Stocking up

Our money has been tight lately and I havn't been able to stock up in a long time. I am missing a lot of the key ingrediants to make meals out of. I hate going into the kitchen and finding nothing to make. Since we got taxes back it frees up a paycheck which we can use to stock up. So in this blog Im going to discuss stocking up and also freezing meals.

Stocking up is a great thing. I try to get a lot of ingrediants that are simple but can make a meal. For starters cream of soups are great.  You can make soups, chicken recipes and more. Flour,sugar and butter are also staples :-) If you have a garden in the summer you can always learn how to can and can your own veggies. I do not have a way to garden currently so I buy a lot of canned or frozen veggies. A lot of times you can find veggies on sale.  I don't really notice much a difference between store brand and brand name. So I have plans to get a fair amount of  green beans,corn, peas,beets(my three year old LOVES them) and even canned potatoes. I use those sometimes if I am not having a lot of cooking time. Frozen veggies are also on sale sometimes 10 for 10. I buy a lot of brocolli, green beans and sometimes peas. Frozen veggies are good for lunch time. As you can use just as much as you want.  That brings us to diced tomatoes. I love diced tomatoes and I use them a lot. I can sometimes get them for 89 cents a can. I can do a lot with diced tomatoes. My goals have been to have enough ingrediants on hand to make something if I am out of dinner options. I also am trying to make cakes out of scratch. As handy has cake mixes are, sometimes I want cake and have no cake mix. With simple ingrediants I can make my own cake :-)

Then we come to freezing. Our local grocery store Stop and Shop has big buy meats. I love it. I can get around 8 chicken breasts in one pack for 6 dollars...sometimes 8 but its still cheaper then buying smaller packs. I put 2 chicken breasts in a bag...and freeze the baggies. When I cook with the boneless skinless chicken breasts  I cut them into thinner slices. Which 4 chicken breasts means I get 8 slices of chicken. Also they have big buys of hamburger. I take half the hamburger and I make "homemade" meat sauce. I'll share the recipe in a bit. I take that meat sauce and I freeze it in quart baggies. That way I have meat sauce for everything that needs it. Everything from chop suey, lasagna and everything else. Generally I have around 4-5 bags of meat sauce when I am done. Then with the rest of the hamburger I put it in baggies. I put the amount that my family will usually use. That way I can just thaw it and cook it. Its simple but works great.

Another tip that my mom gave me which works wonders is freezing homemade chicken broth in ice cube trays. If you make a whole chicken and you have broth then take an ice cube tray, and pour the broth in it. Stick it in the freezer. After its frozen you can take the cubes out and put them in a baggy. This works fantastic I have already tried it.  And you have good chicken broth for cooking :-)

Here is my recipe for spaghetti sauce

Big thing of plain spaghetti sauce (yes this is my base and I cheat)
2 cans of diced tomatoes. I usually use the italian blend)
Hamburger(large amount depending on how much you want to freeze)
1 Large onion
2 Green peppers(I also add yellow and red peppers looks pretty lol)
Parmesean cheese
Italian Seasoning
Basil
Oregano
Minced garlic
Salt and Pepper

Brown your hamburger, in another pan chop your onions, peppers, spices just as much as you want in a pan with a lil drizzle of olive oil. Sautee it for a bit. When your hamburger is done drain it. Mix in your onion pepper mix, diced tomatoes,spaghetti sauce and salt and pepper. Do not heat it up. Pour into baggies and flatten it. Write dates and what it is, stick it in the freezer. You'll have meat sauce for all your recipes you may need it for :-)

Stay tuned for another post about it as I prepare to stock up :-)