One of the biggest factors I had for doing this freezer meal project was that I did not want anything to go to waste. I used the tops I cut-off of the stuffed bell peppers for other recipes and other little things such as that. I split meals that should have made one bag into two just to assure that we didn't have any leftovers in the future that may go to waste. Last night, I used some of the roast from Tuesday night to make stuffed baked potatoes.
When I've made crock-pot roast in the past, I noticed that we always had a lot of veggies and roast left over. I started cutting off about a quarter of the roast before anyone served their plate, putting it into a Tupperware container, and sticking it into the fridge. After everyone eats, I store the extra vegetables in a Tupperware container in the fridge as well (these are added to another meal as a side or eaten as a lunch).
I noticed on a visit to Publix that they have some massive potatoes sold by the pound in the produce section. I buy three (I split one of the potatoes between my six year old and my two year old). I have found that these cook pretty well on 425 degrees for two hours. As the potatoes are cooking, I take the refrigerated roast and tear it into strips and heat barbecue sauce on the stove. I put all the roast strips into the pot with the sauce and adjust the barbecue sauce to our liking (you can start with a small amount and then increase if you like more). Be careful not to burn the barbecue sauce. Once it gets warm enough, turn it to simmer!
Once the potatoes are done, I slice them open and use a spoon to kind of "gut" the insides. I don't take out any of the potato, I just move the "inside" around a bit so the butter and other toppings spread better. We like simple potatoes so I just put on a little salt & pepper, butter and then a big spoonful of BBQ roast. Occasionally someone will add cheddar cheese to their potato as well so I leave it on the table as an option. One large potato with a piece of bread will feed my husband, whom has a large-appetite, no problem. Last night I made macaroni-and-cheese as a side to make sure my kids got enough food and I also made cornbread so we could have bread. I guess I could have made the meal a little less starchy. Oh well...
Sorry there wasn't much funny stuff tonight. Last night was kind of slow. I spent more time watching and listening to my kids play than cooking.
As for tonight, I know we are having a salad and that's as far as I've gotten. It's currently 6:22 PM so I guess I need to start raiding my kitchen since dinner should be ready in about 8 minutes. I have a feeling tomorrow's post will be an interesting one!
Happy cooking!
Oh yeah. I forgot to update everyone on how many freezer meals I made! I made 29! I also used the groceries purchased for an extra 4 meals that didn't make it to the freezer so I had a total of 33 meals. I somehow lost my Sam's Club receipt and will update this if I ever find it, but I spent roughly $320 on dinner items between Sam's Club and Publix. We were out of everything except spices and a huge bag of Vidalia onions so this is the total of pretty much everything I needed! So, $320/33= $9.69 per meal. That equals about $2.42 a person. I am pretty happy with that figure. Our food bill was around $450 a month so I'm slowing bringing it down! As an added bonus, I found 9 bags of meat that were frozen and forgotten so I am all set for the next 38 days! Woo hoo!
*I'm pretty sure the cost at Sam's was lower, but I can't remember all the side things I bought. I hope to find the receipt soon!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Spaghetti & Roast
Don't be scared of the title. I didn't have Spaghetti and Roast together. I just couldn't think of a catchy title so I was straightforward! I'm going to start up on recipes again and a review of all of the freezer meals. We have yet to begin the freezer meals so I'm just going to talk about my nightly cooking right now.
Sunday night I was busy with the freezer meals. I was on day two and a prisoner in my own kitchen. I felt like I was trying to claw my way out of a hole. I severely underestimated how disorganized I was with the freezer meals. I'm usually a stickler for being organized! Either way, I had to try and get all of the meat into the freezer, but I just couldn't seem to be gaining any ground. Around 6 PM or so I got frustrated and needed a break from cooking and freezing. I decided cooking and eating would be a good idea. My family thought so too since they had been smelling random food I was cooking all day and then getting their hands slapped when they tried to eat any of it. I grabbed a little of the raw ground beef from my "going to the freezer" stash and boiled some noodles. I had grabbed two baguettes at Sam's Club because they were pretty cheap and bread is a staple in this house. (Also, I use it as bribery for my kids. If they eat their food, they get bread. I'm not afraid to admit that one bit!) I took one of the baguettes out of the bag, sliced it vertically and then again horizontally so that I had four (very large) pieces of bread. I lightly buttered them and threw them in the oven. I was too exhausted to bother with making a salad. I used the Baine sauce (I posted the recipe in a "spaghetti" blog earlier this year) and it was a hit. I'm not really surprised that the spaghetti nights go over so well. They usually do anyway. Normally I make a ton of food and we have leftovers, but I realized the leftovers were regularly going to waste so I have drastically cut down on how much I cook each night.
Yesterday around noon I remembered I had a roast in the fridge to cook. I was in a much better mood because I didn't have any freezer cooking left. I still need to do all the baking, but I figure that will be my goal for this weekend. I wouldn't mind having my husband here to keep the kids occupied while I'm trying to measure, sift, bake, etc. Anyhow, I got the crock-pot prepped and pulled out my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and got started. I decided while shopping Sunday evening that I was not going to purchase any pre-cut vegetables because I was trying to cut cost as much as possible. This was going to severely alter my prep time, but I wasn't too worried as I had plenty of time before the roast absolutely had to be started. If you've read this blog in the past, you realize that I have a hatred for prep times. They're completely unreasonable! Anyway, I got to work washing the potatoes, celery, and carrots and peeling the top few layers off the onion. I went to dry off my celery because chopping a wet vegetable with a very sharp object with wet hands is just asking for trouble. Problem number 1: I have no paper towels left after my freezer frenzy on Sunday. Crap! Then I remember I just restocked the drawer in the kitchen with hand towels. Crisis diverted! I dried everything off and reached for the cutting board, my knife and my peeler. Problems number 2, 3, and 4: They were all in the sink or dishwasher and were also victims to my freezer frenzy. Oh and who forgot to start the dishwasher the day before? This girl... Figures. I decide to search for my paring knife that disappeared over a year ago. I've looked for this thing countless times and blamed my husband every time for losing it. By the grace of God, that sucker popped up in the same place I always look. I grabbed it and started peeling. (Which by the way, the only thing I could think the whole time was how I was going to explain to Russ how I found the knife and tell him he was right...) It took forever to peel and chop all the veggies, but I eventually got all of them and the roast and the "sauce" recipe started. For some reason I decided to put an extra 1/4 cup of water into the crock pot. I have never done this before, but I've thought about it many times in the past. After last night, I will forever use that extra water. The roast was the most tender it has ever been. Russ and the kids raved about it and gobbled it up. I also made enough vegetables that I didn't need a side dish. Russ baked the second baguette the same way as I did Sunday night and we all had plenty to eat.
Tonight we are having BBQ stuffed baked potatoes. I will post more about it tomorrow.
Happy Cooking!
I want to stress that the following recipe came from the 14th Edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I don't know how all the copyright type stuff works with recipes, but I'm going to be careful about it either way.
Beef Pot Roast
1-2 1/2 to 3 lb boneless beef chuck pot roast
4 medium baking potatoes (or sweet potatoes) OR 1 lb tiny new potatoes
1 lb carrots or 6 mdm parsnips, peeled and cut into 2 in pieces
2 small onions, cut into wedges (I just always use one medium to large sized one)
2 stalks celery, bias-sliced into 1 inch pieces
3/4 cup of water (I personally used 1 Cup and noticed a big difference in the tenderness of the roast)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t instant beef bouillon granules
1 t dried, crushed basil
1/2 t salt
Trim fat from meat. Place vegetables in a 4 1/2 or 5-quart slow cooker. Cut meat to fit, if necessary; place on top of vegetables. Combine the water, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon granules, basil and salt. Add to cooker. Cover and cook on low-heat setting 9-11 hours or on high-heat setting for 4.5-5.5 hours. Serve. (There are also oven directions and a gravy, but the recipe above is the way my family likes it.)
Sunday night I was busy with the freezer meals. I was on day two and a prisoner in my own kitchen. I felt like I was trying to claw my way out of a hole. I severely underestimated how disorganized I was with the freezer meals. I'm usually a stickler for being organized! Either way, I had to try and get all of the meat into the freezer, but I just couldn't seem to be gaining any ground. Around 6 PM or so I got frustrated and needed a break from cooking and freezing. I decided cooking and eating would be a good idea. My family thought so too since they had been smelling random food I was cooking all day and then getting their hands slapped when they tried to eat any of it. I grabbed a little of the raw ground beef from my "going to the freezer" stash and boiled some noodles. I had grabbed two baguettes at Sam's Club because they were pretty cheap and bread is a staple in this house. (Also, I use it as bribery for my kids. If they eat their food, they get bread. I'm not afraid to admit that one bit!) I took one of the baguettes out of the bag, sliced it vertically and then again horizontally so that I had four (very large) pieces of bread. I lightly buttered them and threw them in the oven. I was too exhausted to bother with making a salad. I used the Baine sauce (I posted the recipe in a "spaghetti" blog earlier this year) and it was a hit. I'm not really surprised that the spaghetti nights go over so well. They usually do anyway. Normally I make a ton of food and we have leftovers, but I realized the leftovers were regularly going to waste so I have drastically cut down on how much I cook each night.
Yesterday around noon I remembered I had a roast in the fridge to cook. I was in a much better mood because I didn't have any freezer cooking left. I still need to do all the baking, but I figure that will be my goal for this weekend. I wouldn't mind having my husband here to keep the kids occupied while I'm trying to measure, sift, bake, etc. Anyhow, I got the crock-pot prepped and pulled out my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and got started. I decided while shopping Sunday evening that I was not going to purchase any pre-cut vegetables because I was trying to cut cost as much as possible. This was going to severely alter my prep time, but I wasn't too worried as I had plenty of time before the roast absolutely had to be started. If you've read this blog in the past, you realize that I have a hatred for prep times. They're completely unreasonable! Anyway, I got to work washing the potatoes, celery, and carrots and peeling the top few layers off the onion. I went to dry off my celery because chopping a wet vegetable with a very sharp object with wet hands is just asking for trouble. Problem number 1: I have no paper towels left after my freezer frenzy on Sunday. Crap! Then I remember I just restocked the drawer in the kitchen with hand towels. Crisis diverted! I dried everything off and reached for the cutting board, my knife and my peeler. Problems number 2, 3, and 4: They were all in the sink or dishwasher and were also victims to my freezer frenzy. Oh and who forgot to start the dishwasher the day before? This girl... Figures. I decide to search for my paring knife that disappeared over a year ago. I've looked for this thing countless times and blamed my husband every time for losing it. By the grace of God, that sucker popped up in the same place I always look. I grabbed it and started peeling. (Which by the way, the only thing I could think the whole time was how I was going to explain to Russ how I found the knife and tell him he was right...) It took forever to peel and chop all the veggies, but I eventually got all of them and the roast and the "sauce" recipe started. For some reason I decided to put an extra 1/4 cup of water into the crock pot. I have never done this before, but I've thought about it many times in the past. After last night, I will forever use that extra water. The roast was the most tender it has ever been. Russ and the kids raved about it and gobbled it up. I also made enough vegetables that I didn't need a side dish. Russ baked the second baguette the same way as I did Sunday night and we all had plenty to eat.
Tonight we are having BBQ stuffed baked potatoes. I will post more about it tomorrow.
Happy Cooking!
I want to stress that the following recipe came from the 14th Edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I don't know how all the copyright type stuff works with recipes, but I'm going to be careful about it either way.
Beef Pot Roast
1-2 1/2 to 3 lb boneless beef chuck pot roast
4 medium baking potatoes (or sweet potatoes) OR 1 lb tiny new potatoes
1 lb carrots or 6 mdm parsnips, peeled and cut into 2 in pieces
2 small onions, cut into wedges (I just always use one medium to large sized one)
2 stalks celery, bias-sliced into 1 inch pieces
3/4 cup of water (I personally used 1 Cup and noticed a big difference in the tenderness of the roast)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t instant beef bouillon granules
1 t dried, crushed basil
1/2 t salt
Trim fat from meat. Place vegetables in a 4 1/2 or 5-quart slow cooker. Cut meat to fit, if necessary; place on top of vegetables. Combine the water, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon granules, basil and salt. Add to cooker. Cover and cook on low-heat setting 9-11 hours or on high-heat setting for 4.5-5.5 hours. Serve. (There are also oven directions and a gravy, but the recipe above is the way my family likes it.)
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Freezer Frenzy
I did it. I hopped on the freezer bandwagon. This isn't my first attempt at buying meat in bulk and using my freezer. This is, however, my first time buying in bulk, turning the meat into something else, and then freezing it.
My first attempt was in March 2011. I thought I was a genius. I bought about $200 worth of meat from Sam's Club. I don't recall getting a very good deal on the meat, but I did get a lot so I was really excited. I went home and spent a good 3 or 4 hours labeling, sorting, etc. It was going pretty well until April 27, 2011. I live in North Alabama and my little town got hit hard by the tornado outbreak. I lost power to my house for five days. Luckily, I live close to my parents so we had a place to stay so the kids would be comfortable, but my meat did not survive. I probably lost $100+ worth of meat. We got reimbursed a little with FEMA, but it felt wrong to take money when so many lost their homes. We decided not to restock the freezer immediately.
I tried again in March 2013. (What is it with the March attempts?!) I didn't do so great this time. I spent a lot AGAIN, and then froze the meat divided up into bags of two or three pieces. I lost so many bags in the bottom of the freezer! When I began my new freezer attempt Sunday, I noticed there were about six bags in the base of the freezer ranging from stew meat to three lbs of bone-in porkchops! I will be using the bags I found first since they have been there three months. I was just shocked that I had let that many slip away!
Sunday I went shopping at Sam's again. I was ready this time. I researched recipes for weeks leading up to the shopping day. I went into Excel and made a preliminary list. I then went over the recipes and grouped items and figured out what I had and what I needed to purchase. I made a master list on Excel and called my sister-in-law to go shopping with me. (I may have a mission, but it's always fun to have someone come along.)
When I got to Sam's I started grabbing things not on the list first...BAD! I hate that store. Okay, not really, but it always gets me into trouble with the hubby. Chelsey (my SIL) and I headed to the produce and meat section. My cart filled up really fast and I found some great deals. Most notably, they had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.88 a lb! Yay! I felt like I had won the lottery...or at least got a good deal! I headed home optimistic that I may actually be able to pull this off. (I will be posting the receipt, shopping list, and the amount of meals I was able to make in the next few days.)
I realized I did not have everything I needed and I had not even began purchasing the things I needed for the baking portion. I guess I should mention I had intentions of making dinner AND breakfast for the freezer. I'm still not positive this was a great idea. That is DEFINITELY a future blog topic though. Anyhow, I somehow convinced my husband to let me spend more money at Publix to finish up buying the products that I did not need in bulk and a few other odds and ends. I spent almost $200 more. EEK! I did get extremely lucky that I went so close to closing time. The butcher was pulling meat and putting sale stickers on the things expiring the next day. I didn't need anything except ground beef (Sam's was out!), but he asked me if I would like a few whole chickens. The chickens were about 3 lbs. a piece and I was about to decline until he told me that he would be marking them down to .34 cents a lb. I think I actually physically held my mouth open. I took home two of the chickens and stuck them in my fridge. I will just have to add roasted chicken to my menu this month!
It took me two days, but I finally finished all the dinners. I made casseroles, crock-pot meals, and things that were ready to be thrown into the oven straight from the freezer. I'm pretty excited about the prospects. I believe I have somewhere between 30-40 meals prepped. I plan on sitting down tonight or tomorrow and figuring up the cost per meal. I should have a definite number very soon. I will also share the website I got tips from and the recipes I used. Of course, there will be some humor along the way as I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Now, who wants to help me tackle baking breakfast meals?!
My first attempt was in March 2011. I thought I was a genius. I bought about $200 worth of meat from Sam's Club. I don't recall getting a very good deal on the meat, but I did get a lot so I was really excited. I went home and spent a good 3 or 4 hours labeling, sorting, etc. It was going pretty well until April 27, 2011. I live in North Alabama and my little town got hit hard by the tornado outbreak. I lost power to my house for five days. Luckily, I live close to my parents so we had a place to stay so the kids would be comfortable, but my meat did not survive. I probably lost $100+ worth of meat. We got reimbursed a little with FEMA, but it felt wrong to take money when so many lost their homes. We decided not to restock the freezer immediately.
I tried again in March 2013. (What is it with the March attempts?!) I didn't do so great this time. I spent a lot AGAIN, and then froze the meat divided up into bags of two or three pieces. I lost so many bags in the bottom of the freezer! When I began my new freezer attempt Sunday, I noticed there were about six bags in the base of the freezer ranging from stew meat to three lbs of bone-in porkchops! I will be using the bags I found first since they have been there three months. I was just shocked that I had let that many slip away!
Sunday I went shopping at Sam's again. I was ready this time. I researched recipes for weeks leading up to the shopping day. I went into Excel and made a preliminary list. I then went over the recipes and grouped items and figured out what I had and what I needed to purchase. I made a master list on Excel and called my sister-in-law to go shopping with me. (I may have a mission, but it's always fun to have someone come along.)
When I got to Sam's I started grabbing things not on the list first...BAD! I hate that store. Okay, not really, but it always gets me into trouble with the hubby. Chelsey (my SIL) and I headed to the produce and meat section. My cart filled up really fast and I found some great deals. Most notably, they had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.88 a lb! Yay! I felt like I had won the lottery...or at least got a good deal! I headed home optimistic that I may actually be able to pull this off. (I will be posting the receipt, shopping list, and the amount of meals I was able to make in the next few days.)
I realized I did not have everything I needed and I had not even began purchasing the things I needed for the baking portion. I guess I should mention I had intentions of making dinner AND breakfast for the freezer. I'm still not positive this was a great idea. That is DEFINITELY a future blog topic though. Anyhow, I somehow convinced my husband to let me spend more money at Publix to finish up buying the products that I did not need in bulk and a few other odds and ends. I spent almost $200 more. EEK! I did get extremely lucky that I went so close to closing time. The butcher was pulling meat and putting sale stickers on the things expiring the next day. I didn't need anything except ground beef (Sam's was out!), but he asked me if I would like a few whole chickens. The chickens were about 3 lbs. a piece and I was about to decline until he told me that he would be marking them down to .34 cents a lb. I think I actually physically held my mouth open. I took home two of the chickens and stuck them in my fridge. I will just have to add roasted chicken to my menu this month!
It took me two days, but I finally finished all the dinners. I made casseroles, crock-pot meals, and things that were ready to be thrown into the oven straight from the freezer. I'm pretty excited about the prospects. I believe I have somewhere between 30-40 meals prepped. I plan on sitting down tonight or tomorrow and figuring up the cost per meal. I should have a definite number very soon. I will also share the website I got tips from and the recipes I used. Of course, there will be some humor along the way as I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Now, who wants to help me tackle baking breakfast meals?!
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