Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Score at the Grocery Store!!

Image Credit: Life


Ok, so just a quick post today since time is short and I want to get cooking!



I scored big time at FreshCo today in Kingston where almost all of their meat was 50% off! The best before on everything is January 27th (today is the 25th) so if I get cooking and freezing today, I'm not too worried about anything spoiling.




The strategy here at The Do-tique is always about frozen dinners. We cook about once or twice a month in a big way and then the rest of the month we cook up quick stuff and work through the freezer stash. By setting aside one or two afternoons (usually Sundays) a month to make up some extra meals for the freezer, the week seems to go smoother with way less clean up and hassle.

Here are some ideas of things I'll be making up in the next day or so and maybe the list will inspire others in terms of good ideas for make ahead meals:

(All of the meat ingredients were on sale today)


The recipes are just samples. All of these allow for some play to adjust ingredients to what you have on hand - so feel free to substitute or search the web until you find a recipe that matches what you have in the kitchen.

My two best tips here are if you see a cut of meat on sale that doesn't look like what you're looking for, you can get creative about butchering it yourself. For example, if you are looking to make stew, look for a roast on sale and cut it up yourself. If you need pork chops, a roast pork may be more affordable and you can cut the chops from that. Whole chickens are often cheaper than chicken quarters and you can make soup broth from the leftover parts when you quarter it yourself.

My second tip is that if you are at the store and thinking about doing some pre-cooking, pick up some ziploc containers and aluminum casserole trays so that you can easily portion out servings for your freezer without tying up your more permanent dishes.

Avoid intensely complicated recipes for maximum bang for your time input!


DIY Rating: 7
The ease and convenience of frozen dinners at 
a fraction of the cost and without the unhealthy stuff.

The time commitment here is front-end loaded, 
so you will need at least a couple of half-days a month
 to get ahead, but the time saved during the week is substantial.

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