Freezer Meals and Food Prep

It is no secret than moms are busy people.  Wake people up, get them fed and dressed, send them to school or school them yourself, clean the house, run errands, run kids to sports or lessons, fix dinner.  The list goes on and on.  And on!

Sometimes there is just seemingly not enough time in the day.  I am right there with you!

Through the years, in an effort to lighten my load and preserve my sanity, I have tried to find little ways to help make my life easier.  Especially when it comes to cooking.  As a homeschooling mom, I typically fix THREE meals a day.  Sometimes more, sometimes less, but you get the idea.  That is a lot of time in the kitchen.  A lot!   

One way to do that, especially in certain seasons in my life, has been freezer meals and meal prep.

Let's start with freezer meals.

There are lots of programs and subscriptions out there, but the main idea is fix things ahead of time in a large prep day and freeze.  Then when you are busy you can just pull a prepared meal out of the freezer and go.  While many of those meals advertised are crock pot friendly, they do not have to be!  I have many "packet" meals in my freezer that are defrosted the night before and cooked on the grill, as well as skillet meals and casseroles to pop in the oven.  The main point is the timely prep is already done and you just have to factor in cooking time. 

The last time I did a freezer cooking prep I froze 12 meals (two of 6 different recipes) and 13 "just meat" bags. (pork loins, pork chops, hamburgers, chicken breasts, rotisserie chicken, fish and ground beef.)

That equated to 25 freezer meals at a cost of about $5.04 each for meat.

 

 

I will tell you that the MyFreezEasy plan is one of the best I have used.  (NOT an affiliate, just sharing!)  With a subscription you get monthly meal ideas and are able to mix and match as you like, as well as adjust your serving size to fit your family.   Erin Chase, creator of the $5 Dollar Dinners and MyFreezEasy, provides amazing options to include Keto, and Paleo/Whole30, clean eating, and kid    friendly meals.  Once you choose the meals you want to fix for the week or month, you print the menus, shopping lists, and directions and you are ready to go!  SO SIMPLE! 

I usually choose 4-6 recipes (each recipe makes two meals) to make each month and freeze so I always have a good selection in my freezer.  Our family typically uses them twice a week.

As far as further meal prep, I have blogged on this before.  Here are a few of my basic recommendations-

• Buy rotisserie chickens!  I used to cook whole chickens myself, but since we do not have access to our own chickens at the moment, I have found Costco chickens to be a life saver.  I buy two each month for less than $5.00 a piece and come home and immediately de-bone them and freeze.  Two chickens yield 4 freezer packs of meat for our family!  We use them in casseroles, salads, tacos, stir fry, and soups!
  

• Brown meats ahead of time.  I am not always good at this, but at the very least buy in bulk and separate into meal size packages.  If you have time when you first get home with ground beef, go on and brown it up and freeze in batches. It will save you time in the long run!

• Shape and freeze hamburger patties. Again, saves you time on a busy night!
  

• Filet chicken breasts.  First it saves you money!  And secondly, it yields a more appropriate serving size of 4-6 ounces of meat!

I am sure there are so many more ideas- feel free to share!

And have fun planning and cooking!

Blessings, 

Monday Menu- The Short List

Good morning, my friends!  The sun is shining BIG today and it is the start of a great week for us!

But a great week for us, means a short menu for you! ;)

You see, we are headed out in a few days to see Riley, daughter #2, in her college performance of Into the Woods!  No worries, the dogs and the house are being well watched!

The exciting part is that means I only have to, I mean will, cook three days this week.

Well, the other exciting part is seeing this cute face!

Excuse me while I do a party dance!

Don't get me wrong, I do love cooking for my family, but sometimes it is nice to have a little break.  Plus let's face it, it only takes a few meals out to make you appreciate home cooked ones even more!  So on that note-

Our short list-

Monday- Egg rolls and Fried rice

Tuesday- Meatballs

Wednesday- Breakfast Burritos

Together soon!

The Great Cooking Experiment

Did you grow up cooking?  I did not.  Don't get me wrong, my mom cooked a lot - I just did not spend a lot of time in the kitchen helping her.  That was during a time when I was heavily involved with dancing and was happy to just come home and be served a good meal.  Sad, but true.

One of my most fond memories of preparing to get married was my mom and me sitting around the kitchen table trying to write down all of her recipes so I could feed my then husband-to-be.  The problem was she never used a recipe so we spent a lot of time laughing at her directions of "a handful," "just a little," and "you will just know."

Needless to say, I have spent the past years making sure I not only wrote down the recipes I love and use often, but also making sure the girls could follow those recipes.  (The boys aren't quite ready) Luckily, my girls cook.  One enjoys baking and one prefers cooking meals, so it works out quite nicely when they are both home.

But some reason, I recently had a mommy panic moment - had I actually taught my girls how to plan meals from start to finish?  Could they budget, shop AND cook for a week for a family?

Thus began, The Great Cooking Experiment.

They were thrilled.  Ok, not really, but at least they were pretty good sports.

Their assignment: plan a week's worth of meals, shop for the ingredients on their own, stay within my budget, and cook for our family of 6 for a week.

Now before you think that this momma got off completely for the week, I will remind you that we homeschool and that means those kids still have to eat breakfast and lunch here.  Darn them. ;)  I often dream of sending them to public school just for lunch hour.

Anyway...with the help of our favorite cookbook Supper's On the Table, Come Home, they chose a week's menu, checked to see what staples and meat we already had and made their list.  Off they went to the store and back again - under budget!  I was so proud.  And amazed since my budgeting for meals has not be stellar lately.  I would have loved to seen them going up and down the aisles with the calculator, but decided that would embarrass them too much.  We did talk later about how the next time they could use their excess money (again, wow!) to stock up on things we use regularly that were on sale.

And then there was the cooking part of The Great Cooking Experiment.  Not much to report here. As I mentioned, my girls are can hold their own in a kitchen so this was not really where they needed the practice - though it was a fun break for me at night.  We had a week of delicious meals, one special dessert and even a special snack.  One of the great things about Rachel Master's cookbook, Supper's On the Table, Come Home, is that she gives start times for each step of the meal. In my experience, getting everything on the table at the same is the hardest trick to learn, so the times listed are a great help to newer cooks.  If you have not checked this cookbook out, I encourage you to do so.  I am getting nothing in return for telling you about it, just passing on what we love!

So, the final word on The Great Cooking Experiment?  I would say it was a huge success.  The girls say I got out of cooking for a week.  And the boys were well fed.  Not too bad for a mommy panic moment!

Next time, I think we are going to have them budget a monthly paycheck - rent, utilities, groceries, car payment, etc.  Who knew Home Economics could be so fun?  shhhh, don't tell my kids!

Never a dull moment with homeschooling!

Blessings,

Potatoes, Pumpkins and Your New Pioneer Woman

OK, fine, I am not the new pioneer woman yet, but I am getting closer ya'll.  I can just feel it.  Even my oldest wanted to know why we had so much fun learning new things AFTER she left for college.  Yes, she wanted to butcher the cow with us and unlike me the wimp, SHE would have stayed around for the whole thing!

Anyway, next up in my training...canning.  Now, just so you know, I have canned.  Well, mostly I have watched my daughter can.  I am a good cleaner-upper though!  In the past our knowledge has been small and involved a water bath canner only.  I am moving up and purchased a pressure canner.  (Thanks honey!)  Don't worry, our farming friends have assured me I will not blow myself up easily nor poison my family accidentally.  Regardless, I may or may not have asked them a million questions before, after and DURING the process, just to make sure.  Having jam and peaches on hand has been great, but for true food storage, "survival" storage and money saving, you really need a pressure canner.

Potatoes!  Yes, I bought 100 pounds of those things.  Do you even know how many potatoes that really is? Let me just make it simple for ya- A LOT!  I love potatoes more than most, but honestly I got tired of dealing with potatoes after two days of canning.  In the end I think I canned about 80 pounds and then gave up. Some of the remaining we have eaten already and some are in the cold garage waiting!  Since we transitioned to as natural eating as possible, we use potatoes for french fries, hash browns, homemade mashed potatoes as well as roasting and boiling them.  Potatoes are actually a cheap way to do a lot of side dishes as even a 5 pound bag can go a long way!  When the fresh potatoes are gone in a few weeks we will eat from the canned ones, hopefully until this time next year rolls around and we start over.  Not bad for $35.00 of potatoes!

Pumpkins!  Can there be a better thing than pumpkin?  I think not.  This family loves everything pumpkin. Maybe that is why fall is my favorite season. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes and waffles, and on and on and on!  You get  the idea.  But, have you bought a can of that stuff lately?   Wow, it has gotten expensive and last year you were hard pressed to find it on the shelves.  I almost had a panic attack.  Luckily, during October you can find pumpkins in abundance.  I stocked up!  Just one $3.00 pumpkin will yield more than several cups of pumpkin, saving you money AND is healthier for you at that.  I cheat and do it the easy way...just slice the pumpkin in half, clean out the yuck and then pop it in the crock pot for 3-4 hours with a little water on the bottom so it won't scorch.  Once it is soft you just scoop out the meat, blend in a food processor and freeze in 2 cup portions.  Again, I freeze enough to use pumpkin at least twice a week until this time next year.  Yay me!

Last year we did the same thing with apples, freezing apple pie filling and applesauce and canning apple slices, but this year it just did not happen.  I waited for prices to fall like they did in Virginia and they just did not.  Well, they did one week, but I missed  that one week and right back up the prices went.  Lesson learned- when living in a new place ask around about the prices of things and when you should expect to see the low price and WHAT that price will be so you will recognize it.

So, while we are still limited on the garden prospects and chickens in the yard thanks to continual moving and rental houses, we are slowly making our way to self sufficiency, one potato and pumpkin at a time! How about you?  Do you dream of a little cabin in the woods like me?

Blessings,



Linking up with Hearts For Home today at Upsidedown Schooling!  You will want to take a peek at all the great posts there!

Fun Friday- Saving Money in the Kitchen Finale and Giveaway!

Well friends, welcome back to the last installment of Saving Money in the Kitchen.  Here we go...

Dinner time!  What's on your menu?  Fast food, you say?  Honestly, we do not usually eat out just for the fun of it.  Usually the service isn't that great, the food is just OK, and for a family of six it is just plain expensive.  Nope, we usually are only tempted to eat out when mom does not know what is for dinner.  It is irritating, it is unhealthy and it is costly. 

But I struggle with menu planning.  Can anyone relate?  The planning part is not so bad really but the coming up with things to actually put on the plan, well, that is another story.  I waffle between feeling like I am boring my family to death to trying out long, fancy recipes that take a lot of time and they all turn their nose up in the end anyway.  So. Done. With. That!

I have a new solution!  You are going to love it!
I have just finished up my second round of cooking what someone else tells me to cook for a 13 week stretch.  I love it.  I just open the book and follow someone else's plans and recipes.  Easy!

My worn, well loved copy!

I have mentioned Rachel Master's cookbook, Supper's on the Table, Come Home before.  In this 253 page, spiral bound gem, Rachel gives you 13 weeks of 5 meals each with sides along with their recipes. To sweeten the deal she also adds a complete shopping list for each week- staples included!  AND to make it even better, a special dessert and one snack idea are included for each week with all the recipes AND ingredients list.  What else could you need?

It was written by a mom with kids for a mom with kids.  'Ya know what I mean?  None of that creame de 'la something, or fancy-smanshy, I cannot pronounce nor will my family ever eat recipes.  Just real life stuff, with real life ingredients.

These are good solid meal plans- a main dish, a veggie recommendation and often a bread of some sort or a fruit.  Did I already mention kid friendly?  I admit to having 3 out of 4 picky eaters.  I do not know how it happened, but yes, my kids are somewhat picky and opinionated about food.  Out of the 80 meals listed I only replaced about 5.  And they were pretty easy fixes.  Where split pea soup was listed, for example, I just changed it to pork loin. (sorry Rachel)  I simply marked out the ingredients for that meal on the shopping list and added my own.  Now when I shop, I copy the week's ingredients list, mark out all the things I already have on hand and go get the rest of what Rachel tells me I will need.

A no brainer.
And a life saver.

Could it get any better?
Well, actually it can!  Because at the end of the book are bonus recipes for everything from homemade mixes (we use the biscuit mix recipe all of the time) to holiday meal ideas and a even section on food allergies.

Why reinvent the wheel?
Actually, I did reinvent the wheel a little.  I admit the organizational side of me loves this concept, so I got out a notebook and the recipes I have that my family loves and made my own 13 week schedule, complete with shopping lists.  It is not nearly as well done as Rachel's, but it will do.  Now I do not have to menu plan for 26 weeks.  Yea me!

This cookbook makes a great gift for young people just starting out with cooking.  Because most recipes are not too labor intensive, it is an opportunity to learn how to ease into cooking.  Rachel gives start times for each portion of the meal, helping to get it all on the table at the same time.

Want one?  You can order a copy of Rachel's book, Supper's on the Table, Come Home from her website ~ for $15.00.

Or...

Rachel is going to bless one of my readers with their own copy for free!   Enter the rafflecopter below to win.  I know you will love it.  Thank you Rachel!

Looking for ways to save money?  Menu planning can be a great tool to keep you out of the grocery store too often, and keep you from those impulse items that end up costing us way too much.  Give it a try and see if it doesn't help!

Blessings,

This post is being linked up with Amy, At Raising Arrows!

This post in being link to Caroline at The Modest Mom!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer- Opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced in any way by the publisher.  I did not receive compensation in any form for this review.  The cookbook offered is from the generous offer of Rachel!

A Cooking Kind of Day

After reading an amazing article about the health benefits of milling your own wheat, we began the adventure of buying wheat berries.  To make a long story short, we love the process, have seen visible health changes since starting, and are convinced it is much healthier than processed white flour.  We now use it to make our own bread, muffins, cookies - anything that uses flour.  Contrary to popular misconceptions, it is not hard and one does not have to be Amish to do it.  ;) It only takes a few minutes (we use an electric grinder) and is no big deal.

Shortly after the mill, we also invested in a pasta machine.  Yes, I know you can do this by hand, but no time, folks.  Anyway, the pasta maker comes with several recipes but the one we use the most uses flour and water.  Seriously!  That is it!  No health concerns there!  Plus, it is so easy even the boys can do it, and they love watching the process.  There is something about homemade pasta that can make your heart sing.  Plus, did you know that unprocessed pasta cooks in just a few minutes?  So, while the dough does mix for about 10-15 minutes (we walk away from it while the machine does its magic), the cook time is much shorter so really you just trade out your time invested.

A fun family project that allows everyone to get involved and be excited about cooking.  Can't think of a better way to spend my time!

What's cooking at your house?