A new interest

Before I get to the meat of this post, am I a bad mommy if I'm sitting here blogging while my children are in their rooms, awake from their naps and calling for me to come get them? I just don't think I'm ready yet... its been one of those days.

So, I'm newly interested in cooking ahead. I don't go all out Once A Month Mom cook ahead cooking, but I am learning the immense joy of havaing meals, or peices of meals, ready to go in the freezer.

It all started with chicken thighs. I found it on sale for 99 cents per pound a few weeks ago and bought some. Trouble it, it was bone-in, skin-on. I hate bone-in chicken. I can deal with skin... bones are harder. Especially after you've frozen the meat and its not completely thawed when you're trying to debone it so you can turn it into something that your 2-year-old will hopefully eat. So, I tossed the whole package into the crock pot with 2 cups of broth. When it was done, I had three 24 ounce tuperwares full of meat and 4 cups of broth, all of which when into the freezer. The next night, dinner was so easy! I made chicken stew and it went together so fast... all becuase I didn't have to cook the chicken.

So now I've pre-cooked more chicken. I've got homemade egg rolls that I made a few weeks ago frozen and ready to go. I froze extra enchilada filling. Extra rice from Cafe Rio style burritos. And now I'm doing beans. Two pounds of beans cost me $2 and, cooked in the crock pot, pretty much zero effort. It will yeild me at least a dozen can's worth of beans... at a fraction of the cost.

Maybe I'm nerdy, but its got me excited. And maybe I will try the Once A Month Mom thing one of these days. Today, a full day of cooking sounds like a nice change from a full day of mothering.

Why didn't I do this last year?

The windows in our apartment, for lack of any better way to put it, suck. They are old, single paned, aluminum framed windows. They are gigantic heat seives in our house. Last year our heating bills got really expensive. When I made Allison's black out drapes last March I learned that black out drapery liner not only blocks out light, but is an insulator.


I've had drapery fabric for about 2 years and finally, yesterday, I made use some insulating drapes for the 8 foot window in our living room. Hopefully it will help keep our heating bill down a little this year, huh? We can already tell it makes a difference... you don't feel the cold air dumping on you when you sit on the love seat! What do you think?

Dinner with the Thornock's

My January meal plan goal went really well... we ate well most nights, I didn't have stress out about figuring out what to make for dinner and we stayed within our eat out budget. Now, granted we more than blew our grocery budget, but part of that is that we had to completely restock out pantry at the beginning of the month. We had NOTHING after Christmas. Anyway, since it went so well, its more of the same for February. Here's what we'll be eating. =)

1 - Leftovers
2 - Ginger Stir Fry
3 - BBQ Pork Ribs
4 - Mormon Mommy Casserole
5 - Wontons
6 - Haystacks
7 - Oven BBQ Chicken
8 - Pizza
9 - Taco Bean Soup & Quesodillas
10 - Chili
11 - Enchiladas
12 - Pork & Pineapple Veggies
13 - Parmesan Chicken
14 - Fondue (Valentines Fun!)
15 - Pizza
16 - Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches
17 - Crock Pot Roast
18 - Tacos
19 - Chicken & Rice
20 - Lasagne
21 - Chicken Pockets
22 - Pizza
23 - Purgers and Fries
24 - Beef Stew
25 - Burritos
26 - Chicken Creole (my grandma's recipe)
27 - Eat out
28 - Lousiana Red Beans and Rice (Brian's choice)
29 - Pizza

Yum! Can't wait for some of these meals!

One of my new goals

I've seen a lot of people on blogs that I look at putting together monthly menus. I've started to think that this is a really good idea for me to try. I used to be SO good about cooking... but then Brian and I took a management job, which stressed me out. And then I got pregnant with Allison, which made me dislike food and the smell of food for a while. Needless to say, I'm not nearly as good at cooking dinners as I used to be. So, this is my attempt to try and get back on track cooking dinners, keep our grocery budget to a reasonable amount and reduce the amount we are spending eating out. So, here's January!

Sunday's (Crock Pot Night)

6 - Creamy Salsa Chicken

13 - Beef & Potato Casserole

20 - Chili

27 - Pot Roast

Monday's (Mexican Night)
7 - Tortilla Stack
14 - Chicken & Green Chile Enchiladas
21 - Tacos
28 - Spoon Tacos

Tuesday's (No Theme)
1- Chicken Pockets
15 - Lemon Chicken
22 - Chili Pasta Skillet
29 - Cordon Bleu Quiche

Wednesday's (No Theme)
2 - Ginger Chicken Stir Fry
9 - Macaroni & Cheese
16 - Wontons
23 - Parmesean Chicken
30 - Spaghetti

Thursday's (No Theme)
3 - Oven BBQ Chicken
10 - Eat out (my birthday!)
17 - Lasagna
24 - Chicken & Sun-dried Tomato Fetticuini
31 - Shepherd's Pie

Friday's (Pizza Night)
4 - Frozen Pizza
11 - Homemade Pizza
18 - Pita Pizza
25 - Papa Murphy's Pizza

Saturday's (Soup/Sandwich Night)
5 - Hamburgers
12 - Taco Soup & Quesadillas
19 - Sloppy Joes
26 - Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches

I would do a left overs night, but those usually get eaten for lunches. I suppose if I rearranged things I could also have an Italian/Pasta night... maybe next month! Hopefully this will be something that works for me. I would call it a new year's resolution, but we all know what happens to those.