Monday, January 21, 2013

A Meal Plan and the Slow Cooker

Oh my gosh. You guys.  See, I was going to post a sweet FuzziBunz review and giveaway but then I looked at a calendar and realized it was MONDAY and so no.  I just couldn't make it happen.  (Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow....cloth diaper giveaway only a day awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!).  You know what I did make happen for the first time ever?

Meal planning.

I know!
AND and and and and AND....I found this pin on Pinterest with tips and recipes for pre-making and freezing slow cooker dinners and do you know what else we did?  Oh yes.  Go ahead. You can say it.  We done fixed us up six whole dinners in one single afternoon sweejbabyjeezus it's true!

f 3.5, 1/10, ISO 100

f 3.5, 1/20, ISO 100

f 3.5, 1/13, ISO 100

f 3.5, 1/15, ISO 100

f 5.0, 1/5, ISO 200



Tomorrow night we'll eat our very first pre-constructed frozen slowcooker meal.  Fingers crossed the little ones can choke it down!  I'll keep you posted.  Because, you know, of course you won't be able to sleep until you know whether or not I just wasted an entire grocery shopping trip on a dang ol' pin...

("what the heck are those numbers underneath your photos, dweej?"  good question.  I'm also sharing this over at Amongst Lovely Things for Manual Mode Monday- these here unedited overexposed photos of brightness)

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31 comments :

  1. My sister has you beat! She apparently made 20 frozen slow cooker meals back in early January. Pretty good for a gal who thinks (thought?) McDonald's happy meals are a staple of a healthy diet. Both of you are inspiring me, because I really want to try this.

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    1. I didn't want to make more than that at first in case the recipes aren't yummy, you know?

      Good luck!

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  2. I made a few of those a couple weeks ago, and they were great! I loved the beef stew.

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  3. I love that you are adding your settings. I have a fancy DSLR too, and I've taken classes, but I'm not that good yet!

    Also, meal planning? I never thought I'd be a meal planner, but now I am obsessed. I need to get out more.

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  4. Oh my goodness! You're so cool! I've always wanted to do that!! :-)

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  5. I totally did that pin, too! I actually just did a post reviewing all the recipes (http://theadventuresofanamateurhousewife.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-pinned-in-and-did-it-now-ill-review-it.html ). I went a little crazy and doubled the recipes so I ended up with A LOT OF FOOD. Some of the recipes we loved, some were just "eh." But, my husband won't touch onions or peppers, so I had to adjust some (ahem, most) of the recipes which may have affected the taste.
    I also just did another batch of crockpot freezer meals in anticipation of #2's arrival. I used some of the recipes from that pin along with some recipes from the Six Sisters blog.

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    1. What recipes did you use from the six sisters blog? I am 35 weeks along with #4 and am trying to stock up the freezer. Anything can help - so far I've just bought pre-made frozen meals from the grocery. I'd love to add some home made options.

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  6. Meal planning FTW!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. And I can't wait to see how your slow cooker stuff turns out.

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  7. Ooooh! Be sure to let us know how it turns out! I need to be better friends with my crockpot, but I want to make sure the recipes are tried and true before I risk them.

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  8. See, this is positive for all of us with young kids who do nothing but poop - look at those helpful older kids doing manual labor (I mean helping Mom)! Looks like all my hard work will have paid off once they're old enough to wield knives...

    Also I love me some Fuzzibunz solely for the super-round tush they create, but ours have always leaked more than any other cloth diaper, so I'll be interested to read what you have to say.

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    1. Love this sentence, "Looks like all my hard work will have paid off once they're old enough to wield knives..."

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  9. How do you feel about sharing the cost of what was spent on said planned meals?

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    1. Oooh, that is a good idea! I'll try to figure it out. I get non-groceries at the store too, ya know? So I'm not exactly sure on the cost of food alone.

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  10. Whoa. It's like a double post--meal planning AND camera tips too. One day I will figure out what all those numbers on my camera screen mean. Hooray for meal planning!! We don't do this style of having it all prepped and ready to go...will be interested to hear how it goes. I am tickled whenever I just have a menu ready and groceries ready in the pantry.

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    1. I've never done it before either! Pretty much I feel like I just climbed Mt. Everest.

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  11. I bought that meal planner from the Sweet Tea Paperie when you got us the 15% off. And I just used it on Sunday to plan this week's meals. A group of us are doing a "clean eating" challenge for the next 10 days, so I really had to plan carefully. Day 1: Worked great! Very excited....Good luck with your meal plan!

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    1. Did you really? Yay! I'm so glad! I'm thinking about doing something like that for Lent. Oh gosh. I better just take one day at a time... :)

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    2. One more thought: I went to costco and Walmart supercenter to do my grocery shopping for the week: Cost was about $300 which is still a lot but is a savings for us. I had so much fresh and frozen green veggies, fruit and meat. I was really surprised. Shows me how much money is spent by our family on the junkie stuff. Planning, clean eating...pleasing to our wallet!

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    3. Yes! It was a 'big' trip but now I'm looking at the plan and at the amount of food in the house and wondering if I'm even going to need to go to the store next week. Seriously.

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  12. I just wanted you to know that I have thus far resisted Pinterest, but made an account this morning. Just to get the slow cooker thingy. I can't resist a meal plan AND a crock pot all in the same plan.

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  13. This looks great! What a great way to teach your kids about cooking, thinking ahead, and budgeting!

    By the way, do you know the trick about freezing liquids (just in case you make your own chicken broth and freeze it in 2 cup increments)? You pour the liquid into the ziploc bags and then lay them flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer. You can then stack them or "file" them vertically in a basket in the freezer to save room. I do this with soups, spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, etc.!

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    1. Why didn't I think to do this with stock?!? I knew to do it with breast milk (TMI?), but this will save my freezer from being overrun with plastic tubs of stock! Thanks!

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  14. Need to do something similar with baby #4 coming in March...will have to check that pin out!!

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  15. meals ahead, planned, crock, etc etc i mean that's great but I see there that you have a girlchild who cuts things with a knife. how old is your girlchild and when were you able to employ her thusly? my girlchild is nearing 6...how much longer do I have to wait???????????

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    1. The girlchild of the greater aptitude in the common sense arena was cracking eggs at age 4. Supervised knife usage at 7 or 8. BUT they are the world's slooooooooooowest choppers, lawdy lawdy. I just have them do it on principle ;)

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  16. Look at you! No cooking dinner for a week!

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  17. I have GOT to try this. I read that article about the slow cooker recipes and it looked like a great idea. So how did yours turn out?

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    1. So far I've only tried 1 recipe, but it turned out great. It was the bean soup, but I added 4 strips of sliced bacon to flavor it up :)

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  18. Woo hoo, way to go! It will be great!!!
    Megan

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  19. Just did a bunch of these since we had the baby on the way. Let me tell you, we brought her home late Tuesday night and on Wednesday I threw one of the freezer meals in the crockpot. It made me feel like superwoman to have a healthy and delicious meal on the table that night!

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