Lessening the "Frazzle" in my Life

I'm just like any other busy mom/wife who rushes home each day and struggles to find the time to cook, clean, do dishes, laundry, and still have quality time with my family! So in an effort to make life a little easier and free up some time through the week, I've decided to try my first attempt at "freezer cooking".

I've often thought about trying it, but we don't have an extra deep freeze at our house and since we don't have a garage or basement, I really don't have anywhere to put one. So I've always just decided it wasn't for me. But since life has blown up lately and gotten even busier than normal, I decided it's time to give it a try!  Due to my lack of space, I am only going to make enough meals for one week.

So early this morning, armed with my pen and notebook, I scoured Pinterest and came up with a few meals that I want to make this week.  It's actually a combination of some meals we already know we like and some new ones! (It's never good to try a whole week of new meals... I want to know I have at least one my family will like!)

It was harder than I expected to narrow down the list of what to make. Keeping my limited budget in mind, I wanted to find something that I could make without having to buy hundreds of dollars in ingredients.

Here is what I came up with for this week:

Black Bean Taco Soup

Baked Ziti

Spinach Lasagna Rolls (I'm going to adapt it and serve it with my favorite seasoned chicken breasts!)

Frozen Pizzas (But I'm going to use whole wheat flour instead).

Chicken and Rice (My own "at-home" hibachi....) **This is our family's favorite meal! We LOVE our local Hibachi restaurant, Aki. But since it's not friendly on the wallet or the waistline, I played around for a while and figured out the perfect alternative to make at home! I'll share the recipe later!!  I've never tried freezing it, but I think it will work just fine.

Breakfast Sandwiches (On English Muffins) - Because I leave the house by 4:30am and Jerry drags Miah out the door to take her to her Grandma's by 6:45am... so we ALWAYS have to do breakfast on the run!!

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So Sunday afternoon, I will sit down and start my afternoon of baking! Here's to hoping Miah is in a mood to help!! :)

But today, after work, we are off to the local Amish-run discount grocery store to try and score some deals on some of the items on our list.  Then a quick trip to Food Lion to pick up the rest of the items on the list!!

I'll post on Monday with results of how it turned out!!! But for now, please share your experiences with freezer cooking!  What are some of your favorite recipes??