Tag: lasagna

Long Long Day

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

Ken left for Georgia yesterday.  Vicki and I took him to the airport at 3:30 in the morning.  This meant we were up at 2:30.

Not being a morning person, this was not a great start to the day.  Vicki and I were home by 6:00 but we didn’t come back and go back to bed.  We stopped at Woodman’s.  We shopped for both her household and mine.  By the time we were done, we’d saved $57 in coupons, $6.25 in Ibotta rebates, and $2 in Checkout 51 rebates.

We came home so she could unload.  All the perishables got put away and some of the sorting out of what she wanted and what I wanted.  My mother and sister stopped by so they got to see Vicki for a few minutes.

Once they left, we made a list for Sorgs and I called it in.  Since it was Saturday Sorgs is always busy so we wanted to expedite our time there.  We stopped at Urgent Care because Vicki has a sinus infection.

The rest of our morning we spent time going to Shopko, Target, Penera, and Walgreens.  That finished our morning.  We came home to eat lunch.  I took a nap but she was bouncing all over getting things organized.

She brought home her laundry so she wouldn’t have to pay to go to a laundromat.  She did our laundry as well, so we folded and hung up several baskets of clothes.  Once we were done with that, we went to the kitchen.

The two of us made lasagne, chicken tetrazzini, and diced chicken which we marinated with dressing.  Once those were all done, we had lasagne for supper, did some more laundry, and then went back to the kitchen to make cranberry apple sauce.  Vicki canned the results of this experiment so she had to stay up long enough to get the ten pints in and out of the water bath.

All of this got done yesterday with only about three hours of sleep.  All in all, a good day but exhausting.  I kicked Vicki to bed at about 10:30 and got to sleep short after 11:00.  Today, I’m going to work on crocheting and watching movies or documentaries.  I’m planning to enjoy my peace and quiet.

Batch Cooking

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

A former co-worker told me about batch cooking and how she does it with her sisters.  This got me thinking about how we could do it and from there it led to Vicki investigating it.  Now we are in full-fledged mode of batch cooking. 
Yesterday, I spent my day chopping veggies, making my garbage soup, making meatballs and mini meatloaf, assembling lasagna, and cutting up meats.  We chop up veggies like onions, mushrooms, and celery (and a whole lot more) in volume for all the dishes we want to make.  The chopped up items go into bowls so that when Vicki is cooking a dish all she has to do is grab the appropriate amount. 
The first dish to go in the oven was my garbage soup.  As I chopped up all the veggies, a portion of them went in to my big roaster pan.  Vicki also picked up a large can of the cream of mushroom soup I use to make this.  Buying larger is usually more economical.  In most cases the larger isn’t worthwhile for us but when we batch cook it is. 
Vicki started with making the sauce for the lasagna and boiling the noodles.  Once the two were done, she handed them off to me and had me assemble.  The thing about this is she doesn’t like to assemble and we made three pans of lasagna.  We switch off doing things like this to stay out of each other’s way in the kitchen but also to play to our strengths. 
I am not able to stand at the stove and cook.  My legs just won’t tolerate it yet.  Vicki is but she has issues with her thumbs so cutting things up is hard on her hands.  We play off each our strengths but dividing the tasks up according to whom is good at what and what causes the least pain for each of us. 

We spent all day cooking.  At the end of the day, we had three pans of lasagna, three pans of chicken carbonara – one of which was gluten free, Mexican stew, garbage soup, turkey meatballs, beef meatloaf, and finished baking the chocolate chip cookies Vicki stirred up on Friday.  We used up all our freezer containers – Ken even had to go buy more.  The freezer now is full of food for lunches for the next month.  The thing is these lunches are healthier and better than the frozen stuff you get in the store.  they are also more cost effective because we made them in bulk.  All the way around there are benefits – the only downside is at the end of the day we are damn tired and don’t want to look at food anymore.

Productive

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Yesterday Vicki and I were particularly productive.  She got the kitchen and dining room floors cleaned.  She cleaned up in those two rooms and the two bathrooms.  She even cleaned up a bit in the living room which was sort of her thing because she crafted on Saturday and had stuff sprawled out. 

In addition to all of Vicki’s productiveness in cleaning, she and I cooked a lot of stuff.  She made two types of pudding and blackberry crisp and chicken carbonara.  I made meatloaf and turkey meatballs.  On Saturday, Vicki made two pans of lasagna.  We put in the freezer eight containers of meatloaf, six bags of turkey meatballs, and a dozen containers of carbonara.  We also shared food with a friend who came and picked up. 

Vicki and I also made two containers of shampoo for her.  Vicki put my lotion back on the stove to melt to see if she could get the turmeric to mix in better.  It did a bit but still settled to the bottom.  We will have to try oil.

In addition to the cooking, I got an eleven page paper edited and a three page paper for school written.  I also did some reading for school though I didn’t finish that.  In the evening I made two gifts.  It was a busy and productive day. 

At the end of the day, I gave Vicki a back, arm, and leg rub because she was wore out and sore from all the work.  I used the lotion she made and gave her a thorough rub down – her skin should be in lovely shape now.  I’m pretty sure she is still sore though.

Busy!!!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
It has been a busy weekend.  Yesterday I took my quiz, read part of a chapter, posted twice to the discussion board for one of my classes, baked bread, crocheted, helped Vicki with cookies, and made ornaments.  I’m probably forgetting stuff but that is the general gist of my Saturday. 
Today I did a lot too.  I’ve baked bread, helped with cookies, run errands, bills and budget.  Now I have to go finish one Christmas present and wrap all the presents.  If I still have time after that I’ll probably work on my short story.  I need to read it one more time before I submit it. 
I’m going back to work tomorrow.  Vicki will have an exceedingly busy morning as she is making lasagna for my student workers and faculty.  She will bring that in hot along with the homemade bread I made today.  I’m also taking a bunch of the GREAT cookies she made. 
I don’t know how many dozen it turned out to be but she made about fifteen batches.  They all look, smell, and taste delicious.  She tried two new recipes.  I think they turned out wonderfully.