meal planning

The big kids and I have been in San Diego this past week, which is why I haven’t had time to blog. We’re finally getting back into our usual routine, and back on east coast time. My kids go back to school the day after Labor Day so we’ll be working on getting back on our (horribly early) morning schedule next week. I know many of your kids are already back at school. With that being said, the make ahead meals I’ve been posting on here are a great way to eliminate dinner time stress and make your life easier. Here’s a tasty recipe to try next week. If you’re from the mid-west like me, you’ve had your share of broccoli cheese casserole over the years. This is a healthier, vegan version, but the result is just as tasty and comforting as you remember. Happy Eating!

Recipe adapted from: Whatvegankidseat.com

I thought it might be helpful to make a post for each freezer meal we made, in case some of you found the idea of making fourteen meals at once pretty daunting.

Last night, I “cooked” the black bean fajitas that my husband prepared on Tuesday. You can find the details below with a link to the official recipe page. Basically, it’s a mix of beans, peppers and onions that you can serve for dinner any way you’d like. If any of you have made Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken in the past where you throw some frozen chicken breasts, a jar of salsa and taco seasoning in the crock pot and call it a day, think of this as the vegetarian version. You can serve them as black bean fajitas, nachos, tacos or just put them on top of brown rice, which is what we did. We also sliced up some lettuce, avocado and tomato to put on top. The flavor was sweeter than I expected, but it was really delicious. I was nervous the kids wouldn’t eat it because of all the red peppers and onions, but they all devoured it quickly. A meal that all three of them will eat?! Where am I right now? This meal is definitely a keeper. If I had it to do over again, I’d double or even triple the recipe to make it last longer. Ours was pretty much gone in one sitting. Hope your family likes it too!

Black Bean Fajitas/Tacos/Bowls-Quick and Dirty Version (You know how I like it.)

Ingredients

3 Bell Peppers-any color, or omit them altogether

and just add more beans-buy frozen peppers to save $$

1 Small Onion-chopped

1 can Black Beans-15 oz.

2 cloves Garlic, minced or 2 T pre-minced

1 tablespoon Honey

1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vingar

1 tablespoon Chili powder

2 teaspoons Cumin

1 teaspoon Paprika

1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper

Directions

Throw all those ingredients in a crockpot or gallon freezer bag. When you’re ready to cook, let it simmer in there on low for 6-8 hours or if suddenly it’s 2 pm and you realize you forgot to start cooking, I learned that it can also cook on high for 3-4 hours. If you’re cooking this from freezing, there is no need to thaw it before tossing it in.

Tips: If you’re feeling carnivorous, feel free to throw in some frozen/thawed chicken breasts to the crockpot at the same time as everything else, or add in some cooked ground beef 10 minutes before serving.

🙂 Erin

Now that you know the cheapest places to buy your ingredients, it’s time to share the recipes!

Monthly Freezer Meal Challenge-14 meals

1. Tomato Veggie & Barley Soup
2. Coconut Chickpea Curry
3. Mexican Black Bean Chili with Cornbread topping
4. Greens and Beans Soup
5. Black Bean Fajitas
6. Potato Stew-I’m subbing regular potatoes for sweet because my kids don’t like them.
7. Noodles Stroganoff
8. Vegan Minestrone
9. Teriyaki Veggies & Rice
10. Broccoli Cheese Un-Casserole
11. Tempeh Tikka Masala
12. Sloppy Vegan Joes
13. Coconut Tofu Curry
14. Edamame Fried Rice

I found recipes 1-5 on the awesome website, http://newleafwellness.biz. This site has tons of healthy crockpot freezer meals with beautiful photos of the food. They also offer many different crockpot cookbooks for a small fee. It’s run by a wife and husband team who have four kids so they know how to make things that are both delicious and simple.

Recipes 6-10 were found on another great site, whatvegankidseat.com. This blog was especially useful for us when we decided to go vegetarian at home. It’s easy for my husband and I to find vegan meals we like, but tougher to find things our kids will eat. The site is under construction right now, but the link above will take you to many more recipes.

The final four recipes came from the site, onceamonthmeals.com. These recipes were four out of 101 that were listed on just this post alone, so you can imagine how many more recipes they have to offer. The entire site is dedicated to helping subscribers shop, prep and cook meals for an entire month. In addition, for $16/month, they’ll provide the Grocery Shopping List, Prep Instructions, step-by-step Cooking Day Instructions, individual Recipe Cards, printable Labels, and Thaw Sheets for each monthly menu. There are over 600 menus to choose from. This sounds like a pretty sweet deal for busy parents.

With these three sites in our sights, (ugh, sorry for the cheesiness!), we’re well on our way to mastering the art of monthly meals. My husband and I worked together and it took us just under three hours to prep all 14 meals. We listened to music and there was a lot of singing (husband) and dancing (me). I hope you try monthly cooking and have fun with it, or at least as much fun as you can have while cooking.

🙂 Erin

You can see how much he loves having his picture taken.

My husband wouldn’t let me smile for the camera, so now I just look creepy.

Last week my husband and I, (Ok, just my husband.) decided that we needed to go on a budget(ugh!). We sat down and calculated every single expense over the past month, (thrilling night!) and the results were pretty eye-opening, especially when it came to eating out and grocery bills! Since January, we decided to go mostly vegetarian at home, which should’ve saved us some money, but we’d been ordering from meal delivery services like, Purple Carrot and Green chef, to only name a few. (I’ll save my reviews of the five different services we’ve tried for another post.) The bottom line was; the three meals a week were super convenient and mostly delicious, but also so much more expensive than if we’d been shopping on our own. Those subscriptions were the first thing to go.

So, now we needed cheap dinner ideas. Searching on Pinterest, as usual, I decided that we could save money by planning, shopping and prepping meals for an entire month at a time.  I found fourteen dinners, mostly crockpot freezer meals, to last us for a month. They are all vegetarian meals, but could easily be made into meat-friendly dishes, just sub beans for meat. I prepared a grocery list of all the items we’d need, and my husband and I went to Costco, Trader Joe’s and Kroger over the weekend. Today we plan on prepping and freezing all fourteen meals, because what better way to celebrate the fourth?! Oh lord, what have I done?! Check out the meal plan and grocery list below.

Monthly Freezer Meal Challenge-14 meals

1. Tomato Veggie & Barley Soup
2. Coconut Chickpea Curry
3. Mexican Black Bean Chili with Cornbread topping
4. Greens and Beans Soup
5. Black Bean Fajitas
6. Potato Stew-I’m subbing regular potatoes for sweet because my kids don’t like them.
7. Noodles Stroganoff
8. Vegan Minestrone
9. Teriyaki Veggies & Rice
10. Broccoli Cheese Un-Casserole
11. Tempeh Tikka Masala
12. Sloppy Vegan Joes
13. Coconut Tofu Curry
14. Edamame Fried Rice

Grocery List

Produce

Green or sweet peppers-5

Red or russet potatoes-2

Bag of baby carrots-2

Mushroom-any variety

Coleslaw mix-2 cups

Leek

Red onion

Yellow onion-2

Frozen

Butternut squash or any other root vegetable-small bag

Broccoli-small bag

Green beans-small bag

Brown rice–small bag

Edamame, shelled-small bag

Dairy

Shredded cheddar cheese

Tofutti cream cheese, or regular if not vegan

Heavy cream-1 cup

Greek yogurt-2 cups

Tempeh- 1 1/2 cup

Tofu-firm

Pantry

White beans-Great Northern or Canellinni-3

Garbanzo Beans-3

Black Beans-3

Barley-dry-small bag

Tomato Sauce-3

Tomato Paste-3

Diced Tomato-3

Egg Noodles

Pasta shells

Corn muffin mix

Beef broth-4 cups

Chicken broth-4 cups

Vegetable Broth-5 cups

Minced Garlic

Canned Pineapple

Teriyaki Sauce

Coconut milk-lite-10 oz.

Fish sauce

Textured vegetable protein- 1 1/2 cups

Mushroom soup-32 oz.

Will our marriage survive this meal prepping bonanza? To be continued…..

Still To Come-Part 2-Costco, Trader Joe’s and Kroger cost comparison-Who does it cheaper? and Part 3-The Recipes-It’s getting hot in here, because my crockpot’s on.