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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Freezer Meals

My new goal to help with saving money is to try freezer cooking. Next week my plan is to make a double batch of lasagna and freeze it into four meals. We only eat half a batch of lasagna at a time and while I love the stuff it is a pain, messy and time consuming to make. I figure this way I will spend one afternoon making it and have dinner for four nights.
My reason for starting freezer cooking is twofold. One is that my partime job has recently started and one night I get home at dinnertime, as does husband. In the two weeks that I have worked husband has not managed to make dinner once (which was the original agreement). To top it off big rugrat has tumbling class on Monday nights that make an early dinner a requirement. The solution? A freezer meal!
The other reason for freezer cooking is that sometimes I am just plain lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. At time it is because I am tired and don't want to cook, other times it is taht I have no appetite and therefore cannot pick anything to cook (even when I meal plan). There are two results when it comes to my lazy days. One is that we have something completely unhealthy because it is quick and easy. The other is that I suggest we eat at McD's or some other restaurant which leads to spending money when we don't need to.
The solution? Freezer meals. I found some excellent information at Mom's Budget (http://www.momsbudget.com/freezercooking/index.html) They have great information and great recipes. The plan is to try lasagna this week and do some more reading looking for recipes and to reorganzie my freezers (one attached to the fridge and then the freezer we bought for the garage) to make room for some meals. Then I will hopefully be ready to spend an afternoon cooking a couple of dinners and freezing them to try over the next couple of months.
How will this help my budget? Aside from saving money when we eat out, I can shop sales and buy extra to make freezer meals some weeks. Then when I want a meal made from ingredients NOT on sale I do not need to spend extra, I can just take the meal from the freezer.

This is my GOAL.

Hopefully it will be my result as well =)

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