Bulk Chicken and Freezer Meals

Yesterday my mom and I bought 40lbs of chicken from a company called Zaycon Foods. I had seen it advertised on some couponing websites and I had a friend who had tried it out the last time they were around. 
What is Zaycon Foods? They sell a variety of fresh products, but the chicken is 100 % natural chicken with no added hormones, additives or artificial ingredients. It also comes directly from the farm (like.. you receive it the day after they killed it). But the best part? It only costs $1.69/lb. Amazing right? That's cheaper than frozen chicken breasts around here.
The only iffy part is that you have to buy it in 40lb amounts. So my mom and I decided that for the first time, we'd just split one box. 

The night before we picked it up, we went to the store and purchased everything we thought we'd need. Many people we read about just clean it up and package it into bags of chicken breasts. We decided if we were already doing the work and had it out, why not just make it up immediately into freezer meals?

Next we got to work cleaning the chicken up and cutting it into desired amounts. Some we cooked first and some we left raw depending on the recipe. I had printed off some slow cooker freezer meals, we decided to freeze some in marinades and make a couple tried-and-true freezer meals.

Not at lot of cleaning was involved, but there was some fat to trim and a few pieces had some skin left on them. The little tidbits that we shaved off, we put in a pot to make into chicken broth - no waste here!

We ended up with about 20 freezer meals and 8 bags of grilled chicken strips. Not bad for one day's work. We split those up between us and we'll be eating good for the next few months.

Next time I'll be getting a babysitter for the day though. I think we could have accomplished this all in about four hours if I hadn't had my kids with me and vying for our attention the whole day. Ah well... a lesson learned for next time.

36 Weeks-More Baby Prep

I had my 36 week appointment today! Attempting to reschedule my C-Section a few days closer to my due date to allow me to work through the weekend and signed my paperwork for a VBAC just in case. I am really feeling like I'm going to make it to my C-Section date without going into labor first, but I figured I better be prepared regardless.

The last couple days I've been making so more freezer meals for after baby comes. I'm feeling a little more prepared than I was.... 
Sunday I made up two Honey Pork Chops. Those were super easy - just throw a bunch of ingredients in a bag, add the pork chops and freeze. Easy! I got the recipe from this book that I bought awhile ago:

Yesterday I made three Layered Enchilada Casseroles. I bought enough to make two and then when I actually went to make it - I got three! Bonus! I think it was because I was using some leftover pie pans from Malachi's Cowboy Birthday Party, instead of 8x8 dishes, but I am happy with the result.

Today, I made up a bunch of Breakfast Burritos - also taken from Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer. I had some uneven ingrediants left over at the end and I ate one - pretty good!

I also downloaded this nifty Freezer Contents List from momsbudget.com. It's a free download and hopefully it will help me remember what I've made and have lurking out in the freezer!

Preparing for Baby...

If you've been reading my pregnancy posts, you may have realized I've not been very proactive about getting ready for this baby. =)

A couple weeks ago I actually started kind of mentally freaking out about it when I realized I only had about 6 weeks to go and had done absolutely NOTHING. 

Well, I've been attempting to remedy that situation... call it nesting or whatever, but I could probably handle it if baby decided to come ... although... a few more weeks would be most helpful!

Saturday I had the house to myself. Malachi was at my parents and my husband was hunting.... I planned on a fairly lazy day before I had to head off to work, but I was productive also!
First I spent some time browsing on Etsy and Pinterest - that's productive, right?

Then I made up 4 Crock-Pot Freezer Meals! I had never thought of such an ingenuous idea before Pinterest! I love my Crock-Pot... and I love freezer meals... but I'd never thought of combining the two! 

2 Teriyaki Chicken

2 Lazy Day Stew

Follow this link to a blog with more Crock-Pot freezer meals...

or check out my Pinterest board Dinners DONE! for more ideas.

Also, this weekend, I picked up a new dresser for $10. It needs some TLC and a new paint job, but I think it will work perfect for the baby's area. We are not decorating a nursery for this baby. Mostly because we probably won't be in this house long enough to make it worth it... so I've decided to just convert a corner of our bedroom into a nursery space. We're not even setting up the crib, but I'm going to have a glider, dresser and probably a little art on the walls. I'm thinking I can use this dresser as a changing table too, and not have to drag out Malachi's big one from the closet....

I also decided on kind of a theme for this baby. We were going to do an owl/woodland theme, but owls are SO popular right now that I decided not too. Since my husband is such an outdoorsy/hunter-type though, I thought we'd keep the woodland theme and just focus on some of the other animals like the bear and deer. =) After searching what seemed like hundreds of wall art, I finally came across some that I really love from a shop on Etsy.

I'm going to take my colors from these beautiful watercolor paintings!

I also finally got Malachi's old clothes out and washed everything. Some of it took some major soaking in OxyClean to get out the yellow spit-up stains (he was the pukey-est baby ever), but it looks like we're going to be able to save most of it. =)

 My aunt picked me up that glider, so I still need a footstool and maybe cover the cushions in a cute fabric. My mom and I got an awesome deal on the Newborn Rock-and-Play Sleeper the other day at Target (this is what I'm going to use instead of the crib - hopefully until we're able to move!) Normally $65, it was marked down to $54.99 at Target, then for Memorial Day it was marked down some more to $49.00, THEN I had a coupon for $7.00 off! Total cost: $42.00! Saved: $23.00! Yay!

Sooo... we are on our way to being somewhat prepared. Today I'm going to pick up my paperwork from the doctor for my Leave of Absence at work and mailing it in (a minor fiasco that's been), so hopefully I'll be all set up for my 12 weeks of leave here pretty soon!