A Month of Meals: Freezer Cooking Day

We have our menu, our recipes, and have done our shopping. Now it is time for food prep. What I love about this particular menu is that the food prep is so incredibly easy. Most of the items are already frozen. All you have to do is put the ingredients in the bag and you are ready to go. I did my freezer cooking in just under 2 hours from beginning till the last hand washed dish was dried.The first thing you will want to do if you are following my menu is cook your ground meat. This is the only actual cooking involved in our freezer cooking day. You will want to drain it and also let it cool before putting it into the bags. While you are waiting for the meat to cook start writing up your bags. I label them with their name, special instructions like adding water or what to serve it over, the date, and cooking instructions.

Once you are ready to put the food in the bags you want to do two things. First puff up the bag and zip it shut. gently squeeze to make sure there are no holes in the bag. We had a major mess on my mom's white table cloth because half a bottle of BBQ sauce gushed out of a hole in one of our bags. You live and you learn, right. Second flip the zip top out. This helps the bag to stand on it's own and hold the mouth of the bag open.

Now it is just a matter of tossing the ingredients in the bags. This menu is well designed for freezing. With just a bit of work you will have those quick and easy frozen meals we all love the convenience of using. In this 2 hours you will have 26 meals done for the month, just heat and serve. Okay, some of them will be served on rice or pasta, but that is quick and easy to whip up.

Now is the time for your questions! Ask in the comments or where ever you have seen this series. Tomorrow I will answer all your questions and link back to all the posts in case you missed one. See you then!

You can find the rest of the series here.

A Month of Meals: The Recipes

Yesterday we looked at planning the menu. Today I am sharing all the recipes I am using for my menu. I love getting recipes from Pinterest and many of these recipes are from there. You can follow me on Pinterest here.

The first 6 recipes can be found at Stacy Makes Cents. I used chicken tenderloins instead of breasts and did one for each of us in each bag. We aren't big meat eaters. It would be easy to swap out chicken for other types of meat as well. There is no cooking involved in the meal prep and we have loved 4 out of 4 of them that we have already tried.The Hawaiian BBQ Chicken comes from Six Sister's Stuff. They have fantastic recipes! I have tried several of them. We will be serving this dish over rice in our monthly menu.

Baked Ziti is from Amusing Foodie. I half the recipe for our family and use gluten free pasta of course. I also use cottage cheese instead of Ricotta.

That last 3 are family originals. I haven't made them in a long time so I don't have any pictures. They are super quick and easy though.

Corny Chicken

Ingredients (all to desired quantity):

Chicken

Corn

Salt

Pepper

 

In a sprayed casserole dish put chicken. Top with corn. Season with salt and pepper. Bake on 350* for 30 minutes or till chicken is done. Enjoy!

For freezer cooking simply toss everything into a bag and freeze.

 

Beef and Broccoli with Pasta

Ingredients:

1 lb cooked hamburger (I will be splitting 3 pounds between the 4 freezer bags that require hamburger)

1/2 bag frozen broccoli

2 T olive oil

garlic to taste

1/2 box of pasta

 

Toss everything but the pasta into the bag to freeze. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or till hot. Cook pasta and toss with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper if desired. Toss pasta with the broccoli and beef and serve. Great with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

 

 

Mermaid Hair Casserole

Ingredients:

1 lb cooked hamburger

1/2 bag frozen sliced green beans

1/2 jar spaghetti sauce

Pasta or rice to serve over

 

Toss the hamburger, beans, and sauce into freezer bags to freeze. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or heat on the stove top. Serve over rice or pasta. This dish is named for the stringy green hair of the mermaids in Harry Potter.

 

Our lunch and breakfast meals don't have recipes. We really just wing it on those. Tomorrow we put together the shopping list, see the prices, and take a look at the grand total.

Have any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments or share some of your favorite recipes on a budget.

You can find the rest of the series here.

A Month of Meals: Intro and Monthly Menu Planning

Welcome to the first of a week long series on menu planning and grocery budgeting. Today I am going to give an intro and share how I go about planning our meals a month at a time. Tomorrow I will be sharing the recipes I will be using for my 4 week menu. Thursday we'll focus on the grocery list and shopping. Friday is all about freezer cooking. Saturday I will be posting a review, answers to questions in the comments section, or social media, and a link back to all the posts in case you missed one.

Our food budget has been low for a long time. Our budget is currently at $300 but has been as low as $100. Some things to take into account if you want lower your food budget:

• Don't buy boxed or frozen meals. They are costly, filled with junk, and also wastefully packaged


• Be prepared to cook from scratch.


• Stop serving "family" style. By dishing the plates in advance you can make sure everyone has appropriate serving sizes and you can pack up leftovers if you intend to split a meal into two or more meals.


• Is someone still hungry? Instead of adding seconds, add a salad or apple slices with peanut butter.


• Don't plan a different meal for each day of the month.

Right now our family has some unique needs. Yes, we are gluten free, but that is not what I am talking about. We are living with my parents while we wait to go on mission in Montreal. My mom is a bit territorial over the kitchen so we need to be able to get in and out as quickly as possible. There is limited food storage space too. Plus my mom usually cooks dinner for us but when she doesn't I end up finding out at supper time. While it is true that we personally won't be using all of this month's meals this month, we will keep them stored in the freezer for the month or two that Adam will not be working before our leave date. All these things I kept in mind as I began looking for meals to add to our menu. So, let's get started planning the menu!

I planned a 4 week menu for September. For us it starts today and goes to the last day of the month. That means we need 28 suppers, 28 lunches, and 28 breakfasts. That sounds a bit daunting, I know. When you stop trying to think of 28 different meals for each, it gets better. Variety is great but it is also expensive and time consuming. On a normal basis, I would make a new menu each month. We keep the meals that we aren't tired of to the next month and add new ones. We'll start with supper because it has the most variety. You will notice that some of the recipes make enough for 2 meals for our family of three and I have taken that into account.

Supper

 

Make 2 of each.

 

Pesto Chicken and Green Beans: 2 meals

Mexican Chicken Taco Stuffing: 4 meals

Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry: 4 meals

Ranch Chicken and Potatoes: 2 meals

Italian Chicken Stir Fry: 2 meals

Italian Chicken and Potatoes: 2 meals

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken: 4 meals

Corny Chicken: 2 meals

Baked Ziti: 2 meals

Mermaid Hair Casserole: 2 meals

Beef and Broccoli Pasta: 2 meals

 

All but the ziti will be included in freezer cooking.

 

 

Lunch

 

Onigiri (rice balls) 3 days per week: 12 meals

Tuna Quesadillas 3 days per week: 12 meals

Leftovers once per week: 4 meals

 

Leftovers may include left over, reheat, meals or any food that is close to date. Mix and match and turn it into something new.

 

 

Breakfast

 

Donuts once per week: 4 meals

Oatmeal 6 days per week: 24 meals

Cereal 6 days per week: 24 meals

We are not huge breakfast people. We usually add peanut butter or fruit to our oatmeal. Lunch is a busy kitchen time here so I tend to do onigiri, which can be made in advance or quesadillas which are super fast to make. Donuts with hot chocolate are a special treat on Friday mornings. It is important to budget in something special. This isn't some crazy diet and it shouldn't be a punishment. We really look forward to Friday mornings and we make it a special family time.

That seems to be it. We have all the meals planned for the whole month. The next step is to get all of our recipes together and I will see you tomorrow for that!

Have questions about planning the menu? Ask them in the comments and I will make sure to get them answered!

You can find the rest of the series here.

Gourmet Pizza at Home

This pizza looked beautiful coming out of the oven! I couldn't resist sharing it. Here are the layers in order:

Crust

Pesto sauce

Light coating of Parmesan cheese

Quartered grape tomatoes and dollops of cream cheese

Shredded cheeses (odds and ends of several bags)

If you have never had a pizza with cream cheese on it, you are really missing out. This is my new favorite pizza and the whole family loved it. We will absolutely make this again!

Caramel Apple Parfait

Caramel Apple Parfaits
These are so yummy and you can chose the quantity on the ingredients depending on how big/how many you are making or just use what you have on hand.

Ingredients
Vanilla yogurt
Apples
caramel syrup
granola

Chop your apples into small pieces to start with. Layer yogurt, apples, and caramel till you have enough for your serving. Top with granola and a bit more caramel. Enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Replacement

My poor kiddo woke up sick this morning. He was so disappointed because it meant missing a play date with friends we haven't spent much time with lately. We have been doing all his favorite things today and skipping school so that he will feel better. With lunch approaching and no chicken noodle soup in sight I had to think of something to feed him.

Chicken noodle soup, out of the can, is one of my least favorite foods. I did want to give him something that would give a similar healing affect and I think I got it spot on. Here is what I used...

Sick Day Soup

2 Bouillon cubes
2 Cups water
1/2 cup corn (or any available veggie)
1 slice of deli ham (or any available bits of meat)
about 10-15 sticks of spaghetti broken into 1/2 to 1 inch bits

I started by bringing the water and bouillon to a boil. Then added the spaghetti. Cook for 7 minutes and toss in the rest about a minute before the timer is going to go off. Eat!

I made sure to try a bit and I must say I am impressed! Yes, with my own work. I have created more than my fair share of recipe flops, but this one is a keeper and I made it with stuff just laying around the house. I will absolutely be making this every time someone in our house is sick.

Mister Cooks Again

Mister cooked again yesterday! After 3 weeks of the same soup (good, but not "that" good) it was nice to have a change. Here he is mixing the sauce with ground Italian sausage.

He just finished flipping the garlic toast.  He had his Daddy help him the most. He's the most patient in the kitchen.

He picked a desert to make too!

Here it is all put together: Shell pasta with Italian sausage sauce, garlic toast, and strawberry angel food cakes with strawberry pie filling to top it off.

My thorough little guy even volunteered to wash the dishes. Who can say no to that?!

Little Guy Cooks

We decided that it would be fun for Little Guy to be in charge of a meal every week. Yes, he is 5. Kids will reach as high as you set the bar, so why put a limit on their abilities? He surprised me! I thought for sure he was going to want to make corn dogs or something. Instead he decided to make a soup in the crock pot, selecting all the ingredients on his own.

Little guy scrubbed the potatoes and carrots (we always leave the skins on) and plucked the leaves off the broccoli. These are the 3 fresh veggies he chose for his soup.

Putting ingredients into the crock pot.

Soup is ready.

He even made Jello Jigglers for desert!

His soup had:

1 potato

2 carrots

1 head of broccoli

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 8oz bag of shredded mozzarella

1/2 box shell noodles

Probably 10 cups of water (that is a nearly full 8 quart crock pot)

Things he learned from his cooking day:

• Noodles should not be in a crock pot for 8 hours. They practically dissolved.
• If you make a big meal, it can last more than 1 week. He made enough for 3 meals!
• Crock pots are very easy to cook in.

Easy Cooking

Freezer cooking, it is all the rage in homemaking right now! I only have 1 small freezer to work with so I don't have space for pre-made pans and typical pop it in the oven packages. We did store away 16 meals and some pancakes in the last week though and I am looking forward to having less prep in the kitchen in November. Here is a shot of my little stash...

I will start at the top left:

Veggie Soup
Pre-chopped cabbage, onion, carrots, and potato. This will go in the crock pot for 6-8 hours on low with a large can of tomato sauce and water to top it off, seasonings too.

Pork Stir fry
Pre-chopped carrot, cabbage, and onion and a baggie of cut and cooked pork. This one will get stir fried and go on rice.

Broccoli Beef Pasta
Chopped broccoli and cooked and cut beef in another baggie. This one is tossed with pasta when cooked.

Creamy Chicken Potato Soup
Cut potatoes and chicken. This will go in the crock pot for 6-8 hours with 2 cans of cream of chicken and water to top it off, seasonings too.

Then there are freezie pops, great for winter fevers, and about a dozen packets of pancakes for Adam to take with him to work on those 5 am days.

Honestly, We are winging it! I came up with an idea for what to put in each bag and we did it. Will it urn out? Who knows! We have fun experimenting in our kitchen and have really gotten a knack for cooking with whatever we happen have available. What do you like to pre make?

Pizza Building Party

This weekend we had Jayne's uncles over and we had a pizza building party for supper. We made a homemade crust and divided it among us, then each person made their own pizza. It was so much fun and we got to all do it together. Everyone tried something new and our supper tasted great!

Adam makes a stuffed crust and Jayne tastes some pepperoni.

Jayne nibbles on all the stray cheese that fell on the table.

Everyone gets the final touches done on their pizzas.

You can find the piza recipe that we use here.

I Heart Quesadillas

In other words, I have turned quesadillas into heart! We made them the other day and they were quite tasty. They were even better than I thought they would be. I had nothing ot go on. I just tossed some things together and it turned out. Our quesadillas had tuna, cheddar, and a touch of pepper and garlic salt. Then it was time for the fun stuff. Adam's were made into hearts since I love him so much and they got packed up for him to take to work. Jayne got a car and a plane, not that I don't love him, he just likes cars and planes. I used some cookie cutters to make them and it worked great. They were a little harder to cut throuhg than I thought they would be, but not bad.

Adam's hearts

Jayne's car and plane, plus some tasty corn!

February Menu

I thought I would share with you all what our meal plan is for the month. Each week is the same and we do all of our shopping once per month. Adam does bring more home over the course of the month, like milk and other items that don't last a whole month. This month our grocery list cost us right around $150. We had a small amount of items left from the last month but we did need to buy most of them. So here is the menu...

Sundays
Lunch: Mac and Cheese (we always add to it or change it in some way)
Supper: Slow Cooker Lasagna (This meal lasts 3 weeks for us, leftovers get frozen)

Mondays
Lunch: Soup (we have 3 soups left over from last month and I will make a new soup from what we have laying around for the last 2 weeks)
Supper: Ramen noodle spaghetti

Tuesdays
Lunch: Tuna and Cheese Quesadillas
Supper: Hawaiian BBQ Chicken (This meal lasts 3 weeks for us, leftovers get frozen)

Wednesdays
Lunch: Grilled Cheese
Supper: Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (This meal lasts 3 weeks for us, leftovers get frozen)

Thursdays
Lunch: Mac and Cheese
Supper: Slow Cooker Cheesy ham potatoes (new recipe, but should last at least 2 meals)

Fridays
Lunch: Poor Mans Meal
Supper: Slow cooker Beef and Black eyed pea soup (new recipe again, but should last 3 meals)

Saturdays
PIZZA! This is the day our whole family looks forward to! We make a huge pizza from scratch and eat the whole thing between lunch and supper. Jayne makes his own too, although he has decided that he likes making bread sticks for everyone to share now.

Our menu this month has the most flavor variety of any of our menus. I am really excited to try the many new recipes. I will give you links to some of our recipes we will be using below...

Six Sister's Stuff:
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Hawaiian BBQ Chicken (slow cooker)
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

Depression Cooking With Clara
Poor Man's Meal
(Clara has some great frugal recipes and you learn a little about the depression while you watch her cook)

Hot Dog Mac

 Hot dogs + mac = goodness

Jayne loves mac and cheese! It is one of his favorite foods. There is something about it that kids just love. Plain Jane mac and cheese is a little boring for me and doesn't stretch very far on it's own. We tend to experiment with ours. Most of the time we use part of the pack of cheese mix and some Velveeta. The rest of the cheese pack goes on pop corn for a snack later because your cheese packet is exactly the same as what is in a bottle of mac and cheese pop corn sprinkle. A lot of the time we add in some hot dogs or homemade bacon bits and either corn or green beans, Jayne's pick. But sometimes we change it completely and just use the noodles.

I thought I would share my latest mac and cheese concoction. I was in the mood for hot dog but did not have any buns...So, I made what was basically a hot dog hot dish. I cooked the mac and cheese and drained it like normal. I melted about 2T of butter and tossed the mac back in with it. Then in went the cut up hot dogs, some ketchup and mustard to taste, and about a quarter cup of homemade pickle relish drained. You know what? It tasted just like having a hot dog!

Do you do anything fun and interesting with your mac and cheese? I would love to hear about it!

Special Routines



One of Jayne's pizza creations



We do a lot every week and tend to do roughly the same thing each week. The one day we all look forward to is Saturday. It is mostly the same as every other day of the week. Adam still works and I usually did too. What makes Saturday so much fun is that it is pizza day! Every Saturday we set aside an hour to make pizza from scratch. I mix up the dough and do the dishes while is rises for half an hour. Then the fun begins! I give Jayne a section of dough and we make pizza next to each other. Jayne makes his all by himself. He has to taste every single ingredient before it goes on the pizza. He is always so proud of his pizza and it is one of the few dishes that he simply devours at the table.

What special things do you do with your family?

Tuna, Rice and Peas

I threw together this new recipe last night and it turned out great! So, I thought I would share. It was super easy to put together. Jayne helped and enjoyed making it with me.


Ingredients
3/4 cup long grain white rice (we used jasmine rice)
1 1/2 cup water
1 can tuna, drained
1/4 cup peas
4 oz Velveeta, small cubes
2 chicken bouillon cubes

Mix it all together in a casserole dish. Cover. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Stir. Bake for another 30 minutes. We topped ours with some shredded cheese. It came out at the perfect consistency, no extra water. If you want it to be a little more saucy, try adding a little more water or covering for the second half of the cooking time. It is always fun to experiment in the kitchen, so share what you did to make this recipe your own!

So Good Corned Beef Pot Pie!

I wanted to add something to our menu and decided on pot pie. This recipe is made entirely from scratch and it took me a little more than an hour to make. It is a great way to use up any leftover meat you may have. I made mine with cut up corned beef and it was very good! I have written the recipe by step, so you will have to go down the whole thing when you gather your ingredients. 2 Large Carrots 2 medium Potatoes 1 Can Peas 1 Cup Bite Sized Meat, already cooked Cut up the carrots and potatoes into bite sized pieces and boil at medium while working on the sauce. Make white sauce (recipe comes from http://www.eatwheat.com/cookbook1/view_recipe.php?id=49) 3 1/2 T. dry milk powder 3 T. unbleached flour 1/2 tsp. sea salt 1 1/4 c. water Put in glass jar with tight lid, shake until smooth: dry milk powder, flour, salt, water. When smooth, place into a saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with wire whip, until sauce starts to thicken a bit. Turn heat to medium, cook/stir for 2 minutes (sauce gets thicker....keep cooking/stirring....the flour must be well-cooked). Drain the carrots and potatoes and put back in pot. Add sauce, peas, and meat stir until everything is coated in sauce. Put mix in a 2 quart casserole dish. You will top with this biscuit mix (from http://dollaradaymeals.com/vegetable_soup) 1 c. unbleached flour 1/2 c. whole wheat flour 3 T. dry milk powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 3 T. cold butter or margarine + 3 T. shortening 1/2 c. water (may need 1 to 2 T. more) 1 tsp. vinegar Preheat oven to 425º. Mix flours, dry milk, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Cut in butter or margarine and shortening. Using a fork: stir in the water and vinegar. Cover the meat and veggie mix with the dough and bake for about 30 minutes. Enjoy! For us this make 6 hearty servings. ~*~NOTE~*~It seems that blogger does not want to have any formatting in my post today. I apologize for the paragraph style of the recipe. I have tried to break it up by highlighting the ingredients.