Packing it all up. . .

Packing up the dinners was easy.  Saturday night we had Joe's favorite meal - Nachos.  After dinner I packed up some grilled chicken, black beans and cheese in a container and chips into a bag so he could repeat the meal Sunday night.  I put that container in the freezer with the two layered enfrijoladas.  Then because waiting until the last minute is often the way I roll I made another of Joe's favorites - lasagna pasta - which is an easy meal that I like to sneak extra veggies into.  We call it lasagna pasta because it's layered and has a cheesy filling like lasagna. I use inexpensive and easy to find rice pasta instead of gluten free lasagna noodles which I have to make a special trip for.

Here's what I do:

In an 11 cup rectangular Pyrex dish I pour one half of a 16 ounce bag of gluten free pasta.  Pour one half of a jar of pasta sauce over the pasta.  I usually puree a zucchini into the sauce.

In a blender container or bowl if using an immersion (stick) blender put 1 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese, two eggs, one yellow squash cut into large chunks, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon of oregano and a dash of garlic powder.  Blend until smooth.  The squash vanishes into the sauce and no one will be the wiser.  Pour over the pasta.

Slice 8 ounces of Mozzarella cheese and lay it on the cheese.

If your family enjoys more veggies, this is a good time to add a layer of thawed frozen spinach or any veggie you like. I want Joe to come home so I did not. =D

Pour the rest of the pasta and sauce over the top.  Fill the pasta jar about half full with water, put the lid on and give it a gentle shake.  Pour the diluted sauce carefully over the top.

Cover tightly with foil and set on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for approximately one hour.

Remove from oven, uncover and top with 8 ounces of shredded Mozzarella cheese and pop it back in the oven, uncovered until the cheese is melted and golden.

This time I just let the cheese melt onto the hot pasta since presentation was going to be a mute point once I piled it into the containers.

Once cooled, the containers were packed and put in the freezer overnight.



Here's how the cooler looked as we were packing it up - frozen water bottles supplemented the cool packs. The frozen meals were pulled out and packed up with dinners on the left, lunches in the middle and the breakfast bars on the right.  On top we the almost frozen yogurt.  On the very top was a note to the kitchen supervisor with my number.

As you can see, each large bag also has a sheet of information to keep things easy for the staff.  Keeping everything clearly marked and properly sealed may look like overkill but cross contamination is such a problem.

The cooler went into a hot trailer - which wasn't what I'd expected - and they had about six hours until they were at the camp site.  That should have worked just fine because the majority of the cooler was frozen solid.

Can't wait to have him home and hear all about it.

Packing Lunches for the Retreat

The house is very quiet without Joe here this week so it's a good time to get caught up on the retreat meal posts.  His lunches were the easiest to prepare.  I made Calzones and the Ham Pocket Sandwiches to alternate each day.

Remember the black bean brownie recipe I mentioned?  I used this recipe as inspiration for a chocolate coconut brownie bite which I'll post soon.  Three to a bag for each lunch dessert - popped into the freezer until Sunday.  

Chris peeled carrots for me as time grew short yesterday and we packed them up in bags.  Each bag of carrots and brownies just went right into the quart sized zipper bag the frozen calzone or pocket sandwich was in.  The quart sized bags went into one gallon sized bag and the information sheet I printed up slid right inside.  The kitchen supervisor only needs to hand Joe a bag each day for lunch.

Still Baking. . .

Last night at church Joe was asked to go to the retreat center a day earlier to help set up for the retreat so that means a few more meals need to be packed and one less day to do it. He's so easy and doesn't care if he has a lot of variety so it's not a big deal but I don't want him eating too much of the same thing.

I decided to make these chocolate coconut bars to pack for breakfast. Baking with coconut oil is so much easier this time of year. Since we've already got a jump on summer weather the oil was soft and easy to scoop. Because I have lots of fresh farmer's market eggs I switched out the flax and water and used six large eggs instead.  Surprisingly, they were more chewy and firm with that sub and we liked them even more.

He'll need five breakfasts - so I packed up six bars just in case.  Three of these and three bars made with the oatmeal date jumbo recipe.  I just added a cup of chocolate chips to the recipe and patted it into a 13 x 9 pan to baked it for about 25 minutes.  They make wonderful granola type bars - a little crunchy but still chewy.  All the bars are roughly 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches large.

Sending cookie/cake bars may seem like an unhealthy way to start the day but remember that each recipe has a good amount of protein given the large amount of eggs, almond flour and/or peanut butter. I've also cut the sugar down to a minimum in each recipe.  The result is a nutrient dense treat.

Each bar is in it's own freezer bag and all in one larger freezer bag.  The outer bag will be marked with "breakfast bars",  his name, our church's name and my phone number in case there are any questions.

The kitchen staff can just grab one and a container of yogurt out of their bag and he'll be good to go.

Next up - lunch on the road and at camp. . . .

P.S.  Marc just walked in the door and told me he'd read my blog today.  He felt just a wee bit betrayed by the veggies in last night's layered enfrijolada dinner.  I just smiled.  =D

Sneaky Cha Cha. . .

As I continue to fill the freezer with my son's meals for his youth retreat next week my concern is balancing his meals with nourishing foods as well as making them enjoyable.  He's not a huge salad/veggie guy and I know if there's a serving of broccoli on the side of his plate it will very likely be ignored at camp.  My solution?  I'm sneaking veggies everything I can. Extra protein doesn't hurt either, since they'll be going non stop all week.

Sneaking veggies and other nutritious goodies into my family is a time honored past time around here.  Some attempts fall flat and others have become family favorites.

One favorite that I haven't made in a while is the Whole Food's Flourless Brownie Recipe. They're made with a can of black bean which you gets pureed into invisibility with all the other ingredients. I know that sounds strange but they are so good.  Really. They are fudgy and chocolaty and no one could tell the secret ingredient here. Sure you're still having sugar but you're also getting protein, fiber and minerals from the beans.  They are on my list to bake next. I'll be packing several for Joe's trip.

I decided to make a couple of servings of a layered enfrijolada stuffed with ground beef and black beans for two of his dinners.  The black bean sauce, cheese and corn tortillas are really a great protein on their own. Adding beef AND more black beans might be protein overkill at home but with the activity level he'll have each day it should work well.  A one pound bag of black beans simmered with onion, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper and was pureed for the sauce.

One large zucchini was grated into a pound on ground beef and one can of black beans.  It becomes less and less obvious as spices are added and it simmers.  It really doesn't disappear but it is almost flavorless with all the stronger flavors - neither Joe or I could taste it at all as we sampled some.

To get the right serving size for him I just layered everything into the containers.  Bean sauce, tortillas, filling, cheese, and repeated until full.   I normally use only glass for storing and cooking meals like this but that isn't practical to send to a camp kitchen.  I also don't use a microwave at home but that's what he'll be using at camp.

There's one more addition to the freezer we've packed.  Remember the Calzone experiment?  I've been playing around with different fillings. I used this cheese bread recipe for this version that has thinly sliced ham inside - it was perfect with the jalapeño jack cheese in the bread.  There are a combination of both pizza style calzones and ham and cheese pocket sandwiches in the freezer for his lunches so far.

The entree size containers will be put in a freezer ziplock and labeled by day, meal and heating instructions to make things easy on the staff.  The calzones and pocket sandwiches are in individual quart sized freezer bags which will be marked and they will each be put into a larger bag with the rest of his lunch items.

There are just a couple more items to make and some purchased items to pack.  So far everything is coming also smoothly.  I'll show you his choice for his other dinners and breakfasts soon.