Well now, here we are…many, many days after my original post telling you about how I was going to cook and bake to get ahead in the kitchen for July. I’m sure you were waiting on pins and needles to hear how it all went.
Want to know my husband’s reaction when he saw my list? First let me say that usually when Matt sees my cooking-ahead lists, he gets excited about the food in his future. This time however, since I was working so frantically on finishing the curriculum kit, he looked at the list, then he looked gently up at me (beautiful, haggard me…with hair drooping pitifully into my face and contact lenses strewn about the table) and said not so confidently, “Really?”
I smiled weakly and said uh-huh, because we still needed to eat and occasionally I wanted to take a break from the computer, you know? What better therapy after being on the computer for hours than being able to go into the kitchen to cook?
Lest you look at these pictures and think I am really cool for getting all this done…do be made well aware that all of this took me no less than NINE days. I did not do it all at once. I did not do it very quickly. I just cooked a little extra each day when I was making our regular meals. And now, we have some lovely convenience food in the freezer.
And let’s all do appreciate the fact that having these lovely cooking breaks in between writing did much for my sanity.
Oh, and the children and husband also appreciated my sanity being provided with something to eat.
Take note that I did not get everything done on my list. However, I added a few things to the list so it all balances out.
I cooked a whole chicken, made broth from the bones and the whole nine yards, but I must have forgotten to take a picture. Forgive the lack of poultry pictured below.
I made some butterscotch bars for a reunion. And for breakfast that day, I made applesauce bread into applesauce cake. Note to self: applesauce bread makes good applesauce cake and a fun breakfast treat. Just spread bread batter into a buttered 9×13 inch pan and bake at 350° for 35 minutes or so.
I mixed up chocolate chip cookies, but instead of baking them, I just froze scoops of dough. Now, I can bake a few at a time as needed. Check out the red stained parchment paper. That was from freezing strawberries last month. I like to reuse parchment paper. The kids thought the cookies were bleeding, but that’s just because they’re boys and they like to think of gross things.
I made a batch of breakfast cookies one night, froze half of them and we ate the other half for breakfast the next day. Sorry about the poor quality of that picture. That happens late at night.
One day I got a whole bunch accomplished: frozen chicken fried steak strips, tortillas for burritos…
There are the finished bean/cheese burritos. With tortillas leftover. I love it when tortillas are leftover.
Another day I made a batch of buns.
Here’s your chance to say: “Wow Laura…nice buns.”
I made ice cream one evening and we ate it for dinner. That’s it. We just had ice cream for dinner. But it was this recipe and I felt like we were having quite a nutritious dinner. Minus any vegetables. It’s okay, we had green beans for breakfast Wednesday so that made up for it. We’re weird, aren’t we?
Somewhere in there I made a jar of peanut butter.
These weren’t on the list, but I was making lasagna casserole one night, so instead of one, I made three. Didn’t take any longer and now I have two in the freezer!
Now, as we approach August…I’ll probably just continue to make and freeze food as much as I can. August is very full with school starting, the garden exploding with food to preserve and soccer season begins again.
Bring on the freezer food.
