Ok, so a few weeks ago I was desperate for easy meal ideas for those of us on budgets and time restraints. You see, this fall my husband added an EMT course to his full-load work week. He is awake by 4:30 am, out the door by 5:00am, works 7-3, and would be home by 5, but now he has class 6-10pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he is doing his reading and homework which usually takes 4-6 hours a night. So as you can see, he doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook or clean.
My new schedule is working all day at a desk job, then babysitting for 2 hours after work, and then dancing 3 nights a week. I also have limited time to worry about cooking and cleaning.
So like I told you, I was desperate for quick and easy meal ideas. I asked friends on Facebook for their ideas and almost everyone said "CROCK-POT"!!!!!! Okay, my next dilemma was finding time in the mornings to get stuff put into the crock-pot, but someone recommended freezing meals and then throwing them into the crock pot in the morning before work (takes 2 minutes), and then it's ready at night to eat.
I gave this a go- and let me tell you, it was AMAZING! Not only was it super quick, easy, and tasty, it SAVED me A TON of MONEY! (Sorry for the all-caps, but really, it's that exciting)
So here is how it works:
FIRST:
Find recipes that have ingredients that can be frozen.
(For example: chicken and sauce with onions. WARNING: Potatoes don't freeze well unless blanched)
Once you have your recipes all picked out, check off all ingredients that you have on hand, and then make a shopping list of everything you need to finish your meals.
Your shopping list MUST include Gallon Ziploc Bags (unless you have them already)
EXAMPLE:
Recipe Ingredient List:
-3 Chicken Breasts
- 1 Large Onion (check)
- 1 c. barbeque sauce
- 1/4 c. zesty italian dressing (check)
Shopping List:
- Chicken Breasts
- Barbeque sauce
-Gallon Ziploc Bags
Then go grocery shopping. SUGGESTION: Make sure to prepare enough meals to last you all week, this will vary depending on family size, etc. Also, it's great to do breakfast and lunches this way too, not only dinners.
Hopefully though, you will see that your cost of making these meals brings your food bill down and allows you to feed your family, no matter the size, for cheaper.
Mr. Green and I were spending anywhere between $100-200 a week on groceries, and for 3 weeks straight I have yet to break $80 and that includes the ridiculous amounts of snack food and lunch foods for his lunches (and we live in CT where things are pretty expensive).
NEXT STEP:
Get home, label some Ziploc Bags with the Recipe Name, Day's Date, and cooking/serving instructions.
Example:
Hearty Chili 9/22/12
Instructions:
- Place in crock-pot on low 6-8 hours, or on high 3-4 hours
- Serve with sour cream, cheese, or tortilla chips.
(once it's labeled there is no confusion on what to do with it)
THEN:
Slice and dice everything you need for your recipes, place all of the ingredients in their labeled bags and squeeze all of the air out before sealing the bags.
Lay them flat in the freezer and once frozen you can stack them to keep your freezer organized with plenty of space.
FINALLY:
Throw those suckers in the crock-pot and cook them according to directions.
NOTE: Not all freezer-meals are crock-pot meals. I will differentiate between them as I blog the recipes.
This has saved me so much time, effort, and money over the past month and I continue to come up with more ideas and recipes to freeze. I will post pictures with this post to walk you through the steps and I will also start adding recipes to follow.
One idea to give: make up your own waffles, let them cool, stack them all together in a baggie and freeze for your very own EGG-O waffles! ( I did this with a whole-wheat mix and added my own chocolate chips. It was divine!)
-The Little Green Girl
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