Meal Marathon

I had a great discussion with friends on face book about my meal planning struggles of late. It helped me to realize where the problem was. We have been running low on mince and so have not been able to keep our "frozen meal" supply up over the last 2 busy months. So we made a plan. A lovely friend lent us her mincer and we booked this weekend to remedy the situation.
We took a few beef roasts out  on Friday night to get minced on Saturday. I know it seems crazy to make mince from lovely roasts - but it all cost us the same amount and it's the mince that we need.
Ruth got started first.

And then Hannah got stuck in and worked really well. She got a lot done.
Brendon did all the cutting up so that it was in nice little blocks. Loads of work which I am so very thankful for.

Just before lunch Hannah and Hezekiah had the job of peeling the big pile of bananas I bought. There have been storms and boat trouble which we know has already effected the banana supply and will more than likely get worse (apparently there is a world wide shortage now). So the kids peeled them and we pop them in the freezer - ready for our daily smoothies.

By lunch time our two big pots of food were done. Rachel's favourite meal is the bigger pot of "mince and veg" as it get's labelled. The smaller pot was bolognese sauce.
I think these might have been the tastiest batches to date as Rachel spent a lot longer adjusting herbs and salt and pepper.

7 meals ready for the freezer. Boy it feels so much better than having nothing in there.

On Saturday we took some pork roasts out and as there was no Sunday morning service today Brendon got busy cutting those up and Hezekiah wanted to help mince today. Rachel also helped out with the mincing as arms got tired.

I got chicken going in the slow cooker overnight with a new recipe. I saw a tin of chicken sauce that was Italian butter chicken. I had a look at the ingredients and decided we could do that. Tomato and cream the main items (cream added after cooking). It was delicious (and enough for another family meal in the freezer and a number of lunch packs for Brendon and I).

I had a busy afternoon cooking up the mince into 2 HUGE cheeseburger pies. I also had a big pot of cooked mince left which I made into 2 big pizza pies on Monday (Trim Healthy Mama recipes).
Rachel also did an apple crumble for Monday's breakfast and I made another cheesecake to freeze in portions for Brendon and I (we have it for breakfast).
It really was a meal marathon weekend but so worth all the effort. It has taken so much pressure off planning and sorting meals. I am so thankful to my family for their willingness to pitch in and help.