The joys of a fully stocked freezer

While I'm still thinking about the pantry challenge vs food storage idea, I'm hoping I can do both. I know I have several boxes of hamburger helper and I'm going to put it on my menu at least once a week for a while, then use a coupon and buy more. I realized though that I was out of ground beef.

The last time I was at Sams Club I saw that they were having a good price on ground beef if you buy a case of it. That's 80 lbs! I had been meaning to call around and see who wanted to go in on a case with me, but my friend Julie beat me to it and I got a case to split with friends.

I took 25 lbs. 10 got cooked up in the oven and put in 10 bags for tacos, spaghetti, hamburger helper etc. 3 lbs became 12 1/4 lb hamburgers, some of them bacon and bleu cheese burgers, some of them cheddar butter burgers. 3 lbs became 24 mini meatloaves from 2 different recipes.

I LOVE knowing I have a full freezer. I've got chicken breasts, thighs, drumsticks, fajita meat, pork chops, 2 turkeys and a ham. Not to mention the other miscellaneous stuff. I shouldn't need to go to the freezer isle for a while now! Feels great! I can use up my pantry, use up my freezer and just buy dairy and produce. We'll see how long it lasts.

My kitchen is mostly cleaned up, but not totally. That's the worst part of filling the freezer. Whether I'm doing a big freezer meal session or just doing my ground beef, I HATE cleaning the kitchen after. I wish there were a kitchen fairy that would magically do it for me. Or a husband in town who might want to help. Oh well, enough blogging...back to my kitchen!

Wordless Wednesday

You might not be able to tell from this first one, but we are flying kites and my 6yo was concentrating very hard.


This second one if you squint you can see both kites! Nothing better than family time flying kites!

Pantry Challenge vs Building up Food Storage

Several of the food blogs I've read lately have talked about doing a pantry challenge. Using up what's in your pantry, buying only fresh produce and such and saving a bunch on your grocery budget for a month or so. It sounds very appealing to me. I know I have boxes of hamburger helper, cans of soup, cornbread mixes etc that really do need to be eaten up.

On the other hand, we're talking at church about provident living, building up our food storage. Wouldn't it be great to have a year's supply of food for a rainy day. Living in Houston I know how crazy it can get when a hurricane is pointed our way and people go CRAZY buying everything the can in the store. I also know many people who have had job issues and have been so blessed to have food storage built up to use when funds were tight.

Are these two idea contradictory? Can I use up my pantry foods and build my food storage at the same time? Which one is a better idea? If I decide to make more freezer meals...where does that fit in? Can anyone offer any ideas/suggestions to my quandry?

The difference of 1pm church

We've gone to church at 9am for a long time. We had a few months the end of last year and a few months the year before that when church wasn't at 9am, but for the most part church has started at 9am. There are a lot of things I like about 9am church, but starting today, our church is at 1pm. That may seem odd to those not of my faith, but since our congregations are organized geographically and we share our building with another geographic unit (called a Ward) we trade back and forth each year with what time our ward starts.

I'm amazed at how productive I have been today. This morning I was up with my 3 kids by 6:30am like normal (I wish they slept in a little more, but they seem to wake up at 6am like clockwork!) and I got a lot done. I started watching a church video, made breakfast, chatted with my husband who is in China over the computer, got the older kids in and out of the shower, the baby down for a nap and I showered and dressed all before 9am! Then I cleaned the kitchen, read some in the scriptures, wrote in my journal, got all my papers ready for my church lesson and began composing my first blog post.

We had an early lunch and left for church around 12:30. (My mom came to help me with the boys since my husband is out of town...thanks Mom!) Church is 3 hours long and I have responsibilities in the third hour class which is just for women. I knew we wouldn't get home until after 4:30, so before I left I threw one of my favorite recipes in the crock-pot.

I got the recipe from 365 Days of Slow Cooking and while it doesn't look exactly like hers does, it tastes great and is one of my favorites!



I also made a chocolate pudding cool whip parfait with some strawberries. Again, not the best picture, but delicious!

The kids were wiped out today (and not feeling very well) and all 3 were in bed by 7:15! I guess having church at 1pm works out pretty well!

New year, new goals

We all make new years resolutions...we rarely keep them. Often things go from something we've RESOLVED to do, to something that's a goal, to something we wish we had done. I think it's human nature and we shouldn't feel bad about it. But I can resolve to make reasonable resolutions and keep them.

Often one of my problems is making too many resolutions. As part of the Pursuit of Excellence (a challenge program from my church) I'm setting goals in the categories of spiritual, intellectual, physical, service and character. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

One of the intellectual goals relates to developing a new interest in a creative field. Since I'm not typically very creative this one seemed out of my normal comfort zone. I'm thinking that maybe if I try to write interesting creative blog posts on a regular basis it will count. It will definitely be a stretch for me.

I read lots of blogs, food blogs, parenting blogs, product blogs. I'm not really hoping to "break into the blogging world" but I'd like this blog to exist for more than what it currently does. Wish me luck as I resolve to write regularly.

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