Mornings are super busy around our house – after getting myself up and ready for work I have to herd cats, I mean wake my five kiddos and get them ready for school. By the time I drop them off at the bus stop and head on into the office a couple hours have passed and I’m hungry! The kids get breakfast at school so they’re set and I always have granola bars at my desk in case of emergency, but really I’d like a nice hot breakfast too without having to hit the drive through.
 Quick and Easy Shortcuts to Save Time in the Kitchen
Cooking every day can be one of the biggest drains of our time. At the same time, cooking meals at home is one of the biggest money savers we can find. Let’s face it, some expenses are fixed: rent or mortgages, car payments, cell phone plans, insurance payments. Our food budget is one area that we have some control over, so if we can make our time in the kitchen more efficient, we are well on our way to saving money:
1) Prepping Ground Beef
Ground beef is the basis of a myriad of recipes, but browning it is one of the most time consuming parts of the prep. If you buy ground beef in bulk, consider browning it when you get home. You’ll only have to spend that time once, instead of for each meal, PLUS you get the benefit of not having to use that gas or electricity over and over again. If you tend to use recipes that ask for onions or peppers to be cooked with your beef, make sure to have those on hand so you can do that as well. In a pinch, you can use dried, minced onion instead of fresh. Freeze the cooked ground beef in freezer bags in meal sized portions, and you will have the base of many recipes ready to go. Think how quickly you could throw together tacos or even simple Hamburger Helper on a busy weeknight when the meat is ready to go!
2) Chopping Veggies
Many recipes call for diced onion and/ or peppers. All that dicing takes some time! The good news? These two veggies freeze super well. If you find a deal on buying these items in bulk, make a plan to chop them all at once shortly after purchase. Freeze them in freezer bags in portions you use commonly for recipes, and you have a head start next time a recipe calls for either of these items. In many instances, you can dump the frozen veggies directly into the dish you are preparing. They break up fairly easily when frozen, and will cook right along with your other ingredients straight from frozen in the oven or on the stove. They are also perfect for throwing into omelets, sauces, and the like.
3) Prepping Chicken
As with ground beef, cooking chicken all at once for use in your recipes is a great time saver. I like to take bulk chicken and boil it, then shred or chop it. I put it in freezer safe bags, freeze it and then just pop it out of the freezer for use in dishes such as barbecue chicken sandwiches, chicken fettuccine, chicken salads, casseroles, and so on. Meals come together in minutes when the meat is ready to go!
4) Ham
I love ham and bean soup, ham salad, scalloped potatoes and ham, etc. When the grocery stores offer holiday deals on ham, I like to buy a couple, bake them and chop them into portions I can use for these meals later.
Photo Credit: iClipart
 My 5/30 Publix Trip – $88.42 for $21.80 or 75% Off
I’m still taking advantage of the meat specials lingering from Memorial Day and they’re just in the nick of time too because I hadn’t purchased any meat since January until last week! After paying 99¢/lb for the chicken leg quarters last week I saw that Food World had a 59¢/lb special over the weekend so I went ahead and bought 60 pounds, which have since been cut and divided into meal size packages for freezing. After I’m done with this post I plan to cut the pork loin into thin half inch slices and cut the sirloin tip steak into chunks for tips and gravy. I should be able to extend these two cuts of meat into 4 or maybe 5 five meals for my family of seven, so that will cost either $2.93 or $3.65 per meal – whoohoo! Today I bought $88.42 worth of groceries for $21.80, or 75% off after coupons and $21 RR. Here are the deals:
 Zaycon Foods is Bringing Chicken to FL & GA in January
We’ve already had 80 pounds of chicken and 40 pounds of ground beef delivered so far from Zaycon Foods, and I’ve just placed an order for 40 more pounds of chicken. They’re coming back to Florida and Georgia with fresh boneless skinless chicken for just $1.69 per pound!! That’s 43% off my usual target price of $2.99 a pound and I’ve been super pleased with the quality of everything we’ve purchased from them. They’re open for orders right now and they will sell out quickly so if you’re interested in this or future deliveries, make sure that you’re on the Zaycon Foods mailing list so you’ll be the first to know when orders open up, and when they’ll be coming back this way again!
 
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