August OAMM Extravaganza: Recap

Well, I have survived another monthly freezer meal cooking event. Woohoo!

The day started out by taking my little girl to her first dance class. Her cousins were in a dance recital a couple months ago, and ever since, my Baby Girl has asked if we would let her dance like her cousins. She might be 2-years-old but acts like she's going on 5! We signed her up for a Saturday morning class for 3-5 year-olds. She'll be turning 3 in October, so the studio had no problem with letting her participate. Only problem is, she's the youngest one in the class! The studio had a little window where I could observe her. It warmed my heart seeing her pointing her toes in her little ballet slippers, twirl around, and hop across the floor. The class she is in will be learning ballet, jazz and tumbling. She took to her teacher immediately, and later in the day as she was coloring a picture, my little girl informed me that she was coloring a picture for her teacher! :)

After dance class, the kids and I headed to our local Angel Food Ministries host church to pick up our August food order. I started supplementing some of my grocery shopping with an A.F.M. order nearly a year ago, and I've been a loyal "shopper" ever since. For a detailed description of why I buy from A.F.M., please click here.

For just $30, I got a week's worth of food, a real time-saver for me because it's one week out of the month that I don't have to worry about digging through the sales ads and my coupons in order to find some deals on meals. Here's what I got:

1 regular/standard box--$30: 1.5lb ribeye steaks, 3lb split chicken breasts, 1lb boneless center cut pork chops, 2lb mac & beef dinner entree, 1.5lb breaded all white meat chicken nuggets, 1lb 80/20 lean ground beef, 1lb fish steaks, 1lb frozen corn, 1lb frozen baby lima beans, 1ct. iceberg lettuce, 2lb sweet potatoes, 15oz can pork & beans, 1lb rice, 32oz 2% shelf stable milk (makes a great food storage item!), 1 doz. eggs, 1pkg apple bars (similar to fig newton's)

In addition to the standard box, I also invested in a box of fruit & vegetables. Everything looked so fresh. I was ready to chop and dice it all up and eat it there & then as soon as I unpacked it all!

1 fruit/veggie box--$22: 3lb potatoes, 2lb yellow onions, 1 sleeve Romaine lettuce, 1 5oz bag Caesar salad croutons, 1 pint grape tomatoes, 1 head green cabbage, 1lb carrots, 4 peaches, 1lb white seedless grapes, 1 honeydew melon, 1 cantaloupe, 4 Valencia oranges, 4 large lemons

After putting away my A.F.M. order, I went to work on my freezer meals. You can view my August freezer meal plan here. At quarter to noon, my first two meals were cooking away. There were a three meals that I decided to make as a nonfreezer meal--Stuffed Pork Chops and Barbecued Beef Ribs. After some careful consideration, I just felt that the pork chops and ribs would turn out better cooked fresh the day we eat them. And as for the stuffed bell peppers, I simply just ran out of time to make them. There was one meal that I took off the menu completely--Hotch Potch. I needed a roast for this meal, and I thought that I had bought a roast when I made my menu, but come to find out, I did not buy the roast after all.

When all was said and done, I had made 24 freezer meals plus a fresh-made meal for our supper that same evening. It was a long day, but I feel like I accomplished a lot. Not just with the freezer meals (which will be great time-savers for me over the next month), but I also spent some quality time with my children in the morning, a lovely supper with them, and my daughter even helped me make some of the freezer meals. Not bad on this month's cooking extravagnza. :-D

Plus, even with all the meals that I made, I still have plenty of room in my freezer for lots more goodies (I'm thinking ice cream...it's bound to go on sale haha).