Everyone knows how much I love to cook..(And eat!) and my weekly shop is one of the most exciting moments of my week. (Yes I am that sad!) but I find that I always end up buying too much or just going for impulse purchases of things that either catch my eye or are on offer that end up costing me more than I really needed to spend.
So last month, I tried out a new method of feeding the family and gave myself a realistic yet smaller budget than normal, invested in some disposable freezer trays and wrote out a pre-drafted list of what I would make to store.
The results were fantastic! 2 days worth of cooking stocked up the freezer with a months worth of food. My mother in law was begging me to stop as my kitchen just ended up looking like an industrial unit. SO much fun and such a great feeling knowing that all these meals I knew were so healthy and tasty were already ready to go! Everything I made was done so that it literally was just to be pulled out the night before and defrosted in the fridge or ready to just pop straight into the oven.
I won’t pretend we didn’t cook some stuff with what was in the fridge or cupboards but for those nights we couldn’t be bothered, we knew we have some great, nutritious meals just waiting for us. By doing this, we cut our weekly shop down by about £50 and knowing that that was what we’d be eating portion wise also meant we’re slimmer on the waist line too! I hadn’t bought treats or snacks other than nuts, fruit, rye crackers and one packet of cookies that had to be shared out between all of us so by sticking to this meal plan, we have had great results all round!
So, this is an example of some of the meals we made and just so we knew what we’d eaten and what was still in the freezer, we printed it out and put it on a clip board next to the freezer so the day before, I could arrange the day ahead and cross off what we had eaten. It also meant we got to select options. Our very own menu! I read out all the options to Tahlia the day before and she would pick out what we would have the next day! Great way to get the kids to look forward to dinner time!
Some of it you don’t even need to cook. You can just prepare pieces of meat and fish with whatever seasonings or sides and batch it all up in a tray ready to go straight into the oven. Anything breaded or crumbed such as salmon fishcakes, you can crumb ready to go, and as I prefer the healthy approach as in oven cook or grill as opposed to frying, using panko crumbs oven cook easier than golden as they crisp up nicely without oil in a high heat oven.
I urge you to give it a try! It’s a great feeling knowing all your meals are ready and waiting and that all of what you all of what you will be eating will be fresh and nutritious! Definitely keeping this up! Thanks for reading all!
Fortis Health 