In a down economy it’s important to cut costs wherever you can. We all need to make the most of our income. One way to gain extra funds every week is to be careful with your food budget. Reducing the number of times you eat out and cutting back on convenience meals at the grocery is a great way to save.  There is a simple way to make this happen – a way that will save you both time and money.  You can slash your grocery budget by making freezer meals.

Freezer meals are meals you can make ahead and store in the freezer.  These meals are easy to prepare in advance and make cooking dinner a pleasure each and every night.

One way to get started is to simply make a double batch of the meal you are making tonight for supper.  Store the second recipe in a freezer container, mark it and put it in the freezer.  For every night you cook you get a night “off”.  This method will save you money because it gives you more options on a busy night.  If you have a busy night, you know you have a meal waiting to be warmed up and you won’t have to make a trip through the drive thru out of desperation.

If you’re really interested in slashing your grocery budget, consider setting aside a day (or an afternoon) and cooking meals that will last you for weeks.  By using just one day off, you can make 30 freezer meals or more to have on hand.  Sometimes referred to as once a month cooking, this will save you money and tons of time.  Just think how nice it would be to know you have a month’s worth of meals in the freezer!

Planning your meals and cooking ahead is a great way to cut back on your food budget. Having meals made ahead is also a great stress reliever. What are you waiting for?!

Want to get started with stocking your freezer with freezer meals? A step-by-step guide will make it easy for you. A guide gives you plans, lists and recipes to help you get your freezer stocked. When you get your guide, all you will have to do is follow the plan.

Ready to get started? You can get your freezer meal guide by visiting here: Freezer Meals 101

Make ahead freezer meals could be the answer to a busy woman’s dinner time blues. Have you ever come home from work or running the kids to their activities, to find that you have nothing in the house to eat for dinner? Maybe you have come home and you were too tired to prepare a full meal for your family? Did you know that make ahead freezer meals could save the day?

Make ahead freezer meals are perfect for a family, couple, or single person. Let me tell you a little bit about these meals. They are easy to prepare and are a wonderful life saver.

Make ahead freezer meals require proper planning. You will need to plan at least a couple hours but three or four hours would be better. The reason for this is you will be preparing the meal from start to finish and you will be doing more than one meal during this time period.

There are a couple of ways to prepare make ahead freezer meals. You can do each one of them separately or you can prepare them all at once. Here is an example.

If you are preparing four meals, two are with chicken and two are with hamburger, you could prepare the chicken meals together and when you are finished prepare the hamburger meals or you could put the chicken in the oven to cook and prepare the hamburger meals while that cooks. Once the chicken is complete you would finish that meal.

If you don’t want to prepare the entire meal you can cook up the chicken so the only thing needed is to warm it up. You can do the same with fried hamburger. If your family enjoys hamburgers, you can create the patties ahead of time so you won’t have to do that step. You can even add the seasoning to them if you wish, and then pop them in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

Make ahead freezer meals are also possible with crock-pot cooking. Creating crock pot meals ahead of time is super easy. All you do is put all the ingredients needed in a bag with the seasoning. Then all you have to do is open the bag and dump it into the crock pot and turn it on. What can possible be easier than that?

Here is a list of items that can be created ahead of time for make ahead freezer meals.

• Fried hamburger – cooked
• Baked Chicken – baked
• Hashbrowns – baked and shredded
• Potato squares – baked and cubed
• Hamburger patties – seasoned and ready to cook
• Chicken strips – cooked and sliced

Cooking or at least preparing these items ahead of time can save you anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour of time. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of time for me.

Make ahead freezer meals are meals that are already cooked and sitting in your freezer. All you have to do is place it in a dish and into the oven to warm it up. Other make ahead freezer meals can also include meals that are all put together, all you have to do is cook them. These types of meals are wonderful for a family on the go, a couple who works long days, or a single person. Whatever your situation is, make ahead freezer meals are the way to go.

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Preparing food for a family on a busy weeknight makes it difficult, to find time, for a decent meal after a chaotic day. Families have good intentions of eating nutritious food, however finding food that is balanced, and convenient to prepare, can become overwhelming. A few practical tips can make cooking food, on a tight schedule, an achievable goal.

If time allows set aside a few hours over the weekend for food prep and consider making several freezer meal recipes. Soups and stews are hearty meals that include the majority of all fresh food groups. Cook soups and stews in advance and place them in the freezer for quick thawing in the microwave. Most any casserole can be frozen and thawed out for an easy and filling meal. Chicken breasts with marinade can be used for quick stir-fries and wraps. Use professional freezer cookbooks that detail preparation for making several meals out of a large quantity of the same core ingredients. The majority of foods can be refrozen once and defrosted for future meals, with the exception of seafood and a few other foods.

If the task of actually preparing meals for the freezer is too overwhelming, or there is not sufficient time to accomplish this task, consider making food prep less time consuming. Create healthy foods that are readily available for quick prep and consumption. Wash and clean all vegetables and fruit, like carrots, celery, lettuce, or any number of produce items, placing them into containers or sealed bags in the refrigerator. Not only will this prepare produce for use during a meal but provide a quick and nutritious snack. Rinse bunches of grapes and wash apples, placing them in the refrigerator immediately. The objective is to get vegetables as close to prepared as possible.

In addition to freezing foods and prepping, use your slow cooker or invest in a new slow cooker that allows the user to cook food on low heat for many hours. A pot roast or any variety of meat, potatoes and carrots are a quick and healthy meal. The only prep required after a long day of work is to simply put the food on the table with necessary condiments and a stick of butter for the potatoes.

Other ideas include sharing the responsibility of cooking a healthful meal. Find other families in your neighborhood and share meal responsibilities. Form a meal coop. Rotate the meal responsibility around the neighborhood, so everyone is cooking, in bigger quantities, fewer times per week. In other words, each family signs up to make a meal for the other families one time per week. When it is your turn, deliver meals to participating families and vice versa. This is a bit more labor intensive, on your night to cook, however with several other nights free, time allowed for food prep and cleanup is kept to a minimum. This allows time to eat a filling and nutritious meal after soccer practice or a late night at the office. Preparing a meal for others can be as simple as adding a few extra pieces of meat, or fresh fish to the grill, and making sides of salad and garlic bread. Sharing a meal does not mean cooking food for a ten-course meal with dessert.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Cooking Food Nutritiously.

We love waffles around here but on a typical school morning, I don’t have the time to make up a fresh batch of waffles. We used to rely on store-bought frozen waffles during the week and only indulged in the much tastier homemade waffles on the weekends. That is until I discovered how easy it is to freeze and then reheat those waffles.

On the weekend, when you have plenty of time, make up a large batch of your favorite waffle batter. Bake up the waffles and use the last few for breakfast with your family. Allow the remaining waffles to cool.

After you’ve enjoyed your breakfast with the family, get out a large cookie sheet and line it with wax paper. Lay your cooled leftover waffles on the cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer. Come back after about 30 minutes to an hour and see if your waffles are frozen solid.

If they are, get out a large freezer bag and write Waffles as well as today’s date on the bag. If you’d like you can also include how many waffles you are adding to the bag. Remove your frozen waffles from the cookie sheet and put them in your freezer bag.

To prevent freezer burn, be sure to use a good quality freezer bag (I prefer gallon size for these)and squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag before you close it. Return the bag to the freezer and repeat layering and freezing cooked waffles on the cookie sheet until they are all frozen.

When you are ready to enjoy quick homemade waffles, grab a few from the freezer and tick them in your toaster oven. Toast them once or twice until they are hot and golden brown.

You spent some extra time making a few extra meals. Make sure you complete the process so you will be able to find and enjoy your freezer meals later. Here are some tips.

1. Labeling – You can either write the name of the meal, baking instructions and date on the meal wrapping itself or you can just write the name and date and then make up a card for the instructions and store that in your kitchen. You can use freezer tape, grease pencil or permanent marker. My favorite label is freezer tape. It’s cheap, holds up well and is easy to write on.

2. Keeping Track of Frozen Meals – There are basically 3 different methods you can use to keep track of your meals. First you can use the “dig and find” method. I don’t recommend it, but it’s available. Basically you just store the meals in the freezer thinking that you will remember what you have in there only to find yourself digging around later trying to figure out what you have frozen.

Secondly, you can make a list and put it on your freezer. They when you make a freezer meal you write it down on the list and cross it off when you take it out.

My favorite option is to make a card with the name of the meal with baking instructions on it. These cards can then be reused when you make that meal again. Before you put the meal in the freezer you put the card in an envelope in your kitchen marked “Meals in the Freezer.” This keeps your freezer door less cluttered and keeps you from having to write the baking instructions on each freezer meal.

Choose the labeling and tracking system you like the best. It will keep you motivated to keep freezing meals when you can find what you need and you don’t have to dig through all your cookbooks to find out how to heat the frozen meal.

Do you want to know more about saving time in the kitchen? Grab your free report “Time Saving Kitchen Tips” at http://www.hjresources.com/freeck Heidi Johnson specializes in helping families find resources to simplify and improve their lives.