Once a Month Cooking part 3

I didn't blog about part two, but this is the 3rd time I've done cooking for a month. I cooked in the beginning of January, again toward the end of February and tomorrow I'll cook again. It's nice that this "once a month" cooking is lasting longer than a month!

1. http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/cheesyrotini.html

2. stroganoff (no "recipe" for this that I have written down. this is how my mom made it and she taught me without a recipe, but the jist is- 1lb ground beef, browned. add 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 3/4 can milk, and 2-3 heaping spoonfuls sour cream. freeze w/ just ground beef and soup- when you defrost add the milk and sour cream. serve over egg noodles)

3. Brunswick stew

2 large cans crushed tomatoes

1 can white creamed corn

1 can whole kernal corn

1 container bbq beef

1 container bbq pork

2 large cans of chicken- white breast in water

1 medium onion

cook in crockpot 1 hour

4. pizza- mushroom and olives w/ cheese (I'm not freezing anything for this, just have the crust, mushroom, olives and jar of sauce in the pantry)

5. http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/chickenquesadillas.html

6. http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/seafoodpasta.html

7. manicotti (cooking this again from part 1)

8. http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/slow-cooker-cheeseburger-meatloaf-115338.aspx

9.http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/lowfatpizzapasta.html

10. calzones (also from part 1)

11.http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/06/chicken-curry-over-rice.html

12.Chicken Tetrazzini
-3 c of cooked, cubed chicken
-½ c of flour
-2 c of milk
-½ c butter
-Can of cream of celery soup
-Small onion chopped
-1/2 c chopped bell pepper
-8oz can of mushrooms
-1 tbps basil
-1 c of chicken broth
-6oz of spaghetti
-1 sleeve of ritz crackers, crushed
-1/4 lb of shredded cheese
(You can personalize it and leave the onions/pepper/mushrooms out depending on your taste)
DIRECTIONS
1. Make white sauce of butter, flour, milk. Add celery soup and mushrooms, onion, bell pepper. Cook until tender.
2. Cook spaghetti in salted water until done.
3. Combine cooked spaghetti, white sauce and cooked chicken. Add basil and chicken broth. Put in 9 X 13 pan and top with crushed ritz and shredded cheese. 4. Cook at 350F until cheese is melted.

This meal makes a lot. We always get two meals out of it so you can actually put it in two 8 X 8’s or 9 X 9’s and freeze one. If you are freezing it, wait to put the crackers and cheese until you go to bake it to keep them from getting soggy.

(I, Sara, have not made this- the notes you see up there come from the person I got the recipe from :) )

13. mexican lasagna (from part 1)

15.http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/freezer-oven-mac-and-cheese/
16. kraft meatballs http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/jumbo-meatballs-95056.aspxhttp://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/jumbo-meatballs-95056.aspx
17. chicken tacos- cook chicken w/ salsa in crockpot- serve shredded w/ tacos (we actually went ahead and did this tonight, yum!)

I'll take pictures tomorrow and post an update after I'm done. My last endeavor took FOREVER. I had a lot of chicken recipes and wasn't very organized. So this time I have more ground beef, and I have a "battle plan" going in. Hoping it doesn't take too long because I have playgroup tomorrow in the morning and small group tomorrow night! And I need to make potato skins for small group tomorrow...

I stink at this

I can barely remember to brush my teeth... no wonder I forget about this blog!

My once a month cooking venture has been going great. I'm 4 months into the year and I've had to do it 2 times. I love it. I've already planned the menu for the 3rd cooking day, but I'm always looking for new meals that freeze well, so if you have any- please share! I'm also looking for cheaper meals to make too. This past month I made some yummy things, but I used a lot of chicken, which is expensive!

My focus the past few days has been on finances. We're cutting back a lot, out of necesity. I'd love to hear unique tips on saving money... in any area of life really!

Duty calls- my goal was to post a quick update and then head to bed, but Kaitlyn is awake, so I must feed her, and then get myself to bed.

Farewell!

Once a month cooking

Yesterday I spent all day at my friend's (Brooke) house cooking! She's been doing once a month cooking for about a year now, and I wanted to see exactly how she did it. So I loaded up all my groceries, cookware, 3 crockpots (I borrowed 2 from other friends), and my girls (and all their stuff!) and headed over to Brooke's house first thing in the morning. I got there at 9am and didn't leave until after 9pm! It was a long day, but I think in the end it will be worth it.
Brooke also promised me that in your own house when you're doing it by yourself it doesn't take nearly as long. She said she's normally done by 3-4pm when she starts at 8am. I had to stop several times to deal with the girls (bottle feedings, lunch, naps, snack, complete screaming fits from Kaitlyn that lasted a good 30 minutes), so I do think it wouldn't take as long if Andrew was home to watch Alexis and Kaitlyn.

We started the morning by chopping onions and green peppers. A good amount of the recipes called for either onions or peppers to be cooked with the meat. Then we started on the recipes, we started one meal in a crockpot, and one meal on the stove. Then we browned ground beef for another recipe. After a meat was cooked, we could start another crockpot going... we had a lot of crockpots! Brooke borrowed some from ladies at work, and her husband borrowed some from people at his work too.

most of our crockpots (we had 3 others that didn't make it into the picture)

I actually still have a couple things to do- our spaghetti sauce wasn't enough for all the things we were going to use it for, so instead of cutting out 2 of the meals, I'm going to buy 2 more cans of tomato paste and mix that (and some water) in. And my corn soup wasn't cooked by 9pm, so I just brought the crockpot home and let it cook on low the rest of the night.
I also need to put my calzones together, but that shouldn't take long at all, I just forgot my mozzarella at home, so I couldn't do it yesterday.

Here is what's on the menu for meals in the Gentry house for the next month---
taco soup
Brunswick stew
porkchop casserole
corn soup
gumbo (I won't attempt this one on my own- Brooke is from Louisiana ;) )
spaghetti
manicotti
individual pizzas (pepperoni)
red beans (this has red beans, sausage and ham... you make rice the day of to serve it over)
calzones
chili verde
chili hamburgers (these look good! they have green peppers, chili powder and chili sauce mixed it, I'm going to shred Monterrey jack cheese on top when we make them)
chicken pot pie
mexican lasagna (this is kind of a mexican casserole- tortillas instead of noodles layered in the dish)

it's going to be a yummy month!


this is what my freezer looks like now- I actually still have room for Alexis's breakfast stuff, some veggies, etc. And another pic a little bit closer up on the frozen meals. There are bags of veggies in the baskets too that you can't really see, but those make the baskets a lot fuller.

The night before I have to decide what we want to eat the next day and put it in the fridge to defrost. Depending on the meal, before serving I either put it in a casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes (give or take), or put it in a pot and stir for 15-20 minutes. Some of the meals I have to cook rice to go with it, or put it together (like the pizza). But these are much fancier meals than I would do on a normal night because they take too long! I'll report back in a month and let you know if it was worth it!

Back on the wagon

I'm jumping back on the blogging band wagon for 2010! I love being able to look back and see what has happened in my (and my family's) life over the past few months, and I feel like this is a great outlet to do that.

Since today is the first day of the new year I thought I would post about my goals for the year. I hate to use the term "New Year's Resolutions" because I feel like the definition of a new year's resolution is just something that you say for funsies and don't really mean! So, I'm saying that these are goals... not resolutions.

1. Run/jog a 5K- I need to be more active, and this is a great way to do it. I am going to start "training" on Monday. I'm looking forward to it (talk to me again Monday night and we'll see how I'm feeling!). I need to update my ipod with my new CDs I got for Christmas (yes, I got CDs. I still listen to music on CDs)

2. Start once a month cooking- I have a friend that does this and she's hosting a "how to" at her house next Friday. I'm really excited about this one. I feel like at the end of the day I'm drained from taking care of a newborn (is she still a newborn? she's 3 months old already! *tear*) and a toddler. I don't feel like cooking, and I definitely don't feel like cleaning up afterward! This way I can cook once a month, freeze what I cook and have precooked meals ready to go each day!

3. Limit my fast food intake to once a week- fast food is bad for you, we all know that. But I think it's unrealistic of me to say that I'll never have it again. There are some weeks that I don't have fast food at all, but then there are some weeks that things are so crazy I end up in the drive through several times. My goal this year is to not let that happen. Hopefully the once a month cooking will help with that.

4. Photo 365 I got this idea from my online mommy friend Jaimie. I love her blog, her blog inspired me to start blogging again. I'm going to take one picture every day in 2010. Not to say that many days I'll take more. If you follow me on facebook you know that I take lots of pictures! But there are days that I don't bring out the camera. This will also make me more intentional about the photos I take. I take tons of pictures of the girls, but hardly any of myself, or anything else for that matter! I'm excited about this one too.

So, there are my goals for 2010. I'm looking forward to see what 2010 has in store for me and my family.

On the move

Alexis started crawling at the beginning of May and is all over the place now! She's just recently (in the last few days) started venturing off of the carpet. When she first started crawling she wasn't so sure of the wood floors, but now if one of the dogs leaves the room she'll start to follow them until she decides they've gone too far.
She's also becoming more independent. Back at the end of April she started being really clingy and not wanting me to leave the room, ever! Now that she's more mobile I think she doesn't mind me leaving for a few seconds to go get something because she can follow me if she wants to, or she can find some trouble to get in ;)
She still doesn't have any teeth, but she's moving forward with big girl food just gumming it. She now eats table food at most meals (in addition to her formula). For breakfast she usually has a fruit or a waffle with some jelly (she's a fan of the jelly). For lunch she usually has a sandwich (grilled cheese, or some sort of veggie) and dinner a lot of times she just has little pieces of whatever we're having.
She's definitely growing up way too fast... I guess that doesn't stop. She's working on pulling herself all the way up. She's been able to pull herself up to her knees for about 2 months now. I think she's just lazy... she's so tall that she can reach most things just by getting on her knees :) So she stops there instead of working to get taller.

My pregnancy is going well. There are days that I don't even remember I'm pregnant... aside from the big belly. We've decided on a name- Kaitlyn. The middle name is still undecided. I like Grace or Charlotte... Andrew's not a huge fan of either of those, he likes Elizabeth (which is my middle name). I actually like it a lot too, but then her initials would be KEG and I just don't think I can do that.

If you're not friends with me on facebook, you should find me... I post pictures there on a pretty regular basis (at least monthly, but usually more often!)

Here's a couple from this month-

new videos and 9 month stats

Alexis hasn't stopped growing... she's still a big girl!

She had her 9 month check up on Monday, it was my favorite so far- no shots! They just measured her and answered any of my questions.

height- 31 1/4"
weight- 23 1/2 lbs

she's the size of the average 18 month old now :)




Here are a couple videos. The first one we went to the park and she "rode" the slide. She really liked it and did it several times, the last time she rode, we got it on video and she claps at the end!

The second video is her learning how to crawl, she finally figured out how to go forward, and is getting better and better!

March of Dimes- March for Babies

Hey guys, just passing this along for my friend Tina. She's raising money to walk this May. She's raising money in memory of her baby boy, Kevin. He was born in August of last year and died a little less than a month later (9-14-08) after putting up a hell of a fight. He was born with several health problems and God took him home early.

Tina is raising money so that some day soon all babies can live to see their first birthdays.

Please donate if you can, it's a great organization to support!


http://www.marchforbabies.org/tinapenny