Cookin', home schooling and other fun things!

     Goodness, it is high speed all the time here.  I am not opposed to high speed, but sure like to shift into slow every now and again.  Last week was one thing after another and none of them could be ignored.  A dog situation that left me rather frazzled, struggling with Children's to get confirmation on our surgery date for Miss France and well just a lot of other things that would bore you to tears and yet have me in a dither.

     This week began ELO for us and that is always an event to behold.  Why?  Because the kids love it.  I feel like I have a billion kids that I have to get school supplies for and make sure they have done their work and my own class to get ready for.  It makes me run away from my computer.  As it turns out, I did forget the supplies for one child altogether. Ooops!  Yes, I am THAT mother.  Next week... there is always next week.

Fun vow renewal with the Bells and their newly adopted 3 girls!  Beautiful!

     This week was also the 2nd "cook" done with only 2 of us.  Let's observe a moment of silence for the "cook".....actually I say we shout praises to our precious SAVIOR for me learning about this glorious invention by some really creative time challenged mom.  As many of you have read, I have done freezer cooking for over 4 years and it has changed my life.  In fact I am not sure if I could ever go back to cooking like normal!  I don't have time or energy or the patience.  The great thing is the flexibility to cook whatever YOUR family likes.  Gluten free, no problem, "clean" cooking...great, corn free, whatever.  With our group of 4, we cooked 6 recipes 4 times.  This means we took home 24 different meals of yummy goodness.  Our servings are for 8 and the costs had gotten a little pricey at about $10 or more a meal (still cheaper than eating out) which means a bit over $1 each before veggies/salad, etc.  Our goal is less than $1 per person.

   This spring my group took a break, but I was NOT going to give this up so I marched forward and found a new partner.  She, also had done freezer cooking so this was nothing new to her.  We did the same thing.  6 meals done 4 times, BUT we had only 12 different meals because all of our meals were doubled.  There is NO point in ever making ANY food without doubling it OR MORE!  Why mess up the kitchen for less than that????  If I am going to make a mess I am going to get more out of it....like a freezer meal or 4!  This time we actually got 27 meals out of it.  One we planned and doubled and the other was by accident with leftover stuff.  When life gives you extra food, make a meal and FREEZE IT!  My cookin'  partner made her meals pretty much before we got to together....overachiever.....I made all but 2.  We finished together and went to lunch...a rarity.  With the exception of Chic fila I think the last time I went to lunch was with her when we cooked last.  I don't get out much, people!  Now here is the amazing part....cost. Wait for it, wait for it.....$7 a meal!  YES!  Less than $1 a person! How?  I have no idea!!!  Well, kind of no idea.....we really used what we had in the pantry, chose less expensive items for our recipes, and have a cow in our freezers.  Yep, that cow is a glorious thing.  He just sits there until we need something and then coughs up ground beef!  Ha!  No, we bought a cow and split it with people to have slaughtered.  We didn't go and name him and feed him....we just paid for it and boy am I thrilled!  The meat is grass fed (no corn) and delicious without any extra junk in it and it was cheaper than we could ever get in the store! And the angels sang....  I am so excited. SO, what are we having for dinner?  Well, not one of the freezer meals.  I actually thawed round steak for fajitas and that is NOT what you use for fajitas so we are having chicken fried steak.

The mess that is chicken fried steak.....the yumminess being cooked.

Some finished!


 That is serious deliciousness, but it feels like hours in a hot kitchen making a mess worthy of moving instead of cleaning....and to top it off, my kitchen is spotless.  Bummer!  On top of that I made Chocolate Granola Bars with my little helpers. Talk about needing to double!  I didn't have enough ingredients to do that so I just used the recipe like normal....by the time I licked the bowl.....uhem...I mean tasted it to make sure all of the ingredients were good, there was hardly any left.  Instead of putting them in a pan, I put them in mini cupcakes and froze them.  Oh my....let's just pretend we didn't make them.  I will hide the evidence and my little helpers and I will take care of the evidence before anyone knows! 

Oh my...these are good. That is all this recipe made....so not fair!

Back to the kitchen for the chicken fried steak.  I hope I have it made before next week.