Freezer Meals

I’ve been asked about freezer meals.  I LOVE them!!  In fact my sisters and I swear by them.  The idea, make the mess once and eat for as long as possible.  This is tons more fun when I make the mess with my sisters but can be accomplished on my own.

 

Freezer meals happen in a few ways.

1. If I’m making something like lasagna, I make two instead of one.  You can cook twice the meat and twice the noodles at the same time and make 1 mess.  Prepare both.  Cook one and wrap the other up for the freezer.  This works well with any meal.

2. Freeze the leftovers.  For example the other day I made a ton of BBQ meatballs (YUM!).  We ate them for two meals over the course of a couple of days.  I can eat leftovers forever, but my hubby is done with them after the second go-round.  So I froze the rest. 

3. Pick a day and spend it making a bunch of things and messing up your entire kitchen (treat yourself to a meal out that night).  Here’s what my sisters and I have frozen:

·        Meatballs: with or without sauce.  Plain ones we freeze on a cookie sheet so they don’t stick together and then put in ziplock bags

·        Meatloaf: mix it up, don’t bake, wrap up and freeze

·        Casseroles: works well with just about any casserole.  Most of the time we don’t bake first, just freeze

·        Chicken enchiladas: pick your favorite one, put it together and freeze

·        Taco casserole: instead of having to put together tacos some night, just layer the tortillas, meat, cheese, everything you like minus the lettuce.  Freeze and serve with lettuce when you bake it

·        Lasagna: baked or not

·        Banana bread or muffins or any other breakfast breads or muffins

·        Soups: any soup I would think would work.  I usually do soups like I mentioned in number 2.  I make a ton of soup when I make it and freeze left overs. 

·        Cupcakes (instead of cake): make them, bake them, freeze them.  Then you have them when you want a treat, need treats for your kids’ school events etc.  It also helps with portion control since you take out what you need when you need them. Frost after defrosting.  Frosting doesn’t freeze amazingly well.

·        Homemade cookies: Mix up, scoop out and place on cookie sheet, DON’T bake, freeze.  Store in ziplock bag in freezer.  Helpful in all the same ways as cupcakes.

4. Prep ahead:

·        Brown up 5 or 6 pounds of hamburger and then freeze in pound or 2 pound packages.  This saves TONS of time, and a dirty frying pan, on week nights when you forget to take something out ahead of time. 

·        Cut up veggies for a pot roast (by the way I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my crockpot) and freeze those ahead.  Things like potatoes may discolor some, but I don’t care, and they don’t last months in the freezer, but it still saves me time in a few weeks and that’s all that matters.

 

 

 

Not Super Mom...Just Surviving Like the Rest of You Moms!

I feel I need to clarify; I am NOT Wonder Woman or Super Mom.  I am a good mom (thanks to the help of my fabulous hubby and a TON of wonderful people in my life), but I don’t have the super powers my blog from Saturday may imply.  J  And every other one of you Moms out there are AMAZING!

 I’ve been asked about my abilities to get things done and yet play with my kids.  Well it’s no secret, for every one thing I accomplish in a day/week there are about 50 more that I don’t get accomplished.  And I don’t stress about it! For example my Christmas tree is still up and may be up through Easter at this rate. And cleaning bathrooms, really cleaning, or scrubbing floors only happens once every 2 weeks or so if we’re lucky.

 I con my kids into helping me with chores.  We play “See Who Can Put Away Their Clothes the Fastest” and “Who’s Floor is the Cleanest” (I always loose that one!).  Right now they see it as a huge game, but when they get older they will recent me for using them as child labor!  (Please remember I speak sarcasm.) 

Another secret (it’s not really a secret): sometimes I just drop everything despite the sky high pile of dishes in my sink and just play.  We head downstairs and play Wii or Legos or cook in the kitchen.  Other times we load on the sunscreen (summer) or stuff ourselves into winter gear and head outside.  When I don’t see my mess, I play better with the kids.  So I get away from the mess and just play.  I’ll never get this time when my kids are little back, so a messy house or dirty floors isn’t going to stop me from playing with my kiddos.   

 Along with all listed above routine is key in my life.  I work best when I get up at 6:05AM and proceed through the day with a relative sense of routine.  Not that I’m OCD, but a schedule is helpful not only for me but for the family to function.  There is also something to be said for getting your outfit out the night before and getting your kids to put their book bags and things in the same place all the time.  When we’re a well-oiled machine we save valuable time and use it to do FUN things together.

Mom Olympics

I didn't workout today, which is a bit unusual given that the weekends are easier to fit in a workout than weekdays. Instead I put all that training, sweat, and iron pumping to good use and participated in the Mommy Olympics.

The Mommy Olympics are something every mommy participates in on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis, yet I don't think we take enough time to pat ourselves on the back.  So tonight I'm giving myself medals to show the achievement and dedication to being a mom.

Morning I got the bronze medal for breakfast  making.  Made apple-crasin oatmeal for Miri and me, but let Troy make himself and the other kids eggs and sausage.  I didn't feel like eggs and sausage, and grease and a  mess.  But I get a gold medal for cleaning up after them!

I got a gold medal in the cleaning bathrooms department.  All three are clean, including floors and emptying waste baskets.  I did not however clean the mudroom toilet.  One needs a hazmat suit for that and mine just happens to be at the cleaners. Darn the luck!

I got a gold medal from my sister Martha for being the best big sister.  She has several freezer meals in my freezer that will be delivered very soon.  I also stashed a couple meals for my house, which brings me up to a silver medal in freezer meals.  I have no where near the number of freezer meals stashed as the beginning of 1st semester, but there are some!

Next I received a silver in laundry washing.  Most of it is complete, but there is at least one load for tomorrow (sorry Grandma Koenig, I know tomorrow is Sunday...).  I finished dead last in the folding category.  All the clean clothes are piled in baskets and on the couch.  But they are clean, so they are wearable!

In the move the double bed box spring upstairs by yourself I placed gold once again.  That weight lifting is paying off! Troy and I teamed up and placed gold in the move the mattress upstairs.  Didn't attempt that one on my own! The ultimate goal here is for mom and dad to get some sleep. We'll see if Miri bunking in with big sister Mazee does the trick.  Sleep medals to be awarded at a later date.

I got a silver in the clean kitchen group.  Most of my freezer meal mess is cleaned up, but the pot from supper are still in the sink.  They will wait for me.  They always do.

In the play a Wii game with Mazee section I received a silver.  Dancing was great, but I could've done more to make it epic.

I received a silver in patience, which is amazing considering most days I don't make stand.

Bronze is the color for grocery shopping.  I  got it accomplished, but with no coupons to save with, and only took two of the three kids.  there are automatic deductions when one doesn't take all the kids.  Plus no  coupons is a point deduction.  I'm lucky to have gotten the bronze!

You other mommies out there, there are plenty of gold medals.  Award yourself a few too.