I am not blogging again except to come on here and post my Once A Month Meal plans to share with friends and family. I posted last month’s meal plan here and just wanted to add a few thoughts, notes, etc.
We have not used all our meals, I cooked them in two batches, the ground beef ones on Sat. Sept. 7th and chicken on Sept. 9th with a friend. It was definitely more fun to do with a friend! I ended up making 23 meals all together which is a lot. I spent about $260 total but used Organic Chicken from Costco which added quite a bit to my bill. I am trying to balance eating healthy yet also not blowing our food budget.
This month I am only making 14 meals and most of them are chicken. What we have left from September is mostly ground beef meals so it will balance out nicely for October. I also have a few meals that are quick to throw together in case I forget to take out a meal for the day. Spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, tacos and frozen fish are some of my favorite quick meals. One of the biggest things I’ve struggled with is forgetting to take a meal out of the freezer the night before so maybe set a reminder on your phone until you get used to doing this.
Last month I put my chicken in the crock pot before I went to bed so the next morning all the chicken I needed pre-cooked was ready to go. This month I am going to do the same and maybe even cook some extra to have on hand for any meals I may want to just throw together without freezing. I did this with ground beef a lot a few years ago too and it was great to pull out of the freezer to throw in soups, casseroles or for tacos.
This month here is my meal plan, I am not including a grocery list this month, it was just too confusing last time. So while I did some of the work for you, you will need to figure out what you need to buy at the store. Another option for some of the meals that are not technically freezer meals is that you could cook your chicken/ground beef or whatever beforehand and freeze it, then assemble the rest of the meal on the day you plan to eat it.
The kids have been asking for WEEKS to have Stromboli.
Stromboli x2 – My plan is to bake two for that day and freeze two. I think I froze them before and they turned out ok but I cooked them first before freezing them so they just needed to be reheated. Remember you can make these your own by adding in different fillings, I have even done one that was buffalo chicken.
Ham Balls x3- with baked potatoes. These are a favorite of mine but I don’t make them very often. I found ground ham at the grocery store the other day and was so excited! I will be freezing these into probably 3 meals.
White Chicken Chili – I’ve never frozen this before so hopefully it works ok. I am cooking the chicken before hand and will add the cream of chicken soup at the end.
Potato Soup – New Recipe, sounds delicious, I love a good potato soup. Hoping the potatoes freeze well, I read somewhere to use yukon gold as they freeze the best so going to try that out.
Chicken Pot Pie in the crock pot – I alter this recipe a tad and use a bag of mixed frozen veggies instead of using the fresh carrots and the frozen peas the recipe calls for. You can do whatever you like. I usually have frozen buttermilk biscuits ready to bake up and then we cut them open and put the chicken pot pie on top of it. I will be adding the potatoes on the day I make this and not freezing them and using already cooked chicken.
Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake – This is not a freezer meal but it looks so yummy I am going to attempt to freeze it. So maybe don’t make this until after I have and I’ll let you know if it’s a fail? Or you can just make it and eat it without freezing it.
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole x2 – Another new recipe but looks yummy to me!
Lasagna Soup – I will throw everything in a freezer bag minus the pasta, ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Even after I make the pasta I will keep it in a seperate container from the soup if there are leftovers.
Chili – A Pioneer Woman Recipe, hoping by adding Fritos my kids will eat it. Will brown my meat before I freeze it.
Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches – This is an easy one, a frozen roast and a jar of pepperoncinis. I always like to add provolone cheese because isn’t almost everything better with cheese on it?
If you have any questions about anything, please email me!
You can find more tips, recipes and even spreadsheets on my Pinterest Board Once a Month Cooking. Happy Cooking and Freezing Friends!
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Great idea to precook the chicken while you sleep!
Kelly