After a little research on "once a month cooking" and "freezer meals" I set forth to do what many have been doing successfully. Shop when things are sale, cook for hours and then have meals for several days. I started off small. This week at Shop Rite, pork loin was on sale for $1.99/lb. So I just did a little mental planning on what I could do with a hunk of pork - Korean pork, noodles & pork, pork stir fry with pickled cabbage, pulled pork, baked pork loin...before deciding on purchasing so much of it. Chicken legs were also on sale for .67c/lb. I bought two packages for $4 & $3 which for us is good enough for 4 meals. We love dark meat and I could always use legs for BBQ, soup, baked, stir fry, etc.
Time: 1 hour
Cost: $16 Pork, $7 Chicken, $1 Onion, $2 Pepper
Chicken Satay
We had company so I made oven baked chicken satay. We planned on putting it on the grill, but then I got lazy and put it in the oven instead. Cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees. This was enough for 4 people and everyone had seconds.
Pork Prep
The pork loin came whole in a long package. This one was $16. Usually, I spend about $5/package of pork loins that are pre-sliced (6 slices at 1/2" thick), so by comparison the $16 was a great deal. I brought over to the butcher and asked him to slice them up into 1" thick slices and leave the end whole so I can roast it or put it into the crockpot. He did just that. No work on my part!
I divided the pork into portion sizes for one meal for the two of us. I do this anyway, but this time I seasoned it before popping them into the freezer. Since the slices are 1" thick, 1 slice should be enough for dinner (along with rice and a side vegetable) and the 3rd and 4th slices will be packed for lunch the next day. If they were sliced thinner they would cook faster, but I don't want them to be dry and I imagine I'll be walking away from the oven/stove often with baby in hand.
Then I packaged each portion in saran wrap and made sure it was nicely sealed and got all the air out of it. I labeled each one with exactly what I marinated/seasoned it with. I put labels on both sides of the package. I made 3 meals (4 slices each) of pork loin with 3 different marinades/seasonings.
I set aside 2 portions for stir fry. Each portion utilized 3 slices of pork loin. 1-2 slices would have been enough for a family of 4 if we ate like a true Chinese household where there are at least 3-4 dishes, rice and a soup. Since I only cook one dish as our main dinner, we need a bit more and then some to have enough for lunch the following day. My mom freezes ginger so I thought I'd give it a try and included it in the package, so it's one less thing I need to prep.
With the tail end of the pork loin (8" worth), I hacked it up into large chunks. I could have/should have left it whole, but I dunno...I never made pulled pork before so this was a first attempt. Line the bottom of the pot with onions and peppers. Add some water, salt, sugar and BBQ sauce. See my junk bag over there to the left (from the peppers). I do that when I'm cooking so I don't have to keep running to the garbage can. Yeah, Rachel Ray and her junk bowl has nothin' on me. My mom and I have been doing this for decades.
This is what it looks like with the sauce.
Put it on high for 20 mins and then cook it on low for 10 hours (based on a recipe I read). I love my old ass crock pot that was a hand me down from a neighbor. I love the character.
As you can see in the freezer, I have everything lined and stacked up. To the right in the foil are ice cream sandwiches I made from a large container of cookies I had and a container of cookie dough ice cream. They are soooooo good! Just assemble, wrap individually and freeze. Although frozen, the cookies are just softened enough by the ice-cream.
At the same time, I was boiling chicken for Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti...Up next!
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