My "Cooking Extravaganza"

An Introduction

Several months ago, I discovered the number 1 greatest business in St. Louis: Time for Dinner. I've been semi-obsessed with this place ever since my first visit (as most of my friends and co-workers could attest to) and have been telling everyone I know about it because it is just that great! Because I love it so much, it's hard for me to summarize exactly what it is in just a few words, but their website does it well:  Make healthy & delicious meals your family will love while saving time and money. We do all your shopping, chopping and clean up! It has seriously changed my life. Because they do all the "shopping, chopping, and clean up" you can get in and out of there in an hour (if you're not gabbing away with your friends) AND have 6 (or more) amazing meals to stock up your freezer! This is what I came home with after my first visit:

Honestly I should probably just write a whole blog post about Time for Dinner, but this particular post is supposed to be about my cooking extravaganza so let me get back on topic...

I LOVE to bake. Period. I could bake all day long. But when it comes to cooking, it's really just something I do because as a human, I'm supposed to eat. (This is another topic I could go on about with all of my other reasons, but I'll save that for another day.) So let's just get right to the point: I never meal plan, and until Time for Dinner entered my life, you could find me eating yogurt or cereal for dinner several times a week. But Time for Dinner has inspired me in more ways than one, including the creation of my very own cooking extravaganza (otherwise known as creating 6 different meals plus 2 desserts to stock my freezer and save me time during the week).

What I Made

I wanted to make meals that had some of the same ingredients so as not to be wasteful and to save me some time. So my menu included the following:

1) Lasagna
2) Chicken Marbella
3) Chicken Enchiladas
4) Chicken Pesto Soup
5) Chicken Pesto Calzones (can you tell I like chicken?)
6) Breakfast burritos

And then because spending a little more time in the kitchen is always worth it for dessert:

7) Oatmeal brownies

8) Cowboy cookies

I did the majority of my shopping at Aldi, but since they don't have certain ingredients (like capers, lasagna noodles [I was really surprised about that one], italian sausage, and breakfast sausage), I had to buy a few things at Schnucks too. In total, I spent $77.98 for all of my ingredients. However, it should be known that I already had some ingredients (like everything needed for the desserts and a few normal staples like olive oil, salt, etc.) on hand.

This is what my table (which also happens to be my only counter space) looked like with most of the ingredients: 

Prepping the night before

I did a little prepping the night before. Since 3 of my recipes called for shredded chicken (I needed 8 cups total), I followed this tried and true method and cooked it in the crockpot. I think I probably had about 6 or more pounds of chicken, so I used 4 cups of chicken stock and then sprinkled in some garlic and pepper and set the crockpot on high for a couple hours until the chicken was cooked through. It really does shred quite easily and saves you from having to heat up the oven or watch a pot of water on the stove (and you can cook a large amount at one time). 

While the chicken was cooking in the crockpot, I cooked the italian sausage that I would need for my lasagna, and I also made my own pesto for the calzones and the soup using this recipe. However, unless you have a food processor (I only had a blender which was not the easiest way to go about it), and your own basil plant, I'd say just save yourself the time and effort and go buy some already-made pesto from the store.

In addition to making my own pesto, I also made my own pizza dough for the calzones. I was lucky enough to get some sourdough starter from my good friend Natalie (whose blog, The Sweets Life, is really awesome and where I get a lot of my recipes!) and I used her recipe for sourdough pizza crust. If you have sourdough starter, it's really the easiest and quickest pizza dough recipe you could ask for. I don't have a KitchenAid mixer, so I just mix it by hand with my red spatula, and it works great. Sometimes I add a tablespoon or two of sugar to the recipe.

The Day Of the Cooking Extravaganza

I started cooking at exactly 11:34am and was finished with my sixth entree (and cleanup) by 3:58pm. This included some time for going to the bathroom, texting my family, tasting some of the food, and drinking a Dr. Pepper. 

The first thing I made was the Chicken Pesto Soup. 

I found the recipe here. Since I had already cooked the chicken, it was really quite quick and easy to make. I will admit that it's not my favorite soup recipe, but it was still pretty yummy and since it's so easy to make, I'm sure I'll make it again in the future! 

This is what my kitchen looked like during all of this:




Since I already had the pesto out, I decided to stir together the filling for my calzones while the soup was cooking. I adapted my recipe from this blog. Basically all you do is stir together 3 cups of shredded chicken, 1 cup of pesto (I used the rest of my homemade pesto and then some store-bought pesto since I didn't have enough), and 1/2 cup or more of mozzarella (or another type of cheese if you want). I left the calzone filling in the fridge since I didn't want to make the calzones until I had cleared off my table/counter space a little more.

Next I moved on to the enchiladas. 

I used a recipe I got from my friend Adriane a few years ago. It's super easy, quick to make, and not too spicy, but still delicious! The recipe (which I'll post at the very end), has you making it in a 9x13 pan, but I always divide it into two 8x8 pans so I can bake one and freeze the other for another day (though this time I froze both). I put four enchiladas in each pan. I try to add a little more chicken than the recipe calls for to make sure I have enough filling for 8 tortillas. 

Next I made the Chicken Marbella. 

I first had Chicken Marbella after making it at Time for Dinner. It was SO good and SO moist, I knew I had to have it again, so I looked for the recipe on Pinterest and compared about six different ones before finally going with this one (which I still adapted for my own purposes). The recipe has you using all different parts of a chicken, but I don't like to mess with skin and bones when I'm cooking (or eating for that matter), so I just used chicken breasts that I cut in half and some chicken tenders. I mixed together all of the ingredients (including the brown sugar and wine that the recipe has you waiting to put on until you bake it) in a large bowl and then dumped all the chicken in the bowl, turning it to coat each one. Then I divided the chicken evenly into three bags and then poured an equal amount of the marinade into each bag of chicken. I had enough chicken in each bag that I anticipate getting at least 3 or 4 portions from each. I'll take a bag out of the freezer 1 or 2 days before I want cook it so that it has plenty of time to marinade while defrosting in the refrigerator. 

Next I made the lasagna.

I used the recipe from the back of the Barilla Oven-ready Lasagna Noodle box. I had cooked my italian sausage the night before, so this also was pretty quick to put together (in fact, I texted my family with a picture of the meal after I had completed each one, and my mom commented on how surprised she was that I was able to make each of them so quickly). I divided Barilla's recipe into two 8x8 pans, which can't hold as many layers as a normal 9x13, so it took some recalculating to figure out how much of each ingredient should go between each layer, but I think it all worked out :). I also added some spinach to each layer in an effort to make it a little healthier. By the way, since I was freezing the enchiladas and lasagna, I topped them with foil, then wrapped the entire pans in plastic wrap, and then put each of them in a gallon-size bag, just to make sure they don't get freezer burn.

Next I made the calzones.

Since I finally had some more space on my table/counter, I next put together the calzones. I had already made my pizza dough the night before, so I took it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before I was ready to use it. I divided it into 6 small balls, then one by one, rolled them out in sort of an elongated circle. On half of the circle I then put some of the pesto-chicken mix I had made earlier, some spinach, tomatoes, a little more mozzarella, and then a sprinkling of garlic powder. Then you just fold the other half of the dough over and squeeze the ends shut. I wrapped each calzone twice in plastic wrap and then put all of them together in a gallon-size bag for the freezer.

Finally, I made the breakfast burritos.

The breakfast burritos are what took the longest, and sadly are my least favorite of all the things I made. I found the recipe here. They sounded like a great idea. And for some people I'm sure they will be. But I made a couple of mistakes. 1) I know that for some reason, cooked eggs do not agree with my stomach, yet for some other reason I always think that maybe just this once I can eat them and not feel sick. (I was wrong.) 2) I didn't know how spicy chorizo would be, so instead I opted to use "turkey breakfast sausage." I just assumed this would have some sort of flavoring in it, since if it didn't, then why wasn't it just called ground turkey? (I was wrong again.) I ended up adding some ground pepper and seasoned salt to the turkey/onion/potato mix (I didn't use red peppers), but still felt like the overall burrito didn't have much flavor. If I were to ever make them again, I would use hashbrowns instead of potatoes (and not cook them together with the turkey and onion), and I would use real breakfast sausage (the kind that has some flavoring to it), instead of the breakfast turkey stuff. I wrapped each burrito in plastic wrap and then divided them into two different gallon size bags for the freezer.

Here are all of my meals, ready to go in the freezer (I will probably end up getting at least 50 portions out of them): 

Since it has already taken me forever to write this post, I think you'll have to stay tuned for a post on the desserts I made.

The Recipes:

5-INGREDIENT CHICKEN PESTO SOUP

Yield: About 4-6 servings
Ingredients:

• 4 cups good-quality chicken stock 
• 3 handfuls (about 3 cups) fresh spinach 
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken 
• 2 (14 ounce) cans Great Northern or cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained 
• 1/3 cup pesto (recipe to follow, or use store-bought) 
• (optional topping: grated Parmesan cheese) 

Directions:
Stir together chicken stock, spinach, chicken, beans in a medium saucepan. Cook over high heat until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium, stir in the pesto, and let the soup continue to simmer for 2 minutes.

Serve warm, topped with Parmesan cheese if desired.

HOMEMADE PESTO

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pine nuts (or walnuts) 
• 3-4 cloves garlic (I think the more, the merrier!) 
• 3 cups fresh basil leaves, packed 
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan 
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (or about 1/2 tsp. of each) 

Directions:
In a food processor or blender, blend together basil, nuts, garlic, and cheese. Pour in oil slowly while still mixing, and then add in salt and pepper. Scrape down the sides and pulse once more to make sure it's well-blended.

CHICKEN PESTO CALZONES

For the dough:

• 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour *may need a little additional flour to adjust consistency
• 1-2 Tbsp sugar (optional)

To finish the calzones:

• 1 cup pesto
• 3 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 4 ounces Provolone Stravecchio cheese, shredded (or substitute any provolone or mozzarella)
• Any additional toppings (spinach, more cheese, tomatoes, etc.)
• Extra virgin olive oil (to drizzle on top)
• Italian seasoning

Directions:
1. Mix starter, olive oil, salt, and flour (and sugar, if using) together in a mixing bowl until a ball forms. Add a few tbsp of extra flour if dough is too sticky.
2. Allow dough to rest for about 30 minutes.
3. While dough is resting, combine the shredded chicken, pesto, and cheese in a bowl.
4. Divide dough into six pieces. Roll each piece out into a rectangle/oval on a lightly floured surface.
5. Top ½ of each dough oval with the chicken-pesto mixture and any other toppings you want (I used spinach, tomatoes, more cheese, and sprinkled some garlic powder on top). Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges to seal the calzone.

If you’re freezing the calzones, wrap each one with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Defrost in the refrigerator several hours/one day before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425°F. Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper. Transfer each calzone to the baking sheet, brush the top with some olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden on top and cooked through (might take longer depending on how thick your dough is and whether they are still frozen). Enjoy!

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:

• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can diced green chilies
• 4-6 cups grated cheese - (cheddar/jack or Mexican mix)
• 3-4 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 8 flour tortillas

Directions:
Mix together soup, sour cream, chilies and ½ of the cheese. Spread ½ of the mix evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 pan (or spread ¼ of the mix evenly into two 8x8 pans). Add chopped chicken to the remaining mix. Fill tortillas with the mix, roll and put into pan. Top with remaining cheese Bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve with salsa, avocado, tomatoes, or any other favorite taco topping.

CHICKEN MARBELLA

Ingredients:

•  4-5 pounds chicken (I used breast halves and tenders)
•  Cloves from 1/2 head of garlic, minced
•  2 Tbsp dried oregano
•  Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
•  1/4 cup red wine vinegar
•  1/4 cup olive oil
•  1/2 cup pitted prunes
•  8 large pitted Spanish green olives, cut in half
•  1/4 cup capers with a bit of juice
•  3 bay leaves
•  1/4 cup brown sugar
•  1/2 cup white wine

Directions:
1. In a large bowl combine garlic, oregano, salt and pepper to taste, red wine vinegar, olive oil, prunes, olives, capers with caper juice, bay leaves, brown sugar, and white wine. Add the chicken pieces and coat completely with the marinade. Cover and let marinate, refrigerated, several hours or overnight. (Or divide into bags and freeze.)

2. If you are freezing the chicken, take out of the freezer a day or two before baking and place in the refrigerator to defrost and marinate. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange chicken in a single layer in one or two large, shallow baking pans and spoon marinade over it evenly.

3. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour (I’m not entirely sure it will take this long since I’m using breasts/tenderloins, so I would say check it after about 25 minutes or so to see how it is cooking), basting frequently with the pan juices. Chicken is done when not pink and juices run clear.

BARILLA LASAGNA

Ingredients:

• 1 box Oven-Ready Lasagna noodles 
• 2 jars pasta sauce 
• 1 pound Italian sausage, browned 
• 1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese 
• 1 egg 
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese 
• Spinach (optional) 

Directions:
1. In a large skillet, cook the sausage until cooked through.
2. In a bowl, combine ricotta, egg, 2 cups mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. Stir well.
3. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
4. For the bottom layer, pour one cup of sauce and spread evenly.
5. Top with 3 sheets of lasagna. The sheets will expand while baking to the ends of the dish.
6. Pour 1 cup of sauce and ¾ cup of the cheese mixture on the first payer. Top with ¼ cup of the mozzarella and 1/3 cup of the cooked meat (and however much spinach you want).
7. Continue for 3 more layers.
8. For the final layer, top with 3 sheets of lasagna, pour the remaining sauce, and top with remaining cheese mixture and mozzarella.
9. Cover with foil and place in pre-heated oven. Bake at 375*F for 25 minutes.
10. Once baked, remove foil and bake additional 5 minutes to brown the cheese. Let rest 15 minutes before cutting.

NOTE: if using two 8x8 pans, you’ll need to adjust the measurements for each layer accordingly. If you are freezing, you will either need to pull the lasagna out a day ahead of time to defrost or bake longer in the oven.

FREEZER BREAKFAST BURRITOS

The amount of burritos this recipe makes will depend on the size of your tortilla.
Yield: about 12 burritos (using regular sized tortillas)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks (or go the easy route and cook some hashbrowns)
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 pound chicken or turkey chorizo or breakfast sausage
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 12 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 12 flour tortillas, warmed 

DIRECTIONS:

Bring a small saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook until just tender, about 7 minutes. Drain. (Or, cook some hashbrowns in a pan.)

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the chorizo and onion, and cook, breaking the meat up into small pieces, until just cooked through, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add the potato and cook over medium-low heat until the flavors are combined (but if you’re using hashbrowns, don’t add them to this mixture). Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl whisk the eggs together with the milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Heat the remaining teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring to scramble, until just cooked through. Remove from heat immediately. Do not overcook.

Top each tortilla with the chorizo mixture, eggs, and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up into a burrito and wrap in plastic wrap, then place them all into a freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, wrap the burrito in a paper towel and place on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for 2 minutes, or until warmed through.