Did it!

Man, what a productive week. I'm getting the hang of things like they were in the old days. I haven't been like this since before I got pregnant with Aisha! Starting last week I keep Maryam in PreK til 3pm instead of picking her up at 11:30. Man. What a difference. I have cleaned closets, reorganzied toys and book shelves, and have cooked 5 freezer meals! Having that block of free time is amazing, and to top it off, little Aisha now sleeps for a good midday nap unlike before.

So I split a lasange recipe into two 8*8 pans and put them in the freezer today. I also just make two meatloaves (2lbs each), cooked them, sliced them, and then froze them. I have spaghetti sauce divided up for some jumbo shells and for a spaghetti dinner. Oh ya I also made a King Ranch Casserole last week :)

The toys were in a state of chaos. In the bottom of the buckets I found clothing, socks, hair accessories, gameboy games, and long lost puzzle pieces. Now that I have a toddler (sort of), I arranged a spot for those toys so that she could take advantage of 'em. For the older kids, well, they're very low on toys (which is good), so it was easy to put them into a few tubs. They don't play with 'toys' so much. They mostly 'misuse' something else in the house and make it into their latest passtime.

doing some freezer cooking

I'm ready to do all sorts of cooking and freezing just for the heck of it.

I'll use ground beef. 6 pounds.

2 pounds into a spaghetti sauce. This makes a large pot. I will use 4-5 cups of the sauce for a lasagne for the freezer (instead of one large dish i will use two smaller square tins).

the other 4 pounds i will make into meatloaf, shaped into two loaves on a cookie sheet. i will cook them, then slice them into slices, and freeze those portions. i think those would be good for my husband to take to work or for me to pull out for lunches. or i can keep one in a 2lb loaf as a dinner.

and what i'm really waiting to cook and eat (same day) is my friend Cara's beef stew that i saw on her blog! Check it out on her blog http://homespunkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/01/beef-stew.html