I know everyone has heard of make ahead, and cooking more than you need to freeze - have you been doing it?

I know that I don’t do nearly enough of it.

One thing that we have been doing is making a meal that contains a base that can be used a few ways later  (I say we because my husband has been home so has been doing most of the cooking, part of the reason the blog has been slow lately, I seem to get inspired the most when I’m doing it!)

It’s so easy it’s ridiculous.  We had spaghetti, and my husband used the sauce to make some kind of rigatoni from it as well.  I often plan spaghetti on night and make chili the next from the leftover sauce. We had hamburger with gravy and mashed potatoes, so it was very easy to make shepherds pie the next day. With a bit of grated cheese on top, it was very good!

If you use your imagination, you can do this with almost any meal. You can use mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, pasta, sauces, rice, meat - almost anything in another way again. There are many ways to do it - spices, sauces, presentation, side dishes, hot/cold etc.

The next time you are planning your meal, think about how you may be able to stretch it into an easy meal the next day, sometimes it’s as easy as adding a can of something or throwing it in the oven with cheese or cream soup as a casserole, taking it out or throwing it in the crockpot with a few different ingredients.  Roasts are a really good example, when I was growing up we always had an easy stew the night after a roast beef.

Play with the idea and see how much time you save.

For more meal planning ideas, try Meal Time, On Time - Meal Planning Made Easy.

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One of my favourite quick snacks is a an apple cut up.

I can make it into a small meal with some cheese and crackers.

I discovered another favourite that is even quicker and less calories - just slice up a banana with it.

A sliced banana tastes sweeter and seems more like real food than just eating a banana. It gussies up any fruit.

For a real treat but not so forgiving calorie wise,  have your apple and banana with angel food cake and whip cream!  It does add some nutritional value to the cake even if you will need to work it off later.

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I found this recipe for Chicken Caesar Pizza and thought you might like to see it.

It was created by a chef who says it was a hit in his restaurant (Spago).

We love caesar salad, we eat a lot of chicken and we love pizza, so this could be the beginning of something beautiful :0)

The page that this link goes to does not format the recipe very well, but if you click view printable version, it comes out nicely, and you can print it if you want!

How to Make Chicken Caesar Pizza

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It was my daughter’s 10th birthday last weekend, due to scheduling she had her party this weekend.

My husband (I call him chef boy r’Dean) made the cake. It wasn’t a from scratch cake like “I” was going to make, but it turned out pretty good if I do say so.

I posted a picture because he did a nice job of decorating it with smarties, full of colour. As you can see, it says Happy B Day Christina with a stylish curve around the corner.

So I thought it was a good tip, you could do lots of things with smarties (plus you get to eat the leftover before the kids see).

It was of course, something that Tim Allen would make, huge although it’s hard to tell in the picture (it’s two complete cakes in one, it was about 5 inches high, ok, I measured :0), but we managed with only varying shades of green by the time everyone was finished.

We have splurged a few years and bought birthday cake from the store. At first the kids thought it was a great treat, this year we’ve made them and to be honest, I like it much better, it just seems more homey to me.

Maybe it’s because our mom always made ours so I’m more familiar with a slightly lopsided hunk of chocolate (is there any other kind?)

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Well, when I asked the kids to write down all of their favourite meals I got an assortment of answers, but one of them that I wasn’t looking for was DAD’s chili.

Sheesh. Actually it worked out quite well because it really gave him an ego boost, so guess what he graced us all with tonight. DAD’s chili, and I didn’t have to cook!

Try it at your house. I’m sure that there are many meals that just sound better with DAD in front of them ;0)

Maybe tomorrow we’ll have DAD’s lasagna!

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I thought you might be interested in an article written by Maria Garcia of Get Organized Now! featured on my Queen of KAOS at Home blog about creating your own personal recipe binder.

I love recipe binders, they are so pretty as well as functional, and make one of the nicest family heirlooms.

These days with scrapbooking so popular, there is no shortage of supplies to make it really special.

Here is the article

Make Your Own Personal Recipe Binder.

I highly recommend that you make one yourself. It can be your right hand when you are creating your weekly meal plans.

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We went for supper on Saturday to my mother and father in laws because my daughter and fil share birthdays.

I had to mention it because one thing that really stood out was the variety of fruit and veggies that my mother in law provided with the meal.

She had fruit salad along with cake and ice cream for dessert, cut up watermelon and cantelope with supper/before meal snack and for a salad, instead of the usual lettuce with veggies, put a bunch of cut up veggies in a bowl - cauliflower, zuchinni, cucumber etc. You could use almost anything.

It was a great way to get a good variety of veggies without the usual vegetable platter or finger food.

I wish I had brought my camera, although they would have all thought I blew a gasket!

So there are a few more really great ideas for getting veggies and fruit in at mealtime. Just make them available, and ready to eat!

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Second day in and I had to go off the plan!

While that may not have been “in the plan”, it all worked out well.

My van has been acting up so I didn’t want to take it to town to get the groceries I needed for this week’s menu. (It won’t start reliably, so it was legit, being stuck at the grocery store isn’t my idea of a good time, although I wouldn’t have to worry about what to eat!)

But I did have spagetti noodles and left over spagetti sauce from last night and Salsa (I’m a self proclaimed Salsa Pig! Everything is better with Salsa!)

So, we had spagetti for supper, the kids love it anyway. They like it with sauce only, so it is very quick to make, but still contains a good amount of tomatoes, and a few veggies in the sauce, so I can live with it. Watch for my master plan for packing spagetti sauce with an extra nutritious punch, and the kids won’t even know it!

And next time, I’m going to add a salad and garlic bread (they looove that!)

So what’s the difference if I went off the plan anyway (already).

Very big difference. First of all I was in a completely different mindset. We where still having “something good” for dinner, not just grabbing something.

I used the spagetti sauce, which at another time in history could have sat in the fridge for far too long, finally to get wasted and thrown away.

That’s what it’s all about! Feeding the kids real food, not wasting it, and saving money.

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Although you have to cook them, scrambled eggs can be a very quick, healthy and versatile breakfast. They can even be used to make a quick supper or lunch.

A staple for me at breakfast (actually, it’s more like brunch) is scrambled eggs with Salsa.

I just scramble a few eggs and dump a bit of salsa on when they are cooked and still in the pan.  This warms it slightly.

I’m sure that the eggs are cooked thoroughly before I put the salsa in.

Yumm!

Note: Did you know that eggs are a complete protein and one of the easiest for the body to process?

Adding salsa gives you a good leg up on your vibrantly coloured veggies for the day. It can be a little pricey, but get one that you really like, I find some better than others. My favourite brand is Pace Salsa.  It tastes fresh and is spiced just right (I like medium hot).

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I’ve brainstormed a bit with the kids as to what they like to eat, made a list of possible meals for this week, and filled in dinner and breakfast for the rest of the week.

It’s my daughter’s birthday on Sat, as well as her papa’s (my husbands dad) so we are going there for supper, no planning that day for dinner!

So my white board looks a little sparse, but I’m quite pleased with it, especially since I was able to keep to my plan for supper today, even though I just made about an hour ahead of time.

Piece of cake! (that’s on the list :0)

Tonight we had Hamburger Parmesan.

How I Did It…

I got a few burgers out of the freezer, you can buy them premade or make them yourself.

Fry them, put mozzerella cheese on top, melt it and then top with some spagetti sauce and parmesan cheese.

I used up a pack of Sidekick noodles that I had to go with it. I’m going to make a salad for a snack later (it was kind of last minute, and I am thinking that the kids will eat more of it later anyway instead of going for cereal).

My youngest daughter was sure that she wouldn’t like it but I told her she had to try it (new rule, everyone at least tries what I make) She liked it perfectly fine after she tried it. My oldest daughter asked me to make more. So it is officially “on the list”. We’ll have to wait and see what my son thinks of it but I’m quite sure he’ll like it, he had to rush to work before the masterpiece was cooled enough for him to eat it.

Total time about 1/2 hour. Effort - very little. Success - very good.

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