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Time Savings Cooking - Money Saving Meals

The freezer in your basement, or the freezer that sits on your refrigerator can be so much more of a savings than you might have ever realized before. The freezer is a source of saving you time every day, and it is also money saving device as you stock it and use items from it! In this article I want to tell you more about how you can cut back on the time you spend in the kitchen, and how you are going to see a real savings in how much you spend weekly in feeding your family. 

The freezer is one way that you can really find savings for your family budget. You will see a small savings in the first month in time, as you are going to have to stock your freezer, but in the second and third month you will find so much extra time and money that you will continue on with your great savings plan. 

Start with a listing of your favorite foods. What types of foods do you like the most? The foods that you like to have the most is what you are going to start with in figuring what types of foods that you can freeze and you actually find that your list is very long. What you are going to do is cook all types of meals, freeze them, and then thaw when you need to cook them for dinner. 

Dinner doesn’t take long at all when you have many types of foods prepared and at your fingertips. You can thaw your meals in the microwave, or you can pop them in the oven, which even you prefer. There are many types of ways you can prepare the meals that you put in the freezer so you will want to use different types of containers, plastic, aluminum or glass, depending on how long you are going to freeze the meals, and how you want to cook them later. 

You don’t even have to spend a lot of money on containers. If you have a local thrift store, a store that resells other peoples items you are sure to be able to pick up all types of containers at a very small price. Even if you don’t want to purchase second hand, you are sure to find great deals on containers in many of the larger retailers in your own area. Two or three dollars a container, and you can use them for months and months – well worth the initial investment. 

When you are preparing two or three weeks worth of meals at a time, you are going to be doing a full afternoon of cooking, but you can think about it like this: just a few hours is going to save you so many more hours when you are busy and on the go. Going to the game, getting to school, or when you are getting home late from work – all the meals you have in the freezer are going to give you so much more time later on!

What are some of the easy meals you can make and freeze?
Some of the easiest meals that you can start off with are hamburgers, meatloaf, Salisbury steak, meatballs, chili, tacos, and anything else you can imagine with hamburgers. You can do sausages, sausage patties, sausage meatballs, and sausage for on a bagel. The more options that you have, in what you like to eat, the more different types of meals you can make and freeze. 

Along with meats, there are all types of side dishes, veggies and even desserts that you can freeze and eat later. Think about spaghetti, mac and cheese, rigatonis, and even buttered noodles. You can make chicken soup, beef soup, vegetable soup and anything you heart basically desires to make your meals easier. 

What else are frozen meals good for? If you have a sick friend, if you have to take a covered dish, if you are late making dinner for your family, or if you want a mid night snack! You can easily grab a few meals when you are visiting with your parents, a sick family member or if you want to make someone else’s day a little easier!

A tip in making and freezing meals: 
Be sure that you mark what is in the container and the date that you are putting the meals in the freezer. That way you are never guessing about what you are getting out, and you will know which meals you need to use up first when they have been in the freezer too long. 

How does making many weeks worth of meals and freezing them help you save money? Because you always know you have a freezer full of meals made up, from the main dish, the side dishes and the veggies, you will stop visiting the store as much. Every time you walk into the store it is very difficult to purchase just what you need and nothing extra. When you stop going to the store after work, when you stop eating out as much, you have more money in your pocket! Cooking from scratch and freezing save you so very much more money than purchasing boxed food or fast foods. Now get planning and cooking!