In my kitchen right now

Okay-seriously.  Right now-this is all going on in my kitchen.  It is 9:30pm and I am just sitting down for the day.  My life truly revolves around food.  I keep trying to figure out how to make it easier.  As I was doing a few preparations for our meals tomorrow in an effort to make tomorrow easier, I was not making my evening easier!  Alas-at some point I might get it figured out.

So I grabbed some of the ingredients for the lentil and rice casserole we are having for lunch.  It's written on the board on the fridge that I need to put it in the oven by 9:30.  It takes a while to cook.

I've just now started soaking my brown rice prior to cooking it.  The small pan is the brown rice that I will just drain and then add to the lentil and brown rice recipe.  The larger container is brown rice that I am cooking for Samuel.  He is 10 months now and has been on solid foods for about 6 weeks.  He is devouring it!  I've not given him any grains yet but I think he is ready.  Due to how many food allergies there are nowadays that lends me to believe that people are possibly giving babies solid foods and grains too early.  (me included with past babies)  I feel comfortable at this point giving Samuel brown rice since I will be soaking it ahead of time to make it very easy to digest.

Here is our oatmeal soaking.  I've been doing this for the longest time.  It really makes a difference!  For six people I mix 3 1/2 cups of freshly rolled oats with 4 cups of water and about 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt.  In the morning Isaac, my 13 year old, adds 3 1/2 cups of water and cooks it.

Here is my second batch of chicken stock simmering, complete with several chicken feet.  Oh, they are so disgusting!  And once again, my dear Isaac was with me when I was assembling this and he pulled them out and jiggled them in my face.  I threatened him with a weeks worth of being my personal servant if he didn't put them down!!!!!!!!  It worked :)

We are having beef stew for dinner tomorrow so I went ahead and pulled out some of those ingredients.  I thought about chopping up the onions and mincing the garlic ahead of time-just couldn't bring myself to actually do it.

I went ahead and browned a pound of free range ground turkey and put that in the freezer as well as a pound of really hot chicken sausage and got that in the freezer.  I asked for mild.  Well, at least Isaac is excited about that spicy stuff.  There are also 8 bags of chicken that I bought the other day, cooked, chopped and froze in 2 cup portions.  I'm sure these will come in handy.  The chicken was on sale at Ingles because it was nearing it's sale by date.  I'm loving the good deals I've been getting lately at Ingles!  Organic yogurt, milk and meat can regularly be found on "manager's special".

Here's 2 of the 3 large containers of stock that I just pulled off the stove after 24 hours of simmering.  I will scoop the fat off the top tomorrow and then ladle these into freezer bags in 2 cup portions.  Glass jars of frozen liquids and I are not friends.  After the stitches and now very sore wrist I will avoid freezing my stock in glass jars.  Too tired to tell that story.

And here is my list of the baby food I will be making tomorrow.  The applesauce is already made-from 3 organic apples I got on manager's special at Ingles a couple days ago.  The brown rice is soaking, so I will just cook up some lentils, steam some carrots, cook the brown rice the whirl these up in my blender.  Then the mixture will get scooped into ice cube trays and frozen for later use.  I have to admit.  Baby food in jars is SOOOOOOOO much easier.  Yet I am compelled to make it myself-it's not that hard and it is healthier and cheaper.

So there you have it.  All of the above is why I don't blog often, don't make many crafts, many phone calls, many outings out of the house (except to buy more raw materials for my kitchen)....etc.etc.etc.

It's all good though!  I'm so blessed to be able to cook this way for my family and to have a husband and five amazing sons to nourish!  I was watching the ladies in the meat department at Dekalb Farmer's Market grab up all my disgusting chicken parts for stock and I thought to myself-I have nothing to complain about.  If I wasn't working hard at home-I'd be working hard somewhere.  And I'd rather be home than anywhere else.

Reminding myself of this:


Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
Proverbs 14:4

(Please excuse typos---I'm going to nurse Samuel and go to bed now :)