I made my $150 grocery budget this week, work for us with making freezer meals. Since, I have been stockpiling and staying on track each and every week, it was time to FINALLY get ahead of the game and make some freezer meals this weekend. And boy does it FEEL GREAT! The sense of accomplishment, relief and happiness knowing that I have a few extra meals in my freezer is unbelievable. (I forgot how much I missed it, I use to own a meal-prep company called Dinners Ready & I do miss it very much!). I now have a huge stockpile of hamburger/turkey meals in my freezer and next weekend I will be doing chicken meals.
I went to the local Farmer's Market and spent my $20 allotment for the week and got some scrumptious looking fruits and veggies! Then my friend and I headed on over to Costco and bought pounds and pounds of ground turkey and ground hamburger. That a a few little odds and ends took my entire $150 budget, but you would not believe how many meals I have now in my freezer. It's amazing! We made (Yes, I am trying to help & teach my dear friend how to stretch her dollar and how to make & freeze meals, so she doesn't go to the store 4 times a week), so we made two different meatloaf recipes: Fiesta Meatloaf and Philly Cheese Meatloaf; two kinds of hamburger patties: Logan County Burgers and The Best BBQ Burgers; homemade meatballs to use for Comfort Meatballs, Cowboy Meatballs and Meatball Sandwiches and a few extra packages of hamburger/turkey meat for G'ma's Simple Spaghetti and Monroco's and Good Ole' Tacos. One LONG day of cooking (about 6 hours) = 10 dinners all prepared and ready to go straight from the freezer to the oven, to my children's bellies! YUM!
I went to the local Farmer's Market and spent my $20 allotment for the week and got some scrumptious looking fruits and veggies! Then my friend and I headed on over to Costco and bought pounds and pounds of ground turkey and ground hamburger. That a a few little odds and ends took my entire $150 budget, but you would not believe how many meals I have now in my freezer. It's amazing! We made (Yes, I am trying to help & teach my dear friend how to stretch her dollar and how to make & freeze meals, so she doesn't go to the store 4 times a week), so we made two different meatloaf recipes: Fiesta Meatloaf and Philly Cheese Meatloaf; two kinds of hamburger patties: Logan County Burgers and The Best BBQ Burgers; homemade meatballs to use for Comfort Meatballs, Cowboy Meatballs and Meatball Sandwiches and a few extra packages of hamburger/turkey meat for G'ma's Simple Spaghetti and Monroco's and Good Ole' Tacos. One LONG day of cooking (about 6 hours) = 10 dinners all prepared and ready to go straight from the freezer to the oven, to my children's bellies! YUM!
Also in making these freezer meals I was able to make a few extra meals for a family who is going through an extremely difficult time right now! Read here for Grant's Story and please pray with us for a miracle. We had the honor to know this family through my kids elementary school, Grant's mom was one of my twins 4th grade teacher and my son's 4th grade teacher and Grant's dad is a Pastor and also taught both of my daughters math and bible in junior high school. Their son has been hospitalized and it's fighting for his life, many of my readers are Christians and believe God will answer prayers. I would just ask that you, your family and/or your church add this family to your pray list! They need a miracle and we are praying 24 hours a day for this young boy and for his family! (if you are a facebook fan and would like to pray with us and get updates please join PRAY FOR GRANT) Prayer is powerful and God is watching over all of us!
THANKS A MILLION TO ALL MY BLOG FRIENDS WHO VOTED FOR MY DAUGHTERS!
Here is our Family Meal Planning for this week. I'd love to hear if you have any short cuts, tricks or tips.
Check back and we will link the actual recipe!
(not all recipes will become reality so if there is not a link, we haven't made it yet)
Mushroom Egg Salad
Chicken Pot Pie
Comfort Meatballs
Beef Stew
Grandma's French Toast
Logan County Patty Melts
(click for recipe) Magic Sweet Potato Muffins
I LOVE Linky Parties, what a great way to mix and mingle with lots of bloggers! Today, this recipe is linked to the following linky parties: I'm an Organizing Junkie: Meal Plan Monday, It's a Blog Party Delicious Dishes, Hearth n' Soul Blog Hop, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, 33 Shades of Green Tasty Tuesday, Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Titus 2sday Linkup, Tuesday Night Supper Club, Tuesdays at the Table, Cupcake Tuesday, Frugal Friday and Get Your Craft On,
Also don't forget our weekly linky party
this week is "KID-FRIENDLY" Recipes/Cooking
I bet those muffins are super moist! They look yummy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing on Cupcake Tuesday!
~Liz
Good luck with the voting:) Looking forward to what you have to say on What's On the Menu Wednesday this week.
ReplyDeleteThese muffins look great and I happen to have some sweet potatoes already cooked and in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteI don't do freezer meals - but I do freezer meal componants like cooking up hamburger or beans or freezing cut up peppers and I do understand the joy of having that in the freezer ready to go. How wonderful of you to use your talent to help others. Thanks for linking this to the Hearth and Soul Hop!
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful getting ahead with freezer meals. I love the sound of your muffins too - my family are not keen on mashed sweet potatoes either, but I think they would like them in these muffins!
ReplyDeletemy goodness, you have been busy. i do the same thing and spend a day cooking...i am not quite as organized as you...i like the tip of focusing on one type of protein on a particular day. thank you for sharing all your fabulous weekly recipes with tuesday night supper club.
ReplyDelete