More on Freezer foods/cooking day

By the way, since I had a few nice comments about the whole "P-day", I decided to put this up from another's blog. This lady does pretty much the same thing and will cook a bunch of foods at once: I check her blog often for great stuff and budget tips! And to think that she didn't have to go on a mission to learn all this! lol (jk!! ;)

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/11/freezer-cooking-day-the-final-results-and-come-link-up-your-posts-too.html

Homemade Mexican Salsa

This is THIRD attempt on posting this, but you can see that it's that good!! lol

HOMEMADE SALSA-A LA MEXICAN STYLE

Beware of its authenticity!

Homemade Salsa:

Ingredients:

2-4 Tomatoes (I like Roma)

1-2 cloves of garlic (less or more is good)

a few pinches of cilantro (as you like)

a 1/2 tsp. of salt (more or less is good)

(the salt will take away the sweetness from the tomato)

1-2 Jalapenos (depends on your macho-ness)

1/4 onion (more or less is okay)

Sorry people, but you will have to experiment and create your own salsa to your liking, but this is the general recipe.

Now, you can either make this 1-3 ways.

1. boil

2. Charboil on frying pan

3. Fresh it

1. Boiling: boil the tomatoes and japalenos in a small pot. peel tomato skin and dump all other ingredients into blender. Blend until desired texture

2. Smokey style: Slice tomatoes in half. Put face down onto hot frying pan (ungreased) with jalapenos and garlic. when tomato skin falls off easily and there are beautiful burn marks on everything, dump in with the rest of the ingredients and blend!

3. Dump all ingredients into the blender and blend to your desired texture.

THAT'S IT.

I know, it's easy! It took me a few tries to get the flavoring that I loved, but once you get it down, you would be a weirdo to go back to the preservative filled nasty tomato sauce salsa that the stores have!! Trust me.

Oh and yes, don't expect to be kissing anyone for a while...

or be sure to feed it to your husband too. lol

Other Mojo's Mexican Tips! (friendly on your budget too!)

1. Add water to can of refried beans. This not only increases amount of beans, but also makes it less BEANY!! (lol) I just hate it when I get a mouthful of BEANS I can't swallow!

Restaurants will do this too! :)

and As far as cooking refried beans: here's another Mexican tip: heat 1-2 tbs. oil. Add 2-3 slivers of onions into it, fry a little (add garlic if you wish!) and then add the can of beans+water! It's much more flavorful!

2. Add water to your Guacamole! Avocados absorb so much water!

So stretch that guacamole, especially if you are trying to feed a lot of guacamole lovers!

3. Add water to your Sour cream! Ever have a mouthful of white sour cream!? Not anymore! When serving Sour cream with something, scoop some into a bowl, then add a bit of water and stir until the desired consistency.

Then add salt, pepper and even some chili pepper for some coloring! It's beautiful!

Okay--hope this helps! Try it out! Don't hesitate to call/email/FB/come over if you have any questions! :)

Buen Provecho!

"P-day"

P-Day

(Preparation Day)

Somethings I will never change, even after five years of being home from my mission.

P-Day.

P-day is when missionaries will spend the day doing their laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, writing letters to home, and preparing for the week. We also looked at our weekly agendas and figured out where we were going to go, who we were going to teach, and what lessons we were going to teach. I loved it and have since then, decided to continue to apply this lesson into my own life. So far, it's been a time saver!

So to get started,

I pick a day during the week (usually a Monday). Then, I plan everything out. Menus for the week, plan out days, activities, kid's crafts and learning times. I ask my husband what he has going on that week, and try to work everything around everyone's schedule so that we're all on the same page.

Then, I make a ton of food this day! First, I go through my cupboards and fridge and see what meals I can make out of them. Second, I make a list of foods I can make: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and since I still have Jaiden who eats somewhat of a "baby food", I make another section for his meals. I also make a list for "Ronny's Lunches" he can take to work. Third, if I know there are days where we will be out to Dr's or running errands, I will try and assign meals to days: for example, I know we have a Dr's appt. on Monday at 4:00pm. I know that by the time we get back, there will be no time to be making dinner, so I choose a meal that can either be DONE BEFORE we go, or that can be cooking WHILE we are out: (crock pot meals!)

By making a list of meals, it helps me cut down on thinking time during the week and panicking that I don't have an ingredient, or having kids be screaming in the background because it's 5pm and they are dying of hunger, with me running around trying to figure out what to make! I simply look at the list and decide what to make!

(I have a great big white board that I have hanging where everyone can see)

This also cuts down on going out to eat!!

(which is caused usually by not knowing what to cook, or being too lazy to cook!)

Cooking P-day:

Not only do I make lists of meals for the week, I usually will set aside a day (again, Monday works best for me) to cook up a few meals. Freezer friendly meals are great to cook up this day, but even baby foods that have to be refrigerated and eaten within a few days are great too. For example, I will cook up enough chicken breasts for chicken enchiladas, chicken salads, chicken noodle soup. Here, I can boil noodles for the soup, for casseroles, and noodles to grind up with cooked veggies for Jaiden! I also cook up a lot of rice too, and will make fried rice, spanish rice, rice with veggies for baby food (grind up or eat as it is). For breakfast foods, I like to make up french toast and freeze them, or muffins and do the same. I even wash and chop up veggies that I know I will be using (dice up green peppers, celery, carrots, slice scallions, etc). By cooking a few meals and splitting them up into containers during the week, all I have to do is last minute arrangements and heat up! It all tastes great!

Baby Foods:

Baby food is so easy to make, I can't believe I used to spend the money buying them! Anything goes for baby food! Just mash/blend it!

Ideas:

Rice with broccoli and carrots (boiled veggies)

Boiled veggies with Noodles

Potatoes with veggies

Noodles with spaghetti sauce

Soup with lots of veggies and some type of carb (rice, pasta, beans, etc)

Really, anything that has only a tiny bit of salt/flavor (just not as much as adults) is great to dump in the blender and serve! Make a few big batch and serve throughout the week! Even "adult" left overs are great too, if it has a bit too much flavor for the kiddo, just add milk or water when blending to tone the flavor down!

Bills:

take some time to prepare your bills and finances during the week!

For me, it works that I review what I'm able to spend during that week and remind myself to stick to it. It's nice to send a text/email to your hubby to remind him/her and get them to be on the same page as you too!

Laundry:

This is a great day to get all your laundry in order too, so that you're not searching through dirty piles of laundry for something to wear during the week!

Cleaning:

Cleaning is a Must! Get everything sparkling so that you don't have to worry about it during the week as much!

Crafts/activities for the kids:

(I like to do this on Sunday)

Now is the time to get all the craft ideas and activity ideas together on a list! Make plans for activities for your kiddos so that you're not finding yourself setting them down in front of the TV so much during the week! Hey, it's going to happen (the T.V. part), but why not cut it down!?

Shopping lists:

Get all this done too, so that when time comes and you decide to it's time to GO, you're not forgetting things last minute. I like to prepare specific lists for different stores: Target, Walmart, Kroger, etc. etc. This doesn't mean that I HAVE to head up these stores each week, but I keep a list handy so that if I'm out and close to a store, I have them handy.

By doing these things, I have found that I am less worried for what to make for each meal, and I can spend more time either with my family or doing things that I truly enjoy!

Do you have a P-day?! Have fun with it!

Summing up my Trip to Japan

No words will ever be able to describe my trip to Japan.

It wasn't just special because that is my "home."

I got to meet my biological grandparents and relatives.

If I could only tell you what a joyous moment that was, seeing my blood relatives for the first time in 23+years, you would rejoice with me!

Many tears were shed for time lost, but we also shared many embraces for the chance we were given to meet again, here on earth.

I felt many things, saw many things, and understood a whole lot more.

I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me such a beautiful past, though full of trials and hardships, including separations from many of my loved ones. He gave me the blessing to be able to go back before all of it was gone. Thanks also to Ronny, who didn't think twice about sending me away for two weeks while he stayed home with the boys. Thanks to all those who rejoiced with me for this opportunity of meeting my family overseas.

I am so blessed.

Home from my Trip

What a beautiful thing it is to be DEPENDED UPON by others.

Among a million other things I was able to experience and come to ponder on in Japan, the one thing that remains ingrained upon my heart is the thought that "to be depended upon is a blessing."

What a blessing it is to be needed. To be counted on. To be expected somewhere, at some time.

I know I feel tired sometimes of all the places I "need to be" or how I'm always "needed" by so many, starting with my family...I listened to my grandmother's feelings of inadequacy and "un-usefulness. She has no where to be, nor is anyone expecting her to be anywhere.

I really thought; how beautiful is it to be needed!

We may not be able to do great things--but by small things, I do believe that we are able to make a big difference in people's lives. By example, I met an elderly fellow of 95 years old. He was as perky as any young person, but he was very lonely. He was offering to PAY someone to come and sit with him and just talk and be with him each day...what a small thing it might be for you and I to sit and listen to someone for one hour a day/week/month/year, but what a HUGE difference that would make in someone's life!?

I love life.