batch cooking day

Derek took the kids to see his parents today and I stayed home to do a small round of batch cooking (a la Money Saving Mom). It went pretty well for my first time, I think. Definitely awesome to have the whole house to myself!

I fired up both slow cookers, the bread machine, and the stock pot on the stove top.

Final tally:

3 bags of chicken stock (2 cups per bag) - I had a couple of bags of bones from roast chickens in the freezer. I chopped up onions and carrots for potato soup later in the week and added some to the stock as well.

2 bags of pinto beans w/bacon (2 cups per bag)

1 bag of bean/bacon broth for soup later (2 cups)

2 bowls of pinto beans - 1 for my lunch today and 1 to make refried beans with tomorrow

3 bags of garbanzo beans (2 cups per bag)

2 loaves of bread - 1 white and 1 maple oat (first time making this, yum!)

4 dozen chocolate chip cookie bites (+ one rather generous hunk for the taking-a-break mama)

2 cups chopped onion

2(ish) cups chopped carrots

It was a last minute plan, so I was mainly using what we already had on hand. Next time, I'll try to do more. I just didn't want to overwhelm myself the first time! Because I was mainly using the slow cookers and the bread machine, I was able to leave and run a couple of errands and clean out the fridge - woo-hoo!

Here's a not fabulous pic:

And bonus shots of the cutie kids before they left for the day:

If anyone wants recipes, lmk. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!