How to fill your freezer with foods you love (zero extra time!)

Hi reader, I'm sure you've heard that you save money when you make a meal plan, right? Well, did you know that you can save TIME when you plan too? I like to call this my Get Ahead Action Plan, and it's an awesome combination of batch cooking + freezer cooking + meal planning. When done right, it can save you HOURS in the kitchen each week. Let me show you how it works: Make a meal plan. Aim to make extras of ONE thing every day. Use those extras in future meals and save time! I don't know about you, but I love seeing examples of how things work in real life, so let me take one week of my recent May meal plans and show you what my Get Ahead Action Plan would look like: Sunday: Giant Italian Meatballs // 15-minute Spaghetti // Side Salad + Caesar dressing Make a double batch of meatballs; freeze. Make 2x batch of sauce and freeze for later (would make a great pizza sauce!). Prep 2x side salad for dinner this week, but make extras for lunches too. Go ahead and prep salad for dinner tomorrow and cut veggies for Tuesday while I'm at it. Save all scraps for stock. Make 3x batch of Caesar salad dressing (today, Tuesday, Wednesday). Monday: Vegetarian Taco Salad // Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits You need brown rice and black beans for the salad, so I (personally) would make 2lbs black beans in my Instant Pot and freeze extras in 2 cup portions. Then, I'd make a 4x batch of brown rice in my Instant Pot and freeze extras in 2 cup portions. Both salad and biscuits call for shredded cheese, so I'd shred the entire block and freeze in ½ cup portions. Make a 2x batch of biscuits for Thursday, but aim for 4x batch (meal idea on Wednesday!)  Tuesday: Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps // Sliced Veggies with Pesto Hummus If I wasn't already pulling chicken from the freezer, I'd cook 2 whole chickens in the oven at the same time (or in the Instant Pot or slow cooker) and pull all the meat off all the bones; freeze in 2 cup portions. Immediately start a batch of Instant Pot chicken stock with all the bones AND the scraps I've been saving for stock. Make 1 pound garbanzo beans in Instant Pot and freeze in 2 cup portions.  Wednesday: Savory Pasta with Onion, Bacon and Greens // Side Salad (Meal Idea) Cook a full 1lb of bacon and add "BLT's" to the menu next week using reserved biscuits instead of bread. Thursday: Tomato Basil Soup // Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits Make a 3x batch of soup; freeze in either a gallon bag (for 4 of us) or quart bag (to mix/match soup night).  Friday: Instant Pot BBQ Chicken // Homemade Buns // Cilantro Lime Coleslaw Make 2x or 3x batch of homemade buns; freeze. (Meal Idea) If I'm not using chicken from the freezer, make 2x Instant Pot BBQ chicken and add "Southwestern Chicken Salad" to the menu next week. Will use black beans and salsa I made earlier this week. Saturday: Kung Pao Chicken with Vegetables // Instant Pot Brown Rice Use chicken from Tuesday and brown rice from Monday, if available. By being intentional in getting ahead, at the end of the week you'll now have AT LEAST: 1 batch of giant meatballs 1-2 quarts of spaghetti sauce caesar dressing 6-8 cups of brown rice 6-8 cups of black beans shredded cheddar cheese 2 dozen jalapeno cheddar biscuits 6-8 cups of shredded chicken 6-8 quarts of chicken stock 3-4 cups of garbanzo beans 1/2 pound of cooked bacon 1-2 gallons of tomato basil soup 2 dozen hamburger buns That's a lot of food, prepped and ready to go!  At a quick glance, I see at least FIVE full meals ready when I need them... Meatballs + Sauce BBQ Chicken Salad w/Biscuits Soup Southwestern Salad Chicken Sandwiches … plus ingredients to make so much more! I'd love to hear how you plan to "get ahead," reader. Can you hit 'reply' and share with me how you're going to make the most of the time you spend in the kitchen this week? ALL my best ♥, PS: When I first thought of freezer cooking I always imagined weird yellow casseroles and hours of time spent prepping "freezer meals". Thankfully I learned that's NOT always the case!  Like the examples above, I figured out how to freezer cook using only a few extra minutes of my time. AND the food in my freezer is edible!  I compiled my top freezer cooking tips and hacks in my Freezer Cooking Cheatsheets and Recipe Book. Normally this is only available when you join one of my courses (like Meal Planning Bootcamp), however, we're hosting our FIRST EVER Black Friday in July Sale next month!! We'll have 7 bundles FULL of fantastic ebooks, cookbooks, cheatsheets, meal plans, and more to help you Save Time, Save on Groceries, Meal Plan, Fight Inflation, and MORE! The Freezer Cooking Cheatsheets and Cookbook will be in the Meal Planning Bundle. And I'm SUPER excited to share more with you soon! CLICK HERE for a sneak peek and to let me know you want to be alerted when the Black Friday in July sale starts!!

Choose which emails you want to receive, or if you prefer, click here to unsubscribe from everything.
     Crumbs Media, LLC, P.O. Box 381, Kennesaw, GA 30156, US