspoon oat bran (you can also use wheat germ)
1/2 teaspoon chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon hemp seeds (I had some that were whole and some that were ground, so I used whole in some bags and ground in others)

I wanted to add flax seeds but I was too tired to get my Vita Mix out to grind them!  HAHA...  I also figured with the hemp and chia seeds, there was enough for now!
You can also add sunflower seeds or ground peanuts...

Here are some of the extras I added:

*Freeze dried strawberries and dried bananas
*Chocolate Powder Peanut butter and dried bananas
*Powder Peanut butter and dark chocolate chips
*Dried marshmallows and chocolate chips (I usually add some broken graham crackers, but didn't have any)
*Dried blueberries
*Dried mixed berries

I think that's all I made this time..???  ;)  I'm going to mix up a big batch of cinnamon raisin oatmeal tomorrow that I store in a tupperware.  The kids just scoop some out and then add hot water or put the oats in bowl and add milk and heat in microwave.  Easy peasy...  Healthy and good as well...  :)

All these bags of oats are the snack size baggie. You can add less oats, but my kids eat. A lot. Pretty soon I'll have to go up a size and use the sandwich baggies size!  Haha!!  You can also store in glass jars with lids and just add hot water, sir and sit and eat...  Or even tupperware containers.   But I wanted to mix up enough to last for atleast a week if they ate these everyday for a week...  But have some other ideas up my sleeve for them for breakfasts!  :)

Enjoy!!!

Chinese beans and Meat

FINALLY got some meal planning done...  Only about a week and half worths, but still it's something!  I even went to the grocery store and got the stuff I needed, AND I made 4 freezer meals! Woot!  But man was I pooped that evening!!!  Haha!!  :)
Actually 5 meals if you count this one as well....  I quadrupled the batch so I would have leftovers for the freezer.  I found this recipe on Pinterest, but I didn't fully follow it because I didn't have all the ingredients, and I don't ever fully follow a recipe.  Let's face it, I wing it.  ;)

Heres what I did:

*Ground beef (you could also use turkey, whatever you prefer) I had about 3 pounds here
*2 onions diced
*2 full garlic (seriously drawing a blank on what it's called!  It's not just a clove, but the whole thing..  Sorry... pregnant brain...  ;))
*1 small can tomato sauce
*ground ginger
*soy sauce
*frozen green beans (I had bought the huge bag from SAM's Club, and there are 4 smaller bags inside, so I used 2 small bags... You could also use fresh)
*Garlic seasoned rice vinegar (plain would also work just fine, but I had garlic, so I used that)

Brown the beef, onions and minced garlic.  Drain if it needs it, mine didn't.  Add the tomato sauce, ground ginger, and soy sauce to the beef mixture.  Cook for a few minutes, add the green beans.  Cook until the beans are to desired tenderness.  Then add the rice vinegar.  Cook for one more minute and then serve over rice.

It is really easy.  I don't have exact measurements for the ginger, soy sauce, or rice vinegar...  I just dumped.  It's really what you prefer.  Start small and add more if needed.  Same thing with the meat and beans, if you want more or less, go for what fits your family!  :)

This is pretty filling with the rice.  You could also use quinoa if you don't eat rice, and also the cauliflower trick...  But with the price of cauliflower and how many I need to make it into rice, we don't do that very often!  :)

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or if it doesn't make any sense!

Oh, I just took the other half we didn't eat, put in gallon size freezer baggie, labeled it and threw in freezer.  All I will have to do is cook some rice and re-heat this mixture!  Super easy!