I really should be folding that pile of laundry that is covering my couch, but frankly, I'm tired. I just finished putting the last of the cookies in the freezer. This is the third time I've put aside a specific day for freezing up a month of meals and I have high hopes for it this time. The last two times I reserved a whole day it really flopped. The first time I could NOT get it done. My Freezer Cooking Day turned into Freezer Cooking Week! Not my idea of a time saver, and to top it off my kitchen was a disaster every night. I cook like a hurricane. The aftermath is not pretty. The next time I made too many whole dishes that took forever to thaw/cook. So, for quite some time I've just been chopping a few extra onions when I need one or browning an extra lb. of beef/turkey and freezing the excess. A little at a time is still handy for those last minute dinners, but in order to get the shopping bill down, I've decided to give the 'Day' another go. This time around I adopted a 'short-cut' strategy that it seems everyone has figured out except for me. I Googled 'once a month cooking' and found many wiser women than I, who prepare parts of meals instead of making many finished ones. :)
I started a few things yesterday evening, but this is what I accomplished.
- 20 Brown Bag Burritos I forgot to add the cheese so I had to unwrap a dozen of them to 'fix' my mess :/
- 32 Pigs in a Blanket I used my own whole wheat Butterhorn recipe for these.
-both are for easy lunches on the weekends or when Matt's home, the guy won't eat sandwiches or pasta salads.
- 2 (fully cooked) loaves of yummy Meatloaf
- 2 Chicken Marinades (super fast!)
- 2 bags of Apricot Chicken. I applied the same principle as for the marinade, by pouring the completely cooled sauce over bags of 5 frozen chicken breasts. Each bag will make more than one meal for us, I plan on using the leftovers for a sweet/sour stir fry.
- 2 bags of Asian Chicken (for stir fry, over Udon noodles)
- a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip cookie dough blobs
- 2 quart bags of chopped onions
- 4, 1 lb. bags of browned gr. beef
- enough beef patties (hamburgers) for 2 meals, separated by waxed paper and bagged
My freezer is packed to the nines, which is why I didn't make more cookie dough blobs. I'm going to have to put the 20 bags of shredded cheese I got for $1 a piece this week in Matt's freezer! I have to go make dinner, but I'll be back to post my grocery bill! :)
Mmm! Dinner was yummy :o)
Matt took me to Aldi, where I stocked up on most of my groceries, especially meat/poultry, and then to Wal-Mart, where I could pick up a few things that Aldi doesn't carry. I bought enough for more than a whole month of meals. I have the makings of 40 known meals in my kitchen, and I know I could go a week longer than the 4 weeks I have planned/budgeted. My totalled grocery bill was $263.33. This is an improvement I have not been able to make with all the cheap meal plans I have been trying (except for maybe the starvation plan...and no, it wasn't planned that way) I still have to pick up milk, orange juice, butter, eggs and fresh fruit every week, but that should cost no more than $20 a week. Conclusion: $85 per week. It may not seem so frugal to those of you who are pros at this, but it certainly makes for one happy me, considering I was spending approximately $100-$130 a week-even when buying the 'bare essentials'. :/ I spent literally hours doing housework with Mom over the phone [hey, we can both wash dishes at the same time!] ;) brainstorming for inexpensive meals that Matt would eat, but all to no avail. He is hands down the pickiest eater I have ever met-but that's his only fault ;o) so who's complaining? :o)
