Frugal Menu Mamas

Welcome to this week’s edition of Freezer Friday!  Some weeks we have fabulous recipes, some weeks we have freezing tips.  To check other Freezer Friday posts, click on the Categories tab on the right and then choose Freezer Friday from the menu that appears in the box below it.

I am still on vacation until next week.  So, for this week, I leave you with the freezer tips I have collected from two magazines.  I can’t wait to try some of these ideas!

From All You magazine:

-You can freeze brown rice!?  To do so, All You suggests to cook it and divid into 1 cup ortions.  Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.  To reheat, put in a microwave safe dish with 1 Tbs. water.  Cover and heat until warm.  30-45 seconds for refrigerated, 90 seconds for frozen.

-To freeze pasta, cook 1 lb. of dry pasta, drain, and refrigerate for 3 days or freeze in 1 cup prtions for up to 3 months.  There are two ways to reheat.  One is to put 1 cup of pasta in a microwave safe dish with 1 Tbs. water.  Cover and heat until warm 30-45 seconds for refrigerated and 90 seconds for frozen.  The other way is to put the past in a meatl colander and dip into boilin water for 30-90 seconds or until warm.

From Cook’s Illustrated:

-To freeze bacon, roll up the bacon in tight coils, each with two to four slices.  Put the coils in a Zip-loc freezer bag and place the bag flat in the freezer.  Then just pull out and thaw what you need for each recipe.  (I LOVE THIS IDEA!)

-To freeze cookie dough, divide it into balls and arrand the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper.  Place the cookie sheet in the freeze.  When the dough balls are frozen, place them in a Ziploc freezer bag or small airtight container. Bake without defrosting.

-Other items to store in the freezer:  overripe bananas (great for banana bread, muffins, or smoothies-they suggest to peel before freezing), nuts (in a Ziploc freezer bag-no need to defrost), butter (store in freezer and transfer one stick at a time to fridge-lasts longer and doesn’t pick up other food odors in the fridge)

Pretty neat, huh?  If you have some great tips to add to this, please leave a comment, we’d love to hear them!

Since I am gone this week, I thought you might like these articles from the Crockpot Lady about using the crock pot and being a “frugal menu mama”…Enjoy!

Slow Cooking During a Recession

Save Money By Using Your Slow Cooker

Well, the in-laws have said they will cover groceries for this vacation.  We only have to cover our eating out and anything special we need.  I will probably be purchasing juice boxes, fruit, and snacks for the kiddos.  So, I would say that this is one FANTASTIC way to save money!  :)  Thanks to the fabulous in-laws!  Have a great week!

Tasty Tuesday will be back soon, but for now, here are some other frugal thoughts. 

I have mentioned the Living on a Dime website on here before.  I subscribe to the newsletter, which comes out once or twice a week.  A recent newletter discussed food waste and how it all adds up…I thought it was fascinating.  So, I want you check it out, us Frugal Menu Mamas need to save every penny, which means not wasting stuff either!

How It All Adds Up II-Reducing Waste

The article discussed food wate in four areas juice, peanut butter, apples, and milk.  I think I am pretty good about not wasting juice or milk.  If my kids leave juice or milk in their cup, I stick it in the fridge.  Next time they say, “I’m thirsty!” I pull it back out.  I try not to let them have another beverage before the one in the fridge is consumed.  Milk in the cereal bowl is another story…my hubby drinks the milk from the bowl and he taught the kids how to do it, too.  :)  I know, not the best manners.  Well, for me, it is too sweet, so I NEVER drink the milk from the bowl…YIKES!  That is costing me some big money.

Another way to save money on milk is to purchase a box of powdered/dehydrated milk.  I used this a lot at our previous residence and somehow just remembered that I had some here.  The dry milk plus some water can be substituted in recipes for regular milk and it costs so much less!  Its also great when you run out of milk.  We ran out of milk this morning, but we’re leaving tomorrow on vacation.  I didn’t want to run out and buy even half a gallon.  So, I mixed up a quart of the dry milk and the kids had it in their cereal…they didn’t even know!  Be sure the follow the directions on the box.

The other two items mentioned with food waste were apples and peanut butter.  Well, for apples, we do pretty well.  When we have apples, I rarely let the kids just pick one up and start eating it.  I try to always cut apples with my apple wedger and the two kids and I share the apple so there is no waste.  Peanut butter is not really a food waste here either because I only make my kids (age 5 and almost 3) half sandwiches.  If they are still hungry and ask, I will make them another half or I encourage them to eat more of something else.  We do tend to waste the bread crusts though…I’m not a big fan of the crust either, so I’m not sure how to cure that yet. 

So, how do you do with food waste?  Please let us know your downfalls or how you combat it!

My menu plan for the week is….I have no idea!  I am on vacation in Maine with the in-laws and I think they are planning all the food.  So, I get a week off!  Weeeeeeee!  I do have my menu plan already completed for next week though, so tune in again then.  For some great menu  plans today, check out OrgJunkie!

Also, since I am gone, I will not be posted the deal links today…  If you need the deals, visit Southern Savers, Couponing 101, Money Saving Mom, or Stretching a Buck!

Just for the record…I am so mad at myself!  I know you all like photos…I do too when I read a blog.  So, I’m sorry but I forgot to take a photo of today’s recipe.  And too bad too because this is one of my favorites!  Today’s recipe is my mom’s spaghetti and meatballs.  When I smell this, I feel at home.  Now my husband and my college roommate would say that this is different, even sweeter that other spaghetti recipes.  My mother got the recipe from a genuine Italian, but she tweeked it a little.  I think it is fabulous.

Now, Mom and I both make the meatballs on a different day than the sauce.  What I do is make up several batches of meatballs when I get a bunch of ground beef.  I freeze them in Ziploc bags in individual meal portions.  For my family, that means maybe 10 per meal.  Then when I make a batch of sauce, the meatballs are already done, making it an easy meal.

I love that this sauce is made in the crock pot.  I love how the aroma fills the house all day long and makes you so excited for dinner time.  :)  This week, I made a double batch in my large crock pot.  We ate it for dinner and I froze the rest of the sauce in two seperate meal portions.  Like I’ve said before, I can’t think of a better way to save time and energy that to use the crock pot and the freezer together.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Spaghetti & Meatballs
Meatballs
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbs Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg
-Combine all ingredients and form into meatballs. Place on foil covered baking pan. Bake in 400 F oven about 25-30 minutes until browned. Remove from pan to paper towel covered plate.

*If making 4-5 lbs of meat at one time: after cooking divide into zip-loc bags and freeze.

Spaghetti Sauce
1 large can tomato puree
2 small cans tomato paste
3 tomato paste cans of water
1 tsp garlic powder
1 onion chopped
4-5 dried bay leaves
-Put all ingredients in a crock-pot. Mix well. Add meatballs. Cook on low all day. Remove bay leaves before serving. If you cook this in a pot on the stove, cook for at least two hours on low.
-To Freeze:  Cool, spoon into Ziploc bags, and freeze.

Printable Version

Welcome to the “TOP 5″!  This regular feature will explore the top five easy and frugal ways to use various food items.  I want you to participate!  It is simple and easy.  If you have a blog, create a post with your favorite uses for the food item of the day…you don’t have to have 5.  Link your post up with mine using Mr. Linky at the bottom of the page.  If you don’t have a blog, then please leave comments!  Today’s item….ground beef.  I suppose it could be any type of ground meat, but we’ll stick with ground beef today.  Past TOP 5 posts were on rotisserie chicken and boneless/skinless chicken breasts.

Here are my TOP 5 uses for ground beef:

#1-Buy in bulk, brown, divide into 1 lb. portions, and freeze for later.

#2-Buy several pounds and make into meatballs, freeze for later.  (Look for a great recipe tomorrow!)

#3-Make into hamburger patties, freeze for later.

#4-Use in skillet meals (like Texas Rice Skillet)

#5-Make up a bunch of taco meat, use it for tacos, taco salad, burritos, taco soup, enchiladas, etc…

I know there are more than 5 uses for ground beef.  I want to hear from you!

Leave a comment with your favorite ideas or link up to your post with Mr. Linky about the best uses for ground beef.

Sometimes, to save money you just shouldn’t spend it.  :)  Amazing revelation, huh?  But it’s true.  Since I think I’m participating in the All You Grocery Challenge (I haven’t received any conformation…did I actually sign up?! ) and since we are going on vacation on Friday for 9 days….my method this week to stay in budget was to not spend money.  I bought only the necessities and made meals from what we already have in the pantry and freezer.  I only spent around $40 this week!  Weeeeeeee!  If I can get a little personal, I have $108 left in grocery money for July.  I am thrilled!  Using up what I have on hand also ensures that we eat up the leftovers and don’t let anything go to waste before our trip.  So, I think that may be good stewardship, what do you think?  I didn’t buy any “deals” this week, so I guess I’ll have to re-stock in August.

Next week will be tough.  We will be traveling and not only that, but flying, so I can’t take a whole lot of food with me.  Once there, I am not in charge of meals, so I’m not sure how we’ll save money on the groceries.  I am really tempted to bring my whole coupon file (just to save money), but that may be a bit excessive, obsessive, and ridiculous.  :)  By the way, I re-organized my coupons…pictures to come soon…  A few ways we will try to save when eating out are:

-ordering water for our beverages

-sharing meals with the kids or the kids splitting a kids meal

-pack as many snacks as possible so that we are not super hungry

Any other tips for me?

TOMORROW will be my third installment of the TOP 5 and tomorrow’s ingredient?  Ground Beef.  Check back! 

For Tasty Tuesday today, I thought I’d share with you two recipes I have tried from other blogs.

I don’t know about you, but I often write out my menu plan and then change it.  :)  So, this week, I keep rearranging the menu plan.  Last night, we had the honey BBQ chicken pizza for dinner with fresh blueberries and strawberries on the side.  I got the recipe from a blog called “I am a Money Magnet“.  The writer and the folks who left comments on that blog raved about the pizza.  It was a pretty frugal recipe for me because I already had everything on hand except the crust.  I thought it was tasty, but my family did not.  The kids did not really eat it and my hubby didn’t enjoy it either.  I was shocked!  Anyway, the recipe is on the Money Magnet blog and here is what it looked like:

This is a little bit late, but for the Fourth of July we made the most adorable dessert!  We decided to try out the burgers and fries from a blog called “Bakerella“.  It is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs and my mouth waters just about every time I read a post from it.  Once I saw the burgers and fries on this blog, I HAD to try them for the 4th.  They turned out so cute and everyone raved about them.  The recipe and directions are on the Bakerella blog, but check out the photos of our re-creation! 

Thanks to my two fantastic photographers…my husband and my grandmother!

Here are deals to be found this week.  Thanks to the ladies who gather them every week.  You save me so much time and energy!

Kroger (northern region)

Kroger (southern region)

Publix

Target

CVS

Walgreens

Rite Aide