Freezer Frenzy!

Recently my little sister finished her master's degree and moved back home. She starts her new job this week, and wanted to make several freezer meals to help ease the transition from student to adult with a job :)

I've been trying to make extra when I cook and freeze it as I go so that on days I don't have time to cook I can just pull something out of the freezer. It has been working pretty well for me, but I was open to doing a marathon cooking session, too.

We decided that, as we are both married with no children, a "typical" family recipe for a family of four would feed each of our small families for two dinners, we could make a month's worth of dinners and only need 2 pre-made dinners per week (we do a family dinner on Sunday, so no cooking, and we figured the other two days could either be a date night or spaghetti/taco nights) for a total of about 10 dinners each.

We picked several dinner recipes we liked, put together a master grocery and prep list, and removed items we already had (ex. I already had some chicken breasts and a gallon of milk, etc) then went shopping. In total, we spent $210 (split two ways to $105 each) including non-food items we needed, like foil, gallon bags, tupperware and jars. We ended up with 20 dinners, 15 lunches, and 15 breakfasts for a total of 50 meals!

Here's what we made:
Breakfasts were simple. My sister made her and my husband kolaches by taking sausages (the ones that look like hotdogs) and rolling them in crescent rolls. Then she topped them with fajita seasoning and baked them until crescents were done.
I'm not a kolache fan, so I just made some quick wildberry muffins (from the mix) to eat this week.

For lunches, 15 jars of cheeseburger soup. We doubled the recipe, traded 1lb of beef for ground breakfast sausage, and put into jars. We're going to eat them this week, so into the fridge they went.

Dinners were:
Easy Cheeseburger Sliders x2 (made per the recipe)
Beef Stroganoff x4 (kind of sort of...we couldn't find any cheap roast or stew meat, so we got a couple of extra lbs of ground beef and made meatballs...so they are kind of a hybrib of sweedish meatballs and beef stroganoff. Hubby and I are trying it this week, so I'll let you know how they turned out).

Country Club Chicken x2 (this was a pain in the behind, and I may not be making it again...also, forgot to get an apple, so we didn't add it)
Taco Soup x4 (made per the recipe...note! the linked recipe makes 2 gallon bags, so if you want 2, only make 1 of the recipe. We actually double the recipe and ended up with 4 freezer bags)
Beef and Bean Enchiladas x4 (We used corn tortillas...because who uses flour tortillas in enchiladas????? Also, her recipe called for WAY too much refried beans, so we cut it in half and used 2 cans for 4 lbs of meat. We also didn't include the chiles, and added a little bit of cheese to the beef/bean mixture before filling.)
Pesto Chicken Alfredo x5 (made per the recipe...OMG THIS WAS AMAZING! lol. Because it called for cooked chicken, we were able to taste this one. It was super simple and so omg good. I can't wait to heat it up this week!)

I also made 1 cheeseburger soup for the freezer. We cooked the meat and chopped the veggies, then added the seasonings to the bag. On the day of I'll have to add all the other stuff (chicken broth, milk, cheese and sour cream) but I won't have to brown the meat and chop the veggies, so it helps!


This was my grocery list. Note I'd removed items I already had, like milk and seasonings.

Master shopping list
Meats
15	Ground beef (lbs)
2	ground sausage (lbs)
12	stew beef/chuck roast (lbs)
8	chicken breasts
1	bacon (lb)
8	cups chicken
Produce
15	onion
4	carrots (cups)
4	celery (cups)
2	potatoes (bag)
38	mushrooms (oz)
32	frozen corn (oz)
6	fresh baby spinach (cups)
Cans
4	crushed tomatoes with chiles (cans)
2	crushed tomatoes (15 oz cans)
4	black beans (cans)
4	kidney beans (cans)
3	cream of mushroom soup (cans)
6	enchilada sauce (19oz  cans)
3	refried beans (16oz cans)
2	alfredo sauce (15 oz jars)
2	prepared basil pesto (5-8 oz jar)
liquids
6	beef stock or broth (cups)
1	dry white wine (cup)
dairy
1	velveeta cheese
1	sour cream
32	cheddar or colby cheese (oz)
8	italian blend cheese or other white cheese (cups)
dried
4	taco seasoning
2	penne pasta (16 oz pkgs)
bread
	large pack of corn tortillas
utensils and pans
	crockpot bags
15	wide-mouth jars
8	9x13 foil pans

I cleaned out my freezer before we started, and this is how it looked after.

We actually made more than my freezer could hold at first, so until little sis took her food home, we overflowed into the fridge.  

So, all said and done, we spent $210 on 50 meals for an average cost of about $4.20 per meal. We'll definitely be doing this again.