As a business owner and mom of two small children, I’m always looking for ways to save time and money on our meals. I try to avoid processed and fast foods as much as I can and make our meals from fresh whole foods. Bulk and freezer cooking is a huge time saver but also saves a lot of money and we always have healthy meals on hand without having to worry about what’s for dinner.
The last time I bulk cooked, I spent about $170 on ingredients. I spent about five hours preparing the food. I ended up with about 50 meals. Some were single serving; some were full sized family meals. Either way it was a freezer full of food that equaled out to about $3.40 per (adult sized) serving. There are a ton of online resources for make ahead meals.
I have made the following recently and all were a big hit….
1. Make ahead crockpot meals: This blog post is awesome because she not only has the recipes and instructions but also includes a grocery list in case you decide to cook all five meals that she features. I only cooked the following two but they were both very good and simple to make. The price per meal came out to be about $4 per meal and could feed a family of four easily. I also double each recipe so that I had two of each. If I am going to go through the process of buying and preparing it all I want to have more than one meal. That’s the great thing about bulk freezer cooking. Do it once, enjoy it several times.
2. Lazy Day Stew: I also made this one and my kids both loved it. I didn’t prepare and freeze it as a crockpot meal but instead doubled the recipe and cooked it in a large stockpot. Once it was ready I proportioned it into meal sized plastic zip lock containers and froze the containers. Now when we want one I just pull it out in the morning and leave it in the sink to thaw throughout the day.
3. Southwest Eggrolls: I’ve also made these burritos several times. They are called eggrolls in the recipe but they are definitely burritos. They are a little time consuming but so worth it. The recipe yields a lot of meals. I freeze them two per freezer bag and then either thaw at room temperature if I think about it in advance or put them in the microwave for a minute or so. After thawing I brown them in my Pam sprayed iron skillet. They are awesome!
4. Breakfast Burritos: This week I’m going to make these breakfast burritos. I love the idea of getting some veggies in my breakfast! I will probably add ground turkey sausage to them as well.
What are your favorite online foodie blogs/recipe sites? Do you cook in bulk?
