I'm addicted...

A few weeks ago, my friend Kim and I started talking about having a ‘fix-n-freeze.’ For those of you who have never heard of this, you basically spend an entire day cooking and preparing meals to keep in the freezer. For her, it was preparation for her 3^rd child, which is due next month. For me, it was more of a way to be prepared at the last minute when the kids were screaming, “We’re hungry” and there wasn’t anything in the pantry to eat! It was also a great way to help me stick to my grocery budget.

Well, the night before our big cooking day rolled around, Adri spiked a a 101 fever and Kim’s kids were still recovering from pink eye. We postponed our ‘date.’ Kim still continued with her plan and fixed 10 dinners to keep in her freezer for those soon to be chaotic nights of juggling 3 kids and her wonderful husband, Jason! I, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine spending an entire day, cooking, with Adrianna on my hip. This is where she prefers to be when she’s under the weather. So, I decided to do just a few dinners at a time.

I’m so grateful to Kim. She inspires me…OFTEN!!! Not just when it comes to planning and cooking healthy meals for my family (She’s one of the Supermom’s in my life that I look up to).

For those of you who read my blog, you probably remember me mentioning before that I have a grocery budget and I take a lot of pride in sticking to it. You probably also remember me mentioning (or you already know) that I have a slight case of OCD. Therefore, when I have a challenge placed in front of me, it’s not good enough to just meet that challenge…I MUST CONQUOR AND REACH FAR BEYOND THAT CHALLENGE!

You may also know that my oldest son, Nate, may be the world’s pickiest eater. He eats meat, any form of noodle and anything found in the chip isle. Getting him to eat a fruit or veggie is a battle that, honestly, I sometimes chose not to fight. For that reason, I can get a bit sneaky while preparing the food I make for him. Since we all eat the same things, it’s not bad for us to get that extra good stuff, either! Who can’t use more veggies in their diet, right?

So, after looking over the dinners that Kim suggested we use for our ‘fix-n-freeze’ I decided to add some of the sneaky ingredients to the recipes and see just how close to the grocery budget (hopefully I’d be way under) I could get.

Last night I prepared pizza pockets and salad. Of course, Gabe was the only one that ate the salad, but they all got veggies. I had enough ingredients to make 8 pizza pockets (1 for Matt, Nate, Gabe and myself and Adri had a half) and we had 3 ½ leftover for lunch today. My total cost was about $7.00 (I don’t have my receipt anymore so this is just an approximate guess)! I used whole wheat flour for the pizza pockets and used Meijer natural spaghetti sauce. I also added 2 fresh tomatoes to the sauce and about a cup of shredded zucchini (that had been frozen from last summer) and some baby carrots (I zapped them for a few seconds in the food processor so that no one would notice them), that were leftover from dinner last weekend. The goal will be to freeze these in the future and pull them out when I need a quick lunch or dinner for the kids (and Matt).

Pizza Pockets Crust

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour


1 t. sea salt


1 cup melted butter


1 cup plain yogurt

You can fill the pockets with whatever you want! The pizza crust recipe came from www.moneysavingmom.com.

For dinner tonight I made burritos and rice with corn and salsa. The total ingredients for this dinner were about $12. Again, I didn’t keep my receipt, so this is just a rough guess, but I think it’s pretty accurate.

Burritos

2 lb. lean g. beef

½ c. finely chopped onion

2 small tomatoes - diced

2 tbsp. taco seasoning (homemade—2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. sugar, ½ tsp. salt)

1 can pinto beans (zapped in the food processor so no one would see them)

1 c. shredded cheese

16 whole wheat tortillas (2 packages)

This recipe came from www.moneysavingmom.com, as well, but I used tomato instead of salsa (because I wanted it for the rice and only had 1 jar) and also added some pureed carrots (again…leftover).

For the rice, I used about 2 cups of whole wheat rice, a small can of corn and a small jar of salsa. I added a bit of the taco seasoning, too.

This was enough for our family of 5 and also, my niece and nephew. Everyone gobbled it up! We had 6 leftover, which I put in a container and dropped in the freezer for another night.

My last trip to the grocery store was about $120 for 10 dinners and what we needed for lunch and breakfast for about a week. I will keep the receipt from my next trip and share with you more specific dollar amount, if you’re interested.

Have a great Thursday! I'm already thinking about what to make for dinner tomorrow!