In the last couple of years, I really thought I was shopping smart. And I was...if I'd been properly planning on how to use what I was buying. And I wasn't. I'm ashamed to admit, I wasted a lot. And we ate out far too much!
At one point, I even went out and bought one of those FoodSaver machines to stop the waste. Yes, it is wonderful for preserving food in the freezer and preventing freezer burn, but if you don't use that food, it's still not truly helping. I mean the food isn't going bad but it still wasn't being used. The FoodSaver is great for things besides meat. As with Ziplocs or anything else that goes in the freezer, label and date everything!
I was off work between Christmas and New Year's and really put a lot of thought into how I was going to fix things. I bounced a lot of ideas off of my husband. I did a lot of Pinterest-ing. I came to the conclusion that I really couldn't do anything until I knew what I had. Do you dread going to dig in the upright deep freezers because you know if you touch something, it's all gonna fall out on your feet? No? Just me? I put on good shoes and went in....
I just started with the big freezer because I knew the little one was where I put the "overflow" and knew it was the newest stuff. I did not do a full clean out but I did toss some things as I came across those items that had dates I didn't like. I did have a package of ham hocks land on my foot but the turkey breast missed me! Ha! I ended up tossing a couple of kitchen trash bags worth of more wasted food. I can assure you, that is going to stop!
I did a quick run down on what meat was in there and then made a list of some meals that I know we like, that in all honesty is what part of that meat was bought for. I looked over the things I'd pinned on Pinterest and made a list.
Side note, I love a good list! Here is the list of meals I came up with:
Yes, I'm old school to a point....paper and pencil lists! What you see crossed off is what we have used to date. I figured out what i needed to complete the meals and went to the grocery for pretty much dairy and produce and a few canned goods. Oh, and I made sure that I had plenty of FoodSaver bags.
Every Sunday, I make a menu...having the food prep done will definitely help us stick to it. Here is this weeks:
The Meatloaf isn't really a recipe, it's just something I make. I used 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef and 1 pound of ground pork, not sausage just pork. With that, I add a diced onion, a little garlic, 4 slices potato bread (we use Aunt Millie's 35 calorie potato bread around here so that's what goes in this) torn into little pieces and soaked in about 1/2 cup give or take of milk, 2 eggs, about 6 strips off uncooked bacon cut into little pieces (use scissors, it's easier) and some tomato sauce, about half a can. Of course there is salt and pepper and some paprika. I used the other half can of tomato sauce to mix with brown sugar and salt and put on top of the meatloaf. This made two meatloaves. I liked the meatloaf pans with cling wrap and put half the meatloaf in each pan and put them in the freezer. Once they were frozen, I lifted them out of the pan with the Cling wrap and then wrapped the cling wrap around it and then two layers of aluminum foil. Back to the freezer until ready to use. When you take the wrap off it just drops back into the pan to cook it. Bake it for about an hour at 350 or until a thermometer is at 165 degrees.
The French Dip sandwiches are made with some shaved beef I bought at Kroger, it fries up really quickly, like a cheese steak meat. I toast Ciabatta buns in the broiler. I put the meat on the bread with provolone on top and back in the broiler to warm the cheese. Make a packet of au jus and you have a meal in like 15-20 minutes. We made french fries in the air fryer and I'd made up a batch of Coleslaw on Sunday for two meals this week.
Gotta be honest, the Chicken Tortilla soup was bought at Sam's for a night that we needed quick...I just tossed it in the freezer so I set it out the night before and it warms up by the time you have grilled cheese made.
The Honey Garlic Chicken was shared by a friend, it's so easy. The marinade is 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons honey, 1/2 clove minced garlic and 2 tablespoons water for every 1/2 pound of chicken. Mix the marinade right in the Ziploc (FoodSaver bags aren't for liquid unless you freeze it first and then it won't lay flat) then put in the chicken. Get as much air as you can out of it and seal it lay it flat in the freezer. This allows you to stack them and it thaws quicker if it's flat. Move from freezer to fridge the night before and bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.
The taco meat I made, I added some veggies in it to add some health benefits to it. I used the frozen mix of carrots, onions and celery...not a lot but every bit helps. I also add black beans to it. When I made it, I doubled the batch and divided in FoodSaver bags.
Finally, the slow cooker cheese chicken spaghetti is an experiment. It sounds good and I hope we like it, but it's one of those that make you go hmmmm....Here's the recipe:
16 ounces spaghetti-cooked
1 pound Velvetta Light cheese
2 cups cooked chopped chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 4 ounce cans mild green chilies
1 cup mushrooms chopped
1/2 cup water
1 small onion diced
Combine all in a gallon Ziploc bag, seal, flatten (as you can, it's a lot in that bag) and freeze. When ready to use, thaw for 24 hours then pour in a crock pot for 2-3 hours. Stir before serving.
Now, I didn't use cream of soups....I made a white sauce (equal parts butter & flour and instead of milk, I used chicken broth) it's healthier.
There is week one of the menu. I worked about 5 hours on Sunday to put together 29 meals that should not take long to make on a week night.
This is longer than I expected but I wanted to at least share where I started. I'm going to be as brutally honest as I can in reclaiming our home and diet! This whole journey of balancing working these particular full-time hours, eating decent meals, and trying to keep my house somewhat decent is going to be a process. Let's hope this makes it not so painful! Thank you for reading!
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Monday, January 6, 2020
I'm back!
Hello again! It's been a while since I posted, but there's been a lot of 'life' happening to myself and my family. Some good, some not so much, but all of it made us stronger individually and as a family.
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In the last three years, I think my biggest accomplishment was beating cancer! I took a simple genetic test for one of my daughters because of a medical condition she has. That test not only showed a rare cancer gene but I subsequently found out I had two different kinds of breast cancer. Seven surgeries in twenty-seven months and all the other treatments involved and I am currently cancer-free!
Let me get up on my soapbox for a moment here...if you think something is wrong, fight to find out what. I had mammograms every year, none of them picked up one of the types of cancer I had. Additionally, one of my surgeries was botched and the doctor made it seem as if I was looking at it wrong. I gathered my courage and asked for a second opinion which was probably one of the hardest things I did because I felt as though I was questioning a medical professional. And I was. And that's ok. I learned that it's ok to advocate for yourself! It took five surgeries to fix the mistake but if I hadn't advocated for myself, I would have still been living with that mistake.
I also learned that I am surrounded by a wonderful group of friends. They enveloped my family with love and support throughout every bit of the cancer journey!
Some pretty great things happened along the way too. I earned my Masters degree and a Graduate level Teaching College Writing Certificate. My husband was also promoted to the Program Chair for his department at the college where he works. He was also the Master of his Masonic Lodge and our son was Master Councilor of his DeMolay group. And I got a new job at IUPUI.
Ahhh, the new job. I miss my work with TRIO Student Support Services, but I absolutely love what I am doing now. The work is very similar, just at a four-year institution. When I made the change, the new hours were 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. I haven't worked those hours in more than 20 years! Given my choice, I always took the earlier hours to be able to take care of errands, handle kid pick up, and have dinner at a decent hour. I'll be honest, the first month was a hot mess around here. The house was a disaster, sometimes we didn't eat until 7 or even 8 o'clock.
Years ago, when I was a single mom, I did pretty intensive meal prep every Sunday for the upcoming week. I had gotten away from that in the last few years...and it showed. Since we now spend a lot of time at our place at the lake most weekends between April and October, I have to rethink how I meal prep for the work week so we can stay at the lake until Sunday afternoon. Afterall, who wants to leave Nature's beauty to come back to reality any earlier than they have too? LOL
Over Christmas, I did some research and planned out some meal prep. I worked from what I had in the freezer and supplemented what I needed to create meals. The amount of food I had stockpiled in my freezers was ridiculous. Yesterday, I was able to put together 25 dinners. I mixed them up, some are crock pot meals, some Power Pressure Pot meals, some oven meals. I'll write more about this in the next post.
I want to...no need to...get back to writing for me. I hope you will follow along. I'll always work to be frugal but I'll also be working on time saving work night ideas and now, ideas for when we're at the lake! It's my happy place!
Thank you for indulging my ramblings...talk to you soon!
.
In the last three years, I think my biggest accomplishment was beating cancer! I took a simple genetic test for one of my daughters because of a medical condition she has. That test not only showed a rare cancer gene but I subsequently found out I had two different kinds of breast cancer. Seven surgeries in twenty-seven months and all the other treatments involved and I am currently cancer-free!
Let me get up on my soapbox for a moment here...if you think something is wrong, fight to find out what. I had mammograms every year, none of them picked up one of the types of cancer I had. Additionally, one of my surgeries was botched and the doctor made it seem as if I was looking at it wrong. I gathered my courage and asked for a second opinion which was probably one of the hardest things I did because I felt as though I was questioning a medical professional. And I was. And that's ok. I learned that it's ok to advocate for yourself! It took five surgeries to fix the mistake but if I hadn't advocated for myself, I would have still been living with that mistake.
I also learned that I am surrounded by a wonderful group of friends. They enveloped my family with love and support throughout every bit of the cancer journey!
Some pretty great things happened along the way too. I earned my Masters degree and a Graduate level Teaching College Writing Certificate. My husband was also promoted to the Program Chair for his department at the college where he works. He was also the Master of his Masonic Lodge and our son was Master Councilor of his DeMolay group. And I got a new job at IUPUI.
Ahhh, the new job. I miss my work with TRIO Student Support Services, but I absolutely love what I am doing now. The work is very similar, just at a four-year institution. When I made the change, the new hours were 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. I haven't worked those hours in more than 20 years! Given my choice, I always took the earlier hours to be able to take care of errands, handle kid pick up, and have dinner at a decent hour. I'll be honest, the first month was a hot mess around here. The house was a disaster, sometimes we didn't eat until 7 or even 8 o'clock.
Years ago, when I was a single mom, I did pretty intensive meal prep every Sunday for the upcoming week. I had gotten away from that in the last few years...and it showed. Since we now spend a lot of time at our place at the lake most weekends between April and October, I have to rethink how I meal prep for the work week so we can stay at the lake until Sunday afternoon. Afterall, who wants to leave Nature's beauty to come back to reality any earlier than they have too? LOL
Over Christmas, I did some research and planned out some meal prep. I worked from what I had in the freezer and supplemented what I needed to create meals. The amount of food I had stockpiled in my freezers was ridiculous. Yesterday, I was able to put together 25 dinners. I mixed them up, some are crock pot meals, some Power Pressure Pot meals, some oven meals. I'll write more about this in the next post.
I want to...no need to...get back to writing for me. I hope you will follow along. I'll always work to be frugal but I'll also be working on time saving work night ideas and now, ideas for when we're at the lake! It's my happy place!
Thank you for indulging my ramblings...talk to you soon!
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