To prepare for baby and the early weeks of up all night, can't seem to get out of my pajamas all day, baby laundry explosion, constant cycle of eat, poop, sleep, repeat, we thought it would be a good idea to make a month's worth of food for the freezer to make dinner easier on us and our budget. When you don't have time to cook and have nothing prepared, it's easy to just order in our go out for dinner. This new habit could become very expensive and damaging to our budget. So, Operation Freezer Meals was put into action this weekend.
I spent Friday afternoon at Sam's Club and Publix managing multiple grocery lists for this operation. I bought:
- Meats: 2 beef roasts; 2 whole chickens, 4 large packages of boneless chicken breasts (7-8 in each pack); 2 cooked rotiserie chickens, a 2.5-foot long pork roast (which I cut into 3 separate pieces); 5# of burger meat
- Produce: Large bag carrots; 1 stalk celery; 5# gold Yukon potatoes; 5 packs of mushrooms; a 3# bag of Vidalia onions; 5 heads of garlic; 2 heads of broc; 2 bell peppers; 3 cooking apples
- Dairy: 4# bag shredded mozarella cheese, 4# bag shredded cheddar cheese, quart of heavy whipping (cooking) cream, 64 oz. Ricotta cheese; 32 oz. grated parm cheese; 16 oz. cream cheese; gallon of milk (I already had butter and eggs at home)
- Dry pantry supplies: 4 packs yellow rice, 2 packs wild rice; 8 bottles Lawry's marinade in a variety of flavors (they were b1g1); 2 boxes lasagna noodles, a 3 large bottles red spaghetti sauce, 2 cans each of cream of potato, crm. broc, crm. celery, and 4 cans crm. of chicken; 3 cartons chicken stock and 2 beef stock; a bottle of burgundy; white cooking wine
I split my preparation up into 2 days. Day 1, I did all the prep work for my produce - washing, cutting, chopping, measuring. Then, I made all the "dump bags". A dump bag is the meat, produce and marinade or seasonings dumped in a gallon freezer bag. You can later thaw and dump into the crock pot or baking dish with no mess, no fuss. I made 12 meals and 6 side dishes in dump bags.
- Whole chicken in garlic & herb marinade. Side dish bag included whole mushrooms, carrots and diced potatoes with seasonings. (2 of these)
- Burgundy mushroom and beef roast - a 3# beef roast, 750ml of burgundy wine, 12-15 whole mushrooms, 1 onion quartered. I also cut holes in the meat and pushed in whole cloves or garlic.
- Mojo beef roast - a 3# beef roast with 3 cups mojo marinade, 1 cup beef stock, 1 onion quartered. I also cut holes in the meat and pushed in whole cloves or garlic.
- Santa Fe Chili Lime Chicken - Lawrys marinade, diced 4 boneless chicken breasts, broccoli florets, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms.
- Hawaiian Chicken - Lawrys marinade, 4 boneless chicken breasts, 1 cup orange juice, 1 apple cored and sliced, 1 can pineapple chunks w/ juice.
- Caribbean Jerk pork roast - Lawrys marinade, 2.5# pork loin roast, 1 can pineapple w/ juice.
- Mojo pork roast - 2.5# pork loin roast, 2 cups mojo, 4 cloves garlic and 1/2 onion quartered.
- Baja Chipotle pork roast - Lawrys marinade, 2.5# pork loin roast, bell peppers, 4 cloves garlic.
- Szechuan Sweet and Sour Chicken - Lawrys marinade, 4 boneless chicken breasts (put these in quart freezer bags and made 2 sets) Can be served over rice or cut up for stir fry.
- Honey Garlic Apple Chicken - 4 boneless chicken breasts, 2 whole apples cored and sliced, 3 cloves garlic minced, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup apple butter, 16 oz chicken stock.
- Cheesy Al Grautin potatoes - made this in a giant batch and divided into 4 quart bags. 12 gold potatoes diced (or sliced), 5 cups milk, 2 cups flour, 3 cups shredded cheddar, 1 cup grated parm cheese and 1 tbs each salt and pepper
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