Penny Pinchin (Freezer Meals Edition)
The freezer meals I made about 2 years ago were born out of necessity. Steve had a huge crop of zucchini and I had to find a way to use all of it. I made zucchini bread, and canned zucchini salsa, but the most helpful were all the freezer meals. The meals lasted us several months; they were especially helpful on days when I didn't have time to cook. I just threw the whole thing in the crockpot and left for work. I've been wanting to do it again for a long long time but I haven't because I didn't think I could get all of the stuff I needed on a really tight budget. I was SOO wrong, and I missed at least 4 opportunities to do it on a budget. NOT. THIS. TIME!! I spent about $160 on food and made 15 meals! Each meal will feed about 6 people; that is some serious savings. To be candid, I saved about $40 with my employee discount on an employee weekend. Even taking the discount into consideration, that is pretty good.
I even saved all of the vegetable skins and scraps to make vegetable stock for soups and rice! I'm feeling pretty Suzy Homemakery today.
My plans for how all this food prep would go was to shop on Saturday and prep on Sunday (my only off day that week). That did not happen. Life got busy and I got lazy. I had the time to do it, I just didn't. I was tired after work on Saturday and something happened on Sunday, I don't even remember what it was now. Anyway, I prepped over the course of the week before going in to work, and I finally finished.
This will make a world of difference and save us a bunch of money on those days when I forget to cook (especially since we have the electric pressure cooker now!!!). I've had most of the recipes for these freezer meals for a while and I found some new recipes that I wanted to try. I have put the recipes below. These recipes are not my own and I found them on Pinterest, and therefore take no credit for originality.
Spaghetti Sauce
1 lb ground beef
2 zuchini
3 carrots
2 bell pepper
2 onion
1 large can spaghetti sauce
Directions
Finley chop or shred (depending on the vegetable aversion of the people eating it) all of the veggies. Brown ground beef with all veggies in a large skillet. Drain grease. Add Spaghetti sauce and stir to combine. Simmer for a few minutes. Divide into 2 quart sized Ziploc bags and Freeze. Thaw and reheat on the stove or microwave.
Bean Stew
6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (add when putting in crock pot)
1 cup dry beans, picked over and rinsed
2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely diced
3 tablespoons uncooked white rice
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence or dried thyme
½ teaspoon salt
1/8teaspoon ground white or black pepper
Combine ingredients in a gallon zip lock bag (minus the broth). Freeze. Thaw, add broth and bag to slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours. Serves 4-5 people.
Taco Soup
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning
(3) 32 oz. beef broth
1 chopped onion
1 tsp cumin
1/2 - 1 tsp black pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp white pepper
2 cans corn
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
Directions
Brown ground beef
Combine all ingredients in crockpot EXCEPT pasta
Cook on LOW for 6 hours
Add pasta
Cook for an additional hour (or until pasta is tender)
Garden Veggie Soup
8 carrots
2 tomatoes
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 onion
1 jar pasta sauce
1 can of cannellini beans
4 cups chicken broth
Add all ingredients to freezer bag (except broth).
Thaw and add broth the day of cooking. Low for 6-8 hours or High for 4 hours
Meat Stew
2 lbs Meat (beef, pork, chicken whatever is on sale), cubed
2 Onions, chopped
5 Carrots, sliced
3 Zucchini, sliced
2 Celery stalks, chopped
2 Red Bell Peppers, chopped
2 tsp Salt
.5 tsp Pepper
2 tsp Minced Garlic
1 box broth (for day of cooking)
Put all ingredients in a large ziploc bag and freeze. Thaw bag and add contents to slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8. Stir occasionally.
Serve with warm cornbread. Serves approx 5-6 people.
