Meals for the new parents!

Monday was a day off of work for me, and since Ben and I planned to go over to Becky and Rett's so he could meet little Miss Adelaide after his flight came in from Colorado, I wanted to make a few things to bring to the new parents so they wouldn't have to worry about food for a couple of days!

I have been wanting to try more bread recipes, and this Country Crust Bread on The Way the Cookie Crumbles (one of my favorite food blogs!) looked beautiful! I do not have a stand mixer (yet! but hopefully soon... as soon as I can figure out how to create enough counter space for it...) so I had to mix and knead by hand. I'm not sure if it was that, or some other factor (who knows with bread) but even though I increased the rising time and kept it in the oven to stay warm, my bread didn't really rise to "sandwich height". I thought it still looked rather pretty, I was just hoping for more of a sandwich bread. Oh well! Rett said that it is already all gone so I guess it must have been okay! I plan on making this again for Ben and I soon! The dough was super sticky, so it wasn't the most pleasant thing to knead by hand. I also kneaded for longer than the recipe said because I'm sure my hands aren't quite as efficient as a Kitchen Aid mixer :)

I also wanted to bring Becky and Rett a few things they could have for lunch and dinner. I had a few qualifiers - I wanted things that they could take out individual portions of (which ruled out huge casseroles that have to be baked all at once) and that didn't require any extra preparation other than heating up. I checked out the awesome blog Adventures in my Freezer for ideas and found two winners!

The first thing I made was basic chili. I used the recipe as more of a guide. Here are my alterations.

1 lb ground beef
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 large onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, pressed
approx 1/2 cup of water (mine was seeming a little dry)
some of the following spices (at least a teaspoon each, but I just added it until it tasted good without being too spicy): Penzey's Adobo seasoning, chili powder, cayenne pepper

Brown beef, drain. Add to a dutch oven along with everything else, simmer for approximately 1 hour or so. Pretty easy :) I put what I thought were 2 healthy size servings in a gallon size freezer bag. This made 3 bags, so 6 servings.

I also made the "Chicken and Rice Wraps" on this document, which Adventures in My Freezer had as a OAMC (once a month cooking) Link on her blog. This was another super easy recipe that I packaged as suggested - in individual servings. The recipe made 8 for me, but I don't know if I was making them big. I did use the big enchilada size tortillas (it didn't specify a size in the recipe). I only tasted a bit of this but it tasted great.

How lazy am I that I didn't want to go into the other room and get my flash so this photo could turn out halfway decent? Oh well :)

If you are ever wanting recipes to bring to new parents, I think these are some great ones! Easy to freeze, easy to reheat, and do not require any extra work!

Ready for Rett and Becky!

On another unrelated note, Ben had been growing a beard for approximately one month, kind of for this guy's trip, but mostly just to see if he could. I am a facial hair hater so I am SO glad he finally shaved! I don't know what it is with men and beards...

Ben looks so hipster with his beard and new glasses :)