All Day Cooking - Take 1, 2, & 3!?!

Ah yes, after seeing an empty cellar freezer I went into panic mode again and decided I must cook over Labor Day. So I picked my recipes, made my shopping list, and went to the grocery store on Saturday. Two hours, $287, 10 bags of frozen chopped onions, and some crazy looks from people at the grocery later I was set for cooking all day on Sunday. The bagger actually said to me, "Either you have a very large family or you own a restaurant". I said, "Nope, I just don't plan on cooking too much after this baby is born so I'm going to do it all now and freeze it!". Anyways, Eric did buy some fish the next day (story to come later) that was $63 for a grand total of $350 for this particular cooking extravaganza. I should have known right then I was a little over ambitious this time.

SUNDAY - Daddy planned an awesome day for the boys starting with the beach at New Castle which they LOVE! They got to go in the water (or fall in as Cal says), play in the sand, sit on the rocks and tell stories, and daddy says they talked to pretty much every single person ON the beach. Not surprising. They came home to get a quick bath, eat lunch, and take naps. Then it was up and off for a trip downtown to go in Cal's favorite stores and go out to dinner at The Rusty Hammer, just daddy and the boys. Again, big hit with the waitstaff. I'm told there were hugs and high-fives all around. Good to know they're occupied while I'm at home slaving away :)

Meanwhile, my cooking day started at 8am. Apparently, I grossly underestimated how long it was going to take to trim and cut SEVENTEEN pounds of chicken. It was FOREVER. I didn't do it all at once so I couldn't tell you exactly but long enough. The day went relatively well but it became apparent I was no where near finishing. I took an hour break for lunch and decided to call it quits at 6:30pm. I also needed to give my freezer a rest. I was a little alarmed that it was working overtime when I felt the outside of it and it was like 100 degrees. But I kept checking to make sure the stuff that was already frozen in it wasn't thawing and it wasn't so I figured it was fine. I then informed Eric that he'd have to take the kids again for the next morning and I'd hopefully by done by the time naps were over.

Also, on Sunday I had sent Eric off to buy the fish since I had forgotten to write down how much I needed the day before and couldn't buy it. The instructions were to buy 12 half-inch thick fish fillets. He came home with 6 GIGANTIC fillets of cod. Apparently, the fish guy was a little confused and no one knew that I wanted 12 fillets portioned for a person to eat! When I started cutting this fish up it was immediately apparent that there was WAY WAY too much fish. There was double what I needed!!! I contemplated taking some back but I'd already opened it all and I wasn't sure what went where anymore. Finally, we decided to call the store to see if the cod had been prefrozen. It hadn't so that meant I could freeze some of it without cooking it which is what I did. Honestly though, we have 4 fish dinners that I cooked for the recipe and now 3 dinners portioned out that haven't been cooked. Seven fish dinners of the SAME fish is enough to feed us for the freakin' year!!! I'm sure we'll never want to eat cod again after this :)

MONDAY (thank goodness for Labor Day!) - Although by this point, I never want to see raw chicken again (and I don't intend to for at least another 6 months) I get up and start hacking away at a chicken breast at 8am. Daddy gets kids ready, they play outside, and then head off to the new Children's Museum in Dover for a morning of fun. I worked like only a crazy pregnant lady with 11 days until her due date can and got MOST of my recipes done. By the end of day 2, I had made and frozen 28 meals but still had 3 recipes uncompleted and meat in the fridge that I didn't want to go bad. Oh, so here's the stats on the meat. I bought 17 lbs of chicken as previously noted, 4 lbs of round steak, 2 turkey tenderloins, 2.5 lbs ground turkey, 2 lbs cubed ham, 2.25 lbs pork tenderloin, and god only knows how many lbs of fish. Pretty crazy right? I bought so many frozen veggies that my empty freezer was almost full and I had to trade off using them in recipes and freezing the actual meal! This definitely requires major organization.

TUESDAY - Since Eric was back at work today (I know, so sad daddy can't be home ALL the time), I used naptime to finish up the remaining three recipes. Here are my stats: I made 13 different recipes making a total of 36 meals plus the 3 fish meals that I didn't cook. I'm including that since I included the cost of all the fish in my total groceries. So I spent $350 divided by a grand total of 39 meals equals a MERE $8.97 PER MEAL for a four-person family. That's totally insane if you ask me! Makes you want to do this, doesn't it?! I know - what ARE you waiting for? To tempt you further I'll include my list of meals :)

White & Green Lasagna (2) -The amount of cheese used for this is enough to make anyone vomit
Orange Curried Chicken (3)*
Chicken & Rice Stew (2)
Spaghetti & Meatballs (3)
Fish Fillet Dinner (4)
Cheesy Chicken Manicotti (3)
Italian Slow Cooker Chicken (3)
Chicken Pot Pie (2)
Wild Rice Meatloaf (4)
Cheesy Pasta & Ham (2)
Turkey Tenderloin with Blueberry Compote (2)
Swiss Steak (3)
Pork & Apricot Stir-fry (3)
Plus 3 extra meals of cod (3)

*Parentheses are how many meals it made