A Kitchen Day in Review

Yesterday I spent a day in the kitchen, working on making some easy meals for the upcoming baseball and track season.

The first thing to be made was Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce , since it is winter still here and I do not have garden produce yet I used veggies frozen from last years garden. I let that simmer in the big roaster oven while I moved onto baking.

Next up was 8 loves of French Bread these I worked on over the course of the day, in the end my daughter Sarah made 4 loves into french bread pizza. They were frozen then bagged, enough for 2 meals, on a busy night all that needs to happen is for them to be pulled out heated in the oven add a salad and some fresh veggies. Two more loves were made into garlic bread, and the last two are for today's lunch.



While the bread was baking I started on the stuffed shells, these are very easy to make. The filling was 5lb ricotta cheese, 2 lb cottage cheese ( small curd), 4 eggs, 2 TB Italian seasoning, and 8 cups of mozzarella cheese all mixed together. Boil the large stuffing shells until slightly soft , rinse and cool. Fill a gallon zip lock bag half way with the filling and cut off the cornor and use as a piping bag to fill the shells.

 Then sit down at the table, start the current episode of Castle on the computer and stuff the shells. I place mine in a disposalable pan with some sauce on the bottom, for us I place 30 shells in each pan so 3-4 shells per person. Cover with more sauce, top with some mozzarella, cover and freeze. We now have 3 of these meals in the freezer ready to go for a easy dinner some night.

Then it was onto the calzones I made the dough using this recipe but times it by 4, using the leftover stuffed shell filling, more mozzarella, and pepperoni for the filling ( no sauce in the calzone, but on the side for dipping). I made 8 large clazones figuring on three a meal, we had 3 last night for dinner, and have 5 left in the freezer so enough for one more dinner meal, and a lunch. The ones for the freezer  I par baked, baking them for only 10 minutes.




The last thing to be made was 21 instant oatmeal packets. In a sandwich size Ziploc bag place:

1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup baby oat flakes ( Our local bulk store carries this)
1 TB brown sugar
1tsp Milk powder
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinn

when it's time for breakfast, dump one packet into a bowl, add 1 cup of boiling water, cover, let sit for a minute or two and enjoy. I did add a bit more brown sugar when I sat down to eat, and next time I plan on adding some walnuts.

I did have plans to make muffins for the freezer also but, that was bit to much to get done so that has been put aside till later.

I forgot I also cooked up pinto beans for re fried beans in the crock pot. It's a real easy way to cook beans that I learned from a friend. Rinse your beans, then place in crock pot, fill to top with water and let cook on low for 6 hours. After the beans were cooked I froze them in 2 cup sizes to make re fried beans.

And the rest of the sauce was also frozen in the right amounts for dipping the calzones in and a spaghetti meal.

a kitchen day

Well it has been awhile since I have blogged, but time to get back to blogging. Last night I was watching Good Eats on  hulu, and decided that today was going to be a kitchen day and I wasn't going to stop until I was done. Well I got almost everything done that I had planned except for pumpkin muffins, they will just need to be made tomorrow.

In the freezer there are 3 stuffed shells meals ( 30 to a meal) , 2 french bread pizza meals( a meal is 2 loafs of french bread) , 2 garlic bread, 2 calzone meals ( a meal is 3 large calzones), 5 pinto beans, a lot of extra marnina sauce, and 21 packets of instant oatmeal in the pantry. And we also ate 3 calzones for dinner, and have 2 loaf's of french bread for tomorrow's lunch.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures and links to recipe's.

Time for a hot shower and a good book.

Import

I was just able to import my blog from homeschool blogger to here so, if you would like to see what we were up to in years past take a look.

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All in a day - Shopping

Well this is a bit late, but it is also the first time this week I have had time to think.

Shopping in a large family for us has changed as the kids have aged, which is a good thing by the time their appetites have grown to the point that the kids and the food will not fit in the van at the same time I have children old enough to babysit.

When the oldest 5 were all under 9 we used to all go shopping together, and it worked because I had one rule and was not afraid to enforce it. If  any child did not behave with store manners then mommy would give the cart to the nearest store employee apoilze that I was not able to finish shopping at this time and we went home. The offending child then had to explain to daddy why we were having rice and beans for dinner and not the chicken that mom said was for dinner. This only happened about once a year and also we only lived 5 min from the stores.

Then we moved and we are now 45 min from alot of the stores and leaving and going home is no longer a option, but they have also grown so the food and the kids do not fit in the van at the same time. So shopping day happens two different ways now, during the school year I either shop alone while they are in school or I shop with a friend. During the summer and school breaks I use shopping day as a chance to spend some time with the older kids one or two at a time, sometimes I will take them all but not offen. On the very rare times I will have my husband do the shopping on his way home from work, but it is not something he really enjoys doing.

We shop every two weeks and buy in bulk, if meat reaches my price point then we buy what is needed for the next month or more. Like boneless chicken breast when they reach 1.49 lb for a 40 lb case we buy them, ground beef when it reaches 1.69 lb or less, roast I aim for 1.99 or under.

We buy potatoes in the 50lb bag, bananas buy the case when on sale, rice by the 25lb bag, and so on. Since we shop every two weeks if there is a new cashier at Aldi's I will at times get asked for my tax except form as they think I am buying for a group home. I guess seeing two carts filled with 14 gallons of milk, 14 loafs of bread, and more gives that impression.

I have a large pantry that I keep stocked, buying alot of things when on sale. Like this week peanut butter is 99 cents so we spent 20 dollars on peanut butter.  We shop at Aldi's, Maine's ( a restaurant supply store), Wegmans, Sam's Club, Weis and Price Chopper ( for their loss leaders), and Pine Ridge ( a local bulk food store), and Frog Pond ( a local farm stand ), CVS and Rite Aid. We do not shop each of these stores each time we shop some are 1x a month, some are every 2 months.

Here are some older pictures of a shopping day.

And the trunk was also filled.

Visit these other mom's

happybusymama

ourfullhouse

yes-theyre-all-ours

kathymomofmany

homemakerscottage

1happybusymama

naturalmamax4

bakersdozen

All in a day introductions

Well I thought I would join with a group of other mother's many who have families much larger then mine. This week it is all about introductions. Join us if you like the banner can be found here and more details can be found at any of the blogs listed below.

We are a family of 8

Don is the dad of this crew, he enjoys acting in community theater usually with one or more of the kids, he also volunteers for CAP, and is recently retired from the Air Force Reserves. He currently works in a field close to what did in the military.

I am Margery the mom of this crew, I am a stay at home mom most of the time. I enjoy gardening, sewing, cooking, and managing the family. I am a planner at heart, in fact the kids are known to go running when they hear me say " I have a plan"

Patrick is our oldest and is off to college this year, studying Construction management. He is a very hard worker and handles alot of the repairs that we need done around the house. He also enjoys being outside and all that goes with it. We miss him, but enjoy the time we do get to spend with him.

Sarah is our oldest daughter, she is a junior in high school and is also studying law enforcement as part of her high school. She is a wonderful daughter with many interests,she has traveled to Switzerland with her Girl Scout troop, acted in many plays with her dad and siblings, sings in the school choir, lifeguards in the summer,and lots more. She is also a big help at home and can pretty much run the place if I am not here.

 
Conner is child number 3, and in the 8th grade,he loves to read, and his goal in life is to rule the world.
 He also likes soccer and track and field.


Nolan is child number 4 and is in the 7th grade, he enjoys baseball, soccer, reading,and the computer. He also plays the drums, piano, sings,and enjoys acting.

This is Kathryn our youngest daughter and she is in the 5th grade. Kathryn can usually be found playing with or caring for her animals. Or trying to convince the mom that one more animal really won't make much of a difference. She also plays field hockey ,is active in Girl Scouts, and is very much a outdoor girl. She also is in chours, takes piano and drum lessons and acts along with her dad and older siblings.

And last but not least the youngest Aidan who started pre-k this year. He enjoys being outside, and playing at being many things from Bob the Builder to Spider man. He is a big help and wants to grow as big as the big kids and do everything they get to do.

We also have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 hermit crabs, and 10 fish, we live on 7 1/2 acres in a small town in New York.

This post is  linked up at :

Renee at the   Bakers Dozen
Carrie at Our Full House
Kristy at Homemakerscottage
Lori at 1 HappyBusy Mama
Monica at naturalmama
Elizabeth at Yes theyre all ours
Kathy at Kathy Mom of Many

Aprons

Today I had a sewing day, I had seen jeans turned into aprons and had been wanting to try it for a while. So a few weeks ago when our thrift store had 70% off I bought a pair of men's jeans for only two dollars to work with. Out of  the pair of jeans I made 3 aprons, well really 2 are finished and one will be done in another week. I used fabric and thread from my attic stash of items. The pictures are not the best, will try to get some better ones tomorrow in the sunlight.

This one used one leg of the jeans,and is the same one I will be making another one of  next week using the other leg. It is based off of this apron Jeans Half apron, I did add a bib to mine as for most housecleaning I like a full apron to protect my shirts and a extra pocket as I love pockets.

This one I made based off of this idea Jean Apron ,the cloth pocket is plenty big for cloths pins and the jean pockets are perfect for the cell phone, kitchen timer and sharpie, I did add a good size ruffle to the bottom of this one. This apron was supposed to be mine but a certain daughter has decided she wants it, so I will be making myself another one before the weather gets warm enough to hang the laundry. The fabric  is pink with crowns and says princess.

Now I can only hope that having some cute new aprons will inspire me to get out of a winter funk, and get the house cleaned.