Freezer Meals to the Rescue!

Today was a busier Sunday than I typically like to have, but I think it was worth it.

It started out really rough; I woke up feeling really sick.

I was dizzy, and threw up, but was determined to go to church: Thomas was giving a talk today, and I wasn't going to miss it!

But we left after sacrament, and I came home and slept for two hours. 

Woke up from my "nap" still not feeling the greatest, but determined to complete my plans for the day: make my freezer meals!

I originally wanted to give it a week or two of couponing and scoping out the best sales before I started the big session, but after our scare at the hospital on Thursday, I'm just paranoid that our little peanut is going to be gracing us with his presence any day. So I wanted to "get 'er done" this weekend. 

So yesterday I spent about an hour going through my coupons and the sale ads for the week, comparing different stores, and making my lists. 

I had gathered recipes off of pinterest and google, created a list of all the ingredients I needed, then checked off the ingredients I already had home, ready to go. 

Then, I went through the ads and coupons.
I compared prices at Cub, Rainbow, Target, and Aldi's. 

Then I got shopping.

With ten different recipes, I was expecting to spend between $100 and $150 on my groceries. However, with my rockstar couponing skills and spending the time to compare prices, it cost me $60 to get all the ingredients I needed to make enough meals to feed Thomas and I for about two months!

These are all the ingredients for the meals. Woot! 

I was expecting to spend about 6 hours in the kitchen: it only took me four and a half! And that is with a couple breaks for Thomas to rub my sore feet, and to eat a snack (gotta keep the blood sugar up!)

Plus, my wonderful husband was great at helping me chop all my veggies:

It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, and I suggest anyone who knows they're going to be going through a busy time to make a bunch of meals in advance!

First, I cleaned the kitchen and prepped: 

I got out all of my ingredients, equipment I would need, and got the sink ready (I had one of the sink ready with hot soapy water and the other ready to rinse, so that after each recipe I could quick wash the bowls & measuring cups I used, just to stay on top of cleaning!). With as tiny of a kitchen as we have, I needed to be on top keeping it organized so I had optimum working room!

Then we chopped the veggies and the meat. 

Then it was just going through one recipe at a time and plopping everything into the bags!

Sixty bucks, four and a half hours later, and our freezer looked like this:

Stocked with meals for about two months!

I didn't double any recipes, but most of the recipes I split into multiple bags. The recipes say they feed about 6 people, and with it just being Thomas and I, that meant one recipe can feed us three different days. Some of the recipes (soups and chilis) made even more servings. 

It was a good day.

Exhausting day, but a good, productive one.

Getting closer and closer to feeling ready for our little peanut to arrive!

But still praying he decides to wait until he's at least 37 weeks!