Today I have to get the zucchini relish started. I am going to get the recipe from megan for some salsa and try a new crockpot recipe. Yes, that is a full day. I am also hoping to be able to make a ton of zucchini bread and shred the rest of the zucchini on the counter besides a couple to eat this week.
I also need to cut and use my first broccoli.
Today is the day to start pureeing our meal for my son. We will see how it goes. He love the mashed potatoes. Can't wait to keep giving him new foods.
I am almost finished with my meal plan and I need to finish the spreadsheet. I didn't realize how low I am in the pork tenderloin roast. Only one more week of meals to put in the calendar and it will be ready until Thanksgiving.
We tried the Smothered Pork Chops. They had plenty of flavor, however, it was not our favorite. But, the mashed potatoes were really nice. I also cut up the last cucumber and some ripe tomatoes mixed in rice vinegar.
I spent the rest of the day with the kids. Great day.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
August 10, 2013
Spent the day hanging out with my kids..not cooking. We went to see my cousins for a cousin dinner. I watered my garden well, picked some more tomatoes. We had a great day. Trying some new food for dinner tomorrow night. Hope that it goes well.
Friday, August 9, 2013
August 9, 2013
Ok, so it is now 2:23am and I am just sitting down to writing this. I am going to be exhausted tomorrow. I spent the day with the goal of cleaning the surfaces. It went well. I love our new house. I can plug in one the vacuum in one outlet and vacuum the whole house. It is just the right sized house for me to keep in order. Not too big, not too small. I can at least see all the floors well to keep things off of it when my son wants to put something in his mouth...which is like every ten minutes.
I went shopping for the next three months today. Ugh. I hate that much shopping. Besides the fact that it is just hard, it takes hours after being home to get everything in the freezer and cupboards. When I buy chicken I always cut off all the tendons, fat and stuff that I don't want to eat. I marinated some chicken with Chipotle Pepper and froze it.
We bought more hamburger meat, cheese (both cheddar jack and mozzeralla) and hot dogs to freeze. I organized the big freezer but i have more of that do to tomorrow since I need to get half of the freezer in our kitchen pulled out and put in the deep freezer. I bought one too many boxes of milk, so I will be waiting to completely organize the little deep freezer until the middle of next week when I have used up that box.
Got more to write but I am exhausted. Seriously off to bed.
I went shopping for the next three months today. Ugh. I hate that much shopping. Besides the fact that it is just hard, it takes hours after being home to get everything in the freezer and cupboards. When I buy chicken I always cut off all the tendons, fat and stuff that I don't want to eat. I marinated some chicken with Chipotle Pepper and froze it.
We bought more hamburger meat, cheese (both cheddar jack and mozzeralla) and hot dogs to freeze. I organized the big freezer but i have more of that do to tomorrow since I need to get half of the freezer in our kitchen pulled out and put in the deep freezer. I bought one too many boxes of milk, so I will be waiting to completely organize the little deep freezer until the middle of next week when I have used up that box.
Got more to write but I am exhausted. Seriously off to bed.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
August 8, 2013
Camping went great. Loved using Russ stove. We made Chili boats late last night. Cooking was interesting going everything one after the other this morning.
Things that we need for our next camping trip:
Basic seasonings S/P containers
Any other seasonings
Mayonnaise Packets
Roast Sticks, Skewers
Ketchup Packets (but unnecessary)
Hot Pad
2nd Stove
Pam
Camelpack
Powered Powerade
We did Eggs, Sausage and Hashbrowns for breakfast. We used eggs from Shelf Reliance. Yum. Definitely a great taste. We boiled the eggs in bags. It was interesting but worked great. Glad I brought the apple juice.
For lunch we did hot dogs on the tailgate of the truck, Cheetos, powerade, apples, oranges, and homemade fruit roll ups.
We are worn out from the sun and I haven't figured out dinner yet. That might take a while since I am sunburned from being in my swim suit for 20 minutes and being out in the sun.
We used about 3 gallons of water between all the water bottles the camel pack, cooking and cleaning the dishes. Overall it was a great trip. I learned a lot. I am hoping that the next time we are able to have a pack that is just for camping stuff that we can just grab and go so packing doesn't take so long. It was really great to have a night away and doing something we don't normally do. Next time we will not hike. Camping is just fun enough with the kids. Remington was all squeals in the tent and played great in the play pen while we ate. Madalynn had some fun looking for various things on the forest floor. It was great. There were some Racoons that totally scared me and tried to get in the tent, but they couldn't.
Well, I will write more tomorrow. I am going to costco sometime in the next few days to get all the things that we need. Hopefully I will get my spreadsheets done too.
Things that we need for our next camping trip:
Basic seasonings S/P containers
Any other seasonings
Mayonnaise Packets
Roast Sticks, Skewers
Ketchup Packets (but unnecessary)
Hot Pad
2nd Stove
Pam
Camelpack
Powered Powerade
We did Eggs, Sausage and Hashbrowns for breakfast. We used eggs from Shelf Reliance. Yum. Definitely a great taste. We boiled the eggs in bags. It was interesting but worked great. Glad I brought the apple juice.
For lunch we did hot dogs on the tailgate of the truck, Cheetos, powerade, apples, oranges, and homemade fruit roll ups.
We are worn out from the sun and I haven't figured out dinner yet. That might take a while since I am sunburned from being in my swim suit for 20 minutes and being out in the sun.
We used about 3 gallons of water between all the water bottles the camel pack, cooking and cleaning the dishes. Overall it was a great trip. I learned a lot. I am hoping that the next time we are able to have a pack that is just for camping stuff that we can just grab and go so packing doesn't take so long. It was really great to have a night away and doing something we don't normally do. Next time we will not hike. Camping is just fun enough with the kids. Remington was all squeals in the tent and played great in the play pen while we ate. Madalynn had some fun looking for various things on the forest floor. It was great. There were some Racoons that totally scared me and tried to get in the tent, but they couldn't.
Well, I will write more tomorrow. I am going to costco sometime in the next few days to get all the things that we need. Hopefully I will get my spreadsheets done too.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
August 6, 2013
Yep, a total flop of a day. We ate a loaf of zucchini bread for breakfast, grabbed a piece of pizza at Sam's club for a late lunch and went to KFC for their free root beer floats. Russ and Madalynn had leftovers late at night. Remington had some garden green beans that I had frozen last weekend and some pears I froze as well.
I went and got a dual sam's club membership with Aunt Bonnie and spent a while writing down the prices of things we usually buy at Costco so that I can compare quantities and amounts when i go this week. We will see how that goes.
I am going to have to pack for our camping trip tomorrow. I am planning chili boats for dinner, eggs and sausage for breakfast and still need to figure out what to do for dinner on our hiking trip. I hope that madalynn does well in her shoes since she has outgrown her tennis shoes.
I spent an hour today organizing the racks in our food storage again because we have used/added to it so many times and I have not put things in the order that they should go in. I will be glad that all that stuff will be in the spreadsheet because I totally forgot how much I have of certain things.
My garden is suffering from weird watering and the heat. I can't wait until we get home on Thur night. I am going to be cutting the eating our first broccoli. It is going to be awesome. Everything in a garden tastes different from store bought and I can't wait to see how different broccoli tastes.
Well, that is all for now. Looking forward to some sleep. Hopefully Remington feels the same way tonight.
Monday, August 5, 2013
August 5, 2013
Tonight was a quick night. We grilled up hamburgers and cut up garden cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and carrots for a side salad. It was yummy of course.
I spent my first morning off work for a few weeks putting together spread sheets. I am determined to be a little more organized, know exactly what we are spending our money on and exactly how often I have to buy groceries. My best friend has been doing this a while and she can honestly feed her family of 4 on $36 a week with a $50 budget a month for bulk groceries for the food storage. That includes all necessary household products and food. Once I go back to work in sept I will be back to once a month grocery shopping, crockpot meals and lack of time to plan and budget. This summer has been a great time. I have read more books and blogs than ever. I work around 45 hours a week during the school year and while coming home and trying to be a mom I also have to still take care of household chores and basic other life necessities like baths and such. That leaves no time for planning. Usually that is when our good eating goes down the drain and I put on weight like crazy.
THAT IS NOT HAPPENING THIS YEAR!!!
Yep, that is my main goal. I am hoping that i will have a night of work like last year where I sit behind the piano for little kid classes and have time between ballet exercises to double check my meal plans and my grocery lists. I set up some Google calendars yesterday. When I told my husband that I would be sending him links to the calendars so that he would know what to help me with dinner each night he gave me that look..the look that says, "Are you serious?" Yes, yes I am. I have linked the recipes that I am using to each night and additional instructions for each meal. He should never have a question about anything...granted, he has to open and read it. He usually gets home before me in the evening since my work is mostely later evenings during the school year.
I am also starting the long and tedious process of putting everything in our food storage and cupboards in a spreadsheet. This will include the prices I bought each item for, when I bought it, quantity, when I froze it and if I used a coupon. I have been keeping track of this in my little black book and taping in receipts for many months. At least in a spread sheet I can adjust quantities and keep better track of how I am doing rotating the food in the deep freezer. I am also hoping that it gives me a better idea over time about how often I am spending on certain items, like: dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, flour, sugar, etc. Those are basic necessary essentials, but if I know how often I go through them, I know which sales I should watch for and timing on when to buy things.
This is going to be a several day process. I put all the recent information about all the things that I buy in bulk at Costco in the spreadsheet and at Walmart in the computer today. I started the lists of things in the deep freezer and the food storage racks. I am secretly hoping to get Russ to help me quickly count things tomorrow after I get the lists in the computer. We will see.
Other than that, I taught a lot of piano today and didn't get anything else done, but there is plenty more on my list. I did spend some time looking up reviews of baby eating products on Amazon. I have decided that I need to buy a Kidsme Food Feeder. I have been wanting to get something that doesn't make me as nervous to let Remington try chunks of food and I am hoping that this works. I have a $25 gift card for Amazon that I got through my rewards with Huggies.com. With replacement parts it will come to $.55 more that my gift card. If it doesn't work i can return for free. I will sleep on it and look at it again tomorrow, but I think that this might be my answer to the feeding problems I am worried about. Madalynn, mostly due to the lack of teeth, couldn't really chew anything hard for a couple years and still struggles with things like carrots at 3 yrs old. I just hope he can hold it easy. That seems to be one of the biggest cons in the reviews.
All right, well off to bed to start again tomorrow. I am going to sam's club with my aunt to get a membership tomorrow and hopefully that means I can start getting their coupons too. As the week goes on and I make a big Costco trip I will write more about the things that I buy in bulk..based off the needs and eating routines of our family.
I spent my first morning off work for a few weeks putting together spread sheets. I am determined to be a little more organized, know exactly what we are spending our money on and exactly how often I have to buy groceries. My best friend has been doing this a while and she can honestly feed her family of 4 on $36 a week with a $50 budget a month for bulk groceries for the food storage. That includes all necessary household products and food. Once I go back to work in sept I will be back to once a month grocery shopping, crockpot meals and lack of time to plan and budget. This summer has been a great time. I have read more books and blogs than ever. I work around 45 hours a week during the school year and while coming home and trying to be a mom I also have to still take care of household chores and basic other life necessities like baths and such. That leaves no time for planning. Usually that is when our good eating goes down the drain and I put on weight like crazy.
THAT IS NOT HAPPENING THIS YEAR!!!
Yep, that is my main goal. I am hoping that i will have a night of work like last year where I sit behind the piano for little kid classes and have time between ballet exercises to double check my meal plans and my grocery lists. I set up some Google calendars yesterday. When I told my husband that I would be sending him links to the calendars so that he would know what to help me with dinner each night he gave me that look..the look that says, "Are you serious?" Yes, yes I am. I have linked the recipes that I am using to each night and additional instructions for each meal. He should never have a question about anything...granted, he has to open and read it. He usually gets home before me in the evening since my work is mostely later evenings during the school year.
I am also starting the long and tedious process of putting everything in our food storage and cupboards in a spreadsheet. This will include the prices I bought each item for, when I bought it, quantity, when I froze it and if I used a coupon. I have been keeping track of this in my little black book and taping in receipts for many months. At least in a spread sheet I can adjust quantities and keep better track of how I am doing rotating the food in the deep freezer. I am also hoping that it gives me a better idea over time about how often I am spending on certain items, like: dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, flour, sugar, etc. Those are basic necessary essentials, but if I know how often I go through them, I know which sales I should watch for and timing on when to buy things.
This is going to be a several day process. I put all the recent information about all the things that I buy in bulk at Costco in the spreadsheet and at Walmart in the computer today. I started the lists of things in the deep freezer and the food storage racks. I am secretly hoping to get Russ to help me quickly count things tomorrow after I get the lists in the computer. We will see.
Other than that, I taught a lot of piano today and didn't get anything else done, but there is plenty more on my list. I did spend some time looking up reviews of baby eating products on Amazon. I have decided that I need to buy a Kidsme Food Feeder. I have been wanting to get something that doesn't make me as nervous to let Remington try chunks of food and I am hoping that this works. I have a $25 gift card for Amazon that I got through my rewards with Huggies.com. With replacement parts it will come to $.55 more that my gift card. If it doesn't work i can return for free. I will sleep on it and look at it again tomorrow, but I think that this might be my answer to the feeding problems I am worried about. Madalynn, mostly due to the lack of teeth, couldn't really chew anything hard for a couple years and still struggles with things like carrots at 3 yrs old. I just hope he can hold it easy. That seems to be one of the biggest cons in the reviews.
All right, well off to bed to start again tomorrow. I am going to sam's club with my aunt to get a membership tomorrow and hopefully that means I can start getting their coupons too. As the week goes on and I make a big Costco trip I will write more about the things that I buy in bulk..based off the needs and eating routines of our family.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Recipe list I want to try
I have been looking through the cookbook 365 days of crockpot. There are a ton of pork chop recipes that I want to try but I need an online place to keep the list to look through while I am making meal plans. Well, duh. That is why I have started this blog is for lists like this.
So here is my list. Most of the ingredients in these recipes I already have in stock. Bonus.
The first link is a complete list by cut of meat recipe list on her website.
Smothered Pork Chops
Pork Chops and Mustard-sauced Potatoes
Pork Chop Dinner
Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes
Sour Cream Pork Chops
I can look at the complete list for all the other recipes. I can't wait until sept when I am cooking only in the crockpot again to try some of these.
So here is my list. Most of the ingredients in these recipes I already have in stock. Bonus.
The first link is a complete list by cut of meat recipe list on her website.
Smothered Pork Chops
Pork Chops and Mustard-sauced Potatoes
Pork Chop Dinner
Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes
Sour Cream Pork Chops
I can look at the complete list for all the other recipes. I can't wait until sept when I am cooking only in the crockpot again to try some of these.
August 3, 2013
Ok, so it was a pretty busy week. As a result of working long hours, I didn't cook much. We had leftovers one night, went out to eat super late one night and had dinner with Russ great aunt and uncle another night. On Monday and Tuesday I went by the Robinsons and picked a couple cucumbers while I was up near Cedar Hills. I found a hidden Zucchini that was about 6 inches around and 2 feet long. I made 15 loaves of Zucchini bread with it tonight. She also told me that I could pick some corn. Yum. Fresh corn in the best.
I have dehydrated tomatoes non-stop all week. I now have 1 1/2 pints of powder. My tomato plants are coming on strong. It is awesome. My green beans and broccoli are really starting to produce now and I love watching the plants.
As a result of having a garden I am learning new ways to use, keep, and preserve my produce. I have to say that while making Madalynn a PB&J sandwhich tonight I tried some of my freezer jam for the first time since I made it a couple months ago. Wow!!! Yum. I couldn't really believe the difference between that and the store bought. The flavor was amazing.
So tonight while Russ watched the kids, my brother and sister-in-law dropped their kid off for us to watch (he slept the whole time) and Aunt Bonnie visited I:
Pureed and froze baby food in ice cube trays: green beans, carrots and zucchini
Blanched and froze corn on the cob
Got a new batch of Roma tomatoes in the dehydrator
Sliced and froze 15 Bell Peppers
Prepared about 3 pints worth of green beans for canning in the morning
Shredded and made now 23 loaves of Zucchini bread. We will freeze most of this for breakfasts come Sept when I go back to work.
If I had some more time I needed to chop up and freeze 12 onions.
My feet are killing me from being on them sooooooooooo long. I really can't wait to sleep. As I was putting frozen zucchini in the deep freezer tonight I was realizing just how different our deep freezer is now. When Russ and I bought our first deep freezer it was full of mostly pre-packaged frozen meals from costco. Our favorites were the chicken/pasta meals and frozen lasagna. It wasn't terribly bad stuff, but it wasn't great either.
Then we started freezing milk and breads. I have learned how to thaw both of those and it works out great.
I remember the first time that I froze zucchini and it just didn't work. Now I know better that it did and I was completely crazy.
Then Madalynn was born and our whole freezer was full of breastmilk. Ya, so glad that those days are over. I could never find anything in the mess.
That is when I invested in some baskets for our deep freezer to help separate each of the foods to keep order and help rotate. Two years ago we purchase my grandparents deep freezer from my grandpa. I am glad that we did. Now I can keep all my milk and my meats in one deep freezer and all my fruits/veggies/jams and other stuff in a 2nd deep freezer. This made it so that we could store a lot more meals and breads and pre-cooked meals for easy cooking.
Last August I went through and cooked and froze 3 months worth of meals so I didn't have to cook when I went back to work. It was a blessing. I was 7 months pregnant when I went back to work and those meals really saved our lives. When I am pregnant I just can't get the energy in any way to cook ANYTHING!! We stopped eating out so much, saved tons of money and that was the beginning of our new eating habits and lives.
I am planning a cooking week in two weeks. I have to wait to use my costco coupons that start next sat. for some new ziploc bags before I do a cooking fest. For the 1st august in our entire married lives we actually have enough money to spend on groceries this month. Usually we just live off all the things I have been putting aside all year while we use our money to pay for the other bills. As a result I will be able to fill up our freezers with everything that is low before I go back to work and I just don't have time to do anything anymore. It is a blessing, truly.
Well, it is only 1:30am and I think that my last loaves of bread might be cool enough to put in a container, so good night all and see you tomorrow.
I have dehydrated tomatoes non-stop all week. I now have 1 1/2 pints of powder. My tomato plants are coming on strong. It is awesome. My green beans and broccoli are really starting to produce now and I love watching the plants.
As a result of having a garden I am learning new ways to use, keep, and preserve my produce. I have to say that while making Madalynn a PB&J sandwhich tonight I tried some of my freezer jam for the first time since I made it a couple months ago. Wow!!! Yum. I couldn't really believe the difference between that and the store bought. The flavor was amazing.
So tonight while Russ watched the kids, my brother and sister-in-law dropped their kid off for us to watch (he slept the whole time) and Aunt Bonnie visited I:
Pureed and froze baby food in ice cube trays: green beans, carrots and zucchini
Blanched and froze corn on the cob
Got a new batch of Roma tomatoes in the dehydrator
Sliced and froze 15 Bell Peppers
Prepared about 3 pints worth of green beans for canning in the morning
Shredded and made now 23 loaves of Zucchini bread. We will freeze most of this for breakfasts come Sept when I go back to work.
If I had some more time I needed to chop up and freeze 12 onions.
My feet are killing me from being on them sooooooooooo long. I really can't wait to sleep. As I was putting frozen zucchini in the deep freezer tonight I was realizing just how different our deep freezer is now. When Russ and I bought our first deep freezer it was full of mostly pre-packaged frozen meals from costco. Our favorites were the chicken/pasta meals and frozen lasagna. It wasn't terribly bad stuff, but it wasn't great either.
Then we started freezing milk and breads. I have learned how to thaw both of those and it works out great.
I remember the first time that I froze zucchini and it just didn't work. Now I know better that it did and I was completely crazy.
Then Madalynn was born and our whole freezer was full of breastmilk. Ya, so glad that those days are over. I could never find anything in the mess.
That is when I invested in some baskets for our deep freezer to help separate each of the foods to keep order and help rotate. Two years ago we purchase my grandparents deep freezer from my grandpa. I am glad that we did. Now I can keep all my milk and my meats in one deep freezer and all my fruits/veggies/jams and other stuff in a 2nd deep freezer. This made it so that we could store a lot more meals and breads and pre-cooked meals for easy cooking.
Last August I went through and cooked and froze 3 months worth of meals so I didn't have to cook when I went back to work. It was a blessing. I was 7 months pregnant when I went back to work and those meals really saved our lives. When I am pregnant I just can't get the energy in any way to cook ANYTHING!! We stopped eating out so much, saved tons of money and that was the beginning of our new eating habits and lives.
I am planning a cooking week in two weeks. I have to wait to use my costco coupons that start next sat. for some new ziploc bags before I do a cooking fest. For the 1st august in our entire married lives we actually have enough money to spend on groceries this month. Usually we just live off all the things I have been putting aside all year while we use our money to pay for the other bills. As a result I will be able to fill up our freezers with everything that is low before I go back to work and I just don't have time to do anything anymore. It is a blessing, truly.
Well, it is only 1:30am and I think that my last loaves of bread might be cool enough to put in a container, so good night all and see you tomorrow.
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