Freezer Meals

With any luck I will get to meet my wee little baby in just eight short days!  Well I don't start maternity leave till Friday, so the days won't feel short, but I have plenty to do in the mean time.

Since last week was spring break the nesting instinct had chance to gain a foothold, as I had little else to do. The nursery is almost finished, and I started making meals to freeze.

Never one to reinvent the wheel I headed over to pinterest to find some freezer recipe. I wish I could say that I hit a slam dunk, but with the combo of M's finicky eating habits, Crohn's, and my corn allergy there was not much out there.  I did manage to cobble together a list of things that will work for us, and am attempting to adapt a few of my own favorites into things that I can freeze and cook later.  I'll put my list of meals with links here, as much for me as anyone. I'll be sure to post any of my own recipes that I freeze. and link them back to this page. Not every recipe was touted as a freezer meal, but if I list it here then I froze it!

Recipes from around the web:

Homemade Applesauce This was not planed, but we had a ton of apples last night! It freezes just fine.
(UPDATE: This worked out really well!)

The Best Pot-Roast I have ever eaten (sorry Dad) I'm going to sear the meat, add all the veggies and whatnot and then freeze to put in the crock-pot later. I haven't ever frozen this before, but I have made it in the crock-pot and it works fine. (UPDATE: this turned out really tough, which is something that I have never experienced making this. I guess it didn't work out as a freezer meal.)

Gourmet Magazine's Meatloaf  I'm going to make this up until the: and then cook for an hour step. I leave out the celery, use all beef (no pork for M), and substitute the cherries for raisins and it tastes amazing. (UPDATE: cook this in fist sized balls and cook for 30, they freeze, defrost and microwave perfectly)

 Crock-pot Cilantro Lime Chicken
(UPDATE: This was fine, but its so easy you really don't have to freezer meal it, especially if you can keep fresh celantro around.)

Chicken and Wild Rice
(Update: We really didn't like this, which was surprising since we like all the parts alone. My advice, up the oven time or cut the chicken into bits, it needs more time to cook.)

Breakfast Tacos
(Update: AMAZING)

Mom's Keftethes (Meatballs)

Beef Stir-fry
(you can do this however)

Need more about freezer meals? This blog has lots of good info about prepping freezer meals (and lots of recipes M will never eat)

Now I know there are lots of things that I could have made and frozen, but honestly there are some things that are not worth making myself sometimes. If there is a commercial version available that M and I can actually both eat, you better believe I would rather just buy it then make it. Example: hamburger patties. Yes I am capable of flattening out some beef and freezing it, only to thaw and grill later, but unless I am having people over chances are hamburgers are being made because we are out of food and I'm too lazy to make anything. Guys, if that is the only reason why I am eating a hamburger then newsflash: THEY SELL THOSE PRECOOKED! And there is usually a coupon giving me buns or ketchup or soda for free if I buy it. You must be thinking "But you can buy precooked meatballs!" You are right there, but for some unknown reason they put cheese in those and M will not eat it.

Let me leave you with a genius freezer meal I made yesterday. At HEB they sell this premeditated Fajita meat. I usually don't buy this unless I have people coming over, but I thought, humm..... dinner tonight, dinner after baby comes.

There were 7 chicken thighs in there. I made three last night for dinner, and cut up an onion and pepper to throw in with the remaining four.  I figured there might be extra people around visiting the baby when it comes time to eat this.

All I have to do when the time comes is put it in the fridge in the morning, and have M grill it in the evening! Done and done. Could I have marinated my own chicken? Sure, but not for the price I paid. It also took me about 2 min to prep since I was cooking this for dinner anyway. Just had to label the bag. Bonus: this leftover meat makes awesome Arroz con Pollo in about as long as it takes to cook some rice. Yep, that was dinner tonight.

Hope my freezer rambeling hasn't driven you too nuts!
Later
The Artsy Girl.

Craft Fail: Ombre Curtians

So you may have deduced from some of my recent posts that I am having a baby in about a week and a half.  It's very exciting, and I think that the combination of  it being spring break, my being too large to do anything efficiently, and the reality that she is almost here is making me start to nest. Or maybe it's because people keep telling me I'll have no time once she arrives.

Anyway,  I was cleaning out the room that is to be her nursery and realized that my purple and grey color scheme is really just grey at this point. I decided a quick fix to that (other then actually hanging the mobile or putting art on the walls) would be to dye the curtains. They were a lovely white, but came with the house so who cares.

After a quick Facebook poll my friends said go for it, and M's cousin mentioned doing it ombre just in case it messed up. I WAS TOTALLY THINKING THE SAME THING! I had read a tutorial on ombre dying fabric on APW before my wedding and thought, OK it seemed easy.

Then I found a tutorial on pinterest:

 

Which didn't lead to a tutorial. Maybe I should have gone back to the APW post and re-read it, but when I have an idea I really can't be expected to read things. M and my bro happened to be going out to get supplies for a backyard project, so I tagged along, got my dye and skimmed the directions. I had dyed fabric before (10 years ago) so I was pretty confident in my abilities.

The first issue was that apparently I was doing the whole thing backwards: Putting in a little at a time rather then taking out a little at a time. When I was rinsing the totally not ombre fabric out I also sorta remembered the bottle saying I needed to add vinegar to the dye so it would stick to certain fabrics. hummmmmm.... Did I have one of those fabrics? Who knew, I didn't read the label.

 Luckily I didn't ruin the fabric totally, and they are just pink rather then purple. I think they work just fine, even though it wasn't what I was going for. In person you can see that the stripes of texture are actually more purple, and it still helps the room look more girly. 

What craft have you failed on?

The Artsy Girl

Peak Inside My Sketchbook- Primary color collage

Some of you may remember a post I did last year about my new favorite way to write lesson plans. I just keep a sketchbook now. It really is the greatest thing ever.

Obviously this won't work for everyone. Some people work at schools with principals that need to have everything in the same format for everyone NO MATTER WHAT!!!!! I showed this to my principal and she loved it. I write down all the stuff that I need to have in my lesson according to the district visual art standard, I just don't fill out their sheet (but I have them on file just in case I need to submit anything, I just have to pull it up on the computer and fill in the blanks from my sketchbook.

Anyway, have a look:

This is a kinder project from the beginning of the year. basically we talk about primary colors, sing a song about it, then they hunt through magazines and tear out the colors and group them together. I use glue sticks, so we can talk about using a material properly. otherwise nothing else special, I don't want to over load them. This is literally day 2 of class. we talk about how to hold and use scissors the next time. I just want to see if they know these colors, and how each kid works.

I hope you can see my lesson there. Let me know if it is unreadable (not my spelling and handwriting, just the photo!) If it doesn't work I'll type the lesson up next time.

Later
The Artsy Girl

Bad blogger

Can I tell you how many blog posts I write in my head? Thousands. And for every post I wrote in my head there are three I would write in my head if I ever had a chance to think about it. It's not even like I'm busy. I stop teaching at 3:00, and unless I have a meeting, I have until 3:45 in my classroom, till M comes to get me. I know I do stuff, because somehow things get planed and prepped for the next day... But I don't remember what I did most the time. All time stands still from 3:45- 6:30 because I go home and usually fall asleep. I wish I could blame this on the baby in my tummy but this happened before I was pregnant too.  So I'm sorry I'm so bad at being a blog writer. I really do have good things in the works and I think about you my readers, that I hope are there and not just in my head, loads.

On that note I am going home today, not falling asleep, and trying to get stuff done. yeah OK, I may just pay bills, but I guess that is a start. 

and because I think you are awesome here is a link to my district's art wiki, which has lots of lessons submitted by my fellow art teachers. I helped upload some of them..... because I am on the tech committee.

Tomorrow?
The Artsy Girl

Tree Topper

My Hubby is a little obsessed with tradition. Even things that he thinks tradition that really (In my opinion) are not. Example? His family has a home made star on the top of the tree. Now it seems to me that his artsy Dad probably made it just for fun, or maybe they decided to make one rather then spend much needed money on a store bought one. Either way, they have used the same home-made star for the past 30 years. There is nothing wrong with this, its a cute star, but it means I CANNOT buy a tree topper in the name of tradition. The last 3 years we have had a bare tree top.

This year we have a house, and I was able to use our vintage aluminum tree as a themed blue and silver Dallas Cowboys tree like I have been wanting, because we had space for a real tree too. I had the best idea for a topper. Here is how I made it. 

Supplies: A piece of cardboard in the shape of a star (or angel, or Cthulhu, whatever suits you.) Paper to cover it with, glue, Mod-Podge, Scissors, a brush ribbon, and a photo.  The photo is totally optional, but helps add interest. M's parents have a family photo from the year his sister was born in their star. you could do an angel, Sweet Baby Jesus, H.P. Lovecraft, whatever. I chose Tom Landry, because it is a COWBOYS tree.

Cut out your photo, and cut up your pieces of paper. Yes you can do it in one sheet, but it will be harder, and this covers up mistakes. I highly suggest that you cut some strips for the edges and fold them in half long ways to wrap around the outer edge.  It will hide the raw edge of the cardboard, and make your life easier if you want to decorate both sides. (I didn't decorate both sides.)

Glue the pieces of paper on the cardboard. yes I know you can just use Mod-Podge, but I am suspicious of it, and this seems more secure. Plus if you are wrapping paper around the outer edge it is just easier with regular glue. Mod-Podge the whole thing, getting the brush under the fly up edges.

 If you are putting a photo on the star, get it on there before the Mod-Podge dries, and cover it with goo too. Let dry.

Once your star is dry you can add a ribbon to the back. (Sorry I didn't take a picture of this before M put it on the tree, which I can't reach.) I just took  thick ribbon and hot glued it to the back. I left a tiny amount of give to get it on the branch, but it is still pretty tight across the back. 

Have a tall person put it on the tree and enjoy!

The Artsy Girl

Sub Plans

This coming weekend is TAEA, and I am super pumped! I am going to be out on Friday to take in the workshops, and that means  I have to make sub plans. I have a pretty sweet system for my emergency plans, and I thought I would share it with you, as I just now in my 3rd year got it to a place I like.

 I have a skill box on the shelf behind my desk that is full of emergency lessons, they are all super easy to do, and understand, and don't take any more materials then what I keep in the tote trays on the tables, so the sub doesn't have to get anything weird out, or search through my stuff.

That blue folder above the sub lesson box has all my info about schedules, seating charts, emergency info etc, so I can be out without having to worry about a thing, it just takes a few moments to update at the beginning of every year.

 The folders in the box each have a whole days worth of lessons for each grade level. I used to have each activity in a folder, but I had a hard time remembering what class did what the last time I was out. This way if I am sick and can't write plans the sub can just pull out one folder, and do what is in there.

On the front of each folder is a sticky note that says A, B, C and "Clarke" This is because we have a three day rotation, and another teacher, Ms. Clarke who travels to our school every third day. When a set of lessons are used on a day, or by Ms. Clarke it gets checked off the  sticky, so anyone can tell weather or not a class has done what is in the folder. If a folder has the day checked off, just go to a folder that isn't checked off.

Inside the folder there is a set of "masters" that are paper clipped together. on each master there is a sticky note with instructions about how to do the activity, suggestions on how the sub can teach a mini lesson (if they feel inclined to do more then read the directions) and a suggestion for early finishers. I always leave a pile of copy paper for "free draw" if a student finishes the activity early. I try to have enough copies of each activity for a class in the folder, but that doesn't always happen, which is why I have the masters papercliped together, so they don't get handed out and can be re-copied

That's it for today! Conference is putting me in a sharing mood, and I hope to have lots to share after. What are your favorite sub lessons? Would you like me to share the ones I use?

Later,
The Artsy Girl

Woven Basket

My first year teaching a parent gave me a donation of stuff to make baskets with!  She said I could just take it home  because she knew there wasn't enough to make a whole class worth.

Now, I am very aware of the stigma that art and basket weaving have, particularly together, so I had never planed on teaching this during a textile lesson.  Then I read the Hunger Games.  How can someone say that basket weaving is useless and lame when Finnik wove watertight baskets in the 2nd book that saved everyone's life, because they could now take water with them? HOW I SAY! You can't. I know If I related a basket weaving project to that my students would be OBSESSED with baskets. Maybe someday, but I'll be on maternity leave when they do textiles this year.

The directions that came in the bag I got were very... unclear, so I looked up how to do them. rather then take process shots and make a tutorial, I decided to direct you to the totally awesome one that I used.

Here is my finished product! Yeah OK, It's ugly, but it holds onions and potatoes nicely, which will do until I am able to have a root cellar, or figure out a better solution in the pantry.

I might have enough left to make some baskets for the baby's room to hold toys.

The Artsy Girl