It was a gorgeous day, today.  Clear skies and about 74 degrees.  We started school at 8:00 a.m. and around noon, Rachel and I went for a wonderful trail ride.  We went to the back acres of the property and crossed through the  neighbor's yards (we've been given permission to do this).  We travelled the back country road with Lady and Maria.  It was a beautiful ride.  Later this evening, I hopped on Minnie - bareback and barefoot - and rode her to my son's home with Magic (her colt) running by her side.  What a wonderful day!

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Chicken Casserole Topped with Crushed Tortilla Chips

I had baked quite a bit of chicken on Friday, but for many reasons I won’t go into right now, it never got served.  On Monday, I knew that I needed to serve this chicken for dinner or to end up wasting it.  I tried this recipe with it and everyone loved it – 100% of everyone in our family.  This was either: #1 A miracle  #2 Everyone was desperately famished to the point of starvation or #3 It was actually good.

• ·         I cut the chicken breasts in cubes. 

• ·         I added a can of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup sour cream, ¾ cup mayonnaise, and a pinch of salt.  I did add some chopped onion (to which Joshua told me of his displeasure, but ate it anyways (and came back for seconds!)

• ·          The recipe did call for celery, mushrooms, and slivered onions, to which I had none of.   It also asked for 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, but with the sour cream, soup, and mayonnaise, I thought that the cheese would be a calorie overload. 

• ·         I crushed tortilla chips and placed them on top. I put it in the oven and baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes.  (The original recipe called for crushed potato chips, but not having any, I substituted the tortilla chips.) 

I was at the fairgrounds last night, sitting next to Margie talking about dinner.  I had made my Company Chicken recipe for supper but hadn’t gotten a chance to eat any of it, and I was starving.  I told Margie that her family will have to come over for dinner one night and she can try my new recipe. Then, Margie told me about her easy chili recipe, and I thought it sounded pretty good (and easy).

This morning, all the kids were complaining that I didn’t have any good food in the house – naturally, I haven't gone to the grocery store this week.    No wonder the refrig and cabinets look bare. Then, I remembered Margie’s chili recipe and looked in my cabinet to see if I had a can of baked beans, and then in the freezer I looked to see if I had some already browned ground turkey meat.  Voila!  Our mystery lunch problem solved. With a lot of improvising of Margie’s chili recipe, this turned out terrific!  You’ve got to try it.

Put in crockpot:

1 large can of baked beans (I used Bush’s Honey Baked Beans)

1 pkg (a pound or so) of browned ground turkey meat

2 tbsp (or more) of Spicey Brown Mustard (I used French’s)

2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce

1 cup of ketchup

1 package of Ortega Chili Seasoning Mix (or just use a tbsp or so of chili powder)

A few drops of hot sauce

I've never had a chili recipe yet, that everyone liked.  It was a meal that everyone just put up with.  But this recipe - it hit the Jackpot!  Everyone loved it. 

This is delicious, easy, and good for you.  Try it!

Bake chicken – I use skinless, boneless white breasts.  I drizzle a glass pyrex dish with olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt.  Then I place the chicken in the pan, salt and pepper,  and bake at 325 for about 40 minutes.

When it’s done and has cooled, cut the chicken in small pieces.

Mix in ¼ of a can of frozen concentrated orange juice, approx 1 cup of mayonnaise (or salad dressing), and some chopped celery (water chestnuts are good, too.)

Serve on croissants or on tortilla shells as a wrap with romaine lettuce.

This Week So Far:

Monday: Cleaning the kids bedrooms. 

Tuesday: A morning visit with my oldest daughter and babies; Cleaning my room. Tonight: 4-H western pleasure practice at the fair grounds.

I got this recipe from the cookbook,

Blue Willow Chicken Casserole:

1 cup sour cream

1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup chicken broth

8 chicken breasts, cooked and boned

2 sleeves Ritz crackers,  crumbled

1 1/2 sticks of butter

Preheat the oven to 350.  Blend the sour cream, chicken soup, mushroom soup, and chcken broth.

Place the chicken breasts in a 9X13 baking dish (For our family, I cut the chicken into smaller pieces (like chicken nuggets).  Pour the soup mixture over the chicken.  Top with the Ritz cracker crumbs and drizzle the butter over the crumbs. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the crackers are browned.

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Last Sunday, our home church met here at the lake. I dethawed hamburger meat for burgers on the grill for our lunch, but I wasn't sure if I had enough to satisfy everyone's hunger.  So I made this Chicken Casserole recipe just in case.

Result:  This recipe is a sure-hit.   Dr. Bob Williams seemed to like it the most and gave a lot of raves, compliments, and second helpings. 

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Because we had hamburgers, too, there was some of this casserole left.  After lunch, while cleaning up, I took the pyrex dish thatI had baked it in, and placed it straight into the freezer.,  Now, on Saturday, I had a side dish already prepared, only needing dethawing and warming up.

This chicken casserole was as much a hit the second time - left overs warmed up, as it was the first time,  

With this Saturday Left Over meal at the lake, I also served: 

I microwaved 8 potatoes for 20 minutes, cut them in quarters and salt and peppered them when they were done.

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Flank steak - I browned it in the morning, then threw it into the crockpot. I added sliced green peppers, and onion with it.  I poured over the steak about 1 cup of a Merlot Wine Sauce, and 1 half cup of water.  I put it on high and walked away until about 3:30 p.m. when we had our lunch.  Rachel who usually despises steak, loved it. There was hardly a scrap of meat left when our family was done eating.

As another side dish, I made Archer Farms (Target) Spicy SouthWestern Tamale Pie (beans and corn bread).  This is a family favorite (everyone but dad). 

I've been gone a while, haven't I?  But I'll make up for a lot of lost weeks tonight.

Show and Tell #1

Breakfast this past weekend at our home:

Pancakes, anyone?  Butterscotch (for Rachel); Cherry; Chocolate Chip

(for Jacob); Blueberry; Blueberries and Walnuts (for dad).

Mix pancake batter in each bowl.

Help to the rescue for all this hard work...

I used an entire box of pancake mix.  I served eggs over easy and scrambled, too.

There was a lot left over, so I put them in seperate pyrex dishes and labeled

them.  Their in the freezer now, waiting for the next weekend when we feel

like pancakes.  Just stick in the microwave, and ta-da, no mess, yet delicious

pancakes.

Show and Tell #2

Ruthie won a bike this week! We had filled out a form at a grand-opening of a new

restaurant (over the weekend)  and they called us Tuesday afternoon to tell us the good news.

We had a fun night. All of us,  plus Grandma and David, Matt and Kristi, came

to celebrate with her.  They took her picture for the newspaper. 

 A very happy little girl!

Show and Tell #3

Dinner tonight (just about one hour ago).  When I make lasagna, I make a lot

of it.  I figure that as long as I am going to the effort of making noodles, sauce,

and meat (which had already been browned previously and was in my freezer, so this saved time

tonight), I might as well make extra dishes of lasagna to put in the freezer, too.  

But sometimes, everyone just happens to drop by and there's not as much to be put

in the freezer as I'd thought.  I made three dishes of lasagna tonight. 

Guests:  Dad, Mom (me), Rachel, Joshua, Ruthie, Jacob:   Jennifer;  Matt and Kristi;

Grandma and my brother David.   

 (Picture taken just an hour ago)

I served garlic bread and salad with the lasagna.  And there was still one dish of lasagna left

to put in the freezer.  Now, another day when I've been busy (hopefully, riding horses), I will have

a quick and easy supper of home-made lasagna.

Show and Tell #4

I couldn't help but include this picture - taken this morning.  My horses were cuddled together

in the pasture, sleeping!

Sunday:

Mango Chicken

Marinate chicken (Boneless, skinless) and marinate in mango juice.

Put a little olive oil in the pan, squeeze some lemon in there. Salt and pepper the chicken, saute.

Serve with Cilantro and Lime Rice (a box mix they sell at Target, ‘Archer Foods’ brand.)

Serve with a green salad.

I served this for Sunday lunch. I always pull out left-overs from my refrigerator, too, and serve them. Whatever doesn’t get eaten up of the leftovers, I throw out.

 Monday: 

Lunch:

The kids went to Bible school in the morning (vbs) and while they were there, I exercised, and then began lunch. When they came home, it was all ready to eat.

Spicy Southwestern Tamale Pie - ( another box mix from Archer Farms/ Target.)  It’s a Mexican inspired entrée, with beans and corn bread. It was good!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I made macaroni cheese (whole wheat noodles, a box by ‘Annie’s’.) It didn’t look too good after I made it, so I transferred it from the pan I made it in on the cook top to a glass pyrex pan . Put some sliced cheddar cheese on it - enough to cover it, then baked it until the cheese kind of browned and crispy. The kids loved it.

Dinner:

Honey Mustard Chicken       Curry Mango Chicken

I dethawed two packages of boneless, no skin, chicken. Put olive oil in two different pans on the stovetop. Put one package of chicken in one pan, the other package in the second pan. I salt and peppered the chicken and lightly sauted them. After they were just lightly browned, I added the following:

Pan #1 -  I coated the chicken with a bottled sauce they sell at Target (Archer Foods) called, Curry Mango. I was afraid it would be too spicy for the kids, so in the other pan,

I coated the chicken in a bottled sauce I got from the Amish, by Yorders, that is basically a Honey Mustard sauce.

As they cooked, I cut the chicken into smaller sizes so that they resembled more like chicken strips and this also coats the chicken to get more flavor.

Everyone LOVED this chicken. Dad loved the curry mango, and the kids loved the honey mustard. I served browned potatoes (see below) and leftovers from lunch (see above).

 Tuesday:

Lunch:

Salmon Casserole

3 cans of salmon

Add some pressed garlic or garlic powder, some chopped onion, a can of mushroom soup. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. My kids love salmon so they thought this was a good lunch. Also served leftovers from yesterday (rice, beans and cornbread, etc…)

Dinner:

Antoinette's Salmon

Put a couple of packages of salmon in water to dethaw (buy this from Walmart, there’s about 4 salmon steaks in each bag).

In pan, mix ¼ cup of honey, ¼ cup of soy sauce, and some grated ginger or a tbsp of ginger powder. Add about a tablespoon of mustard. Mix, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and add the dethawed salmon. Make sure you coat the salmon in the mixture. My family loves this salmon recipe. Everyone devoured it, there was none left.

As a side dish, I microwaved about 6 potatoes for 20 minutes. Then I chopped the potatoes up. I put some olive oil in a pan, and sautéed the potatoes, sprinkling with a good dose of salt and pepper. Everyone loves the potatoes made like this.

Wednesday:

This was the day we were on the run with little time at home. The time we did have, Becky came by and visited. For dinner, we had tunafish sandwiches. Tunafish can actually be very good, if you buy the right kind. Albacore tuna is the best, and packed in water.  It is totally different in texture (drier) and seems to taste much better! We chopped onions and pickles and added it into the tuna. The pickles made a simple tuna sandwich taste really good. I used sweet pickles and some bread and butter ones. Lightly toasted the bread, served with chips.

Thursday:

Soup for lunch.

Dinner:

Chicken Enchilada’s

After about 1:00 p.m. I got to thinking about supper. Took a couple of packages of chicken out (boneless) and put in a bucket of cold water to dethaw quickly. Around 4:00 p.m., I sautéed the chicken in olive oil, salt and peppered, and added some packages of enchilada mix to it. Simmered for a couple of hours. Add to taco shells, and grill some onions to go with it. Serve with bean dip and chips.

The night did not go as planned. Rachel went over to her sister’s, Becky, to help her get ready for some company that will be coming to her house this weekend (aren’t sisters wonderful to have?!) Matt and Kristi dropped by, chatted, and then we went out to get a Chai Tea at Starbucks. We brought home a cheese pizza for the kids, and now I have chicken enchilada’s already made for Sunday’s dinner. That’s a nice feeling! Matt and Kristi stayed and watched a movie that they brought us over to see. Can’t remember the name - it’s a true story about the worst spy America has ever had in it’s history, and it was recent (1990’s) . I actually stayed awake during the movie and stayed alert until after Matt and Kristi went home. I’m totally not a night owl. Must have been the Chai Tea. The movie was good, although my husband and Kristi thought is was too slow moving. I thought it was intriguing and had good character development in the story. I also liked that I was watching a true story, a bit of our U.S. history.

As I lay down in bed, at midnight, I could hear my horse, Major, trying to break the fence down. He has a habit of this, and is also often successful. I jumped out of bed, yelling at my horse to stop it, all the way down the stairs and out the front door. I looked and sounded like a crazy lady. He had already busted one of the white fencing lats out from the posts. I scolded him and put it back in. He was a good boy the rest of the night and I was able to sleep. Called our fencing guy today to come out and fix the weak areas that Major keeps busting out of.

I served the following chicken recipe for company on Sunday.  I had compliments from EVERYONE and my own family members even talked about it the next day.

Can you find some Mango juice at your supermarket?  That is what I used, but I am guessing you may very well get the same citrus taste if you use orange juice.  However, for the record, this chicken that tasted so good, I used Mango juice.

Put chicken strips (boneless, no skin) in a big ziplock bag.  Pour Mango juice into the bag. Enough to soak, perhaps two cups of it.  Leave it over night to marinate in the refrig.

Next day when your ready to serve lunch or dinner:

Put some olive oil in a frying pan.  Squeeze the juice of an orange into that.  Season the chicken strips with salt and pepper.  Saute until it's cooked.

Easy!  And Really Good!

I served this with a good hot potatoe salad. I'll share that with you, too, while I'm at it.

The day before (Saturday) I made this recipe so that on Sunday I would have no prepration, just stick it into the oven.

Boil about 12 to 14 potatoes. Rinse under cold water when done, and take the peels off at the same time.

Add cheddar cheese - you can cube it if using a block, or use shredded cheese.  Approx 2 cups of cheese?  Use as much as looks good to you.

Add a chopped onion.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add two cups of REAL mayonaise, not salad dressing.   Stir it up,put the potatoe salad in a pyrex pan.

Bake some bacon. Then crumble it and put on top of the potatoe salad.  Chop some green olives and put it on top, too.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. 

This is very tasty and I always get compliments on it. I've been making this for approx 25 years and it never ceases to get compliments.

Thursday, December 7th

What got done:

Wrapped some presents for Becky and Kristi.

Browned eight packages of ground turkey meat.  Froze all of it in glass pyrex dishes for future dinners, except for the last batch.  Used that for tacos for supper this evening.

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Dusted, swept and mopped, picked up, the living room.  The goal is to clean one room per day so that on Friday, our designated cleaning day, won't be too overwhelming, but rather kind of relaxed and fun.  We all cleaned together in this room, although the little ones were just a token effort. Because we were all together and doing it at the same time, it didn't seem like it took too long. Perhaps an hour or a little less.

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Served good meals this day.  For breakfast, we had organic waffles with pure Maple syrup, butter from the Amish, and a bowl of strawberries.  I serve one Tablespoon of ground flax seed per each child sprinkled on their first waffle. They don't have to have any on any waffles they eat after that.  I used to serve the flax seed in their seed form, and this was good. It had a crunchy effect to it. But then recently I read that flax seed is indigestible unless you grind it. Now, I put it in my electric coffee bean grinder, but I don't care for the texture as much. However, the point of eating it is for the health, so it is better this way.

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For lunch, I had chicken stew in the freezer that I had dethawed the night before.  When I warm up chicken stew that I have frozen, I find it necessary to add a can of chicken broth for the consistency of it.  I added a can of corn, and some frozen peas.  By the time I was done adding the can of broth and veggies, the volume of the stew seemed to double.  The kids all loved it. My oldest daughter thought it was the best I had ever made. 

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For supper, I had browned turkey meat all day long for future dinners, and the last batch I added Ortega taco seasonings.  My dd says that this seasoning makes the best tacos of all the ones I have tried.   

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I did not push the school agenda today. It seems that everything has been on such high speed lately, that I felt an inner need to just 'be calm', and get things done that will enhance my life: making future meals by browning meat and freezing it, getting some presents wrapped, and cleaning one room thoroughly so that Friday is not overwhelming.  We did read our daily Bible reading and a few chapters from our Israelite novel.

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The children played really sweet together today.  They had built a gigantic fort by draping multiple blankets over our grand piano. They also played a game of pretending that they were reporters for Fox News. My youngest daughter was the reporter, my oldest the camera person, and my son, a casualty of the story they were covering.  They used my demolished kitchen as the back drop to a story about an airplane crash into a house.  If you seen my kitchen, with it's crumbling brick, you'd understand why this backdrop fit for the storyline so well.

When dh came home, while he watched Fox News, I wrapped a few more presents.  Later in the evening, we watched the videos of the kids news reporting stories. We had a lot of laughs and my dh found it all to be so cute and entertaining. 

TACO SOUP
From the book: Formula 101, pg 115

1 ½ pounds extra -lean ground sirloin (I use ground turkey)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 clove minced garlic
28 ounce canned tomatoes (my family hates chopped tomatoes so I used a can of tomato sauce instead
15 ounce canned tomato sauce (second can of this)
15 ¼ ounce canned black beans with juice 8 ¾ ounce canned corn, with juice
1 ounce package of taco seasoning mix

sour cream, reduced fat
shredded cheese
taco shell

In a medium heavy pot, heat oil.  Add the ground sirloin/ or ground turkey and brown (I already had this browned in my freezer)

Add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes

Add canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, corn, and taco seasoning mix.  Cook 30 minutes longer.

In individual servings top with shreddred cheese, sourcream, and crumbled taco shells

July 22, 2003
I was hungry and felt like something warm to eat…I also was in a hurry. I made this recipe against my better judgment, I didn't think it would really turn out well.
Surprise, it was great!!! And EVERYONE loved it!!
The crumbled corn shells added a lot to this as well as the sour cream.

Went to the country fair afterwards. Wonderful family night!

Made this November 9th with left over chicken, in place of sirloin meat or ground turkey. This is definitley the way to go! Matt even liked it when I made it this way. Just think of the fat you would cut out! (See the below chart) Instead of 17 grams of fat (a 4 oz portion of  ground turkey meat) it would be 4.0 grams of fat, per every 3.0 of chicken. 4 instead of 17! And it would probably be 2 grams since you probably wouldn't eat an entire 3 oz in a bowl of soup. Tastes great, healthier! (I'm not sure the protein count on this, I'll have to research that. )

Made this again November 16, 2004
trying to calculate my total daily fiber, protein, and fat grams, so I broke the following out:
made taco soup, this is hard to calculate
a 4oz. portion of turkey meat is (in a tube of turkey meat, package by Walmart, $1.07), there are 4 servings.

17 grams of fat  18 grams of protein
However, I didn't have a whole 4 oz. I had 2 very small bowls of this soup, a small bowl is 1/2 cup (I don't fill it to the top, so 1/2 cup is the closest calculation.
The bowl isn't totally filled with meat, obviously, in fact, I try to stay away from the meat. So let's estimate that I got 2 ounces, total, and I think that's an estimate on the high side. 2 ounces of turkey meat would be 8 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein.
The beans, I put in 2 whole cans of this:
a serving size is 1/2 cup, fat is 1 gram, protein is 7 grams, fiber is 7 grams
for both servings of soup that I had, total of 1 cup, let's estimate that I got just 1/4 cup of beans, another high estimate

creamed corn, 1/2 cup, has 0.5 fat, 2 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein  I put 2 whole cans of this in, but I don't really think I got a 4th of a cup. I'll just leave this out of the entire equation.
There was also tomatoes, I did use the peels of about 4 tomatoes, so there was fiber in this (Vita -mix blender) and actually, now that I think of it, the other frozen tomatoes also had the skin, so there was probably some fiber in that. 1 tomatoe has 1.5 gram of fiber, I must have had at least 10 tomatoes in this soup. So I'll go ahead and claim 1.5 grams of fiber for the soup.
I used tortillas for the crackers (super good for you as far as natural goes, corn, water, salt, vegetable oil, trace of lime)
6 chips is one serving:  6 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber. I'm sure I used every bit of  chips, I'm going to guess I used at least 6 chips per 1/2 cup of bowl I ate. 12 grams of fat!!

November 5, 2006

This is a family favorite. I make it often in the winter,  at least once a month. When I make it, I quadruple the recipe in a huge pot, then put a lot of servings away in the freezer for those days I don't have time to cook.  I haven't found anyone that doesn't like this soup.  I had some college girls over last year and they loved it, as well as my new daughter-in-law, and my own girls rave about it.  It's easy, it's healthy, and it's good!

Sloppy Joes in Pita Pocket

From the book, The Formula, A Personalized 40-30-30 Weight Loss Program, by Gene and Joyce Daoust   page 167

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped greenpepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1 pound ground turkey breast or extra-lean ground sirloin

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms (we don't use these)

1/4 cup bottled chili sauce (I use Heinz or sometimes Walmarts generic one)

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup water

Heat oil in skillet and saute onion, clery, green pepper, and garlic until soft and just beggining to brown.

Add ground meat and brown.

Add mushrooms, chili sauce, catsup, Worcestershire sauce, and water. 

Simmer for 15 to 20 minuts (we simmer this for hours - much better this way!)

p.s., I add a little bit of mustard

After coming home yesterday after our Girls Day Out, it was just a few minutes before my husband was due home from work.  I went to the freezer, pulled out a batch of sloppy joes I had made last week.  As much as possible, when ever I cook, I make mega excess, then freeze a ton.  Last week, I had made sloppy joes. I used ground turkey meat, 99% fat free, browned pounds and pounds of it, added several bottles of chili sauce, some worcestershire sauce, a little mustard, and some ketchup.  I also put in some onion, garlic,  and green pepper.  If I simmer it for a long, long time, the flavor all melds in together and it's one of my husband's favorite meals. 

I dethawed the sloppy joes, wrote a blog about the days events, then as I finished, my husband walked through the door, and supper was ready!  I have been trying to teach Rachel the value of making meals ahead of time and freezing them so that when you have a day like we had, having fun all day, when you come home, supper is ready and on the table. I always point out to her when this happens, just how easy supper was, and how terrific it is to cook ahead.  I was a domestic zero when I married, and it seems it's taken me approximately 3 decades to get just a few things down pat.  I'm trying to help her take a different road, by training her in organization of our home, setting a plan to keep the house clean (a different room each day), and preparing meals ahead of time. 

This morning, after seeing my husband off to work, I went to pick raspberries that are growing in our garden.  I had to fight bumble bees and a zillion mosquitoes to get a bowl full, but I was determined to pick them as I didn't plant these just for the bugs to get to them!

My Husbands Favorite Turkey Recipe

1/4 cup ground mustard

5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Mix together, then baste on turkey. Bake, until done in crockpot or roaster.

I pulled a boneless turkey from my freezer in the morning and put it in a bucket of cold water. By 10:00 a.m. it was sufficiently dethawed enough to transfer to my crockpot.  Here, I basted the above recipe over top, covered the pot, then set it on high temperature.  It cooked until about 6:00 p.m. 

In the afternoon, around 4:00, I made some instant mashed potatoes (because it was quick and easy), opened a can of cranberry sauce and set in a pretty bowl.  I made Corn Casserole (my daughter's favorite).  I made Stove Top Dressing (also just because it was very easy).  I made gravy by opening a can of Campbell's Turkey Gravy and adding the broth/drippings from the turkey (this turned out really good).  

Everyone was surprised to see an elaborate (it seemed to them) Thanksgiving meal served on an ordinary Tuesday night in August.  It was fun surprising everyone and  everyone thought the meal was fantastic! A nice memory!

Baked Corn

1 can whole kernal corn

1 can creamed corn

1 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 box Jiffy corn bread mix

1 tsp sugar

Mix and bake in buttered 9x13 inch pan.  bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I accidently added an extra egg (total = 3 eggs), so I added another can of creamed corn. It turned out really good, so maybe I'll purposely add the extra egg and can of corn next time.

When I made this corn casserole, I made 2 others at the same time (total of 3 baked corn casseroles) and froze the other two.  On Sunday morning when we had our church pot luck, I served one of them.  Later, in the afternoon when I had my in-laws over for dinner, I pulled another one of these corn casseroles and served it with the meatloaf and fish. 

We had arrived last night at 10:30 p.m. in from the cottage, about one hour and a half away.   Amazingly, the house looked company ready and no panic was needed for the church friends that were coming to our home in the morning with a guest pastor from India.

I got up around 5, prayed for about an hour. Then I went to the freezer to decide what to have for our potluck today.  I have been in a habit for the past year, that when ever I make a meal for our  family, I make a second one at the same time and put it in the freezer.  I can't tell you what a great new habit this has been in improving the quality of my life!!  On many days that I have felt like only doing what I feel like doing, I can get away with it because I go to my freezer, pull out something like lasagna that I had made a month ago, put it in the oven, and when my husband and kids came to the dinner table in the evening, it looks like I knocked myself out by having the table set, some garlic bread and salad with the lasagne.  Likewise, there have been times I have had our church coming on Sunday morning,  that I had no clue to what I would serve.  The last time they came, I opened up my freezer, sleepy eyed in the early morning, and to my delight, I had forgotten I had made meatloaf and froze 2 extra ones!   

This Sunday morning, I looked in my freezer, and I found a dish full of beef meat balls, and another dish full of ground chicken meat balls, already cooked and ready to be added to a spagetti sauce ( in my family I have 3 people that won't touch red meat with a 10 foot stick, so I always make 2 versions of everything - beef/chicken spaghetti, meatloaf, etc..)     I went to my pantry shelf and found 2 big mason jars of my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce.  I added more sauce to make the quanity go farther and seasoned it accordingly, cut the meat balls in quarters (so the kids wouldn't pick out all the meat balls when they served themselves), then simmered it from 7:00 a.m. until we ate that day around 3:00 p.m.  It was the best spag hetti I had ever made.  I think it was because it simmered all day and the flavor really melded together, and the water evaporation left it a nice thick marina sauce.  But the positively best part was that I made it with minimal effort!  I served  garlic bread with it that  I just happened to have 3 full boxes of in my freezer that I had gotten from Walmart. It had 0  trans fat grams in it (extremely important to me).