Long Rainy Weekend = Kitchen Time

This long weekend was going to be used to paint our garage door because it is the one thing we have neglected on our house. The weather ruined our plans though and when I heard how often it was going to rain I planned to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. We have produce that needed to be used and a lot of cooking ahead I've been wanting to do. Our freezer is now full of the following:

• 7 bags of cooked black beans. We use a lot of beans in this house and buying and cooking in bulk did save us a little money but not as much as I thought. However the amount of sodium it is cutting out of our diet makes it worth it.
• Homemade pizza dough. Every friday this summer has become homemade pizza night but I have yet to make my own dough. I've been using the Jiffy mix and spicing it up. I'm pretty proud of the dough in my freezer now.
• 3 loaves of strawberry banana bread. I love baking, especially breads and this is delicious. I made so much because I initially had a freezer full of bananas. I used this recipe and modified it a bit.Strawberry Banana Bread
• Veggie burgers made from scratch. We eat a lot of these but I never think to make a lot of them and freeze them for a quick dinner.

A big bowl of Tomato and Feta Salad is in the fridge. Our garden hasn't been the greatest this year but we do have a ton of tomatoes. I will probably add basil to this because our basil plants have also survived the drought. I use cherry tomatoes for this or even grape tomatoes sliced in half. Drizzle olive oil on the tomatoes and top with feta cheese. Delicious!

Last night we made a big Italian feast. Homemade Gnocchi and homemade white sauce and we polished off a big bottle of vino.

Needless to say the kitchen has been a wreck all weekend but I'm hoping to give it a rest tomorrow.
I wish I had one full day a week to do this amount of cooking because I really do enjoy it when I have nothing else planned.

(Shout out to G-ma b/c I know you are reading!