It’s official!
An application is in!
Late this afternoon, I scrambled to fill out the rental application for the house with a pool in Ocala and get a money order for $50 to drop off at the realtor’s office.
Why was I scrambling?
Apparently another couple is interested in the same house and now that Ryan and I have been intensely searching for a place to live for more than a month, we don’t want to let the one house that stuck out to us slip through our fingers.
The waiting game is on and we’re hoping our application is approved and that the lower rental rate that we previously negotiated is honored. If everything goes smoothly, we’ll be moving in on August 15. That’s less than two weeks! Halle-sweet-lujah.
Dinner
After returning home, sitting in on a conference call and wrapping up some emails, it was dinner time.
The hotel was serving hot dogs and tater tots this evening and I just couldn’t get on board.
I snagged a big piece of homemade veggie lasagna that my mom vacuum packed in the freezer of my parents’ house before we drove back to Ocala on Sunday and defrosted it before heating it up in the microwave.
It was great!
I felt like I was cheating on dinner by making a boxed frozen dinner packed with additives and crazy ingredients when, in reality, I was enjoying a delicious reheated slice of homemade lasagna. Win!
As I ate this meal, it made me think about making bigger meals and casseroles for me and Ryan and freezing leftovers for easy peasy meals in the future. I’m sure not everything freezes as well as lasagna, but I’d like to experiment a little more with cooking larger meals and freezing portions for reheating.
I’m always a fan of super-fast healthy meals and I feel like this would be a great way to enjoy healthy food on nights when cooking time is limited.
Off to start reading my new book!
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Ooh, I hope the house works out for ya! 🙂
I need to start making more servings of meals, so I can freeze portions. I feel like it might be more work up front – but a lot easier in the end!
Congrats on the app I hope all works out for you! 🙂
Yum to the homemade lasagna mmm mm! 🙂
Regarding your post earlier about privacy, i bet if i was some sort of creeper, i could find out where your future house was based on the above pic, even though it is not complete.
I hope y’all get it! Lasagna freezes so well- my aunt makes the best in america and she freezes it and gives it as gifts at christmas! it’s THAT good.
I hope you get the house!! That would be pretty sweet if you had a pool!
I do a lot of freezing casseroles in the winter! It kind of makes me excited for casserole season. I love portabella lasagna 🙂
You’d be surprised to see how well some meals freeze. I always make massive amounts of stews and soups and freeze them for easy to go lunches at work.
yay, pool party at julie’s house this summer! 🙂
That lasagna looks delish!!! good luck with the house- crossing my fingers for you!
Hopefully the application gets approved quickly and you get to move in two weeks!! Yay!
I’ve always been wanting to make a big ole casserole to use as leftovers for the hubby and I but I still haven’t yet!
Good luck on the house…we all got our fingers and toes crossed you guys! 🙂
This is the house..I can feel it!
I’m with you — I totally want to make some freezer meals to keep on hand. Let us know what you make 🙂
Ah, I sure hope you get that house Julie! It’s not only gorgeous, but seems perfect for you and Ryan and Sadie!!
Oh my goodness if you did a series on “Healthy Recipes that can be Frozen” not only would I love you but my mom would too! 🙂
that would be a good one!
Mama Pea posted something a few weeks ago about freezing healthy meals—it’s definitely something that I need to get on board with. Once the school year starts, I often fall back on bowls of oatmeal for dinner because I’m too tired to cook. This would solve that problem (with delicious results!)
Ooooh, that lasagna looks so good. I can’t believe it was frozen! The picky kid in me is still a little skeeved out about “leftovers” but the busy teenager/almost adult in me thinks it’s a great idea! I’ll definitely be trying it out soon. Maybe with turkey meatloaf muffins and chili!? 🙂
LMAO! Hot dogs and tater tots?! So bootleg. I’m glad you went with your lasgana–it looks a million times better. Good luck on the rental place! 🙂
Good luck with the pool house Julie!
Soup, stews and chillis! They freeze really well and last quite awhile in the freezer. Plus, they’re so easy to make a big pot of…most often I just double the recipe so that we have enough for a few dinner that week and then enough to freeze for a few emergency meals.
You are going to L.O.V.E Sarah’s Key. It is one of my all time favorite books. Also, the movie is coming out! (although, I’m not sure if this is a good thing yet as most movies based on my favorite books don’t do the book justice).
Happy Reading!
Awww that’s such a sweet and “Mom thing” to do. Glad it held up well!
Yay for the house! I hope you end up with the one you want. House/apartment hunting is very tricky, because you don’t want to rush into the first one that seems good but you don’t want to miss an opportunity either! I am in the same boat, sister.
Crossing my (pb) fingers for you!
Ohhhh Julie, I know how that waiting game feels… kind of. When Ryan and I found Happy at the Humane Society, there were 4 other families putting in an application for her! I already cried when I saw another family playing with her, so learning about that made me a nervous wreck… and then we had to wait until the workweek started to hear if we were accepted. Thankfully, we were! And Happy is now all ours 🙂
My fam does that all the time! we all work full time so leftovers are perfect for lunches or a quick dinner 🙂 hope the house works out!
good luck! i hope you guys get that house!!!
ooh, tater tots. i would not have been able to resist! tater tots and hashbrowns are my weakness! ;p
Good luck with the house!!! I hope you get it. It looks lovely!
Omg good luck getting the house!! I hope they don’t steal it away from you!
Lasagna is definitely one of those meals that freezes and reheats incredibly well! I haven’t had lasagna in quite a while, but boy that sure looks good! 🙂
Wow.. frozen and homemade in the same sentence may be the best thing since sliced bread! 🙂
Good luck on the house!!!
I am A HUGE fan of making tons and freezing them. Casseroles are great, enchiladas are great, and spaghetti sauce is way easy. Love those quick meals!
YAH for your application being in, hopefully it’s yours SOON!! 🙂
I hope you get the house! We were in a similar situation last week, so I bribed the landlord with lemon bars–and we got the place! Nothing like bribing with baked goods 🙂
It will all work out in the long run!
Congrats on the house!! It will be so nice to have your own place again soon.
Congrats and good luck kiddos! PS…great move on snagging that piece of lasagna…i love leftovers and for the one who cooks EVERY meal in our house, thats a great way to save so much time, yet not feel bad on what you are putting on the table
That dinner looks delicious! Chili is definitely my favorite meal to make large amounts of and freeze. It gets better with time!
Enjoy your book!
I’ve been impressed with how many meals you have eaten at the hotel, I’d say this was a good night to skip!
Lasagna looks good! I’m crossing my fingers for you and Ryan! I recently just moved and I know how difficult it is to find a house to rent in a short amount of time. Living out of a suitcase is no fun!! Plus, Sadie will be one happy girl to be back with her mommy and daddy!
Here’s an idea that freezes well …
Make some pulled pork or pulled chicken with sauce (usually easiest to do this in the slow cooker). Then, spray a muffin pan with nonstick spray. Use an ice cream scoop to portion the pork/chicken into the muffin pan and freeze. Once frozen, pop the individual portions out and put into a large zip-top bag. Store in the freezer, and when you need them, pull out however many you need the night before.
My dad LOVES BBQ pork sandwiches, and this makes it easy for him to have one without a lot of fuss.
Betsy, that is a fantastic idea!
I make chicken enchiladas for the family at least once a week using slow cooker pulled chicken. It would be so much easier for me to be able to just pull some prepared chicken out of the freezer. Plus, my little ones, who don’t eat enchiladas, love the chicken just by itself. It would make great meals for them just on it’s own. Thanks so much for sharing this idea – I love it 🙂
genius!!
I neeeeeeeeeeed a vacuum packer. Seriously, brilliant!
i freeze extra portions all the time for us! most things actually freeze really well. the tough part can be deciphering what they are. 🙂
I love making meals and freezing them for later! Soup works well, stir-fry, baked pasta, etc.
The lasagna looks delicious–what vegetables are all in it? I love making white chicken/spinach and regular lasagna and would love to experiment with a vegetable variety. Lasagna is probably one of the few leftovers I will eat. I hate things left over which is such a waste seeing as I live alone, and as much as I like cooking–cooking for one absolutely sucks!
i tasted broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant, shoestring carrots… maybe squash, too?
Good luck on the house! Last year we got snaked out of 4 different places when we were looking. House hunting is so frustrating!
My mom is like the freezer expert. Ever since I moved to my own apartment (3 years ago), she has worked on perfecting pretty much any and every recipe that can be frozen and reheated.
Hope all works out with the house!
Question: what are your thoughts on plastic packaging of food, teflon pans and the like? For ages I thought “it’s been approved for public sale so it must be safe”, but recently I’ve been really interested in reading about the cumulative effects of these products. Is it something that concerns you?
i’ve read a lot about that too. i’m okay with packing things in plastic bagggies, etc., but i don’t reheat things in plastic. i stick to glass tupperware for the most part.
Oh wow, is there a machine that vacuum packs food? All i can think about is those space saver bags that you use the actual vacuum on haha. “Store it under your bed!”
I’ll send positive thoughts your way for the apartment!
I need to start freezing casseroles too– So easy peasy
Oooooh I hope the house situation works out!! If not, want me to fight the other couple? 😉 hahaha
Congrats on the lease!!! That’s so exciting for you two, a brand new chapter in your life together 🙂 Enjoy!
i LOVE using those food sealers for food..theyre so awesome! i hope the house works out!
That lasagna looks pretty darn delish! And also, I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but there is a phone number a little visible in that first photo (on the other side of the page, for some reason that was the first thing I saw, weird). Just thought you might like to know! Haha especially after the post about creepers…yikes.
yikes! just edited it out!
Good luck with all the housing stuff!
This lasagna totally beats hot dogs and tater tots…which sounds like an awful school cafeteria lunch. I love making big batches of food (especially pastas and soups) and either freezing them or eating leftovers multiple times in a row. It makes weeknight meals so easy! Good luck with the house! Hope you get it 🙂