It seems that everyone is trying to be more economical in these tough times and find easy ways to stretch a dollar. For me, this usually begins on Friday afternoon when the local store flyers are delivered to my apartment building. I scan through all of the flyers and make note of the stores that are having great specials on meat and fish as well as my core pantry and personal care items. This helps me set my menu for the upcoming week, as well gives me the opportunity to stock up on any of my core essentials like toilet paper, tissues, coffee, re-sealable bags, canned pantry basics such as crushed tomatoes, pasta, cleaning supplies, toothpaste and shampoo. Let’s face it – no matter how much we try to squeeze and eliminate out non-essentials, there will always remain a core number of items that we can’t just manage without.
If the saving are significant (especially for my core items) I usually plan to buy at least double of my regular quantity. I have a specially designated cupboard just for these essential staples. For any meat servings I will buy anywhere between 2-3 x the required serving for my family. For instance, if you have a family of four, you might plan to buy anywhere from 8-12 pork chops at one time. You may be thinking, “Jen…I only have a small freezer – I can’t store all that meat!” Well, I assure you that if you follow these simple steps that you will be able too, since everything will be frozen flat and be really easy to stack. So here’s what you do:
1. When you get home, chop any meat into the serving portions that you will need for each meal. For instance – A roast may be cut into two different preparations: cubes for a stew or for the crockpot, and steaks for the grill. Hint: Often meat and chicken that is sold as whole pieces is often considerably cheaper. Don’t be intimidated about cutting it up yourself. Check out YouTube for tons of instructional videos on how to cut up a chicken or a roast.
2. Place meat servings into an appropriately sized ziplock freezer bag ( I generally use the medium size which will hold two salmon steaks or two pork chops flat).
3. Pour your favorite marinade into each bag. I usually opt for bottled ones such as Diane's or Kikkoman or Mama Sita's but I have also been know to toss in any combination of soya sauce, honey, garlic, juices (pineapple or orange), wine (red or white), and mustards (grainy, dijon).
4. Take a straw and suck out the air in the bags until the marinade completely engulfs the meat and no air remains. Hint: The key to doing this effectively is to zip the bag up at both sides around the straw before you begin sucking, and if you need to take a breath simply pinch the straw so as not to release any air.
5. Label each bag with the contents as well as the date. That way you can not easily track your inventory easily but you can also instruct your spouse on what to pull out of the freezer when it is their turn to cook :)
6. Place the meat flat in your freezer and stack as high as needed.
7. The morning that you plan on cooking the meat, simply take it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. When dinner time comes your meat will be nicely marinated and should be defrosted. If your fridge is set particularly cold you might want to take the meat out of the freezer the night before.
Hint: If you are feeling lazy you can also just dump the contents into your slow cooker along with a handful of your favorite veg and an onion, a tin of cream of mushroom soup, about a cup of your favorite liquid (chicken broth, wine, water etc.) as well as any of your favorite seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, mixed Italian herbs etc. You can then head off to work knowing that you will have a yummy hot meal when you walk in the door from work. For other slow cooker ideas check out my crockpot tips.
Although it may seem like a lot of work up front I assure you that it will be a time saver in the long run as well as a great budget saver. At any given time I usually have one full week’s rotation of our favorite fish, pork chops, chicken breasts, chicken legs, steak, and beef short ribs that my butcher cuts into bite sized pieces for me and are a favorite for my slow cooker. And when supermarkets like T&T (my favorite supermarket of all time) have exceptional specials like chicken wings for $1.58 /lb like they did last week, or pork ribs at $ 1.38/lb like they do this week, I will find myself buying much more.
If the saving are significant (especially for my core items) I usually plan to buy at least double of my regular quantity. I have a specially designated cupboard just for these essential staples. For any meat servings I will buy anywhere between 2-3 x the required serving for my family. For instance, if you have a family of four, you might plan to buy anywhere from 8-12 pork chops at one time. You may be thinking, “Jen…I only have a small freezer – I can’t store all that meat!” Well, I assure you that if you follow these simple steps that you will be able too, since everything will be frozen flat and be really easy to stack. So here’s what you do:
1. When you get home, chop any meat into the serving portions that you will need for each meal. For instance – A roast may be cut into two different preparations: cubes for a stew or for the crockpot, and steaks for the grill. Hint: Often meat and chicken that is sold as whole pieces is often considerably cheaper. Don’t be intimidated about cutting it up yourself. Check out YouTube for tons of instructional videos on how to cut up a chicken or a roast.
2. Place meat servings into an appropriately sized ziplock freezer bag ( I generally use the medium size which will hold two salmon steaks or two pork chops flat).
3. Pour your favorite marinade into each bag. I usually opt for bottled ones such as Diane's or Kikkoman or Mama Sita's but I have also been know to toss in any combination of soya sauce, honey, garlic, juices (pineapple or orange), wine (red or white), and mustards (grainy, dijon).
4. Take a straw and suck out the air in the bags until the marinade completely engulfs the meat and no air remains. Hint: The key to doing this effectively is to zip the bag up at both sides around the straw before you begin sucking, and if you need to take a breath simply pinch the straw so as not to release any air.
5. Label each bag with the contents as well as the date. That way you can not easily track your inventory easily but you can also instruct your spouse on what to pull out of the freezer when it is their turn to cook :)
6. Place the meat flat in your freezer and stack as high as needed.
7. The morning that you plan on cooking the meat, simply take it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. When dinner time comes your meat will be nicely marinated and should be defrosted. If your fridge is set particularly cold you might want to take the meat out of the freezer the night before.
Hint: If you are feeling lazy you can also just dump the contents into your slow cooker along with a handful of your favorite veg and an onion, a tin of cream of mushroom soup, about a cup of your favorite liquid (chicken broth, wine, water etc.) as well as any of your favorite seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, mixed Italian herbs etc. You can then head off to work knowing that you will have a yummy hot meal when you walk in the door from work. For other slow cooker ideas check out my crockpot tips.
Although it may seem like a lot of work up front I assure you that it will be a time saver in the long run as well as a great budget saver. At any given time I usually have one full week’s rotation of our favorite fish, pork chops, chicken breasts, chicken legs, steak, and beef short ribs that my butcher cuts into bite sized pieces for me and are a favorite for my slow cooker. And when supermarkets like T&T (my favorite supermarket of all time) have exceptional specials like chicken wings for $1.58 /lb like they did last week, or pork ribs at $ 1.38/lb like they do this week, I will find myself buying much more.
