First Day of School 2010
From PlanetRockConventional wisdom strikes again…kids can amuse themselves for hours (or minutes anyway, in the case of a toddler) with things you might otherwise throw away:
Madeline spent a long time with five or six empty pop boxes, figuring out how she could glue them together and make them stick in various configurations to be part of a “city” she wanted to create. Then here’s Erik with a good-old-fashioned oatmeal-container drum, entertaining Kai while I cook:
I’m feeling like I had a pretty successful freezer cooking day today — I accomplished all the main dish/side dish recipes I set out to make, along with an additional salad to eat for lunches this week. Here’s my lunch-y salad and my Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti:
Mmmm…Chicken Enchiladas:
Madeline really wanted to get in the shot with the Party Potatoes and the mini-meatloaves (one of two pans of them — the other pan went straight to the freezer, and I am really hoping they will pop right out now that they are frozen!)
I thought I would have a bit of fun and try turning my mini-meatloaves into something like this. My result was not nearly as beautiful:
I think my mashed potatoes were too thick, and I should have used an icing tip of some sort (or my super-cool vintage “Super Shooter” spritz gun from the 80s. It has a nice swirly tip!). I also wonder how they got such perfectly smooth meatloaf “cupcakes” in the picture. Mine got all shriveled and bumpy when I cooked them. The result tasted fine, but definitely not something to serve at a dinner party! The kids thought they were fun, but Madeline was a little freaked out about the potatoes sitting on top of the meat like that.
As I suspected might happen, I ran out of time and energy before any breakfast baked goods got made. I’m going to make up a quick half-batch of these tonight to bake in the morning…and although I really need to start focusing on packing again, I might still sneak in a bit of baking here and there in the next couple days so I have some yummy breakfast baked goods to pull out of the freezer next week while we are even busier getting ready to move!
This idea is certainly not my original thought, but it’s one I had forgotten about until I was recently faced with a desire to pair garlic bread with a meal when all I had on hand were a few semi-freezer-burnt hot dog buns. I feel like we always end up with a few extra buns here and there after a cook out. Or maybe half a package gets lost in the freezer until they don’t look particularly appealing.
So now that I have brought this trick back to the front of my mind, I can turn them into this:
Just spread with butter or margarine, then sprinkle with garlic powder. Add a handful of mozzarella or Italian blend cheese. Top with a bit of Italian seasoning if you desire. Stick ‘em in the oven until the cheese melts. Maybe five minutes or so depending on the oven temp. Use parchment paper on your baking sheet for extra-easy clean-up.
With buns coming in at only 79 cents at Aldi, versus about $1.59 for garlic bread or garlic toast…I might even consider buying buns fresh for this purpose — especially since one package of buns would make enough garlic bread for two nights!
I decided to break my freezer cooking down into two days to make it more realistic that I would actually accomplish what I hope to accomplish! Late last week I had browned a few pounds of ground beef, so that was already waiting for me to use!
Here’s most of what I was working on today:
I was already planning to make a double batch of the Lasagna Rolls, one for dinner tonight and one for a future dinner. This is one of those recipes where it definitely pays to make two batches, because the amount of work for a second batch is not much greater once you are already in the “mode” of making them. Pictured is the batch we ate tonight for dinner, since I had already put the other pan in the freezer.
Also in this picture is my pan of Chili Bake to put in the freezer, as well as a crock pot full of chicken I cooked to have on hand for making the Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti and Chicken Enchiladas. Besides what’s in the picture, I also further divided and froze my cooked ground beef — one large package for Tacos and one small package for mixing with Spaghetti sauce.
I don’t always use foil pans when I make freezer meals, but I made the investment this time because I am looking for our dinners to be as mess-free and easy as possible right before and after our move. We get access to our new house a few days before the actual move date, so I might move a majority of my kitchen stuff over before the big move so I have time to really think through where to put all the stuff without the chaos of having to unpack everything else at the same time. Sounds like a great plan — we’ll see if it works out that way in practice!
During tomorrow’s freezer cooking session I’ll be making the Buffalo Chicken spaghetti and Chicken Enchiladas (and then portioning the remaining chicken to freeze), making mini-meatloaves (some for dinner tomorrow, the rest for a future meal not yet on the meal schedule), making Party Potatoes, and then if by some miracle I have more time, energy and kids that are not going completely crazy, I might do a bit of baking. I have a list of breakfast baking I would love to get done, like muffins and scones, to have in the freezer…but only if all the dinner make-ahead meals get made!
It’s less than two weeks now until we move to our new rental house, 2.5 blocks from our current rental. Eek! Since I have a lot of work to do before (and after) moving day, I’m planning my menu for the next three weeks right now, and making some freezer meals so that I have less cooking to do when I really need to be packing!
Here’s what I have planned:
Monday (7/27): Lasagna Roll-Ups (make a double batch and freeze half) with salad or veggies
Tuesday: Mini meatloaves and baked potatoes (this will be my big freezer cooking day) with salad or veggies
Wednesday: Sweet Potato and Chickpea curry with rice (not a freezer recipe but something easy!)
Thursday: “Picnic in the Park” at Pearl Park
Friday: Bruchetta Chicken (made in microwave) and Party Potatoes (either make a double batch and freeze half or better yet, make two batches on freezer cooking day!) with salad or veggies
Saturday: We have guests coming for dinner. Our new landlord and her significant other. It will be our first time meeting them (they live out of town and the current tenants were showing us the place we will soon be renting). I’m making black bean burgers (maybe using this recipe — I’m trying it for the first time so I may do a test run earlier in the week and if this recipe doesn’t work out, try another one). We’ll also be having fresh fruit and veggies, salad and something TBA for dessert.
Sunday: Spaghetti and salad or veggies
Monday (8/3): Beef roast and mashed potatoes (from instant to keep it simple) and a veggie or salad
Tuesday: National Night Out…so we’ll have some grillables and bring something to share to block parties on both our current block and our new block.
Wednesday: Chicken Enchiladas (made on freezer cooking day)
Thursday: Heavenly Potatoes and Ham (already in the freezer from last week)
Friday: Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti (made on freezer cooking day)
Saturday: Moving Day! We’ll probably be rewarding ourselves at the end of a hard day’s work by eating out or getting take out
Sunday: Chili Bake (made on freezer cooking day — recipe in this previous post)
Monday (8/10): Lasagna Roll-Ups (freezer meal made on 7/27)
Tuesday: Tacos (ground beef already cooked and in the freezer)
Wednesday: Pork Chops and Party Potatoes (made previously)
Thursday-Sunday: Out of Town. I’ll have stir fry fixins in the freezer in case we make it back in time for dinner on Sunday.
Whew! That’s a lot of planning. I’m hoping to write another post detailing some of my freezer cooking plans. Or maybe even posting pictures of the actual freezer cooking extravaganza. We’ll see if that actually happens. 
As always you can find lots more menu ideas each week in the Menu Plan Monday post at orgjunkie.com
Erik tells me that he is riding his motorcycle to work. The exact quote is something like, “Erik work loud motorcycle. Basketball Bag! Helmet! Noise!”
In English, this translates into something along the lines of, “I am riding my noisy motorcycle to work. I remembered my lunch bag and I am wearing a helmet to stay safe!”
Maybe you’ve heard of “breakfast for dinner”? Here’s my new-idea-of-the-day: appetizers for lunch. Or maybe it’s just new to call it that…after all, an appetizer is really just kid-friendly finger food with a fancy name.
After a busy morning of playing outside in the yard, the kids were hungry for something quick. I tend to rotate through a few basic lunch ideas: soup, mac and cheese, pizza, rice with chicken and veggies, and quesediallas, and occasionally sandwiches (we’re not big on sandwiches in our family, so those aren’t in the rotation too often. The kids also don’t like eating leftovers very often so I try not to count on those when making lunch plans). So, I started thinking through the list…
After eliminating the usual ideas that would take a while to cook, realizing I didn’t have a lot on hand to put in quesedillas besides cheese, not being in the mood for PBJ and feeling too hot for soup, I decided to put to work the bits and pieces to make a lunch of finger foods. This was the centerpiece of my appetizer lunch plan:
These are capresse appetizers…leftover fresh mozzarella from Monday’s salad, along with Tomato slices from the last two roma tomatoes in the fridge, some fresh basil from the garden and the last bit of crackers left over from our trip to the lake.
Madeline and I really enjoyed them…Erik didn’t eat much of this, but then again he didn’t eat very much of anything at lunch time. He ate his morning snack a bit too late this morning and by the time lunch rolled around he was more sleepy than hungry.
We rounded out our appetizer lunch with a small cheese quesedilla, hot dog slices (eaten with tooth picks to make it a little more fun and appetizer-like), and baby carrots with dip. If we would have had more time I might have made some kind of a fruit appetizer too, like mini-fruit-kabobs.
This was a pretty satisfying lunch for Madeline, and had Erik been hungry I think he would have enjoyed it too. I was still hungry after all the appetizers were gone, so I rounded out my lunch with some leftover mac and cheese too. With a bit of pre-planning next time, “appetizers for lunch” could be an even more fun and satisfying endeavor. Maybe we’ll even call them “hors d’oeuvres” next time.
It’s time for another Menu Plan Monday! Here’s what we’re having this week:
Monday: Shrimp Caprese (I didn’t make the caprese pasta salad this weekend, so for a special dinner for Tony and I tonight while Madeline and Erik are at Grandma’s house, I’m going to make a dish inspired by these two recipes: Shrimp Caprese and Fresh Tomato Shrimp Pasta).
Tuesday: Whole chicken in the crockpot, corn on the cob (if there’s some that looks good at the grocery store), and a rice side dish
Wednesday: Heavenly Potatoes and Ham (eat half and freeze half for a future meal)
Thursday: BLT Chicken Pasta Salad, using leftovers from Tuesday’s chicken.
Friday: Upside Down Pizza (I saw this recipe in a magazine and was intrigued by it, and I have made this recipe once a few years ago…I may do some combo of the two recipes. I just need to decide what the “crust” should be made of before I go shopping for the ingredients!)
Saturday: Possibly out to dinner with out of town guests, otherwise something easy, like grilled burgers or chicken.
Sunday: Stir Fry and Egg rolls
Every week you can find tons of great menu ideas in the Menu Plan Monday post at orgjunkie.com!
We have Vacation Bible Camp at church every night this week, and this definitely makes for an interesting week of menu planning for this “Menu Plan Monday”. The kids and I need to be at church by sometime between 5:30 and 5:45 each night, and Tony will have to meet us at church. I’m planning dinners that are quick to fix (since we need to eat much earlier than usual), and are fairly easy to transport (since I’ll have to bring some with us to church for Tony to eat!).
Here’s what I have planned for the week night dinners:
Monday: A casserole from the freezer. I’m not sure of the recipe since it’s something my mom gave me. Can’t get any simpler than not having to do any prep at all!
Tuesday: Picnic Pasta Salad (I can’t find an exact recipe to link to, but it’s your basic pasta salad with pre-cubed ham, hard cooked eggs, cheese and hard boiled eggs). This isn’t super simple to fix, but I can do the prep earlier in the day, and it will make lots of leftovers to eat for lunch during the week.
Wednesday: Sandwiches with fresh fruit/veggies and either chips or leftover pasta salad. Wednesday will be our craziest day of all — meeting some friends at a museum in the late afternoon, then going straight to church. Dinner will probably be eaten either in the car or once we arrive at church.
Thursday: Crock Pot beans and rice, with salad or a frozen veggie
Friday: Frozen pizza and a salad or frozen veggie. We’ll be packing for our trip to the lake, and leaving right after VBC, so I need a dinner that is both easy to make AND easy to clean up!
This weekend, we’re going to the lake and I need to plan all our meals so we have what we need while we’re there:
Saturday: Muffins and fruit for breakfast; Hamburgers and a pasta salad for lunch (maybe this one?); Pork Chops for dinner with either baked potatoes or some other kind of potato side dish
Sunday: Pancakes and sausage for breakfast; Mac and Cheese and a veggie for lunch; dinner will probably be eating out on the way home (or I’ll have ingredients for something quick like stir-fry if we do get home in time for dinner).
You can find great menus every week in the Menu Plan Monday post at orgjunkie.com!
Now that we’ve been doing cloth diapers for nine months with Erik and five months with Kai, some of our diapers are looking…well, like they’ve been used as diapers. Big surprise there, huh? While I am not overly concerned about staining since I’m not counting on them holding any value for resale, I still don’t particularly enjoy looking at the lingering stains on the diapers. I’ve read that putting diapers out to dry in the sun after washing them is a natural way of removing (or at least lightening) the stains.
Unfortunately, I have virtually no direct sunlight at my house. All of what I do have is in my front yard, and I don’t particularly want to hang diapers out to dry on the fence in front of my house. So, I decided to try sunning them at my mother-in-law’s house while we were in Iowa:
Most of the diapers I hung out while they were wet, and just for kicks I put some out there in a dry state as well. I think it did work to lighten the stains to a certain degree. Unfortunately we’ve developed a lot of new stains on the diapers since my attempt at sunning them. I am hoping the back yard at our new house (we’re moving to a new rental 2.5 blocks away next month) will actually have some direct sunlight and I will try this again.
I’ve also decided to take the plunge of trying out cloth wipes. Here’s part of what I bought to try this:
When I first started cloth diapering I thought the idea of using cloth wipes was nuts. After all, the wipes don’t cost that much! But, what I’ve found is that if you are already in the mode of putting things into the laundry at diaper changing time, it is almost easier to keep throwing things in the wash rather than having to sort things out and put some in the laundry hamper and some in the trash. Some people do cloth wipes by having wipes that sit in a cleaning solution. This made me nervous due to the possibility of bacteria growing in there, kids getting into it etc. Then I read somewhere about the idea of using a spray bottle with plain water.
At diaper changing time I spray a washcloth with water before wiping off the offending bottom. It usually takes only one or two washcloths. I bought two new packages of washcloths, plus gathered up a few extra we already had. I have about two dozen and that is more than enough for the two boys with the rate at which I am already doing diaper laundry.
So far I am just doing this at home. I need to get a second spray bottle (that will stay tightly closed in the diaper bag) to take along. I think we’ll actually see the greatest convenience in being able to do the cloth wipes on the go. I can’t even count the number of times when I have been changing a diaper somewhere away from home where there was not a suitable place near by to throw away the disposable wipe. As soon as I remember to buy the second spray bottle, I can just throw the dirty wipes in the wet bag along with the diapers.
Finally, I have discovered firsthand a disadvantage of buying used pocket diapers — they do wear out faster. The first two pocket diapers I bought for Erik (two old-style Fuzzi Bunz) have no elastic left in them. After a couple of messy diapers where the you-know-what ended up all over his legs because the diaper didn’t contain it, I decided they needed to be retired. Diaper elastic can be fixed, but in reading the tutorial, I just don’t think I’m up for a complicated project like that any time soon. I think I’ll try and sell them cheaply (or maybe just give them away) to someone who wants to fix them, and then I’ll buy two new (or maybe used again) Fuzzi Bunz in size large that Erik will hopefully be able to wear until he is able to stay dry all night long (which might be a while if Madeline is any indication).