Last Week's Frugal Accomplishments

     Last week I got a lot more done than I have in the past several months!  Doing the happy dance!! So sorry for that visual!  Lol!   But anywho, I did get quite  bit accomplished!  I packed my lunch 3 times last week.  This week I promise I am going to pack every day!  I pinky swear!
     I cooked dinner every night!  No restaurant food just good ole home cooking!   I have been cooking from the pantry and freezer and trying to get room for cheap meat--turkey and ham! Our budget is loving the freezer and pantry cooking!  Yippee!
     I found several tops at the goodwill for my niece for Christmas-both still with tags on them--brand new!

Freezer Cooking!

                                        Meatballs and Meat loaves baking in my dirty oven!

                                                               Meatballs cooling.

                        Sausage links draining on coffee filters.  I was out of paper towels. Don't judge me!!

Porcupine meatballs cooling!

                                   

Muffins disappearing and cooling!

 

  Sunday I did quite a bit of freezer cooking.  I made 3 batches of meatballs-2 regular meatballs and one batch of porcupine meatballs!  I made 2 meatloaves and froze them. I made a double batch of apple muffins.  We ate some and the rest are for the freezer.  Since my DH cannot cook, I went ahead and cooked some sausage links and patties to keep in the fridge for the week.  He can have toast and sausage for his breakfast.  I made several small loaves of apple bread and one large loaf of orange cranberry bread.  These will be frozen for future breakfasts.  Boy oh boy, did my  house smell yummy today!
  Using my rice cooker, I was able to batch up 2 meals--2 chicken and rice meals and one batch of plain rice for the freezer.  For the chicken and rice meal, I cook the rice as per the rice cooker instructions just adding frozen peas, and dried veggies.  I sub chicken stock for the water.  Add your cooked chicken after the rice is cooked. I let it cool and then pack it in a quart freezer baggie.  Pull out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator the day you want to have it for dinner.  Just put in a  bowl and heat in the microwave and serve with a salad.  Great easy meal.
   I found 2 cans of evaporated milk in a reduced bin at Kroger.  Dents were not on the seams so it will be fine to use.  Saving this for fudge for Christmas! 
  Was able to order my DS#2's Gifts for Christmas second hand. I cannot tell you what it is because he sometimes reads my blog!  But I think he will love it! And I saved at least 50% by finding it on ebay! 
  I just have 2 more gift cards to buy for Christmas and I am DONE-put a fork in me!   I met my goal!!  Loving not having to Christmas shop in December!  I am hoping for a stress free holiday season and I am well on my way to achieving this!
   What have you accomplished this week?
Frugal Blessings,
Lisa

  

Batch Cooking Chicken

At my house, we love pulled chicken BBQ, chicken pot pies and chicken noodle soup. I love how easy it is to batch cook chicken for future meals. Can you say Crockpot? That’s right it will cook in the crock while you are busy with…Life! Place 2-3 pieces per person of boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot and cook on low 7-8 hours. Take out 2/3 of chicken and freeze in 2 separate freezer bags for chicken pot pie or chicken noodle soup. Cool broth, then freeze in 2 baggies also—cook once eat 3 times! For pulled chicken BBQ- shred with a knife and fork. Add your favorite BBQ sauce—as much as you want. You can barely coat the shredded chicken or you can drown it, your choice. Salt and pepper to taste. Let cook on high for 30 minutes more, then serve on buns or in pita bread. Cole slaw is our side salad of choice for this meal! You could also prepare this for the freezer for another day—so nice to have meals prepared and in the freezer for days when you are in a hurry or when you just are not into cooking dinner from scratch. By cooking once for 3 meals, you are saving time and money—a win, win for sure! Batches of Blessings, Lisa

Batch cooking to save time and money! 2

      It’s time again to share another way I batch cook  main dishes for my family. Meatloaf is a great food to batch cook.  I won’t give you a recipe, because everyone has a favorite meatloaf recipe(Lol). Just use 3 times the ingredients and make up a triple batch. 

I use my bread  loaf pans to cook mine in and it makes a perfect sized meatloaf for our family.   Once supper is over and your family has inhaled your wonderful meatloaf, just wrap the other 2 in plastic wrap then foil and freeze.  The night before you want to serve meatloaf again, just put it into the refrigerator to thaw.  Bake on 350 degrees until meat loaf is 165 degrees inside.  And there you have it--make a triple batch ,and cook all 3 loaves at the same time to save time and money!

Bountiful Blessings,

Lisa 

Batch Cooking to save time and money!

 

 Hello all,

  Cooking  once and  eating 3 times is a great way to save time and money!    One of my favorite things to cook in bulk is Pork Tenderloin.  I am able to buy pork tenderloin at our local Meijer for $1.49-$1.89 on sale.  When I find them this cheap, I buy several for our freezer.   The crockpot (my favorite appliance) is my friend in the kitchen!  Just put the whole tenderloin into the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  You can salt and pepper if you want.

 

  When done, I slice/pull the tenderloin apart. 

 

At this point, you can use it all to make BBQ or take out several baggies full to freeze for later meals.  I add the pulled pork to gravy and serve over bread and mashed potatoes or make pork and gravy with noodles.

 

 Almost no work to get several meals worth of pulled pork!   So cooking once  and eating 3 times is a tremendous time and money saver!

Frugal Blessings,

Lisa