I purchased 8 pounds of ground beef and 5 pounds of chicken breasts this weekend and decided to have a mini freezer cooking day. Here are the items I cooked:

• Taco Meat
• Chili Burgers
• Meatballs
• Chicken Fajita Meat
• Cooked Chicken Breasts for enchiladas, tacos, etc

In total I had 12 meal starters.

Taco Meat: I took 4 lbs and browned it adding McCormick’s Taco Seasoning Mix. We had tacos for dinner and then divided the rest into three freezer containers (see this post)

Chili Burgers: I mix 2 lbs of ground beef with 1/2 cup cut up green peppers, 2T chili sauce, 2T chili powder, salt and pepper. Very easy and very yummy. We ate chili burgers for lunch and I froze the rest of the patties individually on a cookie sheet and then put them in a ziplock bag.

Meatballs: This is the recipe I use for the meatball subs (see this post). I used 2 lbs of ground beef with 2/3 c. parmesan cheese, 1 c. onions, 2 eggs, 2 garlic cloves, 2t. oregano, 2t. salt, and 1 T. parsley. Mix and make meatballs. Bake in 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I froze them individually on cookie sheet.

Chicken Fajita Meat: I got this off of Who Needs a Cape. Please see her website for recipe and directions. It is part of an amazing list of Freezer Meals.

Cooked Chicken Breast: Blogged about it here. I decided to take Money Saving Mom’s advice and I baked the chicken instead of boiling it. It was much nicer to just pull the chicken breast out of the oven, cool and put into baggies.

Now I have chicken for 4 meals, like chicken tacos, enchiladas, etc.

 

I finally got to finish my menu board. I was gone all last week and now this week I’m hussling around doing Vacation Bible School, but I finally got a break!!!! So here it is TADA:

I do have to say , mine is not as awesome looking as Robby’s. I think it will serve it’s purpose, though, and that’s all that matters. I did spend a good amount of time making my recipe titles. I used my recipe binder to create the titles. I did not have 28-31 recipes as Robby suggests.I actually ran out at about 21! I chose to make 3 left over cards and if you look carefully, I do have 3-4 eat out days. I know that I will probably end up eating out more than that, but my goal is to stick to this menu board as closely as I can.

So here are some hang ups that I might have with this board:

1. I do have to admit that I like having Crock Pot Days and Mexican Day etc, so I’ll have to see how this goes. As it is right now, my recipes are all over the place. I might decide I don’t like it and change it up.
2. I know Robby says the goal is not to repeat meals through out the month, but I actually like eating Spaghetti every week. I like having tri tip 2-3 times a month. So, I did make an extra Spaghetti card. I might end up making a couple more repeat meals just because I love them!
3. I am going to need more recipes to fill this puppy! Again, it comes down to I don’t mind repeating! However, I can see that I don’t have many seafood, pasta, or rice dishes. I might need to start trying new ones out! I would like to see more variety.
4. Sides- I hate sides. I made over 20 side cards and decided not to use them right now. Sides are things that I kinda buy as they go on sale. I might get zucchini on sale one week but not the next. So I am going to not choose sides ahead of time and add them in after shopping day.
5. Shopping for all this food! I don’t think I can do a month shopping trip! However, I do like knowing what I MAY need so I can get it when it goes on sale even if its a few weeks before I actually use it.

Things I will like:

1. Perpetual pantry- I can stock up on canned goods when they go on sale because I know I will need them for all kinds of recipes. The idea of the perpetual pantry is to fill it up with all the things you use all time but only when it goes on sale. 
2. Knowing what kinds of meats to buy AHEAD of time. I know I need lots of chicken and ground beef. I also know that my best tri tip price is $3.99 lb so I need to stock up with at least 1-2 roasts when they are that price.
3. I can see clearly what recipes I did not use. I plan to take them down as I use them, so at the end of the month I will have 2-3 recipe cards that didn’t get used so I will use those for Clean the Pantry Week (see my post about that).

I am excited to get this rolling.  Thanks again to Robby for her amazing inspirational tutorial!

Ligia