Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Okay, so I'm Nesting...

I finally admitted to myself yesterday that, with 4 weeks to go until our baby's due date, I'm nesting. Besides getting the nursery together and such, I've been making several freezer meals so that the hubbs' life is much easier once our daughter arrives.
I thought I would share with you what I've been making, and maybe you can get some ideas for yourself. It's always nice to have a quick, easy, cheap dinner to pull out of the freezer, even if you don't have to take care of a newborn.

Last week I made Sloppy Joes for dinner, and since I used a 3-lb chub of ground turkey for the two of us, I had plenty leftover for two freezer meals. Cost about $3.50 each.




Then, on Thursday, I decided to take a 3-pound bag of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I had gotten from Cub Foods for $5.97 and make it into Shredded Chicken and put it in the fridge to make into easy meals.




Since the broth from the Shredded Chicken was perfectly good and I didn't want to waste it, I put the crock pot in the fridge overnight and the next morning, I made Chicken Pot Pie on a Biscuit. Of course, there was enough leftover again to make another two freezer meals. Cost about $1.50 each.


Alright, back to the Shredded Chicken that I had stuck in the fridge...

The first meal I decided to make with it was Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. I don't have tortillas on hand, so I just put the filling mixture in one container, and the topping mixture in another container, then tapped them together, so the hubbs would know to grab both (plus they won't get separated from each other & lost in the freezer that way!). Cost: about $4.00.











Then I made a Chicken Mac & Cheese Hotdish, put it in a bread pan and covered it with plastic wrap and tinfoil. I wrote the directions on top, so that the hubbs wouldn't even need to check with me when he makes it. Cost: about $2.25



The next one I made is probably the easiest! Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. I had found that we, somehow, had three, yes, three, open bottles of BBQ sauce in the fridge. So I wanted to get rid of at least two of them. Each was a different flavor and a different brand, so I'm curious to see how these taste when we eat them! *Tip: to get the last of the BBQ sauce out of the bottle, add just a tiny bit of water, cover, and shake (you can pour it right in with the chicken!). Cost: $2.50.

Even after all that, I still had some chicken left. I was running out of ideas and steam to keep going. So I decided to throw the last of it in its own container and freeze it for some idea I'll come up with later. Cost: $1.50, plus whatever I use to do something with it!



And the grand total for 8 freezer meals? $20.25 That's about $2.50 per meal... much cheaper than ordering delivery or going out!

3 comments:

Denise said...

Good job, love this blog!

Jacque said...

Can you do a post (baby permitting) about freezing meals? When you do the tupperware, do you do anything else other than put a lid on it? I assume you use freezer bags for things like chicken or meats. Do you ever freeze in casserole dishes? I'm always worried about freezer burn when I freeze things!

Sarah Gibson said...

Thanks for the idea, Jacque! I will work on a post about how to avoid freezer burn. Hope to have it up soon (baby permitting, of course!) :)