This is part 2 of my freezer meal tutorial! You can read part 1 here!
After I have done my meal planning and created my shopping list I “shop” my pantry and mark off the items I already have.
Here is what I had in my pantry and freezer already. It’s not a lot but it’s a start!
I got the ground beef for $1.50 each because they were 2 day’s out from their sell by/freeze by date. I always check the clearance meat because you can usually get great deals…just make sure you freeze it right away!
Then I go shopping – it sounds pretty straight forward but for me I like to break it up into a couple of trips. We budget $150 every two weeks for groceries so if I were to go out and buy all of the ingredients in one trip it would wipe out a big portion of our budget. I generally spend around $100 on all the ingredients for my meals so if I spread that out over a couple of weeks then it doesn’t feel like such a hit to our budget.
So here is what my list looks like after “shopping” my pantry
| Quantity | Measurement | Item | Already Have? |
| 1 | piece | Ham | |
| 14 | pounds | Ground beef | 3 pounds |
| 2 | large | Pork roasts | |
| 2 | large | Costco sized bag of chicken | |
| 1 | pound | Sausage | |
| 12 | medium | Onion | |
| 3 | 15 ounce cans | Petite diced tomatoes | |
| 9 | 15 ounce cans | Stewed tomatoes | |
| 1 | 28 ounce | Diced tomatoes | |
| 3 | 6 ounce cans | Tomato paste | |
| 1 | box | Lasagna noodles | |
| 1 | can | Evaporated milk | |
| 1 | 16 ounce | Low fat cottage cheese | |
| 12 | ounce | Monterey jack cheese | |
| 1 | tub | Fat Free Sour Cream | |
| 1 | bag | Parmesan cheese | |
| 1 | Green pepper | 1 Green Pepper | |
| 3 | Red pepper | ||
| 1 | 24 ounce jar | LaVictoria Salsa | |
| 2 | 15 ounce cans | Black beans | 1 can |
| 4 | 16 ounce cans | Cannellini Beans | |
| 2 | cans | Cream of Chicken Soup | 2 cans |
| 2 | cans | Corn | |
| 2 | packages | Taco seasoning | 2 packages |
| 5 | 15 ounce | Thick and chunky cans of chili | |
| 1 | bottle | Yoshida Sauce | |
| 1 | 16 ounce bag | Split Peas | 1 16 ounce bag |
| 10 | cups | Fat free chicken broth | 6 cups |
| 2 | large | Carrots | |
| 1 | large bag | Broccoli | |
| 1 | Jar | Oat Bran | |
| 1 | Jar | Wheat Germ | |
| 1 | box | Quart – Ziploc Bags | |
| 3 | 9 x13 | Foil pans |
A couple of additional items I added to my shopping list are:
- Quart sized Freezer Ziploc bags – I freeze almost everything in Ziploc bags (taco meat, pulled pork, soups). If you lay them flat in the freezer they take up less space and work really well.
- Foil pans for casseroles – I get mine at Dollar Tree – they have a great selection and are only $1!!
Start watching your weekly adds for what is on sale – and happy shopping!
sydneyrueross.com 
I love this idea. I don’t really like to cook and I started working two years ago. I struggle to make dinner. How do you thaw the meals out? Do you take them out of the freezer in the morning or something?
It depended on what the meal was. If it was soup, chili, spaghetti sauce or something like pulled pork I would pull it out of the freezer the night before or in the morning and put it into the fridge. Then just reheat at dinner time.
If it was a casserole, lasagna or enchilada’s I would pull it out of the freezer and put it straight into the oven, then set it so start cooking later in the afternoon. This may seem a little scary at first but usually the casseroles are so dense that they take a while to defrost so it’s not a problem at all. Just make sure if you are going to use this method you have a safe oven!