What's in the Freezer??!!??

Another list (along with "Le Menu") that I always have on my fridge is my "What's in the Freezer" list.

We have 2 full refrigerators plus a chest freezer and most of the time there is always food in all of them. Hubby uses one of the full fridge/freezers for his work samples and stuff, but occasionally I will throw some of my stuff in there as well.

I am forever forgetting what is in the freezer and going out and buying more of an item that I already have because I didn't know it was already there! Ugh. Not very fugal :o)

So I finally started taking inventory of my freezers and keeping the list on my fridge. Seems pretty simple? It is! I usually re-do the inventory every other month as I don't always remember to add to my list what I just added to the freezer :o) Here is what my "freezer" list looks like:

I break the list into groups: meats, desserts, breakfasts, sides, etc... This way if I need a side dish for a meal I can just go to "sides" and see what I have in my freezer that will work. Same goes for the meat. Before I go to the grocery store I can check my list and see what meats I already have in the fridge and make a "Le Menu" from those meats!

Happy Freezing!

~Caroline

Emptying my Freezer

One thing that has been a huge blessing over the past month is the food in my freezer! After a day of unpacking boxes, putting things in drawers, taking things out of drawers and then putting them back in another drawer and so on, the last thing I want to do is cook.

Today was one of those days and tonight was one of those nights. As I was contemplated taco smell (that's what it is called in our house) I decided to scour the freezer in hopes of being able to pull something together. We ended up having Kobe beef sliders (if you don't know what Kobe beef is or what a slider is let me know and I will fill you in on the wonderfulness of them) and tater tots. taco smell would have cost us a mere $7 (I only have 2 kids and i of them eats less than a mouse and we rarely buy drinks at restaurants so that's why it would be so cheap) but what we ended up eating was so much more delicious and it cost us nothing!

Other ideas I came up with while going through the freezer:
~Breakfast-eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy (I always keep bacon and biscuits in the freezer)
~Canned soup (I stock up on canned soup when I can get the good brand for $0.50 or less) and grilled cheese (we only had 4 slices of cheese left and my freezer stash of cheese is out, so this would not have been great but would have worked)
~Oriental Salad with breaded chicken strips on top. (I usually have samples of chicken strips in my freezer from hubby's work)

So save your family from taco smell or smelling like tacos and go raid your freezer!
Happy food hunting!
~Caroline

7 Steps of Freezer Cooking

Here is a great link to "7 Steps of Freezer Cooking" from 30 Day Gourmet. I have one of their books and it has come in handy on many occasions.

http://www.30daygourmet.com/Freezer_Info/Freezer_Five.asp

Happy Cooking!
~Caroline

Back in action...sorta :o)

I got a lot more done last week with hubby on vacation, than I have in the last month! I was finally able to get back to CVS and Walgreens and got some awesome deals. Unfortunately, one thing that I learned is that when your husband and 2 children are with you at the store and you are doing multiple transactions and they are ALL trying to help you, you end up loosing your receipts! And since my brain has been completely fried by some of medications I could not even remember the transactions and the amount spent and saved and all of that. So I am very sorry that I do not have any details for you all. Maybe this week we will get into that :o) I am taking baby steps to get to what normal is for me now.

I can say this, at walgreens I spent $10 and have $16 coming back to me in rebates! So that was a good money maker and it stocked me up on meds for the winter! Yee Haw!

I was also able to do a day of cooking last week. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed spending time in my kitchen all by myself cranking out meals. I will have to say that this was the best cooking session I have ever had! Seriously. Here are the specks:

2 meals-Citrus marinated Shrimp
2 meals-Pineapple Salsa with Salmon
2 meals- Italian Hamburgers
2 meals- Raspberry Chipolte Chicken
2 meals- Honey Sesame Pork Chops
1 meal- Savory Garlic Steak
1 meal- Mexican Flare skirt steak
2meals- Pork Chops ready to be BBQd
2 pounds- ground beef cooked and divided
4 meals- Alfredo Sauce
____________
Total meals made= 18 (plus 2 lbs. ground beef )
Total spent= $75!!!! That's about $4 per meal!!! Now remember I am only cooking for 4 people. But still I was flabbergasted that I did this good!

My mom has also made us :
2 meals- Pot Pies (one has already been devoured)
2 meals- Coffee Cakes
and she is planning on making this week:
Beef and Cheese Enchiladas
Chicken Enchiladas in a Cream Sauce
Re-Baked Potatoes

So our freezer is stocked and I can focus on hubby, kids, schooling, theraping, and getting better myself! God is so good :o)

Oh, did I tell you that it took me less than 2 hours to make and clean up all that food! I had to take an extra one of my medicines because I was feeling bad, and it gave me this huge kick of energy and I was just going like a mad woman!

I will try to post recipes and pictures of this stuff as we eat it up in the next few weeks so you can all enjoy it with me.

One last thing, I love to share how God blesses the Howard family. After my 2 hours of mad cooking I crashed on the couch and thought, "I really don't want to make dinner tonight." Right about that point hubby calls and says that one of his customers just gave him a bunch of food. Here is what a bunch of food was: 2 racks of BBQd Ribs, 2 BBQd Chicken Quarters, 1 very large BBQd Tri-Tip, a loaf of french bread all buttered and wrapped in foil, a big thing of Potato Salad, and a Big thing of their Homemade Baked beans! We called up my parents to come over and our neighbors and we all had a feast! I love it when we are blessed beyond what we need and we can turn and bless others with it as well! God is good. He has showed me that a lot in the last 7 weeks.

Sorry this became such a long post :o) I will chat with you more this week with recipes and pictures!
Blessings and Happy Cooking~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 2

Now let's talk about frugal living.

I learned how to be frugal from my mom. She made me shop K-mart’s blue light specials when I was a kid! But I’m over that now :o) Whenever I wanted something, she would always ask “do you really need that?” Or, she would say,” how does it feel to want?”. Oh, that would just kill me as a kid. I would try to come up with some way of making it seem like I did NEED it. But it never worked. And yes, now I do that to my own kids :o)
She instilled in me that I only had to buy the things I needed. And now before I buy almost anything I have to be able to completely justify the purchase. It drives me crazy sometimes but I know in the end it does our checking account and I a lot of good.

When I go shopping at stores (not grocery stores, but all the other ones, like T*rget, W*alm*art, etc...) I only shop sales and clearance racks, but mostly just the clearance racks. And I am not talking about the 15% off racks. I only do the 50% off or more racks. When I walk into a store, no matter what store, I go straight to the clearance racks. I have learned to spot them a mile away! I don’t even look at the rest of the stuff. Why would I even want to tempt myself that way?

I also have limits on what I will spend on certain items. For instance, I will not spend more than $7 on shirts for myself. If it’s more than that than it stays on the rack. I will not spend more than $20 on pants, and this includes all my jeans that I buy at Gap (that’s the only place where they make them to fit me). Shorts and skirts will not be bought unless they are under $10. I have set these limits for myself because I know I can find clothes at these prices at the places I shop. They are not unreasonable for me or for our budget. This is just for me I know that other people can budget more for clothing or need to spend more and that is fine. Remember this is just how I do it.

OK, so this just happened to me the other day. I was at Target, surprise surprise, and I was going through the clearance racks in the girls section looking for birthday presents for my nieces. They all love clothes and I can always find great stuff at Target. Anyways, I came upon the cutest shirt that was in Gillian’s size. I knew it would look great with a pair of shorts that she has. Now let me say that Gillian is the only kid I have to buy clothes for. Emma gets all hand me downs and loves it! The problem was that the shirt was $6.50. I put it in my cart thinking I could just splurge this once because it was a cute shirt and then I tried to justify it by saying that since it was sleeveless baby doll type shirt it would keep her nice and cool during thee hot days and it’s important for her to stay cool because if she gets to hot she could have a seizure. Yeah, nice way of trying to rationalize that one! But I kept feeling that nudge to put it back. The kid really did not need a new shirt no matter how cute it was and especially at that price. So I finally put it back. And I did find 2 other great dresses for my nieces and each one was under $5!!
OK, so fast forward a week and I find myself at Target again. A different Target :o) I went to the girls clearance rack again looking for all the 4th of July clothes I knew would be 50% off. Can I just stop here and say that the after holiday sales at Target rock! I always find the greatest things. And if you wait until 6 days past the holiday the stuff goes to 75% off and eventually 90% off! Even their seasonal stuff! OK, back to my story….So I am going through the racks again and what do I spot? Yep, that same shirt and it’s in Gilly’s size again. I was dying. So I looked at the price tag and what did it say? $3.24!!! Half the price of the original marked down price! So I bought it because I knew God was blessing me for being a good steward of my money.

I always say that if God wants me to have it it will still be there when it’s cheaper :o)

I do have one little problem though, I love bargains. I mean love bargains. Finding something that is marked down 90% that will look good in my life is awesome! But this can be a bad thing, because I would buy all the stuff I liked that was marked down. You know how excited you are when you find a great deal and you’re telling everyone about it and you ‘re like I just saved $10 on this thing I bought! Well, my father in law would say, “You would have saved $10 more if you hadn’t bought it all!” Ya, I guess that is true. So Now I have trained myself to think, “Just because it is a great deal does not mean I have to buy it”. Really think about your purchase before you make it. No matter how little it cost, you still need to be able to justify the purchase as a need.

Tomorrow I will get into couponing!! So Stay tuned :o)

~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 1

All right, let’s talk freezer cooking and frugal living. The two do go hand in hand. A great way to save money is to cook in bulk and freeze. As many of you already know, I have been freezer cooking for over 3 years now. I have also, up until recently, organized a group of 10-15 ladies every month for a Freezer Cooking Day. That was a lot of fun. But I know that it isn’t easy for all of us to get together with friends and have a big cooking day. That might not be the season of life you are in right now. And that’s OK. You can still make meals for your freezer without really taking any extra time out of your day.

One of the easiest ways to start filling you freezer is to start cooking bigger meals. If you are making lasagna, make 2. It won’t take you but 5-10 minutes longer to assemble that second one, but it will save you an hour another day! Eat one of the lasagnas that night and stick the other one in the freezer. This is truly, one of the simplest ways to fill your freezer fast. Just think if you doubled 2 meals a week, by the end of the month you would have 8 extra meals in your freezer. That means 8 nights next month that you won’t have to think about dinner!

I have learned that even freezing little portions of leftovers is a huge blessing. Even if it is just one serving, don’t toss it, or let it sit in your fridge for a week thinking someone will eat it. Freeze it! Eventually you will have enough one-portion servings to feed the whole family a fun smorgasbord one night. Or you could take the one-portion servings and stick them in your hubby’s lunch. If it is something really good than you can enjoy yourself one day for lunch while the kids eat PB&Js. Like our mothers have always said, “waste not, want not”.

And, of course, you can always do a day of cooking meals for your freezer. This works best when you find meat on sale. That way you can stock up without draining your pocket book.

I often get asked what the best way is to freeze food. My answer? Freezer bags! Freezer bags can be laid flat and you can stack them high. One of the main things you have to remember is to get as much air out of the bag as possible. I also flash freeze my bags before stacking them. To flash freeze them I just lay them flat on a hard tray and stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then they are ready to be stacked and the bags won’t freeze together or freeze into some funky shape that makes it impossible to get out of the freezer.

I once saw a picture of a regular top freezer that had 24 main dishes, 12 side dishes, 10 desserts, and 10 breakfasts all neatly stacked in freezer bags. And they had room to add more! So freezer bags are definitely your best bet if you want to maximize your space.

Unfortunately there are some things that can’t be put into a freezer bag, like lasagna. Oh, that would be messy :o) So lets chat about using pans, any size or shape. There are 2 ways to do pans. First, you could use aluminum pans. They have every shape and size you can imagine at any Dollar Store. They even sell some that come with the lids. If it doesn’t have a lid than you will want to cover it tightly with plastic wrap, or my favorite, Press N Seal. And then cover it with foil tightly.

If you don’t want to go out and by aluminum pans then here is what you do. Take one of your pans, again, any size or shape that you need for what you are making, line it with saran wrap. You want the saran wrap to be over the edges quite a bit. Make the meal in the pan on top of the saran wrap and then stick in the freezer for a few hours; it needs to be pretty frozen. Once it is frozen, you can take the food out of it and wrap it all up in the plastic wrap and then foil. You have basically used your pan as mold. Now when you are ready to eat that meal take it out of the freezer, unwrap it completely and put it back in the same pan you used to mold it and let it thaw. Presto, it’s all ready to go and you didn’t have to waste all your good pans by keeping them in the freezer for weeks!

Another question I am often asked is where do I get all of my recipes. One of the best places to find recipes for your freezer is in your own cookbooks! Just about everything freezes. Seriously! If you are worried about something not freezing well just take a sample of it and stick it in the freezer and see how it does. I have tried doing this many times and have only had a few flops and I can’t even remember now what they were. So try freezing some of your family’s favorite meals. You can also find lots of recipes on line. Just type in freezer meal recipes, recipes for the freezer, etc…. Some of my favorite places for recipes are:

http://www.justslowcooking.com/index.html (all the recipes are for your crockpot and most of them can be put int the freezer before cooking)

http://www.30daygourmet.com/ (the 30 Day Gourmet is chock full of recipes. Some of them you will need a pass word to get to but most of them are free for the looking!)

http://www.recipelink.com/rcpmenus.html (I have not had the time to play around much on this site, but it looks promising!)

You can also click on any of the links on my side bar to see the freezer books that I use. I would recommend owning at least one book on freezer cooking that you can use as a guide. The one I would highly recommend is "The Freezer Cooking Manual" from 20 Day Gourmet. They have a lot of charts in this book that will help you convert your recipes into larger quantities. They also have great shopping lists and so much more!

You don’t just have to stick with main dish dinners for the freezer. You can do side dishes(like rice pilaf, mashed potatoes) desserts(cakes, ice cream pies, cookie dough), breakfasts(egg burritos, biscuits with eggs, cheese and a meat) and lunches. The possibilities are endless.

Another frequently asked question, "What is the best way to thaw your meals?". Well, the best way is to thaw them in the fridge. But I rarely do it this way because I always forget to take it out of the freezer in time :o) Most of the time (if it is in a freezer bag) I thaw in the microwave on the "thaw" setting or I put it in the sink and run cold water over it for 5-10 minutes or until it is thawed.

So that is what I have for you for a quick overview of freezing cooking. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments. You can also browse around past posts to get a lot more info on freezer cooking.

~Caroline

Getting Started

Wow, thanks everyone for all the "hooray" comments! I am really looking forward to sharing ideas and recipes with you all. Today I wanted to chat a bit about how to get started with freezer cooking.

One of the easiest ways to start filling your freezer is to start cooking bigger meals. If you are making a lasagna, make two. Eat one that night and put the other in the freezer. This is one of the simplest ways to fill your freezer fast. If you just doubled 2 meals a week by the end of the month you would have 8 extra meals in your freezer! That means 8 nights next month that you won't have to cook! Woohooo!

I have started to learn that even freezing the little portions of leftovers help. Even if it is just one serving, don't toss it, freeze it. Eventually you will have enough one portion servings to feed your whole family, or you could take those one portions and stick them in your hubby's lunch. If it is something really good than you could feed the kids PBJ's and you can enjoy it for lunch. Like our mothers always said, "waste not, want not". Thanks mom :o)

What's the best way to freeze food? Freezer bags.
Freer bags can be laid flat and you can stack them high. Make sure you get most of the air out of the bag before sealing. Before I start stacking my bags I like to flash freeze them. This basically means that I lay them flat on a tray (or a cooking sheet) and put them in my freezer until they are almost frozen through. This way the bags won't stick together when they freeze or get into some funky shape that makes them impossible to get out of the freezer.

I once saw a picture of a freezer that had 24 main dishes, 12 side dishes, 10 desserts, and 10 breakfasts all neatly stacked in freezer bags. And they had room to add more! So freezer bags are definitely your best bet. Yet, there are some things that need a 9x13 or an 8x8 pan and that's OK. There are 2 ways to do this. First, you could just buy aluminum pans to make those things in. Or you can line your pan with saran wrap and then make the meal in the pan. Pop your pan into the freezer and let it freeze. Once frozen, pull the pan out and remove the plastic wrap with your meal in it. Securely wrap the plastic wrap around the whole meal and then wrap it in a layer of foil. Label and throw it back into the freezer. When it comes time to cook that meal, simply pull it out of the freezer, unwrap it (before it thaws) and place it back into the same pan. Presto, it's all ready to go and one of your good pans didn't have to sit in the freezer, unusable for a month.

So there you have just a few tips to get you started on filling your freezer. Tomorrow I will deliver a new recipe to you! You won't want to miss it :o)

Happy Cooking!
~Howiesgal