Freezer Cooking

This past weekend I spent cooking for our freezer. I cooked nine recipes total and have one more to do. The last recipe I have to make is a soup recipe. Seeing as it has once again warmed up, and I'm running low on freezer space, I've decided to wait until the menu says to have the soup, then make a big batch to freeze. It's hard to make soup while it's warm outside!
Here are some pictures of the hard work I did:





I picked ten recipes and did triple batches. My menu is for 42 days, so there are some days for roasts, leftovers, pasta with sauce and pizza. Our son was very good for me on Friday while I did the first batch of baking. My husband watched him on Sunday and also picked up supper for us. (I completely recommend not cooking supper the day you do the most of the cooking. It really wipes you out!)
I'm still washing some of the dishes, but I run out of strainer space quickly when I use the big bowls, skillets and pots. I'm sure I'll see the end of the dishes soon!

Culinary Delight

Last week I made ham and cheese calzones (picture to be posted later). This weeks culinary experiment is muffins. I have two recipes I'd like to try, Pumpkin Oat Bran and Chocolate Almond. The recipes sound like they'll taste really yummy, and the best part is I can freeze them for later! I made ham and bean soup Sunday night and made some yummy pasta tonight. I've been playing with different flavors and coming up with new ideas to keep our menu a little less boring.

Pretzels

This last week I tried my had at a recipe I found in one of the magazines I subscribe to. It is called "Sweet Chipotle Pretzels" and they are really good! I made two double batches and bagged some for my mother-in-law to sell at the farmer's market. Each batch makes four cups of pretzels, so there isn't a whole lot to share, but it's a nice change from some of the snack food I've made, and one I will be sure to make again.

Update

So, we've decided that we will no longer have a garden. We don't have the room to have a garden in our yard if we want to have any play sets for our child. We will still have our rhubarb and possibly and herb garden, if I have time to tear us part of a flower bed. We still have our raspberries, but I don't think they're doing very well. It's somewhat overrun by weeds and I'm not brave enough to figure out what is a thorny raspberry vine and a thorny weed. I am working on some recipes that I would like to try out. Hopefully they will be really yummy!

Freezing Meals

I have decided to adopt the idea of freezing a lot of meals so we don't have to cook as often. I'm starting with just a couple of weeks worth first. And I've picked some easy recipes: Rice and Bean Burritos, Chicken Soup, Chicken Casserole and Scalloped Potatoes and Ham. Of course, since it is summer time here, I'm using some of the chicken to make chicken salad. It's amazing how far two whole chickens will go! I spent about the same amount of money for two and a half weeks of groceries as I normally would for one. Of course I'll still have to buy milk and fresh produce, but I think this will help us save money in the long run.
We're also having a meatless meal once a week, and a breakfast meal once a week as well. I'm hoping these ideas will help us since I don't work during the summer and therefore have less income.

SpringTime

It's officially spring time! The weather has actually stayed fairly warm and it's been raining quite a bit. Most of all, I was able to pick rhubarb!
I cut up about three cups for ourselves and gave the rest to a friend of ours. I'm hoping to make some rhubarb sauce. It's getting to be that time where we'll start making some homemade ice cream which goes great with the rhubarb sauce. We'll have another batch of rhubarb ready to pick soon and I'll be able to make some other rhubarb goodies!

Early Arrival

So our little one came earlier than expected. We did not get all our meals ready before he showed up. My husband has been wonderful since we have all been home and has been cooking for me. He has also managed to make a batch of pulled pork to partially freeze and several pounds of taco meat to freeze as well. He goes back to work soon, so it will be really nice for me to have some of these things to just heat up for lunches. He has realized that it is much easier to cook in the early evening, otherwise our kitchen gets hot quickly. The temperature here has been in the upper 70's, lower 80's these last couple of days and we're trying not to turn our air conditioning on.

My husband has also been making the menus for the week and doing the grocery shopping. He's not doing too bad! He reports why he got what he did and if there was something he didn't get, he explains that too. I am very lucky to have such a supportive, helpful husband.