Organizing for Summer

I am an artist...but I am also a Mom. I am running a small business but I also have to put meals on the table, do shopping and have fun with the kids this summer. Today, I keep waffling between organizing the studio, organizing my kitchen, planning summer activities for the kids, and getting meals planned and made. Since today I have planned, scheduled and paid for the summer activities; drivers ed, and some fun computer classes, cake decorating for kids, a craft class or two and I have looked at the free tennis lessons available in our area. So that part of life is planned. I looked at my friend's    summer bucket list for her family, adapted and changed it to fit our family. I swapped tea party and blowing bubbles with hot dog roasts/bonfire at the state park, and making banana splits. I have worked in the studio for a couple of hours this morning, sewing, cleaning, sorting and putting away.

So I guess this leaves, getting meals planned,  freezer meals made. Which is harder since we have gone gluten free. We already had a ton of food sensitivities and allergies to cook around. The biggest ones being tree nuts, fish and MSG. The meal thing is huge at our house as we have teenagers and they eat and in an hour they are hungry again. It feels as though we spend huge amounts of time thinking about, preparing and cleaning up the kitchen. Freezer cooking is a way around worrying about what we are going to have for dinner. I have several substitutes for the canned soups that are in some of our favorite recipes, and for the breads which are in others. I think that we will make

• Breakfast bars


• Energy bites from http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/4-weeks-to-fill-your-freezer-homemade-energy-bites-day-18.html


• quiches or as we call it cheese and egg pie using hash browns as the crust.


• breakfast burritos


• bean burritos


• pizza crusts with this flat bread recipe from here  http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/gluten-free-bread-30-minute-flatbread/


• Freezer coleslaw (there are many recipes on the internet and coleslaw is not rocket science).


• Apple crisp to eat tonight (too many apples)


• Crock pot refried beans for bean burritos. From here minus the jalapeno, cumin and salt. We add these at the end of cooking before eating. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/29/recipe-easy-slow-cooker-refried-beans/

I am thinking this is a great start as it uses items we have on hand. I will have to put off all the items that require hash browns. So that will leave pizza crust, freezer coleslaw apple crisp, crockpot refried beans, energy bites, and GF peanut butter cookies.

Tomorrow is another day and I hope to get more done on this then.

Talk to you later,

Karen