Speaker 1: Episode to sixty two Meal prep and freezer meal tips.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver with your life. Here
Speaker 1: your host Jen and Jill m m m m m m.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: meal prep freezer meal. Addition, we're going to talk all
Speaker 1: about freezer meal prepping, freezer meal cooking, freezer meal eating.
Speaker 1: We're talking all about it. It's stocking up that freezer,
Speaker 1: keeping it full. It is freezer meal time, y'all. It's time.
Speaker 1: If you haven't tried freezer meals before, this is the season.
Speaker 1: Tis the season for meals in your freezer, ready for
Speaker 1: all those busy days or cold chilly nights pulling it
Speaker 1: out of your freezer. Keep much to do, yes, But first,
Speaker 1: before we get into that, we're going to talk about
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Speaker 1: just that one. We've got so many other free bees
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Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Christmas see you there. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll probably be in your inbox like from Friday or
Speaker 1: from the yesterday. So if you're on our list, you
Speaker 1: should have it. So, speaking of free let's make this
Speaker 1: season a little more stress free. It's not gonna be
Speaker 1: completely stress free, let's make it less stressful. And this
Speaker 1: is why we use freezer meals. If you are not
Speaker 1: already on board with meal planning and prepping, then I
Speaker 1: urge you to listen to every gosh tenth episode or
Speaker 1: so of the show where we talk about some form
Speaker 1: of meal planning or groceries or something. But a few
Speaker 1: specific to meal planning. Our episode two thirty four where
Speaker 1: we come pair meal planning apps, so we compare the
Speaker 1: ones that you do the planning and upload them to
Speaker 1: the app, and then also the ones that are done
Speaker 1: for you. And there's even one emails that has a
Speaker 1: freezer stash. Every month they have a six meal freezer
Speaker 1: stash dash menu. I don't know like that they give
Speaker 1: one to you every month, so please check out that
Speaker 1: episode or episode one Frugal Meal Planning with Ashton Hope.
Speaker 1: We talk a lot about doing your own meal planning,
Speaker 1: how to find recipes because that's sometimes the most like
Speaker 1: confusing part um. How do we find frugal recipes and
Speaker 1: organize everything with all the choice we have? So those
Speaker 1: are two really good episodes to queue up. Next and
Speaker 1: today we will focus specifically on freezer meals because who
Speaker 1: I mean a freezer meals are always hot. Don't try
Speaker 1: and give me like a freezer meal that you just
Speaker 1: def austin and serve me cold like it's not a
Speaker 1: salad like in the summer. So they are designed for winter,
Speaker 1: and there's like never more to do than around the
Speaker 1: holidays in December. It doesn't stop. And so in order
Speaker 1: to avoid more takeout, having freezer meals on hand and
Speaker 1: knowing what to do with them and knowing that they're
Speaker 1: going to be good is essential. And so let's get
Speaker 1: into this first article. Kick us offt Jill. So this
Speaker 1: comes from Fabulously Frugal, and I love the example. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a really quick introduction, which I also appreciate
Speaker 1: about this article. She doesn't waste time getting into the content,
Speaker 1: but gives this scenario of a child or a spouse
Speaker 1: saying what's for dinner and then panic and suing and
Speaker 1: then maybe responding with a I don't know what are
Speaker 1: you making? And then the person who asked the question
Speaker 1: rolls their eyes, and then you head to the pantry
Speaker 1: only to find something that's going to take forever to
Speaker 1: try and cook. Then you order door to ash, you
Speaker 1: pick up fast food, and it just doesn't go the
Speaker 1: way that you really wanted to go. So sad enter
Speaker 1: freezer real cooking and how that can save the day
Speaker 1: because you've thought ahead and all you gotta do is
Speaker 1: pull something out of the freezer and heat it up
Speaker 1: and you know it's gonna be something good because you've
Speaker 1: made it. I also really love the picture in here.
Speaker 1: I know I'm not getting into the content, but this
Speaker 1: is worth describing to you. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: author took this lecture, but there's a spoon that is
Speaker 1: balancing over like the fulcrum. The balance point of the
Speaker 1: spoon is a calculator turned on its side, and on
Speaker 1: either end of the spoon like a seesaw. On the
Speaker 1: one end is coins and on the other end is
Speaker 1: a potato punctured into the side of the spoon. And
Speaker 1: it's balancing on a sideways calculator and it is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Is everything food, budget, money, math. It's sending all of
Speaker 1: the messages you know what, it's convincing us to freezer
Speaker 1: meal cook. This is a fantastic photo. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm personally I'm going to take a picture of it
Speaker 1: with my phone. Nice, okay, so that I can show
Speaker 1: you on social media. All right? Uh so these are
Speaker 1: just some like good reasons that you need freezer milk
Speaker 1: cookie in your life. If I didn't convince you maybe
Speaker 1: fabulously frugal. Well, first is you will save money again.
Speaker 1: You won't be ordering as much fast food m as
Speaker 1: much take out. It probably won't save you from every
Speaker 1: fast food and every takeout. That's just like what you
Speaker 1: deal with during in busy seasons. That's just that's the
Speaker 1: name of the game. Don't feel guilt, but we can
Speaker 1: do things to limit the number of times we get
Speaker 1: take out. And then also buying in bulk. So having
Speaker 1: a stockpile isn't my favorite, like stalking up for the apocalypse,
Speaker 1: but when you are prepping a batch of freezer meals,
Speaker 1: you can plan it to be similar ingredients. You can
Speaker 1: buy those ingredients in bulk. A lot of them are
Speaker 1: already frozen. When I'm doing freezer meals and I'm doing
Speaker 1: vegetables in the freezer meal, I buy frozen vegetables, right,
Speaker 1: what right, So so those are less expensive, they're already chopped. Um,
Speaker 1: I buy them in bulk, so I save money there.
Speaker 1: So there's just a lot of great money saving reasons
Speaker 1: beyond take out. That batch. Prepping meat freezer meals is great.
Speaker 1: And then it says you'll shop last two so no
Speaker 1: more last minute runs to the grocery store to graph
Speaker 1: and a greedy it. So stuff like that, and she
Speaker 1: said the first time she got together with friends to
Speaker 1: do freezer meals, she paid only eighty five dollars for
Speaker 1: twelve meals. That's next level. I can't believe she she
Speaker 1: batched twelve meals. This article wasn't even written in like
Speaker 1: I mean, it was written in eighteen, but still, like,
Speaker 1: can you imagine even right now spending a hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for twelve meals? It's insane. There's a fun tip just
Speaker 1: embedded in that doing this with friends, getting together and
Speaker 1: having this be like an activity, because I think so
Speaker 1: often that that can keep us from doing this. We
Speaker 1: love the idea of freezer meals, but I got to
Speaker 1: set aside a day to batch it, which has plenty
Speaker 1: of pros and cons to it. But batch cook in
Speaker 1: a day with someone who you enjoy hanging out with.
Speaker 1: Take it a step further and maybe you know, have
Speaker 1: your friend make six meals. You make six meals, split
Speaker 1: them in half, and now you've got twelve different meals,
Speaker 1: and so then you can have like a little bit
Speaker 1: more variety. So lots of things to consider. What that
Speaker 1: one The next point reason that we should be doing
Speaker 1: this is that you will save time. We've already referenced this.
Speaker 1: It's perfect for busy families, people on the go during
Speaker 1: busy seasons because you're able to just not have to think,
Speaker 1: pull whatever you want out of the freezer and heat
Speaker 1: it up. So you're going to spend less time grocery shopping,
Speaker 1: which we've already referenced, because you've already bought it all
Speaker 1: in bulk. It's already cooked, so now you don't have
Speaker 1: to go to the grocery store that week. Potentially, if
Speaker 1: you're eating all out of your freezer, you've already done
Speaker 1: the cooking and preparing. So yes, it does take a
Speaker 1: good significant chunk of time, but that's in one consolidated
Speaker 1: time like a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday, rather than
Speaker 1: every single night of the week. You save time on
Speaker 1: all of the prep of the food because it's already done.
Speaker 1: It's already made, and oftentimes, like you've referenced jen for
Speaker 1: the peeling and chopping of the veggies, you might not
Speaker 1: have to do that if you've purchased the frozen veggies
Speaker 1: that can just go right into the meal that's going
Speaker 1: to go into your freezer, less time cleaning your kitchen again,
Speaker 1: because you did it all in one fell Swoop. So
Speaker 1: if you like the idea of saving time, try freezer meals. Yes,
Speaker 1: and actually, later on I will list out a few
Speaker 1: of my favorite freezer meals for you to google and do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Number three is it saves you brain power. We have
Speaker 1: talked about decision fatigue so many times on this show.
Speaker 1: By the end of the day, you have made so
Speaker 1: many decisions that your brain does not have a lot
Speaker 1: of extra energy to expend. And that's why we resort
Speaker 1: to take out at night and the late night Amazon browsing.
Speaker 1: We get our brains get less motivated to do what's
Speaker 1: right the longer we spend in the day, and that's normal.
Speaker 1: Freezer meals will save some of that brain power. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I love that she also talks about decision fatigue.
Speaker 1: It is. It's not just a frugal friends thing. It's
Speaker 1: like a very well known thing. So don't work against it.
Speaker 1: Don't try to be better than than what your natural
Speaker 1: brain does, like at least not better. We go for
Speaker 1: one percent better, and freezer meals is a way we
Speaker 1: can be one better. So having a batch of freezer meals,
Speaker 1: knowing your schedule and being able to defrost one in
Speaker 1: the morning, or it does not take long to defrost
Speaker 1: one in the microwave. I know, maybe that's like sacrilegious
Speaker 1: to some of you. Some of you sitting across the
Speaker 1: screen from me don't even own microwaves. But like three
Speaker 1: minutes in the microwave, and a freezer meal is gushy
Speaker 1: enough to fit into an instant pot. So that that
Speaker 1: is what I will say. It will save you brainer.
Speaker 1: That is a fine way I think to defrost a
Speaker 1: meal that's already been cooked. It's just not a great
Speaker 1: idea to try and defrost meat in the microwave that's
Speaker 1: that's raw, because it could start to cook it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's only like two or three minutes. It's just
Speaker 1: enough to break it up so that you can break
Speaker 1: it into pieces and fit it into the instant pot.
Speaker 1: So that's what I do. You do you. I'm just
Speaker 1: not going to tell like hordes of listeners to defrost
Speaker 1: raw meat. What you do in the comfort and privacy
Speaker 1: of your own home, that is up to you. Jen
Speaker 1: Will speaking of Will that number four freezer meal, and
Speaker 1: Jenn is still alive. I just want to point that out.
Speaker 1: I'm still here. Good job. Has Jen gotten sick before?
Speaker 1: From this from that. I've definitely gotten sick before, but
Speaker 1: it's usually from a restaurant, it's never from what I've cooked. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, Frazer meals can help your health. They say
Speaker 1: save your health. I don't know. I think that they're
Speaker 1: just going in line with save save, save, save time,
Speaker 1: save money, save your brain power, save your health. And
Speaker 1: this is in part because when you are making the meals,
Speaker 1: you get to decide and think ahead of time, what
Speaker 1: do I want to eat? What are the ingredients and
Speaker 1: nutrients that I want and I feel good about, And
Speaker 1: you get to decide. And so even in those days
Speaker 1: where decision fatigue is kicking in and all of your
Speaker 1: best intentions are waning, going for a freezer meal, going
Speaker 1: the quote unquote easy route is still really great for
Speaker 1: you because it's food you've prepared. You've been intentional with
Speaker 1: what that meal is, what the ingredients are in it,
Speaker 1: and so it's far better for our health for physical
Speaker 1: bodies than just going and grabbing something quick from a restaurant,
Speaker 1: fast food, you name it, take out. It just it's
Speaker 1: not going to be as good for us, although it's tasty,
Speaker 1: But you can make freezer meals tasty too. So there's
Speaker 1: another reason to go that route is you've been intentional
Speaker 1: about what the food is and you know you're going
Speaker 1: to enjoy it and it's good for you, yes, uh.
Speaker 1: And then number five, you can save the day for
Speaker 1: someone else that So this is what I am personally
Speaker 1: interested in, as being twenty two weeks pregnant at the
Speaker 1: time of recording, U uh, having this So this is
Speaker 1: something I did. I stalked up on my own freezer
Speaker 1: meals before I gave birth the last time. But being
Speaker 1: able to when you hear someone's given birth, being able
Speaker 1: to just pull a meal out of the freezer, bring
Speaker 1: it over and say, cook this whenever you want. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to force you to eat dinner right now,
Speaker 1: or like, yeah, I mean bringing over. Bringing somebody a
Speaker 1: meal is great, but sometimes we're in a busy season
Speaker 1: like December, and maybe we don't have time. So having
Speaker 1: some of these on hand can very much help somebody
Speaker 1: else in need, or somebody has like an emergency surgery,
Speaker 1: they fall down, they break their leg and now they
Speaker 1: can't stand up to cook, and you're over here saving
Speaker 1: the day with a freezer meal. There are so many
Speaker 1: reasons that freezer meals make generosity just easier. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: already cooked. And again say, as you time, you can
Speaker 1: be generous without needing to find extra time in that
Speaker 1: specific week, last minute to make food for someone. It's
Speaker 1: not just babies, like you said, it's it's people who
Speaker 1: might have surgery or be going through a really particularly
Speaker 1: difficult time. Maybe there's a death in the family. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of reasons that people could really benefit from the
Speaker 1: generosity of a home cooked meal that you might already
Speaker 1: have on hand because of your efforts in this regard.
Speaker 1: So we love generosity. It's a great final point in
Speaker 1: that article. Yes, moving on to the next one, let's
Speaker 1: move on with some practical tips for making freezer meals,
Speaker 1: because there are some rookie mistakes and we don't want
Speaker 1: you to make those, so kick us off. Joe. You
Speaker 1: mean like defrosting great chicken in the microwave. If it
Speaker 1: is so I put it in Like I have a
Speaker 1: whole freezer meal, like a chicken tortilla soup, and I
Speaker 1: put raw chicken in there and it's covered with everything else,
Speaker 1: and so I just need it to be enough to
Speaker 1: where I can fit it into the instant pot. It
Speaker 1: goes directly from the microwave to the instant pot, So
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know what's wrong with it cooking
Speaker 1: a little bit in the microwave, if that's what its
Speaker 1: final destination is going to be, is cooked. Microwaves are
Speaker 1: for cooking chill, Yeah, I mean, I guess it could
Speaker 1: also just affect texture and flavor when the outsides and
Speaker 1: the ends get like a little chill doesn't cook. Let's
Speaker 1: put this chill doesn't own a microwave, she doesn't like microwaves.
Speaker 1: It does not meet Microcrorewaves are unsafe. No, no, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Actually when we can get into like a rabbit trail
Speaker 1: on microwaves later, but they are apparently not as bad
Speaker 1: for you as what was previously touted in the past. Anyhow.
Speaker 1: Second article comes from Real Simple Ten genius tricks for
Speaker 1: freezing food that will make meal prep a snap. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna go through all ten. We're picking our favorites,
Speaker 1: but I will talk about the first one, which is
Speaker 1: freeze foods Fast, and I like it because of alliteration,
Speaker 1: but also I agree with this for multiple reasons. First
Speaker 1: of all, some of the things that they say about
Speaker 1: this is that the faster we can freeze foods, the
Speaker 1: more we're gonna lock in the nutrients and the flavor
Speaker 1: of whatever it is that we're freezing. I have been
Speaker 1: guilty of this in the past. We're all just kind
Speaker 1: of throw everything into a bag or a dish, or
Speaker 1: I'm just in a hurry, and and I freeze it,
Speaker 1: and it's all just kind of clumped together. Not only
Speaker 1: is it going to take longer to freeze and maybe
Speaker 1: not maintain a lot of as much flavor as it
Speaker 1: could have, but then it's a lot more difficult to
Speaker 1: defrost too. So there's kind of like twofold reasons to
Speaker 1: freeze food fast. And one of the ways that we
Speaker 1: do that is as much in a single layer as possible. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if we're freezing berries soon after having picked them,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm thinking in the summertime, we're gonna want
Speaker 1: to put them on a wash them and everything, put
Speaker 1: them on a single layer on a tray, freeze them,
Speaker 1: then go back once they're frozen, put them into a bag.
Speaker 1: And that allows you to be able to take them
Speaker 1: out in as the amounts that make the most sense
Speaker 1: to you. You don't have to defrust the entire bag.
Speaker 1: Similar thing with roasted veggies. Really whatever you can kind
Speaker 1: of lay in a single layer. I would also say
Speaker 1: this is great for sauces to like if you put
Speaker 1: sauces into like a plastic bag and you can lay
Speaker 1: it flat rather than in a clump. That's also going
Speaker 1: to allow you more room and your freezer. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of little tips embedded into this one thing.
Speaker 1: But freeze things in a single layer first, then consolidate
Speaker 1: them however you need to consolidate them. Yeah, I'll also
Speaker 1: do this with like a tomato paste or Chipotle peppers.
Speaker 1: I'll put them in a ice cube tray and divving
Speaker 1: them out like a tablespoon each so that they're not
Speaker 1: frozen in like a solid clump. And I can easily
Speaker 1: know the measurements of each so it freezes them faster,
Speaker 1: and it's just helpful knowing the amounts. I personally don't
Speaker 1: freeze foods that I care about texture on. So number
Speaker 1: two is avoid foods with crispy and crunchy textures. So
Speaker 1: I actually won't freeze roasted vegetables. I will freeze my
Speaker 1: freezer meals will be ones where I don't care about
Speaker 1: the texture or where I want the texture to be uniformed.
Speaker 1: So I do a lot of chilies, soups, stews, stuff
Speaker 1: like that. That's just that's a me thing. I don't
Speaker 1: do any like casseroles or things that have to go
Speaker 1: in the oven. I only do things that can go
Speaker 1: in the instant pot or the slow cooker. Primarily I
Speaker 1: will do we'll I have a foodie so pressure cooker
Speaker 1: or slow cooker, because you do not want to put
Speaker 1: like raw frozen meat in the slow cooker. That is
Speaker 1: where you don't want to put it. The microwave is fine,
Speaker 1: the slow cooker is not, because it will stay at
Speaker 1: an unsafe temperature for too long. You can avoid that
Speaker 1: by just pressure cooking. So the and the article also
Speaker 1: emphasizes to avoid foods with the crispy, crunchy textures because
Speaker 1: they're not going you're not gonna be able to recreate
Speaker 1: that after freezing. So soups, stews, sauces really do. But
Speaker 1: I will say, like I'll roast frozen broccoli, like I'll
Speaker 1: buy frozen broccoli and roast it and that turns out fine.
Speaker 1: I just wouldn't refreeze it. I respect that, totally, respect that.
Speaker 1: I will also a lutely freeze food with crispy crunchy textures.
Speaker 1: I think that you can still get the crispy crunchy
Speaker 1: after reheating it, especially if you're going to put it
Speaker 1: in the oven or if you've got a air fryer.
Speaker 1: It works just fine. So I will often do uh.
Speaker 1: They literally say, don't do a chicken palm. It's like
Speaker 1: exactly what I do do when I freeze, you are
Speaker 1: I will do depart on the chicken and then and
Speaker 1: then you put it in the oven, and then it's
Speaker 1: totally fine. I don't know what they're saying, I'm I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Try it out for yourself, I have
Speaker 1: I'm talking to our listener. Or too far gone you
Speaker 1: should I am. I am you're too far gone? I
Speaker 1: love you. I can't and and so another thing that
Speaker 1: keeps me from doing frozen cast roles is that they
Speaker 1: just take way too long long like to defrost, way
Speaker 1: too long to cook in the oven, like I need
Speaker 1: something quick. So that's me. Uh. Cast frozen cast rolls
Speaker 1: super popular. There are a ton of people that swear
Speaker 1: by them that your make ahead lasagnas um all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and you can you can buy frozen chicken palm. So
Speaker 1: it's like it happens, It's not like nobody doesn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just got to know how to do it, I guess,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how to do it, and and
Speaker 1: maybe that's my limiting. It's especially good for people with
Speaker 1: with an air fryer, which I know is super common
Speaker 1: for people to have of that now. Or alternatively, if
Speaker 1: there is something to a bake that I've frozen where
Speaker 1: the top needs to be crispy, I just won't put
Speaker 1: that top on. So, for instance, poppy seed chicken is
Speaker 1: a regular go to for me, and usually you put
Speaker 1: like a cracker, crumpled up crackers on top, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that that that's just gonna get soggy because before it
Speaker 1: has time to freeze, the crackers are going to start
Speaker 1: to absorb the liquids that are on top of that
Speaker 1: kind of casserole or bake to be up to date
Speaker 1: in our lingo, so I won't put the cracker top
Speaker 1: on top. That'll be something And I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I typically have crackers on hands. So in the final
Speaker 1: moments once I've cooked it, once I've pulled it out
Speaker 1: of the freezer and cook it, then I added on,
Speaker 1: so there are there's always a way to hack your
Speaker 1: favorite foods and still be able to use the freezer. Yes,
Speaker 1: none of us need to leave this episode. We're all
Speaker 1: welcome here. What's your next tip, Jim? That was my
Speaker 1: next tip? Number two? Okay, number six, blanch your greens first.
Speaker 1: This one I need to listen to. I'm mostly calling
Speaker 1: it out so that I can remind myself. This is
Speaker 1: mostly if you care about the looks of your edgies.
Speaker 1: Blanching it is going to lock in the green color
Speaker 1: rather than make them look kind of wilty and gross.
Speaker 1: It's all fine, it's still safe to eat. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be honest. The last time I froze spinach without
Speaker 1: having blanched it first, by the time I took it
Speaker 1: back out of the freezer, yeah, it was really unappealing
Speaker 1: to me and I did not use it. So and
Speaker 1: to blanch greens, quick little three step process. You bring
Speaker 1: salted water to a rolling boil in a large pot.
Speaker 1: You put your vegetables or whatever, green vegetables. You could
Speaker 1: do this with green beans, leafy greens, green green, and
Speaker 1: green whatever, and put it in that boiling water until
Speaker 1: it's tender. And then quickly pull it back out and
Speaker 1: throw it over some ice to shock it, and then
Speaker 1: you're going to freeze it in that single layer we
Speaker 1: talked about, and then you've got greens ready to go.
Speaker 1: I will agree with this. I don't do this because
Speaker 1: again I just choose places where the look does not
Speaker 1: need to be appealing. But I have done this before
Speaker 1: and it is a good idea, and it is a
Speaker 1: good idea if you want to put in the extra step.
Speaker 1: UM seven is always allow enough time for defrosting. And
Speaker 1: I just added this one at the last minute. I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to talk about this one because maybe enough
Speaker 1: time for you is three minutes in the microwave. No,
Speaker 1: but I do so. I plan for freezer meals, so
Speaker 1: like I'll look at my schedule every week and I'll
Speaker 1: I'll look at what we've got going on at nights,
Speaker 1: or what I've got going on during the day. Like
Speaker 1: if I am doing a lot of stuff, maybe a
Speaker 1: lot of recording, and I've got some deadlines and i
Speaker 1: know I'm going to be tired, then freezer meal. If
Speaker 1: we've got something going on at night where we need
Speaker 1: to eat really quickly before leaving, freezer meal so I
Speaker 1: look at my schedule and know when I'm going to
Speaker 1: do a freezer meal so that I have enough time
Speaker 1: to defrost and all always put it. Um, I'll take
Speaker 1: it out. I'll give it a full twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: That's what works for me. I find that if I
Speaker 1: give it a full twenty four hours to defrost, it's perfect.
Speaker 1: I don't have to put it in the microwave. But
Speaker 1: in times when I am just and nothing has gone
Speaker 1: to play and it really is a last minute need,
Speaker 1: I have also defrosted in the microwave. Okay, and I
Speaker 1: am still here, so we all know you've made it
Speaker 1: very clear. The article does say defrosting and a microwave
Speaker 1: can too easily cook rather than defrost the meat. It can,
Speaker 1: So you just have to like three minutes if it's
Speaker 1: a big bag, two minutes if it's not. It's just
Speaker 1: really enough to get it into the instant pop for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my last tip on here, this is what I've not
Speaker 1: done before, but again calling it out because I think
Speaker 1: it's a good idea and I want to give it
Speaker 1: a tribe. Don't toss leftover herbs instead. If you've got
Speaker 1: extra herbs of any kind that you've been cooking with,
Speaker 1: but you don't need the rest of them. Chop them up,
Speaker 1: put them into an ice cube tray and cover it
Speaker 1: with a little bit of oil and freeze that and
Speaker 1: then you can pop it out the next time you're
Speaker 1: sauteging or roasting something, and I'll add some really nice flavor.
Speaker 1: So that's a great idea. You know what else is
Speaker 1: a great idea? Well, I mean I do know. It's
Speaker 1: not mycro waves. Some would say it's microwating to defrost.
Speaker 1: Others would say the week. That's right, it's time for
Speaker 1: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 1: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 1: off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy
Speaker 1: to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill Buffalo, Bill,
Speaker 1: Bill Clint. This is the bill of the week. Hi,
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. My name's Megan, and for my bill
Speaker 1: of the week this week, I wanted to share an
Speaker 1: exciting decision that my eleven year old son Liam made
Speaker 1: regarding money that he receives from me every month as
Speaker 1: part of his allowance. We've always divided it into save
Speaker 1: spending give, and his savings have been in a bank
Speaker 1: account for children, but he just decided that he wanted
Speaker 1: to start transferring all of his saving money directly into investing.
Speaker 1: And part of this is definitely because he has grasped
Speaker 1: the concept of compound interest and it's all very exciting
Speaker 1: to him. I wanted you to know that he loves
Speaker 1: your show at asked as my eight year old daughter Sloan,
Speaker 1: and together the three of us love listening on car
Speaker 1: Rants and we just want to thank you for all
Speaker 1: of the content you create. Bye, oh Megan and Liam
Speaker 1: and Sloan, you guys, Hi, shout out to you, and
Speaker 1: shout out to especially Liam for investing and grasping compound interest,
Speaker 1: which is something that many adults still have not grasped.
Speaker 1: So congratulations, you are going to be okay, You're gonna
Speaker 1: do well. This is remarkable. Liam and Sloan, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening with your mom. It's so fun to hear
Speaker 1: the wide array of audience members who listen and enjoy
Speaker 1: the show. We are here for you, glad to create
Speaker 1: content that you like to engage with together and really
Speaker 1: making great decisions after listening to the show. So well done,
Speaker 1: well done, Thanks for that Bill, How remarkable motivational exciting
Speaker 1: if you are listening and you happen to be just
Speaker 1: a really cool kid and you've got a bill that
Speaker 1: you want to submit about some amazing money decisions you're making.
Speaker 1: More If you're just you know, a regular adult listening
Speaker 1: to us and you also have a bill, that's fine too.
Speaker 1: We're here for you for Real Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash bill. Leave us your bill. We're ready for it,
Speaker 1: as always open arms for for those bills. And now
Speaker 1: it's time for round all right here it is. This
Speaker 1: is the moment you've been waiting for our favorite simple
Speaker 1: freezer meal, and I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you more than one. We need that. We do need that,
Speaker 1: because you know what, we freeze more than one meal, right.
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna let Jill go first because I love
Speaker 1: her answer. I think it's I think it's the one
Speaker 1: that you should hear. Verse After you hear Jill's you
Speaker 1: can then decide if you just want to turn off
Speaker 1: the episode and say I don't I don't need what
Speaker 1: Jen has his Jill is good enough for me and
Speaker 1: which is sometimes what I do. So I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you have the opportunity to make that decision for yourself,
Speaker 1: and here you I like to freeze bread. I mean,
Speaker 1: you'd enjoy that as a reminder Jill's choice for the
Speaker 1: only food she would eat for the rest of her
Speaker 1: life if she only had one option, So she's not lying.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. If you were to go into my
Speaker 1: freezer right now, you would find freezer meals, but you
Speaker 1: would also find an incredible amount of bread in there,
Speaker 1: which I realized might be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: waste of space because bread is not expensive. But I
Speaker 1: also hate food waste. So if I've just got a
Speaker 1: little bit of bread left, it goes in the freezer.
Speaker 1: I will give you more freezer meals than this one.
Speaker 1: But bread freezes so well, and it can be reheated
Speaker 1: so nice and crispy, So even for those times that
Speaker 1: I find myself at a great bakery, but I don't
Speaker 1: end up eating the whole loaf, I don't have to
Speaker 1: let it go moldy, throw it in the freezer, and
Speaker 1: then it's just like a nice treat that I've got
Speaker 1: some great crispy bread to go with. Whatever food Gen
Speaker 1: makes out of her freezer frozen bread will actually crisp
Speaker 1: up well like that'll get a good crisp on it.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm all for that, and um, if you want
Speaker 1: to add other foods to it, you do you As
Speaker 1: our listener, you can do you. Jill will do her
Speaker 1: as always. I also have found that if I have
Speaker 1: my like a meat or a protein pre prepared, whether
Speaker 1: it is in some sort of bake or casserole or
Speaker 1: it's just cooked on its own, for instance, ground meat
Speaker 1: for tacos or chicken that is breaded and ready for
Speaker 1: to be put on a salad or into a pasta,
Speaker 1: that really helps me with my prep of food for
Speaker 1: that night. Like I don't have to always have a
Speaker 1: full meal ready to pull out of the freezer. That
Speaker 1: is nice, but it cuts out a lot of the
Speaker 1: decision fatigue and time fatigue for me when I am
Speaker 1: able to have at least like one aspect of the
Speaker 1: meal pre prepared that I just have to pull out.
Speaker 1: So that's one of my kind of freezer meal approaches.
Speaker 1: What about for you, Jen? Yeah, so I will freeze ingredients,
Speaker 1: but I am more likely to use a full frozen meal.
Speaker 1: So like if I'm if I froze if there was
Speaker 1: a deal on ground turk key, like a few months
Speaker 1: ago when I bought a lot of ground turkey and
Speaker 1: put some of it in the freezer, like, I made
Speaker 1: sure to defrass that in the fridge, like I didn't
Speaker 1: throw that in the microwave. But it does. I do
Speaker 1: have to be intentional about checking for it and remembering
Speaker 1: to use it my meal plan. So that doesn't that
Speaker 1: kind of like freezer like ingredients. I don't count like
Speaker 1: as freezer meals. Like for me, it has to be
Speaker 1: a take out, throw in the instant pot forget it
Speaker 1: for a half hour and eat sort of thing like
Speaker 1: it has I am my brain maybe doesn't. Monitoring does
Speaker 1: not work well at nights, and I'm gonna get really lazy.
Speaker 1: So it has to be the as easy as possible.
Speaker 1: So yeah, at least on those nights where I have
Speaker 1: to do a freezer meal, it's like all or all
Speaker 1: or nothing on those nights. So yeah, I have quite
Speaker 1: a few favorite tried and true freezer meals and they're
Speaker 1: they're mostly so. I love a lot of like Indian
Speaker 1: so butter chicken Chaanna masala like with with just the
Speaker 1: If it's a vegetarian meal, I can do it in
Speaker 1: the slow cooker. Again, I rarely use my slow cooker.
Speaker 1: It's always the pressure cooker. But a lot of Indian
Speaker 1: food is good for that. I can do like a
Speaker 1: barbecue pulled pork. So again like the pork, forget the cut,
Speaker 1: but that's often on sale in big pieces, and so
Speaker 1: I'll just cut that in half and freeze the part
Speaker 1: I'm not using with some barbecue sauce or whatever else
Speaker 1: I want. And then it's great because when you defrost,
Speaker 1: it kind of marinates together. I always forget to marinate meat,
Speaker 1: and so this is a great way that I can
Speaker 1: get the meat marinated. Or if I'm making chicken dishes,
Speaker 1: anything like chicken that you can put with rice, Like
Speaker 1: I'll make the rice while the um. I won't freeze
Speaker 1: the rice. I'll make the rice the night of. But
Speaker 1: I'll just buy a big thing of frozen chicken breasts
Speaker 1: and I'll just like divvy out these chicken breasts to
Speaker 1: the freezer meal bags. And there are things you can
Speaker 1: buy that keep your bags open. I don't. I just
Speaker 1: propped them up between things. Reusable bags are very easy
Speaker 1: to wash. I would only only use them for freezer meals.
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of things. So my favorites.
Speaker 1: I have a whole outique Mu sala that um, well,
Speaker 1: Chatta sala um. Let's see chili like a bean chili,
Speaker 1: or even a ground beef chili, chicken tortilla soup, a
Speaker 1: smokey tomato soup. So I will roast tomatoes. If my
Speaker 1: in laws have a lot of tomatoes, so they get
Speaker 1: and they give us tomatoes. On the rare occasion, I
Speaker 1: will roast them and make this delicious roasted tomato soup.
Speaker 1: And so sometimes I'll roast them. You do want to
Speaker 1: let them you want to freeze fast, but you don't
Speaker 1: want to put something directly into the freezer right after
Speaker 1: you roast it. Let it cool off a bit, put
Speaker 1: it in the fridge, and then put it into the
Speaker 1: freezer once it's been cooled down in the fridge. But
Speaker 1: I'll cool those roasted tomatoes, put them in a bag
Speaker 1: with all the other ingredients for the soup, and freeze
Speaker 1: that together. Sounds great. Whenever you pull that out of
Speaker 1: your freezer. I'll pull my bread out of the freezer
Speaker 1: and come over. Perfect. I'll also bring a bottle of
Speaker 1: wine for you. Thank you, assuming this happens after you
Speaker 1: give birth. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Carnetas is another one
Speaker 1: where I'll get like the big piece of meat that
Speaker 1: I just won't use all of it, and I'll put
Speaker 1: part of it as a freezer meal with all the
Speaker 1: things for corninas. I love that Italian white bean soup
Speaker 1: minestrone or minestrone however you like to say it without
Speaker 1: the pasta in it. So doing the soup, cooking it
Speaker 1: and then putting the pasta in for like the last
Speaker 1: ten minutes and cooking that. I don't freeze pasta. Do
Speaker 1: you freeze pastall? I freeze everything? Yeah, I thought I'll
Speaker 1: freeze rice, pasta, milk, bread, butter, cream, cheese, everything. They
Speaker 1: say you shouldn't freeze, you better believe I'm out here
Speaker 1: freezing it because you know what, You've got no rules
Speaker 1: with the microwave. I've got no rules with the freezer.
Speaker 1: I have rules with the microwave. Chill Okay, well, so
Speaker 1: many good hips, Jen, thank you for listening to Jill
Speaker 1: and ize differing opinions on freezers and waves hots hot
Speaker 1: take and I hope you've got something on I hope
Speaker 1: that you are in one of on team Jen or
Speaker 1: team Jill on this. But now that we're ultimately on
Speaker 1: the same team, and it's that freezer meals are meant
Speaker 1: to help you alleviate stress, save money, and eat healthier.
Speaker 1: That's what they're here for, and you do you beyond that. Also,
Speaker 1: if I'm really being unsafe and and somebody knows that
Speaker 1: I'm being unsafe, you can tell me I'm not stuck
Speaker 1: in my ways, send me an email in kindness. So
Speaker 1: thank you for listening. Many of you know we have
Speaker 1: a private community for our listeners trying to pay off debt.
Speaker 1: We do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups, and
Speaker 1: we want to congratulate one of our members for a
Speaker 1: big win. This is from cal Thrin. She says this month,
Speaker 1: I'm doing a no spend a challenge with the thirty
Speaker 1: Day No Spend Challenge workbook, and after having read the
Speaker 1: No Spend Challenge Guide written by me. That's as I'm
Speaker 1: saying that, not Catherine. Instead of cutting multiple categories, I'm
Speaker 1: choosing one a month and adding a new category every month.
Speaker 1: Side note, this is that definition of a one percent
Speaker 1: better and I love it. This month is no online shopping.
Speaker 1: The first three days of the month were easy. I
Speaker 1: had no temptations, didn't find myself going to my favorite websites. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of myself. I got a text about
Speaker 1: a sale a company I like is having. I ended
Speaker 1: up cloaking the link, even adding items to my cart
Speaker 1: before purchasing. I reminded myself that I don't want to
Speaker 1: spend online this month. I removed from cart, closed the website,
Speaker 1: and sent a stop to the text thread so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't receive future text. The person I almost bought is
Speaker 1: on my Christmas list. I read minded myself that the
Speaker 1: first will be there in the future when I have
Speaker 1: the funds to add it to the budget. In the past,
Speaker 1: I would have moved money around, taken money from other
Speaker 1: saving tools to make the purchase. And I'm very happy
Speaker 1: with my decision to say now, amazing, You're just Catherine
Speaker 1: building this muscle. It's not about constantly saying no to ourselves,
Speaker 1: but it's about building the ability to identify do I
Speaker 1: really need this? Do I want this? Is it contributing
Speaker 1: or taking away from other goals that I have prioritizing, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what this no Spend Challenge month is not just
Speaker 1: so we can slice and dice always and forever. It's
Speaker 1: the evaluation and you did that so well. Even this example,
Speaker 1: like I found myself doing it, Like I let myself
Speaker 1: go that farest to put something in my cart, but
Speaker 1: then created the pause. It almost doesn't matter where the
Speaker 1: pause happened. The pause happened and you were able to
Speaker 1: redirect and you feel good about it, which is great too.
Speaker 1: You're not walking away thinking this really stinks. It kept
Speaker 1: you on track with the other goals that you had
Speaker 1: and hopefully helped motivate you even more for just the
Speaker 1: abilities that you have to make good decisions financially for yourself. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. Yes, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: So if you are listening, want to check out our
Speaker 1: monthly challenge community that Katherine's a part of, then head
Speaker 1: to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see
Speaker 1: what's in there, what we're all about, and uh we
Speaker 1: hope to be reading your big wins soon. See you
Speaker 1: next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni Jen.
Speaker 1: I know that you have a rant, but just really quick,
Speaker 1: this made me really excited that maybe when my kitchen's
Speaker 1: done asked for rational goal, we can get together and
Speaker 1: do freezer meal cooking. I think that's a great idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had something I wanted to rant about, but I
Speaker 1: think that can wait until the next episode because it
Speaker 1: may have been our most divisive episode yet freezer meals,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think we need anymore um hot takes,
Speaker 1: more hot takes. Yeah, and I had a hot hot take.
Speaker 1: So I want to just I want to just leave
Speaker 1: our plans for the future to be positive and freezer
Speaker 1: mealing with you in your new island will be fantastic
Speaker 1: and reminding people that we are friends, even though you
Speaker 1: lean into the microwave and E lean into the freezer
Speaker 1: in ways that maybe the other was so true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I do manage I bring my lunch to your
Speaker 1: house and I don't microwave it. I complete it up
Speaker 1: on the pod. Yeah, I'm not reliant. Yeah, isn't that
Speaker 1: reality is all about. I'm not I'm not opposed to microwaves.
Speaker 1: I did do some research on it, you know where
Speaker 1: there was this propaganda that was out there about how
Speaker 1: microwaves zap nutrients out of your food, and it's just
Speaker 1: simply not true. After you look at the science of
Speaker 1: how microwaves work. Well, here we go, we said we
Speaker 1: weren't taking hot takes in this after after Yeah, it
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be your hot take. But you know, so
Speaker 1: I'm not I am not opposed to that. I used
Speaker 1: to be. I used to think, like they take the
Speaker 1: nutrients out of the food. It's not a good way
Speaker 1: to reheat it. But um, the quicker you it's similar
Speaker 1: to the quicker you freeze food, the more nutrients it
Speaker 1: holds in. The quicker you can cook food, the more
Speaker 1: nutrients that can hold in. And depending on the type
Speaker 1: of food that it is. But oftentimes the longer you
Speaker 1: cook food, the more the nutrients kind of seep out
Speaker 1: of it. I mean really, that's like that's the science
Speaker 1: behind making your own broth right low and slow with
Speaker 1: all of the veggies and bones and all that like
Speaker 1: seeping out into the liquid. But you're keeping the liquid,
Speaker 1: so there's the nutrients. But if you're not keeping the liquid,
Speaker 1: you've cooked it all out of the food. But if
Speaker 1: you're doing a soup and it all leaves, you're still
Speaker 1: having the liquid, right yeah, yep, yep, But if you're not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So all that to say, sometimes the microwave is good.
Speaker 1: Sometimes cooking it on the stove is good, but it's
Speaker 1: not what I used to think. So when inspired this
Speaker 1: um microwave rabbit hole that you took a trip down,
Speaker 1: I don't know who knows what leads to what I think.
Speaker 1: Eric and I were talking about our kitchen plans and
Speaker 1: the ways that we currently reheat things and some of
Speaker 1: the bad rap microwaves get and it's just like, is
Speaker 1: that true? You know, we kind of had that question
Speaker 1: in the back of our minds. Is that true? And
Speaker 1: and like at least three different articles and videos pointed
Speaker 1: to it's not true that microwaves deplete all food of
Speaker 1: their nutrients. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, if you want the
Speaker 1: most nutrient dense food, definitely raw, but I think any cooked.
Speaker 1: I don't think if you once you cook food that
Speaker 1: it's devoid of all nutrients. If that was true, we
Speaker 1: would all be dead because most of us cook food.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's apps a little bit of it.
Speaker 1: Whatever way you cook it, you're still getting good stuff
Speaker 1: as long as you're eating it, consuming good stuff. But
Speaker 1: this gives me something to look I mean, I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to my kitchen being done, but definitely that's an
Speaker 1: extra exciting thing. Your meals with you would be awesome. Great,
Speaker 1: let's make it a date by see them