My freezer is full, my Kitchen is clean, and I am satisfied...

We filled our freezer once again this weekend with meals, sides, and odds and ends. If you recall, we did this a few months back....and let me tell you, we were quite delighted with the results then. We've made mental notes about our last freezer cooking session..what worked, what didn't, meals that didn't turn out quite right (fries and breakfast sandwiches), meals we wanted to try this time (pancakes, BBQ Beef, Pizza Pockets) and I made a plan.

Throughout the month I've been mindful of what we have on hand and stocked up on staple items needed to cook with. And while we will end up about $100 over our typical grocery budget of $180 a month ($45/week), I'm still satisfied. The extra $100 came as a result of having no meat in our freezers. So, armed with several packages of chicken, a roast, hamburger meat, a turkey, and a ham...we went a bit over :) Granted, the turkey was free with the purchase of a Ham...but I digress.

So what's filling our freezers right now?

Dinners:
Chicken & Bacon Sub Sandwiches (ready to be grilled) x 3 meals worth
Taco Kits (Shells in the pantry, cooked meat/cheese in freezer) x 3 meals worth
Lasagna x1
Enchiladas (sauce in pantry, meal in freezer) x2
Shredded BBQ Beef (meat and buns in freezer, sides in pantry) x1 (Should have been x2, but we had this for dinner one night while cooking :)
Bacon-Cheeseburger Roll-up kit (Cooked bacon/meat/cheese in freezer, pizza crust in fridge) x1
Pizza Pockets x 3 meals worth
Bean and Chicken burritos x 6 meals worth

Breakfasts:
Pumpkin Pancakes x33
Blueberry Pancakes x13
Pop-Tarts x 8

Odds and Ends:
Cooked and Shredded Chicken for Lucy x 8 bags
Hashbrowns x 13 bags
Smoothies x7


That gives us 20 full meal options (granted, some of the pizza pockets and burritos will go with Jonathan to work, but still), plenty of quick breakfast items for Lucy, and Smoothies for me in the afternoon :)

Now I'll be the first to admit that we eat very simply around here...or are right now. I could prepare more elaborate dinner items--and likely will in the future, but life demands simplicity in regards to everything right now...so if taco kits help simplify life a little more, count me in.

We also have the makings of 6 additional dinners in our pantry/fridge...So we'll be eating well for a good month or more (with left-overs in between)

The process seemed so stress-free this time..and dare I say, easy? Even with a sick baby who wasn't sleeping, a potential concussion from a head bang I endured while grocery shopping, and my husband I both having work responsibilities...the whole process was very smooth!

Three things I liked best this time:
1.) Jonathan cooked up all the meat and seasoned appropriately at the very start which helped me put together meals much more quickly than cooking meat as we needed it.
2.) We took our time...in fact I just made and put the lasagna in the freezer yesterday
3.) We tried some new things! The pizza pockets were awesome...as were the pancakes! I'm excited to keep trying new things each time so we have a great list of things to cook before the baby arrives!