I spent much of this week planning, shopping, and preparing meals to stock my freezer so we are ready once school starts. I'm linking the list below to the recipes I use, in case anyone else wants to get their cooking on.
- Shepherd's pie (filling only; put meat/veggies in gallon ziploc and freeze; use instant mashed potatoes to finish dish; I blogged about this recipe too)
- Slow Cooker Maple Chicken and Sweet Potatoes (new recipe for me)
- Slow Cooker Curry Chicken and Sweet Potatoes (new recipe for me)
- Stuffed Shells (made two batches, each in a disposable pan)
- Turkey and Spinach lasagna (made two, each in a disposable pan)
- Chicken Fajitas (LOVE these so much!!!)
- Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers
- Rattlesnake Bites (filling only; place in quart size ziploc; crescent rolls are in the fridge)
- Pizza Meatloaf (once recipe gets divided in half for our family)
- Hashbrown Casserole with Ham (recipe was given to me at my bridal shower)
- Hamburger BBQ (aka: Sloppy Joes; made a few batches and put in quart size ziplocs)
- Manicotti (There is no recipe for this! I had leftover spaghetti sauce and five uncooked manicotti shells. I made a filling of cottage cheese, one egg, shredded parmesan, salt, pepper, dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, shredded chicken and filled the uncooked shells. I spread sauce on the bottom of the pan, layered the manicotti, and covered in sauce. Bake it at 350 (from frozen) for an hour. We'll see what happens!)
- Cooked Hamburger with Onion (random extra pound for tacos or whatever)
Yet to make:
- Mushroom and Spinach Quiche (this will be my breakfast many busy mornings)
- Sweet Mesquite Chicken (a friend recently hosted us for dinner and served an awesome chicken dish. She used boneless, skinless thighs covered in agave syrup and sprinkled generously with Sweet Mesquite seasoning from Costco and rosemary. I will make up a few batches to have in the freezer. From the freezer, dump in a pan and bake at 375 degrees until done.)
I keep getting asked "are you ready?" I'm not sure. Yes and no.
I'm excited about the new year. I'm incredibly excited to do my lessons a second time and work on improving them. I'm excited that I know more than I did a year ago at this point and that will help me help my students better. I'm excited to love on another group of children and, hopefully, show them Jesus' love by living it every day.
I'm excited to watch my three oldest children enter new classrooms with a new group of classmates and teachers and grow and change and enjoy everyone. I'm not ready to see my youngest baby less. I have really enjoyed being a full-time mom again these past few months. But, he will be in the same building as me three days a week, so I'm excited to walk by and peek in to see him in that environment (I only saw him at school last year for 10 minutes when I was able to pick him up once). [All four of my children will be in my building this year. I am so beyond blessed!]
I'm ready for more routine. I do better with structure. My co-teacher and I have spent hours working on improving our plans and processes, so I'm ready to implement them and enjoy it! I'm ready to see her every weekday too. I've missed her this summer.
Now that I have these meals prepped, I'm even feeling more ready to not be home so much. We are planning and discussing who will do what during the week. Joel is still working part-time as a youth pastor, but we are no longer at the same church. We are back at our church here in Carrollton, which is a great blessing. We miss the students we served and the few families we got to know, but not having to commute and serving right here where we've planted our family is awesome! Just today Joel took our girls up to the youth room to work on something. VERY COOL! In addition to serving the youth and their families, he is still a full-time seminary student. His plate is very full. Thankfully, my mom lives with us and is helping us get through this season of life.
So, I guess now that I've written it out, I am ready. Let's do this!
