Seasons of Life: June 2012

There was a time when I did Once-a-Month Cooking…oh, that was about 4 or 5 children ago. Now, it is much simpler to double or triple recipes and freeze what we don’t need for that night’s meal. This is also how I do meals for ministering to a friend in need, a new momma, or “just because” it’s nice to give someone a break. There is no more real effort or time involved to make one or two extra batches of a recipe and since I try to stay with meals that are casserole or one pot types for those occasions, the mess is not any more than if I prepare one meal.

Some short cuts I take to make meals in a crunch include:

Smoked chicken pulled of the bone and cut into bites...use some, freeze the rest for another quick meal night.

Freezing extra cooked chicken {pulled off the bone and diced} or ground beef…this method makes it a snap to cook a fast meal like Chicken Alfredo, spaghetti or Sloppy Joes, since the meat is already cooked.
Freezing extra veggies in a freezer container then adding to it over the course of weeks. This makes for putting together a homemade pot pie or veggie casserole or soup quick and saves on waste, too.
Freezing bananas that are a bit too ripe for eating and saving for a future banana nut bread baking day

Tonight’s meal is a Chicken and Squash Pasta Bake. It’s the first time I am trying this with a few tweaks to suite our family’s taste buds. SIMPLE, good tasting and feeds a large family {or 2}. Works for me!

My kitchen helper for dinner today...cutting squash and onion are a great helper's role.

This is where I altered the recipe a bit. Instead of stir frying the squash & onion (omitted the zuchinni since I didn't have any) and added them to the boiling pasta. Drained them altogether and returned to pot. Finished by adding the cream, butter, cheese and herbs and then baked. Keeps the kitchen messes LESS.