Planning meals & MSCD

 

As we look to start school after Labor Day, it’s also time to start up the menu planning and plan for a Mini Session Cooking Day (MSCD) while I still have time.  I planned out five week’s and left plenty of room for leftovers.  With Dash gone at supper time for football practice, it’s challenging to adjust the quantities appropriately!

Once school starts, free time for cooking disappears and it’s so nice to have a few home-made meals in the freezer to pull out on crazy days (you know the ones where you planned to be done at 2pm, but are still there at 5pm for some unknown reason??).

Monday was my opportunity for a MSCD.  I planned it out the night before and chose recipes for which I already had ingredients on hand.  This is what’s in the freezer (or frig or pantry) today…

2 gallons Italian Sausage Soup

2 gallons Taco Soup

2 dozen Meatballs

2 quarts Mexican meat filling

1 loaf Chocolate chip Pumpkin Bread (one was eaten, the other is on the counter!)

2 dozen Chocolate dipped Peanut Butter Balls*

2 dozen No-Bake cookies

2 quarts Taco Rice

10 bags Brownie mix (each makes an 8x8 inch pan)

Dash made the Brownie mix and prepared the peanut butter balls for dipping.  That helped sooo very much.  Some of the recipes are on my blog, others are available for free (some after joining) on the website of 30 Day Gourmet. 

*These are so easy and absolutely yummy.  Great treat for harvest time lunch boxes when the guys want something candy-like, but I don’t want to pay the price for candy.  I had about half of a White Chocolate Flavor Ghirardelli candy making and dipping bar (2.5 lbs purchased at Sam’s Club during Christmas season) leftover.  I used half (so a quarter of the package) for the recipe.

Mini-Cooking Session #2

Last week, it was time for another mini-cooking session. This time around, I spread the cooking and preparation over the whole week. Our family was away from home on Wednesday and Friday, so I didn't want to overwork myself on the weekend. For this session, the following meals were included:

Suzie's Chicken Enchiladas (3 meals)
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (1 to eat & 1 to freeze)

Chicken Rice Soup (2 meals)

Italian Sausage Soup (2 meals)
Taco Soup (2 meals)

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Monday - Cooked and froze rice for Chicken Rice Soup.

Wednesday - Grocery shopping for the non-perishable ingredients.

Thursday - Prepared all the meat . . . cooked and diced or chopped the chicken and browned all the ground beef and Italian sausage. My oldest son shredded cheese for the enchiladas. Today, I also prepared the Chicken Rice Soup. It's the least time intensive of the recipes and thus has the fewest ingredients.

Chicken Rice Soup

Friday - Grocery shopping for the perishable ingredients.

Saturday - The day for cooking has arrived! My schedule went smoothly and I was done with clean-up just after our noon meal. The schedule below shows how Saturday morning went for me.

Almost all the ingredients for Saturday's Session

7:20a Assemble all the ingredients and start preparing Taco Soup

7:40a Taco Soup simmering on the cooktop & prepare ingredients for Italian Sausage Soup

8:00a Taco Soup cooling

8:20a Italian Sausage Soup in crock pot until 11:20a

Italian Sausage Soup in Crock Pot

8:45a Chicken & onion frying in the pan for enchiladas

Chopped Chicken and Onion

9:05a Enchiladas filled and rolled

My Enchilada-Filling Assembly Line (above) and Pre-rolled Enchiladas (below)

9:30a White sauce for enchiladas prepared and then poured over enchiladas

Topped with cheese and ready for a quick-freeze

9:40a Enchiladas in freezer - quick freeze before wrapping in plastic & foil

9:55a Taco Soup is double bagged & stored in freezer. Started mixing two chocolate cakes.

10:20a Chocolate cake is into the oven for 40min.

10:45a Peanut Butter frosting is ready to go

With this at the end, it makes the chaos worthwhile! Very Yummy!!

Watch for this recipe in an upcoming post - the frosting is sooo good.

11:48a Frost, cut and freeze one chocolate cake

12:00p Wrap & label frozen chicken enchilada meals

12:15p Eat lunch with the family & clean-up afterwards

1:00p Time to Rest!!

Mini-Cooking Session

**Sadly, my camera is having a fit. I didn't realize the pictures were all lined and grainy until the day was done and I was importing them into the post. So, no pictures of the days work for viewing. Technology is both wonderful and frustrating!

The day started quite early . . . I woke up at 5:30a and couldn't get back to sleep. Rather than lay there thinking about sleep, I got up and started the mini-cooking session. I had planned to make seven different entrees, but quickly realized that I wouldn't have the energy to complete those and chose to scale back to five. The five I chose to prepare were Breakfast McBiscuits x12, Chicken Enchiladas x1, Chicken Rice Soup x2, Italian Sausage Soup x2 and Taco Soup x2.

6a - You can't start a Saturday morning without a little bit of laundry, so that's where I began! One load folded, one transferred to the dryer and one started in the washer. Now, on to transferring the meat, biscuits & produce out of storage and into the kitchen.

7a - The majority of ingredients for Italian Sausage Soup are in the crock pot and cooking. The Italian sausage is browned and reserved with the Mexican tomatoes to be added later.

8a - Biscuits are baked, 1st batch of bacon ready (some McBiscuits are prepared and eaten for breakfast!), hamburger for Taco Soup browned and the chicken breasts are in the process of being poached. I took a few minutes to wash dishes that I will need later.

8:30a - Taco Soup is simmering on the stove, the rice cooker is started, and the 2nd batch of bacon is in the oven.

9a - Taco Soup is cooling, Chicken Rice Soup is simmering, and the chicken is poached and diced.

9:30a - Preparation for the enchilada sauce is underway; and the enchiladas are rolled and arranged in a 13x9 pan. Bacon is done & placed on paper towels to cool.

10a - Chicken Enchiladas in the fridge to cool. Bacon stored in frig for later.

10:45a - Italian Sausage Soup ingredients are mixed together and left to cool on the stovetop. Washed up the dishes by hand or in the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen.

11:45a - Re-heated one pot of Italian Sausage Soup for Dinner! Everyone cleaned their bowls so they could have a Peanut Butter Cup Pie treat.

1p - Everything cleaned and put away, soups (save for the Italian Sausage Soup - which still needs to cool) are double bagged & put in the freezer. Time for a break - Chai Tea and check laundry.

2:30p - Italian Sausage Soup double bagged and into the freezer. I'm now ready to fry eggs and assemble Breakfast McBiscuits.

3:30p - The Mini-Cooking Session is done! The kitchen is back to it's normal state & ready for my oldest ds to prepare his Redwall Feast (He's already got a good start on it. Somewhere during all the above activities, he found time to prepare the October Ale and bake both the Hare's Haversack Crumble and Loamhedge Legacy Nutbread. He takes after me - make sure the sweets are prepared first!)