Featured on another blog -- WOOHOO!!

Thanks so much to my client, Romantic Comedy Girl, for featuring me in her recent blog. Why I Hate my Kitchen. If you are wondering how she makes my freezer meal workshop yield 40 meals -- she is single and splits all each "meal" into the four servings. Sometimes splitting meals in half before putting them in the freezer. Sometimes cooking it all and refreezing leftovers or just reheating them for later in the week. SO SMART of her to make this healthy living choice and distribute the meals so well for her new lifestyle!
Thanks again for the mention "Girl"!
Looking to try out her methods -- contact me to reserve a space at my upcoming workshop this Friday @ 3pm or 7pm -- wildforwildtree AT gmail.com

My TV Dinner Delight

I grew up on TV dinners. Don't get me wrong, my parents did cook as well. But there were always frozen diners in the freezer. My parents are Baby Boomers and grew up with new convenience foods and so therefore I did as well. Whenever someone had to work late, I had some extra curricular activity or no one felt like cooking -- to the freezer we went. And even now, almost 20 years after I moved out of the house, my parents still stock their freezer with TV dinners. But when I left their house my world opened some. I cooked the family meals I'd learned, I watched Emeril and Rachel Ray and got a few more recipes and I learned that not ALL TV dinners were created equal. I started buying differently and cooking differently. The frozen food in my freezer was no longer the banquet, stouffers, michealina varieties but the upper scale, "healthier" varieties.
Now that I have my own family there are even less frozen "meals" purchased from the store. Most of my freezer is now split into two Frozen meal categories:
1. Prepped freezer meals ready to be cooked
and
2. Leftovers frozen for quick reheating -- THIS is my new TV Dinner. A way to have the convenience of a commercially packaged frozen meal -- but with my home cooked healthy food!!!

Fast forward to last week. Part of my pre-vacation prep is to always take left overs from the fridge and place them in the freezer. I use the same containers in both places so it literally takes me a minute to clean out and save the food from spoilage. Typically I leave it there until I'm working late or at a meeting and can tell hubby to pull something from the freezer and heat it up for dinner if he doesn't feel like cooking.

When we returned from our trip we must have all caught one of those pesky bugs you get from air travel (is there anyone who doesn't get sick traveling by plane during the Holidays?) Hubby and I were headachey and in no mood to make a grocery store run let alone stand at a stove for 15 - 30 minutes to prepare something to eat. SO just like in my childhood -- to the freezer we went. And looky there, a nice little selection of dinners! We had some tasty nachos with the leftover taco night ingredients I had dumped into one container. I just defrosted all the dish poured it over corn chips (yep rice and all) and topped with shredded cheese and melted it to perfection. SO YUMMY! Lunch the next day was Chicken Marsala bowls from Chicken Marsala I had chopped and added to the rice side dish we'd had with it originally. And tonight we had Lasagna. Now hubby did make it to the store so we had fresh veggies and salad fixins by this time. But I'm so so glad that I've instituted this practice before our trips or whenever we are tired of eating "those" leftovers. It saves us money for sure by not trashing the food and not purchasing commercially made frozen meals, saves time when we reheat them and saves our bodies from all that commercially processed, HFCS, MSG and preservative laden foods we'd otherwise have on hand.

Freezer Meals Reduce Stress and Tenderize Meat

Prepping meals one day a week will reduce cooking time, increase flavors and make meat more tender. This video post covers a typical freezer meal prep day for me and will showcase 3 meals for cooking later in the week. Enjoy the video and then look below for the recipes.



My rule of thumb is: if it is frozen prep it frozen. It is perfectly fine to use frozen meat when prepping freezer meals as they will marinate fully in the thawing process. I don't recommend thawing frozen meat to prep meals and then refreezing them or refreezing previously frozen meat.

Chicken Marsala
In a freezer bag combine:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Wildtree Marsala Sauce
2 TBSP Butter GSO
1 cup sliced mushrooms (if desired)
Place in freezer. Pull this meal out of the freezer the night before you'd like it for dinner and allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight and until nearly dinner time the next day.
Cooking instructions:
Heat a frying pan over medium heat with a little GSO. Sear chicken quickly on both sides to brown (leaving sauce in the bag). Add 1 cup sliced mushrooms (of desired and not frozen with the meat) and Marsala sauce from the bag. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Orange Fusion Chicken
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup orange juice
1 TBSP Wildtree Pacific Fusion
Place in freezer. Pull this meal out of the freezer the night before you'd like it for dinner and allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight and until nearly dinner time the next day.
Cooking instructions:covered baking dish, cook covered at 325 until chicken is cooked through (about 20 - 25 min.), removing lid last 5 minutes to allow browning. Remove chicken to resting plate. Place sauce in skillet on medium low heat and cook until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour over chicken to serve.

Balsamic Chicken Wings
1/3 cup WT Balsamic Dipping Oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 lbs chicken wings or drumsticks
Place in freezer. Pull this meal out of the freezer the night before you'd like it for dinner and allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight and until nearly dinner time the next day.
Cooking instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Put chicken on Large Bar Pan or foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 35 or 40 minutes.

Maltodextrin -- is it all natural?

I live in a very healthy and health conscious society here in LA and I LOVE that. And since I rep an all-natural line of food products it does fit in well with that society. But it also means I get asked some health/product/ingredient related questions that I can not answer. Recently I was asked if Maltodextrin was all-natural as it is listed as an ingredient in a few of our products.
Well like any good rep -- I called the home office to find out! And anyone interested in any Wildtree product or ingredient could to the same by calling Wildtree at 1-800-672-4050 or asking their local rep.
We do in fact use Maltodextrin and it is in fact all natural and also gluten free! Wildtree is very cautious about the sources of their ingredients. Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate and natural cornstarch. In our case it is used as a natural drying agent. For example when we have a liquid spice that we want to use in one of our dry spice blends natural cornstarch maltodextrin is used to "dry" that liquid so it can be used in the dry blend.
The wise geek blog had a great post on the safety of maltodextrin (http://www.wisegeek.com/is-maltodextrin-unsafe.htm). Like many things in the world these days there are people with allergies to maltodextrin just like people have allergies to corn, eggs, peanuts, strawberries and many other natural items. However if you are not allergic, this is a safe all natural ingredient.

Quick Pumpkin Soup = Happy dinner time

I saw this recipe in a pure + simple magazine that I picked up at my Chiropractor's office. I went home and placed an order for Wildtree's Thai red curry paste that night and anxiously awaited for the box! This recipe was so easy to make and was on the table in about 10 minutes!!!! Just enough time for me to throw together some Udi's Gluten Free grilled cheese sandwiches (compliments of my GF bestest that visited this weekend) to go with it!

I altered the original recipe a bit:
1. I specifically used the WT Thai red curry paste because I love it and
am looking for new uses for it.
2. It called for 1 cup of coconut milk and 1 cup of water. I wanted a creamier
texture and taste so I up the coconut milk to 1 1/4 cup and decreased the water
to 1/2 cup.


I hope you enjoy this really quick, delicious, healthy and easy fall comfort recipe!


WT Curry Pumpkin Soup

15 oz. canned pumpkin (not pie filling just pureed pumpkin)

2 TBSP WT Thai Red Curry Paste

1 1/4 cup coconut milk (I used lite as I had it in my pantry)

1/2 cup water


Put pumpkin, curry paste, coconut milk and water in a pot on medium hi heat.

Stir or whisk to mix well.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Allow to warm.

Can add toasted pumpkin seeds to top the soup and add some crunch.


Butter Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

4 tsp. pumpkin seeds, dried

1 teaspoon WT Butter Flavor Grapeseed oil


Heat oil and pumpkin seeds in a skillet until slightly browned and toasty.

Season with salt and pepper.

Get Your Crock Pot Ready for 10 Healthy Fabulous Meals!!!

Tame Dinnertime Chaos
Save Time ~ Save Money ~ Have FUN!

Want to get out of your dinnertime rut?
Want to add some new family favorites to your repertoire?


Join me for a Freezer Meal Workshop to make 10 meals in about 2 hours and stock your freezer just in time for the Holiday Hubbub! This month is ALL ABOUT the CROCK POT! Whether you use all the meals in 2 weeks or 2 months, these are will be your go to meals that allow you a little prep in the morning and then walking in the door at night to a wonderfully smelling home and a warm healthy dinner.

For just $40 I provide all the spices, recipes and supplies. We work together in a fun, party atmosphere to prep 10 meals that you'll take home and put in your freezer ready for quick cooking whenever you need them most.

The New Procedures:
1. YOU decide what you bring with you. I’ll send you a shopping list. IF you have time, IF you have enough freezer space and IF you feel like it, get your groceries and bring them with you.
2. Cooking Instructions on the Freezer Bag!!! So no worries about where to put your instruction sheet to ensure you can find it when you’re ready to cook. Instructions are “on” the bag.

This month’s meals will include:
Chicken & Dumplings
Tequila Lime Chicken
White Chicken Chili
Heavenly Chinese
Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Potsticker Soup

Upcoming Redondo Beach Workshop Dates
Friday, December 3 at either 10am OR 7 pm

Contact me with your session choice and payment to reserve your spot today!

I offer ... fun tasting parties, meal workshops, fund raisers, vendor fairs and flexible income opportunities with lifetime discounts!
Yvonne Hall ~ 310.850.6443 ~ wildforwildtree@gmail.com ~ www.mywildtree.com/yvonneh facebook.com/wildforwildtree

Don’t stifle the Stir Fry

Stir Fry – LOVE it! Quick, Easy – has veggies so also considered HEALTHY in our house – and uses rice not pasta (which is better for my refined carb lovin hips).

But why oh why do we ALL think of Asian style food when we hear the term, “stir fry”?
Wildtree does have some great Asian style stir fry sauces. I LOVE using the Asian Ginger Plum or the Thai Sesame Sun Butter. Hubby prefers the Kickin Asian Stir Fry since it is more traditional. But there is so much more that we can do with stir-fry!

If you have some sort of meat (or tofu) and/or veggies and some rice try some of these other varieties of my favorite stir-fries! They are quick and easy (since the meat should be diced whether precooked or raw) and good for ya!

Italian Stir Fry:
Garlic grapeseed oil sautéed chicken (or sausage), mushrooms, onion and diced tomatoes. I usually combine the tomatoes with some hearty spaghetti blend or garlic galore prior to adding them to the stir-fry skillet. I serve this over Parmesan rice.

Mexican Stir Fry:
Jalapeno grapeseed oil sautéed chicken/beef, onion, peppers, black beans, fajita or adobo blend (I use about 1/2 TBSP). Of course I feel compelled to top mine with shredded cheese & Fiesta salsa and serve over Cilantro lime rice. But you could also just add some cilantro and a squeeze of lime as well.

Basil Pesto Stir Fry:
Basil Pesto grapeseed oil sautéed chicken/shrimp and tomatoes – add spinach the last few minutes to wilt. Also great with some toasted pine nuts. Mix with some prepared Basil Pesto blend, to taste, with rice.

The All American (Hubby’s FAVORITE)
Butter flavored grapeseed oil sautéed chicken/steak, onions and mushrooms, diced potatoes and liberally sprinkled with Rancher’s Steak Rub to taste.

Here’s another one that I enjoy straight from the Wildtree recipe search tool:

Chipotle Lime Fried Rice

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 tablespoons Wildtree European Dipping Oil - Hot Chili
* 1 small onion diced
* 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
* 2 cups white or brown rice, cooked
* 2 teaspoons Wildtree Chipotle Lime Rub
* 3/4 cup frozen peas
* 3/4 cup pineapple cut into small chunks

PREPARATION:
Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the onion until soft and translucent and add the mushrooms. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add the rice and seasoning. Finish by adding the pineapple and peas and cooking for 3-5 more minutes.

Calories 230; Fat 8 g; Saturated Fat 1 g; Carb 34 g; Fiber 4 g; Protein 5 g; Chol 0 mg; Sodium 190 mg


How do you enjoy your stir-fry?