Who knew that strawberries rank right up there with butter in my lists of LOVES? I don’t think I realized how much I’ve grown to love them until I apparently became addicted to them last year and have been impatiently waiting for them to come back in season. I’ve been waiting, and waiting…
The time is now. They were on the Bountiful Baskets order form this week for a great price, but since I’m always very reasonable with bulk purchases, I only ordered two. Cases. What? If it makes you feel better, I put three cases in my cart at first, then realized that 24 pounds of fresh strawberries might be a little obsessive. So I cut it down to only 16 pounds. #noshame
This might have been my favorite BB order ever. 16 pounds of berries, two packages of whole wheat pizza crusts, all the basket goodies – plus I split a case of pink lady apples and a case of carrots with a friend. We now have so much good food in our house!
A little perspective on the strawberries…
Me taking my first bite of strawberry this season…
I figured it was a selfie-worthy event.
The first thing we did after unloading all the produce was make the cream cheese goodness for Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits. We skipped actually making them into parfaits because we were all dying to dig in and there was no time to wait for strawberries to be layered neatly in glasses. Instead we just grabbed bowls and plopped it in. So, so, so, so good. I can’t tell you how good. Get yourself some strawberries and make these.
Now I have a confession for you. (Like my huge strawberry purchase confession wasn’t enough.)
I didn’t menu plan last week. I didn’t even grocery shop. We handled the lack of grocery shopping just fine. But the lack of menu planning? Oooff. That was tricky.
I have been either away from home or working on two big projects at the computer, which means I when I was home I barely left the keyboard. As a result, my house fell apart around me. I didn’t even take time to think through our meals for each day because the projects had me so distracted. Here’s how we survived: My kids can cook.
Not only can they cook, they can plan a meal and execute making it from start to finish.
I can’t tell you how wonderfully nice this is!! Tuesday I said to Justus (age 16), “I’m leaving for the funeral. I have no plan for lunch but I will be very hungry and drained when I get home. Can you figure out lunch and thaw something and make something and have it ready? Sorry I can’t help you more than that.”
I didn’t know what I’d come home to, but I wish I’d taken a picture. The kid made not one but two different kinds of chicken with green beans and rolls with butter. It tasted like heaven to me. I’m not sure who was more proud: Justus or his mom.
I put the other kids in charge of other meals this week on equally busy days. They nailed it. Now the kitchen…that was an explosive mess that we all dealt with together this morning. But whatever. They planned and executed meals like pros.
I can’t say enough about teaching your kids to cook, and I plan to focus my blog posts around the topic during the next several days. In the meantime, I have got to make a meal plan. The kids pulled it off for me last week, but I’d rather be a little more organized this week. Plus, I’ve got all that gorgeous food pictured up there to play with.
Our Menu Plan
Breakfasts
- Strawberry shortcake
- Scrambled cheesy eggs
- Instant oatmeal packets
- Breakfast burritos
Lunches and Dinners
- BLT Chopped Salad
- Easy cheesy bean dip
- Easy noodle stir fry (with carrots, zucchini, spinach, and mushrooms)
- Italian cream cheese chicken
- Pizza (using the crusts from Bountiful Baskets)
- Potato soup
- Baked potatoes in the crock pot
- Bacon tomato dip with homemade baked tortilla chips
Travel Food
We’re heading to Kansas Thursday for our big annual Homeschool Basketball Tournament. We’ll be there three full days, so we’ll eat out some and pack a few meals too.
- Sandwich fixins
- Pizza (we’ll bake them at home and eat them cold)
- Tortilla wraps
- Strawberry cheesecake parfaits (the to-go version)
- Sweet peppers, cucumbers, carrots
- Apples, strawberries, clementines, bananas, blueberries
- Cashews, peanuts
- Homemade muffins
- Cheese and crackers
Here’s to a great week! The sun is shining and I have strawberries. All is right in my world. Hope you’re relishing in your blessings too. :)
Wow! That’s a lot of strawberries. I’m jealous! Two questions: strawberries always go bad so quickly, how do you eat all of those before they do, and how do you wash your strawberries?
If you can believe it, within 26 hours we’d already eaten eight pounds of them!!! We’ll likely eat the other eight before they go bad, no problem. I just rinse them well under water. :)
I’m really looking forward to your posts about getting kids into the kitchen. My youngest has been expressing interest in cooking and I’m struggling to get him in there (my issue of letting go!). Thank you for sharing your ideas with us!!