Bringing a Meal to Someone

I think one of the nicest things someone can do is bring a meal to a family when they need it. Whether it be a death in the family, the birth of a baby, sickness, or just a nice gesture, bringing a meal is so great. You don't have to grocery shop, prep and make a meal, and clean up the mess. It's great.

After we had Nathan and lost Alexis, people brought us a meal nearly every night for 6 weeks. It was awesome. We only had to go to the store for milk, bread, and fruit for those 6 weeks. Every night some awesome person would come by and bring an entire meal (usually including a salad, main course, bread, and dessert). There was always enough for leftovers. We had sooooo much food. It was awesome.

I love bringing meals to people because I know how much I appreciate and enjoy it. It is so nice to be able to bless another family when they need it.

Here are some tips for bringing a meal:

1) Try to make the food yourself (if you aren't a cook, picking up a meal is just as appreciated).

2) Try to make meals that are pretty simple and basic (not too many "weird" things).

3) If the people have kids, try to bring something kids would eat (we had someone include a few chicken tenders for Luke - that was so nice).

4) Try to bring the meal in throwaway containers if you can (or at least dishes that can be put in the dishwasher). It's nice for the family to not have to hunt you down to return dishes. I like to use those cheap ziploc containers and don't care if I get them back. It's especially helpful if people get a lot of meals to not have to remember who brought which containers.

5) Call ahead and ask what they like or dislike and try to accommodate.

Here are some good meal ideas:

- Meatloaf

- Salisbury steak

- Pot roast

- Chicken casseroles

- Spaghetti

- Baked pasta dishes

What are your tips for bringing meals? Favorite recipes?

Teaching Our Children About Thank You Notes

I think that thank you notes are so important. When someone gives you a gift or does something nice for you like bring a meal when you have a baby, I think it is so nice to send a thank you note. They don't have to be long drawn out paragraphs, just a couple of sentences. They don't have to be super deep, just something simple to say "Thanks."

I think it is really important to teach our children to write thank you notes. This year since Luke can write, I decided to have him help me. I pulled out some handwriting sheets and had him put the person's (or in this case persons') name(s) at the top and sign his name at the bottom. Then I filled in the message. As he gets older, he will be writing the notes all by himself.

The ironic thing is that our weekly Bible verse is "be thankful" (Colossians 3:15). It was nice to have a tangible way to teach him what thankfulness is and how to show it.

Here is one of the thank you notes we wrote:

Organized CHRISTmas Baking

I love CHRISTmas!!! It's my favorite time of year. I love celebrating Jesus' birth, playing Santa Claus for my kids, spending time with family, all of the decorating, the present giving, caroling, CHRISTmas programs, and of course, CHRISTmas baking.

I love to bake!!! It's so fun to pull out recipes, get out the mixer and supplies, and spend the day in the kitchen baking lots of yummy treats to share with others. As with anything, I have to be organized about it.

Here's how I CHRISTmas bake:

1 - I select all of the recipes I want to make and how many of each (ie batches).

2 - I compute how much of each ingredient I will need.

3 - I go through my cupboards, pantry, and fridge to see what I need at the store and make my list.

4 - I go shopping for all of the baking needs (I also stock up if I notice my baking cupboard is low on something since I love to bake randomly).

5 - I lay out all of my dry ingredients (flour, sugars, baking soda/powder, salt, spices), wet ingredients (butter - so it can soften, eggs, milk, molasses), and misc ingredients (peanut butter, chocolate chips, candies). I put my mixer on the main island. I get out some smaller mixing bowls, measuring cups/spoons, and baking sheets.

6 - I start with the recipes that need to be refrigerated (ie sugar cookie dough, peanut blossom dough) so that they can be in the refrigerator while I am making the other cookies.

7 - I use one set of measuring cups/spoons for dry ingredients and one for wet so I don't have to wash as much.

8 - I also like to keep a sink of hot soapy water to put stuff in as I go to make cleanup easier.

9 - I just work my way through my baking and clean as I go so there isn't a major mess to clean up at the end.

10 - I have a station for cookies to cool and be packaged.

It's just so much fun. I really enjoy letting Luke help me (if he wants to of course) and by being organized it keeps things running smoothly.

Hosting a Party on a Budget

Everyone knows that I love couponing and getting stuff for a great deal. While I enjoy being able to feed my family on a budget and get lots of stuff for very little money, my favorite thing is being able to be hospitable without breaking the bank. I love bringing meals to people when they are sick or have a baby or a death in the family and I love having people over to our home. I thought that I would break down how I fed 12 people today for a very reasonable amount.

I served Baked Ziti and Chicken Parmesan.

Here were my ingredients:
2 boxes whole wheat penne pasta - $1.50
1 lb 93% lean ground beef - $3.00
1 lb chicken breast tenders - $2.00
1/4 of 4 different peppers (red, orange, yellow, green) - $1.50
1/4 an onion - 13 cents
1.5 jars Ragu spaghetti sauce - $1.12
1 cans Hunt's tomato sauce - 15 cents
2 bags Kraft low-fat mozzarella cheese - $1.00
Parmesan cheese - 50 cents
Bread crumbs - 50 cents
3 egg whites - 25 cents
2 boxes New York garlic bread - $2.00

Total cost of the meal was $13.65. Not too bad. :)

PS My mother-in-law brought a beautiful salad and my sister brought yummy dessert so that helped me out even more.

Organized Party Planning

I love planning and hosting parties. I am so thrilled that we have a bigger house now so we can host more easily. I think you can host people no matter how much space you have, but it definitely is nicer now that we have a separate dining room so we can double up on the dining spots. We are having my belated birthday bash tomorrow and I am thrilled.

Here are some of my tips for successful party planning:

1) Don't freak out if you don't have the perfect house or the perfect space or perfect dishes or perfect food. It's not about being perfect. It's about sharing your home and your food with those you love. That's what hospitality is all about.

2) Give people ample notice so that you get a good turn out. My motto is: The more the merrier :)

3) Try to have a meal that most people would like even if it means a little more work for you. I like to have a couple of main dishes and a few choices for sides. I don't want someone to feel weird that they don't like what I made. I also try to keep it simple.

4) Clean your house during the week before. Don't wait until the day before or worse the day of. You will stress yourself out.

5) Try to have most of what you need for the meal before the day of. Again, it will stress you out.

6) If you know the meal won't be ready, serve a basic snack (chips and dip) and a drink to the guests while they are waiting for the main meal.

7) Let people help you if they offer. They could bring a simple side dish or salad or dessert. It makes them feel good and helps you out.

8) ENJOY YOURSELF! The goal of hosting people in your home is to have a good time. Remember that! :)

Happy Hosting!

Organized Card Giving

Organized Homemaking is more than just cooking, cleaning, and organizing. It's a heart thing. One of the best ways to share your heart with someone is to send them a card for their birthday, when they have a new baby, when they are going through a tough time, or just because.

It can be hard to remember and cost a lot to just go to the store and buy a card. I found a great way of keeping and organizing cards for all occasions in our home office. I love it because anytime I want to send a card, I have them right in my house and they don't cost as much.

It's a card storage/file "drawer. You can put it in a filing cabinet, but I think it is so pretty, that I sit it out for decoration as well as function. I got this for 50% off ($10.00) at the Christian bookstore. It had a ton of cards included for all occasions and dividers with stickers so you could organize it. The best thing is the cards had Bible verses in them.

I put the stickers on (in alphabetical order of course) and put the cards for the specific occasion behind the divider.

In this case, my friend had a baby boy. I went to the BABY section and pulled out an "It's a Boy" card.

The great thing is I can see when I need to pick up some more of that theme. You can get boxed cards Buy 1 Get 1 Free at Lifeway Christian everyday. When you get them in the boxes, you can file them here.

If you can't find this system, you can just buy the boxes and stack them in your office/wherever you keep office supplies so you have them on hand. You could also use a shoe box or plastic box and create your own system. I just think this was easy and pretty.

Pot Roast

This is a two-fold post, 1) to show how to make a simple yummy pot roast and 2) to show how easy it is to bring a meal to another family in the same amount of time and effort it takes to make a meal just for your family.

A lot of people think that pot roast is a difficult, expensive, and time consuming meal to make. I will show you that it is actually very easy (one of the easiest meals I make), takes very little time (again less time than most meals I make), and can be very inexpensive (if you shop for good prices on the main ingredients).

Everything has been doubled to feed 2 families in the pictures, but the recipe is based on one family.

Ingredients:
1 - 1 1/2 lb bottom round roast (I cut the big ones in half when I get home)
A few russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 a bag of baby carrots
1/2 an onion, peeled and cut into thick slices
Salt and pepper
Meat tenderizer
1 pkg onion soup mix
Water

Directions:
Spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray.

Put roast in (I put them in frozen, but you can put them in fresh).

Cover with salt, pepper, meat tenderizer, and onion soup mix.

Put potatoes around the roast.

Put carrots on top of the potatoes.

Put onions on top of the carrots.

Cover with water.

Put the lid on and set to LOW heat for 6 HOURS.

Leave it alone and in 6 hours you have a perfect roast. It can sit on the stay warm option until you are ready for it. It gets better the longer it sits.

Pull out the meat, carve off the excess fat, and slice into pieces to your liking.

I prepared two sets of roast and veggies, one for us and one for our friends.

Cover with juice so that everything stays moist.

See, wasn't that easy and time efficient?

Now for the cost breakdown for both meals:

Roast - roughly $6.00

Potatoes - roughly $1.00

Carrots - $2.00

Onion - Less than 50 cents

Onion soup mix - 50 cents

I don't count seasonings as it would be impossible and not worth the time.

A [GOOD, FILLING] meal that will feed 2 families for $10.00. You cannot beat that.

PS When I bring a meal to someone, I try to bring it in a throw away container or keepable container. I hate to burden them with having to clean it and return it.