Filling the freezer and decorating for Christmas

We have been wrapping up several projects around the house so this weekend I wanted to start decorating for Christmas so that I had a place for the wrapped presents I've been stashing in one of our guest rooms. I also wanted to restock my freezer. I have a bunch of canned goods from meals I haven't gotten around to and extras in the freezer like frozen vegetables that I wanted to incorporate so that I could clean out the freezer and pantry in the process. I got the recipes together and besides produce and a few other random products I mostly had everything I needed on hand. I also have a stash of foil pans my grandma gave me when she moved so I pulled those out so that I could use what I had first before buying more. The benefit of lots of storage is that everything can be nicely tucked away. The Con is that I often don't realize what I have so in the near future I am going to go through my cold storage, freezers, pantry and anywhere else I store kitchen related items so that I can compile an inventory of what I have. I think making the list will be easy, keeping it updated will be a little harder. I think the real challenge will be reminding Brian to update the inventory lol since kitchen related items are usually in my domain I think he will forget that an inventory even exists. But its a nice thought and I think it is worth a try.

Meals this time around included:
Taco Chili
Italian Sausage, peppers, and onions
White Chicken Chili
Honey Sesame Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken
Crock Pot Beef Stew
Southwest Chicken
Mexican Fiesta Chicken
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chicken Parmesan
Baked Potatoe Soup
Beef Italian Skillet Mean
Chicken Pot Pie
Salsa Chicken Rice Casserole
Cranberry Bread
Tex Mex Chicken
Pizza Bites
Funeral Potatoes
Parmesan Garlic Chicken

So in the end about 26 Meals were made this weekend! It felt so good to have such a productive weekend. I did have to take more breaks than usual which was annoying cause the process took longer than usual but my stamina is just not what it was pre pregnancy and I am slowly accepting that. I just took the opportunity from time to time to sit at the table and label bags or reorganize recipes so it wasn't a total waste. The garage freezer is now packed with healthy or at least mostly healthy meals and will last us a month and a half likely or two months even since many will last more than one meal since its just he 2 of us. Since its getting cold here I included a lot more soups and comfort food to our list this time around. We still have some cleaning out of the house freezer. I found we have lots of smoothie ingredients and a giant bag of green beans that I need to get creative with. We were at costco one day when I decided we needed to eat more veggies so I bought the biggest bag of green beans lol which just happens to not be a favorite of either Brian or I so there they have remained just waiting for me to get creative with them. Any one have any great ideas for what I can do with a couple of pounds of green beans?! Lesson learned, don't buy things at costco you aren't positive you will eat.

I also got the tree up and mostly decorated. Garland is on the banister along with lights and the decorations around the house are arranged. I have a few little tweaks to make here and there but for the most part things are looking put together. I finished off the day by putting presents under the tree and hanging stockings. I got up to bed just to realize I still had my regular weekend chores that I had put off so before going to bed I folded laundry and ironed Brian's shirts. I still have vacuuming and dusting to do but decided those both could wait till later, I think I did enough this weekend to push those two things off.

We got some snow on the hills and had a little at our house Saturday but by evening it was gone. I am glad I got so much cooking done. I hate venturing out when the weather is like this so having lots of food in the house helps me push off trips to the grocery store when the weather and roads get really bad.

As crazy as it sounds I wish I had a little more room in the freezers so that I could make a few more things. This happens every time I do a bunch of cooking. I get in a good routine and want to keep going. Good thing this week is Thanksgiving so I have a few more things I can make that won't need to be put away.