As a major part of reducing our budgetary costs for necessary items, I am trying to make meals where we can use up our freezer items. We are so blessed to have venison given to us each year for the cost of processing, so we have lots of venison in the freezer. We also buy a side of beef when we can, so we have been in the freezer and still have three frozen turkeys from last year when they were super cheap from the Thanksgiving specials. This week, I also bought 40 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and packaged them 3 large breasts per package to use in future recipes, then froze them. So, we have plenty of meat on hand for any recipe we want. I also want to use up our pantry items. Since we own Wheat-n-things, we almost always have rice and beans and wheat and honey and salt on hand, as well as several other staples.
So, here is this week’s menu plan:
Four cheese baked Ziti (making some without Sauce for Anne) (Don’t Panic, Quick, Easy and Delicious Meals)
Lentil and Rice Pilaf (this is to take to a pitch-in dinner where several vegetarians will be present). (Fix it and forget it lightly 113)
Cheeseburger casserole- leaving out the tomatoes due to Anne’s tomato allergy. (Express Lane Cookbook 57)
Tacos/Taco Salad
Busy Day Chicken (Momys cookbook 180)
Chicken Pot Pie (we made these ahead so it just needs to be baked)
Thursday-Saturday some of the kids and Duncan will be gone on a church camping weekend so no meal planning for those days. We will probably have leftovers or very simple meals like sandwiches.
Also, I am having a baby shower for Christina so I need to get onto planning that menu as well!
Does your family have any faivorte casseroles? They usually freeze well.You could also try* taco meat should freeze ok already cooked and seasoned* sloppy joes again, you can freeze the meat already cooked* meatloaf either freeze a large loaf or shape into individual mini loaves for faster cooking* lasagna -depending on the size of your family, you could freeze a large pan, or split the recipe between 2 8 8 pans.* meatballs either for a meatball sandwich or for spaghetti and meatballs* soups/stews/chiliI use allrecipes.com when I’m trying to find a recipe, so I’ve added links to my faivortes below. If these don’t interest you, try browsing through the site you’ll probably find a lot that interests you.Also, do you have a slow cooker? If so, try this pot roast recipe.2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix1 1/4 cups water4 1/2 to 5 1/2 pound pot roast Put the pot roast in the slow cooker. Mix the cans of soup, dry onion soup mix and water and pour over the roast. Cookhigh for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 8 to 9 hours. If you don’t like a lot of salt, get the low-salt soup mix or don’t use the whole packet of dry soup mix.MeatloafBaked Spaghetti:Broccoli Chicken casserole:Broccoli Chicken Divan:Shepards Pie: