Time to get organized....

It's Labor Day and labor we have! We are finally trying to finish the room in the basement that had the massive brick wet bar and 70's paneling. We had hung most of the drywall down there and did the electrical work, but in May we finally finished tearing down the little bit of paneling in the room and hallway and got the rest of the drywall up. This weekend we got tape up and corner bead and the first coat of joint compound is currently drying.

Once we finished that, I took inventory of what is in our freezers to more easily plan meals around what we already have. While everything was out, I cleaned the freezers and put it all back in neatly.

I'm trying to get more organized because Lucas starts pre-school tomorrow and Logan and I will start school this week as well. I had planned on starting tomorrow, but I procrastinated with ordering some of his curriculum. However, we have plans to meet some friends at the park for a bit while Lucas is at school and we also need to go to the library to pick up books for our first week of school!

I'm excited to get back into a routine. My husband is now working four 10 hour shifts a week, with Wednesdays off. We will use that day for any appts. that we may have (most especially for Lucas) and he will also be teaching Logan science. I love having him home an extra day, but I don't like him getting home later each day. Now he gets home right around 6. It is only an hour later, but I typically would wait until he got home and start dinner then. Now if I do that, we don't eat until closer to 7! That just won't work with school starting back up.

So, it is time to get back to planning out my meals and being organized! I have enough food to cook for a while, too. I'm listing out the contents of my freezer and will start planning my meals. If you have any recipes you wish to share based on my freezer contents, I welcome them. :-) There is lots in my pantry, but I'm not going to inventory it at this point. I know most of what is in there for meals and I'll try to plan using things in there, too. One thing I'll obviously still have to buy is any fresh produce needed for recipes. I'm going to update this list as I use the items.

Anyway, on to the list (I've bought a few things since the original inventory, so when I buy something new, I'm going to put it in red text to make it easier to spot.):

Meat:
9 8 quart size ziplocs ground beef (appx. 1 pound each)
8 hamburger patties
1 pound maple sausage
8 4 boneless rib eye steaks
4 flat iron steaks
2 T-bone steaks
4 petite steaks
1 4.5 pound roast
3 packages hot Italian sausage
1 package cube steaks
3 pound beef brisket

Chicken/Turkey:
1 pkg. boneless buffalo chicken nuggets
2 pound bag breaded chicken chunks (like popcorn chicken)
18 16 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I stocked up when they were on sale!!)
1 pound ground turkey
3 pounds breaded chicken strips
5 lemon pepper boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 smokey bbq boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 Italian boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Seafood:
1 Tilapia filet
3 pounds shrimp
1 pound jumbo shrimp
7 tuna steak filets
1 bag (2 filets) Sesame Chili Tilapia
1 bag (2 filets) Tortilla crusted chili lime Tilapia
1 bag (2 filets) Herb crusted Parmesan Tilapia


Veggies:
1 pound bag corn
1 pound bag sugar snap peas
1 pound bag field peas
1 pound bag crowder peas
1 pound bag winter veggies

Misc:
1 pie crust
four veggie patties
1 24 oz. roll summer sausage
1 ham bone
1 pkg. of 10 med. flour tortillas
1 pkg. of 30 corn tortillas
1 pkg. roti bread
1/2 gallon of orange juice (I got several for free with coupons a while back and froze them)
10 mini cinnamon raisin bagels
10 homemade biscuits (ready to be baked)
5 bags OreIda French fries (2 zesty, 2 steak, 1 curly....I got them on sale for 49 cents each!!)
2 packages OreIda tater tots
1 package OreIda southern style hash browns
3 packages of cream cheese (I got them on sale for 49 cents each!!)
2 1 bag OreIda steam and mash potatoes