Luckily, since I’ve already finished the planning, I’m going to pass all of my knowledge on to you!
Here you can download a .zip file including a break-down of the meals, serving suggestions, important notes, shopping lists, and recipe instructions.
After I found my recipes and created lists to keep myself organized, I finished all of my shopping. We got everything we needed at Sam’s Club and our local super-center, Meijer – that includes Ziplocs and disposable casserole dishes with lids. In-total we spent around $160 for the month (though we did have some ingredients on-hand before the shopping trip).
We have a lot going on during the week with church and social activities, so I planned for 4 meals each week and 1 night of left-overs. Though, we ended up with WAY more food left over than 1-nights worth, so it took us more than a month to actually eat all of this food.
Before we went shopping, I cleared out the pantry and refrigerator. I also cleaned the kitchen and cleared the counters/dishwasher/sink. As soon as we got home with our van-load of groceries, I got started with the meal prep. All of the produce was immediately thrown into a sink full of water and veggie wash. The other ingredients were divided up into their individual recipes. Next, I checked through the instructions and cooked up the meats that needed cooking and the noodles that needed boiling.
It’s pretty simple from that point on. Assemble the recipes according to their instructions, label the bags and casserole dishes, and freeze. Really…it’s that simple. In order to keep everything extra “fresh” I double-bagged all of the Ziploc recipes, and I used Glad Press-n-Seal over all of the casserole dishes before placing the foil topper on them.
All of this prep took approximately 4 hours of time after shopping one morning. Broken down between the meals, that equals something like 15 minutes each (not including shopping and planning). It’s really hard to beat that if you ask me!
You can see a quick break-down of the meals I made, below.
Chicken Tetrazzini *family favorite
Ingredients: chicken breasts, butter, onion, garlic, cream of chicken soup, shredded Parmesan cheese, sour cream, frozen peas, linguini, and Ritz crackers.
Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients: chicken breasts, chunky vegetable spaghetti sauce, zucchini, green bell pepper, and onion.
Crock-Pot BBQ Chicken *family favorite
Ingredients: chicken breasts, coke, BBQ sauce, onion flakes, and garlic powder.
Hearty Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients: no-boil lasagna noodles, green bell pepper, onion, garlic, pasta sauce, dried basil, part-skim ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, eggs, and Parmesan cheese.
Crock-Pot Vegetarian Chili *husband approved
Ingredients: red onions, green bell peppers, garlic, chili powder, ground cumin, unsweetened cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, black beans, kidney beans, and sweet potatoes.
Layered Tex-Mex Casserole
Ingredients: ground chuck, onion, black beans, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, shredded Mexican cheese, and corn tortillas.
Green Chile Chicken Casserole
Ingredients: elbow noodles, cooked chicken, sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese, green enchilada sauce, chopped green chilies, and chopped tomatoes.
Crock-Pot Sweet & Tangy Meatballs *toddler approved
Ingredients: chili sauce, grape jelly, and frozen meatballs.
Crock-Pot Black Bean Taco Soup
Ingredients: lean ground beef, onion, taco seasoning, frozen corn, black beans, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and diced green chilies.
Tater Tot & Creamed Corn Casserole
Ingredients: ground beef, frozen tater tots, creamed corn, shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese, and garlic powder.
Chicken & Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients: chicken breasts, frozen green beans, red potatoes, and pepper.
Crock-Pot Chicken & Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: tomato soup, tomato sauce, chicken broth, zucchini, frozen mixed vegetables, garlic, chicken breasts, onion powder, and dried basil.
And there you have it: a month’s worth of meals for only a few hours of time! (click here to download)
Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me if you have any questions about the recipes or my process.
Click here to view my next month of frozen meals (they’re almost all vegetarian)!
Linking to these parties.
Blair Lonergan (www.TheSeasonedMom.com) says
Love this! I’m expecting my third baby in November, so I’ve been busy stocking my freezer with similar meals that I can pull out once he arrives. You have some great new ideas here too!
Sam says
Congratulations! I’m glad I could be of some help! :-)
Dawn - Addicted to Recipes says
This is great! Featuring you this week at Addicted to Recipes! http://iamaddictedtorecipes.blogspot.ca/2013/09/scrumptious-sunday-recipe-link-party-72.html
Sam says
Thanks so much!
Hadley says
what do you serve along with the meatballs? We love meatballs cooked that way, but I always only fix them when we are doing finger foods. . .
Sam says
We usually serve them over steamed brown rice with broccoli (or any other vegetable).
Karen Sturn says
Thank you so much for this info. My husband and I are expecting twins and we were thinking about doing this to prepare for the first month of chaos. Now I feel like I can turn the idea into reality. So thank you so very much.
Sam says
You’re very welcome! And congratulations!!
Carroll says
This is perfect! Thank you so much for sharing. What do you serve the cornbread and rice with? Thank you!!
Sam says
On the “MealBreakDown” document in the .zip file, there’s a section of Serving Suggestions which lists all of the meals where I add rice, cornbread, noodles, etc.
Melissa says
This may be a silly question but… did you already double the recipes in the files? Or are those all original recipes? Thanks, I can not wait to try this!
Sam says
That’s not a silly question at all – I should have made it more clear! I have already doubled the ingredients, so if you’re looking to only make one meal you’ll need to cut the ingredients in half.
Melissa says
Thank you!
Randi Stevens says
Hey there these are awesome! But I am not able to find the zip file to cook Im probably just blind haha
Sam says
Just under the last photo there is a download link! :-)
Taylor W says
Oh my gosh! This is amazing! My mom is having surgery next week and I volunteered to make dinners while she is recovering. My younger brothers and sisters are involved in lots of sports/activities and I have class most days so this is going to make life so much easier for everyone. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes :)
Sam says
My pleasure! I hope it works out for you! :-)
mnstegallMichelle says
These meals look great! Last night I was able to view the files. However, today when I went to print them off, the link no longer works. Please update this soon, I can’t wait to try these!
Sam says
Try it now – it should be working!
sara says
Can you email me the file When I click on its not doing anything
Melissa says
Ok, one more question. LOL! Where did you find those foil casserole dishes. Mine that I found come with the clear covers that pop up more…I could fit so much more in my freezer if I had the kind you have!!
Sam says
I bought all of mine at Sam’s Club…though I’ve seen them at the Dollar Store, too!
Katie says
When you say a bag of frozen chicken, how much chicken is in the bag. I buy a 13lb bag of chicken at sams, but I know that’s not what you mean. Thanks.
Sam says
I usually just purchase the Tyson bags at the grocery store. They’re about 1/2 the size of the big bags at Sam’s I believe.
Allison says
Do you have break down of each recipie? As in how much of each ingredient? I can’t seem to find it.
Sam says
Did you download the .zip file?
lisa fischer says
Ok dumb question….what are the serving sizes of these meals? We are a family of 6 (but with picky eaters so probably need to feed 4 lol). So if I wanted a months worth, I would do each meal twice except for the one that say already doubled? Those are already 2 meals? Signed….dumb or dazed and confused!
lisa fischer says
Forget my comment, just needed to read more, my bad
lisa fischer says
Question on the chicken green bean casserole, made this tonight. First off, the potatoes turned black and it took almost an hour and a half in the oven to get them soft! What’s the deal with the potatoes you think?
Sam says
So, I’ve figured out how to fix the potato problem, Lisa! I’m not sure why, but if you blanch the potatoes first and then dry them off before putting them in the casserole they shouldn’t brown.