Home Made Tv Dinners

Do you like the convience of tv dinners but don't like the idea of their cost and what all is in them? I don't either. I want to know what is in the food I serve my family and keep costs down at the same time. By doubling up on what you are cooking one night you can make enough to have a meal for everyone another night during the next month or two. Or have lunches for those who have access to a microwave at work.

Tonight I made pork enchiladas, refried beans and rice. I made enough to serve 3 meals tonight and have 9 more to make tv dinners for lunches or dinner during the next two months. This will save me time later on and because I made everything home made it cost me less than buying 9 tv dinners at the store.

These trays are trays that my uncle got when he was getting meals on wheels for seniors. He would save the trays for me. Some of them are also trays that you get food in from a fast food place. I also have family members who buy tv dinners save their trays for me. The trays cost me nothing and I can use them over and over again.

As you can see some of the trays have two compartments and some have three. When there is two I will combine a couple of the meal components in to one compartment.

Most of my trays have lids. I put the lids on them, set them in the freezer to freeze. Once they are frozen hard I take them out and quickly take off the lids, cover with plastic wrap, put the lid back on and back in to the freezer they go. I do that just to give the food a little extra protection from freezer burn.  For the ones I have no lids for I cover them with plastic wrap and foil.

They stack nicely in the freezer and are ready to grab and pack in a cooler to take to work or to get one out and heat up when some one is hungry.

What you can not see is that I use a Dymo label maker to make labels of what each dinner is and place them on top of the lids. That way you don't need to open to see what the meal is.

I have made lots of different meals this way and my family loves having them on hand for days when I am busy or sick they have  complete home cooked meal with out me having to cook it.

Some of the meals I have made are as follows:

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn
Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes and peas & carrots
Pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage patties
Beef & Bean Burritos and Spanish rice
Chicken Stew & biscuits
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce ( only cook the spaghetti noodles half way done before freezing )
Mac & Cheese w/ little sausages
Ham Steak, Baked Sweet potato and mixed vegetables
Sliced Turkey breast, stuffing and green beans

I used frozen vegetable straight from the bags with out cooking them. They will cook while you are heating up the dinner. I use only round white potatoes to make the mashed potatoes because baking potatoes some times turn grainy when frozen. I prebake the sweet potatoes and let them cool completely before cutting in half and placing in the trays.

Once you get in the habit of making these home made tv dinners you will love them. They are really easy to make a cheaper than store bought. And you can make them the way you want them. :)

Dried Mushroom Powder

About a month ago Meijers had 8 oz packages of mushroom buy 10 for $10 and get one free so I got 11- 8 oz packages of mushrooms. They were some nice looking mushrooms weren't they?

I wiped them all clean and sliced them, placed then in the dehydrator.

That's a lot of slicing. LOL

All nice and dried and waiting for the next step. I ran them through the food processor and ground them up pretty good but still not as fine as I wanted them so I ran them through the blender after that. They came out nice and powdery. Makes a great addition to soups, spaghetti sauce, soups and more when you have family members who will not eat anything with chunks of mushrooms in it. LOL My son will not eat mushrooms, little does he know that he has been eating them for months. I know I am a sneaky mommy!! LOL

The finished mushrooms on top. I put about 2-3 teaspoons in things that I cook.
Below the mushrooms is dried celery. Meijers had them on sale 10 for $10, get one free just like the mushroom. I got 11 packages of them, washed the celery, diced it and then dehydrated them. This was I can get celery in my hubby because he doesn't like celery but if they are really small pieces he will eat them.
And these will be good for a year.

Saving money on food storage

Do you buy those plastic food storage dishes from Glad or Zip Loc? They are pretty cheap aren't they? Some are even easy to stack in the cabinets. Do you wind up with stacks of them in the refrigerator because they are not completely see through and some family members might be in to big of a hurry to open them to see what is in them? Have you ever sat and added up just how much money you have spent on them over the years? it could be quite a little bundle. Maybe even enough to buy that little special something that you have been wanting for a long time but couldn't afford to spend the money on.

Would you like to be able to get free containers for storing leftovers? Chances are you are throwing out free food storage containers just about ever week or two. The glass jars that spaghetti sauce, pickles, jams, jelly, beets and more make great food storage containers. They also conduct cold better then the plastics so they help keep food colder. They can be used for cold food storage or dry food storage in your pantry. You can store, dry beans, rice, cereal, dried fruits and veggies, noodles and more.

Family members can see what leftovers there is in the refrigerator easier so they are more willing to take a peek before opening some thing new thus adding more leftovers to the deep dark hole that seems to suck up leftovers until you dive in head first to pull them back out of it's endless dark depths.

Now please don't think I am completely against the plastic containers. They do have their uses. I use them for packing lunches and for freezing foods. Glass can break easy as we all know so are not good for lunch boxes or the freezer.

So the next time you go to throw out that spaghetti sauce or jelly jar take a close look and see if you can find a use for it. And remember the less glass you throw away and the less plastic you buy and eventually throw away the less quicker our nation's landfills become full.

My Food Pantry

This is part of my food pantry storage. I bought these cabinets for $29 a piece at Targets a few years ago to use to store my childcare supplies such as art supplies, extra toys, games and puzzles. When I had to quit doing childcare in my home due to health issues I decided to use them for extra food storage. They came in quite handy don't you think?