Prepped Food is GREAT

I recently shared about prepping a month of food. While storing the food is a bit of a challenge on the truck, and it took a bit of time, I am still in love with this idea. It is definitely something I would do if I lived at home, because then you take all the "cooking" time in one day instead of spending a lot more time throughout the month. I have been able to pull out a couple of bags from the freezer to thaw, and then just start the cooking as we go down the road, and with very little effort the meal is done. Sometimes, it makes my husband want to stop sooner because the food smells so good.
Most of the recipes are from A Year of Slow Cooking. I found the blog when someone posted one of her recipes on Pinterest, and decided to see if any of her recipes could be adapted to freeze ahead and then cook on the truck. I know I have looked at a few other blogs, but for some reason can't seem to find them right now. I apologize ahead of time for the great tableware, but keep in mind we live in a truck.

Coconut Curry Chicken

Coconut Curry Chicken (I slightly modified the recipe)
1 can Coconut Milk
1 cup Chicken Broth
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 1/2 tsp Curry
3 Sweet Potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1 Red Pepper (minced)
6 Chicken breasts
I placed all the ingredients in a Ziploc bag, and put it in the freezer. When we picked it as one of the meals, I just thawed it, and cooked it in the crockpot on high for a few hours, then switched it to low when I knew the chicken was going to cook. In the original recipe, it called for baby carrots, but since I am the only one who likes cooked carrots, I figured I would leave them out. The red pepper was my addition as well. This is definitely one of those things I would like to make again.

Mongolian Beef

Mongolian Beef
1 pound stew meat
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion (minced)
1 Tbsp minced garlic (I may have added a little more)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water (I left it out, and it was just fine without it)
Again, I dumped everything in the bag, and cooked it on high for a bit, then switched to low when the meat was almost done. We served it over brown rice cooked in the microwave. We loved this as well.

Teriyaki Chicken
1 cup Teriyaki sauce
2 Tbsp minced garlic (we love garlic)
1 can cubed pineapple
1 red pepper (minced)
1/2 onion (minced)
6 chicken breasts
I put all but the pineapple in the freezer bag. When ready to cook, I dumped everything in the crockpot, including the can of pineapple (juice and all), and cooked on high until done. We ate this one also with some brown rice. This is something we have done several times, and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it.

I challenge you to try a few recipes, and prep a few meals. Believe me it is a great time saver.

Ready and Waiting

We have been at home for a bit, which most people in our circumstance would look forward to, but when we are home, it is because something on the truck is going wrong. This time the truck was leaking so much, electronics were shorting out. Ugh! I thought we fixed this issue last year! I guess not.
This time we replaced all the lights, rewired, fiberglassed and painted the cab. I don't think it will be leaking soon. We discovered there were broken brackets, replaced them. The new lights and redone cab look great.

One of the things I do when I am "wasting time" is to consider all the things I COULD do if I was at home, instead of living on the truck. One of the things I would love to try is Once a Month Cooking. I have looked at several different sites, considered several pins, and decided even if I was at home I would end up making up my own menu instead of following anyone else's.

Well, this time we were home, I decided I would do all I could to get as close to it and pack the stuff in the truck. Success! I did it. I have successfully prepped 24 dinners! I know, not quite 30, but considering leftovers and life, 24 is as close as most get to this accomplishment. Most of these meals can  be made in the crockpot (my favorite tool on the truck). Below is a brief explanation of how I did it.

First I planned out what meals we wanted to have, wrote the recipes out, tried to verify what supplies we had on hand (and still ended up getting some duplicates), and added some wants from my daughter and husband. Not counting that time, the start time for the following was 11:45 in the morning.

Shopping

Considering where we live, I usually opt to shop in Ardmore instead of driving into Huntsville. Considering this, I like being able to get the 5 for $20 meat deals at Piggly Wiggly. Dollar General has most everything else we need. The list was filled between the two stores (all except the Airborne - a must have on the truck), for only $457! Above is a picture of most of the bags, as we were bringing them in.

Sorting and Prepping

The dry and refrigerated products used to make the recipes.

The meats

I didn't even look at the clock to see what time I got home from shopping, but I do believe it was about 2:00 in the afternoon. It took a little bit to separate the main groups, but thankfully I had my daughter to help with prepping the veggies. Her help was GREAT! We labeled the bags and dumped the meals into the bags, and put them in the freezer. My husband said there was way too much food, so I tried to fit it all in one drawer in the freezer thinking that would work. We were eating at 7:00 at night, so I really don't think 7:15 for shopping and prepping wasn't too bad.

Today we had our third dinner from this adventure. The first meal was something we usually put in the crockpot, but decided to try it in the oven. Failure! I guess the crockpot keeps in all the moisture and makes it SO much better.

Perogies, diced chicken, frozen peas and Alfredo. This is in my bowl with a little Parmesan on top. Notice the slightly browned Perogies.

The following morning, I tried French Toast in the crockpot. I thought it was too moist. My daughter thought it was barely edible. It ended up more like bread pudding than French Toast. It was definitely strange to have breakfast ready before coffee.

Last night I made Lasagna. I am sure everyone has their own recipe. I was prepared to do this on the truck in the crockpot if we were ready to roll, but we weren't.

Today, we finished loading the truck and now are ready to roll and waiting on a load. Packing the meals in the freezer was VERY difficult. We no longer have any room for the ice cube trays or the ice packs (let's hope we don't have any injury that needs to be iced), but the meals fit. The picture above represents nineteen meals frozen. It was all I had room for. I guess from now on, I will only do two weeks at a time, which is just fine since that is how often we are paid. The fridge was just as full, and has two meals waiting to go in the crockpot, and some leftover lasagna. 

I will let you know how this goes. I am hoping it goes well. Meanwhile, we sit here waiting for a load, and hope it doesn't take long, since when the wheels don't turn, we don't earn. Hope you feel successful at something, even if it is just filling the fridge and freezer with a month of meals!