Passionate Homemaking

Eating Well While On the Road

By Trina Holden on July 11, 2011 in health & nutrition

Written by monthly contributing writer, Trina Holden.

Summer means road trips and adventures in our family, but along with the fun and change of scenery is the challenge of eating well while away from home. Did you know you can enjoy the comfort and nutrition of home cooking while traveling with just a little bit of planning? Here are my tips for real food on the road, actually written from our campsite in PA. while attending Creation Festival Northeast. We’re saving money and enjoying delicious, home-cooked meals the entire trip, thanks to these menu ideas…

While on the Road…sandwiches get old fast. I like to packed hearty salads and pepperoni rolls to spice things up. Try these quick and tidy meals for in the car or at a rest stop.

Taco Salad To Go: Layer seasoned meat, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, and chopped veggies and beans of your choice in a bowl with a lid. Pack sour cream, salsa, and chips on the side. When you get hungry, throw the toppings on, put the lid on and shake it to mix.
Rice Salad: Combine cooked rice, cooked and chopped chicken, sliced avocados, slivered almonds, chopped celery, and dried cranberries. Make a simple dressing of mayonaise, yogurt and a bit of curry powder. Store in the cooler. Refreshing and filling!
Pepperoni Rolls: Roll pizza dough out into a wide, thin rectangle. Spread sparingly with pizza sauce, then sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese, basil, and chopped pepperoni. Roll up jelly-roll style and slice into 1 inch thick sections. Place cut-side up on a greased baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and let rise for 30 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. Enjoy fresh and hot OR cold and packed in the cooler – great for passing to kids in the back seat!

At Your Destination...The secret to nourishing, tasty meals on vacation is doing the work before you leave and planning meals you can heat and serve with minimal effort. I begin filling my freezer weeks in advance of a trip by doubling a night’s dinner and freezing half for the trip. Meals that work great for this include:

Sloppy Joes: Sauce and Rolls freeze well, and the rolls won’t get crushed as easily if they’re frozen!
Pizza Dough: Thaw the dough while you’re hiking or at the pool, have everyone pitch in with toppings for a great family dinner when you get back.
Meatloaf: Season and shape meatloaf in advance. Throw it in the oven with a few baked potatoes and serve with fresh, local produce.

Roughing It With Real Food…Camping may be the most challenging place to attempt real food, but again, planning ahead gets you there. Frozen meats and other foods will keep several days in a sealed cooler, so use one cooler as ‘fridge’ and one as ‘freezer’ and only open your ‘freezer’ once a day to pull out dinner.

Hamburgers: Make your own hamburger and hotdog buns ahead of time, freezing them to keep them from getting crushed on the trip. Season and shape, and freeze hamburger patties ready for the coals.
Marinade: Freeze chicken or steak in your favorite marinade so it’s all ready for the grill.
Chili: Don’t overlook the simplicity of a good pot of soup. Choose something that doesn’t burn easily (vegetable beef stew, chili, or goulash). Make ahead, freeze, and it will help keep the rest of your cooler contents cold.

I hope these tips help you realize that “Bon Voyage” doesn’t mean “Farewell” to good, home cooking. You can take your diet convictions and comfort food with you on vacation and get the best of both worlds.

What are your favorite travel-worthy menu ideas? Please share!

For more tips for travel, check out Healthy & Frugal Travel Meals.

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Graham Gardens Giveaway!

By Lindsay on July 9, 2011 in news & giveaways

Today you are in for a real treat! Graham Gardens is giving away this lovely gift basket of all-natural safe homemade skin care products for your family! I have been a huge fan of Graham Gardens since introduced to their products quite some time ago. Two products that I want to highlight in particular have been a huge help to our family.

BugBar – This all natural bar is a perfect addition for your summer travels and outdoor adventures. Made from olive oil and various essential oils we have found this to be very effective in protecting ourselves against mosquitos. Aaron and I used it in the Philippines and were blown away by how effective it was especially when we were in a mosquito wet land the majority of our stay! Plus it just rubs on like any lotion and the smell is lovely – no sticky or stinky product to apply here. Nor is their risk of all the chemicals in standard bug repellent.

For a limited time, you can get the Bugbar at 40% off by using “Bugblock40” at checkout.

Butter Bar – I love the butter bars! They are my every day go to for dry skin, chapped lips, and general moisturizer for my face with safe natural ingredients. It truly is an all-in-one effective moisturizer. I love the shape of this hard lotion bar because it is easy to hold in the hand for application for young and old. I use it for all these purposes without making my skin look greasy. Again, the fragrance is so pleasant. It’s such a convenient size to throw in your makeup bag, purse, or diaper bag for your use. It lasts forever as well!

What is included in this gift basket (a value of $75.50)? Here are some highlights from Graham Gardens:

2 BugBars (Effective bug bite protection with Catnip oil, which is 10x more effective than DEET at repelling mosquitos)
1 Healthy Skin Salve(Our go-to salve which includes Plantain, Jewelweed, Comfrey & Unrefined Coconut Oil which makes it great for cuts, bites and rashes)
1 Large, Fresh Butter Bar (Our original lotion bar, this one is scented with Peppermint & Eucalyptus Essential oils)
1 Botany Bay Eucalyptus Shea Butter Soap (Our luxury shea butter soap recipe scented with Eucalyptus, Spearmint & Rosemary)
1 Silver Alpine Shea Butter Soap (Our luxury shea butter soap recipe scented with Fir, Cedarwood, Rosewood & Wintergreen)

Graham Gardens just sent me samples of their new line of baby products! It is the cutest little set of baby care items. I cannot wait to sample these products on our new little one!

Want to win this gift basket? One special winner will be selected to win!

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment below! Tell us why you want to win this gift basket and what’s your favorite aspect of it.
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Graham Gardens on facebook and let us know in a second comment below.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winner is…

Sundae – jadespeachey@….

Graham Gardens would like to offer a special 25% off discount your order to all Passionate Homemaking readers. Please enter “WholesomeSkincare25″ at checkout. This discount can be used in addition to the Bugbar offer above.

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Fun Early Learning Resources for Summer or Any time of Year

By Lindsay on July 8, 2011 in learning at home

With summer upon us and the quickly approaching arrival of our third child, I was trying to plan some fun simple activities that my preschool daughter could work on that wouldn’t require much time or energy on my part. I wanted something educational but different from the normal schooling routine. I wanted some activities that could be self-directed while mommy might be busy with a new little one. I came upon these few resources that I have been absolutely thrilled with. And did I mention my daughter loves as well?

Kumon Workbooks - I recently stumbled upon this series of hands on workbooks, and my daughter has been making her way through the My First Book of Cutting workbook and absolutely loves the various cutting exercises. They are simple and yet have really strengthened her eye and hand coordination. They are an easy tool for basic childhood development while being very self-directed for the most part. These workbooks range in skills from cutting, drawing, mazes, tracing, pasting, to basic math and language skills, all for a 3-6 year old level. They even offer a First Steps series for as young as 2 year olds with basic cutting, pasting, and coloring practice. We plan to use these this fall with my toddler while sister is working on her own school, along with this cut little pair of first scissors. These workbooks could easily be used alone for a solid start on preschool.

Brain Quest -We started the Brain Quest preschool question pack and what a fun little hands on learning tool. Most of which were pretty easy for my four year old, but still offered fun review and helped solidify some concepts she is weaker in. It’s great for the car or just a simple self directed activity. With full cover pictures and self-checking ability, it has been lots of fun to do together or on her own. We look forward to picking up the Brain Quest Kindergarten as well!

Taro Gami Coloring books -These coloring books are pretty unique. Taro Gomi is a Japanese illustrator that inspires kids to color, draw, imagine and create from unfinished picture prompts. They are also huge, with each volume having somewhere around 400 pages. They inspire imagination in a fun way. Rather than having all the pictures ready to be drawn, the child is encouraged to finish the drawing on their own, such as draw the apples on this tree, and now draw you eating the apples, or draw clothes on the child, etc. These books are certainly suitable for older children as well and may be slightly advanced for a young child.

What Your Preschooler Needs to Know – This book is packed full of fun poems, short stories, classic read alouds, simple history and science stories. It has helped me learn how to dialog more effectively with my daughter through our reading experiences to increase comprehension, retention, and narration with lots of helpful teaching tips or question prompts at the side of the page. There is a thorough article at the end about reading aloud to your children with practical tips on making your read aloud time most effective. My little ones love all the sing-a-long poems with simple hand motions or dancing movements. Each day they pull out the book and asks me to read this or sing that. Lots of fun interaction together (with both toddlers and preschoolers)! You can also purchase activity guides that accompany this book.

Thanks to FBS Books for the sampling of some of these products!

What are your favorite early learning resources?

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Basking in Beauty – the Joy of Prayer Walks

By Lindsay on July 7, 2011 in faith & womanhood, health & nutrition

There are two things that have been most difficult for me to accomplish as a mom. In my physical needs, exercise is most lacking, and in my spiritual walk, prayer has often been limited to the dinner table. Exercise for one because I don’t care for it. It’s really last on the “to-do” list, and that’s not because it is not important, but rather because its very difficult to do with little ones in tow. How fast can I really walk with two little ones that desire to walk or ride their bikes beside me?

I also passionately desire to grow in the area of prayer. I understand the importance and power of walking in God’s presence throughout the day and desire to grow ever more in lifting up the cares and concerns of others and the world around me through it. I know that as women we can accomplish much for the kingdom through prayer. I want to be known as a woman that is a passionate prayer warrior. But when to do it?

After much prayer over the last few months trying to figure out a means of accomplishing both of these goals, the Lord gave me a little idea. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Let’s take a prayer walk.

Ahh…what a glorious idea. Get out in the beauty of His creation, get walking (or jogging, whichever suits you) at a good aggressive pace, and pour out your heart to the Lord. So I started getting up a bit earlier two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, before the kids were awake and before my hubby left for work, between 6:30-7:00am, after my personal devotions. I get dressed, get bundled, and go out, rain or shine (a trusty umbrella is a useful tool), and head out on a 30 minute walk. No one is out to hear me. No one really cares. It’s just me, the Lord, and my trusty Ipod that enables me to read Scripture (you can’t go wrong praying Scripture), memorize Scripture, and provide little prayer reminders as needed (jotting down prayer requests in it as I hear them). And its completely free!

I am so much more motivated to exercise in this way. Being out in creation serves as a reminder to help draw me into a spirit of worship. You can go as long or short as your schedule allows. You don’t have to go in the morning either. Mornings work best for getting me spurred on for the day, but you can certainly do it in the evenings as well.

If your spouse is not around at a doable time, don’t let that hinder you. Lock up the house and circle laps around it or in close proximity to it. Carry a monitor if needed. I honestly have done this, because these two things are important to my body and soul.

Being in the fresh air is glorious for the soul. It strengthens the weary heart. It renews the energy. And it reminds us what it is truly all about…the magnificence of our Creator. Pouring out my soul before Him provides such grace for the day. He cares about every little thing, concern, or fear on my heart. He has open ears.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

Photo Credit

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Simple Homemade Gift for Cherishing Little Hands

By Michele on July 5, 2011 in frugal & simple

Post by Contributing Writer, Michele Augur.
Those little hands grow so quickly!

Capturing children’s hand prints is always a fun way to cherish precious childhood moments, and share them as gifts with others, too.

For Father’s Day, I embroidered my children’s hand prints, and framed them as a gift for Grandpa.

It didn’t involve any special embroidery techniques; just a straight backstitch. No sewing machine was needed; I did most of the hand stitching in the car on a short road trip!

My small project (with just 2 hand prints) only took a couple hours, and was much less messy than a previous paint project.

I cut a small scrap of unbleached muslin fabric to fit the frame, and each child chose what color thread he/she wanted their hand print to be.

Then, using a pencil (scraped from the bottom of my daughter’s book bag), I traced each child’s hand onto the muslin fabric.

[Ideally, you may want to iron the fabric first, but I was in the car. Guess the wrinkles give it more of that child-made look?]

Then, I just embroidered onto the pencil tracings. I also embroidered the year onto it, since the years fly by so quickly! It’s ok if you’re not an “experienced,” proficient sewer. Those lines can be a bit wiggly; just like those children’s hands!

I added the completed project to a $1 frame, and packaged up the gift. Total cost: Less than $2!

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June at Our Home

By Lindsay on July 1, 2011 in news & giveaways

Wow! Another amazing month has gone by filled with crazy adventures around the world. We spent a week in the Philippines with Compassion and our lives were changed by the amazing faithful work this organization is doing. We came home and had a very challenging week of adjusting back into life here. My pregnant body did not want to sleep for a week! Baby was on a different time schedule as well and would be kicking like crazy at night time. But finally, I feel half-way normal again (besides bearing all this extra prego weight!). The Lord has been gracious and merciful.

I set about my before baby #3 goals, first of which was to potty train my son. And the Lord was merciful again and he has got it down in his own cute little independent way. He doesn’t want Mommy’s help or reminders. He will go in his own due time. It has been an hilarious experience! I love his little, “I did it!” I get a diaper break now for 4-5 more weeks.

We spent a lovely weekend at the Oregon Coast with Aaron’s family and what a sweet bonding time that was. With 4 of the 7 brothers in his family married and 5 grand babies (with two more on the way!), the house was lively and full! But what a blessing to have wonderful supportive family nearby. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My next goal is strawberry freezer jam and stocking the freezer with bags of strawberries! We will be doing that this weekend!

We are 35 weeks along! Only a few more weeks to go before we welcome baby #3…what’s your guess? Boy or girl? All the Philippinos guessed a boy. In the last few weeks here, I hope to be able to invest some quality time with each of my little ones, finalize our fall Kindergarten plans, rest up, stock up on a few freezer meals, and prepare my heart for welcoming another precious little life into this world.

3 in 30 Challenge

Need some help setting and accomplishing goals? I have found the 3 in 30 challenge to be so incredibly helpful over the last few months. Set 3 goals to be accomplished in 30 days is actually a manageable task!

1000 Gifts – Continuing the Journey!

What a blessing to continue on in the pursuit of recording 1000 gifts of everyday blessings in our lives. This has been such a rich and rewarding experience. My little moleskin notepad stores such treasures and graces from our day to day life. When I am down and discouraged, it is a sweet reminder that God is good no matter what. It has been a springboard of wonderful times of prayer and thanksgiving. With each record of thanksgiving, my eyes are opened in new ways. It has been the best practice in cultivating true joy and contentment. We passed number 500 this week!

477. Early morning prayer moments with my hubby

480. The healing power of tears

486. The blessing of laughter

487. Making friends in other cultures

491. Pleasures received from teaching and planning our homeschool curriculum

495. A precious girl painting (literally) flowers

496. Success in potty training

501. Karis at her pretend baking station

503. Fresh flowers indoors from our own backyard

505. Baby in position and ready to go

506. The delight of a bubble bath

508. Tucking the kiddos snuggly in at night

511. A thoughtful pedicure from a sweet sister in law

514. A windless day at the beach

515. Wonderful fluffy pillows to aid sweet sleep

516. Delightful lemon bars

517. Chocolate milk tea party on a humid afternoon amidst an array of books

518. A short walk to a fun playground to explore

519. A surprise gift card to welcome baby from co-workers

June Book Reviews

Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick – a truly great read for gospel centered parenting! A new favorite on my list to be read again and again. I love this lady!

31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way by Sarah Mae – A fabulous short easy read inspiring a vision for biblical homemaking with easy step by step tasks to do each day along with the encouragement. Both vision and practice in one!

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic – a sweet real life view of delighting in motherhood even with multiple little ones! I thought it was quite randomly laid out but overall very encouraging with lots of practical advice.

We will not have a specific theme here for the month of July but rather be talking all about different aspects of homemaking and parenting. With with the joys of summer ahead of us we wanted to have the freedom to just have fun as we feel led to share about.

July Sponsors

We are excited to welcome back Sweet Bottoms Baby Boutique (my favorite source for cloth diapers and gear all with free shipping!) and Willow Pads (dryer balls, diapers, and more!) as continued sponsored for July, along with Graham Gardens (wonderful lotion bars, natural bug bar, and other skin care goodies). Check out these awesome companies for quality natural care products for your family! We greatly appreciate their support!

Photos by Christa Taylor Photography

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Adapting Your Favorite Recipes to Increase Nutrition

By Lindsay on June 29, 2011 in health & nutrition, recipes & kitchen tips

So you are on a quest for eating more nutritionally as a family and yet the task appears rather daunting. Do I have to develop a whole new menu plan with healthy recipes? Who wants to throw out all your family favorite recipes that have been passed down? Or those favorite comfort foods that make your family feel so satisfied and rejuvenated? The last thing any of us moms want to do is start from scratch when it comes to healthy real food eating.

Today, we would like to offer a resource of ideas for helping you adapt your favorite recipes to make them more healthy. The truth of the matter is, you don’t have to throw out your favorite cookbooks and recipes. In fact, practically every recipe on this site has been a family favorite for quite some time, and have only been adapted in the past several years to replace the ingredients with more real whole food alternatives. The flavors may have changed slightly, but overall, choosing to use real food ingredients only increases the flavor and intensity of each recipe.

I have provided here for you a simple chart to convert those standard ingredients in your everyday recipes to real, whole food ingredients.

Sweeteners

Learn about these healthy sweeteners here.

White sugar: Replace with equal amounts of rapadura or sucanat (both of which are whole cane unrefined sugars), or 1/3 less of raw honey or pure maple syrup (Vermont or Canadian sources). You can run rapadura/sucanat through the blender to get a less grainy texture, a perfect alternative for powdered sugar.
Brown sugar: Replace with equal amounts of sucanat or rapadura which have an excellent darker texture and tone similar to brown sugar. If you desire that wetter texture of brown sugar, simply add a Tablespoon of blackstrap molasses to the sucanat or rapadura.
Powered Sugar: replace with powdered sucanat/rapadura, or a dash of stevia.

Grains

White Rice: Replace with brown rice. Basmati brown rice is very similar in texture to white rice. Brown rice takes a longer time to cook so make sure to check the packaging. I usually use 1 cup brown rice to 2 cups water.
White Flour: The Colorado State University Cooperative Extension recommends the following for substituting flour when baking.
1 cup of white, all-purpose flour for baking can be substituted with the following:
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs;
• 7/8 to 1 cup corn meal;
• 1/2 cup cornstarch plus 1/2 cup rye, potato or rice flour (sift together 6 times, use with 2 tsp baking powder per cup in quick breads as wheat flour allergy substitute);
• 5/8 cup potato flour;
• 7/8 cup rice flour;
• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats;
• 1 1/4 cups rye flour;
• 1 cup minus 1 Tbsp whole wheat flour.

If you are new to using whole wheat, try using half and half with unbleached white flour (choice unbleached to avoid the dying process), and gradually increase the whole wheat content until you can make it 100% whole wheat. Sourdough options are my favorite for getting a light fluffy texture and delicious results even when using whole wheat.

Bread products: Try to find sprouted whole wheat options (Dave’s Killer Bread, Food for Life or Alvarado Street Bakery are all good sprouted bread companies) & or make sure to check labels that they are made from 100% whole wheat without the addition of high fruitose corn syrup or enriched wheat flours.
Pastas: Your best option is brown rice pastas (Trader Joe’s and Tinkyada are great brands), as they are both gluten free and low in phytates. You can get most varieties of pasta in brown rice varieties now.

Learn how to use more variety in your grain choices here.

Dairy

Generally, choose whole milk alternatives for any recipe calling for low-fat, non-fat, or skim. Whole milk is essential for getting quality fats from dairy products. Low or non-fat alternatives have been processed and are very difficult for the body to digest. If you have access to raw milk, this is your best option. Otherwise, choose whole milk cultured dairy products. Substitute them for equal portions in recipes. Other good alternatives include coconut milk, hemp milk, or organic milk based products.

Margarine: Replace with real butter made from whole milk.
Buttermilk: Replace equally with cultured kefir or yogurt. (Coconut milk kefir is a good choice as well.) You can also make your own milk kefir.

Oils

Your best choices here are olive oil, coconut oil, or butter.  Read more about healthy oils here and part 2. Choice cold-pressed unrefined options. I use these three oils exclusively in all my cooking and baking.

Canola/vegetable oil: replace with olive oil for salad dressings, melted coconut oil for baking, and melted butter or coconut oil for sauteing. Real butter can be used for baking or sauteing.
Crisco/Shortening: replace with palm oil, coconut oil, or butter in their solid state.

Meat/Eggs

Look for pastured grass fed varieties for best nutritional value. These are animals raised on pasture that are fed a variety of greens rather than corn products. Wild fish products are preferred to farm raised. Find local sources here.

Canned Goods

The main concern with condensed soup is the MSG content. Either just eliminate these recipes altogether or replace with the following options:

Condensed Soup (Mushroom, Chicken, etc): replace with this easy homemade version or with cultured sour cream (as used in my enchilada recipe which originally called for cream of mushroom soup).

To learn what canned food brands do not have BPA in the lining, check out this list or Treehugger’s list.

Seasonings/Condiments

Table Salt: Replace with sea salt (I recommend RealSalt for its high mineral content). Or replace salt with herbs, either fresh or dried, and other seasonings. Freshly ground pepper and fresh seasonings have so much flavor, you won’t miss the salt.
Thickeners: Replace cornstarch or white flour called for in a recipe to a smaller portion of arrowroot powder (i.e. 1/4 cup flour = 1-2 Tbsp arrowroot powder).
Bouillon cubes: replace with homemade or organic free range chicken/beef broth. Usually a recipe will say 1 bouillon cube and 1 cup water, and you can simply replace both with 1 cup homemade broth. You can also freeze homemade stock in ice cube trays to replace the bouillon cubes.
Pancake Syrup: Replace pancake syrup (the fake HFCS sugar syrup) with pure maple syrup (Vermont or Canadian sources), honey, or fruit syrup.
Mayonnaise: Make your own homemade mayonnaise or purchase coconut oil mayonnaise or safflower mayonnaise.
Ketchup: Make your own or choice fermented ketchup or an organic variety that does not use HFCS.
Bread crumbs/croutons: Make your own!
Vanilla Extract: Use pure vanilla extract (not vanilla flavoring or imitation vanilla) or make your own.
Salad Dressings: The best nutritious salad dressing is a simple balsamic vinegar and cold pressed olive oil. But you can also make your own recipes of salad dressings using healthy fats, as described here.
Worcestershire Sauce (this often has corn syrup): replace with equal amount of white vinegar .
Baking powder/baking soda: Chose aluminum free varieties (Bob’s Red Mill or Rumford brands).

For further help, please check out Baby Steps to a Real Food Diet.

Did I miss an ingredient? I am sure I did…let me know and I’ll add our source to the above list. Have a favorite recipe that you are just not sure how to adapt? Share below and I’ll try my best to offer some suggestions.

Photo Credit

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(Effortless) Freezer Cooking

By NDidlake on June 27, 2011 in recipes & kitchen tips

Photo Credit

Written by monthly contributor, Natalie Didlake.

I love having frozen food to pull out in a pinch!

But how and when to get it in the freezer, in the first place?

With a little planning ahead, it’s easy to make a little extra here and there, and stick the extra in the freezer. Soon enough, the freezer will be full of homemade meals! (Or at least meal starters.)

Getting Started

The best thing I did when I got started was to sit down and brainstorm. I thought about all the meals we typically ate, and wrote down what steps I could complete in bulk, and freeze ahead…things like chopping veggies and pre-cooking meat or beans. Now, I can open the freezer nearly any night, and find at least some of my meal prep there, ready to go!

Here are some of my favorite things to keep in the freezer.

Veggies

Chopping fresh veggies every night for cooking is time consuming! I love having them in my freezer, ready to throw in the pan.

I’ve had success with carrots, celery, green pepper, and onions (double-bag onions so that your ice doesn’t taste oniony!)

Someday, I might even make my own custom, frozen “mixed veggie” bags, for standard dishes in our house.

What to do:

Buy in bulk, and plan to freeze, when a veggie is on SALE! I bought green peppers recently for $.35 each! A perfect opportunity to buy and freeze!

Peel/chop vegetables in large quantities.

Put them in zipper bags and freeze! Break off a chunk when you’re ready to cook.

Meat

Having frozen, pre-cooked meat really cuts down on dinner prep time ! Getting it into the freezer doesn’t even require much extra planning or time…just a little extra money up front. I wait to buy extra until I can get it on SALE! Sometimes I can diffuse the cost of the extra meat, by planning other, cheaper meals, like bean dishes or pancakes.

The great part is, once you have a stocked freezer, you won’t have to buy and cook multiple meats in one week…because you will have already have them frozen! You will then only need to buy and cook what needs replenishing.

Beef

Begin by planning a meal into your weekly menu that uses beef. Buy several extra pounds (like 5 lbs. of ground beef, instead of 1 lb.)

Cook, divide, and freeze in zipper bags.

But don’t just cook a bunch of plain ground beef! Think meal prep. Some of my favorite beef meal starters are:

Taco-flavored meat

Italian sausage

Turkey burgers -make and freeze patties

Meatballs – separate into 1-meal portions and freeze separately

Meatloaf – mix, form, wrap, and freeze. Thaw in fridge 24 hours

Stroganoff meat -brown ground beef with onions/mushrooms

Chicken

We all have our different ways of buying/cooking/serving chicken…but I can’t resist mentioning my new fave way to do chicken. I have started cooking 10-15 lbs of bone-in breast at once, at the beginning of the month! Sometimes I’ll take a bit out to freeze raw, for cooking later. But the rest, I cook, bones and all. From that, I fill my freezer with LOTS of chicken stock, and tons of cooked, shredded chicken. Chicken for the month, done!

Here’s a link to a great how-to if you want more details.

Breakfast Ideas

Muffins – Making a double batch, and freezing the extra, is a painless way to stock the freezer. I like to make mini-muffins for breakfast-on-the-go or trips.

Pancakes -My husband doesn’t care for thawed, reheated pancakes, but the smaller members of my household could care less! (Especially when they contain chocolate chips.)

Yogurt – freeze yogurt in small cups. Thaw for an hour or so, toss in fresh fruit and granola.

Other Meal Starters

Pizza – make multiple pizza crusts, wrap extras well, freeze. It might be fun to put the toppings on first…homemade frozen pizza!

Quiche – One of my fave freezer meals! Making multiples is so easy! Mix all ingredients of your best quiche recipe together, freeze, one quiche per zipper bag.

Beans – Canned beans are easier, but dried beans cooked at home are cheaper and healthier. I cook large quantities and freeze for later use. Be sure to label, or you’ll end up with “unidentified frozen objects”!

“Leftover Soup” – Throw any extra cooked veggies in a med/large container. Put in the freezer. Once it starts to fill up, throw it all in the crock pot with some seasoning, a little tomato sauce, and you’ve got veggie soup! Cook on low all day. Or, even better, add leftovers from a beef roast, and have veggie beef soup. Yum!

What are you going to freeze? Can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Comments { 53 }

Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Giveaway!

By Lindsay on June 25, 2011 in news & giveaways

Karis and I have been using the Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve preschool curriculum by Laura Coppinger this year along with the Sonlight preschool curriculum 4/5 and we have been truly enjoying it! The beauty of this curriculum is its simplicity with such intentionality – it keeps to a real basic flow covering the letters of the alphabet with corresponding memory verses, projects, and service opportunities.

Through the inspiration of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve, we are having a blast reaching out to others through service and baked goods that correspond with their name. We choose a neighbor and/or friend whose name begins with the letter of the week, and then we bake something yummy or serve in some way that also begins with that letter. We baked applesauce bread for our neighbor Ann, and we baked banana bread for our elderly neighbor Bob, for example. The curriculum has tons of great ideas to get you inspired as well. “Bring flowers for F_____”, or deliver a Bible to B______”.

This curriculum contains 240+ pages with lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes, memory verses, Bible story suggestions, vocabulary stimulation and discussion, play, books to read and so much more…all while encouraging service to God!

There are plenty of fun hands-on activities and recipes included in this curriculum which is a huge benefit for the average preschooler who is active and eager to learn through experience.

While I found we preferred supplementing with the book selection offered through the Sonlight curriculum and a few fun Kumon workbooks, this course was fairly complete on its on. I found it was easy enough to adapt to our desires and needs, as we mainly focused on the service aspect and various hands on activities. Or if you have older children in school, this is a perfect manageable curriculum to keep the little ones engaged as well.

What Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve includes:

159 Page Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Book of ideas, instructions, recipes, tutorials and service planners (the majority of this book can be left paperless, unless you choose to print it and bind it)
Alphabet Practice Packet (26 pages of printable letter writing practice)
Alphabet Project Packet (printable projects that go along with various lessons)
Memory Verse Packet (26 printable memory verses to decorate and place on the wall or in a binder)
Parent Planning Packet (planning pages, teaching suggestions, scheduling ideas)

This kit is available in download form (have it in your hands today!) or hard copy form (allow about two weeks for shipping.)

We are excited to offer TWO copies of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum download today to TWO special winners!