Getting Away From 'Junk' Meals

Since I'm a practical person and love how-to advice, I wanted to share some of the things that have helped me save money and time for our family.  One of those things is freezer meals!  Let me digress a minute and explain how I discovered this secret miracle of time in my life and what led to an absolute love of cooking.
In my early years of marriage, cooking was definitely not something I yearned to do and three o'clock in the afternoon usually brought about groans and moans of self-pity.  I absolutely hated having to start a meal and spend an hour in my little kitchen trying to prepare a well rounded meal for my family.  Then a final blow was dealt to my cooking experience in that my husband was deployed for a year and a half.  Honestly, up to that point, most of my meals were very nutritious and well balanced.  However, when my husband left, I found that my children loved the easy, frozen, processed food much more than my slaved over made from scratch meals and it was way easier on me to accommodate them.  Out went the hard work in the kitchen and in came cardboard pizza and crazy shaped nuggets!! 

The kids and I were living the dream!  .....Until I realized something.  Around the same time we left our good eating ways, we also started to experience more sickness and mental instability (crying, whining, etc....and it wasn't just the kids!).   And around the same time I realized this, I was over at a friend's house visiting when I happened to look at her cookbooks....and it caught my eye...Once-A-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg.  I borrowed it, read it, and was hooked!  I followed their plan, went shopping for two weeks worth of meals, and spent the next two days chopping, dicing, and cooking to my hearts delight.   I found that when it wasn't three o'clock, and I wasn't pressed for time, and I didn't have toddlers wailing and clinging to my legs with after-nap, pre-dinner attitudes, I absolutely LOVED cooking!  Now, instead of pulling my processed assortment out of the fridge, I had made from scratch quick and easy meals to give my children that they loved and I could put on the table in twenty to thirty minutes.  It transformed my family's life and has saved us bundles of money through the years as well. 

If you have never tried this healthy way of living that is easy on the pocketbook as well, let me encourage you to start in 2010.  I would love to offer any advice I can on how to make this an easy process for your small or large family!


To start it off, here is a very delicious meal that I keep in the freezer for those nights that we want a cozy meal with very little prep work:



SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN
2 - 2 1/2 cups of chopped chicken (can save money and do even less chicken)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup pineapple juice
2 Tbs. Soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar

Put all ingredients in a quart size freezer bag and put in freezer.
When you are ready to cook for that night's supper, pull out and leave in refrigerator overnight to thaw or stick in microwave to defrost.  Pour into saucepan.  Mix 3 Tbs.cornstarch with 2 cups of water and pour into chicken mixture.  Heat til it thickens (stir frequently to avoid scorching) and pour over rice. (brown rice is delish with this!)
I serve this with pineapple rings and salad or green beans.  The kids love it!