Big Fall Meal Prep

I've been itching to do a really big meal prep and boy did I ever get that one done over the weekend.  I broke it up into two parts getting the bulk of it done in three hours on Saturday evening.  I spent an hour on Sunday morning finishing up.

I began by making a list of items I wanted to have on hand in our freezer.  Full meals and components of meals to make life a little easier during the busy school year.  Then I made a grocery list of all the things I needed to pick up at the store based on what was on sale.  It worked out better than I could've imagined.

Fred Meyer had 3# packages of ground beef on sale, the main ingredient in this prep, for $5.64 each plus I had a $3 OFF coupon for their meat department making my total for nine pounds of ground beef $13.92.  I only needed two of the packages for this meal prep, or six pounds of beef, so the other three pounds went into the freezer for later.

This is the list of what I used for my meal prep:

Lean ground beef - 6# - $9.28

Italian sausage - 1# - $2.99

Tomato sauce - 3 - 28oz cans - 82¢ each

Tomato sauce - 8 oz. can - 26¢

Italian diced tomatoes -  28oz can - 82¢

Diced tomatoes - 15 oz can - 46¢

One very large onion - 35¢

One large green bell pepper - 58¢

Sloppy Joe seasoning packet - 2 - 34¢ each

Jar of salsa - 99¢

Rice - 2 cups - 50¢

Cheddar cheese - 8oz pkg, - 99¢

Dried basil, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, Worstershire sauce, salt & pepper - already had on hand

Preparing Sloppy Joes

I chopped up the onion and bell pepper first and got the crying out of the way.  Then I took two pounds of ground beef, 1/4 of the onion, 2/3 of the pepper and browned that in a pot.  I skimmed off the fat and added one 28 oz can of tomato sauce, one 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes and two packets of Sloppy Joe seasoning.  I stirred it all together and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

My girl's favorite pasta sauce

Meanwhile I combined two 28 oz. cans of tomato sauce in a large pot and seasoned with basil, oregano, garlic powder and some leftover minced garlic I had in the refrigerator.  Once it came up to a slight bubble I removed three ladles full of sauce to three small freezer containers for pizza sauce.  I added a 28 oz. can of Italian style diced tomatoes to the remaining sauce and in a separate pan browned up a pound of Italian sausage.  Once the sausage was fully cooked I added it to the tomato sauce and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Finished Sloppy Joes

I started a batch of rice and moved on to put the Sloppy Joes into freezer containers.  After washing out the pot I placed a pound of ground beef into it and browned that with 1/4 of the chopped onion and the rest of the bell pepper.  Then I seasoned it with chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder and cumin.  I also added in a half packet of taco seasoning I had leftover in the cupboard.  I let that simmer while the rice cooked and the spaghetti sauce simmered.

Spanish Rice ready to go into the baking dish and get topped with cheese

I put the taco meat and spaghetti sauce into freezer containers and then did a quick wash of the pans.  I used the big pot to brown a pound of ground beef with 1/4 of the onion, skimmed off some of the fat and added in 2 cups of salsa and the 8 oz. can of tomato sauce.  I let that simmer for about ten minutes and then combined it with the rice and some leftover pinto beans I had in the refrigerator.  I sprayed a 9" X 13" baking pan with some non stick pan spray and put the rice mixture into it.  Then topped it with the cheese.

We mixed this up to make six large burger patties

Lastly I took the remaining two pounds of ground beef and the chopped onion and combined it with garlic powder, onion powder, Worschestershire sauce, salt & pepper.  After it was all mixed together I formed it into six 1/3 pound burger patties.  I used waxed paper cut to sized to put in between the patties and placed them into freezer containers.

I labeled all of my containers and into the freezer they went except for the Spanish rice casserole which will be baked and served in a couple of days so it went into the refrigerator as well as one of the containers of Sloppy Joes.  Two meals into the refrigerator and eleven into the freezer!

I also have this smaller pan of lasagna in the freezer
that I made last week

The next day I made six pizza dough balls for the freezer placing each one into a ziploc bag.  All we'll need to do is pull out a dough ball or two and a container of pizza sauce and put them in the refrigerator to thaw all day and we'll be able to quickly make pizza that evening.

I'm really happy with all that I got done in such a short time.  Loads of good food to feed my family and it will really save me a lot of time in the weeks ahead.  I'll be sure to post how I end up using all of this as well.