Those of you who have been getting my e-mails know that since Hannah has arrived, my cooking theory is “cook lots, cook less often”. I wanted to let you know a few more of my fast food discoveries. Maybe they are just endeavors, since I am sure others do the same.

I bought several big bags (I don’t plan to go back for while) of boneless skinless chicken breasts from Cargill. Instead of dividing them out into quart bags to freeze, I put them down in layers on my cookie sheets with cereal plastic in between. After they were frozen, I broke them apart and put them into gallon bags. Now, they are separate in the bags and I can just pull out a few and use them individually in a casserole, fry them, or grill them. I don’t have to thaw a big massive lump in the microwave (which in our microwave takes a long time).

Next is a really great thing. Cook up lots of hamburger (I did 5 lbs.) some day when you don’t need it. After draining it and it cools, get your husband to put it into small containers and put it in the freezer. Then, it is ready for spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, soups, or whatever.

We used some of the hamburger to make “Quick Pizzas” for lunch. I toasted some bread (this was homemade bread, I don’t know how it would be with store bread–and if you don’t have any homemade bread, just get my sister Miriam to make some for you. That’s what she did for me!), then I spread on some pizza sauce straight from the jar, spooned on some hamburger, added mozzarella cheese and some pepperoni slices and microwaved the whole thing. They tasted great, and as an added bonus, it was a surprise for Andrew since I am sure he was expecting our usual lunch time fare of deer baloney sandwiches.

We had another chance to spoil Paul’s cousins Sunday evening. Due to, hmmm, due to what? I guess due to us not checking for phone messages as soon as we got home from church on Sunday, we didn’t find out about this opportunity until right as we were leaving for the evening church service. Jeremy & Lynn dropped off Steven, Sam, and Emily at our church, and we brought them home from there. That means there were all of 5 car seats in the minivan! It was wall-to-wall car seats except for the two front seats, which is where Andrew and I rode.

We needed milk, so we stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home. My husband goes to great lengths to make sure little kids feel special and to do things they would find fun. Part of that was extracting Steven and Sam out of the back seat of our van and through the maze of car seats and seat belts and taking them along into Wal-Mart. I went through lots of songs singing to Paul and Emily to keep them (mainly Paul) from crying until they got back.

Andrew had lofty plans for the evening. I was skeptical because I knew I would be spending the first hour feeding Hannah and putting her to bed. Plus, Paul had a short nap that afternoon, and I knew he was tired. But, as usual, Andrew’s ideas work out superbly. We cleared our dining room table. Then, Andrew lined all the kids up on one side and gave them chocolate milk and potato chips to those who were able to chew them, and bread to Paul and Emily.

Then, he set up his laptop on the other side of the table and started our Winnie the Pooh DVD. (I think Paul thought he was in his dream world! He loves Winnie the Pooh.) After one of the movies (they aren’t very long), Andrew served ice cream cones, including ones with a tiny bit of ice cream in to Paul and Emily. (At this point, I am sure Paul was in his dream world!)

After that was over, Paul and Emily used the bathroom and I put both of them their pajamas. Then, Andrew read stories to Paul and Emily.

Steven read our big Curious George book, and Sam listened in on Andrew’s readings.

It was a delightful evening, and I attribute that to Andrew and well-trained children. I probably wouldn’t agree to keeping three of someone else’s kids through a church service if it was just anyone, but, I had no fear with Jeremy & Lynn’s because they put a lot of effort into training them, and I knew they would behave excellently, which they did.