I did my own research, for about two hours. Found the meals that I knew Josh and I would eat, and created my shopping lists. Most of those places that say that they have the shopping lists and everything is good to go have it created for the meals on their site. I don't know about you but I don't necessarily just love every meal. I found one site - sidetrackedsarah.com and loved most of her meal ideas. I selected about 12 and got to writing. Her recipes feed a family of 8 so I obviously cut them in half, which created even more meals. I wanted to spend about $150 on the meals for 3-4 weeks and, although I forgot a few things, I only went a little over and created almost 22-24 meals! We eat out occasionally so that should definitely last us 4 weeks with leftovers for lunch.
I have included below the first four recipes we tried this week and our reviews. We didn't love them all, but they weren't all terrible either! I will post once a week on my recipes (I changed some things in her recipes) and our reviews, but feel free to visit the above mentioned website and find your own meals to try!
Day One: Lasagna!
I didn't work this day so I was able to take the time to prepare this meal. This is a recipe that would be better for a Saturday or a day you have extra minutes in the morning, not when you are trying to run out the door. The only part you can freeze is the browned meat and sauce, which means everything else has to be prepped that morning.
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef, browned
2 jars (26.5 ounces) spaghetti sauce, I recommend a flavor one
1/2 box lasagna noodles, cooked
2-3 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese, or Mozarella
2 - 1/2 cups (almost a whole 24 oz container) Cottage Cheese
3/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 egg
Prep Work:
Brown the beef. Mix with the sauce, save about 1/6 of one jar for use on day of cooking. Place in freezer bag and label with Lasagna and Date.
Cooking Instructions:
Thaw the meat and sauce mixture the night before intended cooking day.
Cook 1/2 box of lasagna noodles - I didn't use the whole box... save them!
While those are cooking, mix the cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, and egg.
Cover the bottom of the crock pot with that sauce you saved :)
Then layer noodles, sauce mixture, cottage cheese mixture, and shredded cheese until you run out. I could only do it twice.
Cook on low 4-6 hours. I cooked on low for four hours because I cheated and cooked the meat that day.
Reviews:
I actually really liked it! Josh said it wasn't as flavorful as he would like. I used plain sauce, so that it why I recommended the flavorful sauce. Maybe also add some garlic salt or other Italian seasoning in to the meat/sauce mixture? I actually think that freezing the meat, as would be done for a correct freezer to crock pot meal, would help "marinate" the meat with more flavor? I plan on making it again, but not until I have cooked all my other meals! Let me know what you think if you make it!
Day Two: Chicken and Rice Casserole
I am going to go ahead and be straight forward that I forgot an ingredient which may explain why we didn't really rave over this recipe... Whoops! I have another meal of it and will add in that missing ingredient and hopefully on Week 2 or Week 3 have a more accurate review for you. Talk about embarrassing when I realized I did that!
Ingredients:
1 cup long grain rice (not instant rice)
3 cups water
2 teaspoons bouillon granules (this is what I forgot... WHOOPS!)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 16 oz bag broccoli, frozen
2-3 chicken breasts, frozen
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Prep Work:
Combine all ingredients except rice, water, and bouillon granules. Put combined ingredients in a freezer safe bag, label with meal name and date.
Cooking Instructions:
Put the frozen bag in the refrigerator overnight before cooking, and add to crock pot the day of.
Add rice, water, and bouillon granules to the crock pot and stir the best you can.
Cook on high 3-4 hours.
Shred chicken breasts after cooking.
If too runny, leave lid off for 15 minutes on high.
Reviews:
Even without the bouillon granules this dish was good. I wish we would have remembered them though because it would have had more flavor! If you are feeding a family of more than four you should add another chicken breast or two. I added the water to the freezer bag and I think that was a mistake. I have another bag of this prepped already but I actually may add another 1/2 cup to cup of water in the crock pot. I will let you know how that goes!
Day Three: Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients:
1 pound of cubed beef stew meat or 2 cups of cooked ground beef
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 chopped onion, small
1 T worcestershire sauce
1/4 c water
1/2 c. sour cream
1T minced garlic
1 packet of onion soup mix
egg noodles (to serve over & cook that day)
optional (chopped mushrooms)
Prep Work:
Combine all ingredients, except the egg noodles. Add to freezer bag!
Cooking Instructions:
Thaw freezer meal overnight and then add to crock pot.
Cook on low 6-8 hours if using cubed beef stew meat (uncooked) OR cook on low 3-5 hours if using cooked ground beef.
Cook egg noodles while crock pot is almost done with meal.
Serve the meal over egg noodles.
Reviews:
This was so good! Josh says next time he wants to try it with ground beef instead of the stew meat, but we both liked it. Do not precook the stew meat! Also, this meal is cut in half. I used the original recipe, but put it in two bags because we are only two people! We had enough for leftovers, too so I really liked that. We don't like mushrooms so I didn't add any extra of those.
Day Four: Creamy Ranch Porkchops
Ingredients:
2 pork chops, boneless (thick sliced)
3-4 medium potatoes, chopped into large pieces
1 (10.75 oz each) cans cream of chicken soup
1 (1 oz each) packages dry Ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup milk
Dried parsley to sprinkle on top (optional)
Prep Work:
Combine all ingredients in freezer safe bag and label with meal name and date.
Cooking Instructions:
Thaw meal bag in the refrigerator overnight. Cook in crock pot on low 5-6 or high 2-3 hours.
Reviews:
This was a total fail. Well, maybe not total fail but I won't be making it again! Just a heads up in case you didn't know - pork cooked in the crock pot is pink, even when it is done. I have a thing about meat and the fact that it needs to look done, so I was struggling to even eat it, even though the flavor was actually really good.
I used russett potatoes and actually used some leftover pork chops I had with the bone-in and they were fine. I knew they were done though because they were literally falling off the bone and apart, I just could not do the whole pink thing. I have another serving of this meal and will be trying it in the skillet at some point to see if that aids in the cooking of the pork chops and also makes the sauce a little thicker.
Tips:
- Use your blender to hold the freezer bag upright, but make sure you take out the blade. This makes it way easier to dump everything in the bag and squeeze all the air out.
- Label the bag BEFORE you put the ingredients in the bag.
- I tried to get everything in one shopping trip, but I forgot a few things so make sure your list is complete!
- I got most everything at Aldi, except the meat and a few other specialty ingredients (those will show up in some later recipes).
- The two websites I used: sixsistersstuff.com and sidetrackedsarah.com; you can find more recipes there but I did not use them all.
- Be prepared for a two-three hour shopping trip and then at least three-four hours for prepping the meals. It will depend on how many you make at one time.
- I knew I didn't want to do this every week so I mass prepared for 3-4 weeks, but don't over do yourself, and just make as many as you want.
If you have any questions, just let me know! And if you end up making any of these I would love to hear your thoughts!
Until next week,
Ashlyn
No comments:
Post a Comment