Hey guys. I recently got into this whole freezer meal cooking thing and have experienced great success! Some of you have asked for some detailed instructions, so here goes…

It typically takes me about an hour to make dinner every night, between figuring out what I want to make, defrosting the meat, chopping veggies, cooking, baking, yada yada yada… When 4:30pm rolls around, I DREAD having to figure out and take the time to make dinner, especially with a 17-month old who requires my EVERY moment of attention in the afternoon!

After I began school again (going back to college for 2 years), the need to streamline my efforts became obvious. I simply did not have time to make dinner after a full day of school. On my days at home, I wanted to spend them with the kids, cleaning the house, doing my homework, and running errands… typically playing catch-up, not wasting time in the kitchen. But we didn’t have the money or desire to eat convenience/fast food every night. I decided one weekend day to try a 4-hour session and see how many meals I could make with what we had on hand, then freeze them to be defrosted during the week. I just took 5 or 6 of our favorite recipes and doubled them. Lo and behold, I came out of it with 14 meals, enough to keep us fed for 2 weeks worth of dinners! We simply pulled out a frozen meal the night before and let it defrost during the day. Around 5 or 5:30pm, we’ll throw the meal in a pot to heat, and voila! DINNER!!! We were hooked from the start! At the end of those 2 weeks, I decided to shoot for a grander goal: a month’s worth of meals. So, I took more of our favorite recipes, quadrupled them (yes, that’s 4 times!), and the results were not 28 meals, but 40 meals!!! The reason for the extra goodness? When separating the loot into the Ziploc bags for freezing, I scooped/served out the amount that I know my family would eat (ok, 2 ladles of chili for me, 3 for Tony, 1 for Micah, 1 for Kaelyn, and an extra one for good measure). Well the food seems to multiply when you measure it out this way! We usually have leftovers anyway, but this is also a great way to make sure our portions are staying under control. Not only do we get more nights of easy meals, but we also get more bang for our buck… we ended up saving money in the long run. So, how do you go about making 40 meals in one day? I’ll show ya!

8 hours to make 40+ meals. The biggest tip I can give you is, PREPARATION IS KEY to success! Spend a good 30 minutes planning and one or two hours shopping, and you will be glad you did!

Step 1: Choose your menu.
I don’t have strict guidelines for choosing my freezer meals. You can really almost freeze anything. I do pick the ones I know we love, because we’re going to eat the same meals 4 or 5 times over a matter of 6 weeks (but don’t we usually recycle our favs throughout the weeks anyway?). I try to keep the meats to a minimum. We are on a major budget to pay off debt while also eating as organically as possible, so we’re slowly easing into some vegetarian recipes. I chose 3 beef recipes, 2 chicken recipes, and 3 veggie recipes. I also check to see what we have on hand already. We recently bought a share of a cow from my aunt, so we had a ton of beef on hand. Finally, I check the local grocery store flyers to see what’s on sale and combine those with any coupons I may have. This is the menu I came up with (I’ve included the recipes here if you’re interested):

Chili x 4
Beef stew x 4
Veggie Spaghetti x 4
Zucchini patties w/ veggie soup x 4
Beans, rice, cheese burritos x 36
Meatloaf x 4
Chic Stir Fry x 4
Chicken Nuggets x 2 lbs (for the kids’ lunches)

Step 2: Make your grocery list.
Go through each recipe and write out how much of everything you’ll need. I like to keep a running tally of the popular items, like onions and pounds of meat. Then go through your cupboards and fridge to cross off the items you already have. I’m an organizational nerd, so I usually rewrite the grocery list so it’s easier to shop (I shop with 2 kids under the age of 4, so organization is necessary at the store for me!): 24 carrots, 16 bell peppers, 4 cups grated parm, etc. Don’t forget to check your spices and condiments to make sure they’re fully stocked.

Step 3: Collect those coupons, and go shopping!
I typically shop at 2 grocery stores every week, to make use of sales and to find certain items I can’t get at one store (I eat gluten free, so it’s not really easy to find a ton of GF stuff at say, Walmart). Because I’m used to going 2 places every week for groceries, I find that freezer meal shopping doesn’t add much time to my normal shopping trips. Tip: remember to stock up on gallon and quart sized Ziploc bags and foil for storage!

Step 4: Prepare the night before.
If my meats are frozen, I pull them all out to defrost. If I feel extra energized, I may even start chopping those dang onions (I swear you will get SICK of chopping onions! haha). Do as much prep chopping as your little heart desires the night before, because it WILL save you time the next day. This time however, I did not chop the night before. I go so far as to tape the recipes on my cupboards in the order I’d like to cook. Clear out the sink of all dishes, because you are gonna make a MESS the next day. J It also helps to clean out your freezer of spoiled/unused items to make room for storage.

Step 5: Cook those meals!
I try to start in the morning, because after 8 hours you may get a little discouraged seeing the sun set and you’re STILL in the kitchen! Put on some comfy slippers, a good audiobook or music on the ipod, and get ready! I clear out my surfaces and clean out the dishwasher. I pull out all my ingredients and group them in similar areas for easy reach. Then, as Nike says, you JUST DO IT. I start with a soup or chili that needs to simmer for a while. Multiplying those recipes may seem crazy, but it’s not so hard to chop 4 onions rather than one. You get into a rhythm. I try to keep similar recipes going together. If I’m making chili (while that’s simmering), I’ll start the meatloaf… similar ingredients which are already out. I alternate a stovetop meal and an oven meal, so that a meal isn’t waiting for space to cook. This particular day, I did chili first, then meatloaf, then beef stew and veggie spaghetti at the same time (the noodles take a while to cook, so I chopped the beef stew ingredients while waiting for my water to boil). Then chicken stir fry (starting the rice, because it takes an hour to cook), chicken nuggets, then zucchini patties, and finally the burritos.

As I finish one meal, I place it on a potholder on the counter to cool while I start the next meal. While something else is cooking, I start to put the cooled contents into the Ziploc bags. I open the empty Ziploc bag and place into a large bowl to ease the transfer and cut down on the mess. Then ladle/scoop/pour the amounts I know my family will eat (plus a little extra) into a gallon or quart size bag and seal it. Then label and lay flat for stacking and plop in the freezer. The flat Ziploc bag storage trick really saves on space. You’d be amazed at how much you can fit into a small space! (Side note: definitely buy the freezer bags versus regular storage bags. Big difference in keeping freezer burn at bay). Soups and chilis work just fine in the gallon sized bags, so they’re just as easy to store (you don’t have to do bulky Tupperware). Just like so:

Some tips:
*When making a small meal like zucchini patties, I like to add veggie soup to fill us up. If I have coupons, I’ll just save time and buy the canned veggie soup to accompany the patties (this time I had coupons for some organic veggie soup that was on sale, and I ended up only paying like a dollar per can. I bought 8 cans to make sure we had 4 meals worth for our family). You can take shortcuts!

*I like to individually wrap the burritos in foil before placing into Ziploc bags. That way, I can pull out one at a time for lunches. You can do this with breakfast burritos and have yummy breakfast on hand! Waffles are also great to make in bulk. That dang waffle maker is such a pain to clean, so if you only have to do it once every 6 weeks, it makes the waffles “taste” that much sweeter. J Just throw in the toaster oven straight from the freezer.

*Gluten free pastas have a tendency of mushing when defrosting. I try and stay away from thin pastas like angel hair and go for things like penne noodles. Same goes for potatoes. Try to slightly undercook the potatoes in stew, because otherwise they’ll get a little mushy.

*To defrost, I pull out the frozen yummy meal bag and plop in a large bowl overnight and into the next day. I throw it in a large pot for reheating on the stovetop. It’s that easy! For the chicken nuggets, I just pop them in the toaster oven for the kids’ lunches. Burritos too!

*If you have time on freezing day, you can also make cornbread, banana bread, etc to freeze for chili and stew nights. Otherwise you can just buy and freeze a package of rolls. I like to also make and freeze granola bars for our family to eat over the weeks.

*Sometimes I’ll start the crockpot in the morning and add 3 or 4 lbs of chicken breast with some spices and water. This simmers all day. At the end of the day, you can shred the chicken and separate into quart sized bags to freeze for instant chicken to add to salads, burritos, or whatever. You can also do this with some beef, chopped onions, shredded carrots (because they really stretch the meat and fill you faster), and taco seasoning for easy taco nights, or to place on a baked potato.

*Many times I’ll cut the meat in half when making stews and chilis. You really don’t notice the decrease when all those yummy filling veggies are present.

*I buy the Eden organic beans online at Amazon in bulk to save money. As far as I know, they are the only brand of beans that does not use BPA in the lining of the can.

*I like to keep ready made salad on hand to go with most of these meals every night… keeping our veggie intake up and our portion sizes of meaty meals down.

*Think of someone (a new mom, someone who’s sick or just home from the hospital, or really busy) to give a meal to! It’s so easy to just pull out of your freezer, and you can bless someone’s day just like that!

The possibilities are endless for freezer meal cooking!! But it gives you the freedom and flexibility to take back your evenings. I’ve just begun on the freezer meal journey, so I know I have much to learn. However, our family has already reaped so many benefits from the 8-hour effort!

How about you? Have you tried the freezer-cooking thing? Have any great tips you’d recommend?

Congenital Heart Defect fact of the day: 2 out of every 10,000 children are born with HLHS and the cause is unknown. Spread the word about HLHS and other CHDs (which as a whole affect 1 in 100!!). Awareness = funding. Funding = life-saving research! February is heart awareness month, and from now until the 14th, it’s CHD awareness week! Please spread the word…

And we are thrilled to announce the screening of Journey’s Beginning (Jeni & Kaelyn’s documentary) in Los Angeles THIS Saturday. If you are available to come, the info is here.

Also, the DVD will be available to order online shortly. I’ll keep you updated on that. Hope to see you this Saturday!!

Cath yesterday was successful. They ended up coiling 25 collateral vessels total!! 4 of them were enormous. Thankfully the work done in August held up, which means she’ll dodge some major problems in that arena. The Doc did, however find a cpl new issues. 1) There now shows a large collateral running down her spine, up her belly and to her heart. They’ll watch this one closely. It may attribute to the decreased pressure in her lungs (low pressure is good tho). 2) There is a new area which has narrowed quite a bit above her SVC that MAY be contributing to the sheer volume of collaterals. This one was difficult to balloon open using the tools they had yesterday. So, another cath in 6 months. The good news? Her pressures are lower, the widened areas from before remained intact, and her sats are still great after coiling off all of those extra ‘oxygen suppliers’ aka collateral vessels. AND the Doc retracted his previous Doom-And-Gloom msg from before. She *can* now have the Fontan surgery whenever the need arises. Prayers continue to be answered. Thank you for faithfully supporting us. God was and is keeping a close eye on our baby!

Anyone still out there?? I realize I have been remiss in keeping this up to date. For those of you who are Facebook savvy, perhaps you will find Kaelyn’s new page a better/faster alternative? Otherwise, y’all feel free to hang out here (although I can’t promise to be Miss Speedster Blogger Lady, though I shall try… harder.). Anywho. I am writing you from a hotel room in Aurora (Denver), CO and wanted to give you a quick update about Kaelyn’s procedure tomorrow (Wed, December 7th).

Kaelyn’s heart catheterization should start around 730a MST. They’ll put her under, send cameras in 2 central arteries, and measure her vessel pressures and direction of flow and size of vessels too. They may or may not balloon open her major arteries. Then they will coil off (or plug up) the major collateral vessels on the left side of her chest (between her heart and lungs). Last time they had to quit after 4 hours because she was under anesthesia too long. Our prayer is that we see some progress in the positive direction! i.e. that these collateral vessels GO AWAY. That the ones they coiled off last time are not a problem still, that her major arteries are wide enough and that the pressure in those arteries decreases greatly. By God’s grace, we also ask that she sails through anesthesia without a problem. Of course Kaelyn could decide to do things her own way and continue to “confound the wise.” Little stinker.

We continue to feel an overwhelming amount of prayer support from you all! For that, we are GRATEFUL!

Colorado weather very adequately expresses how our life has been at home lately. Just when you think the weather’s gonna stay warm, you pull out your short sleeves, get a pedi, and flip on the baseball — the clouds roll in and it starts hailing! The rain and sleet stay for a few days, then out comes the sun again. With great weather, the Rockies make up the postponed games, we start making plans to build our front yard fence and get some slider windows installed downstairs. Then BAM! Thunder out of nowhere! And more snow……. This is the snowstorm I captured from Easter Sunday as an example.

This household has been much the same. Many good days… lots of really hard days. Our poor honey had way too much to contend with after her arrival home. First off, it was weaning from the methadone. When we finally made it through that, teething began! Just on the heels of teething came a nasty cold that hit all four of us. Each day is filled with therapies, doctors appointments, oral feeding attempts, restless nights full of crying, along with the normal life obligations, the important ones we try to maintain. Ear infections plagued Micah, and the terrible two’s decided to show up as well. Then we’ll have one really good day… kids are happy and giggly, Mom is alert and enjoying the calm, Dad is home his one night that week, laughing and wrastling around with the kiddos… all is right in the world. Then BAM! Another ear infection, tooth popping, and stressful day. I know you all don’t mind hearing about the chaos… but I wanted to wait until I was at a place where I could offer some really good news as well. I’ll do my best…

Well here’s some good news: Kaelyn has been very stable with her heart function. That hasn’t changed. She does have a small left pulmonary artery (LPA), but that’s something we’ve always known. Her diaphragm is still paralyzed on the left, however her need for oxygen actually has decreased over time. She’s been weaning herself, despite the sickness, altitude, diaphragm, etc. At least until recently… Let me back up and sum up our time at home since the beginning of March.

Micah joined a soccer program which he absolutely loves, Tony flew out to CA for his Dad & Pat’s wedding, our insurance agreed to pay for some in-home nursing during part of the day to help with the critical stuff, I kinda learned how to paint, we went to a Rockies/Dodgers game (of course the Rockies won!), had a filmmaker come interview us and record Kaelyn while we met one of the oldest living HLHS patients, I attended the birth of the newest Corbett addition, we celebrated babies & birthdays, had a trip to the ED for a yanked gtube and nearly closed hole, continued speech therapy, occupational therapy, and a barrage of weekly appointments. All of this in a month and a half! These are just the extras – in addition to Tony’s 2 jobs and fire department service, my taking care of a hilarious yet energetic 2-yr old while studying for a condensed CNA class, trying to keep up as a wife, mother, daughter, friend, and of course… Kaelyn. A full time job in and of herself.

So what’s the latest, you ask? Kaelyn held onto that cold longer than the rest of us, as we expected she may. She was handling it pretty well for a while, but this past weekend, she declined fast. As of today, the cardiologist diagnosed her current issue as Superior Vena Cava Syndrome (SVC Syndrome). Not a surprise, because it’s just a more serious version of what she’s faced since the Glenn surgery. Increased Glenn pressures in her upper body, plus a paralyzed left diaphragm, plus a small left pulmonary artery, plus some kind of cold equals fluid leakage in her lungs, poor blood flow, lower sats, a painful headache, cough, and a risk to be hospitalized. What she really needs is her diaphragm to start working!! This alone could possibly take care of the issue. If that’s not in the near future, then she needs a cath procedure to open up her pulmonary artery branches. They don’t want to cath her (especially because of the sedation risks) until she’s over this cold. Remember when she came out of her 2nd and 3rd heart surgeries with sats in the 40’s and 50’s?? Well one possible explanation for that was because she had rhinovirus at the time. Yeeeahhh we don’t want to go through that again. So she needs to get well!! In the mean time (while trying to get her well), the main goal is to stay out of the hospital. As long as we can keep her nose suctioned, increase her diuretics to help with the fluid, keep infections at bay, and make sure her sats stay above 70, then we may be able to sidestep the hospital for now. I’ll have help. We’re trying to increase nursing hours here at the house, at least temporarily, in an effort to keep her far from the hospital.

Right now, we’re so soooo tired. As I type this, Kaelyn has been crying (while Tony and I take turns trying to comfort her) for the last 4 hours straight… all day really… and hasn’t taken a nap or slept since lunch time. It’s 10:30pm. I was up doing this same thing with her at 5:30 this morning. This day is just an example of the many just like it in the months prior. These are rough times. Please pray for STRENGTH and patience for us all. In addition of course to the HEALING that we would like to see happen – the time is NOW that we need that healing. The doc said the next 24-48 hours are critical for her. She will either get better or get much worse in the next couple days. And we all know the possibility of getting better is there! The chance of spring amidst our cold dark winter. I was SO ready for the winter to be over when we got home from the Glenn. It’s hard not to be disappointed that we are still facing such critical possibilites and struggles this far out of surgery. I guess this is one of those times we’re reminded that all we can do is trust in Christ alone to pull us through this. To carry us into the SPRING we’ve been longing for. I’ve been reminded of that hymn from a couple different places recently — that, I think is no coincidence.

In Christ Alone

by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!