Part of my family's long term goals is to move closer to my parents, sister, and her children. I'm finding it to be so very important to have a support system, and to be honest, I am completely burnt out with the way our lives are structured.
We are one step closer. I have recieved and accepted an offer for a new "big girl" job, minutes away from family.
The issue is that we still have a lease until June, so I will be commuting an hour each way for work. This means 6:15am daycare drop off, and not home until 5pm or later.
My first question was (in a state of panic):
Who's gunna cook supper?!?
Ok, Mr E is a wonderful man & father. But he cannot cook.
Sure, we could rely on take out. Or pre-made meals from the grocery store freezer section. And from time to time I'm sure we will do those things. But I know that this transition of new job, trying to find a new place to live & new daycare will all be very stressful. Stress plus junky food equals sluggish and not happy mama.
The solution I came up with was freezer meals. I found a range of recipes that can sit in the slow cooker all day, some soups that can be re-heated on the stove, and quick treats that can be microwaved from frozen.
Now you don't need to follow what I did to a T, but I wanted to show that even the busiest of moms can put this all together.
The basic idea is to make double of a freezable supper each night, and then once the kids are in bed, doing as much prep as possible - chopping, slicing, organizing. That way, when it comes time to assemble some of the more complex meals, it'll be a breeze.
Tuesday:
- Grocery store trip #1 (you can get everything ahead of time, but I was in a time crunch and didn't know what we all had in our pantry)
- Supper - Mini Pizza Biscuits, made double and froze the extra. Used pepperoni instead of ground beef (1 meal down!) (this is a great recipe to get the kids involved with, TRex loved helping put the cheese and pepperonis on each biscuit!)
- Thawed out the hot dogs, ham, cheese, and enchilada sauce that I had hanging out in our freezer.
- Chopped up all the onions for the rest of the week.
- Made a new grocery list, taking into consideration the things I had in the pantry.
Wednesday:
- Sam's Club trip for meats & food saver bags
- Supper - Doggies in a Blanket, made double & froze the extra (Meal #2)
- Chopped up hot dogs for Saturday lunch, and sausages.
- Assembled Thursday's supper, see below
- Assembled and froze two batches of Big Mess (Meals #3 & #4)
- Shredded my now thawed cheddar blocks
Thursday:
(this was my easy day, Mr E was gone all evening driving to exchange
TRex for his mom's weekend, and I like to use those nights for extra
awesome time with Baby C)
- Supper - Slow Cooker Ham & Scalloped Potatoes -
- This turned out horrible. Don't make this! We ended up eating yogurt and graham crackers for supper... Oh well, that's what I get for trying new recipes!
- Assembled two batches of Pork Apple Pie (meals #5 & #6)
- Browned up 2lbs of ground beef & onions to use in Taco soup.
- Froze the rest 2 lbs of ground beef from the same package.
Friday:
- Cooked 3lbs of chicken in slow cooker while at work - cubed half, shredded half.
- Grocery Store trip #2
- Supper - went out to eat! Yay!
- Assembled & froze two Taco Soups (Meals #7 & #8)
Saturday:
- First made Corn Chowder to cook all day.
- Assembled Chicken enchiladas (meal #9, #10, #11), using shredded chicken. Made 5 enchiladas per 9x9 pan, and used a little less than 1.5 lbs of chicken.
- Corn Dog Muffins, made double (Meals #12 & #13), using chopped up hot dogs
- Beef & Mushroom Gravy (meal #14)
- Assembled Cilantro Lime Chicken (Meal #17)
- Supper - Corn Chowder, froze the extra (Meal #15 & #16). Even had enough to take to work for lunch! Super yummy.
Sunday:
- finsished freezing & organizing the rest of the meals
- Assebmled & froze two Chicken Macaroni Bake (meals #17 & #18), using cubed chicken, cooked pasta & onions
What was the easiest to make?
> Pork & Apple pie - but it doesn't have any veggies, so there's additional work to be done on the day it's eaten. A simple steamer bag of veggies in the micro will do :)
> Beef & Mushroom Gravy - dump & freeze!
> Taco Soup - brown up beef & onions, then dump in other canned & bagged ingredient. Looks super healthy, full of lean protein in the beef & beans, along with veggies in the tomatoes & corn.
