Note: I wrote this post late last Thursday night, but a migraine hit me on Friday before I published it. Sorry for the delay.

Last week, I intended to write a garden update post, but I didn’t get to the garden to take photos because it was raining when I needed to do so, but I will share a few pictures that I had taken earlier in the week with you. We have thoroughly been enjoying the fresh produce, and it has been such a fun experience for the girls. Ellie has enjoyed preserving food with me. The day that we made pickles (not pictured), she said “We are having so much fun. People can’t even imagine how much fun we are having.”

Emma has enjoyed picking and snapping green beans. I am still working on getting them to enjoy eating everything out of the garden, though. Fresh tomatoes and zucchini are not at the top of the favorite foods list, but I am working on it…do you have any favorite recipes for fresh vegetables that children can’t resist?

When Ellie was a small child, she devoured a Caprese salad when we were eating out one night, but do you think I can get her to taste my tomato salads now? I wish I had made some fresh mozzarella for this salad, but Ryan and I enjoyed it as it was.

The zinnias this year have been so beautiful!

I have delighted in eating plates of vegetables. This picture was taken earlier in the season—it’s kale and zucchini.

And here is my little helper snapping green beans.

Here are jars of relish that I made.

And the tomato harvest I am blessed to have! Fresh garden and home-canned tomatoes are the best!

For this batch, I cooked and pureed the tomatoes in my Vitamix. It saves so much time compared to running them through a food mill, and it makes a lovely thick juice. For some of them, I drained the juice to make an even thicker sauce, but I also canned the juice that I drained to use as a broth in soups.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the basil I have picked! I have delighted in having fresh basil as often as I want, and I have made numerous batches of fresh pesto. YUM!

Gardening and preserving food and sewing have kept me very busy, and the thought of adding homeschooling to the routine seems rather overwhelming, but we have to start kindergarten with Ellie this year. Ryan suggested that in order to free up more time during the week that we try cooking together for the week on the weekend! I was startled by his suggestion, because when we got married, he delegated everything kitchen related to me. We haven’t cooked together since marriage! He occasionally makes me scrambled eggs for breakfast for special occasions, such as my birthday or Mother’s Day, but I have been the primary cook for the past 8 years. I wholeheartedly agreed to give it a try.

And so, Ryan did a grocery run after work on Friday so that we would have what we needed for our day of cooking. The girls were so excited to see Daddy in the kitchen!

They took turns with Ryan measuring out the oats for the Maple Pecan Granola that we made, and he used the ulu knife that we received as a gift during our honeymoon in Alaska for the first time to chop the pecans. (I have used it many times!)

This granola is yummy! If any of you want the recipe, let me know! It’s simple to make, and everyone in the family finds it irresistibly delicious.

The next recipe we worked on was Zucchini Spice Cake. It was a new recipe for us, but I decided to give it a try to use up/hide zucchini in the food. I wasn’t too sure about whether these would actually turn out, but I trusted the cookbook author—all of her recipes are amazing. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks: Nourishing Meals. I was mainly concerned because we used peanut butter instead of cashew butter as the main ingredient. (These are flourless).

The recipe turned out beautifully, and Ellie said, “It tastes like Christmas!” Between the granola and spice cake baking, our kitchen smelled fabulous.

We also made blueberry teff muffins to freeze. Because I was directing Ryan to mix up two recipes at once (I had also set out a bowl to mix up waffles), and he had the help of the girls, too much baking powder was accidentally dumped into the wrong bowl. It was at that point, I decided that we would stick to one recipe at a time. But the muffins turned out okay, thankfully. We made enough to last a couple of weeks instead of just one week. Of course, they aren’t quite as moist out of the freezer, but we still have enjoyed some this week.

At this point, Ryan and Emma went and took a nap. And I started on main dishes. I grated more zucchini to use in a pasta beef casserole. And I got chicken out of the freezer to marinate for grilling. My plan was to have breakfast items completely ready to go, and chicken cooked to put on salad greens for lunches, a couple of batches of soup made, and some meatballs and vegetables prepped, and to bake several batches of bread.

This is what I learned: we tried doing too much in one day. I knew that it would be too much when we started.I mentally noted the number of hours I spend in the kitchen each week, and knew that it would be impossible to fit it all into one day. But we will keep trying and maybe as Ryan gets more accustomed to where everything is in the kitchen, we will be able to work on recipes separately instead of me having to direct the whole show.

Because I was not able to finish everything that day, I finished it at the first of the week. I grilled the meat, made the meatballs, made waffles, etc. later.

And so I have still spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week—it still takes time to heat meat, cook vegetables, serve, and clean-up, but I hope with time that I will find more efficient ways of feeding the family while maintaining a whole food, healthy diet.

What are your suggestions for once-a-week cooking?

Update: This past weekend, I did an abbreviated version of once-a-week cooking all by myself because Ryan had some work projects to complete.

For breakfasts, we still have some muffins and waffles in the freezer. So I made some spinach and egg casserole in single serve portions in my stoneware muffin pan. I cracked eggs and put them in jars in the refrigerator ready to scramble (Ellie likes to make scrambled eggs all by herself, but cracking them sometimes gets a little messy for her).

For healthy snacks, I made fruit freezer pops by pureeing fruit and freezing the mixture in these bags, available on Amazon: Frozip Popsicle Bags

For a quick lunch item, I made chicken veggie patties by mixing cooked chicken and grated squash, eggs, a tiny bit of mayo, and some seasonings. I used a cookie scoop to make the patties and then fried them. One of my daughters ate six of them yesterday…

I also cooked several pounds of ground beef to have ready to use, I have some cooked chicken to use in salads. I also plan to make some bean and veggie soups this week after I soak and cook the beans. I grated the rest of the squash and zucchini from the garden and plan to make some bread with it later.

Cooking is an endless task, but being able to use garden-fresh produce this year has made me feel rich and blessed!

And when I get the once-a-week-cooking process figured out, I will share my pointers with you…

Have a great week! I would love to hear from you if you have recipe suggestions or ideas. If you have a garden this year, send me pictures of your garden and produce!

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Garden Update and First Attempt at Once-a-Week-Cooking