Cooking at Home: Day 3

Using Leftovers: Tip #1

One problem with cooking at home is that sometimes food gets wasted.  I have been trying to come up with ways to reduce that waste and I'm going to share them with you over the next month.  Here is tip #1: using leftover milk.

There are some weeks that my husband and I can go through two gallons of milk.  Then there are some weeks that we barely use half a gallon.  I always keep a package or two of instant pudding on hand to help use up that extra milk.  Not only does it give us dessert for a night or two, but it uses up a large portion of milk that would have otherwise expired.

What do you do to use up milk that's about to expire?

Cooking at Home: Day 2

It's hard to get back into cooking at home when you don't have a plan.  So, my biggest piece of advice to stop eating out and starting cooking for yourself is to have a plan.  Plan a weekly menu.  It doesn't have to be elaborate, you don't have to cook Lobster Thermidor or Boeuf Bourguignon.  You just need to cook what you like, but plan it ahead of time.  Planning it out helps save you time and money because you don't have to fly by the seat of your pants.  You know what is coming, but you can also change it up if you want to.

Here are 3 easy steps to implementing an easy menu.

1.  Cook what you like.  Write down the recipes that you and your family like and then pick from that list.  Using tried and true recipes helps make menu planning and grocery shopping easy.  If you want to be adventurous and try out a new recipe then write those down on a separate list.  I would pick one new recipe to try out a week.  You will easily become discouraged if that recipe doesn't turn out well and you still have more new recipes to try out for the week.  Sticking to just one new recipe makes it easier on you and the family.

2.  Write it down.  I made a big chalkboard that I write our menu down on, and it hangs in the kitchen where my husband and I can see it every day.  Writing it down somewhere that is in your face helps to keep you on track.  You can know what to expect every day and you don't have to wonder what is for dinner.  This also helps my husband know what is expected of him.  I try to pick recipes on days that he is off that he can help cook.  I know that he can't make homemade macaroni and cheese, but he can make bacon cheeseburgers.  Getting your family involved will make dinner easier on you and help you stick with it.

3.  Go grocery shopping once.  After you plan your menu, make a list of what you need to complete the menu.  Doing this helps keep you from making daily trips to the grocery store and keeps your cost down.  This won't guarantee that you won't end up making an emergency grocery store run, but it will keep you from going four or five times a week, which is just exhausting.

Following those simple steps will help keep the pressure off of you in the kitchen and make it more likely that you will stick with it.  Going into a week with a meal plan is one less thing that you have to worry about during the week.  No one will have to ask what's for dinner again.

Here are some fun links to help you plan your menu:
I Heart Organizing
Organized Home 
Food on the Table

31 Days of Cooking at Home: Day 1

This month I'm linking up with The Nester and accepting her 31 Days challenge.  For the 31 days in October I will be writing posts (both big and small) about a particular subject.  This year's topic will be Cooking at Home.  I feel that food is a great way to bring people together, to enjoy time with friends and family.

This time is often pushed aside because preparing your own food takes time and money.  Something we all claim not to have.  But if you have time to sit in the drive-thru lane for 10 minutes or spend an hour and half in a restaurant, then you have time to make a home-cooked meal.  And if you have the money to spend on fast food, you have money to make your own food.

I'm not trying to criticize, I just want to help everyone get back in the kitchen.  I love nothing more than talking to my son his bouncy chair as I chop vegetables or stir my sauce.  And I love sitting down with my husband (albeit in the living room because heaven forbid he should eat at the table...I'm working on it) and discussing our day over Taco Lasagna or Chocolate Chip Cookie pie. 

So I'm here to help you get back in the kitchen.  I'll post recipes, tools to have, and tricks to help you get back to cooking at home.

Baby Food Problems

Well, we have officially started Jude on baby food.  He went for his 4 month check-up last week and now weighs 10 lbs. 10 oz and is 24.25 inches long.  The doctor said he is a bit on the small side but he is growing and is healthy so he wasn't worried.  He still recommended I start Jude on some cereal and pureed vegetables and fruits to help him put on some weight.

Now I'm excited.  I have been planning to make my own baby food (at least the majority of it) since he was still in the womb and now I get to actually do it.  I got a few books from my store about how to go about making it, what food do what for growth and bowel regularity and I could go on for a while.  I'm a little nuts about it.  I just want what is best for my baby bear and I think by controlling what he eats, what goes into it, etc. I can keep a better eye on him and keep him healthy. 


Plus it's cheaper.  Really.  Have you seen the price of a jar of baby food?  Ri-dic-u-lous.

Anyway, I want to share with you my first feeding adventure.  We started Jude on just some rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk for a couple of days.  Fun.  He put up quite the fight the first feeding, but now he seems to enjoy it immensely.  He laughs and talks and spends more time eating his fist than eating his food, but it's fun to watch.  And he does eventually get the food down.

Then I decided to be adventurous and give him bananas.  Well, I made the husband do it because I was at work.  Babies like bananas, right?

Well, friends, Jude is allergic to bananas.  Yikes!

He broke out into hives on legs and arms.  Scared the crap out of my husband and later myself when I got home after work to find this out.  He never seized up, or had trouble breathing, or anything more serious than some welts and redness that went away after an hour after feeding him so we didn't feel it was ER worthy.  (Please trust that had they stayed we would have been there in a heartbeat.) 

We figured no more bananas, that should fix it, right?

Wrong.  He continued to break out for the next two days.  Redness and welts that would come after feeding him but go away not long after.  I was worried that perhaps it was my milk or the little bit of formula we were giving him, or perhaps we were bringing in something from the outside that he was reacting to, or just something other than the bananas was making him break out.  Nope. 

Thank you baby clinic that is open on the weekends for being my saving grace this past weekend.  What they don't tell you about allergic reactions, and what I would like to share with the world, is that while the banana was gone from his system, what had triggered the response can stay for about 72 hours.  Which means that he can continue to break out into hives for a few days afterward.  But as long as his breathing was fine and his face didn't swell, there was no need to panic or take him to the ER according to the clinic doctor.  Whew.

Thankfully, that was the worst of it, so no trips to the ER.  He has stopped breaking out and we are only giving him cereal while his body recovers and gets rid of the nasty allergy stuff.  I'll admit that I'm worried about giving him food now, but I'm going to remain positive and feed him some sweet potatoes next week.

Cross your finger that all goes well.

In Regards to Freezer Meals

Today's Pinterest topic is Freezer Meals.  Have you heard of them?  Basically, these super moms (and dads) make enough meals for the entire month(!) and freeze them for later use.  I first heard about this from Stephanie at Mama and Baby Love.  She has a fantastic ecookbook out that gives out her staple slow-cooker freezer meals.  If you are looking to get started I would suggest her recipes.  Once a Month Mom is also a great resource for getting started, recipes, and creating your own meal plan.

I have been doing freezer meals for a few months now with a few tweaks that works for me.  First of all, I am not as ambitious as everyone else and only do them in two week increments.  This allows me to cook throughout the week but have a back-up for when I don't feel like it.  It also keeps the time spent preparing the meals to a minimum.  I can get everything prepared in about 2 hours.  I'm not ambitious enough to try to make breakfasts and lunches so I only make dinners.  I usually use 5 recipes which makes 10 meals.  The recipes I use are already doubled so that all you have to do is split the ingredients between freezer bags.  I mainly do slow-cooker meals because assembly is as easy as splitting the ingredients into freezer bags or containers and throwing them in the freezer.  Recently though, I have been making batches of food big enough to eat half and freeze the rest.  It's given me a lot more freedom to cook a larger variety of food.

I will say I always have browned meat and shredded chicken in the freezer and fridge for quick meals like tacos or chicken salad.

The advantages of doing this are numerous.  I don't have to worry about what I'm making for dinner every night.  I can just throw the contents of a bag in my slow cooker and have a home-cooked meal without fuss.  I know what is going into these meals and can easily adjust them to fit my family's needs (read: I can make my husband eat vegetables).  I can usually squeeze dinner for two and lunch for me the next day out of each meal so it's very cost effective.  We save so much money doing this because we don't have to eat out as much and we can shop the sales and cheaper in-season items.  Plus, it's much easier to budget grocery money when you have a game plan for the week.  Most importantly though, it saves time!  I can spend a few hours on one day and stay out of the kitchen for a week or two if I want.  My husband and I work opposite schedules usually so whenever we can squeeze in time together, we do it!  Plus this is so easy, the husband can throw a meal together if I'm not at home to do it.

If you are looking to start doing this, here is my advice to you.

1. Start off small!  If you don't want to make a full weekly/bi-weekly/monthly menu, just make a recipe or two and see how that works out for you.  I'm not brave enough to make a full meal plan like the one's listed on OAMM's website, but I know I can do a week or two's worth of dinners with no problem.

2.  Do your homework!  I have spent a lot of time reading about different freezing techniques, getting things organized, and how to create my own recipes.  It's much easier to create your own menus and recipes when you know what can freeze and what can't, for how long it can freeze, etc.  I know this seems like a lot of work, but I promise it's so beneficial.

3.  Be prepared!  I spend time planning out my recipes, setting up my grocery list, and setting aside time to make my meals.  This is hard to do on the fly so make sure you have made time to do this properly or you will end up wasting time and losing that "saves time" aspect.

4.  Do what works for you!  I've ready lots of stories and testimonials of people that really get into this and make monthly menus, and that is just too ambitious for me.  You don't have to be super mom (or dad) to do this.  It's okay to just do a few meals here and there.

5.  Grab a partner!  Doing this with someone else not only keeps you motivated, but also makes it fun.  I often con the husband into putting bags together or helping me clean up.  It helps me get the job done even quicker, plus gives us some bonding time together since we don't get a ton of that during the day.

I hope this inspires you to give this a try.  It seems daunting when you first start out but it gets easier, and really is beneficial.  You'll eat healthier, save money, and have more time to spend with family, friends, pets, whatever.

High Five for Friday

It's been so long since I've done this!  I'm excited to take a look at the good things that happened to me, even if they seemed insignificant at the time.

1.  My Birchbox came in which automatically made this a good week.  Budgeting money means that I can't buy things just because I want to anymore, so Birchbox gives me an extra treat to enjoy.

2.  I've started reading again!  Woo hoo!  Read about my first adventure back into reading here.

3.  There is a cute little restaurant in my new neighborhood called The Lunch Box that has 25 cent wings every Thursday.  It's budget friendly and the wings are fresh, big, and tasty.  It's was a great to eat out somewhere and not spend a lot of money.

4.  My sororities recruitment was this past weekend and we got 20 wonderful new members!  20 may not seem like a lot but my college boasted a whopping total of about 1500 students total when I attended, so the numbers of our fraternities and sororities are small.  I have been an alum for three years now, but am now an advisor so I get to be excited about recruitment again without seeming creepy.

5.  My sorority sister Ravon's engagement party is tomorrow!  Jude is going to Nana's house for the night so the husband and I get a night to ourselves.  It's going to be awesome!

Happy Friday everyone!

Book Club: Divergence

Before I had Jude I was an avid reader.  I could devour several books each month, sometimes each week.  It's much harder now to find time to read, but I am determined to get back to it.  I really miss it.  As a bookstore employee, I have thousands of books at my disposal and I want to take advantage of it.  So, I'm starting this "book club."  It's not really a club but more of a way to hold myself accountable for keeping up with my reading list.  I'm not much of a book reviewer, but I'll give it a shot.

This weeks book: Divergence by Veronica Roth.

Divergence is a young adult novel that is supposed to be the next Hunger Games.  It's the first book in the Divergent trilogy.  The story revolves around 16-year-old Beatrice "Tris" Prior who lives in a dystopian Chicago.  Her society is divided up into five factions that dedicate themselves to a particular virtue.  Beatrice comes from the Abnegation faction that prides itself on being selfless.  On a particular day every year, every 16-year-old gets to select the faction that they will devote their lives to.  They can decide to stay with their families, or leave their old lives behind and start fresh somewhere else.  The story follows Tris as she makes her surprising choice of factions and competes to become an initiated member of the faction she chooses.  With growing conflict among the factions, Tris must fight for her place in the life she had chosen, and hide a secret about herself that could help those she loves or destroy her.

I finished this book fairly quickly, despite it's length.  As a young adult (YA) novel, the language is not hard.  I often have trouble with YA novels having female leads that are absolutely infuriating or boring Mary Sues, but Tris was actually likable and had a real personality.  She's no Katniss Everdeen, but she could beat Bella to a pulp in personality alone.  She had real problems and feelings that everyone could relate to.

The storyline itself is pretty interesting.  Dystopian novels seem to be hot these days, and this one was decent.  Where The Hunger Games gave us only glimpses of the other Districts, Divergence actually gave me a really good idea about what all the factions are about which I liked.  The love story and friendships Tris gets involved in were real and interesting.

Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes an easy read and/or young adult novels that don't involve vampires and werewolves.  I will be adding the second book in the series (Insurgent) to the reading list and will read it when it comes into the store for me to grab.  (The third book has not been published yet.)

Next week's book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.  It's another young adult (YA) novel. (I promise, this is not all I read, but working in the kids and YA sections at work every day, makes me want to read what everyone is asking for/talking about.)

Read along with me and let me know what you think, or give me suggestions as to what I should add to my reading list!