So.. today while getting ready for my big grocery shopping trip for the week, I sat down with my notebook, coupons, store sale flyer, and of course my Coffee! I looked through all the sales and decided that there was a few cuts of meat that I would work for my inspired plan on sale for a pretty good deal and some vegetables too, combined with a few things I already had on hand, this could be a recipe for success!
I spent about 2 hours at the grocery store gathering all of the things I needed for the week as well as my "cooking for a month plan." I did spend a little more than I expected, but hopefully that will stretch over the next few weeks. My total before coupons and store card was $319... and after I paid $186.00. I was pretty happy with that total!
I started cooking about 4:20 and it really took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. I started prepping with my veggies, cut up potato's, green pepper, onion, carrots, squash, zucchini, and tomato's. Then on to prepping and trimming all the meat including, pork chops, chicken breast, chicken legs, chicken quarters, hamburger, and ground turkey. I also got all my sauces ready and made a few marinades before I started. I also put 2 boxes of pasta on to boil and browned the ground meats. Then I just started throwing stuff together. I picked a marinade, a meat, and then veggies or spices and .. Dinner's ready for the freezer! I had made a meal plan before going to the grocery store and basically I stuck with it, but added a few ingredients as I went along.
Here's what all I made:
2 servings of: Pork Chops with green pepper, zucchini, onion, squash, potato, and carrots in a Teriyaki marinade. I had purchased a value pack of pork chops so I separated them into 2 bags of 3 chops each with veggies. One bag is for dinner this week and one is in the freezer for sometime in the future!
BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters & Herb-garlic-Lemon Boneless Chicken Breast:
Salsa Chicken & Chicken in Italian Marinade with Onion, Carrot, & Potato:
Taco Meat: 2 bags of taco meat with rotel tomatoes:
2 pans of Baked Spaghetti with hamburger, pepperoni, green pepper, & onions:
Both pans wrapped in foil and ready for the freezer!
I also made a pot of baked potato soup and froze it into 3 cartons for later.
All together, I think I got about 16 meals out of my shopping trip today. Most of which will also have plenty left over for lunches for Wes and I so I guess I got more than that. I was happy with everything I made and think it will be great to have the ease of throwing something in the crock pot thats already marinated and preped from the freezer. Hopefully it will help with meal planning too. I really enjoyed the cooking and for the time it took it was well worth it to me to have those meals prepared ahead of time. I think the biggest problem with it was the cost of the meat and vegetables all at one time. It was a big expense, but I have meals prepared for the week and even some for a few weeks from now. I would think to cook for the month would take a small fortune, but with planning I think it's something I would like to do occasionally. It was really fun and didn't take very long.
Keeping with the "Prepared" theme of Sunday, I laid out all the kids clothes for the week down to shoes, undies, and even hairbows! I even laid out my clothes for the week... quite a large task for me ;)
All together a pretty productive Sunday and I'm prepared for the week! I've got my meal plans written out including Breakfast, Lunch for the kids, and dinner for all 4 of us. I've got all our clothes laid out for the week, and most of all I've got all the meals planned, prepped, and ready to be cooked, go in the crock pot, or added to salad and we're ready to eat! Fast, fresh, and hopefully healthy!
