Thought Provoking Thursday
Thought Provoking Thursday
Thought Provoking Thursday's goal it to offer a new-ish perspective to saving on necessary items aside from our grocery and household needs. Each week I will bring an idea to the table to share how I personally tackle areas of my own family's spending. I am hopeful that my faithful readers will feel the freedom to offer more advice through comments below each post.
Go from THIS...
to THIS... in about an hour!Have you ever thought to prepare for more than one dinner at a time?
I hate to realize that it 4pm and that I have yet to decide what is for dinner! Yes, I stockpile- so I have all of our usual ingredients on hand (so no last minute grocery shopping is necessary), but some days just slip away- and ordering a pizza doesn't always seem like the healthiest or most economical choice.
So I have decided that when I make ONE pan of lasagna I might as well make at least THREE (my record is eight at one time- but that was for a party- and I do not recommend it!!!).
It really isn't much more expensive to make multiple meals in terms of time, labor and cost.
My family loves lasagna, especially now that it has been made with my homemade tomato sauce! Our first pan of lasagna we will eat for dinner that night and then we will enjoy the leftovers for lunches and another dinner later in the week. The second pan of lasagna will be divided into personal portions and I freeze them individually (either in a sandwich size Ziploc or wrapped individually in waxed paper and then together in a large Ziploc). The third (and fourth, in this case) pan of lasagna is then gifted to another family- sometimes for the arrival of a new baby, or because of an illness- or my favorite reason... just because!!!
Our individually frozen slices of Lasagna are perfect for last minute meals- especially since going through the drive through can also be tempting! If I am teaching an evening class- I can have a healthy family favorite meal ready for my boys in minutes just by adding garlic bread and a salad!
We also freeze extra soup for a later date, as well as prepped fruits and vegetables (sliced and diced) when they are in season and less expensive, and shredded chicken when we have leftovers. Planning for extra NOW saves time and energy LATER!
Do YOU plan ahead and freeze?
7 comments:
Can you share your lasagna recipe?
Yes! Often times, once I purchase the ingredients for one meal, I have enough for multiples anyway. We've done soups, baked spaghetti, chicken caccitore, enchiladas, lasagna and sometimes even cookie dough. (; It really does save us money to pull a meal out of the freezer here and there because we don't have as many unexpected meals ordered in!
I prep sloppy joe meat, taco meat and freeze in ziploc bags. I freeze 2 #'s per bag that's a meal and lucnh the next day for us. i also make multiple loaves of banana or pumpkin and freeze in ziploc for treats for breakfast on the run. I pop it into the toaster to dethaw.
Jessica
My MOPS class just talked about this, "once a month cooking". I don't have a large freezer (yet) so I usually just cook a few extra pieces of chicken to use when I make quesadillas or fettuccini. It saves so much time and my husband is so happy when chicken nachos are just minutes away :)
I'm doing this more and more. I also like to fry up multiple lbs. of hamburger when I do one and then I freeze the rest. It is handy to be able to pull out hamburger already browned on a night when I need a quick meal.
I also make extra cookies, cake, muffins etc. and freeze them too. They are especially great to have on hand when people drop by.
What a great idea for freezing individual servings of lasagna! So, do you bake the large pan, then freeze individual servings that are already baked??
I do prebake my lasagna! Its awesome!
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