Purely Drivel

chores

I've been thinking a lot about chores for the past few days. The house if finally unpacked and settled, with the exception of an entertainment center that we're giving to my brother...currently sitting in Tom's office...and by sitting, I mean blocking the closet and taking up an entire wall...it's a little difficult to work around. The decorating is underway or mostly done, and there's a list on my desk of projects I want to work on next that's actually reasonable.

It's time to get to the living in this house part.

And the living brings with it the cleaning.

I know I've mentioned several times that this house is bigger than anywhere we've ever lived. It is. By a lot. While we are incredibly blessed by this home God's provided, I'm a little bit overwhelmed by what cleaning it actually looks like. It's definitely not something I can do on my own.

Enter chores.

Our kids have always had chores. They've put their own laundry away since they were 3 or 4, they help unload the dishwasher and set the dinner table. They always pitch in when we clean, help with yard work, and they're expected to keep their rooms picked up and belongings put away.

And that's all done with varying degrees of success.

Don't ask me about keeping shoes picked up right now - my right eye might just explode.

I've been working hard to define what my expectation of clean is for the past few days, as suggested in this post from Organizing Junkie (great post, great ideas). I'm working to come up with a daily chore chart schedule, but I admit I'm a little bogged down in the area between my need for them to contribute and my need for it to be done correctly. There's a bit more training and showing to be done.

And there's always that "what's age appropriate" question - by Hanna's age, I was more or less running the house several nights a week while my mom went back to school, but that was a situational need and not something I'd place on her. My goal is one or two daily household chores, along with the personal care/keep your room clean/pick up your belongings type stuff.

Hanna and I, in particular, have had some good talks about why it's important to learn to help with keeping the house in order. It's important to steward our belongings and what God has provided for us, of course...but at the same time, no one wants to be oneof those people that comes to visit and leaves a trail of glasses and food plates behind them while expecting to be waited on hand and foot.

That's just rude and pretty much inexcusable in anyone over the age of 8.

Like so many things, that idea of taking care of things starts in the home. It means training - showing and explaining, sometimes over and over, until it sticks. We've already got a good foundation in place, but with a little more intentional scheduling and oversight, I do think we can keep this place clean and tidy...without me feeling like Cinderella.

What chores can your kids tackle? How do they differ from what you did at that age? I'd love to hear! And I'll share what I come up with once I'm done sorting through~

Christmas in review

A quick Christmas in review...from the year I think I've taken the least photos ever...

 
Christmas Eve dinner at the Red Wing Restaurant, with a visit to the farm first

 
Just a little wandering, saying hello to the piglets that have grown so much since we were there last summer with Mom and Dad, and yes...that is Tom wearing a sports coat.

And no, the world didn't seem to stop spinning.

 

As always, one of our favorite things about the Red Wing is their taxidermy...but even more so that the taxidermy wears Santa hats at Christmas. 

And in case you think it odd that I'd find that rather exciting, I grew up living with about 20 geese and ducks (all stuffed, of course).

 
Hanna, wearing pearls from Aunt Cindy and red hair from a box.

Everywhere we go, she gets comments on it.  It goes quite well with her skin tone and makes her eyes even more blue.

 
Caleb, quite impressed that his chicken fried steak (best ever, according to Tom) came with an orchid

 
The leftovers of my meal...chicken scallopini served on garlic mashed potatoes rather than the usual bowtie pasta.  Artichoke hearts, mushrooms, white wine, browned butter, garlic, and I'm going to start working to recreate it as soon as we get to California.

No Christmas Eve service photos...although we went to a lovely little church about 20 miles from home that is pastored by one of Tom's favorite professors.  Liturgically based with communion, carols and lots of reading, it was beautiful and exactly what I've been needing.  I forgot the depth a pastor can reach in just a few words, especially when spoken in truth and transparency.

 

Presents...

 
more presents...

(it was maybe 6:10 at this point, and Caleb had already been up for nearly two hours)

 
a quick shot of the tree...

 
and the aftermath.

Trying not to think about the forest that had to die to wrap and package our gifts.

 
My very favoritest gift, handmade by the boy.

And dinner....

oh, the dinner.

Well...

hmmm...

I sort of forgot to take pictures of the friends that came to celebrate with us and the kids playing with their new toys.  I did, though, get several pictures of the food...most of which will be making it's way here in the next few weeks. 

One sneak peek?

Okay...

 
my flourless chocolate turtle cake.

Recipe coming tomorrow!

mis en place

 

Can I share a recent epiphany?

I love to cook, and I especially love to try new recipes.  And I'm blessed with family that is usually pretty willing to go on any culinary adventure I take them on, which - let's be honest -  is pretty awesome.

I can be sort of a ditz in the kitchen, though.  I've been known to start recipes without making sure I have all of the ingredients on hand.  Sometimes, I  jump into a recipe without knowing exactly where it's going, how long it's going to take or what order I'm going to need things in.   And it's not unheard of for me to have part of a meal burning cooking too quickly in the pan while I'm frantically chopping up the next ingredient.

Enter the concept of mis en place.

Fancy French name for such a simple translation: to put in place.

Quite simply, it means having all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you get started.

I know.  Obvious, right? 

I mean, I've been watching Food Network forever and PBS cooking shows on Saturday afternoons for years before that.   Those little bowls of chopped ingredients tv chefs are always tossing in their mixing bowls or saute pans - mis en place.  Setting everything out by the stove or on the counter first - mis en place.  In restaurants, chef would never be able to get meals out in a timely manner without having completed their mis en place earlier in the day.   At home, I'm finding it can mean the difference between almost burnt okay and perfectly prepared delicious.

I know I read the term in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential years ago, but it didn't really strike me until I read the sidebar on it in Gluten Free Girl and The Chef.  The description of Shauna frantically running back and forth between the refrigerator, stove and cutting board...it hit a little too close to home. 

It means reading the recipe, gathering all of the ingredients, and doing the prep work.  Chopping carrots, dicing onions, butterflying chicken breasts...putting everything into it's own bowl if necessary or combining them when you can.  You can do the work earlier in the day and maybe sometimes for a few days at a time (although I always think freshest always tastes best).  It takes so much of the stress out of the actual act of cooking or baking, and makes complicated recipes so much simpler.

The one downfall I've discovered about really working the mis en place?  It makes for a few more dishes...but trading a few extra bowls to wash for an easier cooking experience - yep, totally worth it especially as we head into that holiday baking and big meal season!

This post will be linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

Cultivating Our Family Garden

Do not sow a crop of good intentions in your neighbor's garden, but cultivate your own with diligence.

~St. Francis de Sales 

I came across this quote recently, and it seemed especially appropriate in light of our decision to end homeschooling with the completion of this school year. 

The one thing I've discovered about myself through all of this is that cultivating my own little family is so much more difficult with homeschooling.  That doesn't really make sense to me...you'd think having the kids here with me all the time would make all that goes into that so much easier.   All of the things I normally do to make our home a haven - from cooking and baking to cleaning and even decorating - have become more of a burden since we began this school year, as has simply being mom.  

I've been so frustrated by that fact.  I had this vision that bringing the kids home would be this idyllic bliss and it's been anything but.  As prepared as I was, and as  realistic as I was about how difficult it would be and the work involved, it wasn't enough. 

Not in this season of our lives.

I'm still questioning the decision to send them back next year just a little bit.  I've been told that the first year is the most difficult, and there is part of me that clings to the hope that next year could be better.  It hasn't been a failure...just difficult.  In no way has this changed my commitment to homeschooling, either.  It is an important and viable option for many families and I do still wish that it were one that worked for our family, and one that I will consider again if the time arises. 

And then I read this blog post this morning on Life As Mom, and it struck so deeply. 

What are my goals? 

What is non-negotiable? 

Does this activity fit this season of my life? 

How are these all working together...or are they working together? 

Right now, homeschooling isn't meeting our goals, it is most definitely negotiable and it's become fairly evident that it doesn't fit this season of my life or my children's.   It's not working.

That, ultimately, is why I've felt the need to send the kids back to school next year. 

The positives have definitely out-weighed the negatives of this homeschool year... and if it were simply a case of pros and cons this would be so much easier.  Cultivating our little garden takes so much time and care...the decision rests on so many different needs and necessities.  Next year, I do pray that tending my family will be a bit easier.

Side note...apparently, I've sparked a bit of gossip with my earlier post about choosing not to homeschool next year and I do feel a need to address it.  I would certainly hope that people would have better things to do than speculate about the finances of the Widlund family.  Yes, the budget was a big factor in our decision in sending the kids back to school next year.  But here's the thing - no one really knows what goes on with our finances but me...so please don't feel it's your job to go around telling others that we're in dire straits.  That's simply not true.  Like just about every other family I know right now, things are tight.  As responsible adults, we're simply prioritizing and making choices based on where we feel God is leading us....just like we've done with every decision we've ever made as a family.

 

Baby Steps: What are you eating?

I grabbed a canister of bread crumbs out of the pantry this afternoon, and was a little surprised by this:

That's the ingredient list for bread crumbs.

Bread crumbs.

I've spent the last few weeks really praying about and researching food.  And if you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that natural food has been a growing passion of mine for the last few years.

I've had a few people ask me how to begin the journey to more natural eating lately...is it about going totally organic?  Is it about no more meat or more flax or less dairy?  Too much salt?  Not enough fiber? 

It's so confusing!

Honestly, I think it's about baby steps.  Small steps - one a week or one a month or whatever works best as change for you.  The way we eat as a family right now is completely different than the way we did this time last year.  It's been slow changes.  I stick with one until I'm comfortable with it and then tackle something else. 

The first thing I think you absolutely have to do at the beginning of those baby steps?

Find out what you're really eating and how much of it.  You can't make changes if you don't know where you are. 

Read labels.  If you can't pronounce it, you probably don't want to eat it.  If you don't know what it is, find out.  

Make it a goal to purchase more foods that have smaller ingredient lists.  Try to purchase more foods that don't have an ingredient list, or that have a very short one of foods you recognize:

I'm planning on sharing more of the changes we're making, as well as why.  My entire attitude about food has changed, and I've come to realize what and how we eat is about much more than how much we weigh and whether it has an organic label. 

More to come soon!
 
 

Simple Solutions: Homemaking Binder

A little Gratituesday post combined for something that's making my life a whole lot easier right now...

This is one of those ideas I wish I could take credit for, because it's helped me so much over the last month.  I did have something similar when Hanna was tiny (I even had a list to jot down her naptime because I was convinced she never slept!), but haven't had anything like it for years.  I saw this post of Stephanie's at Keeper of the Home a month ago and realized it was just what I needed to take care of some of my random lists and recipes.

What is this glorious tool?

My homemaking binder.

Pretty simply, it's a 3-ring binder with page protectors (and I actually splurged on a heavy duty one).  Mine is pretty basic right now, but I will defintiely be adding to it.   It's mostly food focused, but it's flexible enough to expand as I find other needs.  At this point, I've put about an hour's worth of work into it...and I know it's saved me far more!

Here's a look at what's in it:

(note - you can click on anall  photos to make them larger if you want to see what's actually on my lists)
The first two pages are my master meal lists: 21 Meals and another list of Other Favorite Meals.   I've come across this idea several times now and love it - for the most part, we all tend to make the same dinners over and over...and over...and most families have about 20 dinners that are favorites.  Things like fajitas, enchiladas, crockpot chicken, lasagna - dinners we make about once a month are all on the 21 Meals list.  Other dinners that we love - soups, special occasion meals, stuff like that - those are on our Others list.

And nope, I haven't come up with 21 meals yet and I've been working on it for a month.  I figure it leaves room to find new favorites =)

And my lists are just tables I printed up pretty quickly on the computer.  Nothing special there!

 
As I add them to the master lists, those 21 and other favorite recipes are getting typed up (or printed out) and added in page protectors behind them.  Quite a few are already here on my blog, but I'm embarassed to admit how many times I've printed some of them out.  I have a drawer full of recipe printouts that I can go through and get rid of now.  I'm also adding a few from favorite cookbooks that get used often.

Next up is my Freezer Inventory.  That's page one of two of what I made on my last baking day.  I just cross things off as I take them out (and am trying to train the kids to at least let me know when they have).  When I'm ready to do my meal planning for the week, I just pull these pages out and see what I have left.  This page alone has made my week so much easier!  It's also helping me to see what changes to make to my next baking day.

After the freezer inventory, I added in all of my baking day recipes and I even printed out my plan from last month.  I'm thinking it might be helpful to have those as well as I plan future baking days.

And a quick shot at the inside front cover of the binder.  Right now, I'm just stashing recipes to try or ones I'm considering adding to either of our favorites list in the pockets. 

Other pages I plan on adding:

• Cleaning schedules
• Bill schedules
• Garden plans, maps, notes and harvests
• Notes from the GNOWFGLINS ecourse I'm taking
• Master Shopping Lists
• and others as see the need

I am so grateful for the new sense of organization this little binder has given me, as well as the time it has saved me over the last month. 

Want to read more Gratituesdays?  Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers!

This is one of those ideas I wish I could take credit for, because it's helped me so much over the last month.  I did have something similar when Hanna was tiny (I even had a list to jot down her naptime because I was convinced she never slept!), but haven't had anything like it for years.  I saw this post of Stephanie's at Keeper of the Home a month ago and realized it was just what I needed to take care of some of my random lists and recipes.

What is this glorious tool?

My homemaking binder.

Pretty simply, it's a 3-ring binder with page protectors (and I actually splurged on a heavy duty one).  Mine is pretty basic right now, but I will defintiely be adding to it.   It's mostly food focused, but it's flexible enough to expand as I find other needs.  At this point, I've put about an hour's worth of work into it...and I know it's saved me far more!

Here's a look at what's in it:

(note - you can click on anall  photos to make them larger if you want to see what's actually on my lists)
The first two pages are my master meal lists: 21 Meals and another list of Other Favorite Meals.   I've come across this idea several times now and love it - for the most part, we all tend to make the same dinners over and over...and over...and most families have about 20 dinners that are favorites.  Things like fajitas, enchiladas, crockpot chicken, lasagna - dinners we make about once a month are all on the 21 Meals list.  Other dinners that we love - soups, special occasion meals, stuff like that - those are on our Others list.

And nope, I haven't come up with 21 meals yet and I've been working on it for a month.  I figure it leaves room to find new favorites =)

And my lists are just tables I printed up pretty quickly on the computer.  Nothing special there!

 
As I add them to the master lists, those 21 and other favorite recipes are getting typed up (or printed out) and added in page protectors behind them.  Quite a few are already here on my blog, but I'm embarassed to admit how many times I've printed some of them out.  I have a drawer full of recipe printouts that I can go through and get rid of now.  I'm also adding a few from favorite cookbooks that get used often.

Next up is my Freezer Inventory.  That's page one of two of what I made on my last baking day.  I just cross things off as I take them out (and am trying to train the kids to at least let me know when they have).  When I'm ready to do my meal planning for the week, I just pull these pages out and see what I have left.  This page alone has made my week so much easier!  It's also helping me to see what changes to make to my next baking day.

After the freezer inventory, I added in all of my baking day recipes and I even printed out my plan from last month.  I'm thinking it might be helpful to have those as well as I plan future baking days.

And a quick shot at the inside front cover of the binder.  Right now, I'm just stashing recipes to try or ones I'm considering adding to either of our favorites list in the pockets. 

Other pages I plan on adding:

• Cleaning schedules
• Bill schedules
• Garden plans, maps, notes and harvests
• Notes from the GNOWFGLINS ecourse I'm taking
• Master Shopping Lists
• and others as see the need

I am so grateful for the new sense of organization this little binder has given me, as well as the time it has saved me over the last month. 

Want to read more Gratituesdays?  Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers!

Simple Solutions: aka Why I'm Not A Coupon Queen!

I've been pondering food and grocery shopping and stewardship quite a bit lately, and probably even more so today as I begin my green smoothie cleanse.  Side note: if you ever put spirulina in a smoothie, make sure it's well blended!   Here's a bit of what's on my heart right now...

Not too long after we moved to Florida, I found the Grocery Game through a website I frequented.  It seemed like a great idea - match coupons to sales, stock up at the rock bottom price, save lots of money.  I signed up, began buying newspapers, clipped my coupons, started buying in multiples and building up my supply.  I spent about an hour a week getting everything ready for my shopping trips, and was glad to trade that time for the savings.

And it went well for a few months.  I was  excited to see my stash of food grow and was happy to be stewarding our money well...

...until I realized that what I was buying wasn't necessarily the sort of food I want my family eating.   Everything was in a box...or in the freezer...and the ingredient lists were long and full of words I couldn't pronounce.  We had lots of food around and it was all purchased at a good price - sometimes even free! -  but it was significantly convenience foods.  While it might have been filling, it certainly wasn't nourishing. 

And while I did of course buy fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, I couldn't get past the nagging thoughts that while I might be stewarding the money well on the surface, what about deeper implications of all of of those processed foods?  What was it doing to our bodies? And what were the agricultural, environmental and human costs?

We've always been concerned about our food sources, and how they're impacted by the messed up food system we live with as a society.  Because of some health issues, we've also always been concerned about what those foods do to our bodies.   We want to support the family farm and responsible agriculture as much as possible.  By carefully following the Grocery Game, we weren't honoring those beliefs.  

It's not just about the dollars we hand over to the grocery store, it's about so much more. 

I've come to believe that the best foods are whole foods - for our bodies and for the world around us.  I believe that foods are best closest to the way God created them...which is why I will gladly enjoy an ear of corn, but try my best to stay away from anything with any of the many, many names that processed corn products masquerade as.  

I ended my subscription to the Grocery Game and over the past four years, have spent quite a bit of time studying food and nutrition.  Influenced by books like Nourishing Traditions and The  Omnivores Dilemma (among many others), I've begun doing crazy things like soaking my grains,  attempting (rather unsuccessfully so far) to make my own sourdough starter and baking with coconut oil, whole wheat and alternative flours.

 The way we eat has changed pretty drastically. 

So has the way I shop.  

And I've found that when you eat a predominantly whole food diet, there aren't a lot of coupons to be had. Surprisingly enough though, we're spending about as much now as we did during that time that I used the Grocery Game.  While I don't have that stockpile, I do have the knowledge that I'm fulfilling my dual needs of feeding my family nourishing foods and doing it in a way that stewards our money beyond just cheap food.   I don't need a cupboard full of salad dressings when I can make my own for cheaper, and be confident that they're not filled with mystery ingredients.

And that hour a week I used to spend getting ready for my shopping trip?  Well, I figured out that that's about the same amount of time I now spend getting grains soaked and making my own bread.  Rather than grocery shopping every single week, I do one big trip at the beginning of the month and supplement with our produce co-op.  I might make 2 or 2 other small shopping trips each month, but that's about it.

There are a few things I took from the Grocery Game, though, that I still find helpful.  Sales are cyclical.  Stocking up at the lowest price is good.  Combining coupons (when I can find them) with sales (though only when they're for things we already eat) is great.  Having a stock of toiletries bought at the lowest price is pretty handy, and pretty easy when I use websites like Coupon Mom (and there are tons of other free ones out there!).

It's still a learning process.   I was excited to stumble across this food buying club yesterday and am trying to see how I can work some of their grassfed beef and milk products into our budget.  I'm also thrilled to begin this class this weekend - even though I've been cooking since I was in middle school, traditional cooking is a very different thing and a bit more complicated.  It's nice to have someone who can walk me through it.

It is a learning process, but it's one that has been a complete blessing and one that I will continue on.

Affiliate notice: the books and class are all links that I am an affiliate of. 

Simple Solutions: Real Food, Real Hope

Natural foods and how best to prepare them have been an interest of mine for many years.

Part of it is because of where I grew up - right in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley in California.  It's a beautiful part of our country and I've always been proud to have grown up in a family that farmed...but I also grew up knowing that there were days we couldn't play outside because they were spraying the fields around our house (and our house was surrounded by fields on all four sides).  I knew that every fall, I'd be sick when the defoliated the cotton.  I was more annoyed by the crop dusters spraying at four in the morning than I was by what they were spraying.

As a child, it didn't strike me as that odd. 

As an adult, I worry about what all of those chemicals did to me.  My mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in her early 40's.  My grandmother had a childhood form of leukemia in her 70's.  My husband is sometimes blown away by the number of cancer patients I've known. 

And you will never convince me that it doesn't have something to do with all of those chemicals. 

When Hanna was little, I began shopping at farmer's markets and buying organic.  When Caleb came along, I really began reading and researching.  Since then, I've read and read and read and have made the food changes our budget allows, seeking to use our grocery dollars to support responsible agriculture.  We've started gardening.  We compost.  We recycle.  We capture the water it takes to get from cold to warm in our shower and use it in the garden.  We get most of our produce through a local organic co-op.  And I'm still reading and learning.

Two years ago, I read Nourishing Traditions on our cross country trip.  It was a fascinating read and made so much sense to me on an intellectual level.  The human body has been conditioned over thousands of years to need certain foods prepared certain ways.  Over the last hundred years or so, the way we eat has changed radically and our bodies simply aren't keeping up.   Much of what is foundational in Nourishing Traditions is contrary to what conventional nutritional wisdom tells us, and yet I find that conventional nutritional wisdom changes all too often.    We throw away tradition for the sake of science that contradicts itself every decade and our bodies and families are paying for it.

What do we do? 

We reclaim those traditions.  We eat real foods - to borrow a few ideas from Michael Pollan, we eat foods our great-grandmothers would recognize and with ingredients we can actually pronounce.  We buy more foods that don't have ingredient labels and we learn to make more from scratch.

It hasn't been easy to take that intellectual knowledge and turn it into daily practice, even for someone who is commited to living a more natural lifestyle.  I've been slowly implementing some of the suggestions found in Nourishing Traditions, but have been a little baffled by exactly how to make others work...which is why I am so excited about the solution that this class is for me:



Someone to walk me through baby steps to healthier eating and food preparation...exactly what I've been hoping and praying for.  16 weeks, 14 classes, less than $10 a class, with video and printables, and a member's forum to get to know others who are seeking to live and eat the same way...I can't wait for it to begin! 

As I mentioned a day or two ago, I was so excited by the opportunities for learning and health offered by this class that I signed up to be an affiliate.  If you click on any of the banners on my blog for it, I will receive monetary compensation. 

One of my goals for the last few years has been to start some sort of a monthly baking/fill the freezer day.  We do the majority of our shopping (meat, dairy, baking supplies, frozen foods) on one Friday of the month, and it just seems like it would make sense to spend a day getting things prepped for the rest of the month.  Now that I'm having to make almost everything from scratch due to dietary restrictions, it seems even more sensible. 

I have to be honest...it also appeals to my more frugal side.  Why pay $2 plus for a box of 40 frozen mini pancakes when I can make hundreds for the same price at home and freeze them myself?  And it seems silly to pay $3.29 for a package of 8 of the sandwich rolls the kids like at Publix when for the same price, I can make 3 dozen.

The one thing that has held me back?

We have a side by side refrigerator freezer that has almost no freezer space.   If I'm super creative and play Tetris with frozen meat and fruit, it can hold exactly what I buy during my big shopping trip, but doesn't leave me any room for any baked goods or even good buys.

My mom, understanding my obsessive need to be organized and save money, has tried to give us a freezer for the last few Christmases by giving us the money to buy it ourselves.  And every year she's done that, we've had some huge December crisis or unexpected bill and haven't gotten that freezer.  This year, she decided to just order the freezer and have it delivered (thank you again, Mom!).  Within the next week, I should finally have that freezer happily chilling away in my garage.

Which is perfect timing for this: February Freezer Cooking Day (on Facebook).  My freezer will be here and it just so happens to coincide with my big shopping trip day.  I think my plans might be a little bit optimistic, but I've already warned Tom and the kids that they're helping.  We're even going to make it a Home Ec school day. 

I'm pretty sure there's no way I can do this all in one day, so I'm working on spreading it out over two.

Friday:

• Big monthly shopping trip - BJ's, Publix
• Put taco roast in crock pot (will share recipe soon)
• Start chicken stock on the stove
• Make large batch of brown rice
• Cook beans
• Make tortillas using the electric griddle(several dozen whole wheat and 1 or 2 dozen small flour)
• Make mini pancakes on the electric griddle and freeze
• Marinate chicken, pork chops, steaks before freezing in family sized portions
• Prep often used spice mixtures (crockpot chicken seasonings and ranch dressing mix) and store in jars
• Remove taco roast and shred, put in freezer bags and freeze
• Remove chicken from stock, place in bowl and refrigerate
• Strain stock and place in large jars to refrigerate over night

Saturday:

• Make, bake and freeze - 
• • blueberry muffins
  • pumpkin or banana bread
  • sandwich rolls
  • several loaves of bread and only bake those partially

• Shred chicken - freeze some
• Prep and freeze burritos using tortillas, brown rice, beans and shredded chicken
• Double batch of enchilada sauce
• De-fat chicken stock and freeze in 4 c. portions
• Make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and freeze in scoops

And maybe:

• Large batch of applesauce
• A lasagna or two to freeze
• Enchiladas
• Homemade chicken strips
• and if I get really crazy, yogurt

I know it seems like a lot of random stuff, but it would give me key parts of many of our favorite breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Knocking out a lot of this prep work on things I know we love and eat regularly will save me so much time over the month.   I also know that having a lasagna or enchiladas or even some shredded beef stashed away keeps us from eating out when we're tired, sick or feeling lazy.

My ultimate goal?  To make this a monthly habit, but I think I'll see how I do with this first one before I commit myself to anything too big!