15 Minute Meals

Wednesdays are usually kinda crazy around here.  Between teaching the kids, going to church to get music ready for rehearsal and Sunday, last minute practicing, and getting everyone to church by 6....well, it doesn't leave much time for cooking dinner.

We do have a meal at church, but right now we eat at home so that Stephen can eat dinner with us.  He usually works from home onWednesdays and, since dinner is so early, he has to finish work after dinner before he heads up to church.  So I'm always on the look-out for super easy, super quick meals.

Tonight, I fixed one of our favorites!  Beef and bean burritos.  Remember those beans I cooked earlier this week?  Well, I used some of them tonight.  So I cooked my meat, added the taco seasoning and the beans and let that hang out and simmer while I got everything else ready.  I shredded a little cheese, got the salsa and chips out, heated up the tortillas and put the pineapple on the table.  (I cut that up earlier today while I was giving Sarabeth spelling words.)  By the time I had everything else on the table, the meat and beans were all nice and yummy!

Quick dinner = quick clean up!!  That's also much needed on Wednesdays!

And we we have plenty of meat and beans left for nachos on Sunday night.  If I had more tortillas (or was inclined to make my own .....I've found a great recipe!) I would probably make some burritos to put in the freezer.  But not this week.

So what is your favorite 15 Minute Meal?

Random Thoughts

This was kind of a random sort of day, so here's my random thoughts!

Artisan bread - Take 2.  I'll need a Take 3 because I heard, "Mommy.  The bread sure is squishy!!"  Matthew had placed a lovely handprint in my beautifully rising bread!  Not a total loss like the other day, but, well, it wasn't as fluffy as it should have been.

Cooking day canceled - Tuesday is usually cooking day, but we had a couple of appointments this morning and I just said "Forget it!"  I just wasn't worth trying to get that done in and around school today.

Playing Go fish with Matthew - After lunch, while we were talking before taking care of our dishes, Matthew decided that he wanted to show us a card trick.  "Pick a card, any card, Mommy!"  Okay.  Again.  And again.  And again.  Until we all had 7 cards.  "Let's play Go Fish!!"  So we had an impromptu game of Go Fish.  Fun times!

MY SONLIGHT CATALOG CAME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yes.  I sang.  Yes.  I threatened to lock myself in my room and not fix dinner.  Yes.  I've already looked at every page.  Yes.  I'm obsessed.

Tangled - Our new favorite movie was released today on DVD, so while Stephen was out having lunch with a friend from work, he very kindly stopped by the store and picked up a copy for us.  And the kids got to stay up late (on a School Night!!) to watch this wonderful movie about a girl with long hair and a frying pan.

Oh.  Talk about weird, random things!  I started running today!!  What??  Yeah.  I completed day 1 of Couch to 5K.  SO bizarre!  I'll keep you posted on that one.

And finally randomness for the day......Matthew is wearing two sets of jammies to bed.

Ham

Okay, so here's the deal.  I'm not really all that creative.  So you're gonna get titles like "Ham".  How original is that??  It just kinda stinks.  But that's the title.  So there it is.

I've had a lot of people ask me about how we homeschool and about cooking, so this is what most of my posts will be about.  If we have anything as exciting as the Beans, Rice and Tap Water I'll blog about that too.

So here we go.  Oh.  And I'm really a pretty private person, so putting this out there for everyone to see is kinda different for me.  So we'll see how this goes.  Anyway....

I bought a huge ham this week and decided to use it for three or four meals.  Tonight I just sliced several slices for Katie to heat up on the griddle to go with the rest of our meal.  And a big THANKS to our youth minister for pointing me in the direction of these fabulous potatoes.  Oh wow!

While Katie was finishing dinner, I diced up the rest of the ham.  I'll use half for a chef salad on Thursday and the other half for a Ham and Scalloped potato recipe next week.  The leftovers from tonight will be made into yummy grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for tomorrow's lunch.

That's how I do a lot of our cooking.  I'll cook once and get several meals off of it.  Or in this case.  Just buy one large item and get it prepared for several meals all at once.  I try to put something in the freezer several times a week.

Now I'm off to put some black beans in the crock pot to cook over night.  Yep.  More beans!  Half of these will be for burritos and half will be made into a black bean/corn relish kinda thing for next week.

Thanks for reading!  Let me know if there's anything in particular that you want me to blog about in regards to homeschooling or cooking.  Or anything else!



Professional photographer I am not!!

MmmMmmMmm!!

Yes.  I did learn to be more thankful this week.  For my food and the variety of it.  And for special treats.

I was supposed to have gone to a music conference today, but felt I needed some time with my family.  Yes.  I know.  We homeschool and therefore spent outrageous amounts of time together.  But that's different.  We needed time to do yard work as a family.  We needed time to take the kids to the park and go clothes shopping.  We needed time at the grocery store getting more yummy food for this week.  We needed time to watch a movie together.  And I needed to see the kids so thoroughly enjoying their food today!!

We've sure had some great discussions this week.  No one ever complained, but we did share our thoughts with each other.  And one thought was that we need to do this again.

No.  Really.  We do.

Well, maybe not the beans and rice.  But we need to have a week where we focus on giving to others.  So we decided that every six months or so we will have a week were we eat out of the pantry and freezer.  I'll probably buy a few fresh ingredients at the store.  But we'll definitely have a reduced grocery bill so that we can give the rest.  Or use it to go buy food to take to CCA (Christian Community Action).

The kids are excited about taking our offering to church in the morning.

Thanks so much for joining us on this Journey this week.  It's definitely an experience I won't ever forgot!

Oh.  And the Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Panini was absolutely THE best thing I have eaten in a long time!!

Day 5 - Crazy Day

Well, here we are.  The last day!  Wow!!  I think my gang did great with eating the beans and rice this week, but more importantly we've all gained a greater awareness about the issue of world hunger.  And we've really had some sweet times praying together.

It's been really neat to see what countries the kids choose to pray for.  Tonight we prayed for Thailand.  Sarabeth had learned a lot about Thailand through GA's (Girls in Action) and shared some of that with us this morning, so that we could better know how to pray for them.

Of course this morning was cinnamon rice and Rice Krispies.  Sarabeth is going to miss have cinnamon rice every morning.  It's one of her favorite foods and she asks for it frequently.  I don't make it for her often enough, though.

For lunch I made rice and then we polished off what beans were left in the fridge.  

Early afternoon I got a pot of beans going with a hambone that I've had in the freezer since Thanksgiving.  We were going to have 15 bean soup tonight.  (Talk about variety!)  And I recently found a great recipe for a very easy Artisan Bread.  I thought that sounded great for tomorrow night's Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Panini.  So I got started on that.

I got an email regarding a house showing tomorrow.  Great!  I just made a few changes to tomorrow's schedule, checked tomorrow's menu and made a mental list of a few things that needed to be tidied up.  Then I got a phone call.  A call saying that the agent we had been trying to work a deal with wanted to show the house in 25 minutes!  Matthew was down for a nap, I had flour all over the counter, the kids' sheets were in the dryer.  Well...we somehow managed to get out of the house in 20 minutes!  It was super crazy!!

We headed to Sprout's to do some grocery shopping and came home at the end of the hour.  They had requested an hour for the showing.  I pulled around in front of the house right behind two cars that were pulling up to our house.  Hmmm....maybe they are just now showing up.  I'll drive around the block.  Oh goodness!  They are just now showing up!  So we ended up going to the church parking lot for a few minutes and took that opportunity to pray regarding the house situation.  Then we drove back.  They were still there.  We drove over one street and parked where we could see them leave.  They were there for 45 minutes!

Now, don't get me wrong! I'm glad that they spent so much time looking at the house and talking about it, but it was much later than I had expected!  I had hungry kids!  I had groceries that needed to put in the fridge!  I had beans on the stove and bread rising on the counter!!!

Well, finally they left and we went home.  The bread had spread all over the counter (it's not a loaf pan kind of bread) and the beans had sort of disappeared.  It was like they dissolved!  So.....Chipotle to the rescue for dinner!  We went there for beans and rice, saw some friends, had a good time.

We're very ready for "normal" food tomorrow!

Oh....one more thing about this crazy day.  Stephen had to unexpectedly go into the office just before lunch.  On his way, the guy in front of him swerved.  Well.  Stephen couldn't swerve in time to miss the chair sitting on the freeway.  So he has some bumper damage and is missing a light on his car.  :-(  We're all very glad that he is okay, but kinda sad for the car.  At least it can be fixed.

Crazy days happen and I'm so glad the Lord sees us through them!!

Day 4 - Self Control

I'm so ready for dinner tonight.  It was very hard getting a snack for Matthew earlier.  He wanted a nice, juicy orange!  Oh!!  It smelled SO good!  I thought, "Just one bite.  It's not that big a deal.  I've been following the diet faithfully.  The money in our Texas-shaped offering box is growing...."  And then it hit me.  It's not about me.  How many time have we heard that?  But how many times do we need the reminder?  Yet....maybe it is about me.  At least a little.  This time.

Certainly I've learned more about the hungry people of the world.  I've learned to be more thankful.  I've learned that we probably should eat more beans and rice in order to lower our grocery bill.  I've learned that I have more self-control than I ever thought.  *Gasp*  Did I just say that I have self-control?  While talking about food?  Wow!

I admit it.  I've struggled.  And not just with food.  There are other areas of my life where self-control is an issue.  And isn't it really more about being God-controlled?  Oh.  Yeah.  It really isn't about me.  It ALL about God!!

Thank you, Lord, for reminding me today that self-control is a fruit of the spirit.

Breakfast was cinnamon rice/Rice Krispies.
Lunch  was leftovers.  All we've had a little bit leftover from a couple of meals.  I just fixed the rice to go with it.
Dinner - rice and pinto beans.

We'll be praying for the people of Libya tonight and reading Psalm 146:5-7.  Matthew will give a penny for every ounce of water he drank today.

Tomorrow is the last day.  And yes.  We are making plans for what we are going to eat on Saturday.  I'm thinking that Chick-Fil-A is going to be involved!






***Just to clarify about being God-Controlled.  I do fully believe that God has given us free will and that I choose to follow.  He doesn't control my every action.  He's not like that.  But when I turned my life over to God, I let Him become the Leader.  Not me.  

Day 3 - Prayer and Chocolate

I don't even know how to begin to pray for the people who live on less than $2.00 a day.  Which is about half of the earth's population.  I'm so overwhelmed by the fact that there are children that live near me, not just those on the other side of the world, but very close by, that the only meal they get is what they eat at school.  Lord, help me to know how to help them.

Today we focused on Matthew 25:34-40 which talks about "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for me." (HCSB)  And we prayed for Haiti.  Matthew put in two quarters for the two grocery stores we went to last week.

For breakfast some of us had cinnamon rice and some had Rice Krispies (without milk).  For lunch, I let the kids vote.  They wanted Red Beans and Rice.  And dinner.  We had that at church.  Beans and rice for the grown-ups and hot dogs for the kids.  And even though Sarabeth and Jonathan had hot dogs, they happily ate some beans and rice with us.

  

Now.  About chocolate.  See, on Wednesday nights....well, we eat dinner about an hour and a half earlier than most other nights.  And I'm usually a little snacky after playing for choir rehearsal.  So after we get the kids in bed, I usually have a glass of chocolate milk, or maybe a small bowl of chocolately ice cream.  Sometimes I'll have some trail mix (with M&M's).  See a pattern??  I usually have a little chocolate on Wednesday nights.  And I'm really having a hard time with that tonight, so I think I'll just hurry up and go to bed!

Day 2 - Thankful

http://www.fbclewisville.org/beans-rice-tap-water

Well, our morning started with cinnamon rice again.  I really wasn't terribly creative with breakfast.

Lunch was supposed to be leftovers.  But we've actually eaten everything I have cooked, so I fixed more Mexican Beans and Rice.

Dinner was a very yummy "splurge"!  I added a couple of small cans of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup of salsa and a small amount of corn to our black beans and rice.  Very yummy.  Really made me miss meat!  I know it wasn't just beans and rice, but I do have kiddos that were pretty hungry!  They've been great about participating with us!!

Now, about not being creative.  I was really struck today by the thought that we talk about "breakfast foods", "lunch foods" and "dinner foods".  I was reading today about how so many in Haiti get one meal a day.  ONE.  And it's beans and rice.  It's not breakfast, lunch or dinner.  It's food.  It's their ONE meal.

I was already thinking about how thankful I am for the variety of food that we have so readily available to us.  Thankful for a clean kitchen and dishes.  For clean water.  Even when we were at our poorest, I ate three meals a day.  Maybe not what I wanted, but it was food.  But thinking about Haiti.  Thinking about people being thankful for one meal a day regardless of what it's called or what time of day it is just really helped to put some things into perspective.  I don't feel like I've ever been a terribly greedy or selfish person.  But it's very humbling.

Tonight we prayed for the people of India.  We've actually collected money for the Rice Bag Project with Mission India a few years ago and learned a lot about the people of India at that time. http://www.missionindia.org/  We read Isaiah 58:7 and for Matthew, counted up how many cooking appliances we have.  He got to put four pennies for each one in his offering box.

We are looking forward to eating rice and beans with our church family tomorrow night!

Day 1 - Lessons Learned

Well, we learned a lot today.  We learned that I need to cook more rice.  We learned that only eating beans and rice makes for an easy cleanup.  And we learned that only eating beans and rice produces very little trash.  I think we should do this more often....with a little meat thrown in!

For breakfast we had cinnamon rice.  Everyone added a little butter and cinnamon and sugar.  We tried to use as little as possible.  Oh.  And I wasn't very creative with breakfasts.  So we'll be having cinnamon rice every morning.  No Waffle Wednesday!  That will definitely be a sacrifice!

After we got home from the chiropractor, the kids were begging for some rice crispies.  It was kinda funny.  So I let them have a snack.  Plain rice crisipies.

Lunch was a little better.  We had Mexican Beans and Rice.  (Thanks for the idea, Debbie!)  Pinto beans with rice and salsa.  Yummy!  That may become a regular addition to our lunch menu.  Although we are really big on black beans, so we'll probably use those in the future.

Matthew's on a growth spurt, so he pretty much snacked all afternoon.  (We're letting him have other foods because of his age.)

Dinner was delicious!  Katie fixed Red Beans and Rice for us.  Can't believe I've never fixed that before.  We'll definitely have it again.

We ended our dinner by praying for the people of Japan.  Not only have so many become homeless since the earthquake and tsunami, but their food supply has been compromised.  Matthew also put a dime for every egg we have in the refrigerator into his bank.  He'll take that to church on Sunday.

All in all, a very yummy day!

Beans, Rice and Tap Water

I love beans.  I love rice.  I drink a lot of water.  This week, that's all my family is eating.  

Our church is having a world hunger emphasis this week and they are encouraging us to have only beans, rice and tap water.  We'll be donating the money that we saved on our groceries.  And we'll be praying for different countries. 

So much of the world lives on less than $2 a day.  Wow!  Aren't we blessed?  It's really lead to some great conversations with the kids as we've been planning for this week.  (They actually wanted to do 7 days instead of 5!!)  They helped plan the menu and are excited about it.  I'm looking forward to some great moments this week as we focus on certain passages from the Bible and pray together.

I was just sharing with my brother and sister-in-law the other day about a time shortly after Darrell and I were married.  We had to get a few items from the church's food pantry.  Like some mushrooms in a jar....that were a bazillion years old.  (We didn't eat them!)  Since then, I've been very careful about the foods I donate.  I really try to make sure that they are things people can use and will eat.  And it made me realize that you never know who, in your own community, may be going without a meal tonight.  

Having helped in a soup kitchen a couple of times, it reinforced that thought in my mind.  You see so many different kinds of people come through the line.  People that look like they have lived on the streets for years and people that look like they are business executives on their way to a meeting.  You just don't always know their story.  And you don't need to.  But you do need to pray for them and do what you can to help them. 

I'm so very blessed to have never missed a meal because of not having money for groceries.  We came pretty close a few times.  I'm so very blessed to have a family that is excited about this week.  I'll try to share with you every day what we've had to eat.  I will be adding a few ingredients.  But I'm really trying to keep things pretty simple.

Maybe you can't join us in eating beans and rice this week, but surely there is something that you can do.  Donate some food to a local food pantry.  Cut out sodas or coffee this week and give your savings to a local, state or worldwide charity.  

Now, I think I'll have one last glass of chocolate milk before I go to bed!