It’s almost November and, if you’re like me, you may already have the holidays on your mind. As a mom the busyness of the season isn’t limited to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It’s a whole, weeks long celebration season that’s packed from start to finish as soon as we pack away the Halloween costumes and goes until we send the kids back to school in January.
In November specifically you may have some travel planned, some time off school and work, hosting or attending family gatherings, and possibly beginning Christmas shopping. It can be a lot! It’s also tempting to let your food budget go off the rails this time of year and just get takeout because of the busyness.
Let’s avoid that this year by planning ahead and having some inexpensive meals prepared and ready to go in the freezer so all you have to do it pop them in the crockpot or oven to reheat faster than it would take you to drive to your favorite pizza joint.
Before I share recipes, if you’re new to freezer meals here’s a couple of tips:
- Make sure you have the right supplies. You want to have the right kind of containers. We typically use these larger disposable tins to freeze the meals in. They’re great for casseroles, pastas, etc.
Once we actually eat the meal we like to save any leftovers in smaller meal prep containers that my husband can freeze and save for his work lunches or for me to have a quick lunch option I can easily reheat.
If you’d rather use plastic bags to freeze in, these Baggy Rack Stands are really helpful to hold the bag open for you so you can easily transfer food into the bags without making a big mess and wasting any of the food.
And lastly, if you think you might be batch cooking a lot of soups or stews you might want to consider these containers. They work great for storing a liquid if you don’t want to use bags.
2. Assuming you’re not going to be cooking all 6 meals in one day, consider doing the chicken meals on one day, and the beef meals another day. Not only is it easier to manage when you’re just working with one protein, but you can buy your meat in bulk and hopefully that saves you a little money there as well.
Alright now let’s get to the meals!
Beef recipes
Easy 3 ingredient chili (credit Yellow Bliss Road)
Beef Enchiladas (credit Dinner then Dessert)
Easy 5 ingredient Shepherd’s Pie (credit Prudent Penny Pincher)
Chicken recipes
Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup (credit All Recipes)
Pesto Ranch Chicken (credit Make Ahead Meal Mom)
Tuscan Pasta (credit Six Sisters’ Stuff)
I hope having several meals ready to go as you enter a busy season helps take something off your plate. No pun intended!
<3 Krista
If you are a busy mama looking to go from just getting by, to thriving when it comes to your money, follow Krista on instagram @moneymindfulmoms for more