OAMC: Completed for April

Remember the scripture that says plans made by man rarely come to fruition (Proverbs 19:21).  Well, that's me on this month's OAMC day.  I had originally planned our Monthly Meal Plan for April but then things changed.  Apparently, it's not a good idea to cook at 10 o'clock Thursday night...my brain evidently quits working at 8:00 when the kids go to bed.  I should have just went to bed, but instead I did my prep work:

Prep Work:

• Great Northern Beans, Black Beans cooked on the stove top after soaking all afternoon, bagged and frozen 
• Browned ALL 7-8 lbs Ground Beef...only I forgot I needed to hold out about 2 lbs for Mini Meatloaves...DOH!  Instead of heading out to the store, I checked the freezer and decided we'd have Fish Tacos in place of the Meatloaves on the menu. 
• I didn't get around to the Pizza Dough.  Although I tried a new recipe from Saveur magazine for supper Thursday and it was a perfect "hand tossed" type crust.  Really, really good.  I'll share that recipe soon. 
• Chicken Breasts in Crock Pot - cubed and then froze.

Today (Friday) I took my time and didn't have everything written out, in schedule form (which I realize I totally need in order to stay on task and get things done). 

Cooking & Freezing:

• Lasagna - Ummm, well this goes back to the whole, planning stage...I didn't check to see if we had Lasagna noodles, we have every other kind imaginable BUT Lasagna.  So instead of running out and paying full price for a box, I improvised and used some small pasta shapes and hopefully it will bake up nicely, reminiscent of a Baked Ziti, without the Ziti pasta.  Next month I'm determined to share our recipe of Lasagna, it's nothing out of the ordinary, but it's really easy and good. x 2
• Sloppy Joes completed, bagged and in the freezer x 2
• Ground Beef for Spaghetti x 2
• Taco Meat x 2 - this recipe is the first time I tried it and it's delicious!  I didn't have "corn flour" so I used cornmeal instead.  I need to get some masa harina since I found a great homemade corn tortilla recipe I'm planning to try in a few days.  I'll let you know how they turn out.
• Burritos - I didn't make any, I cooked up the Great Northern beans and put them in 2 cup portions in freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer.  I have about 20 burritos leftover from last month, so we'll eat these first.  If we run out, I'll have the beans ready to go and make up a batch.
• Mini Meatloaves x 3  So as I already told you above, I had an OOPS moment and didn't set any meat aside to make these.  I have one meal leftover from last month, so we'll eat it and replace the other meals on the menu with Fish Tacos using up the StarKist SeaSations...I have so many of those!
  

• Chewy Granola Bars- I didn't make any granola bars today.  I just didn't feel like baking anymore after I did the 4 dozen muffins and the granola, it was just too hot. (The house reached 83 degrees INSIDE).
• Easy Granola I made a double batch and added walnuts and rice krispies cereal...it turned out really good and crunchy.
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins 4 dozen muffins, but we ate 4 for snack time this afternoon :)
• Homemade Pancakes When I doubled the batch, it didn't turn out really good and then I kept overcooking the pancake on one side so I had to throw away about 5 pancakes. I think we ended up with about 12 pancakes total.
• Pumpkin French Toast Sticks I used homemade loaf bread using this recipe for Amish white bread.
• Homemade Hamburger Buns  I didn't get around to these. I'll make them up when we eat the Sloppy Joes.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough We have about 2 dozen cookie dough balls.

So we ended up with 12 "fresh" meals to add to the existing ones in the freezer.  I really need to get the freezer eaten up so I can defrost it.  We purchased it off Craigslist about 2 years ago for $100.  It's not new by any means but it freezes great and works good for us.  I'm sure it could be a little more energy efficient, but for now, it will do.  The frost is about 3" thick on the top...so my goal is to get most of everything eaten and then we can thaw it out. 

Be sure to see what others accomplished for OAMC day at Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom.

Enjoy!