Buggy List Returns!

First, to get it off my chest - I HATE MONDAYS.

That is all.


In other news today - I did it! E would have bet money that I never would, but I sure showed him! and I did it while slightly inebriated last night (after spending the day with friends, drinking and watching NHL's Winter Classic Stadium Series where the NY Rangers kicked some Devil butt!)

What did I do?

I made NINE slow-cooker-freezer meals!

I have never done any of this Betty Crocker stuff - I barely cook a regular meal...
Me making dinner usually consists of pasta and a pre-made frozen vegetable side being microwaved. (Hence E thinking I would never fulfill this BuggyList item)

I did not make ALL of the recipes, but the ones I made I got from here and here.

So we went yesterday morning to the food store with the combined shopping lists with all the meats, produce, seasonings etc (16 lbs of meat!)
While it was a hefty grocery bill (over $200) when broken down per meal, we're saving a lot (versus eating out, for example):
9 slow cooker meals = 6-8 servings each
Even with the lower end of 6 servings per meal, that's a minimum of 54 servings - which makes each meal (servings for 2) $ SEVEN DOLLARS $

On the site where I got the recipes, the blogger claimed she prepped everything in just over an hour - well, it took me about two hours, but that's probably because I stopped to pour a few glasses of wine, kept spilling (and having to clean up) stuff, and had to help E tend to a sick baby (poor Ben has his first cold/cough, so Daddy ran a hot steamy shower and sat with him in the bathroom for awhile...).

(Spilled ground beef - I went to pour it into the bag and it went all over the counter... so this bag just might have some stray dog hair. lol)

So, I basically went recipe-by-recipe (except for the first recipe, Black Bean Soup, where the ground beef and onions had to be browned and then cooled so it was started first, and then bagged last.)

 The 8 lbs of chicken we got was all split up (we bought it family style, around 4 lbs per package) into some awesome recipes I'm excited to try:
 Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
 Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken
 BBQ Cranberry Chicken
 Sweet Teriyaki Chicken*
and Cilantro Lime Chicken (the prettiest in the bag for now!)

We also made a number of beef and pork recipes:
   Beef & Mushrooms (for over rice)*
   French Dip Sandwiches (made with beef chuck roast)*
   Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes

*overall, we were mostly without incident (except the spilled ground beef, and the wine running out) but we forgot a few things somehow from our shopping list, so these three recipes are waiting for a few crucial ingredients that I'll pick up tonight to finish up  (like soy sauce (which E insisted we had, when I asked four times while shopping, "Yea but do we have a full CUP?!"))

After a kitchen clean up, our spare freezer looks pretty good! Now we just have to remember to move the bags from the freezer to the fridge for 24 hours before we can get the slow-cooker going...

(There's also three containers of frozen red sauce from July... ha.  Wonder if it's still good...)

Now hopefully these meals don't get in the way of my other ongoing Buggy List item of working out and dropping lbs...
I skipped a workout Saturday morning, and probably negated Sunday's by drinking and eating my calories, but I'm down 2 lbs! (We'll see how long that lasts... tomorrow I might be back up a lb...)


AND - AF returned yesterday!!!! I had to remember to buy tampons and such while out yesterday - it's been so long!