Now I actually have a really good excuse for not posting pictures of this. The camera is packed, you know, "just in case." And after you hear what I've been doing today, who knows if it'll kick me into labor....
I remembered my friend Audrey cooking up a storm with Melanie right before she had her last baby. And I was SO wishing that we had a nice big freezer so I could do the same! So I'd been brainstorming how/what I could do to make life easier in the food department for when this baby gets here. My little monkey-man Spencer is SO busy these days and I know once I'm nursing a baby 24/7 that I'm going to be pressed for time, especially to cook dinner. Very much so. So, the solution I came up with was to buy one of those giant 10 lb tubes of ground beef at Sam's (the ones I always pass by and say to myself "WHO buys THAT?!"), to brown it all up and portion it out in 1 lb portions into ziplocks. I have a VERY teeny side by side fridge/freezer and I worried that my small freezer wouldn't work to well to freeze it, but after browning up 8 lbs and freezing the other two (without cooking them up first) it worked quite well. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this sooner! Silly me. I also bought a bunch of chicken breasts (they're on the agenda for tomorrow) that I'm going to cook up and shred/chop. Kirsten gave me the great idea to cook them in my crockpot, which is EXCELLENT as I have a giant crockpot and hadn't thought to use that, and would've used my stockpot instead (which is smaller). I took Spencer out in the snow this morning to brave the grocery store (I can't bring myself to go near Walmart these days, so we went to Bag N Save instead...and I really didn't spend near what I thought I would, so yay for Bag N Save. It saved my stress levels today!) and bought all the non perishable stuff for our menu. I figure that along with the option of good ol' Kraft easy mac (or reg. mac n cheese) and frozen corn dogs, we now have at least 40+ days worth of dinners (and that's not even using food storage, haha!). I'm SO excited, can you tell? Final nesting is in full swing over here! I wonder what else I can try to accomplish tonight...ahh. Productivity feels so good! Almost all the laundry is done, so I suppose that'll be my goal to finish once kiddos are in bed tonight. Adam has crammed 5 calls into 9 days and we just gotta get through tonight's call +1 more and then no calls for a month. YAY!
Here's a sampling of our menu for the next month or two:
Spaghetti
Tacos
Hamburger Helper
Mexican Casserole
Sloppy Joes (Adam had to introduce me to the Adam Sandler SNL sloppy joe/lunch lady song when he heard what I was doing...I must be too young or something since I hadn't heard it before. It's funny when I discover our little age gap!:))
Meat Loaf
Meatball Subs
French Bread Pizza
Homemade Mac n Cheese
Hawaiian Haystacks
Chicken Enchilladas
Chicken Casserole
BLTs
Frozen Corndogs
Regular Mac N Cheese
Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Crockpot Chocolate Cake (I'll post the recipe if I deem it good enough...it sounds yummy though!)
Frozen Cookie Dough (my first attempt at this...usually we eat it all before it could possibly be frozen for future use!):)
4 years ago
6 comments:
wow go melissa!
and the lunch lady song is not before your time because i know that song and remember watching it...
mmm frozen cookie dough. my mom has done that and it always works for her. good luck!
What a smart idea! Glad you were able to fit it all in. One thing I'm going to miss when we move is my freezer box... One day when I have a bigger garage a separate freezer will be bought. Keep us posted on when your little guy decides to arrive! :)
Yay for you! I did that with Abby and crammed all of my casserole dishes into the freezer, and when I opened the door they all came crashing out onto the floor and shattered. That was a bad day...good ole' El Cortez. Hope your experience is better than mine.
You go girl!! Audrey and Melanie did all their meals like a couple days before Audrey was due, CRAZY! I did mine 2 weeks before. May the next 40+ days be stress free and comfy for you!! :) Speaking of Melanie and Audrey, best idea I got from them was Nachos. Just layer chips, black beans, shredded chicken, corn, and anything else you want on a cookie sheet. SUPER easy...we ate it a lot when I firt had Tyler...ok, we still eat it all the time. :) Love ya!
way to go! I am taking notes for someday when I know I'll be out of commission for awhile--heck, I might as well take notes and just do this now!! I'd save myself a ton of hassle with all this organized planning. Thanks for the great ideas. I really hope baby makes a timely appearance!
You are amazing. To cook all that food and complete the laundry in the same day is truly an achievement to be proud of! Especially when you're expecting to pop out another kid at any minute! When Melanie and I got together she did 98% of the work. Bless her heart, she felt bad for my swollen cankles/feet. It was a huge help and the best gift that I have ever gotten. It really releases that daily dinner freak out; just pull something out and throw it in the oven. *sigh*
BTW, how have you not heard the Sloppy Joe song? I know I'm older than you, but not by that much girlie. Thanks for the reminder though; it'll be stuck in my head all day now!
Good Luck with baby #3 and be sure to upload pictures for that post! We're all waiting!
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