Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

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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Cook Once, Eat Twice (or more) {Eat Healthy ~ Save Time}

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When I make a lasagna, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

When I make two lasagnas, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

When I made three lasagnas, I must cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

I’ve even made up to eight lasagnas at one time. Even then, my job was to (all together now…) cook some meat, add some sauce and spices, layer the noodles with the meat sauce and cheese, then wash a few dishes.

Whether I’m making one lasagna or eight, I dirty the same number of dishes while preparing the food. I take barely any extra time to make extra lasagnas, so for me, it’s a no-brainer. Why would I just make one lasagna when I can make three (or eight)?

(And by the way, I typically only make eight lasagnas at once when I’m feeding a big soccer team. While my boy-filled family does eat a lot, we are not up to eating 1.333 lasagnas each…yet.)

The same “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” concept applies to almost everything I make – Cheesy Beef and Rice, Corndog Muffins, even these Whole Wheat Waffles. Scroll through all of my Make Ahead Meal posts to get some ideas and recipes that will help fill your freezer with healthy convenience foods.

You do realize what will happen though, if you start participating in this “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” system? You will then have a nice supply of healthy, homemade meals to quickly pull out of your freezer and heat up for your family – with little to no effort. Putting a hearty, healthy, delicious meal on the table will become extremely easy. You will no longer be able to use the “I don’t have time to eat or cook healthy food…” excuse.

Just so you know. ;)

Have you tried the “Cook Once, Eat Twice (or More)” kitchen efficiency method? What are some of your favorite healthy foods you like to make for your freezer?

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Preparing My Kitchen for Soccer Season

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Bring on the soccer games, the soccer practices, the soccer referee schedules (for our older boys), and the general soccer craziness at our house! While the spring soccer season isn’t as intense as the fall season (college soccer takes place in the fall on top of our boys’ soccer) – I still find myself running a little bit ragged trying to keep everyone in clean, matching soccer socks during these weeks of games.

Having a few extra food items ready to warm up quickly to feed the family is helpful during any time of the year. But during soccer season, I find it especially helpful. Therefore, last week, I spent a few hours each day working to get ahead. As a result, I’ve got a freezer packed with healthy, easy to grab and heat meals.

In case you’re interested in seeing a few photos to document my efforts (and some recipe links to motivate you toward getting some food in your freezer too!), here you go:

I made a double batch of Taco Corn Fritters for lunch one day. We ate half, then I froze half. These will warm up great in our toaster oven.

I made two Green Bean Casseroles (using a recipe in this holiday ebook), but I added some hamburger meat to make it an “all in one meal”. These will be perfect to throw into the oven before or after a game. (And by throw, I really mean “carefully slide”. Please do not throw casseroles into your oven, especially when they are in glass dishes.)

These Creamy Chicken and Rice Casseroles didn’t make it into my freezer, as I served them all for High School Huddle on Sunday. But since I put them together during my “extra cooking days”, I decided they would feel left out if they didn’t have their opportunity for a photo shoot.

I prepared seven pounds of Chicken Fried Steak Strips, froze them on parchment paper, then put the frozen strips into freezer bags. These are wonderful to have on hand to grab out and cook up quickly. I was lazy and put several layers on one cookie sheet just to see if it would work. Yay! It worked. (Good thing too, or I would have had seven pounds of chicken fried steak in one huge rectangular chunk!)

We all love these Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites – which sound like a dessert – but are really a high protein, healthy snack. They freeze well, or store well in the fridge.

The following picture is not meant to be motivating at all, but rather posted so that you can feel very sorry for me and say nice things about how awful it is that a mess like this happened in the middle of my hard working cooking time. (Woe is me.)  I had a pint of cream sitting on my counter that I knocked off with my elbow while grabbing a spoon. It was so very sad. :(  And for the record, cream really does splatter quite a long distance across a kitchen.

In happier news, I made Chocolate Chip Cookies for “just in case”. It’s always great to have a batch of cookies in the freezer to grab at a moment’s notice. However, these never made it to the freezer. I ate all 24 of them while consoling myself after I knocked the cream off the counter. Just KIDDING. I packaged them up and sent them with Matt to give to some college students. I think I did eat one or three first – just to make sure they tasted good.

I put my boys to work scrubbing 10 pounds of potatoes, which we baked and turned into frozen hashbrowns. Wow, it’s nice to have these in the freezer for a quick addition to meals.

I put together two big Lasagna Casseroles, which freeze very well and can be baked on a busy day.

Malachi was hanging out with me during one of my cooking times and asked me to take a picture of him doing his math. Hey, if a casserole dish is picture worthy, I’d say my seven year old deserves some camera time too. And no, we don’t require our children to wear fancy button-up shirts while they do their school work. But Malachi absolutely loves his shirt and tie combo and would wear it every day if we let him. Shucks, sometimes we do. Although I do try to wash it occasionally.

Here you see 48 Pigs in a Blanket. They are put together, but unbaked and now in freezer bags waiting for a day when I need something fast to throw into the oven. Oh dear – there I go throwing things into the oven again. Disclaimer:  No pigs will be thrown into my oven at any time during soccer season. After soccer season is over, no guarantees. Kidding. I’m kidding.

Last, I made a double batch of Chewy Granola Bars. These are awesome grab and go snacks. Shucks, if you need to throw these, it’s perfectly fine. Throw them into your purse or a bag, or even throw them across your mini van at your kids. Carefully, of course. Here is a picture of the bars right after I poured them into a pan, before refrigerating and slicing them.

Been throwing anything into your oven lately that we should know about? What are your favorite freezer meals? Do you feel sorry for me that I spilled all that cream?

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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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