I was inspired by Moneysaving Mom and decided to do a little freezer meal cooking day of my own. I accomplished quite a bit yesterday. We are not big casserole eaters, but I am always on the lookout for ways to make breakfast amd lunch meals ahead. So here are some of the things I made ahead.

Southwest Rollups--made about 40 of these. They freeze beautifully and are made with homemade refried beans, shredded cooked chicken or ground beef, salsa, and shredded cheese. My kids love'm

Pancakes--I made about 60 and froze about 6 to a baggie

Pizza sauce--I simply bought this in a large can from Sams club for like $3.00 and froze them in smaller portions. I use these for quick cal zones and pizza cracker lunches.

Packaged homemade brown sugar cinnamon granola packets.

May not look like much, but I really did not start making stuff till late on Sunday evening. Still, these will keep the temptation at bay to run to the store for expensive convenience foods or to Mcd's for lunch.

If you have any receipes to share to help spice up breakfast and lunches...feel free to share!

The simple things add up

As a simple homemaker and homeschooling mom to 4 boys, I am limited on what I can do to help us pay off our debts. It is not feasible for me to work a job outside the home when my husband can snatch overtime and make 10 times what I would make working. But still their are ways as a wife I can contribute. The most beneifical way I have found to help the family budget is in the kitchen. This week I worked extra hard at making the most of our food budget. I stocked our freezer by doing a baking day this past Tuesday.

I managed to make 3 casserole dishes, southwestern rollups, 5 batches of pizza dough, and 2 pkgs of cookie dough. I try to spend 2, 3 days a month doing intensive cooking. This not only saves me time and energy in the kitchen..it saves us a bundle of money too! I am not as tempted to eat out when I know coming home from church that southwestern rollups or pizza is ready to go.

I am hoping to make a few more meals tomorrow and I am currently under budget by nearly $60 for our food this week. With my freezer full of meals I hopeI won't need to spend that extra $60!

Stocking the freezer

I have a personal goal to stick to my budget on food, but also to stock my freezer. I have been creating menus for us that have more left over nights as well as meatless meals---such as grilled cheese/soup dinners. This week I bought a ton of meat. Our extra upright freezer was completely empty!

Right now we have some ground meat, chicken, stick butter, 3 pork roasts and 4 pkgs of cheese....not much I know. But I am really adding to it each week with whatever freezer friendly deals I can find.

I have been inspired by Moneysaving Mom's post to make more freezer meals. One of the ways I blew my budget was eating out at fast food joints. As most of us know---one of the easiest ways to blow one's budget is to eat out too much. It is just so easy to do when we have nothing easy to quickly cook for dinner. I am hoping having some pizza dough in the freezer will help with solving this dilemma I plan to make about 8 frozen balls of pizza dough. We eat about 2 large pizzas for dinner so this would give us 4 nights of pizza. I figure it is just as easy to make 8 batches as it is just one and yet I only have to clean the kitchen up one time.

We eat dinner with the grandparents on Thursday so I am thinking I will make Thursday my baking day. Knowing I don't have to cook dinner will give me a chance to really get busy in the kitchen with stock up meals. I plan to surf and see if I can find some other tasty freezer meals. If you know of any....feel free to share!

Mexican Bean Casserole

This is one of our favorite frugal meals...it is really yummy when served with nachos.

Mexican Bean Casserole
Soft Buritto Wraps-$1.50
1 Can Refried Beans-$.65
Hamburger Meat--$2.96
1/2 bar of Cheddar cheese-$1.00
Salsa-$1.49

Total cost $7.60--This is frugal to us since it is less than $1.50 a person.

You simply cook your meat and stir in the 3/4 of the salsa. Then spray your crockpot with some pam. Place a tortilla in it and spread about 1/2 of your meat onto the tortilla. Add another tortilla and spread half the refried beans on to it. Add another tortilla and shred some cheddar cheese onto it. Then repeat. When you get to the top layer, top with rest of salsa and some cheese. Put on low for about 3 hours. Serve with nachos...yummy!