More meal ideas

Meat balls can be made ahead and then covered in a variety of sauces (sweat/sour, bbq) and eaten cold or hot over noodles.

Cold salad meal ideas
     Pasta salad with chicken (defrost chicken breast or tenderloins in cheap Italian dressing)
   
Hand foods
French toast with sweetened batter so you don't need syrups
Pita bread (not that hard to make your own, it's not baked) sandwiches
    filled with scrambled eggs, tuna salad, and finely chopped lettuce
Quesadillas and I use cheese, onions and finely chopped chicken, raw tortillas from Costco

In cooler weather you can make biscuits and add cheese and sausage for hand held meals

New Blog

I started a new blog about decorating year-round with the same cupboard resources. It's called 12 Months of Design. Check it out.  http://12monthsofdesign.blogspot.com/

Batch Cooking

A number of years ago I spent three weeks with my niece who was having a baby. I decided to leave meals for Bob and the boys so with a little planning and a day and a half of my time, I put 21 meals in the freezer. All they had to do was make rice or noodles fresh to go with my bagged meals.

Here is the inventory and the order I cooked them:

Ground beef chili
           I made chili and let it simmer on the back of the stove while cooking other items. I like to mix ground turkey with my beef for chili so it is a little leaner/cheaper and the seasonings go well with turkey. With half of it I added cooked corn and olives to make a chili cornbread casserole. You need to add the cornbread at the time of eating because it doesn't freeze that well.
       
           I fried out Italian sausage with onions and mushrooms and added tomato sauce. Half of this was frozen to put on bread pizzas and half I added canned tomatoes to simmer and make spaghetti sauce. With this mix you can also make lasagna.  I have found turkey Italian sausage but for some reason it is more expensive. Go figure.

         When I can buy one, get one free or find a 50% off  roast,  I get a goodly amount to make the following meals. I cube the meat in about 1 inch cubes or smaller if little people are eating. I season flour with salt and pepper and coat each piece of meat before browning. To this I add onions and mushrooms and minced garlic. When the meat is showing the juices I add onion soup mix (package or bulk) and a pint or so of water, turn down the heat and cook slowly. You can also put it in a slow cooker once it is browned.   From this I reserve one meal for stroganoff (just add sour cream) and the rest I package in pint containers for stew (adding potatoes, carrots, etc.) and for veggie soup (add veggies and a can of tomato juice). You can complete these dishes now or freeze the meat mix and make them fresh another day.

You can do pork roast the same way and make similar dishes as well as sweet/sour. Pork roast in the slow cooker with bbq sauce is great for pulled pork. I always fill the cooker so I get several meals with one cooking. I grew up cooking with a pressure cooker and I am still learning how to use the slow cooker so that the meat doesn't get dried out.

           I buy chicken two ways, whole and bake or boil it, depending if I want to make salad or need broth; or I buy boneless/skinless breasts.

            Once the whole chicken is cooked and cooled you can de-bone it and freeze in baggies to cook with later or if you have the time, make meals to freeze. I have started putting the broth in quart jars and freezing it as I have a good size freezer. I reuse canning lids that might not work for a second season of canning but still have a good rubber seal.  The broth is wonderful if you add onions and celery while it is cooking. I sometimes save the leafy tops of celery in a bag in the freezer until I am ready to boil up a chicken.  The only thing I don't freeze is potatoes because they get so mushy.

For soups I make chicken/noodle or chicken and dumplings or I made a chicken pot pie soup that is only 50 calories per serving. Just add a little half/half before serving. Adding lots of veggies makes the meal go farther, look better and be healthier. There some veggies that I can hide in soups that don't go over well on the plate, if you know what I mean. I wonder if you couldn't make chicken taco soup as well with this.

            One dish I make from cooked chicken is curry and we love it. I have found bulk curry but we don't care for the taste as much so I'm still searching for more economical seasonings. I make my curry from yellow paste and with coconut milk and serve over rice. I do put a little potato in the curry to make it go further, but we try to minimize carbs and because the potatoes don't freeze well I don't do too many. Chicken and rice casserole is a good dish for freezing. Season with canned soup or make a white sauce and season to your preference.  I make rice in the cooker while I'm attending other items on the stove.

            Plain breast of chicken you can brown the on one side, turn and pour condensed cream of mushroom soup over it, reduce the heat and put a lid on it to finish cooking. Serve this over rice and it is delicious. I don't even bother to thaw the breasts. By the time noodles or rice is done, the meat is also done. Add onions/mushrooms/sweet peppers if you like.

Other dishes good for the freezer would be enchiladas (I recently made white enchiladas that were wonderful); manicotti;

Basically, I start with dishes that are better when simmered for a time, then work my way through meats that fry first and then can be immediately frozen or prepared further with additional ingredients,  and end with meats that cook quickly. Dishes that can be started on the stove and finished in a slow pot or electric skillet are handy, space wise.  Save your favorite meal for last so you aren't too tired to cook for that day's dinner.

Items to have on hand when batch cooking include
baggies or container (bags are great for smaller freezers because they freeze flat)
fresh veggies:  onions, celery, garlic (minced or fresh), carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, sweet peppers
canned:  tomato sauce and diced, mushrooms
frozen veggies: potatoes, mixed (for soups)
seasonings:  onion soup, chili, italian,
misc.: flour, corn starch

Decorating

Yesterday was a rainy day so I decided to sew.  I made a chair for Ranger but he won't get into it so I guess the grandkids will get to use it. I had the fabric from curtains I had made and some recycled from a local draper;  I used old pillows for the arms,  foam cushions from a couch that was left here at the house; and the zipper was re-purposed from an old mattress cover I took apart. Total cost, $0. I love it.

Now I have decided to recover cushions for our dining room chairs. It seems like when we have people over for dinner it is so comfortable sitting at the table chatting that we never do move to the front room. At this point my cushions are an odd assortment of leftovers and falling apart. I don't have enough of one fabric to cover them so I'm thinking of 'quilting' together fabric squares to use.

Last week I painted the final three walls of my room and got my summer quilt out. The top is adorned with appliquéd flowers from a companion fabric and I will finish by embroidering vines and tendrils with silk ribbon.  Next time I make this quilt I will make the background squares white so the design shows up better. My theme for this room is Beatrix Potter, very English :).

What is God doing?

A realization of a long-time dream of mine came about this last weekend, we traded some work for this little beauty. It's in pretty good condition and we can attach our propane tank to it in an emergency.  Notice how I have the microwave oven on it? I think this is so like our lives, a juxtaposition of antique and modern.

What I am pondering on right now is how God works. We have something really big we need an answer to, and we need it really soon.  Yet God has been teaching me from Isa.40.31 'waiting on the Lord'. When I saw the eagles last week the scripture came to my mind again, 'they shall mount up with wings as eagles...they shall renew their strength'. One definition of renew is changing for the better, or growing up. The Word teaches that as we wait we grow stronger, yet I don't feel stronger, I feel more stressed. My strength seems at an end. But here is the mystery, Paul said he gloried in his own weakness so that God's greatness would be made clear. Unmet expectations of the past cause me to not  like being weak and dependent on someone else, even God. Long ago I worked through forgiveness and I guess now is the time to let the emotions come to the surface and be healed. Did I mention, I don't like letting my emotions showing either. I guess part of growing up is becoming incredibly vulnerable, or weak so to speak, and in this weakness I will be renewed, or grow stronger. It defies logic.

Has God not met my expectations?  You bet!  I don't know why things happen the way they do, but this I know, I press on to know and understand Him more because He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek him. He is all justice and all mercy.  If I can't trust God, then all that I have lived for has no meaning.

We have a mass of daffodils planted at the corner of our little farm and I set out one day to get a picture of them. From a distance they looked to be scatter planted but as I got closer I could see that they were all in rows and the Lord reminded me that from my perspective my life looked chaotic but from His perspective it had order. Therefore, my declaration must be that God's word is truth, no matter what I see, and He is an awesome God. I shall partake of His nature, and someday I will know my life from His perspective. I wait patiently for His perspective to be made clear, and to know His will for our lives; and in the meantime, I will absolutely adore His little gift to me, my stove.

Are You Ready

With the earthquake in Japan we have returned to the thought of preparing ourselves for a disaster. We do live near a fault line but disasters can take many forms, a home fire, a death in the family, a community in need.  We had a power outage last fall that lasted 8 hours so we went to town, got Chinese take-out and had a candle-light dinner and played Rummy. I happen to have three oil lamps so I can put one in the kitchen, one in the dining room and one in the bathroom. [If you put it in front of a mirror you get a lot more light.] Some disasters you have prior notice, most you don't. If my house started shaking right now I would probably grab my cpu and my great grandmother's picture.

My planning takes various forms, from food, to shelter, to protecting our selves, and don't forget how important your data on the computer is. I also have family photos that are over 100 years old and are irreplaceable. For foods I like to have canned, dry and frozen foods on hand. When we lost power for several hours the frozen foods were not compromised because they keep each other frozen for a long time, when you don't open the door. If they are packed closely together they stay frozen longer. If we were going to be without power for several days I would use the frozen food first.  We keep one 5-gallon tank of propane full for the grill and we have a camp stove that we could use. When I was a girl we had a storm that took out power and it was two weeks before we got it back. In those days we had a small stove in the kitchen called a 'trash burner' and we cooked on it. I am looking at a duel fuel stove for when we rebuild our house. It has wood and electric. I'll have to see if it justifies the extra expense, but it would keep a small area warm as well as being useful for cooking.

Keeping paper supplies on hand is a good idea as well. Plates for eating, towels for cleanup, toilet paper, etc.

We have well water so we keep a few gallons of water in containers and my husband is designing a rainwater collection system that we could use for flushing and irrigation.

A gas can with some fuel that you can use for the lawn mower so that is doesn't get old is handy.

We have pets so I am thinking about their needs as well, although the dogs love eating people food as much as their own food.

My sweetie has medications to take every day so we get a three month supply. We actually save a little money this way and don't have to worry.

I think the key thing for me to remember is not to be motivated by fear, but to see what might be coming and be prepared.  I won't spend money I don't have and won't buy things I would not use ordinarily around the house.

I would love more ideas for this planning.

What is Poverty

I've been thinking about what poverty is, what it looks like, how it affects me and how it affects our culture. Technically, we personally have been living in poverty for about four years but I never think of myself as poor. We can't go out and buy a lot of things I think we need, let alone want, but I have found that being poor is not the same thing as poverty. Poverty is a feeling, it is a mentality. Sometimes it's sad that I can't get things, sometimes it is frustrating, but I am so thankful for what we do have. We own vehicles but have no payments, we have two homes, one rented out, one we rent; we have beautiful antique furniture that I love; we have books and books and books, which make me feel rich; we have electricity so that I can find anything and just about anyone on the internet, and I am as close as a click to our kids;

So what is poverty? I don't think it has anything to do with how much money we have, or what things we have. I spent time in Guatemala and they are very poor in material things but they laugh and play and make a life worth living.  I'm beginning to think poverty is thinking we have to buy things for ourselves and our kids that will provide an appearance of wealth. Real poverty is thinking we have less value because we don't live in fancy houses and drive expensive cars or  dress in brand names.  You can have a lot of money and think this, and you can have no money and think this.

By the way, we drove a Cadillac Escalade for a number of years and I loved it, and we will drive one again when we can pay cash for it, and we are planning to rebuild our family house to be big and beautiful. I won't defend what we do with our resources because that would be motivated by that feeling of less worth for not having them, and that is poverty to me.

I guess, like most things,  it comes down to motive. I have determined that I will not base my value, my confidence, my relationships, on what I own, or how much money I spend. I will dream dreams and plan for days when we have more, I will spend carefully what we now have; I will be thankful in all things; I will be content; I will not judge others for how they live their lives; I will not  be poverty minded.