Stop the “What’s for dinner?” Insanity!

25th October 298/365 by fifikins on Flickr

I don’t know about you, but the constant question of “What’s for dinner?” drives me batty!! That’s why I try my best to cook ahead. That’s what I’m calling it, anyway. Lots of people know it as freezer meals or once-a-month cooking, though. Working full-time, I don’t really feel that I have time to do the once-a-month bit. That and, a month down the road, I may not want what I planned for that night’s meal.

How’d I get here?

My first job in Birmingham involved a 45 minute commute, which made for early mornings and, if I waited until I got home to start dinner, very late nights. With a toddler, that just wasn’t cutting it. I started deciding in the morning what to fix for dinner that night and would have it at least partially ready before we left for work, then would finish it when we got home. That helped. As our daughter got older, I did eventually start planning menus and doing my shopping list based on that. I also discovered “quick” meals and got to the point that, if it couldn’t  be on the table within 30 minutes, I didn’t cook it during the week. Considering how much I enjoy playing in the kitchen, that got old. So I started digging around the internet and happened upon once-a-month cooking.

It can be fairly time consuming at first and involves a good deal of planning and organizing. While I’ve gotten better at that over the years, I still stumble from time to time. The key is to get back up. If you ever start menu planning – even if it’s just weekly meals – KEEP THEM. I have mine in a folder. I know others who have binders. Once you have a few weeks’ meals planned, you just pull from those and maybe toss in a new recipe now and then for variety. I’m considering using a little spreadsheet I found over at Vertex42 for my meal planning (Yes, I’m an Excel geek). Entering the info will be tedious, but once it’s in – man, it looks handy! It not only has drop downs to select meals, but will also create a shopping list!

How do you get there?

Do a little internet research. There are a ton of sites out there that teach about freezer meals and once-a-month cooking. I actually do one to two weeks at a time instead of a whole month. Working Monday-Friday, weekends are really my only shot at shopping and cooking.

• Pick a night to plan your menu. Sales ads typically come out on Wednesdays.
• Once you have your menu, make your grocery list from that.
• Go shopping, preferably with no kids.
• The day before cooking day, get your kitchen ready. Have the recipes out and ready, have containers ready, have dishes and utensils ready, do the prep work – cutting, chopping, grating, etc.
• The day of cooking, work on one meat-type at a time.
• If  you don’t have a lot of time during the week to reheat a fully cooked item, just prepare it to the point of cooking. Casseroles, for example: you can mix the ingredients together and put it in a gallon freezer bag. To serve, just thaw it, pour it into a casserole dish, top it with whatever topping you like and bake – done in about 30 minutes!

Other tips

• Keep freezer bags and freezer containers on hand, as well as a good marker for labeling.
• Clean dishes and utensils as you go – it’s handy to have a sink of hot, soapy water standing by.
• Get a good pair of kitchen scissors – they’re AWESOME for cutting meat into chunks quickly.
• I also recommend one of these for quickly chopping or dicing practically anything (admittedly, ham was messy to clean, but it worked!).
• Still not keen on cutting and chopping? Lots of foods come already cut up. If you don’t mind the expense, it can be worth it.
• Got something soupy? Put your freezer bag in a large coffee can so that the top of the bag folds over the can’s edge. Pour in the soup with next to no mess. Smaller bags? A tall plastic cup works well.
• Rotisserie chickens – cut them up and serve with bone-in or take the meat off the bones and you have meat for whatever dish you need it for.
• Another way to get started on this is to cook extras. If you’re making a meatloaf one night, go ahead and make two. Eat one, freeze the other. Do this enough times, and your freezer will be stocked before you know it!

I’ve now gotten to where I can do this using my own menus and recipes. If you’re not sure how to get started, though, or how to combine all the steps from your different recipes, it may be a good idea to start off using some menus from books or sites specifically aimed at once-a-month cooking. The two books I have are Once-a-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Langerborg and Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough. They include monthly menus, two-week menus, and even some holiday menus. The recipes are easy and, so far, we’ve yet to find one we don’t like. Granted, if a recipe calls for something we don’t care for, we don’t cook it. My daughter won’t eat eggs, so I ditch the egg dishes. My husband’s allergic to shell-fish, so… you get the point. And just so you know, I get no proceeds whatsover from any of the products I’ve recommended in this post. These are items I have and use and love. Found something I’ve linked to for a better price somewhere else? Go for it! Found something else you love? Go for it and please share it.

Bottom Line

If you’re trying to come up with a way to do homecooked meals more often, whether it’s for budget reasons or health reasons, give this a try. Don’t give up on it if it doesn’t quite work. Figure out where it went wrong and see if you can re-vamp it for your situation. Enjoy!

Tags: freezer meals, Meal Planning, once-a-month cooking

American Dream?

Sand Castle by caitlinator on Flickr

I love music and a lot of what I listen to often makes me think. I can listen to a song one day and it’s good. I enjoy it. I can hear the same song another day, in another frame of mind, and it smacks me.

Casting Crowns’ “American Dream” did that to me the other day. I don’t believe I’m living that song. I don’t believe my husband is either for that matter. But it gives a really good (and hard) message to those who are chasing the American dream (which, honestly, wouldn’t that be all of us?)

At least part of the song is based on Matthew 7:24-27. This is last part of the “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus has just chosen the disciples, a large crowd has gathered and he starts teaching them, beginning with the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). He closes by telling the listeners that whoever hears what He’s saying and puts it into practice is like a builder who built his house on a rock. Whoever does not hear or does not put His words into practice is like a foolish builder who built his house on sand. When rains come and wind blows, the house built on the rock stands because it has a firm foundation. The house built on sand? Yeah, it’s toast. It’s gone. “It fell with a great crash.”

The song tells the story of a man who is determined to give his family the finer things in life. He works long hours trying to build it himself. As a result of all that work, he misses things that are important to his wife and son and eventually loses them – the whole reason he was working so hard to begin with. He tells himself and his wife that things will get better, “we just need more time.”  The last few words of the song are, “All they really wanted was you.”   And that’s just it. A mom or dad can work hard to provide their family with “the finer things in life” but, you know what? All your child wants is you. All your spouse wants is you.

“He works and he builds with his own two hands.”

We often try to build our life all by ourselves and that’s our first mistake. We can’t do it on our own. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:11). “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” (Psalm 37:23). “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9). “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

“He pours all he has in a castle made of sand.”

Our foundation is often unsteady, like shifting sand, or nonexistent. That’s our second mistake. We need God. And when we let Him in and when we trust Him, our house is built on the Rock. Yes, trials and hardships come. That’s life. But those trials and hardships don’t destroy us because we have faith that God will help us through whatever comes our way.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But I’m sure you know it’s not.

It’s hard to have faith that things will work out when your newborn is in the hospital and doctors are convinced she won’t survive, much less thrive. It’s hard to have faith that things will work out when you have no job and money is, essentially, nonexistent and bills are coming in and the car has broken down. Again. It’s hard to have faith that things will work out when your spouse of almost 20 years comes home one day and wants a divorce for reasons that, to you, are vague and sound nothing like the person you thought you knew. It’s hard to have faith that things will work out when all you’ve known is a world of drug abuse and dysfunctional relationships – trying desperately to become free from it, to get your life together, but things just… Keep. Falling. Apart.

It’s hard.

But it’s at EXACTLY those times that we have to lean the hardest on God. It’s these trials that can make our relationship with God even stronger. It’s these trials that can make us and our relationships with others stronger.

It’s the trial of having a child with disabilities that prompts parents to become advocates for the disabled. It’s the trial of losing your job that prompts you to try other fields or to learn ways to stretch a dollar that you never imagined possible. It’s the trial of divorce that prompts you to step out and grow. It’s the trial of getting back on your feet and out of a world of dysfunction that makes you a stronger person who is then able to help others get out and get up.

It works out. Maybe not the way we wanted it to or the way we envisioned it. But it works out.

The newborn mentioned above was my daughter. She’s now 7 and shows absolutely no signs of ever having any birth trauma. And you know what? Even if she hadn’t survived or even if she did have all the things wrong with her that doctors said she should have had… I feel certain. We’d be okay.

What got us through it? God. Plain and simple. If my husband and I hadn’t had a relationship with Him to begin with, I’m not sure what would’ve happened. As a result of that trial, our relationship with God was strengthened and our relationship with each other was strengthened.

“I’ll take a shack on the rock over a castle in the sand”

There’s nothing wrong with having the finer things in life. But we have to keep perspective. What good are the finer things in life if you lose your family in the process? What good are the finer things in life if you lose your soul? Yeah, sure, go out and party and indulge – eat, drink and be merry. But when it’s all said and done, would you truly – honestly – be happy? Or complete? Would you have any real support should a hardship come?

Build your house on the rock. We can’t do it on our own.

What’s your story? Has there been a time in your life when you definitely saw/felt God at work? Has there been a time when you weren’t sure He was there, but looking back, you can now see that He was? Anything where  you felt or still feel He wasn’t there? Leave a comment and let me know.

Tags: Faith, Life

Neglect

rusty thing-a-ma-gig3 by psyberartist on Flickr

Dear Reader,

I’m guilty of neglect.

I got bogged down trying to figure out the direction to go with the blog and, somewhere in there, got lost. Then just neglected you.

I’m even guilty of neglecting the blogs I was reading to help me improve myself and this blog. I want to try to catch up on them because they really are good reads. We’ll see.

Anyway, as my darling husband pointed out, the reason I started this blog was to try figuring out “more to this life.” I’m not there yet. I don’t have all the answers. Part of me feels like you may look to me for answers so I need to have this persona of knowing them. Sorry. I’m journeying just like you. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head and I’ll do my best to share them. On a regular basis.

-Elizabeth

Twisted Story Tuesday – The Results

Last Tuesday I posted a list of types of words I needed. Two brave souls responded and here are their words plugged into the story.

Mom’s:

How to Choose Children for Your Dog or Puppy

Puppies, typically, can be screamed at by just about anything. Depending on your puppy, though, they can lovingly love some children and don’t want anything to do with others. You might have to run a few children to gauge what your puppy likes. Once you know that, you can have a beautiful idea of the types of children your puppy will like.

In the case of my 10 puppies, their maddening personalities decide the types of children I get them. One puppy, Krista, loves to tease and laughs. She absolutely loves the puppy teaser children. Whenever we bring it out, Krista goes crazy for them!  My other puppy, George is a very freckle-faced puppy. He likes to watch Krista play with them. When he is in a red-headed mood, he loves to taunt and love the children by himself. He’ll take a happy child we have and roll around skipping with the child on top of him.

The fail-safe child that almost always works (at least for any puppy I’ve known) is to give the puppy a little grilled cheese sam-ich with the child. Puppies love this stuff! They instantly get in a gooey mood as soon as they get a whiff of it.

Amy’s:

How to Choose Boats for Your Giraffe

Giraffes, typically, can be discovered by just about anything. Depending on your giraffe, though, they can bashfully love some boats and don’t want anything to do with others. You might have to recognize a few boats to gauge what your giraffe likes. Once you know that, you can have a panoramic idea of the types of boats your giraffe will like.

In the case of my 11 giraffes, their kindhearted personalities decide the types of boats I get them. One giraffe, Rachel, loves to strengthen and attempt. She absolutely loves the giraffe strengthening boats.Whenever we bring it out, Rachel goes crazy for them!  My other giraffe, Daniel is a very tenuous giraffe. He likes to watch Rachel play with them. When he is in a nostalgic mood, he loves to grind with and institute the boats by himself. He’ll take a bewildered boat we have and roll around laughing with the boat on top of him.

The fail-safe boat that almost always works (at least for any giraffe I’ve known) is to give the giraffe a little Moussaka with the boat. Giraffes love this stuff! They instantly get in an enchanted mood as soon as they get a whiff of it.

And last but not least, the original story can be found here: How to Choose Toys for Your Cat or Kitten

Thanks for playing!

De-Cluttering Update

Well, I have a shiny sink (most days). My counters are relatively clutter free and I’m loving actually having counter space to work on. I wasn’t able to part with the paint can turned Halloween can or the cool Russian wine bottle. The can is actually quite good at holding pencils and pens. I plan to incorporate the bottle into decorating. Somewhere. Somehow. It really is cool.

My next task was to be the dining room, but this week has been primarily working to maintain my kitchen cleanliness.

The table will be my biggest challenge in the dining room. One corner is filled with our daughter’s art projects and paraphernalia. Another corner is Halloween candy. Yes, Halloween candy. And my rice cooker. You see, I didn’t have room on the counters to put it in the kitchen, so I put it on the corner of the dining table near an outlet. I suppose I can put it back in the kitchen now. Novel idea, huh?  Then the other half is primarily mail and crap that needs to be shredded or tossed.

One question comes to mind as I work on these things: How does this tie into More 2 This Life? Is my de-cluttering and cleaning basically the same thing as just trying to make it through the day, same old same old? Perhaps on some level, yes. But I also believe that if my home is clean, tidy, peaceful, etc. then we’ll feel that way when we’re at home. How many sayings have you heard regarding one’s home? Here are a few I found:

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. (John Howard Payne)

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. (van Goethe)

Home is the most popular, and will be the most enduring of all earthly establishments. (Channing Pollock)

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles. (Zig Ziglar)

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. (Jane Austen)

I think the best thing I can do is to be a distraction. A husband lives and breathes his work all day long. If he comes home to more table thumping, how can the poor man ever relax? (Jackie Kennedy)

Now I realize that last quote will likely trigger some feelings about women being oppressed and all that not-so-good stuff, but that’s another post. I also believe that Ziglar’s quote refers to more than just the physical state of the home, but that’s maybe another post one day too. The bottom line is that all of these quotes describe the home as a place to get away, find peace, find comfort, find distraction from work, a place that you can go and just be yourself and not worry. Do you really believe you can find all that in the midst of clutter? I can’t. I may enjoy sitting and doing nothing for a bit, but the chaos will eventually get to me.

Having a place you can come into and be comfortable, be at peace, and just be yourself – THAT, to me, is an important part to an abundant life.

And that’s how all this de-cluttering fits into finding More 2 This Life.

Shiny Sink Confessions

I have a confession.

I didn’t shine my sink last night.

But I have a VERY good reason!

Really!

You see, a certain 7 year old girl wanted a sleepover with her mommy in the guest room.

And I believe that 7 year old girl is way more important than shining my sink.

Twisted Story Tuesday

This was actually my darling daughter’s idea. Sort of. I was talking to my hubby about ideas for a series of some sort when she piped up with, “How about Madlib Monday!”  Considering I think “Madlib” is a registered trademark, I’m making it for Tuesday. Or maybe I just missed Monday and wanted to go ahead and do it now instead of waiting a week.

Here’s how it works:

Each week (ideally), I find a story. I post what I need here and you comment with your suggestions. Later in the week, I post what we created and a link to the original story

So! For our inaugural twisted story, I need the following:

Plural Noun

Animal

Verb ending in -ed

Adverb

Verb

Adjective

Number

Adjective

Name 1

Verb

Verb

Name 2

Adjective

Adjective

Verb

Verb

Adjective

Verb ending in -ing

Type of food

Adjective

The power of… the shiny sink.

Why would you want to shine your sink? Because it’s GORGEOUS! See?

Ooooo.... shiinnnyyy!

If you haven’t discovered FlyLady yet, feel free to hop over and visit. Who is FlyLady? She’s an extremely organized lady who is encouraging others to FLY! One of the ways we can fly is by keeping our house organized and out of CHAOS (can’t have anyone over syndrome, btw). The first step is to shine your sink. I agree, it sounds silly. She even told me it would sound silly. But I did it. And if you do it, I’m willing to bet you’ll love it too and here’s why:

Because you’ll want to keep it that way

My mom has shined mine for me. Multiple times. And it was gorgeous each time. But guess what? Within a few days it was back to normal. My theory is that it’s because I didn’t do it. We tend to be a little more possessive of something we’ve done ourselves. When someone else does it for us, we don’t have quite the same attachment.

Because you’ll want to shiny up more

You’ll want to shiny up the spaces around that shiny sink (notice that the picture does NOT include the counters around the sink… yet. It’ll come. Patience, grasshopper.). I had dishes on the left side that were from the dishwasher – mostly plastics that needed to dry a little more before being put away. There were other odds and ends from my daughter’s days of sippy cups (she’s about to turn 7. SEVEN!).  There are also sometimes pots or pans that I hand-washed and set over there to dry. No more! It made me want to continue de-cluttering, but I made myself stop. Some of you clean-freak types (and even some of you who know it’s rare that we get into a “cleaning mood”) are probably yelling, “Why?!”

Baby Steps

I stopped because I had told myself I would clean off and shine my sink. That was it. After that was quality time with my husband and the completion of a  much anticipated Dr. Who episode. Tonight, I’ll be doing another piece of the counter, shine my sink, then go have some more quality time with my husband.

I’ll be honest. I’m not looking forward to this. I enjoy organizing, but I’m also a bit of a pack rat. “But that wine bottle is so neat and it’s clay with a foreign language on it, so it must be valuable! So what if it was something the previous owners left when we moved in 5 years ago!” “Hey, I might find the cup this lid goes to…” “Awww… Taylor made that Halloween bucket out of a paint can when she was in K-4. Or was it K-3?” Any of those sound vaguely familiar?

Each night, I’ll be shining my sink. I hope you will too – it really is a neat feeling.

Twitter Updates for 2010-01-04

• Tonight, I shined my sink and it's GORGEOUS! #flylady #

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Tags: tweets, Twitter

Choosing 6 for 2010

Why is there a picture of a cluttered countertop? (Trust me, it’s a countertop.)  I’m so glad you asked!

Over on my links page is a blog called Zen Habits. Leo Babauta, the guy who runs it, has created another blog called 6 Changes and says that this method is “the antidote to the failure of New Year’s Resolutions”. I’ve read through the method and have chosen my 6 that will be worked on through the course of this year. He says to make it as public as possible, so here goes!  The first one I’m going to work on is *drumroooollllll*  Clutter!  (the crowd goes wild!!). Or not. My friends and family will probably laugh. To be honest, part of me is also thinking, “Ha! Yeah… right.” and “Good luck with that…”  I have a dichotomy going on in my noggin, after all. Look at my countertops and other open spaces and it’s a mess. Open up a cabinet drawer and it’s (usually) organized and neat. So, for the sake of specificity, my goal is stated thusly: I will de-clutter one room of my house each week (and keep it de-cluttered)!

Each goal is to take two months and I have 8 rooms in my house (I’m considering our two bathrooms as “one”).  I decided to start with clutter because, honestly, it’s the one driving me the craziest right now. I want to eat healthier and lose weight and will be working on that some, but my primary focus during the first two months of the year will be de-cluttering.

I’ll be updating my progress here, obviously.

He also stresses the importance of enjoying the journey. If I don’t enjoy what I’m doing, it’s doubtful that it will stick. I suppose this is where I let my inner obsessive-compulsive out. When I have cleaned a room, I LOVE the way it looks. It’s so neat. Everything is in its proper spot. I can’t explain the aesthetic feeling I get when I look at a neat and well put together room. I love it! My chest feels like it could pop and I want to freeze that moment forever. But without fail, within a few weeks, I get lazy and just set something down instead of putting it away. Or, I see that someone else has put something down instead of putting it away and, for some insane reason, I see that as permission. That one innocent little item leads to the path of destruction. Okay, slight exaggeration, but it’s not long after that “one item” appears that the rest of the room is suddenly cluttered again.

In an attempt to thwart that, I also have come across a plan that allows one to do a quick “clean-up” for each room of a house. It involves having all the tools together, so that’ll be part of my journey to the goal – putting together the right tools.

In one of his posts on minimalism, Leo says to look at your possessions and determine if what you have is truly important. “Whittle it down until you’re left with the minimum for the life you want to lead.”  So, each day, I will go in whatever room I’m working on in a given week and look for things that are not needed and get rid of them. I’m planning to do one section of the room each day (another option is setting a time limit, but I know I won’t want to quit in the middle of a section if time is up). So, I’ll clear out a section and divide it into keep, trash, give away. He suggests another box for items I’m not sure about: box it up, label it, if I haven’t opened it in 6 months, give it away or trash it.

I also need to figure out a trigger – something I do every day – weekdays AND weekends. Why? Because if I plan to add that task, I’m likely to let it slide when things get busy. If the task is tied to something I already do, it’s more likely to stick.  That said, I’ve also recently discovered a little site called FlyLady. This lady is ÜBER organized and I can SO see myself going there.