Not only is September Preparedness month but it is also National Family Meals Month. Who doesn't want to make life easier especially when it comes to dinner on busy days so that you can spend quality time together as a family?! One of the best ways to do that is to plan your week of meals, but let's be honest that doesn't always happen or something happens and throws our best laid plans to the side. For those instances it is always nice to have "pre-packaged" quick meals on hand. No I don't mean ones in a box from the store. You probably have the better alternatives right there in your pantry, you just need to combine them into a meal bag/bucket.
So how do you make meals in a bucket/bag? Well first off, the point of them is to make them an easy meal that ANYONE and I mean anyone can make (even a 10 year old if they are willing). Make sure it is an easy to follow recipe or instructions so that even the kitchen novices can make it. We have some great ideas already up on the blog for pantry meals that only need to be put in a container of some kind. To build on those already great ideas you can also make mixes-like your own bread, muffin, pancake, soup, pasta. pizza dough and many more. Sometimes you have an easy week night dinner, say tortellini, but it's just not as filling on it's own so you want to make some bread sticks to go with it. Having a pre-made breadstick mix will save tons of time in the long run. Sometimes the longest part of making bread of any kind-aside from the rising- is gathering and measuring out the ingredients. I have a quick, easy breadstick recipe that when I use my pre-made mix takes me about 30 minutes from start to eating fresh made breadsticks. I combine all the dry ingredients into a mylar bag-I put the yeast in a separate small bag and then put that in with all the dry ingredients. Make sure to put the rest of the recipe on the outside of the bag either written or print out a card and tape it on. In my house we also enjoy having breakfast for dinner and having pre-made mixes is a total life saver when it comes to pancakes, waffles or biscuits. Yes there are already pre-made mixes for these but they have a shelf life that isn't very long. Making your own and then sealing them in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers extends the shelf life by YEARS. Plus, who wants a plain pancake when you could have delicious brown sugar oatmeal pancakes that are so light, fluffy and filling and best of all they are just sweet enough you don't need syrup maybe just a little jam. The main thing is to take one of your favorite recipes and break it down and put it in a bag or bucket to make it as easy as possible on you and your family.
Let's talk about freezer meals. People make a killing holding "classes" to help you prep a bunch of meals ready for your crockpot or pressure cooker (Insta-pot) or other method. Or they sell pre-packaged meals for your freezer to make your life easier. But here's the thing - what if the meals they are preparing aren't ones your family will like, or you think they will like them but end up not then you have wasted time and money on something you may not even like. You have this same ability and it will cost you nothing but a little time and your regular grocery bill and you can be sure they are recipes that your family will love. The trick is setting aside a day to prep all the meals for the week or longer and then put them in bags and freeze them. I know that we are all busy and time is a precious commodity but truly we all have a little extra time sometime during the week, and I'm sure we could find time on Saturdays too, to do meal prep. It's all about making it a priority. When I buy my produce I will just chop it all up and put it into freezer bags same with my meat. If I don't have time to divide it out into dinner bags at least a lot of the prep work is already done and will save oodles of time when getting dinner ready. Truthfully most freezer bag meals are about combining bags into one. For example lets say you want to do chicken fajitas. Cut your chicken up into strips or bite sized pieces and put that in a gallon freezer bag. Next is your veggies- peppers and onions. If you have already cut them up but have them in separate bags just take handfuls of each and put them in a quart sized freezer bag and then put that in with your chicken in the gallon sized bag. For the seasoning if you make your own you can put that in another separate bag and pour it over when the time is right or you can just pour it over the chicken. Personally I would add it later because then your chicken can get a nice sear on it and the sauce won't disappear or burn from the high heat. Another easy one to throw together for the winter months is soup bases. Most soups have similar vegetable bases, i.e. onions, celery, carrots and a broth. Cutting up vegetables is probably the most time consuming part of prepping any meal. To make it easy on yourself pre-cut and bag soup vegetable mixes from recipes that you know your family loves. Then all that is really left is adding the broth base and whatever noodles or beans it may need and voila soup on the table in half the time it would normally take you. Here is a good website for some freezer meals and general tips and tricks.
Though we have spending more time together as families this year there still is no better time than at the end of the day where everyone can tell about their day and enjoy a great home cooked meal. Many memories and relationships will be formed and strengthened.
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