Make-ahead-meals

I think I just successfully completed what I am calling a Make-ahead-meal day. Over the last few months, I have found myself on more than one occasion, forgetting about dinner until about 4pm and then I am scrambling to either thaw meat or poultry I had broken up after a trip to the bulk food store, or rummaging through the pantry. After my husband Steve came home with a 3 pound box of macaroni style noodles and said, "these were on sale" and I decided to cook the whole box and once and make macaroni and cheese for the freezer, it dawned on me that this may not be a bad idea for other dishes as well.

Of course, timing is everything and I haven't had much... but this past weekend I decided enough was enough. I was going to find what store had the best deals for the week and I was going to create a menu for the freezer based on those items.
There were two things that really made this Make-ahead-meal day possible.

1. Steve was home for Presidents' Day
2. There were some great deals at one of our local supermarkets this week

I made a list of the things I already had in the house (onions, cheese, tuna, spices) and what dishes I wanted to make based on what was on sale. When I flipped through the flyer I saw that block cheese, pasta, ground beef (something we don't get often) and whole chickens were on sale.

These are the dishes I decided to make

Mac n Cheese
Tuna Casserole
Chicken Casserole
Tex-mex tamale
Garlic Bread Sloppy Joes
Meatloaf
Tater Tot Hot Dish
Enchiladas

The three casseroles (including the mac n cheese) were pretty easy to put together. While the pasta was boiling, I shredded cheese for each ( i used different kinds since i bought 3 kinds at the store) and put the other ingredients in the stoneware I was freezing them in. Mixed them all together and let them cool before covering and freezing.

The dishes involving the ground beef I think I made more complicated than they needed to be. I bought the meat in the family packs and since the packages total were not quite double or triple to what I needed, I separated it into two different pans to brown. While the meat was cooking, I put together my meatloaf and then tended to the other things that needed chopping; onions, peppers, jalapenos. I carefully separated each into bowls for each recipe (again, I think I thought too much)

All in all, I think it took longer than it should have, but was well worth the time. I stretched $104 in groceries into nine dishes (we roasted two chickens the day before) with ingredients left for on the fly meals. Each dish will get us a dinner and at least 2 left-over lunches.

I am so thrilled to have been able to stretch my usual grocery budget into meals that will last us weeks.