Budgeting and saving cash is a year-round endeavor for me. Every month, I attempt to discover methods to be extra frugal and simplify my life-style. By doing so, I’ll put cash away every month for a really highly effective spending of the 12 months – Christmas time (On the tip of each S.O.S. article, I itemizing the financial monetary financial savings I’ve accrued every month).
This month, I made the choice to make some meals forward of time and freeze them for later use. I had loads of the components in my fridge already, so going to the shop to buy the extra meals components didn’t affect my month-to-month funds. Along with, there have been some units the place the shop was promoting a deal, resembling, purchase one, get one free. It’s going to assist me in future meal planning and I saved cash on the identical time.
Not too means again I acquired proper right here all by means of a web site on-line that challenged the readers to make 50 freezer meals in ultimately. I’ve under no circumstances been one to draw once more from a problem, so I acquired right down to beat. I want I might inform you that I used to be victorious, nonetheless I wasn’t – not wherever shut; nonetheless, not all was misplaced due to I did make some unimaginable meals. I’m an unlimited believer that I’m not distinctive, and I could also be able to guess that loads of of you within the market might need a difficult time separating a complete day to make shut to 2 months value of meals.
Like me, you possibly can most likely full it over a interval of two weeks devoting only a few hours a day to creating the meals, right? I’ve damaged the freezer meals that I chosen to rearrange down correct proper right into a two-week plan that has 7 recipes per week and consists of an organized grocery itemizing for every week.
Every recipe grouping consists of how fairly a bit time it took me to rearrange.
Day 1
On Day 1, I began the meal preparation by roasting the 2 complete chickens and pat it dry. (Recipe is beneath.) Whereas the whole chickens cooked, I ready (3) of the Crock Pot Beef and Barley Stews and (2) Crock Pot Hen Broccoli Alfredo due to they’re dump and go. After I achieved preparing these, I began making the (2) Honey Lime Hen meals, and my household favored a form of that evening. Lastly, I shredded the oven-roasted chickens and positioned the meat correct proper right into a gallon Ziploc bag for Day 2.
Oven-Roasted Hen
Prep time: 10 minutes
Put collectively time for supper: 1 hr half-hour
Full time: 1 hr 40 minutes
Substances
- 2 complete chickens
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- Further virgin olive oil
- 1 large lemon
- 12 cloves peeled garlic (6 per hen)
- salt
- pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 ranges. Discard the hen giblets and rinse the inside and exterior of the hen. Add salt and pepper to the inside hen cavity, after which scale back an enormous lemon in half after which quarter it. (Reserve the second half of the lemon for the second hen breast.) Place the lemon and 5 peeled garlic cloves contained inside the hen’s cavity. Slip wedges of non-salted butter beneath the pores and pores and pores and skin of each aspect of the hen, after which drizzle extra virgin olive oil on extreme of the pores and pores and pores and skin. Sprinkle the perfect with salt and pepper. Place the hen inside a roasting pan and put collectively dinner. Put collectively dinner the hen till the juices run clear or the within temperature has reached 165 ranges.
Recipe by Misty Anderson
Crock Pot Beef Barley Stew
Prep time: 20 minutes
Put collectively time for supper: 5 hours
Full time: 5 hours 20 minutes
Substances
- 1 lb Beef Stew Meat scale back into one-inch cubes
- 1¼ cups infant carrots
- 1¼ cups chopped onion
- ¾ cup chopped celery
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- ¼ tsp pepper
- A 32-oz container of beef inventory
- ½ cup barley
- 15-oz can stewed tomatoes
Directions
Place all components in an enormous crock pot and stir. Cowl and put collectively dinner on low for 8 to 10 hours or 4 to5 hours on excessive.
Freezer Packaging
Place all components inside a gallon dimension freezer bag, after which label and freeze. If you wish to put collectively dinner it, defrost it, add it to a crockpot, and observe the cooking directions above.
Recipe impressed by Karrie Truman, www.HappyMoneySaver.com
Crock Pot Hen Broccoli Alfredo
Prep time: 20 minutes
Put collectively time for supper: 6 to eight hrs
Full time: 6 hrs 20 minutes
Substances
- 4 large boneless skinless hen breasts scale back into one-inch cubes
2, 16-oz jars of Alfredo sauce
1, 16 oz bag of frozen broccoli florets
1 inexperienced pepper, diced
½ cup fried bacon crumbled into small devices
Directions
Place all components in an enormous crock pot and stir. Cowl and put collectively dinner on low for six to eight hours or 4 to six hours on excessive.
Freezer Packaging
Place all components inside a gallon dimension freezer bag, after which label and freeze. If you wish to put collectively dinner it, defrost it, add it to a crockpot, and observe the cooking directions above. Serve over linguine pasta with a updated Italian-style yard salad and breadsticks.
Recipe impressed by Karrie Truman, www.HappyMoneySaver.com
Honey Lime Hen
Prep time: 10 minutes
Put collectively time for supper: 25 minutes
Full time: 35 minutes
Substances
- 4 boneless hen breasts, diced into one-inch cubes
- 1½ tsp garlic salt
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 15 oz can pineapple chunks, reserve the juice
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 Tbsp lime juice
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp corn starch
Directions
Cube the hen into one-inch cubes and season with garlic sauce. Subsequent warmth vegetable oil in a skillet over med-high warmth after which add the hen and put collectively dinner till it’s golden brown. Whereas the hen is cooking contained in the skillet, drain the pineapple and reserve the juice. Add ¼ cup of the pineapple juice to the skillet, cowl and simmer for six to eight minutes, after which take away from the hen and pineapples from the pan. Add honey, lime juice, soy sauce, cornstarch, and the rest of the pineapple juice to the pan, and produce the combination to a boil whereas stirring often. When the combination has thickened, reintroduce the hen and pineapple as soon as extra into the pan and warmth by. Serve with scorching rice and garnish with lime wedges or Chow Mein noodles.
Recipe impressed by Karrie Truman, www.HappyMoneySaver.com
Freezer Packaging
As shortly as a result of the cooked honey lime hen has cooled, add it to a gallon dimension freezer bag, after which label and freeze. If you wish to put collectively dinner it, merely defrost it, add warmth, and serve with trendy scorching rice.
On Day 2, I retrieved the gallon Ziploc bag of shredded hen and ready (3) Hen Pot Pies, the (2) Pesto Hen Stuffed Shells, and (2) Cilantro Lime Hen Tacos. Along with, I boiled down the 2 hen carcasses and made hand-crafted hen soup.
Hand-crafted Hen Pot Pie
Prep time: 1 hour quarter-hour
Put collectively time for supper: 45 minutes
Full time: 2 hours
Substances
- 3 cups shredded, cooked hen
- 3 packs of hen gravy
- 3, 2-packs of refrigerated pie crusts
- 16-oz bag of frozen, shredded hash browns
- 2, 12-oz baggage of frozen peas and carrots
- Onion, diced
- Salt and pepper to kind
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 ranges. Combine the shredded hen, potatoes, onion, frozen peas and carrots, and gravy in an enormous bowl. Lay the underside pie crust layer in every of the three disposable pie tins and place the hen combination on extreme of it. Add the perfect pie crust layer to every pie tin and crimp the perimeters the place the 2 pie crusts meet. (Observe: It would most likely forestall the surplus pie crust so as in order so as to add to a Hen and Dumpling recipe later.) With a knife, slice loads of holes on the perfect of every pie. Place contained in the oven for 35-45 minutes till extreme is golden brown.
Freezer Packaging
Cowl the disposable pie tins with foil, label, after which freeze. If you wish to put collectively dinner it, merely defrost it and observe the cooking directions cited above.
Recipe impressed by Karrie Truman, www.HappyMoneySaver.com
Pesto Hen Stuffed Shells
Prep time: quarter-hour
Put collectively time for supper: half-hour
Full time: 45 min
Observe: Doesn’t embody time roasting or shredding the hen meat.
Substances
- 1 bundle deal jumbo pasta shells
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 jar pesto
- 3 cups shredded cooked hen
- 3 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 32-oz container hen inventory
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to kind
Directions
Convey an enormous pot of hen inventory and water to a boil, add the bundle deal of jumbo pasta shells to the pot. Put collectively dinner pasta shells till they’re al dente (about 6 minutes), drain, and put aside. In an enormous mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese, parmesan cheese (reserve ¼ cup of parmesan cheese for topping), pesto, cooked hen, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, salt and pepper and blend utterly. With a small spoon, stuff the pasta shells with the hen combination and place in a 9×13 disposable foil baking tin. Add the reserved ¼ cup of parmesan cheese to the perfect of the stuffed pasta shells. Preheat the oven to 350 ranges and bake the pasta shells for half-hour and the cheese turns a golden brown.
Recipe impressed by Joelen Tan, www.WhatsCookinChicago.com
Cilantro-Lime Hen Tacos
Prep time: quarter-hour
Put collectively time for supper: 10 minutes
Full time: 25 min
Observe: Doesn’t embody time roasting or shredding the hen meat.
Substances
Hen
3 cups shredded hen meat
garlic salt and pepper to kind
½ cup cilantro-lime pesto (recipe beneath)
flour or corn tortillas
Cilantro-Lime Pesto
1 cup trendy cilantro leaves minus the stems
2 ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp sliced, toasted almonds
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
4 Tbsp lime juice (2 limes)
½ shredded parmesan cheese
½teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup hen inventory
Directions
Season hen with garlic salt and pepper and put aside. Put collectively the cilantro lime pesto. Mix the cilantro lime pesto and the shredded hen, fill the tortillas with hen and extreme with most well-liked garnishes.
Freezer Packaging
Place the seasoned hen meat in a small freezer tin or quart-sized Ziploc bag. (I used a mini loaf bread tin.) Subsequent place the cilantro lime pesto in a separate Ziploc freezer bag. Label and freeze with one another contained in the separate baggage. When ready to eat, defrost the pesto and the hen and warmth the hen. Add the hen to the pesto sauce and serve with the favored garnishes as acknowledged above.
Recipe impressed by Joelen Tan, www.WhatsCookinChicago.com
Misty’s Hand-crafted Hen Soup
Prep time: 10 minutes
Put collectively time for supper: 2 hrs
Additional prep time: 30 min (eradicating meat from the bones and the bones from the soup)
Full time: 25 min
Observe: Doesn’t embody time roasting the hen.
Substances
- 2 hen carcasses
- 3 celery sticks scale back into 3-inch segments
- 12 infant carrots
- onion
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- bunch of parsley sprigs
- bunch of thyme sprigs
- pepper
Directions
Cowl the hen carcasses with water and produce to a boil. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme, and pepper. Put collectively dinner for 2 hours. Discard the bones, celery segments, parsley and thyme. This may be utilized as a base for hen and rice soup and hen and dumplings.
Freezer Packaging
Place the cooled soup correct proper right into a freezer-safe container. When wished, thaw and reheat.
On Day 3, I took it easy and made the last word meal for this week’s cooking.
Honey and Spiced Glazed Pork Chops
Prep time: quarter-hour
Put collectively time for supper: 20 minutes
Full time: 35 minutes
Substances
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 ½-inch thick boneless center-cut pork loin chops
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp floor black pepper
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp floor ginger
¼ tsp floor cinnamon
1/8 tsp floor cloves
Directions
Place the cooled soup correct proper right into a freezer-safe container. When wished, thaw and reheat.
Warmth the additional virgin olive oil over medium-high warmth. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and put collectively dinner for two minutes on each aspect or till browned. Whereas the pork is cooking, mix the remaining components in a bowl and put aside. In the reduction of the warmth to medium-low and add the honey combination to the pork and put collectively dinner for five minutes on each aspect till carried out. Take away the pork from the skillet, enable the sauce to boil till thickened, and barely diminished the temperature and let the combination put collectively dinner for an extra 3 to five minutes. Spoon the glaze over the pork before serving.
Freezer Packaging
Brown the pork as directed above. As shortly as a result of it is browned, take away the pork and permit it to sit down again. Place the cooled pork chops correct proper right into a Ziploc freezer bag. add the remaining components to the bag, label, and freeze. When ready to place collectively dinner, defrost and place the combination correct proper right into a crock pot, cowl, and put collectively dinner on low for 4 to six hours or on excessive for 3 to five hours.
Recipe impressed by Joelen Tan, www.WhatsCookinChicago.com
On the tip of Day 3, I had cooked 9 recipes and created 18 meals – not too shabby. Subsequent week cease by for Half II. Completely glad cooking!
Christmas Financial monetary financial savings To-Date: $297
