Since I am getting real this month about things that need to be finished around here that aren’t (due to my lack), let’s talk food. I have been a true, and I mean true, failure in menu planning lately! I used to LOVE menu planning. I would do it by the month. I rarely cooked the same meal twice. I had it together.
And now…
I am doing good to have a menu plan at the beginning of the week, but following it is another thing. I rarely make it to the grocery store in a timely manner (a key of menu following). I often find myself at the end of the day struggling to figure out what we are going to eat. AHH!
So I turned to Pinterest for help. I found this pin for preparing 20 meals for $150 by shopping at Costco.
This intrigued me as this is right at half of our monthly budget for groceries but promises to feed our family for at three-fourths of the month (if not more).
I talked with my husband about it a couple weeks ago and said, “I think I want to try it on the first of the month.” He was up for trying it and so we loaded up the kids and went to Costco to do the big shop!
We were not able to get all the items on the list and we already had some in our stores at home, so we spent $111.00 (again still have to get a few things). But then we got it all home and I kind of freaked out! What am I going to do with all this FOOD – and it is a greater responsibility now that I have just spent half our grocery budget on it!
Then I remembered Money Saving Mom’s one hour freezer cooking posts and I decided to modify it a little bit to work for our home. I had babies who would not cooperate (no naps for either of them), so I wasn’t able to time myself acurately. But in approximately one hour I was able to get all this ready for the freezer and prep dinner for this evening:
- Taco Meat (one for tonight, two for the freezer)
- Meatballs (for the freezer)
- Mini Meatballs (for the freezer) – this is not on the menu plan, but I am going to make Slow Cooker Italian Wedding Soup with it.
- One pound of ground meat for spaghetti sauce (for the freezer)
That is SIX meals using just part of my Costco haul! I think at this rate I will be able to stretch what we got into more than 20 meals. Speaking of stretching, I am currently eying the massive bag of potatoes and huge bag of baby carrots and thinking there is no way all those are going to be used in making these 20 meals. So, I am plotting and planning how to use them. I think carrot cake, carrot zucchini muffins and gnocchi are in our future!
If freezer cooking is your thing and you want proof that I at some point had it all together, please check out last year’s series: September Stockpile. I was getting ready for the arrival of our youngest and felt the need to fill the freezer. Now that she is here and embarking on new food adventures, I have got to get it together again! This will be a great start!
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That is awesome. I’m going to show Gil since he does the cooking, but I am afraid we do not have adequate freezer space…not sure. It would be a great idea to find another family to do this with to give even more options or to share things like the rice vs. Quinoia (each family would buy one then split in half and trade). It could keep it a little less repetitive. Thanks for the share. I can so see you coming up with ways to switch it up month to month. Baby steps. I will be patient, just save me some carrot-zucchini bread.
Yes, Stacie it is right up your alley. But I broke it down into smaller cooking chunks (as you can see I just did the ground meat today). I am hoping to get to more of this throughout the weekend.
you can freeze the extra baby carrots just as they are, and put them around a roast or in soup later.