Domestic Goddess Training

Domestic Goddess Training : noun - the training program that teaches one how to have a clean house, meals on the table, all while maintaining a positive, upbeat home. This programs covers : cooking, cleaning, meal planning, home management binders, diy home projects, budgeting and the other things that Catherine is really not so good at....in my quest for balance this year, I want to be more domestic. I am a homebody by nature, and an artist, so my life has a tendency towards the messy and unorganized, while my work life is highly structured and organized. I really want to bring some of the structure from my work life into my house, while balancing my creative tendencies. And ensuring that we eat, at least occasionally (kidding just kidding, we always eat, but not always nutritiously).

Do you have other responsibilities beyond quilting??? I know I do, and as much as I wish I could sit and quilt all day every day, that just isn't an option in my life. Between working full time, teaching 3-4 days a week, and getting samples made and paperwork done for the business, sometimes I feel like all I do is eat, sleep, shower and start the day all over again. That's why I started #30minutesadaykeepscrazyaway and #1houraday. I want to sew every day if possible, and a minimum of 8 hours a week. So, I am always looking for good ways to "save time" which equates to "creating sewing time". And that means I need to learn new tricks to save time and gain additional sewing time.

Which leads me to this weeks Domestic Goddess Training.....Freezer Meals. I've heard a lot about these, and seen billions of pins about them, but as a single girl, I was always afraid of the "Lasagne Curse"...you know where you make your Mom's lasagne recipe, and then you have to eat it for days. and days. and days. Because the recipe is already a "leftover friendly" for 6 servings.....so, in the past I would get all excited about eating at home and saving money and what not, and by Wednesday I was tired of Lasagne, no matter how good it was. So, now that there are 3 of us, and we are sharing the costs and work of cooking and grocery management, I thought it would be cool to try out some of those pins that are lurking on my "2 make for dinner" board. There is a $.99/lb sale on pork this week at VONS in So Cal, so Friday night I bought a pork shoulder roast, a London Broil, and a couple of pork tenderloins, and various accoutrements and decided to try out some of those recipes. While our Beef Roast was cooking away in the crockpot on Sunday afternoon, I spent an hour prepping several dinners for the week....Broccoli Beef in the Slow Cooker (from the London Broil), Sweet and Sour Pork (from one of the tenderloins), and Pork and Apples (from the other tenderloin). I saved the pork shoulder roast for a pulled pork crock pot style, and left Monday night open for chicken or salad (though we ended up going with Costco Pizza, since it was a late night at work). I spent $108 at the grocery store, and saved $84, so I'm pretty happy about that, and there are several dinners just waiting to be dumped in the slow cooker for the week. Now it's just a matter of determining if we like them or not, and if it works, spending an hour a week prepping a week's worth of dinners, or maybe 2 hours every other week....If my experiment works, and we find meals that we like, I want to be able to prep and freeze enough meals that we only buy food (especially meat) when it is on sale, and we work from the pantry and from the freezer....

I don't really know if it will work, we do have a couple of picky eaters (myself included), so we may have to do some recipe tweaking, until we find the right ones for us, but I am determined to try. At least for February. And if it works, awesome!! and if not, we tried!!!

The next thing I want to tackle....housework and how to speed up the time to it takes to have a clean house, without spending a ton of money...but that is for March (or April, the creative brain is great at procrastinating) .....

Have you ever tried Freezer Meals??? I'd love to get some info on your favorites, or least favorites, and what worked or didn't work....

Cat