I’m calling today’s freezer cooking adventure with the kids a success.
Even though it’s also Laundry Day today.
Even though it was universally decided last night that after nine whole years of never having had a real birthday party, today was the day that our dog MUST have one, which means that she’s queen for the day and keeps getting let in the house, of course heading straight for the kitchen.
Even though I forgot an ingredient for one of the recipes.
Here’s how our day went:
Basically, I was the sous chef. I pre-cooked the bacon in the oven, made sure the kitchen was clean and there were plenty of work spaces available (I was very thankful that the dining table was already decluttered), and gathered the necessary ingredients and supplies.
My oldest (8) made blueberry pancakes. In the plan that I posted last week, I thought that I would have him make muffin-tin-omelets, but last night at the store, I decided to go with the pancakes instead. He had some at his cousins’ house a while back and has wanted more ever since, so I knew he’d be excited to make them. And pancakes are so easy to freeze and then reheat in the toaster, perfect for school mornings.
He did a great job of sticking with his assignment until it was done, even though he was at our too-small griddle for almost two hours. Needless to say, he had blueberry pancakes for lunch.
My 6yo made blueberry baked oatmeal. It is delicious! He did a great job of following the directions, measuring, and being meticulous about sprinkling the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture just right on top.
This was the recipe for which I forgot an ingredient. Somehow, applesauce didn’t make it onto my list. I decided that since applesauce can often be substituted for oil, I could do the reverse of that, but since oil didn’t sound good, I used melted butter. And melted butter can’t hurt anything, right?
For the majority of the time, my 4yo was content to play alone while the rest of us were in the kitchen. But at egg-cracking time, she showed up and was ready to help. Who knew that that child was a champion fast-cracker? She really did have an amazing knack for it, and considering her age . . . the shells-in-the-eggs were fairly minimal. Thankfully, I had extra eggs and secretly cracked a different batch to use in the breakfast pockets. We’ll use hers for omelets tomorrow, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of missing a shell fragment in the time-intensive breakfast pockets.
In the middle of all the “directing” I was doing, I did manage to make the breakfast pockets. They’re perfect for that because there are multiple wait times while making the dough. I had one for my lunch . . . yummm.
It’s not yet 2:00, and we have several weeks’ worth of blueberry pancakes, baked oatmeal, and breakfast pockets in the freezer.
And I’m tired.
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You can see what other bloggers did on their freezer cooking days over at Money Saving Mom.
If you’re wondering about the aftermath of all of this, check out my follow-up post: The Dark Side of Freezer Day: Clean Up.
All the food looks awesome! I'm gonna have to give those breakfast pockets a try. I know my husband would LOVE them. (I'm sure I will too…)
Last weekend I was at a retreat with my daughter and we made breakfast for everyone and I enjoy having her in the kitchen with me. Need to do itmore often. I tried with my oldest but she has no interest and leaves the kitchen as the food is cooking.
Looks yummy! I'm just now planning what will constitute our school morning breakfasts. You've given me some great ideas.
THANKS for the baked oatmeal idea!
This Saturday we decided to have a brunch birthday party at 10:30am for my daughter (4) since she wants to play outside and it's going to be a heat index of 115. Of course, most of the adults will watch out the windows but somebody has to be outside with the kids, right? Well anyway, I'm testing this recipe this afternoon with apples and raisins. It sounds SOO much healthier than the french toast casserole my mom wants to make but just as yummy! I'm thinking I may try to work in some maple flavoring to that first step.
one of these days I will get up the courage to make a dough that involves yeast. I've been lurking around OBB looking at all of their "easy" yeast recipes. 😛
Can you post the recipe for the muffin-tin omelets? Those sounds good.
Hi Anon,
I actually never found a recipe, though I know I've seen them before online. I was willing to make up something, but not having a tried-and-true recipe was part of my reasoning for doing the pancakes instead.
How do you unfreeze frozen pancakes without making them rubbery?
Hi Anon,
I toast them in the toaster the way you would eggos. I toast them on "1" (the lowest setting), twice. That seems to work better than doing it on a higher level one time.
I know this is an old post but I only recently found your blog. 🙂 I let my son help crack eggs BUT I get a small bowl and a larger bowl. The larger bowl will hold all of the cracked eggs. I let him crack one egg into the small bowl. While he tosses the shell into the trash I fish out shell bits from the bowl and pour the single egg into the bigger bowl. It does take longer but like you, he wants to help and I won’t say no! I have to stand right there but we do have shell free eggs this way. 🙂
Love that idea, Kori! Honestly, when I lived overseas I did that because I was so worried about cracking a rotten (or fertilized) egg! Worry based on experience!
If you crack the egg on the counter rather than the edge of the bowl, it (by magic?) does not get any shell debris in the bowl EVER. True, you need to wipe the counter afterward, but it’s probably worth it.
Question about your baked oatmeal…Did you cook it before freezing or freeze and then cook when you wanted to use it?
We cooked before freezing.