It has been a busy week, and we’re still only 95% done with the meal prep — maybe 98%. What’s really crazy is that we actually overflowed several meals into my mother-in-law’s freezer. Part of the reason we needed to go bigger this time around was that my wife’s second knee surgery is coming up in September, and the first knee surgery was the reason we couldn’t get our previous meal preps done on time. So, we’re planning for the same kind of extended recovery period.

That is our main freezer, which is still missing several one-pound bags of ground beef. Trays are broken down into partially precooked or completely precooked meals, while the bags are either crockpot meals or ingredients. For example, we make bags with six pork chops in them for the many different pork chop meals my wife makes, and then we make several bags of two pork chops in case we have company over for dinner.

I really liked how the pork loin from Gordon Food Service showed a breakdown of cutting it into pork chops, though we’ve done that for years. The ground beef is simple: we take the 10-pound tubes and cut them into 11 pieces, which gives us slightly less than one pound, and then we bag some of them in quart Ziploc bags to freeze. Many are turned into meatloaf, pre-seasoned taco meat, or cooked into shepherd’s pie trays, or beefy mac.

The final picture is the bagging of crockpot meals; this particular one is the creamy ranch chicken that is already on the recipes on this website.

Alright, we covered the cost yesterday, but what did this actually make? I also want to also point out that many of our meals end up with leftovers. A lot of them are also eaten with rice or noodles. Generally, we’ll make two of these meal preps and then have enough leftovers for a third dinner.

Meals

6 bags of creamy ranch chicken
3 bags of verde chicken tacos
3 bags of sour cream chicken
2 bags of French onion pork chops
4 trays of beefy mac
8 chicken pot pies
3 trays of chicken parmesan
2 trays of garlic chicken
3 trays of enchilada lasagna
3 meatloaves
1 tray chicken and broccoli casserole
3 trays of chicken tetrazinni
3 bags of teriyaki chicken
4 bags of beef tips and gravy
3 bags of beef tacos
6 bags of 20ct meatballs
2 side dish trays of Delmonico potatoes
2 side dish trays of green bean casserole
2 side dish trays of glazed carrots
2 side dish trays of tailgate potatoes
6 bags of 6 count pork chops
2 pork roasts
1 beef roast
12 1-pound bags of ground beef
2 whole chickens (for roasts)
6 bags of 3 count chicken breasts

That’s roughly 68 meals, not including the bags of ground beef or leftover chicken bags. These chicken breasts are over a pound each as the ten pound bags only had 8 to 9 breasts in them. The ground beef usually takes two pounds for anything we plan on making, which would bring us up to 80 meals. That’s before leftovers. If every two meals gives us a third meal, that adds 40 more meals bringing us to 120 total. That covers four months by itself, but we also sometimes go out to eat or order pizza. Plus, one of the kids favorite meals is “Scrounge Night” where instead of leftovers, they get to pick anything we have to eat: a box of mac and cheese, ramen, cereal, or sandwiches.

This also doesn’t include things already in the freezer from previous grocery trips, like the four bags of hot dogs we have, or the Italian sausage, and my last remaining venison package. I think that feels like a pretty solid coverage of the next five months.

~~Miniwing~~
Prepper, Parent, Stoic