In Regards to Freezer Meals

Today's Pinterest topic is Freezer Meals.  Have you heard of them?  Basically, these super moms (and dads) make enough meals for the entire month(!) and freeze them for later use.  I first heard about this from Stephanie at Mama and Baby Love.  She has a fantastic ecookbook out that gives out her staple slow-cooker freezer meals.  If you are looking to get started I would suggest her recipes.  Once a Month Mom is also a great resource for getting started, recipes, and creating your own meal plan.

I have been doing freezer meals for a few months now with a few tweaks that works for me.  First of all, I am not as ambitious as everyone else and only do them in two week increments.  This allows me to cook throughout the week but have a back-up for when I don't feel like it.  It also keeps the time spent preparing the meals to a minimum.  I can get everything prepared in about 2 hours.  I'm not ambitious enough to try to make breakfasts and lunches so I only make dinners.  I usually use 5 recipes which makes 10 meals.  The recipes I use are already doubled so that all you have to do is split the ingredients between freezer bags.  I mainly do slow-cooker meals because assembly is as easy as splitting the ingredients into freezer bags or containers and throwing them in the freezer.  Recently though, I have been making batches of food big enough to eat half and freeze the rest.  It's given me a lot more freedom to cook a larger variety of food.

I will say I always have browned meat and shredded chicken in the freezer and fridge for quick meals like tacos or chicken salad.

The advantages of doing this are numerous.  I don't have to worry about what I'm making for dinner every night.  I can just throw the contents of a bag in my slow cooker and have a home-cooked meal without fuss.  I know what is going into these meals and can easily adjust them to fit my family's needs (read: I can make my husband eat vegetables).  I can usually squeeze dinner for two and lunch for me the next day out of each meal so it's very cost effective.  We save so much money doing this because we don't have to eat out as much and we can shop the sales and cheaper in-season items.  Plus, it's much easier to budget grocery money when you have a game plan for the week.  Most importantly though, it saves time!  I can spend a few hours on one day and stay out of the kitchen for a week or two if I want.  My husband and I work opposite schedules usually so whenever we can squeeze in time together, we do it!  Plus this is so easy, the husband can throw a meal together if I'm not at home to do it.

If you are looking to start doing this, here is my advice to you.

1. Start off small!  If you don't want to make a full weekly/bi-weekly/monthly menu, just make a recipe or two and see how that works out for you.  I'm not brave enough to make a full meal plan like the one's listed on OAMM's website, but I know I can do a week or two's worth of dinners with no problem.

2.  Do your homework!  I have spent a lot of time reading about different freezing techniques, getting things organized, and how to create my own recipes.  It's much easier to create your own menus and recipes when you know what can freeze and what can't, for how long it can freeze, etc.  I know this seems like a lot of work, but I promise it's so beneficial.

3.  Be prepared!  I spend time planning out my recipes, setting up my grocery list, and setting aside time to make my meals.  This is hard to do on the fly so make sure you have made time to do this properly or you will end up wasting time and losing that "saves time" aspect.

4.  Do what works for you!  I've ready lots of stories and testimonials of people that really get into this and make monthly menus, and that is just too ambitious for me.  You don't have to be super mom (or dad) to do this.  It's okay to just do a few meals here and there.

5.  Grab a partner!  Doing this with someone else not only keeps you motivated, but also makes it fun.  I often con the husband into putting bags together or helping me clean up.  It helps me get the job done even quicker, plus gives us some bonding time together since we don't get a ton of that during the day.

I hope this inspires you to give this a try.  It seems daunting when you first start out but it gets easier, and really is beneficial.  You'll eat healthier, save money, and have more time to spend with family, friends, pets, whatever.

High Five for Friday

It's been so long since I've done this!  I'm excited to take a look at the good things that happened to me, even if they seemed insignificant at the time.

1.  My Birchbox came in which automatically made this a good week.  Budgeting money means that I can't buy things just because I want to anymore, so Birchbox gives me an extra treat to enjoy.

2.  I've started reading again!  Woo hoo!  Read about my first adventure back into reading here.

3.  There is a cute little restaurant in my new neighborhood called The Lunch Box that has 25 cent wings every Thursday.  It's budget friendly and the wings are fresh, big, and tasty.  It's was a great to eat out somewhere and not spend a lot of money.

4.  My sororities recruitment was this past weekend and we got 20 wonderful new members!  20 may not seem like a lot but my college boasted a whopping total of about 1500 students total when I attended, so the numbers of our fraternities and sororities are small.  I have been an alum for three years now, but am now an advisor so I get to be excited about recruitment again without seeming creepy.

5.  My sorority sister Ravon's engagement party is tomorrow!  Jude is going to Nana's house for the night so the husband and I get a night to ourselves.  It's going to be awesome!

Happy Friday everyone!

Book Club: Divergence

Before I had Jude I was an avid reader.  I could devour several books each month, sometimes each week.  It's much harder now to find time to read, but I am determined to get back to it.  I really miss it.  As a bookstore employee, I have thousands of books at my disposal and I want to take advantage of it.  So, I'm starting this "book club."  It's not really a club but more of a way to hold myself accountable for keeping up with my reading list.  I'm not much of a book reviewer, but I'll give it a shot.

This weeks book: Divergence by Veronica Roth.

Divergence is a young adult novel that is supposed to be the next Hunger Games.  It's the first book in the Divergent trilogy.  The story revolves around 16-year-old Beatrice "Tris" Prior who lives in a dystopian Chicago.  Her society is divided up into five factions that dedicate themselves to a particular virtue.  Beatrice comes from the Abnegation faction that prides itself on being selfless.  On a particular day every year, every 16-year-old gets to select the faction that they will devote their lives to.  They can decide to stay with their families, or leave their old lives behind and start fresh somewhere else.  The story follows Tris as she makes her surprising choice of factions and competes to become an initiated member of the faction she chooses.  With growing conflict among the factions, Tris must fight for her place in the life she had chosen, and hide a secret about herself that could help those she loves or destroy her.

I finished this book fairly quickly, despite it's length.  As a young adult (YA) novel, the language is not hard.  I often have trouble with YA novels having female leads that are absolutely infuriating or boring Mary Sues, but Tris was actually likable and had a real personality.  She's no Katniss Everdeen, but she could beat Bella to a pulp in personality alone.  She had real problems and feelings that everyone could relate to.

The storyline itself is pretty interesting.  Dystopian novels seem to be hot these days, and this one was decent.  Where The Hunger Games gave us only glimpses of the other Districts, Divergence actually gave me a really good idea about what all the factions are about which I liked.  The love story and friendships Tris gets involved in were real and interesting.

Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes an easy read and/or young adult novels that don't involve vampires and werewolves.  I will be adding the second book in the series (Insurgent) to the reading list and will read it when it comes into the store for me to grab.  (The third book has not been published yet.)

Next week's book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.  It's another young adult (YA) novel. (I promise, this is not all I read, but working in the kids and YA sections at work every day, makes me want to read what everyone is asking for/talking about.)

Read along with me and let me know what you think, or give me suggestions as to what I should add to my reading list!

I'm Back!

Wow!  It's been FOR.EV.ER since I was last on here.  Life has been so crazy.

We got the house!!  We are now the proud owners of a lovely little home in a quiet neighborhood.  We have a small front yard and an even smaller backyard, but it really works for us.  We have been busy moving and getting settled in and I now feel like we have established a good routine so I can get back to writing.

Jude took the move fabulously, as did our cats who have become used to moving at this point.  I'm so excited to say that after moving every year since the husband and I have been together, I don't have to pack all of our crap again for many years to come.  Praise Jesus.

Not much else has happened this last month, which is nice.  Jude is nearing his 4th month of life.  He sleeps well at night, smiles a lot, and has a crush on Giada de Laurentiis.  I'm serious.  He really does.  He sits in his bouncy seat in front of the TV and "talks" to her.  It's adorable.  He also likes Mickey Mouse.  We don't make it a habit to put him in front of the TV but it's nice to be able to entertain him while I make lunch or fold laundry or something.

Work is still work.  I still enjoy it although I'm thinking of starting a list of things not to say or do to people who work in retail.  Seriously.  Some people have zero etiquette when it comes to shopping.  Or being in public.

The husband and I have started Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover program.  I owe a lot of money from my college years, plus our new mortgage, husband's car payment, and credit card bills, not to mention my bills from my stay at the hospital with Jude.  Ramsey's advice for budgeting and snowballing our debt is helping us get on the right track toward being in true control of our money.  We haven't been able to save much money yet, but we are getting there.  We finally feel like our life together is getting to where it's supposed to be.  It's an awesome feeling.

Well, I think that's enough ramblings for now.  So glad to be back.