From Freezer to Table: Simpler Meals
I am a great proponent of menu planning (see Simplifying Dinner: Four Steps to Simplify Planning), but I find that searching out recipes can be very time consuming. For the last few weeks, I have been doing an alternate method of food prep that is giving me a break. We have been cooking from the freezer.
How to Plan
In order to make this work, I had to find some basic recipes for basic main dishes. I tried to aim for meals that could have leftovers, or could be re-purposed into new meals. These main dishes require few ingredients, most of which I would normally keep on hand.
I came up with dishes for beef roast, whole chicken, chicken breasts, ground beef, and pork chops. I also added things that could be done in a pinch: hamburgers, hotdogs and fish sticks.
Buy the Meat
The next step was to stock up on the meat. Our local grocery had a sale on whole chickens, so I bought a few. The rest of the meat was purchased at the local warehouse store, and packed in meal-sized bags before being put in the freezer.
Add Frozen Veggies
While the main part of the meals were now taken care of, I wanted to round out the meal as well. For this I have relied on bags of frozen veggies. The grocery store had a 10 for $10 sale recently, and I stocked up on large bags of all the veggies we eat.
Results
For each week, I decide which main dishes would be nice, and thaw the meat in the appropriate time. Most of these meals are done in the Crockpot, so all that is left to do at the end of the day is to steam the veggies.
This planning method has given me a break from major cooking projects as well as dropped our grocery bills significantly.
Photo by sporkist
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