Food for thought.

I have been thinking about this quote by Anna Quindlen all week,

"The biggest mistake I made is the one most of us make... I did not live in the moment enough.  This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs.  There is one picture of the three of [my children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four and one.  And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.  I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed.  I wish I had treasured the doing a little more, and the getting it done a little less."

Just thought it might give you something to think about.

Don't forget to check out my Project 365.  I finally updated last week.  It was a little crazy around here.

What I have learned Thursdays... being prepared in the kitchen. Week 3: Make Ahead

Now that you are all stocked up in your kitchen and pantry, it is time to do something with all that food. 

Most importantly to do it in a timely manner, and at a convenient time.

On March 11, 2009 I read a quote on one of my friends blogs.  It touched me and hit my core so deeply that I have been trying to figure out just how to help myself in the area that she calls "the swing shift."  The quote came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints news.  It was said by Sister Julie B.Beck.

"The most valuable time of the day for a family is the afternoon/evening shift. Be at the top of your game on swing shift. People are hungry, people are teachable. You feed them; that's when you serve them most. PLAN FOR SWING SHIFT, AND THEN WORK THE REST OF YOUR DAY AROUND THAT."

I now plan for the swing shift.  Four o' clock to 7 0'clock is the hardest part of the day.  I hate it when I am unprepared.

#1.  Plan your meals in the morning.  If it is a casserole, make it in the morning.  Throw something in the crockpot.  Get your meat out of the freezer.  What ever you plan to feed your family have ready to go.  My friend Krysta lays all of her items out on the counter with the recipe.  This way she is ready to just throw it together at meal time.

#2.  Double your recipes.  If you are making lasagna, make 2.  Most of the time you don't even need more ingredients.  You could double the noodles, and spread the rest out between two pans.  This will save you money, calories and time.  Then place the second pan in the freezer for a later date.  Make sure that you label it.  Soups freeze well also.  For freezer ready meals, I suggest the book; Dinner is ready by Deanna Buxton.

#3.  When you cut a vegetable for something, cut the whole thing.  I also chop my whole onion.  I cut up all of my peppers.

  Then I place them in a container and they are ready to go for the next meal.  I also cut up a whole block of cheese at once.

Whatever it is you are preparing, do it all at once.  It will save you so much time the next time you cook.

#4.  When you make lunch for your school aged children, make it for all of them.  I make lunch for all the kids in the morning.  They look like this: 

I send it to school, and then I store the others  in  the fridge.  When they are ready to eat they pull it out like a lunchable and we are good to go.  I also have a lunch prepared if we have to go somewhere.  Then they can bring it along in there lunch box, and I don't have to buy them McDonalds.

#5.  Make your bread ahead.  You can buy bread, but I like to make it.  It takes me 2 hours each week.  When I make bread, I plan for whatever meals we will have that week.  I always make 2 loaves of bread.  Then I make 2 of something else.  My recipe makes 4 somethings.  I make rolls, hamburger buns, soup bowls, breadsticks, pizza crust.

  What ever it is that we may need for the week.  Then they are ready to go.  Pizza crust is so great to have on had.  I pre-bake it, then I cover it and place it in the fridge.  When I am ready, I add my ingredients and bake.  It is such an easy meal.

#6.  Make your meat ahead of time.  You can cook all your chicken in a crockpot, and shred it.  Then you shred it and place it in ziplock bags.  When you are ready to make chicken enchiladas, you just pull out your pre-cooked chicken.  It is also handy to cook ground beef ahead of time, and freeze it.  For ideas on this, I suggest the book Make a Mix by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, and Madeline Westover.

#7.  Make muffins, and extra pancakes and waffles.

Muffins are such an easy breakfast food and there are so many good recipes out there.  I like to make these after dinner.  I already have a mess, and then they are ready to go in the morning.  I usually make 2 different kinds.  This is a recipe for 6 week bran muffins.  This will stay good for up to 6 weeks in your fridge:

Six week bran muffins

6 C. bran flakes

2 C. boiling water

1/2 C. shortening or olive oil

1/2 c. sugar

1 qt. buttermilk or 2 cups buttermilk, and 2 C. vanilla yogurt

(have soured my own milk instead of buttermilk, and I also have used powdered)

5 C. flour

5 t. soda

1 t. salt

Pour boiling water over bran and let sit. Can use four cups bran in the water and leave two out for more texture. Mix shortening with sugar, and add bran. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients.

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. These will keep in fridge for 6 weeks. This makes a lot.

When you make pancakes french toast, and waffles; make extra.  Freeze them; they cook up so nicely in a toaster.

#8.  Make smoothie popsicles.  We drink a lot of smoothies, thanks to my favorite kitchen appliance.  I make popsicles with what is left.  I never feel bad about letting my kids have a popsicle for breakfast.

#9.  Prepare for breakfast in the evening, and lunch and dinner in the morning.

I hope these ideas can help you prepare for "the swing shift" in your own home.  I hope you can share more meals with your family.  I know that dinner time is when our family bonds, and our children are the most teachable. 

This method has helped me not be so stressed out at dinner.  I am also less resentful because I am not in the kitchen for 3 hours at night.

GOOD LUCK planning ahead.

Disclaimer:  DO NOT FREEZE YOUR LETTUCE.  I was only freezing my spring mix and spinach because I read that you could.  I think my previous post was confusing and led you to believe that you could freeze it all.  My spring mix lettuce didn't freeze so well either.  You can freeze your peppers though, and spinach is fine when you add it to a recipe.

For week one click here.

For week two click here.

My Day…

  the best Mother’s Day.  Somewhat surreal.  My family is finally complete.  My first Mother’s day with ALL my children.  I tried to reflect on that today.

 

I woke up to a sweet little coo.  Then a morning nurse.  Back to bed for a morning cat nap while daddy takes care of the kiddos.  Finally get up. I remember that I am at my BFF’s house for a visit.  What could be better then that?

Wake up to the smell of blueberry muffins. YUM!! made from fiber one mix.  Always need more fiber.  Good Good.

Four crisp white papers placed in my hand.  One says, “You are the best mom in the universe.”  The other, “I love you because you play with me.”  Another, “I love it when you lay by me and sing to me.”  and last a coupon for a 4 person massage.  Each person will massage a different part of my body… it expires tonight.

Off to church for some spiritual uplift, and guess who the speaker is?  None other then my BFF.  I sat in the peaceful mother’s room, and nursed my little baby as I listened.

  Wonderful. I was able to listen without distraction.  Tears pouring down my cheeks

as Krysta spoke about motherhood with such a sweet reverence and utmost respect.  Like it is the most important job on earth.  Oh wait, it is!!  There was nothing more wonderful then nursing my last little miracle while my favorite friend shared simple reminders of how our time could not be better spent.

Home for a little rest.  Tess is unsettled.  I lay her next to me on the bed.  We lay there for 30 minutes.  She grabs my cheeks, smiles, coos and snuggles with me.  One more reminder of

how love really makes the world go round.  Love is what motherhood is all about.

Tess finally settles.  I make sugar cookies.  A favorite for everybody.  I haven’t had a cookie in 5 weeks.  I deserve one today.  So… I’ll have 2 or 3 or maybe 15.

Off to the farm discovered by Krysta to take family photos.  What a wonderful day to capture

my family. My family.  They are mine.  These five people are what made me a

 mother.

Home to dinner.  Yummy!! Cafe Rio.

Time to redeem my massage.  HEAVEN.  Tessa lays between Jonathan and I on the

bed.  Isaac rubs my feet.  Jex my back.  Stella my legs.  Jonathan my neck.  He leans over and whispers I love you.

So surreal.  Four children.  All mine.  A miraculous beauty.

 A remarkable day…. I will not forget.

 

What I have learned Thursdays... Being Prepared in the Kitchen; week 2

Well.... are you ready?  Do you have your list done?  Are your recipes organized?

I hope last week helped you start thinking about how to have meals at the dinner table.

Don't forget that I have files with all that info already laid out.  If you would like a copy please leave me your email.

You have your list in hand and you are ready to shop.  Here are my tips for shopping day.

#1.  Start Early and plan on using a good chunk of your day.  By planning ahead, you will only have to do this big trip once every three or four weeks so you can use your day to do it right.  The stores will also be less busy if you go earlier in the morning.

#2.  As you shop, keep your basket organized.  This way when you lay it on the belt it will also be organized.  Then it will be bagged with like items, and so much easier to put away when you get home with it.

#3.  Stock-up.  Part of being prepared is having a store on your own shelves to shop from.  This allows you to stay away from the grocery store as much as possible.  My rule of thumb is to spend an extra $10 every trip on something.  This time, I stocked up on green beans. 

 

We were out, and I like to have a supply on my shelf.  I try to have enough of the item for one year.  We use about one can a month in Shepard's Pie so I know that I need 12.  Now when I go to make Shepard's pie I won't be running to the store for one can of green beans.  I do this every trip.  I try to buy items that are on sale.  ie:  if you notice in an ad that BBQ sauce is $.89 then stock up and buy several.

#4.Pack Hot and Cold bags in your trunk. 

 

I always have more then 1 store to go to.  I use these hot and cold bags to keep my frozen and refrigerated items good until I am finished.  They really work great.  If you put a few frozen in with a few refrigerated you will be set.  I always try to buy icecream products at my last stop.

#5. Once you are home, unload your Hot and Cold bags first. This takes care of anything requires refrigeration quickly.

#6.  Now move on to your produce.  Take a little bit of time now, and it will save you so much throughout the week.  I wash all of my fruit, except Strawberries.  They seem to spoil if they have to much moisture around them.

a.  for grapes I take them out of the container.  Wash them, and then leave some in a bowl.  I pull the bowl out of my fridge every morning for easy snacking.  The rest go back in to the container they came in.  I wash it and dry it well to prevent any spoiling.

b.  once I have washed everything I leave them on the counter to dry.  I move on to putting the rest away and when I come back to it, it is all dry.

#7.  Buy  items in bulk. Freeze what you don't use, or store in #10 cans.

a.  Apples, plums, pears, grapefruit and oranges will not spoil if kept in your fridge for a long period of time.  I buy enough of these to last us close to 3 weeks.

b.  This is how I buy lettuce. 

I get it ready by breaking off the end and placing it in a ziplock bag.  I keep the bag open on one end. Then when I am ready to eat it, I only wash what I am using.  It will keep it so much more fresh.  I make salads for myself almost every day.  I only pull out 2 or 3 leaves and cut them up.  Your produce will last longer if you only make what you are going to eat.

c.  I also freeze peppers.  I will pull out what I need and freeze the rest.   Make sure you label it with a date.

d.  I also buy massive bags of shredded cheese and separate them in to 2 cup bags.  The simplest way to do this is to place a big ziplock bag in a bowl and fill it with the cheese. The bowl holds the bag open so nicely. Label it and then place it in your freezer.

e.  Anything else that I buy in bulk such as pasta sets on my shelf once I open it, I dump it into # 10 cans.

(these big bags of flour will be dumped in my buckets when I run out of what I already have.  Notice that we also store water in these 2 liter bottles.)

f.  I have 5 gallon buckets with flour and sugar in them.

g.  I also buy food storage items, such as powdered milk, rice, beans and wheat that I keep on a shelf for use in an emergency or if I don't want to go to the store.

#8.  Open all of your boxes.  I open anything my kids need to get into. 

ie: go-gurts.

#9.  Plan to make an easy meal on grocery shopping day.  You will be wore out by the time that you are done.

Here are two great recipes:

French Bread Pizza

1 loaf of French bread sliced in half

1 # ground sausage

Jar of Alfredo or stuff for homemade

Any topping you like:

Olives

g. pepper

mushrooms onions

tomatoes

mozzarella cheese

load the French bread with all the fixins

Broil in oven for 5 minutes until cheese melts. Eat immediately

From Krysta Moes

Black Bean Burgers

1 can black beans

1 can green chilies

1 C. bread crumbs

1 t. chili powder

1 egg beaten

¼ C. cornmeal

2 T. vegetable oil

Hamburger buns

Mayo, lettuce, cheese, and salsa

Put beans in a food processor blend until mashed. Remove and add chilies, bread crumbs, chili powder and egg. Shape into 6 patties and coat with cornmeal.

Cook patties in skillet over medium heat. Heat 5 to 10 minutes.

Put mayo on buns, add burger and top with cheese, lettuce, and salsa, and avacado.

#10.  Enjoy looking in your fridge and pantry and seeing how prepared you are.

Meet me back here next Thursday to learn about making ahead.

For week one of "Being Prepared in the Kitchen" go here.

 

What I wore this week...

Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy has been doing this fun post.  She posts pictures of what she wore throughout the week.  I love it, because it is real.

I am sharing pictures from last week because this is a good indicator of who I am.  I also think it is such a fun post.  Sorry for the pictures.  It is really hard to take pics of yourself in a mirror.

Monday

My two fav's:

Old Navy shirt and Denim Jacket

OH, I must apologize for the dumb hair this week, I am trying to recover from a bad cut.

Tuesday

I clean on Tuesday, so I just stay in my comfy clothes.  No makeup, and hair undone.

Wednesday

I love cardigans.  They go with everything.

Thursday

Hat Day

Friday

This picture is a little dark, and my bedroom is still a mess.  Do you know how hard it is to remember to take a picture of yourself?  I did want this to be REAL, and this is the Real deal at my house.

Any hoo... This is my favorite jewelry day.  I love this necklace from Charlotte Russe, and the ring from Forever 21.

I missed Sat. and Sun., but now we are back to Monday and Guess what I am wearing?

My Favorite shirt from Old Navy.

What are you wearing this week?