Week 4: Blackboard organizer & Freezer Cooking

Alright!  The last week of the Simple Mom Project is done!  Honestly I am sad- I enjoy the accountability to organize my house.  But hopefully I can continue to be diligent with the time and energy God has given me to continue on even without accountability for these chores!

This week was tackle your own project.  I chose two different challenges that have been on my mind for months but never took the time to get them done.

I have wanted a home management notebook and last year I even started one.  It is super organized, cute, and green (I use plastic covers with marker so I only have to print out one page making it reusable), but I find myself not taking the time to open the notebook on a regular basis.  I need something more tangible and visible.

I turned our homemade blackboard into a visual home management sign.
So my craft area went from looking like a wreck with no rhyme or reason to organized space I can now use.

This way I can plan the meals for the week and not have to think last minute what to cook for dinner.

I am able to have one major house cleaning task a day to focus on.  I don't have time with feeding/playing/taking care of a 6 month old to do 12 cleaning things a day like so many of the home management notebooks say.  So I was able to adapt it to reality for me right now.

I have a scripture section.  I always want to display scripture so it becomes ingrained in our brains.  I found this particular idea for my scrapbook scripture page on Pinterest.  The idea originates from this blog.

My second task for this week was to get a huge jump start in the planning stage to Freezer Cooking.
Honestly the main reason I haven't tried to freezer cook yet is because it takes a lot of time up front.
At www.passionatehomemaking.com she has steps to Effortless Freezer Cooking... so that is what I started, with no effort at all... ;-)

• First step is to brainstorm what we like to eat on a regular basis.  
• Honestly this is hard for me because we have our hand full of recipes we like consistently but probably about 3 nights a week I am always trying out new recipes.  But I was able to come up with a good start. 

• I wrote down a grocery list of items I would need to buy

• Second Step: Go to the grocery store and buy in bulk the following items:
• Chicken, beef, onions, carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms

• Third Step: Prepare the food.  
• Chop the red/yellow onions, red/green peppers, celery, & carrots.

• Cook chicken
• Shred half
• Cube half

• Cook the beef
• 1/3 plain meet
• 1/3 with taco seasoning already in it
• 1/3 with onions and mushrooms already in it

• Fourth Step: Store the items in a freezer safe container. 
• In Ecuador the freezer bags you can't zip- so I found this idea on Pinterest with how to seal a bag.  
• Make sure to label the bag with the date the item was put in and what is in the bag.

Now when I need to throw in some chicken and chopped onions in the new recipe I want to try it cuts way down on the prep time! Excited!