Great Big Giant Cooking Session

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-your-mothers-make-ahead-and-freeze-cookbook-jessica-fisher/1108942909

I'm about to embark on a big cooking session with the hopes of making enough breakfast, dinners, and Sunday desserts to last for one month.  I found this book at the library and was hesitant to check it out but I'm so glad that I did.  This book isn't like other freezer cooking or once-a-month cooking cookbooks, which rely on a lot of creamed soups, dry soup mixes, and other very unhealthy ingredients.  The recipes in this book are more wholesome overall and even look a bit less time-consuming.  Of course there are sweets and cakes and bacon-laden awesomeness but most are very healthy.  I'm planning on making the following over the next two days and doubling or tripling most of the recipes:

Brownie mix (3)
Chocolate Minty Melts (2)
Breakfast Cookies (1) - these are dense nut and seed-filled things
Pork Sausage Patties (5) - Great idea so we can avoid the mystery breakfast sausages!
Breakfast Sliders (3) - Like egg mcmuffins
Red Lentil Dal (3); rice
Tomato Sauce (1) - makes a huge batch
Seasoned Italian Ground Beef - (3 lbs.)
Garlic Italian Chicken Breasts (4)
Chipotle & Onion Chicken Wraps (1) - one batch makes 12 burritos
Chicken Bacon Subs (2) - to appease weekend junk food cravings
Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Tangy Asian Slaw (2)
Gingery Pork Lettuce Wraps and sauce (3)
Soy Balsamic Burgers (2)
Catalan Meatballs
Pizza Sauce (3)
Shredded mozzarella (2 lbs.)
Shredded cheddar (2 lbs.)

Each dinner entree will be thawed in the fridge overnight and simply put in the oven the next day.  I'll still end up preparing potatoes, salads, and steamed veggies most nights but the hard part will be completed well ahead of time.  This should save me plenty of time and dirty dishes in the evening.  This isn't my first try at freezer cooking but I'm excited to try out the recipes from this book!

So this guy I married...

....keeps a blog.  I really should read it more. 

http://www.jamesthegeneralist.com/

Happy Friday!

The kids just got home from school and are chilling out eating some smoothie popsicles.  This is actually one of my favorite times of the day!

Right now, Jasmine is playing Harry Potter Clue with some neighborhood kids.  I LOVE that we have neighborhood kids nearby now.  Sure we've had kids in the neighborhood but for some of them aren't allowed to just go out and play without it being a formal playdate or without one of their own parents being present.  I love those friendships too but the type of playing that happens spontaneously by kids just knocking on other kids' doors is the best.  I send the kids out into the neighborhood but they have to be in pairs at least and they can't cross certain busy streets.

Kassidy and Abby are watching Martha Speaks.  I actually really like that show.  As much as I try to watch it with them for some after-school snuggling, I nearly always fall asleep.  I feel pretty meh about everything else on PBS in the afternoon.  Wild Kratts is o.k.

They all received report cards today and they all kicked butt as usual.  Such smarties!

I've just finished my own homework for the week.  My goal is to always have my weekends free of any homework or studying.  I've busted my butt all week at school this week.  My history teacher is nuts.  She lectured on how "Columbus is vilified by modern historians".  Really, teacher?!!  Her reasoning was basically that the native people were already declining in population and also that he wasn't responsible for millions of deaths, only something like 800,000 and even that is pushing it.  She spoke nothing of the raping and pillaging of the native communities.  No mention of the massive numbers of suicides due to people living in such poor slave conditions under his authority that they would rather die.  You know, they were already on their way out so Columbus was just doing them a favor.  I asked her if the Columbus Is Vilified powerpoint presentation would be on the test and she said that yes it was.  So we're being quizzed on her unbelievable, ignorant opinions.  Later, she told us that hammers kill more people than guns every year.  I'm going to ask her for a source on that next week.  She might be Elisabeth Hasselbeck's clone!  Despite all this, I'm staying in her class because she doesn't assign busy work or even weekly homework.  She might be loony but as long as I show up for the tests, I'll do well.

Typing all that out made me tired and annoyed. 

The Flu, The Winter, and The College

What a beast of a flu season.  Jasmine is fully recovered and I am on the mend.  James and Kassidy are doing a bit better today.  Miraculously, Abby hasn't caught it though if she does, we have some Tamiflu for her.  After her bout with pneumonia last year and her tendency to hold onto every other sickness she catches, she seems like a good candidate for it.  And all misgivings about rx medicines aside, this flu is a beast and if I can prevent her from getting too sick, I will.  At my worst, the fever was 103.5 and all my bones ached so bad.  I haven't been that sick in a very, very long time.  This, despite getting my flu shot back in September.  Jasmine, usually my healthiest kid, went from healthy to pneumonia in less than 48 hours last weekend.  I'm so done with this whole thing.  Sick of the sick. 

You know.... I think I'm done with winter in general.  It's been so cold this year.  We are so bored and can't make plans for fear of being sick.  We spent Christmas break passing around colds.  We are just all totally finished with the gross and the cold. 

I started school again this week, barely making it to my first classes Monday and managing through my other classes yesterday.  Business computers, philosophy, US history to 1876, health/PE, and speech:  all the classes I've been putting off.  After this semester, I only need biology 1 & 2, US history after 1876, and functional college algebra (shudder).  And then, finally, I'll have my associates degree.  My plan after that is to transfer to UTA and get my degree in social work.  Whether it's a masters or bachelors, I'm unsure.  I'm looking forward to getting all the core classes over with for sure.  The reality of this whole kid thing is that they will all grow up (too soon!) and will be needing cars, auto insurance, braces, colleges, etc and I feel that we'll need two incomes to make that happen.  We're o.k. on one income but two couldn't hurt.  Beyond that, it will be nice to have the ability to travel and take normal family vacations and retire with some savings.   

Christmas 2012

Zzzzzzzzzzz......

Christmas was fun but exhausting.  When the dog and cat are so tired from it that they will sleep in such proximity to each other tells you something.  The kids had fun though.  Lots of board games to play with, crafty things, oh, and my new food processor (!!!).  Oldest kid scored 17 rolls of duct tape between her birthday and Christmas. Middle kid was Thrilled with her own new Caboodle full of nail polish.  Youngest kid (tiny kid?  wee one?  so many possible blog names for her!) was over the moon about her new Webkinz Froo Froo Fox.

A fraction of our family. 

It was great to spend so much time with our various branches of family.  I did miss one gathering out of 4 or 5 due to a sick kid but not too shabby considering youngestkidtinykidweeone had pneumonia this time last year.  Other fun things?  We received homemade nutella, matryoshka doll measuring cups, slippers, and lots of ham.  So much ham.  I am officially hammed out for the next month at least. 

Some more random goodness I found in the December pics folder.

Middle kid took this picture. Yes, that is a lettuce skirt. More later.

She's a pro.

She's too much.

I'm going to try this one more time.  I'm not spending as much time on facebook or message boards any more.  This seems like a better way to share with family and friends the goings on of our family, our home, life in general.  The kids names will never be posted here, by the way.  Comments are always appreciated!