WFMW: Freezer Meals: Rice

Last fall I joined my SIL and the gals from her church for their ladies retreat. We had a fantastic time of fellowship, worship, and the word. I took so much away from that weekend. This is one that I want to share with you. Freezing rice.

Deep. I know.

I'd never even thought about it. But it makes dinner prep so. much. easier!

It's as simple as making a huge batch of rice. Follow the directions on the package of whatever rice you prefer. When it's done cooking measure desired amounts into freezer storage containers or bags.

When it's time to use the rice defrost, heat up, and serve.

Making a big batch of rice on a slow day mid month will help you out so much on nights when you don't have time.

Sometimes I take slow days and do many pre-prep things: making beans, making rice, mixing up pie crust.

I'm linking up with We are THAT Family and WFMW.

Freezer Meals: Sausage Lasagna

Homemade spaghetti sauce is probably one of my favorite things to make. I don't know why exactly, but I love it. I also love that I can use the same recipe to make a delicious lasagna since HH gets tired of spaghetti. This recipe is easy to double.

To make the sauce I use:

One Pizza Sauce recipe

1 lb Italian Sausage

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 cup (ish) chopped mushrooms

1 cup (ish) shredded zucchini

1 cup (ish) sliced mini peppers

1 medium sized onion, diced

1-2 head of garlic, minced

Start by browning your meat. When it is cooked through add the onion and cook until the onion is clear. Add the other veggies and cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated. Add the Pizza Sauce.

To make a lasagna I use:

16 oz of ricotta cheese

1 bunch of onions, sliced

1 cup of shredded mozzarella

1 pkg of no bake lasagna noodles or 1 pkg of bow tie pasta

Mix the ricotta, green onions, and mozzarella together.

In a 9x13 pan layer sauce, noodles, and cheese mix. You want to end your layers with sauce on top. Cover with shredded mozzarella and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes.

For the freezer I wrap each pan twice with saran wrap and then add a layer of foil to the top. You'll want to defrost for 24 hours before baking.

Enjoy!

"Til My Sides Hurt: How Random

While I was putting clothes away in my room Hazel came to chat with me. She started the conversation off with. "Mom, do you know what I call Jackson? I call him Fat Baby. But not like fat fat. Just like chubby baby. I'm not being mean I just like my brother. I love him and I never get to be with him."

"Hazel, that's not true. You are with him all day every day."

"Well, 'sept when I'm in trouble."

"And why do you get in trouble?"

"When I'm dis'bedient. 'Cause guess what, Mom. You never wear dresses all the time. Like in the days when we are home you never wear dresses. Like today you won't even get dressed."

"Hazel. I've been working all morning and just haven't gotten dressed yet."

And then she got distracted by the pile of hangers on my bed.

Freezer Meals: Beef Stroganoff

I don't have any pictures of this recipe. It's easy and one that my kids LOVE.

You will need:
1 lb thinly sliced beef, cooked (I use 1/2 lb)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
10-15 mushrooms, sliced
12 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of sour cream
2 Tbl ketchup
2 tsp Worcestershire
1/4 cup water
One box of pasta, cooked (I prefer bowtie or penne)
1 Tlb butter

After the meat is cooked add the onions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook until the onions and mushrooms are tender. In a separate bowl mix together the soup, sour cream, ketchup, Worcestershire, and water. When veggies are tender add sauce. Add one box of cooked pasta and the butter. Mix well and serve.

You can also make the sauce portion of this recipe and freeze it until you need it. Defrost for 24 hours. Heat it up and mix with the cooked pasta and butter.

We really enjoy this recipe. I think we have it a couple of times a month. Enjoy!

Schooling with Fred

At the beginning of every school year I give you all a run down of my curriculum plan for the year, but I always fail to update you mid-year on any changes we've made. I'm not one to make changes often in this area because I like to be consistent, but there have been a few times when something is just plain not working. This year we made a change that is too good to forget to share.

While I am desperately in homeschoolmommy LOVE with the MFW curriculum, our math choice was the cause of much division in this Krooked Kastle. HH and I both grew up on Saxon Math so it was an obvious choice for us to fall back on. The thing is, Abiah hated it. Like slow and painful death, hated it. And he wasn't the only one being tortured!

This fall I sent a friend a flare text. One of those "help me now or I'm not gonna make it and I'm gonna take everyone down with me!" kinda texts. In glorious wisdom she told me to stop and take a break. I had exhausted all other ideas so I ran with hers. I spent a week enjoying my kids, namely Abiah. In that week my heart refocused and changed so much.

It's still hard to clarify exactly what changed but I can tell you, I remembered, or maybe understood what exactly I want for our family when it comes to homeschooling. I began reading For the Children's Sake, slowly digesting the gems of wisdom held within. Remembering and rediscovering my own heart for my children. I also reread through Ann Voskamp's post about Why Be Crazy Enough to Homeschool. But I needed help applying this directly to our lives, specifically when it came to Abiah's math.

He and I had a conversation about his school work. "Mom, I like all the things I get to read about, but I don't like to do all of the writing." While I know, and am trying to help Abiah understand, that we often have to do things we don't like or enjoy, I realized this was not an area where I needed to fight that fight. I want my kids to love learning for learning sake. I don't want them to just do school work so they can check it off of their To-Do lists.

Education shouldn't be a chore. It should be an exciting discovery. A treasure hunt. Not the drudgery that it was turning into. Ugh.

In a conversation about this with my above mentioned friend and her husband, he suggested we look into a math curriculum called Life of Fred. I've never been great at writing book summaries so I'll just let you follow that link.

 I will tell you this, I bought the first two books of the elementary series in November. Abiah had them both finished in three weeks. Then we took a Christmas break and he asked me multiple times through our break when we were going to get his new math books. I picked the rest of the elementary series up in the first week of January and he started school the 7th. Since then he has finished five or six more books. There are ten books in the elementary series and Abiah has plans (he made) to finish by the end of February.

"Look at all these books! I can't wait to get started!"

He LOVES math! I always knew he could, but didn't know how to help him. A few times my parents have come to watch our kids in the evening and both times when I tell Abiah he can stay up after the girls and Jackson go to bed he asks if he and Papa (my dad) can do Life of Fred. He used to ask to play video games!

I am beyond elated. As long as we see progress we plan to stick with Fred. I'm not sure how the other kids will take to it, but we're gonna give it a try. Hazel will start the elementary series beginning next year.

I'm so grateful for this recommendation. I know that a big portion of the change has been my approach not only to Abiah's school work but to my children in general, but this part of the change has helped. Listening to his desires and understanding his needs changed our days of fighting each other into an enjoyable experience.  He loves math and I am learning how to help him enjoy learning. Win win.

Have you made changes in your routine (school wise or not) with your kids that has proven beneficial?

WFMW: Freezer Meals: Crockpot Liners

With all the crockpot meals I'm trying out this month I thought I'd do myself a favor and splurge on some crockpot liners. Friends, they are the best things ever!

You simply line your crockpot with one of the liner bags...

Dump in your crockpot meal... Cook it... Serve it.... Take out the left overs...

And grab the liner and toss it in the garbage.

I wash the lid off and put my crockpot way for the night. It's so easy. I love that an easy meal now has an easy clean up. You can find a box of these in the food prep isle of most grocery stores. Go get some. Now!

I'm linking up with WFMW at We Are THAT Family.

'Til My Sides Hurt: She's Gone Country

Circa 2013

Hazel says to me the other day, "Mom, I need some new pants. I need some jeans. I need some cowgirl jeans. So when a cowgirl concert comes I can go. You can drive me there and then the Master will say, 'I pr'sent you Hazel Grace Arcouette Lou Hoo to do The Cowgirl Dance with a horse!' And then I can do a dance in front of all the peoples with a 'tend horse like on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

circa 2010