A Very Productive Weekend

A Very Productive Weekend

Life is hectic in our house during the week.  There's school, the hubster works, homework, karate classes and all the other basic day to day challenges.  When the weekends roll around, I love to get stuff done that I can't do during the week.  This weekend was very productive for us.  

On Friday, I went to Big Lots to purchase a cheap, but very needed new sofa & loveseat.  Our sofa & over-sized chair(which I love & will miss dearly) was a hand me down from my oldest brother & sister-in-law.  It has seen it's better day.  It's over 16 years old!  It's ripped and beat up.  My kids have bounced on it for the past 6 years.  It's time for something new.  We decided on the cheapo set from Big Lots for now.  We have plans to purchase a new(and larger) home next year.  We'll most likely have a larger living room.  So I didn't want to go out and buy expensive furniture now, knowing that it may not be ideal for our new home next year.  Spending $600 on a set now makes sense.  We can always use it in our future homes' family room, which is a must have for us.  

So, what's buying new furniture have to do with my productive weekend?  The new furniture is due to be delivered on Monday afternoon.  And I haven't done my Spring cleaning in the living room yet!  Panic!!!  My mom & dad offered to watch the kids for the us and we set to deep cleaning the living room.  The kids had a ton(and I mean a TON!) of toys in the corner of the room.  Those had to go.  Since we are going to have a sofa & loveseat(instead of my loved over-sized chair) there simply isn't room for their "toy corner" anymore.  We cleared everything out of the corner and took the toys to their rightful places...the kids' closets.  Afterwards, the hubster moved the sofa out and we washed the wall, cleaned the baseboards & vacuumed.  We ended up cleaning the entire room!  All the walls are washed, vacuumed under all the furniture!  My baseboards are shiny & clean!  And boy does that feel great! 

On Sunday morning I make it clear to the family that everyone has to pitch in to get the house cleaned up.  It was a hectic week and I only had time to tidy up.  So deep cleaning was a must today!  After some grumbling, everyone agreed to help me out(not that they had much choice).

I got to work in the kitchen(as usual).  I started a pot of homemade spaghetti sauce.  I'll apologize now because there will not be a recipe posted.  It's not because I don't want to share it with you.  I would love to.  However, there's no real recipe.  This is one of those things that's done purely by eye & learning from watching the person who taught you.  I'm sure many of you have recipes like this.  Sorry, the same goes for the meatballs too.  My mom taught me to make them.  No recipe, just knowing how the meat is supposed to "feel" is how they are made.  It's tricky and I don't always get it right.

While the sauce is slowly cooking on the stove and meat is thawing for meatballs, I decided to tackle the refrigerator.  Oh it's such a dreaded task!  Last weekend I took care of the freezer but I looked at the fridge and thought no way!  Well, today was the day.  It was a mess and had to be dealt with!  I can't even believe I'm posting a picture because it's embarrassing, but I'm doing it for you guys!

YIKES!

DOUBLE YIKES!

 

I took everything out of the fridge and got to it!  I got rid of expired condiments, mystery food(very scary foil package I refused to look in...eek).  I cleaned every surface inside the fridge.  I never use harsh chemicals to clean with.  I certainly would never use them around food or where food is stored.  I used a simple mixture of 60/40 vinegar & water.  It worked just fine.  I rearranged a few things while I put them back, but it's pretty much the same.  Just much much cleaner!

Nice & Clean!

By the time I finished the refrigerator, the ground beef was thawed and ready to be made into meatballs.  I made 45 meatballs.  I let them cool for awhile then I put some in the fridge for dinner tonight.

I packed the rest into a freezer bag and froze them.  Here's a tip from a lesson learned(from my mom):  If you make meatballs, don't ever pack them using a FoodSaver.  You'll end up with a big clump of frozen meatballs that are impossible to separate.  I highly recommend a freezer bag.  They separate easily, allowing you grab as many as you need per meal.

I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  Everyone loved it!  It's definitely a favorite in our house.  After cleaning up the dinner dishes, I packed the remaining sauce into these freezer containers I bought at Walmart several years ago.  They are sold in 2 packs and cost around $3 at the time.  For being so cheap, I thought they would get discolored from the sauce or break easily.  They have stood the test of time so far.  I use them constantly.

 

After the sauce cools some, I'll put it in the deep freeze.  It's so convenient to have this on hand & ready to go.  Although I prepare weekly meal plans, things don't always go as planned.  This is great because all the work is done.  Thawing sauce & meatballs on the stove & boiling pasta makes a super easy & quick meal when things get hectic.   I've always made sauce & meatballs like this.  So has my mom.  Until recently, I never really thought of it as freezer cooking, but that's exactly what it is.  

I'm very happy with the all the things we got accomplished this weekend.  It feels great to have a super clean living room ready for new furniture tomorrow, some food in a freezer for hectic days & a clean home thanks to my super awesome husband & children!  Today, they are my superheros!

Live Frugal. Live Happy.