This week I did some serious cooking. Back in April, I did a big cooking day with my good friend Lindsey, who also has a baby, so you can imagine what fun we had wrangling two babies AND cooking. She invited me to do it with her, after she did it with another friend of hers the previous month. This is the website that has all the information. We cooked for 10 hours and made 16 dishes, that made up 32 meals each. It was INSANE. By the end of the day, we were beyond exhausted. It was worth it though, we each had meals for almost a month and half. This time around, Lindsey was too busy to do a big cooking day, and I tried to coordinate with my other friend Maureen, but then I got super busy and it just didn't work out. So I thought well, what if I just do 6 dishes and do it by myself. It wasn't nearly as exhausting or stressful. I did all the prep work the night before, which included chopping all the vegetables, browning the ground beef and baking all the chicken. I also made two of the dishes that night, the pizza and the coconut chicken soup, which for that dish, I just threw everything in the crock pot.
I made 6 dishes and ended up with 14 separate meals, all of which will have leftovers for lunch or dinner. Hopefully, this food lasts at least a full two weeks, if not more. I also made a big batch of fruit smoothies and froze them in individual servings, for a total of 10 servings.
These are the dishes I made:
From the cookbook Nourishing Traditions:
Coconut Chicken Soup
Mexican Soup
Spicy Meatloaf
From OAMC:
Empanadas
Curried Chicken Tidbits
For the smoothies, I mixed strawberries, bananas, coconut milk kefir and a little bit of cranberry/pomegranate juice.
Oh, and the pizza I made, is something I saw in a magazine and tweaked it a bit. Its become a family favorite. I will share the recipe next time I make it.
The aftermath for Peter to handle.
LOL, the aftermath picture is great.
ReplyDeleteThis could be a book in the making, Stephanie...or a virtual book. ;)
You're so cute :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I want to try this now!
ReplyDeletewoohoo I was hoping you were using NT meatloaf. I make mine in 'minis' instead of big loafs :)
ReplyDeleteLove seeing your kitchen dirty!
@MermaidLilli...I don't know about a book, it will be a long time before I would feel comfortable doing a cookbook! I am self-taught and have come a long way but I got a LONG way to go still.
ReplyDelete@Maureen...maybe we can get our acts together and do one later in the summer!
@Christina...you totally should. It has made such a difference in day to day life. Evenings are much more relaxing for me.
@Princess Pioneer...I love your blog name by the way, I forgot to tell you before! That is a good idea about the minis. I am going to bake one tonight for dinner, hope it tastes good. I soaked the breadcrumbs in the coconut milk kefir instead of cream.
The meatloaf was amazing! I am so proud of myself! That was the 3rd or 4th time I have tried to make meatloaf and the first time it actually came out good.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I would love to try this!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I told all of my friends about it when we got together this past weekend. We decided we wanted to give it a try. Thank you so much for sharing and by showing that it can even by done by just one hard working mama.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of this. Unfortunately, my husband is an incredibly picky eater (as in, if it has lots of flavor and tastes delicious, he probably won't eat it), so I often end up making two versions of the same dish - one with flavor and one without, which makes freezer dinners difficult. Oh, and he doesn't eat leftovers. Sheesh! But I think it's fantastic that you're doing this!
ReplyDelete@Ali, my pleasure! Let us know how it goes!
ReplyDelete@Catherine, good grief! He is worse than a toddler! Do you tell him to make his own damn dinner?! :)
I was wondering if you've done GAPS? We're starting the Intro this fall and I was wondering about hints/tips for freezer stocking in preparation for it. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. :)
ReplyDeleteHoney
www.mondorfment.blogspot.com
@Mondorfment
@Honey... I have not done a GAPS diet yet. It has been on my radar for awhile now, I am just working up the courage I guess. I do try to limit my grains and eat gluten-free for the most part though.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of freezing smoothies ahead of time, do you take them out to defrost the night before or just in the morning??
ReplyDelete@Beth, usually the night before. :)
ReplyDelete