The past few weekends I've been doing a lot of cooking and freezing meals so we have some stuff to defrost when we come home with the new baby! My mom will be here on December 1 and is always amazing in the kitchen so I figured we just needed enough to get us through a week or two to get us started (plus I ran out of room in the freezer a lot faster than I thought I would).

Here's what's in my freezer right now:

• Fit Foodie Finds' Healthy Chicken Enchilada Casserole. I used white rice and it looked so good that Rob and I had some before I popped it in the freezer. It's delicious and I'm already looking forward to defrosting it and having it sometime in the next couple of weeks.
• These hash browns that I usually do with sweet potatoes, but used white potatoes instead. I froze them in 1 cup increments so we can defrost a little at a time and just scramble some eggs as we need them.
• My "famous" bacon-wrapped dates--they're a great snack and Rob loves them. I skipped the goat cheese this time.
• Some easy Paleo pumpkin banana muffins that I made up one morning when I realized I had bananas about to go bad and a can of pumpkin in the pantry:
  • 4 bananas
  • 3-4 tablespoons canned pumpkin
  • 2/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil
  • 3 eggs
  • Maybe 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • A few handfuls of chocolate chips
  • Mix everything together and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes
• I wanted to make these sheet pan eggs but ended up freezing about 4 servings of a breakfast casserole that I made for book club the other day (basically it's this one but I skipped the meat and added some cheese).
• More Christmas cookies than anyone needs--I'm sharing a bunch of those recipes the first week of December, so stay tuned!

I still want to make these recipes:

• Kale Soup with Potatoes and Sausage. My aunt Pat sent me a great list of freezer-friendly dishes to make if you're having a baby and this was one of them.
• Another from that list: Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Glaze
• When my mom gets here I may ask her to make her empanadas so I can write down the recipe and share them with you guys. They're the best and we never have them because they aren't even a little Paleo, but I'm thinking a hand-held meat pie might be the perfect breastfeeding snack, so we may have to make an exception.
• A few things from my new book: fat bombs, "granola" bars, cheeseburger casserole, and buffalo chicken dip.

Do you have any favorite freezer-friendly meals? I want to hear them! I'm sure we'll do another round of cooking once my mom gets here so I want to have a new list ready to go!

The other day I came across this post on A Beautiful Plate and it got me thinking about the 10 things I always keep in my kitchen. My grocery shopping trips often run the risk of being a little boring, but over the years I've gotten really good about getting in and out with the same main ingredients every week, so I thought I'd share a few things I always have no matter what.

1. Avocados: I always pick up 3-4 and put them on pretty much everything--scrambled eggs, taco salads, burger bowls, etc. Sometimes I just cut one in half and have it as a snack with a little lime juice, salt, and cayenne pepper.
2. Salad Mix: Usually a spinach and arugula mix from Trader Joe's, but sometimes I grab spinach only (I like being able to sauté it all quickly if it's about to wilt and we haven't eaten enough of it yet). I'll grab a handful of greens and add it as a side to pretty much every dish I make throughout the day.
3. Bacon: About once a week I'll bake a big sheet pan of bacon in the oven and save it for breakfasts or for topping salads. I also like to let the grease cool and then spoon it into a jar, which I keep in the fridge and use for cooking pretty much everything.
4. Eggs: Rob and I go through almost two dozen eggs a week--I like them fried but lately we've been having them scrambled with a little shredded cheddar on top.
5. Grass-Fed Butter: I've been completely obsessed with Kerrygold butter for a while now, and we always have it in the fridge. It's seriously good enough to eat on its own, and sometimes I dip sliced radishes in it with a little salt. So good.
6. Lemons and Limes: I love hot water with lemon at night, and we always use limes in our cocktails. I usually pick up 2-3 limes and 1-2 lemons. We actually just got a lemon and lime tree from Home Depot a few weekends ago and it's been really fun watching them grow on our back patio, although I think it'll be a while until we actually get any fruit from it.
7. Sugar Snap Peas: My favorite snack, and Ender's too! We use sugar snap peas and sometimes carrots (pretty much any vegetable) as dog treats because for some reason regular ones make him kind of itchy (we think it's a chicken allergy).
8. Garlic: Everything is better when it starts with sautéed garlic.
9. Onions: I like white and red onions and always have at least one of each ready to go. 
10. Hot Dogs: Maybe it's weird, but we always have hot dogs in the fridge. They're the easiest and we love them for a quick lunch or dinner when no one is in the mood to cook.

What do you always have in your kitchen?

This post was originally published in September of 2013 and is one of my most popular Paleo recipes here on Freckled Italian. I decided to update the photos and re-publish it in case any newer readers may have missed it. These eggplant fries are just as delicious as they were the first time. I also included my (not so) super secret spicy mayo recipe at the end, because what's the point of having fries if you don't have something to dip them in?

I am so not a fan of eggplant. It's just not my thing. What I am a fan of, however, are French fries, and while they aren't very Paleo, they are delicious. I bought an eggplant the other day because it was on sale and I was like, well why not? I usually roast them up in big slices and just can't handle the texture. So I cut them into fry-like strips and baked them at a high heat and what I got was pretty close to French fries. They're also kind of fall-y, which I know we all love. You're welcome.

Ingredients:

• One medium to large eggplant
• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut eggplant into medallions, then stack medallions and cut into French fry-like strips.
3. Place eggplant strips onto a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season lightly with a bit of salt and pepper.
4. Pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the majority of them are browned and crispy. Let cool slightly before removing from pan.

These are incredibly delicious. I promise. 

And they were even better with a bit of spicy aioli I whipped up. It's super easy--just mix about a tablespoon or two of mayo with one or two teaspoons of your favorite hot sauce. I used a mix of Sriracha and some leftover chili oil from the Chinese place we order takeout from.