19 dinners in the freezer

the weekend was busy and tiring, proving once again that i am overly ambitious. saturday started at 6am, so that i could bathe the dogs and finish house cleaning before target opened. i completed my chores and got ready, then headed out on my errands around 8. i hit target first, then kohls, then the new berlin farmer's market, then the grocery store. i had a lot of success at the market. there were lots of yummy looking veggies. i finally had to leave as i was too loaded down to buy anything else (the 4 squashes in my tote and big bag of apples were what did it for me, i think). i got home before noon so i could start my marathon cooking, and so bryan could haul some more yard refuse to the municipal yard before they closed.

i managed to complete:
- 2 freezer bags of meatballs
- 3 dishes of stuffed pasta shells
- 2 freezer bags of ham and portobello ravioli
- a big stock pot of red sauce (3 bags full for meals)
- the fillings for my beef lasagna
- the fillings for my sausage lasagna
- one freezer bag of cheese tortellini
- one dish of cheese tortellini bake (with sauce and mascarpone)
- 2 pork roasts with root veg and squash
- one big chicken with mustard mascarpone marsala sauce dish

since i didn't get around to rolling pasta until nearly dinner time, i unfortunately didn't get to make fresh pasta for dinner. bryan and i ran out to grab a quick bite at a mexican place, then grabbed some tulip bulbs and orchids from home depot (there are about 100 tulips planted in the planter off the rear deck now) and a few more things from kohls (they lure me with their constant sales). by this time my feet were killing me (and my back, and my legs), but i spent the next 2 or 3 hours rolling out and stuffing pasta dough. i did some more work on the pictures i want to hang around the house, and finally stumbled off to bed around 11. i woke up an hour or two later and could hardly get myself out of bed to hobble to the bathroom. i was SORE.

no rest for the weary, though, so i was up early again the next morning to get ready for church. it was the pastor's birthday, so we managed to snag a free lunch and some cake after the service. we headed to rupenas to buy some chuck roasts, which they had on sale and i needed. they have such a beautiful meat department. a bunch of kids work the front under the watchful eyes of the butchers, who are always in back slicing up meat. once home, i seared off the roasts and got them packed away with some veg and potatoes, then moved on to make my pasta for lasagna while dad and bryan enjoyed the packers game (which they won, woohoo!). i assembled my lasagnas and the cannelloni for dinner, and bryan and i headed out for more errands.

bryan needed to pre-reserve his copy of halo 3 ("need" is an objective term). boston store was also having a big sale - you could get a 20% off coupon for every item you brought to donate to goodwill. we got a stack of coupons and picked up some baby clothes for oliver (including some ADORABLE corduroy overalls) and some cosmetics at the chanel counter for me (i was in need and i had the coupons after all). we hit up jc penneys to get a few weekend t shirts for me (since i have no long sleeve maternity wear). at this point we were both in pain, being sore from all the working/standing/walking we had done this weekend. we were a pretty sad sight trying to make it back across the mall and to the car.

though i had put together our pasta dish for the night, i hadn't yet had a workable cream sauce for it, so bryan and i picked up some fried chicken from the deli on the way home, and crashed on the couch. we needed to stop at target to get some printer ink, but the thought of having to get out of the car and walk some more made us both want to cry. so we headed home instead for the aforementioned fried chicken and couch crashing. before bed i took a soak in some epsom salts hoping that would help. not sure if it helped my muscles but it did help me to fall asleep very shortly after my head hit the pillow. i'm still feeling pretty tired today. i see a post-work nap in my future. luckily dinner is already to go (homemade pasta cannelloni!) - bryan will be making the cream sauce for it this afternoon. i should be able to make that apple crisp i've been promising bryan for dessert as well.

all in all it was a good weekend - extremely tiring though very productive. i'm thrilled that we already have 19 meals in the freezer. this was definitely the most agressive weekend for that project, since i wanted to get all that pasta rolling out of the way. i have plans for another 14 or so meals, one or two of which i may even be able to knock out this week since they are easy and i have all the makings.

i may even get to laundry tonight. after my nap, of course.