Make-Ahead/Freezable Recipe: Roast, Left-Over Roast Stew & Cornbread

This recipe is a two-parter…actually three because I’m also going to include my recipe for cornbread, which I always serve with this stew.

I always make this stew after we have had roast for dinner.  Then I throw the whole thing in the refrigerator until later in the week when I know it’s going to be a busy day.  The stew is all ready to go and all I have to do is turn the crockpot on and let it cook.  So, first day:

CROCK-POT ROAST 

3-4 lb Beef Roast

1 envelope Onion Soup Mix (I usually use Lipton brand, but the store brand works just as well.)

1-15 oz can Tomato Sauce

1-15 oz can Beef Broth

1 TBS Garlic Powder

Baby Carrots

Sliced Potatos

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low all day.  Serve and enjoy.

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LEFT-OVER ROAST STEW

Once dinner is over and the roast has cooled enough to handle, dice up any remaining carrots and potatoes and shred/cube the remaining roast.  Leave these in the crockpot with the left over “juice” from the Roast.  Add three more cups of beef broth, 2 bay leaves, Montreal Seasoning and garlic powder to taste (approx. 1-2 TBS each), and 1 cup each frozen corn and peas.  I also usually add a couple more potatoes and some more carrots to even out the mix. 

Place crock pot in fridge until next day or later in week.  When ready, cook stew in crockpot on low heat for 6-8 hours.   Serve with cornbread.  This stew makes a full crock-pot.  We eat our fill and freeze the rest.  Our family of four is usually able to get three meals of stew out of the leftover roast.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SKILLET CORNBREAD:

In mixing bowl, combine:

2 cups cornmeal (I like to mix half yellow cornmeal and half white cornmeal);

3 TBS Flour

2 TBS Sugar

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

Once combined, add in 1 egg and 1 3/4 cups milk. 

Meanwhile, in cast iron skillet, melt 2 TBS shortning.  Once melted, add to cornbread mixture; pour mixture into skillet.  Bake in oven at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  Serve with butter and honey!  Yumm. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Date With My Sweetie…

Tonight, my sweetie and I were able to go on a honest-to-goodness, 100% bonafide date.  Not the kind of “date” we usually have where we spend some time playing board games or watching a movie after the kids go to bed.  Nope.  Tonight, we headed out.of.the.house! 

We have some very sweet friends in our building with two young girls who recently asked if we would like to start swappnig babysitting/date nights.  Being in seminary and living on the opposite side of the U.S. as the rest of our family (i.e., free babysitters), we were very open to this idea.  And, our sweet friends offered to be the first to babysit!

Unfortunately, the first night we planned a date, our kids came down with colds.  Then, the next weekend, we already had plans to go camping. 

So, three weeks after the initial suggestion, we finally had our date.

We enjoyed the evening with dinner at one of our favorite restaraunts in the area and then we headed over to the bookstore to browse for a little bit (with a Pumpkin Spice Latte from the in-store Starbucks…yummm).   

It’s sad, but true.  We love spending our dates roaming through a bookstore.  Can you tell we’re parents!  It’s just nice to be able to take our time and look at whatever we want without hearing such comments as “Can we please go to the kids books now?” or “It’s pink, Mama.  It’s pink!  Can we buy it…please?!” every two seconds… 

It’s funny, but somehow at the end of the night, our few purchases were all from the kids section.  Not sure how that happened.  *sigh*

Anyway, then we hurried home, put the kids to bed and sat down to enjoy the season premiere of Stargate Atlantis.

What’s your favorite date with your sweetie?

A Follow Up: A Major Fit of Attitude

Since posting the other day about my current “mama/daughter” struggle (original post is here), I’ve had several conversations/comments regarding the same and I wanted to clarify a few things.

Jordan’s comment made me stop and consider my motives for this current struggle.  (Thank you, Jordan!  I am always better having stopped to analyze why I am taking the actions I am.)  Having considered the situation, I am still completely confident in my choice to take on this “battle”…and here’s why.

First and foremost, this battle is for my daughter’s health.  No, this isn’t a life-or-death issue.  My daughter would survive quite well regardless of whether I forced her to eat what I put on her plate.  However, two major traits in my daughter transform this into a health issue:  (a) sadly, my daughter has inherited my despised bowels.  I won’t go into details here — that would be embarrassing for more than just me.  Suffice it so say, if my daughter does not get enough natural fiber in her diet (fiber pills have the opposite intended effect on my system and thus the same is probably true for my daughter), BAD, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN!  (b) my daughter, very much unlike her brother, is a ‘delicate’ AND ‘picky’ eater.  If I told her that, should she decide not to eat what was offered for any particular meal, she could have no snacks until the next meal, she would be quite content with that situation….forever!  And she would never eat a vegetable again in her life.  Instead she would live off of milk, instant mashed potatos and the occasional meal that she liked.  And her bowels would be grumpy for way too much of her little life.

It is first and foremost for her health that I choose to fight this battle.  But that is not my only reason.

Secondly, my husband and I enjoy eating out (very occasionally) and we LOVE getting together with friends to share a meal.  Should we allow our children to dictate what they will and will not eat based upon their preferences, we would have to endure many an embarrassing moment in front of friends where our children refused to eat the food our friends had prepared because it was “yucky”.  Many parents I’m sure will not agree with us on this point, but it is important to us.  Our children will learn that sometimes, they have to eat what is put in front of them because it is polite to the cook/hosts…regardless of whether they like it.

Thirdly, it is a matter of teaching our children to respect authority.  I realize that my daughter is only 3 1/2 and still a “toddler”.  But she already shows a very willful nature.  I am not opposed to her being independent and head-strong.  Those are valuable traits that I value….if they are kept in check.  But, I believe that one of the major problems of our society is that many parents are no longer teaching their children to submit to authority. 

(I know, I’m broaching the dreaded “s” word.  Trust me, I have fought this word to, so please don’t send me hate mail!)

Everyone in life — if they want to lead a successful life — must submit to some form of authority….and my daughter will be no exception.  I submit to the authority of my Sovereign LORD, to my husband (or at least, I am learning to!), to my boss (as relates to the job) and other authorities that come and go throughout my life.  My husband submits to the authority of God, his boss, his professors, and so forth.  This doesn’t mean we can’t question our authority(ies) (and as adults, choose to not follow bad authority!).  Also, my husband and I do allow our children to question (respectfully) because we want them to be strong and to lead.  But ultimately, we all need some authority in our lives.  We need an authority that we know we can trust and that has our best interest in mind.  If we do not teach our children to respect authority now, they will go through life expecting that they can lead the world without any grounding.  And they will be exhausted doing so.  Very Destructive! 

But I am forcing myself off of this tangent….for now. 

So, is this particular battle (eating dinner) crucial to learning respect for authority?  Maybe, maybe not.  The point is, I do have to choose my battles.  I probably allow my children to “get away with” things that other parents would not allow their children to do.  But this is a battle that I feel is important for many reasons and so, for my sweetie and I, it must be fought…jointly and continuously.  My daughter isn’t old enough to understand these reasons.  And so, for now, she must learn that sometimes “Because Mama/Daddy says so” is reason enough. 

Oh, I have to talk about this one….

I’m riled up about this one….just to give you fair warning… 

This weekend, as I was meandering through a few blogs, I happened upon this post by Crownslaiddown about Nebraska Senator Ernie Chambers, who is suing God.  Being intrigued, I clicked on the link within her post to this article.  And of course, once I read that article, I had to click on the pdf file for the court document.

Sure, in this day and age — in America! –somebody trying to sue God does not shock me.  But, I wondered, what’s his angle?  What point is he trying to prove?  Turns out, according to the KPTM Fox 42 News, he’s trying to “fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits.”  In other words, he’s trying to prove, through this lawsuit, that possible legislation restricting frivolous lawsuits should NOT be introduced/passed.  Am I missing something?  Because to me, filing a frivolous lawsuit to keep frivolous lawsuits from being restricted is a little counter-productive.

But, I don’t really want to go off on a long rant about the Senator’s choice.  What intrigues me more is embedded within his Petition for Permanent Injunction. 

In his Petition, the Senator requests that God be ordered to ”cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.” (These activities and threats include hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.)  He then goes on to argue that this case is allowed to be filed in this district court because God is present there through various agents ”who publicly and notoriously hold themselves out to be agents of [God] who are authorized to speak for and represent [God].”  (Don’t even get me started on what some of these “agents” are saying….)  And that because God never “publicly has disavowed explicitly” these agents, they may be “deemed to be, in fact, agents of Defendant”. 

But here’s the kicker that wipes the mildly amused smile off my face:

“9.  Said agents…appear to be hopelessly alienated, fractious, separated from, and antagonistic towards one another.”

Wow.  Regardless of Senator Chambers purpose in preparing and filing this document, that statement cannot be easily dismissed.    And although he includes many “agents” within this document that are not associated with Christians in any way or form, we cannot deny that the Church is “alienated, fractious, separated from, and antagonistic towards one another.”  And that is not what we are supposed to be. 

It is very painful to realize that, as agents of God, our actions…our behavior is being used, albeit hopelessly, AGAINST GOD in an American court of law. 

Previously, I would have been very disheartened by this story.  Now, though, I maintain great hope.  Although the world may often see a disjointed and fractious body of Christ, I see and feel a current of believers who are crying out for change and who are bound and determined to show the world the true nature of Christ.  Little by little.  Individual person by individual person.  I am currently surrounded in a community of people who are spending their time digging into God’s word.  And they’re not turning away from the difficult parts.  As Isaiah 50:5 says:  “The Sovereign LORD has opened [our] ears, and [we] have not been rebellious;  [we] have not turned back”! 

I believe that a majority of Christians are honestly seeking God and growing in their faith (although we all have our ugly mood moments).  And that as we mentor each other and hold each other accountable, we will continue to prove to the world, one-by-one, that God is who he says he is.  And that he is THE Sovereign LORD whom we can fear (as the Senator is attempting to feed upon) and fall in love with at the same time!

Check out the above links and tell me what you think.  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

A Major Fit of Attitude…

Help me, PLEASE!!

My daughter is 3 1/2…which she feels entitles her to rule her own little world.  Thus, not to be outdone by Daddy, she is  currently working on her masters degree too….in Rebellion 101.

So, for the past little while, we have been semi-fighting the food battle.  You know what I mean.  How much of her dinner is she absolutely, positively required to eat before she is allowed to leave the table/have dessert/not be grounded to her room/etc.?  Well, this little battle culminated in all-out-war today.  Oh yes it did!

Lunch on Saturdays in our household usually consists of leftovers.  It’s a good way to clean out the fridge before the new week begins.  So, I broke out the leftovers, warmed up the Greens and Black-Eyed Peas for myself (because I LOVE them, but my kids despise them on principle – they are full of green vegetables after all!). Then, my son answered my call first, so he was allowed to choose his lunch first.  He chose the left over 1/4 of a quesadilla and a couple of stuffed pasta shells. 

Meanwhile, my sweet, adorable daughter meanders into the room and asks what’s for lunch.  I tell her that she gets the privilege, nay, the honor, of eating her left-over baked potato with cottage cheese and cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.  Well, she didn’t like that idea and sat in her chair singing and playing with anything and everything within her reach instead. 

Several warnings later, I walked over to her, scooped a bite of potato onto her fork and held it up to her mouth.

She refused to open her mouth!

I spoke very sternly.

She opened up…but she refused to chew. 

I spoke very sternly again. 

She ignored me. 

So I marched her cute little patootie (sp?) right over to the corner and placed her in time out.  After standing in time out for about..oh…5 seconds, she turned around, smiled at me and spit the potato (still unchewed) out of her mouth and onto the floor!! 

Ohhhhh, the mommy was NOT smiling.

Stubborn?  Yes!  Determined?  Yes!  (Hey, I’m talking about my daughter here.  Not me!!) 

So, dear daughter was sent to her room for a nap and mommy took some time out.

Advance with me please to this evening as the family is sitting down for dinner.  Dear sweet daughter is served up an oh-so-lovely plate of…baked potato.  She looked at her own plate, then at her brother’s bowl of Shepherd’s Pie and sweetly asked “can I have some of that?”  Ummm, NO.  You are to eat your potato or you will be having it for breakfast! 

As I said, my daughter is stubborn.  So, the plate of baked potato is still sitting in the fridge, waiting for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Any suggestions????????  Please???????  We’ve tried sending her to bed early for not eating her dinner.  Doesn’t bother her.  Anything else???  Pleeeeeeaaaasssseeee?????

(Easy/Freezable/Make-Ahead)Recipe: Shepherd’s Pie

Occasionally, I am going to start posting recipes that I enjoy.  I don’t know how often, but hopefully at least once a week or so.  You will notice that usually, these recipes will share the following traits:

• They do not require a lot of unusual ingredients;
• They do not require a lot of preparation time;
• They will often be suitable for preparing ahead of time; and
• They will often be suitable for freezing leftovers.

Thus, they are ideal for students, people who work and homeschooling families.    

As my first recipe post, I am introducing my modified version of this Shepherd’s Pie recipe.  This dish is easy to make the night before, it does not require much preparation, and it is suitable for freezing leftovers!

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Sarah’s Modified Shepherd’s Pie:

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cups frozen corn, peas and carrots
• 2 cans (4 oz each) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 tablespoons garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 16 oz beef broth
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter  (the real stuff!)
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 box Betty Crocker Four Cheese Instant Mashed Potatos (both packages inside the box)

In skillet, brown hamburger. 

In separate pan, cook mashed potatoes as directed.

Once hamburger is browned, add diced onion, garlic, salt & pepper, nutmeg, frozen vegetables, mushrooms and beef broth.  Bring mixture to a boil.

Meanwhile, in separate bowl, microwave butter in 10 second intervals until melted.  Once melted, stir in flour until smooth. Add butter/flour mixture to skillet with hamburger mixture and simmer until thickened.  Spoon mixture into oven safe dish.  Top with mashed potatos and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

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We love this recipe!  It is a hearty, warm casserole that is great all year round, but especially on cooler fall/winter days.  It is a complete meal in itself, but is also great with salad and bread.

If you have a favorite recipe that is easy to prepare ahead of time, does not require a lot of unusual ingredients and/or can be made in large quantities and frozen; please leave a comment linking me to your post sharing the recipe! 

Play Time With My Sweetie…

My sweetie and I are currently in our 8th year of marriage.  And life just continues zooming forward at full speed.  Between seminary, homeschool, two kids and their various activities, 2 part-time jobs, bible studies, etc., it is often difficult to find time just to spend with each other.  Anyone else out there relate to what I’m sayin’!?! 

Although we do schedule dates together –and I love our dates – my fondest memories are of those impromptu times when my sweetie and I play together.  It usually starts with an ‘innocent’ little teasing comment…which quickly escalates into a battle of strengths.  This is what happened last night. 

This has been a very busy week with the start up of Awana’s, Cub Scouts, and all our other various activities.  So, when my sweetie and I finally settled into bed about Midnight, we were both very tired.  I crawled into bed first and made myself comfortable, as I feel I’m allowed to do.  But then, my sweetie, as he prepared to climb into bed too, started playfully teasing me about hogging the middle of the bed and giving him no room.  Of course, I had to completely deny this outlandish claim.  Seriously folks, I WOULD NEVER hog the middle of the bed.  I was not raised to hog anything. 

However, my sweetie just couldn’t let it go…something about not being able to lie down…and he proceeded to ’measure’ my place in the bed. 

OK, maybe I wasn’t completely on my side of the bed.  But I still admit nothing.

Well, my inability to admit that I was lying in the middle of the bed led to my sweetie stealing the covers right off of me…and I was sooo comfy…he laid down beside me with all of the covers, so I naturally responded by attempting to warm my cold toes underneath his warm behind. 

Although I am very determined, my man is much stronger than me and I was not going to win any physical battle over covers, position on the bed, etc., so I had to resort to teasing my husband (never in a mean way…just playfully and in fun…as I have learned to do after 7+ years).  And because teasing is my strength, my sweetie had to retaliate in the best way he could (which I knew was coming)…Tickles! 

Pretty soon, I’m curled up in a fetal position attempting to protect my armpits, ribs, and feet simultaneously while my sweetie is pinning me to the bed and tickling me mercilously until I am laughing to hard to breath.  Fortunately, our kids are sound sleepers and didn’t waken from my fits of laughter.

There’s nothing like a good bout of laughter to calm the mind and body for sleep!  Seriously! 

Yes, we like to play.  Not as often as we should, but often enough.

How about all you married folk.  How do you and your sweetie ‘play’?

For the beauty…

My sweetie took this picture while we were camping in New Hampshire.  The morning light was shining through the trees as we were sitting around the campfire.  When I pointed out the rays of light to Jonah, who was standing next to me, he told me “Mama, it looks just like church!” 

If only everyone was immediately reminded of church when viewing the majesty of God’s earth.  Wouldn’t the pews be packed!!  Below are the lyrics to the beautiful old hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth”, which I found here.

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Refrain

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Refrain

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight.

Refrain

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Refrain

For Thy Church, that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love.

Refrain

For the martyrs’ crown of light,
For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors’ might,
For the lips of infancy.

Refrain

For Thy virgins’ robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled.

Refrain

For each perfect gift of Thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.

Refrain

Mushrooms in our hot chocolate…

We went camping this weekend!  It was not our ideal camping trip, but lots of fun anyway.  We have been talking about this camping trip for weeks now, but our weekends have been so busy, that we hadn’t been able to nail down a time to pack up and leave.  So, the enthusiasm of both kids has been at the boiling over point for the past week.  

Over the past couple of days, Abby began talking about how much she loves ”mushrooms” and how she couldn’t wait to have “mushrooms” in the woods.  I thought that was interesting, but we do like mushrooms in our house, and we have talked about how they grow in the woods, so I was impressed with her memory and let it go at that.

We drove up to the white mountains in New Hampshire early Saturday morning for a one-night camping trip.  We arrived in the rain and began setting up camp. As my sweetie was unpacking the van, I began heating some water for hot chocolate.  As I heated the water and began scooping hot cocoa mix into the cups, Abby stood on the bench beside me and very excitedly asked if she could have “mushrooms” in her hot chocolate. I laughed.  I couldn’t help it.  It finally dawned on me why she has been so excited about “mushrooms” lately.  Yes, we all had big, fat “mushrooms” in our hot chocolate that day! 

It continued to rain off-and-on throughout the evening.  It would stop for a bit and we would all venture cautiously outside the tent, but then it would start to rain again.  My poor sweetie ended up soaking wet while he cooked our hobo dinners — which we ended up enjoying inside the van.  Nature.  Gotta love it.

Even with the rain, I do love tent camping.  I realize that, with two small children, it would be SOOOO much easier to go camping in an rv or to rent a cabin, but I just feel like I’m cheating if we’re not pitching a tent to sleep in and answering the call of nature by squatting in the woods.  Well, to be honest, the campground had a bathroom…with flush toilets…so I guess we only half-way cheated.  So, on second thought, it’s only cheating if we don’t pitch our own tent…which we did, as you can see. 

I feel so loved…in a stressful kind of way!

My sweetie says that I have reached a milestone in blogging and that I should announce it….so without further adieu, I announce to you…(drum roll please!)…I have officially had over 1000 views on my blog!  1074 to be exact. 

This achievement leaves me feeling happy and proud of my little blog, but a little anxious as well.  I started my blog not really thinking about who I wanted to read it.  I just wanted to try having a blog, and that’s really as much as I knew.  I didn’t even realize what blogging would entail…or how many blogs were out there…or how many resources for blogging…or how much I would like adding little “…” marks into my messages…it has been a whole new world for me. 

And I love it.  I do.  But it is a unique experience.  Especially for one as private as myself.  There are days when I convince myself that I am just writing these things for myself and that no one else cares or sees, so I don’t have to feel nervous about what I write. 

But then my Mama D. calls and asks if everything is ok…because I haven’t updated my blog in 4 days!!  And my sweetie’s gram is asking if she broke the “blog-thingy” because it’s not showing her new stuff anymore.  And then I remember, oh yeah…other people do read this. 

All that to say…THANKS!  I do love that God is pushing me further out of my comfort zone and that I am connecting  more with my far away family as well as other christian women, friends, homeschooling moms and random blog surfers. 

I love that people are reading my blog and then calling to talk to me about it. 

And I love that unknown faces are reading my blog and never telling me about it. 

I love that people are searching on google for “joy, peace, shoes” or “first day of school prayer” and they are finding MY blog! 

So…Thanks!!