In the Kitchen

It's great to have Freezer Meal Days (as I had recently with 3 daughters and 1 son, who all live nearby), and it's also good to have some shorter sessions In the Kitchen. Taking a portion of a day to focus on preparing some baked goods, some mixes, and even a few freezer meals.

It just makes sense. Especially when there are so many other things that call our attention each day, making it difficult to spend much time cooking on a daily basis. Having some prepared dishes and mixes makes life so much easier.

Last Thursday I spent about four hours In the Kitchen. And this is what I prepared in that time:

5 mixes of Cinnamon Date Oatmeal 

stored in the refrigerator, they are great to have on hand for breakfasts

6 loaves of Honey Whole Wheat Bread 

prepared with my Bosch machine; and stored in the freezer for the month ahead

2 batches of this Pizza Dough recipe

  my first time to make this (dividing the dough into small rounds for eight 12-inch pizzas); 

I mixed up the dough with my KitchenAid, and let it rise 30 minutes before freezing
I'll store these in the freezer for Friday nights when we often have pizza

4 meals of Slow Cooker Saucy Pork Chops 

 one for supper that day, and three meals (for the two of us) in the freezer for future days

 (I also have some bags of cooked rice in the freezer - I pulled one out for our meal last Thursday)

Whether one is in "empty nest" years (where there are many others things to focus on besides cooking), or one has a houseful of children (where we are busy with our kids from morning till night) - it's always a good idea to have some prepared-ahead meals to be able to pull out when needed. I am finding that I prefer to have periodic sessions In the Kitchen, rather than spending a lot of time cooking each day.

Linking up with:
Tasty Tuesday
Time to Sparkle
Live Laugh Linky
Saturday Show and Tell