Friday, October 15, 2010

Food Prep

Yesterday I spent a great deal of time prepping food so that I will be able to make dinner possible when I go back to work next week.  I got a great Taste of Home Cookbook "Fall Freezer Meals" that has 74 recipes, all make enough to make one meal and freeze another...that's working smarter not harder! 

The first meal I chose to make was Chicken Pot Pie.




Of course I didn't think to take any pictures until it was all in the freezer.  The recipe was fairly easy.  However I learned two things:
1.) Read carefully
2.) Sometimes mistakes are good.
The recipe states that you should put the ingredients in 9" deep dish pie plate, well I did not absorb the deep dish part, and I purchased a 3 pack of 8" pie plates that I could throw away when I was done.  Once I got further into the recipe I realized that 2 of the pie plates would not work.  The blessing is that 3 did, and I was even able to squeeze the majority of a third pie crust out of 2! 

I was thinking while I was in the kitchen that the more time I spend in the kitchen the more natural it becomes.  Today while I was making dinner (frozen lasagna) I remember that I had a bag of mini carrots in the fridge that would work well as a simple side.  When I opened the fridge I saw ground beef in the bottom drawer for my next freezer meal that I planned to make tomorrow.  I then checked the expiration date to find:

Now, I am not one to be a stickler for expiration dates for most things, but I try to stick pretty close when it comes to meat.  So, I decided that I would go ahead and cook the meat.

One thing I have done for a long time is I keep at least one, usually two empty aluminum cans in the freezer.



Then when I am making something greasy I always have an empty can available. 


When I am done cooking I put the grease back in the freezer, and when I have a full can it makes it extraordinarily easy to throw the grease away. 

What do you do in the kitchen to make your life easier?

Sunday, October 10, 2010

10/10/10 - 10 pics

Present!!!
Marching in to Church
Sweet Friends
Pretty in Pink
Home away from Home
Lunch in the Sun
Peanut Butter Face
Baby Shower
Pretty Flowers
Mommy Time
Discount/Eco Friendly Shopping
Sweet Girl


the idea

Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments. Then share your beauty with us!

Thanks, Kelly for inspiring me to make it possible!


See other 10 on 10 photos here. 

Photo 4 taken by Kelly, all others by yours truly.