A month of meals!

Jeremiah had some things to do this evening so I have some free time to blog my heart out.

Here is our month o' meals. Each week follows the same basic pattern: Monday - frozen meal, Tuesday - breakfast for dinner, Wednesday - frozen meal, Thursday - help yourself night, Friday - big casserole to feed 10-12 people, Saturday - leftovers, Sunday - pizza night! I stock my freezer with frozen veggies for side dishes and since casserole eating isn't the healthiest option, I try to make sure we eat a lot of veggies with each meal.

Also, I have all the breakfast foods we eat stocked up (eggs, tortillas, cereals, yogurt...), lunch foods (lunch meat, veggies, bread, cheese) and snacks. We snack on fruit a lot, so I will have to do a produce run to keep us stocked next week.

Here goes nothin'!

January 1 - Beef stroganoff, fresh bread (made fresh, but it would freeze well minus the noodles and sour cream)

2 - Leftovers

3 - BBQ Chicken Pizza

4 - Chicken fried steak, potatoes, veggies, left over bread from Friday (this meal was not frozen, made fresh)

5 - Breakfast for dinner (biscuits, gravy, eggs - Trader Joe's has a great multi grain baking mix!)

6 - Huevos

7 - Help yourself night

8 - Enchiladas (on Fridays, someone else brings a side and a dessert, so it's not on my list)

9 - Left overs

10 - Pizza - topped with ground beef and turkey bacon (the toppings are ready to go, in the freezer)

11 - Out of town

12 - Out of town

13 - Burgers and fries

14 - Lasagna and veggies

15 - Meat loaf (2 recipes worth)

16 - Left overs

17 - Miah's spaghetti

18 - Chicken Potato Casserole

19 - Breakfast for dinner

20 - Hot dogs and fries

21 - Help yourself night

22 - Potato soup (will be made fresh)

23 - Left overs

24 - Pizza night - topped with turkey pepperoni and green chile

25 - Goulash and veggies

26 - Huevos

27 - Burritos

28 - Help yourself night

29 - Stouffer's lasagna

30 - Leftovers

31 - Tortellini with cream sauce

After doing that I am fairly certain I won't be putting up recipes or a shopping list. I just don't have that kinda time! :) But if anyone has any questions on anything I made just let me know! I can also email my shopping list.. I have it on the computer divided by aisle at the grocery store :)

When you do the shopping for a month you may be able to fit it all into one cart as you gather it, but once the food is bagged you will need two carts to either be prepared to do that yourself or bring a helper!

I buy chicken thighs in bulk and then put them in the crock pot overnight with water and seasonings. In the morning the chicken is ready to be shredded and I cool the broth, drain the fat and freeze it for soups. Works great! You can also freeze it in smaller portions to use as needed.

On the day I will be doing all of the cooking I start with a clean kitchen and empty dishwasher. I lay out each recipe and put the ingredients for each recipe on top of it. I figure out how much cooked ground beef I will need and I cook it all at once. I chop all onion, garlic, etc. for all of the recipes so that I don't have to do that each time I start a recipe.

As for storing everything, for right now I use those disposable aluminum trays, Tupperware, and freezer bags. I make sure I have lots of freezer paper, heavy duty aluminum, and labels. Each recipe has a label on top that tells me what it is, how long it needs to cook and at what temperature.

Sometimes for a larger recipe (like lasagna, for example) I divide the recipe in half because my little family can't finish and entire recipes worth!

Happy shopping!