Building Blocks #1, #2 and #3

Last Friday I wrote about Rachael Ray's building blocks to 20 meals.  Depending on how many distractions you are able to eliminate, it is possible to cook all 5 building blocks in one day.  However, not in my world.  I broke it up into two days.  Depending on how quickly you wanted to start preparing the meals, you could even complete one building block each night of the work week and take the weekend off!

Not only did I break the rules of timing (two days vs. one), I also didn't exactly follow the suggested cooking order.  Day #1 consisted of tomato sauce, veggies and chicken.

I love the fact that I now have a basic sauce recipe - and not just for these 20 recipes but essentially whenever I want a red sauce, this can be the foundation that I build upon.  I'm so proud of the fact that I made my own sauce from scratch I had to take a picture.

Tomato Sauce

What you don't see is all the yummy ingredients that went into it.  I'm trying to remember to get the camera out while I'm gathering all of the ingredients.

The second building block I tackled was the veggies.  First the peppers and onions.  I love all of the colors.  They look so good!  Yum.  I'm getting hungry just writing this post.

Peppers...prepare to be roasted.

Getting them chopped...they are just so pretty.

Tray # 1 of peppers

Tray #2 of peppers

I filled two 8x11 with the pepper / onion mixture.  I thought they would be more evenly roasted.

The final product...voila!

Next was the butternut squash.  Not a favorite of any of the boys in my family.  I decided they were going to have to try it.  Simms has actually liked the recipes that I've made with it and has even gone back for seconds.  Jeter has attempted not to gag and be polite.  Barber eats his "no thank you helping" but does not want any more.  Me?  I really like butternut squash.  I don't take seconds but enjoy every single bite at every single meal.

Chopping the Squash

Squash is roasted...you either love it or you don't.

Veggies are now complete.  The final building block for my day was the chicken.

Chicken...before.  Not very appetizing yet.

Chicken...after.  Now we're talking!

These recipes continue to deepen my level of thanks for Rachael Ray.  The food is fun and relatively easy to make and it tastes great!  Next Friday I'll talk about the other two building blocks and show you how easy it is to store them in your freezer.