Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

My Weekend Baking/Cooking Marathon

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Some people soak in the tub. Some play a sport. Some read a book. Me? When I am worn out and need some refreshment, I find that cooking is just the pick-me-up I need.

Okay, yes – sometimes cooking is the last thing I want to do and passing out on my bed of pillows and quilty comfort is all I want. I’m not that tireless (or crazy). But over the weekend, travel weary though I was, I couldn’t stop myself from running into the kitchen to get some recipes made ahead for the coming weeks. I think it had something to do with the fact that I had suffered some kitchen withdrawal while being out of our home for eight days. And it may have had something to do with the fact that we’d eaten a few too many fast food french fries on our way home. Therefore I felt the need to grind flour, toss salads, and slice strawberries.

Anyway, I was magnetically pulled into the kitchen on Friday afternoon. I stood there for hours – cooking and baking and having a blast.  And then I passed out on my bed of pillows and quilty comfort long before my family went to bed. (They, of course, were playing a lively game of soccer in the living room with their Dad because they are all of the “some play a sport” variety of refreshment seekers. Yes, the ball was soft. Yes, one picture did get knocked off the wall. No, I don’t care. Yes, I slept through it all.)  But back to my kitchen time which happened before I passed out on the pillows.

I changed my plan just a little bit from the original list I shared on Friday. I was thrilled with what I accomplished in just a few hours and now have lots of healthy, prepared food ready to grab and serve. I hate that some of these pictures are ugly. Raw egg casseroles just don’t look pretty. They can’t help it. Bless their heart.

I started my marathon by getting several pounds of Turkey Sausage cooking in a pot. 

marathon_1

While it was cooking, I started mixing up Giant Breakfast Cookies. I decided to make the Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookie variety since we loved those so much last time I made them.

marathon_3

While the cookies were baking and while the turkey sausage was cooking, and while Justus chopped tomatoes for dinner (irrelevant to this post, but hey, there are tomatoes in the following picture) – I mixed up two Easy Breakfast Casseroles. As soon as the sausage was done, I stirred some into the casseroles. I put the casseroles into the freezer with a note to add cheese before baking. (I didn’t feel like grating any that night, what can I say?)

marathon_2

Remember how Asa made a batch of no-bake cookies a few weeks ago, and it turned into Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola, so I posted the recipe? Well, this time, I made the granola and it threatened to turn into no-bake cookies. The nerve! I just smooshed it all into a platter and we’ve been breaking off pieces to eat all weekend. I think I should maybe bake it in the oven for a little while to crisp it up. Maybe I’ll do that later this week.

marathon_5

Somewhere in there, the family came in to help me finish making dinner, I got out my Whole Wheat Quick Mix to make the crust for a Fruit Pizza (which we ate the following day), and I mixed up a double batch of Pancake Sausage Muffins. Shucks, I had the turkey sausage fresh and ready after all. And by the way, I referenced my Oh, For Real: Real Food, Real Family, Real Easy book about twenty times during this cooking session. Hope you’re loving your copy as much as I am enjoying and using mine!

marathon_4 
After dinner, I decided to go ahead and make a triple batch of Chicken Patty Sandwiches. I figured if I just got it done, I could then get the kitchen all clean and not worry about finishing my list the following day. We had fresh spinach from our garden, so I decided to grind some up and throw it into these sandwiches along with the carrots, onions, garlic, and chicken. 

marathon_6

I ended up with 31 Chicken Patties for the freezer – full of all kinds of veggies and deliciousness. Unfortunately, I was on about sandwich number 27 before I remembered that I had not added one egg to the mixture. Ah well – the patties turned out great anyway. (And now you know that you can make this Chicken Patty Sandwich recipe without eggs and with spinach. Awesome.)

marathon_7

Once all the food cooled, I bagged it, labeled it, stuck it in the freezer, loaded the dishwasher, started it, (took my vitamins, brushed my teeth, yada yada) and went to bed. My hair smelled a bit like a fried chicken patty sandwich – the kind with no eggs and fresh spinach.

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Cooking Ahead – I Now Have Snacks!

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I know it’s not entirely true, but I feel like I have been away from home for the entire month of March.

Asa had a basketball tournament the first weekend of the month. We were home for a few days, then we went to Branson and were gone for six days. The end of this week we are going to Kansas City for LTC. Phew! It’s hard to get ahead when you can’t even catch up. And it’s hard to catch up when you’re not even home. And it’s hard to be home when…well, when you are traveling. (Profound.)

Anyway, Saturday I was home. Yay for me! I had big kitchen plans. I decided that I wasn’t going to go anywhere all day, that I certainly wasn’t going to change out of my sweat pants, and that I would get caught up on some work, and spend several hours cooking. I’m so glad I did! I got my email inbox down to 82 (It had made its way up to well over 200 last week) and spent four hours cooking and baking. I now have some healthy convenience foods in the freezer, as well as several snack items that might just last two whole days around here.

First, I mixed up a double batch of Whole Wheat Butterhorns. While the dough was rising, I got my food processor whirling as I made three batches of Homemade Peanut Butter. 

peanut_butter

I put two jars of peanut butter into the fridge to have ready for later. Then I used one batch to make Healthier Rice Crispy Treats and Mudballs (thinking of my awesome cousin Jayme the whole time, since she’s the one who gave me that recipe).

cooking_ahead

I should also mention that the day before, I had made 80 Chicken Fried Steak Strips. 
I had the boys help me take them off the cookie sheets and put them into freezer bags for
easy meals in the future. I love getting that mess out of the way in big batches!

I then made two dozen eggs worth of Easy Breakfast Casserole. I put the 9×13 dish in the freezer to thaw and bake another day. I baked the two round dishes for our lunch.

egg_casseroles_1

While they were baking, I began shaping 64 Butterhorns. I baked several to go with our egg casseroles for lunch – yum! – then shaped and froze the remaining butterhorns. I love having these in the freezer to pull out, thaw, and bake when I need them for company!

butterhorns

I froze the shaped rolls on cookie sheets,
then popped them off the next day and put them into freezer bags.

Last, I made a double batch of Homemade Poptarts. We ate some of them for breakfast on Sunday morning, and the rest went into the freezer. These are so good when warmed in the toaster oven, served with fruit and a glass of milk!

poptarts

I should also mention that I roasted two chickens and made broth for the freezer. It’s always great to have homemade chicken broth on hand!

As you can imagine, my wheat grinder, oven, and dishwasher got quite a workout that day! And I slept really well that night. :)

What’s your favorite food to have on hand for snacks or easy meals?

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My “To Do” List As I Prepare for the Fall (And My Plan to Blog My Way Through the Preparations)

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I know it’s only July, but I have to start preparing now if I plan to survive the busy fall season. August through October are always our busiest months of the year, as we start school, freeze and can garden produce, and juggle umpteen soccer practices and games. I love soccer season, and am so excited for it to start I can hardly stand it. My husband helps coach our local York College ladies soccer team (I can’t wait for these gals to get back into town!), three out of four of our boys play on teams, two boys referee, and two boys are on additional traveling teams. There are a lot of schedules to keep up with. 

I’m not complaining. I soooo love it. But at the same time, I’ve started to feel almost panicky about being away from home so much and keeping up with all of my responsibilities. My solution?  I’m praying for peace.  Panicking helps…nothing. Oh yes, I’ve proven that over and over. I’m asking God to help me relax, to use me to bless people, and to help me enjoy the ride this fall. Oh, and I’m also already starting to warn and remind my friends that in a few weeks, I will not be able to formulate cohesive thoughts or finish my sentences. I am so blessed to have friends who continue to put up with me during these busy months.

In addition to spending much time in prayer, I’m doing as much as I can now to make my homemaking and home schooling efforts easier once we’re in “the thick of it”. I decided to share my “to do” list with you, then blog my way through it during the next several days. You do want to watch me prepare for the insanity, don’t you? Yes, that’s what I thought. ;)

First, here are the home projects I’d like to complete by August 5:

  • Clean and organize our “School Room”.
  • Help the boys get their bedroom and the “Lego Room” cleaned and organized.
  • Type up book lists and writing goals for the boys for the year.
  • Take the boys on our traditional “school supply shopping, then eat lunch out” celebration. (They’ll never be too old for this, right?!)

Here are the kitchen projects I’d like to work on so that our fridge, pantry, and freezers are stocked and ready for busy days ahead:

Disclaimer:  All items on these lists are subject to change. I may not be in the mood next week to make calzones. I may instead decide to make Creamy Chicken and Rice Casseroles. Or maybe I’ll make both. Or neither. I will likely think of something in the middle of the night tomorrow that I forgot to add to my list. I’ll be sure to call you at that time so that you are aware that my list has changed. You’re welcome. I may decide that cleaning the Lego Room isn’t even worth it since it’s likely to be a mess thirty seconds after we finish. If produce becomes freezable or cannable during this next week, that will trump all else. (“Cannable” isn’t a word and spell check wants me to change it to “cannibal” but that is obviously not at all related to my plan for next week, so I am leaving it as is. We all know what I mean. I think.)  Regardless, I do plan to take lots of pictures and blog my progress. It may will be messy. Read at your own risk.

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Cooking Days and Crazy Days: Freezer Cooking

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Here’s what I am finding to be a pattern, which is not really a pattern at all, but really a random “take it as it comes and try to keep your head above water” lifestyle: 

Some days I have plenty of time to cook and be all kinds of “Little Miss Heavenly Homemaker”. And other days I am so completely busy with family/business/outdoor/appointment/tournament/travel/ministry/school/you-name-it responsibilities, that finding even a moment to breathe, much less put together a healthy meal, is much more than I am capable of. Those are the days you may as well call me “Little Miss Why Pray Tell Do These Children Think They Have to Eat Five Meals a Day and Where In The World Is My Other Shoe?” This is when having healthy meals already prepared in my freezer are a life saver.

(Side-Note:  Being a “Heavenly Homemaker” is something I believe you and I always are, whether we’re grinding flour and making bread from scratch, or whether we’re chucking a store-bought snack toward the back of the mini-van to your kids on the way to an event. As long as our tasks are done with love and with God’s purposes in mind, I believe that sometimes we just have to splurge in an effort to stay sane. But because I love being home, and I love being productive in my kitchen preparing healthy foods, I do feel more “Heavenly Homemaker-y” when there isn’t raisin gunk stuck to my hard wood floor and when I have time to stop and smell the butter melting on the stovetop in preparation for baking.)

During the last few weeks, as I’ve grabbed some hours of time in the kitchen as I’ve found them available, trying to get as much done as possible to make up for the crazy days when I don’t have as much time to cook. I have taken some pictures of the food to share with you. As for the dirty dishes these cooking times have created, I have no pictures. You will just have to imagine those in your head. Imagine the worst, then double it, then drizzle some pickle juice and sour milk over them, and that’ll be just about right. :)

One particular day a few weeks ago, I had several hours to spend in the kitchen. I sort of forgot to stop once I got going. I made a triple batch of Whole Wheat Tortillas (recipe in our Totally Tortillas eBook), a double batch of Granola, four loaves of Honey Whole Wheat Bread, one batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies, and two Green Bean Casseroles (recipe in our Holiday Hospitality eBook). I added ground hamburger meat to the casseroles to make them a one dish meal. 

After I made all the tortillas, I made three gallon sized bags full of Meat and Cheese Burritos. And then I passed out.  Not really. But almost. 

Several days later after I had recovered when I had an extra couple of hours, I made a double batch of Whole Wheat Calzones. We ate half of them on our way to a soccer tournament that weekend, and the others are still in the freezer for me to grab and serve on another busy day.

Last but not least, I wanted to show you a Pod Racer that I made with Legos. Just kidding. I really just made some pizza crusts for the freezer, and Malachi made the Pod Racer. But since they were both on the counter at the same time, I just took the picture of both. Be glad it was a Lego creation that happened to be on the counter in my kitchen at picture time and not a dirty sock or a dead bug that one of the boys brought in. Not that either of those would ever be found on my countertop…

I’m excited about these pizza crusts (using the dough recipe here), which I rolled thin and used for Grilled Pizza. I’ll share more about that experience soon. I’m super excited to have prepared crusts in the freezer for future grilling!

Made any extra food for your freezer recently? Had any dirty socks Lego creations on your counter recently?

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Freezer Full of Healthy Foods

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I’m happy to report that I was able to cross off everything on last week’s Make Ahead Healthy Foods list, plus a little extra! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  If you want to get ahead in the kitchen, just do a little extra every once in a while. Here are a few pictures showing what I worked on during the past seven days:

I put my boys on the task of scrubbing 10 pounds of potatoes (the amount that fits well in my big roaster). We baked them to turn them into Hashbrowns.

If you’ve not tried making Hashbrowns this way – you’ve gotta try it! These are so easy, delicious and make for a great quick breakfast or dinner side dish. I freeze them on cookie sheets, then transfer them to freezer bags. Having frozen hashbrowns ready to grab and cook quickly is so nice!

I mixed up a batch of Honey Oat Crunch Cereal that is great to have on hand for a quick breakfast or a snack. (This recipe is in my Think Breakfast Outside the Box ebook.)  I wish I remembered to make this more often – it’s great to have on hand. I just stick it in a jar and put it on top of the fridge. We eat it with raisins and other dried fruit, plain or with milk or cream. So good!

I guess I was on a roll with breakfast foods last week! I made a batch of Giant Breakfast Cookies. We ate half and froze half.

I made six pounds of Turkey Sausage, freezing it into eight meal sized bags. I LOVE having this on hand to use in my Pancake Sausage Muffins and Easy Breakfast Casserole. Plus, since I now have frozen hashbrowns, I can throw some of this sausage in with the hashbrowns, scramble eggs into it and we’ve got a meal. Easy!

I had ordered a big box of strawberries from Azure Standard which arrived last week. We ate as many as we could while they were fresh, but the rest needed to make their way into the freezer. I like freezing them on cookie sheets first so that they don’t stick together in freezer bags later. Aren’t they purty?

I’ve already shared about how I made Homemade Beef Bologna – we ate some and froze some. I also made Tammy’s Homemade Spicy Beef Pepperoni, but if we thought my bologna pictures were not pretty, my beef pepperoni pictures were even worse. Come to think of it, I didn’t even take pictures of the pepperoni. The pepperoni itself was so very ugly, I hid it from my kids before they could see it and decide they didn’t like it before they’d tried it. BUT, when I sliced it and put it on pizza, it was very delicious. So, I now have ugly bologna and ugly pepperoni in my freezers too, but I’ll spare you the agony of having to see pictures of them. ;)

Have you made anything healthy and tasty for your freezer lately?

In case you’re wondering, here’s a post on How I Freeze Food.

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Working Ahead for Healthy Food Convenience

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For the past two weeks during our Funky Fresh Kitchen series, we’ve talked all about getting your kitchen cleaned out and organized, getting rid of unhealthy foods and working toward making your own healthy foods from scratch. One thing I didn’t cover during the series which has become a very imporant way for me to keep my kitchen organized and healthy is making healthy foods ahead of time and freezing them for quick meals.

Whole Wheat Waffles are great to make ahead and
put into the freezer for a quick, healthy breakfast!

Having foods like healthy burritos, whole wheat waffles and homemade pizza pockets in the freezer to pull out for quick meals has been a life saver for me many times. This week, I plan to work on putting a few more healthy foods into my freezer for quick, convenience items. Here’s what’s on my list to try making this week:

At the end of the week, I’ll be back with an update on how my extra cooking times went. I can’t wait to try those new bologna and pepperoni ideas!!

Care to join me in trying to get ahead just a little bit? Think you might have time to make just one extra dish or item for your freezer for some healthy convenience? Leave a comment letting us know what you’re up to in the kitchen. I love hearing new ideas!!

P.S. I’ve got a new “Make Ahead Meals” recipe to share with you later this week!

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Healthy Foods for the Freezer

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One of my big Two Week Tackle projects was to pre-make some healthy convenience items for our freezer. This way, on busy days all I have to do is grab burritos or pizza pockets out of the freezer and warm them up quickly for us to eat.

I didn’t do all of this cooking at once. This is the result of 14 days of off and on work in which I simply made one extra batch of food to put into the freezer, whenever I could find a spare moment. Sometimes, I just doubled what we were making for dinner and froze half. This is the best way (in my opinion) to do freezer cooking without stress!

I feel like it’s possible that I’ve broken some sort of tortilla making record during the last few weeks. I lost track of how many tortillas I rolled out and cooked. I think I made at least five double batches, in which we ate or made into burritos. We now have loads of frozen burritoes and around 18 plain whole wheat tortillas in our fridge for easy quesadillas next week! (Just doing some quick math, I think this means I may have made 120 tortillas between last week and this week. Not that you cared. I just felt like multiplying it out. Why do I do these things?)

I was excited to try making Chicken Burritos and will be sharing the recipe soon.

And, not that you can tell them apart, but because I somehow feel the need to prove my tortilla making madness, here is a big batch of meat and cheese burritos. (Are you bored with my tortilla picture parade yet?)

I hate to disappoint you, but the rest of the pictures have nothing to do with tortillas. Instead, we have a pan full of lovely pizza pockets that are now frozen and ready to bake for a quick lunch.

I made a batch of homemade hamburger buns and didn’t let us eat any of them. Buns in the freezer means easy burgers, sloppy joes or even turkey/cheese melts.

I made a quadrupal batch of Whole Wheat Waffles – these are the BEST for toasting in the morning when we need a fast breakfast.

One of my favorite main dishes:  BBQ Meatballs. I intentionally made way more than we needed for one meal so that I could freeze the leftovers. Meatball subs anyone?

I needed a batch of homemade rolls for something last week. Therefore, I made bunches. I have no idea what happened to the rolls in the upper right-hand corner. Mysteries like this happen in my kitchen regularly. We may never get to the bottom of it.

I surprised the boys one morning with homemade donuts, then because we had quite a few leftover, I froze them for another breakfast soon.

Last but not least, I shook up a jar each of Taco Seasoning, Ranch Dressing Mix and Italian Dressing Mix. I LOVE having these in my pantry to grab and use in a moment’s notice.

And that, my friends, is the result of the intentional extra cooking I have been doing in an attempt to get ahead before August begins.

What are your favorite ways to get ahead in the kitchen? (Yeah, yeah…I know. Getting ahead in the kitchen is almost like getting ahead on laundry – next to impossible. But still.)

In case you’re curious, here are a few posts that might help answer some of your questions about how I freeze foods and try to get ahead in the kitchen:

 

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A Freezer Cooking Pep Talk (Podcast #11)

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Too nervous to take on extra cooking? Feeling like you can’t possibly accomplish anything extra in the kitchen? Wondering how this Freezer Cooking thing works? I understand all of these hesitations, but I really want you to join me this week for my Freezer Cooking Challenge!!!

Therefore, in today’s podcast, I’m offering a nice, loving pep talk with lots of tips to encourage you to jump on board with me to get some extra food made to put into your freezer. Even if you just have a little bit of freezer space, you can put one or two extra items in there that are healthy and that will provide convenience for your busy days!

To go along with the podcast today, I have created a free, downloadable Freezer Cooking Pep Talk page for you to print off and smack onto your fridge. This is my list of freezer cooking tips that you can have at easy access in your kitchen to help keep you motivated!! C’mon…you can do this!!

Grab your Free, downloadable Freezer Cooking Pep Talk Page, full of tips and big bully encouragement from me. ;)

 

As mentioned in the podcast, here is my Make Ahead Meals link that you’ll want to be sure and look through. You’ll find all kinds of recipes and help in the Make Ahead Meal section of our site!

And now, I invite you to join me as I share my favorite tips for making Freezer Cooking easier!!

Freezer Cooking Pep Talking Podcast

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It’s a Freezer Cooking Challenge!!!

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Once A Month Mom

Except for a couple of big bags of Turkey Sausage that I made and froze recently, my freezer holds nothing of convenience. (Unless you count a few packages of soy free chocolate chips convenient. I could conveniently eat chocolate chips for lunch sometime.)

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I love creating healthy convenience foods for my freezer so that when I’m facing a busy day, my family still has healthy food to eat. You can scroll through this series of posts entitled Make Ahead Meals to learn more about how I make food ahead for the freezer! I can’t say enough about how wonderful it is to take the time every once in a while to work ahead in the kitchen. 

Because my frozen Turkey Sausage (and chocolate chips) are lonely, and because I’ve been working on a big project for Heavenly Homemakers which is taking a lot of my time (yes, I’m going to leave you hanging on this one for now), I’m anxious to spend a few hours this week putting some extra food in the freezer. 

This time for my freezer cooking endeavors, I am very excited to be teaming up with Tricia from Once a Month Mom. Have you been to the Once a Month Mom site? If you’re interested in doing some cooking and baking ahead for your freezer, you MUST take advantage of all the free and wonderful information you’ll find at Once a Month Mom. Her site is full of great tips and recipes that are perfect for making food ahead and freezing it for future convenience.

Once a Month Mom has great menu plans each month all laid out and ready for you, complete with recipes, grocery lists and freezer instructions. You’ll find a plan for Whole Foods Cooking, Gluten Free/Dairy Free Cooking, even a menu for Baby Food Freezer Cooking. 

I have had a lovely time clicking through all of the recipes on the Once a Month Mom site, picking some new and fun recipes to try for my family for my freezer cooking plans this week. Here are the recipes I chose this time:

I can’t wait to start playing with these new recipes (yes, because for me, trying new recipes is like playing with new toys!!). I was hoping maybe you’d all like to “come over and play” along with me this week. Want to?! (Yes, you do. You want to. Say yes.)

For those of you who are new to freezer cooking, or for any who might just need a little motivation to get some extra food in the freezer, I thought I’d extend a little challenge of sorts. Here’s how it will work:

  1. Pick a recipe (or more) from Once a Month Mom or from here at Heavenly Homemakers.
  2. Find some time this week to make the recipe(s) for your freezer.
  3. Blog about your cooking experience, if you have a blog, so that you can come link up with us here on Friday when we’ll all report back to share how our freezer cooking went. If you don’t have a blog, you’ll be given the opportunity to share about your freezer cooking in the comments section of our round up post on Friday, so please join the fun whether you have a blog or not!
  4. Each person who links up or leaves a comment on the Friday Freezer Cooking Round Up post will be eligible to win a free recipe ebook of choice ($7.95 or less) from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop.
  5. The more recipes you make and share with us, the more chances you have to win! (But don’t over-do…we would like to keep this fun. Please, we don’t want any reports that women across the world fainted from Freezer Cooking Exhaustion.)

Okay…so  who’s in?!  Look around at Once a Month Mom and at all of our Make Ahead Meals to get some new recipe ideas. Get your Freezer Cooking game on and join us for our fun cooking challenge this week!

What recipes are sounding good to try?? Which ebook might you pick from our Heavenly Homemakers Shop if you win?!

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Getting Ahead in the Kitchen (kind of but not really but maybe a just little bit)

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Our boys are now 6, 9, 11 and 13 1/2. I know that in a few more years, I’ll look back on these days of “how much they ate” and laugh because they’ll soon be eating even more than they are now. But wow. It is a fact that our family went through SIX DOZEN eggs last week. Six. Dozen. That’s seventy-two eggs. And I had to ration them or they would have been gone before the week was up. (I think we may need to take another look at our 2011 Grocery Budget!)

The boys seem to all be going through growth spurts lately and I’m not sure I’m going to able to keep up. Even if I can, I’m not sure the chickens can. I hate to ask my friends with chickens to squeeze their flock just a little bit harder so that they can keep up with the Coppinger boys, but I’m afraid I may have to. 

I decided over the weekend to get a bunch of food made up to make life easier during soccer season, and I think I got ahead a little bit…but with the way my family has been eating lately…I’m not really sure how “ahead” I actually got.

For instance, I made a double batch of Taco Corn Fritters, knowing they would be great for “grab and go” meals and snacks. I let the boys eat them for lunch that day, thinking that at the very least, we’d have 15 or so fritters left over for the freezer. Nope. There were four left. Emphasis on the word were, because now I think we’re down to one. So much for freezing our corn fritters. :)


I also re-created our Easy Breakfast Casserole and made Mini Breakfast Quiches as one of you ladies suggested during our Gluten Free Recipe Parade. I’ll share the recipe in a few days, but I used a dozen eggs, made 24 quiches and there are exactly zero left. I believe I, myself, got to eat a grand total of one quiche. It was good, if I remember right.

Ah well. This appears to be the new norm. I will embrace it and run with it and continue making mountains of food. God gave me boys and He gave me a love for cooking. I’m pretty sure He knew just what He was doing!

I made a batch of Breakfast Cookies, sending some home with a friend of ours who came over to celebrate his birthday. You’ve gotta love being able to give the gift of a plate of Breakfast Cookies. It was his request, after eating some at our house another time. 

Here are a few other food items I was able to make and HIDE from my children so that they would actually make it into the freezer:

I cooked a whole chicken so I’d have a nice container of chicken and some broth for future meals. I also made a TRIPLE batch of Whole Wheat Tortillas. Yay, a tower of tortillas! (I have some rice tortillas in the fridge for Malachi to use right now.)

I made a quadrupal batch of Sloppy Joe Meat for the freezer. Then I adapted our Popcorn Chicken recipe to make Rice Flour Chicken Strips. They aren’t the prettiest things in the world, but now I have chicken strips to use this week for chef salads and tortilla wraps!

I was kind of on a roll with meat apparently, so I made six pounds of Turkey Sausage. I froze some of it in patties so that I can cook it up quickly for breakfasts and lunches. I cooked up the rest of it and froze it in meal sized bags. These bags of Turkey Sausage are wonderful to have on hand for Easy Breakfast Casserole and Pancake Sausage Muffins.

I made up a new batch of Taco Seasoning Mix, and I’m happy to report that everything I made is still in the jar. Nobody seems very interested in snacking on a spoonful of Taco Seasoning for some reason. At least I got ahead a little bit in the area of food seasoning. Score one for Mom. :)

Been doing any extra cooking lately? Can you keep food around your house, or does it get eaten before you can even put it on the table?

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