WRITE: Mega-Cooking FAQs, Part II
Today’s post continues a topic we began earlier this week when I posted a picture on Facebook of some meals I’d prepared for the freezer. Feel free to read the first set of FAQs here before you read these. Do you have to cook as much without all of your children at home, or is it just habit? As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, our meals have gotten smaller now that our three older children have left the nest. But I’ve noticed our remaining family members still like to eat. And mega-cooking is the most practical, efficient, and cost-saving way I’ve found to feed our family and keep up with my other responsibilities, too. I need a workshop on this! I’ve taught workshops on this topic several times but only once in the past few years. I would be glad to do so again. It’s a great topic for a church group, MOPs group, homeschooling group, etc. How do you decide what meals to freeze? I have a battery of recipes I’ve used and developed through the years. I also like to change things up every once in a while and add something new or different. Not all meals work for the freezer (celery is a popular ingredient, for example, but it holds too much water to freeze well in bulk). Whenever it’s time to do our mega-cooking, we have a family meeting and discuss what to prepare. Like any other family decision, meal-planning often involves compromise. Allowing family members to help make the list cuts down on future complaints, too. I would add that you don’t want to use a new, untried recipe in your mega-cooking rotation. If your family doesn’t like it once, they won’t want to see it five or more times. And yes, I speak from experience. When our oldest two daughters were small, I tried a Sweet-and-Sour Chicken recipe that my husband and I enjoyed but our children despised. We made the mistake of calling it “Chinese food,” and for years afterward, our older girls were sure they hated any kind of Asian cuisine! My spouse (children, grandchildren) won’t eat casseroles. Can this kind of cooking still work for me? Yes and no. If you read my recipe list from Tuesday’s post, you’ll notice a few casserole-type dishes there. The soups and sauces used in casseroles work well for freezing. But I also freeze entrees like Taco Meat and Marinated Chicken. I would say not eating casserole-style dishes might limit, but not prevent, mega-cooking. You shape your mega-cooking to fit your family’s budget, needs, and preferences just as you do whenever you cook. How does mega-cooking save you money? It seems as though the cost must be high. Mega-cooking saves me money because I can buy in bulk. A #2 can of tomato sauce at one of the club stores costs much less per ounce than a 10- or 16-ounce can. Buying cheese in bulk costs less than buying it a pound or two at a time. I also watch for sales on chicken, ground turkey, and other staple ingredients and stock up ahead of time. Because so many people want specifics: the food for my last mega-cooking session (more than 70 main dishes) cost me less than $300. Those meals will last several...
read moreWRITE: Mega-Cooking FAQs, Part I
Writers write. That may seem like basic information, but that simple phrase sets the professional apart from the amateur. If you write full-time as I do, you write—no matter what. Sometimes other people or things take precedence, but in order to keep publishing, writers keep writing. I have a secret weapon in my homemaker/homeschooler/conference speaker/full-time writer and editor arsenal. We call it mega-cooking, a project our family accomplishes over a period of a few days. During this time we (or, as the children have grown older and busier, I) buy ingredients, prepare, and fix more than fifty main dishes for our freezer. That provides the base for our dinner meals for the next several months. Yesterday, I posted a photo and shared a comment on Facebook about our latest sets of meals. It drew so many questions and comments that I decided to respond where I have a little more room. I’m condensing and compiling some of the similar questions, so don’t think I’ve omitted yours. How do you do this? First of all, I don’t cook fifty or more individual meals. Instead, I make each of several recipes six or seven times over. I follow a simple procedure in which I multiply the ingredients and list them according to type to help me compile a grocery list. After I have all the ingredients, I make a task list that shows everything I need to do to make every meal. I combine common tasks such as chopping vegetables or browning meat and do those as early on in the process as I can. After I finish the basic prep work, I start going through the task list to prepare individual meals. I also try to accomplish more than one thing at a time. I might bake the potatoes for Loaded Baked Potato Soup while I’m browning the meat for Tacos, or cook up some veggies in chicken broth while I’m mixing up a soup base, etc. Mega-cooking is (of course) both easier and more complicated than this, but you get the basic idea. Do you have a big freezer? Yes. And no. We do have a chest freezer in our garage (I think it’s about cubic feet, but I’m not sure). But the meals take up less room than you might think. I freeze the majority of ours in gallon-size zip-top bags. I load my soups, sauces, and even casseroles into the bags, push out as much air as possible, and freeze them as flat as I can on a cookie or other baking sheet. Once the meals freeze, I can stack the bags high without taking up much room. One year when we moved and had no freezer except the small one above our refrigerator space, I still did my mega-cooking using the available freezer space. I couldn’t do seventy meals, but I’m sure I fit twenty-five or thirty in our little freezer. In my mega-cooking world, “meals” is also a relative term. I have meals like large pans of chicken enchiladas and lasagna that look like a meal to you. But I also have bags of taco-seasoned ground turkey, already browned, frozen to use in (you’ll never guess) tacos, Spanish Rice, nachos, or taco salad. I freeze spaghetti sauce in three-cup portions to use on...
read morePRAY: Prayer for Those Who Are Sorting Things Out
Earlier this summer, I spent time in Ohio visiting my mom, who was widowed last June. We enjoyed some quiet days together working in her (huge) gardens, cleaning, and sorting things out. Mom lives in a beautiful log home on 112 acres. Someday, she’ll move to a smaller place. While I visited, we went through her many antique cabinets and hutches. Because Mom has inherited many heirlooms and has had the privilege of a long life, she has lots of china, glassware, and other items to sort out. Together, we took time to categorize everything, setting aside a few items aside for sale or donation. Mom was amazed (and pleased) when I used my laptop to record our work. How do we sort things out? Sometimes the task can seem impossible. And an emotional or spiritual sorting-out can overwhelm us even more than a physical one. We may find ourselves locked in fear, worry, or even depression because of the need to sort things out. A connection with God offers a better solution. If you or someone you know is sorting things out, please join your prayers with mine: Gracious God, my world and my circumstances overwhelm me at times. I can see so many sides to my situation, so many ways it could go, so many avenues and choices. But Father, I need to make some decisions. I need to move forward. And I need Your grace and power to sort things out. Lord, when I look at the pictures of Jesus in Scripture, I don’t see Him confused or upset. I don’t see Him wondering what to do or how to do it. When He faced big decisions and life-changing moments, He always drew apart and spent time with You. Lord, when I’m tempted to worry, please pull me into prayer. When my thoughts swirl about me, remind me that I have Your mind. Help me acknowledge You in every way as I trust You to make my paths straight. Savior, I want to say along with You, “Lord, not my will but Yours be done.” Grant my desire to seek You first. Give me grace to seek You always. And help me as I sort things out according to Your Word, Your will, and Your way. In the holy name of Jesus I pray—AMEN. Are you struggling to sort things out? Do you know someone who is? Feel free to share your prayer need in a comment or email through the contact link at the top right. As always, it’s my joy and privilege to pray for you. ...
read morePrayer for Government Authorities
Two weeks ago, a shooting took place in the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. It seemed like just one more awful event until I learned a friend’s husband worked there. For several hours, he and an entire group of employees remained out of touch and on lockdown. My prayers for the situation become more fervent and more personal once I learned of his direct involvement. Scripture commands us to pray for “kings and all who are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:2). Put in modern-day terms, we are to pray for our government officials, from the local policeman to our state senators to the President of the United States and other top officials in this and other countries. But, short of having a neighbor who’s a policeman (I do) or a relative who’s a politician (I don’t), how do we personalize this type of prayer? My answer: keep it simple, sweetie. If we held that position, how would we want someone to pray for us? What concerns have surfaced through media channels? What needs does God’s Spirit reveal? The next time you’re tempted to complain about those in authority, try praying for them instead. Perhaps you can start by joining me in today’s prayer: Lord of all, we know You have no rivals. Nothing and no one compares with You. But we also know You use structure, law, and government to accomplish Your purposes. You work in and through these avenues and personalities. And just as with us, You work in spite of them, too. Today, my Master, I lift up those in positions of government authority. From the least to the great, from the weakest to the strongest, from the minor to the mighty, all rest in Your powerful hand. We ask You to grant them wisdom and courage to make wise decisions. We ask You to help them consider not their own interests but those of the people they serve. We ask for Your truth, Your justice to prevail. We ask that, more and more, these officials, their plans and programs would lean on You. And God, we also ask for the outworking of Your will and Your kingdom. We ask that You would turn even the bad, the unjust, the destructive to Your purposes and Your plans. We ask that You would work all things—the ones that make You smile and the ones that make You weep—into a tapestry woven of grace. We ask You to rescue the hopeless, to lift up the fallen, to cast out the evil one, to bring Your victory and peace in Your matchless way. Lord, we also pray for the families of these who serve You by serving others. Grant them Your grace. Allow them to see the importance of their loved one’s tasks. Allow them to break only in the places You choose and to receive the healing and restoration only You can bring. We praise You, God, because You are a great God, and a great King above all gods. Let everyone in any position of authority recognize and remember that You are Lord of all. In Your holy name I pray—AMEN. Does a government official you know (or know of) need our prayers? Share your request in the comments below or by emailing me (see link to...
read moreREAD: Why I’d Like to Review the Sword Study (But Can’t)
In the past year or so, I’ve stopped posting reviews on Amazon and other bookseller sites. I know too many authors to feel right about attempting to give unbiased opinions of their work. But here at home on Read. Write. Pray, of course, I do post reviews. And I try to share my connections with my author friends through the rising-in-frequency “Words with Friends” feature. But some books, I still can’t review. That holds true in the case of a wonderful new Bible study series entitled Sword Study by Tammy McMahan (Glass Road Media, 2013). Tammy is a precious friend. She and I got to know each other, in fact, when we both prayed for a young man named BJ Higgins whose story became another book close to my heart, I Would Die for You by Brent and Deanna Higgins (Revell, 2008). God blessed me by allowing me to assist his parents in telling their son’s story. Out of our prayer partnership came a beautiful friendship and spiritual sisterhood. It didn’t hurt that, a year or so after we became friends, Tammy and her family moved to the small Ohio town where my parents lived (my dad has since passed away). My children became friends with hers. And God provided other connections, too. For all these reasons and more, I can’t review the Sword Study. The “more” includes the fact that I do some writing and editing work for the Shelby Kennedy Foundation. Founder and sponsor of the National Bible Bee, the Foundation uses the Sword Study in tandem with the Scriptures as its primary curriculum. The “more” also includes the fact that I wrote the Vignettes (fictional accounts of real people) that introduce each Sword Study week. Much as I might like to, I can’t offer a review of my own work. And why would I like to review it? Because this fall, I’m spending part of my morning quiet time in Level 4 (ages 14 and up) of the 1 John Sword Study. And I’m loving every step of the deep, meaty, challenging, convicting, inspiring way. Of course, that’s not the only reason I’d like to review the Sword Study. Here are a few more of its special features: Age-grading/Family-Friendliness: The Sword Study is written on multiple levels, from Level I (preschool) to Level 4 (ages 15 and above). Each level includes age-appropriate language and activities synchronized so all family members study the same passage at the same time. In this way, a family can customize a Sword Study purchase to fit its needs. I love this unique element of the Sword Study and wish I’d had something like it when my children were small. Availability: So far, the Sword Studies for Colossians, 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, and 1 John have been released, with more in the works. Parent Guide: A Parent Guide, available separately or packed with Level 4, gives step-by-step instructions for leading family members through the book. Inductive Method: At each level, the Sword Study uses an inductive method, which means it not only moves from a general overview (Aerial View) to more specific information (Streetview) to detailed/hidden (Under the Rug) information about the text but also uses investigation, interpretation, and application to help the learner not only learn about the passage but live...
read moreWelcome
I've asked God to use my writing and speaking to count for eternity. I'm passionate about relationships and creativity.
