Thursday, April 26, 2018

30 meals in under 3 hours

Saving time and money in our crazy family life is always a priority. I've found that meal prepping and utilizing our freezer makes life much easier. Finding time to cook during the day is a complete struggle. Unless I have something planned or made ahead of time dinner time becomes pretty crazy. So buying our meats in bulk and doing a large single prep day is the way to go for our family! With about 35 pounds of trimmed chicken I can prepare about 30 meals in a simgle sitting that will last us about 2-3 months (using them 2-3 times per week). 




Preparation tools you will need

  • Cutting Board(s) more than one can be helpful to spread out your work space. I like the super thin ones from IKEA much like these, because you can line a bunch of them up to create a big cutting space.
  • Knives - any will do! 
  • Your recipe ingredients of course! Download your recipes via PDF here and print them out. 
  • Freezer bags (you'll need a lot!). Get good ones! Especially if you will be storing your chicken for a while. If you buy in bulk you can get them at a great price. We love these ones.
  • Optional but AWESOME! These bag holders prop up your freezer bags and keep them from tipping or spilling while you fill them up. 
  • Sharpie or labels for your bags, these ones are perfect for printing the recipes to stick onto the bags, This allows you to have the full recipe and directions attached right to your bag. PRINT YOUR FREE MEAL LABELS HERE. The template we've used matches Avery's 2x4 labels (5163) or these more affordable ones.

Tips
  • Make sure you have all of your ingredients on the day of your prep, you will want to prepare and freeze everything that day if possible or within 2-3 days at the latest.  We love wegmans for buying our chicken, places like Costco and Aldi may also have some great deals.
  • Recipes are easy to double or triple, depending on your family size! 
  • Prep in smaller portions or divide recipes into two bags for smaller families. 
  • Choose 3-5 recipes to double or triple to complete preparation for 35-40 Pounds of chicken. You can also opt to leave some chicken unprepared. I usually save about 6-8 pounds for meals I haven't prepped ahead.
  • Recipes and ingredients are typed and can be easily printed and attached to your freezer bags at this link. This means you won't even need to write on your bags! Use some packing tape or get fancy and print them one some labels! These labels are perfect if you are so inclined -we've also converted the recipes into a label template here. 
  • Find a large area to do your work. I like to clear off our dining room table and spread everything out! 


Recipes
Some of these are family favorites others are just basic, easy to throw together meals that work great for our family. We hope you love them just like we do! 







                         
 A post shared by Miss. Chickadee (@lvfindandgoseek) on














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