A Month of Meals for Under $150

As I mentioned in my last post, with my little girl's upcoming arrival right around the corner, I began searching for ways to make life easier once she gets here. Let's face it, I probably will be the equivalent of a zombie for awhile. That being said I likely won't be up to very much cooking.

So after getting together with my mother and two sisters, we prepared 33 meals that I could freeze for after my little one arrives. Most of these meals only require being tossed in the oven or the microwave for a short time, with little to no prep required. It's a new mom's dream! (Or a busy mom, or anyone who would prefer to have a decent meal after work with minimal effort, really!)

These are the meals we prepared for my zombie month:
        Chicken Quesadillas
        Chicken Tacos
        Chicken Casserole
        Chicken Dumplings
        Chicken and Ziti
        Sloppy Joes
        BBQ Pulled Pork
        Chili
        Potato Soup



For these meals, this was my master list of ingredients:
*Refrigerated items

Meat
6 lbs ground sausage*
6x 2.5lb bags of chicken breast*
6lbs ground beef*
4-5 lb pork tenderloin*

Vegetables
5lb bag of potatoes
small bag of carrots*
bag of onions
4x green bell peppers*
2x 15oz. cans of corn
celery*
4x 14.5 oz. cans of tomatoes

Grain
flour
1lb bag of rice
2x 8pc tortillas

Dairy
large tub of butter*
gallon of milk*
2x 7oz. bags of shredded cheddar*
sliced American or Velveeta cheese*
7oz. bag of shredded mozzarella*
7oz. bag of shredded Mexican cheese*

Misc.
8 C chicken broth
small bag of brown sugar
maple syrup (or maple flavored pancake syrup)
honey
chili powder
2x 10.5oz. cans of cream of chicken
4x 10.5oz. cans of cream of mushroom
4x 15.5oz. jars of salsa
2x 24oz. jars of spaghetti sauce
2x 20oz. bottle of ketchup
2x can tomato paste
2x bottles of BBQ sauce (any size, depending on how much you want on
        the pork)

When preparing many meals at once, it is important to get the things that will take the longest started first. For us, that was the pork tenderloin, followed by the massive amount of chicken that needed to be cooked.

I suggest popping that pork in the oven right away. (Pour water over the tenderloin until it generously covers the bottom of the dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees. Bake for one hour for the number of pounds you have. Example: A 4lb pork tenderloin should be baked for four hours.) Followed by getting two large pots of water to a boil before putting the chicken in.

The first three chicken recipes call for shredded chicken, so I took the amount of chicken needed for all of them (about 20 chicken breast) and boiled them together for a little over an hour. As long as everything is cooked through, you can begin shredding the chicken.

(If you don't have chicken broth already, the broth from boiling the chicken can be used instead of store bought broth.)

Now, most people think that shredding would take a ton of extra time. I know I did! So I went hunting for an easier and quicker way to get things done.

We ended up using a mixer to shred the chicken breast. NOTE: Only use this method if you are shredding boneless chicken. 

We put five or six pieces of chicken breast in the bowl at a time and mixed on the lowest setting. It took one to two minutes for the chicken to be shredded perfectly. Talk about a time saver!

While the chicken boiled we did all of our chopping and shredding needed for the vegetables. As soon as the potatoes were chopped up, we started boiling them as well.

Once all of the bulk items were prepared for our recipes, we each began to work on our own individual recipes.

Quick Tip: Scooping various foods into freezer bags can get very messy very fast. We put a bag inside our blender and that gave us a cleaner way to divide our food into the correct portions. Just don't forget to take the blade out first!

Note: When using shredded chicken from the bulk amount like we did, use 1 to 1 1/3 C to equal one chicken breast. We did the same for our chopped onions.

Chicken Quesadillas

Double this recipe to yield 12-16 quesadillas(3-4 meals).

3-4 pieces of chicken (shredded)
2/3 cup salsa
1/2 diced onion
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
8 tortillas
1/4 C melted butter
1 C Mexican cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Saute onion in a medium skillet until softened.
Add chicken to the onion.
Add salsa, oregano, and salt.
Cook 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat.

Butter one side of tortilla and flip over.
Fill with chicken and sprinkle with cheese.
Fold tortilla over and press down to seal.
Assemble quesadillas on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

Freeze quesadillas, then wrap with saran wrap or aluminum foil.
Place in freezer bags. (Four to a bag worked best for us.)

Instructions for Bag: Unwrap individual frozen quesadilla and microwave 2-3
        minutes until heated.

Chicken Tacos

Triple this recipe to yield 4 meals.

1 15.5oz. jar salsa
1 onion, chopped
3 chicken breast, shredded

Combine all ingredients.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Place in crock pot and cook
        on low for 4 hours. Serve with tortillas or hard taco shells.

Chicken Casserole

Double this recipe to yield 4 meals.

3 chicken breast, shredded
2 10.5oz. cans cream of mushroom
1 C chopped celery
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup uncooked rice
2 C chicken broth
Cheddar cheese
Corn flakes
Melted butter

Combine first seven ingredients.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Place in large baking dish and
        top with corn flakes. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake for one hour at 350
       degrees.

Chicken Dumplings

Double this recipe to yield 2 meals.

1 1/2 C milk
1 15oz. can corn
2 chicken breast, cubed
1 10.5oz. can cream of chicken
2 1/4 C Bisquick mix
2/3 C milk (for dumplings)

Cook chicken in medium skillet.
Combine milk, corn, chicken, and cream of chicken.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Bring to a boil in a large pan.
       While waiting for mixture to boil, combine milk and Bisquick mix. Drop by
        spoonfuls onto boiling mixture. Reduce heat. Cook uncovered for 10
        minutes. Cover. Cook 10 minutes more.

Chicken and Ziti

Double this recipe to yield 2 meals.

1 24oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 box ziti noodles
2 chicken breast, cubed
1 C mozzarella cheese

Cook chicken in medium skillet.
Combine spaghetti sauce, chicken, and 1/2 cup cheese.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Cook ziti noodles and
        combine with mixture. Top with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Bake
        for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Sloppy Joes

Quadruple this recipe to yield 4 meals.

2 lb ground beef
1-1 1/2 C ketchup
Brown sugar (to taste)
1/2 onion, chopped

Brown meat with onions.
Add ketchup and brown sugar to taste.
Cook 1-2 minutes.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight.  Microwave 2-3 minutes until
        heated.

BBQ Pulled Pork

4-5lb pork tenderloin
2 bottles BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place tenderloin in large baking dish.
Pour water over tenderloin until the bottom of the dish is generously
        covered.
Cover with aluminum foil.
Bake for 4-5 hours. (One hour for each pound.)
Check hourly to make sure it does not dry out. Add water if needed.
Once cooked through, remove from oven and let cool.

Shred with two forks.
Mix with BBQ sauce. (I used half of the pork with one flavor of BBQ and the
        other half with a different flavor. Add or reduce amount of BBQ sauce used
        according to personal preference.)
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw overnight. May be served hot or cold.

Chili

Double this recipe to yield 4 meals.

3 lb ground sausage
2 green peppers
1 onion
2 14.5oz. cans diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 can tomato paste
1/2 C brown sugar
maple syrup
honey
chili powder
salt & pepper

Combine green peppers, onion, tomatoes, tomato paste (fill this can with
        water twice and add to mixture), and brown sugar in large pot.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
While the mixture is cooking, begin browning sausage.
When sausage is half cooked, cover with light layer of maple syrup.
Add sausage to boiling mixture when fully cooked.
Add honey and maple syrup to taste.
Add spices to taste.
Cook until vegetables soften.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Microwave individual bowl 2-3
        minutes until heated or bring to boil over stove.

Potato Soup

Double this recipe to yield 4 meals. 
(When we doubled the recipe, we simply used the entire 5lb bag instead of measuring out all of the potatoes.)

6 C potatoes, diced
2 C carrots
1/2 onion, chopped
2 C chicken broth

1/4 C butter
1/4 C flour
salt to taste
1/8 tsp pepper
2 C milk
1 C cheese (1/2 cheddar, 1/2 American)

Cook potatoes, carrots, and onion in chicken broth until tender.
Use potato masher to break up vegetables.
In medium saucepan slowly heat butter until melted and golden, not brown.
        (Stir entire time!)
Remove from heat.
Add flour, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth.
Add milk, a small amount at a time, stirring after each addition.
Bring to boil, stirring constantly.
Simmer one minute.
Stir in cheese, then add to vegetables.
Add milk until desired consistency.
Divide into freezer bags.

Instructions for Bag: Thaw mixture overnight. Bring to boil on stove, stirring
        constantly.

I also had some extra shredded chicken and cubed chicken left over, so I bagged them up and plan on using that for sandwiches and other yummy lunch things on the fly. That should at least take care of two meals, if not more.

Whew! Talk about a LOT of cooking! The good news is that now I don't have to do it while there is a crying baby and all I want is just five minutes of sleep!

Here's a picture of the end result of all the hard work we put into this (not all crammed into my freezer, this time):

So there you have it! That's an entire month's worth of meals for under $150. Enjoy your easy month of kicking your feet up instead of spending hours chopping and slaving over the hot stove, but eating like you had!