One of the goals I"m working on is healthier eating, nothing crazy, just more emphasis on nutrition and less eating out for financial and health reasons.
My main issue is getting home after work. The last thing I want to do is take time to make an actual meal or something other than a frozen pizza or grilled cheese. So with more veggies in mind I decided to attempt making some freezer meals for the crock pot.
I decided to start small so I picked 4 meals (7 bags that should equal at least 14 meals for the two of us)
I searched through blogs and came up with a shopping list. Kyle, the most awesome husband ever, went to the store yesterday and brought back EVERYTHING on my list with no complaints.
So today I got everything ready. Labeled my gallon bags and started chopping.
Then I got the meat trimmed and ready and loaded the bags with the meat, veggies, and all the seasonings according to each recipe.
Sealed the bags, shook the seasonings around, and loaded them in my freezer.
Just throw a bag in the crock pot in the morning and you're good to go. Easy! And it only took half of one of my freezer drawer space.
The whole process was 1 hr for Kyle to get the groceries (and other items I sent him for) and about 2 1/2 hours to chop, trim, load the bags and full kitchen clean up. (Including a 20 minute break from chopping when the onions made me cry so hard I couldn't see anything until the swelling and burning stopped.)
I figured it up to be approximately $5-$6 per meal which is much better than going out.
I could have done this cheaper with coupons and watching sales and done them healthier, using organic ingredients, but hey, I'm starting small right? I imagine doing this in the summer with garden veggies will be so much better!
I made 2 bags of Teriyaki Chicken
2 bags of Sweet and Tangy Meatballs
2 bags of Healthy BBQ Chicken
1 bag of Pot Roast
I even had quite a bit of unused ingredients too:
Here are the awesome blogs I used to get the information and recipes:
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html
http://amandathevirtuouswife.blogspot.com/2012/02/pot-roast-freezer-meal.html
http://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-cooking-slow-cooker-meals.html
