Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Cooking for a Crowd

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I often feed large crowds, whether it’s just a couple of families joining ours for dinner…or whether I’m feeding an entire soccer team like I’m doing this week. I think it’s rather fun, because apparently weird things like this make me happy. Big pots of food…lots of smiling people eating from the big pots of food…what could be more fun than that? 

Cooking for a big crowd doesn’t have to be stressful. I think the keys for avoiding big crowd feeding freak out are:

  • Make a thorough plan including very detailed lists
  • Prepare as much food ahead of time as possible
  • Keep the menu simple

You don’t have to make a four course meal with fancy dishes to make the crowd happy. I’ve actually found that less is more, both for my sanity and for the joy of the people I’m feeding. 

Like take today for instance. For lunch today, I fed the team Tammy’s Chicken Pasta Salad (a big hit, by the way!) and a big bowl of cut up watermelon. That’s IT. The pasta salad was the main dish, the side dish and the vegetable all wrapped up into one big pot of goodness. The watermelon was a perfect compliment to the salad and the girls raved about it all (like I had made the watermelon all by myself or something?).

Then I pulled out the homemade fudge brownies, homemade ice cream and hot fudge sauce…which I’d made five days before and stuck in the freezer. They LOVED it. It was easy to make ahead of time and wow was it a crowd pleaser. They all left our house patting their tummies and saying, “Thank you SO much for lunch…it was amazing…wow I can’t wait until tomorrow” and all that good stuff. 

You wouldn’t have to serve homemade ice cream…or even offer any ice cream at all. Simple brownies would have been fine too…I just really wanted to give the girls a great treat. And since I could make it all ahead of time it wasn’t at all hard.

Okay, here are some pictures of my cooking preparations last week. I did the majority of the cooking for the five soccer team meals all in one day. It is making my life SO much simpler this week!!! 

Please take note of all the messes in the background. There’s not really a good way to cook a huge amount of food without making big messes. Oh yeah, and my stock pot is my friend. We have SO gotten our money’s worth out of the stock pot.

I got groceries on Wednesday morning then dumped it all over the kitchen floor…

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This is actually only part of the groceries. Probably only half of it actually. But you get the idea.

I got to work then right away browning 18 pounds of hamburger meat. (Actually, I believe Matt was home at the time and he got all the meat in the pot for me.)  Once it was in the stock pot cooking, I started the ice cream machine with homemade ice cream. 

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Once the meat was finished cooking (18 pounds took forever by the way!), I separated it and seasoned some of it for the nacho bar, set aside some of it for beef enchiladas and made the rest into lasagna sauce.

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After the hamburger meat was finished, I cut up bunches of chicken breasts and cooked the pieces in olive oil for Tammy’s Chicken Pasta Salad and for chicken enchiladas.

Then, I began to assemble chicken enchiladas, beef enchiladas and lasagnas.

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Assembly lines rock. 

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I borrowed two huge pans from our church kitchen for the lasagnas. 
Now that is a lot of lasagna!

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I baked a gignormous amount of brownies. I allowed them to cool, then I cut them…

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…and froze them in pieces. 
When I served them, I just popped one into a bowl, topped it with ice cream and hot fudge. 
Easy!

It took several hours of work on Wednesday (with a lot of other things squished into the day like reading to the kids and checking handwriting books while meat cooked) but now all I have to do each day is pull food out of the freezer and make the sides to go with the meal!!! 

Now tomorrow, let’s have a little chat about how I compromised a little bit on some of the ingredients I used, shall we? Stay tuned…

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Menu Plan for the Week (Feeding the Masses!)

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It’s that time of year again. My husband helps coach our local Christian college women’s soccer team. They are back in town for pre-season practices and well, they’re hungry. :)  Remember how we fed them several meals last year? We’re at it again, feeding them five different times. We already fed them one meal last week. This week we’re feeding them lunches Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

So how many are we feeding? Well, there are 34 of them…plus the six of us. So that’s a total of 40 people each time. Yeah, that’s a lot of food.

My friends think I’m crazy and can’t decide whether to shake their heads at me for saying yes to this or to just simply feel sorry for me because of all the work looming ahead for me. I say, do neither.  We LOVE this. I don’t think we could do it if we didn’t. We’re just using our gifts. We love these ladies. We love feeding people. You have no idea how awesome it was Thursday when they arrived and many of the returning students ran into the kitchen to give hugs and let us know how excited they were that we were feeding them again! Shucks…they even stay after and help with dishes. And they’re girls. It’s nice to be around the female sort every now and again.

nacho bar

As I was planning the meals this time, I went back and re-read all of  the ideas for feeding a crowd you all offered last year. Wow, was it helpful!! I’m sticking with some of the team favorites (I don’t think they’d let me get away with not making lasagna!) but I’m adding in some of your ideas too. 

Here’s what I’ll be feeding the crowd:

As far as the rest of our meals this week, you know, since my family will still be wanting breakfast and dinner before and after those big lunches? I’m just going to make lists here to pull from. I’ve been saving most of the food I had made ahead and put into the freezer specifically for this week. YAY for freezer food. It will be saving my neck this week for sure! (Not to mention my brain.)

Breakfasts – served with fruit or smoothies:

Dinners – served with whatever vegetable I can find to throw in:

In case you’re worried or wondering…I’m drinking lots of water and taking my vitamins this week to be sure and keep myself healthy. Matt actually has two days off this week, which doesn’t happen very often, so he’ll be a great help. The kids are a huge help too…and somehow we’ll get their school work done in the middle of the cooking.

Oh, and did I mention that I already have most of the bulk cooking finished and in the freezer? Yes, and I took pictures in case you want to see the mess. I mean…in case you want to see the big pans of lasagna. I’ll try to share all about it soon. ;)

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Aa is for Apple Pie

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Malachi, our kindergartner, is working through parts of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve this year. We began this week with the letter Aa and I couldn’t resist taking pictures to share. 

Monday morning we all sat around the table brainstorming about people we knew whose name began with the letter Aa…then we talked about what we might like to do for the family we chose. I loved that even our older boys were having fun brainstorming with us.

It was decided that we would make an apple pie for the A_________ family. (Yes, we realize the apple pie recipe isn’t mentioned in the kit, but the point of doing these acts of service is brainstorming as a family and figuring out together what you’d like to do!)

And so, this morning while the big boys were working on math and handwriting, Malachi and I worked together to make a big apple pie. He especially loved cutting little tiny apples out of the pie crust and arranging them (throwing them haphazardly) on top of the pie. It’s pretty rare that Malachi gets alone time with Mommy these days now that school is in full force and the bigger boys’ work is more intense. It was a pretty sweet half hour. :)

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I thought his pie turned out SO cute!!

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Tonight after dinner we all loaded up so that Malachi could make his special delivery. 

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It was a sweet moment. Malachi was so proud.

(I was pretty excited that the pie made it all the way to the door without being dropped. Not that I was worried.)

Now we’re already thinking of what we’ll do for Bb week…hmmm…..

(By the way, you can see a sample of what Lesson Bb looks like here.)

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Homeschool Hubbub: Flexibility is Good

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Interested to know what a perfect day looks like at our house while we follow the awesome organized schedule I have set up for us? Yeah, me too. I’ll be sure to let you know what that looks like just as soon as we have one of those.

Want to know what a real day looks like at our house? Now that I can tell you about. Messy, loud, fun, frustrating, silly, scattered, satisfying…those are the kinds of days we usually have. Schedule? Yes we have one…just because we have to have SOMETHING to go by so that we can accomplish SOMETHING. But if I were to force us each day to stick to the exact schedule…I would make all of our lives miserable. Especially my own. 

I’ve learned through these past eight years of homeschooling to keep our days flexible. To write down what I’d like a school day to look like and then to follow the plan loosely. Because just about the time I finally get all of my children in the room at the same time, settle them comfortably into their spots on the couches with pillows, wait for all of them to look up expectantly at me so that I can begin reading an enlightening chapter from our latest history book…someone is going to have to go to the bathroom. 

And while that someone is in the bathroom, another someone will remember that he forgot his pencil but on his way to go get it he will see the Lego man on the steps that he had been missing and then he will accusingly ask which of his other brothers left the Lego man on the stairs when clearly Lego men are not allowed out of the Lego room because this is how we lose Lego people and the other brothers (the ones that are not in the bathroom) will run to see which Lego man it is and then they will all go to the Lego room, forget all about history and start to build a space ship. 

In the meantime, the phone will ring with a call I can’t ignore and by the time I can corral them all back into the living room for history a good forty-five minutes will have passed and we’ll all finally get settled back down again…just in time for someone else to need to go to the bathroom. 

These are the days of our lives.

I work very hard to keep our school days free of outside appointments, and I almost never answer the phone while we’re schooling…but sometimes things can come up that are out of my control. We have to roll with it. (No, boys!  I did not say that you could roll and wrestle all over the art materials which are on the floor…I meant roll with the schedule! Get off the sketchbooks!!!)

Somehow our children are learning in spite of all of the “life” that is going on around us. 

Hey, it would appear that “life” is what they need to be learning about anyway.

Well, I’m so glad I worked that into the schedule. ;)

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Reaching Out to Others…Where to Start

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Several of you have mentioned to me that you love the idea of using Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve with your children…but the idea of reaching out and doing that many acts of service for people is a bit out of your comfort zone. Or, what if you’re new to the area and don’t really know a lot of people? You’ve asked for advice, so I’ve been brainstorming some ideas to make it (hopefully) a little easier for you and your family to cook “Soup for someone who is Sick” on Ss week, or take a new “Book to B________” on Bb week. 

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The following ideas are simply offered as a way to get you going. To help ease you out of your fears. To gently get you and your family used to visiting others and putting smiles on their faces! 

  • Utilize extended family members, even if it means you have to send something through the mail. Family (hopefully) will feel safe to you and will be an easy beginning to getting your family in the mode of making something to give to someone. Plus, I’m pretty sure if your child sends something homemade to a grandparent or aunt…the appreciation and feedback they’ll receive will be pretty huge. Family members LOVE your kids an awful lot. :)
  • Pull out your church directory if you have one. Looking through the directory together may help give you new ideas of people you could serve.
  • Do some of the acts of kindness anonymously. Don’t rely on this one too much, because you will receive such a wonderful blessing when you deliver something to someone and are able to see the smile on their face. But there is something to be said about the gift of surprising someone by leaving it on their porch for them to find when they come home. (I will caution you though that if someone left a homemade goody on my porch and didn’t tell me who it was from…I may not want to eat it. I’m just sayin’. You might want to reserve the anonymous act of service to be something more inedible.)
  • Visit a local rest home to carry out some of your service. Sometimes it’s easier to visit with a complete stranger, knowing that your visit will make their day, than to visit with someone who is, say an acquaintance from church. 
  • Pick some of your children’s good friends. It’s awesome to reach out to people you don’t know as well…and to people in other generations…but WOW it’s fun to knock on your best buddy’s door to deliver a Jar of Jelly beans on Jj week! 
  • Make it a team effort. Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve is meant to be a project for the whole family anyway. Piling in the car all together and visiting your recipient all together is so much easier than going alone with just one child. 
  • Ah, who am I kidding? Your kids are so cute, the person you’re serving will ooh and ahhh over your child and the fact that he/she came to do something kind…and that in and of itself with be a huge buffer in your comfort level. Seriously, if you’re worried about what you’ll talk about when you’re visiting someone…just visit about your project and other things your kids are doing. People love that.
  • On the other hand…be sure to ask the other person questions…especially if they are sick or have been going through any kind of struggle.
  • Don’t feel like you have to stay and visit with someone for three hours. Have your child hand over the goodies (whatever they are that week!), explain your project and maybe tell why your family chose them and then if the timing seems right, you can then be on your way.

Just think of the blessing you are giving your child! By starting them on the journey of service now, as they get older…thinking of others and serving them will become a natural part of who they are.

And I promise (because I speak from experience!) the more you serve with your children…the easier it will be for you too! God does amazing things when he “stretches us” beyond our comfort level a little bit. You know what you alone are capable of, right? So when you do something for someone that pushes you past your comfort zone, you KNOW that you’re doing it only because of the awesome power of God. It’s an incredible feeling.

God is so good. You can do this!

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Gratituesday: Back to School Shopping

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gratituesday

If you’ve been hanging around here long, you might already know that the boys and I have a tradition each year a few days before we start school. Each boy gets his very own “school supply list” and off to Walmart we go so that they can pick out new notebooks and folders for the year.

I will admit that I tend to forget each year that while this is an incredibly wonderful experience and I love doing it…there is also a fair amount of chaos involved with four boys, four baskets, four lists and an aisle full of bright and attractive objects. My older guys can be calm and patient while basically picking their supplies without much help. My youngers require more help and also um…they don’t always like to follow their list so much. My youngest doesn’t know how to read the prices on the shelves, which means that I have to quickly redirect him to the 15¢ notebooks instead of the really cool $2.50 notebooks. The paper inside is the same, ya know. ;)

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Oh yeah, and this year I had a fifth boy with me…because if you’re already taking four, you might as well take five. Five boys, five lists, five baskets. Five hundred questions. All at once. (“Is this the kind of folder I need Mom?” “I don’t know…why don’t you get it out of my face so that I can actually see it?”)

And yet, I do it because the boys love it. And mostly, so do I. It is SO much fun to watch them enjoy getting excited for school to start. It is so much fun to watch them walk out of the store with their very own bags of supplies. 

And…it is so much fun to only pay 20¢ for glue sticks.

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The best part is watching them come home and pour the contents of their bags out to look at all over again. Then they put it all away to have it ready for the first day of school. (Or, they leave it sprawled out all over the floor so that it can get ruined already before it even has a chance to be written in yet.)

There really is something magical about new school supplies and new books that brings an excitement to the beginning of a new school year. So far we’ve had three days of school and every one of them has been just wonderful. Perfect? No. But wonderful nonetheless. 

Today, I’m grateful for the chance to be my boys’ teacher and thankful that we share traditions that will be lifetime memories. I’m even grateful for that crazy joy in the Walmart school supply section. Having a bunch of boys eager to start a new school year…now that’s something to be grateful for!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

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Homeschool Hubbub: Our Eight, Ten and Thirteen Year Olds

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I shared what Malachi (5) will be doing this year…now I’ll share about our three older boys:

Asa (13) will be working through most of Sonlight 100 this year (History, Geography, Literature, Current Events, Creative Writing, Spelling) and will be doing much of it on his own. He’ll begin Apologia Science this year, Exploring Creating with General Science. For math, he will be going through Teaching Textbook Pre-Algebra. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!!

Justus (10) and Elias (8) will be doing much of their work together this year.

We’ll be studying American History with them (from Civil War era to present) using Sonlight’s Level 4 Books. I remember studying these with Asa a few years ago, so I’m really excited to revisit them with Justus and Elias!

These two boys are about on the same reading level, so I’ve put together a big shelf of Sonlight readers for them to choose from throughout the year. Ooh, such good books!!

For science, we’ll be making a monthly trip to our local science museum, where they have a special  program just for home schoolers! They’ll also be going to a once-a-week science class here in town taught by a wonderful gal who really knows her science. Here and there at home, we’ll be reading through a few of these science books that I’ve purchased in years past and never got around to reading.

Elias will be finishing the last two Miquon Math books this year. Justus will be working through Teaching Textbooks 5. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks!!?!! For the older kids, it is a tremendous teaching tool!

I use Sequential Spelling with them and they work through MCP Phonics books.

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Whatwe do with ALL four boys together (well, Malachi is hit and miss with some of this!):

  •  Grammar Ace – These activities are simple and fun. (When asked to make a list of nouns, one of my boys wrote “boogers”. It was a proud moment.)  Grammar Ace goes along with the School House Rock DVD, which is so much fun and is bringing back so many memories for me! (“Conjuntion Junction, what’s your function” – remember?!)

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    • Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – I’ve pretty much been TERRIBLE in the past about making time for art lessons with the boys. Sonlight recommened Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad…I got it, along with a nice sketch pad and some pencils for each boy and we are all learning to draw together. (By all, I mean all. Mom is learning too because up until now I have had NO artistic ability. Hand Mama Mark Kistler’s book and give her her very own sketch pad!)

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  • Bible – I don’t know why I’m mentioning the most important part last. ;)  We read the Bible together at breakfast time (currently reading through the book of Matthew). In addition, I read a section of Why Pray? each morning and we discuss it a little bit. It is AWESOME that the boys are old enough to have thoughtful Bible discussions now. (Which sometimes ends with, “Mom can I have more french toast?” But still.)

I’m sure I forgot something off of our list.  What are your kids studying this year?

I’ll try to take time this week to tell you more about our schedule and what our school days look like. Because yes, we sort of have a schedule. Sometimes.

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Menu Plan for the Week, Plus This Year’s Corn “Party”

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I warned them.  On my way out the door to the farmer’s market Thursday evening I told the boys that I was hoping to come home with a big load of corn so they’d better get their shucker game face on.

At the market, I walked right up to my favorite organic food grower, took a look at her corn and said, “Can I have all of it (please)?!”

She’s always great to work with, I trust how she grows her food and she is very fair with her pricing. In fact, she only charged me for 10 dozen ears, when in fact she sent me home with over 13 dozen!! That’s a stinkin’ lot of corn. 

I’m still sore.

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The boys helped me lug it out of the van (Matt was at work so he missed all the fun!) and they went to town shucking while I started boiling water in my big stock pot.

And they shucked. And they shucked. (13 dozen is no less than 156 ears of corn. They did the math.)

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Just for fun, check out these pictures from their shucking time two years ago. They are so much bigger now. Wow.

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In case you’re wondering, you can read about the process of freezing corn here. I did invest in a cool Kernel Cutter from Pampered Chef this year and it was GREAT to work with! So much better than a regular knife!

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Yes, I thought you’d like to see the gigantic mess I made in the kitchen that night. Not pictured:  My hair looking like a half-shucked corn cob.  By the way, did you know that corn is very, very sticky? Just so ya know.

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I’m happy to report that I got 61 bags of corn for all of this work!!! That’s enough for the whole year, so I am officially checking “put up corn” off my list!! Hallelujah! (You can read more about the Seal-a-Meal I used here.)  The cost for all of that ends up being about 66¢/bag for the freshest, sweetest, organic-est corn there is…woohoo!

In other news, I made a big peach cobbler (recipe found here) with some of our Michigan peaches. Oh, it is so much fun to surprise my husband with his favorite treat. The kids didn’t mind either.

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And here is our menu plan for this week, filled with so many summertime goodies!

Sunday, August 8
Oatmeal, peaches
Roast, potatoes, carrots, gravy
Black bean salsa and chips, watermelon

Monday, August 9
Peach cobbler
Turkey/cheese melts on biscuits, carrot sticks with ranch dip, cherries
BBQ meatballs, new potatoes from the garden!!, green beans

Tuesday, August 10
Mini breakfast pizza, strawberry-peach slushies
BLTs, watermelon
Taco salad, creamy orange cooler

Wednesday, August 11
Peanut butter honey toast, blueberries
Spaghetti, fried okra, corn on the cob
Pizza, grapes

Thursday, August 12
Scrambled eggs, fruit-kefir smoothies
Feeding YC women’s soccer team:  Nacho Bar with all the fixin’s, homemade ice cream sandwiches
Egg rolls (experimenting with recipes on this!), watermelon

Friday, August 13 (Happy Anniversary to us!!)
Crepes with jelly, bananas
Cheesy turkey sausage stromboli, fruit salad
Cookout with friends

Saturday, August 14
Whole Wheat Donuts
Leftovers
Lamb chops, green beans, tossed salad

Stay tuned this week for a very fun Back 2 School Bash!!

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My First Trip to a Whole Foods Market!

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The closest Whole Foods Market is about two hours away from me in Omaha….and we almost never go to Omaha. This is why I have never, ever been to a Whole Foods Market. Until Monday!!!  We decided to stop there on our way home from our trip and I was (like the nerd that I am) very excited. Who needs a shopping mall or a theme park when you can go to a really cool grocery store while on vacation?!?!

Judging from all the previous posts…it would appear that all of the fun parts of our trip centered around food. What is it with us, anyway?! Blueberries…Peaches…Chocolate…and a Whole Foods Market. THIS is what family vacation memories are made of…apparently.

Do you want to see what I got? (Yeah, just humor me.)

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See, I had to get some sparkling mineral water because it’s a special treat that gives me “the burn” I miss. Plus I needed the dark green bottles to give my friend for when she makes kombucha for me. Ah, a twofold purpose for purchasing the mineral water.

And I had to get cherries, because I had to get cherries. Do I need another reason?

I got cheddar cheese because the last time I ordered cheese from Azure Standard, it didn’t come in and I was completely out of cheese.

I got hotdogs and lunchmeat because we’re in the middle of a very busy season with gardening and canning and soccer and school…and a girl needs a little convenience sometimes. (At least these are healthier versions.)

I got yogurt because I was out and I need to start a new batch.

I got organic apples and then I HAD to get Gjetost Cheese…because have you ever had Gjetost Cheese?!?!? It’s only THE BEST CHEESE EVER to eat with apples. We call it “caramel cheese” because it looks like little slices of caramel and it tastes sweet somehow. I bought not one, but two Gjetost cheese blocks because it’s almost apple season, and Gjetost with apple slices makes the BEST snack ever. They cost $5.95/block…but we can make it last quite a long time. You just need a tiny little piece of Gjetost with a slice of apple. Seriously, I think it may be one of the happiest snacks I’ve ever eaten.

And there you have it. I paid $35 for what you see in that picture. (I would have paid $55, but I had a $20 Visa Gift Card and – like the nerd that I am – it made me happy to use my gift on special groceries.)

While I LOVED my Whole Foods Market experience…I do have to say that I am VERY thankful for my health food co-op. Not only does it give me much easier access to organic and whole foods…it also saves me a lot of money.

And now, I do believe I will go treat myself to a little juice mixed with mineral water. Ahhhh…the burn….

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Family Vacation, Part 3

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Okay, okay…we didn’t really get to go to a U-Pick Chocolate Farm after our U-Pick Blueberry Farm and U-Pick Peach Farm visits. Chocolate doesn’t grow on trees, ya know. (And if you are one of my sons, you will now say, “Well actually Mom, cocoa beans grow on trees which means that chocoate really does…”)

Anyway, we DID stop at the next best thing! Right along the way to the peach farm, we spotted Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate. Matt looked over at me in the van with his eyebrows raised as if to say, “You want to stop there next don’t you?” Who am I to say no an offer like that?

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Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate is family owned and operated. We had so much fun with the gals there!

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Ooh, and they kept giving us samples to try. We are now friends forever.

We got to watch one of the owners make a HUGE chunk of fudge. It was so cool.

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They were featuring a new item:  Chocolate Covered Bacon!!! We figured that the chocolate draws in the women…the bacon draws in the men and everyone wins!

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For the record…we tried some Chocolate Covered Bacon and it was rather tasty! Who knew?

Next up…we go to the beach!

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