Thursdays: Spaghetti
Tuesdays: Tacos/Burritos/Taco Salad
Mondays: Tilapia or Tuna meals
Sundays: any recipe made x4 for all Sundays of the month
Then I fill in the other days, taking into account events and traveling (Jay's going to be out of town for a week so I put PBJ, Quesadillas, Popcorn/apples/cheese, etc, down for that week)
I know that if I don't have brown rice or beans ready to go I just won't eat them and then we go way over the budget. So I started my cooking off with 10 c. of brown rice boiling, and 8 c. pintos, 6 c. kidney beans, and 6 c. black beans soaking. Yeah... if you have experience with dry beans you will know that I did WAY too many. I grew mountains of beans that night. Friday morning I didn't have time or place to cook them all, so half went straight from soaking into the freezer. The other half I cooked with some boullion, garlic, and pepper (no salt until after cooking). I had preschool music classes to teach in the morning, but was able to cook and strain my beans before class. After the classes I headed to Wenatchee with two sleep deprived toddlers. great.... I gave up and dropped Micah off with the iTouch and a large cup of unhealthy snacks at Jays' office where he watched movies for about 3 hours while Lydia and I shopped. Besides unpacking all the groceries, I didn't have much time for more that afternoon. But I had bought a new pizza pan, so I made pizza, doubling my sauce batch and freezing enough for 5 pizzas. Then I ditched the two still sleep deprived toddlers on Jay and enjoyed a rare Mom's Night In with friends until 2 am.
This morning came WAY too soon, but despite only 4 1/2 hrs of sleep I was raring to go. First, write out goals and post on wall. Check. (add two for already completed tasks, and I'm off to a great start!)
Next, speed thaw (I know, but at 2 am I was not going out to the freezer) chicken thighs and breasts. Chop and cook.
Breasts cool and then go to freezer for BBQ Chicken pizza. Thighs sit aside while I make up some curry sauce: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/06/chicken-curry-over-rice.html
Once the curry's done, I brown 3 lbs. of hamburger for tacos. I was going to mix it with Quinoa but forgot that until just now. Oh well. While the curry and hamburger is cooling, I grate a bar of Fels Naptha 
and make up two gallons of Detergent (1 bar FN soap melted in 6 c. water, add 1/2 c. borax, 1/2 c. washing soda and bring to 2 gal with water). Thankful for Jay keeping Micah with him while he fixed the fence outside. Then a neighbor girl took Micah to play for half an hour. Cleaned up soap mess and made a pizza dough for 3 lg pizzas.
Cleaned that up and it was 1:10pm. Kitchen cleaned, table crowned with lots of ready to freeze food, and one tired momma ready for a nap. But boy does it ever feel good!
Some of the work. A bunch was already in the freezer:
Total:
2 gallons detergent
2 gal bags of Kidney beans cooked
1 gal bag of Kidney beans soaked
2 gal bags of Pintos cooked
1 gal bag of Pintos soaked
1.5 gal bags of Black beans cooked
I can't remember if I have soaked black beans and I'm too tired to go look.
3 9x13's of brown rice
4 large mason/applesauce jars of Chicken and Curry sauce
3 balls of pizza dough
5 pizza's worth or pizza sauce
3 lbs of browned ground beef
8 c. of "broth" from the pinto beans. It smelled good so I kept it. When I have time I'll research to see if it was really worth keeping.
How was I able to do so much?! I.don't.know. God's work, for sure. I've never been a night owl, and have not felt up to this much planning, shopping, and cooking since before kids, I think! Much fun, and now time for bed.
