Dinner's Ready

Seriously.  Like from now through Halloween.  No joke.   It all started with the mac and cheese I offered to make for my friends that just had a baby.  So why not make one for us at the same time?  And why not whip up some other things that I can freeze and eat later?  After all, school is starting soon and a freezer full of dinners would sure make the evenings go easier.  And so I went shopping today to get all of the stuff I would need:

I recruited the best little chefs around:

 And got to work.

 Poor Auntie Katie came over to visit and got put to work.

 After two hours, my kitchen was a DISASTER

 but we had 16 dinners!

 Why did we stop after two hours?  Well we had to go watch a movie in the park, of course.   Even though yesterday was 94 degrees, we had to put on our fleece jammies tonight because it was only 64 tonight.  Yep.  A 30 degree shift.  Welcome to Washington, people.  Once we were all cozay and snuggled in, we watched "Happy Feet Two."

 I wasn't sure how long we would last since it was way past bedtime and the last time I suggested that movie I was shot down by Ben who apparently doesn't like "penguins OR dancing".  But the big screen set up in front of the water changed his mind.

 It didn't, however stop the endless stream of questions that I have come to expect when watching movies.  But we made it through (despite Abby asking if we could just go home and go to bed with 20 minutes left in the movie)  and once the kids were in bed I got back to work.

Any one who knows me well, knows that once I start something I can't sleep until it is finished.  And while 16 dinners was good, it was only about half of the things on my list.  By 2:00 (yes, in the morning.  I told you I don't sleep) my mission was accomplished:

 And both of my freezers were full:

So there you have it.  For just over $100 (and 5 and a half hours), I made 27 dinners and enough "grab and go" breakfast items for more than 2 months of work. With leftovers and all of the times we eat with friends and family, I figure it will be November before I have to cook again. After tonight, I like the sound of that.  And everything I made is either oven or crock pot ready so all I have to do is remember to pull it out of the freezer before work.  Yeah, I'm kind of impressed with myself right now.

And I'm kind of sleepy.  And my feet hurt.  And I'm hungry because everything I made looked sooooo good!  (Can you say pizza stuffed pretzles?!?)  So off to bed I go.  Because 7:30 will be here in four hours.  Whooops!  This sounded like a better plan a few hours ago...