Having the ability to quickly and easily find the spices I’m looking for led to both of today’s Friday Favorites! As required by law, I’m sharing with you straight up front that some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that, if you purchase through that link (and at no extra charge to you), I receive a small commission for passing along the information to you. I only share what I use…and what I like.
In my effort to try a new recipe each week in 2021, I wanted to find a few meals that I could prepare ahead of time and have ready to go—once we knew we liked them! Enter: The Family Freezer! I “happened upon” this site while scrolling Instagram and seeing the ad that went through my feed. The rest is history. I’m hooked!
I’ll summarize before giving the how-to, but it’s been another game-changer in living on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose in our house. Basically, this site provides recipes, shopping lists, etc. for how to prepare meals ahead of time and safely freeze them—raw! That’s right. You freeze it raw, so you’re not eating leftovers or pre-cooked meals. (Though you certainly can have them for leftovers…if anything is left!) The recipes include instructions for either crockpot or Instant Pot cooking, and yes, you could even bake or stove-top cook many of them!
As for the how-to? It’s all right there on her site—so easy to understand, navigate, and utilize. And let me just say that I love, love, love that she uses foods that we all have on hand or that are readily available in our local grocery stores! She’s not pretentious or flying her greens in from the South of France. Real food for real people. The other sheeshy-sheeshy-poo-poo foods are good now and then, but for everyday life, these are great!
Let me encourage you to set aside about one hour sometime this week to watch one of her videos. I highly recommend the free class: 12 Healthy Freezer Meals from Costco. Seeing her prepare these meals ahead of time sealed the deal for me. Additionally, you will get all of the recipes she uses in that video (four meals, three bags of each) and also get an amazing PDF of those that includes the labels for you to put on the freezer containers!
Yes, I became a member, but you don’t have to. We felt that we would save enough in time and resources by using these throughout the year that it was worth joining the “Pro” option. Don’t feel pressured to do so. In fact, I loved that she was quite low-key in promoting things for you to buy!
I also splurged and bought the reusable freezer bags (affiliate link). They lie flat in the freezer, and I love that I don’t have to worry about them spilling or about going through so many disposable bags in a year.
Because I just started using these, I haven’t done this yet, but I think that these will be perfect for taking a meal to a family when someone is in the hospital or if a “meal-train” is requested by my church or community group. I can either heat it up in the crock pot and take it over to the family or I can take them the frozen meal to use at their convenience! Did I mention that the printable label also includes the cooking instructions? Game. Changer!
My second favorite this week involves utilizing the spices in my cabinet in a better way because I can actually find them—and know how much I have left in the jar! I share this quick “hack” on the YouTube channel today, but in short, I use 8-ounce jars, label them, and then stack them in the cupboard so that they are easy to see and easy to access! No more expired spices or purchasing duplicates simply because I can’t find what I already have two jars of!
Let me know if these become favorites in your house! However, remember to do what works for you as you utilize the time, talents, and resources God has entrusted to you!