Menu Plan Monday and Baking Day Wrap-Up

I know, it's not Monday, but I haven't actually had to cook yet this week. :) So here's my menu plan for the rest of the week:

Monday - dinner at church

Tuesday - Taco night with our small group

Wednesday - BBQ Chicken Pizza, salad and corn

Thursday - Italian Baked Chicken, veggies, rice

Friday - Tuna Patty Burgers, homemade french fries, salad

Saturday - Leftovers

Sunday - Superbowl! Going to a party at a friend's house - I do live in Indiana, so even though I'm not usually a Colts fan - Go Colts! (That's for my sister Rachel too!)

So baking day, freezer cooking day, whatever you want to call it day, was more of a flop than a success.  There were two things on my list that I didn't get to make, apple squares and chimichangas.   I probably could have made them, I just completely ran out of steam.  I feel like I learned a lot of things from the experience, probably the main one being not to do it again! :)  Maybe I am a wuss in the kitchen or something, but I feel like I am still recovering from those two days (that's one reason why this post is late). Yes, I have some food in my freezer that will be nice to have on hand over the next few weeks, but I don't really know if it was worth it.  I just felt like I spent my entire days in the kitchen and didn't get anything else done, I was super tired, and there were SO MANY dishes.  And I despise dishes, I mean, I really hate doing dishes.

I think for me, it would work better to do one or two tasks in the kitchen each day, besides dinner, and make extra food that way, rather than trying to do it all at one time in one day. At least I've tried it and now I know.  If I were ever to do it in the future I would not try so many new recipes that I have never made before, that was a big mistake, and made the days harder for me than they could have been if I had made some of my tried and  true recipes instead.  It will be nice to pull stuff out of the freezer already made and ready to eat though, so I won't complain about that part of it.  Alright, enough about that, I just wanted to give a little update and share a little of my experience. 

We're starting the February Change Challenge this week - check back tomorrow for the area of change we'll be taking on this month!

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Baking Day Bonanza!

So, I started my first attempt at baking/freezer cooking days yesterday.  Things went pretty well.  Not as great as I had planned, but I was trying not to set my expectations too high since this was my first time attempting something like this.

The one picture I managed to take yesterday - yummy pumpkin muffins!

A few thoughts from the day:

• It is WAY easier to have one child then two, why did I ever think that having one child was so hard?  Grammie came and picked up Kaelyn for the day yesterday, so I just had Bren and it made things much easier for me.  We even went to the grocery store in the middle of the snow with bad roads, something I would NEVER do with two kids in tow! 
• Going to the grocery store in the middle of your baking day will cause you to not get as much stuff done. Duh! I really wanted to make meatballs and on my shopping trip last week realized that it was too early to get ground beef to use this week without freezing it in between, and I didn't get to the store earlier this week, so I chose to go yesterday when I only had to bring one child.  But, that obviously affected how much cooking I could get done. 
• Babies NEVER take naps when you want/need them too.  Yesterday B slept for a total of 1 1/2 hours during the day. 45 min. in the morning and 45 min. in the afternoon, not really enough time to get anything significant done.  He actually woke up from his afternoon nap just as I was plunging my hands into the meatball mixture.  I had to let him cry for a few minutes because my hands were all gross. 
• Most of the recipes I planned to make, I have never made before.  This makes things a little harder too, because there is always a learning curve with new recipes.  So, some things took me a little extra time because I didn't exactly know what I was doing.  That's all part of the process though - learning new things! 

Here's what I accomplished yesterday: 

-make meatballs (made 48 meatballs and a small meatloaf)
-make chicken nuggets (cut out breasts from the whole chicken, cut up and ready to go)
-bake pumpkin muffins (made a double batch and froze 25 muffins)
-make tortillas (dough is in the fridge, ready to be made today)
-cook whole chicken and make chicken stock (made 11 cups of stock and got 3 cups of shredded chicken meat for chimis)
-make chimichangas (waiting on making the tortillas)
-bake crispy cheese crackers (These are pretty good, but kind of a lot of work - especially if you don't know what you're doing)
-roast butternut squash (need to puree and freeze for baby food)
-bake apple squares

So, today I need to bake apple squares, roll out and fry up tortillas, make chimis, and make chicken nuggets.  Really not too bad.

The worst part of all this is that I basically did nothing else around my house yesterday, and the kitchen is still pretty messy.  I did clean up some last night, but I was pretty tired and there were A LOT of dishes, so I didn't get them all done.  Somehow I have the feeling that I'm not going to get them all done today either - we'll see. And meanwhile the laundry is piling up, the kitchen table is covered with stuff, The house is just kind of in disarray. :(  So, that's not fun to know that I have that to take care of on top of the rest of the cooking.  At least it's Friday, and I know I have lots of yummy food to show for my hard work!

Also, I tweeted a bit yesterday throughout the day as I cooked and baked.  Yes, I am on twitter now. :)  You can follow along with me (@liverenewed), and others bloggers who are baking and cooking over the weekend with the hash tag #oamc.  You can also follow along at Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom for their February Freezer Cooking Days.