Menu Plan Monday: February, 22nd (Freezer Clean Out)

Over the weekend, I attempted to reorganize our freezers.  I have both my kitchen freezer and my basement chest freezer stuffed and it was very difficult to locate anything. 

Part of my problem is that I stored a lot of leftovers in plastic containers instead of freezer bags.  Those plastic storage containers just take up so much space in the freezer.  Freezer bags can stack much nicer and take up less space. 

In the next few weeks, I am going to try to use up some of my pre-made dinners in order to make room in the freezer.  And anything I add to the freezer will be stored correctly from now on! 

Here's my plan for this week: 

• Monday:  Chicken Soup, BBQ wings
• Tuesday:  Chicken Croquettes, mashed potatoes, corn
• Wednesday:  Ravioli and Chicken Parm 
• Thursday:  Cowboy Stew, corn bread
• Friday:  Minestrone Soup, grilled cheese or tuna sandwiches
• Saturday:  leftover buffet
• Sunday:  Pork chops, macaroni and cheese, vegetable

The barbecue wings and ravioli are leftovers from the SuperBowl.  I froze everything right away, so that we wouldn't waste the leftovers.  I hate throwing food away after a party because I don't deal with the leftovers right away.  This time I forced myself to pack them into the freezer! 

The chicken parm is a store bought frozen dinner.  Figured it would be a good match for the ravioli. 

The cowboy stew and minestrone soup are leftovers from previous dinners that I saved the leftovers for easy dinners.  Unfortunately, they weren't stored in freezer bags and are causing a lot of wasted space.  I won't make that mistake again. 

By cleaning out some of the freezer stuff, I'll be saving on groceries this week.  I should be able to get by with only buying milk and bread and a few baby items. 

I'll also be able to focus on other parts of the house or just spend more time playing with Gracie, since a few of my meals this week are just reheat and serve type meals! 

For other menu planning ideas, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday, hosted by I'm an Organizing Junkie. 

~Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot~

Cooking a whole chicken in the crock pot is a new favorite meal of mine. Mostly because it's so easy. I also like the fact that we can get a couple of meals out of it. Making it an extremely frugal recipe.

Easy and Frugal ~ what a perfect combination!

Last month, I bought 2 whole chickens at Costco for $8.00. I prepared one in the crock pot last month and just made the second one today.

For us, we can usually get 2 meals from one chicken, making the chicken for each meal cost only $2.00!

This is the recipe I based today's meal on. I altered it a bit according to the ingredients I had on hand. Also, I doubled it.

I found that when I prepared my chicken last month (using a different, but similar, recipe) the spices just slipped right off of the chicken. It was still tasty, but we suspected it could be better!

Doubling the amount of spices and drying the chicken after rinsing seemed to do the trick this time!

Here's what I used:
2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
3 tsp. dried minced onion
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 tsp. paprika
3 tsp. salt


Here's what I did:
1. Mixed spices together
2. Removed giblets from chicken,
3. Rinse & dry
4. Rubbed spice mixture inside & out & under skin
5. Placed chicken in crock pot
6. Cooked on low for 6 hours.

The original recipe suggested applying the dry rub and refrigerating overnight. I skipped that part. I also skipped the onion that the recipe called for, since we were out of onions.

I really like the way this turned out. It was much better this time. I cannot recall what recipe I used for the first chicken, although it was very similar. I definitely recommend patting the chicken dry with paper towels before adding the dry rub. It will stick better to the "dry" chicken. Any water left on the chicken will cause the spices to slide right off.

I served the chicken with leftover sliced potatoes (recipe for another post) and steamed veggies. Making this a very frugal meal.

We have about a 1/2 a chicken leftover for another meal. I just need to decide what I will create with the leftover meat.

Also, I saved the juices left in the bottom of the crock pot. It's probably too spicy to use alone as a broth or stock, but would probably work if added to a recipe for a little extra kick! I have it in the fridge now, so that I can separate the fat from the liquid. Once I do that, I will freeze in ice cube trays and then into a ziplock bag. Just enough to add a little zing to another recipe.

I discarded the carcass this time. I've heard that chicken stock can be made after the chicken has cooked in the crock pot. I plan to try this another time. Maybe with the next one...and there will be a next one!

Stocking my Freezer and Pantry

One of my goals for the upcoming weeks is to fully stock my pantry and basement freezer for the winter.

It's not as if we live in such a rural area that we're afraid of being snowed in or anything. Just now that we have the baby, we'd like to avoid taking her out if it's too cold.

If we keep the freezer and pantry stocked, then my husband can just stop for the essentials (milk, bread, eggs, or any last minute recipe ingredient) on his way home from work.

During the winter, a lot of our meals are soups or stews with bread or biscuits. Not only are they excellent comfort foods, they also freeze well! That's very important to us.

Since it's just the two of us eating (for now), there would be too much left over to keep in the fridge. We would have to eat it every night for a few nights to finish it. That's boring!

So, I freeze whatever soup or stew is leftover. I try to determine if I can get another night or two (or THREE, if I'm lucky!).

My favorite method of freezing is ziplock freezer bags:
Let food cool before storing.
Fill ziplock with soup or stew or pasta sauce.
Carefully, squeeze out the air while zipping up.
Lay flat in freezer until frozen solid.

I like this method of freezing, because the bag can be frozen all flattened out. Allowing more freezer space. When you have several bags frozen this way, they stand up or stack nicely, using freezer space more efficiently.

I keep a space empty in my kitchen freezer, so that I can easily freeze my ziplock bags. Once they are frozen solid, I carry them down to my chest freezer in the basement.

Sometimes, if I am too busy, I'll grab for a plastic, quart-sized container (won-ton soup container is perfect) and store my soup in that. But these seem to take up too much room in my freezer and waste too much valuable space.