The last few weeks, I have fallen in a rut.
The kind of rut where there is so much to do before our home schooling years begins, that I can’t get into the attitude of just Doing the Next Thing because the next thing seems overwhelming. Can anyone relate?
During the school year, my responsibilities are so busy that I go from one thing to the next, and routine is very consistent. But right now, I am spinning with new tasks that need to be completed. I know that in order to hurdle this moment, I MUST get my act together, take a deep breath, and create some sort of plan to accomplish all the details that need to be accomplished in the next month. (When I really just want to curl up in bed with a blanket over my head ;)).
So where should I begin that always helps the most…our MEALS. Busy scheduling has already kicked off with our three boys back in football, and one of our daughters beginning soccer soon. I know you can all relate in understanding how mealtime madness quickly spirals downward if there is not some sort of plan in place.
This weekend, I am going to begin refilling my freezer and get a jump on my mealtime mountain with some bulk cooking – both main dishes and baking. Would you care to join me? Grab your children or a friend and encourage each other throughout the day.
Here’s where I will begin, and then I’ll determine the rest as I go…never a good idea, but it’s about baby steps right now.
Banana, Blueberry Muffins
Zucchini Banana Bread (Using some of the zucchini still left from when I froze it in baggies many months ago. So thrilled to have this since my zucchini failed me this year.)
Four Loaves of French Bread
Shepherds Pie
Margarita Chicken
Freezer bags of seasoned ground beef
I want to accomplish more than this, but I just made a HUGE FREEZER Cooking boo boo and I am ticked at myself. I let six pounds of chicken spoil. UGH! I know better! Unless I run out and get some more, which I will attempt tomorrow, this will be it.
Anyone else in the planning rut? Let’s just take it step by step and begin filling up that hole. 🙂
I love freezer cooking! I just did a freezer day with ground turkey, it’s so much convenient. Nice job with this!
We dont’ have any kiddos yet, but we are both so incredibly busy that we need something like this so we can have things at the ready. Hopefully this fall we will be investing in a freezer for the garage, because the darn side by side just doesn’t hold everything we need. Thanks for sharing this great idea.
PTL! someone else let 6lbs spoil! sorry…not celebrating in your misfortune, but i did the same thing the other week and was SOOO mad at myself!
i am famous for wanting do a freezer cooking day but never quite getting it all together and doing it. so i decided to scale back and just do one meat at a time. when ground beef went on sale i bought 20 lbs and made over 10 meals in less than 2 hours. i did the same thing with chicken this week. it made it feel a little more doable.
i’m just stuck in a “i don’t want to menu plan” rut. I’m trying to come up with a master calendar and just repeating the same things each month. sure would make my life easier.
@Flamingo Mama, sounds like we are in the same place…I know it’ll be so good to get back on some kind of schedule, but just not feeling it either. And don’t worry, I didn’t take it as you celebrating in my misfortune about the chicken…haha. Didn’t it just make you so mad though? UGH! I could NOT believe I let that happen. I was going to make it one night, but then thought, I’ll wait, so I “checked the date” and thought it said the 10th, not the 1st. I know better than thinking chicken can last that long. 🙂
I have been in a meal planning/cooking rut as well! I’ve been working like crazy trying to get things in order to start our new year of homeschooling. Because of that, I’ve been in the cleaning out mood, not the cooking mood. (My almost 13 year old son said, “Mom, we’re ready for you to get in the cooking mood again!”) I really want to do a freezer cooking day this coming week before we start school. I know this sounds crazy, but I’m having trouble getting psyched up for it because I’m afraid that I’ll work myself to death on all of it and then my 5 children will devour everything in a week! I guess it’s not like they can’t get stuff out of the freezer themselves, so that’s a silly fear… 🙂
Can you share the recipe for the margarita chicken?….sounds interesting.
I have totally lost track of dates before and ruined a really good deal. Sometimes the days go faster than what seems possible. Glad to have company.
I really need to get back into the habit of doing some freezer cooking. It really does make life so much easier.
Too bad about the chicken. We all makes mistakes, we kick ourselves for. I will plan ahead for 3 to 4 days and then I fizzle out and make a rushed decision which sometimes works out and other times fails miserably.