Hello!

Check out our older posts for 'Rules of the Game", and if you think you'd like to join us in the future, be sure to leave a comment and we'll keep you posted!  Though it doesn't look like it here, I believe we have 5 or 6 ready to swap on Sat, but if you're interested, let us know and we'll see what we can do. Thanks for stopping by!
-The Swapping Beauties :)

French Toast Casserole! My secrets exposed :)

This one's so good I almost don't want to share!  I found it at Freezer Chicks - thanks Amanda!

French Toast Casserole

1 loaf Italian bread
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C sugar, divided
1/2 t vanilla (or almond) extract
1/2 C pecans, optional (I opted out)
4 eggs (I used 5 for extra protein)
2 C milk
1 t cinnamon (or more!)
2 T melted butter

Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Place half of the bread cubes in a greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Melt cream cheese (carefully!) in the microwave. Stir several times. This takes about 2 minutes. Stir half the sugar and all of the extract into the cream cheese. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the bread cubes. It will not completely cover them. Sprinkle nuts over the cream cheese layer. (I will be giving the nuts on the side for you to sprinkle on top). Top with remaining bread cubes. Beat together the remaining sugar, eggs, milk, cinnamon, and melted butter. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the bread cubes. Refrigerate overnight to bake the next morning OR slide the pan into a two-gallon freezer bag and freeze.(I froze it in a disposable 13x9 pan that I then baked it in) Thaw completely to cook. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until browned. Let sit at room temp for 5 minutes before cutting. Top with syrup or fruit toppings.

 You can find it here @ http://freezerchicks.blogspot.com/2009/04/french-toast-casserole.html

For the topping I loosly followed this recipe I found on allrecipes.com. You can link to it directly here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Supreme-Strawberry-Topping/Detail.aspx. I just substituted the other fruit mixture for strawberries on some of the topping and did everything to taste.  And now you know all of my secrets!

Supreme Strawberry Topping

Ingredients

• 1 pint strawberries, cleaned and stemmed
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Cut about 1/3 of the strawberries in half. In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine strawberries, sugar and vanilla. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In a blender, puree about 1/3 of sauce, then mix back into remainder. Store in refrigerator. 

Mexi Beef Casserole Freezer Recipe

I made this for a dinner swap a few times back - I had never had it before I made it, but I think it turned out!  For those who want it, here it is - enjoy! :D Once I find the link to the site I got it from, I'll be sure it add it - I think they had a lot of good-lookin' stuff!

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Mexi Beef Casserole Freezer Recipe

1 pound ground beef 
1 15-oz can sweet corn, drained 
1 cup mild, chunky salsa 
1/4 cup sliced black olives 
1 pkg cooked egg noodles 
1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed 
1/4 cup taco sauce 
1 package taco seasoning mix 
1/2 cup tomato sauce 

Cook egg noodles according to instructions, drain. Meanwhile, brown beef in a skillet until brown and fully cooked. Drain any grease. In a bowl, combine all ingredients, then pour into a freezer container or a 9x13 baking dish. Freeze (may want to allow it to come down to room temperature before placing in freezer)

On cooking day, thaw completely in fridge (take it out the night before or morning of). In a preheated 325F oven, cook for 30-45 minutes, or until bubbly and completely hot throughout. Serve!

Let's Get Swappin! Sept. 25

OK Beauties - We're planing our next swap Sept. 25th and we'd love to have you join us!  If you're interested, please leave a comment here by the 19th.  Since this is our first time coordinating like this, there might be some trial and error until we figure out how best to communicate with everyone.  For now, feel free to become a follower and check back often!  We'll probably coordinate a bit though facebook as well, since it's easy, and, let's admit it, fun :)

With that, we hope to see you the 25th!

"To Post or Not to Post - a guide to sharing recipes with other Swapping Beauties" aka "Filling Your Recipe Box"

Your recipes?  Post Away! We ALL love a recipe box filled with delightful dishes that friends have already reviewed and tried! "But everyone has a favorite recipe for chicken enchiladas" you say - oh contrar!  Not everyone DOES have a favorite enchilada recipe and even if they do, yours might have just that twist they are looking for!

So how do you do it?  There are 2 ways:

1st LEAVE A COMMENT- on any one of the blog posts with your recipe and where it came from and we'll repost it for you

OR

2nd BECOME A "BEAUTY EDITOR"- Especially if you have multiple recipes to post, we will gladly make you a contributor (Beauty Editor) to the blog!  That way you can post all of your recipes directly and we'll all be able to see them instantaneously!


A FEW GUIDES...

*BE A TATTLE-TAIL - No, we're not talking about telling us when you're big brother pulls your pig tails - we're talking about giving credit where credit is do :) Please make sure to reference wherever you found your recipe - if you found it on a website, please link to that website.  If it's from a Rachel Ray Magazine, let us know so that we know when we're being 'fancy'!

*LABEL LABEL LABEL -in the lower left hand corner of the posts as you're writing them, you'll see a box that says Labels: - PLEASE fill in this box with whatever you can come up with that fits this dish - chicken, Mexican, casserole, world's greatest frozen salt water taffy recipe.....whatever fits!  This is different from a good title, which definitely helps, because links several similar items together and allows you to find, for example, all the chicken recipes in one click! (Each of the labels you create will be listed on the side of the blog, making them easy to find!)

*DON'T BE A WEAK LINK - Actually, we'd just love more links!  As mentioned above, we hope you'll link your recipes to their sources, but in addition to that, we'd LOVE ideas for great links to dinners especially suited to frozen dinners!  As they're gathered, we'll post these links on the side of the blog so next time you're preparing for a swap, you'll know right where you can go!

I think that's it!  We may update and tweak this post as we need to, but for now it looks like we're good!  Just remember, the most important thing is to POST!  It doesn't need to be fancy or fine (that's for our dinner tables ;) and if you don't know where you got it, don't sweat it!  And if you made it up, tell us that too!  Pictures would be AMAZING, but are surly not necessary.  So what are you waiting for?!  Get Posting Already! <3 ;)

Dinner Swap Short Stack!

Is 6-8 servings a meal too much for you?  Meet up with fellow 'Short Stack'ers here by leaving a comment and subscribing to follow-up comments.  Once there are at least 4 of you, we'll be happy to help you set up your own set of rules and get your own game rolling!  Feel free to meet and exchange meals at the same time/place as the regular swappers (space providing), though beyond getting you started (we even have an extra Swapping Beauties blog you can use), the rules of the game are up to you!

Prefer a Short Stack?  Meet your company and comment here!

Rule of the Game - The Dinner Edition

Every couple of months we've been doing a dinner exchange and we hope you will want to join us!  We've done this a few times and have learned a little better what works for us, a few of the original Swapping Beauties.  Of course, our priorities might not be the same as yours, so if this isn't the group for you, we understand.  In return, please know that these are the things that work best for us and we'd appreciate if you don't try to change them.  Don't worry - there will be PLENTY of things we want, dare I say, NEED your imput on and we look forward to hearing your voice!

Like any good game that is fun, there are Rules.  In order to keep the game going smoothly, these rules cannot be constantly renegotiated and revamped.  However, once the rules are set and understood, the real fun can begin!  So to start off, here are a few Rules of the Game!

THE BIG 2!

1. TASTE is key! - Does this mean we don't want healthy?  Of course not!  But more important than a super-duper healthy meal is a good tasting one!  Hopefully they'll be both, but if the meal is 'better' with a little extra butter, please do!  If the meal is 'better' with whole wheat pasta and extra veggies, please do! :D

2. SERVINGS - Each meal should feed between 6-8 people.  We know this is a larger size.  However, many of us like this for a variety of reasons.  Some of us like having left overs, some like pulling these meals out with guests, some of us just have that many people to feed!  Whatever the reason, 6-8 should be the amount of servings in your meal.  For now, this is not up for debate.  However, if you're interested in a group that makes smaller meals to exchange, please leave a comment below the post entitled "Dinner Swap Short Stack"

A FEW OTHER TID-BITS:

COMPLETE DISH- We've discussed this a lot and see pluses both ways, but we've decided that we'd like to make sure the meals we exchange are at least 1 complete dish.  By that we mean that if it's to be served over rice, the rice is included.  We know that this takes a little more effort, but this way no one gets caught missing ingredients when it comes time to eat dinner!  If your dish can be served several ways, please let us know, and then include one of the options - ooooo- I'm getting hungry just thinking about all of this!

VARIETY - In order to ensure variety, we'd LOVE it if you wouldn't mind posting what it is you'll be bringing - that way we don't end up with 5 dishes of chicken enchiladas ;)

POST - We really hope everyone will post their recipies!  Of course, you will not be ousted from the group if you don't, but when we fall in absolute LOVE with your food (and believe me, we totally have with oh so many dishes already!) we hope to have a chance to replicate it!  Exchanging paper recipies has proved less effective, so we'll use this blog as a resource!  For instructions on how to post a recipe, check out the post "To Post or Not to Post - a guide to sharing recipes with other Swapping Beauties"

MAKE A FRIEND - I know this may sound silly, but for several of us getting together to exchange meals is one of the few opportunities we have as busy wives and mothers to spend a few minutes with other women!  The 'Original' SBs were a group of friends from Provo that used our swaps as a chance to keep in touch as well as exchange meals, especially as several of us moved and chances to get see each other were few and far between.  Obviously our time is limited due to the fact that we have FROZEN food we're exchanging, but it's great if people are willing to bring a cooler and hang out for a minute after the 'business' is concluded :)  Of course we understand that that's not always possible, but we hope you'll take a minute and Make a Friend!

GARGANTUAN GROUP-SIZE MANAGED: "How will this work if we're inviting so many people to potentially participate?" you ask - Great Question!  In order to avoid super-human sized groups and cooking for DAYS just to make enough dinners (not to mention the impact that would have on our wallets and freezers), we plan on splitting into smaller groups should the need arise.  How will we determine the group size?  Well, plainly said, it's pretty much up to you!  In the next few days we'll post a link on the top of the blog with a poll asking what is the ideal group size so we can all have a voice.  Then, by having everyone RSVP by hopefully at least a week ahead of time we'll be able to decide if we need a split the group!

And there they are!  We hope you decide to play with us!  We've sure had fun time and look forward to many more wonderful swaps in the future!  We'll probably often have polls posted at the top of the blog as we look for your opinions on dates etc, and hopefully the menus from our past exchanges will start rolling in soon!

And with that, here's wishing you a FABULOUS Dinner!