Cooking/Shopping for the Week & Prepping/Freezing Meals

Should I buy a huge set of tupperware? Some Pins I see have stuff in big ziplocks...won't that freezer-burn?
You CAN freeze tupperware, but I like to use that for my leftovers I do use Ziplocs to freeze things and my trick is that I zip it until it's just about closed (there is a little gap left) and suck all the air out so it almost looks vaccuum packed. They do have a "foodsaver" (vacuum packer) you can buy online and at Walmart but I am too cheap to spend $100, so I just do it myself, lol.

What stuff shouldn't be frozen? (I think lettuce is probably bad)
I can tell you from experience to not freeze lettuce, and dairy (when it thaws it will have ice chips, and sometimes curdles, and it just tastes nasty)! I do freeze spinach and use it for smoothies, but if you want fresh spinach for like a salad, frozen will not go over well.

Do you have to pretty much eat one kind of meat all week?
I don't understand your question here. What I do every month is go to my local butcher/grocery store (depending on sales) and buy all my meat for the month. Since it is just my husband and I, I will portion it out and freeze what I will need per meal in individual freezer baggies (made by ziplock, but they have no zipper) and put them inside a ziplock. That way I know when I need to take something out, it will be just enough for that meal (my husband won't eat leftovers).

What are some spices used in most things? (I am really bad at spices)
My spices I use on an (almost) daily basis: garlic powder, garlic salt, oregano, basil, paprika, and Mrs. Dash. I LOVE LOVE LOVE MRS. DASH!!! It's sodium free and there is a TON of flavors. Lemon pepper, chipotle, and "original" are a few. And they are super cheap and go on everything! I have about 6 of them, lol.

How long does the prep take and do you cook most things on the weekends?
Depends on what you are making. We grill alot. If you have your meat totally thawed, chicken will take 20 min or so. I don't spend more than an hour total for prep and cook time.

How long to leftovers stay good? (Seriously I never have leftovers because I am the Queen of Single Servings)
I throw mine away on the 3rd night (if I cooked Sunday night, leftovers go in the trash Wednesday night).

Do you have a budget?
Not really. I try to be careful about buying a lot of perishable things (veggies and fruits) because they can go bad really quick. I go shopping every Sunday after I plan my meals for the week and go for that week only.

Are there certain ranges of times you have to buy things? (Like milk 1x per week or a bag of chicken breasts 2x a month)
Again, this is a hard question to answer. It depends on how much you are eating/drinking of that particular item. I buy milk twice a month. I buy meat once a month (as stated previously). Everything had an expiration date, so you can go by that.


I hope this helps. Try sparkrecipes.com and skinnytaste.com for cheap, easy meals. I grew up cooking so if you need any help or have questions, feel free to message me! Good luck!

http://onceamonthmom.com/ This website has everything you need to create monthly menus using seasonal ingredients. The best part is that you can choose from a variety of menus-traditional, paleo, whole foods, diet, vegetarian, etc. Not only does the site provide the menu and recipes, but it gives you a shopping list, too! All the recipes are designed to freeze well and give you tips. It's all free, but if you become a member you have access to recipe cards with nutritional information. I usually mix and match between various menus and don't make the breakfast items.

From my experience, most things freeze well (soups, stews, pastas especially so). However, there are exceptions-fried foods, veggies with high water content (lettuce, tomatoes and celery), and potatoes.

Tips: If freezing pasta, cook it very al dente, as it will freeze better. When you bake/reheat it will get softer anyway. When freezing soups and stews, season it only very lightly before freezing and then season it fully upon reheating. This is because some flavors become stronger when frozen (garlic) and others become more subtle (salt).

Happy freezing! I would never have motivation to cook during the week if it weren't for this method. It's so easy to just defrost and reheat. I suggest cooking and freezing for 2 weeks or a month at a time.

I love my freezer! When DH and I were first in our own house we cooked on a Saturday for the week and froze 4 days of meals. I'm vege but he's not, so we would often We would do the basic veg alltogether, then split and mix into sauces and meat for DH. We made something on Sat that we would have on Sun and Mon (generally a vege and non veg spag bol).

We got lazy over the years, but since I got healthy I have gone back to it. If ever there are cheap tomatoes at the supermarket I get a load and make several batches of tomato sauce base (chop them, stick in a big pan with a little oil, some garlic, and I add some mixed herbs or basil, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hr . I add any veggies that are going cheap, or that need using up in the fridge. We use this for Spag bol, or add chilli spices and beans for Chilli or tacos, or stick some hot pepper sauce, potato and sausages for Spicy Sausage cassorole.
I use tupperware, and I reuse the containers that you get takeways in (DH's of course!). Sometimes I make double quantities and freeze one lot, or we have it the next night. I try to always have a couple of meals in the freezer for those days when you just can't be bothered. We spend a lot less on takeaways these days!

bump for website names for later, at work:drinker:

Should I buy a huge set of tupperware? Rubbermaid containers are great for leftovers (you can take them to work for lunch) and for keeping your prepped veggies and fruits in the fridge. Some Pins I see have stuff in big ziplocks...won't that freezer-burn? Nope--air is what causes freezer burn, so if you squeeze all of the air out they'll be fine (just get the freezer bags, not storage bags)

What stuff shouldn't be frozen? (I think lettuce is probably bad) Lettuce doesn't freeze well unless you're freezing it for use in smoothies. Whole eggs need to be scrambled first before freezing them raw.

Do you have to pretty much eat one kind of meat all week? Nope. I buy a lot of meat when it's on sale for a really good price and then portion it up into the amount my family will eat at one meal and pop it in the freezer. After a few weeks, you'll have a great selection of ham, turkey, chicken, pork, beef, fish, etc to choose from.

What are some spices used in most things? (I am really bad at spices) We use a lot of garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, chili powder, cumin (and many more, but I really like to cook, lol). I'd take a look at some recipes that you'd like to make and figure out what you'd need for them. If you buy just one or two spices per week you'll have a full spice cabinet in no time.

How long does the prep take and do you cook most things on the weekends? I can make most meals in about 30 minutes on a daily basis, or I'll spend 5-10 minutes throwing food in the crockpot in the morning before we run out the door and then it's ready to eat in the evening. I will occasionally do a big weekend freezer prep night and get 30 meals prepped (veggies, spices, sauces, and meat in freezer bags, labeled with directions). You can cut daily cooking/prep time by cleaning and slicing veggies on the day you go shopping and then they're ready to toss in a pan when you're cooking or munch on when you need a snack.

How long to leftovers stay good? (Seriously I never have leftovers because I am the Queen of Single Servings) Different schools of thought on this. I usually use stuff within 5 days and never let it go past a week.

Do you have a budget? I try not to spend more than $25 per person per week. That means no more than $100/week for my house, though often we spend only $50/week.

Are there certain ranges of times you have to buy things? (Like milk 1x per week or a bag of chicken breasts 2x a month) I watch for good sales (chicken breasts for $1.88/lb, pork loin for $1.99/lb, beans for $0.50/can, butter for $2.00/lb) and stock up on enough for that sale cycle--most sales like that run on a 12-week cycle so I get enough for 3 months. With coupons, I wait until they match up with a store sale and then stock up (ro-tel tomatoes for free!).

Maybe we can turn this into a big sticky on meal prep.

Once a Month Mom is a good site to check out for shopping/freezing/cooking information. 5 Dollar Dinners is also really good. I know that you're not a mom, but the tips are great regardless--feeding more mouths on less income is a great motivator for inexpensive healthy cooking (we don't want to feed our kids junk, you know?).

bump

If you're not really familiar with spices, you might want to try out some of the different blends they have so you get that benefit without having to experiment yourself. Some of my can't-do-without spices are: Chile Powder, Cumin, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme and Cinnamon.

If I could only have one blend, I'd probably go with 'Herbes de Provence' which is a wonderful mixture including Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram and Savory. The exact blend will depend on where you get it, but I just sprinkle it on chicken and it is always wonderful.

E: I forgot garlic, but that's a nice one, too. I tend to use fresh instead of the powder but sometimes powdered works wonderfully.

I'm a totally planner and I realize it's not for all. I do a lot of freezer meals and meal prep.

Fair warning, this looks a little overwhelming, but with repitition it takes me a fraction of the sum total of time it takes me to "decide" what I want in the morning every morning. I work a lot and cook for 1, so I eat a lot of leftovers. I'm out of my door at 5 am to go to the gym, so I have breakfast, lunch and 2-3 snacks at work. I get home after 7:30 pm, so sometimes I bring dinner to work, other times I just come home and toss a salad or nuke something planned.

I plan out my week with 3 meals and snacks. I don't mind eating the same breakfast and snacks all week, but I love variety with other stuff. Today is egg salad sandwich for breakfast, salmon on a salad for lunch and shrimp fra diavlo for dinner. Snacks are yogurt and hummus with veggies. Tomorrow's lunch is a homemade frozen burrito (http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/4-weeks-to-fill-your-freezer-brown-bag-burritos-day-7.html) and small salad, dinner is a big salad with chicken and beans.

I shop for staples when I need them (baking powder, flour, chicken, etc), regular stuff weeklyish (milk, cheese, yogurt), and fresh veggies 2-3 times a week. I eat a big salad every day and I just can't store enough for it to not go bad if I don't do that. I have a lot of tupperware, but I freeze a lot of stuff in freezer bags. I use Ziplock bags, they freeze better than anything I know. I also have a food saver, but I find the Ziplocks work well too

I usually "cook and prep" one day off, usually for 2-3 hours. This is long, I realize that, but when you consider that my meals take 30 seconds to 30 minutes to finish before eating, it's well worth it for me.
I chop all my veggies for the week and store them in individual containers (peppers for salad in one, cucumbers for salad in another, peppers and carrots for hummus in individuals, etc) during that time. The Glad ones with the little dressing cup are perfect for hummus and veggies or small salads.
I make a casserole, crockpot of irish oatmeal or an egg dish that is for a individual breakfast sandwichs (I pack the components and reheat at work, keeping the arnold's flatbread separate so it doesn't get weird and soggy) and reheats easily for breakfast. I do 7 days easily without a problem, You can also reheat homemade breakfast sandwiches in an oven that turn out well from frozen, but get a little weird in the microwave.
I make a big pot of sauce/soup/stew/chili and portion out/freeze some meals. I vary whatever this is weekly and just plan on pulling something out from frozen if I'm short on time. I cool these and pack them in containers because they're easy to reheat in them.
I grill or cook several chicken breasts that day for salads. I also use tuna or salmon that is left over. I vary the other ingredients and the dressing and, voila, it's a totally different salad. Add black beans and corn with some ranch, it's taco salad, add cherries and Asian dressing, it's Asian salad.

I marinate for the grill and/or I do a "dump" chicken recipe, where you "dump" everything into a freezer bag, leave in the fridge or freeze and then cook in the crock pot or oven. It's super easy. If you're only going to be gone for 6 hours, you can put it in the crock pot that day from frozen. It goes very dry in the 12-15 hours I'm usually away. Or you can thaw and cook for 30 minutes when you get home. I recommend:

http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/showthread.php?t=177140

I can swear by the jelly one, the sticky chicken, the honey ginger (my fave), teriyaki chicken, cranberry chicken. I didn't like the wine or lemon chicken. Add a side of rice/pasta/cous cous and veg and pack one in a bento box for the next day or 2.

One night I make a pasta dish from frozen homemade sauce and one night I do a stir fry that I have prepped out, veggies chopped, chicken marinated, etc. I usually put the protein in a small ziplock, the veggies in a bigger ziplock and the sauce in a container next to it.

I have been making Mason Jar Salads and they are really fast to put together on Sunday nights and stay fresh all week. Search for it on Pinterest, that's where I found it!
I also do the freezer crockpot meals every other month or so. I like to keep at least a few in the freezer for quick meals during the week. The only down side is needing to defrost it the night before or day of, which I am horrible at remembering. Look for these on Pinterest too! I found a few blogs that did a months worth of meals at a time and just picked out a handful to prepare. I put together about 15 meals in under an hour a few weeks ago.
Planning ahead and is the best way I have found to watch my calories. Otherwise I wind up getting fast food or junk food for lunch and/or dinner instead of cooking at home.

You, friend, may have changed my life with this Mason Jar Salad thing. I'm totally trying this my next prep day!

I use the Fresh 20 to plan my meals, tell me what I am cooking eat night, and what to buy at the grocery store.. The concept is 20 ingredients for 5 meals without waste. I paid $24 for the year with a Groupon. I bring leftovers or salads typically for lunch.

I do try and freeze meals but find that you have to plan to take them out...