Planning Essentials
- A deep freezer: this was well worth the investment 8 years ago. Here's one for just $200!
- Gallon and quart size freezer bags available at all times especially since you never know when you will be able to make a double batch of something or find meat on sale.
- A weekly magnetic tear off calendar
Helpful Tips
- Make extra of entrees and freeze them in quart or gallon size bags (depending on the size of your family). I make double or triple batches of several soups when I make them. For example, chili, vegetable beef soup, and Tortilla Soup. I also love making my mom's chicken soup but I make it thicker and leave out the noodles so that I can use it for chicken pot pie, chicken and rice, or chicken noodle soup.
- Make a list of what is in your freezer. For multiples of a dish put open circles next to it. When you use the dish color in the circle or cross through (if multiples do not exist). (PS I know I spelled beets incorrectly :)
- Watch the grocery store ads for sales on meat, package them prepared for entrees, and freeze them. Just the other day I found chicken breasts for $1.49 a lb. I bought 10 lbs and put them in individual bags of 3-4 breasts per bag. I use these for entrees and on Sunday nights we often grill a batch for our lunches. Sometimes if I find ground beef or ground turkey on clearance because it expires the next day I buy it, cook it that day, and then freeze it (in spaghetti sauce even sometimes)
- Here's the things I keep on hand in my outdoor freezer from Costco:
- Steaks (buy fresh, season them and wrap them individually in parchment paper)
- Ground Beef (1 lb tubes from frozen section)
- Ground Turkey (1 lb package in the fresh section)
- Salmon (I buy a fresh piece ~ about $20 ~ when I cut it up it makes about 8 filets, wrap in parchment paper and freeze)
- Tilapia (buy frozen ~ sealed individually)
- Trader Joes and Costco both have great sides that we enjoy. Brown rice and quinoa, ravioli, frozen veggies etc.
A month long meal plan
The first row is what we are having that night and the second row tells you where I got the components from. I will say that this month is a special month. Over the past several months I've been making a lot of extra entrees and double batches of soup so I have a lot frozen already. We mostly just need our fresh vegetables this month. In the second row I also made notes of when I plan on making extras of something so you can see how I keep my freezer stocked. Every time I put an entree in the freezer I add it to my freezer list. This ensures that I know what I have for the next month!
The first row is what we are having that night and the second row tells you where I got the components from. I will say that this month is a special month. Over the past several months I've been making a lot of extra entrees and double batches of soup so I have a lot frozen already. We mostly just need our fresh vegetables this month. In the second row I also made notes of when I plan on making extras of something so you can see how I keep my freezer stocked. Every time I put an entree in the freezer I add it to my freezer list. This ensures that I know what I have for the next month!
Week 1
Week 2
