Feeling Like Superwoman

So for the past few weeks, I have been putting together a list of crock pot meals that can be frozen. I was planning to take the Tuesday after Memorial Day to do a cook-a-thon and go shopping, put all these meals together and freeze them. I wanted to do it before I had both kids out of school for the summer. I made my grocery list, which ended up being two pages long. I was ready to go on Tuesday.

Like all my best laid plans, this didn't happen either... BUT, it actually worked out so well for me anyway. I had my list and my budget and took Nathaniel with me. We went to Aldi first. When we were done there, we went to Fairplay. FP was having a sale on bone in chicken. Anyone who knows me knows that I despise bone in chicken and God help me if there's skin on it, but I'm trying to save money. (And yes, already fried chicken with bones and skin is fine. I'll fuck that up easy!)

So my grocery list was: 30 chicken breasts, 6 pounds of stew meat, 2 lbs pork loin, 6 pounds of ground beef, 2 lbs ham, 8 chicken thighs, 1 lb drumsticks, and 2 lbs bone in chicken breasts. My veggies were a bag of onions, 4 pack multicolored peppers, 6 green peppers, 5 zucchini, 1 lb carrots, 1 bag baby carrots, 1 bag frozen corn. Fruit: 1 lime, 2 oranges. Canned goods were numerous. Box of chicken stock, box of beef broth, 10 4 ounce tomato sauce (Recipes called for 8 ounce cans, but they didn't have them. I subbed.) 2 cans of green chiles, 10 can diced tomatoes with chiles, 2 jars of minced garlic, 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, 5 cans of cream of celery soup, 4 20 oz cans of pineapple chunks, 28 oz can of enchilada sauce, 1 can black beans, 4 6oz cans of tomato paste. Spices/misc were herb and garlic marinade, hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, 2 dry mix of onion soup, 2 taco seasoning packets, egg noodles, and a 24 oz jar of salsa.

So it was a lot to get. Plus I got 2 packs of strawberries, a bag of apples and oranges, a box of cocoa pebbles, 6 more packs of pork chops, 2 bags of potato chips, a large bag of shredded cheddar cheese, a large bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, 2 packs of hamburger buns, a pack of hot dogs buns, 5 noodles sides (Knorr kind, 3 rice sides (Knorr, again), two boxes of mac and cheese, diapers, a few packets of yeast (gonna make some bread and some pitas), a few boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix, and a gallon of milk.

My car was stuffed to the gills! I had a few bags in Veronica's car seat even! Nathaniel told me I wasn't allowed to put anything there, But I needed the space. Now guess my grand total. Go ahead!!! I'll give you a minute. Do do do dooo, do do do. Do do do do do! Do do do do do. Do do do do do do do do. Ok, Enough Jeopardy. You get it.

My grand total was $207!!!!!! I am beyond thrilled! I bought all that stuff for so little. I had to process the stew meat recipes today, since they were on super clearance given that their sell by date is tomorrow. But I got a great deal on the other meat too. I made 12 pork chops (thin sliced) for dinner tonight and the 12 of them were $5. I already had the asparagus we had with it, and I used one of the noodle sides with it. So for $6 all 4 of us had dinner. You can't bet that! Plus we have pork chops left over for lunch tomorrow. (Pat and I are STUFFED!)

It's a good feeling.

Some of the recipes I am making are pesto chicken (shit, forgot to get pesto!), Mongolian beef, sloppy tamale pie, teriyaki chicken, ham and pineapples, a goulash type stew, beef tips and gravy, BBQ chicken (two different types), green chile pork stew, orange chicken, enchilada wraps (chicken), some twice baked potatoes to freeze, shredded chicken and homemade chicken stock, chicken caccitore, lime salsa chicken and beef stroganoff without mushrooms, thankyouverymuch. A lot of these recipes are doubled to make two bags for the freezer. I am looking forward to making these bags tomorrow, now that I have what I need.

I also plan on making my own baking mixes, brownie mixes, gravies and seasoning blends (like taco seasoning, Cajun seasoning, etc). We'll just have to wait and see how those turn out. I think I am going to really enjoy this summer!