What I COOKED Wednesday-FREEZER PLEASERS!

It's a WIAW first! Normally, my #WIAW posts involve a whole lot of...well... the things I ate on Wednesday. But I realized that lately on my Weigh-In Wednesday posts {dang, I post a lot on Wednesdays!} I've been doing a lot of complaining about being so busy and having that prevent me from eating properly. I finally came to the realization that it was time to quit bellyaching and 'pony up to the bar'- I needed to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Making the decision to do so doesn't necessarily mean that all of a sudden my schedule cleared up, we came into beaucoup amounts of money, or the hubs was given 3 straight weeks off of work and unearthed a heretofore unknown fountain of youthful energy with which to pull off all of our DIY projects. What it did do, however, was give me the desire to find a better way to manage our food so that I could pull off healthy meals each day and not resort to eating out, ordering in, or grabbing something quick (but inevitably unhealthy) to shove in my mouth in an effort to fill the ache in my tummy!

After bumping around in blogland and checking out various other sites, I ran across Karrie @ Happy Money Saver and her post about the day she made freezer meals. EUREKA!  I found my answer! I suddenly realized that my problem wasn't just about making bad food choices- it was about terrible time management as well. I knew that if I followed Karrie's example, bit the bullet, sequestered myself in the kitchen, and cooked my tushie off making a ton of freezer meals- then dinners would be a SNAP to pull off any given night of the week! That way, I could still be terrible at managing my time yet stay on a pretty straight and narrow eating plan. Yay me!

My 'smaller than I thought it would be' shopping list

I did a bit of Googling and found several sites with tons of freezer meal ideas (which I quickly bookmarked) but decided to initially go with Leanne Ely's '5 for the Freezer' recipes (which I promptly adjusted and made my own). I chose her recipes though, because I love how she not only breaks each recipe down for you, with shopping lists and everything, but gives you side dish suggestions and more! It's dummy proof (and if you know me, you know why that's important!)

I had several requirements of the recipes I chose- they had to be relatively few ingredients (that my kids would actually be willing to try/eat), the ingredients had to be fairly inexpensive and relatively easy to purchase (I'm not in a huge city), and it had to be fast and simple to pull together and/or cook.

I printed out a stack of recipes as thick as my fist, sat down, and made my shopping list (which I honestly thought would be MUCH longer) and headed for the store. It took $200 and a trip to Sam's Club, Aldi, and Harris Teeter before everything was bought and ready to cook- my kitchen table was completely covered and there wasn't an ounce of room in our fridge!

But man, the amount of food I was able to whip up! All told, to date I've made 35 'Freezer Pleasers' (I'm totally trademarking that name) and I'm already chomping at the bit to make more. (I know, I'm a total glutton for punishment). It's such a joy to know those 35 meals are sitting pretty in my freezer and you can't imagine the relief I feel knowing that if I went on strike and didn't lift a single spatula or wooden spoon for the next month (literally a whole month!), not a one of us would go hungry or gain 30 lbs. from eating McDonald's every night!

I did my best to make a variety of meals so that we wouldn't get bogged down by too many pork dishes or an overabundance of chicken. I even managed to make them fit into the daily meal categories that my kids find so amusing:

• Meatless Mondays (Vegetarian)
• Tasty Travels Tuesdays (Ethnic)
• Wet N Wild Wednesdays (Seafood)
• Throwback Thursdays (Comfort food)
• Pizza Fridays (Pizza, duh!)
• Souper Saturdays (Soups/chilis)
• Slow Cooker Sundays (Crockpot Cooking)

          {Can you tell I'm a sucker for alliteration?!}

Here's what I made (and yes, you can click the title to get the recipe!):

Recipe	Main Ingredient	Nightly Category(ies)
Manic Meatloaf w/ Tomato Relish	Ground Beef	Throwback Thursdays
Caesar’s Burgers	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Italian Throwback Thursdays
Fajita Burgers	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Mexican Throwback Thursdays
Garlic Spaghetti Meatballs	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Italian Throwback Thursdays
Mock Gyros	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Greek
Havana Hash	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Latin
Two Bean Chili	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Southwestern Souper Saturdays
South of the Border Quiche	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Southwestern
Kandi’s Keema	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Middle Eastern
Gingery Beef Stir Fry	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Asian
Shepherd’s Pie #3	Ground Beef	Throwback Thursdays
DaVinci’s Meatloaf Supper	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Italian Throwback Thursdays
Montezuma’s Muffins	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Mexican Throwback Thursdays
Mino’s Meaty Minis	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays- Greek Throwback Thursdays
Git Along Little Doggies	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Southwestern Throwback Thursdays
Calcutta Cups	Ground Beef	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Indian Throwback Thursdays
Turkey Tico Taco Chili	Ground Turkey	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Southwestern/Mexican Souper Saturdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Herbed Grilled Flank Steak	Flank Steak	Throwback Thursdays
Crock Smothered Steak	Flank Steak	Throwback Thursdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Baby’s Got Back Ribs	Baby Back Ribs	Throwback Thursdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Peruvian Pork and Potato Stew	Pork Shoulder	Tasty Travels Tuesdays- Souper Saturdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Crock Lemon Pork Tenderloin	Pork Loin	Throwback Thursdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Lemony Baked Crusted Tilapia	Tilapia	Wet ‘N Wild Wednesdays
Mustard Thyme Tilapia	Tilapia	Wet ‘N Wild Wednesday
Fish Amandine	White Fish	Wet ‘N Wild Wednesdays
Sweet and Sour Salmon	Salmon	Wet N Wild Wednesdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Halibut in Wine Sauce	Halibut Steaks	Wet ‘N Wild Wednesdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Spinach and Artichoke Pie	Vegetarian	Meatless Mondays
Italian Frittata	Vegetarian	Meatless Mondays Tasty Travels Tuesdays- Italian
Crock Pot Split Pea Soup	Vegetarian	Souper Saturdays Slow Cooker Sundays
Kandi’s Favorite Chicken Stirfry	BL/SL Chicken Breast	Tasty Travels Tuesdays-Chinese
Chicken Cordon Bleu	BL/SL Chicken Breast	Tasty Travels Tuesday-French Throwback Thursdays
Moroccan Chicken with Honey Couscous	BL/SL Chicken Breast	Tasty Travels Tuesday-Middle Eastern
Crock Barbecue Chicken Supper	BL/SL Chicken Thighs	Throwback Thursday Slow Cooker Sundays
Easy Sunday Slow Cooker Chicken	Whole Chicken	Throwback Thursdays Slow Cooker Sundays

Now, my freezer is bursting at the seams and my wallet is only slightly lighter. If you divide the $200 spent on ingredients by the 35 meals I've already made, it breaks down to ~$5.71 per meal. Considering each meal stretches far enough to feed 6 people (completely!) at dinner with some leftover for lunches... that's not too shabby!

All together I managed to surprise even myself with my dedication to completing the task and I'm very excited for how it's going to help us now and in the future. I've made a personal goal to take one weekend per month (at least) to make more freezer pleasers to replenish the supply and, honestly, because I really just enjoyed it. (Seriously!)

We had our first inaugural Freezer Pleaser meal last night (Tasty Travels Tuesday)- Moroccan Chicken with Honey Couscous Mashed Potatoes and Sicilian Broccoli- and it was A-MA-ZING! Most definitely something you need to make. Now. Seriously... get in your kitchen and make this. Your whole family will thank me.

If you feel inspired by one of my recipes, or have a great freezer pleaser of your own to share, feel free to hit me up in the comments. I'd especially love any vegetarian meals you have hidden up your sleeve- I've got to break my kids' meat habit... it's getting out of hand!

Until next time... may the fork be with you!

Throw Me Some Bead(board), Mister!

Alright, this is not a 'Moms Gone Wild' Mardi Gras post or anything- so don't anybody get the wrong idea here! (Ironic the bead reference though, as the hubs and I honeymooned at The Orleans in Las Vegas and actually have several strands of beads around the house as a fond memory of the time we spent there- and no, we didn't do anything 'special to get them'! You can easily buy them in the gift shop!) Regardless, I'm not passing out treats in this post... at least not in that regard! What I will bare though, is the awesomeness that is our new porch ceiling and the trials and tribulations (of course!) that we went through to achieve it.

Rot is GROSS!

If y'all remember my last post, you're very familiar with the hot mess of a house that we bought ~2 years ago. It was a foreclosure, so we got an awesome deal- but it has required SO MUCH WORK and we're still not done with it yet. {read: still a hot mess} Of late, we've abandoned the inside for the outside as we just can't take it anymore! The catalyst for this great migration to the outdoors was some wood rot that needed repairing and once that was fixed... well, it just kind of snowballed! *grins sheepishly*

We started out by replacing the front porch columns (they look sooooooooo much better!) and while researching the column wrap kits, I ran across this amazing vinyl soffit stuff that looks just like beadboard! This was an awesome find in so many ways:

1.  In our initial repairs of the house we had to replace quite a bit of vinyl siding and Tim got really good at putting it up so I knew he could easily do this
2. It is super cheap and I was totally able to find it local (and in stock!) so no waiting for shipping or paying freight charges!
3. It completely covers our horrible plywood ceiling on our front porch which was that rotten butter yellow color and had all the rusty nails showing (GROSS!)

   

   Horrible plywood ceiling- YUCK!

4. It goes perfectly with our modern cottage/vintage/urban/farmhouse design aesthetic!

I WAS SOLD!!

Of course, we had to go about it all the wrong way in the beginning! We started out by pulling off the plywood and realizing that our studs were not 16" on center as they should have been (our house isn't THAT old- that rule was in place in 1980 when it was built!). Then, in reading the instructions for the beadboard, we saw it needed to be nailed every 8-10" to prevent bowing, so we had to reinforce between the studs with 2x4's. {Commence unhappy hubby here}. This added an extra day (literally!) to our project, just to cut 50+ 14.5" 2x4's and toenail them between the studs to add the extra support. But that sure beat sitting out there one evening and having the beadboard fall on your head or bow like sailcloth! 

Extra supports between studs

In pulling down the plywood, a lot of our attic insulation fell out all over us (ITCHY!!!!!) and made a mess of our porch and garden. We had to make use of a roll of Lowe's housewrap and some Wild West action with a staple gun to keep the attic and its contents separate from us while we worked.

The insulation that stayed where it was supposed to!

Then, we had to fight the battle that is j-channel. I swear we needed to have engineering degrees from Georgia Tech to properly use this stuff- it was rough! By the end though, we got fairly adept at it. Again, we had several areas where we had to reinforce wood so we had somewhere to nail the j-channel. But once we jumped that hurdle, it all worked out well. Corners were probably more difficult than they should have been (sometimes we tend to overthink things) but we did the best we could and it turned out good enough for us.

It's really coming along!

Tim decided to run power out to each 'wing' of our front porch (it makes a 'T' of sorts), so that we could have a place to plug in holiday lights, fans, and/or other various and sundry items. While he was up in the ceiling messing with the power, he had to rework the main light box where the front porch light goes, because it was done all wrong. We were finally able to hang up the porch light we have had since we moved in- such an exciting day!

TA-DA!

All told, it took us about 1-1.5 months to get it all done, mainly because we could only work on weekends and holidays when Tim was off work. And even though there were a ton of learning curves, we couldn't be happier with the end result... BEAUTIFUL!

Still need to paint the trim and do some caulking- but overall it's GREAT!

Until next time... give DIY a try!

I'm Linking Up With These Great Parties!

• Between Naps on the Porch (Metamorphosis Mondays)
• Boogieboard Cottage (Masterpiece Mondays)
• Alderberry Hill (Make the Scene Monday)
• I Should Be Mopping the Floor (Mop It Up Mondays)
• Keeping it Simple Crafts (Motivate Me Monday)
• Lines Across (Monday Funday)
• The Dedicated House (Make It Pretty Monday)
• Serendipity and Spice (Manic Mondays)

I 'Column' Like I See 'Em

I couldn't wait to show you the AFTER!

*Sigh* As much as I LOVE DIY projects, I do believe the NC summer is already starting to get to me. That, and the fact that we can't seem to ever have an easy go of any project we attempt. The hubs always jokes that we seem to be cursed in this arena. No matter what we take on- it's ALWAYS 5x harder! Like the fact that our house was apparently built by a bunch of crackpots who had not a care for state rules and regs (and probably paid off inspectors), so every stud in our house is not 16" on center. Some are 14". Some are 12". You get the picture. We've even found some load bearing walls barely capable of bearing a bag of groceries, much less our roof- so we've had to reinforce. It's just been a never ending process! But, like mama always said (gosh, did I just channel Forrest Gump?), 'When you own a home, you are married to it'. She couldn't have been more correct. However, our home is more like our fickle mistress because we are, of course, married to each other! :D

But I digress. We've spent the first two years working on the inside of our house and I'll post all that DIY goodness later, because it's still not actually done (that whole 85% girl thing, you know?). But here recently, we've gotten the wild hair to begin working on the outside of our home because it is just UG-LY! (Trigger cheer: U-G-L-Y- you ain't got no alibi- you ugly!) Everything about it is awful- the bricks are all tones of brown on brown, the trim is painted this nasty shade of rotten butter yellow (yuck!), the shutters and front doors are baby poop brown, the 3-tab roof (original to the 1980 house) is brown as well and in terrible condition- it is just GROSS!

The house was obviously owned by a bunch of manic depressives before we bought it. It needed HELP!!

See the ugly column?

Another shot of the awful columns!

One of the things we always hated was the columns on the house. They were so small and spindly (and also painted rotten butter yellow) and were meant to be decorative, although they were anything but. I kept pushing my hubby to replace them with 4x4 posts (because even though I'm an 85% girl, he's totally a 100% guy) but he was worried about how we'd get them out of the concrete and keep from losing the porch roof in the changeover (all totally valid concerns!)

So, we left it alone until one day inspiration came to us in the form of an A&E show, 'Fix this Yard'. In it, Amy and Alan have a homeowner with an ugly column (just one mind you, not four like us) and they used a column wrap to cover it up. Essentially, just a pvc piece that snaps around the ugly column and makes it look gorgeous! We were hooked!! Computer on... let's GOOGLE!! I searched the internet far and wide and found all sorts of them, but prices were.... well... pricey. So, onto the back burner it went until I got a wild hair to call some of the builder supply places in town and discovered one who happened to have a few left by Arndt & Herman, clearanced out, which worked perfectly with our budget (which is basically $0)!

Silly hubby!

The 'this isn't as easy as it looks' face

Filler wood

Now, here's where our problems started. Our columns were 3.5" per side- the new columns were 6". We had to come up with something to fill up the space. Which meant 2x3 and 1x3 and lots of chopping and screwing and hammering and nailing and cursing (on my husband's behalf). Please note, these columns DO NOT go together as easily as they claim- but when you finally figure out the ancient Chinese secret- they look AWESOME!! By the fourth column, we were pros.

The 'we finally figured it out' face

We knew the formula, had it down to a science, and got it done in record time. The best part is now I don't ever have to worry about rot or painting the columns again- I can just wipe them down with a cloth or spray gently with our pressure washer. Easy peasy! And now I have some butch columns on which to train beautiful climbing flowers to grow- I do so love climbing flowers!

So PRETTY!

So, although it didn't work out as easily as it seemed on tv (does it ever?) it sure was a heck of a lot easier than building supports to hold up the roof while we took out the columns to replace them. And it was a LOT less nerve wracking! So, I say it was definitely a 2 thumbs up DIY in my book! Thanks, 'Fix this Yard' for the stellar idea- much obliged!

Until next time... don't stop the DIY!

I'm Linking Up With These Great Parties!

• Between Naps on the Porch (Metamorphosis Mondays)
• Boogieboard Cottage (Masterpiece Mondays)
• Alderberry Hill (Make the Scene Monday)
• I Should Be Mopping the Floor (Mop It Up Mondays)
• Keeping it Simple Crafts (Motivate Me Monday)
• Lines Across (Monday Funday)
• The Dedicated House (Make It Pretty Monday)
• Serendipity and Spice (Manic Mondays)