Easy Meal Plan: How Spaghetti Saves my Sanity

Disclosure

I hate to cook.

Well, hate may be a bit strong….. or not. I truly don’t enjoy cooking. I try to like it, really I do! I don’t mind baking (perhaps because the end result is so much tastier!) but I don’t enjoy cooking dinner every night. Now that poses a problem because my husband works in the barn all day it wouldn’t be fair for him to make dinner every night and, in spite of the fact that I am very good at budgeting, we cannot afford a cook. So I suck it up and head to the kitchen every day between 5pm and 6pm to work through my super easy meal plan.

Most mothers will be able to relate when I say that, on a nearly daily basis, someone flicks the “Crazy Switch” at my house at about 5pm. My kids seem to need a full-time mom (read “referee”) at this point which leave me very little time (read “sanity”) to be a good little Suzy Homemaker and have dinner on the table by the time Papa Bear gets in from work.

I am so blessed that my husband understands this and has no expectation of dinner on the table at 6pm every night. He’s just happy if there is enough food in the house for him to be able to eat at some point in the evening!

So to prepare myself for all of this, I meal plan. Sort of. I read a really amazing book (Sidetracked Home Executives) that helped me set up a simple quasi-meal plan. It works perfectly for my scatterbrained self. Here is the jist of it:

Pick a “theme” for the meal for every day then just build your meals around that. That way you can look at the day of the week and know instinctively that it is taco Tuesday or fish stick Friday and half of your meal is already planned.

Here’s how I worked my plan and some of the ways I made it work for my schedule (I grab the meat out of the freezer during our morning High 5 time so it is mostly thawed by supper.)

Mondays:

This is my heavy housekeeping day and our day to begin pushing our daily rhythm again after a more relaxed weekend so I don’t usually feel like making a fancy meal (well, I never really feel like it but Mondays especially) so I make spaghetti every week. It is simple and relatively healthy. Ground beef (scramble-fried and strained), spaghetti sauce, and whole wheat noodles. If I’m feeling really energetic, I chop up some carrots or zucchini to throw into it or sometimes even corn. Peas would taste good too. I’m not allowed to do peas. My hubby despises peas. To make Mondays even easier, last year I taught my 11yo to make this so he is often on dinner duty on Monday evenings.

Tuesdays:

I did all the housework yesterday (yeah right! At least I attempted to) so learning cards and daily rhythm go a little smoother than Mondays. This is pork chop night. Just seasoning salt or I put some premade pork rub seasoning on them and throw them in the oven on my baking stone. Add a simple salad and some steamed rice. (I always make rice in my rice cooker. Way easier than on the stove or in the microwave!) Sometimes I switch it up and put a pork loin in the crock pot with the pork rub. But pork, salad, and rice. My 8yo wanted to learn how to cook a meal to so he is working on perfect this. The chops are easy peasy but can I just say that salad is way yummier when someone else chops the lettuce?

Wednesday:

This is not usually a learning card day so I plan for a morning of margin. Once a month my older boys have a community class so I plan this morning to do errands with the younger 3. We also try to plan any play dates on this day. By the time we are home I want something brainless and quick. This is ground beef night. So simple meatballs (1lb ground beef, 1/4 cup chia seeds, sprinkling of seasoning salt, throw poorly shaped blobs onto baking stone at 375 until they’re done) with boiled potatoes and steamed veggie (with grated cheese), or burritos (scramblefry ground beef with some taco seasoning and grated carrot and/or bell pepper, put in a wrap with lettuce, cheese, cucumber and ranch dressing).

Thursdays:

I’m in the office this morning so Adam is on Daddy duty and either helps the kids move through their learning cards or takes them to the shop to help fix or do maintenance on farm equipment. This is chicken night. This is one of my favorite nights. Usually just Italian chicken. (Frozen chicken breasts, sliced potatoes and frozen beans. Drizzle with melted butter and Italian seasoning. Cover and pop in the oven at 375 for an hourish.) When the kids get bored of that, I’ll make some chicken Parmesan in the crock pot (frozen chicken, jar of pasta sauce, a cup or so of Parmesan cheese on low for 5-6 hours) with steamed rice. Sometimes I throw in a salad but other times I figure the tomatoes in the sauce counts as a vegetable.

Fridays:

Frozen dinner night. WOOT! Or hubby cooks, or we do leftovers. Pizza, premade meals (LOVE The Big Cook). Every Mama needs a weekly night out (of the kitchen).

Saturdays:

Usually a blitz clean of the house with hubby’s help. Somehow he manages to make the kids excited about helping out. Perhaps it is the reward of Minecraft time with Dad afterwards. Every once in a while we throw in a trip to the city. This is either leftovers or frozen fish sticks with rice and steamed veggies (with grated cheese on top of course. Cheese makes everything better).

Sundays:

French toast casserole, roast or take out. Often my husband wants to have a bigger meal for lunch after church so he helps cook or prep before church. If we have fresh buns then we may make sloppy joes.

If any of these nights I feel like trying something new or have energy to work in the kitchen a bit longer, I’ll stick with the theme but give myself flexibility on exactly what I make. For example, some Wednesdays I make homemade honey garlic sauce for the meatballs. I usually make enough for 3-4 meals and freeze some because it is a family favorite but a more involved process. Or on chicken night I may make fettuccine alfredo sauce (from a bag) and mix the sauce and chopped chicken with pasta and steamed veggies. These things require more hands on time and result in more dishes so they are a special treat.

So there you have it. My super easy meal plan that allows me to be creative if I feel like it or means I don’t have to think about dinner when I don’t want to. If I didn’t cook spaghetti every week I would go crazy. Maybe one day Adam will be able to take over the cooking (he actually enjoys it! He’s a keeper!) but for now I keep things simple and predictable. Supper time is much easier if a plan is in place. Plus it helps you plan your grocery list too!

If you meal plan, how do you do it? Are you a month at a time kind of planner or week by week?

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N is for Nutrition: How to Eat Healthier

by Tessa | Homemaking

When my husband and I were both working full time, our meals consisted of a lot of prepackaged foods. Canned soups, frozen pizza, hashbrowns, mac n cheese, cereal etc. I didn’t have a lot of recipes under my belt and didn’t enjoy cooking (still not my favorite thing to do) so we took a lot of shortcuts in the kitchen. Shortcuts are most definitely not how to eat healthier.

When I got pregnant, I wanted to improve my diet. So I added a lot more fruits and veggies than I used to eat but, due to my work schedule, I often had to eat supper in the vehicle. Drive-throughs were so convenient. Mmmm poutine!

Then C was born. I was still making slow improvements to my diet but it was tough since my husband wasn’t really on board. C was exclusively breastfed until 6 months old, when we first introduced him to solid foods, in the form of pureed carrots. Jarred food had too many additives for my liking so I avoided them. It wasn’t long before C moved past purees and he wanted to start sharing foods from my plate. That’s when we discovered the simplest and more beneficial tip to finding healthy foods in the grocery store:

Read labels.

There are numerous articles on how to read food labels and exactly which ingredients to avoid and which ingredients do what to your body. It’s confusing, to say the least. The “Ah Ha” moment came when my husband and I were comparing ingredients on a couple bags of hashbrowns. One had about 15 ingredients and one had about 6 ingredients. We bought the one with 6.

Typically, less ingredients is better. Also, if you can’t pronounce the ingredients, they probably aren’t good for you.

Carrots = good.
Milk = good.
Eggs = good.
Rice = good.

Eat foods in as close to their natural state as possible and your body will thank you. That’s the easiest starting point to improving what you are putting into your body.

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What is the easiest tip that you have for someone who wants to eat healthier or head toward a healthier lifestyle?

Edited to add: Yes, I do realize my photo has a spelling mistake. And no, I won’t be fixing it at this point. Too much work and I think you get the point anyway 🙂

Turning All Those Stupid Little Crab Apples into Butter

by Tessa | Homemaking

I have a crab apple tree. It is nestled comfortable between my maple trees. For four summers I have watch those tart little apples drop to the ground and sit there, undisturbed, while they compost throughout the winter. I planned to let the same thing happen again this year because I didn’t think they had any purpose other than to feed the birds. Then I had this wonderfully terrible thought: why don’t I “Google” it?

Crab apples make very good crab apple butter. I was recently given a jar of apple butter by a friend and it tasted like apple pie on toast. I LOVE apple pie! (If you are local and want to give me one I won’t turn you down!)

Here is the story of my quest for apple butter:

1. Go to Google to find a recipe.

2. Google how to get the apples off the tree and discover that I’m supposed to shake them off. They make it sound so easy. It is, in fact, quite a workout. Put on a long sleeved shirt (the branches scratch something fierce!) or hire someone with strong, energetic arms (I told my husband that it would be a great family bonding activity). Plus get a couple of adorable little boogs with buckets to pick them up. Dump trucks work too. picking crab apples with little helpers

3. The recipe told me to cut off blossoms and stems: You could probably just take a shortcut and leave the blossoms. You’re going to strain them out anyway. And give yourself some time! Estimated time: 3.5 hours.

4. Cover with water and cook till really mushy: Make sure that the correct burner is on so you don’t accidentally burn your nice bamboo mixer. Estimated cooking time: (not including the burner mistake) 2 hours.

5. Strain: Wow There has got to be an easier way! The recipe called for a “coarse” sieve so, naturally, I grabbed my fine metal one. Decided it was taking too long so I upped the ante: my blue coarse pasta strainer. That one was not sturdy enough for me to mash through. Grabbed my big metal colander. Worked decently but took forever! The holes were in the wrong spot. So I downgraded again to my blue one. Nope, still not sturdy enough. Back to the fine mesh metal one. I should have just stuck with this one because it ended up being the simplest to use. Grabbed my spatula and started mashing. Then went to bed, woke up, did chores, and mashed some more.
Estimated time to strain all the apples: 4 hours

6. Spice, sugar and cook: I figured it was all downhill from here. All I had to do was add some spices and cook it, right? Well, I have a few tips:

It splatters. A lot. I managed to get burned. Several times. (Then I got smart and started using an oven mitt while mixing it). I’m so glad that my aloe vera plant managed to recover from it’s near death experience after I first bought it. It’s coming in really handy.
Also, the recipe told me it would need to simmer for 2 hours. That’s a little off. Mine simmered for a total of 24 hours. Note to self (and anyone else who makes it this far in their quest for apple butter): If it still looks like apple sauce, don’t try to can it! I was super excited after two hours to get out my jars and have my first try at canning. I had my pots all ready, tools within reach, filled my jars, and then had a thought: What is the difference between apple butter and apple sauce? So I Googled it. The difference is very small: To make apple butter you add spices and simmer longer. Much, much longer. I poured my apple sauce back into my pot.
You get a much better texture if you blend it. I used my stick mixer but you can use whatever you have on hand.

7. Canning: The simplest way that I could find to tell if the apple sauce has turned into apple butter is to put a teaspoon on the counter and wait for 5 minutes. If there is no water pooling around it then it’s ready to can. Since I had never even seen someone else can anything I needed to give myself a quick tutorial. So, of course, I went to my trusty friend, Google. I was lucky enough to find out that somewhere along the way I managed to acquire some tools for canning (jar lifting tongs and a metal rack for the bottom of my pot). I still have no idea where they came from but I’m glad that I kept them!

8. Enjoy: I used 2 cup jars and have 7.5 of them. I’m not ready to look at them yet. Maybe when my burns heal and the rest of the crab apples fall of the tree I will be ready to move to this stage. I thought I might give the jars as gifts but, as much as I don’t even want to look at them right now, I’m going to be selfish. I worked hard for that butter and one day I’m going to enjoy it!

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Living Simply Shouldn’t Be Stressful

by Tessa | Homemaking

Living Simply Shouldn't be Stressful - Aimed at the Heart

It has occured to me how complicated we can make our effort to living simply. We feel that we need to do it all and then some. We read blogs and books and feel like if we aren’t growing everything we eat and making everything we use, we must be doing something wrong. This revelation came to me when I was reading an article on how to simplify your DIY.

Or maybe I’m just talking about myself here. I know that I have a tendency to over complicate things. I have a wonderfully annoying habit of researching the pants off of anything and then trying to dive in head first. I really should remember what my goals are for changing our lifestyle.

I have a number of reasons: frugality, health, appreciating the simple things, teach my kids the importance of work and more. But, when I dream about my goals for my life, I don’t picture money in the bank, or being superfit/healthy. I picture being able to take the time to enjoy my family. Working alongside them without being tied down by the craziness of this world. Slowing down. Peace.

Now I need to ask myself, will what I’m doing lead me to that life? I’m pretty sure that, if I attempted to learn and do everything at once (garden, canning, herbalism, soap making, cheese making, weaving, knitting, sewing, building and wood working and the list goes on) that I would just burn out. We are not designed to do it all. And very few people are able to dive in head first without drowning. That doesn’t sound very peaceful to me.

So, instead of my grand plan for our garden this year, I managed to move one step further than last year. The only vegetables I planted were tomatoes and carrots. Oh, and onions because I saw an idea on pinterest and thought it would be a simple way to use up the space where I planted my chamomile (that didn’t come up). I planted in containers because I figured it made sense to have a portable garden due to our impending move. I watered with a bucket from my kitchen sink because I have no faucet on my house. And I watched and waited. I did very minimal weeding (one of my favorite parts of container gardening) and only a little bit of fertilizing.

My garden took about 10 minutes to care for every couple of days and I didn’t lose my mind. I learned a lot about growing tomatoes and carrots. I didn’t get a huge and bountiful crop this year but I did manage to learn enough to point me in the right direction for next year’s garden. carrots from container garden

Next year my goal is small: plant enough of a garden so I don’t need to buy veggies through the growing season. If that goes well, the year after next I’ll plant enough so that we can store some for the winter.

But, for now, 10 minutes extra into my schedule is simple. Because simplifying should be simple to do.Another couple great posts that I have recently read that are great grounders when you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you’re not doing enough:
How Do you Know When You Are Natural Enough? (Cheeky Bums Blog)
dear sweet mom who feels like she is failing (Finding Joy)

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Manitoba Maples

by Tessa | Homemaking

Have you ever heard of a Manitoba Maple? A lot of people look at it as a weed because it throws off seedlings like crazy. A wonderful thing about Manitoba maple trees is that they grow in Alberta. The best part: you can tap them!

I would love to make enough syrup every year for my own family. I think it would be a fun experience for us, plus I have a feeling it would be absolutely delicious. However, I have done a bit of research and Manitoba maples take about 25-50 years before they are large enough to tap. Even when they are large enough to tap, you need to harvest 40 liters of sap to make 1 liter of syrup. They should be at least 8 inches in diameter and the average (which is usually larger that 8 inches diameter) will yeild about 56 liters. So that means one tree will yield just over 1 liter of syrup.

I have recently discovered I have about 4 of these trees growing in my front yard. This is my family’s 5th summer here and I have just discovered what kind of trees they are. I wish I had discovered this sooner. Perhaps in February or so. That would allow us time to prepare to tap them.

Now we are moving.

I have found some of those seedlings and I plan to take them. Did you know that fall is a good time of year to transplant trees? I do believe that will work. And then I’ll wait for 25 years until they grow big enough to tap. Do I need the syrup? Obviously not. It will be a labour or love. Because in addition to providing delicious syrup, Manitoba Maple trees are deliciously beautiful!