Prepping Food for the Week #2

Prepping food ahead of your week is one of the easiest ways to save time and money throughout the week.  I love freezer crock pot cooking, and find that it makes my life SO much easier, especially with our current summer schedule (which involves 3 evenings of swim lessons for my big 3 kids, 2 nights of gymnastics team for daughter #1, one night of gymnastics for daughter #2, one night of karate, a church night, and one music class that I teach).

Last night while I cooked dinner (this one pot pasta dish...a delicious past meal that costs less than $5 to make), I prepped food for the week.  In total, I probably spent around 2 hours prepping yesterday.  Here's what I prepped for the week:

Passion Tea Lemonade

Drinks

*Half gallon of Passion Tea Lemonade (one of my favorite summer drinks)

Homemade Peanut Butter

Sides & Snacks

*4 cups brown rice for meal sides

*6 cups of crock pot refried beans for enchiladas and/or tacos in the coming week

*Granola bars

*2 cups peanut butter

Breakfasts

*8 cups of granola for cereal of yogurt add-ins

*Biscuits

Freezer meals, granola, and granola bars

Dinners

*Black Bean & Salsa Chicken ($8...I crock pot this and shred it for tacos)

*Teriyaki Chicken ($10...Crock pot meal, served over rice)

*Stuffed Bell Peppers ($9...Enough for two separate meals)

Also on this week's menu is Lentil tacos, a favorite meatless meal, and enchiladas since I never cooked them up the last time I put them on my menu :) 

Do you cook ahead for the week? What are your favorites to prepare ahead of time? 

Freezer Cooking for a New Baby #3

This post is #3 in the "Freezer Cooking for a New Baby" series.  While it is my intentional journey of preparing my freezer for the birth of baby #4, freezer cooking is something that I recommend everyone try...it saves both time and money!  Be sure to check out all the posts, ideas, and recipes in this series!  (Read Part 1 and Part 2)

#1: Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole


I followed Money Saving Mom's recipe on this one.  It was fast, easy, and frugal to put together.  While she divides hers up into 4 bags, I felt that each of those portions would be just a little bit too small for my family.  I instead divided the batch up into 3 gallon sized Ziploc bags.  I am in LOVE with cheese/rice/broccoli combinations, so I'm sure this will be a great meal!

#2: Teriyaki Chicken and Marinated Chicken

My 4 year old helped me assemble two bags of Teriyaki Chicken.  This is a crock pot meal, meaning you just thaw it out and dump it into a crock pot to cook all day.  Super easy!
Here's my recipe:

Freezer Friendly Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

In a gallon sized Ziploc bag, combine the following:

*1-2 lbs of boneless chicken (I use boneless chicken breasts)
*1/2 cup-1 cup chopped carrots
*1 can chopped pineapple WITH the juice
*1/2 sliced purple onion
*3/4 cup teriyaki sauce or marinade

On the bag write: "Defrost, dump into crock pot, cook on low 6-8 hours or until done.  Serve over rice."

Depending on how much chicken you use, you may need to add a little more teriyaki sauce when you pour it into the crock pot.  Also, remember how I told you in part 1 that I cook and freeze brown rice?  This is a perfect meal to pull out one of those bags!

The third bag pictured above was made with our extra chicken breasts.  We just dumped a Lawry's marinade inside the bag, mixed it around, and sealed it.  You can cook it in the crock pot or on the stove or in the oven.  It's just marinated chicken :)


#3: Sliced and Chopped Strawberries


I ended up with a bunch of strawberries that were *almost* bad.  I tasked my 5 year old with rinsing and sorting the good from the bad.  If you've never frozen strawberries before, see my how-to tutorial HERE.

We use chopped frozen strawberries to add to our oatmeal in the mornings.  They can also be used to add to smoothies or other blended drinks.


At this point, I've had to seriously organize my freezer.  It's already getting full, and I have so many more things to make!  Yikes!

Don't forget: lay your ziploc bags FLAT to freeze.  This way, once frozen, you will be able to organize them in your freezer "file folder" style, which saves a lot of space.  

Have you been joining me in stocking up your freezer?  What have you added to your freezer recently?

Weekly Menu

What's on your dinner menu this week?  I am utilizing lots of my crock pot freezer meals, which reduces my cooking and planning time by A LOT this week!  Yipee for me!

Although it's already Tuesday, here is our dinner plan:

1. Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Oven-Baked Mixed Potatoes

(Pulled pork is already cooked and in the freezer)

2. Chicken Tortilla Soup topped with Trader Joe's Black Bean & Quinoa Chips (yum!)

(Soup is in the freezer from a previous crock pot freezer cooking session)

3. Teriyaki Chicken with brown rice

(freezer crock pot meal)

4. Stuffed Bell Peppers

(Inside stuffing is in freezer)

5. Homemade Pizza

6. Spaghetti with steamed carrots and broccoli

7. Leftovers night

When I menu plan, I do not typically assign days to my meals.  What if I don't feel like spaghetti on a Tuesday night?  Easy...just switch it!  When we get to a night where there are all sorts of leftovers in the fridge, I forego the cooking (minus maybe some veggies or a salad) and we use up all the leftovers in our fridge.

I also scored a brand-new, in box bread maker at Goodwill this week for $20!!!  It's usually $70, so I really scored!  We used it to make cinnamon raisin bread for breakfast this morning.  We are also going to use the brand new ice cream maker that I also scored at Goodwill (for just $8) to make ice cream for dessert one night this week.  We will be incorporating it into one of our school math activities. 

What fun meals are on your menu this week?