Grocery Getaway

Out of all the required, mundane tasks of running a home, buying groceries is my favorite.

When I come home with my bounty, I try my hardest to recreate a grocery store in my own kitchen. I organize the food items according to which aisle they came from. That way, when it's time to make dinner, I feel like I'm grocery shopping again.

I am always disappointed with the disregard my family has toward my grocery system. When I get the cabinets fully stocked, everyone else acts as if we have won the grocery lottery. 2 boxes of cereal get opened on the same morning (instead of doing the respectful thing and finishing one box before opening another), tortilla chips get opened way before it's mexican dinner night, and they assume we get free refills on the carton of milk.

Freezer recipes II

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 lb 95% lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) cans petite diced tomatoes
• 1 3/4 cups tomato sauce
• 2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram (I didn't have any so I just added extra garlic)
• salt and fresh pepper to taste

Freezer recipes I

Disclaimer: If you are the type of person that obsesses over each and every exact measurement, these "recipes" will likely drive you nuts. I don't really measure anything, so these measurements are actually rough estimates. Don't say I didn't warn you.

BBQ Meatballs
This is something that I like to make in bulk. The first time I put these in the freezer I think I did 6 pounds. This recipe is only 1 pound, you will get 8-10 meatballs per pound.

1lb lean ground beef

1 egg

1/2 c oats

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp seasoned pepper (could substitute with some crushed red pepper flakes)

1 tsp minced onion flakes (could use actual onion if you love chopping)

1 tblsp garlic powder (could use minced garlic)

Another good addition is finely chopped green pepper if you have one around.

Fill The Freezer!

A few weeks before Evah-Kate (our 4th baby) was born I got the wild idea to fill our freezer with food. I had never made any freezer meals before but I had restless energy and I hate cleaning, so I had to do something. I also remembered that I had to make dinner just 2 hours after I came home from the hospital with Jonas (baby #3). I wasn't willing to do that again. I set a goal of 50 meals, but actually ended up doing around 30 before she was born.

I was kind of worried that the food would be gross after it had been in the freezer for a while, but it was all very good! It's such a good feeling to know you can have a homemade meal even on a crazy, busy day (or a lazy day, when you just aren't in the mood).

A few tips:
-Buy a bunch of foil pans. A bunch. At least 2 different sizes.
-Expensive, heavy duty aluminum foil is worth the extra money.
-Buy 2 different sizes of freezer bags (quart and gallon).
-Freezer bags with slider seals are better than the regular zip-top.
-When you get ready to make a freezer meal, make at least 2 or 3 of each. It takes 30 minutes to make one lasagna. It takes 40 minutes to make two lasagnas. Your kitchen is going to get dirty anyway, you might as well make the most of it.
-It's better to freeze realistic sized portions. Chances are, a family of 4 isn't going to eat an entire 9x13 casserole. Divide it into 2 smaller pans and you can get 2 dinners from one recipe.
-Swallow your pride and buy paper plates and plastic forks. When you use a freezer meal, just use the paper plates and throw away the foil pan after dinner. It's less tempting to order pizza or go out for dinner when you know there is no clean-up involved in eating at home.
-Even if you aren't into doing full meals for the freezer, just try browning 10 pounds of hamburger and freezing it in 1-pound bags, or cooking, shredding, and freezing 5 pounds of chicken breast. So handy for quick meals.


Some of the freezer meals/recipes that I made are:
-Chicken Fajitas
-Italian Beef
-Lasagna
-BBQ Meatballs
-Swiss Steak
-Pork Chimichangas
-Steak & Pepper Kabobs
-Chili
-Stuffed Pepper Soup
-Hashbrown Casserole
-Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough
-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
-Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I'll be sharing these recipes in a series of posts over the next few days.

Negotiating with dinnertime terrorists

Power struggles can really suck the fun out of parenting. Having kids that won't eat, sleep, or potty train can be so aggravating. One of the hardest mommy lessons I've learned (so far) is: You can't make kids do anything they don't want to do. You can encourage and reward good habits. You can discourage and punish unwanted behavior. But that's about it.

Unfortunately for my kids, I'm strong willed too. Their health is very important to me and I firmly believe that the food they eat either helps, or harms them. Here are a few of the ways I force trick persuade my kids to eat something with nutritional value:

Making the most of Monday.

Even though I do the same thing every day of the week, Monday just seems harder. I think it's the reality of my husband going back to work in the real world and leaving me alone and defenseless against our little people.

Aside from simply keeping the kids alive (not happy, entertained or clothed-just alive), meal planning, grocery shopping, food prep, cooking, and keeping the kitchen clean is my biggest task. There are 5 of us (for now) and we all eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home everyday. I'm pretty picky about the food I serve to my family, I don't settle for heat-and-eat-food-flavored-products, so it takes even more time to cook from scratch.

June dinner menu

I love cooking in the summer! Fresh fruits and vegetables that actually have flavor! I'm growing some of my own plants in a square foot garden, a variety of plants in pots and buckets on the patio, and melons in a kiddie pool. The Bell Peppers are looking good, and Cilantro & Basil are ready to use! I know it's organic and geeky, but I love the thought of eating food that was still growing this morning.

All natural and completely normal

I didn't know anything about organic eating or natural living until our second baby was born. When I first became interested, I thought the theories were simple and made sense. The only problem I had with the whole scene was the people. The weird, extreme, granola, crunchy people. I wanted to do the things they were doing, except I didn't want to be weird. I was going to be all natural, and completely normal. Fail.

Dinner Dilemmas

There are two very common frustrations I think every wife and/or mother can relate to:

1) I have nothing to wear.
2) We have nothing to eat for dinner.

Velveeta isn't cheese.

I ran in a grocery store this morning to pick up a few things. One of the things on my list was butter. Simple enough. Since this wasn't the store I typically use, I had to look for the things on my list and it took me a minute to find the butter. I had to take a picture of this, because there are over 20 varieties of margarine, Country crock, "I can't believe it's not butter", and Smart balance. None of those products are butter. When I finally found the actual butter there were 4 kinds to choose from: Name brand/Store brand and Salted/Un-salted.