What we have in the freezer now.

I have managed to get 21 meals in our freezer this weekend. Tomorrow I will finish off the other 6. 

Here is what I have done so far. 

Moroccan meatballs. 

chicken schnitzels. 

cooked the meat for the Singapore noodles.

Tuna patties.

Eggplant Parmesan

spaghetti bolognaise.  

I have also made some chicken stock for the meatballs. 

Tomorrow I will finish off by cooking the mushroom pasta and preparing the meat for the Warm Chicken Noodle Salad. 

I was going to do a run down of what I do for each meal in my prep and what I do when it is time to prepare each meal but really need an early night and to do a few other things so I will just go through one meal. .

I will post more about it this week. 

First on the list was the Moroccan meatballs.

I mixed up the meatballs, rolled them together and laid them out on trays. I put the trays in the freezer for about 2 hours and then put the meatballs into freezer bags. 

I will get the meatballs out of the freezer the day before we have them and let them defrost in the fridge. On the day we cook them, I will put them in my slow cooker and then add pasta sauce, diced tomatoes and onions. They will be served with pasta and vegetables. 

OAMC

Today I started getting ready for our big cook for the next 4 weeks.

I have done my menu plan, shopping lists and been through our cupboard to see what we already have.

I have been cooking our meals ahead off and on for a long time now. Over the years I have learnt many things and I am much more efficient at it now.

I start off picking out the recipes I will be doing. I do 9 different meals 3 times each and on the last night, we either get take away or just have some leftovers.

This month we have:

Moroccan meatballs.
Singapore noodles
Teriyaki chicken noodle salad
Tuna patties
Chicken fried rice
Schnitzels
Eggplant Parmesan
Spaghetti bolognaise
Mushroom pasta.

Once I have chosen the meals I put them in a calender and print it off. This way I know what we are having and we spread the meals out.

After the menu plan, I do my list. I put a 3x3 table on a word document and each section has a meal. I then put all the ingredients we need for the meals for each one.

I then go through my list and work out what I need for our cooking day and what we will need to buy each week. I highlight the things we need for our cooking day and then put them into a shopping list. Many things are doubled up but I simply put amounts next to them rather than write the item twice.

Next is the weekly shopping list. I work out what fresh items we will need and put them in a list. For instance, when we have the schnitzels, I want to have salads to go with them. I generally buy this when I do the weekly shop rather than ahead.

Once all the lists are made, I go to my cupboards and see what we have already and cross them off the list.

Then I do my shopping.

Tomorrow I will go into details with my meal prep on the cooking day and how I freeze them.

If any one wants to see my lists, I have put them in google doc's and you can find them here:

Menu list and ingredients.

Weekly menu plan. 

Weekly shopping list for week 4.

The end of the weekend.

Spring has sprung here and the weekend has been great. Steve and I went for a walk yesterday and today. We are going to be walking in two weeks in the City to Bay run/walk. We are doing the 6km walk with Brigette and Daniel is running the 12km. I am pretty confident we will be able to walk the 6 km in one hour.

This week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow morning Joseph has his final physio session for a while. They give the children a break so that they still enjoy coming along. On Tuesday, Christopher will have speech therapy and then on Wednesday I am taking Tom to Adelaide to get his new pump.

This weekend is our oamc. I want to get a post up here for Nancy since she is going to start doing this for her family. 

Now that we are in spring and summer is not far away, I am going to start doing some different meals. In winter we have a lot of crock pot meals and soups. In summer, I tend to do salads and meals that don't need a lot of heating and make the house hot.

These are the meals I have decided so far are going to be on our list this month:

Teriyaki Chicken noodle salad.

Singapore noodles.

Moroccan meatballs.

Chicken Fried Rice.

Tuna Patties.

I will choose another 5 later this week.

So the weekend is just about finished. I will roll our fruit buns out soon and then head to bed. I hope you all have a great week. I will probably be scarce on blogging since the week is going to be so busy.