Cooking once a week...

The following is an article I read from familyfun.go.com that I thought I would pass along. How nice would it be to cook once a week?!?

At the end of every busy day, the question was always the same: "What's for dinner?"
Dinner? Not only was I running out of meal ideas, my husband, Aaron, and I also seemed to run out of time each night. With school, jobs, activities, and homework, my family already had too few precious minutes to spend together. Who wanted to spend most of them standing over the stove? Worse, when I did find time to cook, the kids often grumbled about the menu.
I fantasized about having a batch of favorite meals ready to go, so we could just pluck a dish out of the fridge, heat it, and serve it. Sure, the meal prep would still have to happen. But what if we tackled the bulk of the work all at once, together -- and maybe even made it fun? This sounded like a plan.
So one Sunday afternoon last year, when my older kids were especially bored and begging to watch television and play video games, I told them we were going to cook instead.
"Cook what?" asked Lauren, then age 7.
Opening the fridge and staring at two giant packets of chicken breasts, and several packages of beef and sliced pork, I declared: "Everything!"
I took out the meat, and we tracked down as many baking pans as we could find. (It turned out I had five.) Lauren and Nicole, then age 4, coated the pans with cooking spray. I dumped the chicken into two pans, filled two more with beef (sliced in one and cubed in the other), and put the pork in the last. Nicole washed peppers and mushrooms, and Lauren carefully sliced an onion. Their 1-year-old brother, Brendan, watched it all with curiosity. The girls picked their favorite marinades and spices, which we added to the dishes, along with the veggies. We slid the pans into the oven. Next, we tackled the mess. Truthfully, it wasn't half as bad as you'd expect after prepping a week's worth of food. Most of the utensils would have gotten dirty anyhow when we made our Sunday night dinner. And then, as the food cooked, we found ourselves with free time! Here we were, all in the same room with nothing on our agenda. So we talked. First we discussed how we could turn these meats into meals: chicken sandwiches, stir-fry, and fajitas.
But perhaps inspired by our cozy togetherness in the kitchen and the relaxed sense of accomplishment we felt, our conversation before long grew more personal. We chatted about school, sports teams, problems with friends, and an upcoming birthday party. I was amazed by how easily the discussion flowed and how much detail the girls shared with me and with each other. Even Brendan seemed to love this unexpected together time.
Too soon, the oven timer sounded. We set aside some of the chicken to make sandwiches for that evening's meal, then we cooled and stored everything else in labeled containers. We ended up with seven of them -- altogether -- the beginnings of seven meals to be served through the week. The only chore we had left was to wash the extra pans -- and because we'd used cooking spray, they cleaned up easily.
The rest of that week went as smoothly as I'd hoped. Each morning, I put one of the frozen entrees into the refrigerator to thaw. In the evening, it usually took 15 minutes or less to make a side of veggies, salad, or rice.
Now, we spend an hour or two cooking on Sunday as often as we can. Every once in a while, we make batches of cookie dough to freeze. Everyone looks forward to our time in the kitchen. Sometimes, the kids pretend we're restaurant owners, and they create fancy meal ideas and a menu for the week. The children love that I'm not stuck for an hour in the kitchen every night. And because they've helped plan the meals, there's much less griping and much more eating and enjoying!

90 Minute Cinnamon Rolls

Okay, so it's not a dinner recipe, but I've made them several times lately and they're really good! I just do them in a greased 9x13 pan and they come out great every time.

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup raisins (optional) (I leave them out)

DIRECTIONS
Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water, egg and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, softened margarine.
Roll out dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Spread dough with margarine/sugar mixture. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in 12 lightly greased muffin cups. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until browned. Remove from muffin cups to cool. Serve warm

Spiced Pork Chops

Here's what we had for dinner tonight. I did make a few adjustments....instead of dredging the chops in the herb mixture I just mixed everything (except the flour) together and poured it over the chops after browning them with just salt and pepper. I did add in some Worcestershire sauce and red pepper flakes to the sauce. At the end I added a little cornstarch to the sauce to thicken it and we at it over rice. Yummy!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 pinch pepper
4 (3/4 inch thick) pork loin chops
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a shallow dish, combine the first 10 ingredients; dredge pork chops on both sides. In a skillet, brown chops in oil on both sides. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Combine ketchup, water and brown sugar; pour over chops. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until tender.

Feast or Famine?

Ok...so there are some great recipes on this blog and yet not one of them could I make right now as I don't have all of the ingredients for a single recipe posted. That said it is painfully obvious that I need to go to the grocery store! I think it will be take-out tonight. Definately not a good way to start out the month. I hope the rest of you are better prepared!