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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Making 26 Freezer Meals in 3 Hours

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By on · 23 Comments

I picked up my 40 pound box of Zaycon chicken the other day and quickly decided that since my only options for running water at our house was the bathroom sink, shower or the bathtub, I would share my 40 pounds of chicken with my neighbor, The Church Lady.

She had been talking about wanting to do some freezer meals together so I called her up and suggested that if she wanted to pick up all the other ingredients, I’d bring all the containers and the chicken and we could make the meals together.

stuffing manicotti shells

The night before our freezer meal shindig, I hauled my favorite crock pots over to her place and we stuffed them full of 30 pounds of boneless chicken, seasoned them, and then turned the crock pots on low to cook overnight. When she woke up she turned the crock pots off, and I stopped by a few hours later with bags and containers in tow.

washing dishesNote to self: making a mess in someone elses kitchen, is a lot more fun than making a mess in your own kitchen. 😉
foil pans lined up for freezer meals

Foil freezer pans make the whole assembly process of freezer meals a total breeze.

freezer meals in freezer bags

I also like using 1 gallon freezer bags as well. Mostly because they can be frozen flat and are easy to stack in my freezer.

freezer meals

It took us a little less than 3 hours {it would have taken even less time, but we became distracted catching up on the latest gossip}.

Here’s what we put together:

Not too shabby if you ask me. 🙂

~Mavis

Find all my Freezer Meal Recipes 

Links to freezer pans I commonly use:

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Comments

  1. Yay! I’m getting my Zaycon chicken on Monday… I’m by myself and my freezer needs to be cleaned out. But. A lot of the frozen veggies I’ll use in the meals. My plan is to can half the chicken (saves freezer space). Then I’m going to make some marinated cubed chicken for kabobs and then some slow cooker recipes: Lemon Pepper Chicken, Rosemary Chicken, Crockpot BBQ Chicken, and Teriyaki Chicken all for freezer bags. Mavis, you are my inspiration!!!

    Reply

  2. Awesome! Last winter I was pregnant with baby #3 so I made a bunch of freezers meals with the chicken right away. I made your recipes for Cilantro Lime Chicken (added salsa) and Chicken Cacciatore and both were yummy 🙂 This year (now that I have 3 kids ages 4 and under….) I was lucky to remember to pick it up, lol. I did throw a bunch in the crockpot to freeze some shredded chicken, and I doubled supper to get 1 meal in the freezer. Next year I need to be a bit more organized and get more meals ready right away, it was so nice having a freezer full of easy suppers.

    Reply

  3. Amazing job, Mavis! I picked my 80lbs of Zaycon chicken up last week, on my birthday evening, so I spent 3 hours getting that all ready for freezing, and an hour the next day putting together 3 freezer meals. End result of my efforts were 12 quart sized baggies of sliced chicken for fajitas (1lb each), 19 gallon sized baggies each with 4 plain breasts, and 3 cilantro lime chicken meals in bags. Once I got all my stuff lined up for doing the cilantro lime chicken and got to chopping, it just took an hour to get the 3 done. We love that particular meal, and I love how versatile it is; serve on rice, with rice, on noodles, or in tortillas with rice, as burritos. I have some frozen burritos from the last time I made cilantro lime chicken, which means a freezer meal became MORE freezer meals. That’s a double win in my book.

    Reply

    • Now I have to make room in my freezer for 40lbs of Zaycon’s chicken tenders that will come in January. Before that, I need to see if I can fit a turkey in there. I realized that my free turkey from last year is just 12 lbs and I don’t think that will feed 12 people! LOL

      Reply

  4. OMGosh, Mavis… I’m drowning in Zaycon chicken! Actually, not really. I just haven’t had the time to finish processing it all. I picked it up on Tuesday. I hope to heck it is still okay. Still smells fresh. The breasts are HUGE this time! Anyways, before I share what I plan to do with it all, I need to ask you a question. Do you think the mashed potato topping on your Chicken Casserole w/Mashed Potato Topping recipe would freeze well? Depending on your answer, this is what I plan to do (as my second 7 lb batch is in the crockpot). Three each using shredded chicken: recipe above, Chicken Tamale Casserole, and Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole. Using pre-cooked and seasoned cut up chicken, three each: Creamy Chicken Alfredo w/Broccoli & Zaycon bacon (I hope penne freezes well), Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta w/Sautéed greens & bacon, and bagged sauce & chicken for Southeast Asian Chicken & Noodles. Lastly, three each with butterflied breasts: breasts bagged with marinade for Baked Bruschetta Chicken w/Sundried Tomatoes & SDTomato Dressing, Baked Lemon Parsley Chicken Breasts w/ Couscous (to be added on cooking day), and bagged breasts in marinade for Garlic Parmesan Crusted Chicken. Whew! I guess I wrote a book. Oops! So, back to that question… what do you think?

    Reply

    • I think mashed potatoes made with cream cheese or sour cream {instead of milk} would do fine. 🙂 Have fun tomorrow!

      Reply

    • Kellie, I make a similar casserole…we call it a chicken or turkey shepherds pie in our house, because we don’t use the traditional beef ones…bottom layer is leftover turkey/chicken from a holiday or weekend dinner mixed into the leftover gravy + your choice of veggies (I usually use corn but peas and or carrots would be nice too!) layer two is usually stuffing (I usually don’t have enough leftover in our house so just make a quick box of stovetop to use instead) and then top layer is the left over mashedpotatoes! We do everything in ours, butter, skim milk, sourcream (any kind, fat free, lowfat, full fat, whatever, we always use Tillamook) and then place a piece of parchment paper over top and then wrap in press n’ seal… or just use the lids like Mavis has if you bought that type, I always cheap out, haha. When ready to bake, I usually defrost the night before, and then day of, simply pop in a 350 oven for 35-40 mins or until warmed all the way through and then broil til the desired browned on top, and its perfect every time!

      Reply

    • Ha! Thanks, but you would probably change your mind the first time you saw me prowling around the yard in footie pajamas. 🙂

      Reply

  8. Are your freezer pans the ones from Costco Business Center in Fife? If so, do they come with the “cardboard” tops that you can write on like those that are shown in the photo? Finished processing my Zaycon chicken the other day…..9 freezer meals, 6 quart bags of cooked/shredded chicken and the rest packaged for easy access. 🙂

    Reply

    • Yes, Costco business center in Fife. One size is foil, and the other cardboard so you can write on top. 🙂

      Reply

  9. Picked up my 40lbs yesterday…froze 16 packages of two breasts each, and have 7 breasts simmering right now with chili pepper flakes, garlic and onions to make my shredded taco meat for chicken tacos and enchiladas.

    Dinner tonight will be tacos, then I’m going to freeze up some pre portioned into proper servings taco shreds, as well as set aside the enchilada shreds…then tomorrow I’m making my white sourcream green chili enchilada sauce and assembling those meals for dinner this coming week and to freeze for future meals as well!

    OMG my house smells amazing right now…

    Reply

  10. I would love to do this but I don’t have a freezer and I can’t find anyone to share 40 pounds of chicken breasts with me and I can’t afford to buy it myself. I’ve been making a few meals in my crock pot, dividing them into single servings, and freezing them in freezer bags for later use but with just my over the fridge freezer I can’t make up a whole lot at one time. Those of you who have a stand alone freezer are so lucky.

    Reply

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