I have yet to figure out WHY, but for some reason February and March kick our family’s collective tails.
Just when we start to feel like we’re getting our feet back under us again…
BOOM!!!
It’s kickball season and that consumes 4 to 5 nights a week.
Between kickball, school, work, and just living life… March to May make me feel like I’m living in one of those cartoons where the clocks all have hands that are spinning at a crazy fast pace and everything is in fast forward. I feel like if I blink, I’ll have missed a day, a week, a month of life.
Would I trade a hectic, often sweaty, dirt filled, fast paced minute?
Hell No.
I will however, accept any and all advice, help, aid and anything else that makes our days easier.
WAIT FOR IT... (HIMYM reference)
One thing that I try to do even amidst all the crazy, is make sure we eat well, and that doesn’t mean paper bags and drive thrus.
I want real food.
Food that comes from my kitchen, and that’s a hard thing to do when schedules are colliding like kids in a bumper car ring.
If I don’t want it to be drive thru, if I haven’t planned enough for the Slow Cooker, and sandwiches just won’t do… I’m not left with many options.
Unless I want to throw one of those frozen skillet meals together and let’s face it, I’d rather not because I’m not a fan of frozen meals.
THERE.
I SAID IT.
They are always lacking, Lacking, flavor, texture, taste, substance…. you name it, they’re usually lacking it.
USUALLY being the keyword. As of about a week ago, I ate my words and I blame Zatarain’s.
Apparently March is frozen food month.
WHO KNEW?
Zatarains knew and they sent me a box filled with a whole bunch of CRAZY frozen deliciousness.
I was hesitant, but I threw caution to the wind, especially when I saw the Ready in 10 minutes on the front of the bag.
I tossed the Blackened Chicken Alfredo into my big skillet with a bag of frozen veggies (we were hungry and I wanted to make this stretch), put the lid on it, cooked for 5 minutes, removed the lid and stirred and cooked uncovered for about 8 more minutes until it was all bubbly and Nathan was hovering around the stove drooling.
I have to tell y’all, the smell was amazing.
The taste… pretty damn good.
Nathan actually stood at the counter and ate this out of the serving bowl.
This would be straight up delicious as is.
The addition of the frozen veggie blend and crushed red pepper flakes just takes it to a heightened level of deliciousness.
I’m curious now – do any of y’all doctor frozen meals? If you do, what do you do? What are your favorite tricks?
DISCLOSURE: I’m a Zatarains Krewe Member/Ambassador.
I received a box of frozen meals from Zatarains. I chose to cook them and I chose to write about this meal. I am compensated for my participation as a Zatarains Ambassador, but all opinions, ideas, recipes and thoughts are my own unless otherwise stated.
Yum.
Lynda – exactly 😉
My husband was seriously impressed and he really didn’t wait until it made it to the table.. as soon as I turned away to put my camera down – he was all over it.
Spring is hectic here too. 3 of our kids in 3 different sports and one in music keeps us hopping. I too find dinner time to be important. We rarely do fast food. Planning my meals on the weekend helps. Then when craziness hits I know exactly what to make. Also, using our slow cooker is such a time saver, and one the nights when we are all crossing paths at least we all have a warm, home cooked meal to eat.
Planning though has been key to success for us. Even down to the side dishes. Love your alfredo, yummy!!
Hi Aimee!
Planning only works for me about 50% of the time (sigh) I do try, though! 😉 WOW 3 kids and 3 sports – I bow to you! 😉
I’m going to have to check this out for sure. I’m not usually a big fan of the frozen meals either, but when I find one I like, I do like you did and add some frozen veggies. Usually peas and or corn.
To be completely honest, it’s usually the meat part that I don’t like in these meals … never quite tastes right to me, but I think I’ll give these a try. Thanks for sharing 🙂
PS- I think it’s totally cool that you guys have kickball teams. How FUN! Is it obvious yet that I’ve never heard of kickball leagues?
Hey sweetness…
Straight up, the chicken in this was juicy, tender and really well seasoned. My husband said there wasn’t enough (is there ever)? But with the veggies and the actually excellently cooked penne, it rocked. It would be really easy to toss in some extra leftover chicken, pork chop, shrimp or even bacon to really pump this up 😉
I had the single serving microwave portion of this today for lunch (to try it) it’s excellent and under 5 minutes!!! xo
I love our youth kickball 😉 it’s so fun and DIFFERENT!
First off, let me just say that I can’t believe that Nate ate peas? What???? Secondly, we love Bird’s Eye Garlic Chicken. I always add chicken, but you don’t have to add any. I add meat and veggies to Bertolli. I’ll look for Zatarains now.
I was skeptical at first too… it’s not our usual fare, but oh my gosh I was so impressed! So easy!
Looks like Zatarain’s made converts out of us 🙂 I haven’t tried the Blacked Chicken yet, but I’m already comforted knowing it’s in my freezer for emergencies!
I haven’t eaten frozen food in FOREVER; I tend to stick to homemade. The last one I had that was pretty decent though was shrimp scampi from Costco lol. I’m sure it was all the butter that was in there that added flavor. I love homemade food though; I think the last time I had frozen food was when I had just graduated from college!
I feel the same way – all I want during these crazy days are food I made for my family in my own kitchen. I might have to give those a try though.
The last time I bought frozen prepped meal was so long ago it was a product marketed from a guy I knew in passing from my hometown. His frozen food product was very good, I used to add more veggies/different veggies for variety, but in his efforts to cut down on his manufacturing costs he downgraded quality. Quality is THE issue (alongside the chemicals and sodium load) that I am interested in. I wish the product people would listen to so many comments of “needed more meat/chicken” and actually do it so their product made looks like the photo on the package. I’m glad Z’s works for you. That’s important!
I will testify in a court of law that Zatarain’s frozen Blackened Chicken Alfredo is da bomb. I also ate mine straight out of the pan. One day we will have a “screw the plates” Zatarain’s party and it will be epic.