Pumpkins

 

 So, I brought in the rest of the pumpkins yesterday.  Somehow, I managed to grow over 60 of them this year.  Thinking I'll be needing to hang out a Pumpkins for Sale sign!
They've survived crazy weather, deer, cows and bears to make for a bumper crop.
My.  Think of all the Pumpkin Spice Lattes this could mean......

What's Blooming Now

I gathered up a few pretties last night while I was grilling supper.

I've become rather proficient on the grill.  In fact, I grilled everything last night:  these veggies, chicken, eggplant, tortillas and even the peaches for dessert.  A little oil and a lot of my Herbal Salt make it all so good.  I'm using fresh herbs as much as I can, but I find the Herbal Salt works great on the grill especially on things where the fresh herbs would fall off or burn.
I love cast iron, don't you?  I can mix up whatever I want inside the skillets and toss the whole thing on the grill.  I get the great flavor I want, don't heat up the kitchen, and nothing falls through the grates or sticks.  It's perfect for the little things. 

Produce

While I wish we were already growing all the food we want to eat, we aren't.
While I wish wonderful organic produce was available where we live, it isn't.

And so we make do.  We forage, fish, barter, and grow what we are able.  We also get stuff at Costco when we make the trip down below.  In the in between times we can go to the store here in town.  It's not great.  Most things come with an odd, greasy smell.  Really not good.

A few weeks ago I started doing Bountiful Baskets here.  The first week I did the organic box, but have since just ordered the regular, both for cost and quality issues.  I picked up my two baskets today.  For $31.50, I got 34 plums, 2 quarts strawberries, 2 pints blueberries, 10 apples, 11 bananas (or bananananananas as Cupcake calls them) 5 pounds of grapes, 3 fennel bulbs, 6 tomatoes, 4 heads of lettuce, 11 chili peppers and 18 yellow bell peppers.  You don't get to pick what you want, but sometimes you can find someone wanting to trade.

We stopped by the store later to fill in the gaps.  They were having their fill a bag for $10 on select produce.  I stuffed one bag with 5 oranges, 5 broccoli bunches, 5 cucumbers, 2 onions and 10 pounds of carrots.  It was a pretty full bag.

I added in our garden spinach, arugula, radishes, tarragon and chives for an amazing salad with dinner.

There's a potluck at church tomorrow.  I was teasing Sweetheart I was going to make something with fennel and peppers to take since none of those things are a hit around here.  I was surprised at dinner though.  I sliced up a yellow bell and they ate it all.  

So, send your fennel and pepper recipe links on over and we'll see what we can do....Or maybe I should send the peppers to you, Dad, for Fathers Day....

All these veggies might just counteract the six-seven sticks of butter I went through yesterday.  Three pies, a tart, corn on the cob, sauteed morels & zucchini use a lot of butter.  No, I didn't eat it all. 

"How?"

How an average suburban mom has transformed her average life to one of simple joys and basic living. Or, how I became sewing, canning, gardening, organic eating, flour milling, cracker cooking, bread baking, deodorant, hairspray, lotion and lipbalm making Mama.

Awhile back I wrote about the changes we have made to simplify our lives. That post is here with an update here. Those posts are more about what we've changed and why. This post is more of the how. We have continue to grow and change and add more things to our lives, usually in the way of removing something else. In others words, instead of buying things we are making more and more ourselves.

So much is so different than even two years ago. If you had tried to talk to me then about canning or preserving food, or simple cleaning products, I would have smiled and been clueless. I even remember a mom speaking at Mops around then of all the natural things they did and used. I only half listened, one because I was holding my newborn and two because I thought a lot of the ideas were too different. I didn't know anyone doing those things, wasn't raised that way, didn't much care, and generally was just busy doing my own thing.

We figured we were doing fine happily raising our family doing a lot of what we saw everyone around us do. Not having television and having babies at home had already set us apart from a lot. For us, when the change came, it came quick and took over.

I've been asked several times about how we started doing all these things. By "all these things", it is usually meant all the things I make here at home. So much of it has been just absorbed into my daily routines I hardly notice it until someone mentions it. Then it is sorta funny to me to remember that not everyone is excited to preserve 120 pounds of apples, 80 pounds of tomatoes, 40 pounds of peaches, nor pickle at least two bushels worth of cucumbers. Not everyone loves an afternoon of making healing balms, lip balms, lotions, and deodorant. Not everyone thinks about how many loaves of bread should be baked, or what style of bread we'll need for the next week or so.

I'm not writing this to say look at all I do! I write it to see if someone will come help with the dishes. No, not really. I write this to encourage and maybe inspire others to look at the type of life they want to live and to see what they can do to begin achieving it right now. I'd love to live out on forty acres in the country. To have a cow, some goats and a flock of chickens. I'd love that. I'd love to have an orchard, for the boys to have room to run and play and build and grow. Reality is that I live in an American suburb and I drive a minivan.

Some of my favorite blogs lately have been trying to field the question of how to begin living more simply. Most write a lot about baby steps and the need to not get discouraged. That's great. One thing I think that is important to realize is that a simple life is not necessarily an easier life. It would be easier to drive through Mc Donalds. It would be easier to live at the mall, or to just stay in my air-conditioned cocoon. It is a lot of work to plan ahead for a handmade Christmas, to all the gardening and preserving, to try and live according to the rhythms God has made in our world.

I sometimes think it is more of a natural life than a simple one. And it has become a foreign one in this country. Taking a step back is hard and sometimes lonely and more than once I've felt like a total dork because I have no idea what everyone is talking about that happened on the television the night before!

But, aren't we supposed to be different? To be in the world, but not so wrapped up in it? Now, I believe salvation is through faith alone in Christ Jesus. I am not going to spend eternity with Him because I live like this. Living like this though, helps me to draw closer to Him in this everyday life.

Slowing down, living at a gentler pace, allows me to stop and listen. To praise Him while I'm working in the garden. To worship the wonder of His creation as I kneel, humbled in the dirt. Thanking Him for His hand in all I see. Looking at the absolute variety in something as simple as the lettuces, or the bugs. Cupping a frog in my hands and staring at its ugly, amazing face. Tuning out the other sounds to focus on the birds, or the rustle of the breeze in the cornstalks. To feel the golden autumn glow, gently warming my back as I dig up yet another weed.

To understand the verse that says, “Unless a seed falls t o the ground and dies....” and seeing how dying to myself and my constant struggle to pour my life out for others when all I want is to be left alone. It is in that dying I will live.

Lessons appear not just in the garden. “Give us this day our daily bread,” somehow means more when I'm praying while kneading that bread. The rhythm of grating the soap to make detergent is relaxing. Knowing that He has made plants for us to use for healing and finding them to mix into a balm that will soothe a scrape, or a rash, is amazing to me.

So, how do you get started? For me it was looking at all I was buying and seeing what I could make myself. Google is an amazing resource. I would see something I knew we used or ate a lot and started looking up directions and recipes and adapting these to fit us.

Reading blogs from other women who were trying new (to me) things and learning from them has been an enormous source of wisdom. It wouldn't have occurred to me that laundry detergent or deodorant was even something you could make at home if I had not read about someone else doing it! I always figured everyone used shampoo and conditioner until I read about several women who don't and who explained how to use baking soda and vinegar instead. Their promises that I wouldn't walk around looking like an oil slick or smelling like an Easter Egg made me willing to try it for myself.

Rhonda has oodles of amazing ideas for homemade cleaners using mostly baking soda and vinegar as well. She's just full of easy tips and shares her knowledge in such a wonderful way that you feel as though she is just across the kitchen counter, not around in the world somewhere in Australia. Her Co-op pools great posts from all sorts of writers globally who love to share the things they do in their own lives. They write about what works and sometimes even more importantly, what doesn't. A few of the writers are not as interesting to me, but overall there are some wonderful articles.

I look up things on You Tube as well. There I learned how to easily peel tomatoes for canning, and how to sew bias tape without cursing. (Thank you Amy Karol!) I am not linking to You Tube, nor endorsing it for random viewing. I am jut suggesting it for those of us who need to see something to get it. Although, I still haven't managed to follow the video on teaching myself to crochet.

If something helps, I do it. If I can find an easier way to do something, or a simpler recipe, I switch. I've grown to not be afraid of failure. An awful result is rarely permanent.

So a batch of body butter isn't right? Remelt it and add more stuff. A seam seems wrong? Get the seam riper and remove it the right way and do it again and again if necessary. Stuck on a project? Stop, make a pot of tea and then try again, or try another day when things are better. Bread doesn't rise? Eat it flat and next time make sure the yeast is fresh, the water warm enough, the dough is kneaded longer. Whatever. Don't be afraid of failure! You can learn a lot, certainly a lot more than if you had never tried in the first place.

I already enjoyed baking French bread for dinners, so it made sense to expand that to making sandwich bread. That done I moved onto pita bread, tortillas, flat breads, and crackers. Why keep buying the frozen Eggo waffles Sweetheart ate every morning? Find a recipe, bake huge batches and toss them in the freezer so he can happily toast what he wants each and everyday.

Making all these things requires a lot of flour. Why keep buying it in 10 pound bags? We bought a mill and I started milling the wheat myself. When the price of wheat went up at the grocery store by 70% in one month, we found a local source of 50 lb bags of wheat berries and stocked up.

I read a lot and the more I've read the more I thought about the food we buy. Our organic farm up the road led me to pay attention even more to how our food is grown and all the chemicals and pesticides on it all. So I began to seek out alternatives. I found a store that sold a lot of organic foods and natural meats. They have a wonderful bulk food section as well. I now drive across town every few weeks and load up. All the bulk purchases led to the next thing and I sewed up a ton of cloth draw string bags for all my produce and bulk things. Those little bags are also great to use instead of ziplocs and I also fill them with all sorts of little things whenever I need them. A quick trip through the wash with the homemade detergent as needed means they are always ready to go, either waiting by the front door or in the van with all the cloth shopping bags.

I grew extremely sensitive to smells and chemicals when I first became pregnant. That sensitivity has remained. When we began to change our food I knew it made no sense to eat organic and then continue to turn our house into a chemical vat every time I cleaned something. First, I transitioned to more natural cleaners having read about several people using Mrs. Meyers . Her products do work well and because of their concentrated nature ended up not being any more expensive than the regular things I had been using. As I ran out of things though I decided to see what else I could use their place. Though better, I still found them somewhat irritating.

After more reading and Googling, I've found that I can clean almost anything with vinegar and baking soda. I just pour white vinegar in a spray bottle. To clean the bathrooms I just spray pretty much every surface with the vinegar and wipe everything down. I poured baking soda and salt in a canning jar and had Sweetheart drill some holes in the lid. I shake the powder onto any surface that needs scouring. It works great on porcelain, laminates, and even stainless steel. You can add essential oils to both for fragrance, but I usually use them plain. A shaker jar, like for parmesan cheese, works, too. I just use what I have on hand. Arm & Hammer does sell a plastic container with holes in the lid, but it is not reusable and costs a lot more.

So far, I have been very pleased with my natural cleaners. I stopped using regular furniture polish because the aerosols bothered me. I used half olive oil and half lemon juice in a jar for awhile. Most of the time it worked great, but I did find that if I used too much olive oil the wood was a bit sticky. It isn't always perfect and that's ok.

I share these links and ideas knowing that some people will find them useful and some people will find them pointless. Maybe someone will file the ideas in the back of his or her mind for later. Maybe you will run out of something and not want to go to the store and decide to try to just make what you need. I hope this inspires you!

My goal is never to make someone feel bad for what they do or don't do. NEVER! I am just sharing my life because I have found ideas and inspirations from others sharing their lives. I tried to link to a lot of the directions for things, but if you are not finding what you are looking for, try the search box in the right column, or leave a comment and I will hook you up.

I wrote out most of this blog awhile back, but knew I needed to edit it and add the links. Today seems like the right day to just call it done and publish it. Maybe it was all the driving around in the country this weekend looking at farms, or maybe it is just because I am starting a new year today, but I want to get this out there.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them and I will get back to you. Also, do you want to read more along these lines? Are tutorials helpful? Any ideas strike you as something you would try? I am just curious. :)

Cold Days

The snow is lightly falling today. We are staying inside where it is warm. Dumpling is such a big help with the baking. ;)

I made seven quarts of granola this morning. Don't know what I was thinking. We all like it, but I am thinking I will need to be sharing or freezing some of this bounty. I usually make just half the recipe, but it sounded good so I just made the full batch. Guess I won't have to make it again until the baby is born. In September.

We were planning to head out and pick up some more wheat and grains to have on hand, but have moved that plan out until Thursday. We get our serious bulk (50 lb. bags) from Nadine at Family Baker.

I have discovered Quinoa and been making a ton of it these last few months. While paying so much at once seems crazy, it lasts well and cost only half of what it would buying in in smaller bulk amounts at the store. I love Quinoa in a variety of dishes. For breakfast, I love this recipe for Warm & Nutty Quinoa. It is so flavorful and keeps me feeling full a lot longer than oatmeal because it has so much protein. For a savory salad option, there is this recipe.

I have also just made a big batch of it plain early in the week and then had some for breakfast with the berries and pecans and other meals adding it to my own salads. In the salads, it is sort of like couscous.

One thing---you MUST rinse it a ton!!! If you do not rinse it enough before cooking it, it will be bitter and gross. Ask me how I know. I know soak it and rinse it a bunch before cooking it. Keeping rinsing/soaking until the water is clear and there are no bubbles.

Quinoa is great because it is a huge protein source. It is rather flavorless on its own, so it is very adaptable. It is also gluten-free which is helpful as I have several friends now not eating gluten. It is like a grain, but technically isn't.

Wow. I wasn't planning on an entire post on Quinoa. I am just happy to be awake while the boys nap to get a chance to write at all!

What else...flax seeds. I added them to the granola and had them on my oatmeal this morning. I've been adding them to all sorts of things and even just munching on a spoonful plain. They have a nice, nutty taste and lots of goodness in them.

I will be making up some yogurt cheese/quark as soon as I can pry myself off of this chair. I basically strain plain yogurt for a long time and then use it in place of cream cheese and sour cream and as a spread base. I had only made it with herbs and spices for flavor, but may dish out a bit and add some fruit juice for a sweeter spread.

There are sprouts soaking on the windowsill today as well. Those will get added to the next Quinoa Salad. :) We also like to just eat them plain out of the jar! We being Pumpkin and I. Sweetheart & Dumpling don't care for them.

Gee, I must be hungry. I haven't written this much on food in quite some time!

I also worked ahead on menu planning as per Rachel Anne's challenge today. I did this for the first time when she posted it in January and did it again for February. Since I am trying to be a good Company Girl I figured I needed to forged ahead on March. So, we are all planned through April 1 at which time I will probably collapse and order take-out pizza for a week. Just kidding.

It went pretty well as far as the planning as I took out my new cookbook, Tosca Roma's Eat Clean, opened up to the entree section and just starting plugging recipes that sounded good into my weekly plan. I was able to full up most of March. I skipped a few recipes that just didn't seem to be anything we'd eat, but overall really like the book.

No, I am not dieting while pregnant. And yes, the first recipe I made from it was her brownie recipe. I just needed some help cleaning up our meals a bit. I am a great Comfort Food Cook. I love cooking and baking from scratch. It means virtually no preservatives, which is good, but a lot of butter and other yumminess that might not be as good for us. Balance is good.

Well, I need to clean up the disaster that is my kitchen after cooking away today. And I think I need a snack. Hmmm....granola anyone?

Zippy!

That's the best way to describe the Curried Apple Chutney I made yesterday. It's the most amazing recipe of apples, raisin, brown sugar, curry and other spices. But to keep it from being basically a baked apple, it also has vinegar, onion, and sweet peppers. Oh my! I am so looking forward to trying more than just a sample spoon.

The original recipe called for hot pepper and garlic which I omitted due to personal preferences here. Oddly enough the yield should have been five pints, but I barely had two and a half pints. Canning recipes and yields can be so odd. I also put up another five and a half quarts of pickles from the garden cucumbers. Cause we needed more pickles. If they was ever an emergency situation, my family would be surviving on bread and jam and pickles. Of course, we'd be able to eat these for weeks on end!

I got a pot of applesauce simmering on the stove waiting to be finishing and put into the jars. I kept all the cores and peels I've been making and am planning on running them all through the press I have. It'll all probably only amount to one cup of juice and a big mess, but since I have everything on hand I might as well try and it will mean they'll be almost no waste. I suppose I could keep the leftovers from making cider for cider vinegar. Maybe next year.

I did try to run the peels and cores through the mill I was given so as to make apple butter from the leftovers. That was just an exercise in frustration and mess just like the peach experiment. Glad it was free. I'll probably try it again with tomatoes since they are soft, but if that doesn't work it will need to find a new home. Grumble.

It certainly feels like autumn around here! The spice applesauce simmering on the stove, the pumpkin spice waffles cooking in the waffles iron, & the pumpkin candle burning. Even my coffee tastes like autumn as I mixed together brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves and tucked them into a jar on the counter for oatmeal mornings.

I discovered the mix is delightful in my coffee as well. Much cheaper than a Pumpkin Spice Latte and easier to get around here. Though I do love those lattes! It must be a family thing as my sister in California mentioned having one the other day--over ice. By mixing the spices in the sugar I am able to stir it all evenly into the coffee without the spices just floating on the top as they do when I just sprinkle them in.

I've still got another twenty pounds of apples on hand. I'll probably make more of everything and some apple butter as well. So yummy! I do love all the foods that are in season this time of year, don't you?

I used up the rest of the pureed squash I had frozen last fall for the waffles this morning and I'm down to one Hubbard squash from last year's garden. It's a big one, but I think I'll need to try and find some more. They are such good keepers and I use them in any recipe that calls for pumpkins or squashes. I didn't get any planted this year, but will make it a priority for next year's garden.

Well, I need to go and stir the applesauce and scrub down the cider press as I've not used it before. I'll let you know how it goes!

Bounty

Why do we call it canning when it's all in jars? Just wondering.

Yesterday's work: Strawberry Jam from strawberries we picked on Thursday at the farm. I think we'll go back on Tuesday for raspberries. The beans are from the farm as well and made into Dilly Beans. The Zucchini Pickles are from our garden as are the Beet Pickles.

I've gone through gallons of vinegar and bags of sugar this year.

The beets are interesting. We didn't eat beets growing up and I didn't even now what to do with them. But the seed packet was only 20 cents so I figured I had nothing to lose. They've grown so well. I threw some in potatoes packs on the grill, but didn't really notice a flavor. My mom like pickles beets so I did that. I found one small one in the bottom of the pan I missed during peeling the beets for pickling yesterday, so I just ate it plain. Again, not much flavor.

I've got more still growing and I only planted half the packet of seeds. The rest will either be made into chips, or beet wine. Not a bad haul for 10 cents, I'd say.

And the zucchini? Let's just say that twelve plants provide plenty for everyone. I hauled in a basketful and shared them with my friends the other night. Everyone who comes over leaves with some and I've baked, stuffed, fried, and dried them. I made up four loaves of zucchini bread the other day for the freezer as well. I've got a recipe for Zucchini Soup to try out as well.

Pumpkin and I went out before breakfast this morning so he could pick more beans. They are Italian Rose beans, a type to eat fresh (for breakfast if you desire) or you can just let them dry on the vine for winter. I'm planning to do both. I thought I'd planted regular green beans, but I haven't seen them.

I'm doing all I can to stay out of the kitchen today. Leftovers and baking from earlier in the week are keeping us fed. Two jars of the Dilly Beans didn't seal, so we'll have some of them for dinner tonight . Those are the only jars this year that didn't seal. Not bad for all the canning I've done.

What are you putting up for winter?

Friday Food Fun!

I just picked up a bushel of pickling cucumbers and a bushel of zucchini and Italian squash. Last year I put up a bushel of pickles and we've had to ration them out. We're down to one unopened jar left. I did give quite a few years away, something that did not thrill Sweetheart once he had eaten them and loved them. I'm planning on making at least two bushels this year. This way we'll have enough and I'll still have plenty to share.

I love zucchini. We'll eat some fresh, some stuffed and I may even fry some this weekend on my free day. I make zucchini bread, too. This year though I'm trying something new: zucchini chips. Inspired by Prairie Girl I've got two huge bowls worth soaking as I type. I picked up a second dehydrator this winter at the thrift store, so I'll be filling those trays right up. I bought it after stretching out making apple chips over too many days last Autumn. I'd rather do all my prep work at once in huge quantities. This way I can do twice as much in the same amount of time overall.

The half bushel of Italian squash was an impulse buy. I'll add it to dinners and searched for some new recipes. I also sliced one up to try it in chips as well. For $2.50 for a half bushel, I couldn't resist!

I'm hoping the chips work well. Since I make most of our meals and snacks from scratch, I'd like to have some new ideas and flavors. We like chips and I'd rather make them than buy them. I do have some ranch seasoning left over from life before and I have some bbq rub seasoning that I think will work well. I'll leave some plain and some just salted. I'll let you know how it goes.

Since last year was my first attempt at preserving food, I've learned a lot! I am amazed at how many things one can make for oneself. The cost is usually less and the end product so much better. It might not all be uniform and perfect looking, but I've moved beyond perfection as a life goal. It's made life a lot easier for me and everyone who is near me. :)

Well, Sweetheart is back in town after being gone for too long. So, hopefully, I'll be able to post new pictures soon and get my computer back to normal. Where was he, you ask? Why, at a tech conference of course. Isn't that the way it always goes?

Making Dinner Easier

I've always thought the Once a Month Cooking idea was great. I've just not seemed to do it. My family likes new recipes occasionally, but prefers tried and try meals. Sweetheart is rather, um, particular about food.

After that mild understatement, let me just ramble on an idea that works for us. The first time I thought I'd try OAMC I searched online for ideas and recipes. There are a lot of them out there! But since we eat the way we do, I realized it would do me no good to make a freezer full of food we won't eat.

The first time I did this, I carefully thought out meals that would freeze well and be easy to reheat. I made massive lists for shopping and for planning out the cooking. It was a lot of time up front, but worked great. My mom also came over to help she babysat and washed a lot of dishes. It was great!

Lately, I've not been too good about meal planning. There are just days I forget to defrost meat, or plan ahead. This has led to a lot of hassle at 5 pm and meals that weren't so great. It's even meant a few calls to Sweetheart to pick something up on the way home. I don't like that. I mean, I like eating something I don't have to cook, but it is expensive and often not as healthy.

I decided last week I needed to do something. So, I made my grocery list of the things we needed and what was on sale at the grocery. Then, after the boys went to bed I went shopping. I got all our needed things and loaded up in the meat department. All natural chicken breasts were $1.49 a pound in the family pack. I got a lot of packs! Several other meats we usually eat were on sale as well.

I put everything in the fridge when I got home and crashed since it was after 10 pm. The next morning while the boys were eating breakfast I got cooking! I cooked several batches of bacon first. I hate cooking bacon, especially because I tend to burn it. This is why I did several pounds at once. I only burned one batch. Once it cooled I put it small batches in bags for the freezer. Now I can just take out a small amount as needed.

Once I got the bacon burning/cooking I started the next rounds. I baked a huge turkey breast and a giant pan of chicken. I just seasoned them with salt and pepper and baked them until they were done. I also put a pot of white beans on the stove and filled the Crockpot with spareribs.

Once the bacon was done, I cooked up bratwurst. While that was going I started cleaning and prepping the produce I'd bought the night before. I always use more fruits and veggies when they are all cleaned and prepped. That led to making up a couple of jars of salsa-one for the fridge and one for the freezer.

Did you know washing, peeling, and cutting five pounds of carrots will turn your hands positively orange? Several pounds of those went into the pot for Carrot Ginger Soup. Some were sliced for the Cassoulet and the rest into sticks that were packed in jars of water for the fridge.

When everything was ready, I made the Cassoulet--beans, bratwurst and chicken, tomatoes chopped (pre-salsa) carrots, and spices. That went into the oven for a bit with the turkey that was still baking. A second pot of beans, red this time, simmered behind the Carrot Ginger Soup.

The turkey was sliced thin for sandwiches and put into small bags for a few days worth and tucked into a bigger freezer bags to keep it all together. Even the ribs were divided into several freezer tubs for several nights of dinners.

Calzones were planned for dinner so I needed to make ricotta cheese. Once that was going, I started the dough. Pumpkin asked if we could have lasagna. Since I was already needing ricotta, mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil for the calzones, I figured I might as well assemble lasagna. I browned the ground buffalo and added the tomato sauce to it. Once the ricotta was drained, I took part out for the calzones and set it aside. It was then quick work to assemble the lasagnas. Those went into some glass loaf pans I have and were tucked right into the freezer.

In the middle of it all, the boys played and I took frequent breaks to read to them and build train tracks and dispense kisses. I love having a kitchen that's so open they are always in sight!

I was able to get so much done. I was exhausted by the time we sat down to calzones for dinner, but was thrilled to have so much done. I didn't get everything done I'd planned, but that was ok. The next day I grilled several more packs of chicken, the rest of the buffalo in patties, and a steak that was on sale. Once they all cooled, they were packed into the freezer in smaller portions as well.

By the end of that, I had the main parts of at least 30 dinners in the freezer and all of it stuff we like. Yes, washing all the dishes took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. ! This week has been a breeze though. I've just pulled whatever we want out of the freezer in the morning (or afternoon!). Then it's been so easy to make salads and veggie plates because everything already ready to go. I've also been able to send Sweetheart off with a variety of things he can keep in the fridge or freezer for his lunch at work. Also, I plan to cook dinner most nights and just use the freezer dinners as needed.

It made a giant mess and I was worn out by the end, but it will pay off with all the time and money saved at the end. I like doing this my way because I am able to just use simple, easy dishes my family loves and not have to try and figure out a bunch of new recipes, or buy new things we might not use again.

I am writing this post just to encourage others of you out there to try it yourself with the things YOU like. I didn't include specific recipes, because I don't really follow them anyway. But I'll pass on what I can if anyone is interested. This is something anyone can do.

If cooking is not your thing, you can start smaller of course. One change I made awhile back was simple, but saves a lot of time and money. Any time I grill chicken, I grill several packages of chicken. I use the boneless skinless pieces and just salt and pepper them. Once they are done and cool, I pack them loosely into freezer bags. This is great because we can still have grilled chicken even when it's snowing~like today.

I can then just take out what I need, occasionally banging on the bag with the meat hammer, and put the pieces I need in the fridge or defrost them in the microwave. I toss them on pita bread with bbq sauce and cheese and veggies for quick pizzas. Yesterday I chopped up pieces and served them with a big salad when I had a neighbor over for lunch.

Last night, I tossed the leftover pieces of chicken with my sesame ginger salad dressing I'd mixed for the lunch. I cooked some rice noodles and added them and some of the cooking water to make a quick Asian Noodle Soup. The boys had their chicken with bbq sauce and salad and everyone was happy.

There's no need to buy the bags of frozen grilled chicken if you have a grill. Besides, am I the only one who thinks the chicken always tastes funky from the "solutions" they inject in them? Finally, preservatives aside, I believe it's a lot less expensive by the pound.

The best tips I can give are to take a few minutes to plan out what you what to do and see where you can do double duty. For example--chopping the tomatoes all up in the food processor and removing a cup for the Cassoulet, then adding the rest of the ingredients to the processor to make the salsa meant I only needed to wash everything once. Also, plan on baking things together like the chicken and turkey that need the same temperature. It saves time and energy.

Finally, make sure you label everything!!! It may also help to put an inventory list on the freezer door to keep track of what you have on hand. And make your life easier by starting with a clean kitchen and an empty dishwasher. It'll fill up fast!

Does anyone else have any ideas or suggestions for ways to make making dinner easier? What works for you?