It's been a while since I posted. March was a busy month, plus I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to write about. But now that I have had some extra time to experiment in the kitchen this past weekend, I have something to talk about!
Recently, I have been very interested in batch cooking and freezer meals. As much as I love cooking, it can be a hassle to cook a wholesome meal every night when you're working and have lots of other things to check off on your To Do List. Also, with me wanting to return to grad school in the near future and with us wanting to have children one day, having the ability to make 10+ meals in several hours instead of spending at least an hour each day cooking one meal is SO crucial for the sake of both time management and mental sanity!
Pinterest is always my go-to for recipes. I like to think of myself as a Pinterest-user rather than just a Pinterest-viewer, as I am quite particular about only pinning recipes that I would actually make. While browsing on Pinterest, I came across the "I am THAT Lady" website/blog. I love her! She puts together recipe plans using groceries bought from Aldi. She has a meal plan for dinners each night for a month, a slow cooker plan, a gluten-free plan, and 2 freezer meal plans! Please be sure to head over and check out the blog: http://www.iamthatlady.com/
Let me just pause for a hot minute and tell you how much I LOVE Aldi. We have one very close to our apartment and I am so grateful for it. We have saved so much money by shopping there for our staple groceries. Now I'll be honest: I wasn't sure about shopping there at first, especially since Aldi has its own brands that I did not recognize. But after taking the advice of some friends and trying out different things, I am overall very impressed! I am not a fan of their spices and some other random items, but that's just my preference.
But back to cooking. With this 3 day weekend, I decided to try out one of the freezer meal plans. The only problem with freezer meal plans is that I have a VERY small freezer. That is the only reason I haven't done any freezer meals yet. Because of this, I altered the meal plan I used to make less meals. In this particular meal plan, several of the meals are supposed to be doubled, but I just made a single recipe of those. And some of the recipes were already doubled, so I made them as is. I went to Aldi and spent just under $90 on the ingredients I needed. (I already had some of the ingredients on hand)
Now, the meal plan I used had a big focus on prepping, so I pulled out my bowls of different shapes and sizes and used them like a crazy person. ;)
Altogether, it took me just under five hours to get everything finished, which included a good bit of the cleanup. The freezer bags and pans were not included in the price. I got the freezer bags at Harris Teeter (their brand worked great) and the aluminum pans and lids I found at Sam's Club (a friend from church let me "borrow" her membership to buy them :)). I made a grand total of 12 meals! Two meals were doubled, but the rest were single, and most of them will last past just one meal.
The meals were as follows:
Mac and Cheese (2 pans)
Baked Ravioli (1 pan)
Chicken Enchiladas (1 pan)
Teriyaki Chicken (1 pan)
Salsa Chicken (1 bag)
Chicken Cacciatore (1 bag)
Chicken Souvlaki (1 bag)
Pulled Pork (1 bag)
Peanut Thai Pork (1 bag)
Alfredo Sauce (2 bags)
I'm eager to try all of them. We have had the Chicken Souvlaki, Salsa Chicken, and the Mac and Cheese and they are excellent. I'm a bit wary of the Peanut Thai Pork, but we will see! If you are following the meal plan from the blog, you will notice that I left out the Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs. That is because I have made it before and wasn't thrilled with it. I am spoiled by my father's recipe for spaghetti sauce :) I would drink that stuff straight. It is phenomenal.
Now, onto storing these freezer meals. I was able to store most of them in my freezer, but I kept one pan of Mac and Cheese and one bag of Alfredo Sauce in my fridge because I plan on making them in the next day or so.
The lid of the bottom pan was bowing a bit with the weight, but it was holding. :)
I'll keep an update about how the food turned out. Until then, happy Easter!
HE IS RISEN!
~CA
