It has taken me most of the week to do (almost) all of the cooking I bought groceries for. I prepared ten crock pot meals and 2 weeks of breakfasts. I’m still working on 2 weeks of lunches. While the actual preparing of the meals was quick and easy, there was some pre-preparation that I should have accounted for, namely some pre-cooked chicken and the baked omelette. The first cooking session I stayed up too late because I started the chicken too late in the afternoon and, at the time, I debated not doing so many meals. But, now that I’m done, I see how being unprepared messed up my whole session. Next time, I think I’ll still prepare 10 meals, I’ll just know that I’ll do it over a few days.

Here’s my freezer all full of tasty food!

The recipes :

1) Beef and Cabbage (saute onions, garlic and mushrooms; brown meat; cover with chopped cabbage and lid; once cabbage is wilted, add soy sauce. Serve over noodles or rice. (my own ‘recipe’) )

2) Amazing Lentils and Kale from allrecipes.com (It really is amazing. Easy to make and my carnivorous husband ate it and the leftovers readily. He did mention ham at some point, but it wasn’t too important to him.  Serving it with rice or bread may have made it last longer, but it already fed us for three meals, so I’m cool with that.)

3) Meatloaf with Rosemary Potatoes from Baked in the South

4) Honey Sesame Chicken from Baked in the South

5) White Chicken Chili from Baked in the South

6) Beef Stroganoff from Baked in the South

7) Thai Chicken Wings with Peanut Sauce from Baked in the South

8) Indian Chicken Curry from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen (although it was a “cook everything now and freeze your leftovers” type of meal it was pretty good.  I felt there was way too much cinnamon in it and would have easily benefited from onions, peppers, and carrots too.)

9) Salsa Chicken (for Quesadillas) from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen

10) Pho (which isn’t a freeze-ahead kind of meal, I just wanted to use some rice noodles and my husband loves Pho!)

11) Spinach and Feta Oven Omelet Breakfast Bagel Sandwich from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen

12) Blueberry and Banana smoothie packs as inspired from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen

Each meal is at least enough for four meals – that’s 2 nights of dinners for Warren and I! And so far, two of the meals had even more than that – lunches for me! 🙂 So, 10 dishes will make at least 20 dinners. We’ve declared Friday night “Pizza night,” so that’s another 4 dinners. I guess that’s not a full month of meals, but it’s close enough for me!

I spent $168 although I got many groceries using WIC. I also feel I saved a lot of money buying meat in such large quantities. Both steak and chicken were nearly half the price when bought in “value packs”. We also had some staples on hand already (oil, salt, sugar, etc) and vegetables from our CSA (which I guess technically increases how much we’ve spent on food, but we paid in advance for those veggies  so we don’t have to shell out any money now.)

So, while a little overwhelming to start, I think this is a very profitable endeavor and will probably do it again next month!

This week started with a trip to the Pulmonologist for Robin where we learned he continues to progress with his lung/breathing health and we were able to lower his oxygen from 1/4 liters per minute to 1/8 liters per minute.  He continues to desat (oxygen levels go below 92%) at night, so we turn him back up to 1/4, but when he’s awake he’s doing great!  He’s also been eating more and more from his bottle, so that is a huge relief! I can’t wait to get rid of these tubes!

I also started three projects that were not on my list of things to do and I completely forgot to take any pictures  Which is fine, I guess, because it’s not all that exciting.  First, Robin nearly weighs 15 pounds now and will be too big for his bassinette soon, so we brought up the crib and, with some hole filling and repairs, we’ve put it together … in the living room.  I haven’t decided if we’re going to use this crib since it’s been recalled or if we’re going to ask Santa-in-law to get us a new one. Either way, we’ll need to do some bedroom rearranging and that is when I’ll take photos.

There was also a changing table who’s shelf boards had gone missing.  I have found some wood in the basement (free!) and need to cut it into three pieces before that can be assembled.

And third, we really need a rain barrel with an overflow valve to move water away from our back door.  It is surprising how many places Home Depot has rubber gasgets. I kept cycling through the 5 areas looking for just the right thing. And I’m still not completely satisfied with what I have.

There has been progress on previously-selected projects.  I keep procrastinating the next step in Robin’s scrapbook:  date all the photos.

But I finally decided on a menu and went grocery shopping today! We will have dinners for a month and breakfast, lunch and snacks for two weeks in the freezer soon — all for $168!! Tomorrow is going to be a lot of work getting all that food ready! But I’m excited – it should be easier and healthier than what we have been doing and, we’ve already demonstrated, way cheaper!!

I will finish the changing table, rain barrel, and meal preparation tomorrow! I will share pictures tomorrow, too!

While I was organizing my and Robin’s important personal documentation and health summary sheets, two things occurred to me: having Robin’s health info in a locked box won’t help babysitters and I have gained a lot of weight again and am not healthy. So I am adding two things to my to-do list: 1) create a household notebook and 2) start planning and preparing for a month of healthy meals. There are so many free, attractive, and useful templates for household notebooks out there! I’ve been having fun searching and downloading.

An ugly notebook (and photo)

I either don’t do some of the things many others do (I don’t send cards to people) or I do a lot on my computer (we use mint.com for our finances) so my notebook has:
1) Menu Planning
* In season produce, foraging, and when-to-buy lists
* Recipe list
* Pantry, cupboards, freezer, fridge inventory lists
* calendar and shopping lists
2) Emergency Information
* Medical history and contacts for each family member, including pets
* Emergency kits inventory lists and procedures
3) Chores and Checklists
* Seasonal chores
* Children’s chores (eventually)
* Traveling checklists
4) Restaurants (menus)
5) Manuals

I printed some divider sheets and used clear sheet protectors with stick on labels for my section dividers. I used a free border and text editor to make my dividers at least moderately interesting. They turned out better than I thought they would!!

Here are the sources for the templates I downloaded:

Simple Mom blog
Organized Home
Life as MOM blog
Money Saving Mom
Mom’s Toolbelt

I found some pretty fabric in my stash, so I’m hoping to sew a binder cover sometime this week. Then the whole thing will be functional AND attractive!

Meaning an intelligently organized counter is important!

Here are some before photos of my counter:

What doesn’t work for me:
1) biggest workspace is covered with stuff
2) too much stuff
3) Robin’s medical stuff too separate (3 more tubs elsewhere)
4) canned goods out

I haven’t finished my organizing (I’m looking for just the right thing for all of the medical supplies) but, with a little reshuffling of the toaster oven and coffee maker, I’ve opened a lot of counter space already. I can even create a beverage station! My Mother-in-law will like knowing where to look to make tea. This helps take the beverage packages out of the cupboard, too. A dual benefit!