What's For Dinner? (Teaching Topic 2/15)

Last week we talked about creating an environment in our homes through our "stuff", and how we value the people there. This week it was all about one of my favorite subjects...food! Food has the power to connect one generation to another, through the memories associated with certain recipes, and the way it can bring us all to the same place at the same time...the dinner table.

Getting organized in our grocery habits is about more than just being efficient and cost-effective, it is about having a plan so that (there's that phrase again...) we can use the opportunity of dinner to grow closer to our kids and establish our own traditions. At my house, I ask two questions during dinner: what was the best part of your day and what was the worst thing. It gives every member a chance to contribute to the conversation and feel like a valued part of the family. There are Dinner Table Games that you can play. You can involve your kids in the meal preparation and improve the chances that they will eat what you are serving.

Some practical helps we discussed were planning menus for the week, freezing meals ahead to help us when life's little challenges come up, different resources to tap into. I'm proud to tell you that I just wrote out menus for the next week after checking what food I already had on hand to work with, made a grocery list, and clipped coupons. Now I just need to get to the grocery store...

Some of my own favorite tips are:

• Freeze leftovers in individual meal sizes. Perfect for my husband's lunch or those nights when we all feel like something different.
• Make a double batch of taco meat or sloppy joes and freeze on a cookie sheet by the scoop, then put in a ziploc bag when frozen. Only use what you need. (I do this with cookie dough, too, but have a tendency to eat the frozen cookie dough balls...)
• Planned leftovers...making a roast one day and turning it into a soup or sandwich fixin's the next day; making BBQ chicken breasts on the grill and using the leftovers for salad or quesadillas.
• Always have supplies for your favorite go-to meal on hand. Ours, or at least mine, is a box of pancake mix and syrup. I usually have a jar of canned potatoes too, so I can make a quick breakfast for dinner meal.

I like to have a plan, but not necessarily a daily one to follow. Some days we might not feel like eating what is on the schedule, and that's alright. The goal is to not stress out about dinner, not to be tied to a rigid schedule. Statistics and studies show that the act of simply eating dinner together does all kinds of good, from kids reading better in school to teens having a lower incidence of drug use and teen pregnancy. We teach our kids our faith and customs through the family dinner table as well. 

I hope you are inspired to reach out to your family and others through food...whether it is inviting company over for a meal, packing up a meal for someone in need, or nurturing your own family. Can't wait to hear your cooking stories!

Some Favorite Recipes:

Mushroom Hamburgers (from Jamie Jewell)

1 pound ground beef
4 T cream of mushroom soup  (reserve the rest of the soup for the sauce)
2/3 c. dry bread crumbs
2 T minced onions
1 T minced parsley
1 egg

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Shape into patties and brown in skillet.  While browning, add 1/4 c water to the rest of the soup. Pour over patties and cook for 10 minutes.  (This is really good served over rice.)

Puff Pizza  (from Michele Dutkiewicz)


3 cans (7.5 oz each) buttermilk biscuits
1.5 cups (14 ounces) spaghetti or pizza sauce
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 clove garlic, pressed
Optional toppings: onions, olives, pepperoni, muchrooms, bacon, ham

Preheat oven to 375; in a bowl, quarter biscuits with scissors.  Stir in 1 cup of sauce and 2 cups of cheese.  Press garlic clove with garlic press and add to biscuit mixture.  Add optional ingredients if desired; mix to combine.  Spread mixture into 9x13 inch glass or stone dish.  Pour remaining sauce and cheese over top.  Could add toppings at that time also.  Bake for 30 minutes or until sides are golden brown

Taco Pie (from Michele Dutkiewicz)

8 oz grated cheddar cheese
1 8 oz. pkg crescent roll
1 lb. ground turkey
1 T beef bouillion granules
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
salt and pepper to taste
6 oz. tomato paste
3/4 c water
1 pkg taco seasoning

Press crescent rolls into greased pan.  Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.  Brown meat, add bouillion, water, taco seasoning, and all other ingredients except cheese.  Simmer.  Spread 1/2 of meat mix on crescent roll.  Layer 1/2 of cheese, then meat, then cheese.  Bake at 400 an additional 10 minutes until cheese melts.

Busy Woman Pepper Steak  (from Angie Karklus)


2 lb. beef stew meat
2 cans Campbell's French Onion Soup
3 green peppers, cut in strips
15 oz can tomatoes

Place all ingredients into slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Stir in instant ric the last 10 minutes to thicken.

Baked Linguini with Meat Sauce (from Becky Thomas and Southern Living :)


2 lbs ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 - 28 oz crushed tomatoes
1-  8 oz  tomato sauce
1 - 6 oz tomato paste
1 t salt
2 t sugar
8 oz linguine
1 - 16 oz sour cream
1 - 8 oz cream cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook beef and garlic in dutch oven.  Stir in tomatoes and the next 4 ingredients; simmer for 30 minutes.  Set mixture aside.  Cook pasta and drain.  Place pasta in lightly greased 13 x 9 dish.  Stir together sour cream, cream cheese, and onions; spread over pasta.  Top with meat sauce.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake until the cheese  melts.  Let stand 5 minutes.

Happy Valentine's Day, FLYlady Style

Here are some Valentine thoughts from the FLYlady, via Becky:

LOVE MAKES A HOUSE A HOME!
I have seen this come up from time to time, but this morning it was a God Breeze. With the New Year, I want us to focus on ways we can show or family our love for them. And I don't mean saying those 3 words either. What can we DO! Do is an action word. So what action can we take that will convey to our family that we love them.
I am going to brainstorm a bit here.
1. By dressing and looking presentable to them at all times. Kids are sometimes embarrassed by the way we don't take care of ourselves; looking slouchy when we take them to school and other places. Have you
ever heard these words, Mom please stay in the car, I can go in by myself. The kids won't tell you why they want you to stay behind. If you look good to yourself, your children are going to be so proud of you.  Try it!
2. We can show our family we love them by not raising our voices and having a sharp tongue. When we let those loud ugly words fly out of our mouths, we can't bring them back and change how those word hurt. So choose your tone and words carefully. You will find as the clutter leaves your home, the stressed out attitudes will be gone too. Practice talking in a quiet voice, it is so hard to yell or say nasty things, when we are whispering.
3. Put a smile on your face, even if something is not good, let the smile be your first defense for those bad, hurtful thoughts you are having. After a while that smile with turn your sad feelings into nice ones. If you don't believe me, prove me wrong!
4. Compliment your family, not as a whole, but one at a time. Focus on the positive things that they are doing, don't reinforce the negative ones. Put little thank you notes in lunch boxes or where they can find
them. Tell them just how proud you are of them.
5. Show them you love them, by doing something that they hate to do: Empty the dishwasher, putting away laundry or make their bed.
6. This one simple thing, means more than anything else. Keep the laundry done and put away. Nothing says I love you, like having clean underwear and socks to put on. Don't just wash and dry it, then leave
it in the baskets all wadded up. No one likes a scavenger hunt just to get dressed in the morning. Laundry is just a routine, once you establish the habit, your family will always feel loved. Now if your children are responsible for their own laundry, then do a load for them occasionally. It won't kill you.
7. The smell of something cooking on the stove, says I love you too. Plan your menus, fix things that your family loves. Make mealtime a special time. Set a lovely table, teach your children how to set the table and proper table manners. If you don't know them yourself, then get a book and make a game of it. All of you can learn together. Proper table manners will give your children the boost that they need to feel confident at those dinner meetings with the boss and co-workers in the future. They may not think much of it now, but when they are grown, they will have the experience and will thank you for it.
8. Keep your living room, entrance and kitchen presentable for company at all times. I am not saying it has to be spotless, just not looking cluttered. Children and husbands get embarrassed when they live in a house that they can't bring their friends to. They may not tell you, but they tend to go to their homes to play and not to their own. Wouldn't you rather have them where you know where they are instead of out
doing things that you can not supervise.
9. Give your family little rewards for jobs well done. Pats on the back, hugs and yes even kisses. So many times we forget to show our affection for our family, because we are just to busy to stop and throw your arms around them.
10. Brag on your husband to friends, It will get back to them. I promise. There is nothing like seeing your husband come home strutting, because he heard something you said nice about him.
11. Keep their favorite treats in the house. I know this can be a problem with those of us that tend to over indulge. But showing that you love them by not eating up their goodies as well as showing yourself that you can do it. I got a handle on this, by freezing the goodies. LOL It is hard to eat a bite-sized candy bar that is hard as a brick bat.
You have joined our group to get your home organized. I'll bet you never dreamed that we would take this approach to cleaning your house. Before you know it, the bad habits will be put aside and new habits will be forming. It is a form of FLY Washing. I have found that if we concentrate on you, the house will fall into place. So go get dressed to shoes and fix your hair and face. Put a smile on your face, a whisper to your voice and watch your family bloom right in front of you.

The Cinderella Syndrome

2//8//11 Lesson
Did you ever look around your house and feel like Cinderella...everyone else is getting ready for the ball and you are too busy scrubbing, cooking, burping (the baby, lol!), and carpooling to enjoy life? Those kind of thoughts lead to what Zig Ziglar calls Stinkin' Thinkin'. It doesn't take long before we feel like we are missing out on something. If you do feel like that, you are definitely missing out...on the big picture.

It is generally true that many of the tasks associated fall to us as moms, but that is not what we were created for. Being a mom is a sacred responsibility, and the tasks we do are part of the role we have in creating the environment for our families to grow and thrive in. Yesterday we talked about the importance of stopping the downward spiral of thoughts as soon as you notice them. Instead of resenting the housework and seeming pointlessness of cleaning something that will get dirty again, view it as your opportunity to serve your family and God at the same time.

Fox River has started a series called God@Work and Sunday's message was geared towards those who work outside the home and students. I would challenge you to apply the same standards to your work as a mom. Take everything you do and offer it to God as worship. Do all things as you would do them for Him. Do it with a grateful heart, thankful for the things you get to clean and the people you get to care for.

On the practical side, because I am nothing if not practical, maybe your challenges come because you have to much stuff. Or too much going on. It's hard to clean the house when you are in the car all the time, carting kids to and fro. Find some workable solutions to help you get organized...partner up with a friend and gut each other's overflow. Be realistic, though. Recognize and respect the season of life you are in. Don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other moms. Check out my downward spiral here. Focus on the important needs first, and learn to set the bar a little lower for the rest of it. Life with a baby is not necessarily the time to reorganize your house from top to bottom. Relax and remember that they really do grow up fast, and enjoy the time you have right now with them.

I did hear from one of the group leaders yesterday that for some of you, being disorganized is not really your issue. You can't stop cleaning. First of all, I would like to invite you all to my house...I'll buy the pizza. Seriously, though, figure out why. Sometimes a need to constantly clean represents a need to be in control. Are you sacrificing time that your kids need you because you can't stop tidying up? Maybe you need some baby steps of setting the timer, clean for 30 minutes, then play with the kids. Be careful not to make the chores more important than the reason for the chores...our families.

Our homes are out thumbprints, our extensions of our ourselves. Because they involve other people's thumbprints as well, we need to become good at recognizing their needs as well. Ask the other members of your family what one thing would make them feel good in their home. For my husband, it is having the bed made...he''s been known to make it around me before he leaves for work. For Becky's husband, it is having the shoes put away instead of by the door. Simple stuff....Show them you love them by taking the time to show that their opinions matter.

Let us challenge you to make one change this week that would make your home flow better. For me it was cleaning the drawer by the telephone. Maybe next week it will  be the hall closet. What is your one thing?

Check out http://www.flylady.com/ for some quick daily tips.

I'm done now...I have a four year old at the table waiting for me to play with him.

Who Is That Proverbs 31 Woman Anyway?

Teaching Topic 2/1/2/11
There are so many voices that challenge our lives as women, both external and internal. Manuals, magazines, and books all by for our attention as we navigate the waters of raising our kids, keeping our homes, and loving our husbands. Family, friends, neighbors, even the lady at the supermarket seem to have advice on how we should handle things. Living near your mom or mother-in-law can be a blessing, but it can also lead to differences in opinion on many subjects.

The Bible has advice as well...and since God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), we should probably take a look at that, too. Her name is the Proverbs 31 Woman. You can read that section of the Bible by clicking here. She is definitely something of an icon in the Christian world, but we need to be careful not to make her an idol.

The first thing we need to remember is that she is not real. She is a future mother-in-law's poem to her son about the kind of woman he should marry. It has also been said that she represents the seasons of a woman's life...we can't do everything she is doing all at the same time. At the same time, because God saw fit to include this in His word, we can't just disregard her.

My biggest takeaway, personally, from reading about her, is that she is not idle. She is not a time-waster. She is productive and proactive. She is a planner, not a slacker. With all the distractions available to us in this day and age, not wasting time is a huge challenge. Time is the one thing we can't get more of, and we have to guard it wisely.

As moms, our job is to create an environment in our homes where everyone can thrive and grow, feel safe and secure. Home is the one place we can be ourselves. We are the CEO's of our homes...Chief Environmental Officers. And if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy, right?

This semester we will journey through the challenges and opportunities that we have as moms to make a difference in the lives of our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities. We will be able to write a mission statement at the end of the semester that highlights our values and expectations of our roles, using it to determine, going forward, if how we are living our lives matches what we want out of them.

My favorite part of Mom Time is finding out that you aren't the only one dealing with the stuff we deal with. CS Lewis said it best: "Friendship is born when one person says to another "What? You too? I thought I was the only one." Being a mom is hard work with great rewards, but it sure is more fun with some friends to journey through it with you.

If you haven't signed up yet, but want to join us, please do. We meet Tuesday mornings from 9:30-11:00 at Fox River Christian Church. There is no charge for Mom Time, but you must register and pay for childcare. Click here to sign up. We are Group 18. Hope to see you next Tuesday!

Stonefire Pizza

If you weren't there, we missed you - look at all the fun we had!

Sign Ups and Beyond...

Have you ever looked around at your life and wondered what happened to the fairytale you planned for? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by what the "world" says you should be as a mom? Feel like you are not measuring up to the Proverbs 31 woman that scripture touts as the ideal? Do you sometimes just feel like everybody knows something you don't and that you missed the memo with the magic motherhood formula?

Sounds like you need some Mom Time!

Come hang with us this spring as we challenge some of the Fairytales, Fables, and Fibs that we all carry in our heads. Sometimes we don't realize they are even there....like subliminal messaging. Get some practical advice on managing your homes, caring for you kids, and building better relationships in your life, all while keepng an eye on the big picture.

Get inspired as the Mom Time Team shares the wisdom gained over many years of motherhood and homemaking...remember, whether you are a stay at home mom or a mom who works outside the home as well, married or single, we are all full time moms and homemakers.

Join us for some fun, make some new friends, and get recharged in the process! You can sign up, even if you don't attend Fox River Christian church, by following this link: http://foxriverchristian.org/?page_id=579 Mom Time is group 18...it's free to join but child care is additional. Hope to see some new faces this spring, as well as lots of returning friends! We meet every Tuesday morning from 9:30-11:00 through mid-May. Come about 9:20, put your kiddoes in the nursery, fix a plate of goodies and get some coffee, and be ready for a fun time!

A Little Planning Goes A Long Way

I have long been envious, in a purely biblical sense of course, of Shelley Gallamore’s ability to produce a freezer full of food in one day. She has graciously shared her secrets with us here…leave a comment and let us know if you have done this and what your secrets and tips are.

How do you make a freezer meal?  

This week, I worked with 6 other ladies to prepare between 25 and 35 meals each to stock our freezers and feed families over the next 6 weeks. It was a fun, tiring day with a great sense of accomplishment at the end as we looked over the pile of meals waiting to be taken home.  Over the time we were planning the date and working toward it, lots of people made comments like “I’ve always wanted to do that” or “teach me”.

Hopefully this blog will teach you. And before you start thinking, I could never make 25 meals for my family let me say something up front.

It doesn’t have to be that hard.

Freezer cooking can be as simple as making 1 extra pan of lasagna to put in the freezer for another day or seasoning your meat before you freeze it.  All systems of feeding your family have at their root “make a plan” and freezer cooking simply allows you to go beyond planning a menu to preparing it in advance.

So, how can you get started?

First of all, decide what you are going to prepare. There are lots of ways to choose what to make such as:

·         Choose your families top 3 favorite recipes.  You do not need special “freezer recipes” .

·         Think about meals that your family really enjoys but rarely make due to putzy steps or lots of chopping and assembling.

·         Check the sale flyers and choose recipes that use the currently best priced meat.

I recommend that you start with 3 recipes. This simple start will only take a small investment of time and money; but you will have a good cushion against busy nights for your family.

Here are 3 recipes that are different types for you to use as a basis to understand the process.

Beef Stew    Store this in a gallon freezer bag. When you are ready to cook it, you simply thaw and cook on the stove like normal. Or you can add two time saving devices and drop the frozen chunk of soup into your crockpot.

Here is my beef stew recipe:  Into the bag put 1lb of chopped stew meat,1chopped onion and 2 stalks of celery chopped,  1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (or fresh veggies cut by you), 1 can of diced tomato and. 3 beef bouillon cubes . Fill the bag with water until the items are just covered and seal.  Freeze. When you get ready to cook this soup, it can be thawed or placed frozen in a Dutch oven or crockpot. 

Chicken Enchiladas   Put this into a glass Pyrex with lid, foil pan, metal cake pan or newly purchased glad ovenware. As long as you cover it well with foil or a tight fitting lid any of these will work.

Here is my chicken enchilada recipe:  Combine 2 cups of cooked chicken (shredded, chopped or canned) with 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese and salsa to taste. (I use probably a cup)  Put this filling in each flour tortilla and roll them lengthwise and place in the pan. Pour enchilada sauce over them and top with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese. (I use a sparing amount of enchilada sauce – really just enough to look pretty) Freeze at this point. When you are ready to eat them, thaw and bake till done.

Taco’s  Store in a plastic freezer bag or plastic container. One of the helpful parts of freezer cooking is that you make sure that ingredients you purchased for a specific meal will stay together.  At my house, cheese and tortilla’s seem to be grabbed by people looking for a snack. Funny…they don’t usually grab the lettuce. J

Here is my taco recipe:  Brown ground beef and season with taco seasoning.  Take small bag of shredded cheddar cheese (either purchased like this or that you have shredded or divided ) and package of tortilla’s and place together in freezer.

These are just a few suggestions to help you think about what you can do in advance to make meal preparation easier.  As you slowly begin to think in terms of doing some work in advance, your freezer will slowly fill up. You will discover that it is as easy to make 2 pans of enchalada’s as one pan. Even better, you will discover that the afternoon hours are better when you aren’t stressed trying to prepare dinner every day. And maybe, you will find yourself cooking with a crowd and producing a haul designed to keep you out of the kitchen for a while.  Happy Freezing!

Check out Shelley's blog at http://shelleygallamore.com/ for some deeper insight as to why we would want six extra people in our kitchen...