Be patient Mama, and stocking up!

Out of the mouths of babes.
So a few weeks LM and I were in the grocery store together.  I was trying to hustle him along because it was the afternoon and I (selfishly) wanted to get home, change into my jammies and throw that fake log on the fire that was in my grocery cart. LM was walking and NOT in the cart. I asked him to "move out smartly" because he was lagging behind and I didn't want to invoke The Cart Rule. The Cart Rule in our house states that when in a store if you can't stay NEXT to Mama then you get in the cart.  I have no idea what the rule is with Dada, but it is a FIRM rule with me.  Poor LM was really dragging his feet and when I asked him again to put a little hustle in it, he looked up at me with his crazy long eyelashes, gave a big sigh and said, "I am moving, you have to be patient."  Well said LM, well said.  With that I took a minute to slow down my aggressive power walk and wait up for him.

On another note, I spent time last weekend restocking the freezer with a few freezer meals so I CAN be more patient.  I am always more patient when I don't have to freak out what to cook for dinner.

Here is how I do it.
Planning

• I always grocery shop the day prior to my prep day.  I can't pull myself together for doing it all on one day. I generally do one type of protein (holla Top Chef) at a time.  I find this easier for me with planning.
• assess freezing supplies- I use FREEZER gallon and quart size bags, aluminum foil casserole dishes (or what ever I can find).  I bought a TON on sale after Christmas so we will have snowman on our dishes for the next year. There are different techniques and the book can help you with this, but I mostly use the disposable pans.  I like the no mess, no clean up of it.  I also don't have to flash freeze the dish then pull and wrap.  Do some research and decide what you want to do.  Remember this should make your life easier!

• Sale items dictate recipes that are used

• I heavily use the internet as resources and this book- Don't Panic- Dinner is in the Freezer (I would link to this book but I can't because I am writing this at work and they block EVERY website ever!).  I scan the Sunday paper looking for the best deal on the protein (Top Chef) and match them up with the appropriate recipe.  This time around I hit some crazy sales on boneless chicken breasts.  However, I was short on time so I totally went the easy way.  I bought 6 packages of chicken (3-4 breasts each) for about $1.50-$2 a package. I also wanted to make a few meat things so I also got a total of 4lbs of ground meat- it was on sale but not for an awesome price.

Menu

• 6 packages of marinated chicken- ready to grill
• 2 meals of sloppy joes
• 2 baked ziti casseroles
• 40 meatballs (raw, need to be thawed and cooked for 20 minutes)- good for meatball subs, spaghetti or a white sauce.

Prep Day

• I set aside about 2 hours for this, but it didn't take that long.
• Cut up three onions and measure.  Place any left over in freezer bags of 1 cup servings to use later.
• Brown meat for meat based dishes.  I made baked ziti and sloppy joes.  Both have a base of browned ground beef and onions.  Easy peasy.
• Make sloppy joes and simmer on the back burner
• Make and assemble baked ziti
• while everything is cooling, bag up chicken.
• I had at home already several McCormick packages of meat marinades and some Italian dressing.  Three breasts in a gallon size FREEZER zip lock with the marinade mixed, labels on front and six meals are ready for the grill.  The night prior or when the first person gets home, the bag is pulled.  As the chicken thaws, the marinade does it's job.  Grill the chicken and you can either eat it straight, cut it up for chicken salad or a regular salad.  I make small batches because it is easier to pull two bags out then make too much and then not eat it.
• Make meatballs and flash freeze on a cookie sheet.  You do this so that they don't stick together in the bag and so that they don't get as much freezer burn.

Bag it up

• Soooo my chicken is already bagged up.  I make sure I have a label on the outside with what kind of chicken.  Freeze it flat or roll it is up to you.  I roll.
• When cool, double wrap the casseroles in foil and saran wrap.  Put a label on the front with then name and cooking instructions.
• Put the meatballs in a freezer bag and label.
• Cool sloppy joes, place in freezer bags, label and flash free flat (place bag in a cake pan). When they hold their shape you can pull them out.

Last words

• I always write up a freezer inventory and put it on the fridge upstairs so ALL of us know what is in the basement.  On this inventory, I also put what needs to be done to the meal (cook, thaw, fully cooked, raw, etc).
• I like to use disposable things for this.  I am usually desperate when I pull from the freezer and I don't want to deal with dishes after.  The book has different freezing techniques that use other things.  Bottom line is use what is easy and good for you.
• I encourage my husband to "shop" from the freezer on his nights.
• Make meals that can double or triple.
• Don't feel like you have to make a ton of food.  My goal this year is to just have one meal a week for the freezer if I need it.  If I don't need it then no biggie!

I can't give you the recipes for the sloppy joes or the meatballs, but I can give you the baked ziti.- Enjoy~

Baked Ziti

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lg onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jar (26-28 oz) 
• 1 can (8oz) tomato sauce
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 10 oz dried ziti cooked, 7 minutes and drained
• 15 oz ricotta cheese
• 2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
• 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

1. Brown bee, onion and garlic.  Add sauces and oregano.
2. Bring to a boil and remove from heat
3. Combine 1 C sauce with ziti
4. Spoon 1/2 ziti mixture in a 13x9 pan (I use two 8x8 pans)
5. Top with ricotta, 1 C mozzarella, 1C sauce.
6. Add remaining ziti and then the remaining sauce
7. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes
8. Sprinkle with remining cheese and Parmesan cheese
9. Bake 10 minues longer

If you are going to freeze then-

1. Follow above including step 6
2. Cover with foil and saran wrap
3. Freeze
4. When ready to cook, remove saran wrap
5. DO NOT THAW
6. Bake covered at 350 for 2 hrs until done.

Linking to:

Too Long

Hi!  It has been awhile since I have posted.... I know there is no real excuse.  I have been busy with an online class I am taking to add an endorsement to my teaching certificates.  I keep all of my teaching certificates current just in case I might have to go back to the classroom (shudder).  The next thing I knew, Halloween was here and then Thanksgiving!  Here are some very late pictures from our fantastic trip to a local pumpkin patch.

Picking pumpkins is serious business and can make a certain little boy cranky when he can't find the perfect pumpkin!

You have to weigh the pumpkin.

Then you have to run around like wild guy and tolerate kisses from your Mama.  Play in some corn and slide down a cool slide.

And lastly.... take a minute to look around and appreciate everything put on this Earth for our enjoyment. Our cup runneth over with the perfectness of the day.

Hag- I mean bag follow-up

Hi- this is not an exciting post, but because I promised and that last 10% is hard for me, here is a post with how I store my plastic bags at work.  Feel free to skip this post :)

I tend to reuse a lot of plastic grocery bags.  I have reusable ones but sometimes I don't have them with me or just want the protection of a plastic bag.  I don't like to throw them away so when I use them to carry my lunch to work (I am classy like that) I need to have some place to store them that doesn't take up space.  He is my very, very, very unclassy way of storing them.

They are small and neat and tidy in my desk.  Here is how you fold them- I know you are excited....

Step 1) smooth the bag out flat

Step 2) fold in half and then half again so it looks like this (yeah, I shop at Wally World!)

Step 3) Take one of the bottom corners and fold it so it makes a triangle

Who's old hand is that.... it can't be mine because all of those veins make it look like my Mom's hand

Step 4) Take the far left point of the triangle and fold it over like your are turning a book page.  This makes the triangle thicker with another layer of bag. It will look  like this.

There is my Mom's hand again (crazy)


Step 5) Keep folding until you get to the handles.

 Can you see where I took my wedding ring off up there?  I ate Mexican and my hands swelled from the sodium (I am very sensitive like that)

Step 6) On the side of the triangle closest to the handle you should be able to see where you can pull out the plastic to make a pocket.  Pull this out.

Step 7) Tuck the handles in and work them around so that you have a nice plastic triangle or a slightly puffy one like this one.

This way, I can throw a couple in my desk or throw them in my purse to take home to use for daycare and they don't take up any space!

Was this awesome or what?!!?? To my one follower ( there are two signed up but it really is only one person with a split blog personality) don't you totally want to sit down and immediately do this to all of your plastic bags?

Potty! and Strawberries!

It was a BIG day here in our house today! LM and I were hacking around in the morning and all of the sudden, he looked at me and said, "Potty NOW", so off we went. He sat there for hours- so long that I had to get some new books for his book basket as per his request.

Finally, we got our pee!

After a phone call to TH to celebrate with a round of pee, pee in the potty (if you don't know the song, I am sure you can imagine it), we got dressed for the day and loaded up in Mama's Truck, to go pick some strawberries.

I can't tell you how unbelievably well behaved my son was. It must be in his blood to pick strawberries. My Mother took us kids (5 of us plus what ever neighborhood kids were around) to go picking every year. We would spend hours picking flats of strawberries to make into jam for eating throughout the year and for giving as gifts. Such a simple thing, but I have been excited about passing this tradition onto my son. He stayed near me as I picked like crazy thinking I was on limited time. He spent his time helping me pick the red ones and pointing out the no-no ones (green or rotten). As I left each bucket or flat behind, he got concerned about it and would go back to check on it. He also would drag the small backpack along the ground to me. (Yes, I now use a small backpack as a diaper bad so my son can wear it and carry it around like a Sherpa.)

 Also it helped that Mama let him eat as many strawberries as he wanted. A wonderful time was had by all and I now have new memories in my memory bank.  Especially this one!

It is Potty Time!!!

Well, not really but sort of.  LM's daycare has been putting him on the potty (not that he does anything on it) so we thought we might go ahead and get one for home to stay consistent with the program.  Much to our surprise, when we put several on the floor at the big box kids store, he jumped right on like he knew what he was doing- thank god because I no longer squat when I pee.  Apparently the dumb parents didn't give the smart kid enough credit!  Due to a poor selection and my unwillingness to purchase a potty that sings when you pee in it, we ended getting one that was in a box and didn't have a sample out.  Of course when we got home, LM was all about the new potty- pulling it out of the box and climbing up on it.. yes, you heard me- climbing up on it.  This thing must have been 2 1/2 feet off the ground!  All of the other are a scant few inches off... so low to the ground that both Big Daddy and I were afraid to get down that low to demonstrate how to use it for fear we would never get back up.  We now realize that if he can't get up on it, he can't use it (the same reason we hide all of the step stools in the house) so off we go to return it back to the store.

We have no real hurry in getting a potty.  LM is interested insomuch that he  tries to put his head in the back of the toilet every time I use it and he laughs hysterically at me.  Really not a confidence booster for me.  Other then that, he is about 20 months old and likes to hand the TP to me.

My question for my one follower and the 14 visitors I have had in the past 2 months, what is the best kind of potty to get for a boy?  Big Daddy (also code for OCD Daddy) is in the camp that it needs to have a pee pee guard that goes up to the Little Man's chest.  I want to be able to rinse the pee container out so it needs to be separate.

Throw a little love my way and let me know what kind you like... or just ask your friends to visit my blog and let me know what kind they like..... would ya please!!!

Maymester

Today was an eye opener.  Today was summer school orientation.  This means that Maymester is over.  Maymester was the time when I was going to catch up on old project and start new projects.  So far, one sort of large project has been crossed off, one medium project is crossed off, and I have added one additional project.  I am a bit sad to see Maymester ending, but I am excited to see my new students tomorrow.  It is always nice to start a new semester with new tools, new relationships, and new fresh outlooks.

On the home front, LM is once again suffering (?) from a massive double ear infection that has moved into both of his eyes.  I write the ? because this kid has to have a crazy high tolerance for pain.  He had no fever, no tugging or pulling on ears and didn't show any discomfort at all.  The only sign we saw at home was some sneezing and coughing... you know, like a COLD!!!  Since we didn't catch it in time, we totally feel like horrible parents.  LM goes for his 15 month check up next week and at that point, we are going to push to see and ENT.  I am concerned because he is beginning to try and talk now (hilarious to see those wheels turning as he tries to form the words) and I don't want this critical developmental step to be hindered.  Big teacher thing here I know :)

On another note, I leave you with my favorite picture of my Mom and LM.