Eating Healthy On A Budget-Part 3

This whole being off work for 5 days is kinda nice.  I have so much time to get things done!  I never thought I would say that.  Usually I'm off for 5 days and bored out of my mind.  I have been catching up on Season 2 of Shameless.  Never heard of it?  Well you should, especially if you like inappropriate language, sex and dysfunctional families.  You thought your family was dysfunctional??  Not even close to the Gallagher family!  Check it out!

I am one of those people that cannot sit around all day long and watch TV.  I usually have shows on in the background while I am freezer cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, etc... This week I am going to work on organizing my cabinets and defrosting my freezers.  I have to go buy a new refrigerator soon because it keeps leaking water everywhere, from where? I have no idea.  I thought I was going to get away with selling my house without having to buy anything dangit! Ok so I have gotten off track a little lol

In my freezer(s) I always have pretty much the same things.  I know boring...but if you find things you like eat them regularly!

Chicken-ground, diced, breasts, shredded, patties.  I'm a big fan of chicken, in all different ways.  I actually buy whole chickens for about 5 dollars and put them in the crock pot.  At the end of the day I cool it, shred it and freeze it.  So fast and easy! Just pull it out in the morning and use it for dinner.  I try to stock up on chicken breasts when they are on sale.  Make sure you divide up the packages before you throw them in the freezer.  I chop some up and put them in individual bags for stir fry's and fried rice.  You can add marinade to the breasts before you freeze them and then you just have to grill or bake them! I buy the ground chicken patties because they are cheaper than turkey and you can either use them for burgers or as a substitute for ground beef.

Beef-Ground, diced, steak, chopped, roast.  I know steak is expensive but if you check the markdown meat they always have some good prices.  My store marks down their meat Tuesday morning, so I usually stop by and see what they have.  Sometimes I get steak about 4 dollars for a medium sized package, roasts for 5 and diced for 2.

Pork-chops, diced, loin, roast.  I love pork.  I know some of you don't and that is ok but I always seem to cook pork the best.  I haven't perfected my chicken or beef yet but pork I've got in the bag!  I just watch for sales on pork.  The loin is usually most expensive so that is a very rare treat for us.

Bacon- I am lucky enough that King Soopers sends me coupons for free bacon, yes I said FREE bacon!  I have no idea why?  Maybe because I use a ridiculous amount of coupons and they want to reward me, who knows and who cares?!  FREE BACON!  For the rest of you that aren't that lucky, bacon can be expensive. Turkey bacon is cheaper....for some reason.

*You could go to Sam's club and buy big packages of meat and split them up.  The problem I have sometimes with this is the money.  It is worth it but if you are on a budget stick with what you can.

*Always, Always watch your ads.  You get to a point where you know what a good price is for meat.

Bread-I have a fantastic bread machine that I can make bread with or I just buy the store brand wheat bread for .99 cents.  I make two loaves at a time and freeze one.  This is so simple because you can put all the ingredients in the bread machine and let the machine do the work.  You can also just buy a couple loves from the store and freeze some.  Sometimes I make rolls, or hamburger buns and freeze them.  This makes life easy.

Rice-I like to cook rice and then divide it into quart bags.  This makes it easy to just get it out, thaw and use it for dinner.  If you couldn't tell I enjoy making my life easier:)

Beans-I buy them dry, put them in the crock pot, let them cook then divide them up and freeze them.  Again, easy to thaw and eat!

Waffles-I just recently got a waffle maker!  I make them and freeze them, no need to ever buy eggos again!

Pancakes- I usually plan a night where we have them for dinner, I make extra and freeze them.

Vegetables-When these are on sale for .99 cents I stock up, pair them with coupons and sometimes they are free. Frozen vegetables are so easy to add to any meal and literally take minutes to warm up.

Nuts-When you buy nuts-almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans freeze them.  It keeps them good for a long time.

Fruit-When you find a sale on strawberries (for example) stock up and freeze them.  If you couldn't tell by now I freeze a lot of stuff.

Flour-You can keep this is your pantry or you can freeze it.  Freezing it keeps those yucky little bugs away.

I know that some of you don't have two freezers and that is ok.  You just have to figure out a system that works for you.

Here are some other things I make ahead and put in my freezer:

Spaghetti sauce

Pie Crusts

Pureed Pumpkin

Pureed Zucchini

Soup

Part 4 will be all the recipes and instructions to everything I make ahead and freeze. Stay tunes and if you missed Part 1 go here, and Part 2 here.

Have a great day:)