With summer coming to a close, the kids back in school, and the “ber” months quickly approaching, how about a fun, festive, and tropical summer dish?

A new feature here is Tip Tuesday. There is already of TIP INDEX of tips I’ve previously shared over there on the left side of the page. We’ll be adding to it on Tuesdays.

This is the final recipe from the freezer meals I made for Marissa and Jeff before I returned home on July 2nd. The good news is that I am going back to visit next week. I can’t wait to get my hands on sweet Max! Here is a list of all nine of the meals I made for the new parents, with links to each of the recipes.

Picadillo Taco Meat

Tuscan Chicken w/Cannellini & Cremini

Chicken Fajitas

Spinach Lasagna w/Mushroom Ragu

Sausage, Poblano & Broccoli Quiche

Chicken & White Bean Chili

Sesame-Carrot Soup

Creamy Celery Soup

Meatballs in Red Sauce

Today is the 13th Blogiversary of this page! Yay!!! If you have followed for long, maybe as long as *thirteen years, then you may remember Amy’s Famous Taco Soup. I posted that wonderfully easy recipe on November 3, 2009, during year one of this blog. Just like Amy, Lisa is a long-time dear friend and a former neighbor in Equestrian Manor. And just as with Amy, Lisa has a recipe that is a family favorite. Lisa has been making this pasta dish several times a month for the last 20 years for her family. They request it often, and she is always happy to oblige. Lisa recalls that she adapted what was to be a pizza topping into a pasta dish. Excellent decision!

Lisa made it for me when I had the pleasure of going to the family cabin outside of Prescott this past weekend. The sunset photos are from that beautiful and magical place. Thank you, Gordon and Lisa, for inviting me, and thank you, Lisa, for agreeing to let me share this gem of a recipe!

*Today marks 13 years since the first post here at LesPetitesGourmettes.com. In the past, I’ve made a big deal about my Blogiverasary. That doesn’t feel appropriate this year since there have been many gaps, a few very long gaps, especially in the last several years. Yet, this is the 2,084th post. So, all in all, not too shabby. Thanks for hanging in there through it all!

Are you even making freezer meals if you don’t make at least one style of lasagna? I think not. Jeff is a true carnivore. Marissa is a former pescatarian. She eats meat now, but in limited quantities, so I decided a vegetarian lasagna would be a nice touch since many of the other freezer meals I made included meat.

Unfortunately, I did not take even one photo of the lasagna, all I have are screenshots taken from videos I shared on Instagram. So please forgive the seriously awful pics! As biased as I am, I feel as though the photo above makes up for all of it. <3

Yes, if you’re thinking this is now a baby and recipe blog, you are right. I can’t help but share this photo of Max in his new sleep suit. Swaddling is now done with, the suit is what is now the cat’s pajamas! Plus, he is adorable in it. I fly back to Chicago to see Max and his sweet mama in two weeks, I seriously can’t wait to get my hands on him!

Today’s recipe is the epitome of dump and cook. A package of chicken thighs, a package of mushrooms, a bell pepper, open a couple of cans, dump, season it up, freeze, thaw, cook and you’re done!

The remaining freezer meals I made for Marissa and Jeff only have one photo, which I took to use on Instagram stories while I was there. Hopefully, that will be enough to entice you to give at least a couple of them a try. I’ll start with this one that was so easy and quick that I only needed 1 bowl and a microwave to prep.

A little bonus today; photos of sweet Max who turned 2 months old on August 1st. He fills my heart with so much love and joy!

I hate to have to call out someone here on the blog, especially my own daughter, but for the sake of this recipe, it must be done. Marissa does not have a decent sheet pan. When I say a decent sheet pan, I mean a large 13 x 18-inch baking sheet with sides, also known as a half sheet pan. Yes, the pans most of you have are actually half sheet pans. Here is the breakdown:

Quarter sheet pans are typically 9 by 13 inches (standard size for sheet cakes), half sheet pans are 18 by 13 inches (this is the size of most pans described simply as baking sheets) and full sheet pans are 26 by 18 inches (too big to fit in many home ovens, but the standard commercial size).

One of Marissa’s sheet pans is a quarter sheet pan, the other is smaller. As such, this recipe was very difficult to make while I was working on stocking her freezer before I left town.

You may be thinking, “Linda, seriously, just buy the girl a proper sheet pan!” Oh, I would, if my daughter wasn’t a minimalist. I do my best to NOT buy her anything that has not been preapproved. I don’t blame her for being a minimalist, she grew up in a maximalism home. The more, the better, is my motto. Why have one set of fine china when you can have six or seven patterns? Why have one set of clear cocktail glasses, when you can have multiple sets of various colors and styles? And don’t get me started on all of the delicious holiday selections! You get the idea. Plus, during her adult life, Marissa has lived in big cities, San Francisco and now Chicago, where space in your typical home needs to be used wisely. Whereas, she grew up in the suburbs and her mother always had plenty of room and could always add on a shed or two, or three! So, I get it. But Marissa, you NEED a half sheet pan!

*Important Reminder at the end of the recipe.

Thank you for the kind words and for letting me that there, is indeed, someone out there! The soup I posted last week, along with today’s recipe, and several more to follow, are dishes I made for Marissa and Jeff while I was in Chicago for the month of June. I was there for an entire month because my sweet daughter gave birth to her first child, my first grandchild, Max Cameron on June 1, 2022!

I know that many of you who follow along are already grandparents and many of you have shared with me the joy it is. It is not as if I didn’t believe you, I did! That is why I was so excited for my turn, but there really is no explaining the kind of love one can have for the child of one’s child. It is truly beyond!

Of course, having been a new mom myself many moons ago, I wanted to make things as easy and be as helpful as I could be for Marissa. This is why I spent the last couple of days I was there cooking and freezing meals for the new parents. Below is a list of what I made, click on them and you’ll be taken to the page with the corresponding recipe.

Picadillo Taco Meat

Tuscan Chicken w/Cannellini & Cremini

Chicken Fajitas

Spinach Lasagna w/Mushroom Ragu

Sausage, Poblano & Broccoli Quiche

Chicken & White Bean Chili

Sesame-Carrot Soup

Creamy Celery Soup

Meatballs in Red Sauce

Several of the dishes were doubled, so there were actually 15 meals in total. While I was cooking for them, it was not my intention, it honestly hadn’t even crossed my mind to blog the recipes, so some will have only one “in process” photo. Others have been made again since I came home, the celery soup for instance, and the Picadillo Taco Meat that I am posting today. I made this last night for my dad and Connor for Sunday supper. I doubled the recipe so that I could send leftovers home with the bachelors.

Hello. It has been more than a while. It feels like an eternity. I have thought about coming on here for many months now, but I wasn’t sure that I had anything to say. Life goes on. Things happen. Good things, bad things, mundane things, and even life-altering, wonderful, amazing things. One thing that doesn’t happen all that much for me anymore is cooking. It feels weird to say that out loud but it is true. I do not cook much, which is the main contributor to me wondering if I have anything to say. That being said, how about today I post a recipe, with more in the sporadic days to come? Plus, I’ll delve more into life and all those “things”.

I made this soup twice in the last few weeks, once for my daughter and son-in-law in Chicago and then again for one of my dearest friends here in Phoenix. Summer may not seem like the ideal time of year for soup, but this is so refreshing and creamy (with no cream, milk, or any sort of dairy) that it works all year round.