Fill Your Freezer Day 13

Today is a SUPER SIMPLE way to Fill Your Freezer. Of course it naturally will save you time too when you go to make dinner!

Cook your Ground Meat

Cook up ground beef, or turkey, or ground chicken, whatever you’re family eats. I simply cook it with salt and pepper that way I can flavor it however I need to when I need some ground beef.

I have to rave on this pan. My husband and I have been paying more attention to items as we replace them, instead of choosing something because of the price/namebrand/ or quick accessibility to purchase. We had been saying we needed a new ‘non stick’ skillet for awhile, but we came across GreenPan.

After some research and realizing not only the health benefits- toxic free, no fumes, and you can put it in the oven!!! The best part was the fact it didn’t end up costing any more than a similar pan that we had already, so we decided it was worth it to take a chance on this “new to us brand.” .. It is so good! It takes less oil, the bottom is actually flat, so all the eggs I cook actually cook at the same time…. Anyways, I had to rave about it for a second, but if you don’t believe me the GreenPan has over 1700 reviews on amazon!

How I use Ground Meat

So many options:
-Soup or Chili
-Sloppy Joes
-Add some BBQ sauce and serve over baked potatoes
-Shepard’s Pie (or some refer to as Cottage Pie)
-Tacos or Nachos

Happy Friday – I don’t know about you but I am looking forward to a 3 day weekend!

Fill Your Freezer Day 10

We’re on Day 10 of Fill Your Freezer February. This month I focus on getting meals and items into my freezer that I know my family actually enjoys eating.

I baked up some scones for breakfast yesterday and realized, just like my buttermilk biscuits, scones freeze perfectly!

Scones can be made into many different flavor variations but I did a simple scone recipe and added cinnamon. I use this scone recipe.

We enjoy scones and tea sometimes while doing homeschool, because we can 😉

Feel free to share what you have tucked in your freezer lately!

Fill Your Freezer Day 8 & 9

One week done! Seeing my freezer fill up on this challenge makes me happy! I’m trying to not touch anything I’ve put in there yet so I can get into a good little stockpile of freezer items and slowly rotate more in as I take something out.

I took advantage of a couple of meat sales to stock up the freezer. Chicken legs were buy one get on free so I was able to tuck those into the freezer. Although I didn’t this time I could have easily repacked them into gallon sized freezer bags with an marinade- oil and spices/bbq/pesto.

I did however buy some of our favorite ground sausage on sale. To prep it for the freezer I carefully cut it out of the package and then sliced it (12 patties per lb). I put parchment paper between layers and freeze! Simple, cheaper, and healthier than frozen patties). When I want to cook it I simply heat a pan and cook straight from the freezer.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 6

Fill Your Freezer day five already! If you’re new- the month of February I take the time to cook and freeze our favorite meals, snacks, sauces, and other components to make meals.

Today is one of the kids’ favorite breakfasts- baked oatmeal. I’ve seen it a lot of recipes floating around pinterest lately but we have been making it for years.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 5

Thank goodness today is grocery day! Eating more fresh, whole foods has meant we go through what seems like more food! Maybe that’s true but I can only buy so much produce if I want it to fit in my fridge. [Buying more whole foods has been a better on our grocery budget too rather than trying to buy allergy replacements like dairy free cheese or specially gluten free crackers].

It’s also exciting to see the kids trying and some liking new foods – recently lentils, cabbage and kiwis. Not everyone liked all the new things, but enough did to put it into food rotation! Grocery day is like an adventure for them to see “what’s new.”

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Fill Your Freezer Day 4

Day four of the Fill Your Freezer February challenge. Yesterday I made a roasted garlic and red pepper sauce.

It is the same sauce that I use in my Roasted Red Pepper Pasta recipe. But you can read a full tutorial on how to make the red pepper sauce itself, click here. You can use the red pepper sauce to add a different flavor to your pizza or simply use as a dipping sauce too!

I mentioned a few posts back about being on a food allergy elimination and how I have been trying out new recipes. My daughter specifically asked if I could make this red pepper sauce to try it as a dipping with a couple of the different recipes.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 3: Chicken Broth

For the last few years I’ve used February as a month where I purposely cook a little more, but only on items that I already know our family enjoys eating! I fill our freezer with full meals, components of a meal, or snacks that we can enjoy over the coming weeks and months. Today: Chicken Broth!

Focusing on filling the freezer during February not only get me a stockpile in the freezer but also allows me to refill and add more over the next few months without takes large chunks of time specifically focus on it. I can fill in one or two items as things get low. I’m also constantly going through certain things, like chicken broth!

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Fill Your Freezer Day 1 & 2

Happy February! If you missed my last post or new around here I host a “Fill Your Freezer February” Challenge. I focus on making and freezing meals, snacks, and items that I know my family actually enjoy eating!

Starting Where I Am

My refrigerator freezer currently only contains some frozen cherries, homemade jam, corn, couple pounds of beef, and a whole chicken. And I shared the state of my chest freezer in this post. .. Ahem, I plan on actually cleaning it out today!

Although my freezers are pretty empty (thank you pregnancy prepped freezer meals!) I am starting with some basics, but things I know we will eat regularly and a bunch of!

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