Oreo Icebox Cake

Tomorrow is National Oreo Day! I did not know that before yesterday, but I figured hey! I got a killer, easy Oreo dessert, why not share it with you all for an unplanned Lazy Cooking post?

Now, I didn't come up with this recipe. You can find the original at Cookies and Cups.

Ingredients:

• Milk
• Oreos
• Cool Whip

Step One: Dip the Oreos in milk. Just a quick dip!

Step Two: Lay the Oreos in your dish.

Step Three: Now, put a layer of Cool Whip over the Oreos. Repeat these steps till you reach the top of your dish.

Step Four: Take the broken bits of cookies that were left over and crumbled them over the top.

You’ll need to let this sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours! We left ours over night. Y’all. If you love Oreos and milk, this is THE DESSERT for you. Enjoy!

Lazy Lady tries Freezer Cooking

Last week, I took a few days off from my day job (but because I had vacation built up that I had to take or I'd lose it). I decided to scratch something off my bucket list, and tried my hand at freezer cooking.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is when you prepare X amount of meals (a week's worth, a month's worth, whatever you need) in ONE DAY. I decided to do a week's worth, because I'm not a coupon queen and I'm not made of money. So, I found 5 recipes online that sounded like something Mr. LL and I would eat and that also came with freezing before cooking instructions.

Now, all the bloggers that are experts on freezer cooking advise to do your grocery shopping on a different day than your prep day. Well, I was strapped for time (I had a website to launch!), so I broke this rule. It isn't the end of the world, but it does make the process much more exhausting.

Getting all my ingredients for five different meals ready to be prepped and put into my freezer.

I actually only ended up spending my max grocery budget for a week. I always strive to spend $60-70 on groceries a week, max, but I budget $100 just in case (I included pet items and toiletries in my grocery budget).

I had made a game plan, per the advice of freezer cooking bloggers, and it really helped. Since it was Monday, I realized it was dumb to put all five meals in the freezer so one of them I just made for the night instead of prepping it to be frozen (it was taquitos that had to be basically fully made before frozen anyway, so it made since to just do the final step of popping them in the oven to crisp up and have a delicious homemade meal). 

We ended up only eating three of the five meals I prepped/made that day. It is just the two of us, so we were able to have leftovers from the two meals I pulled out of the freezer and some lunches too. This week, I don't have to do nearly as big a grocery store run, which is nice, because I have two dinners ready to go in the freezer. And the meals will keep for three months from the day I put them in there!

From the freezer (to the fridge to thaw over night) to the oven!

One of our favorite meals from the recipes I tried was these mozzarella stuffed meatballs. The day we ate it, I pulled the pan out, unwrapped it, and popped it in the oven. Toward the end of it's baking time, I made a pot of pasta with some red sauce. It was delicious, and Mr. LL said it was like something his Italian grandmother/aunts/great aunts would make and bring to a family get together (HUGE complement). Here' a link to the recipe from New Leaf Wellness.

This recipe is a definite keeper!

Even though the day of prepping all these meals is a lot of work, and anything BUT lazy, I still look at freezer cooking as lazy cooking. One afternoon of work to be able to just throw something in the crockpot or oven and have a delicious home cooked meal every night of the week? Yeah, my little, lazy heart digs this idea. Will I be doing it again? Sure...maybe. I was lucking in that I had a four day weekend, so I was able to work on things and have some extra time, but most weekends, I'm pretty booked up. If I make it a priority, maybe.

Crockpot cooking for the lazy soul

I don't know about where you live, but it is hot here in New Orleans. Our new home only has window units for AC and, as an added bonus, no insulation. So it is super hot here. When Mr. LL and I go to work in the mornings, we sequester the pets into the back of the house and leave that window unit on for them. However, that just means the rest of the house is like an oven when we get home. After buying groceries for delicious home cooked meals that required the stove or oven and then either melting as we prepared them or just forgoing the process all together because of the heat, I declared that we would be only be using our trusty crockpot until the weather cooled down.

We have not regretted this decision one bit.

Crockpot, or slow cooker, cooking is one of the laziest ways to cook. I absolutely love it. You just have to do minimal prep, dump everything into the magic pot and go about your life. Eight hours later, you have a meal ready to be eaten. Perfection.

The first recipe we tried has now made its way into our "favorite recipes" list. It is a caesar chicken salad that we put into wraps, and you can find the recipe over at The Girl Who Ate Everything.

The other recipe is one we adapted to better fit our tastes. I started by looking on Pinterest for a crab/crawfish/shrimp and corn bisque recipe for the crockpot. The closest I found was Real Advice Gal's Crockpot Crab and Corn Chowder. You can click that link to make the original recipe, but I'm going to share my adapted recipe with you:

Crab and Corn Chowder Crockpot Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) low-sodium,99 percent fat-free chicken broth
• 1 bag of petite golden potatoes, washed and quartered (or chopped smaller)
• 1/2 medium sized white onion, diced
• 1/2teaspoon ground thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated skim milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning
• 1container (16 ounces)  pasteurized crab claw meat (it's by the seafood in the grocery store)

Pour the chicken broth into the crockpot, and then put the potatoes and onion in. Add the thyme and Old Bay seasoning and top with the frozen corn. Put the crockpot on LOW for 6 hours, or HIGH for 4.

After the 6 or 4 hours have passed, combine the evaporated milk, diced pepper, cornstarch and salt in a bowl. Pour over the stuff in the crockpot and cook on LOW for another 30 minutes.

Add the crab meat (check for shell bits!) to the mixture, and cook for another 30 minutes on LOW.

Serve hot with fresh french bread and enjoy!