I actually spent an entire Saturday at home!  Can you tell I am excited and exhausted!

Matthew 24:6 “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

This is the verse that I woke up with in my head this morning. Sharing it to help explain part of this productive Saturday.  One of my goals for my Summer Break every year and especially the last two years has been to get my freezers and pantries stocked with lots of easy food to prepare. I also want to limit the amount of time I am having to go to the grocery store as well. As you probably are aware, we are really busy around here. This summer I was not able to accomplish this goal but did make a huge dent in it. I was able to get my grocery list down to items we are low on or out of.   Yesterday, after Mom’s appointment we headed to Costco as it was only a 15-minute drive from her appointment.  I was able to entirely clear my grocery list!   This is a huge accomplishment for me as well as part of my Saving on Saturday.   My hope and goal is for the rest of the school year or until at least May of 2025, I am purchasing only items we are completely out of.  This will allow me to limit my shopping to one or two times a month and also limit the amount of money I am spending. I will continue to use Amazon subscribe and save as this is part of the reason for being able to do this!

Now back to the verse…. we are in an election year that is quite contentious.  I don’t discuss politics so that is all you will hear from me. I have discussed with several people the current war in Israel and the rumors of war to follow the election that we are hearing.  The above verse says to me that I can’t change either the war or the rumors, but I should be prepared and not alarmed.  To me a stocked pantry is prepared.

On Friday morning, I was able to pull out several bags of frozen tomatoes from the freezers and started making pizza sauce in the crockpot.  I also pulled out a bag of frozen pizza dough. Dinner plans were for pizza but we decided to throw some chicken on top of the pizza as well.  The sauce came out really well and I was able to can 5 half pint jars and 1 pint jar of sauce for later use. I honestly think this will be enough for an entire year!    I will definitely use this recipe again!  Next time I need to double for a year’s supply!

Today, I have spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen. I even grabbed some extra help from Kendall.  Kendall used a box of cake mix that has been on my shelf for several years to make mini muffins. Both Kendall and Zach have been grabbing up the muffin bites that I purchased on sale. I am hoping that this will work the same and be alot cheaper and a tad bit healthier.   I removed all the chicken from the bones. I was surprised to end up with almost six cups of chicken. I used 4 cups to make a new to us Mexican casserole that we will have on Tuesday.  I had found a recipe for Cracked Chicken stuffed shells.  I ended up cooking an entire box of jumbo shells as that was just easier. I divided the recipe into two pans one for this week and one in the freezer.  Next I wanted to use up the remaining shells so I opened a quart of grounded beef and added a jar of spaghetti sauce to it along with some cheddar cheese.   This ended up making two pans as well.  I topped these shells with provolone cheese which was in the fridge.  So really for less than $10 I ended up with 5 dinner meals and likely 3-4 breakfast meals.

I am very proud of myself today!