Category Archives: Freezer Cooking

Large Family Homeschooling Organization- Part 2 Meal Planning

Adoption Rocks, christian life, Family, Freezer Cooking, homeschool, homeschool co-op, homeschool organization, homeschool preschool, homeschool schedule, homeschooling finds, International Adoption, Korea Adoption, Uncategorized Leave a comment

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This is the most helpful thing I could to help with my Large Family. I just wrote up a menu plan from August 21- November 30th. I keep all my recipes on my pinterest board FOOD FUN or Gluten/Soy/Dairy/Egg free….is that even possible? I do print some of my recipes to keep in our family binder but typically just bring up my pinterest boards and fix the recipe from that. I even planned nights we needed to eat because of soccer games.

First thing on my mind when I wake up is what will I feed these kiddos for supper….this takes the load off immediately.

Online Fundraising for your Adoption

Adoption, Adoption Announcement, adoption fundraiser, adoption fundraising, Freezer Cooking, giveaway 1 Comment
Since I have been in the adoption world since 2010…not long…but I have seen so many fundraisers come across my Facebook newsfeed that could be so much better! I do not want to step on anyone’s toes. But I want to help….
 
This is my advice on having online fundraisers. Ignore if you want.
 
Online Auctions:
 
-Offer incentive. Such as for sharing your auction with others, give them a chance on some sort of giveaway. Examples: an iPad mini, an iPad, a camera, kindle fire..whatever. Plan to take this out of your earnings. Just having people share this is HUGE in the amount of money you will make.
 
 
-Offer items people WANT or NEED. At a price they afford!! start prices low. every time a person bids, all their friends can see it. you aren’t giving it away. you are simply getting more exposure with low prices. Example: A 31 bag… starting bid $6… i bet 10 friends would bid $1… easily. Start a little friendly competition. Price easily exceeds what you were hoping. However, starting bid $25 …2-3 friends may start bidding. Lose the exposure and the friendly competition. I can NOT express the importance of this above. I have helped many people with their auctions. This is the number one thing I see causing so many failed auctions.

Offer services. Not the ‘junk’ you did not sell at a garage sale. We all have friends that are direct sale reps for something. Have a party. Get the free stuff you earn and auction it off. My wonderful friend Rebekah had a Premier Jewerly party and gave me ALL of her free jewerly. It made over a $1,000 and because of some other fabulous donors; we made close to $4,000.

 
-Offer chances on your giveaway for every single bid. Increments of $1. Don’t believe..check out this auction….https://www.facebook.com/#!/BringingHomeOurChinaCuties
 
-Post photos of the children you are adopting.
 
Puzzle Fundraisers
 
Okay this is an awesome one. Have a puzzle made of your child you are adopting. The person purchasing the puzzle piece gets there name on the back of the puzzle piece. A 250 puzzle piece at $20 a piece would let you earn over $5,000!!! Yes $5,000!!!!

BUT…..

 
-offer a large incentive.
-offer a small incentive
-offer both
 
I have seen so many cute ideas with these puzzle fundraisers.
 
1.On Mother’s day, purchase a puzzle piece in your mother’s name or a grandmothers’s name.
2. Purchase a puzzle piece in memory of someone.
3. When putting the puzzle together, put the pieces of your child’s face on LAST so you can the progress of the puzzle. Post actual photos of the progress of your puzzle.
 
Know Your Friends
 
This is hard for me to type. But you will see who your true friends are. BUT be a friend. Bid on others auctions. Buy chances. Donate. Whatever….
 
Again, treat others as you want to be treated.
 
 
 

Freezer Cooking Mission ACCOMPLISHED

Freezer Cooking, friends, OAMC 3 Comments

…and very successful!!! I had a fabulous plan to get up at 7 and get everything finished by noon. But at 8:30 when I rolled out of bed..I realized that wasnt going to happen. So I started right in..I had thawed 32 pounds of ground beef and 16 pounds of chicken the night before. Here is what I made:
4 lasagnas
4 chicken pot pies
4 bags of chicken in marinade for grilling
2 bags of Tex Mex Chicken Starter
2 Chicken and Bows casserolles
2 spaghetti sauces with meat
2 taco meat
2 meatloaves
2 bags of meatballs
I completed this all by 1pm ONLY because my great GREAT friend Lori came over to help me out and that she did!! She is a great person to have in the kitchen when things need to be done!! Thanks Lori!!:)

Tex-Mex Chicken Starter

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup canola oil

3 tbsp chili powder

1 1/2 garlic powder, cumin, coriander and oregano

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pepper

1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch strips

3 medium onions, sliced to rings

4 garlic cloves, minced

Mix all together, coat chicken and freeze. This chicken is great with pasta and veggies, chicken fajitas, and on salad.

Freezer Cooking DECISION!!

Freezer Cooking, OAMC Leave a comment

Okay Since I am going to Korea in like 12 days or so, with our crazy life at the moment. Fixing dinner has not been happening! Sooo…supper must be happening in my house and soon! I can’t afford to eat out and its not healthy!!

Sooo..I have a plan for Monday. Here it is:
1. 4 lasagnas
2. 3x’s of chimichangas
3. 3x’s sassy sloppy joes
4. 3x’s meatballs
5. 3x’s spaghetti sauce
6. 3 meatloaves
7. 3 Cheddar Chicken Bakes
8. 3 Chicken and Bows
9. 3 Tex Mex Chicken Starters
10. 5 Chicken Pot Pies
11. 3 Marinating Chicken for grilling
12. 30 hamburger patties

I think I can …I think I can…..!!!:)

Freezer Cooking List

Freezer Cooking, OAMC Leave a comment

Okay I have decided to do a major freezing cooking haul before we fly to Korea to get Mia. It will be nice for my mom not have to cook while we are gone and nice to have meals for the summer prepared.

Here we go:
3 spaghetti sauces
4 meatloaves
6 3 pound bags of marinated chicken ready for the grill
4 chicken pot pies
6 cheesey shells
6 lasagnas
3 taco meat
2 bags of marinated pork steaks

I think this should hold us until August…:):)

Canning and Preserving

canning, Family, Freezer Cooking 2 Comments

I have to say I just love canning! I love making jam! I love having the kids around me in the kitchen helping me. Kenny LOVES to do stuff in the kitchen with me. So it is a family event… I have tons to can out of my garden and I stumbled across this little backroads farmers market and was able to purchase 3/4 bushel of peaches and 1/2 bushel of cucumbers.
So far we have canned:
12 quarts of green beans
8 quarts of dill pickles
15 quarts of sweet pickles are still in the process (they take a few days)
6 pints of grape jelly (from grape juice)
12 pints of strawberry freezer jam
15 pints of peach freezer jam
4 quarts of ketchup
8 pounds of frozen peaches
Thats all for now!!

A better explanation of my freezer cooking/OAMC…:)

Freezer Cooking, OAMC 2 Comments

Okay I have had 4 people call or email me for a better explanation on my Freezer cooking/OAMC. First of all I did buy the book Freezer Cooking by 30 Day Gourmet. But you dont really need to have one. There are hundreds of different ones out there. My friend that I cooked with used Everything You Need to KNow about Freezer cooking.

So here was the deal….we did 1 1/2 days of cooking..

On the 1/2 day I prepared:
4 Meatloaves (my recipe)
4 Lasagna (my recipe)
4 batches of Cheesy Chicken Quesdillas ( 30 Day Gourmet and my own)
4 batches of Cheesy Shells ( 30 Day Gourmet)

On my friends 1/2 day she prepared:
4 white and green lasagnas (Everything….cookbook)
4 Chicken Fried Rice (Everything…..cookbook)
4 Chicken Rosettos (Everything …cookbook)
4 Hash Brown Potato Bake (….Everything cookbook)

When we go together to do our big cooking we brought 2 of each of the meals we prepared and traded..so I got 8 different ones and so did she.
On the big day…
Taco Meat
Spaghetti Sauce
Chicken Phyllo Roll (my fave so far)
Cheesy Broccolli Soup
Homemade Noodles
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Blueberry Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookies

We froze everything with that ClingWrap and then with Foil. We did flash freeze for about an hour or 2. Popped it out of the pans and then froze them without our pans so we could have them to use. I did use some foil pans…but I like to serve in prettier dishes. So I lined my foil pans so I can pop them right out and into my fancy serving dishes.

We also had 7 kids running around..!!! There were plenty of interruptions!!.
Anyway…I did purchase a book to read through first just because I need something on paper sometimes. You dont really need a book..there are yahoogroups, blogs, sites just for freezer cooking, including 30 Day Gourmet. The website itself has 100’s of recipes. If you google freezer or cooking OAMC….the recipes are endless. If you want a better explantion, check out this page on 30 day Gourmet. http://www.30daygourmet.com/freezer_Info/Freezer_Five.asp This is kind of a quick over view of the book. I just bought the book..because I LOVE books!!

Here is a great example of why this going to work great for me…yesterday Chloe and Camye had ballet at 5pm. We were running around…it was 6:30 by the time we left. I had a terrible headache..the boys were fighting, Paul spilled a drink all over himself, Blake and the van (yes I am blogging something bad…LOL….you usually only see the good). ANYWAY…it would have been much easier to stop at Sonic and get supper but I knew there was a meal at home ready to pop in the oven which my hubby did and it was ready when we walked through the door.

Another thing I am noticing that there isnt clean up other than the dishes I serve in….that is another plus I hadnt thought of.

Thats all I can think of for now. I plan on doing another around the 14th of August..right before we leave for Texas because when we return it will be September and that month is sooo busy with school and all the activites starting back up. So this so far has been such a stress reliever.:)

Hope this answered all the questions…..let me know if I missed anything.::)