So Much Food Stuff to do!

I'm feeling a little stressed out this afternoon.  I'm just grasping how many food jobs I have coming up and feeling slight panic!

• I'd like to defrost my freezer.  It has recently gotten very frosty (see photo below) and I need to dig out the top two shelves very soon.  Ideally I'd like to defrost the sucker by May 1.
• I have an entire ham in the freezer.  I'd like to cook it and grind all the meat so I can store it in nice, uniform-sized ziplocs instead of an awkwardly shaped ham.
• I have three large roasts I'd also like to cook and store in Ziplocs.
• There are a lot of beans so I'll be making some chili this week.
• I am picking up a 40# box of chicken breast Wednesday that I also have to make room for.  My plan is to cook and shred at least 1/3 since we use shredded chicken in a lot of casseroles.  Plus the shredded chicken will fit nicely in those uniform size Ziplocs.  I'm also planning to put some whole breasts directly into marinades.  
• I have a labor intensive meal swap this month.  Chicken Pot Pie from scratch - I think I'll make the pie insides in advance and just fill the crusts a day or two beforehand.  I'm hoping to unplug the freezer after that swap.  We'll see.
• I have to make smoothies A LOT to use up some of the many, many frozen peaches I have.
• There is a fair amount of zucchini, but those don't take up much room.  More challenging is the zucchini 'sauce' I made last year to substitute for vegetable oil.  There is a lot of it left.  Really, a lot.  I might use some of it with some intensive baking.
• I have a big bulk pantry order arriving the first week of May.  I am very aware of my already bulging bins!  Either I use some up some dry goods or I buy more buckets.  Maybe it's easier to just buy more buckets . . . 

I'm sure there will be a big post next week of crazy cooking on Wednesday or Thursday.

Katie

Quick Garden Update

I have been thinning my starts here and there but I still need to do much more.  I also am planning to transplant ASAP so those pumpkins don't shade everything else.

Big Pumpkins!

Little Green Onions

Little Tomatoes.  If these don't hurry up I may buy plants after all.

Katie

Freezer Focus

I like to defrost my freezer each year to get rid of the ice buildup, to be certain no food is getting too old in there, and to save energy.

My record is 4 months unplugged, and last summer I  managed almost 3 months.  I will be lucky to get 2 months unplugged this year considering the quantity of meat and fruit in my freezer today.

The inside freezer is pretty full already.

The outside freezer is also pretty packed with 8 gallon bags of sliced peaches, 2 gallon bags of blueberries, 2 gallon bags of bananas,  a whole ham, 3 huge pot roasts and a bunch of smaller miscellaneous items.

 If I seriously intend to defrost this freezer anytime soon I've got to ramp up the smoothies and cook down a lot of the meat (into pulled pork and ground ham) very soon.  I definitely need to defrost soon because that top shelf is getting frosted over so I'll be getting busy on that in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned.

Katie

Making Applesauce

Remember when I bought a bunch of clearance apples about a month ago?  They were $.50/lb and have been sitting in my fridge taking up space until about a week ago when the little ladies and I made applesauce.   It only took about 45 minutes and my own part was only about 10 minutes!

Apples that have been in the fridge.  Qty. 15

Half the apples cut up by Mom and cooking on the stove.

The Kitchenaid grinds and strains the first batch of softened apples as the girls dump them in.

The girls also did the second pot of apples.  You can see the bowl of skins, seeds, and stems the mixer spits out.

The well-used strainer after taking the trough off.

I put nearly a gallon of applesauce in these Tupperware containers.  It was gone in 5 days!

I'd better keep my eyes peeled for more cheap apples.  Let me know if you see any good deals!

Katie

Menu Plan & Weekly Goals

Oh, it was a long week last week . . .

And there is still significant work to be done outdoors so I'm keeping the meals simple.

Dinners:
Monday - Ham/Bean Soup
Tuesday - Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Wednesday - French Toast
Thursday - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Friday - Zucchini Ranch Meatloaf
Saturday - Pizza for kids, Date Night
Sunday - Smoothie & Popcorn unless we invite company

Lunches:
Monday - Bagels
Tuesday - Nuggets
Wednesday - Leftover Ham/Bean Soup
Thursday - Brunch Goodies
Friday - Finger Food Lunch
Saturday - Mac'n'Cheese Pie
Sunday - PBJ

Goals for last week included finding homes for the remainder of the girls' items after the room switch and to dig into the landscaping project, literally!  We definitely made huge progress on the landscaping and digging.  7 of the 9 pallets of retaining wall blocks are empty.  I didn't do as well with finding homes for the girls' stuff.

Goals for this week: 1) Put all of DD#1's craft stuff in a box under the craft table and put changing table in garage. 2) Get remaining blocks out of driveway. 3)Unpack monster suitcase my brother brought from my mom who brought it from Hawaii.

Katie

Weekly Grocery Shopping -

This week was ridiculously busy and I only shopped minimally.  Tuesday I went to Albertsons (with all the kids) to use the double coupons and to pick up a ham.  I spent $29.63.

Cereal - $1.88 ($1.00/3 MC doubled) = $1.22 each (Did this deal twice)
Cereal - $1.88 ($.75 MC) = $1.13
Apples - $.88/lb
Ham - $.99/lb
Neufchatel - $1.25
Lunchmeat - $2.99 on sale ($1.00 MC doubled) = $.99
Tillamook yogurt - $.39 each
Lettuce - $1.29
Bell Peppers - $.69 each

Then I went to Haggen Wednesday (with 3 of the kids after bedtime) because the neighbor kids were coming over to dye eggs on Thursday.  Haggen had the best sales on eggs and a few other items.  I spent $33.06.

Chips - $1.88
Jelly Beans - $1.69
Applesauce Cup - $.25 on clearance
2# strawberries - $2.99
Ketchup - $1.00
Reese's PB Cups - $.25 each
JD Sausage - $3.00 on sale ($1.50 clearance tag) = $1.50 each
Eggs - $1.50 each dozen
Pears - $.99/lb
1# Butter - $1.77 each
Garlic - $.45
Lemon - $.59

I also had our milk delivery for $11.16.

Total this week: $73.85
Total this year: $1028.79 

Must sleep now.   My brother was here all week helping with a huge landscaping job.  We have been digging, hauling dirt, lugging retaining wall blocks, and get filthy for days.  Today we took the day off from landscaping but served at church, had a fast egg hunt with the kids (including resurrection eggs), and served dinner at the Union Gospel Mission.  I am sooo tired.

Katie

Garden Starts in Progress

I am officially a fan of grow lights.  I can't believe how fast my seeds have taken off!  At 4 days I could see tiny nubs just at the edge of the soil.  At 5 days, I could see this first pumpkin seed unfurling.

 And these cucumbers all popped up on day 5.

Now I was delighted on day 5 at this progress.  So excited I dragged DH in to admire them.  Imagine my GLEE on day 8 when my little plants looked like this:

Pumpkins!

Tomatoes!

Green Onions!

Cucumbers!

Huzzah!  Flourishing baby plants!  I'm denying that I'll have to kill 85% of them in a day or two when I thin them out. 

Katie

Menu Plan and Weekly Goals

I still have so much food from the grocery-palooza of the last two weeks that meals are easy to come up with.  Also my brother is here this week so our meals need to be a bit bigger.

Lunches:
Monday - Waffles
Tuesday - Chicken Nuggets
Wednesday - Mac'n'Cheese
Thursday -Finger Food Lunch
Friday - Grilled Cheese
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - Packed lunch - PBJ

Dinner:
Monday - Ham
Tuesday - Chicken la Viva!
Wednesday - French Toast
Thursday - Seder Dinner?
Friday -Taco Soup
Saturday - Tuna Casserole
Sunday - RESURRECTION SUNDAY - Easter Ham

My goals last week were to finish my own tax return, and start moving the girls' bedrooms.  I did both of those, but still have to find places for a few things out of the girls' rooms.  We also dug in the mornings for 5 days and will keep that up.  Ugh.

My goals this week are to find places for the rest of the girls' craft stuff from their bedroom, and get busy on a landscaping project.  Nine pallets of landscaping rock is getting dropped off on Thursday so we'll have to work hard to get it out of the driveway.  Ugh again.

Katie

Katie