Frozen skillet meals

Do you ever buy those bagged frozen skillet meals?  Or the bagged frozen crock pot meals?  I can't think of a brand name right this minute.  It's those frozen meals that say brown an amount of meat, add the package of veggies and the sauce, then cook until done.  Do you have any idea how much you are paying for a personal chef to choose the veggies for you, cut them up for you, and freeze them for you? 

Personally, I don't have a personal chef's salary in my budget so why would I want to pay for a personal chef through my grocery shopping?  Gee whiz, buying frozen skillet or crock pot meals is almost as bad as paying extra for frozen veggies with "butter" sauce.  I think I'm perfectly capable of adding a pat of butter to my veggies without the extra cost. 

I don't know about you but I like to choose my own veggies.  The frozen meals often contain way too many cheap "filler" veggies which could be something no one in the family really likes all that well.  You might find many of those filler veggies remaining on the plate after the meal is finished.  So let me ask you?  At what cost are you paying for those frozen meals?  Not the price.... the cost of paying for the convenience of a personal chef?   Wouldn't you rather spend the extra money on something fun to do instead of extra cost on groceries?

Ok, so go sharpen your veggie knife and let me show you how I make my own frozen skillet and crock pot meals.  This is just one example of my frozen meals to show you how easy it is to do your own.  I found these in the discount bin while shopping Thursday.  I like a stir fry made with smoked sausages.  It was just a stroke of luck that these are made from chicken which is better for my diet.

The first thing to do is decide whether the meal will be fried, baked, or put into a crock pot.  I could put all of the meals into plastic bags but I'm going one step farther for these.  I'm packaging these in foil just in case I want to put them in the oven.  It will depend on the amount of time I have when I decide to cook these.  

I cut the sausages into bite size pieces and divide them into portions for two meals.  Five packs of sausages make ten meals for two.  This would be for Ladybug and me or two meals for me.  The largest area I have for laying out foil is my intake table. 

I like onions in my stir fry so I cut up a bunch of those.  Might as well chop them all.  What's left can be frozen to use later in other meals.  Actually, I cut up the onions before I started preparing the meals.  Once I started putting these meals together I didn't want to stop until finished. 

Green peppers (or color peppers) just naturally go with onions in this house.  I happen to have a bunch of them already in the freezer.   I got these peppers from the discount bin back in March.  They are copped and ready to add to the meals.

I like mushrooms as well in my stir fry.  I look in the freezer but there isn't any frozen so I use canned.  Everything is divided in portions and put onto the foil.

I add a bit of soy sauce, a bit of stir fry sauce, a bit of cornstarch, and these are ready to go into the freezer.  Hmm.... I could have added some scrambled eggs or some other veggies.  I think these will be ok as it.  The only thing I'm going to add is some rice.  I look in the freezer and find the packages of rice already cooked and frozen in portions for two.  Ten packages happen to be what I had in the freezer.  Lucky again.

I roll up the foil, stick a label on it, (made from scotch tape), and put into numbered freezer bags.  Two packaged meals plus two packs of rice fit into one bag.  If I make frozen meals that someone else might be cooking, I'd put the cooking instructions inside the numbered bag.  I mean, say for example, a lady prepares these for a husband to fix while she's away at a quilting retreat or something.   Husbands (and others) don't always know what to do with something taken from the freezer so it's best to give them detailed instructions. 

The meals are all finished.  Five numbered bags which represent either ten meals for Ladybug and me or twenty meals for just me. 

Now was it that hard to put together some frozen prepared meals?    Think about this the next time you are tempted to pick up a frozen meal in a bag.  Do you want fillers or do you want only what will be eaten?  If you want to read more about my thoughts on paying for a personal chef at the grocery go read this post here. 

Hmm.... I'm sure the new readers of my blog are wondering about the numbered freezer bags.  You can read more about those in this post here.  I should have another post about how the freezer looked when full but I can't find that post.  Since the time I wrote that post, I've made a few changes to how I organize my freezer.  I'll do an updated post either today or Monday showing more details.  I think the freezer is much better organized than it was back then.

Ok, back on subject, let's say on the day I choose one of these meals for dinner, I decide not to bake it but want to put it into a crock pot.  I remove it from the foil, put into the crock pot, add a can of tomatoes and that's it.  The rice can be either added to the crock pot during the last few minutes of cooking or zapped in the microwave.  If I decide to actually fry the stir fry meal I unwrap and put into a skillet.  Get the idea?  One preparation, several options. 

Plastic bag drying line

There was a time when backyard clothes lines would be seen with bread bags hanging and drying.  You know, back in the days when clothes lines were in every one's back yard.  Not many things came in plastic bags back then but bread did if you bought it.

Well yesterday as I was flash freezing meat I ran out of freezer bags.  Normally I just put the store package inside a freezer inventory bag but this meat came in large family size packages.  I had to make smaller one person sizes before freezing it.

It was only a couple of years ago I had sworn I wouldn't wash and reuse freezer bags.  I've since come to my senses and realized I need to reduce my carbon footprints.  I started washing and reusing my freezer bags a few months ago. 

The last few days I've been drying frozen vegetables and keeping the bags.  I thought, well hmm, the bags are made for the freezer so why not reuse them to package the meat?  I do double bag so these should be fine.  First I should wash them, but where can I dry them?  I have an idea for making a drying rack.  Nope, can't do that, I don't have the time right now because I have a fair entry quilt to finish.

So, I made myself a temporary plastic bag drying line.  I put two small nails just inside my cabinets.  One on either side of my sink.  Then found a piece of elastic to use as the line.  I thought about using bungee cords but mine were too short.  I needed something that could be stretched fairly tight but is temporary.  I want it out of the way when I'm through with it.

Here the bags are all washed and hanging from their very own drying line. 

 

The bags are now washed, dried, and used as the inside wrapping.  I used twist ties to close each bag.

Now it's double bagged and ready to list on my freezer inventory then return to the freezer.

Oops!  I just realized I didn't write down how many pounds I have so I can list it on the inventory sheet.  The original package is gone so I can't look at it.  Garbage was picked up already.  Hmm.... I think I should write "food scale" on my list of items to look for at the thrift store.  I've been wanting one for awhile. 

So how about you?  Are you doing your part to reduce your carbon footprints?  It could save you money.

Portion sizes for one

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One of the problems I have when cooking (or purchasing) foods for one is the size of the packages. For example a package of hot dogs or bologna. These are made in packages suitable for a family. A family might eat a whole package at one meal... depending on the family size. As a single person, I either have to eat it for several days in a row (so I don't waste anything); or, repackage and freeze it so that I can use only what I need for a meal. I flash freeze hot dogs and bologna and repackage them.

When it's repackaged, I can take out only one piece at a time for my meal. I don't get a taste for bologna or hot dogs often. Every now and then I like a nice simple fried bologna, cheese, and tomato on toast sandwich. Or sometimes a chili dog. Or chop it up to use in an omelet. I do date the package so I know to use it before it's been in the freezer too long. I repackage other lunch meats, bread, bacon, sausage, cheese, and other things too.

When I buy eggs they will sometimes get past the expiration date before I know it. Eggs are good for a few days past the date which gives me time to do something with them. When this happens I find creative ways to keep the eggs longer. One way is to boil them which makes the eggs last longer. I can make egg salad or put sliced egg into a lettuce salad. Another thing I like to do is to buy a package of English muffins.

Then make my own egg McMuffins (with or without meat) to put into the freezer.

I also use commodity foods a lot. Getting commodities each month really stretches my food budget. One of the best things they started doing was give out vouchers to get fresh foods from the farmer's market. Fresh produce in this area is extremely difficult to get. The weekly farmer's markets are a blessing to us.

I chose to spend my vouchers all at once to get greens. Greens at the store have gotten extremely pricey. I got 20 dollars in vouchers so I bought 20 bunches of greens. All of these have been put into the freezer in individual portion size. I sure wish they gave more than 20 dollars a year.

If you think about it, there are a lot of ways to repackage foods into individual size. Open a can of peas or corn, divide into portion sizes, cook enough for one meal, and freeze the rest. Yes, you can freeze left over canned foods. When you cook a large amount, freeze it in individual portions to eat later. For example, it's hard to cook a pot of vegetable soup or chili in a size for one. Cook it as usual and freeze the leftovers.

Super easy chicken dinner

You ever think about what might be a very easy and quick dinner? Well I did.

This is what I came up with. Put some pieces of chicken in the crock pot. Pour in a bottle of your favorite salad dressing and let it cook. Serve it over rice or noodles or what ever. It's that easy.

If you want a thicker sauce you can put corn starch in the juice before starting it to cook. By the time its done you should have a gravy like sauce. You can change the flavor by changing the type sauce you use. Mexican? Use Salsa. Italian? Use Italian dressing. Etc.

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I had 20 bottle of salad dressing I bought a few months ago. I paid 20 cents a bottle with coupons. That was before I stopped using coupons. These were getting close to expiring and I had to come up with a way to use them or donate to the food bank. I'm sure my idea isn't original. Surely someone someplace has already thought of it. Still, it's original for me.

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You can vary the type of meat you cook. Pork, beef, chicken, fish, polish sausage, spam.

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You can vary the sauce. Thick sauce, thin sauce, catalina dressing, italian dressing, salsa, french dressing.

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You can vary what its served over. Rice, beans, mixed vegetables, noodles, spaghetti, macaroni.

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You can vary the bread to accompany it. Homemade, french loaf, texas toast, biscuits, crackers.

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This should give you a few hundred different meal ideas. The combinations are endless.