I thought I would do a little update with recipes, shopping tips, etc.
We just cooked again this Saturday....there were five of us cooking and seven of us getting meals. I think I counted 17 dinners and lots of muffins, muffin type bread, and breakfast burritos. My freezer is FULL! Most of these recipes are from www.allrecipes.com. I absolutely think this site is a lifesaver. When you pick your recipes, you can change the serving size to whatever you need. For example, this time I changed all of the servings to 36. It combines them all to make one total grocery list which is even separated into departments in the store. You can add in extra items you need. So far the list has been spot on.
For the shopping part. I always take at least one friend with me. We use two grocery carts. I usually call off items and they grab them. We get most of the items at Aldi. If they don't have something, I get it at Kroger or Walmart. I also sometimes get meat at the local meat market. The quality and prices are very good. This time I also got some items (rice and spices) at an International Grocery in Indianapolis. You cannot find good rice cheaper anywhere else. Spices and produce are very cheap there too...
I also get heavy duty aluminum foil, disposable aluminum pans in various sizes, and name brand freezer bags. I feel like they are worth the extra money. Our cost this month for everything--including buying three new stock pans, tupperwear, a new mixer, and measuring cups / spoons, was $150 per family.
Our recipes this month were Stephanie's Goulash, lasagna, meatloaf, beef and noodles, Indian Butter Chicken, Italian chicken, pulled pork, breakfast burritos, muffins of all kinds, french toast, ham and beans, chicken enchiladas, cheesy chicken pasta, and chicken with rice and broccoli. See recipes below....
Stephanie's Goulash 3 c chopped onions 2.5 c chopped green pepper 2 cups chopped carrots... 3 cloves garlic minced 3 lbs stew meat 1-6 oz can tomato paste 4 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp black pepper 4 cups hot noodles 1/2 cup sour cream. Dump everything except noodles and sour cream in freezer bags. Shake, seal, label, and put in freezer. On serving day dump in slow cooker and cook for several hours. Cook noodles separately and garnish with sour cream.
Do not cook this stuff before putting it in the baggies....just dump it all in raw and freeze. When it is serving day, dump in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high for about 3-4 hours. Cook the noodles and serve with sour cream.
This is a really simple pulled pork recipe. We shred the pork and put it in freezer bags. When you serve you can serve it as is with rice or potatoes or you can mix in bbq sauce and use on sandwiches. Yummy!
We have made this before! It is very very good. Last time we used fresh chicken breasts and cream of chicken soup. I liked it a little better that time. We used frozen chicken this time and it was not as juicy.
We left out the oil in this and used half oatmeal and half bread crumbs.
Not much to say....this is very good!
I recommend making twice as many servings as you think you need for this one. It seemed a little skimpy. Also, we tried just cooking it with the noodles and then freezing. The noodles were not very good. I recommend waiting to cook them until the day you are serving.
This smelled sooo good as it was cooking! Even the girls who were skeptical of this one thought they would like it once they saw it and smelled it. Note that I got the ingredients for this one at an international grocery. The prices are alot cheaper than local groceries and the selection is better. The garam masala and tandoori masala are both a mixture of spices. If you cannot find them, google how to make them yourself.
You just cook this for a few minutes on each side. On cooking day you can heat in oven or microwave. You can freeze it in whole slices or cut in strips.
We added the carrots to this but we did not add alot of extra water. We wanted it thicker like ham and beans. The recipe made it more like a soup.
Need I say more.....yummy!
We make these minus the black olives. One of our favorites.
We add ground beef to this and extra cans of diced tomatoes. I like the veggies really chunky in it, but if my kids find them, they won't eat it. So, this time we really chopped up all the veggies very small.
Happy cooking to you! Let me know what you try and how it works. I am always up for some new recipes or ideas!
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ReplyDeleteAwwww, thanks!!!
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