Organizing Meals

Well, what a wonderful couple of days I've had with friends.  Last night on my way out the door to meet up with two friends that I just adore, the kids were asking me "where are you going, what are you doing?".  I told them I was going to play with my friends... I can imagine that they pictured me running around screaming my head off like they do when they're with their friends, but nope..... I sat my rear down and I think we talked for like 4 hours!  We have so much in common, a deep love for the Lord, larger than "normal" families, and just trying hard to do our best at what we do.  I even got a couple of ideas to implement.  (Ear muffs that block the sound for me was one of them! ha!ha!ha!)   Then we got to go over and visit as a family today so that the kids had their turn to play :)  Now it's even. (I'm a twin, I 'heart' even!)

I thought I'd post about meals... but like I say.. I so don't know it all!  And I sure hope I never come across that way... I just like to share ideas because I know when I get a glimpse into other's lives, I get ideas too.  The Bible says "we should be spurring each other on toward good works"  though I think I get spurrred on more than I do the spurring!

Meals are one of the major daily "chores" of life (the other is laundry), especially when you are caring for children (or others) who can't make meals for themselves, or when you are trying to maximize the nourishment for your money or when you are trying to follow a healthful diet or when you are just plain trying to feed someone some grub!

This last month, God caused Paul and I to really go to town on our budget. It seems to have been a theme for us lately, not because of financial crises or anything like that, but in an effort for us to really be aware of where every dime goes. God provides for us and we should have an account of every penney. Sometimes we let things slide and then it's time to reign in again. We decided to spend barely any money in January and it actually got fun doing it.   I know for sure that God caused that because He foresaw our need to come up with the money to fly Paul down to El Paso for his friends funeral at the last minute.

Now, what does that have to do with organizing? The biggest area that we could save money on was groceries. We do like to keep a full pantry and freezer so that we are always prepared for

great meals, company, quick meals, and worst-case scenarios.

We do this by stocking up on our most used items when they go on sale. Like chicken breasts, beans, cereals, frozen berries, canned salmon, toilet paper, soap, etc. Paul is very good at this and even better about organizing our pantry. He organizes it according to expiration dates and then tells me what I should be focused on using. When we're tight on money or just looking to be more frugal, we eat our way through it, supplementing with fresh produce and dairy. Amidst our last run through, I came accross THIS pantry recipe website that I found most useful. You enter what is currently in your pantry and it organizes your food into great recipes. A couple of them I looked at and though "wow! I didn't know I had all the ingredients for that!" It takes a little time to make your entrys (I did it on a Sunday night) , but after that, you can just update here and there.  I also follow a couple of blogs about keeping a deep pantry.  I even get ideas to implement at the Corps(church) in our Social Service pantry.

Another couple of things I do to keep the meal part of my life running smoothly is to keep a list of all the meals I can come up with that I could make right now this minute without a trip to the grocery store.  On this list, I also keep Paul's or the children's requests so that I don't forget to make their favorite meal sometimes.  I add my own too ;)  I also will keep a weekly menu because I need to plan for things like crockpot meals for Wednesday church nights or Sunday lunches or an evening activity that requires a packed sandwiches or a trip through the drive-thru.

I also try to freeze a couple of meals a few times a month.  For example, if I'm making a casserole, I will make a huge one and freeze half.  I also started doing this with goodies too, like cookie dough (a great idea from my friend Stacie).  And when I'm cleaning up from dinner I'm getting things ready for dinner the next night, however insignificant it may seem, it is so much easier to go into preparing a meal with some of the tedial stuff done first, like chopping, mixing, measuring.  A lot of that is stuff the kids can be doing too.  They want to do it, it usually means a bit more of a mess for me, but on most days, I don't mind.

I am still trying to come up with a good snack system.  It seems like I am always offering the kids the same kind of things- cheese, fruit, crackers or 2 pieces from their candy stash.     It gets pretty boring and redundant, but I don't want to fork out the money or forgo nutrition for a bunch of pre-packaged foods either.  I could really use a good snack system.