Eating from the freezer

I really enjoyed not having to worry about meals last week. By doing freezer cooking, we had lots of options. So here's what I did.

Monday : Falafel in pita pockets

Tuesday : I cooked refried beans in instant pot & took fajita chicken from freezer and made nachos. I also made guacamole & we still had pico de gallo.

Wednesday : BWW chicken tenders (freezer), potato salad, carrot/pineapple salad, baked beans salad

Thursday : Chicken patties (freezer). Made chicken burgers with some of that fresh produce I bought and added the leftover salad from night before

Friday : Carry out

Saturday : Carry out. Pre-covid we used to dine out on Saturdays & Sundays. Now we just get our food to go on Saturdays

Sunday : Dinner out

I have no problem making salads or whatever sides, because it's so quick & easy. I love not having to cook a full meal every day. I used to do lots of freezer cooking (to free up time for me to work) before covid hit. Then I slacked, but I'm back in the saddle.

Yesterday I was back in the kitchen again. I decided to replace the pancakes with muffins, because it's so easy to grab & go.  I made a dozen jumbo blueberry/lemon muffins. I love blueberries & I always crush my blueberries when baking, so we can have it in every bite. I love the jumbo ones, because I have this strange love (I'm not callling it an obsession...lol) for eating the bottom half. I can't even explain it. I cut the muffin in half, then leave the tops for the guys to eat. I don't know why I'm so crazy about the bottoms. I spread some butter on it and nuke it. So yummy. I bought these muffin pans years ago to make a traditional South African cookie, but the pans were too big. No problemo. Let's just make extra large muffins. 

I also made 2 spinach & artichoke quiche (added bacon for extra flavor) and 2 veggie pizzas. It's not the prettiest pizza, but it tastes so good. I made some broccoli, carrots & peas to go with the quiche. There's salad to go with pizza. I've been craving pizza for a while now and Sams cafe no longer sells whole pizzas. Costco only has cheese and pepperoni pizza, which I'm not a fan of. I like making my own pizza, because I can add whatever toppings we like. 

We still have frozen breakfast burritos and sausage. There's always eggs and cereal too. Bought another raisin bread, so we're good on the  breakfast front.

There's ravioli and meat sauce in the freezer (not together, so we can also have ravioli with pesto if we don't want meat sauce). We also still have fajita chicken, BWW tenders and chicken patties in case we get tired of all the vegetarian meals. 

For dessert tonight we're having fruit smoothies. I've been craving chocolate cake (my favorite), so I might make some chocolate cupcakes in the near future.

As you can see, we eat pretty well. For years I've heard people state that coupons are just for junk food. This is so NOT true. I'm a big couponer and I can assure you that junk is rarely a part of our diet. We eat very little processed food  and I mainly cook & always bake from scratch (I grew eating scratch made food). I do buy my pie crusts, because it's only $1.50 for 2 perfectly rolled shell. I can make pie crusts, but this is a time & money saver. I do make my own pizza crust though. 

The pandemic has forced us to buy more canned veggies, due to lockdown. However, we eat fresh whenever it's available and buy organic or non GMO meat. I think our budget is really low ($300 per month for a family of 3. This includes food, HBA & cleaning materials. That's $100 per person per month or $3.33 per person per day

) considering the way we eat. It's all about putting in the time & energy to search for & shop the best deals.

I'd really like a roast beef soon. We haven't had any in a long time. Every time I want Italian Sausage, I only find brats whenever I'm at the store. DH made a vegan dish with fennel not too long ago and all I could think of was Italian Sausage (no I didn't eat the vegan dish. This girls needs her meat & dairy, but the fennel smell was so good). I'm gonna buy a few packages when I eventually find it.

Bon Appetit everyone!